More proximity-based loot for boulderboughs (including plants' sprouts)

[shadowDigga]

I feel like boulderbough's special interaction with web creep has the potential to solve long-standing issue of renewability of various resources by planting boulderboughs next to existing ones. This was already done for fossils but based on a biome where they are usually found.

I propose adding special tag for various entities in the game which would allow them to insert specific loot into boulderboughs that grow next to them. This would allow easy renewability both for entities already present in vanilla game but also for ones to be introduced in the future or by mods.

I would divide these entities into 2 categories:

1) Plants. Includes most plants that can't or barely can reproduce themselves on their own (e.g. everything but most trees). Boulderbough would 'fetch' part of plant's root and provide a special 'sprout' version of it, which can be planted and grown into a new plant that acts like a natural one (e.g. the one that wasn't replanted by the player). An offpsring regrowth that can be manually done by players. Yes, same as stone fruit bush's sprouts but without explicitly adding it into every plant's regular loot table.

This would also apply to non-collectible plants like reeds, cacti, lichen, mushrooms, spiky bushes, wormlights which are limited both in numbers and in locations found and once gone are lost forever.

2) Structures. These entities don't grow loot in traditional way but can still provide it in other ways, often limited to cooldowns and distractors.

• Giant junk pile. Can be rummaged, but is very slow and random on its own. Usually provides by spawning junk around it, but after Wagstaff's disappearance this option becomes obsolete, making scrap hard to obtain. Planting boulderboughs around would make them dig scrap and other loot in ratios they usually found in the pile.
• Gigantic beehive. Similarly can be hammered to obtain honey or honeycombs at very tiny chance, but forces to retreat once queen spawns and wait for honey to replenish, as well as keep queen alive. Boulderboughs would dig some of the honey/honeycombs that might have slipped into the ground.
• Hollow stump. Can normally be ransacked, but only for stuff its catcoon has brought in the past. Boulderboughs would bypass those restrictions.
• Natural marble statues (including glommer statue). Renewable marble.
• Ponds (mostly oasis lake). Digs some inedible stuff that might have washed to shore and normally found in crumpled packages, even if the lake is dry at the moment.

 

I hope this suggestion can be looked into since it really feels like a missed opportunity at the moment.