[ORIGINAL SUBNAUTICA] Feedback from a newbie who completed 11 runs
AlainColcer
Chile, South America Join Date: 2019-09-13 Member: 254689Members
Chile, South America Join Date: 2019-09-13 Member: 254689Members
I heard of subnautica for the first time a year ago when an article on the internet mentioned a game designer who chose to create an experience that did not involve shooting or killing as mean to enjoy a good game. Did a quick search on youtube and met IGP for the first time narrating the gameplay, describing the rich environment of the safe shallows. and portraying the whole "being underwater" canvas ....it was captivating.
Bought the game a few weeks later, and in my first playthrough i was aware of reapers and some minor game mechanics (Such as the fabricator and oxygen reserve), but refused to read or prepare for the rest of the game mechanics, thinking it would enhance the experience and be more enjoyable. It was, literally, the best game experience I had in a long time, and to impose myself a true "live or die" scenario, hardcore was used as the only option for playthrough.
Executed 11 runs of the game in vanilla, 5 with mods ..... all in hardcore, only 4 finished alive successfully, two without mods, two with mods. Some of the mods were QoL improvements (white lights, more quickslots, etc, others like the PDA mini map are more like an enhancement of the game). A few of the mods were reviewed in creative mode to check how useful they would be and later incorporated in my normal HC runs. I am also aware subnautica below-zero is in development and have not tried it so far, but this post is solely focused on the original subnautica.
Here are my comments and feedback on specific topics:
1) OVERALL GAME FIXES / BALANCING
One thing that needs to be fixed ASAP is the thermometer from the PDA blueprint list, tried to craft it, discovered it cannot be used, but is still shown on the PDA blueprint list as an option. It feels like bait...which is kinda frustrating on a survival game.
There is some very odd behavior with the cyclops HUD health bar when moving through the lost river...it seems the visual effect of the brine "overlays" the HUD graphics of sub health and energy/speed (this happened with graphics settings set to high)
I am a big fan of the flares, but their graphical effects need to be reviewed heavily, i tried throwing one under a recently constructed base so i could see it better at night, ended with some very funky light show inside the habitat. Besides that, throwing a flare on a very short distance causes it fall through the terrain and is lost. And when picked back up and used on hand, the light is so bright that it blocks everything else, maybe that’s the idea...to not use it on hand (as you later found out with the story of lifepod 6) but then it would’ve nice to have a databank entry on the datapad about flares and their "proper" use.
I wasn’t able to rotate the Moonpool once I had a base built, most of the other habitat modules didn’t have an issue, but the moonpool was always fixed in one way unless it was the first module to be placed down.
There is a misleading situation with Lifepod 6.
Lifepod 6 and lifepod 4 are both corrupted locations that the player must find. However, there is a twist, currently lifepod 6 databank entry explicitly mentions its location in reference to an "already found" lifepod 4 .... so, receiving the distress call of lifepod 4 after 6 is confusing, you also need a radiation suit to go for lifepod 4 .... in one instance with an already repaired aurora core, received the radio message for lifepod 4 and the game bugged somehow when i approached lifepod 4 to my surprise radiation was active again.
It is not possible to scan the treespawn object on the mushroom trees, or the grub cluster right beneath the floating island, although both objects have a name displayed on screen when you approach it. There are other objects in the game with the same situation but have not compiled a comprehensive list. Would be nice to eventually implement a databank entry for such objects and the ability to scan them.
I find very weird that when using a Scanner on certain fish or items, the blueprint is not unlocked so i ask the following:
-Why I cannot unlock air bladder blueprint and filtered water after scanning bladder fish. (NOTE: once you grab a bladderfish, you unlock the air bladder blueprint, but there is no databank entry for it which is funny)
-Why I cannot unlock bleach after scanning tube coral (NOTE: before that, bleach should be grayed out as an unknown).
-Why i cannot unlock lubricant, silicone rubber and pathfinder after scanning creepvine seeds (NOTE: lubricant and silicone rubber should be grayed out as unknown state before that)
-Why i cannot unlock fiber mesh after scanning the creepvines (NOTE: the plant itself not the seeds)
-Why i cannot unlock aerogel after scanning gelsack and ruby (NOTE: before that, aerogel should be grayed in an unknown state after acquiring the prawn blueprint)
-Why i cannot unlock benzene after scanning blood oil
-Why i cannot unlock chlorhydric acid after scanning deep shroom.
The need to "pick" items to unlock any recipe is just counterintuitive with the rest of the mechanics of the game, it also creates a mindset which I believe leads to a non-healthy relation to acquire items: "Cut everything, grab everything, craft everything, consume everything...just in case it unlocks a new blueprint". Not so sure about the cooking recipes for fish, but I feel it would be nice if the scanner did identify the item as "edible" and add them to the blueprint list though.
You should be able to use the scanner tool on salt and quartz with its corresponding databank entry, following the same pattern there is for ruby.
After crafting some items, a blueprint for another is unlocked (ie: wiring kit unlocks adv wiring kit), although one might argue is because the PDA has managed to "restore" the blueprint out of the initial data corruption, it is not quite explained, maybe add a voice message to put that in context?, otherwise it leads you to think that crafting everything will unlock new entries in the blueprint list. Along those same lines of thought, i think lifepod 6 or 19 should give a blueprint for a rebreather, not sure why it unlocks after crafting the high-capacity tank, but conveniently, both lifepods sit near the 100mts mark which is a perfect threshold to give the player the ability to dive deeper.
Unlocking the pathfinder is odd, you pick up the creepvine seed or the actual creepvine? not very clear.... some review is required.
Aerogel and other crafting recipes that have not had their recipe ingredients properly identified should be grayed (just as equipment/vehicles that are in the "unknown" state) but should be visible on the Blueprint list the moment you acquire a recipe that requires/use them, this points the player toward exploring and discovering more in order to "unlock" the missing ingredients.
The flashlight hand tool is probably the best source of light in the game, all the other external flood lights, spotlights or vehicles light sources should be the same clear warm transparent ivory white tone of the flashlight. The Prawn and cyclops external lights are awful. Flashlight is clear, soft to the eyes and effective even at moderate distance. Flashlight illuminates a large area without being too bright....which is perfect, I don't know why the other light sources are so different, and one would think the vehicle light being more powerful should give better depth visibility, but often found myself wishing I could glue the flashlight to the front of my seamoth.
Ability to turn on and off the external lights of the prawn. They were quite annoying while parked in the moonpool.
The PDA voice message to rest and meditate should be triggered at least once when crafting any chair type, not just the basic bench. Otherwise you miss an important tip that can be used midgame onwards (the ability to calmly read your PDA without incurring in loss of your food/water level). Just to reinforce the message, in my personal experience i progressed the game storyline thanks to careful reading in my comfy chair and not cheat my way using online resources, this add a strong sense of accomplishment few games have.
When you repair lifepod 5 circuitry, the screen goes all green, however radio status should remain colored in red until the radio itself is repaired and even then, outgoing messages is still shown as offline, which should be marked in red and stay that way throughout the game.
When approaching the Moonpool or the cyclops bays, it would be quite helpful if your vehicle HUD showed some "alignment" indicators or arrows as you approach the docking section, ...we can't see straight up and its a bit frustrating to miss the right entry location (especially if you are running for your life). It could also prevent some of the bugs currently present in the game when it doesn't register properly your character leaving or entering a vehicle.
2) SUGGESTIONS ON VEHICLE RECIPES
The cyclops should use 2 units of lubricant, just 1 looks way too cheap for such a large vessel.
