The Carar antidote
dasCKD
Join Date: 2017-11-14 Member: 233978Members
Join Date: 2017-11-14 Member: 233978Members
There has been prior discussion about the Carar and how it really has no gameplay impact past the plot. From the responses, it appears that the majority of the players are against the disease affecting gameplay. This sentiment is echoed by the developers. A lethal disease that keeps progressing and interfering with the exploration and construction would indeed be incredibly irritating and undesirable. Nevertheless, I believe that a good middle ground could be reached. Peepers are quite common, and it would be relatively trivial to make them more so than they are now so that crafting an antidote would be
Here is my proposal. To continue with the story of the game, one has to make excursions into alien bases which is commonly guarded by warpers. As things stand, you can just avoid warpers the same way you would avoid hawkers or disliked colleges in the workplace by not making eye contact and moving quickly. Warpers, in their current state, are a minor nuisance mainly in the form of transporting the player out of their submersibles when they're mostly sitting still such as whilst they're drilling a deposit. I, personally, feel perfectly comfortable using a seaglide to harvest resources with warpers wandering around because despite being the disease control mechanism of the world the Warpers aren't particularly effective or persistent killers and unless I'm playing in hardcore I can't imagine myself ever being afraid of them the same way I am of the reaper or ghost leviathans. A similar issue exists with the dragon leviathan actually. The most frightening enemies in Subnautica aren't the most damaging but are the most persistent and the hardest to avoid. Warpers also don't break my submarines which makes them even less threatening as dying in this game outside of hardcore mode is virtually meaningless. Having a submarine imploded is far more annoying than the player character being dead.
The effect of the Carar, as proposed in this system, is as follows. The Carar would be tied to a timer instead of plot events like it is now. The player may encounter warpers but not enter an altercation. Once the disease has reached a phase where warpers would attack the player in the current system, make it so that the warpers are nightmarishly lethal creatures. They teleport on top of you virtually the second you enter the area, telefrags you hundreds of meters away from your submersible unlike the pointless 10 or 20 meters they warp you right now, cut your submersible to pieces to deny you an oxygen source to run to, and teleports right on top of you again until you somehow manage to make it outside of the area. In other words, a lethal and nigh unstoppable killers that I think the warpers are meant to be. This is where the Carar comes in. With this system, the antidote that staves off the symptoms of the Carar which tricks the warpers into thinking that you aren't a threat and into leaving you alone whilst you wander around the game world. The antidote is like a temporary buff, making it so that the warpers ignore you when you wander into warper patrolled regions. This offers several benefits. It intrinsically motivates the player to get the disease cure whilst not bothering the players who want to take their time to farm for resources and build bases in areas outside of the warper patrol zone hence removing the issue of having a ticking time bomb that most players probably won't want. With this, the players are intrinsically threatened by the disease by the gameplay mechanics but could avoid the consequences of ignoring it if they would want to focus on other aspects of the gameplay if they so desire.
I realize that any system of even a similar type to this would not be implemented anytime soon, but I am interested in seeing what others think of this proposal.
Here is my proposal. To continue with the story of the game, one has to make excursions into alien bases which is commonly guarded by warpers. As things stand, you can just avoid warpers the same way you would avoid hawkers or disliked colleges in the workplace by not making eye contact and moving quickly. Warpers, in their current state, are a minor nuisance mainly in the form of transporting the player out of their submersibles when they're mostly sitting still such as whilst they're drilling a deposit. I, personally, feel perfectly comfortable using a seaglide to harvest resources with warpers wandering around because despite being the disease control mechanism of the world the Warpers aren't particularly effective or persistent killers and unless I'm playing in hardcore I can't imagine myself ever being afraid of them the same way I am of the reaper or ghost leviathans. A similar issue exists with the dragon leviathan actually. The most frightening enemies in Subnautica aren't the most damaging but are the most persistent and the hardest to avoid. Warpers also don't break my submarines which makes them even less threatening as dying in this game outside of hardcore mode is virtually meaningless. Having a submarine imploded is far more annoying than the player character being dead.
The effect of the Carar, as proposed in this system, is as follows. The Carar would be tied to a timer instead of plot events like it is now. The player may encounter warpers but not enter an altercation. Once the disease has reached a phase where warpers would attack the player in the current system, make it so that the warpers are nightmarishly lethal creatures. They teleport on top of you virtually the second you enter the area, telefrags you hundreds of meters away from your submersible unlike the pointless 10 or 20 meters they warp you right now, cut your submersible to pieces to deny you an oxygen source to run to, and teleports right on top of you again until you somehow manage to make it outside of the area. In other words, a lethal and nigh unstoppable killers that I think the warpers are meant to be. This is where the Carar comes in. With this system, the antidote that staves off the symptoms of the Carar which tricks the warpers into thinking that you aren't a threat and into leaving you alone whilst you wander around the game world. The antidote is like a temporary buff, making it so that the warpers ignore you when you wander into warper patrolled regions. This offers several benefits. It intrinsically motivates the player to get the disease cure whilst not bothering the players who want to take their time to farm for resources and build bases in areas outside of the warper patrol zone hence removing the issue of having a ticking time bomb that most players probably won't want. With this, the players are intrinsically threatened by the disease by the gameplay mechanics but could avoid the consequences of ignoring it if they would want to focus on other aspects of the gameplay if they so desire.
I realize that any system of even a similar type to this would not be implemented anytime soon, but I am interested in seeing what others think of this proposal.
Comments
That sounds... kind of fucking awful.
I agree that warpers should be more dangerous, but you've gone about it the completely wrong way. Instead of making them the most annoying enemy on the face of the earth, I would change them so that instead of floating towards the player, drifting around them and occasionally firing a projectile with little warning or teleporting you out of your seamoth or going in for a stabby-stab, they would have a more systematic approach to combat.
Maybe they would start by circling the player when they saw them and firing a few projectiles (with added visual and audio charge-up effects) and occasionally darting forward to stab at them. They could teleport you out of your vehicle as well, but it would take a couple seconds and be avoidable if you drove a decent distance from them.
You also mention that everything would be on a timer, which is equally awful. I don't want to have to rush through the game just so that I don't get rekt by a hundred warpers whenever I go anywhere.
Maybe this could work as a game mode or something, but I'd never want these features to be part of the normal modes.
*Drives into Blood Kelp Zone*
Me - "Ok, here I go. There's a warper over there - better keep a wide berth."
*Warper teleports away*
Me - "Oh, he's gone."
(wait 3 seconds)
*Warper materalizes in front of my seamoth*
Warper: "ScreEEEEEEEeeeEEEEEeee!!!"
Me: HOLY F****** S*** JESUS CHRIST
(I either run, or stay and get my seamoth ripped to shreds.)