Desolation and Respawning
EnglishInfidel
Canada Join Date: 2016-07-04 Member: 219533Members
Canada Join Date: 2016-07-04 Member: 219533Members
Hi everyone. First of all, I don't know if this is quite the right place so apologies if it isn't. I don't usually bother making posts about early access games unless they really impress me, so yeah, please bear with me.
I put about 20 hours into my first play through last week, and wow, was I blown away. This game is really something special and deserves special attention. It takes a lot to impress an old gamer like me, being so disenchanted and disillusioned by gaming over the last 5 or so years, so please devs, know you are doing something special and we applaud your hard work.
Okay so, question about the game. I have of course searched for an answer but different places claim different things, and of course it's changed over time, so I thought what the hell, let's just get on the official forum and ask properly.
After my 20 hours I found the area around my base very desolate, barren, no fish were in the beautiful shallows which I had made home and the surrounding vine areas (kelp forest?) had a single Stalker roaming around and nothing more. At first I thought maybe I was remembering my initial exploration wrong, and it had always been this barren, but when I started a new game there they were, dozens of fish (perhaps not as many as my memory had, and I'd like to see a lot more by the way) swimming around all pretty as a picture.
So I went online to figure it out, I see lots of posts about the fauna not respawning... well, I think, this really sucks. My base is nothing without those little dudes bumping into the windows.
I did find a post (which I can't find again unfortunately) which said they currently respawn in the experimental build, and the next update will include respawning fish... is this true?
How will it work, will they respawn at a good rate so it will always seem like the first time you leave the escape pod? Will a biome respawn gradually if you leave it alone?
I'd just love a straight answer for this once and for all, because as much as I hate to admit this, it's kind of a deal breaker for me. Those 25 hours finished on a low point when I realised my hard work was nothing now that it was in the middle of a wasteland. The only good thing to come from it was my pondering on mankind's impact on the environment.
I eventually spawned in dozens of fish to try to reclaim the shallows for nature, but they just swim around in tiny circles, they don't migrate more than 5 meters so they're kind of pointless. I then spawned in 500 of each fish and the frame rate dropped so low my game crashed and I haven't been back since. That's another question actually, how does fish movement work exactly? How far can they move from their spawn points?
Anyway this game rocks and I love where it's going. Thanks for the 25 hours because they were amazing and I hope for many more.
I put about 20 hours into my first play through last week, and wow, was I blown away. This game is really something special and deserves special attention. It takes a lot to impress an old gamer like me, being so disenchanted and disillusioned by gaming over the last 5 or so years, so please devs, know you are doing something special and we applaud your hard work.
Okay so, question about the game. I have of course searched for an answer but different places claim different things, and of course it's changed over time, so I thought what the hell, let's just get on the official forum and ask properly.
After my 20 hours I found the area around my base very desolate, barren, no fish were in the beautiful shallows which I had made home and the surrounding vine areas (kelp forest?) had a single Stalker roaming around and nothing more. At first I thought maybe I was remembering my initial exploration wrong, and it had always been this barren, but when I started a new game there they were, dozens of fish (perhaps not as many as my memory had, and I'd like to see a lot more by the way) swimming around all pretty as a picture.
So I went online to figure it out, I see lots of posts about the fauna not respawning... well, I think, this really sucks. My base is nothing without those little dudes bumping into the windows.
I did find a post (which I can't find again unfortunately) which said they currently respawn in the experimental build, and the next update will include respawning fish... is this true?
How will it work, will they respawn at a good rate so it will always seem like the first time you leave the escape pod? Will a biome respawn gradually if you leave it alone?
I'd just love a straight answer for this once and for all, because as much as I hate to admit this, it's kind of a deal breaker for me. Those 25 hours finished on a low point when I realised my hard work was nothing now that it was in the middle of a wasteland. The only good thing to come from it was my pondering on mankind's impact on the environment.
I eventually spawned in dozens of fish to try to reclaim the shallows for nature, but they just swim around in tiny circles, they don't migrate more than 5 meters so they're kind of pointless. I then spawned in 500 of each fish and the frame rate dropped so low my game crashed and I haven't been back since. That's another question actually, how does fish movement work exactly? How far can they move from their spawn points?
Anyway this game rocks and I love where it's going. Thanks for the 25 hours because they were amazing and I hope for many more.
Comments
I think it's limited to the non-hostile fish though, so anything other than cookable fish are out of luck and have to be re-populated by your hand instead of by the game (Find some eggs, hatch them in a Large Aqurium - now "Alien Containment" - and then release them)
I don't believe any of the animals move too far from their original spawn points unless driven to, like predators hunting fish or when chasing you. Stalkers and Bleeders sometimes make their way into the outskirts of the Safe Shallows while attacking Peepers and the like, and I've seen Sand Sharks run into the Kelp Forest after being hit by my Seamoth - and then Stalkers going to attack them or visa versa. *Edit to Add* That I've seen packs of Bleeders chase Peepers into the Safe Shallows on the XboxOne version, but have yet to see them do so in the PC version. Stalkers will happily head into the Safe Shallows to catch fish or snag nearby Metal Scraps on either version though. */edit*
But they don't stray too far from their original spawn points. The only animal that does so, as far as I know, is the deep sea fauna the "Sea Treader" which follows a more or less set path and patrols it.
