Okay people.....for the love of god stop making it sound like this game hasn't delivered on a promise that it hasn't even made.
The game isn't finished, yes the blueprints not being there from the previous game is surprising but you could always just ask when they were going to be added instead of acting like you work for unknown worlds as a game programmer and designer and literally KNOW that there is no reason for this to not be included.
The game has a great premise. I love the scientist looking for new and exciting knowledge outside of the current understanding trope and have enjoyed what I have experienced so far. I have played everything at my disposal right now and just want to give you guys a shout out for not having near as much optimization issues with this release. It runs much smoother than the original early access. Kudos.
If you are like me and there are no more objectives popping up for you to work towards then try to understand that it will most likely be included in an upcoming update. Whether it is in the next one or not, have patience.
We are showing them the blemishes that they did not find themselves so that they can polish it, something most game developers have been lacking in recent years.
If you bought this game with the words "Early Access" on it and expect a full game then that is nobody else's fault but your own. Don't take your misguided frustration out on the game developers who actually care what their players think of the game, they are few and far between and should be protected at all costs.
sincerely
A Subnautica Fanboy (A.K.A. happysycko)
I think there is a few things the developers could of sorted before putting it out for paid early access. We're paying and yes things won't be right but there are some fundamentals here that should be pointed out. Just having the same game in a different scenario doesn't really take the whole Subnautica concept forward. The original game is still there so going through a longer start up before being able to do the things you could in the first game is an odd decision.
This has to be a different experience building on what went before and taking the concept further. There are some starts on that with the onland bases and the whole storyline which is great! but if the core gameplay is the same then it just competes with the original rather than taking it further.
There is so much still to come in the game which is great for early access though this feels very much alpha at the moment, but lets give them the feedback with everything good and bad and i'm sure they will sort through what can help.
Jesus Christ, what in hell is wrong with you people. THEY'RE WORKING ON IT. THEY'RE WORKING ON ALL OF IT. IT'S GOING TO BE WORKED ON FOR AT LEAST A YEAR. YOU WERE TOLD ABOUT THIS ALREADY. You were told about this before the game launched. The game itself tells you.
The sea dragon in the tree spires is one of the ones that was released in the og subnautica they cough out the same enzyme 42 that the baby sea dragons were coughing out after released. jus thought that was kinda kool
Three times I have come here to post this and gotten distracted...*sigh*
Please make the cursor larger on high resolution screens, and make it stand out more from the background. When almost everything is blue, it's bordering on futile to try and find a tiny, blue cursor.
Okay people.....for the love of god stop making it sound like this game hasn't delivered on a promise that it hasn't even made.
The game isn't finished, yes the blueprints not being there from the previous game is surprising but you could always just ask when they were going to be added instead of acting like you work for unknown worlds as a game programmer and designer and literally KNOW that there is no reason for this to not be included.
The game has a great premise. I love the scientist looking for new and exciting knowledge outside of the current understanding trope and have enjoyed what I have experienced so far. I have played everything at my disposal right now and just want to give you guys a shout out for not having near as much optimization issues with this release. It runs much smoother than the original early access. Kudos.
If you are like me and there are no more objectives popping up for you to work towards then try to understand that it will most likely be included in an upcoming update. Whether it is in the next one or not, have patience.
We are showing them the blemishes that they did not find themselves so that they can polish it, something most game developers have been lacking in recent years.
If you bought this game with the words "Early Access" on it and expect a full game then that is nobody else's fault but your own. Don't take your misguided frustration out on the game developers who actually care what their players think of the game, they are few and far between and should be protected at all costs.
sincerely
A Subnautica Fanboy (A.K.A. happysycko)
Didn't they planned release date on February?
Right now game is at alpha stage pretty much, similar to how original Subnautica was two years before release...
Didn't they planned release date on February?
Right now game is at alpha stage pretty much, similar to how original Subnautica was two years before release...
Yes. The release date for Early Access. It's been stated repeatedly that this game won't be finished for at least a year in multiple places. It's like a bunch of y'all have forgotten how to read or retain what you've read, and are disappointed that reality and your expectations aren't matching up, when you were explicitly told not to have those expectations.
You will know when the story portion that is "doneish" is reached because they tell you in this beta when it happens.
Here is another tip:
Where I work we are something like 2 versions ahead of what is out for the customer to test. It is like this at many development places. It is probable that what the developers are working on is something like 2 versions ahead of what we are seeing.
That depends. This is game development, and it's early access, way different from any other kind of software development. If MS SQL Server released with the level of bugs and incompleteness Below Zero has, there would be a lot of screaming and a mass exodus of customers to Oracle or some other database. Even the equivalent of early access in most software domains is nearly bug free, just not completely tweaked and polished yet. This has become, at least to certain people, acceptable in the game domain and more so in early access/alpha/beta situations. There's really nothing that can be done about it either, because competition in game development drives this kind of "here's what we got, we'll add to it/fix it up later" release methodology.
P.S.: Anyone found more than 1 of the 4 pieces of Alan?
Bought the game yesterday and I presume I've seen everything there is to see right now. General impression is positive to very positive.
It took me a little to get into the character-driven nature of the game, but I started enjoying it around the point Maxim made his entrance. I like the dynamics, though, having taken a sneak peek at some text on the wiki, I get the impression Maxim is supposed to come across as Alterra-streetwise and not shouty store manager.
