Initial progression- give players "broken" stuff. MF room progression idea, minisub progression.
EvilSmoo
Join Date: 2008-02-16 Member: 63662Members
Join Date: 2008-02-16 Member: 63662Members
I used a Seaglide to go out to the floating island. Because wiki, not because of any exploration. (...I don't like not being able to see the bottom.) 
The early-game progression for new players is less than optimal, and I think devs know that. Too much foreknowledge is required, and things try and eat you a lot.
I did have a notion, though. With a simple reskin, they could create a "critically damaged Seamoth." This would give players a broken, crappy sub, with.. I dunno, 50-75m dive range? And a flickering light... This would allow people to get around much better early game, and to scan it for a fragment. And definite desire to upgrade the thing.
Same with habitats. Put in a nearby escape pod, with a malfunctioning builder tool. The tool works just like the regular one, except it's rigged to make ONE multifunction room, and perhaps limited amounts of other stuff, before it shorts out and stops working. Scanning it gives a normal tool, except the PDA has corruption and you need to go scan stuff as now to make more rooms. Make up some reason why scanning the room you just made doesn't work, or put in MF-room fragments, or something?
The early-game progression for new players is less than optimal, and I think devs know that. Too much foreknowledge is required, and things try and eat you a lot.I did have a notion, though. With a simple reskin, they could create a "critically damaged Seamoth." This would give players a broken, crappy sub, with.. I dunno, 50-75m dive range? And a flickering light... This would allow people to get around much better early game, and to scan it for a fragment. And definite desire to upgrade the thing.
Same with habitats. Put in a nearby escape pod, with a malfunctioning builder tool. The tool works just like the regular one, except it's rigged to make ONE multifunction room, and perhaps limited amounts of other stuff, before it shorts out and stops working. Scanning it gives a normal tool, except the PDA has corruption and you need to go scan stuff as now to make more rooms. Make up some reason why scanning the room you just made doesn't work, or put in MF-room fragments, or something?
Comments
Making long trek to the floating island to get some habitat blueprints is difficult, but ultimately rewarding. You have to plan ahead, work within your limited means, but when you come back successfully, it's satisfying. But like the OP said, he had to look on the wiki first to know it was worth the effort. That's the real problem, as I see it.
Giving players an early seamoth will help a little bit, by letting them cover more ground, but you're still forcing them to wander aimlessly looking for a needle in a haystack. The floating island is one thing, since it's easy to spot, but what about all the deep wrecks? What players need to find the proverbial needle is a proverbial metal detector - some tool or hint system that will point them in the right direction. Then it's up to them to put their survival skills to the test and launch an excursion.
That takes care of most food/water concerns, and then players can work on a REAL Seamoth. Once they have their legs under them, it becomes less of an issue.
For that matter, could flesh out the lifepod thing. Attach motor to the rear, drive it around on the surface? You'd run it out of power (at night, briefly), and can't upgrade it, but it could provide a base in safe-shallows locations when you are diving without a sub. And it doesn't need to stop working, because a surface-only transport is fairly useless, so players will give it up willingly. Same with a broken Seamoth, surface-only is pointless.
Because the broken Seamoth wouldn't go below ~75m. The Seaglide ignores depth, so you could drive out with the broken sub, then dive down from it. Both have their purpose.
Then later, you make a GOOD Seamoth and retire both.
Another item: emergency shelter builder in the lifepod.
This gives people a starting point, and an underwater base. This is INTENDED to gently push the player get a MFR room blueprint, and replace the room with a MFR. It deconstructs to MFR resources, and once the player has a base tool and MFR blueprint, they can easily replace it.
(a strong, steady wind could be the culprit)
That way the new player is forced to move along with it, and eventually realizes that it's a stroke of luck that it drifted to the island.
After that the player is one his/her own.
Placing the starting clues for the story-line on the island, would also direct the player where to explore next.
Also, getting a piece of magnetite should be at the top of the list of things for the player to first achieve.
Having the Compass ASAP, would improve gameplay immensely.
It's a poor design choice to force a player to do things in an open world. Extrapolate a little- what is a new player going to do as the life pod slowly drifts from the safe shallows out to grand reef?
They're going to freak out, because:
Giving the player a surface transport (or a shallow broken Seamoth) avoids that. It lets you scout around, and even (probably) keeps you out of Reaper Leviathan range. It lets you get a diamond from the mountain for your cutter, and lets you get scans from floating island.
And a broken Seamoth is less new assets to make, as well as fairly believable. I could see a minisub getting exploded out of the Aurora and barely surviving, due to sheer chance.