Ultimate list of suggestions.
SalmonJEDl
Finland Join Date: 2015-05-14 Member: 204465Members
Finland Join Date: 2015-05-14 Member: 204465Members
I've played the game for a while now, and I totally enjoy it. There's SO much potential in the concept. So, here's some ideas for future updates. If something is impossible / already worked on / a cool idea / anything else, please comment. Leave your own suggestions if you want. I'll continue listing things on the comment section, since the main list would otherwise become too long for single post. 
General stuff
New sub
I found this piece of concept art of a sub. Here's some ideas for that as a new vehicle:
Overall sub upgrades
Sea monster cemetery
Bots
Recycler
Refiner
Colouring machine
Furniture
Sedatives
Traps
Pets
Rewards for beating huge hostile creatures
Back slot
Creature remains
Air pockets
Resources
Shipwrecks
Fish species
Radio
Islands
I know, the floater island is still hugely incomplete, but I'll tell my thoughts about current version I'm playing in (stable build 17663 Apr-15).
Ancient civilization
Dart gun
Full concept with sketches here (not my original idea).
Only if multiplayer will come to the game
You are the only survivor of the crash, so other people getting to the planet needs some story to back it up. Suggestion:
The translation system
It seems to me that you (UWE) are in charge of the translation system. Here's some feedback on it.
I really like the idea of community based translations, but some features/fixes are needed:
More lists
If you're interested in reading more long suggestion lists, check these out. These are not mine in any way. I'll put these here just for easier access.
General stuff
- I think it's still a little bit too easy to craft every single item in the game. Sure, it might take some time to figure out how to get some materials, but after that you can just obtain anything in a few minutes.
- I really like the idea of DNA injections, but it shouldn't make big physical changes. Gaining special abilities for short time is cool, but something like size changes can break the game in my opinion. Especially if you can do it to yourself. If the physical change is kinda small, then I'm OK with it. This is just my opinion.
- Additional fragments could unlock some upgrades. Also seamoth fragments are way too common.
- Some explorable story elements would be nice. You could find aout something about the planets history and maybe about the strange force that made the Aurora crash. Completely optional feature with some non-exclusive rewards. The biggest reward should still be the story.
- Currently there isn't much you can do with extra materials. I mean, collecting loads of stuff isn't really that usefull. I think some kind of need for maintenance and repairs for existing tech might work. For example repairing seamoth could take some titanium. Also some consumable items could be cool.
- Lighting changes too suddenly when entering caves. Also dark caves look well lit from outside.
- Weather effects. Probably one of the most suggested features, but I'll still add it here.
- Storms and rain. Some species are attracted to the surface by the rain, some others fear storms and go hiding. Less flying creatures when it's stormy.
- Snowing and hail in the arctic areas. Aurora borealis as a rare encounter.
- The planet is completely habitable for human beings, so weather mechanics shouldn't be too different from Earthly ones. But there could be some unknows phenomena.
- Weather should be clear most of the time. Not too many catastrophical events, since the planet seems pretty stable.
- This isn't really weather effect, but there could be a meteor crash. It could be a single time event like the exploding Aurora.
New sub
I found this piece of concept art of a sub. Here's some ideas for that as a new vehicle:
- It would be bigger than cyclops, of course, but not too massive. Like ~1,5x of cyclops. You can't dock a cyclops in it.
- There are couple round thingies on the side of the sub. They could be hatches for smaller vehicles. There would be total of 4 of them, 2 on both sides. Things you could dock into them would be:
- Seamoth
- Exosuit
- The lifepod (could be actually used as an escape method)
- Something else. Maybe some builder/defencive/repairing bots, that you would need to construct separately from different blueprints.
- The blueprint for it would be a reward from other parts of the Aurora.
- This would use massive amounts of energy, but you could add solar panels and other types of power generation systems to it. They would slowly recharge the thing, but not fast enough for continuous travelling. Also, there could be separate power systems for movement and machinery (latter meaning fabricators n stuff).
