My post-prawn evalutaion
Herugrim
The Poconos Join Date: 2016-08-15 Member: 221402Members
The Poconos Join Date: 2016-08-15 Member: 221402Members
I'll give a quick rundown on my own thoughts for the devs.
First I thought I would have a bigger problem with the fragments then I really did. I know moving them to the wrecks was always going to be the plan and I don't mind it being so, but it sounded like the placement and generation of the fragments was way off. A lot of people, myself included, weren't finding any fragments in any wrecks for awhile, but it seems the wrecks in the kelp forest, safe shallows, and grassy plateaus may be bugged. Some of them will be loaded, some will be empty. I'm guessing that's an issue they are still working on. The deeper wrecks seem to have a more reliable spawn rate which is fine. I enjoy exploring wrecks now that I can actually find things in them. I think we need a better way to find certain wrecks, though. I mean, who's going to stumble upon that western mushroom forest wreck for the propulsion canon so they can explore the Aurora? I don't think there's anything to lead them out there like a life pod. Also placing the mod station in the blood kelp wreck is just too deep. Blood Kelp - Lost River - Lava is the last stretch of the game and it doesn't do the player any good to unlock the ultra glide fins and high capacity/plasteel tanks at a point were they can no longer swim without taking heat damage. The Mod station should be at the mushroom forest, grand reef, underwater islands, or even koosh wrecks. That and I don't like having to dive into a reaper nest for the vehicle mod station, though for the moment I am saved because they still spawn randomly on the ocean floor but I assume that is temporary. Hiding the only device that gives us a defense against the reapers in a place infested with reapers is just bad gating IMO.
The natural progression you guys have added is a lot better. Getting lifepod signals from the relay is a nice way to direct us to new areas and makes for useful book marks. Also been reading the trello and I notice you guys are planning to remove signals from crates which is great. Really liked exploring the new sections in the Aurora, that was a lot of fun. My only issue there is that I get that we can jump over the crates so we don't need the propulsion canon early on to hit it but I've heard the ability to do that was removed in experimental. Now I may have heard wrong and that may have been someone finding a way to jump over into the lower entrance to the labs and if that's the case and we can still jump into the upper section with the reactor that is fine. I don't think gating the Aurora's entire interior behind the propulsion canon is a good idea but if it is just the lower section that is fine. Good work all around.
Love the prawn, have no problems with gating multipurpose rooms to the island or jelly shroom caves. I noticed you guys made the compass available early on and for that I thank you. I made that suggestion in my previous evaluation and I'm glad the change was made. All the compass does is help us track our own position, it wasn't really a game breaking advantage and didn't need to be gated to the mountain island as it was. Thank you for changing that. Please make the lithium batteries available in the normal game. I don't mind the sea glide eating batteries so quickly if we have an upgrade battery to use later along with the recharge fins to make the glide viable. Yes we have the battery recharging station now but with all the tools in the game running on batteries we have to swap them out frequently enough without accounting for the sea glide's drain. Sometimes it feels like I'm playing "Replace the Batteries" the video game rather than an underwater exploration game. I get that it's a hurdle to overcome early game and I am fine with that but since the 02 tanks were nerfed awhile back we need the sea glide especially now since we have to explore wrecks and it would be nice if I didn't have to fill half my inventory with batteries so I can use the seaglide and power my laser cutter.
I don't mind silver being relegated to the kelp forest, but the drooping stingers that guard them are sometimes bugged so they need to be retooled. We can get enough silver from there early on and once we get the prawn suit and can drill we have other options and that is fine. Stalker teeth, however, still have a low drop rate. I get that we don't really need that many teeth and you guys want to make us work for stuff but there's a difference between making something challenging and making something boring. There's nothing hard about harvesting stalker teeth, it just takes time and sometimes a very long time. I would love to dress up my base with some observatories but I don't even bother because hunting for more stalker teeth seems like such a waste of time. I hate to imagine that someday the scanner room will be refined enough to actually be useful or even a mandatory feature and they are a pain to make because you have to wait for a stalker to lose a tooth. The alien containment is a late game unlock (where did I find mine, the blood kelp wreck I think? That's crazy late) so it would be helpful if we could breed stalkers who would just lose their teeth over time in the tank (baby teeth, c'mon guys!) so that we can be harvesting teeth while away exploring wrecks instead of having to sit in the kelp forest like idtiots waiting for them to drop or trying to jury rig our own stalker farm just for teeth. If it doesn't change it isn't a deal breaker for me but it just bothers me IMO.
