just a few DLC Ideas and game tweaks

Creature behavior and evolutionary biome concepts

When playing subnautica I was blown away by the detail and the amazing visuals of the various detailed and diverse biomes but a few things stuck out to me, namely some of the creatures behaviors and a slight incongruity some of them had with the biomes they inhabit. It’s a habit of mine to try to guess at the evolutionary biology behind the adaptations of fantasy (or scifi) creatures and their behaviors, and I have a few suggestions about how to alter some of the creatures biomes and make some of the creatures behaviors seem more natural and realistic (at least to me), namely these changes would involve the Reaper, crabsquid, crashfish, cavecrawlers, floaters, and stalkers, I also have an idea regarding the cuddle fish.

First the reaper: The data log entry says that the reaper eats basically everything which seems to indicate that the reaper is hunting the player in a predatory fashion, this makes sense however I can’t help but feel that there should be more to it than that. The large mandibles on its face (while likely implemented for the cool visuals of grabbing the player/sea moth) and the way it sometimes attempts to crack open the sea moth seem indicate an evolutionary history where its primary prey would be roughly the same size as the sea moth and may have a hard shell, this leads me to think that there should be a prey creature implemented that would help explain this behavior; perhaps a sea turtle or clam like shelled creature with a shape similar to the sea moth that the reaper can grab onto and crack open before pulling the soft insides into its mouth, in a way similar to how it eats the player. Personally I would like to see a fish shaped similar to the sea moth with jets in the back (similar to the reefbacks) and maybe a bone plate instead of glass on it’s head that could ram the player or the sea moth. I feel like this would not only help explain the reaper’s attack pattern, but also create a greater sense of immersion, I love to feel like the world would exist without me being a part of it and I think this would help a bit. Furthermore I also think that the reaper should be given a native biome, this is something many of the creatures in subnautica have that the reaper doesn't seem to. It would need a biome that would help explain its biology. Personally I would go for the craigfield as the many outcroppings would explain its serpentine body, as it would need to be flexible maneuver between them (though I understand this could be difficult to program due to its size). The sparseness would also explain its tendencies to consume anything it comes in contact with and the proximity to the aurora could explain why the reapers are found there investigating it, after their echolocation, hearing or sense of smell, picked up the survivors that might be seen as easy prey.

Second the Crab squid: this creature’s behaviors and biomes make sense to me, but some of its attributes don’t, specifically the E.M.P. While the data logs say that it developed the E.M.P. to defend itself against predators using electrical hunting mechanisms, the only place it and ampeels occur together is in the blood kelp zone, with far more ampeels seeming to live in the bulb zone, and this creates incongruencies in the data. While not a problem for the ampeels as it can be assumed that the ones living in the bulb zone found another type of prey (which also makes sense due to their size compared to the crab squid) that leaves the crab squid without a common predator that uses electricity to hunt. Thus I would suggest the implementation of a new crabsquid predator which due to the crabsquid’s size should likely be a bit bigger than the ampeel anyway, thus I suggest that you recycle your idea for the sandwort and create a new creature, one that uses electricity to stun its prey and primarily feeds on the crabsquid, this would fix this incongruences in the data and offer another challenge to the player in some of the more difficult areas. Due to the crabsquid’s attraction to light this predator could be something like an angler fish, or an ambush predator similar to the crabsnakes, that would hunt by luring the crabsquid in with a glowing lure and tazing it before stretching out from a cave or hole to drag it inside. The lure would make them somewhat easier for the player to avoid and their behavior would also explain the crabsquid’s use of an E.M.P. as a deterrent while still allowing them to be preyed upon, as the timing of the predator would play a major role as to wether or not it catches the crabsquid.


