Ideas for things you want to craft

FlayraFlayra Game Director, Unknown Worlds EntertainmentSan Francisco Join Date: 2002-01-22 Member: 3Super Administrators, NS2 Developer, Subnautica Developer
Hey everyone,

I'd love to have some ideas for simple things you could craft. These would tend to me smaller, numerical upgrades and enhancements that would ideally change how you play.

You could "research" an ingredient that came from the environment: creature, plant, DNA sample, creature bone, seed, creature corpse or chemical sample (from acid pool, blood cloud), which would then unlock something new you could craft: an injectable serum, an upgraded or changed version of a submersible, equipment, or even software module.

Here are some examples:
- Researching a red cluster of "healgrass" to create a healing serum
- Studying our "Mesmer" (an creature that hypnotizes its prey with scintillating colors) to create a dive suit that can take on the surface attributes near you, as camouflage
- Studying a Holefish to research a metal that is just as strong but lighter (less mass)
- Studying Peepers (or their eyes?) to see better in foggy areas
- Studying a heat-sensing fish to make a serum or HUD that lets you see heat in your environment

I'd love to use this thread as a brainstorm. Any and all ideas welcome - don't censor yourself, just riff on some crazy ideas. Please don't critique or comment on other people's ideas. Just be inspired and write your own!
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Comments

  • FlayraFlayra Game Director, Unknown Worlds Entertainment San Francisco Join Date: 2002-01-22 Member: 3Super Administrators, NS2 Developer, Subnautica Developer
    Note: I fully understand that most of you don't know much about the game at the moment, but alas. I wanted to make this conversation public to get as much feedback as possible. It will become much more relevant to the public very soon. :smiley:
  • InsaneInsane Anomaly Join Date: 2002-05-13 Member: 605Members, Super Administrators, Forum Admins, NS1 Playtester, Forum Moderators, NS2 Developer, Constellation, NS2 Playtester, Squad Five Blue, NS2 Map Tester, Subnautica Developer, Pistachionauts, Future Perfect Developer
    I should probably actually play the latest build before I go too crazy here but I wanted to write it down while it was still in my head - movement enhancements!

    Movement outside your sub is a pretty big deal, especially since you start without one, so I'd like to see what interesting things you could do with it. At most it could have some really cool gameplay elements and at least it could make covering longer distances less tedious (thinking of making Link roll around in Zelda).

    - Some kind of dash upgrade - quickly escape from immediate harm?
    - A swim bladder upgrade - could let you lose/gain depth more quickly and control your buoyancy better.
    - Maybe a flying fish upgrade - leaping out of the water could give you a speed boost that you could chain if for some reason you had to cover a long lateral distance quickly (oh god I think I just suggested bunnyhopping).

    The specifics of those mechanics aren't so important, but what I'm interested in is fun/useful movement upgrades that can either help you out when it comes to the crunch, or just make the grindier aspects of loot collection more fun.
  • ExplosifBeExplosifBe Join Date: 2006-11-03 Member: 58284Forum Admins, Playtest Lead, Constellation, NS2 Playtester, Reinforced - Onos, WC 2013 - Shadow, Pistachionauts, Retired Community Developer
    edited October 2014
    I can't miss the opportunity to say: Nanites.
    I don't really know how where you'd find something like that in the environment though, maybe a massive colony of plankton that makes it visible to the naked eye?
    They could be used for a lot of things but mainly in repairing task be them on inert objects like the sub, player's equipment maybe, or on the player himself.
    They could also do enhancements on the player although we already have the serums. Maybe, as the serums could be fabricated in the sub thanks to nanites they would be lesser versions of already found serums?


    Edit: Just read something about cave diving made me think about recycler diving, basically allows for much longer dives and also makes no bubbles so you don't scare the fauna.
  • ObraxisObraxis Subnautica Animator & Generalist, NS2 Person Join Date: 2004-07-24 Member: 30071Super Administrators, Forum Admins, NS1 Playtester, Forum Moderators, NS2 Developer, Constellation, NS2 Playtester, Squad Five Silver, WC 2013 - Supporter, Subnautica Developer, Pistachionauts
    Things I want to craft:

    1) Compass - find my way around the world/navigate by sun/stars
    2) Telescope - so I can look into the far distance
    3) Metal Detector - find buried artifacts
    4) Time-Piece - A Clock/Stop Watch to see the passage of time
    5) Lifeform Pen - Able to make tall repellents which could enclose a school of fish in an area (possibly for breeding purposes)

    More to follow ;)
  • BensonBenson Join Date: 2012-03-07 Member: 148303Members, Reinforced - Shadow, WC 2013 - Shadow
    I would love to craft drones.

