Thoughts on my full 1.0 playthrough [SPOILERS]
gamer1000k
Join Date: 2017-04-29 Member: 230121Members
Join Date: 2017-04-29 Member: 230121Members
Not too long ago I finished my survival playthrough that I started after 1.0 released. I figured I might as well write down my thoughts and feedback with the hope that at least some of it will be useful to the devs for a future updates and the expansion.
I want to start out by congratulating the devs on actually releasing a good, playable game for 1.0. Sure, it's not perfect and still has some (very) rough edges, but overall the devs did well with 1.0. I'm also glad it was well received in general, and hope that it will incentivize the devs to further polish/improve/expand the game going forwards.
I've tried to organize my thoughts into sections under the spoiler boxes since I've written a lot here and want to keep it somewhat organized.
Gameplay and Game Progression
Vehicles
Creatures
Bugs
Overall, despite all these issues I did mostly enjoy my post 1.0 playthrough. Hopefully we can get some mod support (even just a basic dll loader) soon since unfortunately the replay value for this game is quite limited.
I want to start out by congratulating the devs on actually releasing a good, playable game for 1.0. Sure, it's not perfect and still has some (very) rough edges, but overall the devs did well with 1.0. I'm also glad it was well received in general, and hope that it will incentivize the devs to further polish/improve/expand the game going forwards.
I've tried to organize my thoughts into sections under the spoiler boxes since I've written a lot here and want to keep it somewhat organized.
Gameplay and Game Progression
Resource balance and recipe costs are good for the most part. There's a lot more variety with resource usage now and a bit less of everything needing computer chips. That said, I still found copper and silver to be a friction point. I think this is mainly due to them each only being available from one shared resource node until you get the prawn drill, so you're at the mercy of the RNG which IMHO is not the best design. Ideally, I would have preferred to have all resources appear on the seabed (or consistently drop from nodes) instead of having the random drops. This would also address the problem of ending up with a bunch of unneeded resources (lead...) because the player could simply just not pick up the resources they don't need instead of needing to smash all the nodes and hope the RNG cooperates to give them what they do need. The Prawn drill arm is also way, way too slow. It seems like it's significantly slower to use the drill arm than it would be to smash an equivalent number of resource nodes by hand, not to mention just picking up the resources directly. Please speed this up, right now it's a big waste of time to hold down the drill button and stare at the thing you're drilling for a minute or so.
I also found some of the blueprints to be a bit odd. The pathfinder module strangely requires creepvine (coming from early access I know this is because it's a replacement for the old dive reel, but now that it puts out holographic discs the recipe makes no sense) and the player starts with the blueprint for the aquarium, but can't actually build it until they find the multipurpose room because it doesn't fit in a corridor. Moving some of the blueprints to databoxes was a good idea, but I did run into some progression issues with duplicates of blueprints I didn't need taking up slots for ones I did (vehicle modification station...).
Navigation in the early game is a bit of an issue as well. I didn't find the beacon fragments until I had already discovered a few wrecks and was unable to mark them and wasted a bunch of time trying to find them again so I could go back with the correct tools to fully explore them. I'm glad the scanner room is available sooner, but it still has the same issue of finding the fragments for it in the first place.
Player direction in the early game is good up until the sunbeam event. In earlier versions of the game, we got a ping to the mountain island, but once the sunbeam is destroyed, the marker goes away so if the player didn't make it to the island (or forgot to bring a beacon) it can be a pain to find it again if you haven't memorized its location. There's also navigation issues with finding the other precursor facilities (or even just knowing to look for caves to go deeper), especially the thermal plant. I know where things are and where to go next after the gun, but the game doesn't do a good job of communicating this to a new player based on several of the forum posts. Maybe all of the story-critical locations should have a ping, and in the case of the precursor bases they could be located at a terminal in the gun facility along with some notes giving hints on where to look for the lost river cave entrances.
Survival needs are better than they used to be with not needing to eat/drink quite so frequently (still think that it's a bit too often though), but I still find it arbitrary and annoying how water is balanced. It's a bit immersion breaking to have the fabricator able to magically remove the inedible parts of fish that's going to have a much higher bacterial density than seawater, but for Reasons can't purify water without making bleach first or getting it from a fish. Same thing with the obscene power usage of the water purifier. Might as well just grow melons, they grow from seed in about the same amount of time as purifying one bottle of water (take a moment to think about the absurdity of that statement), don't require any power, also restore food, and plant pots are very cheap to build. In some ways, maybe water shouldn't have even been separated from food in the first place. Just a hunger bar would have provided survival mechanics and simplified this aspect of the game, and tech already exists today IRL that could easily provide freshwater from seawater in something that could be integrated into the survival suit (we already have this to some degree with the stillsuit).