- It would include a small lounge/living room area. You could add some furniture and maybe a fridge in there.
- You would need lots of rare materials to build it. It would be kind of end-game vehicle. I don't think we need vehicles more powerfull than this.
Overall sub upgrades
- Ability to leave from the top.
- Creature radar.
- Ability to draw a map on the sub interface. Automatic sonar mapping of the area you are exploring. You would need to make some kind of upgrades to the ship before mapping is enabled.
- 3D mapping would be either available from the beginning, or you could upgrade to it.
- Headlights. You could turn them on/off manually. The direction of the light could be changed by operating a specific interface while the sub is stationary.
- Tiny trunk on the seamoth.
Sea monster cemetery
- A new deep sea area filled with huge skeletons of marine animals.
- Possibly a graveyard for sea emperors. The actual sea emperor could reside close to this place, but maybe not exactly there.
- The skeletons could also belong to an extinct animal.
- The area would be the best place to get diamonds. Don't make them too common, though...
- (If you want to add 'fossil fuels', this would be ideal place for harvesting those. I don't like the idea that much myself.)
Bots
- Small bots for specific tasks, similar to constructor's bots.
- Would come in different varieties like defence, repair and medical. But not offensive.
- Would need collectable blueprints to build. Can be 'docked' into a sub.
- Sea monsters can destroy them.
- Would need some maintenance every now and then. That way there's more reasons to collect lots of raw materials.
Recycler
- Breaks items into raw materials with slight loss.
- Completely broken vehicles would turn into harvestable wreckage, that could be recycled.
- Fragments could also be recycled. The recycler blueprint would be obtainable from fragments too, so people who don't understand fragment mechanics won't accidentally recycle most of their fragments. :P
Refiner
- For extracting substances from creatures and/or filter sea water for salt and drinkable water.
- Mid to late game machine for seabase. Possibly not for submarines.
- Could produce dyes. This feature could be included in colouring machine (below).
- This whole machine could also be part of recycler (above).
- (If fossil fuels will be included, this would refine them.)
Colouring machine
- Put in a dead creature, plant or dye and another item to recoulor it. Would work only on specific smaller items.
- If dead creatures are accepted, then there's no need for 'dye' -item. Otherwise the machine or refiner (above) could produce dyes.
- Possible product: coloured fabrics. Used to make neat furniture.
- Some creature could be attracted by a specific colour. Coloured objects would then work as trap baits. Otherwise the effect would be purely cosmetic.
Furniture
- Mostly cosmetic objects.
- Would need bigger base / sub rooms for this.
- A bed for passing time. There could also be fatique mechanics, but I'm not sure if that'll be a good idea.
- Refridgerator and/or freezer for preserving food. They would consume little power constantly. Should include on/off switch.
Sedatives
- For defence and easy DNA collection.
- Sedative/anaesthetic gun or propulsion cannon 'ammo'.
- Bigger creatures require more bullets to cause any effect.
- Giant creatures like the future sea emperor would just become more sluggish.
Traps
- T-shaped floating trap with fish as bait to lure flying creatures. Would produce food and maybe some special scales (alien feathers).
- Other traps for fishing smaller edible fish.
- Some 'traps' could be used to lure away dangerous creatures (reaper), but they wouldn't do damage.
- Predators might attack and destroy traps with a bait they like. For example stalkers vs bird snare with a peeper.
Pets
- A pet home module for bases. A pet will always follow you if not in the module.
- Pets will become wild again if you flee too far away from it, except if they are in the pet home.
- Hatch an egg or tame animals (one or both).
- 'Cute fish' from concept art should be and easily tameable pet.
- Predators can attack your pets. Even tamed ones.
- Creatures any bigger than stalker aren't tameable, but maybe you could make (some of) them friendly/passive for a while.
Rewards for beating huge hostile creatures
- Collect raw materials from animal bodies.
