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Re: Ideas For Subnautica Below Zero
I would love to be able to build some sort of material delivery system. Like a chute you could path and connect to multiple seabases. That way you can have your main hub and connect it with e.g. a mining outpost, a large farm, etc. That way you could send materials back to your hub without having to go ALL the way back every time.
It would also be fun if there could be some sort of fast transportation between your bases. Something akin to the pipeline cars from the World is Not Enough (I'd post a link, but I'm too new) weird example, I know. Small animation plays as you get in, it starts moving, screen fades out, back in and you're climbing out of the pod in your home base.
If you want to save time, both of these things could even be underground. Have the character make a mining drone that will carve out the path between seabases over X amount of time.
Since Below Zero seems to be more about research and development as opposed to extreme survival, I'd appreciate more reasons to have multiple bases.
It would also be fun if there could be some sort of fast transportation between your bases. Something akin to the pipeline cars from the World is Not Enough (I'd post a link, but I'm too new) weird example, I know. Small animation plays as you get in, it starts moving, screen fades out, back in and you're climbing out of the pod in your home base.
If you want to save time, both of these things could even be underground. Have the character make a mining drone that will carve out the path between seabases over X amount of time.
Since Below Zero seems to be more about research and development as opposed to extreme survival, I'd appreciate more reasons to have multiple bases.
Re: Below Zero Roadmap Rebooted and Release Timeline - Subnautica
As a player I want games that are good (obviously) but I want games that the developers enjoyed making as it ALWAYS shows, I dont want people burned out, stressed or working silly hours for the sake of my pleasure. So I totally good with this very grown up and sensible approach.
Re: Subnautica Below Zero Ideas
PUT THE CYCLOPS BACK IN THE GAME, Or at least the Atlas Sub!
Re: Subnautica Below Zero Ideas
I think as a new Feature you should make the old bases that are abandoned able to be repaired and upgrade-able. Maybe make it only able at twice the cost to repair. I see two bases I would like to use if I could fix them up.
Also think the Storage Module needs to be upgraded to match the appropriate locker size, Suggested:
The two big lockers should have the same space as the large storage lockers the habitat tool can make. it makes sense with the size of them.
Each over head space should have the space of a floating storage box the fabricator can make.
And the Bench storage should be a standard wall locker the habitat tool can make.
Also think the Storage Module needs to be upgraded to match the appropriate locker size, Suggested:
The two big lockers should have the same space as the large storage lockers the habitat tool can make. it makes sense with the size of them.
Each over head space should have the space of a floating storage box the fabricator can make.
And the Bench storage should be a standard wall locker the habitat tool can make.
Re: "Nos Manere" (we remain) - a Subnautica story
AN: Sharks, the sea, pirates, and me.
On this day America celebrates another anniversary of freedom both won and maintained at great cost, so I think it appropriate to give a special salute to those who keep the oceans safe. Until fairly recently in human history sea travel was one of the easiest ways to cash in on your life insurance. Besides the dangers of the ocean itself, pirates who looked nothing like Disney movie stars infested the trade lanes for centuries until the civilized nations finally quit catfighting long enough to go smash their safe spaces. One of them being a little upstart country called the "United States" who responded to a ransom demand by sending their brand-new navy to turn the chief pirate/slaver's house into Swiss cheese.
To everyone who chose to be out on the high seas, far away from home and family, for the benefit of others, I thank you. As should everyone else who benefits by the commerce you make possible, which IS everyone. If you think this is an exaggeration, take a moment and look down at the smartphone in your hand or the imported food in your fridge. If the oceans were unsafe for trade. you wouldn't have been able to get it for cheap, and possibly not at all.
Swimming to where I last remembered the wreckage took me uncomfortably far from our tiny home, hanging on to my improvised flotation device with one hand. Tying two air bladders together with a length keeps me reasonably bouyant...but only so long as I keep them both close at hand. A little trial let me know I can - barely - swim with one if need be. Swimming is already awkward enough that I don't dare try to tow a locker behind me. The first trip will be for only what I can easily carry.
I waste too much time finding the wreckage again, and stop to catch my breath on the top of another coral tube a few feet below the waterline. It looks larger now that I have more than a half-second to look. A roughly cube-shaped piece of the ship a couple stories tall. I'm trying not to think about the fact that I'm in the 'danger zone' when everything suddenly starts going dark. VERY dark. In a matter of seconds it's as if someone flipped a light switch in a windowless room. The bluish haze of the water fades into a giant inky gloom, until all I can see are the ghostly lights of the alien life. I kick off from the tube to the surface to find the sky itself staring down at me with a baleful orange eye amidst a veil of blackness.
