The Intro, and what may work better.

Formous

I will be honest, the current game intro is weak at best. I was thinking about the story so far, and I feel a different approach would be much cooler and more fun for the player.

Taking into account The Forest, or Stranded Deep, both have a intro detailing how you got there, plane crash, ect. Rather then wording out the Energy Pulse, perhaps we the players should be allowed to experience the pulse itself and the crash from Orbit to earth. The Purpose of this intro, beyond extreme immersion, would also be a tutorial. We start out being hungry and such, going to the cafeteria or sitting down in a observatory, collecting some basic stuff and taking it to a fabricator to turn to food, and then go about and do a couple other things, let us explore. After which, a period of time determined by the player's pace around the observatory and chosen haste, We in the observatory, preferably with a good sized view of a part of the Aurora, see the pulse emanate from the planet and slam into the ship, causing fires and all sorts of things, followed by alarms and the Player needing to rush to the Pod, possibly repair it and other mechanics being explained by needed actions, then us getting into the pod and locking into our seat, and jettisoning, or maybe, a explosion hitting us as we jettison from the Aurora, causing the Pod's obvious damage, then the game starting up as the screen goes dark and the sound of a real big crash into the planet, and us hitting water. Then we start as normal.


Immersion in this game is huge, and I feel a tutorial and intro in this effect would be really important. Some would advocate making it quick, but I think it would be better served by being somewhat lengthy. I want to come into something with heavy immersion, and I feel this game is cheated by a black screen with the title and a short exposition.

2cough

The trello had some intro possibilities that also served as mechanic tutorials a while back. Anyways, at this point I'm guessing story line is about the last thing on the dev's to do list and personally wouldn't expect to see those elements implemented or made more clear til release or close to it.

My 2 cents.

Mysterio

That idea would create some serious immersion and a good story line to start of subnautica then create some more story after that.. this idea is a good one.

Fireclaw

I actually like the intro, it's simplistic and doesn't take an hour to get through. Most of all, it tells you what you need to know.

With the ability to explore the Aurora coming up, I hope they add little video-log type things you can find and play on some sort of holo-projector type thing you have to craft or something, that will give little pieces of back story, like why humans are colonizing other planets, maybe even giving a bit of story of the decayed state of earth in the late 22nd century.

Formous

Maybe a tick box Fireclaw, for those that wish to skip it. This actually would solve the problem of CO-OP. Aka, where others come from. In this, you all go into the tutorial, do it quickly, and all escape in the same pod, maybe a alternate one built as a life boat, instead a single man pod. Honestly, I would not mind a hour long tutorial. I feel cheated when I am just plopped in with only a little exposition. But if I experienced it, then it's much better, to me anyway.

Oldryn

...And since we will be roaming around the broken Aurora after the next update, I think it would be cool to experience the ship in an intact state during the intro and then finding it broken and scattered afterwards during the main game.

BeigeAlert

The devs also need to figure out a way to convert these ideas into the tens of thousands of dollars that would be needed to make it actually happen...

xerxys

Personally, I'd rather the devs worked on the main game, rather than having to create complete working ships and gameplay mechanics that will be destroyed beyond the opening chapter. Some kind of a better way to introduce you to how the game works would be better, maybe something along the lines of a PDA or computer that is able to take the first few steps for you... if you want it, that is.

A much better way to integrate the Aurora into the game would be with fleshing out the back-story of characters. Finding personal possessions that trigger flashbacks, or video logs or something, to show who you travelled with and who you were in relation to everyone else. If you start this game with only very basic knowledge, who's to say you weren't a junior ensign or even just a janitor that managed to get to a pod?

Atmospheric introduction tutorials are impressive and big studios can produce great ones, á la TES and Half-Life. But the budget and resources, I think, aren't there this time around. So we just have to plough a massive star ship into a ocean planet and run with that.

Obraxis

We actually created an 'into' for our Early Access: