Ideas for SN Story...Random Brainstorm
WSBurns
KingdomOFMadness Join Date: 2016-07-25 Member: 220631Members
KingdomOFMadness Join Date: 2016-07-25 Member: 220631Members
This is an ongoing set of ideas, so fell free to add your own constructive input.
I may be editing this wall of text as soon as some more ideas pop up.
I would like to see a story going like this:
A few days before the player receives the Aurora dark matter reactor meltdown message (which could be postponed a few days to allow further story development) the player receives a message from POD say...17 with a human person still alive inside asking for help, the player would have to rescue (him or her) and build a small base to harbour the wounded guest.
I would prefer a female, based on the player character being a male and on the picture commonly found on the lockers, why? Well, please let me elaborate:
Sarah Evans: (the girl face in the locker photo)
She is an actress or some important scientist send by the company to be one of the company faces in the colonization of planet 4646B. A few days before Aurora´s crash she distributed several signed photos to several members of the crew. (those ended in the lockers) Well she survives the fall, but she´s injured and needs tending, the player will have to perform a set of goals to keep her alive, like finding food, crafting anti-radiation suits, crafting med-kits maybe recovering lab instruments etc...
Her stats would add to the game GUI so we would know what to work for.
This quest could trigger as soon as the player makes the habitat building tool.
As the story progresses she recovers and we could designate her a few tasks around the base and maybe even sent her on item recovering errands, like search for crystals, or debris, i can imagine this would be a pain to script and implement on the game system, maybe making further use of the scan room to map a certain area free of predators and assign crew to explore and recover items on a predefined radius.
I guess expanding food and water resources could trigger more survivor rescue signals, they could also be given similar tasks, for instance, if a scientist was rescued, he could be assigned a lab module room so he could improve on our items like building better batteries, enhancing weapons and other systems.
Maybe some scientists or engineers would require specific bases to be built in several risky locations forcing us to assign valuable resources there, this bases would gather information making our research tree head in different directions according to our personal choices, probably causing different plot outcomes.
I like this idea better than just scan away random boxes to upgrade our tech tree, and it could allow the game to be played several times over in order to uncover other tech options not followed on the first play-trough.
Of course you would have to equip a cyclops and transport people into this new bases, maybe a second cyclops with some added bunkers, at least this could be a good excuse to build a second vessel dedicated to move crew around the bases.
Note:
(IMHO this would make use of the entire game map extending the plot further with a research and resource managing system.)
I personally dont like the idea that XO Keen dies in the explosion, i think he should also survive and find a mass of land far south. Possibly 12 days away from our Zone. ( but i will go "deeper" into this further ahead)
The recovered survivors could also be part of the plot, appart from acomodating them into our bases, each of them could provide more clues to unveil several mysteries, like the one behind the dark matter reactor explosion, since it has been stated that the crash damage wasn't enough to have it reach critical mass, you learn this from exploring Aurora´s wreck. Some of the survivors could supply clues and help us build a more powerful radio transmitter, with it you would be able to contact XO Keen at his 12 days distance location.
As you talk you learn that he needs you to gather valuable resources, non present at his location and gives you the amounts he needs to build and escape vessel. He also informs you of the nuclear submarine plans inside the Aurora.
At some point in the game story the player needs to head back into the Aurora, but the ship is slowly sliding into the abyss, as the seabed holding it collapses, it turns into the abyss below exposing some belly entrances (or if it finally slides over you need to go really deep to find the entrances)
The player has the opportunity to explore these new areas and acquire several new blueprints, one of them is specially important, its the Nuclear Submarine (i like the one concepted by Pat Presley for subnautica, i would like to call it Nautilus):
if you are interested in his amazing work:
https://www.artstation.com/artwork/Zemx1
This vessel will have several stats higher than the Cyclops:
Its nuclear so it can run for longer periods of time, (capable of the 12 days journey to XO keen´s Island)
its much larger and can house crew bunkers, important to take the survivors and resources,
It can have its own sonar room
it can go much deeper,
and it can house 2 seamoth bays equipped to fend off the Sea emperor attacks.
