I really LOVED the idea of escape pod drifting
CheekySparrow
Russia, Sochi Join Date: 2016-08-26 Member: 221730Members
Russia, Sochi Join Date: 2016-08-26 Member: 221730Members
When I returned from one trip and found my lifepod was slowly drifting away, I felt abandoned.. lost... it was a real sense of being lost. Luckily, I was carrying enough materials to finish the entrance and power to my base. It had no fabricator though, so I knew I had to be quick - my only home, my safe haven was drifting away.. I was pissed. And then I realized, how *real* those feelings were, how enriched the experience had suddenly become- the game had turned into something more. It surprised me, it had shown itself as something evolving, not static and reactive. I really loved that new game. However, the pod drifted back, and I had read since that it's considered a bug. Well, I'd like to send the plea to the devs- please, please, pleeeee-e-e-e-e-ase (pretty please with a cherry on top), DO implement this! I know I probably get flak for this, but every brilliant idea that makes the game harder is critisized (remember how insanely difficult DarkSouls was perceived to be? But now it's a trendsetter). So please, implement this, and the game will become something bigger, I know it 100%.
Comments
But then I figured I shoulda thought about that, currents...
Brutally brilliant! Total helplessness with only a ray of hope. And it should be random, why shouldn't it be?
I never got that "oh no abandonment" feeling from my pod drifting off. All it really does is force you to make building your own fabricator the top priority. New players who don't already know this will be absolutely screwed. New players will also have no idea how important the communications relay is if the pod wanders off before they can fix it.
Personally I don't care either way because I know what I'm doing. But it doesn't make things harder or more desperate. Forcing me to farm silver first thing doesn't mean Jack to me.
There isn't enough initial drifting around with the current, and I'm talking gentle drifts of like 10-50 meters in any direction with perhaps a max radius limit from starting point for say a week(?) of in game time and then getting further in one direction thereby warning you that you will be left alone with what you've built, or at least have to travel a bit until you get your own fabricator back at base. (yeah, this drifting would apply also to the seamoth, unless it was in the moon pool which it usually is)
The advantages of this? It gives you time to learn your surroundings, probably find the silver required for the fabricator just exploring, explore a few messages from the communicator (which I personally thought was incredibly important from the first game, given the fact you're marooned on an alien planet and looking for contact) and then you would understand the value of the communicator and its link to exploring/blueprints.
Plus, any sort of weather would be cool to have I reckon and if there ever is, drifting shouldn't be an option, it should be obvious.
Thoughts?
Regarding the "player would miss the importance of radio receiver" argument, I'd say while the pod is stationary you already receive some messages, so it should be enough for the player to at least build the new receiver in their own base (who doesn't try building everything possible on their first playthrough? I certainly do - that's one of the most exciting parts)
Its more like incentive to progress. The lifepod wouldn't disappear, just move far away, gradually.
I personally find it annoying without everything that's in the lifepod built into my base. Going back and forth from lockers in base to the lifepod fabricator is tedious after a while, so I build my own. Who doesn't?
Just sayin. Not many people even use the lifepod after a while I'd assume, so what's the problem with a little dynamism in a practically static world? (Apart from animals and aurora explosion)
The game doesn't give me a live-or-die ultimatum to build air tanks. It's mightily useful to get one asap, but I can survive and probably progress through the entire Safe Shallows "chapter" + a little Kelp Forest without it. Air tanks are a matter of if I want to continue rather than I'll 100% certainly die (and keep on dying) if I don't bother to make them as would be the case with the lifepod drifting off when the game decides to regardless of my desire to build a base yet or not.
Like I said, I like to build the lifepod into my base as a unique component I can only assign to one base. Especially early on when I don't have a lot of energy to spare it's great to have it nearby as backup supply, but it remains an aestethically pleasing (the lifepod is very easy to Wilson-ify with its eye-like circles) and useful part of the base even after. (It's also mightily handy to build above water, but I consider the difficulty of building above water a shortcoming of the game that needs to receive a conscious solution.)