It's also strange how plants spoil almost immediately after being picked, cooked food lasts a little longer, but live fish can live forever in your inventory even when you're out of the water. This seems backwards to me.
Power balance could also use some work. For the most part its reasonable with the renewable sources, but nuclear power still doesn't have much going for it. They provide a lot of power, but there's really not enough power hungry base modules to justify it (unless you're spamming water purifiers and alien containment) and the rods are too expensive for how quickly they burn out. Not to mention how immersion breaking it is to have a nuclear reactor that depletes so quickly.
I also found some of the blueprints to be a bit odd. The pathfinder module strangely requires creepvine (coming from early access I know this is because it's a replacement for the old dive reel, but now that it puts out holographic discs the recipe makes no sense) and the player starts with the blueprint for the aquarium, but can't actually build it until they find the multipurpose room because it doesn't fit in a corridor. Moving some of the blueprints to databoxes was a good idea, but I did run into some progression issues with duplicates of blueprints I didn't need taking up slots for ones I did (vehicle modification station...).
Navigation in the early game is a bit of an issue as well. I didn't find the beacon fragments until I had already discovered a few wrecks and was unable to mark them and wasted a bunch of time trying to find them again so I could go back with the correct tools to fully explore them. I'm glad the scanner room is available sooner, but it still has the same issue of finding the fragments for it in the first place.
Player direction in the early game is good up until the sunbeam event. In earlier versions of the game, we got a ping to the mountain island, but once the sunbeam is destroyed, the marker goes away so if the player didn't make it to the island (or forgot to bring a beacon) it can be a pain to find it again if you haven't memorized its location. There's also navigation issues with finding the other precursor facilities (or even just knowing to look for caves to go deeper), especially the thermal plant. I know where things are and where to go next after the gun, but the game doesn't do a good job of communicating this to a new player based on several of the forum posts. Maybe all of the story-critical locations should have a ping, and in the case of the precursor bases they could be located at a terminal in the gun facility along with some notes giving hints on where to look for the lost river cave entrances.
Survival needs are better than they used to be with not needing to eat/drink quite so frequently (still think that it's a bit too often though), but I still find it arbitrary and annoying how water is balanced. It's a bit immersion breaking to have the fabricator able to magically remove the inedible parts of fish that's going to have a much higher bacterial density than seawater, but for Reasons can't purify water without making bleach first or getting it from a fish. Same thing with the obscene power usage of the water purifier. Might as well just grow melons, they grow from seed in about the same amount of time as purifying one bottle of water (take a moment to think about the absurdity of that statement), don't require any power, also restore food, and plant pots are very cheap to build. In some ways, maybe water shouldn't have even been separated from food in the first place. Just a hunger bar would have provided survival mechanics and simplified this aspect of the game, and tech already exists today IRL that could easily provide freshwater from seawater in something that could be integrated into the survival suit (we already have this to some degree with the stillsuit).
It's also strange how plants spoil almost immediately after being picked, cooked food lasts a little longer, but live fish can live forever in your inventory even when you're out of the water. This seems backwards to me.
Power balance could also use some work. For the most part its reasonable with the renewable sources, but nuclear power still doesn't have much going for it. They provide a lot of power, but there's really not enough power hungry base modules to justify it (unless you're spamming water purifiers and alien containment) and the rods are too expensive for how quickly they burn out. Not to mention how immersion breaking it is to have a nuclear reactor that depletes so quickly.
Vehicles
The seaglide is the best vehicle in the game. It's cheap and available almost immediately, and is just as fast as the other vehicles as far as I can tell. Plus, with charge fins it has infinite power (a bit of a paradox, since the charge fins would require an efficiency of greater than 100% since they're generating more power than the propulsion of the seaglide requires). It's even got a free mapping tool that uses minimal additional energy and a built-in flashlight. Plus you can carry it with you absolutely everywhere. I'm fine with the seaglide as-is, but unless the speed of the other vehicles is increased (maybe not possible given the issues with the world streaming tech) it feels OP because of how fast it is.
The seamoth is the second best vehicle. Sadly, it seems like it's gotten a bit of a speed nerf and doesn't seem as fast as it used to. However, it's got solar charging and the best defensive update (perimeter defense) and is small and maneuverable. The only real issue is that you have to get out to pick things up. I would like to see it gain some speed and maybe even a robotic arm to grab things without needing to get out (like a lot of submersibles have). Also, the hull reinforcement module appears to be broken right now and doesn't actually do anything other than waste resources.
