Story vs Open World

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Comments

  • CryselleCryselle Canada Join Date: 2017-01-03 Member: 226011Members
    To me, the best kind of storytelling in a game like this is kinda Degasi-style. Smaller side-stories that reward exploration, and breadcrumb you towards more fully exploring areas you'd otherwise hop in, gather a few things, then leave (Like the JSC). It doesn't lead you by the nose through a linear path, and you're not really missing any gameplay if you don't care, but it's there and cool for those of us that do.
  • MyrmMyrm Sweden Join Date: 2015-08-16 Member: 207210Members
    I prefer open world such as seen in Skyrim or Hitcher 3. However, I have voted story for this game as Subnautica is pretty unique. Also, with open world the map of SN would have to be much bigger, and there'd have to be opportunities to do side quests away from the main one.
  • CoranthCoranth Join Date: 2015-06-02 Member: 205160Members
    I would have liked something more akin to The Forest. Some sort of primitive intelligent species of aquatic humanoids that were still living on the planet.

    .................

    .............

    .........

    “Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn. / In his house at R'lyeh dead Cthulhu waits dreaming.

    "YOU FOOL, WE'RE ALL DEAD!"
  • sayerulzsayerulz oregon Join Date: 2015-04-15 Member: 203493Members
    Quite frankly, the game isn't turning out to be what I signed up for at all when I bought it, and yes, I'm salty. Perhaps I misinterpreted, maby there was false advertising, or perhaps the devs just hadn't yet decided what it would be at the time I bought it, but I was expecting a very much open world survival game, probably with procedural generation (in fact, at the time I bought it, it thought that perhaps there might already be procedural generation).

    Now, just hear out on this. People, including the devs, have talked about how procedural generation means that there wouldn't be cool handcrafted features. However, I am of the opinion that what you get in return is more than worth it: namely, the unexpected. I think minecraft players will know the joy of walking around in a freshly generated world and stumbling across something really cool. Perhaps a hidden valley in the mountains that can only be reached by going through a cave, or just an especially beautiful spot. Things like that exist in subnautica, but always in the same place. Once you've found them, you've found them. This also somewhat restricts you when it comes to base building. Yes, you can build a base in the deep grand reef, but it's really not practical. All the resources you need the most of, chiefly titanium, copper, and quartz, are found in the greatest abundance in the safe shallows. If you lived in the grand reef, you would constantly be having to make trips back and forth, past all manner of frightening things.

    It's well past midnight and I'm going to pass out, so I'll wrap this up. For me, two of the best moments in gaming are discovering something unexpected and exiting (NOT a creeper in my storage room), and looking down on the thing that I have built, finally being happy with how it looks and functions after many hours of building, tweaking and tinkering, and then moving on to the next thing. Stories are great and all, but those moments are what I really enjoy, and subnautica just doesn't have them for me.
  • MyrmMyrm Sweden Join Date: 2015-08-16 Member: 207210Members
    I think they could combine the crafted scenery and procedural generated scenery. They could have the map handcrafted as they do already but beyond that, beyond the crafted map, it's all procedural generated.
  • subnauticambriansubnauticambrian U.S. Join Date: 2016-01-19 Member: 211679Members
    edited January 2017
    Myrm wrote: »
    I think they could combine the crafted scenery and procedural generated scenery. They could have the map handcrafted as they do already but beyond that, beyond the crafted map, it's all procedural generated.

    As per usual, I would suggest people check this thread for more on that. It's probably one of my favorite ideas for implimenting this kind of procedural generation/handcrafted map mashup.

    -EDIT-
    sayerulz wrote: »
    Quite frankly, the game isn't turning out to be what I signed up for at all when I bought it, and yes, I'm salty. Perhaps I misinterpreted, maby there was false advertising, or perhaps the devs just hadn't yet decided what it would be at the time I bought it, but I was expecting a very much open world survival game, probably with procedural generation (in fact, at the time I bought it, it thought that perhaps there might already be procedural generation).

    Now, just hear out on this. People, including the devs, have talked about how procedural generation means that there wouldn't be cool handcrafted features. However, I am of the opinion that what you get in return is more than worth it: namely, the unexpected. I think minecraft players will know the joy of walking around in a freshly generated world and stumbling across something really cool. Perhaps a hidden valley in the mountains that can only be reached by going through a cave, or just an especially beautiful spot. Things like that exist in subnautica, but always in the same place. Once you've found them, you've found them. This also somewhat restricts you when it comes to base building. Yes, you can build a base in the deep grand reef, but it's really not practical. All the resources you need the most of, chiefly titanium, copper, and quartz, are found in the greatest abundance in the safe shallows. If you lived in the grand reef, you would constantly be having to make trips back and forth, past all manner of frightening things.

