This post is amazing, I applaud you for the effort you put into it
Gives me some definite new insight into real life submarines, as well as a new view of our own fictional Cyclops.
I keep saying those Bonesharks are tougher than they look!
Someone posted this in another thread. It totally fits.
Science is what I do.
Glad you liked it!
I managed to get to the prison from the sparse reef fine. The only hard part was dodging the crabsquids that kept shutting down my power. Thank god for the status rifle.
Then lets at least agree to not use vids of a month-old Experimental version of SN by a third party (that I've seen back then already. Why do you assume I ignore your sources?) when you mean to talk about your personal current experiences. I do not take responsibility for the miscommunication here. I talk from personal up-to-date experience with Stable and TriforceDragon - that you claimed was wrong first - appears to do to and the way you've presented things up until this post read like you were dismissing that personal experience.
So what I have to gather here is that there's two experiences, which based on Jacke's comment might be an Experimental vs Stable matter? For what it's worth, I'm playing an updated save rather than a fresh one if that might account for anything. I would agree that if Silent Running doesn't dissuade attacks that'd be a nightmare, but it's just not what I experience. Silent Running = total invisibility to me regardless of if I've been spotted prior or not.
First off; "month-old?" It hasn't even been four weeks yet - at least look at the timestamp.
Secondly; easy enough - https://youtube.com/watch?v=VJ1CPW2iRjA - This is from Markiplier, who released this vid on May 4... and as you can clearly see at the 6:50 mark, got attacked by bonesharks even though he was in silent running. Can you get more up-to-date than a video that was released today that clearly showcases this still being an issue?
Third, it's not assuming if you didn't make any effort to address it - which you didn't; you made your comment and didn't bring any of this up until after I pointed out the IGP vid. Would have helped if you'd commented on it off the bat.
Fourth, it was meant as an example as to what my own experiences with the cyclops have been like - namely in that the wildlife chews the sub to bits unless it's in silent running 24/7, and that flipping silent running on won't make it automatically invisible to them if they've already noticed me... all of which was in the "up-to-date experience."
Fifth, I didn't claim TriforceDragon was wrong - I claimed they hadn't hit the same marks I did; I flat out said "Maybe you can argue you're just more careful, maybe you can argue you're just not aggroing the things as much", but that it doesn't erase the imbalance in the damages the creatures can do to the sub (again, pack of three sharks cause more damage than a leviathan can).
Sixth, TriforceDragon wasn't even checking the amount of damage the agro creatures could do - only whether or not they detected him in silent running. I tested the damage the creatures could do by actually going in a detectable state and seeing how much they could inflict - and a pack of them attacking together did more in one strike than a leviathan could.
Seventh point, it's only "total invisibility" if you enter their radius while undetected and remain that way all throughout - if you get detected and than try to switch it back on, they don't instantly forget about you; you have to wait them out. In places like the lava zone, it might not even be possible to get out and fix the thing. To say nothing of how, again, it's dancing around what the OP's original point was - which was the amount of damage the creatures cause the sub.
Except that because the player-character is the de-facto Captain of the Aurora (due to being the last survivor), they'd have access to non-civilian equipment - hell, the torpedo systems for the Seamoth and Prawn, or access to them in the first place, definitely don't fall under civilian authority.
Additionally, it's not just because "it's from the future" - it's because of how in-game there's things like the pressure compensator that can rearrange molecule density, which would naturally imply that construction methods of such in-depth manipulation of materials would be a lot stronger than any military-grade sub we have today. Given the presence of instant 3-D printing and molecular manipulation in Subnautica, I'd actually argue the opposite - I don't find it fair to take the timeframe alone as reason to judge it's strength; I take the technology we actually see in-game as a result of future advancement being the determinator, not simply that it's from the future.
The Aurora is not a military vessel, title of captain on-ship does not make him an officer in said military. Torpedo systems are perfectly permissable for civilian exploration an ocean planet. Just because the technology is available doesn't mean its used, especially for a corporate giant who is far more interested in saving money than they are with the lives of their employees. Would they get the good stuff or the stuff that is just barely good enough at a quarter of the price?
I think Alterra is certainly interested to some degree with the lives of their employees. If enough of them get seriously hurt or killed, they have to be replaced by a second ship trip at great cost.
