Suggestions about game progression, vehicle modules and item upgrades.

boots01

I've just built the Cyclops in my post-prawn save, and I have to say the game is really starting to come together. I particularly like the way the Prawn marks out end-game content in both depth and capacity to withstand the Reaper. It makes the Cyclops very useful as a mobile support platform, especially in reaper-infested waters (dunes, mountains).

Here are a raft of suggestions.

Small inconsistencies:

• I can pick up and re-deploy storage lockers, but not the mobile vehicle bay.
• There's no way to turn the lights off on the prawn. I think there needs to be one button to toggle lights across all vehicles and tools - flashlight, seaglide, seamoth, Cyclops, Prawn.
• I feel like in theme terms the prawn needs to operate without having to leave it. Tab while inside the prawn should allow transfer between prawn storage and self-storage.
• In general, tab should bring up your PDA regardless of whether you're in a vehicle or not.

Progression:
At the moment the tech tree (lead and creepvines for radiation suit, and magnesium and crash powder for welder in starting zone) leads you straight to the Aurora. This is mostly fine - the Aurora opens up the map in a really organic and fun way, because of the signals you collect and the pressure compensator you find for the Seamoth. It's the gate to the mid-game, because it opens up the Grand Reef and the moon pool/modification station.

In the current build the Aurora also opens up the Prawn... which feels like the end-game vehicle, and can't really work too well without the Cyclops as a mobile base (see above). I feel like the Cyclops should arrive before the Prawn but entry to the Aurora is a free Prawn at the moment thanks to the multiple prawn fragments in the prawn hangar. My suggestion is to remove all but one prawn fragment from the Aurora, to keep the emphasis on exploration not base building in the mid-game.

Useless materials:

• Salt is super important in the early game because it gets you bleach (for water) and magnesium (for the welder). Then suddenly you have the filtration machine and more salt than you have any use for. I think the way out of this is to find a use for magnesium. I think magnesium, not crash powder, should be the main element of flares. Or, since that makes crash powder useless, maybe one crash powder and three magnesium makes three flares. Or, make Crash Powder craftable into Sulfur instead, to give it a crafting output.
• The end game advanced materials (Benzene, Hydrochloric Acid, Polyaniline) are kind of useless because the things you build with them arn't consumables. It'd be good to see them used in more item modifications or end-game consumables.

Suggestions for new Item Modifications:

Knife:

• I think the heat blade should use polyaniline in its crafting recipe to give polyaniline more crafting outputs.

Dive Reel:

• It'd be great to be able to motorise it so you can get out of a cave automatically or quickly (Maybe add a battery and something else engine-y)
• It'd be cool to add an oxygen supply/air hose to it, to lengthen your time in caves (add a couple of O2 tanks and maybe some synthetic rubber for the hose)
• It'd be ace to integrate some lighting (maybe bioluminescent rope, from creepvine seeds? Or else it could use polyaniline). This woudl work well if there's a separate button for lighting as per above suggestion.

Reinforced Dive Suit/Stillsuit:

• I'd love to see webbing be craftable for suits that increases your carrying capacity. Either as a modification or as a new suit (mostly made from synthetic fibre, a currently deprecated end game material with few outputs)

Suggestions for new Vehicle Modules:

• I would REALLY like to see a prawn upgrade that you can load with flares. It could function much like the torpedo launcher, but in practice it would be like flare launchers on aircraft as defence against heat-seeking missiles. When fired it would launch 3-6 flares in an arc. It could be fired to light up a cave, distract predators, or as an emergency to make the reaper drop the suit. It could look like this Abrams smoke pot, and fire like this Hercules dropping flares.
• In a simlar vein, I'd love to see a vehicle module with the functionality to drop a beacon. Makes exploring better as you can mark important spots for later without leaving your vehicle.

One more for the road:

• It'd be awesome to have a "purge" function on alien containment tanks. Maybe a "lock" piece that connects the tank to the outside water. Useful if you want to change the population of the tank, or repopulate areas around your base.

Jpop20

I agree with most of what your saying, but I think that they should have more than just the one fragment of the PRAWN Suit in the Aurora also if they are going to have the purge function make it so you can set up a computer or something that will release creatures in the tank when the population meets a player determined level.