Fun with the scanner room
TenebrousNova
England Join Date: 2015-12-23 Member: 210206Members
England Join Date: 2015-12-23 Member: 210206Members
I set up a scanner room for my safe shallows base and gave the drones a little test run. The following is written from the perspective of my survivor, a marine biologist.
"Drone 1 located the wreckage in the jelly mushroom caverns and was able to explore in relative safety. More importantly, I was able to view this location from the comfort of an Alterra executive office chair, without the risk of being pumped full of venomous cnidocytes by carelessly brushing against the drooping stingers that had made the ruined base their home."
"I discovered a new species on this expedition which I have exclusively found in the ruined base. They are reminiscent of Echinoderms found back on Terra. I can only assume that they are scavengers. The species appears to be dimorphous, as I have found specimens with what looks like a slitted pupil on the central "eye". Further analysis is required...I will attempt to retrieve a live specimen for further study when I have the chance."
"Drone 1 has afforded me the unique opportunity to observe a crab snake on its return to its resident mushroom. The creature was unaware of the drone's presence, which leads me to believe that they detect prey via their thermal signatures. I guess this disproves my theory about passive electrolocation.
Their relationship with the snake mushrooms appears to be symbiotic in a similar manner to Amphiprion and Premnas with their host anemones. The crab snake is provided with shelter and an effective ambush site. I imagine that in return, the crab snake protects its host from potential predators and provides it with scraps."
"Drone 1 had suffered some minor chassis damage whilst navigating the caverns, so I set it on a return course. Whilst passing through the kelp forest near my base I took the opportunity to observe a stalker in closer detail. The creatures are obviously intelligent and I have encouraged them to feed from my hand with live peepers. In return, they supplied me with scrap metal from their "treasure hoards". This tolerance of me was short-lived and only motivated by a constant supply of treats, so I am sure to keep my distance. The stalker's magpie-like behaviour kicked in and it approached the drone out of curiosity."
"I didn't want to risk further damage to the drone and steered it away from the stalker's maw which was ready to snatch it up. The drone docked with its port on the scanner room without incident and I approached the base's external hatch to repair it. As I did so, I heard a series of crashes and the sudden terrifying sound of jets of water from the scanner room. I looked out of the window to see that the stalker had followed the drone back to base and, in its enthusiasm, had wrenched it out of its socket with sufficient force to cause damage to the hull. By the time I repaired the breaches, the stalker and drone were nowhere to be seen."
"I assumed remote control of the drone and was treated to an excellent view of the interior of the stalker's mouth as it carried the drone with surprising care. As I watched, the stalker reached its scrap hoard in the kelp forest and unceremoniously dumped the piece of hardware before swimming off. The stalker gave chase as I attempted to return it to base and I was forced to conceal it in a giant coral tube until it lost interest. When I returned it to its rightful place back at base I saw the very same stalker just as it disappeared with my second drone."
"This is going to be a long day."
Hope you guys enjoyed, I was pretty bored this evening. This isn't a series like Aurora Falls or Code Mosasaurus, just a monologue of today's Subnautica session that I thought I'd share with you.
"Drone 1 located the wreckage in the jelly mushroom caverns and was able to explore in relative safety. More importantly, I was able to view this location from the comfort of an Alterra executive office chair, without the risk of being pumped full of venomous cnidocytes by carelessly brushing against the drooping stingers that had made the ruined base their home."
"I discovered a new species on this expedition which I have exclusively found in the ruined base. They are reminiscent of Echinoderms found back on Terra. I can only assume that they are scavengers. The species appears to be dimorphous, as I have found specimens with what looks like a slitted pupil on the central "eye". Further analysis is required...I will attempt to retrieve a live specimen for further study when I have the chance."
"Drone 1 has afforded me the unique opportunity to observe a crab snake on its return to its resident mushroom. The creature was unaware of the drone's presence, which leads me to believe that they detect prey via their thermal signatures. I guess this disproves my theory about passive electrolocation.
Their relationship with the snake mushrooms appears to be symbiotic in a similar manner to Amphiprion and Premnas with their host anemones. The crab snake is provided with shelter and an effective ambush site. I imagine that in return, the crab snake protects its host from potential predators and provides it with scraps."
"Drone 1 had suffered some minor chassis damage whilst navigating the caverns, so I set it on a return course. Whilst passing through the kelp forest near my base I took the opportunity to observe a stalker in closer detail. The creatures are obviously intelligent and I have encouraged them to feed from my hand with live peepers. In return, they supplied me with scrap metal from their "treasure hoards". This tolerance of me was short-lived and only motivated by a constant supply of treats, so I am sure to keep my distance. The stalker's magpie-like behaviour kicked in and it approached the drone out of curiosity."
"I didn't want to risk further damage to the drone and steered it away from the stalker's maw which was ready to snatch it up. The drone docked with its port on the scanner room without incident and I approached the base's external hatch to repair it. As I did so, I heard a series of crashes and the sudden terrifying sound of jets of water from the scanner room. I looked out of the window to see that the stalker had followed the drone back to base and, in its enthusiasm, had wrenched it out of its socket with sufficient force to cause damage to the hull. By the time I repaired the breaches, the stalker and drone were nowhere to be seen."
"I assumed remote control of the drone and was treated to an excellent view of the interior of the stalker's mouth as it carried the drone with surprising care. As I watched, the stalker reached its scrap hoard in the kelp forest and unceremoniously dumped the piece of hardware before swimming off. The stalker gave chase as I attempted to return it to base and I was forced to conceal it in a giant coral tube until it lost interest. When I returned it to its rightful place back at base I saw the very same stalker just as it disappeared with my second drone."
"This is going to be a long day."
Hope you guys enjoyed, I was pretty bored this evening. This isn't a series like Aurora Falls or Code Mosasaurus, just a monologue of today's Subnautica session that I thought I'd share with you.
Comments
Agreed! You can get right in a crash's face and it won't care at all. I've not tested it on reaper leviathans yet.
I really love the Stalkers, though this here's why you've got to be careful with where you position your Scanner Room and the drones xD If you dont want to constantly replace them.
I had a Stalker duo run off with three of my camera drones, the third one I had to spawn in since the first two - which it placed in the same 'treasure hoard' - vanished for some reason. I couldn't find if they were just carried off elsewhere or literally despawned, so just called in a third camera. Which it promptly stole as well after navigating back to base.
The Stalkers are like these aggressive sea-dogs that were crossed with a shark, given their love for grabbing shiney stuff with their maws and swim around with them. And yep! They sure love camera drones!
Better than going through a lot of lives. There should be a greater death penalty, or it's cheaper to die than send a cam to annihilation. I'd love to see my cams getting crashed.
Or imagine sending my cam over the sandy red weeds ocean floor when suddenly they get swallowed. I get shocked until I realize that it was only my cam that got lost.
Or even better. You send your cam deep inside a wreck and end in a chamber full of biters. Phew! Imagine it was you diving in there.
And yeah, I'd like to be able to send a camera drone into a place like the inactive lava zone or the blood kelp zone. I'm playing on hardcore mode and like Zetachron said, it makes things so much safer.
I'd love to be able to dock one to the cyclops. The new hull cameras are awesome but being able to send out a drone would make things even better.
(P.S.: You can safely clear Hanging Stingers using the Propulsion Canon to relocate them. For science. By the way, they make good ammo...)
Have to agree, the scanner function is kinda useless. The range, even with maxed out mods is just too small. It is a nice gimmick to toy around with for a couple of minutes but that is all. It needs more functionality. The drones need a longer range and should have the ability to create navpoints, so we can navigate to interesting places we discovered with the drones.
Maybe I'll post a little more tomorrow.
Unless ur in either the blood kelp biome or koosh. And you have a bit of time to kill. And a bite up ur ass for some uraninite crystals...
That's a crabsnake, nestled inside a Jelly Snake Mushroom. Swim near one that's occupied by this thing and it lunges out and grabs you! Scary buggers...
Following my observations, I returned the drone to base and heard the angry squeal and subsequent explosion of the same crash as it attacked a gasopod who got too close to the cave mouth. Although injured and certainly shocked, the gasopod expelled a cloud of poisonous algae and escaped in the smokescreen.
I am beginning to suspect that the crash itself is not a separate species of fish but a specialized sensory/defensive organ of the crash plant. This would help explain the snug fit of the crash within its host and why it would risk its life with a single-minded determination for the plant's sake. Once the crash has been discharged the plant would merely grow another. My other theory is that the crash and its host plant belong to the same species and that the plant is in fact the female. The male would fertilize the female and defend her should the need arise. I am unable to decide which of these would be more accurate.
My scanner tool came up with a completely different hypothesis suggesting that the crash is an insectivorous fish that builds up concentrations of sulphur, which it provides to the plant in exchange for shelter.
What a load of rubbish. My theory is better.
Unfortunately, the closest reefbacks are out of the range of my drones. I was forced to leave the comfort of my chair, don my radiation-resistant wetsuit and climb into the cockpit of Phantasm to visit them in person. I won't get much fresh air but I will undoubtedly get to experience the dubious thrill of getting chased by native carnivores again.