I made a mistak the first time, i do it with the gasopod and was unable to enter in my base cause off the toxicity. I have to use The Current Generator to keep them far away ^^
This is what I think I read in another thread, but they're definitely not respawning in the stable build yet. It'd be awesome to get some dev input on this. I'm holding off on starting a new game until it's implemented.
Yeah this is what I was doing, but it takes way too long and when you release the fish they behave very strangely, either swimming off never to be seen again or again, swimming in a small circle for ever.
That's when I decided to spawn in literally hundreds of different fish to speed the process, but they wouldn't spread out, so I had a big swarm of fish which made my frame rate drop to about 0.1 FPS whenever I looked in their direction.
In my experience "resources" will respawn although at a very slow rate. I have not noticed this with flora and fauna as yet.
I have also noticed that your active presence in a biome will at some point prompt the fauna to relocate.
It seems like there has been a change in the respawn rate for game fish recently. For months (real time) I have been regularly releasing sets of game fish (Reginalds, Peepers, Airsacks, and Hoverfish) around my bases in packs of 10 or 12 at a time. I swim to a spot, release two at different angles, swim a few meters away and change depth, repeat. Always in pairs, in case they are supposed to breed. I have also done this in my mineshaft, creating a micro biome from 50m down to 400m depth, releasing packs of fish at intervals of 50m.
The game fish around the base in the Shallows always become scarce, then vanish, leaving only Rabbit Rays. I assumed the Rabbit Rays were eating them, because I've seen the rays rush over and bump into a game fish before, so I removed all of the Rabbit Rays near my base and continued releasing the fish. The fish in the shallows still vanished, but I noticed that the fish (and rays) I released in my mineshaft are still there.
About a week ago, I noticed that the fish have stopped vanishing. There are samples of all the fish I released still swimming around in the shallows, including some deep sea varieties I tried as unique markers (a lone Spinefish, etc). It also appears that some of them have started breeding, because there are more in the area than the total amount I released into the wild. This includes the rays I released in the shallows.
I have not seen any of the nearby predators respawn after I removed them (the pesky sandshark that used to attack me on exiting my base, the lone stalker that always tried to ambush me on my way to the Ramp). The predators in the area that I have not removed, are still present. They do not seem to have been bothered by the vanishing game fish issue.
I went straight to the island to get fruit seeds so I have only eaten one peeper, and don't plan on killing any more than that. I hope to see how the natural ecosystem works by itself without my interference.
There seems to be more stalkers around the shallows and kelp than I've seen ever before, which is why I've decided to go this route. Let's see if they wipe out everything. If they do make a significant impact I plan to kill off all the stalkers and see if things start coming back. I'll also make a base somewhere else far away and only return to the shallows after many hours, to see if time heals all wounds.
I did think about just killing everything and waiting to see what happened, but that seems like a boring and time consuming way to play.
Anyway I'll keep people posted here.
Still haven't been killing things, and it seems to be fine. There's still plenty of life around the shallows. The nearby kelp seems a little empty, I think maybe the stalkers have been doing hard work over there.
I'm not really sure how to best approach testing things out. Maybe I'll go to the kelp and kill everything now, and build a base somewhere else far off like I said in the previous post. Just let the area be alone without me for a while, then come back and see if it's repopulating.
Hardcore and Survival mode
Wether it be resources or fish, ive noticed lately that by leaving the vicinity of an area for awhile (awhile being more than just a few minutes, more like an hour ingame at least) most of everything comes back. Ive seen that mostly with common ressources like quartz and metal scraps and the nodes (all versions).
For the fish tho the process seems rather slow, much slower than the resources anyway. As Scubamatt observed fish that are bred then release now seems to stay as well, which is very good for repopulating a specific area thats been depleted, wether it be by the player or by predators.
So, I'm going ahead with the plan to slaughter all life in the shallows and then abandon the area.
Resources clearly does not respawn by the looks of it (apart from scrap metal) and I'm not sure about flora. Maybe I'll test flora respawn out tonight.
EDIT: Quote from the patch notes - "Creatures will now respawn after being killed by another creature or the player. This feature was in high demand by you, the players! Thank you for your continued feedback to support the development of Subnautica." - I just thought that I never checked if predators respawn but, according to this statement, all fauna should respawn, no matter how they are killed or what type of creature they are.
Many thanks to Unknown Worlds for looking into these issues, it is highly appreciated by many veteran open world freeroamers I would assume, hopefully resources will also be looked at soon.
Did you have to leave the area at all, or were you very active around the main base and it all came back over time?
The waters around my base is also a frequent hunting spot for sandsharks and I even have an observatory where I often sit to watch them hunt, they eat a few fish at a time but I have never noticed the local fish population decreasing or being wiped out, even if I remain at the base the whole time.
As for flora, it does not seem to respawn or regrow. I returned to an area where I harvested quite a lot of coral and the place is still completely desolate, it almost looks like an unfinished part of the map now. I do not know if coral counts as flora so I also cut down a few creepvine kelps, time caught up with me so I haven't returned to see if they respawned yet.