That's why I think the Cyclops should be tougher than it is now. It's meant to be an exploration sub for alien worlds, where there is no idea of what the risks would be. It should at least be tough enough to not be whittled down by several bites of the scale caused by Bone Sharks, as that's about what the max threat that could be envisioned from Earth sea life.
The Aurora is not a military vessel, title of captain on-ship does not make him an officer in said military. Torpedo systems are perfectly permissable for civilian exploration an ocean planet. Just because the technology is available doesn't mean its used, especially for a corporate giant who is far more interested in saving money than they are with the lives of their employees. Would they get the good stuff or the stuff that is just barely good enough at a quarter of the price?
But again, as de-facto captain of the ship, you'd have the authority to overrule that. Also, torpedo systems are not in fact permissable for civilian exploration unless the acting authority deems the environment hostile enough to actually warrant it. After all, reckless endangerment of their own personnel and equipment also isn't something any profit-focused company would tolerate.
...
I managed to get to the prison from the sparse reef fine. The only hard part was dodging the crabsquids that kept shutting down my power. Thank god for the status rifle.
There is one Sea Dragon guarding the big hole passage at the castle and another one right at the lava sea. Could you tell me how exactly you bypassed the Sea Dragons with your Cyclops?
The Aurora is not a military vessel, title of captain on-ship does not make him an officer in said military. Torpedo systems are perfectly permissable for civilian exploration an ocean planet. Just because the technology is available doesn't mean its used, especially for a corporate giant who is far more interested in saving money than they are with the lives of their employees. Would they get the good stuff or the stuff that is just barely good enough at a quarter of the price?
But again, as de-facto captain of the ship, you'd have the authority to overrule that. Also, torpedo systems are not in fact permissable for civilian exploration unless the acting authority deems the environment hostile enough to actually warrant it. After all, reckless endangerment of their own personnel and equipment also isn't something any profit-focused company would tolerate.
How and what are you overruling here? Have you seen alterra lifepods? I think they'd rather everyone just die than have to send a rescue ship.
Does the horn actually scare things away? I have noticed it doing anything...
How and what are you overruling here? Have you seen alterra lifepods? I think they'd rather everyone just die than have to send a rescue ship.
Does the horn actually scare things away? I have noticed it doing anything...
Restrictions on crew (i.e., you) using weaponry of any kind in the first place (knives, torpedoes, etc) when casual access to even those things seems limited outside of emergency, considering none of it is something you start the game with. Hell, the game PDA even flat-out notes that the equipment you're making (Cyclops, Prawn, etc) isn't normally meant to be used by people not licensed for it. But, like I said - you're the de-facto captain now; you've got clearance to do whatever the heck you want.
Also, the horn's meant to scare off smaller creatures, but I only ever managed to startle some of the smaller ones off... for a minute or two.
How and what are you overruling here? Have you seen alterra lifepods? I think they'd rather everyone just die than have to send a rescue ship.
Does the horn actually scare things away? I have noticed it doing anything...
Restrictions on crew (i.e., you) using weaponry of any kind in the first place (knives, torpedoes, etc) when casual access to even those things seems limited outside of emergency, considering none of it is something you start the game with. Hell, the game PDA even flat-out notes that the equipment you're making (Cyclops, Prawn, etc) isn't normally meant to be used by people not licensed for it. But, like I said - you're the de-facto captain now; you've got clearance to do whatever the heck you want.
Also, the horn's meant to scare off smaller creatures, but I only ever managed to startle some of the smaller ones off... for a minute or two.
I don't really think the captain of the aurora would have access to military hardware though. The only real exception to the rule is the gasopod torpedoes since those are capable of being lethal, though not to anything that is actually a threat
Ah, I never noticed any real response from the horn.
I don't really think the captain of the aurora would have access to military hardware though. The only real exception to the rule is the gasopod torpedoes since those are capable of being lethal, though not to anything that is actually a threat
Ah, I never noticed any real response from the horn.
Again, the fact that the crew don't carry even something simple like survival knives seems like it disproves that. Plus, the Vortex torpedoes are also capable of being lethal. As is the electrical defense system. None of which is actually standard equipment for subs - if it were, it would already be built into it as opposed to needing to manually make and install it separately. But again, you're captain now - you have the athourity to do that.