    Drones that can harvest material or contain defense tech (learned from nature ofc)

    Something like researching a school of fish to see how they stay in sync lets woud make a drone that can follow you around and preform simple tasks.

    (like harvesting high value ingredients from areas that are too small/dangerous to venture into)

    Also, from things like the warper can add aditional functionality to the drone (like the ability to create a portal back to your sub)


    As far as simple things go

    special flippers based on alien fish fins

    enhanced digging equipment based on the sand shark's ability to burrow

    special bioluminesant light from glowing mushrooms that do not disturb lifeforms, allowing you to get closer to study them.
  • LumpNLumpN Join Date: 2002-10-30 Member: 1725Members, Subnautica Developer
    LudwigX wrote: »
    I think that controlling large underwater vehicles with WASD and mouse is rather complicated. They also need a very long way to come to a complete stop.
    I think you should add a navigation system that controls the ships movement

    Sounds like someone wants to craft sub upgrades. Autopilot could require crafting various range scanners, position sensors, and a board computer. That's late game stuff though.

    I very much like the idea of improving the non-sub diving experience. Mainly because it feels good swimming around freely. So stuff which would enhance that would be cool. Repeatable enhancements could require increasingly rare materials.

    - multiple levels of flippers upgrades (more speed, dash).
    - multiple levels of tank upgrades (more oxygen, less size, less friction)
    - dive suit upgrades (less friction, more armor, camouflage)
    - glow sticks (dropable), flare gun, flares for exploring caves
    - gadgets like scanners (alien vs. predator style), material detectors

    Perhaps even permanently installable outdoor machinery like power generators, power lines, "street" lights, beacons, recorders (necessary for biome score), ziplines, "weather" stations, communication signal repeaters for accessing ship computer remotely.
  • LokiLoki Join Date: 2012-07-07 Member: 153973Members, Forum Moderators, NS2 Playtester, Squad Five Blue, Squad Five Silver, Squad Five Gold, NS2 Map Tester, Reinforced - Shadow, WC 2013 - Shadow, Subnautica Playtester, NS2 Community Developer, Pistachionauts
    sample pods, can place plants etc in these for storage / future use, for consumable time limited upgrades and or to replant this plant elsewhere
  • McGlaspieMcGlaspie www.team156.com Join Date: 2010-07-26 Member: 73044Members, Super Administrators, Forum Admins, NS2 Developer, NS2 Playtester, Squad Five Blue, Squad Five Silver, Squad Five Gold, Reinforced - Onos, WC 2013 - Gold, Subnautica Playtester
    My personal List (granted I'm unsure how'd they'd mesh with the game)
    • Nav-Buoy - A buildable and deployable "structure" that could either be tethered to the sea-floor or float on the surface. Allowing player's to set the name of them (via PDA or some such) would help in navigation and potential resource areas. These could even be used to do things like logging Weather related data (air pressure, humidity, ocean temprature, etc). Which could add to the Bio-Score thingy.
    • Survey Marker (Alternative to Nav-Buoy) - Essentially the same as the nav-buoy, but more of something that would be shot/staked into the sea-floor only. Maybe with a colored flag/ribbon attached on the end (this could also be a small colored light).
    • Sextant - Assuming the entire ocean surface is large enough to merit this; being able to use the night sky (star positions) in for navigation would be excellent. Combined with a compass and clock. You could even have surface navigation, or sailing for a "fast travel" method.
    • Compass - A simple navigation tool, no frills, no fluff. Just a heading
    • Clock / Stopwatch - Used in conjunction with a compass and/or sextant full navigation would be possible. Plotting courses, planning routes. This could also be used to time experiments, or growth rates of lifeforms.
    • Dive Bag - Just some extra space for the "Oh there's X that I'll need later, but my inventory is full". This would let players have the option of getting extra stuff, and in the long run reduce the amount of time they spend just gathering resources. You could even go as far as being able to attach the Dive Bag to a stake or Survey Marker. And even on the outside of a submer
    • Additional Air-Tank (like a reserve) - These would be especially useful if players ever need to do long dives, or cave diving. Basically, and extra air-tank that would be attached to them that they can then "use". A smaller variation of this could also be used if they need some extra air in a pinch.

