New difficulty settings and improved 'randomisation' for better re-playability
Crudman
Join Date: 2019-06-09 Member: 253284Members
Join Date: 2019-06-09 Member: 253284Members
Contain spoilers for Subnautica
While this is largely written with Subnautica in mind, the concepts could be used for Subnautica Zero.
When I completed my playthrough I was a bit bummed, I had invested 20+ hours and then it was over. I started a new game on hardcore but blew through the start with ease and currently am 10 hours in 'playing sim city'. While it was enjoyable it wasn't the same. The world design was fantastic but I had remembered a lot of things. Sort of like playing a puzzle game a second time and already knowing how to solve those puzzles/riddles. Maybe if I waited for 4 months and tried again it would be different. A lot of games deal with this by providing randomisation/alternatives so no play through is the same. I understand they tried doing procedurally generated worlds and some things are random such as the landing pod but there is room for much more.
On the difficulty aspect, hardcore is different and when I went into a complex wreck, anxiety shot through the roof when I had trouble escaping it. However, asides from the one life, the game's difficulty could be improved. While in its current state, Survival is probably perfect in terms of a 'standard' difficulty, there is room for multiple hard difficulties allowing for more re-playability options.
Below is a bunch of ideas from a brain dump. They don't have to be taken together and the best ones could be chosen in isolation.
Randomisation
Difficulty settings
There's basically 3 settings right now - Freedom, Survival and Hardcore.
A lot of the difficulty arises out of fear and the consequence of death. Fear of running out of water/food (removed in Freedom), fear of dying to fauna, fear of running out of O2 and fear of the unknown. While a lot of fear of the unknown will be removed after the first playthrough, fear of dying to fauna and fear of running out of O2 can be significantly enhanced. Hardcore could effectively be split into multiple 'hard modes' or with toggleable options that enable handicaps consisting of something like the below. The single life could be baked in or as an option.
Fear of running out of O2
At the early stage of the game on the second playthrough, I blew through getting key items like the 2 tank upgrades and fins. This made collecting resources exponentially easier. Even this can be made more difficult by requiring more dives with very little O2 capacity. In mid to late game you can keep re-entering vehicles for unlimited O2 refuelling effectively giving you peace of mind as long as you don't stray too far away.
Fear of dying to fauna
Probably the easiest way to increase difficulty. Once you understand certain creatures/environments (fear of unknown) you can exploit the knowledge. You should not be able to swim up to a leviathan, scan it and get away with a huge chance of success. Similarly, without a prawn, you shouldn't be able to jump into the green gas and pick up materials (or be in lava) with very little consequence (take a medkit and it's zero). Some of the games existing mechanics should be required. i.e. distraction flares, decoys, torpedos, etc
Removal of items that make the game much easier
Some items trivialise game mechanics. Removing them or impairing them in some way would make the game much more difficult. Some would push you to prepare more such as constructing outposts or stocking up more supplies.
Harder blueprints
The idea here is to require you to do more wreck dives and exploration more before you get better tech such as seaglide, seamoth, scanner, cyclops, etc.
Scary precursor facilities
While likely intentional, these facilities are not scary after visiting the first. The scariest thing about them is the warpers outside. Perhaps a darker tone and filled to the brim with the Stargate-esque replicators.
Endgame requirements
Hard trying to fill this category with ideas but one pops into mind. This requires you to put yourself in a life-threatening situation. To do it properly you need to have the right equipment and tactics.
[*] Scan all flora and fauna (possibly exclude leviathans). For story? Possibly to document it for your homeworld.
While this is largely written with Subnautica in mind, the concepts could be used for Subnautica Zero.
When I completed my playthrough I was a bit bummed, I had invested 20+ hours and then it was over. I started a new game on hardcore but blew through the start with ease and currently am 10 hours in 'playing sim city'. While it was enjoyable it wasn't the same. The world design was fantastic but I had remembered a lot of things. Sort of like playing a puzzle game a second time and already knowing how to solve those puzzles/riddles. Maybe if I waited for 4 months and tried again it would be different. A lot of games deal with this by providing randomisation/alternatives so no play through is the same. I understand they tried doing procedurally generated worlds and some things are random such as the landing pod but there is room for much more.
On the difficulty aspect, hardcore is different and when I went into a complex wreck, anxiety shot through the roof when I had trouble escaping it. However, asides from the one life, the game's difficulty could be improved. While in its current state, Survival is probably perfect in terms of a 'standard' difficulty, there is room for multiple hard difficulties allowing for more re-playability options.
Below is a bunch of ideas from a brain dump. They don't have to be taken together and the best ones could be chosen in isolation.
