A new player's biggest requests
Lorebot
Join Date: 2017-08-08 Member: 232304Members
Join Date: 2017-08-08 Member: 232304Members
I've only been playing Subnautica for a little over a week now, but as a new player I think I can share a perspective that perhaps a lot of the more experienced users lack. I've watched a lot of videos about Subnautica over the past year or so before buying it and I understand it's come a really long way from where it was when it first hit early access. But with the release looming and the crunch to get to 1.0 starting I think another fresh set of eyes may be welcome. So here goes:
1. More Hotkeys: There are many more tools than there are hotkeys and it gets really frustrating and tedious to be constantly opening the PDA to change which ones are on your bar. Even just 1 or 2 more hotkeys would help a lot to relieve this gripe. My Scanner, Flashlight, and Seaglide never leave my bar. This leaves me only 2 slots to use for tools/weapons, of which we have the Propulsion Cannon, Stasis Rifle, Repulsion Cannon, Repair Tool, Laser Cutter, Survival Knife, Habitat Builder, Air Bladder, Dive Reel, Light Stick, Flare, and (presumably) eventually the Transfuser. That's 2 slots for 12 tools, many of which you could need at a moment's notice. I'm presuming the limited hotkey bar is out of consideration for console gaming and the lesser number of buttons available on a controller, but for the love of my sanity please find a way to add more hotkeys. I'd even be happier with a tool wheel/ring instead of or in addition to hotkeys if that's what needs to be done...
2. Eat fish/food/water from Hotkeys: Another 'gotta open my PDA for this' eye roll gripe. Not being able to eat a fish that I'm holding in my hand without first opening my PDA was ridiculously counter intuitive for me, especially once i learned that eating a raw bladder fish gave you O2. Not being able to eat a bladderfish via a hotkey makes their O2 supply pretty much meaningless...it takes almost as long to open the PDA, eat the fish, and then close the PDA as it gives you O2. Later in the game it's not a really big deal, you get bigger air tanks and have your hotkeys full with tools anyhow. But in the early game when you don't have an air tank yet that bladder fish could be the difference between you surviving a dive or not...but currently it's more often than not a moot point since you have to go into your PDA to eat it.
3. Thermometer added to Compass Upgrade: I know you guys are phasing out the Thermometer HUD upgrade and just making it a baseline element of being in a vehicle, but I feel like only being able to get that info from inside a vehicle makes things more complicated. Instead what about adding the Thermometer HUD element to the Compass HUD upgrade and changing the name to Environmental Display Upgrade, Enhanced HUD Upgrade, or something. I like to have temperature info when I'm building my first base because I know that I'll get the Thermal Generator eventually and having my base in a warm spot makes it instantly useful. But I pretty much always build my first base way before getting my first Seamoth so without the Thermometer I won't be able to accurately predict the temp when scouting for building spots.
4. Fix the Dive Reel: The day Cory asked in Discord about anyone using the Dive Reel was my 2nd day playing Subnautica. I had already tried to use the Dive Reel a couple of times by that point and realized it was pretty broken. But the idea that it would be cut from the game instead of fixed worried me. Even in it's broken state it was helping me keep track of the local landmarks and travel back to points of interest. I didn't get a compass for a long while and the lines from the dive reels scattered about were really the only good ways I had to navigate. I already made my argument and suggestions for the Dive Reel in the Poll thread about keeping or cutting it so I'd appreciate it if you'd check that out for my full statement. https://forums.unknownworlds.com/discussion/comment/2359825/#Comment_2359825
5. Time of day/Clock upgrade or decoration: Time passes pretty fast on Planet 4546B and night descends quickly. Often I've been caught away from my base when night falls before I have a vehicle to provide light for me. And even after I have a vehicle I feel like it would be helpful to know how much time I have left before it gets dark without having to have some sort of 'perfect time' internal clock. If you could add a HUD upgrade that puts a clock element up I would love that. Or perhaps a clock decoration to hang inside a base or the Cyclops to help us tell the time.
6. Use Medkits from Hotkeys: Just like eating that bladderfish could save me during a dive if I didn't need to open my PDA to eat it, having to open the PDA to use a medkit means they're fairly useless in an emergency. I'm not sure if that's intended or just a consequence of the way they're made, but not being able to put medkits on a hotkey has cost me my ingame life many times.
