Going forward - beyond Below Zero
Octonaut
Join Date: 2020-07-29 Member: 262856Members
Join Date: 2020-07-29 Member: 262856Members
Subnautica addict here. I play it every couple of days even though I've beaten it more times than I can count. My kids and I play on Xbox and PC and we have different save files going for different things we want to do.
So when Below Zero was announced, I decided to jump in and test the waters (pun intended). What I found, even in an unfinished state, wasn't something that I got excited about, which made me think about the future of the series, if there is one. These are the things I would like to see in a future game, based on my experience in both Subnautica and Below Zero:
1. Return to a predominately water-only game.
3. Go deeper! The max depth in this game is disappointing. The original game had enormous biomes which took ages to explore and then an entirely new world the further down you went. This one? Wow, the fabricator caves for example, is amazing but let down by it's tiny size and that it's only 950m deep. I miss the days of 1400m deep biomes. I thought games should be "bigger and better" in sequels. This one is smaller
4. Dynamic weather is nice, please keep that going forward
5. Graphic improvements, top notch.
6. Base improvements, that's awesome. I love the bigger bases, and also the easier requirements to craft some items (like Plasteel)
7. A "snap" feature to align things like wall lockers. It triggers my OCD to build lockers out of alignment next to each other!
8. The seatruck needs to be destroyed. Utterly. Burn it, melt it, turn it to slag. Long Live the Cyclops. I stopped building additional modules for the seatruck, because even with the HP and power upgrades, it's the worst thing in the world to drive.
9. Wait, did I say the seatruck was the worst thing to drive? No that's wrong, it's the snowfox. This thing gives me motion sickness. At least I don't get that with the seatruck, mainly because it moves at a snails pace, and you can't get motion sickness from standing still.
10. More leviathans, please. The Chelicerate is really not that threatening compared to the ones in Subnautica. Plus there are too few dangers in the map. The next game should have more threats from leviathans. Oh, the Shadow Leviathan is awesome. That one was a top notch inclusion.
11. And speaking of leviathans, it'd be awesome to see them roam big distances. Make them move across biomes. Not just twist around like spaghetti in a tiny area. I'd love to see them appear in areas that I thought were safe. They're big animals, which in the real world, means they need big areas to navigate. Please do the same in the game.
12. I feel leviathan animations need a lot of work. This was true from both Subnautica OG and BZ. All they do is twist around in small circles. They should turn slower, roam bigger distances and move more naturally for their body shapes.
They're my thoughts. You might have different ones, that's cool!
So when Below Zero was announced, I decided to jump in and test the waters (pun intended). What I found, even in an unfinished state, wasn't something that I got excited about, which made me think about the future of the series, if there is one. These are the things I would like to see in a future game, based on my experience in both Subnautica and Below Zero:
1. Return to a predominately water-only game.
- The mysteries underwater are so much better to explore when you're feeling unsafe. We're land creatures, we have a natural affinity to explore on foot. Put us underwater, and things change drastically. The verticality of movement, the unknown dangers, the thin shell (glass!) between life and death... these are dangers we don't experience on land.
- Water made the OG game unique. Land, meh. There are millions of games, with better land gameplay implementations. Please don't forget the title of the series. Subnautica should be predominately an underwater game; not 50/50 water/land as it seems in BZ.
3. Go deeper! The max depth in this game is disappointing. The original game had enormous biomes which took ages to explore and then an entirely new world the further down you went. This one? Wow, the fabricator caves for example, is amazing but let down by it's tiny size and that it's only 950m deep. I miss the days of 1400m deep biomes. I thought games should be "bigger and better" in sequels. This one is smaller
4. Dynamic weather is nice, please keep that going forward
5. Graphic improvements, top notch.
6. Base improvements, that's awesome. I love the bigger bases, and also the easier requirements to craft some items (like Plasteel)
7. A "snap" feature to align things like wall lockers. It triggers my OCD to build lockers out of alignment next to each other!
8. The seatruck needs to be destroyed. Utterly. Burn it, melt it, turn it to slag. Long Live the Cyclops. I stopped building additional modules for the seatruck, because even with the HP and power upgrades, it's the worst thing in the world to drive.
9. Wait, did I say the seatruck was the worst thing to drive? No that's wrong, it's the snowfox. This thing gives me motion sickness. At least I don't get that with the seatruck, mainly because it moves at a snails pace, and you can't get motion sickness from standing still.
10. More leviathans, please. The Chelicerate is really not that threatening compared to the ones in Subnautica. Plus there are too few dangers in the map. The next game should have more threats from leviathans. Oh, the Shadow Leviathan is awesome. That one was a top notch inclusion.
11. And speaking of leviathans, it'd be awesome to see them roam big distances. Make them move across biomes. Not just twist around like spaghetti in a tiny area. I'd love to see them appear in areas that I thought were safe. They're big animals, which in the real world, means they need big areas to navigate. Please do the same in the game.
12. I feel leviathan animations need a lot of work. This was true from both Subnautica OG and BZ. All they do is twist around in small circles. They should turn slower, roam bigger distances and move more naturally for their body shapes.
They're my thoughts. You might have different ones, that's cool!
Comments
I really like the concept of exploring alien environments and space in general, and the atmospheric existential dread that comes with all that. An ocean planet is great for establishing that feeling of helplessness and cosmic smallness.
But so is standing on a tiny planet that snows flurries of frozen methane, with a tiny-ass gravity well, where losing your footing means hurtling out into the black void. And then you look up to see a gas giant dominating the entire view of 'sky.' And your oxygen will still be running out and need to be managed. Space itself can be pretty bleak and terrifying and I'd like to see more of the universe where humanity is colonizing the stars, Alterra is this banal face of evil megacorp and the aliens build these cyclopean eldritch structures.
