Expectations for submarine combat
RoflcopterV22
Arizona Join Date: 2013-04-03 Member: 184616Members, NS2 Playtester, Reinforced - Supporter, Reinforced - Silver, Reinforced - Gold, Reinforced - Diamond, Reinforced - Shadow, WC 2013 - Shadow, Subnautica Playtester
Arizona Join Date: 2013-04-03 Member: 184616Members, NS2 Playtester, Reinforced - Supporter, Reinforced - Silver, Reinforced - Gold, Reinforced - Diamond, Reinforced - Shadow, WC 2013 - Shadow, Subnautica Playtester
Comments
Dunno i kinda imagine the game in some kind of universe similar to stargate atlantis (the waterplanet, with cool artefacts ships ancient ruines space seacreatures from tiny to gigantic/seamonster etc. )
So you get to this new unexplored world and you need to figure out wtf is going on etc.
From what I've read so far, Subnautica seems to take quite a few hints from minecraft - minecraft is not a combat focused game, but it still is a part of the overall experience. Exploring is fun, but there needs to be a bit of danger to it. And if you want to get the really valuable resources, items, etc. be prepared for whatever it is that guards those treasures. You built some awesome stuff, great, but the danger of wild creatures coming to reclaim their territory is always present.
I can see different ship systems that would fit a non-agressive aproach to dangerous situations, like
force/shock fields (similar to what electic eels use to defend themselves),
acoustic defense (a high pitches "shriek" designed to repel attacking creatures),
decoys (small bouys emitting food-scented mist to lure creatures away).
And for the occasional kraken that just won't stop hugging your sub, there could be a variety of tools which primarily have a different use, but can be used to poke creatures (plasma torch, drill, etc.)
As human, in an underwater world, you are the intruder (even if you see yourself as explorer) - so be prepared for some its inhabitants to treat you as such.
@Squeal_Like_A_Pig pls confirm.
So when we say no combat, we are mainly referring to the typical combat that most players with are familiar with in games...shooting and blowing stuff up.
How about tagging the large predators and making sure to not be where they are? A bit like the crocodile from Peter Pan. When you hear the ticking it's time to split!
But combat does not necessarily exclude killing animals does it? After all, we might want to kill a species to have one of our lab guys have a look at it.... I'm not quite sure if that'll work for good old leviathan.
Ooh that reminds me. I'd like to be able to name individual creatures, not just species.
I'm imagining being hunted by a giant predator and having to hide inside an underwater cave.
http://www.livescience.com/75-natural-nuclear-reaction-powered-ancient-geyser.html
This one was a natural nuclear geyser, so pretty stable. But imagine if natural uranium just caused nuclear explosions in the core depths. Causing amazon sized rivers of nuclear tainted boiling water to rise up for miles before cooling down sufficiently and falling back down. The surface waters would not be severely affected by the relatively heavy nuclear materials but the depths could become extremely treacherous nuclear wastes.
If you choose the "friendly" approach, certain sea creatures may become less hostile and perhaps even helpful...at the expense of not having certain technology available. So, you have to find alternative methods to accomplish your goals, such as enlisting the help of the sea creatures.
If you choose the "brute" approach, you will get certain upgrades that are not otherwise available, making certain tasks easier...at the expense of being considered more hostile by some sea life.
Hopefully, the line between these can be more subtle...not some black/white choice that, once made, cannot be reversed. So, many missions would have two or more possible solutions. (Perhaps even to the point that making the "friendly" choice in one situation turns out to be bad for another situation (e.g. it helps one species but hurts another).
Instead of "giant monster chases you, attacks you, etc (not that there's anything wrong with that), how about:
You're quietly prowling the depths at night, seeing only what your floodlights show you, when you notice you've been hearing singing. It's wordless, but it's very faint singing. As you cruise along, you begin to hear whispering. The rest of your crew starts to look as perplexed as you are. Suddenly, the shadows deepen. The whispering increases in volume until you can almost make out words. You reduce your speed, not sure what you're about to run into.
Then you see it. The tree line from the kelp forest. You've been in the kelp forests before, but always during the day when you were gathering samples and materials from the bioluminescent "fruit" that hangs in clusters near the bottom branches. You slow to a stop just before you blunder into the nearest tree. The current your vessel created washes over the almost completely dark tree.
Your lights flicker, then cut out as you notice a small cluster of faint lights ahead. The fruit have begun to glow. Then the glow spreads to the nearest tree. Like a nova the glow spreads to the trees around it. The bright yellow glow of the day has changed to a ghostly pale blue at night. As you slowly drift between the trees, your lights falling to turn on for some reason, suddenly one of the glowing clusters winks out, then back on.
Something very large just swam by, obscuring the lights for a moment. You remember being terrified of the shadowy creature that swam in the deep shadows when you were collecting samples last time.
Is it afraid of the light? Will it attack? Will it destroy the fruit, stranding you in this almost absolute darkness and maddening, endless whispering? Or did you really see it at all? How long have you REALLY been in the kelp forest?
true enough , but so far they have said that the crafting mechanics will be light and there will be no combat or weapons. Just non lethals ways of protecting yourself. They also said the game will also either be light or none at all in the way of quests or npc's and the game is singleplayer.
It sounds to me like it's more of a virtual simulated explorable ocean than an actual game.
However, like you said, maybe things will evolve and more information will come out and there will be gameplay mechanics announced that will make it sound more like a game.
edit: Just saw this quote
Metroid you say?
EXCITEMENT LEVELS OVERLOADING!!!!!!!!!!
On a more serious note, making this game that good would be very challenging. Then again, you did say super metroid not metroid prime so maybe it wont be that hard.
So, there wont be violence. What kind of action should we expect? Also, would you think that this game would be considered casual?
Also how are you feeling about mod support, in comparison to NS2?