A better introduction with minimal changes needed
JakobWulfkind
Montana, US Join Date: 2019-02-28 Member: 251401Members
Montana, US Join Date: 2019-02-28 Member: 251401Members
The current beginning sequence doesn't really do a great job of conveying how serious Robin's situation is, since she simply watches a very well-behaved avalanche cover her base in snow and then ends up in the water while conveniently already in a wet suit, near several other bases that are still mostly intact. This doesn't really create any sort of tension like the first game did by shooting the player down and having them watch their ship explode nearby. So I'd like to propose the following tweaks:
I think that this would be relatively easy to set up, since it mostly would use existing assets and would only require a bit of dialog to be redone and a few cinematic sequences to be recoded, and it would go a long way towards restoring the original Subnautica's "alone on a hostile world" feeling while also adding a reasonable explanation for why Alterra isn't being particularly helpful.
- Robin makes it to her shelter before the avalanche hits, and is inside it during the impact. Lights go out, alarms go off, the bulkheads seal, and the sound of metal shearing is heard for several seconds before the module she's in suddenly inverts and is tipped into the water. The screen goes dark for a moment, then Robin wakes up to see water flooding the compartment. She has to grab a laser cutter and cut her way out, only to find that the base module is blocking her way out to the surface and she has to swim through the start tunnel to open water to get air.
- Following this, she only hears static on her radio. Her PDA directs her to the cargo rocket island, where she tries to repair the comms antenna but finds that an "unknown energy signature" is preventing both communication and rocket navigation.
- The emergency shelter gets dropped after one day, and contains a recorded message from Sam instructing her and Jeffreys (since Sam won't be sure who will find the pod or even who is alive) to find the source of the interference, which is coming from the underwater sanctuary in the twisty rope bridges. Possibly add some poignant dialog where Sam asks Jeffreys to please find her sister.
- The fragments that Robin finds are from the destruction of Alterra's bases by Al-An, and are made necessary by the interference causing her PDA to malfunction and lose a great deal of its survival blueprints (alternately, you could instead say that the PDA was accidentally loaded with blueprints for a desert planet, apologize for the inconvenience, and congratulate the player on locating an extremely large supply of water. Even funnier if you give that PDA a Texan accent)
- Upon accidentally downloading Al-An, the comm jamming goes away and Sam can talk to her again. Sam asks for biometrics because she's worried about her sister, but then becomes suspicious that Robin isn't actually Robin and is instead a Mongolian corporate spy when the biometrics come back weird. Al-An snarks about this, Robin snarks back, and the story can proceed from there.
I think that this would be relatively easy to set up, since it mostly would use existing assets and would only require a bit of dialog to be redone and a few cinematic sequences to be recoded, and it would go a long way towards restoring the original Subnautica's "alone on a hostile world" feeling while also adding a reasonable explanation for why Alterra isn't being particularly helpful.
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