Ideas for Crafting (Bio-Engineering)

OhnojojoOhnojojo Join Date: 2011-08-01 Member: 113400Members
I feel like mining ores, minerals, and punching trees is soooooo yester-year and beaten to death.
Crafting systems in modern construction/sandbox-games in general need a make-over.

In my head I'm imagining more of a bio-engineering theme of crafting.
For example:
Travel via submarine into deep open water.
Discover a species of bio-luminescent jellyfish.
Use the submarine's/underwater-rover's robotic arms to collect a specimen.
The jellyfish specimen's DNA is extracted and opens up more tech options such as, improved battery life for the flashlight or brighter and more energy efficient bulbs, or a neurotoxin repellent for self-defense based on the jellyfish's stinging tentacles.

Anybody else have ideas they would like to share? You have to admit, crafting systems in games like minecraft, terraria, starbound and etc. have gotten very similar and boring.

Comments

  • SeldkamSeldkam Join Date: 2014-01-01 Member: 191213Members
    edited January 2014
    I agree about Minecraft. It has a good amount of things to craft, but the way minecraft presents the mechanics I've never found to be all that ground breaking. I like the different spin on crafting, though it would make sense to have a system similar to FarCry3 where some defense mechanisms can be crafted just by harvesting some chemicals or plants in the environment (for instance) FC3 and AC4 IMO are much better examples of crafting though hunting is more or less out of the question I understand
  • OhnojojoOhnojojo Join Date: 2011-08-01 Member: 113400Members
    edited January 2014
    Why is hunting out of the question?
    I mean, I know the game is going for a non-violent or minimal violence direction but collecting specimens for research or having a capture-and-release system might work, which still involves hunting.

    Also, I didn't play too much of FarCry3 before I got bored with it's repetitive combat, but I do like the idea of crafting "weapons" on the fly like Macguyver.
    See a huge alien squid thing? QUICK!!! grab that piece of coral and use this roll of n..n..NANO-duct-tape to attach my flashlight to it and throw it as a distraction so you can escape!!
  • SeldkamSeldkam Join Date: 2014-01-01 Member: 191213Members
    Exactly, a lot of FC3 and AC4's crafting was all about having an impact in the game, at least for the most part.
  • SteveRockSteveRock Join Date: 2012-10-01 Member: 161215Members, NS2 Developer, Subnautica Developer
    Ohnojojo wrote: »
    I feel like mining ores, minerals, and punching trees is soooooo yester-year and beaten to death.
    Crafting systems in modern construction/sandbox-games in general need a make-over.

    In my head I'm imagining more of a bio-engineering theme of crafting.
    For example:
    Travel via submarine into deep open water.
    Discover a species of bio-luminescent jellyfish.
    Use the submarine's/underwater-rover's robotic arms to collect a specimen.
    The jellyfish specimen's DNA is extracted and opens up more tech options such as, improved battery life for the flashlight or brighter and more energy efficient bulbs, or a neurotoxin repellent for self-defense based on the jellyfish's stinging tentacles.

    Anybody else have ideas they would like to share? You have to admit, crafting systems in games like minecraft, terraria, starbound and etc. have gotten very similar and boring.

    I think Charlie would agree these are all fine ideas here :)
  • TzudroTzudro Miami, FL Join Date: 2013-12-31 Member: 191181Members
    I like OP's ideas here. I think the idea of using the information and materials collected to advance your technology and/or strategy is excellent. Much more engrossing than:

    "You've collected a bioluminescent creature! Science +1, Research +1!"

    Maybe instead of having to pick off a chunk of every critter you find (which is fine), maybe just being around certain creatures long enough gives you experience, a different kind of experience. Sort of like:

    "The Lunar Whale pod still keeps its distance, so you can't collect a sample for analysis. But watching the way it moves through the water and how it weaves as it dives, you realize there is a sort of minicurrent and the whales are weaving between them to dive deeper more quickly. You may now apply this knowledge to rapidly descend. This will not improve your hull strength but will allow you more time in the deeper parts before having to return to the surface for air."
  • Soul_RiderSoul_Rider Mod Bean Join Date: 2004-06-19 Member: 29388Members, Constellation, Squad Five Blue
    Hey @Tzudro , those are very similar ideas to some I have for a game, which is not underwater exploration..
  • shriikeshriike Join Date: 2013-03-27 Member: 184461Members
    This idea makes the game very similar to Monster Hunter, except you don't kill them. I could imagine the end game creatures. Taking a specimen from a giant blowfish/octopus hybrid would be fun.
  • TzudroTzudro Miami, FL Join Date: 2013-12-31 Member: 191181Members
    Soul_Rider wrote: »
    Hey @Tzudro , those are very similar ideas to some I have for a game, which is not underwater exploration..

    Is that so?
  • SeldkamSeldkam Join Date: 2014-01-01 Member: 191213Members
    Perhaps tagging a creature with a camera device or something of the sort or naming it would either:
    1. Give the player a "bonus" to the rewards of gaining experience or whatever resource is gained,

    and 2. perhaps if it is a camera that is attached to the creature, there is over time affect placed on the player that gives experience because of the camera feed on the animal.
  • OhnojojoOhnojojo Join Date: 2011-08-01 Member: 113400Members
    Seldkam wrote: »
    Perhaps tagging a creature with a camera device or something of the sort or naming it would either:
    1. Give the player a "bonus" to the rewards of gaining experience or whatever resource is gained,

    and 2. perhaps if it is a camera that is attached to the creature, there is over time affect placed on the player that gives experience because of the camera feed on the animal.