7. More vision upgrades (low light, sonar, terrain HUD, etc...): With 2 HUD upgrade slots on the paperdoll and only 2 upgrades to fill them with now that Signals are no longer items I feel like they're kind of a waste. You may as well make the Compass and the Scanner upgrades non items as well and remove the HUD Upgrade slots from the paperdoll if you're not going to make more HUD upgrades to use. Low Light vision would be a welcome addition given the fauna's propensity for attacking light sources. A personal sonar device or terrain display similar to what's on the Seaglide would also be welcome upgrades. Thermal/infrared cameras don't really work under water, the water interferes too much with them. A radiation detection upgrade would also be interesting to me considering how lethal radiation can be given that it's invisible and you only get a warning about it once you're already inside of it.
8. Size of certain items (propulsion cannon vs prawn propulsion arm): This is less of a gripe and more of an immersion breaker for me. The Propulsion Cannon being a 2x2 object means it's taking up valuable inventory space and every time I leave my base I have to decide if it's worth bringing it (it pretty much always is). Once I got the PRAWN suit I also got the Propulsion Cannon Arm for that and I expected it to be a pretty big item to lug around, meaning that choosing what arm to put on the suit was a big deal. When I realized it was a 1x1 object it felt really wrong to me that it was smaller than the one I use by hand and it made carrying around different arms for the PRAWN suit a non-issue. I could just carry all the arms I had all the time without significantly impacting my inventory space. I feel like the PRAWN arms should be larger than they are currently, at least 2x2 if not 2x3. The Storage Module adds 6 slots to the PRAWN suit's storage and I feel like having that module be mostly or entirely filled by an extra arm for the suit would be a viable alternative to the current situation. If you want to carry more arms for the PRAWN it should cost you something to be that versatile and inventory space, I feel, is the best way to put a limitation on that versatility.
EDIT: 7a. A headlamp HUD upgrade would be nice to have, but I'm not sure how we would turn it on/off without a dedicated hotkey for it. I see it as something between the flashlight and the light on the seaglide. A narrow cone of light with less distance than the flashlight. Something to make using other tools in the dark easier since we can't hold any other light with a tool. I know we can just drop a flare or put down a light stick, but again we run into the problem of 'not enough hotkeys'.
1. More Hotkeys: There are many more tools than there are hotkeys and it gets really frustrating and tedious to be constantly opening the PDA to change which ones are on your bar. Even just 1 or 2 more hotkeys would help a lot to relieve this gripe. My Scanner, Flashlight, and Seaglide never leave my bar. This leaves me only 2 slots to use for tools/weapons, of which we have the Propulsion Cannon, Stasis Rifle, Repulsion Cannon, Repair Tool, Laser Cutter, Survival Knife, Habitat Builder, Air Bladder, Dive Reel, Light Stick, Flare, and (presumably) eventually the Transfuser. That's 2 slots for 12 tools, many of which you could need at a moment's notice. I'm presuming the limited hotkey bar is out of consideration for console gaming and the lesser number of buttons available on a controller, but for the love of my sanity please find a way to add more hotkeys. I'd even be happier with a tool wheel/ring instead of or in addition to hotkeys if that's what needs to be done...
2. Eat fish/food/water from Hotkeys: Another 'gotta open my PDA for this' eye roll gripe. Not being able to eat a fish that I'm holding in my hand without first opening my PDA was ridiculously counter intuitive for me, especially once i learned that eating a raw bladder fish gave you O2. Not being able to eat a bladderfish via a hotkey makes their O2 supply pretty much meaningless...it takes almost as long to open the PDA, eat the fish, and then close the PDA as it gives you O2. Later in the game it's not a really big deal, you get bigger air tanks and have your hotkeys full with tools anyhow. But in the early game when you don't have an air tank yet that bladder fish could be the difference between you surviving a dive or not...but currently it's more often than not a moot point since you have to go into your PDA to eat it.
