It doesn't grow on trees, you know...

BugzapperBugzapper Australia Join Date: 2015-03-06 Member: 201744Members
Found something interesting on the Floating Island today.

Lead (Pb) growing as fruit on certain trees. Does that make them Plumb Trees?

*sigh* I'm going to have to stop you right there, Devs. Definitely throwing the B.S flags on this one.

Given time and enough psychoactive substances, I might be able to cook up a reasonably-scientific(ish) explanation for this particular evolutionary adaptation, although that explanation would probably throw the rationale supporting most of Subnautica's life forms entirely out of whack. I might even be able to explain (eventually) how the Shocker is able to form arcs between its organic electrodes, but that lead-bearing tree idea has got me completely baffled.

Hint: "Transmutation Furnace" - Handy nuclear-powered gizmo that will convert any element into a completely different element.
Want graphene but only have a surplus of titanium? No problem!

Because: SCIENCE!
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Comments

  • SpacedInvaderSpacedInvader Join Date: 2016-01-08 Member: 211083Members
    As much as I might call it odd, I can't think of a reason that this would be impossible....
  • BugzapperBugzapper Australia Join Date: 2015-03-06 Member: 201744Members
    Plumb silly: A potential solution.

    Make the fruit an edible item, capable of being grown in base or surface farming plots. Give it the property of providing an immediate buff of +10 health restoration and a gradual increase of health-points back to 100%. Could be a useful item to carry in Biter or Bleeder infested waters.

    Call it something fanciful: e.g 'Doctor Damson' or 'Surgical Satsuma'. :)

    Might also be useful as a restorative if some health-depleting mechanism such as scurvy were to be introduced to the game.
  • BugzapperBugzapper Australia Join Date: 2015-03-06 Member: 201744Members
    As much as I might call it odd, I can't think of a reason that this would be impossible....

    Neither can I. It's merely... Highly implausible.

    The only vaguely-acceptable reason I can think of is forced evolutionary change over an incredibly short time scale. This begs the question 'why?' - Does the plant concentrate lead to protect itself against radiation, and would other organisms on the planet benefit from eating its fruit?
  • lxhlxh Austria Join Date: 2015-03-13 Member: 202074Members
    edited January 2016
    Lead growing on trees? *snort* If that is meant to be serious .. what's next? The gold sh*tting dragon? Btw, that wouldn't surprise me anyway. Subnautica seems to become a game for kids. I'm just waiting for the console transference to get certainty.
  • SiessenSiessen Belgium Join Date: 2003-12-07 Member: 24098Members, Constellation, Reinforced - Shadow
    edited January 2016
    lead being absorbed through the root system and then excreted through leaves' pores m8b (and i mean absorbed like we would if drinking contaminated water but plant got the right mutation to simply excrete it)
  • lxhlxh Austria Join Date: 2015-03-13 Member: 202074Members
    Siessen wrote: »
    lead being absorbed through the root system and then excreted through leaves' pores m8b (and i mean absorbed like we would if drinking contaminated water but plant got the right mutation to simply excrete it)

    Hmmm, gess you're talking about milligram quantities, don't you?
  • SiessenSiessen Belgium Join Date: 2003-12-07 Member: 24098Members, Constellation, Reinforced - Shadow
    edited January 2016
    excretion itself, ye. with time it adds up forming a tangible mass.. (we don't get contaminated by the same water cause of the suit and a purifier)
  • lxhlxh Austria Join Date: 2015-03-13 Member: 202074Members
    Ok, agreed ... in case these plants reach an age of a thousand years.
  • SiessenSiessen Belgium Join Date: 2003-12-07 Member: 24098Members, Constellation, Reinforced - Shadow
    edited January 2016
    we don't know the age of the those threes, do we?

    or its a symbiosis with some bacteria or whatnot that filters it for the plant concentrating the secretion on local spots
  • lxhlxh Austria Join Date: 2015-03-13 Member: 202074Members
    edited January 2016
    True, true .. my words. It's an alien world and we do know nothing. Well, I think I can live with lead on trees. But it's weird enough to confuse even the most tolerant players.

    Edit: But planting these 'fruits' to cultivate a lead plantation would shoot up the bird. Hehe
  • SiessenSiessen Belgium Join Date: 2003-12-07 Member: 24098Members, Constellation, Reinforced - Shadow
    edited January 2016
    exactly what makes it fun imo (the weirdness and the confusion..)
    lxh wrote: »
    planting these 'fruits' to cultivate a lead plantation would shoot up the bird.

    and after we consume them we'd be shi shooting lead then?
  • BugzapperBugzapper Australia Join Date: 2015-03-06 Member: 201744Members
    edited January 2016
    Now that I've thought about it, these Plumb trees might serve a deeper purpose after all.