I adore the drop pod. It's such a neat little design.
It was a given how the starter scenario would end, but I gotta say that the build up to and the angle from which to observe the avalanche and all was really well set up.
Loving the twisty bridges biome! It looks amazing and was fun to explore.
What I don't like so far is that I have to be given the habitat builder. I can definitely see an enjoyable functionality to being gifted new tech, but I doubt it'll ever work for the habitat builder. It forces linearity too much.
I hope the bonesharks are a placeholder (or that the original game will see a reduction to their numbers), because I'm kinda like tired of them. They're everywhere and these days feel more like filler than that I can take them seriously as NPCs.
Looking forward to future updates, the new vehicles in particular. They're neat!
hi, I'm not usually into buying early releases of games, so please forgive me if this question is silly or out of place, but I would really like to play the early release of Subnautica: Below Zero, and was wondering how the financial aspect goes.... Does Early Access purchase reduce the cost of the full game? Or will it be considered purchasing a new game all together?
The only problem is that I really hate the fact that subnautica became free after release, and I had spent 20 $ on the game before, as well as when the game was in development the issues that were addressed were never fixed, such as damaged saves. I would recommend making the dlc free to keep players interested, whilst having players buy the base game first.
The only problem is that I really hate the fact that subnautica became free after release, and I had spent 20 $ on the game before, as well as when the game was in development the issues that were addressed were never fixed, such as damaged saves. I would recommend making the dlc free to keep players interested, whilst having players buy the base game first.
I feel your pain about the game going free on another site but they do not support the game issues.
hi, I'm not usually into buying early releases of games, so please forgive me if this question is silly or out of place, but I would really like to play the early release of Subnautica: Below Zero, and was wondering how the financial aspect goes.... Does Early Access purchase reduce the cost of the full game? Or will it be considered purchasing a new game all together?
I'm pretty certain that whenever you buy Below Zero you own it completely and it will get updated until release. That's how I remember early access worked for the base game and my assumption is that they would do the same thing again.
It's not my first early access. I do agree that we have to be patient for all the items, and story to be added. BUT this one seems like they run out of money and were rush to sale without to be even close to the proper time to do it.
I assume that soon we will have predators. Don't get me wrong, i hate being killed also i do see all of the old predators here as well, but most of them are faaaar away of attacking me. (Except these small annoying fishes around the big one i am taking oxygen from - they never miss!)
Also i do see coper, and lead and almost all resources i need, but the game is so poorly balanced that it take more time to find piece of coper than find the Emperor itself.
As a QA i have to say that most of the things in the game i would never approve to go live even for early access in the form they are now. For example the island next to the rocket one - it has a huge mountain in it which is not filled it. It is marked only. SO one wrong step in the brown rock-ish surface could cause u either an hour of attempts to reach place to escape or suicide in order to reach back your base! - This easily could not be committed in production before to be filled in! AND it is not early access thingy.
I feel like this devs just don't have QAs which is not the proper approach these days. Or if you prefer to do all by your own - there is a tactic for it as well
I am happy with how beautiful this game is! I can't really see why it is so much heavier than the old one, when everything seems the same to me, but i didn't get i much details yet.
I can't believe all the already found blueprints are not accessible at the moment just because it is early access. You already have the code for it! More than a half game is just copy/paste form the old one (at least from what is visible for now).
----
All these should be constructive critics, basically you can build one pretty good game, IF you care to keep the old players not only finding new. I can't wait to see how the story line proceeds. I still can't find the Omega base so am stuck for now.
I've been really enjoying the game so far, have explored pretty much everywhere (but perhaps I have missed something as I am still missing magnetite and a few others that are required for some items) and built a few little base camps in interesting or deep places. I found plenty of lead, silver, gold, crystalline sulphur, ruby, that other ingredient for aerogel, there seems to be an unlimited supply of seaglide and gravtrap pieces for titanium. I don't have the hover thing featured in the video yet, is it available at the moment?
A little bit annoying that there are some things that I cannot scan even though I don't have them in my database yet, such as the lamp stands. I found a small base (where I could just swim straight in through a closed hatch without opening it, no O2 inside the base) but no moonpool, would really like a hint as to which direction that's in please!
baronvonsatan, care to share where I may find magnetite? Just a general direction or hint as to what else it's near, I thought I'd been everywhere but never came across any.
It's kinda fun swimming along and suddenly coming across a large straight edge on the sea bed, with a perfectly straight cliff! Really looking forward to seeing these places populated and finished.
Loving the new flora and fauna, some of the "Early Access" descriptions are hilarious! Hoping you can keep tying them all together into a believable ecosystem as you have been so far, including the bizarre and outright weird that somehow still work together.
When there's an update do we have to start the game again, or what happens if we've built a base where you've made radical changes?
Hi all, I have a question but cannot found an answer about Subnautica BZ EA.
Will the character inventory and base(s) preserve after next patch? ( = does it make sense to collect more resources and wait for the next patch?)
Oh, and a few critical comments which I hope might be of use to the devs...
