Some changes I think the vehicles need.
Zehm
England Join Date: 2017-05-20 Member: 230647Members
England Join Date: 2017-05-20 Member: 230647Members
The cyclops seems like it should be your main method of diving into the deep, however it gets overshadowed by the other two vehicles. I'm not suggesting making changes to the Cyclops, but rather the other vehicles.
The Seamoth can dive all the way to the Lost River Tree when fully upgraded. It gets there faster and it's superior manoeuvrability makes avoiding enemies, navigation, and resource spotting much simpler. That means that the entire game world, with the exception of the two Lava Zones, is the domain of the Seamoth. That's far too great an operational range for what should be a light scout craft. I felt the first depth upgrade provided a good dive range, extending my reach to be able to explore the Mushroom Forest, Jellyshroom Cave, and Floating Islands.
The Prawn Suit can go everywhere, and despite it's reliance solid footing, I never had any issues navigating with it except for climbing out of the Blood Trench, and getting stuck at the bottom of the Floating Islands. When going to the Lava Zone, it was easier to pack a spare lunch and walk from the Safe Shallows all the way to the final area of the game in the Prawn than it was to navigate the Cyclops there.
Basically both of the other two craft have a problem with operational range. The Seamoth can go too deep. The Prawn can go too wide.
I think that both of these issues can be fixed by having a limited oxygen supply for the vehicles. As the Cyclops is basically a limited, moving, base of operations, it should be able to produce and refill oxygen for the other craft. Moon pools should also be able to refill oxygen. The Seamoth should be able to refill by visiting the surface so it can scout wide independently, but not deep. I'm not opposed to the Seamoth being able to survive at extreme depths, that way it can still be loaded in the Cyclops as a scout vehicle, but with no means to refill its oxygen it'll need support to operate at depths. This will make exploring the Jellyshroom Cave a more dangerous experience as you'll need to keep note of where the exit is, or spend resources building a forward base to explore it safely. As a side note, because navigating the Jellyshrooms would be an actual feat this way, the first Purple Key should be found down there, instead of right outside the door to the facility. Keep the Floating Island key though so Jellyshroom exploration isn't mandatory.
The Prawn feels like it should have a very short operational range - "Don't lose sight the Cyclops" short. Give it a very limited air and have it be refilled by inserting airtanks. Due to the large size of them, you won't be able to carry many spares, forcing you to either have to make short trips back to base/cyclops to pick up new ones, sacrifice inventory space to roam further. or spend resources to build the higher capacity tanks. There should be a construable tank filler to accompany this so the tanks are reusable. This way the prawn becomes a mining vehicle, or a defensive measure to fight off hostile creatures. Oh... and make the upgrades/inventory panels accessible from the Cyclops dock so you don't have to muck around so much.
The Seamoth can dive all the way to the Lost River Tree when fully upgraded. It gets there faster and it's superior manoeuvrability makes avoiding enemies, navigation, and resource spotting much simpler. That means that the entire game world, with the exception of the two Lava Zones, is the domain of the Seamoth. That's far too great an operational range for what should be a light scout craft. I felt the first depth upgrade provided a good dive range, extending my reach to be able to explore the Mushroom Forest, Jellyshroom Cave, and Floating Islands.
The Prawn Suit can go everywhere, and despite it's reliance solid footing, I never had any issues navigating with it except for climbing out of the Blood Trench, and getting stuck at the bottom of the Floating Islands. When going to the Lava Zone, it was easier to pack a spare lunch and walk from the Safe Shallows all the way to the final area of the game in the Prawn than it was to navigate the Cyclops there.
Basically both of the other two craft have a problem with operational range. The Seamoth can go too deep. The Prawn can go too wide.
I think that both of these issues can be fixed by having a limited oxygen supply for the vehicles. As the Cyclops is basically a limited, moving, base of operations, it should be able to produce and refill oxygen for the other craft. Moon pools should also be able to refill oxygen. The Seamoth should be able to refill by visiting the surface so it can scout wide independently, but not deep. I'm not opposed to the Seamoth being able to survive at extreme depths, that way it can still be loaded in the Cyclops as a scout vehicle, but with no means to refill its oxygen it'll need support to operate at depths. This will make exploring the Jellyshroom Cave a more dangerous experience as you'll need to keep note of where the exit is, or spend resources building a forward base to explore it safely. As a side note, because navigating the Jellyshrooms would be an actual feat this way, the first Purple Key should be found down there, instead of right outside the door to the facility. Keep the Floating Island key though so Jellyshroom exploration isn't mandatory.
The Prawn feels like it should have a very short operational range - "Don't lose sight the Cyclops" short. Give it a very limited air and have it be refilled by inserting airtanks. Due to the large size of them, you won't be able to carry many spares, forcing you to either have to make short trips back to base/cyclops to pick up new ones, sacrifice inventory space to roam further. or spend resources to build the higher capacity tanks. There should be a construable tank filler to accompany this so the tanks are reusable. This way the prawn becomes a mining vehicle, or a defensive measure to fight off hostile creatures. Oh... and make the upgrades/inventory panels accessible from the Cyclops dock so you don't have to muck around so much.
Comments
Anyway, the cyclops is currently used constantly to move the PRAWN around. Most people would rather use it than walk to a deep area and then have to use extreme caution and effort getting it out. Killing its O2 production and giving it low air capacity is a terrible idea. This will make using it a hassle. It's already not a required item to finish the game, this would make most people opt toward skipping it altogether or after a short test run. As for the seamoth, it would be easier just to lower the maximum diving depth to 700m or so.
I disagree. The Prawn is much easier to get around in than the Cyclops. You don't have to worry about enemies. It's easy to repair. You can go everywhere in it. Even the steepest locations can be climbed with the grapple. There is no good reason to take the Cyclops into the depths when you have a Prawn, unless you are thinking about taking a lot of materials and a fabricator along to build a base. But why would you bother with a base? At the moment, as soon as you have a Prawn with the depth upgrades, you can do all three of the underwater Alien facilities in a single trip, open up the portals, and basically be done with the game. The only thing that might stop you is not having enough keys to open all the force-fields, forcing you to return and craft a few more. But that's a separate issue.
Here's an idea:
The PRAWN has O2 production via a built in power transmitter that receives power from the clops or a base with a power transmitter. Once it leaves that range, it starts to pull O2 from a reserve.
But still, until it's a necessary part of beating the game, why bother using it?
I do agree with changing the Seamoth's dive depth to about 700m to force people to use the clops more often.
While I suggest stored O² in submarines, it is necessary to keep the smaller subs capable of autonomous travel and exploration.
For starter because the Prawn is already very limited then because not being able to bail out in emergency and survive would kill players initiatives as much as centering everything on Energy do.
I wouldn't defend limiting the Seamoth to 700m either, Cyclops doesn't need help to be used often (in fact you are more likely to use one than build base).
In 1.0 the rocket will require kyanite to build and also you need ion crystals to get power cores and not much ion crystals are in the entire map leaving you with the fabricator at the prison
Explain to me how you beat a game that is in EA that is can't beat let.
Haha I beat it as much as you can at the moment, hatching the little emperors