Navigation & Orienteering

AltaziAltazi Join Date: 2019-01-16 Member: 248807Members
I would like to hear from other players how they manage to navigate the world of Subnautica. Here are the possible methods I see:

1. Using the F1 key (on PC, not sure about consoles) and seeing the developer coordinates X (E-W), Depth, Y (N-S), but that has a 'cheat-y' feel to it for me.

2. You can craft a compass for the HUD, and get low-resolution directional information, but that is relatively useless unless you maintain an out-of-game chart showing directions and distances to POIs.

3. Using the compass with waypoint items, e.g., go NNE until you reach the large rock stack with small rocks with floaters near the top. Again, this pretty much needs an out-of-game chart to track the navigation paths.

4. Just zipping around in a semi-random fashion and leaving beacons at POIs, but managing the beacon list gets to be a bit daunting.

Are there other methods not listed above? If so, I'd love to hear about them.

I would like to see some sort of in-game navigation aid. At the very least, once you discover a POI, it could let you log directions and distances from a reference point and place it in a list, and show a destination target in the HUD. Or, a high-resolution zoomable map with user annotations.

Comments

  • MaxAstroMaxAstro Join Date: 2005-07-07 Member: 55451Members
    I always managed with a combination of beacons, compass, and landmarks. "Go to this beacon, head north until you see the funny rock, the cave entrance is right below there". I also never travel anywhere without at least two beacons on my person at all times.

    It works pretty well; I never get lost and rarely get disoriented.

    Although I do wish it was possible to get properly disoriented - I've long wanted six degree free look so that you could get turned upside down if you weren't careful.
  • layzorclayzorc Join Date: 2011-06-18 Member: 105198Members
    MaxAstro wrote: »
    beacons, compass, and landmarks. "

    This!

    Also the depth gauge can tell you which part of the cave you are in.

    I noticed that while exploring the edges of biomes and the edge of the world I would start to swim in circles. I started to force myself to watch the compass and take note when the edge of the world/biome would change direction. It was because the edges jut out into peninsulas and I was too afraid to swim off the edge of the map so I kept getting turned around when the peninsula makes a U shape back into the world. It pretty awesome and if you don't take note of these kinds of things you can easily swim in circles and not even know it due to the fact you can't see very far into the distance. A map would help one remember where those kinds of areas are otherwise you have to memorize them.

  • DrownedOutDrownedOut Habitat Join Date: 2016-05-26 Member: 217559Members
    Everything that is directly available. Landmarks, compass, depth gauge, and any signals that get made for me. The beacon is a nifty tool, but just not for me (with current gameplay, at least).

    Unfortunately, it remains somehow not enough to prevent me from wandering into the void when I'm driving the Cyclops. That... still goes awry on occasion.
  • IsenferIsenfer Join Date: 2019-02-07 Member: 250605Members
    Altazi wrote: »
    I would like to hear from other players how they manage to navigate the world of Subnautica.
    Are there other methods not listed above? If so, I'd love to hear about them.

    I would like to see some sort of in-game navigation aid. At the very least, once you discover a POI, it could let you log directions and distances from a reference point and place it in a list, and show a destination target in the HUD. Or, a high-resolution zoomable map with user annotations.
    I have thalassphobia.
    I was so scared of anything outside of the Kelp Forests that I shook, physically, when playing the game- and at times would have to get my friend to take me to the bottom or top of the ocean for a particular zone due to ocean-fog and darkness preventing me from seeing the bottom.

    I was so scared, in fact, that I memorized my entire path throughout Subnautica.
    I know my exact path to and from every single biome down to a T- but anything NOT within my line-of-sight of that initial path, is entirely unknown to me.

    At one point, I needed scrap metal and went all the way across the map to a spot I knew there was one (side of the cliffs next to the massive wreck in the south-western plateaus).

    So my answer is: memorizing the map.
  • QuafferQuaffer Broadview Heights Ohio Join Date: 2018-12-24 Member: 246947Members
    edited February 2019
    If you're a purist;
    Get the compass. Get the beacon fragments.
    Make beacons.
    Start at life pod 5. Swim due West. At 500 meters from lifepod drop a beacon. Name it West 500.
    Etc.

    If you are not a purist press F1. Swim to the origin, (0,0,0). Drop a beacon. Name it Origin. Repeat as in above relative to purists.

    Enjoy.
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