I just put a bunch of hours in to get a new game up to the end game. The new cyclops changes are pretty horrible. The cyclops is now SUPER weak. The new update has made the cyclops a complete waste to make because the micromanagement is insanely tedious. Taking the cyclops into the deeper parts of the game basically is a guaranteed loss of the cyclops. I believe this is a major step backwards for the game and some major revamping needs to be done to fix this new cyclops idea. I think in theory the idea is cool but in practice its basically a nightmare and has killed the game for me in its current state. Exploring the depths is basically impossible (lava zone) the small creatures are so abundant and aggressive that the ship basically dies instantly with no way to defend it or save it fast enough especially since you cant kill the creatures down there except with a knife. This new cyclops system is really jacked up and I don't like it. You nerfed it way too much to be playable.
I just put a bunch of hours in to get a new game up to the end game. The new cyclops changes are pretty horrible. The cyclops is now SUPER weak. The new update has made the cyclops a complete waste to make because the micromanagement is insanely tedious. Taking the cyclops into the deeper parts of the game basically is a guaranteed loss of the cyclops. I believe this is a major step backwards for the game and some major revamping needs to be done to fix this new cyclops idea. I think in theory the idea is cool but in practice its basically a nightmare and has killed the game for me in its current state. Exploring the depths is basically impossible (lava zone) the small creatures are so abundant and aggressive that the ship basically dies instantly with no way to defend it or save it fast enough especially since you cant kill the creatures down there except with a knife. This new cyclops system is really jacked up and I don't like it. You nerfed it way too much to be playable.
While some tweaks might be nice, this is flagrant exaggeration. I was able to sail the thing right up to the lava castle and park it there without the sea dragon even noticing. The lava larvae were more of a problem than aggressive creatures. In fact the sea dragon attacked me when I got out, but ignored me once I got back into the 'clops. And I didn't even have any of the shiny new upgrades. I've found that pretty much everything flat-out ignores the 'clops on silent running, unless you're right on top of it.
In short, the days of using the cyclops to taunt reapers are over, but that doesn't make it useless.
I did hear something about the cyclops being invulnerable while you're not in it, and I think that's a good idea, especially if reloading your game continues to re-set silent running status - the most problems I've had with aggressive creatures are ones pummeling my unoccupied sub while I'm safe inside my seabase because it was running silent when I parked it and saved but running standard after reload.
While some tweaks might be nice, this is flagrant exaggeration. I was able to sail the thing right up to the lava castle and park it there without the sea dragon even noticing. The lava larvae were more of a problem than aggressive creatures. In fact the sea dragon attacked me when I got out, but ignored me once I got back into the 'clops. And I didn't even have any of the shiny new upgrades. I've found that pretty much everything flat-out ignores the 'clops on silent running, unless you're right on top of it.
In short, the days of using the cyclops to taunt reapers are over, but that doesn't make it useless.
I did hear something about the cyclops being invulnerable while you're not in it, and I think that's a good idea, especially if reloading your game continues to re-set silent running status - the most problems I've had with aggressive creatures are ones pummeling my unoccupied sub while I'm safe inside my seabase because it was running silent when I parked it and saved but running standard after reload.
It's not that flagrant at all, actually; @cjthecoolcat seemed to be talking about the actually hull strength in general, without the silent running mode disguising the fragility of it.
Furthermore, Markiplier learned the hard way that that all creatures ignoring it is untrue; the bonesharks he sailed by chased him down even though he was in silent running, so obviously there are indeed flaws to iron out in that regard.
Let's not forget they did a million updates to the cyclops yet the prawn suit still can't dock with it without sending it into the sky doing barrel rolls.
I must admit, that I have not tested the Cyclops since the silent running update. According to the posts on the forums, I can only assume something like "Your mileage may vary"-ish experience. Some seem to have no problems at all, driving right up do the Lava Castle without serious incidents, others seem to loose their Cyclops shortly after the first contact with any aggressive creatures.
I will of course base my personal opinion on my own test dive so to speak.
