Subnautica

[Monk]

So I just picked this up on the Winter Steam Sale and wowza am I having a blast. Barely made any progress but I ended up glued to my screen from 6PM to 3AM...so tired today, but I'll plan playing it again tonight, uh oh.

I felt similar to what I feel when playing elite. A grand open world, out on your own, vast endless ocean and places to explore. I see a lot of potential for this game.

The atmosphere of the game is done well. I feel very vulnerable in the deep swimming alone, knowing a shark could come at any moment. I don't think I've ever been more panicked in a game than when I took my little seamoth to 250m deep, hopped out to collect some resources and lost track of my sub. Frantically spinning around, looking for my tiny sub while the air runs out was a heart thumping experience. No matter how hard I try to keep my bearing, going more than a few meters from the sub is completely disorienting. Also, I think there might be some currents pushing things around (could just be my imagination though)

I'm not always a huge fan of crafting systems but this game keeps it simple and doesn't put huge requirements on resources. It is fairly easy to get into your first ship, the seamoth and start building your underwater base. That base is important, because everything outside of it is trying to eat, poison or drown you. Also, balancing between structural integrity and building beautiful observation rooms and corridors is a fun little mechanic.

Aside from the expected number of bugs (really a low number) my only gripe is that the seamoth and, I assume, the cyclops lack 6 DOF in the water. It is point with mouse then WASD in typical FPS controls. Really, it just needs vertical control and I'd be happy. (Or maybe I'm dense and am missing a control)

I also love how my ship and base greet me every time I board.

I hope that Elite can take a few pages from this whenever we can explore the deeps of distant worlds.

Any other Commanders playing this game? What do you think?

http://unknownworlds.com/subnautica/
[video=youtube;EB4V4zStpzk]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EB4V4zStpzk[/video]

 

[Stigbob]

Got subnautica last week, it's really great fun. I was after a scuba sim but got tempted in by the survival aspect of this game. Really worth £14.99 to "dive in". I just got ripped to pieces by a pair of reaper leviathans in my seamoth, I'm going back in the cyclops to try ramming them.

My next post will probably be a question on re-floating the cyclops when it's hull breached and sunk beneath its safe operating depth.

 

[Stigbob]

Full controls are

Diver
Mouse point of aim (up down left right)
W forward
S reverse
A left (strafe)
D right (strafe)
C dive
Space up (jump when out of the water)
Right mouse use current tool
Left mouse interact (catch fish/pick up item)

Seamoth
As Diver only slower to turn with a faster speed
Right mouse turn lights on and off
Left mouse activate selected tool (eg torpedo) select with 1-4 must be fitted at seamoth upgrade console

Cyclops
W forward
S reverse
A turn left
D turn right
Space up
C down
Mouse look around from the front mounted bubble canopy
Left button sound massive parp horn
Right button no use found by me yet.

 

[Monk]

Yeah, the game is really worth the low price of entry. Plus, seeing such truly open communication on development is refreshing and educational.

I check the trello board daily to see what is coming up in the experimental build. I don't even care that it often breaks my saves since starting is some of the best fun in the game.

https://trello.com/b/yxoJrFgP/subnautica-development

On that board you can see exactly what they are working on, what they have planned to work and what they have released.

On an even finer detail, you can see exactly what was checked in each daily build.

http://subnautica.unknownworlds.com/#/subnautica/checkins

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As for the cyclops, make sure you keep some of those floaters in a locker. If you run into hull breach and can't repair it with the welder, slap some floaters on the outside of the cyclops and it should surface (if you aren't in a cave). I have one Large Locker on the Cyclops just full of floaters, they come in handy in several situations. Otherwise, the ship is lost until you can return with a working welder.

 

[xondk]

Thinking of getting it for when I feel like playing that kind of game.

 

[Jenner]

Are they going to make any kind of story or something, or will it always be a pure sandbox? I have the game but can't really get into it too much.

 

[Monk]

Thinking of getting it for when I feel like playing that kind of game.

Survival games aren't really my bag. I like watching some YouTube/Twitch folks play them but it never really struck me as something I'd like to personally play.

Since playing Subnautica I've really warmed up to the genre. Some of the space survival games coming up look really promising.

One thing I don't understand about the genre, though, is why is it almost entirely in early access? Is this just a product of the genre coming of age in our current early accessed/kickstarted world?

- - - - - Additional Content Posted / Auto Merge - - - - -

Are they going to make any kind of story or something, or will it always be a pure sandbox? I have the game but can't really get into it too much.

Yes, there are two things that are supposed to push you to progress and that is exploration and story. What we've seen of the story, so far, is that your terraforming space ship crash landed on this planet after a strange malfunction. The story, from the bits we have so far, is going to take you through investigating the cause of the crash and needing to go deeper and deeper to get the answers. Speculation is that at the end-game we would encounter some sort of sentient species living in the deep.

 

[Jenner]

Yes, there are two things that are supposed to push you to progress and that is exploration and story. What we've seen of the story, so far, is that your terraforming space ship crash landed on this planet after a strange malfunction. The story, from the bits we have so far, is going to take you through investigating the cause of the crash and needing to go deeper and deeper to get the answers. Speculation is that at the end-game we would encounter some sort of sentient species living in the deep.

Good to know! I'll definitely come back to this when it's further along.

 

[Monk]

Farming update is live

http://unknownworlds.com/subnautica/farming-update/

Saw some of this stuff on experimental for a bit now. Personally, I like to have a 3 story tall aquarium filled with Reginalds...never go hungry again!

