New Experimental Game Sep-17 53337 on
Jacke
Calgary Join Date: 2017-03-20 Member: 229061Members
Calgary Join Date: 2017-03-20 Member: 229061Members
Originally titled "Last on mid August, wonder what happened"
Details on my new game start on the 5th reply post below, link here.
So other things drew me away from Subnautica starting in July, to the point where I wasn't even reading the forums past mid August. Up until then I was playing Experimental so I could get the fixes ASAP. Alas, it also meant I had to put up with a lot of bugs, especially with power.
So I'm wondering how Subnautica has developed since then, especially with Experimental.
Details on my new game start on the 5th reply post below, link here.
So other things drew me away from Subnautica starting in July, to the point where I wasn't even reading the forums past mid August. Up until then I was playing Experimental so I could get the fixes ASAP. Alas, it also meant I had to put up with a lot of bugs, especially with power.
So I'm wondering how Subnautica has developed since then, especially with Experimental.
Comments
New stuff. New stuff. New stuff. Bug fix. Bug fix. Bug fix. Bug fix. Bug fix. New stuff. Bug fix. New stuff. Bug fix. New stuff. New stuff.
Here's a list of videos that explain:
Only thing is that you shouldn't use an old savegame and do a complete restart.
I was about to start a new Experimental game late July / early August but got side-tracked. I'll think of doing that this week.
So the shaft and tunnel from the bow of the Aurora down to the ILZ finally got blocked off. Sad. Never got that far in a game meself (I've barely started on the Lost River) but I'd seen some photos. Now all gone.
A third LR entrance? And all of the other new things in the 2nd video above. Interesting.
The new LR entrance is not too far from the closed Aurora one at the bulb zone side. You can easily find it from the wrecked LR Precursor base going back to the surface, so check with your Seamoth and place a beacon at the exit. The entrance is good to get the Cyclops through and even has a Lava Zone breakthrough, so it's better than the old closed one. Each of the 4 LR entrances has a Ghost Leviathan guarding the passage though.
All in all we have now 2 ways to the Lava Zone and 4 ways to the Lost River, guarded by 3 Ghost Leviathans down there.
I've just started a new Experimental game and am 32 minutes in. So I'm far away from having a Seamoth or contemplating going into the Bulb Zone or anywhere near a LR entrance.
I'm finding the lack of Limestone a bit disconcerting, especially as it seems battery consumption has been increased. I have a Standard Oxygen Tank, a Knife, a Scanner, a Repair Tool, and an Air Bladder. And I'm contemplating getting the mats for one or more Repair Tools as you get a free battery with each. And really need at least one Silver for the High Capacity Oxygen Tank. Not to mention Lead for the a Rad Suit.
The frags for common items are quite common. Already have the blueprints for the Beacon and Gravsphere, but still needing more for the Seaglide. And with the increase demand on batteries with less supply of Copper means I'll have to limit its use to diving down. Have a reasonable amount of mats but only have Lifepod 5 so far.
And the number of Stalkers swimming around near Lifepod 5. It's almost hung up on a rise that comes up to 2 metres below the surface. One Stalker swam right up to me and got stuck against the ground and the Lifepod and couldn't bite me. Sure there's a Kelp Forest nearby, but I think inexperienced players would have a difficult tIme.
And yes, stalkers are EVERYWHERE in the "SAFE" shallow.
Not fun being attacks by groups of 3 to 6 at the same time .. especially in hardcore - not like they would kill me but still ..
Irritatingly, with more items needing scanning frags to unlock, plenty of them lose frag progress if you reload a save. Seen it for Seamoth and Bioreactor (at least 2 frags and 1 frag respectively). Others I'm not sure I actually scanned any frags; they just show up in the Blueprints Tab of the PDA at 0/total at some point without scanning a frag.
Blueprints have been tweaked. The Fabricator is now 2 Silver and 2 Titanium. Radio is 1 Titanium. Repair Tool is 2 Salt, 1 Cave Sulphur, 1 Titanium. The Laser Cutter is 1 Diamond, 1 Battery, 1 Titanium, and 1 Cave Sulphur. Advanced Wiring Kit is now 1 Wiring Kit, 2 Gold, and 1 Computer Chip.
Copper is again almost always in short supply. The blueprint changes increase demand for Cave Sulphur, at least a little bit. And Silver. At about 5 to 6 hours into my Experimental Game, I don't really see excess Silver. But once I moved beyond the Safe Shallows and found enough Sandstone and Shale Outcroppings, Gold again is in massive excess. So the pile of excess mats outside my starter base has Titanium, Quartz, Lead, and Gold.
EDIT: Oh, damn. The Stalkers have started playing with the Gold. Will have to pick it up and store it just to get rid of them.
EDIT2: I think I'd left 3 Gold outside. Got 1 back.
