How To Gradually Build Rich And Convincing Ecosystems
Jamescell
American Alpine Biome Join Date: 2015-08-18 Member: 207249Members
American Alpine Biome Join Date: 2015-08-18 Member: 207249Members
One of the most appealing aspects of Subnautica is that of exploration. It's enormously exciting to delve into an alien world that is, in many ways, more exciting to explore than our own world. For Subnautica to capitalize on the new sub-genre of games that it has created, there must be an emphasis placed on realistic and very complex/exotic environments. The more complex and exotic the environments, the more immersive they become. Again, the main appeal of this game is exploration, but in order for such a dynamic to be successful, the developers must create a world that people want to explore. The more barren and illogical an environment is, the less people will tend to want to explore it. Currently there are very large creatures that exist in a world of very small-scale food sources. It just doesn't make sense for things like the reaper leviathan to exist in the game yet given the lack of intermediate-sized lifeforms.
The current environment-development seems to be all over the place. Resources are being devoted to the most elite predatory and/or carnivorous creatures yet, while little seems to be under-way regarding the smaller lifeforms that are essential in creating something immersive. The best way to create a believable world without the resources to do so in one big swoop, is to emulate the ways in which ecosystems are created naturally by starting from the ground up. The following describes a very fertile biome. Less fertile biomes would cut back on many of the following. The first noticeable lifeforms to emerge in an ecosystem are small plants (flora). The foremost priority regarding environmental development should be small plants, most of which should be interactive (they can just serve as food sources until other lifeforms are developed that rely on them). After a good amount of smaller plants have been implemented larger plants should become the priority. Priority should go in this order: small to big, and herbivore to carnivore. There should only be one large-local species in each biome (usually). Depending on how hostile developers want the environment to be, the large creature can either be an herbivore or a carnivore. Usually however, herbivores are the largest species.
TLDR: Build the environments from the ground up as would naturally occur on a planet. Small first, big last. Herbivore first, carnivore last. Set higher standards for the complexity and richness/interactivity of finished environments.
The current environment-development seems to be all over the place. Resources are being devoted to the most elite predatory and/or carnivorous creatures yet, while little seems to be under-way regarding the smaller lifeforms that are essential in creating something immersive. The best way to create a believable world without the resources to do so in one big swoop, is to emulate the ways in which ecosystems are created naturally by starting from the ground up. The following describes a very fertile biome. Less fertile biomes would cut back on many of the following. The first noticeable lifeforms to emerge in an ecosystem are small plants (flora). The foremost priority regarding environmental development should be small plants, most of which should be interactive (they can just serve as food sources until other lifeforms are developed that rely on them). After a good amount of smaller plants have been implemented larger plants should become the priority. Priority should go in this order: small to big, and herbivore to carnivore. There should only be one large-local species in each biome (usually). Depending on how hostile developers want the environment to be, the large creature can either be an herbivore or a carnivore. Usually however, herbivores are the largest species.
TLDR: Build the environments from the ground up as would naturally occur on a planet. Small first, big last. Herbivore first, carnivore last. Set higher standards for the complexity and richness/interactivity of finished environments.
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