This would permit to take the survivors to the rendezvous to where XO Keen is now building a base. We would have to gather and carry several useful and valuable resources at his request, this could trigger several radio messages asking for a list of available resources, like Gold, Diamonds, Lithium, etc... (i would like to see some of them stack in units of 5, 10 or 20.)
Note:
(While this would force the devs to build another large island (the XO Keen´s Island) it would not change much of the current area being developed, as the sea floor leading to this new island (the 12 day journey) would be an abyssal plane filled with dead mountains and thermal vents needed for the plot ahead.)
Meanwhile along the journey (a 12 day one) we are attacked by the Sea Emperor. He can cause several leaks in our submarine who have to be dealt with. For 12 days, you need to be able to keep the submarine going, and make a smart use of your resources, there is room for a great plot here, and to be able to evade and hide from the Sea Emperor and fix the damage he causes, i see this as a Cap Nemo vs Giant Squid, if done right it could work really well.
The nuclear submarine can be equipped with bunkers to house a small crew (probably the survivors you got along the way) and one or two seamoth bays, you could equip the 2 seamoths with torpedoes to help you against the Sea Emperor´s attacks further along the journey. Even maybe be able to assign a crew man as a wingman to help you along, or a single Seamoth with 2 seats that could have a torpedo turret probably controlled by an NPC or an automated defence system.
So that while you drive, an automated targeting system (or NPC) would keep firing torps at the sea emperor.
Still, the Sea Emperor cant be killed but he could be slowed in his effort to sunk us. ( Maybe we could have some powerful stasis torpedoes or stasis mines)
I'm imagining this journey as the Star Trek´s Voyager Season 5 Episode 1 (Night) where they have to cross a huge empty area of space, away from the current game area the ocean bottom is really deep (5000 m deep) and we would have a limited sonar system to track down the sea Emperor´s attacks just a few moments before they happen, maybe trying to dodge the sea Emperor by hiding near the sea floor among the fog caused by thermal vents, and powering down all the systems to cause minimum energy output, which he could detect, systems like Sonar, internal or external lights, engine noise, could give us away. Maybe sometimes the sonar echos would be some other large creature but we would have to take precautions. I see a very tense chapter a cat and mouse game of sorts, with maybe the sea emperor being able to fire some energy bolts that could work like deep charges capable of causing structural damage to the nuclear submarine systems and instruments, like slowing the engine output, causing hull breaches, jamming the radar beacon pointing to Keen´s base or giving the wrong deep readings.
If we survive and reach the Island where XO Keen is, as things seems to progress... something happens...I was imagining a plot where the Sea Emperor was able to attack the floaters that sustain the island and as it starts to sink it would force the player to use the terraformer to contain the rising water´s, by building several barriers while XO Keen and his crew were to finish an escape vessel.
PS: Of course this would have to be all sewed to the story already being developed with the precursors and so on..but i think at least some of this could work really well, especially a change of pace between the exploring part,the people rescuing, the resource gathering and resource managing/ Research and development, the escape (cat and mouse) and finally the final confrontation on Keen´s Island.
I may be editing this wall of text as soon as some more ideas pop up.
I would like to see a story going like this:
A few days before the player receives the Aurora dark matter reactor meltdown message (which could be postponed a few days to allow further story development) the player receives a message from POD say...17 with a human person still alive inside asking for help, the player would have to rescue (him or her) and build a small base to harbour the wounded guest.
I would prefer a female, based on the player character being a male and on the picture commonly found on the lockers, why? Well, please let me elaborate:
Sarah Evans: (the girl face in the locker photo)
She is an actress or some important scientist send by the company to be one of the company faces in the colonization of planet 4646B. A few days before Aurora´s crash she distributed several signed photos to several members of the crew. (those ended in the lockers) Well she survives the fall, but she´s injured and needs tending, the player will have to perform a set of goals to keep her alive, like finding food, crafting anti-radiation suits, crafting med-kits maybe recovering lab instruments etc...
