Modification Station - Unfindable, yet essential to progress. Why

Merivo

I'm going to let this video do all the talking:


This video was my exact same experience, only I gave up because I don't have time to search aimlessly for the mod station. Haven't touched Subnautica since. I still hope the devs maximise on the game's potential (which is huge), but if this is the direction they want to take with it, I'm out.

I don't believe there is one style of gameplay for eveyone, even though everyone wants "Survival". I think Survival needs to be split at another angle with two new modes. One for people who want to be handed fragments when 'it's time for them to progress', or to be given coordinates to them (like the game used to have), and one for people who want to spend days searching. But my thoughts on a solution doesn't matter so much as addressing the fact that there's a problem here.

NewAgeRevolution

I would argue for the other way around, while I do not think that I have seen a single survival game that has given you "coordinates" to go find certain things, it would still defeat a lot of the purpose of open world survival games. There are too many games today that will simply hold your hand and lead you from objective to objective, when games like thief and wolfenstien: the new order have proven that giving the player large, open ended environments proves to be a lot more fun, challenging, and organic. I would much rather have a game set up for me a world to explore and then give me a pat on the back before it casts me off into its vast world than I would have one give me a nice big world only to string me along from set-peice to set-peice. Exploration is a core mechanic of Subnautica, and one critical to the game. Its true that some blueprints are difficult to find, but that just makes it all the more rewarding to get. Not having a modification station just means you are limited to the biomes that are between 0-900m deep (unless your exclusively using the seamoth) which is the VAST majority of the biomes and areas. Giving the player an environment to organically explore is far preferable than being led along like a mule. And besides, if you REALLY need to find something, you can always just google it, though like I said I prefer to keep it organic.

And also this does not belong in the "Ideas and Suggestions" category, this would be general discussion.

Morph_Guy

His game got bugged, that's why he didn't find any. He could have gone searching for any other fragment and he wouldn't have been able to find it because his game was bugged.
I think you can temporarily fix this either by clearing your cache or quitting and re-entering the game.

I'm pretty sure this bug has been fixed for good in experimental, but I'm not completely sure.

Kouji_San

Yeah that bug is quite annoying, but he's still a big bubble blowing baby

0x6A7232

Merivo wrote: »

I'm going to let this video do all the talking:


This video was my exact same experience, only I gave up because I don't have time to search aimlessly for the mod station. Haven't touched Subnautica since. I still hope the devs maximise on the game's potential (which is huge), but if this is the direction they want to take with it, I'm out.

I don't believe there is one style of gameplay for eveyone, even though everyone wants "Survival". I think Survival needs to be split at another angle with two new modes. One for people who want to be handed fragments when 'it's time for them to progress', or to be given coordinates to them (like the game used to have), and one for people who want to spend days searching. But my thoughts on a solution doesn't matter so much as addressing the fact that there's a problem here.

If you still have that save, follow the first line of my signature below, ▼ and clear your cache. Should solve your problem until next stable update hits.

DrownedOut

I only just watched the vid and wow. Poor Mark.

Merivo

NewAgeRevolution wrote: »

I would argue for the other way around, while I do not think that I have seen a single survival game that has given you "coordinates" to go find certain things, it would still defeat a lot of the purpose of open world survival games. There are too many games today that will simply hold your hand and lead you from objective to objective, when games like thief and wolfenstien: the new order have proven that giving the player large, open ended environments proves to be a lot more fun, challenging, and organic. I would much rather have a game set up for me a world to explore and then give me a pat on the back before it casts me off into its vast world than I would have one give me a nice big world only to string me along from set-peice to set-peice. Exploration is a core mechanic of Subnautica, and one critical to the game. Its true that some blueprints are difficult to find, but that just makes it all the more rewarding to get. Not having a modification station just means you are limited to the biomes that are between 0-900m deep (unless your exclusively using the seamoth) which is the VAST majority of the biomes and areas. Giving the player an environment to organically explore is far preferable than being led along like a mule. And besides, if you REALLY need to find something, you can always just google it, though like I said I prefer to keep it organic.

And also this does not belong in the "Ideas and Suggestions" category, this would be general discussion.

I'd like to reference Extra Credit's episode on Challenging vs Punishing:

Open worlds are by nature, punishing. You might not realise it but, thief and wolfenstein holds your hand all the damn time, it just does a good job of hiding it. The challenge becomes spotting what the devs intended you to do in any given situation. Subnautica has it's challenges, like how to deal with each kind of hostile fish, and how to catch fish. Then there's challenges you set yourself, like how to optimise your time and energy so that you make the most of the resources you gather. Beyond that, what's left is fragment hide-and-seek. Subnautica, at least in my last playthrough, went with a punishing method of hiding them. My playthrough was probably bugged, because I spent my last 10+ hours not finding anything. All I'm saying is, that should never happen. That's the difference between challenging and punishing.

Blizzard's game Hearthstone has at least one mechanic that prevents RNG being punishing. When you open card packs in Hearthstone, you have a 'luck cushion', which means you are guaranteed a legendary if you haven't opened one in the last 40 packs. I guess I just want you to consider what really unlucky players (like myself) are faced with in such a game, and that there are ways to make a game suit them as well as you.

almisami

I always seem to find my modification station parts in the gloring mushroom cave near the Degasi settlement...

RazorLily

I found mine in the grand reef. Not only in the grand reef, my scanner room suggested they were floating mid air over a lava "river". And guess what, when i entered that area they appeared and slowly fell down into the lava "river" from midair. Without the scanner room and some luck by getting it placed down there i would never been able to find those fragments.