The prawn should use one unit of lubricant in its recipe (it does not use any at all)
3) VEHICLES AND DOCKING
Vehicle modification bays on the moonpool should have the exact same behavior as the cyclops docked vehicle station, meaning, the ability to access inventory space from the console and equip/change upgrades, for both prawn and Seamoth. Also, it would be helpful if the repairing ability on the moonpool was either present by default or through a crafted upgrade (in my personal view would prefer if the repair tool was directly part of the recipe for moonpool right from the start, making cave sulfur a bit more relevant).
It would be nice if there was a "mooring" structure of some kind for the cyclops, I don’t wish to change the mechanics of entering and exiting the sub itself since maintaining the feeling that cyclops is large enough to actually be a separate "mobile base" is a good design choice. Just something to facilitate parking and recharging.
4) GAMEPLAY UNFOLDING IN THE FIRST 5 MINS OF THE GAME
At the start of game i feel there is enough information and guidance to start on the right path, but the blueprint list is an overload of info...after being mesmerized by the ocean view for about 3mins, i spent the next 10mins trying to make sense of what i would use and craft to secure my survival. It went sour quite fast as then i noticed water and food being more important than tools, that first 13min run ended in death.
Therefore, here is a small suggestion to attempt adjusting the player interaction on the first few minutes of gameplay and push it gently in the right direction.
Intro plays exactly as it is now up to the point you put down the fire and then boot up the PDA with its usual text/messages. However, at the end of this voice sequence, it notifies the player of an error while attempting interfacing with the lifepod computer, power cells will recharge very slowly unless circuitry is repaired. Therefore, the fabricator terminal is in emergency mode with only the most basic equipment available to manufacture. (listing only the salvage metal, scanner tool, repair tool, flare, battery on both the fabricator and PDA blueprint list).
Voice message continues, PDA instructs the player to review currently available blueprints, and seek the materials indicated to fabricate the repair tool and the scanner as soon as possible, preliminary short-range scans indicate cave formations within 30mts may contain the necessary materials.
To consider this new situation, the recipe for the repair tool should be adjusted to 1x battery + 2x cave sulfur + titanium, avoiding the need for silicone rubber which is a preprocessed material that also requires the player to identify and grab creepvine seeds.
Once the player repairs the electronics systems, the PDA restores the link [lifepod screen goes green and shows charging power], but also informing the player a fabricator reboot cycle as requirement to assess blueprint database and perform an environmental scan (the same environmental scan that gives you a databank entry with an overall description of the planet). Process will take 1mins. The reboot cycle is completed and then the PDA unlocks all known blueprints we have in the current version of the game with starting recipes. PDA emits a final voice message informing the player to seek food and water sources, which might be identified with a scanner tool.
After this point, the game proceeds as normal, and leaves the rest to be figured out by player to observe and evaluate (such as repair the radio for example).
Although for subnautica veterans all of the above is fairly obvious, the above setting makes the introduction to early game mechanics and specially the process of using the scanner for discovery more clear and concise, the overall goal is contextualizing the player with the environment being seen, fabricator mechanics and also avoiding overloading the player with reading and analyzing the whole blueprint list at the start. I also noticed a trend in reddit for people asking for this same kind of directions for starting new games....as they seem a bit overwhelmed with the lack of handholding in the first 5mins of gameplay but also of info overload with what is available in the PDA at first glance.
Note: i do understand this may affect speed runs and records, so as a tradeoff I propose a flag labeled "quick start" in start game menu to activate/deactivate this "tutorial-like" start.
5) SUGGESTIONS ON BASE MANAGEMENT
Hull integrity is a nice mechanic, is just an obscure one as it is only shown when you build habitat modules and cannot be reviewed in any other way on screen. Therefore:
We need a sort of terminal appliance or computer screen (maybe a small mainframe hub?) that can be built in your base, it should provide a console display showing the following details:
-a screen display to review the structural integrity of your base (green if its +15 yellow if between 10 and 5, red in 5 or less)
-a screen display of energy generation/consumption and energy storage capacity (more detailed than what you see top of your screen, for each source of energy and how much charge they store) [note: not as detailed as the mod "better power info", but enough to understand your energy budget]
-a clock to show in-game time and have a better reference as how much time till next day/night cycle starts/ends.
-Turn on and off lights inside your habitat
If the above terminal is not a module or appliance added to the habitat, then it should be an entire habitat module.
Other functions might not seem necessary, but add a nice touch, such as changing textures/colors on the base pieces and maybe a built-in beacon with a distinctive "habitat" icon. Note: many ideas were taken from an existing mod and other sources.
6) SUGGESTIONS ON DAY-NIGHT CYCLE
Enabling the chair of the lifepod as a "sleeping or resting location” and use it in the same way the sleeping mechanics work for beds, allowing a player to skip the nighttime if desired. This will lead to eventually craft a real bed and use a game mechanic already known. Otherwise beds just become a vanity item in the base builder...as they are never really shown on how to contribute in your gameplay experience (and they do). Perhaps incur in a minor health loss for not being comfy?
7) SUGGESTIONS ON ITEM SIZE
I understand the inventory size 2x2 of the propulsion/repulsion cannon, however I do not understand the size 2x2 of the stasis rifle. If you see the physical size of the fragments, its just a tad bigger than the laser cutter. If for balance reasons it is required to take more space, then I suggest a 1x2 size. Otherwise a 1x1 would be nice.
Same thing for lantern tree fruits, i can understand a fully grown marble melon being 4x4, or chinese potato (it’s not a single potato but looks more like a cluster), but a fruit from the tree? those are the same size as a gelsack or acid mushroom. In comparison they should be 1x1.
8) SUGGESTIONS ON INVENTORY UI BEHAVIOR FOR RECHARGERS
Every locker, filtration device and planter use a left click to “move in->” or “<- move out” ... yet power cell/battery requires a "use/equip" right click instead. This is just counter-intuitive, since said equipment have almost the same type of "inventory" screen UI. Unifying the behavior for all inventory screens would make them easier to use and the overall inventory user experience would be consistent (this includes vehicle upgrades UI and the sort).
More often than I dare to admit, ended up eating stuff that was meant to be put inside a bio-reactor .... , dropped a vehicle upgrade in the middle of the ocean while trying to equip it or clicked madly on batteries and powercells without switching them to my personal inventory. A consistent behavior across all inventory screens should simplify the experience of managing items (note: I’ve seen this happen on youtubes doing a playthrough too).
9) SUGGESTIONS ON BLUEPRINT LIST ON PDA
On the PDA it would be nice if you added a tab-strip UI for the categories of blueprints, instead of a horizontal bar separator. At the end of the playthrough using the mouse wheel (or right scroll bar) to move up or down with hundreds of blueprints felt a bit clunky.
I believe the same general categories used in the first menu level of the fabricator would work well for the tabs and then everything inside. Having the same sorting on the blueprints list will also be more intuitive when checking the fabricator recipes.
10) RELEVANCE OF CERTAIN BLUEPRINTS
Air pumps and pipes.
I tested the floating air pumps and although they are useful ...you quickly make them obsolete once you acquire the seaglide or air bladder, couple with upgrading to better oxygen tanks. But using those side by side did with the rest of the equipment provide meaningful gameplay.
The base-attached pump did not provide any interesting gameplay, it was easier to go in/out of your hatch or moonpool than stick around a pump.
Either way, my suggestions is making the air pump device a deployable with fixed length to a certain depth (30mts tops?) and remove the base attached air pump and pipes as separate items. That way you deploy the air pump increasing your "diving" depth, without making unrealistic networks of pipes that can reach inside caves (just to fool around I made a tube that reached lifepod 19 and it worked fine).
Torpedoes
I have doubts about the usefulness of torpedoes, they feel too situational, either on the seamoth or prawn, specially on the prawn, if they were a built-in feature of the vehicle itself it would be a more interesting choice. Under such scenario crafting and spending resources on the ammo (the torpedoes themselves) would be ok, but the feature as an upgrade+ammo expense does not seem worth the trouble. Just to test them i launched torpedoes against stalkers, warpers and bonesharks and while entertaining it was just passable as a defensive tool...so the cost benefit ratio is a bit off. I would suggest replacing the gas torpedo for a "sonic-bomb" torpedo that scares creatures, keeping the theme of no guns and weapons intact for the game.
11) SUGGESTIONS ON BEACON MANAGEMENT AND SPATIAL REFERENCE
One big part of the appeal of subnautica, is that you don't have a clear map or 2d representation of the world you travel, and that’s great, it makes you feel lost and disoriented, however signals and beacons become points of reference to navigate around.
Given that, could you please consider:
a) Add some "sorting" ability to columns on the beacon management screen? like distance, depth, type? to be sorted ascending/descending
b) Separate depth from distance in two columns if possible, the lifepods often have in their description a parenthesis with the approximate depth (125mts) if known .... it would be nice to be able to sort it by that value too.
c) Provide the ability to manually mark a beacon signal in your PDA screen, so the player knows if he/she has visited said location would be great. Currently they disappear from overview once you visit them, although you have not manually turned off its icon on the PDA, is an automatic behavior and many times it felt odd since I wanted to quickly revisit a lifepod or location just came from but it didn’t show on the hud.
A nice QoL feature would be to update corrupted signals the moment you find their true location, lifepod 4, 6 and 7 in particular, with its appropriate beacon signal, so you can bring up on the HUD the exact spot like the other lifepods signals and revisit them if necessary.
12) SUGGESTIONS ON TIME CAPSULES
Time capsules are a very good concept, it invites the player to keep looking for survivors and read the story of other players who have come and gone before you, but in a few of my playthroughs found several capsules that had kyanite and late game upgrades .... which really breaks some of the reasons one would risk going deeper. Maybe a flag to enable/disable time capsules at the start of your game could be possible?
At the end of the game, the UI for creating your own time capsule is a bit awkward, you don't see a button to "accept" the time capsule after selecting all the contents, message and picture .... currently you need to press TAB to close the PDA. Best option would be to add a visible "seal capsule" button and then you can close the PDA, making it more intuitive on how to proceed.
Finally, if one wishes to complete the game and launch to orbit, the capsule requirement is nice ...but filling it up should be optional. Multiple runs of the game, just for the sake of enjoying it, should not mean I litter the UWE database with tons of "bad quality" time capsules. (perhaps a flag to choose as optional submit it to UWE?)
13) GAME ENDING
It would be awesome if a statistics summary of "missing" data entries, PDA messages, blueprints, crafted/non-crafted items, biomes or species not scanned (wrecks not visited?) was presented at the end of the game. That immediately entices you to replay and try to achieve that 100% score exploring the whole map next time. Through my different playthroughs I realized sometimes there was a specific message triggered in the PDA, and sometimes it was not.... making the experience varied.
Rare items like the pigmy fan plant.... which I discovered through the sub Nautica wiki after my 5th playthrough attempt...were awesome little details. A summary showing all these little gems would be incredible to fuel the "discovery" aspect of the game.
14) SUGGESTIONS ON CARRIED EQUIPMENT UI AND QUICKBIND UI
In your inventory screen on the PDA you can see what you are carrying along with the the equipment being worn (ie: rad suit, rebreather, air tank, etc), but in your main screen once you close the pda a set of rows at the bottom (your quickkey binds) serve as your "tool-belt", however said items in your quick binds are inside your inventory or "backpack", and the backpack is a big mess of everything you carry, use, deploy, eat and drink.
It works well, but it mixes everything into a single bag, and I often miss clicked things when trying to use a tool or item, so I suggest using a section of the PDA UI inventory screen to separate and better identify areas of functionality while also providing interesting gameplay choices:
1) Add a new differentiated row located slightly towards the bottom center but spaced away from everything else, with 6 slots that work as "belt" items with their corresponding key binds, but also work as a storing slot themselves for tools like flares, knifes, scanner, flashlight, repair tool, laser cutter, setting the keybind to the 1-6 numbers
2) Add a new single differentiated and slightly larger slot as "on-waist" slot that is supposedly tied to your suit/waist, here you assign seagliders, gravball, floating locker, mobile vehicle station, beacons or anything that is clearly larger than a hand-tool but also has the distinct ability of being deployable. It's quick keybind would not be a number, but somehwere around AWSD letters (maybe X or E?).
In my humble opinion, this screen configuration would still force the player to make choices to select which tools are relevant at any given moment for hotkeys 1-6 (the belt), on-hand (such as the seaglide), or in your backpack. However, keeping them separated by function and use makes more sense when dealing with said choices. This of course does not remove the ability to reassign items to hotkeys or swap them .... just visually sort them better in your inventory screen.
Personally, i think a neat concept would be to "craft" the tool belt and backpack to have that specialized storage space and your quickslots available. Starting with very little space in your inventory, but later expanding as the game progresses.
15) ENGINE/MAP OPTIMIZATION
Although i have good hardware on my computer, it seemed very odd that playing Subnautica at full high-quality graphics settings had much better result handling the "pop-in" terrain, than trying to play in low-quality or "nvidia optimized" graphics settings.
Other thing is the massive hard drive workload ..... stuttering can be serious at certain points....and it was clear it was all related to textures/graphics loading..... would be nice if we could collect game performance information and submit it so you could deliver optimizations of the game based on hard evidence rather than just "empirical observation".
16) SUGGESTIONS ON WEATHER OPTIONS
For being an oceanic planet, i missed weather, one of the entries of the Degasi mentioned heavy rain. Adding minor weather events would be awesome, but i understand that would have a performance hit, so maybe a manageable setting that can be turned on/off.
17) SUGGESTIONS ON DLC CONTENT AND EXPANSIONS - EXTENDING REPLAYABILITY
The game has good replayability, moving the lifepod around a bit every time you start over, random order for the messages, unfolding the storyline slightly different each time.
In the interest of extending the life of the game, downloadable content seems like the most viable option, however its a tricky situation, DLCs are understood as an extension of the base game, new locations, new mechanics, new items, new story.
Sadly, in the special case of subnautica, neither story nor location can be changed without major rework of the game or the map.
In my limited experience i would say that the following items could be added as DLC without major disruption of the base game adding on top of what already is available:
- additional equipment (new tools)
- additional habitat modules (new ways to build your undersea home)
- new but very rare lifeforms to scan/eat/use
- additional upgrades or upgrade modifications for equipment/vehicles
- additional recipes that are not any of the above.
Things I would love to see as purchasable DLC items for subnatica:
Habitat structure improvements or modifications
A multipurpose room with the transparent roof (just saw this the other day on reddit and thought it was cool as hell).
Additional set of lights for Seamoth
single upgrade, 4 additional lights, each paired upwards and downwards, and rotated around 30 degrees to the sides, so when driving at night, inside caves or in deep locations without sunlight, you can see surroundings a bit better.
Additional set of lights for Cyclops
single upgrade, 4 additional lights, 2 facing up above the bridge, 2 facing down near the propeller at the stern of the ship. I always wondered why such a massive sub did not provide me with enough light to hop out collect/do stuff without the need of a flashlight even if i was right next to it.
