Technology Gating and Exploration
KuBaN
Join Date: 2002-11-16 Member: 8979Members, Constellation
Join Date: 2002-11-16 Member: 8979Members, Constellation
Background: Former NS1 and NS2 player and active forumer, Constellation supporter, been playing Subnautica since it's release.
I've been seeing a lot of discussion around the direction of the game; whether it's an open-world exploration with no objective or a linear narrative with progression, and how some elements of the game detract from one while supporting the other. The freedom to just roam the beautiful world UWE has created without being forced to find key fragments in wrecks or lifepods is appealing to certain players, but undermines the game's explicit narrative, and the implicit narrative created by the progressing through the gated tech tree, which is really enjoyable to me (hope I'm not alone). Matter of fact in some cases I find myself overwhelmed by the information-unload of the Tech Tree from the start, and would like to see a more gradual introduction of the initially available items (to appreciate the utility of each of them).
True, as things currently stand it is frustrating to have to look things up on the wiki to know what to do and where to go how and how to find technology that otherwise prevents you from continuing. In the Development notes there is a call to move away from making exploring the Lifepods a critical aspect of the game. This seems fine in the "Exploration/Freestyle" mode, but this detracts from the Survival/Hardcore modes, or even just the Story mode (since there is, indeed, a story). I think a better solution is to provide more reliable methods of searching for said Tech.
Make things as open and non-linear as you want in the Exploration modes. The rest of this discussion is addressing the Story and/or Hardcore modes.
Possible Solution:
Limit the Tech Tree initially, making your most immediate needs Water, Food, and very basic equipment needed to repair the Comm. Relay and investigate the Lifepods. The Fabricator would look something like this:
Once the Comm. Relay is repaired, each pod can introduce a new piece of basic gear (Blueprints found on PDAs, or after picking up the first instance of the object, the same way you discover food recipes when grabbing edible fauna)
In this way, the player has time to play with some Tools that otherwise quickly become obsolete by other more efficient 'upgrades' (I've still never used the Air Pump because of the Seamoth but like the concept. Same thing with Flares, even Lightsticks, since the Flashlight is available from the start), and is eased into the array of tools more gradually, and is introduced to various locales in traveling to each of the Pods. A few notes:
*Beacons: are invaluable in a game without a map, but I didn't realize their potential until hours into the game because I felt too resource-starved in the beginning to spend more than I needed to to get to the next Tech step (and also didn't understand what they did). If giving away Beacons is too generous, make the Pod signals easy to turn off & on without taking up inventory space, to make navigating or returning to places of interest/different biomes less blindfolded.
*Radiation Suit: I crafted one and then found a spare in the pod, was kind of sad I wasted the resources. If this wasn't craftable until after finding it, problem solved.
As far as fragments go, make the Scanner room available early on and give it a means to find Wrecks (maybe search for more fragments of a type you've found, similar to searching resources).
Thoughts? Am I alone in this?
I've been seeing a lot of discussion around the direction of the game; whether it's an open-world exploration with no objective or a linear narrative with progression, and how some elements of the game detract from one while supporting the other. The freedom to just roam the beautiful world UWE has created without being forced to find key fragments in wrecks or lifepods is appealing to certain players, but undermines the game's explicit narrative, and the implicit narrative created by the progressing through the gated tech tree, which is really enjoyable to me (hope I'm not alone). Matter of fact in some cases I find myself overwhelmed by the information-unload of the Tech Tree from the start, and would like to see a more gradual introduction of the initially available items (to appreciate the utility of each of them).
True, as things currently stand it is frustrating to have to look things up on the wiki to know what to do and where to go how and how to find technology that otherwise prevents you from continuing. In the Development notes there is a call to move away from making exploring the Lifepods a critical aspect of the game. This seems fine in the "Exploration/Freestyle" mode, but this detracts from the Survival/Hardcore modes, or even just the Story mode (since there is, indeed, a story). I think a better solution is to provide more reliable methods of searching for said Tech.
Make things as open and non-linear as you want in the Exploration modes. The rest of this discussion is addressing the Story and/or Hardcore modes.
Possible Solution:
Limit the Tech Tree initially, making your most immediate needs Water, Food, and very basic equipment needed to repair the Comm. Relay and investigate the Lifepods. The Fabricator would look something like this:
- Sustenance (First Aid, Water, Food)
- Resources (Materials, Electronics, etc.)