Reefbacks aren't difficult to find. Their echoing calls carry for many hundreds of metres, an eerie sound that seems to vibrate the water around them. I approached the specimen from the front and gave it a thorough examination with the scanner tool. Did you know that a few centuries ago, people had to rely on vivisection if they wanted to know how a creature ticked? I much prefer this method. It provides much more information on their physiology, right down to the molecular level and the creature continues to tick afterward.
Reefbacks appear to be social animals and travel in small pods that can contain as many as four or five individuals. This particular reefback was exchanging rumbling calls with its companion about 50 metres away. It seemed to be utterly unperturbed by the tiny figure that was prodding it with a scanner tool. Judging by the cavernous pair of siphons found in front of their bioluminescent compound eyes, they feed off the zooplankton that are abundant in the region. I had finished scanning the reefback and concluded that this one was no younger than 20 years old. I suspect that they can live for a lot longer than that.
Curiously, the reefback began to ponderously ascend to the surface until its back breached the water. Perhaps against my better judgement I decided to climb onto the behemoth.
This led to the revelation that the reefback was actually basking in the sunlight. Clearly this was a way of generating energy for itself in a similar manner to reptiles on Terra. The marine iguana, which spends most of its days basking on the rocky shores of the Galápagos Islands before diving into the cold depths to graze on sea grass immediately springs to mind.
I snapped out of my trance to realize that the reefback and I had left Phantasm behind, so I swam back to my faithful submersible. The sun set and the reefback slowly dived back down to rejoin its pod. I realized that we were now closer to Aurora's smoking engines than I thought although thankfully I was wearing my radiation suit. I heard a series of deep, resounding roars that did not belong to the reefbacks, which I realized were now swimming in the opposite direction.
I steered Phantasm around, looking frantically for the source of the vocalizations which seemed to be coming from all directions. Then I saw it, hurtling towards me at an appalling speed. There was no rational intelligence behind this creature's four glowing green eyes. As it opened its enormous mouth, sharp teeth gnashing together and four powerful mandibles flexing in anticipation, the monster bore down upon me with an expression of pure malice on its face.
Bloody. Hell.
Wow damn, and those are under the safe shallows in the pink cave ?
They sure are!
Jesus, I've been down there, must been lucky as hell since I didnt see even one, time to relocate, again
Lost your Seamoth as in destroyed it or forgot where you parked it? The Lifepod, Seamoth, Cyclops, and Beacons should always show in what direction they are located.
As in lost my seamoth to the reaper.
"I had precious little time to react and yanked Phantasm's steering column to the left, causing the beast to overshoot. It was too dark to make out much of the creature's appearance, but trying to escape this nightmare alive was further up on my list of priorities. I'll study it later. Preferably from the other side of this accursed planet.
The leviathan turned in a wide, slow circle, roaring its displeasure that I had evaded its first, deadly charge. I took my chance and set Phantasm speeding back in the direction of Alpha Base. I didn't get far and shouted in alarm when my little seamoth was suddenly yanked backwards. The leviathan's monstrous face filled my field of vision, four mandibles splintering the glass of the cockpit bubble as it scrabbled for purchase. All the while it screamed in rage, violently shaking Phantasm like a child's toy. My poor submersible was also making a racket, its hull squealing in protest whilst the high pitched hazard alarm blared incessantly. I was glad I remembered to put my seatbelt on as I was taken on an unpleasant roller coaster ride, even getting a view of the night sky when the thrashing monster hurled us both out of the water at one point."
"Rivulets of seawater were seeping through the cracks in the glass, it wouldn't hold for much longer. If the cockpit was breached then I was dead. The monster drew Phantasm even closer to its mouth and prepared to bite down. It was then that I remembered the perimeter defense system that I had installed last week. I had never actually meant to use it, being a pacifist at heart, but the leviathan had damaged my beloved seamoth and caused me to involuntarily urinate in my radiation suit, thereby wounding my dignity. I'd had enough, and slammed my fist down on the red button."
"I remembered to close my eyes just as the PDS discharged with a dazzling blue flare that momentarily lit up the entire area and seared afterimages in the back of my eyelids. My assailant, lacking eyelids, was less fortunate and gave a deafening screech, immediately relinquishing its hold on Phantasm and retreating back towards Aurora. Even as the harsh glow of the PDS faded and the creature's muscular tail vanished into the darkness, the headlights illuminated plumes of scarlet blood from its scorched eyes and mouth that were beginning to blossom in the murky water. I'd feel more sorry for it if it hadn't been trying to grind me into hamburger.