The prawn is tough, can punch things, and use the drill, but has terrible maneuverability. It gets stuck on the terrain extremely easily and the stock jump jets are very weak. If a new player accidentally discovered the blood kelp trench before building the grapple, they could easily get it stuck at the bottom. Maybe it should have an emergency ascent system like the Triton from Mass Effect 3. The drill is also extremely slow and tedious to use. Would be a lot more enjoyable to use with improved maneuverability and a faster drill. Right now I only really use it when I have to drill something or pick up resources from the LR brine and otherwise just haul it around with a Cyclops.
There's been a lot of complaints about the Cyclops since it lost its invulnerability, and sadly many of them are still valid. The one strong point of the Cyclops is that it can function as a mobile base. You can build lockers and a fabricator in it (and plant pots/growbeds) which is its killer feature. The prawn/seamoth dock is nice as well. However, it's still awful to drive and has the worst defensive options of all the vehicles.
I've also had issues with phantom power drain on the Cyclops where I turn off the engine and all the lights while I'm mining, and come back to see the batteries have gone down significantly. There are power cell chargers, but the power cells were fully charged before I left. The Cyclops is also a pain to keep charged. With the absence of a Cyclops dock, the only way to charge it is to manually remove the power cells and charge them in a base which can be very time consuming. The thermal charger works well in the lava zones, but is significantly less useful in the rest of the world. Since the Cyclops doesn't have the thermometer readout like the other subs, it can be difficult to get it parked correctly to actually charge at a thermal vent.
The flank speed option is pretty much useless with how quickly it bursts into flame. I used it once, turned it off as soon as I heard the overheat warning, but still got an engine fire. The cyclops also really needs the ability to strafe and pitch up/down to help with maneuverability in the caves. The HUD is also pretty bad with needing to look at and click on the buttons to activate systems instead of being able to use a hotkey, and the lack of information on the camera views. Plus you can't see the sub's power status without being in the cockpit. The shield uses a ton of power, but doesn't actually deter predators, only block the damage. Compared to the seamoth perimeter defense system, this is really annoying since the Cyclops has such poor maneuverability that it really needs a way to drive predators away (that doesn't involve the player jumping out with a knife...). Overall, it's a neat idea that still has a lot of usability issues that make it a burden to use.
The seamoth is the second best vehicle. Sadly, it seems like it's gotten a bit of a speed nerf and doesn't seem as fast as it used to. However, it's got solar charging and the best defensive update (perimeter defense) and is small and maneuverable. The only real issue is that you have to get out to pick things up. I would like to see it gain some speed and maybe even a robotic arm to grab things without needing to get out (like a lot of submersibles have). Also, the hull reinforcement module appears to be broken right now and doesn't actually do anything other than waste resources.
The prawn is tough, can punch things, and use the drill, but has terrible maneuverability. It gets stuck on the terrain extremely easily and the stock jump jets are very weak. If a new player accidentally discovered the blood kelp trench before building the grapple, they could easily get it stuck at the bottom. Maybe it should have an emergency ascent system like the Triton from Mass Effect 3. The drill is also extremely slow and tedious to use. Would be a lot more enjoyable to use with improved maneuverability and a faster drill. Right now I only really use it when I have to drill something or pick up resources from the LR brine and otherwise just haul it around with a Cyclops.
There's been a lot of complaints about the Cyclops since it lost its invulnerability, and sadly many of them are still valid. The one strong point of the Cyclops is that it can function as a mobile base. You can build lockers and a fabricator in it (and plant pots/growbeds) which is its killer feature. The prawn/seamoth dock is nice as well. However, it's still awful to drive and has the worst defensive options of all the vehicles.
I've also had issues with phantom power drain on the Cyclops where I turn off the engine and all the lights while I'm mining, and come back to see the batteries have gone down significantly. There are power cell chargers, but the power cells were fully charged before I left. The Cyclops is also a pain to keep charged. With the absence of a Cyclops dock, the only way to charge it is to manually remove the power cells and charge them in a base which can be very time consuming. The thermal charger works well in the lava zones, but is significantly less useful in the rest of the world. Since the Cyclops doesn't have the thermometer readout like the other subs, it can be difficult to get it parked correctly to actually charge at a thermal vent.
