A crazy yet cool idea for an addon or spin-off in the Subnautica Universe.

ThePassionateGamer

@Yun had the idea that Carar could turn the player into a fish like creature. That sparked my imagination and inspired me to write this thread.

I think beeing a fish-like creature in Subnautica, maybe even one that evolves over time into a bigger creature (like in the Alien vs. Predator games where you start as a Face Hugger till you become a full grown alien/or like in the game Evolved where you grow in strenghts, abilities and size when you eat enough iirc) would be nice in some way. But that would require a dedicated game mode that is completely separate from the rest of the game or a DLC or maybe (if modding is ever added) a mod done by a really talented modder.

Now to the things my imagination came up with...

You would start the game as a highly adaptive creature with the ability to adapt/mutate/shapechange superquick (a bit like the virus in Prototype). You were captured on your homeworld and brought along for study in some sort of Explorer-Science-Spaceship. That ship came too close to planet 4546B (Subnauticas Planet for those who did not know) and got shot down. Your containment broke as a result of the crash und you got free to roam the ecosystem of Subnautica.

You could start as a small predator that evolves and grows over time. Maybe at start you arn't even able to breathe underwater. You'd have to hunt and eat other creatures to survive and adept. Learning as you grow what is edible and what is not. Like the Rabbitray who is poisonous for carnivores for example.
Eating would restore health but you would also regenerate health slowly in the beginning and maybe faster later on with as a passive, upgradable ability.
You would grow over time and develop new abilites as you grow up. You would have a whole new survival aspect and many new options. You have the ability to gain certain features out of the things you eat, like the heat resistence of Lava Larvae's or armor-plating from Bonesharks. The more features you consume the more versatile you become and the more biomes you can explore. But you can't "activate" more then a certain Number of features at the same time. Your body could only handle a certain treshhold of active abilities at once before taking damage. You would also have passive abilites that would not be as limited. The more complex or powerful a feature is the more correspoding prey you have to consume. Maybe you would need to gather resources to build a kind of nest or something to "mutate/grow" tier wise from larvae to fully grown. 2-3 tiers should be available. The last one should make you big enough that you rank in the say Top 5 of the foodchain so that you won't have to fear all predators anymore.
Possible features could be (this list inlcudes passive and active ones):
Breathing Water
Fast(er) Regeneration of damage
The ability to eat flora and fauna
The ability to filter a small amount of calories from the water as long as you move to ease the daily hunt for food
Bioluminescence (From the Ghost- or Crimsonray)
Better vision in dark places (From the Oculus maybe)
Sustaining deep sea pressure
Boneshark-like-Armor-plating or metal-infused armor plating from the Stalker (like they can do with their teeth)
EMP like the Crabsquid
Shocks like the Ampeel
The ability to drop Gaspods to defend yourself
The ability to dig and hide in sand like the Sandshark
Faster swim speed and more agility
Maybe the ability to warp like the Warpers.
Maybe a sort of Squid like camouflage if standing still. Something to hide from predators.
Sonar like Echo location (Maybe by consuming a Reefback or its Eggs).
Hunting sense that highlights fish (Mabye based on sharks Electroreception)

Carar would infect you too and you could slowly cure yourself by consuming warpers maybe (Warpers themselfs are immune arn't they?)?
Maybe your body has the ability to adapt itself to the Carar bacterium all along but you need to survive long enough for it to do so and you need to keep a certain balance of infection in your body. By eating Carar free creatures you reduce your Carar Level and if you eat infected creatures you raise it? There are several possible solutions as how to include the Carar into this.

The more I think about this, the more I like this as an upcoming DLC maybe?
Or as an project for a very talented modder maybe?
A gamemode for Subnautica 2.0?

What do you guys think? Could this be a fun game to play or would it be boring?
Would you like to play something else then a human or humanlike beeing?

I am open for suggestions, criticism and your ideas to this. Thx for reading now post away!

scifiwriterguy

Well, okay. I see your points and I do think that it's an interesting concept to explore. It may not be my particular cup of tea, but I can see people enjoying such a radically different perspective. It just - and I'm not dumping on the idea, here - seems like a little less Subnautica and a lot more Bioshock, doesn't it? Well, Bioshock crossed with the monster from Leviathan and Flukeman from X-Files. (Actually, now that I think of it, a lot like the monster from Leviathan.) Also, I'm not sure, but this seems like a massive expansion on the concept of the Transfuser. (Is it?)

From a mechanical standpoint, I can see the UI functioning in a similar method to, say, Far Cry. Completing certain tasks or reaching benchmarks allows the player to "enable" new biofeatures in a manner similar to how a tech or skill tree unlocks. Trees could be parallel or mutually exclusive, depending on how you want to shepherd your players, but without some sort of redistribution mechanic, I'd be hesitant to lock players into a particular set of traits based on early-game decisions.

