I'd like to see a similar amount of borderless immersion Star Citizen is going to feature. In that game, there are not loading screens; you can go uninterrupted wherever you like.
There is a vid that shows a guys walking from a bengal carrier bridge into it's (huge) hangar. He then enters his Hornet star fighter, and flies into outer space. From there he can see inside the bridge, all the characters in there etc. He changed the environment at least twice, and you can't see any loading.
Now, of course subnautica won't be as large-scale as star citizen, but a seamless transition between interior and exterior and different areas like this could really add to the immersion (ha).
I'd like to see a similar amount of borderless immersion Star Citizen is going to feature. In that game, there are not loading screens; you can go uninterrupted wherever you like.
There is a vid that shows a guys walking from a bengal carrier bridge into it's (huge) hangar. He then enters his Hornet star fighter, and flies into outer space. From there he can see inside the bridge, all the characters in there etc. He changed the environment at least twice, and you can't see any loading.
Now, of course subnautica won't be as large-scale as star citizen, but a seamless transition between interior and exterior and different areas like this could really add to the immersion (ha).
I've never heard of star citizen, so I looked into it... and was impressed at first. However, then I researched more into it and realized that there doesn't seem to be much information in regards to whether everything will be a seamless transition. I found that there will be instancing, but whether that instancing will require a load screen or not isn't clear.
I'd like to see a similar amount of borderless immersion Star Citizen is going to feature. In that game, there are not loading screens; you can go uninterrupted wherever you like.
There is a vid that shows a guys walking from a bengal carrier bridge into it's (huge) hangar. He then enters his Hornet star fighter, and flies into outer space. From there he can see inside the bridge, all the characters in there etc. He changed the environment at least twice, and you can't see any loading.
Now, of course subnautica won't be as large-scale as star citizen, but a seamless transition between interior and exterior and different areas like this could really add to the immersion (ha).
I've never heard of star citizen, so I looked into it... and was impressed at first. However, then I researched more into it and realized that there doesn't seem to be much information in regards to whether everything will be a seamless transition. I found that there will be instancing, but whether that instancing will require a load screen or not isn't clear.
There was this one video that I can't find... the seamlessness was impressive.
Star Citizen doesn't seem to be as filled with features as I would've thought though I really haven't looked int it all that much... And why can't subnautica be as big as SC? Just wondering really
Star Citizen doesn't seem to be as filled with features as I would've thought though I really haven't looked int it all that much... And why can't subnautica be as big as SC? Just wondering really
Well for one thing, to date Star Citizen has raised around 40 million dollars or more so far, for development, and they have a much larger team size then us. They also have a much longer development cycle for it then we are planning to have.
So, yes, SN is being developed in much less time for a teeney tiney fraction of the SC budget, therefore it is pretty unlikely we will be able to compete with them on scope and amount of features. But luckily we aren't trying to compete with them
Star Citizen doesn't seem to be as filled with features as I would've thought though I really haven't looked int it all that much... And why can't subnautica be as big as SC? Just wondering really
Well for one thing, to date Star Citizen has raised around 40 million dollars or more so far, for development, and they have a much larger team size then us. They also have a much longer development cycle for it then we are planning to have.
So, yes, SN is being developed in much less time for a teeney tiney fraction of the SC budget, therefore it is pretty unlikely we will be able to compete with them on scope and amount of features. But luckily we aren't trying to compete with them
Well, you'll just have to work so much harder then!
I must say that from the hints given by the developers, I like where this is going. Different, preferably highly, customizable submarines and scientific equipment with various purposes. Hopefully there will also be added a co-op option soon, as it's so much more fun to float around seeing new things together with friends. But as of now, my biggest wish is that you aren't afraid to make the gameplay, particularly the movement and detection, as slow and limited as a watery environment would require.
