Limit / End of the map? (on every edge)
MisterYoon
Join Date: 2012-08-18 Member: 155747Members
Join Date: 2012-08-18 Member: 155747Members
I don't know if this was discussed before, but yes, i'm curious how will you gonna set the limits for every single approachable edge of the map.
At the moment, it seems like Subnautica has 1. Radiation and 2. Cliff to forbidden player to reach furthur.
I like the idia of radiation, but, although i know it's just a placeholder, cliff seems and will seem very unlogical, as Subnautica a sea-planet.
I'd just like to know how would u implement and solve this problem of open world.
Cheers
At the moment, it seems like Subnautica has 1. Radiation and 2. Cliff to forbidden player to reach furthur.
I like the idia of radiation, but, although i know it's just a placeholder, cliff seems and will seem very unlogical, as Subnautica a sea-planet.
I'd just like to know how would u implement and solve this problem of open world.
Cheers
Comments
You can swim down and down untill the pressure becomes too high and you implode!
It will feel endless instead of being boxed in by walls
I believe this video was once posted by UW, itll be a pretty cool way to end the map:
Here are some updates on the new map.
edit: (I just realised Sammey beat me to it)
- Very deep. Pitch black. The only thing you can see is the glowing halo of your sub lights and some evil looking bioluminescent life.
- You won't be able to safely go into this area without expensive modifications to the cyclops, which take time to acquire.
- You have to make sure you store a lot of food/water in the cyclops for the long journey, as food/water is scarce.
- You can't exit the sub without a heavy duty suit of some kind (i love the idea of parking your sub in pitch blackness with its lights on).
- Maybe at the deepest point you discover an alien city with sentient life that plays into the story somehow.
I like some of that, but I slightly disagree that the "endgame" content of Subnautica should be exclusive to this abyss area... Since it is very much an exploration based game, I think it would be pretty cool to have some sort of metroid-like system, where, one would find creatures and plants, etc., that can't be interacted with until much later in the game. It would also make sense because all sorts of strange and dangerous creatures live where many other not-so-dangerous creatures live. Ex the Lionfish, which is extremely poisonous but lives near many other types of organisms. This is just a real life example of a creature that would require an upgraded suit or some sort of robot to aid in sampling it.
My two cents.
Now, that said, I do like the idea of a huge amount of endgame content being in the abyss area-- it just makes sense because in the beginning of the game since no one would really even survive there. I think it would be cool to have creatures from there travel into the less-dangerous areas, (An example I'm thinking of is the nautilus, an animal which I really like)-- They live in very deep ocean (we're talking very dark, no sunlight I believe) and they eventually come up from those areas and mingle with the regular fish that live in contact with the sun. Just hints of that area being really awesome and dangerous basically
As you can see the idea already gained some traction. Also as you can see I am a wizard when it comes to MS Paint. Coder art is best. I'm humble too.
Someone suggested doing procedural generated terrain outside the world boundaries. That's a pretty neat idea too and I would certainly love to do that. However it feels a bit wasteful to spend time programming something that is not supposed to be in the scope of the game in the first place. If we are very successful we might add it as a bonus. Infinite content to explore for you.
Just to expand on the abyss idea a bit more, I don't think it should be 360 degrees around the whole map (the ocean isn't a island underwater), but maybe one or two areas of the map that gradually slope downward into darker and scarier territory (lava, geothermal vents, bigger creatures etc...). Eventually you'll come to the steep vertical cliff that overlooks the pitch black abyss with ominous noises coming from far below. If you try to descend before you've prepared your sub fully, your sub screen flashes 'exceeding pressure tolerance allowed under current configuration, structure failure in 30s' windows begin to crack, water starts leaking into sub, etc...
Some possible modifications needed before you can descend:
- Reinforced exterior hull plating that can withstand the water pressure and nasty fish. You may need to get out and weld sheets of this metal occasionally.