Her stats would add to the game GUI so we would know what to work for.
This quest could trigger as soon as the player makes the habitat building tool.
As the story progresses she recovers and we could designate her a few tasks around the base and maybe even sent her on item recovering errands, like search for crystals, or debris, i can imagine this would be a pain to script and implement on the game system, maybe making further use of the scan room to map a certain area free of predators and assign crew to explore and recover items on a predefined radius.
I guess expanding food and water resources could trigger more survivor rescue signals, they could also be given similar tasks, for instance, if a scientist was rescued, he could be assigned a lab module room so he could improve on our items like building better batteries, enhancing weapons and other systems.
Maybe some scientists or engineers would require specific bases to be built in several risky locations forcing us to assign valuable resources there, this bases would gather information making our research tree head in different directions according to our personal choices, probably causing different plot outcomes.
I like this idea better than just scan away random boxes to upgrade our tech tree, and it could allow the game to be played several times over in order to uncover other tech options not followed on the first play-trough.
Of course you would have to equip a cyclops and transport people into this new bases, maybe a second cyclops with some added bunkers, at least this could be a good excuse to build a second vessel dedicated to move crew around the bases.
Note:
(IMHO this would make use of the entire game map extending the plot further with a research and resource managing system.)
I personally dont like the idea that XO Keen dies in the explosion, i think he should also survive and find a mass of land far south. Possibly 12 days away from our Zone. ( but i will go "deeper" into this further ahead)
The recovered survivors could also be part of the plot, appart from acomodating them into our bases, each of them could provide more clues to unveil several mysteries, like the one behind the dark matter reactor explosion, since it has been stated that the crash damage wasn't enough to have it reach critical mass, you learn this from exploring Aurora´s wreck. Some of the survivors could supply clues and help us build a more powerful radio transmitter, with it you would be able to contact XO Keen at his 12 days distance location.
As you talk you learn that he needs you to gather valuable resources, non present at his location and gives you the amounts he needs to build and escape vessel. He also informs you of the nuclear submarine plans inside the Aurora.
At some point in the game story the player needs to head back into the Aurora, but the ship is slowly sliding into the abyss, as the seabed holding it collapses, it turns into the abyss below exposing some belly entrances (or if it finally slides over you need to go really deep to find the entrances)
The player has the opportunity to explore these new areas and acquire several new blueprints, one of them is specially important, its the Nuclear Submarine (i like the one concepted by Pat Presley for subnautica, i would like to call it Nautilus):
if you are interested in his amazing work:
https://www.artstation.com/artwork/Zemx1
This vessel will have several stats higher than the Cyclops:
Its nuclear so it can run for longer periods of time, (capable of the 12 days journey to XO keen´s Island)
its much larger and can house crew bunkers, important to take the survivors and resources,
It can have its own sonar room
it can go much deeper,
and it can house 2 seamoth bays equipped to fend off the Sea emperor attacks.
This would permit to take the survivors to the rendezvous to where XO Keen is now building a base. We would have to gather and carry several useful and valuable resources at his request, this could trigger several radio messages asking for a list of available resources, like Gold, Diamonds, Lithium, etc... (i would like to see some of them stack in units of 5, 10 or 20.)
Note:
(While this would force the devs to build another large island (the XO Keen´s Island) it would not change much of the current area being developed, as the sea floor leading to this new island (the 12 day journey) would be an abyssal plane filled with dead mountains and thermal vents needed for the plot ahead.)
Meanwhile along the journey (a 12 day one) we are attacked by the Sea Emperor. He can cause several leaks in our submarine who have to be dealt with. For 12 days, you need to be able to keep the submarine going, and make a smart use of your resources, there is room for a great plot here, and to be able to evade and hide from the Sea Emperor and fix the damage he causes, i see this as a Cap Nemo vs Giant Squid, if done right it could work really well.