Refrigerator
A common fridge to store "fresh" food. In essence, a locker with energy consumption to store raw fish or vegetables without spoiling them over time. (note, the base game should make raw items stored in lockers to decay over time which afaik it does not happen)
Recipes for salt-cooked vegetables
Salt + vegetables of various kinds so you have a long duration vegetable food source (helllo vegans)
Digital time upgrade for your hud
Modification recipe for the re-breather showing 4546b local time, that way you know when to get back to your base and get some sleep.
A greenhouse
A sort of modified multipurpose room ensuring "optimal" conditions for growth of cultivated flora...otherwise growth rate is slower. Obtained once you explore the crashed Aurora.
Decoration objects
Decorating my base was a very enjoyable experience, even using those non-functional lab devices, posters and promo items such as jacksepticeye were all fun, so having more options in that area sound like a nice idea to exploit.
I found out that at some point to finance UW, there were some sort of "plates" that could be built inside the game. Although it is no longer available, the same mechanic could be possible to use for buying "props" and decoration items for indoor/outdoor placement in your base. It could even be "decals" paints to be placed across the vehicles. (note: i later found out about the customs hull plate pack on nexusmods, loved it).
Competition toolkit/settings
Also considering that "speed runs" are a thing for Subnautica, maybe tools or special game settings for executing competitions and uploading the time record somewhere would be nice, with all its corresponding variations.
Finally, if creating DLC assets is too expensive, then perhaps create better modding tools/options built into the game, so the passionate community can do it on their own would be worth a shot.
18) BIASED VIEW ON CERTAIN GAME FEATURES
The following are entirely based on my subjective opinion on how the game experience felt for me, so although some might sound reasonable, they do not follow game balance, take them just as biased comments:
- The prawn is shown visually with a very large front window, but we can’t see much downwards, this is slightly annoying when mining in difficult spots with the drills....as you can move the arms around but cannot see them properly. The players view should be able to see a bit downwards and upwards in the prawn.
- The scanner room HUD chip is a complete paradigm-changer as to how the player gather resources; you no longer wander just looking the floor/cave walls .... it is almost a central part of why you use the scanner room, so in my view if I am able to craft that module, the first thing available should be HUD chip upgrade, but I also believe providing it too early will make you skip so many parts of the game, in my view the scanner room needs to be pushed a bit father in the "tech progression", but make the HUD chip easily available once you reach that point. Also, would like to see scanner room cameras have a sort of wide angle light source, making them more useful than just scouting/beacon items when you approach their location. In short, change its recipe to require more advanced materials. A combination of titanium, copper, magnetite, lithium, table coral and gold perhaps. With such recipe as the base, it makes sense that all the ingredients for upgrades also use magnetite.
- Swivel chairs need to swivel...or at least allow you to rotate 360 your point of view.
- Neptune blueprints parts are a bit low on titanium use, specifically the launchpad, crane and boosters module, although I don't want to force endgame to be a grind, they seem extremely cheap at a moment in the game you are pretty much able to farm every resource with ease. The other aspect of the Neptune blueprint is you unlock each stage as you build, and you might not have stocked for all resources needed at surface level after visiting the lost river/lava zone, so it would be nice to have them all unlock at once, but have the boosters and fuel reserve stay in gray "unknown" state and reveal themselves once you scan nickel, crystalline sulfur, kyanite and ion powercells respectively.
-The Neptune rocket should use at least 6 ion powercells (comparable to the cyclops), 2 is just laughable, would be awesome if you built it without powercells inside and then had to place them to "turn on" the rocket.
-The Neptune rocket should require some sort of "radio thermal generator", space is cold, and you need a heat source besides the fuel to keep you warm. So, my suggestion is a high-tech item using uranium that is later included as part of the recipe for the cockpit. Otherwise uraninite is just a single use item for reactor rods.
-I've tried 5 quickbind slots which is the default, and 12 slots through a mod, I believe a sweet spot for balance is between 6 to 8 slots, 5 is way too few given all the cool tools at your disposal.
-Ion battery and ion power cell recipes should be a modification recipe changing existing batteries/powercells....and converting them into their "ion" versions...should also require some additional ingredients besides the ion cubes, such as lithium+silver (to handle the increased power storage safely), that way it does not invalidate your existing stock of energy sources crafted near the endgame. In my first playthrough I had 14 spare powercells and around 20 batteries, felt dumb after seeing all my hard work lost as the new ion versions must be made from scratch using ion cubes.
-Seamoth should have 6 upgrade slots, for so many options available solely for this vehicle only to be able to equip 4 is big turnoff. Also, storage space access should be on the "belly" (bottom) or backside side of the sub, and remove the ability to fit multiple storage upgrades, having 4 boxes around the seamoth is cute the first few times, it quickly grows annoying as you progress through the game.
-Prawn arm upgrades, this is a difficult issue, although it was enough to use the grappler and one drill arm, all the other options were fun but you compromised so much between one or the other that in the long run eventually settled using a general utility configuration. Would love to see some sort of "daisy-wheel" rotation system, so you can equip and "rotate" between various arm options. Effectively making a fully equipped prawn a pricey investment, quite versatile, but painful if destroyed.
-Torpedoes should be a default feature of the seamoth, period .... using an upgrade for it and also having to use resources to craft the torpedoes themselves makes no sense at all. Vortex torpedo works fine, but i would switch the gas torpedo for a sonic type, which scares creatures away. Torpedoes on the prawn however are a difficult to justify, the vehicle is presented as a work-centric utility frame, I would remove the "torpedo arms" for the prawn, it serves little purpose to add offensive capabilities to the prawn.
-The hologram of the cyclops seen on your right in the bridge room should have the same terrain visualization as the seaglide map hologram, facilitating navigation on tight spots.
-Cyclops cameras should have much more powerful lights sources; current ones are so dim that they feel useless.
-Databoxes/Loot boxes that have been opened should have their light/glow turned off and also not show up on scanner if searched, can’t remember how many times I approached one that was already opened.
-Although is nice to see fragments spread all over the map, it felt cheap to see the same fragments spawn over and over in the same areas, although you are certain to have already pass through those spots, if as a player you decide to go full hoarder mode, you will never need to use salvage, as the respawning fragments provide absurd amounts of titanium on the long run. Would be nice to eventually see fragments being less and less common, salvage too....and over farming natural resources should also have the same effect.
- In "hardcore" mode resources of all kinds should not "respawn" at all, scarcity should be one of the things one needs to tackle as part of the survival trip.
- The player-made mod for sorting power consumption is incredible, should a base management console ever gets implemented, the features of this mod should be included on the base management functions. Can't remember how many times i struggled feeding my bioreactor for energy while having free solar power available with no overall effect on the habitat energy budget.
- The scanner room is rather glitchy once you load a saved run with all the upgrades already plugged-in, so maybe add a sort of "reboot" option in its screen? that way you can reset its state ingame and fix its behavior naturally.
- It would be awesome if time capsules were submitted in "seasons"....with the top 10 voted capsules remaining for the start of the next season, but cleaning the record of existing ones and start over, enticing everyone to submit new time capsules and change the goodies each time. A once a year event would be ideal....maybe with some thematic inspiration thrown in to the mix (this would also encourage people to replay the game). Maybe tie in sales of a new DLC or patch released at the same time?
- All hand tools that use a battery to operate, should require one as part of their recipe. All hand tools should also use at least 1 piece of titanium.
- color palette of the nickel ore should stand out a bit more, is rather hard to discern it from the sea floor in the lost river area, even using flashlights.
- don't quite understand why you get lithium inside shale, small single unit deposits of lithium and then large nodes.... it is an often-used material, but it is confusing to see it in 3 formats.