But what I think could be a useful addition would be the Cyclops equivalent of the "Hull reinforcement" - module. It should negate terrain damage when hitting something whilst going slow or silent running and maybe lower attack damage from creatures too. That way we would have an additional option to shrug off some damage and lessen the micro-management as long as you don't drive flank speed into walls or groups of aggressive creatures. Another addition that could be nice would be a kind of "noise-circle" on the "Creature-Radar" which shows how far you will attract/aggro creatures at current speed. That could help the player to switch to silent running before he catches aggro. Since you don't basically want to go silent running all the time just to avoid attacks.
Another upgrade that I still think would be very good to have is a Cyclops sized "PDS", because you could drive around, catch some aggro, go silent, trigger the PDS, repair and continue withouth having to fight off each predator outside the Cyclops. Yes I know decoys could work too but a PDS would be better since you can't run out of Power as easy as you can run out of decoys and the PDS would work in a 360° radius around your sub. I know the more upgrades you add the more players will want to have additional upgrade slots. Maybe it should be considered adding one or two slots if you add any of the additional upgrades.
As I said this is just based on what I read and what I think might help players to get along with the new upddate.
Again, the fact that the crew don't carry even something simple like survival knives seems like it disproves that. Plus, the Vortex torpedoes are also capable of being lethal. As is the electrical defense system. None of which is actually standard equipment for subs - if it were, it would already be built into it as opposed to needing to manually make and install it separately. But again, you're captain now - you have the athourity to do that.
The captain of a Royal Caribbean luxury liner does not have access to cruise missiles and an 8 inch bow cannon just because he's the bloody captain.
Ok, did a rerun (from my experimental build) with the stable build and it seems the devs made some tricky functional workaround that now allows you to get to the prison in a less lucky and more predictable and reliable manor. As long as you know what to do:
The silent running is now made all powerful and the Sea Dragon is practically blind in that mode. He can directly pass the ship without noticing, while he will detect the player from very far away when he tries to repair the sub from the outside. Obviously a diver makes 100x more noise than the silent running Cyclops. I could easily drive the Cyclops to the prison with the now "superinvisible/superignored" Cyclops. As long as you don't ram the Sea Dragon he doesn't seem to target you in silent running. You can do lots of things inside the Cyclops in silent running mode while the Sea Dragon is circling around you trying helplessly to find a target.
On the other side the Sea Dragon is dangerous as ever. He is super fast and can hit extremely hard. He can detect the player from very far away while not finding a silenced Cyclops right under his nose, so you can't simply repair the Cyclops near a Sea Dragon. Even the Prawn suit will be detected from very far away. So your only way to deal with the Sea Dragon outside the Cyclops is practically only the Stasis rifle. But that works.
What I would have expected:
Silent running for a sub should only work from afar (>50m) to avoid attracting a leviathan and not be less silent that a diver.
The Cyclops would be immune to all damage lesser than that of leviathans.
In case of detection the Cyclops should turn on the shield and deploy a decoy, while driving away to distance and revert to silence.
A hotkey system with pilot HUD, allowing real quick actions and not wasting time finding all that displays around you.
Leviathans that cycle along a path guarding something, so you can time your action and slip through.
Until then:
Time for the devs to polish the action/system with the Cyclops. Because right now it will suck playing with the Cyclops. And it won't help to force the player to use a sucking system (like making the Prawn suit weaker). That will only make the game less fun.
TL;DR:
The silent running ignorance trick is a functional workaround. I only hope that it will get replaced by an actual working Cyclops system.
The captain of a Royal Caribbean luxury liner does not have access to cruise missiles and an 8 inch bow cannon just because he's the bloody captain.
The captain of a Royal Caribbean luxury liner also doesn't captain a spaceship that was designed to explore potentially-dangerous worlds and/or areas of space to pathfind human colonization efforts (especially since exploring the planet was the ship's secondary mission in order to try and find the Degasi crew) - something that kinda would entail "cruise missiles and an 8 inch bow cannon" if things like the torpedoes, electrical defense systems, gravity-based power tools and, most recently, full-on protective energy shields are any indication. None of which seem like it would be the kind of thing a simple pleb would just have, considering the danger of collateral damage to personnel and property. As the captain, however, you have the authority to waive such restrictions.
