I like the contemplative yet intense, lost wanderer yet sometime very focused aspect of Subnautica. I played a bit to avoid too much Early Access spoilers (probably still did at least half the game), and even if it needed worked it felt like it aimed at a nice balance.
Yet, the map was missing. I do agree that it would be counter productive to have a perfect map with perfect position, knowing exactly where you are and where you are going at all time. Allowing us to be lost a bit, to wander, is part of the experience.
But no map seemed… felt weird. First of all, there's an issue with taking in the environment. Technical issues, like very low FOV and drawing distance, make us feel like we are battling the engineering skills of the developers more than ourselves or those alien waters. When I was looking for wreck and parsing some regions through a comb, it was extremely difficult to do properly. It should be somewhat hard, not very very very hard.
Second of all, I felt like this was a cheap thing, especially since we have elements in games that would allow for basic mapping. When I played, I simply took a blank sheet of paper, and using the large amount of beacons I left during my travels was able to do basic math (with distances and angles) to map an approximation. And that seems like something our character, help with his technology, should be able to very easily do. And after a while I got bored of it, and simply took the less informative version of the map from the wiki, deleting the legend; which wasn't easy to do without being spoiled. Yet I was spoiled a bit
But those beacons I suspect had a performance impact on my game, and where a pain to handle, even with the color coding I used to its fullest. I don't mind the resources spent on them, fine, it's a gaming challenge to overcome. I do mind the UI and handling.
So, to me, at the very very least we should have the equivalent of a blank screen, fully editable, with inaccurate trigonometric placement of beacons (and anything where we have a range data), that upgrade to a decent placement once we have the compass item. That should be the very minimum implemented.
On the other hand of the spectrum, I'm quite opposed to map that would give us data we do not have, like 3 minutes in a biome and poof magic exact placement of every wreck and point of interest in it. Or anything like that.
Edit, Important note: glancing (because spoilers) over the previous comments, I did not use very much a scanner room. Barely at all, and now months later I can't even remember what was that like (apart from bugs). That may impact my feedback.
I think this constant map is small and ,Guys, it's a survival game! Firt time when you arrive to the planet, you don't know anything where can you find whatever.
This game has a several facilitation (like compass, beacons, later scanner room). And if you want draw your map to yourself.
In my opinion the map kill the pleasure of the exploration and motivation to build another base and better things (like scanner room).
Look like I bugged the poll and voted for both no map and other map.
I haven't read the topic but my opinion is:
- no HUD or portable map
- a map generated using sensor outpost or drone only
(I'm still hoping for stuff that give a use for more than one seabase at the most convenient place)
I don't consider you can get lost in this game, even after making the beacon costly.
Maybe make it so you have to build expensive mapping drones (that may be destroyed by hostile fauna, so you'd need multiples for a successful mapping of hostile territory) and expensive Scanner Room modules to communicate with them and store the resulting map.
Maybe make it so you have to build expensive mapping drones (that may be destroyed by hostile fauna, so you'd need multiples for a successful mapping of hostile territory) and expensive Scanner Room modules to communicate with them and store the resulting map.
The major issue with an expensive map, requiring extensive farming, is that it doesn't cater to the demographics which actually want a map. Those who get around without a map would acknowledge it as a nice bonus, but the people who seem to desire a map want it easy.
They don't want to work for a map, They want a map to help them work everything else.
Having to build it would make it quite optional though. It would make sense to attach the function to the scanner room, espcially since it already has a map in the room itself. Perhaps just a chip or upgrade of some kind to get it to scan to your helmet (usable via 'm')?
You can simplify
The scanner room is how you access the map but deployable beacon, drone moving, or YOUR VEHICLE (+slot?) is how you generate the map.
New part = 0
New code = whatever allow to display the map from the scanner room
New tutorial = a hint on the scanner-map that your beacon/drone generate map. This would also allow a player to know WHERE THEY DIDN'T GO.
Now is a good time as any to say that if the Seamoth had 666 slo..I mean 6 slots, we could afford utilitarian module without sacrificing other feature.
If possible, the map should work like a Minecraft/Assassin's Creed hybrid. It fills itself in as you explore, but you can add waypoints on it. Also would be cool if you could expand and rotate it to see caves and other terrain features.
DC_DarklingJoin Date: 2003-07-10Member: 18068Members, Constellation, Squad Five Blue, Squad Five Silver
Having no map adds to the exploration. So from that perspective it would be a no.
Just come up with x reason, like the bacteria messing with mapping stuff to make mapping not easily done.
That said, even if all electronics fail, whats stopping you from asking the fabricator to make a paper sheet and you know, draw?
So id argue a middle ground needs to be found.
I am much for a map which only shows what you explored. Perhaps it only roughly shows your own position on the map or not at all?