EDIT3: Another change I noticed earlier today. Swimming just under the surface of the water is now faster. With Fins and a High Capacity Oxygen Tank, speed is about 4.5 on the surface and just over 6 underneath. This is a significant change. Used to be you would swim much faster the surface. I like this change.
Shortly after 6 hours, while visiting the wreck near Lifepod 17, unlocked the Battery Charger and Seamoth, already have unlocked and built the Mobile Vehicle Bay.
With the Seamoth, I got a big boost by doing a double-High Capacity Tank dive to the Jelly Shroom Cave Degasi Base. I find having the extra High Capacity Tank means I can take my time inside the base. Besides the 6 PDAs, unlocked Multipurpose Room, Water Filtration Machine, Moonpool, Double Bed, Observatory, Spot Light, and Stasis Rifle.
Also unlocked the Ultra High Capacity Tank. Progress on the Modification Station, Nuclear Reactor, Scanner Room, and Cyclops Engine, which was maintained on all 4 across a save reload.
After that, did mat sweeps primarily for Copper, getting enough of it and other mats to set up my 4-Biome (main) Base, on the high mounts in the Kelp Forest just north of Lifepod 19 (which I've yet to visit) near the Safe Shallows, Kelp Forest, Grassy Plateau, and Grand Reef. I build a Foundation just at sea level for Solar Panels to get the most out of them. 3 more Foundations just a bit deeper have room for my base while maintaining power connection to the Solar Panel Foundation. And with a Moonpool, I can now recharge the Seamoth and Powercells before finding the Powercell Charger.
Next will sweep for Quartz to build 10+ Lockers in my main base and add to its existing 10 Solar Panels. After that, it's off to Lifepod 19 to continue the story arc.
10 Solar Panels?? Who could possibly need that much power? In the current experimental build, I find I frequently have too much power. My main base now has just two solar panels and two bioreactors for a total of 1500 power (depending on the day since the power is still buggy). It used to be that the Moon Pool would completely drain about 400-500 power when you first docked a fully drained Seamoth. Now, though, it doesn't appear to immediately charge the Seamoth. In addition, it doesn't seem to take even 100 power to fully charge a Seamoth. With my 1500 power, I have more than enough for the Moon Pool, Battery Charger, Power Cell Charger and Water Filtration Machine.
Of course, the awesome advantage of 10 solar panels is that is a great place to store your extra quartz
I've got 2 Water Filtration Machines running. When the base started out, I had 1 Solar Panel (250) and 1 WFM. That was going into brownout. Upped it to 7 Panels (1750) and 2 WFMs. That appears to be good, but I threw on 3 more Panels (2500) to be sure. Also draws when charging the Seamoth. Appears that all the power problems from back in July were fixed. Not sure how many Panels but setting up 10 was easy. Can always remove some if I really don't need them.
At this point, the balance between Copper, Silver, and Gold is very even. Still think Gold will be come excess later on.
Highly surprised to hear you say this. At about that same stage in the game, I had:
16 Silver
4 Gold
0 Copper
If I was playing the game a year ago, I'd think I'd hit the lottery to have that much Silver. These days.... I wish I could convert 2 silver into 1 copper.
I *NEVER* search for silver any more. I find it every where. Long gone are the days when I'd plop down a beacon every time I saw the hanging stingers marking a silver cave. Nowadays, I have so much silver the only reason I don't drop it like I do gold is because I still remember those days long ago when silver was the rarest and most precious resource.
For Copper, I had got the Scanner Room unlocked soon after building my base in the Kelp Forest north of the Grand Reef. Scanned for Limestone as well as harvesting it on trips to the Sparse Reef and the Grand Reef.
Right now my stockpile is actually tightest in Gold, so I've been harvesting Sandstone. I also don't use Copper (or Silver or Gold) until I have to. So far I've made 3 Beacons and only deployed 1. Just made 10 spare Batteries to fill 2 Batteries Chargers in my 2 bases as well as 2 loose spares. I've also only made Powercells for crafting the MVB and the Seamoth as well as one spare. And unlocking and building a Moonpool meant I could recharge the Seamoth. Recently unlocked the Powercell Charger but won't build them and more Powercells until I get the Cyclops and need spare Powercell recharging. I'll do a run to the Sea Treader's Path finally when I need to craft a spare set of Powercells for the Cyclops as well as more Beacons.
I also discovered that although the blueprint for the Thermometer is still in the game and is listed under Fabricator Equipment (got it while exploring the Grand Reef), the Fabricator menus no longer include it. The vehicles have builtin thermometers and I believe UWE planned to drop it. I wish it was still in the game.
At 23.5 hours into this game. Next I plan an expedition north and maybe west to find more wrecks to unlock the Modification Station, Stillsuit, and Cyclops. Story arc is at visiting the Aurora, but I prefer to do that with a Cyclops kitted out so I can loot it thoroughly.