Overall I'm still having a ton of fun with this game and it gets better with each update. Please keep up the good work!
First I thought I would have a bigger problem with the fragments then I really did. I know moving them to the wrecks was always going to be the plan and I don't mind it being so, but it sounded like the placement and generation of the fragments was way off. A lot of people, myself included, weren't finding any fragments in any wrecks for awhile, but it seems the wrecks in the kelp forest, safe shallows, and grassy plateaus may be bugged. Some of them will be loaded, some will be empty. I'm guessing that's an issue they are still working on. The deeper wrecks seem to have a more reliable spawn rate which is fine. I enjoy exploring wrecks now that I can actually find things in them. I think we need a better way to find certain wrecks, though. I mean, who's going to stumble upon that western mushroom forest wreck for the propulsion canon so they can explore the Aurora? I don't think there's anything to lead them out there like a life pod. Also placing the mod station in the blood kelp wreck is just too deep. Blood Kelp - Lost River - Lava is the last stretch of the game and it doesn't do the player any good to unlock the ultra glide fins and high capacity/plasteel tanks at a point were they can no longer swim without taking heat damage. The Mod station should be at the mushroom forest, grand reef, underwater islands, or even koosh wrecks. That and I don't like having to dive into a reaper nest for the vehicle mod station, though for the moment I am saved because they still spawn randomly on the ocean floor but I assume that is temporary. Hiding the only device that gives us a defense against the reapers in a place infested with reapers is just bad gating IMO.
The natural progression you guys have added is a lot better. Getting lifepod signals from the relay is a nice way to direct us to new areas and makes for useful book marks. Also been reading the trello and I notice you guys are planning to remove signals from crates which is great. Really liked exploring the new sections in the Aurora, that was a lot of fun. My only issue there is that I get that we can jump over the crates so we don't need the propulsion canon early on to hit it but I've heard the ability to do that was removed in experimental. Now I may have heard wrong and that may have been someone finding a way to jump over into the lower entrance to the labs and if that's the case and we can still jump into the upper section with the reactor that is fine. I don't think gating the Aurora's entire interior behind the propulsion canon is a good idea but if it is just the lower section that is fine. Good work all around.
Love the prawn, have no problems with gating multipurpose rooms to the island or jelly shroom caves. I noticed you guys made the compass available early on and for that I thank you. I made that suggestion in my previous evaluation and I'm glad the change was made. All the compass does is help us track our own position, it wasn't really a game breaking advantage and didn't need to be gated to the mountain island as it was. Thank you for changing that. Please make the lithium batteries available in the normal game. I don't mind the sea glide eating batteries so quickly if we have an upgrade battery to use later along with the recharge fins to make the glide viable. Yes we have the battery recharging station now but with all the tools in the game running on batteries we have to swap them out frequently enough without accounting for the sea glide's drain. Sometimes it feels like I'm playing "Replace the Batteries" the video game rather than an underwater exploration game. I get that it's a hurdle to overcome early game and I am fine with that but since the 02 tanks were nerfed awhile back we need the sea glide especially now since we have to explore wrecks and it would be nice if I didn't have to fill half my inventory with batteries so I can use the seaglide and power my laser cutter.
I don't mind silver being relegated to the kelp forest, but the drooping stingers that guard them are sometimes bugged so they need to be retooled. We can get enough silver from there early on and once we get the prawn suit and can drill we have other options and that is fine. Stalker teeth, however, still have a low drop rate. I get that we don't really need that many teeth and you guys want to make us work for stuff but there's a difference between making something challenging and making something boring. There's nothing hard about harvesting stalker teeth, it just takes time and sometimes a very long time. I would love to dress up my base with some observatories but I don't even bother because hunting for more stalker teeth seems like such a waste of time. I hate to imagine that someday the scanner room will be refined enough to actually be useful or even a mandatory feature and they are a pain to make because you have to wait for a stalker to lose a tooth. The alien containment is a late game unlock (where did I find mine, the blood kelp wreck I think? That's crazy late) so it would be helpful if we could breed stalkers who would just lose their teeth over time in the tank (baby teeth, c'mon guys!) so that we can be harvesting teeth while away exploring wrecks instead of having to sit in the kelp forest like idtiots waiting for them to drop or trying to jury rig our own stalker farm just for teeth. If it doesn't change it isn't a deal breaker for me but it just bothers me IMO.
Overall I'm still having a ton of fun with this game and it gets better with each update. Please keep up the good work!