Close to finishing my pre-launch playthrough, and I've got some thoughts.
Ekksu
Lost River Join Date: 2017-06-08 Member: 231016Members
Lost River Join Date: 2017-06-08 Member: 231016Members
Since this is the first time I've actually managed to play the game considerably thanks to Subnautica constantly uninstalling itself on my computer, it's only now that I have actual feedback about the mid to end game. Most of this is just a jumbled collection of random thoughts, comments, and issues I have. I just wanted to collect them all in one place instead of flooding everyone with them individually. So, uh, without further ado!
I'm sure there's probably more thoughts in my brain somewhere, but that's it for the moment, I guess! Sorry for taking up so much space.
- I seemed to have massively overrated the amount of problems Leviathans cause. I tried to find a couple to test out some cyclops modules and do some general watching, and good lord was it like finding a very dangerous needle in a very watery haystack. I ended up having to go find good ol' Sammy because I couldn't find either Ghost OR any of the reapers in the dunes/mountains. But, on the other hand...
- I hate Warpers as much as a human being can hate a ficticious creature in a video game. I had to put off all my exploring in areas with them until I got my Cyclops because the stupid things are a dime a dozen and have an agro radius bigger than a Reaper's. I can smack a Ghost in the fact and not have it notice me but putter around ~30+ meters away and around a corner from the nearest angry fax machine? Not gonna stop them from doing jack. Though I will admit, the new sounds do a good job of making me uncomfortable, which is what I assume was intended.
- I also learned that, despite being able to use EMPs, Crabsquids are just as susceptable to the 'moth shock as much as anything else. It definitely made the grand reef base much easier. They're also not as threatening as I assumed they'd be. I mean, they do scratch damage to the cyclops which is, reasonably, pretty much the only thing I've seen them in thus far. I also really like the noises they make; it's oddly soothing in a weird way. I'm trying to get some eggs for my base so I can have some ambiance.
- The Cuddlefish is the best addition to the game, ever. Wish I could pick it up though so he can come with me to more places without getting lost :c
- I've found I have a lot of fun using a map without F1. Being able to say "Okay, I'm at the Mishroom Forest wreck, if I want to get to the Blood Kelp, I need to go west and slightly north." is actually a lot of fun! The one I personally use has wrecks and biomes mapped without coordinates, though I've been making my own ("The beginning of the Sea Treader's Path is approximately 1km SW of this beacon", etc.) and it's oddly satisfying.
- The only resource I've had trouble finding is Rubies/Aluminum Oxide Crystals. Everything else is good, but I can scan half the Grand Reef for them and come out with, like two. This wouldn't be an issue if it wasn't required in damn near every late-game recipe. Silver is back to being the pacing material, but since there are a lot more recipies that need computer chips than wiring kits, it's much easier to progress.
- There are a lot of recipies that require materials that...I don't know how to make. This happened with Aerogel specifically - it said I needed it for crafting, but I didn't get the recipe to make it until I picked up a gel sack. I only knew to get one because of conversations here and on the subreddit, so if I hadn't read it there I'd have no idea what it was or where I got what I needed to make it.
- I've also seemed to stumbled on some sort of bug? I'm about 15 hours in right now and there's no sign of the Sunbeam anywhere. I'm not sure if it's because I had to spawn in a MVB the first time because of another bug or what, but there's nothing about them anywhere. I got the message from the Aurora's black box to go to the QEP before the Sunbeam told me to.
- I've also not gotten a signal for the Disease Research Facility. Checked the gun, tried to set it off, got a vague statement about it being down there somewhere, and that was it. I kind of know were it is, so it's not that big of a deal, but it would've been nice if only so I would know where to look for a LR entrance.
