More plant uses?

HexivaHexiva The Inactive Lava Zone Join Date: 2016-07-06 Member: 219670Members
in Ideas and Suggestions
I really feel like the plant species could use some more fleshing out with more uses. Honestly, I think that should be completed before the transfuser; it seems messy to implement a new mechanic when one you already have could do. But I guess the transfuser is plot-related maybe? Anyway, here are some ideas for plant uses.
  1. Sugar. Would effectively work like salt, but be used to preserve fruits instead of fish.
  2. Fish food. Either food for fishes that live in the Alien Containment Unit, or food that you could use to tame & bait animals in the wild, a la the Stalkers and the Peepers.
  3. Required ingredients for cooking certain fish. When you cook the hoverfish, the PDA notifies you that you should flavor "unsavory meats" with local spices, implying that the hoverfish tastes awful. What if some fish were so bad-tasting that you couldn't actually eat them without spices? Basically the recipe for "cooked hoverfish" would be "hoverfish and pygmy fan seeds" instead of just "hoverfish."
  4. Flavorings for reclaimed water. I assume the loss of nutrition after drinking "reclaimed water" is due to the, uh, flavor. Therefore, maybe you could use spices to make it more palatable, and thus convert any excess reclaimed water into clean water?
  5. Paint/pigment. I was thinking you could collect three different pigments in order to make a device which allows you to recolor parts of your base. Alternately, the Vehicle Modification Station could require refillable pigments in order to change the color of the Seamoth - like a printer.
  6. Stimulants of some sort? I know you'd have to tread carefully with this not to get a higher rating, but maybe you could use some plant to make, effectively, coffee, and that would make you swim just a bit faster.
  7. Fish medication. This is kind of going into "replace the transfuser" territory, but perhaps you could feed certain plants to certain fish to make them behave differently - maybe make them reproduce faster, or move slower, or be friendlier, or grow bigger.

Post your own plant ideas!
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Comments

  • LeechSoupDotYumLeechSoupDotYum Join Date: 2016-02-24 Member: 213378Members
    This has been something that is annoying, the fact that Subnautica has little uses for plants.
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  • Shifter6Shifter6 Join Date: 2017-01-11 Member: 226556Members
    I think the bigger issue at hand is not only that so many beautiful plants are ignored despite all of this potential, but also that all of the iconic plant life in subnautica isn't even scannable or farmable. The giant blue orbs that grow on stalks in the grand reef are gorgeous but can't be interacted with, and things like table coral can't be farmed or grown in any way (see my post on outdoor living wall forums.unknownworlds.com/discussion/147484/outdoor-living-wall ). Although all plants (as far as I'm aware) are used in bioreactors, there is hardly a reason to do so, as fish and land plants offer more value and are just as easily cultivated. Any new uses for plants (in my opinion) would be phenomenal, and the ones listed here (although the last one again seems a bit troublesome knowing the plot directly conflicts with some of it) seem like a pretty great start!
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  • almisamialmisami Join Date: 2017-01-22 Member: 227094Members
    Shifter6 wrote: »
    Although all plants (as far as I'm aware) are used in bioreactors, there is hardly a reason to do so, as fish and land plants offer more value and are just as easily cultivated.

    If you look at my post on tweaking the energy system, I put in a recipe that uses ocean flora and indoor mushrooms in order to produce biofuel, a more compact and high-yield fuel source for the bioreactor. (about as good as Reginalds).

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