In the descriptions and general idea I get from playing the game, the various limestone etc rocks that contain metals and minerals I think should be redesigned, at the moment they just look like rocks one might find on dry land, the one with gold in seems to be the most realistic looking (it is smooth, as if worn down by the action of the sea) but I feel even that could look better; I think they should look more like the barnacles but without the barnacle mouth, they are supposed to be built up calcareous or limestone-like deposits around a mineral or metal so they should look more attached to the rock surface they protrude from, and not like a rock that's just been stuck there with velcro. By all means have these existing rocks sitting on the sea bed, maybe in little clusters where they have settled due to gravity, maybe certain types could be gathered by the creatures that dwell down there to build a home (just as real sea and pond creatures do), the challenge will be getting those rocks, maybe with a little moral dilemma as you'll be destroying this poor innocent creature's hard work (what would be extra-cool is if when you remove some of the rocks then the creature will go about rebuilding their home, and you have the option to replace what you take with items that are useless to you and see them be incorporated into the creature's new habitat - permanently there every time you visit, or until you nab them back!)
I see some creatures predating others, but I feel that all creatures should have a few essential characteristics:
1) All creatures should feed on something, whether it is filter feeding on micro organisms in the water, plant life, or other creatures;
2) Most creatures should be either predator or prey, and have defence / attack methods and mechanisms as appropriate; how about more sea bed creatures such as scallops, anemones, something beyond just waving plants;
3) When a predator attacks prey it should either kill it, take a chunk out of it, or eat it outright - not just leave a small plume of yellow blood in the water; I'd really like to see those penguin creatures chasing down fish and visibly eating them, maybe even feed them to their young back on the icebergs;
A few more observations / ideas, some of which are hang-overs from the original game:
4) Walking on land feels awkward, we automatically remove the flippers so there should be no reason why we can't clamber over small rocks etc, having to try to jump over stuff and being blocked by invisible barriers in order to stifle freedom just feels like a cop-out in this day and age;
5) Why can't we deconstruct existing items to gain raw materials? If you don't want us to do this, then at least please come up with a reason why it can't be done, such as the habitat builder won't deconstruct anything not constructed by the current user without some sort of authorisation (as in, each piece is uniquely coded so that only authorised people can deconstruct or add to it), something plausible that would fit in the game universe;
6) Maybe I missed something, but why was the base at the start of the game seemingly abandoned? Are there characters to be added in an update? It was supposed to have 30 people working there from what I read.
Plot suggestion: The orbital station is somehow obliterated, maybe by sabotage, maybe incompetence, maybe by alien forces... after that we get to salvage wreckage and discover cool new stuff, but really are on our own completely from that point on.
So, i don't usually buy Early Access games but i made an exception for Subnautica Below Zero and even though i've been using the feedback button a lot i figure i might as well post some of my thoughts here too in hopes that some dev reads them. Not knowing what exactly is planned for Below Zero(i really don't want to spoil myself much by looking at the to-do page for the early access) i might be making suggestions or complain about stuff that is either already planned to be added later on, or stuff that will be addressed further down the line, and i wont talk about anything that is a bug or fps issues or anything that is a placeholder(although not knowing what is and isn't a placeholder i can only hope that all these returning fish will get the "Arctic treatment" like the peeper did) but still here goes.
So far everything i loved about Subnautica seems to be back, the areas that seem to be mostly finished(mainly the twisty bridges) are gorgeous, my only complaint about that is that the immediate area around the habitat seems pretty dark, and i feel that if this is supposed to be the equivalent of the safe shallows then the water should be much clearer and bright, i explicitly mean the area directly around the habitat because there are deeper parts to the safety shallows that are pretty dark and tense and that's how those deeper parts should be.
On the subject of feeling tense i'm not sure how i feel about the oxygen plants, if these are the arctic equivalent of the brain coral and they're just going to be around in the twisty bridges and other starting areas then i guess they are fine, but they feel too common imo, i feel like at times at the start of the game you can go very deep by just going from oxygen plant to oxygen plant, and this seems intended by their placement, but i think they should be used more sparingly, as something that you see when you're running out of oxygen and think "thank god, there's an oxygen plant right there" rather than a mechanic used to dive deeper.
Also something that is obviously intended but i always felt like it was a detriment to the game, and has returned, is how predators will run away from you the moment they take a single hit, in Subnautica 1 even after i knew this the enviroment still made me tense, but i always knew i wasn't in any real danger, even Leviathans would just bump into you once and then turn around giving you ample time to escape, and while i feel it's appropriate that the smaller predators like the Stalker(and i assume the Brute Shark is the equivalent), i definitively think that bigger predators or predators in later areas of the game should be far more aggressive, Bone Sharks were pretty aggressive but even they would do hit and run instead of just hitting and hitting, and for that reason there were certain modules for vehicles that were largely unnecessary as you could just get out of the way and hop out of your seamoth to repair it.
Now, the big one that i've seen other people complain about and is definitively my biggest issue with Below Zero, it's how the story plays. I'll start by the positives, the voice work is excellent and even though i normally hate happy quirky characters, nothing so far has made me roll my eyes, also i really enjoyed the opening sequence with you waking up, talking to your sister, going the alien facility and all hell breaking loose. However, the problems start once you get the habitat, once i got the habitat i just wanted to explore and roam around which of course you can do, but very often your sister will talk to you without you having any say on the matter and i feel it's very distracting, now i half expect something to go horribly wrong and cut communication between you and the space station later on, but either way i think this has a very easy and simple fix(at least i would hope it's easy and simple) that should please everyone, and it's something that was there in Subnautica 1, the Radio.