The skill required to precision navigate your vessel through a huge underwater river passing a big reef could be a fun challenge in itself, with all the inertia of your vessel getting subject to the turbulent waters pressing against it. With co-op you could even arrange races, which might be fun to see and could add a competitive aspect to the game, for those who desire such. As for limited detection, I know many gamers are used to and want clear vision with good lighting and long drawing range. The key point here I believe, is to have it not feel like something that are just there, but is part of gameplay. Different sensors, such as sonar, electromagnetical and even some sort of phermones could add tension and fun to your experience. That huge object you have gradually seen growing larger on your sonar, what is it? Just another cliff, maybe a coral reef, or an undiscovered lifeform? Picking up a trail of phermones in the underwater flow from a creature you previously found to be aggressive and attacked, and damaged your vessel, and realise that this seem to be from many creatures... And they are comming closer! Think of the pinging in the Alien games...
Unseen threats, especially if you've glimpsed them before and know their danger, can set your heart pumping even if you never see them again. Just the faint blur on the sonar passing by as you try to keep your submarine hidden in a reef, limiting your engines to not make your sound betray your location from that thing that just want to crush you.
I say, do a set piece of a sunken TSF spaceship or space station. Make it a big enough chunk to do some exploring inside and put the remains of Kharaa infestation in the wreckage. Bonus points if you recreate part of an iconic NS map to be the interior. It would be a nice nod to anyone who played NS while still offering something interesting for those that have absolutely no awareness of the reference.
moultanoCreator of ns_shiva.Join Date: 2002-12-14Member: 10806Members, NS1 Playtester, Contributor, Constellation, NS2 Playtester, Squad Five Blue, Reinforced - Shadow, WC 2013 - Gold, NS2 Community Developer, Pistachionauts
I want to dive deep to where the sunlight has long since disappeared and my surroundings are only lit by the spotlights in the front of my vessel. I want to reach the bottom and be slightly dissapointed that there is only bare rock. Then on a hunch, I turn off my spotlights, and gradually thousands of bioluminescent creature emerge from hiding and light up the ocean for miles around.
I found this game due to a discussion of fears with a friend and they recalled something matching what I was talking about. What I was looking for and hope the game can deliver is the sense of scale and distance of how the ocean can just be a blur of blue and you see nothing around you, not knowing whats behind, below, above, whatever. Your mind going wild with speculation and you see just a glimpse of maybe something out there, maybe it moves closer but you never get the whole picture, maybe it moves further and the little you saw is gone and you never know just what it was, both making you curious and worried as to what it may be, what it may want, what it may do and how small you are and vulnerable in this alien world. If they touch on this fear just enough it would be great.
I say, do a set piece of a sunken TSF spaceship or space station. Make it a big enough chunk to do some exploring inside and put the remains of Kharaa infestation in the wreckage. Bonus points if you recreate part of an iconic NS map to be the interior. It would be a nice nod to anyone who played NS while still offering something interesting for those that have absolutely no awareness of the reference.
Maybe.. descent? One could say, descent, descended.
The planet could be the one you see outside of observation. (the skybox)
I would like to se[img][/img]e a dark place as the deep ocean already existing where several species of animals undiscovered there, there was quite exciting to explore deep zones in the game. Where there are different animals and completely creepy. The sound could be could be deep and fear estam me to understand.
ZavaroTucson, ArizonaJoin Date: 2005-02-14Member: 41174Members, Super Administrators, NS2 Playtester, Squad Five Blue, Squad Five Silver, NS2 Map Tester, Reinforced - Shadow, WC 2013 - Silver, Subnautica Playtester, NS2 Community Developer, Pistachionauts
edited January 2014
A much less gameplay oriented post. I think a lot of inspiration can be taken from Cambrian beasts in all their.. unsettling beauty.
The things I see at work fit into that framework pretty well, taking on truly unique alien forms.
My boss' favorite of all of our fossils is the number of crinoids we have. Crinoids fossilize as a long stalk and a facehugger-like flower, complete with the ability to articulate and use each 'petal' like fingers on a hand.