    I don't know how applicable these ideas are, but these are the types of items that have come to mind when I've played so far.
  • Sir_zinoSir_zino England Join Date: 2014-10-09 Member: 198901Members, Reinforced - Supporter
    -Aquariums for subs that you could keep small creatures in.
    -Bait for luring predators away from resources
    -Some sort of remote controlled mini sub/drone that you could send into places too small for the player to fit into.
  • Azure_FireAzure_Fire Join Date: 2014-10-21 Member: 199068Members
    edited October 2014
    These may already be in the game or totally unrealistic in the engine, but here goes:

    Telemetry tags: tag and track various animals. These could have their own upgrade tree, starting off as just simple radio tags giving you distance and direction information. You could get more advanced versions that store depth and temperature data that they upload whenever an animal passes near a receiver, or upper tier devices that contain cameras and provide real-time data on the tagged organisms. Different version might also require you to get close to the organisms and manually attach them (maybe these will be more secure), while others may let you shoot tags from a distance.

    Vision in different parts of the light spectrum: In addition to the fog reduction & other vision mods already discussed, changing the viewable light spectrum might serve to change visual contrast and highlight different aspects of the world. For example, a fish or coral seems drab or a single color in the visible spectrum, but is covered in complex patterns and glows slightly in the UV spectrum. Different predator and prey organisms, or poisonous creatures may have different degrees of visability or "warnings" in different portions of the spectrum. Further, this would allow players to study how different organisms see their worlds. Used in conjunction with suit and materials mods, you could try to design equipment that is invisible to particular organisms, or mimics the warning displays of a more dangerous creature.

    Drag lines and grappling spears: If you're trying to capture a fast-moving organism, you could try to hit it with a grappling spear and either pin it to the ground, or allow the organism to drag you around. If the current, or something more sinister grabs you and starts moving you around, you could using these grappling spears to fight this be securing yourself to a fixed point.

    Edit: Cleaned up some errors.
  • RapGodRapGod Not entirely sure... Join Date: 2013-11-12 Member: 189322Members
    Some type of upgrade to help you move vertical faster at lower depths. Something to counter (what's that sickness? Oxygen something), maybe new tech for the oxygen tank and mask. I dunno, it makes it more realistic with deep dives (I went to several scuba diving classes... 10 yrs ago lol).
  • Sparks2021Sparks2021 Vermont Join Date: 2014-10-21 Member: 199070Members
    Azure_Fire wrote: »
    These may already be in the game or totally unrealistic in the engine, but here goes:

    Telemetry tags: tag and track various animals. These could have their own upgrade tree, starting off as just simple radio tags giving you distance and direction information. You could get more advanced versions that store depth and temperature data that they upload whenever an animal passes near a receiver, or upper tier devices that contain cameras and provide real-time data on the tagged organisms. Different version might also require you to get close to the organisms and manually attach them (maybe these will be more secure), while others may let you shoot tags from a distance.

    To piggy back off of that:

    The equivalent of an underwater deer camera. Takes images when a tagged thing gets near it, or takes images when anything gets near it.
  • Sparks2021Sparks2021 Vermont Join Date: 2014-10-21 Member: 199070Members
    RapGod wrote: »
    Some type of upgrade to help you move vertical faster at lower depths. Something to counter (what's that sickness?

    Yeah. From some kind of fast rising jellyfish? Or other invertebrate?
  • Sparks2021Sparks2021 Vermont Join Date: 2014-10-21 Member: 199070Members
    I apologize preemptively how jazzed I am about this discussion.

    If you have the tech to get close to a deep sea vent without dying, some eel or microorganism could unlock research for heat resistance or hydroponic farming (alternative sources of nutrients).

    If you're able to nab the carcass of a huge fast healing fish, you'll unlock improvements to repairing broken seals.

    The nest of a deep tunnel worm yields better structural integrity for larger bases.

    A tide pool bivalve yields stronger oxygen reserves.

    Type of Ray that effortlessly surfs on transoceanic currents yields more energy efficient sub designs.

