Perks/Leveling system
stalkeregg
Join Date: 2017-03-08 Member: 228736Members
Join Date: 2017-03-08 Member: 228736Members
Not sure if this has been discussed before, but a simple system of leveling with passive perks would be a good addition. I don't think it would involve a huge amount of tweaking beyond perhaps a few behavioral mods; I believe most of the mechanics already exist currently. More importantly, I think a perk system would be consistent with and complementary to the spirit of the game itself. I'll explain:
Subnautica already expects us to upgrade our equipment and our bases in order to explore farther and survive more effectively. Adding perks based on experience earned would extend these upgrades to the character itself, ultimately allowing us to interact with the world in new ways. This would also make sense within the game world. As the character encounters new creatures, gathers resources, and constructs equipment, they naturally refine their skills and get better at doing those things, particularly after weeks and weeks in-game. The game should reflect this progression and tangibly reward players for these things.
What I'm envisioning is a straightforward, experience-based leveling system with perks of different ranks scaling up in magnitude (somewhat akin to the Mass Effect system). Experience could be earned by doing the following:
-Gathering resources
-Meters swum/traveled
-Constructing equipment/bases
-Consuming food/water/first aid
-Scanning flora/fauna
-New biomes discovered/set pieces
Obviously since these are all things the player will do anyway, experience earned would have to be relatively low to discourage outright level grinding. To illustrate how this would balance, in order to progress to level 2, let's say you'd have to earn 500xp, of which you could gain 10xp per 1km travelled, 1xp per resource gathered (perhaps rarer resources yield 3 or 5xp), 20xp for scanning (this allows lower levels to progress quickly, since scanning can only be done once per plant/animal), etc., and 50xp for each new biome discovered (same rationale as scanning).
As for the perk tree, I'm thinking it would break down into three categories: Personal, Biological, and Mechanical. Most of the perks would be basic upgrades which increase in ranks, but the final perk in the group would add a serious benefit (along with an upgrade) and would therefore be very costly. Some ideas I've had for each, in the rough order of progression:
Personal
(Improves the character's abilities to survive in the hostile aquatic environment)
-O2, Health, Food, and Water meters increase [as the character adapts to the new environment, they get better at holding their breath, going longer without food, etc.; these would be about 5 points improvement per level]
-Food meter over a certain percentage regenerates health [at this point I think it's already at 80%, so maybe the ranks could improve to 50%/20%]
-Faster swimming/walking [seriously, after living in the ocean for several months I should basically be Michael Phelps]
-Crush depth for swimming [not sure if this is in the works, but I'd think a baseline of 500m, increasing 250m per rank]
-Final perk: Upon depletion of O2, Health meter depletes at high rate prior to dying [essentially extending greatly the length the character can stay submerged]
--Final perk upgrade: Food and Water meters decline in succession once Health drops to 1 [essentially extending both O2 and health]
Biological
(Improves the character's abilities with the planet's flora and fauna)
-Chance to receive one extra resource when harvesting plants
-Better food/water/health when consuming
-Friendly fish: As fish in the environment become more used to your presence, they treat you as one of their own. This would be a higher-cost, ranked perk that would improve your relationship with herbivorous fish qualitatively rather than quantitatively:
--Rank 1: Fish are less likely to swim away from you when you try to catch them
--Rank 2: Some Garryfish in the area flock toward you, creating a protective barrier to distract predators -- but the fish swim away when you leave the biome or try to catch one of them
--Rank 3: Various herbivorous fish flock toward you, and they'll even let you catch them
-Final perk: Stalker pet! You are now able to entice a stalker to live near your base. Provided you give it a good home and feed it every now and then, your stalker will be friendly and gather random resources for you every so often
--Final perk upgrade: Stalker factory! You find your stalker a mate and the two produce children every so often (this would probably require a cap of 4 or 5), all of whom gather even more resources for you
Mechanical
(Improves the character's abilities to utilize natural resources and equipment)
-Chance to receive one extra resource when collecting minerals
-Faster scanning/repairing/laser cutting, etc.
-Brighter lights: Flashlights and headlights illuminate a greater surface area more intensely
-Efficient construction: equipment and base components constructed using titanium require one less titanium resource.
-Fuel efficiency: batteries and power cells lose charge at a slower rate
-Faster vehicles
-Final perk: Choice of resource when breaking limestone/sandstone/basalt rocks [i.e. when you break limestone, you can choose whether to gather titanium, copper, or lead]
--Final perk upgrade: Choice of any rock-based mineral when breaking any rock [i.e. when you break limestone, you can choose any of gold/diamond/lithium, etc.]