One of my favorites, besides the trilobites ranging from fist to cuticle size is sharks. Permian sharks have spines. This exact specimen is one that I have worked with. It even has remnant skin and flesh visible! The purpose of that spine, the yellow spike before the dorsal fin, is a mystery to science. It's possible that it might be a defense mechanism, packed with venom.. or just some vestigial trait.
In addition, there's anomalocaris. Creepy looking insectoid squid thing. I'll let the video do the talking.
I say, do a set piece of a sunken TSF spaceship or space station. Make it a big enough chunk to do some exploring inside and put the remains of Kharaa infestation in the wreckage. Bonus points if you recreate part of an iconic NS map to be the interior. It would be a nice nod to anyone who played NS while still offering something interesting for those that have absolutely no awareness of the reference.
Why not do Altair? Altair was an underwater base that was infested with the Kharaa. Best NS1 map in my opinion.
InsaneAnomalyJoin Date: 2002-05-13Member: 605Members, Super Administrators, Forum Admins, NS1 Playtester, Forum Moderators, NS2 Developer, Constellation, NS2 Playtester, Squad Five Blue, NS2 Map Tester, Subnautica Developer, Pistachionauts, Future Perfect Developer
edited January 2014
Okay! (Assuming I remember this correctly.)
The effect is called Sonoluminescence. Like a lot of those "Awesome Facts!" lists, they've oversimplified things a little; there's a relatively decent rough explanation for how it works, and a set of reasonable hypotheses for the details. The inertia of the surrounding water causes high temperature and pressure inside the bubble, ionising a portion of the noble gas in the air. Electrons from the ionised atoms collide with neutral atoms, emitting light. I think most of the uncertainty lies around exactly what kind of radiation mechanism produces the light.
There's another, completely different theory that suggests it's all caused by quantum vacuum radiation, but I'm not sure I buy that.
The cool thing is that in the lab you can stabilise the effect with a repeating sound wave, leading to a light regularly blinking on and off inside a liquid.
If a free electron collie with electron bound to an atom, that bound electron may become excited, if enough energy is present. This excited state isn't stable, an the following de-excitation will cause a release in energy, often as visual light. Electron collisions isn't the only means of exciting electrons, radiation an temperature both do the same. It is also worth noting that an ionized atom does not mean that it got no bound electrons, merely that at least one electron have left orbit. As such, even ionized atoms can produce light.
Something else I'd like to see is being able to affect the environment, as have been hinted to. What you do should have an effect on the area. It would be nice to see if you could tend to the sea, like an underwater gardener, planting an growing plants and fish that you collect and then redistribute them.
I've been pondering a bit lately on the concept of the game. Exploring certainly is a nice concept for the goal of the game, but how will you make it lengthy interesting? What is the -goal- of the exploration? Can you reach a state where you are "done" with the game, and want to start a new round and try something else rather then continue? What will be the continuous reason for exploration? Maybe your mission, because surely there is a reason your there, is to map out the ocean? Finding new lifeforms is nice, but you can't have infinite variations, I guess, so what would drive someone to keep playing lengthy periods of time? Perhaps the exploration is just a sidetrack from the main objective, to glide around underwater and "feel good" listening to ambiance and watching the environment. Having "mini-games" in the actual game might be something to keep people playing, perhaps the urge to manage to navigate a treacherous cavern with strong underwater rivers while not bumping into any walls? If the world is big enough and dynamic, with volcanic activities and quakes, you could reach a state there you could not explore everything, because before you have seen everything, something will have changed.
Freedom how you play the game, and hopefully the incentive to continue playing the same session for extended periods of time, is something I hope to see. For this, I think the navigation of the crafts are important. Make it accessible but really, really brutal to master, with the heavy moving medium and inertia combined with buoyancy of the craft all making it a complex procedure for precise navigation. Please don't make it feel like air/space navigation under water.
