Below Zero: Food/water management discussion
CptnHerp
Join Date: 2019-02-04 Member: 250418Members
Join Date: 2019-02-04 Member: 250418Members
First off I'll state that I enjoy survival games with hunger and thirst mechanics when they are done right.
With the original Subnautica respectively, I felt the need to eat/drink was too fast to counter the sheer overabundance of food/water sources and the ease of which to get them. This made eating and drinking feel more like a high maintenance chore than a survival mechanic.
You could plant one indoor growbed with Marblemelons and you were setup for the entirety of the game. If either food or water was getting low, just pick 4 or 5 from the growbed to replenish both food and water, then harvest enough seeds from the same grow bed to completely replant it. And the regrowth time is extremely fast. I had one growbed on the Cyclops acting as mobile base.
So to throw out some thoughts on making food and water more "enjoyable":
* Substantially lower the degradation time of food and water. Aka so we dont have to eat/drink so regularly.
* The ability to store fish alive made salting food redundant. Fish should quickly die and decompose if stored.
* Cooked food IMO spoiled way too fast. Maybe add cooked food storage eg refrigerator.
* I dont know if Marblemelon is in Below Zero, but farming this one plant just made eating and drinking redundant.
* Farming is far too fast and growth rates could be slowed substantially to counter Marblemelon if this or an equivalent is to remain in the game.
* I'd like to worry less about the sheer amount I need to eat/drink and have resources more scarce. Eg farming very slow but reliable and being able to over fish areas of the ocean but manage storage etc.
How do others feel about this?
With the original Subnautica respectively, I felt the need to eat/drink was too fast to counter the sheer overabundance of food/water sources and the ease of which to get them. This made eating and drinking feel more like a high maintenance chore than a survival mechanic.
You could plant one indoor growbed with Marblemelons and you were setup for the entirety of the game. If either food or water was getting low, just pick 4 or 5 from the growbed to replenish both food and water, then harvest enough seeds from the same grow bed to completely replant it. And the regrowth time is extremely fast. I had one growbed on the Cyclops acting as mobile base.
So to throw out some thoughts on making food and water more "enjoyable":
* Substantially lower the degradation time of food and water. Aka so we dont have to eat/drink so regularly.
* The ability to store fish alive made salting food redundant. Fish should quickly die and decompose if stored.
* Cooked food IMO spoiled way too fast. Maybe add cooked food storage eg refrigerator.
* I dont know if Marblemelon is in Below Zero, but farming this one plant just made eating and drinking redundant.
* Farming is far too fast and growth rates could be slowed substantially to counter Marblemelon if this or an equivalent is to remain in the game.
* I'd like to worry less about the sheer amount I need to eat/drink and have resources more scarce. Eg farming very slow but reliable and being able to over fish areas of the ocean but manage storage etc.
How do others feel about this?
Comments
ourselves.
About the Marblemelon, In the original Subnautica I had 3 marblemelon plants and one tree of some kind in my Cyclops which allowed me to stay underwater for in game weeks at a time.
This would not have been possible without the fast growing time. (I think increasing the time to grow by 1.5x wouldn't compromise that). And to supplement the lack of those plants we
would need to have either more fish that we can eat (at all depths). OR a better way to store fish and breed fish. I think a fair option would be to be able to add a fish tank to Below Zero's
version of the Cyclops and be able to add a water purifier too.
I agree that marblemelons made food and water trivial. I did struggle a bit in the depths when I ran out of water and had to hunt fish, until I built my waystation, but yeah, marblemelons on tap all the time is silly.
Much slower day/night cycle, and slower food and water consumption would have been nice.
For me, the management/stress of managing food/water was something that was great early game but I was very glad that later on it was just a minor nuisance than a major stress point. There was enough to juggle with the more aggressive animals and heat/depth management. Below Zero will be adding the "try not to freeze" eventually which looks to be one more stat to monitor and manage. Once you get established it makes sense that food and water isn't that much of an issue. Remember, this time around we are NOT stranded on the planet, struggling to survive and escape. It makes sense that certain aspects are a bit 'easier'.
One thing I always wanted to find was more food recipes. A way to combine food items to make meals that are more balanced. Mix a fish and some Creepvine for something like a kelp salad. Sub1 you were in serious emergency mode so it kinda made sense, but really it would be nice to have something like a futuristic camping stove to make better meals.
Same. I hope the devs will add in at least one other drink source next update. Or if nothing else, add bladderfishes to more areas for the time being so I'm not forced back to the starter area every few bottles.
As for the topic at hand, I disagree the food and drink gauges go down too fast, but I do agree with all the rest. That is, while I agree those parameters shouldn't hold you back from adventuring, they shouldn't be a triviality either (as fast as they do). Changes I think I'd like to see are:
We need plant-based options. I don't want to live off kelp forever.
And given the technology at our disposal in these games, food and water really shouldn't be that difficult to obtain.
Cheers.
We're probs on the same page there. I'm not vegetarian irl, but conscious of my meat consumption and I've asked in the past for a feasible way to play herbivore in SN. Especially some bean-type plant with the options to make soy milk and tahu/tofu would be nice.
I don't think slower growth times would have to be a problem. At most for the Cyclops with its limited space, but that's where the wish to keep veggies edible for longer with ambergris and a fridge comes in. Plus you can always make a planter outpost.
Thanks.
Not ambergris, though if we have to kill animals to obtain it.
Cheers.
Ambergris does not require dead whales. Ambergris leaves the body naturally, usually through the front. The "historical romance" of ambergris is that it can be found drifting around on its own and some lucky chap finds it washed up on shore one day. Of course, this led to unsavory types going for the "kill the goose that lays the golden eggs" route, which is what got ambergris its bad rep. (Or maybe you're thinking of spermaceti, which does demand dead whales.)
Irl, ambergris is rare, but this is a game about an ocean planet with whale-like aliens. They can be made to vomit up enough of the stuff that there won't be any wanting.