Remaining Oxygen in Seabases

Gibbel91

Hello

I had a thought while I played subnautica. In every game or film I played/watched, there is no more oxygen if the lifesupport systems have no energy or fails. Also in Subnautica. But normaly there have to be remaining oxygen in the room which is produced/recycled befor the system failed.

In Subnautica it could be like:
If you enter an offline seabase (or your energy runs out), the AI warns you and telling you the current remaining oxygen level (in percent or seconds) and if the oxygen is nearly depleted it warns you too. The amount of the remaining oxygen could be slightly affected by the size of your base (not realy much)



It's not a big idea or a recommended feature for the game but it's more realistic and could be pretty usefull.

For instance: It is night and you have to charge your batterys/energy cells of seemoth/cyclops after a long farming (and/or exploring) session and your energy runs out (and you have only solar panels and/or the reactor is depleted) and so you have a bit more time untill dawn, without turn up to the sea surface (maybe your base is quite deep or in a cave system).

I mean; a cyclops + a seemoth + a few (lithium)batterys = +/- 2000 energy. So its quite possible to run out of energy at night.


(Sorry for my english)

ThePassionateGamer

Ok good idea...a once powered base has remaining oxygen. Sounds only realistic. But then we do have to take the size of the base into account because every room filled with breathable atmosphere gives you more time to breath. That is also a fact you can learn from many sci-fi movies.

So a big base would keep you alive alot longer then say a single MP-room.

Gibbel91

Right. Maybe every corridor give you, I don't know ... 2-4 seconds of oxygen, every room ~10 seconds, moon pools ~15 seconds and the observatory 5-8 seconds. But maybe only for each floor of the base, not for the whole base

ThePassionateGamer

@Gibbel91 : Anything that has air in it and is openly connected with the rest of the base has to be added up and then it has to have a realistic ammount of oxygen in it. 10seconds for a MP room is way to less oxygen. Your "lung capacity" (without any air tanks) alone lasts already 45 seconds long and you want the air of a whole room to count only as 10 seconds of air?

Please rethink those values again.

Gibbel91

I know they are pretty low. But there is another fact.

Of course we could take realistic values for each part.
But then it must be like:

Above a certain seabase size, the oxygen bonus from the corridors/rooms/etc. decreases with each new part you add to your base until zero. That means that at some point new parts don't give you a bonus anymore. Just to simulate the fact, that the air could not circulate without energy. If you know what I mean.

ThePassionateGamer

Ok no circulation of air without energy is a fact sure. But what stops you from moving around if you have a big base? Nothing forces you to stay in one room till the air is used up to the point that you could not breath it anymore.

Besides the fact that air always slightly circulates because auf temperature differences and what not...

Gibbel91

That is all true what you said. What I try to make with my idea, is a compromise somewhere between realistic and the possibilities of the game / what is playful possible. Sure we can do it very realistic, but it's still a survival game and you shouldn't have it too easy, just because we want it realistic. Also you should endeavor to reactivate your energy. What we don't have to forget in this idea, are the playful aspects.

ComicalSkate

Or the AI could say you have, for example, 30 seconds of breathable air inside the habitat when you enter and all that needs to change is you have an extra 30 seconds to your oxygen metre on your HUD. This would be pretty easy to do.

scubamatt

Also, don't forget the game operates at a constant state of Time Compression. One second (or minute) in game is NOT equal to the same in real time.