Its been awhile since I saw that nova episode, so please help me here, but that one deep sea crevice or something in the artic, right above canada... ringing any bells... I remember a show saying that area was highly separated from the rest of the ocean by being in the artic on top of being deep sea. I am sure some photos have been posted from there, but maybe that would be a good area to look for inspiration. I will google when I have more time.
I don't know why I didn't mention it at the time, but I absolutely adore this. It could even make sense from an evolutionary standpoint for it to be a predecessor of the gorge before it got the need for more speed in a land setting. I've had the fortune to meet a turtle while out snorkeling, and it's a truly remarkable experience. The grace and calm them move with... Just makes you feel great inside swimming along with it.
Not sure if this has been mentioned, but I'd like the player to have a few ways of lighting things up - I'd assume it's rather dark at the deepest depths.
Imagine you're surrounded by complete darkness, you can't see much beyond your own hands. You have a device that would go off like a small emp explosion - except instead of electricity it emits shockwaves of light around the player, letting you see whats around you for a certain period of time. That could look pretty damn cool.
Not sure if this has been mentioned, but I'd like the player to have a few ways of lighting things up - I'd assume it's rather dark at the deepest depths.
Imagine you're surrounded by complete darkness, you can't see much beyond your own hands. You have a device that would go off like a small emp explosion - except instead of electricity it emits shockwaves of light around the player, letting you see whats around you for a certain period of time. That could look pretty damn cool.
Comments
There is a vid that shows a guys walking from a bengal carrier bridge into it's (huge) hangar. He then enters his Hornet star fighter, and flies into outer space. From there he can see inside the bridge, all the characters in there etc. He changed the environment at least twice, and you can't see any loading.
Now, of course subnautica won't be as large-scale as star citizen, but a seamless transition between interior and exterior and different areas like this could really add to the immersion (ha).
I've never heard of star citizen, so I looked into it... and was impressed at first. However, then I researched more into it and realized that there doesn't seem to be much information in regards to whether everything will be a seamless transition. I found that there will be instancing, but whether that instancing will require a load screen or not isn't clear.
There was this one video that I can't find... the seamlessness was impressive.
So, yes, SN is being developed in much less time for a teeney tiney fraction of the SC budget, therefore it is pretty unlikely we will be able to compete with them on scope and amount of features. But luckily we aren't trying to compete with them
Well, you'll just have to work so much harder then!
I must say that from the hints given by the developers, I like where this is going. Different, preferably highly, customizable submarines and scientific equipment with various purposes. Hopefully there will also be added a co-op option soon, as it's so much more fun to float around seeing new things together with friends. But as of now, my biggest wish is that you aren't afraid to make the gameplay, particularly the movement and detection, as slow and limited as a watery environment would require.
The skill required to precision navigate your vessel through a huge underwater river passing a big reef could be a fun challenge in itself, with all the inertia of your vessel getting subject to the turbulent waters pressing against it. With co-op you could even arrange races, which might be fun to see and could add a competitive aspect to the game, for those who desire such. As for limited detection, I know many gamers are used to and want clear vision with good lighting and long drawing range. The key point here I believe, is to have it not feel like something that are just there, but is part of gameplay. Different sensors, such as sonar, electromagnetical and even some sort of phermones could add tension and fun to your experience. That huge object you have gradually seen growing larger on your sonar, what is it? Just another cliff, maybe a coral reef, or an undiscovered lifeform? Picking up a trail of phermones in the underwater flow from a creature you previously found to be aggressive and attacked, and damaged your vessel, and realise that this seem to be from many creatures... And they are comming closer! Think of the pinging in the Alien games...
Unseen threats, especially if you've glimpsed them before and know their danger, can set your heart pumping even if you never see them again. Just the faint blur on the sonar passing by as you try to keep your submarine hidden in a reef, limiting your engines to not make your sound betray your location from that thing that just want to crush you.
