Some impressions from a returning player
Dinkelsen
Graz Join Date: 2015-10-05 Member: 208309Members
Graz Join Date: 2015-10-05 Member: 208309Members
Some impressions from a returning player
I stumbled upon Subnautica in September and played it for quite a while until H2.O hit experimental. The change in visuals let me completely lose my sense for orientation as everything looked differently and since I felt a little burned out too, I took a break from the game.
Now I came back and adapting to the new lighting was easier than in autumn. I can find my way around pretty well again. Now I also like the new lighting, nights are darker and generally there is less light. It fits the mood very well. When I look at my old screenshots the environment even feels a little cartooney. I still think that there is way too much bioluminescence to the point that I suspect the energy pulse that hit and destroyed the Aurora was when the vessel switched on its cameras facing the seafloor at night... but probably thats just me.
So Aurora is a mining vessel now. Ok, no more terraforming. No more being prepared for exactly this planet. On the other hand, what is a mining vessel doing here? We'll see.
About the new things:
There's lot of new things to play with. A water filtration machine, oh yes! how long did I wait for that? I still call it a seawater desalinization device, but that doesn't matter. This little device also introduced a very interesting aspect of base building that was long under-developed: power management. It uses energy, so there has to be a constant supply of energy. In September you could build a base anywhere up to 225m depth and just put one solar panel next to it. The panel would collect 25 units of energy over time and with that the base was considered "powered". I once built a base in the Koosh Zone at a depth of 224m exclusively powered by 2 solar panels. it worked because the only thing that consumed power was recharging the Seamoth (didn't use much due to solar recharge module) and me cooking meals in the fabricator now and then. Now the water filtration machine uses power constantly and it feels like a whole new machanic. A good mechanic, I am looking forward to more modules that need power, like the foreshadowed O2 generators or a battery recharge rack.
Speaking of power, I noticed that it is now possible to power a deep base (like in the Blood Kelp zone) by routing energy down from a solar panel array at the surface. In autumn this didn't work because the panels did not recharge because they were at a location that did not exist due to being far away from the player and thus was not simulated. Now the distant solar panels do recharge. I appreciate that.
Then there are fish tanks where fish actually breed. Double oh yes! Took me a while to figure out how they work but thats what Google is for, right? One little problem with the large aquarium. Its a little hard do walk around it, I always get stuck at the handrails where corridors intersect with the room. Maybe the handrails could be removed if there is a fish tank in the room?
Wrecks, yes. That's a cool feature. I also like the fact that you have to scan more than one fragment to get a blueprint. With the old mechanic it felt a little like cheating to get the Moonpool early if you knew where the first fragment was. Its now a little harder but still doable. The wreck itself looks a little artificial if you ask me, maybe its just my personal opinion. Well, everythig here is just my personal opinion, that's why I write it down. For the devs to read and see: "Ok, that's what he thought when he encountered it". Back to the wreck... It looks so - I don't know - so perfectly cut from the Aurora. It basically is a cuboid that looks cut out with a knife rather than the result of an explosion. I don't want to insult you as you are doing such a great job and I am enjoying Subnautica so much (190+ hours so far) there is a saying in german ("jammern auf hohem niveau") that roughly translates to "whining on a high standard" which basically means pointing out flaws in something that is already very good. And that is how I see it. But when I look at the wreck, well that's what I feel.
Cyclops with solar power: Tripple Oh yes! I know its a bug and it was already fixed but I do much enjoy it that I plead: Please let me have a legit way to do something like that. Finally I can drive around in the ocean without having to worry about building a pile of power cells and exterminating the poor acid mushrooms. I wrote an article about the Cyclops in September where I preferred a base-recharged Cyclops (and I still prefer it), but this feels good, too.
The laser cutter: Ok, I have a device that can cut through a steel door almost two times with the charge of one battery. The same battery can power a flashlight for 10 minutes. Hm... doesn't fit if you ask me. Maybe it should use a power cell? Or the flashlight should go longer.
Then there are things that still bother me:
These are experiences based on personal preferrences.