Would be happy to see any further suggestions!
TL;DR perks would be chill
Subnautica already expects us to upgrade our equipment and our bases in order to explore farther and survive more effectively. Adding perks based on experience earned would extend these upgrades to the character itself, ultimately allowing us to interact with the world in new ways. This would also make sense within the game world. As the character encounters new creatures, gathers resources, and constructs equipment, they naturally refine their skills and get better at doing those things, particularly after weeks and weeks in-game. The game should reflect this progression and tangibly reward players for these things.
What I'm envisioning is a straightforward, experience-based leveling system with perks of different ranks scaling up in magnitude (somewhat akin to the Mass Effect system). Experience could be earned by doing the following:
-Gathering resources
-Meters swum/traveled
-Constructing equipment/bases
-Consuming food/water/first aid
-Scanning flora/fauna
-New biomes discovered/set pieces
Obviously since these are all things the player will do anyway, experience earned would have to be relatively low to discourage outright level grinding. To illustrate how this would balance, in order to progress to level 2, let's say you'd have to earn 500xp, of which you could gain 10xp per 1km travelled, 1xp per resource gathered (perhaps rarer resources yield 3 or 5xp), 20xp for scanning (this allows lower levels to progress quickly, since scanning can only be done once per plant/animal), etc., and 50xp for each new biome discovered (same rationale as scanning).
As for the perk tree, I'm thinking it would break down into three categories: Personal, Biological, and Mechanical. Most of the perks would be basic upgrades which increase in ranks, but the final perk in the group would add a serious benefit (along with an upgrade) and would therefore be very costly. Some ideas I've had for each, in the rough order of progression:
Personal
(Improves the character's abilities to survive in the hostile aquatic environment)
-O2, Health, Food, and Water meters increase [as the character adapts to the new environment, they get better at holding their breath, going longer without food, etc.; these would be about 5 points improvement per level]
-Food meter over a certain percentage regenerates health [at this point I think it's already at 80%, so maybe the ranks could improve to 50%/20%]
-Faster swimming/walking [seriously, after living in the ocean for several months I should basically be Michael Phelps]
-Crush depth for swimming [not sure if this is in the works, but I'd think a baseline of 500m, increasing 250m per rank]
-Final perk: Upon depletion of O2, Health meter depletes at high rate prior to dying [essentially extending greatly the length the character can stay submerged]
--Final perk upgrade: Food and Water meters decline in succession once Health drops to 1 [essentially extending both O2 and health]
Biological
(Improves the character's abilities with the planet's flora and fauna)
-Chance to receive one extra resource when harvesting plants
-Better food/water/health when consuming
-Friendly fish: As fish in the environment become more used to your presence, they treat you as one of their own. This would be a higher-cost, ranked perk that would improve your relationship with herbivorous fish qualitatively rather than quantitatively:
--Rank 1: Fish are less likely to swim away from you when you try to catch them
--Rank 2: Some Garryfish in the area flock toward you, creating a protective barrier to distract predators -- but the fish swim away when you leave the biome or try to catch one of them
--Rank 3: Various herbivorous fish flock toward you, and they'll even let you catch them
-Final perk: Stalker pet! You are now able to entice a stalker to live near your base. Provided you give it a good home and feed it every now and then, your stalker will be friendly and gather random resources for you every so often
--Final perk upgrade: Stalker factory! You find your stalker a mate and the two produce children every so often (this would probably require a cap of 4 or 5), all of whom gather even more resources for you
Mechanical
(Improves the character's abilities to utilize natural resources and equipment)
-Chance to receive one extra resource when collecting minerals
-Faster scanning/repairing/laser cutting, etc.
-Brighter lights: Flashlights and headlights illuminate a greater surface area more intensely
-Efficient construction: equipment and base components constructed using titanium require one less titanium resource.
-Fuel efficiency: batteries and power cells lose charge at a slower rate
-Faster vehicles
-Final perk: Choice of resource when breaking limestone/sandstone/basalt rocks [i.e. when you break limestone, you can choose whether to gather titanium, copper, or lead]
--Final perk upgrade: Choice of any rock-based mineral when breaking any rock [i.e. when you break limestone, you can choose any of gold/diamond/lithium, etc.]
Would be happy to see any further suggestions!
TL;DR perks would be chill
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Edit: Also, welcome to the forum!