Maybe.. descent? One could say, descent, descended.
The planet could be the one you see outside of observation. (the skybox)
The things I see at work fit into that framework pretty well, taking on truly unique alien forms.
My boss' favorite of all of our fossils is the number of crinoids we have. Crinoids fossilize as a long stalk and a facehugger-like flower, complete with the ability to articulate and use each 'petal' like fingers on a hand.
Here is another, but very large image.
Until recently, scientists believed crinoids had gone extinct. This is not the case.
This here is a video of the 'living fossil.'
One of my favorites, besides the trilobites ranging from fist to cuticle size is sharks. Permian sharks have spines. This exact specimen is one that I have worked with. It even has remnant skin and flesh visible! The purpose of that spine, the yellow spike before the dorsal fin, is a mystery to science. It's possible that it might be a defense mechanism, packed with venom.. or just some vestigial trait.
In addition, there's anomalocaris. Creepy looking insectoid squid thing. I'll let the video do the talking.
On another note, let's talk about ocean fears.
What do you fear the most?
Why not do Altair? Altair was an underwater base that was infested with the Kharaa. Best NS1 map in my opinion.
Teach us science UWE!
The effect is called Sonoluminescence. Like a lot of those "Awesome Facts!" lists, they've oversimplified things a little; there's a relatively decent rough explanation for how it works, and a set of reasonable hypotheses for the details. The inertia of the surrounding water causes high temperature and pressure inside the bubble, ionising a portion of the noble gas in the air. Electrons from the ionised atoms collide with neutral atoms, emitting light. I think most of the uncertainty lies around exactly what kind of radiation mechanism produces the light.
There's another, completely different theory that suggests it's all caused by quantum vacuum radiation, but I'm not sure I buy that.
The cool thing is that in the lab you can stabilise the effect with a repeating sound wave, leading to a light regularly blinking on and off inside a liquid.
+1
Can read some basics about it here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Excited_state
I've been pondering a bit lately on the concept of the game. Exploring certainly is a nice concept for the goal of the game, but how will you make it lengthy interesting? What is the -goal- of the exploration? Can you reach a state where you are "done" with the game, and want to start a new round and try something else rather then continue? What will be the continuous reason for exploration? Maybe your mission, because surely there is a reason your there, is to map out the ocean? Finding new lifeforms is nice, but you can't have infinite variations, I guess, so what would drive someone to keep playing lengthy periods of time? Perhaps the exploration is just a sidetrack from the main objective, to glide around underwater and "feel good" listening to ambiance and watching the environment. Having "mini-games" in the actual game might be something to keep people playing, perhaps the urge to manage to navigate a treacherous cavern with strong underwater rivers while not bumping into any walls? If the world is big enough and dynamic, with volcanic activities and quakes, you could reach a state there you could not explore everything, because before you have seen everything, something will have changed.
Freedom how you play the game, and hopefully the incentive to continue playing the same session for extended periods of time, is something I hope to see. For this, I think the navigation of the crafts are important. Make it accessible but really, really brutal to master, with the heavy moving medium and inertia combined with buoyancy of the craft all making it a complex procedure for precise navigation. Please don't make it feel like air/space navigation under water.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vampire_squid
Pretty
http://imgur.com/a/xkfSv
I don't know why I didn't mention it at the time, but I absolutely adore this. It could even make sense from an evolutionary standpoint for it to be a predecessor of the gorge before it got the need for more speed in a land setting. I've had the fortune to meet a turtle while out snorkeling, and it's a truly remarkable experience. The grace and calm them move with... Just makes you feel great inside swimming along with it.
Imagine you're surrounded by complete darkness, you can't see much beyond your own hands. You have a device that would go off like a small emp explosion - except instead of electricity it emits shockwaves of light around the player, letting you see whats around you for a certain period of time. That could look pretty damn cool.
Like the flashlights in Apollo 18?