- diamonds spawn inside shale and also like ruby on its own on the Lost River, never seen a large node... it would be interesting to add the large node variety but only nearby the inactive/active laza zone.
Although subnautica is a great game as it is now, I sincerely hope the feedback provided could provide new material to work with, revisit the game and extend its value as a product for UWE.
regards
a happy customer
Bought the game a few weeks later, and in my first playthrough i was aware of reapers and some minor game mechanics (Such as the fabricator and oxygen reserve), but refused to read or prepare for the rest of the game mechanics, thinking it would enhance the experience and be more enjoyable. It was, literally, the best game experience I had in a long time, and to impose myself a true "live or die" scenario, hardcore was used as the only option for playthrough.
Executed 11 runs of the game in vanilla, 5 with mods ..... all in hardcore, only 4 finished alive successfully, two without mods, two with mods. Some of the mods were QoL improvements (white lights, more quickslots, etc, others like the PDA mini map are more like an enhancement of the game). A few of the mods were reviewed in creative mode to check how useful they would be and later incorporated in my normal HC runs. I am also aware subnautica below-zero is in development and have not tried it so far, but this post is solely focused on the original subnautica.
Here are my comments and feedback on specific topics:
1) OVERALL GAME FIXES / BALANCING
One thing that needs to be fixed ASAP is the thermometer from the PDA blueprint list, tried to craft it, discovered it cannot be used, but is still shown on the PDA blueprint list as an option. It feels like bait...which is kinda frustrating on a survival game.
There is some very odd behavior with the cyclops HUD health bar when moving through the lost river...it seems the visual effect of the brine "overlays" the HUD graphics of sub health and energy/speed (this happened with graphics settings set to high)
I am a big fan of the flares, but their graphical effects need to be reviewed heavily, i tried throwing one under a recently constructed base so i could see it better at night, ended with some very funky light show inside the habitat. Besides that, throwing a flare on a very short distance causes it fall through the terrain and is lost. And when picked back up and used on hand, the light is so bright that it blocks everything else, maybe that’s the idea...to not use it on hand (as you later found out with the story of lifepod 6) but then it would’ve nice to have a databank entry on the datapad about flares and their "proper" use.
I wasn’t able to rotate the Moonpool once I had a base built, most of the other habitat modules didn’t have an issue, but the moonpool was always fixed in one way unless it was the first module to be placed down.
There is a misleading situation with Lifepod 6.
Lifepod 6 and lifepod 4 are both corrupted locations that the player must find. However, there is a twist, currently lifepod 6 databank entry explicitly mentions its location in reference to an "already found" lifepod 4 .... so, receiving the distress call of lifepod 4 after 6 is confusing, you also need a radiation suit to go for lifepod 4 .... in one instance with an already repaired aurora core, received the radio message for lifepod 4 and the game bugged somehow when i approached lifepod 4 to my surprise radiation was active again.
It is not possible to scan the treespawn object on the mushroom trees, or the grub cluster right beneath the floating island, although both objects have a name displayed on screen when you approach it. There are other objects in the game with the same situation but have not compiled a comprehensive list. Would be nice to eventually implement a databank entry for such objects and the ability to scan them.
I find very weird that when using a Scanner on certain fish or items, the blueprint is not unlocked so i ask the following:
-Why I cannot unlock air bladder blueprint and filtered water after scanning bladder fish. (NOTE: once you grab a bladderfish, you unlock the air bladder blueprint, but there is no databank entry for it which is funny)
-Why I cannot unlock bleach after scanning tube coral (NOTE: before that, bleach should be grayed out as an unknown).
-Why i cannot unlock lubricant, silicone rubber and pathfinder after scanning creepvine seeds (NOTE: lubricant and silicone rubber should be grayed out as unknown state before that)
-Why i cannot unlock fiber mesh after scanning the creepvines (NOTE: the plant itself not the seeds)
-Why i cannot unlock aerogel after scanning gelsack and ruby (NOTE: before that, aerogel should be grayed in an unknown state after acquiring the prawn blueprint)
-Why i cannot unlock benzene after scanning blood oil
-Why i cannot unlock chlorhydric acid after scanning deep shroom.
The need to "pick" items to unlock any recipe is just counterintuitive with the rest of the mechanics of the game, it also creates a mindset which I believe leads to a non-healthy relation to acquire items: "Cut everything, grab everything, craft everything, consume everything...just in case it unlocks a new blueprint". Not so sure about the cooking recipes for fish, but I feel it would be nice if the scanner did identify the item as "edible" and add them to the blueprint list though.
You should be able to use the scanner tool on salt and quartz with its corresponding databank entry, following the same pattern there is for ruby.
After crafting some items, a blueprint for another is unlocked (ie: wiring kit unlocks adv wiring kit), although one might argue is because the PDA has managed to "restore" the blueprint out of the initial data corruption, it is not quite explained, maybe add a voice message to put that in context?, otherwise it leads you to think that crafting everything will unlock new entries in the blueprint list. Along those same lines of thought, i think lifepod 6 or 19 should give a blueprint for a rebreather, not sure why it unlocks after crafting the high-capacity tank, but conveniently, both lifepods sit near the 100mts mark which is a perfect threshold to give the player the ability to dive deeper.
Unlocking the pathfinder is odd, you pick up the creepvine seed or the actual creepvine? not very clear.... some review is required.
Aerogel and other crafting recipes that have not had their recipe ingredients properly identified should be grayed (just as equipment/vehicles that are in the "unknown" state) but should be visible on the Blueprint list the moment you acquire a recipe that requires/use them, this points the player toward exploring and discovering more in order to "unlock" the missing ingredients.
The flashlight hand tool is probably the best source of light in the game, all the other external flood lights, spotlights or vehicles light sources should be the same clear warm transparent ivory white tone of the flashlight. The Prawn and cyclops external lights are awful. Flashlight is clear, soft to the eyes and effective even at moderate distance. Flashlight illuminates a large area without being too bright....which is perfect, I don't know why the other light sources are so different, and one would think the vehicle light being more powerful should give better depth visibility, but often found myself wishing I could glue the flashlight to the front of my seamoth.
Ability to turn on and off the external lights of the prawn. They were quite annoying while parked in the moonpool.
The PDA voice message to rest and meditate should be triggered at least once when crafting any chair type, not just the basic bench. Otherwise you miss an important tip that can be used midgame onwards (the ability to calmly read your PDA without incurring in loss of your food/water level). Just to reinforce the message, in my personal experience i progressed the game storyline thanks to careful reading in my comfy chair and not cheat my way using online resources, this add a strong sense of accomplishment few games have.
When you repair lifepod 5 circuitry, the screen goes all green, however radio status should remain colored in red until the radio itself is repaired and even then, outgoing messages is still shown as offline, which should be marked in red and stay that way throughout the game.
When approaching the Moonpool or the cyclops bays, it would be quite helpful if your vehicle HUD showed some "alignment" indicators or arrows as you approach the docking section, ...we can't see straight up and its a bit frustrating to miss the right entry location (especially if you are running for your life). It could also prevent some of the bugs currently present in the game when it doesn't register properly your character leaving or entering a vehicle.
2) SUGGESTIONS ON VEHICLE RECIPES
The cyclops should use 2 units of lubricant, just 1 looks way too cheap for such a large vessel.
The prawn should use one unit of lubricant in its recipe (it does not use any at all)
3) VEHICLES AND DOCKING
Vehicle modification bays on the moonpool should have the exact same behavior as the cyclops docked vehicle station, meaning, the ability to access inventory space from the console and equip/change upgrades, for both prawn and Seamoth. Also, it would be helpful if the repairing ability on the moonpool was either present by default or through a crafted upgrade (in my personal view would prefer if the repair tool was directly part of the recipe for moonpool right from the start, making cave sulfur a bit more relevant).
