I have maybe 18 hours in it so far! I'm quite enjoying it, though it's most certainly early access and there are a few things that I'm missing that were in the first game. I have not played...
I have maybe 18 hours in it so far! I'm quite enjoying it, though it's most certainly early access and there are a few things that I'm missing that were in the first game. I have not played through Below Zero.
Where it is now, it feels like Subnautica 1, but with updated graphics and on another planet, with another story to uncover through the exact same game-play as in the first. Not that I'm complaining.
I'm on the fence about preordering it. I have subnautica 1 on PSN but the S1, S:BZ and S2 bundle on Steam is very tempting. S1 is a top game for me all time and Id love to replay it on my desktop...
I'm on the fence about preordering it. I have subnautica 1 on PSN but the S1, S:BZ and S2 bundle on Steam is very tempting. S1 is a top game for me all time and Id love to replay it on my desktop and I know the price is probably only going to go up unless I'm very patient
I'll be waiting until more is there. To me subnautica 1 is sooooooooooo close to being not just a great game, but a nearly perfect one, but I don't think they'll fix the problems I have, and there...
I'll be waiting until more is there. To me subnautica 1 is sooooooooooo close to being not just a great game, but a nearly perfect one, but I don't think they'll fix the problems I have, and there were a few neat idea in Below Zero (among a loooot of poor ideas).
To ramble a bit, subnautica is a metroid game with survival mechanics.
There are regions that are locked off until you explore the world to find better equipment to unlock them. Clever use of equipment and game mechanics can allow the skipping of equipment or entire sections of the game, both in thematic or abusing the mechanics style ways.
And coincidentally, also features a mostly silent protagonist stranded somewhere trying to deal with a problem to escape using forgotten alien technology.
With that in mind, I see a lot of the same problems, and potential solutions, for the genre.
Problems:
Problem 1: The game isn't actually that hard/interesting past a point.
The initial felling of the game is WONDERFUL as you explore and learn the mechanics, but you quickly begin to realize there's not a lot of real threats, or even roadblocks depending on how quickly you "get" it.
Problem 2: A LOT of the equipment is interesting but unneeded.
The two that come to memory as an easy example are the air pump + pipe system and the tractor beam fish trap.
Problem 3: Unfinished content/complexity decline in the end game
This is a common issue with any game but it hits hard in subnautica. Entire biomes that are pointless to explore and the end game tech paths are much less interesting/well balanced compared to the early game ones. Entire resources that feel extraneous except for 1 item, rather than becoming a part of your pipeline so you have a reason to try and get them.
Solutions (imo)
KEEP THE BASE GAME AS IS.
People loved it, only edge case nuts like me care. If dev time has to go towards something, it should go towards recreating the original vibe/feel/experience. I would however LOVE to see the stuff I proposed as content for DLC/expansions.
Have a hard mode/difficulty customization.
Everyone has different tolerances, and I don't think "just grind 1000 more copper is interesting" but enemies doing more damage, resources being more rare, tech being harder to get, and just the fish you eat swimming faster would change so much (and some more creative inventory limitations). If you're mostly struggling for food or having trouble doing long expeditions because the filling fish are too fast to catch, getting the gravity fish catcher could suddenly change your entire run because now you can quickly catch enough food to do deeper dives and not just be limited by oxygen.
Likewise tools like the in place lights and air pumps could suddenly be a lot more useful if tolerances on early battery power/air are tweaked.
It's tricky to find the sweet spot for these things, which is why it might be interesting to just open it up with a menu over a json file to let players tweak and find different settings.
The three tiers of randomization (but not full on proc/seed gen).
Tiers:
A. Randomize tech. I assume most people know about randomizer runs so i won't go much into this. Moving the tech around and watching players come up with unique solutions would be great. Doubly so if you know there should be tech in each biome, but the location can move a bit (ideally meaningful movement. Lower depth, different blockers, whatever. Not just 50 meters right or left.)
B. Randomize biome internals. An easy example here was the interesting, but too generous, oxygen plants/fish in Below Zero. They're always in the same spot, but having some randomization on where they are or aren't could massively change your route through a game.
C. Randomzing biome connections/layout. THIS is the one that would have to be planned for early on, but could be really really cool to help bring the game more life but keep its feel. I don't think a fully proc gen map works nearly as well, but if you know that there's always 2 connections from the starting layer to other biomes, but you don't know WHICH biomes it's connecting too this run until you get there, that would do wonders for replay. Even more so if you can have "bonus" connections that aren't always there where suddenly a cave system you know is usually a dead end now connects to a 3rd biome you wouldn't expect.
Overall
The whole goal is to KEEP that level of exploration that your initial run thrived on, and I felt that with some proper planning at the design stage of the code and the world, this would all be achievable.