The only adjustment that would need to be done is come up with a reason why you cannot communicate through your PDA anymore, which is very simple since you see the avalanche take down that huge antenna that was in the base at the start of the game, it even falls down and cracks the ice allowing you to escape, at that point it's just a matter of putting a radio in the habitat that your sister sends down and you use that radio to communicate with her. I also think it would make the habitat or your base feel more safe and relaxing if you can go back and speak with other humans while you're there. And that's it, it's perfect, you can now explore at your own leisure do whatever you want and whenever it's time for the plot to happen, you can just go and advance the plot at your own convenience without the story/plot/voice acting starting up unexpectedly when you're in the middle of your exploration. Unfortunately that still leaves you with Alan talking to you, of course since even right now in the first stage of Early Access he wants you to build him a vessel, my hope is that you can do this fairly early into the game and then you just leave him in your habitat, or base, or cyclops and it would just be like having a second radio.
That is by far my biggest issue with the game right now, but there is another thing that i have a problem with, however since this is early access i would hope that this happens the way it happens precisely because it's early access, but it's how things seem to be gated behind the plot, right now your sister sends you the habitat builder, and implies that she will send you a vehicle later and that is another thing i really do not like, i feel like it's unnecessary to gate things behind the plot instead of just gating them like Subnautica 1 did by just leaving fragments to scan and wrecks(in this case i guess it would be abandoned facilities and outposts?) scattered around, perhaps somethings could be gated behind the plot but i feel like vehicles and base building should not be on that list. Slightly related to that subject is the supply drops, this might just be a polish thing that is on a to-do list somewhere, or maybe it's a bug, but the beacon for them doesn't disappear when you collect them, and if that's intended then my beacon tab on my PDA is going to end up incredibly cluttered.
So that's pretty much my big feedback, there's a couple other things but not knowing how things will be implemented they might be a waste of time, but for example i really hope the weather system and the day/night cycle has a big impact on how temperature works but also on how the sea and creatures behave, or perhaps even affects what creatures appear at all. I wouldn't expect all fish to be out and about if it's freezing or hot for example. Also while vehicles aren't formally in, another thing that i feel like it was a slight problem in Subnautica 1 is that once you have a vehicle, oxygen stops being a real problem, of course accidents can still happen like a reaper suddenly eating your seamoth while you were exploring a wreck, but i don't think it makes sense that vehicles have infinite oxygen, i think either power cells on vehicles should last less, or, some of oxygen tank item could be introduced that you use on vehicles to refill their oxygen reserves.
But that's pretty much it, other than that it's just random nitpicks(like how solar panels still don't snap in place anywhere and foundations are off center) or random suggestions/wishlist stuff(like how i really wish you could put windows on the ceiling of multipurpose rooms, or how i hope that big chasm in the twisty bridges that looks like it would lead to another biome is made much much deeper and even darker than it is right now). Overall i like Below Zero so far and i'm really looking forward to the future updates, my only big fear is that the story remains working as it works now, that is the one thing that i really hope changes either later on the story, or later in development.
So far everything i loved about Subnautica seems to be back,
Along with a few unfixed annoyances / bugs too, it would seem! I hope the devs will listen and fix these this time around. Have to say that Subnautica still feels like it was abandoned at 99% completed, that final bit of polish just never seemed to arrive (not least because the feedback / debug system is still there, yet they're very unlikely to continue development on it now).
a polish thing that is on a to-do list somewhere, or maybe it's a bug, but the beacon for them doesn't disappear when you collect them, and if that's intended then my beacon tab on my PDA is going to end up incredibly cluttered.
On that subject, here's an idea: as well as turning off a PDA location beacon, it should be possible to delete or create these beacons ourselves. NPCs in the game clearly can add beacons to our PDA so why can't we? Relying on the physical beacon seems like a clunky way of allowing the player to make them, so why not just have it so that we can say 'make a new beacon at my current location' just as we can with a real GPS - no need for a physical beacon - better yet if we actually had a GPS map system in the game we could drop a location marker on it (area topography is either blank or very basic to start off with until visited) to mark places we want to explore next. Perhaps we could build a topographical scanner and/or a GPS map tool.
another thing that i feel like it was a slight problem in Subnautica 1 is that once you have a vehicle, oxygen stops being a real problem, of course accidents can still happen like a reaper suddenly eating your seamoth while you were exploring a wreck, but i don't think it makes sense that vehicles have infinite oxygen, i think either power cells on vehicles should last less, or, some of oxygen tank item could be introduced that you use on vehicles to refill their oxygen reserves.
I wondered that too. Perhaps a vehicle can replenish it's o2 by being on the surface but not immediate, quick but not as quick as for the player, as there is much more o2 supply in a vehicle (like 15 minutes supply or something, upgradable), if the vehicle o2 runs out then the player auto-switches to their own o2 supply as an emergency measure while they attempt to get to the surface or otherwise replenish the o2. How about a manufacturable o2 supply tank that can be dropped in strategic places, attachable to a vehicle or for personal use. I feel there is a lot that can be added to make the vehicles much more interesting and not just a faster way of getting somewhere, some of the features that were in the Cyclops I'm sure could be in the Seamoth on a smaller scale. I'd really like those green screens to have a function as well, like system or environment readouts. In fact I wish more of the screens in the game had practical uses rather than being purely decorative.