The flank speed option is pretty much useless with how quickly it bursts into flame. I used it once, turned it off as soon as I heard the overheat warning, but still got an engine fire. The cyclops also really needs the ability to strafe and pitch up/down to help with maneuverability in the caves. The HUD is also pretty bad with needing to look at and click on the buttons to activate systems instead of being able to use a hotkey, and the lack of information on the camera views. Plus you can't see the sub's power status without being in the cockpit. The shield uses a ton of power, but doesn't actually deter predators, only block the damage. Compared to the seamoth perimeter defense system, this is really annoying since the Cyclops has such poor maneuverability that it really needs a way to drive predators away (that doesn't involve the player jumping out with a knife...). Overall, it's a neat idea that still has a lot of usability issues that make it a burden to use.
Creatures
Creature aggression has been toned way down from what it used to be. In some ways it's almost too toned down. For my entire playthrough I pretty much ignored all the predators while I was swimming around. I got nipped at a few times (mostly by stalkers) but otherwise the sharks and such more or less ignored me. Maybe they should be slightly more aggressive, but spawn less frequently. I think the issues in the past were that these predators are incredibly common so any sort of aggression from them often ended up with the player getting swarmed. That could also open up spawn slots for more passive fish. Right now many biomes don't really feel "alive" since they're crawling with predators, but there's no preyfish in sight.
The only creatures that I really found annoying were the cave crawlers, bleeders, crabsnake, crabsquid, warpers, lava larvae, and reapers. Even though they're annoying, the cave crawlers are about right in terms of difficulty since they can be easily dealt with using the propulsion cannon or even just a knife. The main annoyance with them is on the mountain island in the caves since you have to put away your flashlight to deal with them, and then you can't see them (I really dislike games that require players to put away their flashlight to fight enemies in the dark, I found this to be a friction point while exploring wrecks as well).
The edible fish aren't really balanced against each other. There's only one fish really worth considering for food (the reginald) and the rest can pretty much be ignored except for maybe the bladderfish and peeper in the early game. Maybe some of the other types of fish could be used in recipes like the bladderfish was with the air bladder.
Bleeders are fine most of the time, but I take issue with them being in the Aurora generator room. The room is supposed to be inundated with extremely high levels of radiation, but somehow it's teeming with these little leeches with no obvious entry point for them.
Crabsnakes are much more aggressive towards the seamoth now than I remember in any of the early access versions. Whenever I would park my seamoth in the Jellyshroom cave, a crabsnake would make a beeline for it and push it around and do significant damage. Extremely annoying, especially since they pretty much ignored me and even the seamoth if I was driving it but could easily destroy the seamoth if you left it unattended for even a short time like the bonesharks used to do.
Crabsquid are still as annoying as ever with their EMP attack. My main issue with them is that there's 2 of them that just sit on top of the DGR Degasi base and you really can't do anything about it since none of my attacks seemed to make them flee at all, but they'll spam their EMP at you all day and disable your sub. I ultimately had to park my seamoth away from the base and swim in as fast as I could and get inside where they couldn't follow me.
Warpers are still as awful as ever with teleporting you out of vehicles. Thankfully they don't do as much damage as they used to, but it's still incredibly annoying and time wasting to have to deal with them and constantly swim back to your vehicle after knifing them to get them to flee.
Lava larvae are incredibly annoying. Aside from how many there are, they compound the Cyclops power issues so you'll more likely than not end up with a dead sub. This is more of a Cyclops issue than a lava larvae issue, the Cyclops used nearly all its power just getting from my safe shallows base down to the ILZ where I had to park it until I could get the resources to build the thermal charger.
Reapers have strange behavior now. They pretty much ignored me while swimming around, would attack the seamoth as expected and I was able to fend them off appropriately with the perimeter defense system, and were incredibly aggressive towards the Cyclops which is completely defenseless against them. The shield module protects you from damage, but doesn't actually make them go away so you end up draining huge amounts of power dealing with them. Silent running/shutting off engines works sometimes, but in general the feeling of the Cyclops being weak and defenseless compared to the other vehicles sadly still persists. Plus to fix the Cyclops you have to get out and find the damage points, adding to the tedium of using it in places with reapers. Maybe the Cyclops shield should work more like a perimeter defense module and shock creatures that attack, and should also have a repair module.
The only creatures that I really found annoying were the cave crawlers, bleeders, crabsnake, crabsquid, warpers, lava larvae, and reapers. Even though they're annoying, the cave crawlers are about right in terms of difficulty since they can be easily dealt with using the propulsion cannon or even just a knife. The main annoyance with them is on the mountain island in the caves since you have to put away your flashlight to deal with them, and then you can't see them (I really dislike games that require players to put away their flashlight to fight enemies in the dark, I found this to be a friction point while exploring wrecks as well).