You hear colorful tales about Craig McGill and how he tamed starwahls in a survival scenario similar to yours and then later hear Paul Torgal mention how he hauled starwahls as a trade good. So I wouldn't mind playing some other survivor in some other situation, then hear passing references to the survivors of 4546B.
For example, game taking place in the a semi-stable upper atmosphere of a gas giant would be pretty fantastical if unrealistic. Crushing gravity wells down below. Whipping and deadly storms in different "biomes." Over yon horizon you see a deadly vortex and crackling lightning. And truly alien lifeforms populating the place. And you'd have to pop across different numerous miniature moons that barely even merit the distinction.
There is mod for this:
Subnautica + BelowZero:
Google:
SnapBuilder - Snap-to-Grid for Subnautica
Would've posted links but I have to be around for a little while longer before I can post links...
1) water based. youre absolutely correct here. subnautica is meant to be played underwater, and the only parts of the game i find myself returning to, are underwater biomes. the land biomes are fine, but in a future game, id prefer them to be kept at the level of the first game, or even less.
2) bigger biomes. while i think the smallness of the biomes is an issue, its underlying an even bigger issue, which is that there isnt anything to do in the biomes, which makes them FEEL smaller than they are. part of what made the lost river feel so freakin enormous, is that there was a MASSIVE amount of stuff to explore within it, most of which didnt even pertain to the main plot. that aspect is totally missing, even from the larger biomes like the crystal caves.
3) seatruck. while i personally think the seatruck is cool, i 100% agree that the cyclops needs to come back. having a giant mobile actual submarine felt insanely cool, and i REALLY miss having that huge thing by my side. it added to base aesthetic, it helped move the prawn around, could be used in 10 different ways (mobile base, upgrade station, storage, etc), and was overall superb. i think the seatruck is fine, but it cant be the REPLACEMENT for the cyclops, only an addition.
4) more leviathans. i do want more leviathans, and i LOVE the idea of having them circle the map instead of stay in one spot, but it has to be done in such a way that you dont just randomly come across a leviathan, before youve built your repair tool, or scanner. make them circle the EDGES of the map, the outermost biomes, and then this is a great idea.
couple disagrees:
1) dont think the snowfox is bad. its kinda fun to speed along the land like that. the issue here lies more with the first point, in that subnautica should be a water game, not with the snowfox.
2) seatruck is definitely not bad. It feels like something that maybe should be simplified (maybe have just a storage module and a fabricator module), and then added IN ADDITION to the cyclops and prawn suit. maybe even a seamoth and new submarine as well. the key here is that it cant be the REPLACEMENT for any of these, only an addition.
overall agree with most of what was said though, hopefully we get a third game in the first place.
1. Cylcops *must* come back PLEASE. Subnautica accomplishes two things, and it does them well. One, it makes you feel tiny exploring a vast ocean to uncover something bigger than yourself and even Alterra. Two, it gives you a sense of progression, going from a risky coin flip of the Seamoth/trashtruck (I agree burn the truck for how crappy it handles), all the way too an invincible nuclear powered submarine which can become invulnerable and basically invisible for several minutes. Subnautica BZ makes me sad when they break progression and let me find half the vehicles in the first 30 minutes.
2. The Snowfox handles like you’re riding an actual fox, seriously. This thing skitters and whines at every turn, and breaks after falling 5 meters. Humans naturally keep their heads in a semi fixed position while on a motorcycle, snowfox just hurts. It isn’t suited for the bumpy terrain of the glacier, and also, the fov needs to be upped, it feels like I can only turn my head 5 degrees before I can’f move it any further. I get the game isn’t finished yet but seriously I could have designed a better hoverbike in my garage than what the Alterra researchers made here.
3. Vehicles as a whole feel like a step down. There isn’t as much vision, with the Prawn Suit being copy pasted (thank you so much) and there only being 1 other water based vehicle which just feels like a budget earlygame Cyclops which doesn’t feel good at all even with max upgrades. It is small, pathetic, I feel like if it gets scratched it will explode, whereas the Cyclops doesn’t have collision damage, only a leviathan class could damage it, and it feels seriously stronger than the trashtruck. Assuming Subnautica BZ runs on the same engine, please cop out and copy paste a Mini Cyclops™ to account for the smaller spaces in Subnautica BZ. I honestly don’t think Subnautica would be anywhere near as successful as it is without the vehicles, and I know the game isn’t finished yet but damn, fabricator room for the seatruck is sad at best. I don’t feel as cool as I did staring down giant leviathans and ancient wub wub cannons in a giant space sub, all I feel is like I’m playing Euro Truck Simulator, 2600 edition.
I LOVE Subnautica to death, and I think the games are great, but I hope that if and when there is a third game, we get some of the cool stuff we wanted to get in BZ. A rough layout would be a multiplayer game on a new engine, on a different planet, with a larger map and more to explore, as well as a Mega Cyclops™ to work with your friends on. I have faith that all of this will be delivered on, riiight? Please no more claustrophobic tiny wimp caves, we want a giant cave to explore using an even bigger submarine fighting even bigger leviathans. Make the Prawn suit like Evangelion if you have too. Also ocean skimmer to glide across the waves? OR MAKE THE SNOWFOX WATER PROOF YAJDIWKANQOD
Thanks.
So I had an inspiration for a 3rd game: Subnautica: Beyond. Tell me if you want to know about my ideas!
Btw in this new game there will be a way to dock larger vehicles into your base!