Didn’t read the entire thread so apologies if I missed this. On Trello, they mentioned adding a map ala JourneyMap from MineCraft world after the 1.0 release. So, a map is on their future list at some point it sounds like.
Having no map adds to the exploration. So from that perspective it would be a no.
Just come up with x reason, like the bacteria messing with mapping stuff to make mapping not easily done.
That said, even if all electronics fail, whats stopping you from asking the fabricator to make a paper sheet and you know, draw?
So id argue a middle ground needs to be found.
I am much for a map which only shows what you explored. Perhaps it only roughly shows your own position on the map or not at all?
Having no map adds to the exploration. So from that perspective it would be a no.
Just come up with x reason, like the bacteria messing with mapping stuff to make mapping not easily done.
That said, even if all electronics fail, whats stopping you from asking the fabricator to make a paper sheet and you know, draw?
So id argue a middle ground needs to be found.
I am much for a map which only shows what you explored. Perhaps it only roughly shows your own position on the map or not at all?
Water with paper doesn't really go well....
Yet PDAs and water do? You can't use realism as the reason. And it is a video game.
Having no map adds to the exploration. So from that perspective it would be a no.
Just come up with x reason, like the bacteria messing with mapping stuff to make mapping not easily done.
That said, even if all electronics fail, whats stopping you from asking the fabricator to make a paper sheet and you know, draw?
So id argue a middle ground needs to be found.
I am much for a map which only shows what you explored. Perhaps it only roughly shows your own position on the map or not at all?
Water with paper doesn't really go well....
Yet PDAs and water do? You can't use realism as the reason. And it is a video game.
Also, there are types of paper invented specifically for use underwater by divers.
Honestly I would love a built in map, even if it didn't show biomes or anything and just let me mark things down on it. I always play using a map from the mapping subnautica page on the wiki because I'm really forgetful and can't remember what places I've been to. Specifically wrecks and pods and bases. So I mark them off on the map when I go to them. It hasn't taken anything away from my game play, I still do a lot of exploring to find the locations first. But it lets me know what things I've checked out already so I don't do it multiple times. it lets me remember which direction things are in when I remember x item is near y pod but dang it which pod was it again.
A lot of the comments I've read seem to be going with the assumption that the map will come with all locations pre-listed on it but from what i can see that's not what people want. We just want a way to mark things down because its easy to lose things otherwise. Being able to mark stuff down doesn't take anything away, and as always, can be optional. Yeah we have beacons but as some one else said, theres a lot of wrecks and such to mark and it clutters things really fast. Even the new upgrade that makes the life pods a permanent signal in your pda clutters things too much for my liking but I've never had a problem with my map.
1) Add a tab to your Data Pad labeled map
2) Add Zoom and Overlay Controls and including biome information fish and mining data Toggles
3) Add if possible 3D controls (Like the Seaglide)
4) And Scanner Room remote link controls. If the data pad is is range to broadcast
5) Add Scanner Room Chip Upgrades to increase scanning range.
6) Beacons Increase scanning range
7) Send Scanner room data to map instead of main view screen clearing needless clutter
8) Active Radio beacon finder. Adds a small sonar like sound the closer you get to a radio source to guide exploration. With a Visual guide as well say a small round indicator appears in your compass the larger it gets the closer you are.
9) Add a base Radar range of about 50 meters extendable with upgrade chips to 250
10) Beacon range should be about 100
11) Remote beacon name editor in the ping tab.
12) Leviathan class threats emit there own howls which act as their sonar. If you can hear them. "They can hear you." A sonar wave on the screen should depict that ping reply. Ghosts are the only exception.
Alterra Computer> "Scans suggest this biome has a number of cave networks. And Several Alterra signatures." Me> "Scans?" 'What scans?" "Sigh, nothing on this planet makes any sense like a Mark Plier bobble head toy?"
I think expanding on the scanner room would be a good way to make a map, since it's already so limited in it's use. Maybe limit 1 drone per scanner room(or the amount of scanner rooms you can have active), but allow it to extend the range of the map. That would allow a few carefully placed rooms to map out the world without much impact on the need to explore.
Since the snaggle tooth fish like to steal drones, it still keeps an interesting element.
Comments
Yet, the map was missing. I do agree that it would be counter productive to have a perfect map with perfect position, knowing exactly where you are and where you are going at all time. Allowing us to be lost a bit, to wander, is part of the experience.
But no map seemed… felt weird. First of all, there's an issue with taking in the environment. Technical issues, like very low FOV and drawing distance, make us feel like we are battling the engineering skills of the developers more than ourselves or those alien waters. When I was looking for wreck and parsing some regions through a comb, it was extremely difficult to do properly. It should be somewhat hard, not very very very hard.