Didn't they planned release date on February?
Right now game is at alpha stage pretty much, similar to how original Subnautica was two years before release...
Yes. The release date for Early Access. It's been stated repeatedly that this game won't be finished for at least a year in multiple places. It's like a bunch of y'all have forgotten how to read or retain what you've read, and are disappointed that reality and your expectations aren't matching up, when you were explicitly told not to have those expectations.
This is what happens when one "plays" a game that is in a testing stage instead of actually "play TESTING" the game and providing meaningful feedback in an appropriate manner.
I’m watching playthoughs because PS4 sucks. My main complaint is the arbitrary changes of crafting recipes. I don’t mean things like batteries using the new ribbon plants, that’s fine because I don’t remember seeing any acid shrooms, so obviously you’d substitute another acid producing flora for them. I mean things like the O2 tank suddenly needing fibre mesh for no apparent reason. Unless you’re changing that in the base game too, it’s gonna trigger my OCD something fierce.
Subnautica was one of my favorite games of 2018. I've been a hardcore gamer for over 30 years and play almost everything, in every genre.
One of the best things about the game for me was the exploration. It was eerie, scouring dark places with danger lurking about. It had a bit of a Jaws effect, keeping you turning around, expecting to see a mouthful of teeth ready to chomp down on you.
Only after a while did I learn the paths of the dangerous wildlife and was able to consistently avoid them.
Enhance that Jaws effect! Have a few unique predators roam certain entire biomes (except starting biome), so we always need to be on our toes...or fins.
You will introduce more landmass in Below Zero, but be aware that there is no verticality in those. Exploration is less in zones like that. You could choose to have the landmass span over the entire biome map and make it some kind of "fast travel" place to hover-bike from one end of the map to another point with the added threat of that Kraken thing bursting out of the ice.
I kind of agree with some previous comments, that you should try to move forward from where you left off in last game. The recipes we had in the first game should be rapidly available. However, what made the game was the fact that these "upgrades" made deeper biomes available for exploration. You really need to keep that aspect of the game. Building your character and gear to be able to continuously go further. Only this time, try to find ways or story elements to integrate new tech that will allow for the same progression.
I suspect that those oxygen flowers were one such addition that made you wonder if bringing the Seamoth out early wouldn't defeat their purpose. Sure, but you could restrict access to areas (cave complexes), and make the entrances too small for the Seamoth to enter.
I would love to have all the tools we had before back, fairly early on. Then, certain things should prevent me from using them to explore everything and new tools should be invented/discovered to allow me to go deeper or further.
Maybe I would need an icedrill to drill from the topside to the water in certain areas. Maybe my prawnsuit/cyclops needs an icedrill/heatlaser to be able to get through certain iceblocks in my way. Maybe I need to construct a massive drill up top to drill down to even deeper biomes.
Maybe a fishing rod, for ice-fishing up top.
Maybe certain biomes are infested with lethal predators and I need camouflage for either my vehicles or myself to be able to pass through them.
Maybe one biome is inside a gargantuan squid and after I'm eaten by it, I need to find a way out.
If you aim for the same amount of biomes, the same amount of new tools and new vehicles as in the first game, while allowing access to all the previous ones, you're golden.
A little bit annoying that there are some things that I cannot scan even though I don't have them in my database yet, such as the lamp stands. I found a small base (where I could just swim straight in through a closed hatch without opening it, no O2 inside the base) but no moonpool, would really like a hint as to which direction that's in please!
baronvonsatan, care to share where I may find magnetite? Just a general direction or hint as to what else it's near, I thought I'd been everywhere but never came across any.
When there's an update do we have to start the game again, or what happens if we've built a base where you've made radical changes?
The moon pool isn't scannable yet, so this might not do you any good, but Station Cappa is in the Lilypad Biome.
I've found magnetite in two spots: around the vents with all the black smoke and in the unfinished Deep Twisty Bridges biome. It's relatively rare, so I recommend setting up a scanner room.
If it's as with the first game, updates do not account for older save files. If the old isn't compatible with the new, the old will be overridden. At best you'll have terrain clipping through your base.
Hi all, I have a question but cannot found an answer about Subnautica BZ EA.
Will the character inventory and base(s) preserve after next patch? ( = does it make sense to collect more resources and wait for the next patch?)
Thanks
See my reply above. Inventory ought to be safe. I recommend not to play with the intent of keeping a savefile across multiple updates, not in the least because it might cause bugs outside of the development scope.
Comments
I think there is a few things the developers could of sorted before putting it out for paid early access. We're paying and yes things won't be right but there are some fundamentals here that should be pointed out. Just having the same game in a different scenario doesn't really take the whole Subnautica concept forward. The original game is still there so going through a longer start up before being able to do the things you could in the first game is an odd decision.
This has to be a different experience building on what went before and taking the concept further. There are some starts on that with the onland bases and the whole storyline which is great! but if the core gameplay is the same then it just competes with the original rather than taking it further.
There is so much still to come in the game which is great for early access though this feels very much alpha at the moment, but lets give them the feedback with everything good and bad and i'm sure they will sort through what can help.
Clear your download cache and restart Steam.
Jesus Christ, what in hell is wrong with you people. THEY'RE WORKING ON IT. THEY'RE WORKING ON ALL OF IT. IT'S GOING TO BE WORKED ON FOR AT LEAST A YEAR. YOU WERE TOLD ABOUT THIS ALREADY. You were told about this before the game launched. The game itself tells you.
