New concept building: The Water Well

[Entropic]

With the introduction of Reap What You Sow, one of the new items included in the update is the Watering Can and the need to water certain plants in order to maintain their happiness level. While this mechanic in itself is great and provides additional depth to the new farming gameplay, I think a bigger problem with this concept has to do with that water is not always easily accessible to the player(s), as it highly depends on where they chose to settle and lay down their farm. While one could argue this adds another layer of complexity to base building, and most worlds are usually small enough for the player to have access to water not too far away, in some cases the best base location for general resources may not be very close to the edge of the map where water is readily accessible. This makes it more difficult for players to access water as a resource, and instead of creating additional strategic depth to farming, may deter players from utilizing farms because the effort required to maintain happiness which includes watering, does not yield comparable returns.
 

My proposal to this weakness of farming is to allow players to build another optional building simply called the Water Well:

• Is unlocked through the Tools tab where a player must first invent a Drill (x3 Flint, x2 Twigs) through the Science Machine in order to drill a hole in the ground. Would a player regret the placement of where they drilled a hole, they can later cover up the hole with Rocks which will turn the ground back to normal after a period of time (20 days on standard settings). A Drill can be used 4 times before it runs out of Durability and breaks. 
• After a player has drilled a hole, they must invent the Water Well using Cut Stone (x4), Planks (x2) and Rope (x1) through the Science Machine and build the Well on top of the hole. 
• The Water Well is now a functional building where the player can collect water for their farms. It is a destructible building but cannot be set on fire (sorry Willow players!), and when damaged, can be repaired with Rocks or Cut Stone. 
• Water will be collected by having the player click on the Water Well which will cause the player character to rotate the lever that will pull a Bucket of Water from the Well. After a certain period of animation time (2.5 seconds), the player can visibly see the a Water Bucket hanging from the top of the Well which can be collected through a Right Click and stored in the player's Inventory. Similar to Tools, Weapons and Armor, Bucket(s) of Water cannot be stacked within the player's Inventory. 
• A Bucket of Water can be interacted with in numerous ways, but the most obvious example for this particular post is to refill a Watering Can. Since there is a limited amount of water in each Bucket, a Bucket's Durability depends on how the player interacts with the Bucket within the game world. More on this below. 

Outside of providing the player with Bucket(s) of Water, I think the Water Well should also serve to add additional gameplay features beyond providing the player with water for their farms, mostly because I think new objects should have more than one form of interaction in order to create a risk-reward strategy as to whether the player wants to invest into the object or not. I therefore envision the additional features as follows:

1. Is affected by the seasons

• This means that the water can freeze in Winter and must be accessed through the use of a Pickaxe (which also yields additional Ice);
• Can serve as a spawning spot for Frogs during Spring, especially during a Frog Rain;
• Can dry up in the Summer and become inaccessible (when inspected the player character will make a notification about how the interaction is currently impossible except if the player is playing mute characters such as Wes who will simply just refuse to interact with the object); 
• The player can collect water from the Water Well and cook the water on the Endothermic Fire Pit in order to turn it into Ice (but only when the fire is at max); 
• A Bucket of Water can be used in the Summer to cool the player character at the cost of Sanity, as it will result in the player character getting Soaked. 

2. Can be built in the Caves

• The Well functions the same way in the Caves as it does above ground, except that it is likelier to freeze during Winter and cannot dry up during Summer;
• Cave-ins can damage the Well, requiring it to be repaired. 

3. Water functions similar to Cooking Ingredients

• A Bucket of Water can be used as filler in food dishes, yielding different results. More on this below;
• As a Cooking Ingredient, Bucket(s) of Water have an expiration timer before the water grows stale (5 game days);
• Water freshness does not affect the watering of plants or cooling the player character during Summer;
• Cooking Stale Water in the Endothermic Fire Pit will not refresh the water after it turns into Ice;
• Storing the Bucket of Water in an Ice Box, Ice Chester etc. will increase its freshness rate as it does any other food item.

Additionally, A Bucket of Water can be used to put out fires. 

Some notes about a Bucket of Water's Durability:

• When used on a Watering Can, consumes 33% of the total amount.
• When used to turn water into Ice on an Endothermic Fire Pit, consumes the total amount left in the Bucket. If the Bucket is at 100%, will yield 4 Ice, if at 66%, will yield 2-3 Ice by chance, and if at 33%, will yield 1-2 Ice by chance. 
• When used to cool the player character, will yield a cooling effect depending on the amount of water left in the Bucket. If at 100%, will lower the temperature by 40 degrees for 30 seconds and cause Wetness to increase to 50; if at 66% will lower the temperature by 40 degrees by 20 seconds and cause Wetness to increase to 33; if at 33% will lower the temperature by 40 for 10 seconds and cause Wetness to increase to 15. Using additional Bucket(s) of Water to cool the character will not increase Wetness beyond 50 but will renew the coolness length. 
• When used to put out fires, total effectiveness depends on the Fire Level. A full Bucket will always put out a fire no matter the Fire Level, a 66% full Bucket can only put out fires level 4 and below, and a 33% Bucket can only put out fires level 3 and below.

Water and Food Dishes

• Will completely consume the Bucket no matter how full it was prior to cooking;
• Can be used in all Dishes that are labeled "Soup", but only once, as two or more Buckets will turn the dish into Wet Goop; 
• Can replace all instances of Ice but only once, as any more will create Wet Goop; 
• Cannot replace ice in Ice Cream, Melonsicle and Aparagazpacho; 
• Can be used as a filler in all dishes that allow for Ice as a filler but only once, as any more will result in Wet Goop e.g. Meatballs cannot be x1 Meat and x3 Water Buckets, but x1 Meat, x2 Ice and x1 Bucket of Water would be valid.

I believe that should cover most of it, and I hope this post can inspire the dev team to implement an object like this into the game!