My personal *opinion* on how subs should progress in SN (ordered by size/cost):
Seamoth: Small, maneuverable sub that we all know and love. Powered via a single power cell.
A medium sized, ultra-fast experimental bioreactor-powered? submarine for adventuring. Keeping with the tradition of naming things after constellations/mythology, how about we name this the Phoenix.
Cyclops: The fairly large submarine powered by 6 power cells that we all know and love.
Draconis: Carries a larger version of the Nuclear reactor (up to 8 fuel rods). The end-game content that acts as a massive, mobile base (moves fairly slow, though not enough to be annoyingly slow). Holds 4 seamoths/exosuits, and features a full map room (minus the camera drones), and has room for up to 10? upgrades.
Draconis upgrades:
Map room camera drone
Speed increase
Torpedo: a real torpedo this time. The Draconis will have two silos, holding eight of these. Only one of these modifications can be used on a Draconis.
Armor: When a single one of these modules is engaged, it adds visible armoring to the sub. Subsequent modules simply increase the strength.
A module that functions as a more powerful version of the seamoth perimeter defense system.
My personal *opinion* on how subs should progress in SN (ordered by size/cost):
Seamoth: Small, maneuverable sub that we all know and love. Powered via a single power cell.
A medium sized, ultra-fast experimental bioreactor-powered? submarine for adventuring. Keeping with the tradition of naming things after constellations/mythology, how about we name this the Phoenix.
Cyclops: The fairly large submarine powered by 6 power cells that we all know and love.
Draconis: Carries a larger version of the Nuclear reactor (up to 8 fuel rods). The end-game content that acts as a massive, mobile base (moves fairly slow, though not enough to be annoyingly slow). Holds 4 seamoths/exosuits, and features a full map room (minus the camera drones), and has room for up to 10? upgrades.
Draconis upgrades:
Map room camera drone
Speed increase
Torpedo: a real torpedo this time. The Draconis will have two silos, holding eight of these. Only one of these modifications can be used on a Draconis.
Armor: When a single one of these modules is engaged, it adds visible armoring to the sub. Subsequent modules simply increase the strength.
A module that functions as a more powerful version of the seamoth perimeter defense system.
PLEASE NOTE THAT THIS IS PURELY MY OPINION.
Can it hold one of each of the other subs(ie seamoth docked in cyclops docked in draconis, with exosuit also docked in draconis.)
OMFG! WHAT IF THIS COULD BE A MODEL FOR THE DEGASSI SURVIVOR SHIP! OMG THAT WOULD BE AWESOME! Finding this beast underwater scrapped, taken apart, rusty. UUUghgh Just so cool! this is why i love subnautica!
OMFG! WHAT IF THIS COULD BE A MODEL FOR THE DEGASSI SURVIVOR SHIP! OMG THAT WOULD BE AWESOME! Finding this beast underwater scrapped, taken apart, rusty. UUUghgh Just so cool! this is why i love subnautica!
It's just concept art for a larger sub, as they originally planned to have alot more subs but quickly realized how difficult that would be.
As beautiful and amazing as it is, I dont see a need for it. I'm not even making a cyclops in my current game, as in my last game it felt unnecessary, clunky, slow, and all but invulnerable. On top of this it made the map seem relatively SMALL (the bigger the ship, the smaller the map becomes). A ship as big as the draconis would really require a procedurally generated world to have a purpose, which again, as cool as it could be, is outside of the design scope of the game as it stands.
It's pretty, but as a whole unnecessary, and would require a massive amount of effort to implement that would be better spent elsewhere.
Yeah I do not see the point of larger subs really. Mater of fact I do not see a reason for a medium-sized one either. It is hards to navigate as is, I still need to find a way to get to the Inactive Lava Zone without hearing that collision beep on my Cyclops. The Cyclops works as a milestone, and a bigger milestone like this would be used for nothing but drive around the grassy plateaus or close to the surface as only there is enough room to maneuver.
I do not like the Cyclops design really, but I respect the art direction behind it. As for now everything just neatly intertwines and stuff especially biomes are balanced to get around either without a vehicle, with the Seamoth or the Cyclops. Adding other vehicles would just screw some of the balance.
Could always add the option to customize the look of the Cyclops instead of adding a new sub or have crucial upgrades "add" to it, making the cyclops bigger in some way like say hull strength and HP... a mobile map/scanner room that adds to the conning tower, adding in drones to help with repairs or defense mechanism. Or dare I say help with gathering specific resource? Of course the limits of these drones is that the predators can attack em and they can drain the power a lot... another option to upgrading the cyclops that would make it bigger is upgrading its power from power cells to nuclear reactor?