It would be nice if there was a "mooring" structure of some kind for the cyclops, I don’t wish to change the mechanics of entering and exiting the sub itself since maintaining the feeling that cyclops is large enough to actually be a separate "mobile base" is a good design choice. Just something to facilitate parking and recharging.
4) GAMEPLAY UNFOLDING IN THE FIRST 5 MINS OF THE GAME
At the start of game i feel there is enough information and guidance to start on the right path, but the blueprint list is an overload of info...after being mesmerized by the ocean view for about 3mins, i spent the next 10mins trying to make sense of what i would use and craft to secure my survival. It went sour quite fast as then i noticed water and food being more important than tools, that first 13min run ended in death.
Therefore, here is a small suggestion to attempt adjusting the player interaction on the first few minutes of gameplay and push it gently in the right direction.
Intro plays exactly as it is now up to the point you put down the fire and then boot up the PDA with its usual text/messages. However, at the end of this voice sequence, it notifies the player of an error while attempting interfacing with the lifepod computer, power cells will recharge very slowly unless circuitry is repaired. Therefore, the fabricator terminal is in emergency mode with only the most basic equipment available to manufacture. (listing only the salvage metal, scanner tool, repair tool, flare, battery on both the fabricator and PDA blueprint list).
Voice message continues, PDA instructs the player to review currently available blueprints, and seek the materials indicated to fabricate the repair tool and the scanner as soon as possible, preliminary short-range scans indicate cave formations within 30mts may contain the necessary materials.
To consider this new situation, the recipe for the repair tool should be adjusted to 1x battery + 2x cave sulfur + titanium, avoiding the need for silicone rubber which is a preprocessed material that also requires the player to identify and grab creepvine seeds.
Once the player repairs the electronics systems, the PDA restores the link [lifepod screen goes green and shows charging power], but also informing the player a fabricator reboot cycle as requirement to assess blueprint database and perform an environmental scan (the same environmental scan that gives you a databank entry with an overall description of the planet). Process will take 1mins. The reboot cycle is completed and then the PDA unlocks all known blueprints we have in the current version of the game with starting recipes. PDA emits a final voice message informing the player to seek food and water sources, which might be identified with a scanner tool.
After this point, the game proceeds as normal, and leaves the rest to be figured out by player to observe and evaluate (such as repair the radio for example).
Although for subnautica veterans all of the above is fairly obvious, the above setting makes the introduction to early game mechanics and specially the process of using the scanner for discovery more clear and concise, the overall goal is contextualizing the player with the environment being seen, fabricator mechanics and also avoiding overloading the player with reading and analyzing the whole blueprint list at the start. I also noticed a trend in reddit for people asking for this same kind of directions for starting new games....as they seem a bit overwhelmed with the lack of handholding in the first 5mins of gameplay but also of info overload with what is available in the PDA at first glance.
Note: i do understand this may affect speed runs and records, so as a tradeoff I propose a flag labeled "quick start" in start game menu to activate/deactivate this "tutorial-like" start.
5) SUGGESTIONS ON BASE MANAGEMENT
Hull integrity is a nice mechanic, is just an obscure one as it is only shown when you build habitat modules and cannot be reviewed in any other way on screen. Therefore:
We need a sort of terminal appliance or computer screen (maybe a small mainframe hub?) that can be built in your base, it should provide a console display showing the following details:
-a screen display to review the structural integrity of your base (green if its +15 yellow if between 10 and 5, red in 5 or less)
-a screen display of energy generation/consumption and energy storage capacity (more detailed than what you see top of your screen, for each source of energy and how much charge they store) [note: not as detailed as the mod "better power info", but enough to understand your energy budget]
-a clock to show in-game time and have a better reference as how much time till next day/night cycle starts/ends.
-Turn on and off lights inside your habitat
If the above terminal is not a module or appliance added to the habitat, then it should be an entire habitat module.
Other functions might not seem necessary, but add a nice touch, such as changing textures/colors on the base pieces and maybe a built-in beacon with a distinctive "habitat" icon. Note: many ideas were taken from an existing mod and other sources.
6) SUGGESTIONS ON DAY-NIGHT CYCLE
Enabling the chair of the lifepod as a "sleeping or resting location” and use it in the same way the sleeping mechanics work for beds, allowing a player to skip the nighttime if desired. This will lead to eventually craft a real bed and use a game mechanic already known. Otherwise beds just become a vanity item in the base builder...as they are never really shown on how to contribute in your gameplay experience (and they do). Perhaps incur in a minor health loss for not being comfy?
7) SUGGESTIONS ON ITEM SIZE
I understand the inventory size 2x2 of the propulsion/repulsion cannon, however I do not understand the size 2x2 of the stasis rifle. If you see the physical size of the fragments, its just a tad bigger than the laser cutter. If for balance reasons it is required to take more space, then I suggest a 1x2 size. Otherwise a 1x1 would be nice.
Same thing for lantern tree fruits, i can understand a fully grown marble melon being 4x4, or chinese potato (it’s not a single potato but looks more like a cluster), but a fruit from the tree? those are the same size as a gelsack or acid mushroom. In comparison they should be 1x1.
8) SUGGESTIONS ON INVENTORY UI BEHAVIOR FOR RECHARGERS
Every locker, filtration device and planter use a left click to “move in->” or “<- move out” ... yet power cell/battery requires a "use/equip" right click instead. This is just counter-intuitive, since said equipment have almost the same type of "inventory" screen UI. Unifying the behavior for all inventory screens would make them easier to use and the overall inventory user experience would be consistent (this includes vehicle upgrades UI and the sort).
More often than I dare to admit, ended up eating stuff that was meant to be put inside a bio-reactor .... , dropped a vehicle upgrade in the middle of the ocean while trying to equip it or clicked madly on batteries and powercells without switching them to my personal inventory. A consistent behavior across all inventory screens should simplify the experience of managing items (note: I’ve seen this happen on youtubes doing a playthrough too).
9) SUGGESTIONS ON BLUEPRINT LIST ON PDA
On the PDA it would be nice if you added a tab-strip UI for the categories of blueprints, instead of a horizontal bar separator. At the end of the playthrough using the mouse wheel (or right scroll bar) to move up or down with hundreds of blueprints felt a bit clunky.
I believe the same general categories used in the first menu level of the fabricator would work well for the tabs and then everything inside. Having the same sorting on the blueprints list will also be more intuitive when checking the fabricator recipes.
10) RELEVANCE OF CERTAIN BLUEPRINTS
Air pumps and pipes.
I tested the floating air pumps and although they are useful ...you quickly make them obsolete once you acquire the seaglide or air bladder, couple with upgrading to better oxygen tanks. But using those side by side did with the rest of the equipment provide meaningful gameplay.
The base-attached pump did not provide any interesting gameplay, it was easier to go in/out of your hatch or moonpool than stick around a pump.
Either way, my suggestions is making the air pump device a deployable with fixed length to a certain depth (30mts tops?) and remove the base attached air pump and pipes as separate items. That way you deploy the air pump increasing your "diving" depth, without making unrealistic networks of pipes that can reach inside caves (just to fool around I made a tube that reached lifepod 19 and it worked fine).
