Open ocean biome
sayerulz
oregon Join Date: 2015-04-15 Member: 203493Members
oregon Join Date: 2015-04-15 Member: 203493Members
So, looking through the various concept art, I found this image that I though was quite interesting:
Now, the first thing to draw my attention was the submarine, which is clearly the focus of the picture. And I must say, that with concept art like this, I am a dissapointed in the look of the cyclops, but perhaps something more like this will be added in the future. Anyway, what I next noticed was the background: open water, filled with various fish. An I thought: why don't we have areas like this in the game? While there is a fair bit of open water above deeper biomes, it is totally empty, with all the fish living near the bottom. I feel like this ought to change, with more content suspended in open water. So I was thinking that an open ocean biome would be a great addition to the game. My thinking would be that it would be a large, deep area of open water, but not an empty one. There would be large schools of fish, like in the concept art, and also some larger swimming creatures. The schools of fish could be an ideal source of food, especially if you could get some sort of net, maby with some creature like a stalker trained to chase them into it (this is actually done with dolphins, they chase fish into nets, and they get some as a reward). This would also be a natural home for various large creatures that are planned, like the crabsquid. Reefbacks (with actual reefs on their backs) would fit in well here, but it seems to me that, as big as they are, the ones in the game are a bit small to be their own ecosystems. So I thought: what if the biomes where they are currently found are actually where small ones stay until they are large enough to be safe from some predator found in deeper waters, and the reason they currently lack reefs are because they are not yet mature. So in this open ocean biome, you could find far larger ones with actual reefs on their backs. As one goes deeper in this biome, life forms could get stranger and stranger, until you finally reach the bottom. And who knows what could be there! So please tell me what you think of this idea, I want feedback, hopefully positive, but if you have constructive critisism, I welcome that as well.
Now, the first thing to draw my attention was the submarine, which is clearly the focus of the picture. And I must say, that with concept art like this, I am a dissapointed in the look of the cyclops, but perhaps something more like this will be added in the future. Anyway, what I next noticed was the background: open water, filled with various fish. An I thought: why don't we have areas like this in the game? While there is a fair bit of open water above deeper biomes, it is totally empty, with all the fish living near the bottom. I feel like this ought to change, with more content suspended in open water. So I was thinking that an open ocean biome would be a great addition to the game. My thinking would be that it would be a large, deep area of open water, but not an empty one. There would be large schools of fish, like in the concept art, and also some larger swimming creatures. The schools of fish could be an ideal source of food, especially if you could get some sort of net, maby with some creature like a stalker trained to chase them into it (this is actually done with dolphins, they chase fish into nets, and they get some as a reward). This would also be a natural home for various large creatures that are planned, like the crabsquid. Reefbacks (with actual reefs on their backs) would fit in well here, but it seems to me that, as big as they are, the ones in the game are a bit small to be their own ecosystems. So I thought: what if the biomes where they are currently found are actually where small ones stay until they are large enough to be safe from some predator found in deeper waters, and the reason they currently lack reefs are because they are not yet mature. So in this open ocean biome, you could find far larger ones with actual reefs on their backs. As one goes deeper in this biome, life forms could get stranger and stranger, until you finally reach the bottom. And who knows what could be there! So please tell me what you think of this idea, I want feedback, hopefully positive, but if you have constructive critisism, I welcome that as well.
Comments
Also. that sub looks BA and I want one
One would assume that the size of this place is maybe 300m deep or 500m if that's not deep enough, then once you go into the deeper parts of this biome like say 1000m deep, that is where you'll find the sea emporer.
a side note how about some alien turtles that swim in one big line, like how the turtles did in nemo.
@sayerulz Reefbacks are more likely based on whales (! reefback vs. humpback !). And I don't think building bases on those would work...
I agree with having open water fish schools, but they shouldn't be everywhere. I mean, the deep ocean areas should be mostly empty, with ocassiaonal fish / school here and there. Reefbacks should remain in semi-deep areas, and in deep sea you could find this one:
This is also official concept art.
Those Ω-shaped fish could be open water species.
Want to escape danger? Just go to the surface. Want to avoid a dangerous species? Just go above and over it. It's so boring.
I must have it.
Will exchange one gently-used Cyclops and Seamoth in trade. Don't make me beg.
I don't have one gently-used cyclops but rather 12 completely obliterated ones and 2 severely damaged. Can I at least get a discount if I trade those in?
Yeah actually that would be pretty cool.
Still, its very cool.
That magnificent beast also needs a suitably magnificent name to identify its class. I dub thee 'Skidbladnir'.
DAT FISH! I would soil myself if I encountered that fella in the deep, open ocean. Might even cause serious damage to a sub on collision. Creatures like that (whales?) tend to just FEED (plankton and stuff?) with their mouth open while diving as well. A fearful thought.
No. This game should, and probably will, be relatively realistic. I mean, for a video game. Vast emptyness in some places increases the feeling of solitude, which would just add to the game's atmosphere.
#1 - Originally we wanted to have multiple sub sizes - small, medium, and large. The sub in that concept is obviously of the large variety, and we chose to start with a sub of medium size, as the default, because it seemed the most versatile and least risky (we still aren't even sure how a giant sub like the one in this post would even fit into the world)
#2 - We wanted to get away from the typical combat focused first person shooter experience. It was important to us that the subs and technology looked more scientific and multi purpose, rather then militaristic. The shark looking sub design is super cool, but it is also a very aggressive looking design, and something that looks like it would be firing off torpedoes.
While we do think that it can work as a later game sub, we didn't feel it was as appropriate as the current Cyclops for the default player built sub. But if we do decide to add another new submarine to the game, we will very likely go back to this design.
Regarding the open ocean areas, we agree that they can get pretty empty right now. We are doing more, and have plans to do more, to fill some of the emptiness up, such as adding submerged floating islands to break up the vertical space. And we do want to add more creatures, but it is not an easy task to fill up the open ocean areas in the whole world.