- 'Beating' doesn't necessarily mean 'killing'. Using sedatives works too. However, just using stasis rifle isn't enough.
- Maybe you could use creature remains to make decoration / furniture? Like skin rugs and mounted heads.
Back slot
- You could wear items on your back.
- Backbags. More inventory space, less speed. Different sizes.
- Some protection items could use back slot.
- Jet pack for quick ascending and/or floater island exploration. Or maybe for catching birds? It shouldn't affect normal swimming speed.
- Could also be used only for air tanks.
Creature remains
- Apart from sea monster cemetery (above) the world could include some creature remains in random locations.
- Might be harvestable, or just a cool lookin feature.
- More likely to be found on deep ocean floor.
Air pockets
- Pockets of breathable air inside caves.
- New brain coral area / biome.
- Either huge purple brain corals or many smaller ones produce a huge air pocket in an underwater cave.
- Lots of bioluminescent plants.
Resources
- Some plants could grow back after harvesting.
- Acid mushrooms will grow back spontaneously through their mycelium
- Creepvines drop their seeds (the glowing things?).
- Harvestable plants on floater island grow back.
- Minibiome with regrowing plants on reefbacks' backs (I think devs might be working on this already).
- Farming system:
- Greenhouse module for farming inland species
- Water species could be planted anywhere with proper growing conditions.
- Seeds and transplanting with 'flower pots'.
- Fish spawning
- Some or all of the fish species could use a breeding system.
- Fish breeding grounds: rich of a specific fish and plants they eat.
- Fish tank base module for breeding and decoration.
- Power
- Solar panels.
- Wave generators and turbines when/if currents are implemented.
- Small version of dark matter reactor or some other modern tech from Aurora. Needs research, fragments, etc. End-game content, only for the biggest vehicles.
Shipwrecks
- Crashed spaceships on ocean floor.
- Ships of humankind from previous space travelers.
- Alien ships.
- (No survivors from other ships. Keeps the feeling of being 'stranded'.)
Fish species
- Wandering fish
- Fish species that change their location ocassionally.
- Live in pods.
- They will stay in one place a specific time (1 in-game week?) before traveling elsewhere.
- They will be a random encounter, kinda like roaming pokemon in pkmn games
. - They could be a good food source or become rare pets. Or both.
- Playfull species
- Medium-sized fairly intelligent species. Dolphins of this world.
- Live in small-medium pods.
- Would be friendly and playfull. Spending a while with them would make them approach you. They could help you get back to surface in some conditions.
- Tameable with fish, similar to stalkers.
- Mechanics for curiosity. Attacking would make them flee.
- Able to use simple tools.
- They could have their own simple language. Transfuser would make it understandable.
- Play ball / fetch.
Radio
- You could recieve transmissions from alien species and/or from Earth.
- Building a proper transmitter and getting contact to rest of humanity could be one of late-game goals.
- There could be ancient alien civilization buried somewhere. You could use the radio to track weak radio signal of alien tech to locate the place.
- The machine could be able to play some music from hard drives found in the Aurora. You could build a small radio station and listen to your music broadcasts in your subs.
- You could hear some old (WWII?) transmissions from Earth. This would be possible with warping technology, so Aurora got to the planet before the old signal.
- Got some ideas for this from here.
Islands
I know, the floater island is still hugely incomplete, but I'll tell my thoughts about current version I'm playing in (stable build 17663 Apr-15).
- There's currently no area on the island, that the jungle sounds fit in. There should be lots of huge plants and stuff.
- Sound files change way too suddenly, and they are often too loud compared to other sounds and music.
- The island is too small. Also it would be nice to have total of ~3 islands in the game. More than that would need a way bigger overall map (which hopefully happens too).
- Add couple more plants and some size variation.
- The island could work as a resting spot for flying animals. You could catch them using stasis rifle.
