A beneficial post for the Developers of Subnautica :)
HYBRID1313
Australia Join Date: 2016-04-01 Member: 215179Members
Australia Join Date: 2016-04-01 Member: 215179Members
Hello Developers and/or Players,
This post is a mix of discussion about the Developers and their work/treatment, suggestions for the Developers and a player's view on some of the Developers' questions about the game and where to go with its mechanics. It also touches on what players are enjoying the most in the game (from my own experience, along with many other Youtuber's experiences) and what they seem to want the most. Of course, 'what they seem to want the most' does not include stuff that has already been ruled out (guns, multiplayer, etc.). I'd really appreciate it if the Developers could take their precious time to read this post and I feel it will benefit how they feel and their Development
Treatment/work:
First off, the Developers copped some flak from a small percentage of Subnautica's customers, as they failed to release Subnautica on XBOX1 on their initial *estimated* (keyword being 'estimated') date, April 1st. I'm sure most would agree with me that this was completely unfair. The Developers have their own lives, families, and needs. They are not robots whose sole purpose is to work on Subnautica and just like everyone else, they can get sick, which according to some tweets I have seen, is exactly what happened. The Developers spend their time working on Subnautica in a whole range of fields, not everything is shown on Trello. They were working on an Oculus Rift port, the core game its self and an XBOX1 port all within the same month, which is a lot of time and effort. People also seem to constantly forget that this is an EARLY ACCESS GAME, bugs and 'failures' should be expected. Of course, along with the ungrateful players and what not, there are those who are grateful of the Developers work. A long while back, on a Subnautica Development update video, a Developer was talking about how he hopes that if they do right by the players, the players 'will catch [them] when [they] fall', which, from the posts about the XBOX release date, didn't exactly happen, sadly. So, I suppose this is my attempt of 'catching them when they fall'. To sum it up, I want the Developers to know there that are many players out there who are actually grateful for the work they put into Subnautica and support them when they fall, whether they show it or not. Keep up the great work Developers, don't let this deter you from Subnautica's community
What players seem to enjoy most:
Players seem to enjoy exploration and interacting with the environment the most. For example, Markiplier, JackSepticEye, AwesomeCrunch and many other Subnautica Youtubers seem to love finding new, interesting and/or picturesque locations in Subnautica, along with their interests in the creatures of Subnautica. On Subnautica Episode 21 - Markiplier, Markiplier kept rambling on about his love for finding new and interesting locations in Subnautica constantly and how it amazes him that he can always find something new in the world of Subnautica. I too love this aspect of Subnautica and I'm sure many other players do as well. Now, on to the creatures. JackSepticEye, Markiplier and AwesomeCrunch are great examples of the players' interests in the fauna and flora of Subnautica. Both Jack and Mark freaked out when they saw the Reefback for the first time but, their curiosity made them investigate and attempt to interact with the creature. This highlights the fact that players will want to investigate creatures and see what they do and how they can interact with them, which leads me on to my next point about a 'question' the Developers had about introducing a mechanic into the game.
Developers' Questions:
Recently on Trello, there was a document link on a Card that sent the viewer to a document about introducing 'Environmental and creature interactions' into the game. Throughout the document there were many wonderful examples of interactions that could be put into the game. The interaction examples stated were amazing in my opinion and I believe they will affect the game more than the Developers think. As of now, Subnautica's environment looks alive but, it does not necessarily 'feel' alive. Most of the creatures feel like they are there for the sake of being there and they do not really do much so, players tend just to pass them by after seeing them for the first time. So, I feel that these mechanics will make the game feel much more alive and also make it feel like there is actually a living ecosystem. This also correlates to the Developers interests with the game as they have stated multiple times in posts that they do not want lethal weapons in Subnautica and instead want players to use creative ways to exploit the ecosystem around them to achieve their goals. As of now, there are very few ways to exploit the creatures in Subnautica and until you have a Stasis Rifle or what not, you can not really use anything to get rid of a Stalker, apart from a knife or running for your dear life. I think there was an example of a mechanic that would have a player bait a group of Stalkers out of the Kelp Forest and into the Red Grass region to create a territorial war between Stalkers and Sandsharks, leaving the player to safely explore the Kelp Forest as the Stalkers are distracted. This would be an amazing way to get around obstacles in the early stages of a playthrough. The Developers do fear that if they spend their time introducing these mechanics, they may be completely useless if the player does not notice them and thus their time would have been wasted. A few suggestions on how to get the player to notice these mechanics would be:
- PDA AI giving you a heads up on what can happen in the environment and maybe a document to read as part of the introduction tutorial (makes player aware to look out for these mechanics and use them wisely to their advantage).
