Improving experience for inexperienced players
Annihilat0r
Join Date: 2017-02-19 Member: 228069Members
Join Date: 2017-02-19 Member: 228069Members
Hello everyone,
I played Subnautica for the first time this weekend. A friend of mine actually recommended this game a couple of times to me, but I didn't buy it at first because I am not really into survival and exploration games. I do love Sci-Fi though and when I saw it in the Humble Freedom Bundle together with some other great games, I thought I give it a go. Turnes out I was to be pleasantly surprised. Besides some technical issues, this really is a great game with a lot of potential. However, as someone who is not used to these types of games, I hit some frustrating points in the beginning, which I would like to share with you (together with some general ideas and feedback) in order to make it easier for new players in the future.
Problem:
The beginning was pretty straight forward, catch some fish to eat and drink and begin to explore. I collected debris and quartz until my inventory was completely full. But the only things I managed to craft were a knife, oxygen tank, fins and a waterproof locker, because I didn't manage to find any ore! I completely missed these little stones that you can mine and I was ready to quit playing and do something else. Fortunately, I decided to google it and of course found the solution. In addition I also found the Getting Started article in the wiki. This pointed something else out that wasn't really on my priority list: the scanner! Since you get the first blueprints (or rather recipes) just by catching the fish, I thought this is how it generally works in this game, basically denying me access to blueprints and all the other interesting stuff lying around. But once I had this baby, everything made so much more sense, since I got access to the ingame wiki - which also told me that I can find ore in those little stones. Thanks!
Solution:
Make the scanner available from the beginning. It would only make sense that a life-pod would be equipped with something so small, but so important. I mean, who knows where you're crashing? And it also helps guiding new users, giving them the information they need early on. It probably would have helped me find the stones on my own, since you get this little notification on the bottom roght when you are near something scannable. Maybe also making it possible to scan something you have in your inventory as well. It was kind of frustrating chasing these little fish just in order to complete a scan.
Problem:
The ingame time runs way too fast in my opinion. After I was out exploring, I sometimes came back to two or three messages waiting for me. Not knowing how important they are, I felt very rushed. The fact that the game does not pause when you are reading through the PDA is something that I generally like, but it makes this situation even worse. I remember looking at the log and thought: "Wow, Day 14? You're here for two weeks already?" When in reality, it felt like I had just started.
Solution
I think a day lasts about 10 min and a night ca 5 min. One could easily double, maybe even triple that in my opinion. This would give the players more time to explore, and coming home to a new message from another pod would become something really exciting - just as it should be in this setting. Furthermore, it would relieve the pressure of hunting for food and water a bit. In addition, this would hopefully also slow down the sky rotation, which looks quite silly to me.
Problem:
There is no information about base building in the game. Only learned how to do it, about hull integrity and power supply and that stuff on the wiki.
Solution:
Although I understand that game shouldn't push you into building a base, some basic information when you craft the habitat builder tool would be helpful.
Other feedback
- Why are coordinates (e.g. to the other life-pods) an item that occupies space in the inventory? They should be saved in the PDA under pings.
- A simple map in the PDA would be nice, just so you know where you already went
- Drag&Drop is not working for me. Is this intentional or WIP?
- Is there any other way to get rid of stuff other than just dropping it on the ocean floor?
+++If you think this is helpful, I will update this post while I play along. Usually I play only on weekends though, so please be patient+++
I played Subnautica for the first time this weekend. A friend of mine actually recommended this game a couple of times to me, but I didn't buy it at first because I am not really into survival and exploration games. I do love Sci-Fi though and when I saw it in the Humble Freedom Bundle together with some other great games, I thought I give it a go. Turnes out I was to be pleasantly surprised. Besides some technical issues, this really is a great game with a lot of potential. However, as someone who is not used to these types of games, I hit some frustrating points in the beginning, which I would like to share with you (together with some general ideas and feedback) in order to make it easier for new players in the future.