Additionally, I'd suggest a slight shift in implementation: rather than limiting players to a certain number of live features, each feature could be given a point value of some type. Active features count toward a point total, and the player cannot exceed a given point maximum. This also allows you to progress-gate just how much "power" a player can wield to fit the increase in game difficulty as the plot progresses. (Ghost Master's plasm system is similar in concept, except it was tactical and this is more strategic in nature.) This way, you could employ one or two uber-powers, or a mess of little ones - which one you go with depends on play style, giving players maximum freedom and accommodating multiple paths to overcoming problems. (Kinda Deus Ex-y, I know, but hey: it was a good mechanic.)

It also has elements from a really old-school game called Odell Lake by MECC. The idea of having to figure out where you are in the food chain and what exactly you eat is an interesting twist. It really pushes players out of the comfort zone when they don't even understand their own biology in a game.

It's not a bad idea at all. It just doesn't seem like it's a solid fit with the game as it exists, so I doubt UWE would do it as an official DLC expansion. But I could easily see some really hot-shot modder or modteam out there going for it. Hell, in a world where something like Black Mesa is made essentially as a mod project, there really isn't anything totally outside reality anymore.

Personally, I'm probably not going to pounce on it. But I'm certain there's a significant market segment out there that would.

(As an aside: @ThePassionateGamer, keep coming up with ideas like this. Without people who dare to have big, out-of-left-field ideas, great games don't get made. Not all ideas work out, and not all concepts translate into a game well, but those ideas need to keep coming. When people think small, we end up with boring little cash-grab games like Candy Crush. When they think big, even if it seems crazy to some, we end up with great things like Bioshock, XCOM, and, yes, Subnautica. There will always be people who don't share your vision. Don't let it derail you. No idea is perfect for everybody, but almost any idea will find a home with people who were waiting for it.)

ThePassionateGamer

@scifiwriterguy Thx for your post & support of my idea, I had exactly the latest "Deus-Ex" title in mind as I thought about the limit of active abilities. I must admit I took the liberty to take some inspiration from the games "Prototype and Prototype 2" where you play a human that got infected with a bio-weapon-grade virus which got loose in Manhatten. This virus kinda enables him to shapeshift his body partly or whole to use certain abilities (claws/a big-blade-like-arm/massive-morning-star-like fists and so on). And you can rather violently "absorb/eat" other beeings to gain their memories and certain abilities from them. If a soldier your consume was really good with assault rifles, you get better with using one.

You find out later in the first title, that you are not a human beeing that got infected but that the virus kinda became self aware as it infected the guy that stole and released it and because it absorbed the memories of it's latest host, it thinks it is a human that got infected. I loved the story line and the "feel-super-powerful" like gameplay it offered. You are never untouchable especially early on but in the late game only strong enemies or whole lot of lesser enemies can trouble you. I even thought about that maybe the Carar Bacterium could become self aware as enough intelligent creatures got infected maybe the humans beeing the last bit of intelligent beeings that brought the Carar to the point of self awareness. It's mind kinda connected to other infected beeings a tad like the Borg-Queen.

My idea to play an alien beeing that has similar abilities was strongly influenced by the above mentioned game. I hope that more people will like this and would like to play an evolving creature "stranded" (or kinde "born") on an alien world. I certainly would love that kind of gameplay.

Oh and last but not least...yes this idea does not share many points of with the original game that is without doubt. It basically puts you into the world of Subnautica as a creature with the basic needs almost any living organism has. You start low in the food chain and kinda work your way up as you "evolve" so to speak by adapting to the planet and it's flora and fauna. It shares some points but not too many. It offers as you said a whole new perspective of the planet UWE created. Not everyones "cup of tea".

Funsauce32

I think it would be funny if you occasionally got a cutscene of the player. then some reason get pushed away (example: You see the player building a base and suddenly one of the walls burst and the sudden blast of air pushes you into the next biome as you watch the player frantically try to fix the hole. and in each level there's a wreck or lifepod. and by the end of the game your in the lavazone and the last cutscene is you eating the player or something.

ThePassionateGamer

Funsauce32 wrote: »

I think it would be funny if you occasionally got a cutscene of the player. then some reason get pushed away (example: You see the player building a base and suddenly one of the walls burst and the sudden blast of air pushes you into the next biome as you watch the player frantically try to fix the hole. and in each level there's a wreck or lifepod. and by the end of the game your in the lavazone and the last cutscene is you eating the player or something.

Yeah I would love to see something like this, if it will ever considered worth the time to make. That would be alot like "Alien vs. Predator" where you play 3 Species (Human/Alien/Predator) and each have their own campaign but there are a few overlapping points where you open a door as a human to continue in the story but that also opens a door for the Alien in its campaign and they can see each other in their campaign.

Would be funny and cool to see cutscenes or other small events where you come in contact with the survivor. I dunno about the "end" part where you eat the player though...maybe you could in the end fight one of the big leviathans or so to get cured from Carar or something alike.

Eating the player should not be the goal imo. That could maybe be a kind of PVP-mode or something but I don't wanna go near any multiplayer aspects yet, because we won't have any of them in this game. That was made clear more then once.