Abysmal UI torpedoes Subnautica's gameplay - No survivors

HamletHamlet Join Date: 2008-08-17 Member: 64837Members, Reinforced - Shadow
edited February 2018 in Subnautica General Discussion
While the game is pretty beautiful and atmospheric, I'm not spending most of my time diving and exploring, nope, instead I'm fighting the UI.
The biggest culprits being the Inventory management and Fabricator screen.

I don't know what UWE was thinking when they designed this system, but I'm baffled why they want players to spend hours dragging 2D icons from left to right and right to left. It's zero fun whatsoever. All the time I'm running out of space, including the lifepod's storage, so that I set up half a dozen external containers underneath the pod... with the result that I now have to spend even more time juggling items around whenever I want to produce something novel: "Do I still have Copper and Sulfur? Hell, I don't know, have to check and shovel through containers. Again..." [5 minutes later] "Fuck, now my Pod inventory is full and my player inventory as well." [5 minutes later] "What did I need again? Oh, it was Copper Wire, but I just turned all my Titanium into an Ingot" [5 minutes later ad infinitum, amen]

1.) Why are there no Lifepod storage extensions? I don't want to jump out of the pod, dig through 10 floating containers and run swim back to the Fabricator several times. It's just tedious busywork and all this time spent staring at an inventory screen is not what I had in mind when I installed an underwater exploration game. It's as much fun as spending 8 hours with an Excel spreadsheet... and when it comes down to grinding through inventory tables, I'd rather get paid.
2.) Why doesn't the Fabricator take the pod's storage into account? Yet another couple hours of accumulated mindless shovelwork...
3.) And why isn't there one big unified (and extensible) Base Storage?

In short: Subnautica is sabotaging itself with a UI that stands in the way and acts as a constant unnerving grindstone instead of simply getting out of the way and letting me enjoy the exploration, diving, underwater atmosphere and music.

*I ordered Sub EA in May 2015 and opted to wait for the release version.
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Comments

  • 0x6A72320x6A7232 US Join Date: 2016-10-06 Member: 222906Members
    Ive only just begun your post, but if you'd stopped to read the tooltip, you'd know you can either click or right click (depends on context) to switch items from inventory to storage and back.

    I hope the rest of your concerns have more effort put in..

    *resumes reading*
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  • 0x6A72320x6A7232 US Join Date: 2016-10-06 Member: 222906Members
    Ok, 1) build a base 2) use wall licckers which you can name and color (in edit mode, click the bottom-right circle) or use standard lockers (more storage than wall lockers) and put signs over them (or just put items in alphabetical order per locker).

    If you don't want to start your main base yet, just drop an X-Compartment or two by themselves with a hatch on the top or bottom and fill the sides with lockers. Drop a solar panel on top of you don't want to worry about breathing while managing inventory.

    Also, https://is.gd/SubnauticaNewbieTips
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  • DC_DarklingDC_Darkling Join Date: 2003-07-10 Member: 18068Members, Constellation, Squad Five Blue, Squad Five Silver
    Unified storage may be easy but ya know, its TO easy.
    Imagine being in a secondary base and able to access stuff from your first? Way way to easy.

    Im more baffled by your situation. If you got that much stuff and you are in the lifepod that means one of 2 things.
    * You are grabbing everything which can be grabbed regardless if you need it or not.
    * You are severely delaying making a base which can house, you know, actual storage lockers.
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  • gamer1000kgamer1000k Join Date: 2017-04-29 Member: 230121Members
    edited February 2018
    My solution, like 0x6A7232 said, is to simply build a bunch of named lockers. I usually do one locker (or even two for things like titanium or quartz) for each common resource, and might have a shared locker for similar uncommon resources (like the different forms of sulfur). I'll also have a locker right next to the fabricator with common intermediate crafted materials like lubricant, silicone rubber, and polyaniline since the raw materials take up so much space.

    To further reduce instances of "where did I put this?", I only maintain one primary base at a time and move all my resources with me when I change bases. At the beginning, it's the lifepod. Next, it's a base in the safe shallows as soon as I can craft a habitat builder. Finally, it's a Cyclops, although if you wanted you could keep your safe shallows base tiny and build your main base elsewhere soon after. I just like the safe, central location and the free beacon from the lifepod and the time savings of not having to scout out another base location (plus I got lucky on my playthrough and was close to the thermal vent).

    I don't collect huge piles of materials until the endgame and usually just gather what I need to go straight for the Cyclops so I can have a mobile base ASAP where I can keep everything and bring it with me. The lower deck has plenty of wall space for all the named resource lockers.


    Anyways, back to the original issue, I do see some issues with the UI, but this one does at least have some sort of in-game solution.
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  • lordoffilinglordoffiling Join Date: 2017-08-10 Member: 232342Members
    You shouldn’t have to drag any icons anywhere. The UI is rigged specifically to avoid that problem.
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  • SickSixSickSix FL Join Date: 2018-01-29 Member: 236202Members
    1. You're doing it wrong.
    2. Get out of that lifepod already.

    Early game doesn't need hoarding. Grab what you need and build it. I made all of two floating lockers before I built my first habitat.

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  • grimper12341grimper12341 Join Date: 2017-04-10 Member: 229539Members
    Thing is though, early game doesn't properly guide you towards the habitat builder. The lifepod signals introduce the seaglide and the seamoth to players, but the only way to know the habitat builder exists is to look through the entire crafting menu and see what's there. Even if a new player does this, they may not immediately recognize the importance of that particular tool.

    As a veteran, the habitat builder is now the first bit of tech I aim for, but I still remember my first playthrough where I had the exact same pod dependence issue that OP does.
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  • adel_50adel_50 Join Date: 2016-09-01 Member: 221973Members
    grimper12341 wrote: »
    Thing is though, early game doesn't properly guide you towards the habitat builder. The lifepod signals introduce the seaglide and the seamoth to players, but the only way to know the habitat builder exists is to look through the entire crafting menu and see what's there. Even if a new player does this, they may not immediately recognize the importance of that particular tool.

    As a veteran, the habitat builder is now the first bit of tech I aim for, but I still remember my first playthrough where I had the exact same pod dependence issue that OP does.

    That's why the pda says in the beginning (please refer to databank for detailed survival advice good luck) and there in one of the entries it has a checklist one of them is (build a habitat) or something like that in my eyes i see that everyone needs to read these pdas because they give you knowledge of what you don't know and in this case giving a new player breadcrumbs to follow
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