The nuclear submarine can be equipped with bunkers to house a small crew (probably the survivors you got along the way) and one or two seamoth bays, you could equip the 2 seamoths with torpedoes to help you against the Sea Emperor´s attacks further along the journey. Even maybe be able to assign a crew man as a wingman to help you along, or a single Seamoth with 2 seats that could have a torpedo turret probably controlled by an NPC or an automated defence system.
So that while you drive, an automated targeting system (or NPC) would keep firing torps at the sea emperor.
Still, the Sea Emperor cant be killed but he could be slowed in his effort to sunk us. ( Maybe we could have some powerful stasis torpedoes or stasis mines)
I'm imagining this journey as the Star Trek´s Voyager Season 5 Episode 1 (Night) where they have to cross a huge empty area of space, away from the current game area the ocean bottom is really deep (5000 m deep) and we would have a limited sonar system to track down the sea Emperor´s attacks just a few moments before they happen, maybe trying to dodge the sea Emperor by hiding near the sea floor among the fog caused by thermal vents, and powering down all the systems to cause minimum energy output, which he could detect, systems like Sonar, internal or external lights, engine noise, could give us away. Maybe sometimes the sonar echos would be some other large creature but we would have to take precautions. I see a very tense chapter a cat and mouse game of sorts, with maybe the sea emperor being able to fire some energy bolts that could work like deep charges capable of causing structural damage to the nuclear submarine systems and instruments, like slowing the engine output, causing hull breaches, jamming the radar beacon pointing to Keen´s base or giving the wrong deep readings.
If we survive and reach the Island where XO Keen is, as things seems to progress... something happens...I was imagining a plot where the Sea Emperor was able to attack the floaters that sustain the island and as it starts to sink it would force the player to use the terraformer to contain the rising water´s, by building several barriers while XO Keen and his crew were to finish an escape vessel.
PS: Of course this would have to be all sewed to the story already being developed with the precursors and so on..but i think at least some of this could work really well, especially a change of pace between the exploring part,the people rescuing, the resource gathering and resource managing/ Research and development, the escape (cat and mouse) and finally the final confrontation on Keen´s Island.
Comments
https://trello.com/c/iwY6FWxX/5739-precursor-gun
I dont see a problem in some other large creature taking its place, afaik Reapers Leviathan cant damage the cyclops so it wouldn't make much sense if they could damage a larger submarine. Going trough Pat Presley concept images i found this interesting one:
https://www.artstation.com/artwork/V26Kn
I guess there will be more large creatures being introduced to the world of Sub Nautica, its just a matter of time, anyway from my post the Devs are free to take and use whatever they wish if they find it useful somehow, im just happy to participate.
Speaking of which, now if you go anywhere near the mountains/mountain island the PDA will tell you "Massive energy reading detected in region. Unable to identify."
but
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There is no much point in being able to build an enormous base having 3 types of beds and nice furnitures only to walk it around completely alone.
More characters would also add more plot to this game, and that would be awesome.
Searching trough sketchfab they added a female, rumours say its the next playable character, wonder if in case one chooses a female as a playing character , the other (male) could assume the role of the NPC we had to save from the pod, like i described above, anyway, it could be an interesting idea.
The only things i see it may prevent Devs from going this way ( adding NPC´s) is the AI programming, Voice Recording and Mocap, this is usually where small studios struggle the most. But given the right ingredients this game has the potential to be the next Underwater Mass Effect.
Nice thinking. But there are some things which are important like every other Lifepod missing a huge piece of it causing it to flood and sink and forcing the passangers to escape the escape pod (how ironic) Maybe there is a reason why the players lifepod is the only one around not dramaticaly hit. But well thought out to this part from you.
Sometimes i wonder if the story has already been written and maybe more characters have been added, or will be added, but this has been kept from the main public as a commercial strategy, and all we are supposed to test is the game engine itself, if so it doesn't bothers me i can totally understand.