    You want lead to make a radiation suit or build a nuclear reactor? No problem.

    Purely coincidental that the fruits are spherical? Probably not.


    My best guess is that the Floating Island was used as a biological research station during the first Alterra mission. The core research project may have been to manipulate the DNA of native plants and animals to provide complex resources that could be used during the colonization phase.

    Could this be the location of the fabled 'Technology Tree'?
  • lxhlxh Austria Join Date: 2015-03-13 Member: 202074Members
    Siessen wrote: »
    and after we consume them we'd be shi shooting lead then?

    Well, that's the point. I'm still searching for the toilet blueprint. Hehe

  • MyrmMyrm Sweden Join Date: 2015-08-16 Member: 207210Members
    People complain of lead growing on trees saying it's unscientific, yet they are happy with the fact you can build a huge submarine with some stalker teeth, quartz, titanium, an advanced wiring kit and some lubricant.

    Subnautica is a GAME, therefore there has to be some imagination and poetic licence. :smiley:

    Just enjoy this fantastic game which is far better than many completed games, yet here we are still in Alpha phase.

    Bravo to the devs for SN. You guys really are producing something incredible. The end product is going to be amazing.
  • BugzapperBugzapper Australia Join Date: 2015-03-06 Member: 201744Members
    edited January 2016
    Myrm wrote: »
    People complain of lead growing on trees saying it's unscientific, yet they are happy with the fact you can build a huge submarine with some stalker teeth, quartz, titanium, an advanced wiring kit and some lubricant.

    Subnautica is a GAME, therefore there has to be some imagination and poetic licence. :smiley:

    I am quite content with the knowledge that I can assemble complex objects out of minimal amounts of specific raw materials
    and energy, because there may be a plausible scientific (or at least quasi-scientific) explanation for the basic principle behind it.
    Truth be known, I can think of at least one already. Bear in mind, the lead-bearing tree thing might be a significant plot point.

    Believe it or not, I do have a vague suspicion that imagination and a certain degree of poetic licence might play a valid role in computer game design. If you haven't guessed it already, I am a fairly dedicated fan of the game, too.

    When all is said and done, I'm merely pointing out that there are now TWO sources of lead in the game. Yes, I'm aware that there are two sources of Titanium as well (metal salvage and titanium ore). Seems a little redundant to me, unless there's a specific and as yet, undisclosed reason for being able to gather massive amounts of lead. Nobody would want to build that many rad suits and nuclear reactors, surely.
  • lorcogothlorcogoth belgium Join Date: 2015-09-14 Member: 207943Members
    edited January 2016
    it might just be an inside joke from the developers that will get removed soon.

    also scientific reason lead grows on the tree: same as snail shells evolved from storing/excreting calcium on the back of slugs. could mean that the island contains a lot of lead in its soil. maybe something with more radioactive zones?
  • lxhlxh Austria Join Date: 2015-03-13 Member: 202074Members
    Yep, I've noticed our Devs' tendency to come up with solutions first before introducing their needs. Ok .. that might be a question of style and it wasn't my personal one anyways, but it's good stuff to speculate about. So what could be the reason for all that lead? That's an interesting progression.
  • RequiemfangRequiemfang Join Date: 2015-02-22 Member: 201492Members
    could be a placeholder or it could also be a mistake that was coded in. If I had to guess it's both and that it's for an item that hasn't been added in yet. If it's from a tree I'm going to assume it has to do with the farming update that they're building on currently which means we won't be stuck eating fish and kelp all the time.
  • SpacedInvaderSpacedInvader Join Date: 2016-01-08 Member: 211083Members
    It's also conceivable that a player would want enough lead that it would strain the copper resources, so they introduced the lead tree. If a player builds a lot of deep bases, the most logical way to power them is a nuclear reactor and at three lead a piece, that could add up pretty quickly.
  • lorcogothlorcogoth belgium Join Date: 2015-09-14 Member: 207943Members
    it could be a test to see if they can make stuff grow on trees/plants for the farming update
  • DinkelsenDinkelsen Graz Join Date: 2015-10-05 Member: 208309Members
    I just had a look at the tree and here is my interpretation of what happened:

    A developer wnts to implement a pickable fruit. He (or she) ties the graphical assets of tree and fruit together, implements a pickable and then vanishing fruit graphics, implements the player interaction (the blue hand icon) but then realizes that the inventory object that resemples the fruit does not exist yet. This inventorys object is not the same as the graphics of the fruit hanging on the tree.

