An idea for map. Let the player make a radar or trig position detector on top of the base and display the coordinates on a blank sheet of map. Then the player has to mark positions of interest.
On the one hand, I'd love a map. On the other, I have purposefully refused looking at the biome map because I know that having maps in video games makes the world seem a whole lot smaller.
One of the draws of Subnautica is mystery and discovery. The world seems vast without a map, without something to easily pinpoint where you are. Subnautica feels bigger to me than GTA 5, Witcher 3, etc... because in games like that you a) always know where you are on the world map and b) can often see vast swaths of the world at once.
I call it the Pokemon effect from back in the day. Those games felt huge, because you could only ever see a tiny portion of it at once. Same with Subnautica.
Tl;dr: A very limited, basic map would be great if they decide to implement it, but if they leave one out from a design perspective I think that is a very good choice as well.
Comments
One of the draws of Subnautica is mystery and discovery. The world seems vast without a map, without something to easily pinpoint where you are. Subnautica feels bigger to me than GTA 5, Witcher 3, etc... because in games like that you a) always know where you are on the world map and b) can often see vast swaths of the world at once.
I call it the Pokemon effect from back in the day. Those games felt huge, because you could only ever see a tiny portion of it at once. Same with Subnautica.
Tl;dr: A very limited, basic map would be great if they decide to implement it, but if they leave one out from a design perspective I think that is a very good choice as well.