Make Brightshade spawning more consistent

[Electroely]

The way the selection of the Brightshades' location works at the moment is very arbitrary. Without getting into the specifics, plants are grouped into hidden "herds" and the order in which these herds are selected depends on the order of their creation (which effectively gets randomized when the world is reloaded as they're loaded in a different order). This is especially noticeable when you have multiple separate bases on the same world - on some play sessions, the plants will consistently target one base, and on some other play sessions, the plants might specifically seek out the other.

I don't think the spawning mechanics should work like this. It's completely unintuitive and has some side effects that seem to go almost directly against the game design, such as farm crops getting de-prioritized if they're planted and harvested in one session.

I think the Brightshades should seek out the largest clusters of plants they can find. Not specifically the largest "herds" (they already do that -- the cap of 12 plants per herd is just very low), but the herds with the most other plants near them. I don't think the plant selection should be based specifically on the herd either - have it choose random plants in said area so that it's less likely that only 1 or 2 Brightshades spawn due to the tight placement of the plants in that particular herd.

The way it currently works can lead to a player always only getting 1-2 plants if they planted their twigs & grass in a tight grid, which can lead them to consistently miss out on 1/3 or 2/3 the normal amount of Brightshade Husks. I think my suggestion would lead to a more intuitive gameplay experience while also having some other beneficial effects, such as allowing megabase worlds to funnel their brightshades into a specific area (by making it an efficient resource farming area) to prevent their decor plants from being taken over, provided the Brightshades are taken care of in time.

 

[Be2014]

The random brightshade spawning in the wild also is a problem.  At night by the time one sees the small glow, one has been smacked.