Problem:
The beginning was pretty straight forward, catch some fish to eat and drink and begin to explore. I collected debris and quartz until my inventory was completely full. But the only things I managed to craft were a knife, oxygen tank, fins and a waterproof locker, because I didn't manage to find any ore! I completely missed these little stones that you can mine and I was ready to quit playing and do something else. Fortunately, I decided to google it and of course found the solution. In addition I also found the Getting Started article in the wiki. This pointed something else out that wasn't really on my priority list: the scanner! Since you get the first blueprints (or rather recipes) just by catching the fish, I thought this is how it generally works in this game, basically denying me access to blueprints and all the other interesting stuff lying around. But once I had this baby, everything made so much more sense, since I got access to the ingame wiki - which also told me that I can find ore in those little stones. Thanks!
Solution:
Make the scanner available from the beginning. It would only make sense that a life-pod would be equipped with something so small, but so important. I mean, who knows where you're crashing? And it also helps guiding new users, giving them the information they need early on. It probably would have helped me find the stones on my own, since you get this little notification on the bottom roght when you are near something scannable. Maybe also making it possible to scan something you have in your inventory as well. It was kind of frustrating chasing these little fish just in order to complete a scan.
Problem:
The ingame time runs way too fast in my opinion. After I was out exploring, I sometimes came back to two or three messages waiting for me. Not knowing how important they are, I felt very rushed. The fact that the game does not pause when you are reading through the PDA is something that I generally like, but it makes this situation even worse. I remember looking at the log and thought: "Wow, Day 14? You're here for two weeks already?" When in reality, it felt like I had just started.
Solution
I think a day lasts about 10 min and a night ca 5 min. One could easily double, maybe even triple that in my opinion. This would give the players more time to explore, and coming home to a new message from another pod would become something really exciting - just as it should be in this setting. Furthermore, it would relieve the pressure of hunting for food and water a bit. In addition, this would hopefully also slow down the sky rotation, which looks quite silly to me.
Problem:
There is no information about base building in the game. Only learned how to do it, about hull integrity and power supply and that stuff on the wiki.
Solution:
Although I understand that game shouldn't push you into building a base, some basic information when you craft the habitat builder tool would be helpful.
Other feedback
- Why are coordinates (e.g. to the other life-pods) an item that occupies space in the inventory? They should be saved in the PDA under pings.
- A simple map in the PDA would be nice, just so you know where you already went
- Drag&Drop is not working for me. Is this intentional or WIP?
- Is there any other way to get rid of stuff other than just dropping it on the ocean floor?
+++If you think this is helpful, I will update this post while I play along. Usually I play only on weekends though, so please be patient+++
Comments
Like you said, it'd be good to have a scanner from the start. There could also be a sort of survival journal thing that guides the player a bit.
Also signals should ABSOLUTELY be intangible things. Whoever had the idea that it should TAKE UP OUR INVENTORY SPACE is not the smartest person.
I appreciate your advice, but this was not what I was looking for to be honest. I had no problem acquiring all the information I needed on the internet. However, not everybody is patient enough to do that and people might end up disliking the game for that. I understand the game is still in development, but when they release the final version, they surely hope to attract veteran players like you as well as noobs like me. That's why I thought it might be helpful to write up my experience while the development is still ongoing, so if by chance any of the developers will read this, they could find this interesting and tweak a thing or two, in order to give this game a better learning curve.
When you first opened your PDA, it asked you to "please, take a moment and familiarize yourself with it" -- now, right there under the "Data Downloads" section, IIRC, is an entry labeled "read me" and also one labeled "survival basics". Did you perchance read those?
This game is all about exploration. And it includes exploring the very device that you keep using.
Of course! Multiple times to be honest. I actually read them again right now to see if I missed something. But I don't see how that helps with the points I made?
Yes, that's exactly my point! I think it would enhance the exploratory nature of the game if you had the device and time to do so. Do you think having the scanner and more time available somehow contradicts that? Cause I don't see why it should.
Habitat building is mentioned in there ("a more permanent shelter"). As well, there's a big white block of text that says "Break Limestone" the first time you coma across a rock outcrop. Additionally, after you fabricate a knife and go into a Creepvine forest, a bit white "Cut Creepvine with knife" text floats out there for you.
Also there is currently missing any information that you can go to the Aurora and fix the radiation. Which reminds me, entering the radiation zone should have audio feedback to in addition to the visual warning, like Geiger counter noises while you're taking damage.