The possibility is endless without actually adding a sub that would render the cyclops obsolete. To me the idea behind upgrading the Cyclops physically long terms as we get more experienced piloting it make sense. Especially now that we got that building message saying it's normally piloted by 3 man crew, only the experienced should solo pilot it, lol.
However, all this is moot with the current biodomes as they seem to favor smaller exploration. So perhaps future biodomes that can accommodate and favor the larger sized cyclops or the concept Draconis sub.
So I guess I'm the only person who finds the Draconis extremely ugly then?
It looks like something I once found in my girlfriend's bedside drawer.
The Manta gets my vote. Much more beautiful, though the front is a bit of an eyesore.
Let's be honest though, the Seamoth is the prettiest option, followed by the Cyclops as is.
As far as practicality goes, I get everything done with the Seamoth.
Even the Cyclops is something I never find myself using (unless I need to go very deep) so it sits there doing nothing and breaking my immersion.
A game without useful torpedos needs no killer sub!
I also found out that the new Prawn suit is so powerful, it could operate in the lava caves without the cyclops. That is, until the Sea dragon arrives.
Just wow, I would love this submarine (Draconis), even if it should replace Cyclops. Im not sure why, but cyclops doesn´t fit for me in design language of subnautica (but its personal think of course), although Draconis is definetly how I would imagine it
OMFG! WHAT IF THIS COULD BE A MODEL FOR THE DEGASSI SURVIVOR SHIP! OMG THAT WOULD BE AWESOME! Finding this beast underwater scrapped, taken apart, rusty. UUUghgh Just so cool! this is why i love subnautica!
It could literally act as a mobile base you can build in. Like it or not, the Cyclops is too small to fit everything you need in it, but too big for practical exploration.
That art has always been beautiful, and the idea of exploring inside that seemingly enormous ship is also very exciting. But there's truth to the assertion that we don't really need it for anything. All of the super-deep areas in the game are in caverns juuuuuust barely big enough at the opening to fit the Cyclops, so something twice that size isn't going down there, unfortunately.
That said, the fact that it is so sexy, looks very large and like it has a comfy inside, and the fact that it looks semi-conspicuously armed what with suggestive potential torpedo tube doors and no observation port in the bow, it's definitely very exciting.
At the absolute minimum I hope one of the Devs eventually has time to put up a post somewhere about what it was intended for and why it was cut. Was it just a pre-Cyclops concept? Or was there more to it?
Doubt we're gonna get a larger sub, I mean if we were it'd be on the backlog for upcoming content. If anything if we were to get a larger sub they whole game world would need to be increased in size to compensate for the subs size. Who knows maybe the devs will reuse assets that aren't going to be used in this game in another? maybe there will be a Subnautica 2.
What I want to know is, if we can fabricate something as large as the Cyclops, why can't we just fabricate a spaceship to get off the planet? Not that I want to leave at this point. I have so much more to do to my base.
What I want to know is, if we can fabricate something as large as the Cyclops, why can't we just fabricate a spaceship to get off the planet? Not that I want to leave at this point. I have so much more to do to my base.
The obvious answer is "because you don't have a blueprint for it, and possibly don't have the proper resources on-world".
What I want to know is, if we can fabricate something as large as the Cyclops, why can't we just fabricate a spaceship to get off the planet? Not that I want to leave at this point. I have so much more to do to my base.
The obvious answer is "because you don't have a blueprint for it, and possibly don't have the proper resources on-world".
or the facilities to make said resources from basic ores and materials mined from the planet.
That looks like a sensible submarine design. It doesn't have those ginormous glass windows, which make zero sense when diving 1KM deep.
if it was player controlled, i'm guessing it would use cameras like Cyclops, but would have a sonar too?
depends on what material the glass is made out of, if it was made out of Aluminium oxynitride or ALON https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aluminium_oxynitride it could probably stand up to pressure a lot better than enameled glass. Although I haven't found much material on it on the internet to back that claim. I'm sure someone here could say or disprove otherwise.
The problem right now is mostly about the cyclops, first I don't like his design, I dont understand why the motor are in the upper section while we almost never use the bottom one, plus I don't get why to lower section is so small, and why it is designed to be the storage room while all the build items are in the top section.
Then, the cockpit is not really ergonomic, we don't see the stuff under our feets, the manta design seems to be more appropriate.
Finally, with the introduction of the prawn suit and the next updates introducing new biomes, it's like I have two choices : either i bring a suit, either I bring a seamoth, and none of them alone are really convenient to use in those depths.