Plus, as the "bloody captain", he would still have the authority to tell the rest of his crew when they can or cannot take arms (fire-axes, improvised weapons, tools normally reserved for security personnel, etc) if and/or when the situation calls for it. So even on face-value, your example doesn't feel like it meshes.
To put it simply, the survivor - as de-facto captain of the Aurora by way of being the only one to pass the title down to - would indeed have access to hardware that would be, by modern-standards, military-grade and not normal for regular crew, as well as not as fragile (not just because of the requirements for exploring unknown worlds, but simply by way of the construction; 3-D printing of materials on the molecular level). The Cyclops in game... well, it doesn't reflect that; as was mentioned before, the devs seem to be trying to make silent running the same as a complete cloak, which feels like they're trying to obfuscate how fragile it's hull actually is; this results in it feeling imbalanced on both ends (hull is too fragile and the silent running mode isn't realistically speced for what it is).
I am parked at the prison now with no problems. Just patients and silent running. Now, when I get out, the dragon comes a screaming because I apparently am noisy on my own. There is a bit of damage on the sub from bumping into walls.
Also, I avoid the crab squids by taking the entrance under the floating islands.
What I dont understand is why some people think that the player is suddenly the defacto captain of the Aurora. Not ever the case, and more so if he is a civilian and not a normal ship crew member. The pda doesnt address him as captain until there is a base the player made. A normal noncrew individual that was the last survivor on any ship simply does not become captain. That denotes responsibility to the ship's owner and in a survival situation that responsibilty stays with the last normal crewman alive. If the player isnt a crewman but a civilian then there isnt any responsibility to Alterra and therfore no right to be called the captain of the Aurora. However if the player is a crewman, then by all means they have the rights and responsibilities of captainship of the Aurora as well as any vessels and structures created post crash.
Now, when I get out, the dragon comes a screaming because I apparently am noisy on my own.
That is indeed a point that I think needs some rework too the aggro range the player currently has seems to large compared to the vehicles. Especially the point you mentioned. The moment you leave your Cyclops you aggro the Sea dragon which is kinda akward that a in comparison "huge" sub attracts less attention/aggro then a single diver. I mean just take this special case. Isn't the Seadragon a creature that hunts reapers to survive? A diver must be so far away from his usual prey-scale, that it is strange that we attract him so much. I really hope this get's a rework once we hit release.
Perhaps we could get some kind of "stealth swim"-mode or something alike so when we make only slow, steady movements we provoke less aggro and maybe even less, if we just stand still? Maybe like a walk, jogging, sprint difference like many games have. We already have a sprint function on land, why not take it one step further and add one for swimming combined with the ability to toggle a "walking"/stealth speed setting?
What I dont understand is why some people think that the player is suddenly the defacto captain of the Aurora. Not ever the case, and more so if he is a civilian and not a normal ship crew member. The pda doesnt address him as captain until there is a base the player made. A normal noncrew individual that was the last survivor on any ship simply does not become captain. That denotes responsibility to the ship's owner and in a survival situation that responsibilty stays with the last normal crewman alive. If the player isnt a crewman but a civilian then there isnt any responsibility to Alterra and therfore no right to be called the captain of the Aurora. However if the player is a crewman, then by all means they have the rights and responsibilities of captainship of the Aurora as well as any vessels and structures created post crash.
Except that everything else (Habitats, Seamoth, Prawn, Cyclops) automatically addresses you as "captain." Not "user", not "crewman", not "survivor" like the PDA does - they all address you as "Captain." It's true that in a group/among surviving crew, it doesn't normally default to who's the last man standing, but the computers don't care about any of those formalities - in the absence of literally any other authority, they default to who whoever's left standing. In this case, the player. Plus, you're assuming normal Earth-standards, not the regulations that may or may not be in place for space exploration in a world with Subnautica's lore.
Also, as evidenced in 2nd Officer Keen's logs, Alterra ships retain a chain of succession - Captain Hollistar told Keen that the crew was his responsibility since he couldn't make it off the Aurora in time. Ergo, with Keen presumedly dead by this point and nobody else of rank for the computer systems to address as superior to the player, Captaincy of the Aurora is defaulted to the player by way of them being the only survivor.
