When it comes to doors Why Doesn't the Laser Cutter Trumps Everything?

mikeloeven

So far I have found 3 types of doors that require different methods to open the Sealed Door (Laser Cutter) the pin lock door (PDA Code) and the broken door (Repair Tool)

What i want to know is why the laser cutter doesn't just open all of them I mean all the doors appear to be the same basic thickness and design so there is no reason why you cant cut through a pin locked or broken door. Honestly I am hoping for a reason other than the standard "blah blah balance" "blah blah progression"

so yeah as a suggestion allow the laser cutter to open broken and pin locked doors its not like in a survival situation there would be security to stop you from doing so

DarthOmnis

My best guess; These doors were designed to thwart any sort of illegal or forced entry hence why the laser cutter does not work on them. If you look closely at the doors that you can cut through, you can see that the whole door has been dented or buckled- no doubt due to the explosions that have wrecked the Aurora. That buckling has damaged the structural integrity of the door enough that the laser cutter is able to cut through it.

But hey, that's just a theory... A-

ThePassionateGamer

You pretty much answered your question/suggestion yourself.

If the Laser Cutter would be able to open any door in the game, maybe even those that are not supposed to be opened at all, it would break the game. Simple as that. That is an essential part of game design for ages now and won't likely change anytime soon. Somewhere the player has to be stopped from progressing further. Sometimes by level design sometimes by story progression. That is the same reason why you can't blast your way anywhere in games which offer explosives. Some things in any game world will always be indestructible no matter how unrealistic it may be. Bullet catching bushes anyone?

Maybe one day we will see games that offer that degree of freedom. Where you can really go anywhere you want, destroy what you want as long as you have the means ingame to do so and so on...but my best guess is that we will have at least 10 more years to wait for such a huge change in games to happen.

Yeah I know you did not want an answer like this. But I can't help you there because denying the truth does not change it.

Tarkannen

@ThePassionateGamer nailed it pretty much on the head. When I start a new game on Subnautica, I'm always reminded of Metroid games - you need energy or gun upgrades to unlocks doors to areas that open later parts of the game. Also in most (older) Zelda games, you usually need boss equipment to progress the story and access later areas in the game. The same holds true for Subnautica.

In the early game you need a Radiation Suit to even get near the Aurora and the technology she holds. After that you need a Repair Tool to shut off the radiation (so you can explore deeper areas with the Rebreather) but also to gain access to Seamoth fragments and the Depth Compensator (so you can reach Keen's Lifepod, get his tech and the Signal to the Mountain Island).

After that you can start safely searching for Diamonds, which lets you craft the Laser Cutter, and in turn can gain access to the Exosuit Bay, Crew Quarters and not-yet-fully-implemented Science Lab.* Also with the Laser Cutter you can open up Large Wrecks for new tech and notes. And then with the Exosuit and Diamond, you can delve deeper beyond the Grand Reef, mine Large Mineral Deposits, and prepare to start progressing to the endgame.

There is a steady stream of progression that must be followed in a certain order, and no sequence breaking to get access to stuff earlier than you're supposed to.* So to answer @mikeloeven 's request, that's why the Laser Cutter isn't the Swiss Army tool for everything; it's more for keeping the early game steady and always giving you goals to work for.

*With all that said, the Castles and Coffee update added several Propulsion Gun fragments scattered around the Aurora, as opposed to the single one found near the Administrative Office. So you can easily gain access to the Exosuit Bay even without the Laser Cutter... Hopefully they will relocate the extra fragments to inside the Bay so they eliminate this shortcut in a future update.

scifiwriterguy

Tarkannen wrote: »

@ThePassionateGamer nailed it pretty much on the head.

When I start a new game on Subnautica, I'm always reminded of Metroid games - you need energy or gun upgrades to unlocks doors to areas that open later parts of the game. Also in most (older) Zelda games, you usually need boss equipment to progress the story and access later areas in the game. The same holds true for Subnautica.

In the early game you need a Radiation Suit to even get near the Aurora and the technology she holds. After that you need a Repair Tool to shut off the radiation (so you can explore deeper areas with the Rebreather) but also to gain access to Seamoth fragments and the Depth Compensator (so you can reach Keen's Lifepod, get his tech and the Signal to the Mountain Island).

After that you can start safely searching for Diamonds, which lets you craft the Laser Cutter, and in turn can gain access to the Exosuit Bay, Crew Quarters and not-yet-fully-implemented Science Lab.* Also with the Laser Cutter you can open up Large Wrecks for new tech and notes. And then with the Exosuit and Diamond, you can delve deeper beyond the Grand Reef, mine Large Mineral Deposits, and prepare to start progressing to the endgame.

There is a steady stream of progression that must be followed in a certain order, and no sequence breaking to get access to stuff earlier than you're supposed to.* So to answer @mikeloeven 's request, that's why the Laser Cutter isn't the Swiss Army tool for everything; it's more for keeping the early game steady and always giving you goals to work for.

Masterful summation of the game mechanics principles, @ThePassionateGamer and @Tarkannen. And, insofar as design principle goes, that's the answer.

From a gameplay perspective, not all doors are created equal. You can get through a basic interior door like you find in any house pretty easily without tools. A reinforced door will stop a casual breakthrough attempt, but will fall to a cutoff saw with some effort. A hardened alloy door (like a good bank vault) will probably shrug off that saw - or at least make progress so slow as to be impractical. The same basic concept is at play in Subnautica, too. The laser cutter isn't a lightsaber, after all; there are plenty of things it can't cut. (And, out in realityworld, lasers are not a all-situations tool. You need to use the right kind of laser for the material. A CO2 laser will slice through acrylic like a sushi chef through tuna, but won't even make a mark on steel. A fiber laser can etch steel, but it can't make clean cuts in acrylic. One of many irritating realities of working with lasers.)

Consequently, our laser cutter might work well enough with light alloys, slicing open mild steel or aluminum alloy interior-grade doors, but can't even mar a titanium alloy blast door. Not enough power, wrong frequency - or both - keep it from doing the job.

Tarkannen wrote: »

*With all that said, the Castles and Coffee update added several Propulsion Gun fragments scattered around the Aurora, as opposed to the single one found near the Administrative Office. So you can easily gain access to the Exosuit Bay even without the Laser Cutter... Hopefully they will relocate the extra fragments to inside the Bay so they eliminate this shortcut in a future update.

I'm not so sure. After all, the propulsion gun is a great tool for dealing with cave crawlers. I get the feeling that's the reason those fragments are where they are; without them, getting inside the Aurora might be problematic.

DarthOmnis

There is definitely a fine line UWE is doing their best to tread where one side is telling a coherent and compelling linear story and the other is giving the player free reign and the ability to explore and discover at their own pace. Both sides tend to push against one another, but I think UWE has done a pretty good job giving leeway to both aspects.

Sennera

The way I like to think of it is like this: the doors are impervious to handheld cutting tools unless they've been superheated, turning the metal susceptible to said cutting tools.

Would explain why only the scorched doors can be cut. They're pretty thick doors, y'know, so maybe Alterra went all out on them.

In reality fire is an extremely dangerous thing on land, and in enclosed vessels (submarines, ships, and spaceships) it's catastrophic. Perhaps Alterra used doors that could specifically resist heat and contain pressure (the main hazards of a fire in an enclosed space) to a certain degree, which would also easily resist the heat the cutting tool's capable of. Only after the door's been heated well beyond its rated protection (like during a catastrophic detonation of the dark matter drive core :'D ) does it weaken enough to be susceptible.