Slow your roll

En9a9e

A friend at work would tell me to "slow your roll" whenever I would tend to get ahead of myself in some endeavor. I think that is an applicable theme for this update of continued suggestions and feedback.

- Make the sea glide require an analyzed fragment so fins are made more meaningful in the early game. Love the safe shallows and the more peaceful initial forays that make it feel like you are snorkeling on an alien Caribbean reef as you figure out the new world you are in. No need to make tech progression seem rushed with a crowded menu right at the start. Going from fins to sea glide so easily and early greatly detracts from the benefits of slower pacing.

- Only showing possible food options based on what you bring back to the fabricator is a great step in the right direction! Perhaps copy that mechanic, at least in part, for some of the tech items as well? Let the crashed ship nearby and the surrounding deeps work well enough to jolt the player back into a greater sense of danger, intrigue, and progression need/urgency. For me, the more relaxed early game safe shallows experience has caused a greater sense of appreciation and enjoyment of that zone upon starting new sessions.

- If the analyzer is going to be included in the pod now (which is a good thing imo as it's fun discovering fragments and it makes sense with the crashed ship so close) just make the fabricator an all in one combination analyzer fabricator. The analyzer part could still work on a research timer, but the process should consume the fragment immediately so you don't have to mess with it again after research is complete.

- Introduce a "construction outfitted version" of the seamoth on the constructor menu. Give this alternate construction Seamoth it's own storage compartment just for storing materials that are specific to base building. Gate base building to require use of the construction Seamoth and make the base build menu only available within it. Plausibility is much harder to accept even for sci-fi when you are constructing such large and elaborate pieces with a hand held device.

- Require the Cyclops to be built in the base moon pool module/room.

- I have read that you are going to include some random loot in the storage container of the pod when players start a new game. Please disable this for hardcore mode at least. Exploration, discovery, crafting, and survival with minimal hand holding is more attractive imo. I'd rather have the reward and satisfaction of figuring out how to make everything myself instead of being given freebies from the get go. I think, for survival mode, that a couple of MRE and bottles of water (a few meds as well?) in pod storage on new game start is better.

- As you continue to iterate and flesh out progression, don't be afraid to make us work harder for tech advancements and slow things down even more. The game has an amazing epic feel, it makes it seem somewhat "cheap" to build things like a Cyclops from a small constructor fairly early in the game.

Zourin

Sea glide - Agree with the concept of delaying it techwise, perhaps rather than a fragment, simply require a wiring kit. Likewise, require a wiring kit for the seamoth. Push people out into the reefs and redgrass areas more. Fragments are an awkward mechanic and aren't placed in a manner rewarding discovery (yet?). A few more Sandstone spawns in the kelp forest and it's all time well spent.

Randomloot("ITEM NOOBCRATE 3") - I do not see a point in having 'random loot' on start other than some starter rations so you're not starting at 50% food. Seriously, what lifepod doesn't come with food/water rations? All other gear is really, really easy to resource and build, so the only thing accomplished as planned is unnecessarily shortchanging the gameplay. That first dive is the most fun and most important as all the decisions lie with the player about what they think they need first and how much of what to choose to bring back. Handing them a stasis rifle, a seaglide, and an air tank on a dice roll from the start may as well hand them the cyclops and seamoth to go with it and skip that whole 'first hour bullsh*t'.

Base Cyclops - This will make the Constructor floaty obsolete as a "make one thing and forget you wasted the resources on it" object for making the first Seamoth. Making things you use once then throw away isn't good design, nor is it good survival (Resource, Reuse, or Recycle). One of the things I like is the decision to work for a seabase or a cyclops first. Decisions are good, and excessively railroading progression isn't fun in a survival game. There should be a decision about whether to settle down for an early base of operations or explore for possibly better long-term sites.

Seamoth Upgrade - I've pushed about using the Seamoth and Cyclops as having a skill-tree like upgrade system. Building a base from a seamoth is handy, but then I would also suggest a more exploration/salvage focused variant. After all, having the option and practical reason to build more than one vehicle is a good thing without having to design and integrate whole new ships. Once you have a Seabase, SeaMoth, Cyclops, and Exosuit, the best design choice would be to allow players to evolve/specialize them and offer the player a choice to build a second vehicle to upgrade differently. Or a third, or a fourth. Existing assets are easy to reuse, for both players and developers.

VanEinstein

I agree with the bulk of this, though I'd like to add that even though the Cyclops was made from that little constructor, the hunt for the materials was at least fulfilling. The Stalker teeth took some patience, and the lithium hunt was an interesting endeavor that took me quite a while as well.

I certainly wouldn't mind them slowing advancement though. A suggestion I would make though that I feel relates is to slow down the decay of the hunger/thirst meters. I spend more time trying to keep those up than just about anything else. I'll top off, go out exploring and very soon find that I have to cut my trip short. Obviously this change probably fits right in line with energy balancing.

This brings up the thought of additional storage. The little storage cubes help, but I imagine that locker might help too if that could be built and placed on a Cyclops (assuming the bug that causes storage cubes and Seamoths to vanish from the Cyclops when loading a save gets fixed) or Sea Base. In conjunction with slowed hunger & thirst, I could take the time to hunt and stockpile basic necessities so that I can take extended trips without having to go all the way back to the shallows or kelp forest.

Zourin

The locker thing is probably a bug and was able to be placed on the Cyclops (and should be placeable in the current 'release' build). Experimental just suffered the loss of lockers as well as the triumphant rise of the 'My crates dissappeared" bug. Storage is completely limited to player/lifepod inventory space on X for the time being.

Right now, the Cyclops is the best 'above 200m' base of operations, since it offers storage, manufacturing, plus mobility and the Seamoth bay. The seabase stuff is 'easier' to build, but only amounts to an underwater lifepod/storage locker and doesn't do anything you can't do already on the Cyclops. The only downside to the cyclops is if it sinks.

VanEinstein

The Cyclops has storage of it's own? At present (standard build, non experiemental tmk) I'm unable to find this and also have no ability to create another fabricator to place inside.

Zourin

No, it does not. You should be able to build lockers on the Cyclops. I haven't confirmed if this is still bugged in the experimental version yet.

Ace_Loves

I like the expansion on the vehicles but I don't think having to many vehicles of similar type is a good idea. Rather than that I would suggest an engineering bay for the sea bases. By docking the sea moth or cyclops within the bay the player is able to interface with a constructor and upgrade the vessel. Something like adding more windows to the cyclops or a sonar system that is visible when piloting.

Being able to give the sea-moth a small storage unit and arms would make the thing more versatile and a simple upgrade but I think that maybe a much slower bulkier vehicle would fit this role better leaving the cute sea-moth as a speedy exploration tool.

Referring back to the sonar system I mentioned, I believe players would appreciate the added information while piloting the cyclops to improve fine control of the large vessel. I had thought of two concepts for sonar but I think the simpler one is most practical.

the complex version places a holographic projection of the cyclops next to the player when piloting. The hologram will pulse in time with the sonar and land within a certain range will be visible on the projection although simplified and not detailed. larger fish such as bone sharks should probably preform some kind of occlusion on the sonar for realism blocking the visibility of any terrain beyond it.

The simpler sonar would have a top and side view on a panel for the pilot that pulsated and operated in the same fashion as above. the two dimensional views provide some needed information to avoid collisions and are simple to read. This also eliminated the issue of the hologram being near worthless when entering tunnels large enough for the cyclops and the simulated ground blocking vision.

that's just my take, I really hope that the lockers disappearing on load ins't a thing since I just moved all my stuff to my cyclops before shutting down :S