Also, we do in fact know that the Survivor's a crewmember of the Aurora - it was confirmed by devs that their hairstyle (the blue streak in his moehawk) is part of the Alterra dress code; all their employees apparently have it, so he'd indeed have to have been a member of the Aurora's actual crew and not a civilian passenger like Emissary Jochi Khasar was.
I'm haven't been on the game or boards for awhile due to school, but I recently went back and started a fresh game from my last save over 6 months ago. I enjoy many of the updates they have and the new Cyclops is pretty kick ass, but my question is........ "Is it possible to redo the lights on the Cyclops?" I love the LED Seamoth feature where it lights up what you need without blinding you, but every time I try to navigate with the Cyclops at night the damn front lights are just horrendously bright and I cant see crap. I even left them on next to a cove and swam away from it and trying to look through the beams from the side and it gives you a very cloudy vision at best. Mostly I use the camera and light on the bottom on the ship and just make due, but I would like to actually travel with the intended view. Any thoughts Subnauticans?
Comments
I managed to get to the prison from the sparse reef fine. The only hard part was dodging the crabsquids that kept shutting down my power. Thank god for the status rifle.
First off; "month-old?" It hasn't even been four weeks yet - at least look at the timestamp.
Secondly; easy enough - https://youtube.com/watch?v=VJ1CPW2iRjA - This is from Markiplier, who released this vid on May 4... and as you can clearly see at the 6:50 mark, got attacked by bonesharks even though he was in silent running. Can you get more up-to-date than a video that was released today that clearly showcases this still being an issue?
Third, it's not assuming if you didn't make any effort to address it - which you didn't; you made your comment and didn't bring any of this up until after I pointed out the IGP vid. Would have helped if you'd commented on it off the bat.
Fourth, it was meant as an example as to what my own experiences with the cyclops have been like - namely in that the wildlife chews the sub to bits unless it's in silent running 24/7, and that flipping silent running on won't make it automatically invisible to them if they've already noticed me... all of which was in the "up-to-date experience."
Fifth, I didn't claim TriforceDragon was wrong - I claimed they hadn't hit the same marks I did; I flat out said "Maybe you can argue you're just more careful, maybe you can argue you're just not aggroing the things as much", but that it doesn't erase the imbalance in the damages the creatures can do to the sub (again, pack of three sharks cause more damage than a leviathan can).
Sixth, TriforceDragon wasn't even checking the amount of damage the agro creatures could do - only whether or not they detected him in silent running. I tested the damage the creatures could do by actually going in a detectable state and seeing how much they could inflict - and a pack of them attacking together did more in one strike than a leviathan could.
Seventh point, it's only "total invisibility" if you enter their radius while undetected and remain that way all throughout - if you get detected and than try to switch it back on, they don't instantly forget about you; you have to wait them out. In places like the lava zone, it might not even be possible to get out and fix the thing. To say nothing of how, again, it's dancing around what the OP's original point was - which was the amount of damage the creatures cause the sub.
The Aurora is not a military vessel, title of captain on-ship does not make him an officer in said military. Torpedo systems are perfectly permissable for civilian exploration an ocean planet. Just because the technology is available doesn't mean its used, especially for a corporate giant who is far more interested in saving money than they are with the lives of their employees. Would they get the good stuff or the stuff that is just barely good enough at a quarter of the price?
That's why I think the Cyclops should be tougher than it is now. It's meant to be an exploration sub for alien worlds, where there is no idea of what the risks would be. It should at least be tough enough to not be whittled down by several bites of the scale caused by Bone Sharks, as that's about what the max threat that could be envisioned from Earth sea life.
But again, as de-facto captain of the ship, you'd have the authority to overrule that. Also, torpedo systems are not in fact permissable for civilian exploration unless the acting authority deems the environment hostile enough to actually warrant it. After all, reckless endangerment of their own personnel and equipment also isn't something any profit-focused company would tolerate.
There is one Sea Dragon guarding the big hole passage at the castle and another one right at the lava sea. Could you tell me how exactly you bypassed the Sea Dragons with your Cyclops?
It's called a horn.
Nothing like a bit of noise pollution to keep the small critters away.