The steering wheel of the Cyclops is still in the middle of my viewing field when I drive the Cyclops. Usually I look straight out of the window and a little down because there is the seafloor I try not to collide with. If the steering wheel was a little more translucent (maybe by removing the glowing blue parts and just keeping the frame) that would help a lot.
The ecology is unstable: Even if the player does not do anything over time fish vanish. Predators eat them and there is no fish breeding or respawn in the wild. (I see it is being worked on)
There are WAY too much predators for my taste in the world. Not only are they dangerous but it is completely unrealistic for me to even see more than one Stalker or Boneshark at a time. At the moment the danger level is constantly high in all locations. (Yes, I know, Stasis Rifle, Propulsion Cannon, all these things exist but still...) It is the constancy that makes the predators predictable. And if they are predictable, the experience of fear and danger lessens. If there were less and a predator would be a little more dangerous (intelligence, speed and maneuvrability, hunting behavior, raw damage), a predator could exploit a false sense of safety the player experienced. Like the Reaper. Its not everywhere, but where it is, we are afraid. And there ARE places in the Grassy Plains where you cannot swim two meters without being bitten by another Biter Fish.
Silver. It is kinda rare, which is strange because its a material that is in quite some demand. Now I would not argue that there is "enough" silver in the game, but every other resource is abundant, silver is just enough. I have lockers full of gold, diamonds even quartz, copper and titanium, but I never need a locker for silver. The silver scarcity feels alright at the beginning of the game where it is sort of a gating mechanism that "keeps the gate" from the beginner area (like a Phase 1) to the next step outwards and downwards. It is needed for the base builder, still suit, radiation suit and most tools. In this phase of the game silver feels alright. But later, it is still used for equipment - everything that uses a microchip and it is not found in numbers like for example gold.
Bioluminescence: Its a bit overdone if you ask me. Its almost everywhere - which by itself isn't that bad - but it's so bright. For my taste its too bright. Jelly Mushroom Cave is so bright that I am surprised that I cannot put a solar panel there. Light is simply everywhere. The acid mushrooms are so bright they extremely stand out at night like light bulbs in Safe Shallows or Grassy Plains. Also the blue balls in GandReef, where do they get all that power to glow in the dark like a christmas tree? And for what reason? Koosh zone, on the other hand, feels right as well as Kelp Forest - well except for the yellow light-bulb seeds, you know what I mean. Blood Kelp also feels good, despite having a lot of bioluminescence, but the color of the Kelp and how it looks at a distance feels alright.
There is always this discussion about realism in computer games like this. Yes, its an alien world and yes, these are alien plants. (And yes, its computer game where everything is virtual!) Maybe they need this sort of bioluminescence to survive. But then, there are similarities between the alien life system and the terran one. For one, we can eat the fish, the kelp and some fruits. That means we are able to extract nutrients from the biomass. That means in their basics, both life systems function on a similar level if not the same level. If it was a crystal based life system for instance, we could not eat the fish. Well we could but... Now if we can extract nutrients from the life forms, they should at least function similar to terran life forms. And they do, there are fish swimming in the ocean, plants doing photosynthesis, all these things are familiar, if a little different.
In my opinion the balance between familiarity and foreignness is a key to success for a computer game like this. If it was completly similar to terran ocean life it would be boring in the sense of "not enough special" and if it was to strange people would not know where mentally to "dock", if you know what I mean. Balancing these aspects is a herculean task as there are always people like myself that have their own opinions about aspects. mine is: bioluminescence is a great attribute and makes Subnautica unique, but its too bright.
Things I would like to have added to the game:
First and formost: A possibility to recharge the Cyclops. Solar panels, a module at a base - my preferred method - whatever. I know this has been discussed to all end and there is some development going on so I will shut up here. At the moment I still have a solar and nuclear powered Cyclops and I love it more than I ever loved the big sub before. I just need to hang on to that one savegame...
A refridgerator or a deep freeze. I can cook fish but I have to eat it at once since it decomposes so extremely fast. (Speaking of decomposition speed, ever looked at a creepvine piece? I cannot even get it to my base before it starts to rot.) I would like to cook some food and then put it into a fridge or deep freeze on the Cyclops and eat it while I am on missions. Maybe I will have to "warm" the meal at the fabricator, its ok. At the moment I have an aquarium on the Cyclops which keeps fish fresh until I cook and eat them.