The rational part of my mind tries to reassure me that it's only an eclipse, but I can't stop myself from shaking at vague thoughts of some extraterrestrial horror blotting out the sun itself. Without a flashlight I'm helpless until it passes - stranded where I swim for something as simple as a lack of light. It takes little imagination to see how my ancestors would grab at any explanation for something so terrifying or use it as inspiration for a hair-raising horror movie. For the world to go dark around you in the middle of the day without warning is triggering my flight-or-fight response hard because I'm so vulnerable in the water. I can't run, I can barely fight, and I can't even stand on solid ground as the thing darkening the sky looms over the ravaged corpse of the Aurora.
And why is the moon so damn orange?
Slowly the sky brightens, as if the moon seems to reluctantly to let the sun shine again. I'm no astronomer but between the size and speed it seems to move means that the moon is quite close to the planet itself. If that orbit is decaying...
I have to grab that thought and mentally stuff it in the closet as I venture closer toward my goal until I'm hovering over the site of the wreckage. A jumble of boxes helpfully labeled "CARGO", support girders twisted like spaghetti, an assortment of metallic fragments strewn about. Almost nothing is even small enough to swim home with and none of it looks actually helpful. Of the two doors I can see one still has its status display working. "Locked". Naturally, it was set to stay shut in the event of a large scale hull breach, and I don't have a cutting tool. All this way for nothing. Unless...the solution isn't to break something. If the automatic response to damage is "lock", would the human programming it make the response to the absence of damage "unlock"?
There's a junction box to the left of the door, now a tangled mess of wires. It's as good a place as any to start. I hit the inflate/deflate button on the air bladders and brace my arms outward to land on the hull nearby. The repair tool thrums in my hands as white sparks dance at the tip like a mad fairy. Pointing the dang thing is easy enough, but with no real training on how to actually use it I have to just start 'painting' anything that looks sufficiently busted until the battery runs dead or it looks fixed.
I 'paint' a way larger area than I should. But suddenly a flicker on the display catches the corner of my vision - the display still says "locked" but the orange dots have changed to green. I have to grab my floating aid and go up for fresh air, my heart pounding even harder as I return to press on the latch. As the door slides open my hope rises higher than the clouds before plummeting deep as the sea.
The interior is a disheartening jumble of lockers, boxes and tables. Nothing has been spared from the violent descent. There's scarcely a fragment of machinery left recognizable as my eyes drift aimlessly over the ruins. Besides the hollow cargo boxes the only thing not crushed to junk are the wall displays, screens still displaying some meaningless data. On one wall is a ventilation and emergency access shaft I'm not nearly dumb enough to try and squeeze down.
This isn't a salvage mission. I've expended half my battery and braved deadly radiation to sift through a trash heap.
Edit: Now with illustrations!
Into the danger
Terror of the sky
AU: Sudden unemployment and being bounced around like a pinball at crummy temp jobs does a number on one's creativity. But I owe my readers an apology for the lack of a status update. I refuse to let the creative spirit I put into this to go to waste.
Nos Manere will resume with a biweekly update schedule. Full stop.
Up next: Eating Subnautica.
Re: ns2_fusion
This build sees a set of visual changes & a minor gameplay change.
The southern and western parts of the map (Fortress, Approach, Servers, Corner, Vista, and Passages) have been completely restyled and re-lit to look more hi-tech. Eventually the rest of the map will receive similar visual upgrades.
The gameplay change is that the path between Cooling & Servers has been straightened and now enters Servers further away from the node. This should make it a bit easier to defend the node.
Fortress
Approach & Servers
Corner, Vista & Passage
The southern and western parts of the map (Fortress, Approach, Servers, Corner, Vista, and Passages) have been completely restyled and re-lit to look more hi-tech. Eventually the rest of the map will receive similar visual upgrades.
The gameplay change is that the path between Cooling & Servers has been straightened and now enters Servers further away from the node. This should make it a bit easier to defend the node.
Fortress
Re: Maybe gorges can build one cyst?
Personally, I find the gorge role much more involved than it was before. I am a much more active aggressive gorge than I was before. I do wish hydra's had a little more health, but otherwise this new gorge is fantastic from my point of view.
Moonpool access to PRAWN mods, arms, and storage
When docked in the Cyclops, we can access the PRAWN Suit's mods and arms to swap them.
But we can't access its storage. Nor can we access mods, arms, or storage when it's docked in a Moonpool. So it's rather awkward when returning from a mission to dock and then realise, oops, have to undock to access.
I'd appreciate it if giving access to them would be considered.
But we can't access its storage. Nor can we access mods, arms, or storage when it's docked in a Moonpool. So it's rather awkward when returning from a mission to dock and then realise, oops, have to undock to access.
I'd appreciate it if giving access to them would be considered.
Cyclops Suggestions.
Just some ideas for if you guys ever feel a need to tweak the Cyclops.
The first was to add in all of the necessary internals as prebuilt modules that're already in the Cyclops, then add in a feature to control the power flow to all of the internals. The point would be to make the Cyclops feel more functional and full when you actually get it as opposed to it feeling empty at first then it being up to you to build it up. The power control would also help conserve your energy more instead of constantly getting drained.
