Mushroom Overhaul

[Heegrim]

I find it odd that mushrooms last so long in storage and stay forever in the ground if you don't pick them (even into winter). They should give more saturation than vegetables but spoil faster and also have short windows to pick them before they decay in the ground. Different types should grow in different seasons and weather conditions (like after a rainstorm).

I like mushroom foraging but it is basically a waste of time once you get a farm going as vegetables are almost exactly the same but way more bountiful. If they had higher saturation you could make hefty mushroom stews that are way more calorie dense than a vegetable stew. Maybe even make them give a small amount of protein saturation as well, since they are not actually vegetables. This would make remembering where good mushrooms spots are much more rewarding.

They are also found more often in forests, which are very dangerous early game due to predators and poor visibility. So making mushrooms more valuable would incentivize players to explore them more, instead of just running around in open fields all the time.

[LadyWYT]

1 hour ago, Leo Steeves said:

I like mushroom foraging but it is basically a waste of time once you get a farm going as vegetables are almost exactly the same but way more bountiful.

Oh, I don't know about that. Can't exactly make "stew surprise" for your friends if you don't have the mushrooms required for it. 

[Parabola]

1 hour ago, Leo Steeves said:

like mushroom foraging but it is basically a waste of time once you get a farm going

I feel that this is exactly their function in the game: an early-game food source which is not filling and perhaps dangerous due to its habitat being sometimes shared with bears (though I've never personally encountered them while picking), but is resilient and available during any season. Once you get a farm going, they are a novelty item or a fun surprise / reminiscence for the early game.

[Heegrim]

33 minutes ago, Parabola said:

I feel that this is exactly their function in the game: an early-game food source which is not filling and perhaps dangerous due to its habitat being sometimes shared with bears (though I've never personally encountered them while picking), but is resilient and available during any season. Once you get a farm going, they are a novelty item or a fun surprise / reminiscence for the early game.

I feel like berries and wild crops are already easy early game food sources that don't clutter your inventory as much as the many different varieties of mushroom. Wild crops are already available in any season, maybe just not as common since they are not always mature (plus they are super easy to spot in an open field compared to having to hunt around in a forest). You will already be collecting a ton of wild crops for seeds early game so the only reason I collect mushrooms is because I like them. I get attacked by predators almost every time I even go near a treeline, but maybe I'm just unlucky lol.

idk, I live in an area where mushrooms are a neat surprise because they only appear for a short time and are way more delicious than vegetables. I think they should be a more unique than just reskinned veggies that sometimes poison you. I'm glad we are getting some psychedelic ones in the new update tho!

[LadyWYT]

3 minutes ago, Leo Steeves said:

I'm glad we are getting some psychedelic ones in the new update tho!

The psychedelic ones are something else. Best part is that they don't necessary poison the player, so it's possible to slip them into a stew and potentially send your friends on a trip, assuming they only check for damage and don't actually read the ingredients or otherwise are unfamiliar with the ingredients. At least, I'm assuming that the psychedelic effect remains after the shrooms are cooked; I haven't tested to be certain.

[EnbyKaiju]

"Journey's log, day 76: The cook made up a stew from local game and some mushrooms we found along our trek. The next few hours were somewhat of a blur. Jenkins was found licking nearby trees, muttering something about 'getting to the gooey center'. I myself do not feel like it affected me in any way, although the singing koalas I encountered during the night were gone by morning and none of the other members of the party remember seeing them. I have advised the cook to refrain from using those mushrooms again, but to keep samples for later culinary experimentation when we are safety back home. I do wish I could hear the song of those koalas again though..."