- Abandoned PDA's survivors stating these observations in their diary entries (gives players an interest and curiosity to see if the creatures really do behave as the PDF stated).
- Having Achievements that require the player to exploit the ecosystem/view/interact with one of these mechanics (players who view the achievements will see this as an achievement and cause them to be curious).
- Having important items that have to be obtained through interacting with an animal and observing it closely (this will make players notice their behaviour).
Examples for mechanics (especially the Reefback's):
- By having a player observe a Stalker (through the examples above), they can notice the Stalker take metal back to its hidden nest. If they follow the Stalker, they can find the nest which could contain deposits of scrap metal and a Stalker Egg. Players could also find a hidden nest by having one of their Camera Drones being dragged back to a Stalker nest by a Stalker.
- By having a player needing to go to a Reefback and obtain a Reefback Egg off its back (that's a mouthful), they can notice a group of herbivores feeding off the mosses and vegetation that grows on the Reefback's back and using the protection they gain from its sheer size, creating a mini reef/ecosystem that revolves around the Reefback. The egg can then be used to hatch a baby Reefback in an aquarium, and have DNA samples being taken from it to create the 'Chelonian Hull upgrade' for the Cyclops. Also, if you scan the Reefback, in its document, it can point out the ecosystem and give a player a hint that they need a baby Reefback to extract DNA as the grown Reefback's skin is too thick.
Final Suggestions to improve the game:
Add many interesting and beautiful areas into Subnautica, eg: Caves that have pockets of air where you can breath. These caves should be fairly small and hard to find and if explored to the end, players can find picturesque, beautiful and interesting areas in the caves that are large enough to build small Sea-Habitats. Could be full of interesting and glowing flora/fauna. - Correlates to the paragraph about exploration, curiosity and the beauty of the game.
Mechanics to make the game feel more alive. - Correlates to the paragraph about the possible 'creature interaction mechanics' and using creative ways to solve problems. Also correlates to Player interests.
Add the 'Phantom Levaithan' from the Lost River concept if possible. Many players are really looking forward to this creature and many players want more/larger fauna. - Correlates to player interests and especially AwesomeCrunche's great video on the most anticipated creatures of Subnautica.
Please take care as Developers. - Correlates to the first paragraph.
My Questions:
Will you keep adding new biomes/creatures etc. into the game after full release?
Did this post help? If it did make you feel better or help in anyway, please reply below and let me know as this was the main purpose of this post and I would have completed what I set out to do
If you read all of this, thank you very much for your time, I hope it helped. Sorry that this was a long post.
Best of luck with your development!
~Hybrid
I apologise for any mistakes and also If I offend anyone.
(R.I.P. fingers)
This post is a mix of discussion about the Developers and their work/treatment, suggestions for the Developers and a player's view on some of the Developers' questions about the game and where to go with its mechanics. It also touches on what players are enjoying the most in the game (from my own experience, along with many other Youtuber's experiences) and what they seem to want the most. Of course, 'what they seem to want the most' does not include stuff that has already been ruled out (guns, multiplayer, etc.). I'd really appreciate it if the Developers could take their precious time to read this post and I feel it will benefit how they feel and their Development
Treatment/work:
First off, the Developers copped some flak from a small percentage of Subnautica's customers, as they failed to release Subnautica on XBOX1 on their initial *estimated* (keyword being 'estimated') date, April 1st. I'm sure most would agree with me that this was completely unfair. The Developers have their own lives, families, and needs. They are not robots whose sole purpose is to work on Subnautica and just like everyone else, they can get sick, which according to some tweets I have seen, is exactly what happened. The Developers spend their time working on Subnautica in a whole range of fields, not everything is shown on Trello. They were working on an Oculus Rift port, the core game its self and an XBOX1 port all within the same month, which is a lot of time and effort. People also seem to constantly forget that this is an EARLY ACCESS GAME, bugs and 'failures' should be expected. Of course, along with the ungrateful players and what not, there are those who are grateful of the Developers work. A long while back, on a Subnautica Development update video, a Developer was talking about how he hopes that if they do right by the players, the players 'will catch [them] when [they] fall', which, from the posts about the XBOX release date, didn't exactly happen, sadly. So, I suppose this is my attempt of 'catching them when they fall'. To sum it up, I want the Developers to know there that are many players out there who are actually grateful for the work they put into Subnautica and support them when they fall, whether they show it or not. Keep up the great work Developers, don't let this deter you from Subnautica's community
What players seem to enjoy most:
Players seem to enjoy exploration and interacting with the environment the most. For example, Markiplier, JackSepticEye, AwesomeCrunch and many other Subnautica Youtubers seem to love finding new, interesting and/or picturesque locations in Subnautica, along with their interests in the creatures of Subnautica. On Subnautica Episode 21 - Markiplier, Markiplier kept rambling on about his love for finding new and interesting locations in Subnautica constantly and how it amazes him that he can always find something new in the world of Subnautica. I too love this aspect of Subnautica and I'm sure many other players do as well. Now, on to the creatures. JackSepticEye, Markiplier and AwesomeCrunch are great examples of the players' interests in the fauna and flora of Subnautica. Both Jack and Mark freaked out when they saw the Reefback for the first time but, their curiosity made them investigate and attempt to interact with the creature. This highlights the fact that players will want to investigate creatures and see what they do and how they can interact with them, which leads me on to my next point about a 'question' the Developers had about introducing a mechanic into the game.