You do realize "small creatures" would be the peepers and such, right? Not the man-sized sharks?
If it were Reapers alone that could do that, it'd be one thing. That a pack of bonesharks can do this is something eles, though:
https://youtu.be/VJ1CPW2iRjA?t=6m46s
How and what are you overruling here? Have you seen alterra lifepods? I think they'd rather everyone just die than have to send a rescue ship.
Does the horn actually scare things away? I have noticed it doing anything...
Restrictions on crew (i.e., you) using weaponry of any kind in the first place (knives, torpedoes, etc) when casual access to even those things seems limited outside of emergency, considering none of it is something you start the game with. Hell, the game PDA even flat-out notes that the equipment you're making (Cyclops, Prawn, etc) isn't normally meant to be used by people not licensed for it. But, like I said - you're the de-facto captain now; you've got clearance to do whatever the heck you want.
Also, the horn's meant to scare off smaller creatures, but I only ever managed to startle some of the smaller ones off... for a minute or two.
I don't really think the captain of the aurora would have access to military hardware though. The only real exception to the rule is the gasopod torpedoes since those are capable of being lethal, though not to anything that is actually a threat
Ah, I never noticed any real response from the horn.
Again, the fact that the crew don't carry even something simple like survival knives seems like it disproves that. Plus, the Vortex torpedoes are also capable of being lethal. As is the electrical defense system. None of which is actually standard equipment for subs - if it were, it would already be built into it as opposed to needing to manually make and install it separately. But again, you're captain now - you have the athourity to do that.
While some tweaks might be nice, this is flagrant exaggeration. I was able to sail the thing right up to the lava castle and park it there without the sea dragon even noticing. The lava larvae were more of a problem than aggressive creatures. In fact the sea dragon attacked me when I got out, but ignored me once I got back into the 'clops. And I didn't even have any of the shiny new upgrades. I've found that pretty much everything flat-out ignores the 'clops on silent running, unless you're right on top of it.
In short, the days of using the cyclops to taunt reapers are over, but that doesn't make it useless.
I did hear something about the cyclops being invulnerable while you're not in it, and I think that's a good idea, especially if reloading your game continues to re-set silent running status - the most problems I've had with aggressive creatures are ones pummeling my unoccupied sub while I'm safe inside my seabase because it was running silent when I parked it and saved but running standard after reload.
It's not that flagrant at all, actually; @cjthecoolcat seemed to be talking about the actually hull strength in general, without the silent running mode disguising the fragility of it.
Furthermore, Markiplier learned the hard way that that all creatures ignoring it is untrue; the bonesharks he sailed by chased him down even though he was in silent running, so obviously there are indeed flaws to iron out in that regard.
I will of course base my personal opinion on my own test dive so to speak.
But what I think could be a useful addition would be the Cyclops equivalent of the "Hull reinforcement" - module. It should negate terrain damage when hitting something whilst going slow or silent running and maybe lower attack damage from creatures too. That way we would have an additional option to shrug off some damage and lessen the micro-management as long as you don't drive flank speed into walls or groups of aggressive creatures. Another addition that could be nice would be a kind of "noise-circle" on the "Creature-Radar" which shows how far you will attract/aggro creatures at current speed. That could help the player to switch to silent running before he catches aggro. Since you don't basically want to go silent running all the time just to avoid attacks.
Another upgrade that I still think would be very good to have is a Cyclops sized "PDS", because you could drive around, catch some aggro, go silent, trigger the PDS, repair and continue withouth having to fight off each predator outside the Cyclops. Yes I know decoys could work too but a PDS would be better since you can't run out of Power as easy as you can run out of decoys and the PDS would work in a 360° radius around your sub. I know the more upgrades you add the more players will want to have additional upgrade slots. Maybe it should be considered adding one or two slots if you add any of the additional upgrades.
As I said this is just based on what I read and what I think might help players to get along with the new upddate.
The captain of a Royal Caribbean luxury liner does not have access to cruise missiles and an 8 inch bow cannon just because he's the bloody captain.