The edible fish aren't really balanced against each other. There's only one fish really worth considering for food (the reginald) and the rest can pretty much be ignored except for maybe the bladderfish and peeper in the early game. Maybe some of the other types of fish could be used in recipes like the bladderfish was with the air bladder.
Bleeders are fine most of the time, but I take issue with them being in the Aurora generator room. The room is supposed to be inundated with extremely high levels of radiation, but somehow it's teeming with these little leeches with no obvious entry point for them.
Crabsnakes are much more aggressive towards the seamoth now than I remember in any of the early access versions. Whenever I would park my seamoth in the Jellyshroom cave, a crabsnake would make a beeline for it and push it around and do significant damage. Extremely annoying, especially since they pretty much ignored me and even the seamoth if I was driving it but could easily destroy the seamoth if you left it unattended for even a short time like the bonesharks used to do.
Crabsquid are still as annoying as ever with their EMP attack. My main issue with them is that there's 2 of them that just sit on top of the DGR Degasi base and you really can't do anything about it since none of my attacks seemed to make them flee at all, but they'll spam their EMP at you all day and disable your sub. I ultimately had to park my seamoth away from the base and swim in as fast as I could and get inside where they couldn't follow me.
Warpers are still as awful as ever with teleporting you out of vehicles. Thankfully they don't do as much damage as they used to, but it's still incredibly annoying and time wasting to have to deal with them and constantly swim back to your vehicle after knifing them to get them to flee.
Lava larvae are incredibly annoying. Aside from how many there are, they compound the Cyclops power issues so you'll more likely than not end up with a dead sub. This is more of a Cyclops issue than a lava larvae issue, the Cyclops used nearly all its power just getting from my safe shallows base down to the ILZ where I had to park it until I could get the resources to build the thermal charger.
Reapers have strange behavior now. They pretty much ignored me while swimming around, would attack the seamoth as expected and I was able to fend them off appropriately with the perimeter defense system, and were incredibly aggressive towards the Cyclops which is completely defenseless against them. The shield module protects you from damage, but doesn't actually make them go away so you end up draining huge amounts of power dealing with them. Silent running/shutting off engines works sometimes, but in general the feeling of the Cyclops being weak and defenseless compared to the other vehicles sadly still persists. Plus to fix the Cyclops you have to get out and find the damage points, adding to the tedium of using it in places with reapers. Maybe the Cyclops shield should work more like a perimeter defense module and shock creatures that attack, and should also have a repair module.
Bugs
Unfortunately, I ran into some major bugs in my playthrough. The most serious ones were physics glitches that dropped me out of the Cyclops without triggering the water transition so I fell to my death, or launched vehicles to their doom. While trying to access a locker in my Cyclops, the cuddlefish happen to swim on the other side of the wall and the game thought I wanted to play with it. The resulting physics glitch launched my Cyclops hundreds of feet in the air and onto the mountain island. Thankfully I'm in the habit of saving constantly, so I just reloaded my save but this is still a major issue.
There's also issues with the last two achievements (build time capsule and launch rocket), and it sounds like nearly everyone is having problems with them.
Base building is also unfortunately still quite buggy with the collision meshes preventing you from building/deconstructing things for no obvious reason.
There's also still issues with the UI and the inconsistent use of RMB/TAB/ESC to exit menus. Plus the inability to split left hand/use into separate actions.
The world streaming tech with the terrain pop-in and resulting very short draw distances (and prawn-eating bugs) is still an elephant in the room. I'm sure the devs are very aware of this, but it's something that really does hold the game back.
I understand that any 1.0 release will have bugs, but it's still discouraging to see how many major ones there are despite all the testing the early access community provides. Especially with how long many of them have been reported.
There's also issues with the last two achievements (build time capsule and launch rocket), and it sounds like nearly everyone is having problems with them.
Base building is also unfortunately still quite buggy with the collision meshes preventing you from building/deconstructing things for no obvious reason.
There's also still issues with the UI and the inconsistent use of RMB/TAB/ESC to exit menus. Plus the inability to split left hand/use into separate actions.
The world streaming tech with the terrain pop-in and resulting very short draw distances (and prawn-eating bugs) is still an elephant in the room. I'm sure the devs are very aware of this, but it's something that really does hold the game back.
I understand that any 1.0 release will have bugs, but it's still discouraging to see how many major ones there are despite all the testing the early access community provides. Especially with how long many of them have been reported.
Overall, despite all these issues I did mostly enjoy my post 1.0 playthrough. Hopefully we can get some mod support (even just a basic dll loader) soon since unfortunately the replay value for this game is quite limited.