Torpedoes
I have doubts about the usefulness of torpedoes, they feel too situational, either on the seamoth or prawn, specially on the prawn, if they were a built-in feature of the vehicle itself it would be a more interesting choice. Under such scenario crafting and spending resources on the ammo (the torpedoes themselves) would be ok, but the feature as an upgrade+ammo expense does not seem worth the trouble. Just to test them i launched torpedoes against stalkers, warpers and bonesharks and while entertaining it was just passable as a defensive tool...so the cost benefit ratio is a bit off. I would suggest replacing the gas torpedo for a "sonic-bomb" torpedo that scares creatures, keeping the theme of no guns and weapons intact for the game.
11) SUGGESTIONS ON BEACON MANAGEMENT AND SPATIAL REFERENCE
One big part of the appeal of subnautica, is that you don't have a clear map or 2d representation of the world you travel, and that’s great, it makes you feel lost and disoriented, however signals and beacons become points of reference to navigate around.
Given that, could you please consider:
a) Add some "sorting" ability to columns on the beacon management screen? like distance, depth, type? to be sorted ascending/descending
b) Separate depth from distance in two columns if possible, the lifepods often have in their description a parenthesis with the approximate depth (125mts) if known .... it would be nice to be able to sort it by that value too.
c) Provide the ability to manually mark a beacon signal in your PDA screen, so the player knows if he/she has visited said location would be great. Currently they disappear from overview once you visit them, although you have not manually turned off its icon on the PDA, is an automatic behavior and many times it felt odd since I wanted to quickly revisit a lifepod or location just came from but it didn’t show on the hud.
A nice QoL feature would be to update corrupted signals the moment you find their true location, lifepod 4, 6 and 7 in particular, with its appropriate beacon signal, so you can bring up on the HUD the exact spot like the other lifepods signals and revisit them if necessary.
12) SUGGESTIONS ON TIME CAPSULES
Time capsules are a very good concept, it invites the player to keep looking for survivors and read the story of other players who have come and gone before you, but in a few of my playthroughs found several capsules that had kyanite and late game upgrades .... which really breaks some of the reasons one would risk going deeper. Maybe a flag to enable/disable time capsules at the start of your game could be possible?
At the end of the game, the UI for creating your own time capsule is a bit awkward, you don't see a button to "accept" the time capsule after selecting all the contents, message and picture .... currently you need to press TAB to close the PDA. Best option would be to add a visible "seal capsule" button and then you can close the PDA, making it more intuitive on how to proceed.
Finally, if one wishes to complete the game and launch to orbit, the capsule requirement is nice ...but filling it up should be optional. Multiple runs of the game, just for the sake of enjoying it, should not mean I litter the UWE database with tons of "bad quality" time capsules. (perhaps a flag to choose as optional submit it to UWE?)
13) GAME ENDING
It would be awesome if a statistics summary of "missing" data entries, PDA messages, blueprints, crafted/non-crafted items, biomes or species not scanned (wrecks not visited?) was presented at the end of the game. That immediately entices you to replay and try to achieve that 100% score exploring the whole map next time. Through my different playthroughs I realized sometimes there was a specific message triggered in the PDA, and sometimes it was not.... making the experience varied.
Rare items like the pigmy fan plant.... which I discovered through the sub Nautica wiki after my 5th playthrough attempt...were awesome little details. A summary showing all these little gems would be incredible to fuel the "discovery" aspect of the game.
14) SUGGESTIONS ON CARRIED EQUIPMENT UI AND QUICKBIND UI
In your inventory screen on the PDA you can see what you are carrying along with the the equipment being worn (ie: rad suit, rebreather, air tank, etc), but in your main screen once you close the pda a set of rows at the bottom (your quickkey binds) serve as your "tool-belt", however said items in your quick binds are inside your inventory or "backpack", and the backpack is a big mess of everything you carry, use, deploy, eat and drink.
It works well, but it mixes everything into a single bag, and I often miss clicked things when trying to use a tool or item, so I suggest using a section of the PDA UI inventory screen to separate and better identify areas of functionality while also providing interesting gameplay choices:
1) Add a new differentiated row located slightly towards the bottom center but spaced away from everything else, with 6 slots that work as "belt" items with their corresponding key binds, but also work as a storing slot themselves for tools like flares, knifes, scanner, flashlight, repair tool, laser cutter, setting the keybind to the 1-6 numbers
2) Add a new single differentiated and slightly larger slot as "on-waist" slot that is supposedly tied to your suit/waist, here you assign seagliders, gravball, floating locker, mobile vehicle station, beacons or anything that is clearly larger than a hand-tool but also has the distinct ability of being deployable. It's quick keybind would not be a number, but somehwere around AWSD letters (maybe X or E?).
In my humble opinion, this screen configuration would still force the player to make choices to select which tools are relevant at any given moment for hotkeys 1-6 (the belt), on-hand (such as the seaglide), or in your backpack. However, keeping them separated by function and use makes more sense when dealing with said choices. This of course does not remove the ability to reassign items to hotkeys or swap them .... just visually sort them better in your inventory screen.
Personally, i think a neat concept would be to "craft" the tool belt and backpack to have that specialized storage space and your quickslots available. Starting with very little space in your inventory, but later expanding as the game progresses.
15) ENGINE/MAP OPTIMIZATION
Although i have good hardware on my computer, it seemed very odd that playing Subnautica at full high-quality graphics settings had much better result handling the "pop-in" terrain, than trying to play in low-quality or "nvidia optimized" graphics settings.
Other thing is the massive hard drive workload ..... stuttering can be serious at certain points....and it was clear it was all related to textures/graphics loading..... would be nice if we could collect game performance information and submit it so you could deliver optimizations of the game based on hard evidence rather than just "empirical observation".
16) SUGGESTIONS ON WEATHER OPTIONS
For being an oceanic planet, i missed weather, one of the entries of the Degasi mentioned heavy rain. Adding minor weather events would be awesome, but i understand that would have a performance hit, so maybe a manageable setting that can be turned on/off.
17) SUGGESTIONS ON DLC CONTENT AND EXPANSIONS - EXTENDING REPLAYABILITY
The game has good replayability, moving the lifepod around a bit every time you start over, random order for the messages, unfolding the storyline slightly different each time.
In the interest of extending the life of the game, downloadable content seems like the most viable option, however its a tricky situation, DLCs are understood as an extension of the base game, new locations, new mechanics, new items, new story.
Sadly, in the special case of subnautica, neither story nor location can be changed without major rework of the game or the map.
In my limited experience i would say that the following items could be added as DLC without major disruption of the base game adding on top of what already is available:
- additional equipment (new tools)
- additional habitat modules (new ways to build your undersea home)
- new but very rare lifeforms to scan/eat/use
- additional upgrades or upgrade modifications for equipment/vehicles
- additional recipes that are not any of the above.
Things I would love to see as purchasable DLC items for subnatica:
Habitat structure improvements or modifications
A multipurpose room with the transparent roof (just saw this the other day on reddit and thought it was cool as hell).
Additional set of lights for Seamoth
single upgrade, 4 additional lights, each paired upwards and downwards, and rotated around 30 degrees to the sides, so when driving at night, inside caves or in deep locations without sunlight, you can see surroundings a bit better.
Additional set of lights for Cyclops
single upgrade, 4 additional lights, 2 facing up above the bridge, 2 facing down near the propeller at the stern of the ship. I always wondered why such a massive sub did not provide me with enough light to hop out collect/do stuff without the need of a flashlight even if i was right next to it.
Refrigerator
A common fridge to store "fresh" food. In essence, a locker with energy consumption to store raw fish or vegetables without spoiling them over time. (note, the base game should make raw items stored in lockers to decay over time which afaik it does not happen)
Recipes for salt-cooked vegetables
Salt + vegetables of various kinds so you have a long duration vegetable food source (helllo vegans)
Digital time upgrade for your hud
Modification recipe for the re-breather showing 4546b local time, that way you know when to get back to your base and get some sleep.
