Gameplay at the Start
CAPSHAW
Nevada Join Date: 2016-09-29 Member: 222692Members
Nevada Join Date: 2016-09-29 Member: 222692Members
Your ship was just struck by an energy pulse, and you managed to safely get out. You are now floating in a (relatively) working escape pod. The Aurora is about to blow up. What exactly makes you want to jump in the water straight away? I like the way the trailer did it, but I think it could be more creative. Like give us reasons specifically to jump in the water and start grinding for materials.
Comments
Realistically, there are only a handful of outcomes, and only one keeps you in the pod:
-Check out fabricator > Need materials to make stuff > Get in water
-This is boring > Nothing in the pod works > Get in water
-Am I the only survivor? > No comms > Get in water
-I need food and water > Not much in here > Get in water
-What kind of planet am I on? > Can't tell in here > Get in water
-I give up > I want to just die here > Stay in pod
That or he gets bored
In a real life situation, I suspect someone might wait a day or two, conserving their rations so there's some left over when they venture out. As there's not point risking your neck in possibly hostile waters when you don't know how many survived, (if hundreds survived, with Alterra tech intact, you could expect rescue to arrive via Cyclops or a comparably invincible rescue juggernaut in short order). The counter to that is that the Comm Relay doesn't work. However, the homing signal for the pod does, and the Sunbeam was able to pick up your PDA signature from low orbit (maybe a bit lower), and that PDA was working fine, so... logically, wait a day for rescue, I'd think.
It'd be cool to have a submersible & low-flying scout drone with a camera (let's say it hovers & dives up/down to 15m above & below surface) included with the rescue pod, with a range of say 100m. Useful for scoping out the are before deciding it's safe to disembark.
"days"
Exactly, and there's the ultimate compelling reason. You have enough food and water for a couple days, tops. After that, your choices become swim or starve.
But at the end of the day -- is this really a problem? Do people really need to be told to get in the water? Not really. In Myst, you didn't just stand on the dock, in Morrowind you didn't just stay in the tax office, and in Half-Life you didn't curl into a ball in the blown-out spectrometer chamber and wait for death, did you? No. You wanted to see what the rest of the game had, so out you went. And in the few games that give you an explicit reason to move your keister, it's almost always "move or die," and that's why there's so little in the way of food and water in the pod.
It's not like there's even a message in the game saying "Stay in your pod and wait for rescue" or anything.