Flora Fauna/environment interactivity

GenghisConnorGenghisConnor Usa Join Date: 2016-08-25 Member: 221720Members
Hi guys, first off gonna introduce myself, I'm genghisconnor, and I started playing subnautica a few weeks ago. The game is super fun and fills a nice niche for that survival exploration thats hard to fill after minecraft gets boring. I want to thank Obraxis and the rest of the developer team for a fun game, and also for working on it, and communicating with the playerbase daily. The state of many game studios is disappointing so this is good to see, so thank you.

The reason for making this thread is that I havent seen a standalone topic about creatures and their interaction with the environment, which I believe plays a big role in the quality of world-crafting, something this game already excels at.

Take for example the jellyshroom caves, arguably the most well crafted biome. 2 things strike you about this biome when it renders, the first is the large bio-luminescent shrooms illuminating the whole cave. The second is the long eel-like creatures that exit and enter these shrooms. This immediately creates a feeling of connection between lifeforms and their environment and creates an excellent experience.

Another example are the sandsharks burrowing through the ground. not as deliberate as the crabsnakes with their shrooms, but part of their ai, which is interesting. Stalkers play with scrap metal, which is a little different from above examples.

We could eventually see similiar things from already existing creatures, maybe rabbit rays swim through coral tubes all day, or reefbacks swim together in particular patterns. What if Reapers carried around boulders in their mandibles to strengthen them, and it would give the mandibles a reason for existing besides grabbing the seamoth.

What if certain creatures detested certain plants and avoided them in their pathfinding (can be explained by smells/sensitive smelling, ph, etc.) What if stalkers wouldnt approach waters with a certain kind of nettle ever, so that an exterior growbed packed with anti-stalker flora could be used to deter that particular predator from occupying the same space as your base. this would be an immersive and non-violent method of creature control, and would fit the tone of the game better than me using the prop cannon to murder gasopods with their own gas orbs (they started it).

Maybe in alien containments fish wont breed unless you replicate their biome with at least 3 or four plants from their home biome planted. Stalkers dont breed unless you add creepyvine

I dont know how feasible some of these ideas are in terms of ai functionality, but this kind of concept somehow implemented could largely affect a players experience with the game. I would have a lot of fun micromanaging my virtual alien aquariums.

It sounds like a lot of work (to me anyways lol) to implement many of these mechanics, so I could imagine a post 1.0 update in the future with these kinds of ideas at the core (That said, theres too many predators around the lifepod now which should be balanced soon)

Other general ideas about fauna are free to post here

I'd like to re-iterate my satisfaction with the product as is, as well as thank you again for your activity in the community and I look forward to the launch!
Sign In or Register to comment.