- Reinforced window glass to withstand extreme depth pressure. Additional metal 'shields' that retract over windows (including the main observation bubble by the diving controls) that get cracked from fish attacking your sub in the depths. Eventually they can break these windows and implode your sub if you don't fight them off. You can activate these from inside your sub next to the port hole.
- Extra spotlights to illuminate the darkness better
- Emergency main ballast tank blow for when things get out of control and you need to surface rapidly for repairs.
- Special airlock chamber that has a heavy duty 'mech' type diving suit that can withstand the outside pressure. You would need this for exploring or sub repairs.
- Construct XL batteries to run more systems longer while you're exploring the deep
Characteristics of your descent and the Cyclops sub itself
- The sub creaks from the pressure as you descend
- Gauges in your cockpit (digital) reflect your depth
- Power management should play a key role with the Cyclops sub at these depths due to the increased demands of the environment. You can shut off unused systems to preserve your batteries, or run all of them and spend less time exploring the bottom before having to surface. As power gets low in the sub, red lighting (similar to real life sub lighting) floods the interior of the sub. If you run out of power in the abyss, you're dead in the water as your ship begins to buckle due to lack of power. The only option is to blow the emergency ballast tank to ascend to the surface before you're destroyed. This would be a bit dramatic and your sub would require repairs before you could descent again, the level of repair is determined by how long you let it take damage after losing power.
I like the idea of sub management to add another layer of depth at this stage in the game. Nothing crazy like a simulation, but ancillary to the main exploring experience.
The idea of having an item library at the level of Binding of Isaac would play well into a procedurally generated world.
What about the concept of treasure maps, only in a form that would be compatible with the narrative/background of the game? The audio logs suggestion on the feature vote board could give clues to the player; coordinates outside the normal realm. There doesn't have to be an end-game goal, but there should be a goal that is clear to the player. Leaving the "how to get there" would be another interesting challenge the player could also engage along the way.
One idea for motivation to travel outside the borders:
Perhaps there were key pieces of the ship that jettisoned from the main mass as an emergency procedure, and it's up to the player to find them in order to successfully begin the terraforming process--OR it could be key elements to creating a comms station that could contact Earth. With either goal accomplished there would still be more "missions" available. Think of it as a landmark goal instead of an end-game goal.
Since there is radiation in and around the wreck, maybe the initial explosion spread radiation into these missing pieces. It isn't strong enough to track from within the initial border surrounding your escape pod, but if you had a general idea where these pieces landed, finding the equipment through traces of the radiation would be possible. These audio clues would contain trajectory information, combined with other elements that could provide a reason for the journey. Maybe the true intention of this ship was something entirely different. Maybe it wasn't terraforming. A good mystery is always welcome in any game.
There could even be a real reason behind the procedurally generated terrain. The creatures with warp fields (concept) might have something to do with it. This barrier could be nothing more than the lining of a pocket created by them, in an effort to quarantine a disease to their environment. Each time you travel outside the borders you end up in another quarantined pocket on their planet.
Or it could just eat you and that is that, after all, its purpose would be to punish you for going too far out of the playable area.
Sure the terrain might not be as epic looking as hand crafted but it would not look bad either, just look at other games that do it, minecraft with its rolling terrains looks awesome and it's got everything from rivers to rolling hills, planes and even mountains so yeah I think it would be amazing having all that extra space to explore and build in.
1: It allows for easier development and deployment of additional biomes in the future (prior to release or perhaps as DLC? $$
2: It would give some reasonable extended end game content for players to work with. If the current surface biomes are designed to propagate throughout the generated terrain, it would offer nearly endless exploring. Plus it would give some real purpose to the larger "mobile base" sub design that people seem to want.
Just my 2 cents.
Considering they have only just barely started to introduce story elements into the builds, I think we have a while to wait before we can pass any kind of judgement on the quality of the story line / endgame. Even if they keep the abyss and limit the map to its current size, there are any number of possible paths that the endgame might take. For all we know, they will have us attempting to complete the original terraforming mission alone and end up with hundreds of hours of gameplay to that end...
