Why not let us use plants instead of animal drops for gear progression?
I was thinking about how a lot of sandbox RPGs handle progression, and one thing that always kinda bugs me is how you’re forced down one specific path for crafting gear. Usually, you have to hunt mobs for leather or wool to hit mid-to-late game tiers, which limits different playstyles.
It’d be awesome if Hytale mirrored real-world variety by giving us agricultural or botanical alternatives to animal products. And I mean having this built directly into the vanilla experience especially exploration/adventure mode sure, it could probably be modded in, but having these choices as a core feature of the base game would add so much more value.
For example, instead of just regular leather, we could farm or forage specific plants-like cactus, pineapple leaves, or even some late-game bio-composites (kind of like Mirum in the real world) and process them into durable leather alternatives. Same goes for textiles; adding crops like hemp, bamboo, or cotton would be a great substitute for wool when making beds, cloth, or sails.
To keep things balanced, these shouldn't be easy mode shortcuts. Farming, harvesting, and refining the plants should take just as much time and effort as hunting mobs for drops.
Obviously you can't avoid every conflict in a survival-focused game, but having the choice to progress your character primarily through agriculture and botanical crafting in the base vanilla game would add so much replayability and roleplay depth. What do you guys think?