Some incentive to dive deep...
Nahaloth
United States Join Date: 2015-03-30 Member: 202772Members
United States Join Date: 2015-03-30 Member: 202772Members
First of all, I'd like to say that I love this game so far. I have been looking for something like this for ages, and I am loving it. You guys are doing a great job.
That being said, I have some suggestions for content (if you haven't already thought of them, of course).
As of now, and I understand that we are in early access, there seems to be little incentive to leave the shallows. The materials you need to build most things and survive are found either in the shallows or within fairly easy reach. The player has little to no incentive, as of right now, to strive to reach the deeper parts of the ocean, save curiosity alone.
So I propose the following: adjust the distribution of materials to coincide with the depth the player is able to reach. The deeper you dive, the better stuff you find. The ultimate goal, of course, is to dive into the deepest portions of the ocean and find... well, whatever it is you might encounter. Strange and exotic wildlife? The ruins of an ancient civilization destroyed by the rising seas? The remains of another crashed ship? Just what is the source of the strange energy pulse that destroyed the Aurora, anyway? Hmmm...
And here is a suggested mechanic, based on Earth's own oceans, that may serve to enable just such a system.
Geothermal Vents and Mineral Nodules: The floor of our own ocean right here on Earth is littered with metallic nodules of all sorts. There was a push back in the 70's and 80's to mine them up; they take the form of manganese nodules located at depths of around 5,000 meters (of course, we shouldn't have to dive that deep in the game, but you get the point). These nodules contain nickel, cobalt, zinc, silver, copper, gold, platinum, et cetera. They are most often found around geothermal vents or undersea volcanoes, either lying about like pebbles or locked within sulphide deposits. There is no reason we could not bend the rules a bit and have some shallow water vents that periodically spawn nodules of the lower tier metals (copper and silver, for example), while the deeper vents would spawn progressively higher tier metals (nickel, gold, platinum, and so forth). We already have a good source of titanium in the form of broken piles of the Aurora lying hither and yon, so constructing a dive suit or even some kind of ROV capable of reaching the deeper vents should present only a moderate challenge, while giving the player something to work toward in the process.
A few other things I thought up while writing this:
Geothermal power: Seems to be the next logical step, if the player has access to a natural heat source. Use it! The rising currents of heated water could easily be harnessed with a vertical turbine...
Electrolysis: Cracking sea water would allow for a continuous source of oxygen for underwater habitats, as well as a source of hydrogen to be used in a fuel cell.
Shark Repellant: I admit it, I tried to kill a Stalker with a knife. Didn't work out so well. But what about an ultrasonic or chemical deterrent that would allow the player to get into those kelp forests, at least for a little while, without fear of being torn to shreds? Downside: they chase away ALL of the fish. Even the harmless ones.
One last thing, then I'll close this down: Given that we have access to technology that allows us to create all sorts of gadgetry, could we have a scanning type gadget that would make locating those hard to find mineral deposits a bit easier to spot? Think along the lines of the Tricorder from Star Trek. Tune it to different things (quartz, scrap, copper, etc.) and it provides a simple auditory prompt when it detects them within a given range, say, 25 meters. A simple beep of increasing or decreasing speed would suffice.
Ok, giant wall of text complete. Thanks for reading!
That being said, I have some suggestions for content (if you haven't already thought of them, of course).
As of now, and I understand that we are in early access, there seems to be little incentive to leave the shallows. The materials you need to build most things and survive are found either in the shallows or within fairly easy reach. The player has little to no incentive, as of right now, to strive to reach the deeper parts of the ocean, save curiosity alone.
So I propose the following: adjust the distribution of materials to coincide with the depth the player is able to reach. The deeper you dive, the better stuff you find. The ultimate goal, of course, is to dive into the deepest portions of the ocean and find... well, whatever it is you might encounter. Strange and exotic wildlife? The ruins of an ancient civilization destroyed by the rising seas? The remains of another crashed ship? Just what is the source of the strange energy pulse that destroyed the Aurora, anyway? Hmmm...
And here is a suggested mechanic, based on Earth's own oceans, that may serve to enable just such a system.
Geothermal Vents and Mineral Nodules: The floor of our own ocean right here on Earth is littered with metallic nodules of all sorts. There was a push back in the 70's and 80's to mine them up; they take the form of manganese nodules located at depths of around 5,000 meters (of course, we shouldn't have to dive that deep in the game, but you get the point). These nodules contain nickel, cobalt, zinc, silver, copper, gold, platinum, et cetera. They are most often found around geothermal vents or undersea volcanoes, either lying about like pebbles or locked within sulphide deposits. There is no reason we could not bend the rules a bit and have some shallow water vents that periodically spawn nodules of the lower tier metals (copper and silver, for example), while the deeper vents would spawn progressively higher tier metals (nickel, gold, platinum, and so forth). We already have a good source of titanium in the form of broken piles of the Aurora lying hither and yon, so constructing a dive suit or even some kind of ROV capable of reaching the deeper vents should present only a moderate challenge, while giving the player something to work toward in the process.
A few other things I thought up while writing this:
Geothermal power: Seems to be the next logical step, if the player has access to a natural heat source. Use it! The rising currents of heated water could easily be harnessed with a vertical turbine...
Electrolysis: Cracking sea water would allow for a continuous source of oxygen for underwater habitats, as well as a source of hydrogen to be used in a fuel cell.
Shark Repellant: I admit it, I tried to kill a Stalker with a knife. Didn't work out so well. But what about an ultrasonic or chemical deterrent that would allow the player to get into those kelp forests, at least for a little while, without fear of being torn to shreds? Downside: they chase away ALL of the fish. Even the harmless ones.
One last thing, then I'll close this down: Given that we have access to technology that allows us to create all sorts of gadgetry, could we have a scanning type gadget that would make locating those hard to find mineral deposits a bit easier to spot? Think along the lines of the Tricorder from Star Trek. Tune it to different things (quartz, scrap, copper, etc.) and it provides a simple auditory prompt when it detects them within a given range, say, 25 meters. A simple beep of increasing or decreasing speed would suffice.
Ok, giant wall of text complete. Thanks for reading!
Comments
Though they also do sort of offer that incentive of diving deeper with getting things such as lithium which only occur in those deeper sections (as I've only been able to find it in those areas, something they should do is make the lithium only on the floor of the deep sections. I could just get all I needed from the walls that led into the abyss and didn't have that incentive to dive deeper).
Having every area rich with materials is the best case scenario
For the first few thousand meters, everything was fine, i felt safe, knowing i could easily return. Once i passed 3000m, i lost sight of land for the last time. At 4000m things began getting strange. I started hearing odd sounds, and..music, eerie music. At 4800m the music stopped, but the sounds continued. Things continued as such until my Sea Moth ran out of power at the final depth of 12500m. That's when things got really weird. I began hearing...voices. Too faint to make out what they were saying. Perhaps it was the madness of the sea overtaking me as i had long since run out of food and water. I would be forever trapped in the abyss, never to be found.