Hide islands ala LOST

RichieC · July 2016

Hey all.
Just wondered if it would be possible to add a way to prevent players from finding the islands early game by having them shielded (invisible) and players automatically teleport away from them if they approached too close to them. There could be a flash of white light and suddenly be at a safe (or unsafe) location a reasonable distance away. The way to penetrate the island's forcefield could be through a Seamoth or Cyclops upgrade disabling the island's defenses.
Good idea, or terrible?

RichieC · July 2016

Alternatively, a gravitational force could push the player away or rapidly damage a Seamoth until the force is deactivated after visiting the island in the Cyclops.

GabrielBC · July 2016

It's not a good idea, unless the game wants to force you to find certain things in a certain order. If you watched a gameplay video, you can see that the person that is playing, found the things you found (certain fragments, wrecks, etc) earlier or later than you.

Funsauce32 · July 2016

kinda sorta really bad. i think there should just be a way to prevent players from moving really far from the lifepod early game.

Dactylos · July 2016

There is a way. Make a surface predator. Something like a killer whale, who's prey is surface swimming creatures. As it is, you can paddle your butt pretty much anywhere with some cured fish and disinfected water. But something like this would put a chill on your heels until you had something like the Seamoth at least.

Sigmalx · July 2016

Most people wait until they get the Cyclops so they don't have to deal with the Reaper Leviathan, so in reality people are going to try and cheese their way through challenges if they have options. that is the nature with open world exploration and survival games. there was a story that someone got a cyclops on survival W/O cheats, before the aurora exploded, or so I am told. either way, the only real hazard should be something on the island that could make it hard to get around, like aerial fauna that will try to attack the player, or land exclusive fauna (not the crawlers)

Dactylos · July 2016

Except the PDA's on the floating island specifically state they made a base there because there were no predators on the island.

Sigmalx · July 2016

Dactylos wrote: »

Except the PDA's on the floating island specifically state they made a base there because there were no predators on the island.

true-che

RichieC · July 2016

Something should be done about the accessibility of the islands at least. I can see one of the islands from my lifepod and an adventurous newbie could head straight for it and discover the island before finding any fragments. I myself have swam to the islands without trouble from the reapers, so Reaper Leviathans aren't an issue in getting to the islands at the moment. Maybe they could add many more near the island and make the Seamoth harder to get.

RichieC · July 2016

I don't think anyone waits to get the Cyclops before exploring Reaper territory. The Seamoth is plenty to zip by them, and the Perimiter Defense upgrade is OP and can blast a Reaper off of your Seamoth before taking any damage.

EnglishInfidel · July 2016

My last play through I made a knife and scanner and swam to the island immediately to collect fruits for a farm. I only ate 1 fish and that was only because I grabbed it by mistake.

But I don't think you should limit the option to do that if the player chooses. A huge appeal of this kind of game is it's non-linear, so make every area accessible from the start.

If you don't want to go to the island, use some self restraint and play the way you want to play with your own challenges imposed by you and only you.

Sigmalx · July 2016

http://subnautica.wikia.com/wiki/Precursor_Bases if this tickles anybody's fancy, floater island will be easy and available, while mountain may need some work. and it took me 92 days... sort of, to find the mountain island, and that was mainly trying to find the ILZ gate. which was achieved on day 137

RichieC · July 2016

Sounds good they'll at least limit Mountain Island accessibility (hopefully). There's not much on the island at the moment (just diamonds and gold. Pffft) but seems like it'll be important for the story. I climbed one of the mountains there sticking out from the water. I had to use the terraformer to get onto it, but from there, there seemed to be a ledge swirling up to the top. I wonder if this is where one of the guns will be located and we'll have to climb up to destroy it?

Sigmalx · July 2016

who knows, really. who knows, but the devs. but we can be certain that this is of great story intrique

Durzann · July 2016

it's not a good idea to create a Deus ex machina (like radiation/repulsion or something like that) for protect the island against a new player.

But there is some good idea here, wich don't broke the general gameplay :

_ air predator (like a fishing bird)

_ surface predator

_ predator on the island

this elements will naturally delay the arrival of the player (he will probably wait a seamoth/stasis rifle + knife).

Subnautica is a open world game, yeah, the main idea is to let the player go everywhere : ok. But this game is not a rush, if a new player, or a old player start a new game and rush every fragment/fruit/tech that he need for start his base and being independant, it means that we have to change something for guide the player to explore/craft/unlock dangerous area/explore/craft/ unlock very deap or dangerous area/explore/crafting etc...

for conclude, is it really interesting to swin during 10 mins across an empty area just for get lantern fruit/scan base ?
Some new player are here because they have see some let's play on videos, they probably already know the opness of a lantern fruit farm, if all of them rush the island just for take off the starvation just at the begining of a game, it's really sad for their game time and the player will probably get bored quickly.

Sigmalx · July 2016

In reality, lantern fruit is op in the regard that it is best fruit, not the best food. that'd be the Reginald fish; which is findable in leviathan country, and deep waters.

Dactylos · July 2016

I found the floating island on my first playthrough by loading up the Seamoth and following the general directions put in by the message left in the communications array about dry land.

I found the mountain islands by cruising around the surface with my Cyclops, looking around at the horizon with the camera from the conning tower.

Getting to the islands is only a problem if you already know about them, and know where they are. So really. Its not a problem.

Sigmalx · July 2016

I found the mountain island the classic cartoon detective way: follow the floor until you hit a wall

RichieC · July 2016

One of the islands is visible (barely) from the top of my lifepod in my current game.

Hide islands ala LOST

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