    UV or sonic rangefinder. I personally like the idea of a creature that emits non-visible radiation to locate prey, instead of sound.
  • FlayraFlayra Game Director, Unknown Worlds Entertainment San Francisco Join Date: 2002-01-22 Member: 3Super Administrators, NS2 Developer, Subnautica Developer
    (I just put in multiple airtanks for you McGlaspie - each additional one lowers your max speed a little)
  • Azure_FireAzure_Fire Join Date: 2014-10-21 Member: 199068Members
    Pheromones/Recorded mating calls: Use these to attract organisms for study. However, the creatures may be in an angry/agitated state when they arrive due to lack of mates/competition. These could have the added use of encouraging creatures to mate in an effort to re-populate an area.

    I too am solidly in the "jazzed" camp.
  • LumpNLumpN Join Date: 2002-10-30 Member: 1725Members, Subnautica Developer
    Narfwak wrote: »
    - Rope/Cable. Tying stuff to other stuff is fun and often hilarious. Honestly, if it's buggy that just makes it more fun.

    Subnaughtica - Underwater bondage, for science!
  • tohrbogentohrbogen Join Date: 2012-06-22 Member: 153543Members
    What i think what also might be kinda cool is when you can craft like serums that you inject yourself with, causing you to mutate a certain ability maybe. Doesn't have to be final, it could just be temporary, although that could make for an interesting change aswell.
    As you try to change the world to your will, you have to adapt to it in return, or something along those lines.

    What might also be cool is to build small underwater stations, so that not only your submarine is a safe haven.


    And something less freaky:
    A movement detection device.. kinda like in alien :D
  • GrimfangGrimfang Join Date: 2003-02-04 Member: 13086Members, Constellation, Reinforced - Shadow
    Not sure if this is relevant or not, but the ability to research some kind of food or growth stimulant, that allows you to feed or boost on kind of plant or fish in the area. Maybe you want to have more kelp or maybe you found some rare fish, that have materials you need, but you need more. There could be different kind of boosts/food for plant and animals.
  • DC_DarklingDC_Darkling Join Date: 2003-07-10 Member: 18068Members, Constellation, Squad Five Blue, Squad Five Silver
    For bigger subs probably, wildlife inspired droids/drones.

    Imagine researching octopus types, and you make a similar looking drone.. The more breeds of octopus, the more advanced the drone. It would be able to research in areas a human can not reach due to size or form. (Of course superb camera should be a early upgrade if you want to have fun using this longterm?)

    Finding certain fish and using research based on their tracking mechanisms to supplement your own.

    Long long long research path for underwater breathing units. (no air supply needed)
    For example with many many many different species needed for research before you can even remotely start with prototypes or something.

  • ZalokoZaloko Join Date: 2009-07-02 Member: 68005Members, NS2 Playtester, Subnautica Playtester
    Subsurface resource scanner/Super magnet tool – Consumes a lot of power with a chance to reveal/pull-up hidden resources on the bottom of the sea floor. (Could actually just spawn random types in)

    Mechanical peeper – Tiny remote controlled robot with camera used for scouting or going into tiny tunnels/caves. Or distracting bigger predatory fish.

    Small fish/crab trap – Catch unusually hard to grab tiny fish/creatures

    Peeper suit – Specialized suit that gets peeper fish to swarm around you providing distraction/safety from larger fish.

    Underwater flare gun – Pewpew light!

    Escape balloon – Use a % of total gas from dive tank to quickly inflate a very elastic balloon to surface from the depths. Probably the worst idea to use this on earth, but maybe there is no nitrogen on this alien planet? Could keep it for submarines only, like an ejection seat on a jet.

    Quick dive anchor – Dropped from a sub, the player could hang on to quickly dive. Kinda like the thing above just inverted.

    P.S. I didn't read any other ideas posted (to keep ideas from being morphed in my head) so if there is overlap its just coincidence!
  • LudwigXLudwigX Join Date: 2013-05-23 Member: 185351Members
    - decorative items for the sub

    - some device to catch animals alive (underwater taser, nets, stun grenades)

    The escape ballon brought me on a new idea:
    Small airbags should be filled with a tiny amount of explosives. If the sub is about to get flooded the player can ignite the explosive, which fills the airbags and gives additionaly bouyancy.