What makes you think that Early Access and alpha are mutually exclusive things?
Please make the cursor larger on high resolution screens, and make it stand out more from the background. When almost everything is blue, it's bordering on futile to try and find a tiny, blue cursor.
Didn't they planned release date on February?
Right now game is at alpha stage pretty much, similar to how original Subnautica was two years before release...
Yes. The release date for Early Access. It's been stated repeatedly that this game won't be finished for at least a year in multiple places. It's like a bunch of y'all have forgotten how to read or retain what you've read, and are disappointed that reality and your expectations aren't matching up, when you were explicitly told not to have those expectations.
Here is another tip:
Where I work we are something like 2 versions ahead of what is out for the customer to test. It is like this at many development places. It is probable that what the developers are working on is something like 2 versions ahead of what we are seeing.
P.S.: Anyone found more than 1 of the 4 pieces of Alan?
Looking forward to future updates, the new vehicles in particular. They're neat!
I feel your pain about the game going free on another site but they do not support the game issues.
I'm pretty certain that whenever you buy Below Zero you own it completely and it will get updated until release. That's how I remember early access worked for the base game and my assumption is that they would do the same thing again.
I assume that soon we will have predators. Don't get me wrong, i hate being killed
Also i do see coper, and lead and almost all resources i need, but the game is so poorly balanced that it take more time to find piece of coper than find the Emperor itself.
As a QA i have to say that most of the things in the game i would never approve to go live even for early access in the form they are now. For example the island next to the rocket one - it has a huge mountain in it which is not filled it. It is marked only. SO one wrong step in the brown rock-ish surface could cause u either an hour of attempts to reach place to escape or suicide in order to reach back your base! - This easily could not be committed in production before to be filled in! AND it is not early access thingy.
I feel like this devs just don't have QAs which is not the proper approach these days. Or if you prefer to do all by your own - there is a tactic for it as well
I am happy with how beautiful this game is! I can't really see why it is so much heavier than the old one, when everything seems the same to me, but i didn't get i much details yet.
I can't believe all the already found blueprints are not accessible at the moment just because it is early access. You already have the code for it! More than a half game is just copy/paste form the old one (at least from what is visible for now).
----
All these should be constructive critics, basically you can build one pretty good game, IF you care to keep the old players not only finding new. I can't wait to see how the story line proceeds. I still can't find the Omega base so am stuck for now.
Have a great day
A little bit annoying that there are some things that I cannot scan even though I don't have them in my database yet, such as the lamp stands. I found a small base (where I could just swim straight in through a closed hatch without opening it, no O2 inside the base) but no moonpool, would really like a hint as to which direction that's in please!
baronvonsatan, care to share where I may find magnetite? Just a general direction or hint as to what else it's near, I thought I'd been everywhere but never came across any.
It's kinda fun swimming along and suddenly coming across a large straight edge on the sea bed, with a perfectly straight cliff! Really looking forward to seeing these places populated and finished.
Loving the new flora and fauna, some of the "Early Access" descriptions are hilarious! Hoping you can keep tying them all together into a believable ecosystem as you have been so far, including the bizarre and outright weird that somehow still work together.
When there's an update do we have to start the game again, or what happens if we've built a base where you've made radical changes?
Will the character inventory and base(s) preserve after next patch? ( = does it make sense to collect more resources and wait for the next patch?)
Thanks
In the descriptions and general idea I get from playing the game, the various limestone etc rocks that contain metals and minerals I think should be redesigned, at the moment they just look like rocks one might find on dry land, the one with gold in seems to be the most realistic looking (it is smooth, as if worn down by the action of the sea) but I feel even that could look better; I think they should look more like the barnacles but without the barnacle mouth, they are supposed to be built up calcareous or limestone-like deposits around a mineral or metal so they should look more attached to the rock surface they protrude from, and not like a rock that's just been stuck there with velcro. By all means have these existing rocks sitting on the sea bed, maybe in little clusters where they have settled due to gravity, maybe certain types could be gathered by the creatures that dwell down there to build a home (just as real sea and pond creatures do), the challenge will be getting those rocks, maybe with a little moral dilemma as you'll be destroying this poor innocent creature's hard work (what would be extra-cool is if when you remove some of the rocks then the creature will go about rebuilding their home, and you have the option to replace what you take with items that are useless to you and see them be incorporated into the creature's new habitat - permanently there every time you visit, or until you nab them back!)
I see some creatures predating others, but I feel that all creatures should have a few essential characteristics:
1) All creatures should feed on something, whether it is filter feeding on micro organisms in the water, plant life, or other creatures;
2) Most creatures should be either predator or prey, and have defence / attack methods and mechanisms as appropriate; how about more sea bed creatures such as scallops, anemones, something beyond just waving plants;
3) When a predator attacks prey it should either kill it, take a chunk out of it, or eat it outright - not just leave a small plume of yellow blood in the water; I'd really like to see those penguin creatures chasing down fish and visibly eating them, maybe even feed them to their young back on the icebergs;
A few more observations / ideas, some of which are hang-overs from the original game:
4) Walking on land feels awkward, we automatically remove the flippers so there should be no reason why we can't clamber over small rocks etc, having to try to jump over stuff and being blocked by invisible barriers in order to stifle freedom just feels like a cop-out in this day and age;
5) Why can't we deconstruct existing items to gain raw materials? If you don't want us to do this, then at least please come up with a reason why it can't be done, such as the habitat builder won't deconstruct anything not constructed by the current user without some sort of authorisation (as in, each piece is uniquely coded so that only authorised people can deconstruct or add to it), something plausible that would fit in the game universe;
6) Maybe I missed something, but why was the base at the start of the game seemingly abandoned? Are there characters to be added in an update? It was supposed to have 30 people working there from what I read.