The silent running is now made all powerful and the Sea Dragon is practically blind in that mode. He can directly pass the ship without noticing, while he will detect the player from very far away when he tries to repair the sub from the outside. Obviously a diver makes 100x more noise than the silent running Cyclops. I could easily drive the Cyclops to the prison with the now "superinvisible/superignored" Cyclops. As long as you don't ram the Sea Dragon he doesn't seem to target you in silent running. You can do lots of things inside the Cyclops in silent running mode while the Sea Dragon is circling around you trying helplessly to find a target.
On the other side the Sea Dragon is dangerous as ever. He is super fast and can hit extremely hard. He can detect the player from very far away while not finding a silenced Cyclops right under his nose, so you can't simply repair the Cyclops near a Sea Dragon. Even the Prawn suit will be detected from very far away. So your only way to deal with the Sea Dragon outside the Cyclops is practically only the Stasis rifle. But that works.
What I would have expected:
Until then:
Time for the devs to polish the action/system with the Cyclops. Because right now it will suck playing with the Cyclops. And it won't help to force the player to use a sucking system (like making the Prawn suit weaker). That will only make the game less fun.
TL;DR:
The silent running ignorance trick is a functional workaround. I only hope that it will get replaced by an actual working Cyclops system.
The captain of a Royal Caribbean luxury liner also doesn't captain a spaceship that was designed to explore potentially-dangerous worlds and/or areas of space to pathfind human colonization efforts (especially since exploring the planet was the ship's secondary mission in order to try and find the Degasi crew) - something that kinda would entail "cruise missiles and an 8 inch bow cannon" if things like the torpedoes, electrical defense systems, gravity-based power tools and, most recently, full-on protective energy shields are any indication. None of which seem like it would be the kind of thing a simple pleb would just have, considering the danger of collateral damage to personnel and property. As the captain, however, you have the authority to waive such restrictions.
Plus, as the "bloody captain", he would still have the authority to tell the rest of his crew when they can or cannot take arms (fire-axes, improvised weapons, tools normally reserved for security personnel, etc) if and/or when the situation calls for it. So even on face-value, your example doesn't feel like it meshes.
To put it simply, the survivor - as de-facto captain of the Aurora by way of being the only one to pass the title down to - would indeed have access to hardware that would be, by modern-standards, military-grade and not normal for regular crew, as well as not as fragile (not just because of the requirements for exploring unknown worlds, but simply by way of the construction; 3-D printing of materials on the molecular level). The Cyclops in game... well, it doesn't reflect that; as was mentioned before, the devs seem to be trying to make silent running the same as a complete cloak, which feels like they're trying to obfuscate how fragile it's hull actually is; this results in it feeling imbalanced on both ends (hull is too fragile and the silent running mode isn't realistically speced for what it is).
Also, I avoid the crab squids by taking the entrance under the floating islands.
Perhaps we could get some kind of "stealth swim"-mode or something alike so when we make only slow, steady movements we provoke less aggro and maybe even less, if we just stand still? Maybe like a walk, jogging, sprint difference like many games have. We already have a sprint function on land, why not take it one step further and add one for swimming combined with the ability to toggle a "walking"/stealth speed setting?
Except that everything else (Habitats, Seamoth, Prawn, Cyclops) automatically addresses you as "captain." Not "user", not "crewman", not "survivor" like the PDA does - they all address you as "Captain." It's true that in a group/among surviving crew, it doesn't normally default to who's the last man standing, but the computers don't care about any of those formalities - in the absence of literally any other authority, they default to who whoever's left standing. In this case, the player. Plus, you're assuming normal Earth-standards, not the regulations that may or may not be in place for space exploration in a world with Subnautica's lore.
Also, as evidenced in 2nd Officer Keen's logs, Alterra ships retain a chain of succession - Captain Hollistar told Keen that the crew was his responsibility since he couldn't make it off the Aurora in time. Ergo, with Keen presumedly dead by this point and nobody else of rank for the computer systems to address as superior to the player, Captaincy of the Aurora is defaulted to the player by way of them being the only survivor.
Also, we do in fact know that the Survivor's a crewmember of the Aurora - it was confirmed by devs that their hairstyle (the blue streak in his moehawk) is part of the Alterra dress code; all their employees apparently have it, so he'd indeed have to have been a member of the Aurora's actual crew and not a civilian passenger like Emissary Jochi Khasar was.