    Another idea:
    The sub itself could have a limited supply of battery power, fuel and oxygen.
    The player could then use different methods to resupply each of those.
    e.g. by bringing the sub to the surface to use solar models and refresh the oxygen supply. Burn fuel for electricity, electricity for oxygen, filter the air for oxygen etc.


    I personally dislike the idea of a compass. In understand that it's a vital component for navigation, but the chance of another planet having a magnetic field is rather low.
    Maybe there are other things the players could use to navigate
  • AurOn2AurOn2 COOKIES! FREEDOM, AND BISCUITS! Australia Join Date: 2012-01-13 Member: 140224Members, Forum Moderators, NS2 Playtester, Forum staff
    I want to be able to turn myself into a sea-robot.
    with all the benefits that entails. (engine attached to my bum, battery life, etc)
  • SteveRockSteveRock Join Date: 2012-10-01 Member: 161215Members, NS2 Developer, Subnautica Developer
    I hope we will implement like 90% of this thread!!

    the only thing that's technically tricky is the drone. if it's remote controlled by you, and you have to stay still while driving it, that's pretty doable. but if it's meant to fly around on its own away from you, that gets tricky cuz we'd need to keep two parts of the world loaded. are there any games that do this? state of decay kind of does, when people go off on missions, but I suspect that's mostly faked. and it'd be harder for us to fake things, since our world is 3d.
  • ExplosifBeExplosifBe Join Date: 2006-11-03 Member: 58284Forum Admins, Playtest Lead, Constellation, NS2 Playtester, Reinforced - Onos, WC 2013 - Shadow, Pistachionauts, Retired Community Developer
    SteveRock wrote: »
    I hope we will implement like 90% of this thread!!

    the only thing that's technically tricky is the drone. if it's remote controlled by you, and you have to stay still while driving it, that's pretty doable. but if it's meant to fly around on its own away from you, that gets tricky cuz we'd need to keep two parts of the world loaded. are there any games that do this? state of decay kind of does, when people go off on missions, but I suspect that's mostly faked. and it'd be harder for us to fake things, since our world is 3d.

    Minecraft, while multiplayer, has an item, an anchor, to keep parts of the world loaded on the server even if there isn't anybody around. However that part is static.
  • Laosh'RaLaosh'Ra Join Date: 2011-12-09 Member: 137232Members
    -regenerative tissue to automatically slowly repair hull breaches (and/or suit "armor" if that's viable)

    -suit and submarine upgrades: more pressure resistance in higher dephts (less health / breach issues)

    -submarine maneuverability upgrades: reactor (slight top speed increase, significant acceleration increase), another upgrade to increase turnspeed

    -regarding self-injections: adrenaline and also the exact opposite for stealth and possibly oxygen conservation (increase or decrease in: speed, oxygen consumption, being-noticed due to body temprature etc.)

    -deployable sensor thingies that send individual alerts to the sub that the player can see on a map (conditions for alert can be partially configurated by the player e.g. motion of a specific size range)

    -deployable filters that are intentionally (or as a side effect for some other deployable technology) covered in... stuff (microbes?) upon checking up on them (could be different kinds: food, research material, bait, craft component...); alternatively, this stuff could occasionally accumulate on the sub and become a minor(!) nuisance until some research prevents that
  • FlayraFlayra Game Director, Unknown Worlds Entertainment San Francisco Join Date: 2002-01-22 Member: 3Super Administrators, NS2 Developer, Subnautica Developer
    I too, hope to implement 90%! The magnet seems tricky for the same reason.

    We're getting to the point where implementing a lot of this stuff would be pretty fast.
  • BensonBenson Join Date: 2012-03-07 Member: 148303Members, Reinforced - Shadow, WC 2013 - Shadow
    SteveRock wrote: »
    I hope we will implement like 90% of this thread!!

    the only thing that's technically tricky is the drone. if it's remote controlled by you, and you have to stay still while driving it, that's pretty doable. but if it's meant to fly around on its own away from you, that gets tricky cuz we'd need to keep two parts of the world loaded. are there any games that do this? state of decay kind of does, when people go off on missions, but I suspect that's mostly faked. and it'd be harder for us to fake things, since our world is 3d.

    I was thinking more along the lines of a "stupid" drone. The kind that needs continual input (limited range). Useful for investigating small/dangerous areas or harvesting two things at once.
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