Plot suggestion: The orbital station is somehow obliterated, maybe by sabotage, maybe incompetence, maybe by alien forces... after that we get to salvage wreckage and discover cool new stuff, but really are on our own completely from that point on.
So far everything i loved about Subnautica seems to be back, the areas that seem to be mostly finished(mainly the twisty bridges) are gorgeous, my only complaint about that is that the immediate area around the habitat seems pretty dark, and i feel that if this is supposed to be the equivalent of the safe shallows then the water should be much clearer and bright, i explicitly mean the area directly around the habitat because there are deeper parts to the safety shallows that are pretty dark and tense and that's how those deeper parts should be.
On the subject of feeling tense i'm not sure how i feel about the oxygen plants, if these are the arctic equivalent of the brain coral and they're just going to be around in the twisty bridges and other starting areas then i guess they are fine, but they feel too common imo, i feel like at times at the start of the game you can go very deep by just going from oxygen plant to oxygen plant, and this seems intended by their placement, but i think they should be used more sparingly, as something that you see when you're running out of oxygen and think "thank god, there's an oxygen plant right there" rather than a mechanic used to dive deeper.
Also something that is obviously intended but i always felt like it was a detriment to the game, and has returned, is how predators will run away from you the moment they take a single hit, in Subnautica 1 even after i knew this the enviroment still made me tense, but i always knew i wasn't in any real danger, even Leviathans would just bump into you once and then turn around giving you ample time to escape, and while i feel it's appropriate that the smaller predators like the Stalker(and i assume the Brute Shark is the equivalent), i definitively think that bigger predators or predators in later areas of the game should be far more aggressive, Bone Sharks were pretty aggressive but even they would do hit and run instead of just hitting and hitting, and for that reason there were certain modules for vehicles that were largely unnecessary as you could just get out of the way and hop out of your seamoth to repair it.
Now, the big one that i've seen other people complain about and is definitively my biggest issue with Below Zero, it's how the story plays. I'll start by the positives, the voice work is excellent and even though i normally hate happy quirky characters, nothing so far has made me roll my eyes, also i really enjoyed the opening sequence with you waking up, talking to your sister, going the alien facility and all hell breaking loose. However, the problems start once you get the habitat, once i got the habitat i just wanted to explore and roam around which of course you can do, but very often your sister will talk to you without you having any say on the matter and i feel it's very distracting, now i half expect something to go horribly wrong and cut communication between you and the space station later on, but either way i think this has a very easy and simple fix(at least i would hope it's easy and simple) that should please everyone, and it's something that was there in Subnautica 1, the Radio.
The only adjustment that would need to be done is come up with a reason why you cannot communicate through your PDA anymore, which is very simple since you see the avalanche take down that huge antenna that was in the base at the start of the game, it even falls down and cracks the ice allowing you to escape, at that point it's just a matter of putting a radio in the habitat that your sister sends down and you use that radio to communicate with her. I also think it would make the habitat or your base feel more safe and relaxing if you can go back and speak with other humans while you're there. And that's it, it's perfect, you can now explore at your own leisure do whatever you want and whenever it's time for the plot to happen, you can just go and advance the plot at your own convenience without the story/plot/voice acting starting up unexpectedly when you're in the middle of your exploration. Unfortunately that still leaves you with Alan talking to you, of course since even right now in the first stage of Early Access he wants you to build him a vessel, my hope is that you can do this fairly early into the game and then you just leave him in your habitat, or base, or cyclops and it would just be like having a second radio.
That is by far my biggest issue with the game right now, but there is another thing that i have a problem with, however since this is early access i would hope that this happens the way it happens precisely because it's early access, but it's how things seem to be gated behind the plot, right now your sister sends you the habitat builder, and implies that she will send you a vehicle later and that is another thing i really do not like, i feel like it's unnecessary to gate things behind the plot instead of just gating them like Subnautica 1 did by just leaving fragments to scan and wrecks(in this case i guess it would be abandoned facilities and outposts?) scattered around, perhaps somethings could be gated behind the plot but i feel like vehicles and base building should not be on that list. Slightly related to that subject is the supply drops, this might just be a polish thing that is on a to-do list somewhere, or maybe it's a bug, but the beacon for them doesn't disappear when you collect them, and if that's intended then my beacon tab on my PDA is going to end up incredibly cluttered.
So that's pretty much my big feedback, there's a couple other things but not knowing how things will be implemented they might be a waste of time, but for example i really hope the weather system and the day/night cycle has a big impact on how temperature works but also on how the sea and creatures behave, or perhaps even affects what creatures appear at all. I wouldn't expect all fish to be out and about if it's freezing or hot for example. Also while vehicles aren't formally in, another thing that i feel like it was a slight problem in Subnautica 1 is that once you have a vehicle, oxygen stops being a real problem, of course accidents can still happen like a reaper suddenly eating your seamoth while you were exploring a wreck, but i don't think it makes sense that vehicles have infinite oxygen, i think either power cells on vehicles should last less, or, some of oxygen tank item could be introduced that you use on vehicles to refill their oxygen reserves.