I wish they would make a medium sub like the argo in Star citizen, able to carry some lockers and a seamoth or a suit, because navigating with the cyclops is not really funny since every other ways of moving have a free "vertical move".
Comments
Seamoth: Small, maneuverable sub that we all know and love. Powered via a single power cell.
A medium sized, ultra-fast experimental bioreactor-powered? submarine for adventuring. Keeping with the tradition of naming things after constellations/mythology, how about we name this the Phoenix.
Cyclops: The fairly large submarine powered by 6 power cells that we all know and love.
Draconis: Carries a larger version of the Nuclear reactor (up to 8 fuel rods). The end-game content that acts as a massive, mobile base (moves fairly slow, though not enough to be annoyingly slow). Holds 4 seamoths/exosuits, and features a full map room (minus the camera drones), and has room for up to 10? upgrades.
Draconis upgrades:
Map room camera drone
Speed increase
Torpedo: a real torpedo this time. The Draconis will have two silos, holding eight of these. Only one of these modifications can be used on a Draconis.
Armor: When a single one of these modules is engaged, it adds visible armoring to the sub. Subsequent modules simply increase the strength.
A module that functions as a more powerful version of the seamoth perimeter defense system.
PLEASE NOTE THAT THIS IS PURELY MY OPINION.
Can it hold one of each of the other subs(ie seamoth docked in cyclops docked in draconis, with exosuit also docked in draconis.)
It's pretty, but as a whole unnecessary, and would require a massive amount of effort to implement that would be better spent elsewhere.
I do not like the Cyclops design really, but I respect the art direction behind it. As for now everything just neatly intertwines and stuff especially biomes are balanced to get around either without a vehicle, with the Seamoth or the Cyclops. Adding other vehicles would just screw some of the balance.
The possibility is endless without actually adding a sub that would render the cyclops obsolete. To me the idea behind upgrading the Cyclops physically long terms as we get more experienced piloting it make sense. Especially now that we got that building message saying it's normally piloted by 3 man crew, only the experienced should solo pilot it, lol.
However, all this is moot with the current biodomes as they seem to favor smaller exploration. So perhaps future biodomes that can accommodate and favor the larger sized cyclops or the concept Draconis sub.
It looks like something I once found in my girlfriend's bedside drawer.
The Manta gets my vote. Much more beautiful, though the front is a bit of an eyesore.
Let's be honest though, the Seamoth is the prettiest option, followed by the Cyclops as is.
As far as practicality goes, I get everything done with the Seamoth.
Even the Cyclops is something I never find myself using (unless I need to go very deep) so it sits there doing nothing and breaking my immersion.
I also found out that the new Prawn suit is so powerful, it could operate in the lava caves without the cyclops. That is, until the Sea dragon arrives.
It could literally act as a mobile base you can build in. Like it or not, the Cyclops is too small to fit everything you need in it, but too big for practical exploration.
It would have been possible without them by making the terrain more subfriendly (caves etc).
So seamoth 300m, Cyclops 500m, Manta maybe 900m Draconis 1500m?
Like this it would have been reasonable and explainable for what we should build more then one sub.
Though it would be cool to get these lovable subs into our hands, no question about that.
That said, the fact that it is so sexy, looks very large and like it has a comfy inside, and the fact that it looks semi-conspicuously armed what with suggestive potential torpedo tube doors and no observation port in the bow, it's definitely very exciting.
At the absolute minimum I hope one of the Devs eventually has time to put up a post somewhere about what it was intended for and why it was cut. Was it just a pre-Cyclops concept? Or was there more to it?
The obvious answer is "because you don't have a blueprint for it, and possibly don't have the proper resources on-world".
or the facilities to make said resources from basic ores and materials mined from the planet.
if it was player controlled, i'm guessing it would use cameras like Cyclops, but would have a sonar too?
depends on what material the glass is made out of, if it was made out of Aluminium oxynitride or ALON https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aluminium_oxynitride it could probably stand up to pressure a lot better than enameled glass. Although I haven't found much material on it on the internet to back that claim. I'm sure someone here could say or disprove otherwise.
Then, the cockpit is not really ergonomic, we don't see the stuff under our feets, the manta design seems to be more appropriate.
Finally, with the introduction of the prawn suit and the next updates introducing new biomes, it's like I have two choices : either i bring a suit, either I bring a seamoth, and none of them alone are really convenient to use in those depths.
I wish they would make a medium sub like the argo in Star citizen, able to carry some lockers and a seamoth or a suit, because navigating with the cyclops is not really funny since every other ways of moving have a free "vertical move".