Resource/Item Respawn

Ripred

Of all suggestions, I believe this is one of the absolute most crucial. From what I've observed, resources (fish, limestone, quartz, salt, scrap metal, mushrooms, gemmed disks, kelp, coral, lithium, koosh, etc.) don't respawn once taken. Ever. Which, honestly, really sucks. Not only does the ocean get lonely after a bit, but it becomes nearly impossible to stay alive on survival mode. To fix this, implement a respawning mechanism for the resources listed above. Ideally, one that only takes, say, 2-4 in-game days for the items to respawn. Also, set a number cap so the ocean doesn't get overpopulated. Spawning somethings like fish using console commands would ideally be able to allow the player to surpass this cap, so you can make the ocean as full as you want it. Just maintain a minimum.

Zourin

respawning has been a bit of a debate. I've seen some resources reappear in different locations after a while, but it's time-wastingly sparse. On top of that, few fish ever respawn, making the shallows surprisingly lifeless after just an hour or so of play.

The areas off the shallows are more dangerous yet aren't itemized to support player survival. It all winds up coming back to the depleted shallows for the hope of spending hours looking for quartz, copper, and salt to meet the players' long term needs.

Cortanis

I've actually been testing the respawn mechanics in the game since the explosion update. I've found that you can only get resources to respawn at a rate of about 1 hour after you've harvested a node and ONLY if you leave the biome entirely and stay gone for the time. Some nodes just don't respawn all together though. The coral tunnel with all the nodes in it for example.

Resource respawns are really just one part of the bigger problem though. The game needs some real dedicated time put into developing serious basic systems like water filtration, food/resource growth, sustainable power systems, defense systems, and better processing systems. The resources we gather aren't really used effectively and the respawn criteria are rather kind of junk. We need to be able to grow the shrooms and kelp for med kits and batteries, we need to be able to filter water and separate the salt so we have food and water, and we need to be able to create real sustainable power sources so we're not burning through what materials we do have. All of that would vastly help with the resource respawn problems in that we wouldn't need to be constantly burning through the little that we find just to survive until we find some more. And for the love of god, can we start building some lithium cells already? We're eating through power cells at stupid rates.

Racer1

UWE has always planned on adding resource management - like gardens, collectors, etc. They just aren't in the game yet.

One of the more unique things I am looking forward to is a built-in ecology system, where you can breed/transplant animals/fish to provide a sustainable food chain. Conversely, if you eat everything off without doing this, everything dies off.

sayerulz

I find it rather sill that at the moment in the game the fish don't respawn, and resource bars go down so fast, that one person can apparently deplete an entire reef of fish just trying to feed themselves.

SalmonJEDl

I'd love to see actual breeding mechanics in the game. There could also be breeding grounds for some species = area with lots of some type of fish and their food.

Zourin

sayerulz wrote: »

I find it rather sill that at the moment in the game the fish don't respawn, and resource bars go down so fast, that one person can apparently deplete an entire reef of fish just trying to feed themselves.

not just by yourself, but within a matter of days.

Cortanis

Why can't we kill and eat stalkers ether? I seriously have shark in my freezer right now.

Racer1

To expound on the ecology system that I would like to see, each "area" would have a starting number of each species (of plant and animal) and a natural rate at which they procreate and die. These rates would be affected by predators and prey/food in the area. Presumably, an equilibrium would exist in the food chain. If the player screws with it too much (e.g. eating too much kelp), it could cause a chain-reaction that would kill off species. For the sake of "fun", it would take considerable effort to do this.

Note: For performance reasons, the game engine would only show a limited number of the total population of each species in the area. As you eat/kill some, others might spawn in to replace them based on the current number remaining alive in that area.

R1600Turbo

This is why I play in freedom mode right now. The eat/drink part of the game is not up to par with where it should be, so no reason to play the game with them. Once they have been updated and everything runs a bit smoother, then I'll switch to survival mode.

mikej

seriously? i just played through and got my mega-sub (cant remember it's name)
not really sure what to do now though... put a box or locker in my sub and stock it full of power cells and food and go for a long haul?
I didn't find the food and water mechanics to be too outrageous, and i thought things respawned pretty normally. but i could be wrong...
I build a decent sized base too (and tons of windows because i love windows haha nice view)
such a fun concept and game. i hope this time next year it's finished or something

Ashby

Fish should, in theory reproduce, and therefore "respawn".

ech0gh0st

THEY NEED RESOURCE RESPAWNS SO BADLY

Ralij

One workaround to this is to push for the large aquarium and stock it with two of a given fish. These fish will reproduce and provide a sustainable food and water resource.

There is also the exterior grow beds which you can put kelp and some other plants for your own use.

I'm not sure if releasing bred fish into the environment will make them actually persist in the game world or not.

I absolutely agree with you on respawning for the stuff that you cannot grow or raise on your own though (lithium, quartz, scrap, etc) It's not realistic really, but its an area I can see being sacrificed for the purpose of long term plkay.

ThePassionateGamer

We are partly on the way of needing less resources after a few hours into the game.
Things that make our survival less difficuilt:

1. Water filtration machine - Gives you "big filtered water" for +50% water and salt at a regular basis, at the cost of a hefty energy hunger (5 solar panels needed to sustain ONE)
2. Battery & Cell recharge stations - Let you recharge all your cells and batterys no more copper "wasting" just to keep you mobile. Really like those...
3. Alien Containment - Useful for breeding fish and growing plants. Food should be no issue from that point on. Depending on the plants you grow in the containment you can harvest creepvine or seed clusters for example without the need to leave your base.
4. In- /outdoor growbeds - Even more ways to plant harvestable or regrowing plants. Useful for food/biomaterial for your bioreactor(s) and other harvestable resources (creepvines/acid mushrooms and so on...)

That beeing said you still need tons of Quarz, Titanium, Copper and silver to build all those nice things. While some resources can be found in abundance (like diamonds and gold for example I kinda never run out of those) Others are needed in so many components that you are kinda constantly on the hunt for them. That's where I think a good respawn system could come in handy. I know it makes no sense that "ores" regrow but this is after all just a game where realism does not play the biggest role. Making resources respawn as an option for those players who like it that way would not hurt the game imo. You could set it so that those resources just respawn where you took them from so that they can not "overpopulate" a biome if you not harvest them.

I know that this partly removes the need to explore the biomes but still it would not hurt to have certain biomes where you know you can always find resources X or Y there no matter how often you've been there before.

EDIT: Another idea could be to give the players a kind of salvage room which you could build close to big wrecks, the Aurora or the Aurora only. This Salvage room would then start to disassemble the wrecks/the Aurora in a certain range to gather resources from it at a certain range. Maybe even set it to gather only certain resources like Titanium or Silver.

Rainstorm

I dont know about everyone but the 2 ressources i use the most, namely quartz and titanium, are in such numbers almost everywhere that i never run out of them. Of course, eventually you need to move out of the shallows to find them which is totally fine by me

Also, color me crazy but from time to time i swear that some quartz ive collected around my base seems to regrow after awhile ..... im sure i picked ''that'' one up but after a few ingame days its there again. Could be a glitch tho and not respawn per se

Funsauce32

I have no trouble whatsoever with this issue.

Sidchicken