Below Zero: Things I'd like to be different from Subnautica

xmrmeow

I LOVE Subnautica. I've played it at least 5 times all the way through, with an without mods, and have done no death runs as well.

However, the game still does have some flaws, and it'd be nice if these were addressed in the expansion.

One of my issues with lack of resource availability for things such as silver and copper before unlocking the prawn suit with arm (at which point you could easily beat the game without needing to gather these resources much more anyway) has already been fixed in Below Zero, however there are quite a few things I'd like improved on.

Survival Aspect Improvements:

• I think some powered machine should be necessary to prevent hostile creatures from attacking your base that way you need to think before constructing your base just anywhere. In the main game, you could build a base right near leviathan spawns and not have to worry; structures only take damage from running subs into them and not having enough support.
  
  Without this machine, any hostile creature should be able to damage the hull of your habitats.
  
  At the same time, it'd be BS to come back to find your base obliterated by some leviathan while you were gone, so I think creatures should only aggro habitats if they see the player enter, or see them inside through windows. Throwing in windows with togglable transparency and some decoy torpedoes that lure away leviathans and other hostile creatures would make this system forgiving enough, in addition to making creatures not aggro buildings unless you're inside (even if you're nearby). ARK Survival Evolved had this issue where it was difficult to lure hostile creatures away from a base; they'd eventually just stop chasing you and go back to attacking your structures, which is very annoying and doesn't make much sense.
  
  In short, having creatures attack your bases would be a very cool addition and it'd add a lot to the survival aspect of the game, but needs to be well though out or it'd be more of an annoyance than a cool new mechanic.
  
  
• In when exploring Subnautica, a vast majority of the starting area has little to no threats aside from oxygen. From what's out of Below Zero so far, it seems to share this issue.
  
  I'd say the root of this issue is that anything that wasn't a leviathan, such as Sand Sharks and Stalkers, could practically be ignored. The only threat from them was spending an extended period of time near them, but the high availability to health packs early on made even that a non-issue (aka a sand shark or stalker would never ever kill you unless you were trying to die). It'd be nice if creatures like this (i.e. the Brute Shark in Below Zero) were much more threatening, at least until the player is able to get their hands on a vehicle or a reinforced dive suit. This would greatly enhance the survival aspect of the game throughout the game, as opposed to only worrying about oxygen early on, and leviathans in the late game.
  
  Making the Sharks damage you more heavily, as well as grabbing you and pulling you deeper into the water, would make them much more threatening. Also health kits should only be usable when out of the water (in a vehicle, base, or on land).
  
  
• Temperature should be a bigger threat without the reinforce dive suit (the heat vents should be hundred of degrees, getting too close should be very deadly without proper protection, not just mildly damage you. Also it'd be neat if you needed an a new suit to dive in the arctic waters for more than a certain amount of time without getting back to warmth, similar to how Subnautica limited your early exploration without the Radiation Suit.
  
  
• Stacking armor modules are OP. The prawn was neigh invincible with 2 of them, and even the seamoth was pretty tanky. When exploring the lava zone with the prawn, I would regularly grapple onto sea dragons just for fun as they were not threatening at all due to how tanky I was. I'd either remove them or make them only usable on larger subs. Maybe making them reduce movespeed would also balance them. Either way, while fun to use, they completely destroy the survival aspect of a lot of areas.
  
  

A good handful of items in Subnautica were very questionably useful or just novelty items that were fun but didn't really do anything
Here are a few examples and how I'd fix em:

• Submersible lockers would be nice for the time before you can build a base as limited storage in the pod discourages gathering resources early in the game, but their storage space is very small and they take up a lot of inventory space so they're annoying to use early, and it doesn't make much sense to carry them around for late game.
  
  I suggest making the submersible lockers cost a bit more and have 4x as much space. This would make them much nicer to use early on before you can build lockers in a base, and making them take up the same amount of inventory space under the logic that they're collapsible would make them useful even later in specific situations.
  
  
• The air pump seems a bit too much of a hassle to use. I suggest making it simply consume energy to produce air. Make it take up a large amount of space so carrying one around all the time is very impractical, but putting one deep in the water for repeated use would be simple and easy. Powered by batteries, it would fill with air and stop consuming energy when full (breathing from it takes air out of its inventory). It would essentially be a placeable better version of brain coral or these new air bubble plants in BZ, in exchange for taking up lots of inventory and consuming power.
  
  
• The propulsion and repulsion cannons I never used outside of novelty. They should be necessary to enter certain areas or something (the Aurora in Subnautica has no areas that can't be entered without it. You can simply jump over anything in the way). I suggest some areas where rocks or chunks of ice block the path or alien bases where you must move heavy objects into specific spots.
  
  
• Torpedoes seemed and the Perimeter Defense System module seemed pretty useless. Gas torpedoes scaring away leviathans temporarily and Perimeter Defense System making creatures avoid your sub for a few minutes after they're shocked would make these a lot more useful in small subs.

One last Awkward thing that stood out in Subnautica was the lack of a need to get out of the deep sea. Specifically, near the end of the game, there was a portal to get back to the surface, so if you brought a cyclops down to the lava zone to get there, there was no real need to bring it back as you could get the rest done without it.