Balance of Power (of Power!)
Leafedge
US Join Date: 2016-01-03 Member: 210839Members
US Join Date: 2016-01-03 Member: 210839Members
Hi, I've been enjoying the game greatly so far - taking a break so as not to burn myself out before release, but one thing I found a little silly and detrimental to the game was the sources of power for the player and their usability.
Solar power is essentially the preferred option in all cases. It is the first power source available to you in the game, so naturally it is the first you use. However, the added benefit of additional power sources doesn't really outstrip the benefit of just scouring for more quartz and titanium to install additional solar panels. The other sources are really just there for style. I still use them, but really only for the coolness factor, not because the game actually encourages it.
Solar and Thermal are the convenient options as you only need an initial investment and don't have to bother with feeding them additional resources. Thus, the game's design means that they are the options you will prefer in the long term. Bio is neat but by the time you encounter Fungi samples you will have already needed to solve your power issue. Nuclear I had the same issue with. It took forever to find and I'd long since solved my power problems. Solar is usable everywhere, available first, cheapest, and is in fact the only usable option for certain things - like nailing them to the top of the cyclops. It is the best of all worlds in every case. There should either be some issue of convenience or economy to their use. The only conceivable practical use to another source would be in super-deep water and even then you can just build a tower of vertical connectors so its still an option. Thus, my suggestions are as follows.
Solar: Should either store much less power or give much less power. In real life the downside to solar is that it doesn't work at night, but in Subnautica they just charge to full during the day and have more than enough stored to last you through the night. The cheap investment of around 4-8 of these will last you through pretty much the entire game - outside of running the Cyclops on them. So essentially my suggestion is to either have them store almost no power - 5 or so. That way you could get a fabrication per panel before they need to charge, which would still happen fairly quickly. This means they're great during the day but awful at night - like real solar panels. Alternatively, just adjust the scale or the power generation/consumption in the game to reflect the idea that solar is a base level tech. Meaning, vastly increase the numbers of later power sources and equipment to reflect the difficulty of running advanced equipment on base level tech. I am however more a fan of the first option. It is more interesting.
Bio: Should have a more convenient recipe. The existing one gives plenty of power but normally you will solve your power issues for the whole game before you encounter any fungi. A recipe that you can burn through quicker but can use early would be nice, such as one consisting of some combination of mushrooms/coral/kelp or perhaps some new flora. This would encourage you to seek better options so you don't have to keep feeding it, but still give it a place in the game. This way you could combine solar for daytime heavy use and Bio for limited use at night in the early game.
Thermal: Is actually fine. It is super-location dependent but otherwise useful.
Nuclear: I haven't really used nuclear power. Due to the extreme tech requirement and relative resource rarity I would hope it essentially solves your power issues for the game - at least at that location. I'd make uranium a little rarer though, so you can't just spam a dozen of these the second you find the tech. That would restrict it to a main base only kind use. Perhaps the Cyclops could in some way make use of this as well. A gigantic solar powered sub is hilarious but less than immersive.
Lastly, some kind of interface to choose which order power is consumed in would be nice. That way you could choose something like Thermal -> Solar -> Bio/Nuclear as that order would make the most sense. This would be beneficial to the Solar/Bio combo I mentioned.
That's it. Solar power is cool and all but building around 20 panels across a couple bases and cyclops and throwing the upgrade onto the seamoth is quite unsatisfying as a power solution for the game.
Solar power is essentially the preferred option in all cases. It is the first power source available to you in the game, so naturally it is the first you use. However, the added benefit of additional power sources doesn't really outstrip the benefit of just scouring for more quartz and titanium to install additional solar panels. The other sources are really just there for style. I still use them, but really only for the coolness factor, not because the game actually encourages it.