- Speaking of spawning it things, the game got so much more fun once I stopped hating myself for using commands. Searching for three hours to find the last Cyclops engine fragment is not my idea of fun and engaging gameplay. But I do need to mention that fragments in general are much easier to find, now, which is nice! I actually found my own MVB fragments, battery and powercell chargers, and seamoth this playthrough. The laser cutter did come rather late (I'd already gone through most of the above-ground wrecks before I got the blueprint), but that also might be because the pieces are small and I missed them. Also? Pro-tip - if you need to find fragments, turn the graphics down. The fragments show up at a higher altitude than the terrain pops in. Very handy for grassy plateau frags.
- I'd never believed in the pop-in issue with leviathans until last night. I was puttering around getting some Rubies when, out of nowhere, a ghost popped in and tried to attack me. I then watched it despawn not ten feet away from me into the nothing, and I couldn't find it again.
- It might just be me, but I feel like the visibility in deeper water is much more improved. Last save I couldn't see three feet in front of my in the grand reef, but this time I didn't even need the cyclops lights on. It's still dark elsewhere, but the ambient lighting there is very welcome, considering the fact my next task is exploring every little nook and cranny to find a hole in the wall.
I'm sure there's probably more thoughts in my brain somewhere, but that's it for the moment, I guess! Sorry for taking up so much space.
Comments
I can confirm that I also never got a sunbeam message, nor the disease control beacons. Nor a beacon for lifepod 7 and I'm about 20 hours into the latest playthrough on Stable (Oct-2017)
Not found the cuddlefish yet
I still struggle without a map. Navigation is my biggest issue in the game. The scanner list not being scrollable is also very frustrating and it seems to pick up stuff in containers sometimes.
Warpers are, hands down, one of the most frustrating things I've ever run into in a game. And I include XCOM Chryssalids in that.
Granted, crabsquids can be managed, and it sounds like you have a great strategy for that. However, they still hold the top slot on my "kill it with fire, then destroy the ashes" list. The EMP thing is basically a minor annoyance (for the most part), but the sheer, shiver-inducing creepiness of them is something I've never gotten used to. And won't.
Really close to my navigational method! I use beacons for key points (DGR Lost River entrance, JSC swiss-cheese drop, Mountain Island treasure cave, Floater Island landing beach, etc), and use a compass to orient myself to get to other, lesser locations. Once you have a fixed point as a reference and a compass bearing, you can get anywhere. (Fun Fact: Humans did this for centuries before GPS.)
Yeah, that catches me, too. This time through, I was swimming in Al2O3, but couldn't find magnetite except in tiny quantities. Between the two of us? I'd say I was the luckier one; magnetite has so few uses compared to Al2O3. Silver was still a pain, as usual.
Agreed, this is kinda frustrating, but in hindsight, there are two things keeping me from backing the change.
1. This is an exception rather than the rule. Even resources that are fairly obscure are included as basic recipes, making these "hidden unlock" recipes uncommon enough to be tolerable.
2. From a realism standpoint, it makes sense. Aerogel isn't particularly easy to make. Until you find something that can serve as a substrate, it's reasonable that the PDA - which, based on in-game lore, determines recipes based on environment - wouldn't "know" how to make aerogel with the materials you have access to. A compromise would be to include a recipe but with an unknown input ingredient, but that more or less leaves us where we are now anyway.
I've heard of this happening, but haven't seen it myself. To me, that's the hallmark of a bug. Consider reporting this on the Bug forum; it sounds like something the devteam should at least check out.
Thank you! It's not a popular stance to take, but console commands are and should remain a play option. When you get right down to it, every game is essentially a toy. With the possible exception of lawn darts, there's no wrong way to play with a toy; whatever is fun for you is the right way to play. If someone wants Subnautica to be a more relaxing exploration game by using INVISIBLE, or to sidestep the ridiculously-short air supply limitations with OXYGEN, well, they should be able to. And if the game is driving them bananas because they can't find what they need to progress and, rather than having fun, they're just getting angry, then console commands are appropriate there, too.
In a nutshell: if console commands are your thing, great. If they're not, great, too. Neither side is wrong.
