Evaporating Ponds and Treasure-!

[Parrotoss]

Summer survival is rather demanding at the moment and a main argument often tossed about would be that players receive few rewards or incentives to fully embrace the season.

A neat little addition that may mix up gameplay a bit would be the addition of evaporating ponds!

Ponds freeze in winter, rendering fishing and frog farming an no go option.

Seeing how summer is the alternative extremity of winter, it would stand to reason that ponds would be rendered useless as well.

 

Ponds would evaporate and have an animation akin to a pool of bubbling muck or a smoldering crater.

At the beginning of Summer a player would be able to harvest a various number of fish and frog legs from the surrounding area and a grave/dig site would be found at the bottom of the pond, which can yield a variety of grave items, OR more desirable objects such as gold, gems, and chilled amulets etc.--(whatever wouldn't be considered OP or useless.)

 

Perhaps if the removal of frogs is too inconvenient, a variety called a fire frog (or salamanders with pepper horns?) could spawn from empty ponds and would have traits akin to a fire hound. Fire frogs would take items from the player like normal, but if the items are picked up before killing the frog, the chance the item will burst into flames instead would be probable--more strategy!

 

In order to balance out the combat, the fire frogs could drop something like "spicy crisps/nuggets/chips,"--peppers?--which would have uses like ice, only in the winter. The crisps could be eaten alone in order to decrease freezing, or used in recipes to make food "spicy" that also decreases freezing.

 

By adding evaporated ponds, players would have more of a reason to venture and plan around their map more often in the Summer. Spicy crisps would give players an alternative heat source in winter giving more of a reason to gather certain resources during summer.

 

Anyway, the removal of ponds during summer could arguably make an already tedious season more unbearable, but the addition of treasure and a beneficial mob drop could help balance things out.

 

Feel free to express any like, dislikes, and additional ideas.

 

P.S. Being able to break frozen ponds in winter would be pretty cool as well--ice fishing could be a thing.

[technoguardian]

squack,, I apprve

[Tamazacat]

This makes so much sense. I love it! This should really be a thing

[Hugos10]

How about instead of spicy crisps, a Hot Frog?

:3

[Silentdarkness1]

And I assume that the ponds would refill in Spring and come back like normal?

 

Also, this should go in the RoG suggestions subforum, I think.

[CoolKid95]

Can you overheat in the caves? That'd make absolutely no sense if you could. I've been in numerous caves during the summer, and you don't have too walk 10 feet in to cool off. 

[imsomony]

Someone in the Reign of Giants area suggested snakes as a new mob. What if snakes come out of the dried up ponds in summer? I like the fire salamander idea too. I don't know jack about them, so I Wikipedia-d it of course. This could work!

 

 

They prefer deciduous forests, since they like to hide in fallen leaves and around mossy tree trunks. They need small brooks or ponds with clean water in their habitat for the development of the larvae. Whether on land or in water, fire salamanders are inconspicuous. They spend much of their time hidden beneath stones, wood or other objects. They are active in the evening and the night, but on rainy days they are active in daytime as well.

 

The diet of the fire salamander consists of various insects, spiders, earthworms and slugs, but they also occasionally eat newts and young frogs. Small prey will be caught within the range of the vomerine teeth or by the posterior half of the tongue, to which the prey adheres.

 

 

Imagine if they run out of the dried up ponds and quickly scurry away to hide by Catcoon stumps, underneath rocks/flint on the ground, or behind boulders (including those in the desert/rocky plains). They're neutral, hiding out and not doing much of anything until being startled by discovery, then they become hostile and attack you or other creatures. 

 

If planned carefully and strategically, they could be used as a weapon against the frog rain in Spring or spider nests... however, they can also work against you by killing the creatures you want in the meantime, like rabbits, catcoon, pigs, etc.