Developers' Questions:
Recently on Trello, there was a document link on a Card that sent the viewer to a document about introducing 'Environmental and creature interactions' into the game. Throughout the document there were many wonderful examples of interactions that could be put into the game. The interaction examples stated were amazing in my opinion and I believe they will affect the game more than the Developers think. As of now, Subnautica's environment looks alive but, it does not necessarily 'feel' alive. Most of the creatures feel like they are there for the sake of being there and they do not really do much so, players tend just to pass them by after seeing them for the first time. So, I feel that these mechanics will make the game feel much more alive and also make it feel like there is actually a living ecosystem. This also correlates to the Developers interests with the game as they have stated multiple times in posts that they do not want lethal weapons in Subnautica and instead want players to use creative ways to exploit the ecosystem around them to achieve their goals. As of now, there are very few ways to exploit the creatures in Subnautica and until you have a Stasis Rifle or what not, you can not really use anything to get rid of a Stalker, apart from a knife or running for your dear life. I think there was an example of a mechanic that would have a player bait a group of Stalkers out of the Kelp Forest and into the Red Grass region to create a territorial war between Stalkers and Sandsharks, leaving the player to safely explore the Kelp Forest as the Stalkers are distracted. This would be an amazing way to get around obstacles in the early stages of a playthrough. The Developers do fear that if they spend their time introducing these mechanics, they may be completely useless if the player does not notice them and thus their time would have been wasted. A few suggestions on how to get the player to notice these mechanics would be:
- PDA AI giving you a heads up on what can happen in the environment and maybe a document to read as part of the introduction tutorial (makes player aware to look out for these mechanics and use them wisely to their advantage).
- Abandoned PDA's survivors stating these observations in their diary entries (gives players an interest and curiosity to see if the creatures really do behave as the PDF stated).
- Having Achievements that require the player to exploit the ecosystem/view/interact with one of these mechanics (players who view the achievements will see this as an achievement and cause them to be curious).
- Having important items that have to be obtained through interacting with an animal and observing it closely (this will make players notice their behaviour).
Examples for mechanics (especially the Reefback's):
- By having a player observe a Stalker (through the examples above), they can notice the Stalker take metal back to its hidden nest. If they follow the Stalker, they can find the nest which could contain deposits of scrap metal and a Stalker Egg. Players could also find a hidden nest by having one of their Camera Drones being dragged back to a Stalker nest by a Stalker.
- By having a player needing to go to a Reefback and obtain a Reefback Egg off its back (that's a mouthful), they can notice a group of herbivores feeding off the mosses and vegetation that grows on the Reefback's back and using the protection they gain from its sheer size, creating a mini reef/ecosystem that revolves around the Reefback. The egg can then be used to hatch a baby Reefback in an aquarium, and have DNA samples being taken from it to create the 'Chelonian Hull upgrade' for the Cyclops. Also, if you scan the Reefback, in its document, it can point out the ecosystem and give a player a hint that they need a baby Reefback to extract DNA as the grown Reefback's skin is too thick.