I also very much agree with this. In addition to everything you said, it's also a great tool for fixing problems caused by bugs, whether they be getting stuck or problems with disappearing resources.
Not to mention how much fun it is to just go nuts with console commands and start spawning all kinds of random stuff just for fun.
Some of my most memorable gaming moments were a direct result of "cheating" with the console. To keep this post from getting too long, the highlights are in the spoiler below.
In Jedi Academy, there's some neat boss monsters that can be spawned in. One of them is a sand worm that pops up out of the ground and eats characters. I spawned a bunch of these in a level that wasn't supposed to have them, and they ate all the bad guys and glitched the level by eating the giant mutant rancor final boss (for reference, the sandworm was about the size of the rancor's foot). I spawned that same mutant rancor in the final boss room, and during a cutscene with the final boss doing his monologue, the rancor ate him.
In both of the previously mentioned games, there was also a great command to kill all NPCs in a level. It was great to use during cutscenes where everyone just drops dead. Usually broke the level scripting though.
Not to mention all the Morrowind, Oblivion, Fallout 3/NV and Skyrim shenanigans. Randomly causing NPCs to drop dead, spawning random piles of stuff into the world (look up Skyrim cheese avalanche on youtube), editing the world as you play, messing with quests and such... good times.
There's also tons of great youtube videos of various insane things people have done in Kerbal Space Program with the developer menu (not quite a console, but same idea).
Anyways, sorry for the tangent, my point is that a console is a great tool, and in a singleplayer game, it should most definitely be left in, even if just for players like me who enjoy messing around with the game. If you want to "hide" it from new players, then put a line in a config file somewhere to enable/disable it, but don't remove it entirely (even if you do, someone, somewhere will probably find a way to reenable it if the game is popular enough. See Mass Effect 2 and 3.). The most a developer might do is what Skyrim does, where opening the console disables achievements for that session (although there's mods to "fix" that as well).
Probably one of the single best arguments for leaving the console in.
There are almost always going to be malfunctions in a game. Bugs or even transient glitches can cause all kinds of hell. Getting stuck on world geometry, your expensive new (blank) falling through the &#@^#$@& ground into oblivion, a save glitch accidentally wiping out your copper stockpile somehow, all of these things really, really annoy players. When the only options are a. restart, or b. suck it up, it breeds real resentment. But if there's a console command to unstick your character or resurrect your unfairly-taken (blank), then the needle edges back to fair and fun again.
Bethesda knows this, which is a large part of why the dev console is active. Fix that quest state, get your player off that rock that somehow, against all logic you're stuck on...it turns infuriating into mildly annoying.
Software is like anything else that runs on automatic: there should always be a manual override for people who know how to use it.
Out of curiosity, has anyone tried an underwater mushroom avalanche in Subnautica?
Also, totally hate the Warpers. I feel like there should be some sort of cooldown on their warp ability so they can't just repeatedly rip you out of your PRAWN.
Yup, and that's about the only thing that's going to give us any reason to play a second or third time.
I mean, after the first time through the storyline, why would you play it again? Same story, same locations. It's not like an RPG where the storyline branches and you can hook up with different allies, etc, etc.
But with the console available you can treat the game as a sandbox and do all sorts of weird experiments. The ultimate creative mode.
I had a bit of trouble finding rubies, but then I used my noggin and it worked out. I specifically went in search of them, decided to go back to one of the objectives / markers and search around there, and I found loads of em.
Gotta say, the polish and performance of this game all around has improved tremendously since my last playthrough. My last visited marker was 'thing' at 250m down so (trying to avoid spoilers); anyone who knows that point knows how far into the game I am. Love how the reason for the lack of weapons and why there's blueprints of all this stuff leaks into the lore of the game through recorded messages (and the fact that you can tab out of PDA and listen to them while doing stuff), that's a really nice touch!
I also love how you can toggle markers now including your life pod. I like turning everything off and just using my intuition to navigate. ^_^