I finally managed to return to Alpha Base, where I gave my battered seamoth a full going over with the welder. I then entered my quarters and changed into a clean, dry uniform before turning in for the night. Tomorrow I will complete my work on the cyclops-class industrial submersible. It's about time I paid Aurora a visit...and if I get the chance to examine what I decided to call a reaper leviathan in closer detail without getting killed, that's an added bonus."
"After performing a full systems check and installing a pressure compensator in the engine room, I braced myself. No more delaying the inevitable. The newly christened Megalodon began its journey towards Aurora.
The journey took no more than a few minutes before Aurora's once unblemished hull came into view. The surrounding environment was remarkably undamaged by the impact, I could see a thriving reef ecosystem on the ocean floor complete with stalkers and sandsharks. I wonder why the radiation hasn't affected them? Already I could see that coralline algae was growing in vibrant, calcareous patches on Aurora's flank. Assuming that I can successfully contain the radiation in the drive core, the terraforming vessel will eventually become the largest artificial reef ever.
Ironic, that a ship designed to alter the environment of this planet to suit the needs of human colonists is itself becoming a habitat to this world's inhabitants.
Megalodon slowly moved towards the Aurora's bow where the most damage had taken place. Even now, weeks after the quantum detonation, there were enormous sections of ship that glowed a dull red as molten metal dripped with a loud hiss into the sea. All I could see was fire, steam and twisted metal. The ruined hull groaned and shuddered... the ship was barely holding itself together.
Megalodon's onboard AI warned me of an extended debris field below. True to its word I had to navigate past monstrous, mangled shapes that became rusted girders and huge sheets of metal scattered along the sea floor as the powerful floodlights played over them. I then heard a familiar roar and accessed the conning tower's camera."
"Oh...hello there!"
"I finally got to see a reaper leviathan in broad daylight as it surged towards Megalodon with a rumbling bellow. Although it was no less terrifying I must admit that the beast possesses a certain majesty to it. I estimated that it rivaled my cyclops in length from mandibles to tail. This is an apex predator if ever I saw one and if there's a larger carnivore out there somewhere, I swear I will never leave the safety of Alpha Base again."
"I looked away from the camera just in time to see the reaper leviathan throw itself against the viewing bubble. Although the enameled glass held strong against its onslaught I still took several steps backward. The leviathan howled in frustration, able to see the little morsel but unable to reach me. It even started to ram into Megalodon's flank with a series of resounding thuds that caused the vessel to tip slightly, but leaving it unharmed. Suddenly the leviathan swam away and I saw the reason when I accessed the cameras again."
"The reaper had decided to vent its anger on a nearby sandshark and grabbed at it with its mandibles, unable to find purchase but managing to slash the smaller predator along its flank. The sandshark reacted as any sane organism would and bolted at a surprising speed, but the reaper, spurred on by the smell of blood flowing freely from the deep gash on its quarry surged forth and firmly ensnared the struggling creature in its mandibles.
The crunch of the reaper leviathan's teeth as it tore through the sandshark's armoured hide was audible even from here and something that would haunt my dreams for weeks to come. I shivered involuntarily as the reaper screamed in triumph before vanishing into the lightless abyss below Aurora, the expanding cloud of blood the only indication that the struggle had ever taken place. That could just as easily have been me last night. Unless these things sleep at some point, there's no way I'm going to be able to probe one with the scanner tool anytime soon. And I genuinely want to learn more about them.
I piloted my cyclops into what used to be Aurora's bow through one of the gaping holes that had been torn through it. Steam from the molten metal dripping into the sea obscured my vision and fogged up the observation bubble but finally, I stopped by a slope emerging from the water, formed by a great section of the floor above that had given way in the explosion. Small blue four-legged creatures resembling crustaceans crawled over the wreckage, probably picking over it for food.
"No prizes for guessing what they've been eating for the past fortnight", said a morbid voice in my head that I tried to block out. Although it would be dangerous I could make out a path that I could use. Maybe I'll be able to access the interior from here.
Medkit, check. Disinfected water, check. Spare battery, check. Synthetic nutrient block, check. All of my equipment was in working order. I entered Megalodon's dive room and prepared to disembark."
Apologies if my writing style seems awkward and/or inconsistent. I'm not sure if anyone else feels the same way but I always think my own attempts at fanfiction look cheesy as hell. Once the Aurora has been repaired it'll be back to creature observation.
Those are excellent images that you've taken, you truly are an expert photographer!