    So to continue his task, he chooses another inventory object and ties it to the provcess of picking a fruit. He chooses an object that somewhat resembles a fruit. He could have taken titanium, but he took lead. Maybe he remembered a Trello card where a "better" recipe for lead was to be developed and found it a funny idea that lead was picked off a tree.

    I would bet there will be no lead tree in the final version. If there is, I will name a Cyclops "Lead Tree" and publicly post a screenshot of it.

    I am quite sure that the abandoned outpost will be the place where the player will scan equipment needed for farming. There are farming trays nearby, some have suspicious land-based plants inside them where I am sure we will be gathering our first plants or seeds from. We will pick the fruits of the tree and plant them in large planters to get small trees whose fruits we will eat.
  • lxhlxh Austria Join Date: 2015-03-13 Member: 202074Members
    You could be right with your placeholder theory. Though this prospect feels a little disappointing. A massive lead necessity would indicate a long awaited story progress. That sparks hopes, is exciting. No wonder that we are willing to believe even in lead bearing trees. Hehehe, oh boy.

    If that will finally be nothing more than some fruits to eat, it was an almost bitter dessert.
  • SpacedInvaderSpacedInvader Join Date: 2016-01-08 Member: 211083Members
    edited January 2016
    I doubt the placeholder theory, as other collectables have no inventory item to match and instead of picking something else, they just left a question mark in the inventory. Collecting fruit that turns out to be lead seems like a much more deliberate action.

    EDIT: One thing to keep in mind is that the story mode is scheduled to end in a launch sequence, which would seem to indicate you've built something large and capable of space travel. Something like this would definitely require lots of radiation shielding, both for the drive unit and the exterior hull, so a large demand for lead may yet be introduced. Though, of course, all of that could be subject to change depending on the story the Devs actually produce for us.
  • lxhlxh Austria Join Date: 2015-03-13 Member: 202074Members
    Hmmm, lead on trees. Frankly, it doesn't quite fit between my ears. I'd prefer these fruits to be some sort of medical preparation, in case the player gets diseased, sick or poisoned. There could be more complex stuff as just first aid kits. What about stimulants to swim faster or for temporary less oxygen consumption? But however, our dear Devs seem to have a flowery fantasy anyways. *g
  • TaiphozTaiphoz UK Join Date: 2016-01-01 Member: 210749Members
    as far as we know heavy metals are created within the explosion of a dying star, that being said...

    It's possible that a tree could leech out lead from the sub-straight its growing in and store it within it's fruit, what looks like fruit might just be the tree's way of getting rid of the lead in its diet.

    Insects on earth perform feats like this, getting rid of a byproduct of their feeding, some insects shit sugar and there are other insects that know that and feed from them, some ants actually act like farmers and have little herds of bugs that they farm for the sweet stuff.

    so a tree with what looks like lead fruit might not be that far fetched at all.
  • DinkelsenDinkelsen Graz Join Date: 2015-10-05 Member: 208309Members
    If the "tree gets rid of lead via fruits" theory really is correct, which I doubt, but still, I would rather think that there would be a recipe that converts some number of fruits into one lead. Even if the lead is a waste product, alien physiology or not, the tree would not grow fruits made of pure lead.

    Speaking of waste products, a fruit is not part of a trees waste cycle, but if its reproductive cycle. A fruit is a "present" to an animal so the animal eats it and carries the seeds a bit so the tree's descendants can spread out. As compensation, the fruit contains nutrients for the animal. Or so I learned in school. So unless lead is an integral part of alien physiology a fruit would not contain lead in amounts that allow us to harvest it. And if this planets life forms really dependet on lead - maybe it would be better to hunt them instead? Or look what else they eat besides those fruits...
  • lorcogothlorcogoth belgium Join Date: 2015-09-14 Member: 207943Members
    @Dinkelsen the lead might not be fruit but in this post we're just referring to it as such also stalkers are attracted to metal so evolutionary speaking when the "fruit" falls and rolls into the sea stalkers will carry it around to spread the seeds? this seems like a fruit like explanation althought the island is in a weird place for that.
  • lxhlxh Austria Join Date: 2015-03-13 Member: 202074Members
    Hehehe lorcogoth, it seems like BDF is nothing more than ABC + 123
    That might be a little too abstract for most players I guess. In other words: Stalkers must have carried these seeds to another beach.
  • BugzapperBugzapper Australia Join Date: 2015-03-06 Member: 201744Members
    On that note... What exactly do Skyrays eat?
  • lxhlxh Austria Join Date: 2015-03-13 Member: 202074Members
    An interesting and legitimate question, Bugzapper. But I doubt that we can close the circle of Subnautica's ecology. That should take at least scanable micro organism quantities to answer this question even for fish. But this (sorry, I know it's yours) becomes off topic now and should be discussed in a new or well known thread.
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