I would so like to have a button to switch beacons on or off. I confess I am a bit of a screenshot-junkie and while I *can* use imaging software to remove the beacons it would be nice if I didn't have to. We already got that and my personal thanks to Vyacheslav Sedovich for implemeting the feature and to the person who told him to do so.
A reason to build another base after the first base. There are enough reasons to build one base, we need a place for the workbench, the water filtr... seawater desalinization device, fish breeding, farming. All that is done at our main base. But... do we really need another base? We have a mobile, even customizable base that we can drive around called the Cyclops. It can do everthing a base can do, it provides power for the Seamoth, storage space and oxygen. Maybe the Lost River and the Lava Zone will change this?
A reason to got to the Jelly Mushroom Caves. It is such a beatiful place but there is nothing there that cannot be gotten from an easier accessible location. Which is kinda sad. Speaking of zones where I rarely go, the Koosh zone would also benefit from something unique to it.
An extension for a seabases power pool. Something like a huge battery. At the moment every power generator has its own battery that only be fed by itself. Sometimes recharge speed is not so important but having a larger power supply would be nice. Like a base powered by one singel thermal reactor. Maybe the recharge speed for the thermal generator was enough fot the base, but a larger power pool would be good for recharging the Seamoth or Cyclops or some power cells. It would be good to be able to build a battery or two with a capacity of 50 or 100 energy units to act as a buffer.
Oh wow, it did grow into quite a wall of text...
I stumbled upon Subnautica in September and played it for quite a while until H2.O hit experimental. The change in visuals let me completely lose my sense for orientation as everything looked differently and since I felt a little burned out too, I took a break from the game.
Now I came back and adapting to the new lighting was easier than in autumn. I can find my way around pretty well again. Now I also like the new lighting, nights are darker and generally there is less light. It fits the mood very well. When I look at my old screenshots the environment even feels a little cartooney. I still think that there is way too much bioluminescence to the point that I suspect the energy pulse that hit and destroyed the Aurora was when the vessel switched on its cameras facing the seafloor at night... but probably thats just me.
So Aurora is a mining vessel now. Ok, no more terraforming. No more being prepared for exactly this planet. On the other hand, what is a mining vessel doing here? We'll see.
About the new things:
There's lot of new things to play with. A water filtration machine, oh yes! how long did I wait for that? I still call it a seawater desalinization device, but that doesn't matter. This little device also introduced a very interesting aspect of base building that was long under-developed: power management. It uses energy, so there has to be a constant supply of energy. In September you could build a base anywhere up to 225m depth and just put one solar panel next to it. The panel would collect 25 units of energy over time and with that the base was considered "powered". I once built a base in the Koosh Zone at a depth of 224m exclusively powered by 2 solar panels. it worked because the only thing that consumed power was recharging the Seamoth (didn't use much due to solar recharge module) and me cooking meals in the fabricator now and then. Now the water filtration machine uses power constantly and it feels like a whole new machanic. A good mechanic, I am looking forward to more modules that need power, like the foreshadowed O2 generators or a battery recharge rack.
Speaking of power, I noticed that it is now possible to power a deep base (like in the Blood Kelp zone) by routing energy down from a solar panel array at the surface. In autumn this didn't work because the panels did not recharge because they were at a location that did not exist due to being far away from the player and thus was not simulated. Now the distant solar panels do recharge. I appreciate that.
Then there are fish tanks where fish actually breed. Double oh yes! Took me a while to figure out how they work but thats what Google is for, right? One little problem with the large aquarium. Its a little hard do walk around it, I always get stuck at the handrails where corridors intersect with the room. Maybe the handrails could be removed if there is a fish tank in the room?
