Subnautica DLC
Who_needs_Armor
Join Date: 2017-06-23 Member: 231295Members
Join Date: 2017-06-23 Member: 231295Members
With Subnautica inching ever-closer to its full release, not much new content is being added aside from the ending of the story and related items. And of course there will be a lot of balancing and re-balancing going on with the various mechanics in-game. Which has me thinking about what Post-1.0 Subnautica content we'd be looking at, or rather, what the community as a whole wants. And I speak mostly in terms of a possible DLC being worked on.
There's a few different ways a DLC could go, and I'm interested in what the community is expecting or looking for in future content. Do we want something that has a pretty significant story focus, like what we have right now in Subnautica? Or something with a heavier focus on the 'survival' aspects of Subnautica, like base building, management of those bases and resources, among other things? And of course, there's always that heavily requested multiplayer DLC, but that's more of a feature rather than a style of DLC. A DLC could be multiplayer and still be survival focused or story focused.
And no matter what stylistic direction they take it, I think it's obvious that new biomes will be pretty much expected, along with new creatures to reside in them. Personally the biggest aspect I want is just making sure it gives the game a bit more replay-ability, since currently we only have one map, one storyline, which pretty much means once you've played through the game 2 or 3 times there's nothing left to do that's interesting, and no more 'exploration' to do (the map doesn't change, you know where everything is after a while, it becomes going to the right places in the right order instead of true exploration and discovery). Something more survival focused I think would help with this, so I suppose that's where my opinion lies.
In saying that, It's pretty much guaranteed I'll buy whatever DLC for this game that they release, survival focused, story focused, whatever. I'm confident whatever is released will live up to standards.
But like I said, that's only my opinion, and I'm very interested to see what others want out of a possible Subnautica DLC.
There's a few different ways a DLC could go, and I'm interested in what the community is expecting or looking for in future content. Do we want something that has a pretty significant story focus, like what we have right now in Subnautica? Or something with a heavier focus on the 'survival' aspects of Subnautica, like base building, management of those bases and resources, among other things? And of course, there's always that heavily requested multiplayer DLC, but that's more of a feature rather than a style of DLC. A DLC could be multiplayer and still be survival focused or story focused.
And no matter what stylistic direction they take it, I think it's obvious that new biomes will be pretty much expected, along with new creatures to reside in them. Personally the biggest aspect I want is just making sure it gives the game a bit more replay-ability, since currently we only have one map, one storyline, which pretty much means once you've played through the game 2 or 3 times there's nothing left to do that's interesting, and no more 'exploration' to do (the map doesn't change, you know where everything is after a while, it becomes going to the right places in the right order instead of true exploration and discovery). Something more survival focused I think would help with this, so I suppose that's where my opinion lies.
In saying that, It's pretty much guaranteed I'll buy whatever DLC for this game that they release, survival focused, story focused, whatever. I'm confident whatever is released will live up to standards.
But like I said, that's only my opinion, and I'm very interested to see what others want out of a possible Subnautica DLC.
Comments
There's no good answer to that until we get a complete game and Devs are actively looking for what to do next.
But to give an opinion on what I would hope a DLC to be:
I see the interest of subnautica to be it's game mechanics and sandbox features. The story is... well... exchangeable to that.
Making a whole new worlds would take years just to copy what was used before, pretty counter-productive.
Subnautica do have room for new biomes but it need a reason for us to go there, so new mechanics. A DLC shouldn't be afraid of changing the core gameplay, it may feel strange but it have been done plenty of time before.
New gameplay is the key to replayability, a new biome give you something new to look at ONCE. a new gameplay can give you a new look at EVERYTHING you already had.
"Oh look, now that I have a dingy boat I can race for looting and escape the aurora exploding"
I see where you're getting that vibe from, but as far as I'm concerned the reality is that the devs are finishing up story content and refining whats currently in the game to just get the game released. As well as a ton of bug squashing, as always. They're focused on what they need and know they should be focused on already. I meant this to be more a look towards the future. The devs should not be focused on working on DLC or game-breaking new content, but when that does come around, the interest lies in what the DLC should focus on, and I think you understood that.
The game has a lot of sandbox-y potential. definitely would like to see that expanded upon MUCH more than it currently is in the base game. And you're probably right about the new biomes. But I think new biomes might just be a given since if they're going to add new things, we may need some different materials unavailable to us to build those DLC items, which would likely be conveniently located in that new biome.
Never thought otherwise, it is a given that they"ll go from "incomplete story" to "complete story", taking the best route toward 1.0. You can't improve a game before having said "complete" game.
Just want to repeat something: an eventual DLC shouldn't worry about changing core mechanics. I've see in another game, the recipe of failure of a dev who didn't want to modify one bit his "core game" and had to give his new items ridiculous stats (and they stayed unbalanced).
At least Subnautica isn't a competitive multiplayer game, they'll get less bitching about "breaking balance".
speaking of new biome... I argued AGAINST a "new world" like but considering the numbers of idea I get, this is somewhat hypocrite.
I think new biomes should complement new gameplay, as opposed to being the focus. In an underwater setting, there's lots of room to be creative with weird biomes and creatures, which prompts part of me to really want more of that. Designing an entirely new world would be cool, but perhaps unnecessary, depending on what kind of DLC they would aim for.
