Here's my question. Will the Subnautica map (Play Area) be any bigger than it is now when it is fully released? Subnautica is already a pretty decent sized map with a very low depth, but is it possible for it to be expanded upon in future updates?
I believe we now have all the map thats gonna be there when official release hits, if you consider the unfinished ILZ/ALZ.
That being said, there is still a few biomes named ''Unassigned'' by the F1 tools ingame .... they could very well be placeholders for future Biomes released as Expansions/DLCs, who knows uh?
Either that or they'll just be expanded as the biomes they're attach'ed to as to make those bigger, its hard to tell at this point without more infos. There was a theorized Twisty Bridges biome a few months back, not sure whats the status on this one as there is no more info on that from the Trello. Could be a dlc for after release or it might have been completely dropped by the Devs, thats hard to tell as well.
I believe we now have all the map thats gonna be there when official release hits, if you consider the unfinished ILZ/ALZ.
That being said, there is still a few biomes named ''Unassigned'' by the F1 tools ingame .... they could very well be placeholders for future Biomes released as Expansions/DLCs, who knows uh?
Either that or they'll just be expanded as the biomes they're attach'ed to as to make those bigger, its hard to tell at this point without more infos. There was a theorized Twisty Bridges biome a few months back, not sure whats the status on this one as there is no more info on that from the Trello. Could be a dlc for after release or it might have been completely dropped by the Devs, thats hard to tell as well.
Twisty Bridges is, if I am correct, planned as a lower biome giving entrance to another. I think the LR. We also know the Lillypad Islands are being worked on, presumably for one of the unassigned areas, and there's still noise about the Arctic biome. So.... I don't think the map will get bigger, but there's still more stuff planned to fill up the current size.
I wonder if they'll ever pick up the procedural generation aspect again. Looking at very early parts of the game, it was part handbuilt and part randomly generated. I know they dropped the procedural generation in favor of hand crafting it so they could get more unique and beautiful detailing, but what if they had a few biomes designated for being randomly generated, to expand the borders of the map before it finally gives way to void? We'd have the core central map which some of us already know by heart, and then a larger field of randomly generated terrain that likely won't look as good, and then the void.
I feel they'll stick with the handmade crafting though and I'm fine with that. Procedural generation can get repetitive fast if it's not done well, and I think they've got better things to do with their time and resources than wrestle with something like this right now.
Either way, a wider play area I'd be all for. Maybe another island - natural or otherwise - and some more abyssal biomes that aren't situated in a cave system... They could implement more things from their gallery of lovely Concept Art!
They're gonna add the lost river and the inactive and active lava zones before 1.0 release, but they may add the floating lilypad islands, the twisty bridges and maybe some other biomes in the future.
The entire map is on one side of the aurora! I would like to see some on the other side.... I mean people want an arctic biome so there is some inspiration! Also the concept art has UNLIMITED ideas for biomes.
They're gonna add the lost river and the inactive and active lava zones before 1.0 release, but they may add the floating lilypad islands, the twisty bridges and maybe some other biomes in the future.
I'm thinking more of expanding it horizontally and not vertically. It's great we're getting those new biomes, but they're deep sea caves. The actual surface area of the map remains unchnged with their addition: Head past the mountains, you still see Void. There's no new biomes on the opposite end of the Aurora, beyond the Dunes, the Grand Reef... It's those areas I'd enjoy seeing expanded into past the 1.0 release. Expanding the width of the map, and not just the depth of it.
Yea, I would like a wider map as well, for the simple reason that I don't like spending all my time looking for a cave entrance. I also really prefer brighter biomes to dark caves.
I'd just as soon they optimize what they have to reduce the FPS stutter, popin and short draw distance. Even with 16Gb of ram and 6 more on my GPU (4k) this game stutters badly at times.
Comments
That being said, there is still a few biomes named ''Unassigned'' by the F1 tools ingame .... they could very well be placeholders for future Biomes released as Expansions/DLCs, who knows uh?
Either that or they'll just be expanded as the biomes they're attach'ed to as to make those bigger, its hard to tell at this point without more infos. There was a theorized Twisty Bridges biome a few months back, not sure whats the status on this one as there is no more info on that from the Trello. Could be a dlc for after release or it might have been completely dropped by the Devs, thats hard to tell as well.
https://trello.com/c/iIbLhvlz/5483-plan-potential-layout-for-twisty-bridges
Currently in the To-Do List
I feel they'll stick with the handmade crafting though and I'm fine with that. Procedural generation can get repetitive fast if it's not done well, and I think they've got better things to do with their time and resources than wrestle with something like this right now.
Either way, a wider play area I'd be all for. Maybe another island - natural or otherwise - and some more abyssal biomes that aren't situated in a cave system... They could implement more things from their gallery of lovely Concept Art!
I'm thinking more of expanding it horizontally and not vertically. It's great we're getting those new biomes, but they're deep sea caves. The actual surface area of the map remains unchnged with their addition: Head past the mountains, you still see Void. There's no new biomes on the opposite end of the Aurora, beyond the Dunes, the Grand Reef... It's those areas I'd enjoy seeing expanded into past the 1.0 release. Expanding the width of the map, and not just the depth of it.