I do however think it's also a pipe dream because it's not an insignificant problem to make your map biomes quasi modular and do a lot of this stuff, and they've clearly focused their efforst elsewhere like co-op (neat) and plot (i don't get it....silent protag and mostly environmental storytelling was so much better than standard evil corp stuff)
I have maybe 18 hours in it so far! I'm quite enjoying it, though it's most certainly early access and there are a few things that I'm missing that were in the first game. I have not played through Below Zero.
Where it is now, it feels like Subnautica 1, but with updated graphics and on another planet, with another story to uncover through the exact same game-play as in the first. Not that I'm complaining.
I'm on the fence about preordering it. I have subnautica 1 on PSN but the S1, S:BZ and S2 bundle on Steam is very tempting. S1 is a top game for me all time and Id love to replay it on my desktop and I know the price is probably only going to go up unless I'm very patient
I'll be waiting until more is there. To me subnautica 1 is sooooooooooo close to being not just a great game, but a nearly perfect one, but I don't think they'll fix the problems I have, and there were a few neat idea in Below Zero (among a loooot of poor ideas).
To ramble a bit, subnautica is a metroid game with survival mechanics.
There are regions that are locked off until you explore the world to find better equipment to unlock them. Clever use of equipment and game mechanics can allow the skipping of equipment or entire sections of the game, both in thematic or abusing the mechanics style ways.
And coincidentally, also features a mostly silent protagonist stranded somewhere trying to deal with a problem to escape using forgotten alien technology.
With that in mind, I see a lot of the same problems, and potential solutions, for the genre.
Problems:
Problem 1: The game isn't actually that hard/interesting past a point.
The initial felling of the game is WONDERFUL as you explore and learn the mechanics, but you quickly begin to realize there's not a lot of real threats, or even roadblocks depending on how quickly you "get" it.
Problem 2: A LOT of the equipment is interesting but unneeded.
The two that come to memory as an easy example are the air pump + pipe system and the tractor beam fish trap.
Problem 3: Unfinished content/complexity decline in the end game
This is a common issue with any game but it hits hard in subnautica. Entire biomes that are pointless to explore and the end game tech paths are much less interesting/well balanced compared to the early game ones. Entire resources that feel extraneous except for 1 item, rather than becoming a part of your pipeline so you have a reason to try and get them.
Solutions (imo)
People loved it, only edge case nuts like me care. If dev time has to go towards something, it should go towards recreating the original vibe/feel/experience. I would however LOVE to see the stuff I proposed as content for DLC/expansions.
Everyone has different tolerances, and I don't think "just grind 1000 more copper is interesting" but enemies doing more damage, resources being more rare, tech being harder to get, and just the fish you eat swimming faster would change so much (and some more creative inventory limitations). If you're mostly struggling for food or having trouble doing long expeditions because the filling fish are too fast to catch, getting the gravity fish catcher could suddenly change your entire run because now you can quickly catch enough food to do deeper dives and not just be limited by oxygen.
Likewise tools like the in place lights and air pumps could suddenly be a lot more useful if tolerances on early battery power/air are tweaked.
It's tricky to find the sweet spot for these things, which is why it might be interesting to just open it up with a menu over a json file to let players tweak and find different settings.
Tiers:
A. Randomize tech. I assume most people know about randomizer runs so i won't go much into this. Moving the tech around and watching players come up with unique solutions would be great. Doubly so if you know there should be tech in each biome, but the location can move a bit (ideally meaningful movement. Lower depth, different blockers, whatever. Not just 50 meters right or left.)
B. Randomize biome internals. An easy example here was the interesting, but too generous, oxygen plants/fish in Below Zero. They're always in the same spot, but having some randomization on where they are or aren't could massively change your route through a game.
C. Randomzing biome connections/layout. THIS is the one that would have to be planned for early on, but could be really really cool to help bring the game more life but keep its feel. I don't think a fully proc gen map works nearly as well, but if you know that there's always 2 connections from the starting layer to other biomes, but you don't know WHICH biomes it's connecting too this run until you get there, that would do wonders for replay. Even more so if you can have "bonus" connections that aren't always there where suddenly a cave system you know is usually a dead end now connects to a 3rd biome you wouldn't expect.
Overall
The whole goal is to KEEP that level of exploration that your initial run thrived on, and I felt that with some proper planning at the design stage of the code and the world, this would all be achievable.
I do however think it's also a pipe dream because it's not an insignificant problem to make your map biomes quasi modular and do a lot of this stuff, and they've clearly focused their efforst elsewhere like co-op (neat) and plot (i don't get it....silent protag and mostly environmental storytelling was so much better than standard evil corp stuff)