Solar and Thermal are the convenient options as you only need an initial investment and don't have to bother with feeding them additional resources. Thus, the game's design means that they are the options you will prefer in the long term. Bio is neat but by the time you encounter Fungi samples you will have already needed to solve your power issue. Nuclear I had the same issue with. It took forever to find and I'd long since solved my power problems. Solar is usable everywhere, available first, cheapest, and is in fact the only usable option for certain things - like nailing them to the top of the cyclops. It is the best of all worlds in every case. There should either be some issue of convenience or economy to their use. The only conceivable practical use to another source would be in super-deep water and even then you can just build a tower of vertical connectors so its still an option. Thus, my suggestions are as follows.
Solar: Should either store much less power or give much less power. In real life the downside to solar is that it doesn't work at night, but in Subnautica they just charge to full during the day and have more than enough stored to last you through the night. The cheap investment of around 4-8 of these will last you through pretty much the entire game - outside of running the Cyclops on them. So essentially my suggestion is to either have them store almost no power - 5 or so. That way you could get a fabrication per panel before they need to charge, which would still happen fairly quickly. This means they're great during the day but awful at night - like real solar panels. Alternatively, just adjust the scale or the power generation/consumption in the game to reflect the idea that solar is a base level tech. Meaning, vastly increase the numbers of later power sources and equipment to reflect the difficulty of running advanced equipment on base level tech. I am however more a fan of the first option. It is more interesting.
Bio: Should have a more convenient recipe. The existing one gives plenty of power but normally you will solve your power issues for the whole game before you encounter any fungi. A recipe that you can burn through quicker but can use early would be nice, such as one consisting of some combination of mushrooms/coral/kelp or perhaps some new flora. This would encourage you to seek better options so you don't have to keep feeding it, but still give it a place in the game. This way you could combine solar for daytime heavy use and Bio for limited use at night in the early game.
Thermal: Is actually fine. It is super-location dependent but otherwise useful.
Nuclear: I haven't really used nuclear power. Due to the extreme tech requirement and relative resource rarity I would hope it essentially solves your power issues for the game - at least at that location. I'd make uranium a little rarer though, so you can't just spam a dozen of these the second you find the tech. That would restrict it to a main base only kind use. Perhaps the Cyclops could in some way make use of this as well. A gigantic solar powered sub is hilarious but less than immersive.
Lastly, some kind of interface to choose which order power is consumed in would be nice. That way you could choose something like Thermal -> Solar -> Bio/Nuclear as that order would make the most sense. This would be beneficial to the Solar/Bio combo I mentioned.
That's it. Solar power is cool and all but building around 20 panels across a couple bases and cyclops and throwing the upgrade onto the seamoth is quite unsatisfying as a power solution for the game.
Comments
There is a maj. currently that will allow us to put in our bases nuclear and bio reactors. Maybe they will add some others features.
I heard for example that bioreactor will be able to consume ALL plants and not only creepvine and fongus.
So wait&see.
Having said that, I'm not sure we should nerf them quite as badly as you're suggesting. 5 power per panel would make them useless. Maybe a small reduction to their total power but a longer recharge time?
As for the other power sources, both bio and nuclear reactors are being drastically changed. For one they're going to built inside the base. The bioreactor is being redone to use all plant matter which will hopefully make it much more attractive as an early game power source.
Given its current set it and forget it free energy, the solar panels should be mid to late game technology. Unlimited free power should be a goal to be worked toward, not given from the get go. Although instead of nerfing the current solar panel, just move when you get it? Maybe give us a basic, weak solar panel in the beginning, with the current one to be found later on.
A small reduction in total power but longer recharge time would be no real difference. They currently charge ridiculously fast at the surface and in daylight - it only takes a few to continuously fabricate. I'd rather that they hit the power storage as panels that store enough energy to last through the night are basically day/night panels anyway. I didn't really emphasize it but I think a fast charge is good during the day. They do of course have to be usable. This allows you to still fabricate continuously during daytime with a few panels but get shut down to 1 per panel for the night. I think that's a fair downside for solar. It also helps differentiate day and night, which I think the game could use more of.
Splitting the panels into 2 different techs would also be fair. The current ones are just ridiculous.