3. Thermometer added to Compass Upgrade: I know you guys are phasing out the Thermometer HUD upgrade and just making it a baseline element of being in a vehicle, but I feel like only being able to get that info from inside a vehicle makes things more complicated. Instead what about adding the Thermometer HUD element to the Compass HUD upgrade and changing the name to Environmental Display Upgrade, Enhanced HUD Upgrade, or something. I like to have temperature info when I'm building my first base because I know that I'll get the Thermal Generator eventually and having my base in a warm spot makes it instantly useful. But I pretty much always build my first base way before getting my first Seamoth so without the Thermometer I won't be able to accurately predict the temp when scouting for building spots.
4. Fix the Dive Reel: The day Cory asked in Discord about anyone using the Dive Reel was my 2nd day playing Subnautica. I had already tried to use the Dive Reel a couple of times by that point and realized it was pretty broken. But the idea that it would be cut from the game instead of fixed worried me. Even in it's broken state it was helping me keep track of the local landmarks and travel back to points of interest. I didn't get a compass for a long while and the lines from the dive reels scattered about were really the only good ways I had to navigate. I already made my argument and suggestions for the Dive Reel in the Poll thread about keeping or cutting it so I'd appreciate it if you'd check that out for my full statement. https://forums.unknownworlds.com/discussion/comment/2359825/#Comment_2359825
5. Time of day/Clock upgrade or decoration: Time passes pretty fast on Planet 4546B and night descends quickly. Often I've been caught away from my base when night falls before I have a vehicle to provide light for me. And even after I have a vehicle I feel like it would be helpful to know how much time I have left before it gets dark without having to have some sort of 'perfect time' internal clock. If you could add a HUD upgrade that puts a clock element up I would love that. Or perhaps a clock decoration to hang inside a base or the Cyclops to help us tell the time.
6. Use Medkits from Hotkeys: Just like eating that bladderfish could save me during a dive if I didn't need to open my PDA to eat it, having to open the PDA to use a medkit means they're fairly useless in an emergency. I'm not sure if that's intended or just a consequence of the way they're made, but not being able to put medkits on a hotkey has cost me my ingame life many times.
7. More vision upgrades (low light, sonar, terrain HUD, etc...): With 2 HUD upgrade slots on the paperdoll and only 2 upgrades to fill them with now that Signals are no longer items I feel like they're kind of a waste. You may as well make the Compass and the Scanner upgrades non items as well and remove the HUD Upgrade slots from the paperdoll if you're not going to make more HUD upgrades to use. Low Light vision would be a welcome addition given the fauna's propensity for attacking light sources. A personal sonar device or terrain display similar to what's on the Seaglide would also be welcome upgrades. Thermal/infrared cameras don't really work under water, the water interferes too much with them. A radiation detection upgrade would also be interesting to me considering how lethal radiation can be given that it's invisible and you only get a warning about it once you're already inside of it.
8. Size of certain items (propulsion cannon vs prawn propulsion arm): This is less of a gripe and more of an immersion breaker for me. The Propulsion Cannon being a 2x2 object means it's taking up valuable inventory space and every time I leave my base I have to decide if it's worth bringing it (it pretty much always is). Once I got the PRAWN suit I also got the Propulsion Cannon Arm for that and I expected it to be a pretty big item to lug around, meaning that choosing what arm to put on the suit was a big deal. When I realized it was a 1x1 object it felt really wrong to me that it was smaller than the one I use by hand and it made carrying around different arms for the PRAWN suit a non-issue. I could just carry all the arms I had all the time without significantly impacting my inventory space. I feel like the PRAWN arms should be larger than they are currently, at least 2x2 if not 2x3. The Storage Module adds 6 slots to the PRAWN suit's storage and I feel like having that module be mostly or entirely filled by an extra arm for the suit would be a viable alternative to the current situation. If you want to carry more arms for the PRAWN it should cost you something to be that versatile and inventory space, I feel, is the best way to put a limitation on that versatility.
EDIT: 7a. A headlamp HUD upgrade would be nice to have, but I'm not sure how we would turn it on/off without a dedicated hotkey for it. I see it as something between the flashlight and the light on the seaglide. A narrow cone of light with less distance than the flashlight. Something to make using other tools in the dark easier since we can't hold any other light with a tool. I know we can just drop a flare or put down a light stick, but again we run into the problem of 'not enough hotkeys'.