- Personal
- Knife
- Repair Tool
- Air Bladder
- Flare
- Air Pipes
- Deployables
- Air Pump
- Waterproof Locker
- Gravsphere
Once the Comm. Relay is repaired, each pod can introduce a new piece of basic gear (Blueprints found on PDAs, or after picking up the first instance of the object, the same way you discover food recipes when grabbing edible fauna)
- Misc Pods: Lightstick; Beacon*
- Pod 4: Fins & Dive Reel [PDA]
- Pod 3: Scanner [PDA]
- Pod 7: Compass
- Pod 13: O2 Tank [PDA]; Rebreather (This pod is relatively deep and would probably require use of the Air Pump/Pipes)
- Pod 6: Thermometer [PDA]; Radiation Suit*
- Pod 17: Habitat Builder [PDA]
In this way, the player has time to play with some Tools that otherwise quickly become obsolete by other more efficient 'upgrades' (I've still never used the Air Pump because of the Seamoth but like the concept. Same thing with Flares, even Lightsticks, since the Flashlight is available from the start), and is eased into the array of tools more gradually, and is introduced to various locales in traveling to each of the Pods. A few notes:
*Beacons: are invaluable in a game without a map, but I didn't realize their potential until hours into the game because I felt too resource-starved in the beginning to spend more than I needed to to get to the next Tech step (and also didn't understand what they did). If giving away Beacons is too generous, make the Pod signals easy to turn off & on without taking up inventory space, to make navigating or returning to places of interest/different biomes less blindfolded.
*Radiation Suit: I crafted one and then found a spare in the pod, was kind of sad I wasted the resources. If this wasn't craftable until after finding it, problem solved.
As far as fragments go, make the Scanner room available early on and give it a means to find Wrecks (maybe search for more fragments of a type you've found, similar to searching resources).
Thoughts? Am I alone in this?
Comments
They're built first because they're available out the gate, but just because it is doesn't mean it should be. The O2 tank makes the air pump/pipes useless (or at least inefficient) from the start. Gating the Scanner would give players more time with the basics, and I think it's enough of a game-changer that it should get it's own introduction in isolation from other items. But isn't as important as the rest.
Tech tree is so quickly climbed that we don't get to even use obsolete tech.
Best experience was actually using the air pump and pipes early game - very rewarding.
In my opinion they could have left the whole story and just made exploration and progression the main aim of the game and it would rock!
Current mid to late game has less todo than early game - where as it should be the opposite. By the time you reach lost river you pretty much have most fabricateable items
(Yes deep biomes are still under construction - but only visually rewarding - no tech progression unlocks)
**** Was pretty sad to get to the "Ghost Tree" and find nothing there to scan or unlock.
They could easily spread out the locations of currently existing fragments. There are a few biomes with multiple technologies.
Making the scanner, O2 tanks, fins, and beacons blueprint locked is def not something I'd like to see. The scanner is a crucial piece of exploration for exploration's sake. You're coming at this from a pure survival angle, which is incorrect even when talking about Survival & Hardcore (Survival player talking, btw). O2 tanks and fins are necessary for mobility unless you want to force people into using the seaglide, while my enjoyment comes from the choice I get to make. Beacons are just a basic necessity - the most that could happen is fragments in the Safe Shallows.
Don't forget the presence of nickel, which is currently useless but logically will eventually be part of a recipe only obtainable if you go that deep. And I recall reading that they want to add two more contents to obsidian, which currently only has diamond. I presume too that precursor ion batteries/power cells and teleporter rooms will be deep biome finds.
Exactly my point - where I would prefer as was mentioned spreading out fragments.
Imagine only finding Cyclops fragments at a depth only the PRAWN can access.
A. Always been against forcing players to use pipes. Telling us we have to fill up our inventory with pipes and farm redundant titanium to keep replenishing them just feels like padding. However the pipes as they are is actually fine because they are a very smart solution to exploring wrecks, and is the only reasonable way right now to explore complex cave systems since the dive reel is a bust. Forcing players to build networks of pipes in the ocean just to swim screams "time sink" and would break the game straight up. What's the point in playing an underwater exploration game where the game aggressively discourages you from doing anything underwater. It would be begging people to not play. Going with that the 02 tanks should absolutely not be gated at all. They are crucial to early gameplay.
B. Gating the fins is also a terrible idea. The tanks slow us down, that's the drawback of using them and that's why filling your inventory up with them for extra air is a bad idea. Without the fins avoid predators early game is basically broken. Compiling with issue A makes this exponentially worse. Now not only do players have no air, they can't even swim.
C. Gating the builder would cause a tsunami of rage on the game forums. People are already throwing fits because they cannot build rooms right off the bat. Take the builder away would break the game for them. For anyone that stayed, it would mean filling the ocean with waterproof lockers once you fill your little storage unit in the pod which happens very quickly. Builder is already gated by crafting components. Silver is tricky to find early game especially for new players. The first major hurdle most of them come to is just trying to find it. That's plenty good enough for that.
In summation, your idea is all about restricting players and forcing them to wait longer before they can actually play, and has nothing to do at all with the narrative. While I will admit stumbling across all the fragments I needed for the Seamoth in the Shallows did seem a bit easy, especially since we only need 3 and you get 2 free ones in the Aurora, but taking away basic essentials like air tanks and fins is going in the extreme opposite direction.
That would be pretty awful, especially considering even the cyclops can't go as deep as the prawn. We are supposed to unlock the cyclops before the prawn, not after. The big sub doesn't have much use as it is, gating it to strictly endgame would just compound the uselessness. You might as well tell people to just not bother building one. It's just a giant locker anyway.