Second of all, I felt like this was a cheap thing, especially since we have elements in games that would allow for basic mapping. When I played, I simply took a blank sheet of paper, and using the large amount of beacons I left during my travels was able to do basic math (with distances and angles) to map an approximation. And that seems like something our character, help with his technology, should be able to very easily do. And after a while I got bored of it, and simply took the less informative version of the map from the wiki, deleting the legend; which wasn't easy to do without being spoiled. Yet I was spoiled a bit
But those beacons I suspect had a performance impact on my game, and where a pain to handle, even with the color coding I used to its fullest. I don't mind the resources spent on them, fine, it's a gaming challenge to overcome. I do mind the UI and handling.
So, to me, at the very very least we should have the equivalent of a blank screen, fully editable, with inaccurate trigonometric placement of beacons (and anything where we have a range data), that upgrade to a decent placement once we have the compass item. That should be the very minimum implemented.
On the other hand of the spectrum, I'm quite opposed to map that would give us data we do not have, like 3 minutes in a biome and poof magic exact placement of every wreck and point of interest in it. Or anything like that.
Edit, Important note: glancing (because spoilers) over the previous comments, I did not use very much a scanner room. Barely at all, and now months later I can't even remember what was that like (apart from bugs). That may impact my feedback.
This game has a several facilitation (like compass, beacons, later scanner room). And if you want draw your map to yourself.
In my opinion the map kill the pleasure of the exploration and motivation to build another base and better things (like scanner room).
I haven't read the topic but my opinion is:
- no HUD or portable map
- a map generated using sensor outpost or drone only
(I'm still hoping for stuff that give a use for more than one seabase at the most convenient place)
I don't consider you can get lost in this game, even after making the beacon costly.
The major issue with an expensive map, requiring extensive farming, is that it doesn't cater to the demographics which actually want a map. Those who get around without a map would acknowledge it as a nice bonus, but the people who seem to desire a map want it easy.
They don't want to work for a map, They want a map to help them work everything else.
And that's ok, it just doesn't suit me.
The scanner room is how you access the map but deployable beacon, drone moving, or YOUR VEHICLE (+slot?) is how you generate the map.
New part = 0
New code = whatever allow to display the map from the scanner room
New tutorial = a hint on the scanner-map that your beacon/drone generate map. This would also allow a player to know WHERE THEY DIDN'T GO.
Now is a good time as any to say that if the Seamoth had 666 slo..I mean 6 slots, we could afford utilitarian module without sacrificing other feature.
Wouldn't it be better to sketch one? Nothing is stopping us.
Just come up with x reason, like the bacteria messing with mapping stuff to make mapping not easily done.
That said, even if all electronics fail, whats stopping you from asking the fabricator to make a paper sheet and you know, draw?
So id argue a middle ground needs to be found.
I am much for a map which only shows what you explored. Perhaps it only roughly shows your own position on the map or not at all?
Water with paper doesn't really go well....
Yet PDAs and water do? You can't use realism as the reason. And it is a video game.
Also, there are types of paper invented specifically for use underwater by divers.
A lot of the comments I've read seem to be going with the assumption that the map will come with all locations pre-listed on it but from what i can see that's not what people want. We just want a way to mark things down because its easy to lose things otherwise. Being able to mark stuff down doesn't take anything away, and as always, can be optional. Yeah we have beacons but as some one else said, theres a lot of wrecks and such to mark and it clutters things really fast. Even the new upgrade that makes the life pods a permanent signal in your pda clutters things too much for my liking but I've never had a problem with my map.
2) Add Zoom and Overlay Controls and including biome information fish and mining data Toggles
3) Add if possible 3D controls (Like the Seaglide)
4) And Scanner Room remote link controls. If the data pad is is range to broadcast
5) Add Scanner Room Chip Upgrades to increase scanning range.
6) Beacons Increase scanning range
7) Send Scanner room data to map instead of main view screen clearing needless clutter
8) Active Radio beacon finder. Adds a small sonar like sound the closer you get to a radio source to guide exploration. With a Visual guide as well say a small round indicator appears in your compass the larger it gets the closer you are.
9) Add a base Radar range of about 50 meters extendable with upgrade chips to 250
10) Beacon range should be about 100
11) Remote beacon name editor in the ping tab.
12) Leviathan class threats emit there own howls which act as their sonar. If you can hear them. "They can hear you." A sonar wave on the screen should depict that ping reply. Ghosts are the only exception.
Alterra Computer> "Scans suggest this biome has a number of cave networks. And Several Alterra signatures." Me> "Scans?" 'What scans?" "Sigh, nothing on this planet makes any sense like a Mark Plier bobble head toy?"
Since the snaggle tooth fish like to steal drones, it still keeps an interesting element.