But that's pretty much it, other than that it's just random nitpicks(like how solar panels still don't snap in place anywhere and foundations are off center) or random suggestions/wishlist stuff(like how i really wish you could put windows on the ceiling of multipurpose rooms, or how i hope that big chasm in the twisty bridges that looks like it would lead to another biome is made much much deeper and even darker than it is right now). Overall i like Below Zero so far and i'm really looking forward to the future updates, my only big fear is that the story remains working as it works now, that is the one thing that i really hope changes either later on the story, or later in development.
Along with a few unfixed annoyances / bugs too, it would seem! I hope the devs will listen and fix these this time around. Have to say that Subnautica still feels like it was abandoned at 99% completed, that final bit of polish just never seemed to arrive (not least because the feedback / debug system is still there, yet they're very unlikely to continue development on it now).
On that subject, here's an idea: as well as turning off a PDA location beacon, it should be possible to delete or create these beacons ourselves. NPCs in the game clearly can add beacons to our PDA so why can't we? Relying on the physical beacon seems like a clunky way of allowing the player to make them, so why not just have it so that we can say 'make a new beacon at my current location' just as we can with a real GPS - no need for a physical beacon - better yet if we actually had a GPS map system in the game we could drop a location marker on it (area topography is either blank or very basic to start off with until visited) to mark places we want to explore next. Perhaps we could build a topographical scanner and/or a GPS map tool.
I wondered that too. Perhaps a vehicle can replenish it's o2 by being on the surface but not immediate, quick but not as quick as for the player, as there is much more o2 supply in a vehicle (like 15 minutes supply or something, upgradable), if the vehicle o2 runs out then the player auto-switches to their own o2 supply as an emergency measure while they attempt to get to the surface or otherwise replenish the o2. How about a manufacturable o2 supply tank that can be dropped in strategic places, attachable to a vehicle or for personal use. I feel there is a lot that can be added to make the vehicles much more interesting and not just a faster way of getting somewhere, some of the features that were in the Cyclops I'm sure could be in the Seamoth on a smaller scale. I'd really like those green screens to have a function as well, like system or environment readouts. In fact I wish more of the screens in the game had practical uses rather than being purely decorative.
My wishlist is long and may never be fulfilled!
This is what happens when one "plays" a game that is in a testing stage instead of actually "play TESTING" the game and providing meaningful feedback in an appropriate manner.
One of the best things about the game for me was the exploration. It was eerie, scouring dark places with danger lurking about. It had a bit of a Jaws effect, keeping you turning around, expecting to see a mouthful of teeth ready to chomp down on you.
Only after a while did I learn the paths of the dangerous wildlife and was able to consistently avoid them.
Enhance that Jaws effect! Have a few unique predators roam certain entire biomes (except starting biome), so we always need to be on our toes...or fins.
You will introduce more landmass in Below Zero, but be aware that there is no verticality in those. Exploration is less in zones like that. You could choose to have the landmass span over the entire biome map and make it some kind of "fast travel" place to hover-bike from one end of the map to another point with the added threat of that Kraken thing bursting out of the ice.
I kind of agree with some previous comments, that you should try to move forward from where you left off in last game. The recipes we had in the first game should be rapidly available. However, what made the game was the fact that these "upgrades" made deeper biomes available for exploration. You really need to keep that aspect of the game. Building your character and gear to be able to continuously go further. Only this time, try to find ways or story elements to integrate new tech that will allow for the same progression.
I suspect that those oxygen flowers were one such addition that made you wonder if bringing the Seamoth out early wouldn't defeat their purpose. Sure, but you could restrict access to areas (cave complexes), and make the entrances too small for the Seamoth to enter.
I would love to have all the tools we had before back, fairly early on. Then, certain things should prevent me from using them to explore everything and new tools should be invented/discovered to allow me to go deeper or further.
Maybe I would need an icedrill to drill from the topside to the water in certain areas. Maybe my prawnsuit/cyclops needs an icedrill/heatlaser to be able to get through certain iceblocks in my way. Maybe I need to construct a massive drill up top to drill down to even deeper biomes.
Maybe a fishing rod, for ice-fishing up top.
Maybe certain biomes are infested with lethal predators and I need camouflage for either my vehicles or myself to be able to pass through them.
Maybe one biome is inside a gargantuan squid and after I'm eaten by it, I need to find a way out.
If you aim for the same amount of biomes, the same amount of new tools and new vehicles as in the first game, while allowing access to all the previous ones, you're golden.
The moon pool isn't scannable yet, so this might not do you any good, but Station Cappa is in the Lilypad Biome.
I've found magnetite in two spots: around the vents with all the black smoke and in the unfinished Deep Twisty Bridges biome. It's relatively rare, so I recommend setting up a scanner room.
If it's as with the first game, updates do not account for older save files. If the old isn't compatible with the new, the old will be overridden. At best you'll have terrain clipping through your base.
See my reply above. Inventory ought to be safe. I recommend not to play with the intent of keeping a savefile across multiple updates, not in the least because it might cause bugs outside of the development scope.