    It's well past midnight and I'm going to pass out, so I'll wrap this up. For me, two of the best moments in gaming are discovering something unexpected and exiting (NOT a creeper in my storage room), and looking down on the thing that I have built, finally being happy with how it looks and functions after many hours of building, tweaking and tinkering, and then moving on to the next thing. Stories are great and all, but those moments are what I really enjoy, and subnautica just doesn't have them for me.

    Reminds me of myself when I first joined... although you have the seniority. I agree with this point, but I think it would be extremely hard to implement at this stage of the game, so I've mostly resigned myself to the direction Subnautica is going in right now. That's not to say that the current direction is bad, I actually love it quite a lot.
  • QuillShotQuillShot Sweden Join Date: 2015-12-29 Member: 210565Members
    Good to see the devs are ruining their own game by making an objective in the game. Not to mention you leave the planet after the story is completed.....Good way to ruin the game, really.
  • DaveyNYDaveyNY Schenectady, NY Join Date: 2016-08-30 Member: 221903Members
    QuillShot wrote: »
    Good to see the devs are ruining their own game by making an objective in the game. Not to mention you leave the planet after the story is completed.....Good way to ruin the game, really.

    You do realize that you DON'T HAVE TO ACHIEVE said objective and can continue to play as a survivor as long as you wish, right?

    If you don't listen/read the automatic communications the story doesn't advance.

    I've often wondered if folks actually realize this.

    B)
  • StrongholdStronghold Germany Join Date: 2016-06-18 Member: 218746Members
    DaveyNY wrote: »
    QuillShot wrote: »
    Good to see the devs are ruining their own game by making an objective in the game. Not to mention you leave the planet after the story is completed.....Good way to ruin the game, really.

    You do realize that you DON'T HAVE TO ACHIEVE said objective and can continue to play as a survivor as long as you wish, right?

    If you don't listen/read the automatic communications the story doesn't advance.

    I've often wondered if folks actually realize this.

    B)

    I see it more like QuillShot, there is a story and the Warper are the force that drives you to follow the story.
    Quote from Wikipedia: >>Their main purpose (of the Warper) is to eliminate any creature infected with the Carar bacteria, including the player. <<
    When the player is infected with Carar over time the infection gets stronger. At a certain strenght of the infection the Warper will hunt and attack the player.

    And for a open world game the map is to small.
  • DrownedOutDrownedOut Habitat Join Date: 2016-05-26 Member: 217559Members
    Stronghold wrote: »
    I see it more like QuillShot, there is a story and the Warper are the force that drives you to follow the story.
    Quote from Wikipedia: >>Their main purpose (of the Warper) is to eliminate any creature infected with the Carar bacteria, including the player. <<
    When the player is infected with Carar over time the infection gets stronger. At a certain strenght of the infection the Warper will hunt and attack the player.

    And for a open world game the map is to small.

    As far as I understand it, "over time" in this case isn't in-game time but in-game progress. Ie, you already have to be following the story to advance the Carar. The devs have explicitly stated they do not want to force the player's progress speed and will keep the effect of Carar minimal if not outright cosmetic. The Warper will become more aggressive, but keep in mind its AI currently isn't even complete. If you've seen Jacksepticeye's recent LP, you'll have noticed how outright disappointed he is the warper couldn't care less about his presence. The creature will never come looking for you, just do what it's currently doing with a little more zest for the job.
  • ResolutionBlazeResolutionBlaze The Dunes Join Date: 2016-04-06 Member: 215392Members
    sayerulz wrote: »
    Quite frankly, the game isn't turning out to be what I signed up for at all when I bought it, and yes, I'm salty. Perhaps I misinterpreted, maby there was false advertising, or perhaps the devs just hadn't yet decided what it would be at the time I bought it, but I was expecting a very much open world survival game, probably with procedural generation (in fact, at the time I bought it, it thought that perhaps there might already be procedural generation).

    Now, just hear out on this. People, including the devs, have talked about how procedural generation means that there wouldn't be cool handcrafted features. However, I am of the opinion that what you get in return is more than worth it: namely, the unexpected. I think minecraft players will know the joy of walking around in a freshly generated world and stumbling across something really cool. Perhaps a hidden valley in the mountains that can only be reached by going through a cave, or just an especially beautiful spot. Things like that exist in subnautica, but always in the same place. Once you've found them, you've found them. This also somewhat restricts you when it comes to base building. Yes, you can build a base in the deep grand reef, but it's really not practical. All the resources you need the most of, chiefly titanium, copper, and quartz, are found in the greatest abundance in the safe shallows. If you lived in the grand reef, you would constantly be having to make trips back and forth, past all manner of frightening things.