Ancient civilization
- There existed a intelligent life form on the planet, but they died after huge floodings, possible caused by ice meteoroids and melting arctic areas.
- Radio-tracking their old cities.
- New technology, maybe some bio-engineering.
- My post under another thread:
There exists some coral buildings in the current game too, near the floater island, but I'm pretty sure their looks will change a lot later on.
But here's my next idea:
I've been thinking that floaters as a creature doesn't make a lot of sense. I mean, they are really helpless and stick to every dang thing they touch. So maybe the ancient civilization knew some basics of bio-engineering, and floater's were their creation. They noticed the rise in sea level and decided to create giant floating organisms to float some landmass they could live on. These kinds of flooding catastrophies don't happen in an instant, so maybe they thought that they had enough time. They managed to complete the creature, but didn't have enough time to make island float.
However, the experiment was a success, and after the flood some floaters spread all over the world. Some of the late specimen actually managed to grow to their full intended size, and thus the current floater island was born. That would also explain why the ruins are really near to the island. There could be a future update that increases the amount of floater islands, and maybe adds some carcassess of the alien intelligent lifeforms.
Also one of the end-game goals could be to find a nearly mature floaters under a cave system, and using some growth-boosting technolofy you could make them fully grown. The landmass above them would float to the ocean surface, creating a new floater island.
Dart gun
Full concept with sketches here (not my original idea).
- Small pistol capable of shooting multiple types of ammo.
- Tracking dart:
- A projectile, that sticks to animals.
- Trackable using the gun and / or submarine radar.
- Darts are crafted separately.
- Not permanent. The dart will stop working after specific time. Possibly multiple types of darts with different working durations.
- Darts for hunting tiny fish and flying creatures. These wouldn't really hurt bigger animals, but they would stop attacking.
- Anaesthetic darts.
- Spike plant spikes as ammo.
Only if multiplayer will come to the game
You are the only survivor of the crash, so other people getting to the planet needs some story to back it up. Suggestion:
- You find (and reapair?) communication equipment in Aurora. After getting contact with other people, you would need to construct a landing site for smaller space shuttle.
- People have now the possibility to come to the planet. The reason for newcomers coming would be to continue the terraforming mission of Aurora.
The translation system
It seems to me that you (UWE) are in charge of the translation system. Here's some feedback on it.
I really like the idea of community based translations, but some features/fixes are needed:
- You should be able to change your votes on translation suggestions. Also you should be able to see, if you have voted already or not.
- You should be able to correct spelling mistakes on suggestions.
- There should be a way to add a comment on a translation suggestion AND the general 'language thread'. There are lots of complications on translating, especially when it comes to equipment naming.
- Build-in feedback system would be nice.
More lists
If you're interested in reading more long suggestion lists, check these out. These are not mine in any way. I'll put these here just for easier access.
- Story, Progression, Ecology and more by conscioussoul
- The things I feel could be useful, but not necessarily needed. by Kodasa
- My lengthy list of suggestions by Caaros
- Clever ideas and uses for various monsters already in game. by Prince_Erebus
- Mega Suggestions by Tommity
- Serious suggestions from a new player by Kaia
- Creature Ideas by .SuBB
- General ideas as well as multiplayer as a game mode by reaperLeviathenfood
- My ideas for future Subnautica updates (Extremely Long!) by TheIdeaCreator
- Ideas for better future by DracoLeeRose
Comments
I love the DNA idea. It has so much potential. Can be used to better understand a life form, its weakness and countermesures, draw its advantage and inject it in others, in you etc. I think it's just a question of game balance to make sure you aren't so powerful that the game becomes boring, unless it's in the endgame or to prepare you for your final challenge. Small but cumulative, permanent upgrades would be perfect - they add up and allow you to become real powerful, but only over time and a lot of work to find enough samples for the right combinations.
Agreed. Maybe each fragment allows a random % of research, from 5 to 25%. You would need to collect more fragment to reach 100% ?