The second was to increase the storage capacity of the built in lockers and then fill in the locker room with more compartments. It's weird that the walls were textured to have sections for the lockers and then small shelve units above them but weren't given any more than a handful. If that would get added that'd be a really nice QOL improvement.
Final idea was a rework for the power generator options. The cyclops lacks a solar option all together and the thermal reactor seems really weak, so with the idea of adding in a solar option I thought of a solution to make both strong and also make them into cooler functions. The idea is that instead of passively generating energy you instead "Deploy" the cyclops either into a solar generator or thermal generator mode. When it activates it shuts down all power to the engine, shield generator, and becomes completely stationary. During the deployed mode it regenerates alot more energy than before but the trade off is that you can't move and can't use your defensive measures.
I'm not sure how the devs see the role for the Cyclops but I personally don't see a problem with it becoming a self sufficient mobile base, especially if the energy generator upgrades are already pretty late game which could justify their usefulness pretty easily. In the end though those are nothing more than suggestions and probably aren't worth taking time away from Below Zero. Love the game and can't wait to get my hands on the new expansion. May the UWE team have a happy new years!
The first was to add in all of the necessary internals as prebuilt modules that're already in the Cyclops, then add in a feature to control the power flow to all of the internals. The point would be to make the Cyclops feel more functional and full when you actually get it as opposed to it feeling empty at first then it being up to you to build it up. The power control would also help conserve your energy more instead of constantly getting drained.
The second was to increase the storage capacity of the built in lockers and then fill in the locker room with more compartments. It's weird that the walls were textured to have sections for the lockers and then small shelve units above them but weren't given any more than a handful. If that would get added that'd be a really nice QOL improvement.
Final idea was a rework for the power generator options. The cyclops lacks a solar option all together and the thermal reactor seems really weak, so with the idea of adding in a solar option I thought of a solution to make both strong and also make them into cooler functions. The idea is that instead of passively generating energy you instead "Deploy" the cyclops either into a solar generator or thermal generator mode. When it activates it shuts down all power to the engine, shield generator, and becomes completely stationary. During the deployed mode it regenerates alot more energy than before but the trade off is that you can't move and can't use your defensive measures.
I'm not sure how the devs see the role for the Cyclops but I personally don't see a problem with it becoming a self sufficient mobile base, especially if the energy generator upgrades are already pretty late game which could justify their usefulness pretty easily. In the end though those are nothing more than suggestions and probably aren't worth taking time away from Below Zero. Love the game and can't wait to get my hands on the new expansion. May the UWE team have a happy new years!
Possible Solution to Long Ladder Animations
One of the things I love about Subnautica is how much personality is conveyed by its first-person animations, with so many interactions having one. One conspicuous exception is in-base ladders. What makes them different from ladders like on the cyclops or moon pool is that they can be stacked on top of each other and can potentially be infinitely long, and nobody wants to watch their character climb a ladder for five minutes every time they want to visit their base in the depths of the abyss.
To ensure that ladders get their due, I propose the following solution: animate just the top and bottom of the ladder, and have the camera quickly sweep past the intermediate parts while the character model teleports to the correct position off-screen.
Example image:
Example animation:
This allows the important parts of the ladder to be animated while cutting out the long (and boring) middle part. And by moving the camera, rather than instantaneously teleporting, you can still get a sense of how much ladder is being climbed without having to watch every rung. Another nice feature of this is that it doesn't necessarily matter how long the ladder is: the camera can just move faster for longer ladders, taking as much or just slightly more time than shorter ones.
"So we'll still have to watch Ryley/Robin climb part of a ladder every time we want to move between floors?" Yes. That's the price of being able to stack base parts vertically with a component that takes up virtually no floor space. It's really not that bad. If it becomes that much of a pain then I feel like it should be your responsibility to design your base to minimize ladder trips.
It's not a perfect solution, and some people will probably think it's still immersion-breaking, but I think it's a heck of a lot better than what we have now.
To ensure that ladders get their due, I propose the following solution: animate just the top and bottom of the ladder, and have the camera quickly sweep past the intermediate parts while the character model teleports to the correct position off-screen.
Example image:
This allows the important parts of the ladder to be animated while cutting out the long (and boring) middle part. And by moving the camera, rather than instantaneously teleporting, you can still get a sense of how much ladder is being climbed without having to watch every rung. Another nice feature of this is that it doesn't necessarily matter how long the ladder is: the camera can just move faster for longer ladders, taking as much or just slightly more time than shorter ones.
"So we'll still have to watch Ryley/Robin climb part of a ladder every time we want to move between floors?" Yes. That's the price of being able to stack base parts vertically with a component that takes up virtually no floor space. It's really not that bad. If it becomes that much of a pain then I feel like it should be your responsibility to design your base to minimize ladder trips.
It's not a perfect solution, and some people will probably think it's still immersion-breaking, but I think it's a heck of a lot better than what we have now.