I don't know if Subnautica vision changed, but I think you got what I mean.
My (barely humble) opinion is that a DLC wouldn't need to be improving something that don't give much give anywhere as much than game-mechanic when improved.
To be more explicit over what I meant (and speaking as the guy who spammed a few ideas recently):
other:
- Separating Energy & Oxygen to give new balance possibility (look like I'll need to repost my pictures for it to be better understood, now I wish you could edit old post)
And YES I know "plant giving oxygen" is on the maybe list but it doesn't address anywhere the same changes.
Those are two example of CORE mechanic that are unlikely to be added once the game reach 1.0, be it because devs believe it would be "lying to the player" to change after they bought it, or because they consider it's too much trouble to get right...
...or maybe, because they don't believe in the genius of my ideas and discard them for other change that don't cater to me, which is also a possibility.
The updates can't be all free as UWE still needs to be making money off of the game if they are going to keep developers on the project. Even if they were to keep doing free updates, they would most likely have a "b team" work on these as they won't bring much profit, if any. As a result, the updates could easily turn out crappie or sub par. I would gladly pay for a good expansion instead of getting crapy free updates
Free updates can work, if it causes more people to buy the game. For example, if they released multiplayer as a v1.5 update or something, the amount of people playing with their friends and spreading the word could easily make up for the dev cost and then some. Or, it might not and they might lose money. But it is possible to have updates pay for themselves as long as it expands the user base.
Game world expansion would be the greatest - perhaps having to stop off at a nearby habitable planet on your way home, with all-new lifeforms/environments. But that would be A LOT of work, so I think it's unlikely to happen.
Having seen how well they've integrated player feedback, and how much the game has improved, I wouldn't hesitate for a second over buying DLC.
Anyway, I could see things like maybe the Lost River eventually being increased to the size it was depicted as in the early early draft - which is why I LOVED that Mountans entrance recently added. They could possibly increase the potential depth to 3k with additional depth upgrades, make more ILZ/LZ areas - possibly even ones not attached to the "core" one in the center of the map (And thus, exploring these wouldn't interfere with the Story, assuming the DLC's going to have to respect Story Progression), biomes like the Arctic could be reached via Teleporter, they could add more base components for us to make, and so on.
But why stop at just biomes and such? Maybe there could be full on new mechanics. What if they reimplemented Nitrogen Narcosis as a gameplay option (For those after the realism and/or extra difficulty), or further expanding raising monsters - getting a Stalker or Boneshark to act like a companion, maybe being like the Cute Fish except everyone could have it (And it wouldn't be as uh, Cute
There's a lot of room here for expansion, and I hope they take full advantage of that in the future.
They changed it so everyone gets the Cuddle Fish (Cute Fish got renamed) now, not just pre-v1.0 players. You can find their eggs scattered around the world in experimental mode.
Oh cool :O I guess pre-1.0 buyers won't get anything special then, but it'd be neat to have a little decorative item or something~
Mmm I'll go looking around then if/when I jump back into Experimental. I still hope that other hatched animals can get some interactions with you like that in the future, would be a lovely and cute addition to the game. ^^
Also, this planet was only the research base for Carar. They had an entire galactic civilization that was wiped out by the disease.
More story about all of that would be awesome.
The devs have said that it would taken significant re-tooling of the core game code to add something like that, so much that it could take years to accomplish. Multiplayer was never meant to be part of the game and it was designed and built that way.
If they ever release a sequel, maybe they can build that in from the start, but don't expect it this time around.
Having more world to explore in an open world game would be fantastic. Really, I'd love to see more biomes interconnecting with each other at some point. One way of doing that without harming the Story would to be having several ILZ/LZ caves that aren't attached to the primary chamber one. That way there can be surface entrances to it or some of the existing cave systems opening up into such regions without allowing players to "speedrun" over to the end of the game while skipping past major story points, as some people felt that was a concern.
I do disagree with DLC that costs money.
Why?
Because DLC is like a way to tear more money out of a fan I dislike it when they do that instead of using other means, such as making more people wanna buy the game.
My opinion. Don't get salty over it please.
Extra updates for the next few years for free, with a few skin packs or the like and major balance changes every few months.
It will probably be marginally different from how NS2 did it, but similar nonetheless.
The devs are going to release full on expansion packs after release and will make sure that there's enough new stuff that it feels worth it. There are also still going to be other, smaller updates after release that won't have to be payed for.
That doesn't change my opinon though. I still dislike it even if they added it, but i'll probably still buy it.
And that's why I dislike it.
As a fan, they know we'll buy any dlc. I cry.
But what if it is worth the price, as in actually on par with buying a new game... In any case DLC tends to be cheaper than a full game, so why "hate" it, if it's worth all the pennies spent. Unless it is a self loathing of your lack of impulse buying control
First off, yes I do have a self hatred for my lack of control.
Second, I hate it not because of the content, but I hate it because I already spent 20 dollars. I want to also get anything else supplied along with the 20 I spent.
But meh, my opinion yada yada yada.
It's nice to know they're planning on continuing to add to the game after release. I said this before but i'll say it again; I'm definitely looking forward to seeing what sort of wonders await us!