Wrecks, yes. That's a cool feature. I also like the fact that you have to scan more than one fragment to get a blueprint. With the old mechanic it felt a little like cheating to get the Moonpool early if you knew where the first fragment was. Its now a little harder but still doable. The wreck itself looks a little artificial if you ask me, maybe its just my personal opinion. Well, everythig here is just my personal opinion, that's why I write it down. For the devs to read and see: "Ok, that's what he thought when he encountered it". Back to the wreck... It looks so - I don't know - so perfectly cut from the Aurora. It basically is a cuboid that looks cut out with a knife rather than the result of an explosion. I don't want to insult you as you are doing such a great job and I am enjoying Subnautica so much (190+ hours so far) there is a saying in german ("jammern auf hohem niveau") that roughly translates to "whining on a high standard" which basically means pointing out flaws in something that is already very good. And that is how I see it. But when I look at the wreck, well that's what I feel.
Cyclops with solar power: Tripple Oh yes! I know its a bug and it was already fixed but I do much enjoy it that I plead: Please let me have a legit way to do something like that. Finally I can drive around in the ocean without having to worry about building a pile of power cells and exterminating the poor acid mushrooms. I wrote an article about the Cyclops in September where I preferred a base-recharged Cyclops (and I still prefer it), but this feels good, too.
The laser cutter: Ok, I have a device that can cut through a steel door almost two times with the charge of one battery. The same battery can power a flashlight for 10 minutes. Hm... doesn't fit if you ask me. Maybe it should use a power cell? Or the flashlight should go longer.
Then there are things that still bother me:
These are experiences based on personal preferrences.
The steering wheel of the Cyclops is still in the middle of my viewing field when I drive the Cyclops. Usually I look straight out of the window and a little down because there is the seafloor I try not to collide with. If the steering wheel was a little more translucent (maybe by removing the glowing blue parts and just keeping the frame) that would help a lot.
The ecology is unstable: Even if the player does not do anything over time fish vanish. Predators eat them and there is no fish breeding or respawn in the wild. (I see it is being worked on)
There are WAY too much predators for my taste in the world. Not only are they dangerous but it is completely unrealistic for me to even see more than one Stalker or Boneshark at a time. At the moment the danger level is constantly high in all locations. (Yes, I know, Stasis Rifle, Propulsion Cannon, all these things exist but still...) It is the constancy that makes the predators predictable. And if they are predictable, the experience of fear and danger lessens. If there were less and a predator would be a little more dangerous (intelligence, speed and maneuvrability, hunting behavior, raw damage), a predator could exploit a false sense of safety the player experienced. Like the Reaper. Its not everywhere, but where it is, we are afraid. And there ARE places in the Grassy Plains where you cannot swim two meters without being bitten by another Biter Fish.
Silver. It is kinda rare, which is strange because its a material that is in quite some demand. Now I would not argue that there is "enough" silver in the game, but every other resource is abundant, silver is just enough. I have lockers full of gold, diamonds even quartz, copper and titanium, but I never need a locker for silver. The silver scarcity feels alright at the beginning of the game where it is sort of a gating mechanism that "keeps the gate" from the beginner area (like a Phase 1) to the next step outwards and downwards. It is needed for the base builder, still suit, radiation suit and most tools. In this phase of the game silver feels alright. But later, it is still used for equipment - everything that uses a microchip and it is not found in numbers like for example gold.
Bioluminescence: Its a bit overdone if you ask me. Its almost everywhere - which by itself isn't that bad - but it's so bright. For my taste its too bright. Jelly Mushroom Cave is so bright that I am surprised that I cannot put a solar panel there. Light is simply everywhere. The acid mushrooms are so bright they extremely stand out at night like light bulbs in Safe Shallows or Grassy Plains. Also the blue balls in GandReef, where do they get all that power to glow in the dark like a christmas tree? And for what reason? Koosh zone, on the other hand, feels right as well as Kelp Forest - well except for the yellow light-bulb seeds, you know what I mean. Blood Kelp also feels good, despite having a lot of bioluminescence, but the color of the Kelp and how it looks at a distance feels alright.