    It's well past midnight and I'm going to pass out, so I'll wrap this up. For me, two of the best moments in gaming are discovering something unexpected and exiting (NOT a creeper in my storage room), and looking down on the thing that I have built, finally being happy with how it looks and functions after many hours of building, tweaking and tinkering, and then moving on to the next thing. Stories are great and all, but those moments are what I really enjoy, and subnautica just doesn't have them for me.

    You begin to expect the unexpected once you understand how the procedural generation works.

    "Oh look I stumbled upon a Dune I better watch for Reapers."

    "Oh look a Kelp forest, expect Stalkers and Bleeders."

    Procedural doesn't automatically mean unique. Minecraft isn't exactly unique. Discovery is awesome but it's far from unexpected except for a moment. Minecraft also has a story/end game and it's the most Open World thing there is.
  • JamezorgJamezorg United Kingdom Join Date: 2016-05-15 Member: 216788Members
    sayerulz wrote: »
    Now, just hear out on this. People, including the devs, have talked about how procedural generation means that there wouldn't be cool handcrafted features. However, I am of the opinion that what you get in return is more than worth it: namely, the unexpected. I think minecraft players will know the joy of walking around in a freshly generated world and stumbling across something really cool. Perhaps a hidden valley in the mountains that can only be reached by going through a cave, or just an especially beautiful spot. Things like that exist in subnautica, but always in the same place. Once you've found them, you've found them.

    The same can be said for the real world, no? This game is about exploring an uncharted ocean, and it does line up with what this game is all about when you say that when you've found something you've found it forever. I only recently discovered a cave system under that huge mushroom tree, and that's now one of my favourite locations in the game. I'm sure there's more out there, too. I didn't know the northern Blood Kelp even looked like it did until a few weeks ago because I hadn't explored it.

    Each has its pros and cons, and for me the pros of handcrafted worlds outweigh that of a procedural generated one. That's just a personal thing though, and how I see the game to be. People interpret things very differently, and I'm sorry if the game didn't turn out how you expected. That sucks, but it does happen. Visions clash, and the result's never pretty.
  • iknowaghostloliknowaghostlol lakewood, CO Join Date: 2017-01-07 Member: 226273Members
    I said open world because i want this game to be like other survival games like ARK and mine craft where it is constantly getting updates and tweaks even after there release date. i will admit though the story to sub N is amazing but im satisfied with reading about the story on my PDA rather than asking the devs to make missions that will neglect the creation of new geography(biomes). , i think the current state of the game is good...its more of a survival/crafting than a story/objective game. and, as long as it stays that way alot more people are going to be playing this game.
  • Kyman201Kyman201 Washington State Join Date: 2016-01-23 Member: 211880Members
    QuillShot wrote: »
    Not to mention you leave the planet after the story is completed

    I don't consider anything 'ruined' when you reach 'Build a rocket and get off this planet' because, well... The character we're playing crashed on this world. They're not trying to colonize it, they're not trying to start a new life here. They never WANTED to live here and they likely want OFF this Godforsaken wet rock.

    And if you don't want your character to leave the planet then don't build a rocket, I'm pretty sure it's that simple.
  • moronwsubmarinemoronwsubmarine Austin, TX Join Date: 2016-12-16 Member: 225030Members
    I'm really hoping UWE allows mods to open up the replay value for Subnautica:
    New Unique maps - this really extended the replay value of ARK:SE since the primary map is also kinda small

    New animals - Snails, nudibranches, arthropods, lobsters, crabs, shrimp, mantis shrimp, starfish, etc. (or alien interpretations of these niches)

    More advanced animal interactions - curious animals, more predator/prey interactions, more player/animal interactions

    Special events - What if every Eclipse caused a massive coral spawning event? For several minutes water is cloudy as the larva emerge. And then a few days later, a bunch of baby animals and corals started appearing, replacing lost acid mushrooms, table coral, etc.

    Total Conversions that attempt to re-create real life location, Australia's Great Barrier Reef (RIP 2016) or the best reefs of the world, along with Earth flora/fauna

    Alternate storylines: A hermit that just wants to live alone, a Swiss Family Robinson with a couple of NPCs (or perhaps switchable player characters), a beginner colony with a small crew that grows as you provide goods to trade/bases to house people (a la Fallout 4).
  • WinterholdKnightWinterholdKnight Join Date: 2017-01-10 Member: 226503Members
    I voted Open World but I'm good with the story so far. It doesn't go exactly as I wish it would (For instance I want to be able to warn the rescue ship in the nick of time, they still get hit but manage to get out of range before the engine dies. They stay on orbit until repairs are done and we can talk to them. I also wish we weren't the only survivor ...), but the story doesn't get in the way of the open world exploration. We're not railroaded, can still do whatever we want, I love it.
    So I want more open world content (more caves, objects, decay of the bases, preserved vegetarian food ...), but I also want to see the story move forward.

    Also that giant gun looks fun, I wanna shout stuff with it XD
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