Yes! See my huge thread here about this: http://forums.unknownworlds.com/discussion/137670/story-progression-ecology-and-more
Yeah I hope they fix that.
Both of which could come from a sonar tech.
Really cool. +1
I absolutely LOVE this idea.
Fantastic potential. Especially to recover DNA!
And if DNA can be used at some point to help regrow the ecology, it could be a way to create new biomes previously extinct :-)
That would be quite a sight... and a motivation to do all the research and work to get there and see this part of the planet revived.
I especially like the idea of having something to do with all the extra fragment you can't use.
Also, a way to recycle dead, decomposing fish improper for consumption, now that fish decays.
It would make so much more sens to put your air tanks there!
And if terraforming allows us to grow plants and lifeforms (see my post on ecology) then this would allow us to create breathable air areas
Yes! See my big post on ecology and sentient life, and let me know what you think.
Thanks! Feel free to drop some feedback / more suggestions on this thread too, if you want. The more the merrier. I'm using and improving on ideas from others, too, so expect seeing references to your list too.
Black boxes
Dive reel is kinda useless now, and you can only use it while diving out of sub. Now if you could attach the reel to your Seamoth temporarily, then it would be truly useful when making a longer expedition to a mazelike cave. Something like this: attach anchor in a terrain piece -> attach reel to Seamoth -> drive around with a thread in your butt -> happily find your way back.
Also, the length of the reel should be an issue, and you should have the means to make a longer reel, maybe one that is a specifically suited addition to the Seamoth.
EDIT: Oh wait you can actually do this already by anchoring and then entering the Seamoth. The reel acts pretty weird though, cutting through terrain and such
I haven't written any specific ideas about fragment upgrades here yet... Maybe later.
Especially the solar panels.
The Solar Panels could only produce power in shallow water. Beneath a certain depth you would
have to use conventional Power Cells with would get used up fast.
I would also enjoy more limitations to the oxygen carried by Subs (and bases?).
Its fine if big Submarines have practically unlimited oxygen but the seamoth should not
(in my opinion). Maybe let the seamoth have 10 minutes worth of oxygen (refilled at surface)
Or as an alternative make everything that provides oxygen(subs and bases) consume energy
all the time you're inside it (like they had onboard oxygen generators)
"Pockets of breathable air inside caves."
On a side note, such air pockets are usually poisonous.
But i like the idea of corals producing air
"Minibiome with regrowing plants on reefbacks' backs"
Amazing idea. Maybe very rare and useful plants.
Freezer
Multi-part constructing
Huge machines and base modules, which are build from separate pieces. You need to analyze multiple fragments to unlock the whole thing.
Warp pad
Creature size and colour variation
- Baby version of (almost) all creatures. Parents of some species protect the young aggressively, others leave them be.
- There could also be little size variation in adult animals.
- Some animals have colour variation, depending on the biome they live in.
- You could have a research tab on your PDA, which records name, type, behaviour, physical variations and average features of species. You could collect more information by doing DNA research.
- Cross-breeding in an aquarium to produce new kinds of color variations.
Trains- natural disasters like storms happening and having an effect
- Torpedoes. I WANT THEM. GIB!!!!
New base parts and furniture would be nice, those white tubes get pretty dull and empty.
Big, medium and small creatures. See through, bioluminescent and pointy?
More biomes
Maybe a high/low frequency noisemaker to scare off the spoopy enemies
Devs have said that if multi is ever implemented, it'll be after everything else in the game is done. Personally I don't care so much about it, I'm fine with just single player.
I haven't seen any furniture concepts, but bigger rooms and glass tubes are being developed.
Creatures: sea treader, sea emperor, crabsquid
Biomes: twisty bridges, floating island area
I'd like too see some kind of creature repelling tech you could put in your base. But I think it shouldn't work while swimming.
@Doodledibob No torpedoes. I really hope straight weapons won't make it into the game. But occasional natural disasters could be cool.