There is always this discussion about realism in computer games like this. Yes, its an alien world and yes, these are alien plants. (And yes, its computer game where everything is virtual!) Maybe they need this sort of bioluminescence to survive. But then, there are similarities between the alien life system and the terran one. For one, we can eat the fish, the kelp and some fruits. That means we are able to extract nutrients from the biomass. That means in their basics, both life systems function on a similar level if not the same level. If it was a crystal based life system for instance, we could not eat the fish. Well we could but... Now if we can extract nutrients from the life forms, they should at least function similar to terran life forms. And they do, there are fish swimming in the ocean, plants doing photosynthesis, all these things are familiar, if a little different.
In my opinion the balance between familiarity and foreignness is a key to success for a computer game like this. If it was completly similar to terran ocean life it would be boring in the sense of "not enough special" and if it was to strange people would not know where mentally to "dock", if you know what I mean. Balancing these aspects is a herculean task as there are always people like myself that have their own opinions about aspects. mine is: bioluminescence is a great attribute and makes Subnautica unique, but its too bright.
Things I would like to have added to the game:
First and formost: A possibility to recharge the Cyclops. Solar panels, a module at a base - my preferred method - whatever. I know this has been discussed to all end and there is some development going on so I will shut up here. At the moment I still have a solar and nuclear powered Cyclops and I love it more than I ever loved the big sub before. I just need to hang on to that one savegame...
A refridgerator or a deep freeze. I can cook fish but I have to eat it at once since it decomposes so extremely fast. (Speaking of decomposition speed, ever looked at a creepvine piece? I cannot even get it to my base before it starts to rot.) I would like to cook some food and then put it into a fridge or deep freeze on the Cyclops and eat it while I am on missions. Maybe I will have to "warm" the meal at the fabricator, its ok. At the moment I have an aquarium on the Cyclops which keeps fish fresh until I cook and eat them.
I would so like to have a button to switch beacons on or off. I confess I am a bit of a screenshot-junkie and while I *can* use imaging software to remove the beacons it would be nice if I didn't have to. We already got that and my personal thanks to Vyacheslav Sedovich for implemeting the feature and to the person who told him to do so.
A reason to build another base after the first base. There are enough reasons to build one base, we need a place for the workbench, the water filtr... seawater desalinization device, fish breeding, farming. All that is done at our main base. But... do we really need another base? We have a mobile, even customizable base that we can drive around called the Cyclops. It can do everthing a base can do, it provides power for the Seamoth, storage space and oxygen. Maybe the Lost River and the Lava Zone will change this?
A reason to got to the Jelly Mushroom Caves. It is such a beatiful place but there is nothing there that cannot be gotten from an easier accessible location. Which is kinda sad. Speaking of zones where I rarely go, the Koosh zone would also benefit from something unique to it.
An extension for a seabases power pool. Something like a huge battery. At the moment every power generator has its own battery that only be fed by itself. Sometimes recharge speed is not so important but having a larger power supply would be nice. Like a base powered by one singel thermal reactor. Maybe the recharge speed for the thermal generator was enough fot the base, but a larger power pool would be good for recharging the Seamoth or Cyclops or some power cells. It would be good to be able to build a battery or two with a capacity of 50 or 100 energy units to act as a buffer.
Oh wow, it did grow into quite a wall of text...
Comments
I can imagine that a battery/powercell recharge module could act as such buffer. Once fully charged it could feed back its stored energy on demand. That would be a good reason to build more than one ...
I have only been playing the game for a couple of weeks, but I also feel that predators are quite unrealistic. Not only there are too many, but they are not even hunting. Yes, they eat some smaller fish, but they don't GO hunting. They move a bit around a very small area, and if something comes inside that threat bubble they bite it. I think there should be way less predators and be much more aggressive, and each of them should have a much bigger threat area. You should be able to know that you are in predator's territory, and that it can appear any time, but still not see it around. Just have that feeling of sweet paranoia that says "Oh shit, what if it comes now? Where did it go!? Where is it!? I can hear it!". I feel really safe about predators, because I know they don't move much, and even if they start chasing me I can get out of their threat bubble pretty easily. Stalkers need to stalk.
About the fridge, I always carry a couple of cured pieces of fish with me. They never rot. Just get fish + salt and cure it at the fabricator (right below "cooking"). Creepvine rots so fast I sometimes can't even eat it on time after catching it.