A new, very young planet (or moon?), still covered mostly in oceans with a lot of undersea volcanic activity - the planet's crust has not developed tectonic plates yet, but rather, large "plateaus" of surface area (think pimples on the face of a teenage planet!) ...
In between those plateaus, the depths are extremely deep. A "dead-zone" of darkness and extreme pressure/cold. New plateaus are arising from slow volcanic and thermal vent action - creating these plateau 'islands' here and there on the planet. Given a few more million years, perhaps real land-mass might appear, but for now it's just these random plateau areas where life has taken hold.
Each plateau could have it's own unique evolution and ecosystem since they are isolated from one another by distance and the deep dead zones in between.
The player could explore and find new plateaus (systems of biomes) but would require upgraded transportation that can handle longer distances and depth with plenty of storage for the player to have a supply of food/water since there exists none in the dead-zones. The Cyclops would finally have a real purpose - long distance travel!
Now as to whether those newly discovered plateaus are procedurally generated or not - that's beyond my knowledge of what the developers and the engine are capable of doing. Hand creating the biomes takes a lot of time and effort but looks way better than most procedurals. 7 Days to Die has procedural world generation and you get some really weird looking areas from that. Perhaps underwater wouldn't be quite as weird if the biome blending was done well but that's the only way I could see infinite working.
Basically I think a monster should eat you when you get to the limit, and that limit should be visually defined by the presence of bones scattered in a barren sandy wasteland.
http://forums.unknownworlds.com/discussion/139963/creature-ideas#latest
I think it was #4... the idea for monsters on the boarder.
An interesting concept that would leave open the possibility of future expansion without needing procedural code to make the rest of the world. To get between them, you'd probably need something more like this, as the cyclops just wouldn't have the power capacity, range, or amenities to make it.
Yes that was my thinking in validating my conceptual (daydream) idea ... something that's workable for expansion material and not relying on precedural generation so they can create these new areas backstage and then introduce them as DLC in the future. It also allows for the deep 'screen' block to prevent players forcing their way into areas not yet completed or introduced as new plateau areas.
That Draconis is a mighty fine piece of machinery and would definitely be something I'd want for long distance travel!
Its rather simple.
* Do we want to have a hard end like a abyss at the end of the crafted map?
or
* Do we want to continue with procedural generation which is lower quality, but is something?
Pro's and Con's to both. But its not to be used AS the real 'core' world.
So anyone thinking that procedural would look shit needs their head read, the only way it would look bad would be if the dev's wanted it to look bad.
Jesus , just look at that video, the under water scene's in this look just as good as Subnautica and we would'nt be playing in a 40k by 40k map we would be playing in an entire world , in a solar system, in a galaxy, in a universe, so please do not come at me with procedural is bad...
Its not, only bad implementations of it.
Come on Dev's Procedural the void and give us endless exploring.
After all, we were sent to the planet to terraform it and then ended up marooned as a lone survivor (MAYBE), so the ultimate objective could be working towards finishing the job we were originally sent to do, arranging a rescue, finding out what actually happened to cause the crash, or all of the above. As a result, the main goals of the game might take much longer than it takes to explore everything now, meaning that adding an extended world would be less needed. In the end, we'd probably be back here looking for more to explore, but it might make sense to add that as a DLC rather than try to force it into the core game at the expense of something else.
That all said, I'm still for procedurally generated terrain outside of the core map, I can just understand some of the possible reasons we might not get it.
I'd be happy if the map size got doubled, new biomes and such. As to the world border, I'd like some sort of massive creature guarding the edge.
Get too close to the end of the map and you'll hear it, the closer or deeper you get the higher the chance that it will drag you and your sub into the depths and kill you.
After a certain point that chance becomes 100%. From there onwards the border can be handled using darkness and an invisible wall that the player could never reach anyways.
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On the subject of procedural generation, I believe there was some talk about 'Precursor gates' in the endgame, that would teleport you into a whole new world with procedurally generated landscapes and creatures.
What about a monster like this?