Third Crashfish, cave crawlers and Floaters: I’m including these together because the idea I have addresses all of them. Crashfish and Floaters currently both live in the safe shallows, which is something that never really made sense to me as there are few predators in the safe shallows that Crashfish would have to defend against and I believe the Floaters would likely want to live in a place with a large quantity of (rock) debris that they could latch onto for reasons I’ll explain in a minute. As there is little data about floaters thus far, and they can grow to an incredible size I've developed a theory as to why they attach to things, why they would want a place with a lot of rocks and how the large floaters come to be. my theory is that the main creature (the pink one) latches onto rocks and breaks down mineral deposits in them, converting these base minerals into a material that promotes the growth of the secondary mesh of microorganisms that surrounds it by providing them food, these microorganisms then produce both helium and a waste product that is secreted through the outer membrane of the creature that promotes the growth of a type of algae that grows on the surface of the rock the floater is attached to, which in turn feeds the main pink creature and helps facilitate the breaking down of the minerals in the rock, creating a sort of closed micro ecosystem that can last for thousands of years allowing the floaters to grow to a massive size. They float because they have evolved to bring this rock dwelling algae as close to the surface as possible so that it can grow better due to the abundance of sunlight. This would explain why some are found in the safe biome however due to their ability to float it would be more likely that they would want to propagate in an area with as many rock debris as they can find. This is why I would suggest the implementation of an entirely new biome. This new biome would be a fairly barren one inside a crater beneath the floater island (which may have to be moved due to it currently being over the grand reef) with small floater islands between it and the large floater island. The biome would consist of a large field of loose rock of various sizes and smashed up terrain, with an abundance of caves along the edges of the crater along with smaller caves with wide rocky plains in between. The biome would also be dotted with huge pillars of stone that possibly fell from the floater island above. However just the floaters wouldn't enough to justify an entirely new biome by themselves, which is why I would move crash fish here as well, putting them in the caves that surround the edges of the crater. Most importantly I would also add the previously scrapped Rockpuncher. While I know terraforming is no longer implemented I believe giving the Rockpunchers alone a limited ability to due so would be well worth it, as rocks falling from the floater island above could give them plenty of things to smash while helping explain the armored shells of the biome’s fauna, this large crab species would basically make this biome, as it hitting rock pillars or the walls of the craters would explain all the debris for the floaters, as well as provide the biome with a sense of danger, plus the almost cinematic image of them pulverizing a large pillar of rock would just be awesome. I know you might be worried about them making too many alterations to the terrain, or escaping beyond the edges or running out of things to smash but making them fiercely territorial and having rocks constantly fall from the floater island above would fix that as they could smash the falling rocks of various sizes and fist fight each other. Furthermore there would be a perfect justification for the crashfish to inhabit the numerous caves throughout the biome as they would have evolved to defend their homes against any Rocksmashers that got to close, using their explosive properties to penetrate the armor of the Rocksmashers, and driving them away, effectively corralling the rocksmashers into their designated biome. This could also open the path for a larger version of the Crashfish that could pose a threat to the cyclops, or a communal sulfur plant that houses numerous crashfish, something that is somewhat alluded to in the crashfish's data entry. This biome could also provide a perfect and logical home to cave crawlers as opposed to them only appearing on the surface (with the exception of the blood crawlers) which doesn't make sense for a planet mostly consisting of water. In fact the whole biome could be a haven for various armored creatures or crustaceans, including creatures such as the bone shark which could prey on the cave crawlers as well as some new small armored fish similar to a lobster that the player could eat.

Fourth stalkers: for me the stalkers have a slight behavioral issue but it’s only a small one and not that important to fix. My problem is how they seem to only go after debris, and the way they throw it around without any purpose. They seem to prioritize debris which wouldn’t be present in their original ecosystem, which wouldn't make sense unless they exhibit behaviors similar to a bower bird. Bower birds collect objects of a specific color or make up, in order to create a sort of garden to attract a mate this could easily be what the stalkers are doing, instead of having them only pick up scrap and then drop it, they could perhaps instead collect them all into a single area that acts as their nest (eggs could be found here as well). furthermore you could have certain stalkers collect a specific mineral, or other shiny objects instead of debris, so that each nest is different, the only problem this might pose is that it might make it too easy for the player to collect things but this could counteracted by having the stalkers live in communities with multiple contributing to the same pile and certain “sentinel” stalkers that circle it with out leaving. You could also add a trigger so that if a player attempts to take anything from the pile all the nearby stalkers will attack in mass, this could add another element of risk vs. reward to the game.

Fifth and finally the cuddle fish: while adorable and a great pet I have an idea for how the cuddle fish could become a bigger part of the game, and that is by giving it a backstory as a creation of the precursors to act as a genetic base for the creation of their own leviathans for the study of the Carar (this would necessitate relocating the egg to the disease research facility however). This could be taken advantage of by the player through the use of the transfuser (which could be reintroduced into the game as precursor tech), which could allow the player to customize their cuddle fish to be more useful in hunting (allowing for attack commands), collecting items (tell it what to fetch in a certain area or have it pick up a specific mineral when you move close enough to it), defense (by telling it to act as a look out and make a certain noise when a hostile predator comes within range), battle (by engaging a predator when it comes into range) or even as a biological mount allowing you to ride it increasing your speed with out making noise or having to use batteries or power cells (though you may have to feed it), this could be accomplished by infusing the cuttlefish with different DNA in order to cause it to exhibit different traits, perhaps having its unique biology allow it to revert back to its original form either after a certain time period or if given some kind of command to reset it’s DNA, perhaps you could even extract traits from the bones of the dead colossal leviathans, and in the end when you leave you can leave it as a Cuddlefish Leviathan and the new apex predator of 4546B