A greenhouse
A sort of modified multipurpose room ensuring "optimal" conditions for growth of cultivated flora...otherwise growth rate is slower. Obtained once you explore the crashed Aurora.
Decoration objects
Decorating my base was a very enjoyable experience, even using those non-functional lab devices, posters and promo items such as jacksepticeye were all fun, so having more options in that area sound like a nice idea to exploit.
I found out that at some point to finance UW, there were some sort of "plates" that could be built inside the game. Although it is no longer available, the same mechanic could be possible to use for buying "props" and decoration items for indoor/outdoor placement in your base. It could even be "decals" paints to be placed across the vehicles. (note: i later found out about the customs hull plate pack on nexusmods, loved it).
Competition toolkit/settings
Also considering that "speed runs" are a thing for Subnautica, maybe tools or special game settings for executing competitions and uploading the time record somewhere would be nice, with all its corresponding variations.
Finally, if creating DLC assets is too expensive, then perhaps create better modding tools/options built into the game, so the passionate community can do it on their own would be worth a shot.
18) BIASED VIEW ON CERTAIN GAME FEATURES
The following are entirely based on my subjective opinion on how the game experience felt for me, so although some might sound reasonable, they do not follow game balance, take them just as biased comments:
- The prawn is shown visually with a very large front window, but we can’t see much downwards, this is slightly annoying when mining in difficult spots with the drills....as you can move the arms around but cannot see them properly. The players view should be able to see a bit downwards and upwards in the prawn.
- The scanner room HUD chip is a complete paradigm-changer as to how the player gather resources; you no longer wander just looking the floor/cave walls .... it is almost a central part of why you use the scanner room, so in my view if I am able to craft that module, the first thing available should be HUD chip upgrade, but I also believe providing it too early will make you skip so many parts of the game, in my view the scanner room needs to be pushed a bit father in the "tech progression", but make the HUD chip easily available once you reach that point. Also, would like to see scanner room cameras have a sort of wide angle light source, making them more useful than just scouting/beacon items when you approach their location. In short, change its recipe to require more advanced materials. A combination of titanium, copper, magnetite, lithium, table coral and gold perhaps. With such recipe as the base, it makes sense that all the ingredients for upgrades also use magnetite.
- Swivel chairs need to swivel...or at least allow you to rotate 360 your point of view.
- Neptune blueprints parts are a bit low on titanium use, specifically the launchpad, crane and boosters module, although I don't want to force endgame to be a grind, they seem extremely cheap at a moment in the game you are pretty much able to farm every resource with ease. The other aspect of the Neptune blueprint is you unlock each stage as you build, and you might not have stocked for all resources needed at surface level after visiting the lost river/lava zone, so it would be nice to have them all unlock at once, but have the boosters and fuel reserve stay in gray "unknown" state and reveal themselves once you scan nickel, crystalline sulfur, kyanite and ion powercells respectively.
-The Neptune rocket should use at least 6 ion powercells (comparable to the cyclops), 2 is just laughable, would be awesome if you built it without powercells inside and then had to place them to "turn on" the rocket.
-The Neptune rocket should require some sort of "radio thermal generator", space is cold, and you need a heat source besides the fuel to keep you warm. So, my suggestion is a high-tech item using uranium that is later included as part of the recipe for the cockpit. Otherwise uraninite is just a single use item for reactor rods.
-I've tried 5 quickbind slots which is the default, and 12 slots through a mod, I believe a sweet spot for balance is between 6 to 8 slots, 5 is way too few given all the cool tools at your disposal.
-Ion battery and ion power cell recipes should be a modification recipe changing existing batteries/powercells....and converting them into their "ion" versions...should also require some additional ingredients besides the ion cubes, such as lithium+silver (to handle the increased power storage safely), that way it does not invalidate your existing stock of energy sources crafted near the endgame. In my first playthrough I had 14 spare powercells and around 20 batteries, felt dumb after seeing all my hard work lost as the new ion versions must be made from scratch using ion cubes.
-Seamoth should have 6 upgrade slots, for so many options available solely for this vehicle only to be able to equip 4 is big turnoff. Also, storage space access should be on the "belly" (bottom) or backside side of the sub, and remove the ability to fit multiple storage upgrades, having 4 boxes around the seamoth is cute the first few times, it quickly grows annoying as you progress through the game.
-Prawn arm upgrades, this is a difficult issue, although it was enough to use the grappler and one drill arm, all the other options were fun but you compromised so much between one or the other that in the long run eventually settled using a general utility configuration. Would love to see some sort of "daisy-wheel" rotation system, so you can equip and "rotate" between various arm options. Effectively making a fully equipped prawn a pricey investment, quite versatile, but painful if destroyed.
-Torpedoes should be a default feature of the seamoth, period .... using an upgrade for it and also having to use resources to craft the torpedoes themselves makes no sense at all. Vortex torpedo works fine, but i would switch the gas torpedo for a sonic type, which scares creatures away. Torpedoes on the prawn however are a difficult to justify, the vehicle is presented as a work-centric utility frame, I would remove the "torpedo arms" for the prawn, it serves little purpose to add offensive capabilities to the prawn.
-The hologram of the cyclops seen on your right in the bridge room should have the same terrain visualization as the seaglide map hologram, facilitating navigation on tight spots.
-Cyclops cameras should have much more powerful lights sources; current ones are so dim that they feel useless.
-Databoxes/Loot boxes that have been opened should have their light/glow turned off and also not show up on scanner if searched, can’t remember how many times I approached one that was already opened.
-Although is nice to see fragments spread all over the map, it felt cheap to see the same fragments spawn over and over in the same areas, although you are certain to have already pass through those spots, if as a player you decide to go full hoarder mode, you will never need to use salvage, as the respawning fragments provide absurd amounts of titanium on the long run. Would be nice to eventually see fragments being less and less common, salvage too....and over farming natural resources should also have the same effect.
- In "hardcore" mode resources of all kinds should not "respawn" at all, scarcity should be one of the things one needs to tackle as part of the survival trip.
- The player-made mod for sorting power consumption is incredible, should a base management console ever gets implemented, the features of this mod should be included on the base management functions. Can't remember how many times i struggled feeding my bioreactor for energy while having free solar power available with no overall effect on the habitat energy budget.
- The scanner room is rather glitchy once you load a saved run with all the upgrades already plugged-in, so maybe add a sort of "reboot" option in its screen? that way you can reset its state ingame and fix its behavior naturally.
- It would be awesome if time capsules were submitted in "seasons"....with the top 10 voted capsules remaining for the start of the next season, but cleaning the record of existing ones and start over, enticing everyone to submit new time capsules and change the goodies each time. A once a year event would be ideal....maybe with some thematic inspiration thrown in to the mix (this would also encourage people to replay the game). Maybe tie in sales of a new DLC or patch released at the same time?
- All hand tools that use a battery to operate, should require one as part of their recipe. All hand tools should also use at least 1 piece of titanium.
- color palette of the nickel ore should stand out a bit more, is rather hard to discern it from the sea floor in the lost river area, even using flashlights.
- don't quite understand why you get lithium inside shale, small single unit deposits of lithium and then large nodes.... it is an often-used material, but it is confusing to see it in 3 formats.
- diamonds spawn inside shale and also like ruby on its own on the Lost River, never seen a large node... it would be interesting to add the large node variety but only nearby the inactive/active laza zone.
Although subnautica is a great game as it is now, I sincerely hope the feedback provided could provide new material to work with, revisit the game and extend its value as a product for UWE.
regards
a happy customer