Randomisation
- Multiple cave entrance locations (deep river and shroom) - Instead of randomising the whole depths (which would be a whole lot of work), perhaps 3 variations of entrances to it are created and you have a random one each time. This way you have to explore more to find the entrance. While the overall design would have to take it into account, after this, the extra work is designing the entrances and tunnels leading down.
- Random wreck/aurora paths. Similar to the cave entrance locations but perhaps there could be alternate pathways. The overall layout is the same but doorways are permanently blocked on some variations and open on others, causing you to take a different route through it. I can't remember which game did this but it was quite clever.
- Random non-#5 pod locations. Some pods I probably won't ever remember the location. But others like the one near Aurora is too easy not to forget. Again it doesn't have to actually be random, perhaps from a list of 3 alternate spawning spots, even if within the general vicinity of the original.
- This semi-random aspect could be extended to any part of the game. The game needs an alternate layout created already then it's chosen randomly when creating a game.
- Random Enzyme ingredients (include fauna too if the list is too small). Yes, the teleporters might not make sense anymore but this could perhaps be random on subsequent playthroughs only.
Difficulty settings
There's basically 3 settings right now - Freedom, Survival and Hardcore.
A lot of the difficulty arises out of fear and the consequence of death. Fear of running out of water/food (removed in Freedom), fear of dying to fauna, fear of running out of O2 and fear of the unknown. While a lot of fear of the unknown will be removed after the first playthrough, fear of dying to fauna and fear of running out of O2 can be significantly enhanced. Hardcore could effectively be split into multiple 'hard modes' or with toggleable options that enable handicaps consisting of something like the below. The single life could be baked in or as an option.
Fear of running out of O2
At the early stage of the game on the second playthrough, I blew through getting key items like the 2 tank upgrades and fins. This made collecting resources exponentially easier. Even this can be made more difficult by requiring more dives with very little O2 capacity. In mid to late game you can keep re-entering vehicles for unlimited O2 refuelling effectively giving you peace of mind as long as you don't stray too far away.
- Impaired/removed O2 rebreather (at 100m+ it doesn't function normally, somewhere in between not working at all and it's current state)
- Increase material requirements for Standard O2 Tank
- Increase material requirements for High Capacity O2 Tank
- Seamoth/Prawn maximum reserve O2 instead of unlimited (perhaps a limit on the number of times you can jump in and refill your O2 and limit on how long you can stay in one. You refill your vehicle's reserve by going into a moonpool, sub or surface the vehicle)
Fear of dying to fauna
Probably the easiest way to increase difficulty. Once you understand certain creatures/environments (fear of unknown) you can exploit the knowledge. You should not be able to swim up to a leviathan, scan it and get away with a huge chance of success. Similarly, without a prawn, you shouldn't be able to jump into the green gas and pick up materials (or be in lava) with very little consequence (take a medkit and it's zero). Some of the games existing mechanics should be required. i.e. distraction flares, decoys, torpedos, etc
- Increased aggressive fauna damage
- Increased aggressive fauna aggro (increased range and a reduced chance they will just swim away)
- Increased aggressive fauna speed
- Impaired 'weapons' (Stasis gun is so overpowered)
- Impaired medkits (perhaps channelled rather than instant)
Removal of items that make the game much easier
Some items trivialise game mechanics. Removing them or impairing them in some way would make the game much more difficult. Some would push you to prepare more such as constructing outposts or stocking up more supplies.
- Remove Sonar
- Remove Beacons (makes orientation a lot harder)
- Remove Planters on Sub
- Remove Water filter
- Remove medkit fabricator construction and significantly increase cooldown (only one available is in pod #5)
- Remove Fire Suppressant Mod
- Remove Bed mechanic (increased fear exploring at night) - I didn't even know this was a thing until I saw it on a stream
- No ion tech in items/vehicles (just for rocket construction)
Harder blueprints
The idea here is to require you to do more wreck dives and exploration more before you get better tech such as seaglide, seamoth, scanner, cyclops, etc.
- Require more fragments (there's currently a lot of spare fragments, they could perhaps be repurposed to be required on harder difficulties)
Scary precursor facilities
While likely intentional, these facilities are not scary after visiting the first. The scariest thing about them is the warpers outside. Perhaps a darker tone and filled to the brim with the Stargate-esque replicators.
Endgame requirements
Hard trying to fill this category with ideas but one pops into mind. This requires you to put yourself in a life-threatening situation. To do it properly you need to have the right equipment and tactics.
[*] Scan all flora and fauna (possibly exclude leviathans). For story? Possibly to document it for your homeworld.