Final Suggestions to improve the game:
Add many interesting and beautiful areas into Subnautica, eg: Caves that have pockets of air where you can breath. These caves should be fairly small and hard to find and if explored to the end, players can find picturesque, beautiful and interesting areas in the caves that are large enough to build small Sea-Habitats. Could be full of interesting and glowing flora/fauna. - Correlates to the paragraph about exploration, curiosity and the beauty of the game.
Mechanics to make the game feel more alive. - Correlates to the paragraph about the possible 'creature interaction mechanics' and using creative ways to solve problems. Also correlates to Player interests.
Add the 'Phantom Levaithan' from the Lost River concept if possible. Many players are really looking forward to this creature and many players want more/larger fauna. - Correlates to player interests and especially AwesomeCrunche's great video on the most anticipated creatures of Subnautica.
Please take care as Developers. - Correlates to the first paragraph.
My Questions:
Will you keep adding new biomes/creatures etc. into the game after full release?
Did this post help? If it did make you feel better or help in anyway, please reply below and let me know as this was the main purpose of this post and I would have completed what I set out to do
If you read all of this, thank you very much for your time, I hope it helped. Sorry that this was a long post.
Best of luck with your development!
~Hybrid
I apologise for any mistakes and also If I offend anyone.
(R.I.P. fingers)
Comments
Just to point out something you might not be aware of....
Stalkers can be distracted by salvage or even temporarily tamed using salvage or fish. See their wiki entry for details.
Having taken the effort to implement something that sophisticated I would expect to see similar complexity added to other fauna at some point. Maybe when they implement the transfuser stuff.
If a dev does pop in I wouldn't mind an answer to this one too. Having indicated the game could be released mid-year it's kind of sad to think Subnautica's development might almost be finished. Want more shinies!
Also, I suggest checking out their document about the creature mechanics, it's quite interesting
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1vWqYFwQs1JiMaHC2n_FnsZWZU4eP666GWQeok021wew/edit?pref=2&pli=1#heading=h.57vp5oxkn3ub
I think it had been updated since I last looked at it, which was a few days ago. This is the document that made me give a few of my suggestions (I didn't want to give suggestions that were out of line of what the Developers were thinking of their self).
Also, for those who are wondering, here is an image on the un-named concept art creature, that has been nicknamed 'Phantom Leviathan':
http://subnautica.wikia.com/wiki/File:LostRiver_BonesField_V02b_lorez.jpg
I just cant stop playing this game even tho its not finished yet. Its the first time i get so caught up in an Early Access game in my life and im happy i fell on this little beauty. BIG CHEERS TO DA DEVS!
First off, cheers for taking your time to read the post :P
Secondly, yeah, I thought it might refresh the Devs a little
Lastly, the suggestions that I wrote were sort of based off what they had already planned but, had had concerns over. For example, with the creature mechanics, they are concerned that if they spend time implementing these mechanics (according to the document), it might not pay off as players might not notice them or hold any value to them thus, I wrote about suggestions on methods of getting players to notice them and also telling them that players may value these mechanics more than they think. It shows through Youtube and my own experiences that creatures in the game make us curious, even if they're scary. A vast majority of players always try and go and interact with these creatures, for example, the Reefback. Also, with the 'herbivores eating moss of a Reefback' idea, that comes from the mechanic idea in the creature mechanics document about bleeders and other creatures 'pecking' at dead corpses of fish to make it look like they're feeding, only that this would be done with something such as a Rabbit Ray munching on some moss. This idea along with obtaining an egg off the Reefback would also solve one of the Developer's, for lack of better words, 'questions' of needing a way to make the Reefback relevant/'give it a purpose'. The idea of a Camera Drone being taken to a Stalker nest had already (I'm pretty sure) been brought up by a developer before, only I just elaborated on it. Phantom Leviathan - mainly because many people really want it, it looks badass and it already has concept art for it. Lastly, the caves with air pockets, picturesque areas and more hidden (interesting, beautiful etc.) locations comes from the exploration part of Subnautica and I feel that these areas could be implemented during the Polishing month of Subnautica, if the developer has time, of course.
To sum it up, I tried my best to keep the suggestions logical, possible and in line with the Developers' and players' interests combined.
Thanks for the comment!
I also agree that the caves should be their own biomes with their own unique creatures.Maybe an eel that lives in the tunnels?Maybe large groups of rockgrubs live in the caves?
Haha thank you very much for reading
More fleshed-out caves would be pretty cool, maybe in the polishing update if they have the time for it
Lastly, I love the little Rockgrubs and their glows, one of the cool parts of finding a cave