    I like the idea of tagging creatures a lot.
    I would love to be able to tag animals and even name them and have that data be sent out randomly to other player's clients. Imagine coming across an scary alien fish thing with a scientific tag that displays its name and time it was tagged.... and its name is "buttfartzrofl1337shark".

    But realistically, cameras yield very little useful information in actual scientific capture and release programs.
    But keep the ideas coming!! They're great!

    I thought of another example of a revamped crafting system:
    Why not introduce the concept of natural selection 2's "resource nozzles" into subnautica?
    For example, the submarine is able to deploy an "extractor" that is able to collect energy from a number of geological and/or chemical sources, such as thermal vents, methane leaks, underwater magma, high concentrations of algae.
    Each of these resource types requires a different type of "extractor" which could be researched after encountering the resource and observing how the local flora and fauna extract energy/nutrients from that resource.
    Let me give you a hard example:

    Submarine travels into an abyss and finds thermal vents.
    You discover organisms that resemble earth's tube worms, feeding off of the energy of the thermal vents.
    You extract DNA from the tube worm and find how it is converting the chemicals from the vents into food/energy.
    This allows you to unlock a "thermal extractor" which is able to extract "thermal energy" from the vents.
    This energy can be collected as a resource and used to craft or maybe fuel the submarine.

    Another example:
    You discover a massive cloud of purple microorganisms, 500x800 cubic meters large drifting near the surface of the water.
    Your submarine sends out a probe that collects a sample of water containing the microorganisms.
    The microorganisms are identified as being alien algae and diatoms.
    You observe that there are also large whale-like creatures that consume the plankton as food.
    The "whale" is tagged via a non-lethal and non-invasive harpoon that records its behaviors.
    This unlocks tech allowing you to craft an "algae extractor".
    This angers the "whale" and the "whale" attacks.
    Once you survive and escape the "whale".
    The "algae extractor floats near the sea surface and pumps water in one way and out the other, filtering the algae and then processing it into bio-fuel.


  • SeldkamSeldkam Join Date: 2014-01-01 Member: 191213Members
    Sorry about the camera business I was just throwing the idea out there, but I definitely like the idea of these extractors if they are implemented in the way similar to how you have thought it up. A mechanical extractor made just by raw "technological" research is boring and getting old. There are tons of strategy games that just have research trees with a lot of things to research but they all are "free" to research. I like the idea of there being a challenge to grapple with, (though that doesn't mean there has to be some animal that attacks the player).
  • OhnojojoOhnojojo Join Date: 2011-08-01 Member: 113400Members
    Seldkam wrote: »
    Sorry about the camera business I was just throwing the idea out there, but I definitely like the idea of these extractors if they are implemented in the way similar to how you have thought it up. A mechanical extractor made just by raw "technological" research is boring and getting old. There are tons of strategy games that just have research trees with a lot of things to research but they all are "free" to research. I like the idea of there being a challenge to grapple with, (though that doesn't mean there has to be some animal that attacks the player).

    no need to say sorry, any and all ideas might be taken up by the dev team or inspire other ideas.
    Any and all contributions are welcome! Lotta good ideas, bad idea, meh ideas, doesn't matter, ALL IDEAS ARE GOOD IDEAS at this stage of development. ^_^
  • LachdananLachdanan Join Date: 2003-06-04 Member: 16995Members, Constellation, Reinforced - Onos
    There also could be different methods to harvesting "resources"
    Excractors: slow and unpolluted, needs manual caretaking
    Pipelines: middle measure, most work to build, rangelimitation
    Harvesters: fast and polluting, full automated

    And pollution as a natural measurement to increase or decrease the size of "growing" bioms.
  • SeldkamSeldkam Join Date: 2014-01-01 Member: 191213Members
    I kinda like the idea of "pollution", as it could cause changes in animals and changes in the environment. (Technically in the atmosphere of the game; swimming past a whale carcass with a harvester's oil clogging its blowhole, the game becomes a bit deeper)
  • OhnojojoOhnojojo Join Date: 2011-08-01 Member: 113400Members
    edited January 2014
    Seldkam wrote: »
    I kinda like the idea of "pollution", as it could cause changes in animals and changes in the environment. (Technically in the atmosphere of the game; swimming past a whale carcass with a harvester's oil clogging its blowhole, the game becomes a bit deeper)

    *thumbs up*
    pollution changing the environment needs to happen NOW, where is the open beta?!?!?!

    alien planet is extremely sensitive to our carbon based and nuclear fuel, the environment changes drastically as pollution increases.
    most alien coral species die, some coral species remain. these corals are dangerous because (spikes? acid? sticky tentacles? mouths? shooting darts?) and should be avoided.

    as more pollution is added to the environment, the environment and the creatures within it gradually become more dangerous.
    although it is possible to keep levels of pollution low while collecting various types of resources, the machines you craft/create and even the submarine produces small amounts of pollution and the player must weigh the risks with the rewards.

    If the player creates lots of "extractors" to collect "resources", they may be able to unlock tech or afford "upgrades" sooner, however the sharp increase in pollution will cause the environment to change just as quickly.
  • SeldkamSeldkam Join Date: 2014-01-01 Member: 191213Members
    I am a little skeptical that "pollution" isn't really an addition that this particular game wants to go for but I would like to see something that the player can do that can alter the ocean for better or for worse... For instance, maybe terraforming a place might destroy some homes and those fish/creatures will die or have to move away to find a better place to settle.
  • zbott105zbott105 Join Date: 2017-01-02 Member: 225902Members
    It's already added.
  • 0x6A72320x6A7232 US Join Date: 2016-10-06 Member: 222906Members
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