The abandoned bases look cool...really curious to see how that will fit into the story line...have other terraforming expeditions crashed here, too? What is going on from the deepest places?

 

[Iskariot]

Thanks for pointing this game out to me.
I've now put it on my Steam wish list.
It looks very promising.

repped.

 

[Monk]

If you haven't seen it...here is the full development roadmap to release of Subnautica 1.0 (public launch).

https://trello.com/b/KbugnSRJ/subnautica-roadmap

Summary:

Farming Update - February
- Indoor and in-water planters for growing stuff. This can make crafting easier after you've done the typical human thing and decimated your surrounding environment. I think they also intend to add edible plants and broaden the crafting recipes.
- Abandoned bases. Derelict bases can be found with useful technology fragments within. Watch out for the crabs.
- Lost River Biome? I think this is done, I'm not sure...still need to look for it
- Recharge station...finally you can stop ridding the world of mushrooms.
- Cyclops now imperative to deep exploration. No longer can you just bring a bunch of air tanks and seamoth and expect to get to every biome. Some places will now kill you within a limited time if you don't bring the Cyclops along as a mobile base (hot places will boil you and the Cyclops is the only thing that is permanently impervious).

Unnamed - March
- O2 becomes an expendable resource. You will need O2 generators and plants to keep your base oxygenated. Also, Seamoth will have limited O2
- Inactive Lava Zone
- More Lost River
- Giant Sink Hole
- Something about a Cyclops incinerator (probably to provide power when far from sunlight)
- New creatures, Lost River Bone Shark (probably more vicious than its kelp forest cousin) and the Warper. I'm super scared of the warper as these can teleport and might be the first form of intelligent life in the game.

Creatures Attack - April
- Creature Eggs
- Mean fish will attack your base, which will require you to make repairs more often.
- Transfuser...my guess is this device will allow you to mix animal DNA to make custom creatures. Either to maximize food or to create domesticated sharks to protect the base. We'll see
- More lost river, more lava zone, more lava creatures
- Fixes to creatures and a balance pass as well as giving more purpose for some of the creatures that don't seem to do anything but be food for the reaper(reefbacks)
- Sea Dragon

Exosuit - May
- The Exosuit gets added allowing you to spend more time exploring outside of the Cyclops in the deepest and most unforgiving biomes. Also, it has jump jets.
- More lost river
- Active Lava Zone

Story Mode test branch - June
- More stuff
- More lost river
- Story polish
- Some other stuff related to story but is not specific

Polish - July
- Self-explanatory
- Minor additons

Launch - August
LAUNCH

Unknown
- Some random stuff in here, not sure what they are doing with it...but there are jetpacks!

 

[Monk]

I know some of you were waiting on a Steam Sale...well, here ya go, 40% off

http://store.steampowered.com/news/20819/

Offer ends march 18

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Also, I finally made a new game after the last major update. This thing is really starting to look polished. It seems to have been made a bit more difficult to start building a base right away since you need to find solar panel blueprints. I did finally get the seamoth going and the time to that was the longest yet. Though, this may just be because of the way they have spread out fragments and made it so they don't appear in clusters as much anymore. Also, some resources now take up significantly more space, and they reworked some recipes. It seems like this was done to prevent you from clear cutting the shallows almost immediately.

All in all, the game is more difficult but also more rewarding. Now I just need to hunt for some sort of power source b/c this new base I just built is rather useless at the moment.

 

[Monk]

http://unknownworlds.com/subnautica/crash-sequence-update/

New Crash Sequence added to the main branch.

I saw this on Experimental a while back. Adds a nice little intro sequence where there used to just be a fade in and fade out. The escape pod gets a proper thrashing.

 

[Lily from anim.o.v.e]

bought it last week, wow did not had much sleep this weekend xD

What this game needs is a co op mode and a procedual terrain generator. That would make it a game with a laod of replay value.
I also hope that creatures attacking bases will mean we get some proper defense systems like the electro mobs have and the seamoth can have.
Today on the table is: exploring the depth of the small underwater floating islands and maybe the giant purple mushroom caves below the island. Atm, I cannot find the deep sea base the note on the abandoned bases on the large floating island spoke of. (because leaving a note whee to go would make too much sense). But I hope its within those two areas. The rets I seem to ahve explored until the made map ended

O2 as ressource in the underwater bases sounds nice too, would be going to need quite some corals in a tank to produce oxygen for a large base. What I still miss is a way to charge the cyclops doesn't make ssense that your small submarine has a solar charger and the large not.
I wish elite exploration would be 1/10 of the fun that it is in subnautica. And looking at the price, wow, feels a bit too cheapish. When I compare it with some wannabe AAA 69,99€ titles

And what I totally love, the picture frames, it's a neat little detailed feature to add any non game content to it visually. But the game also needs a bed sleeping on a bank is inconvinent.

 

[Monk]

Agree that co-op would be pretty fun. Though, the story seems to be shaping up to highlight your apparent isolation.

PG is a hot topic on the forums. The devs have stated they want the high level of detail and specific interactions with the environment that could not be achieved with PG. For example, caves systems that are designed to only be accessible when you have enough O2 tanks.

They tried it at one point and say they were not happy with the results. Though, I think it may still be possible that an end game biome could be added around the current world that would be PG. Perhaps even it could spawn all the other biomes in random clusters.

 

[Lily from anim.o.v.e]

Agree that co-op would be pretty fun. Though, the story seems to be shaping up to highlight your apparent isolation.

PG is a hot topic on the forums. The devs have stated they want the high level of detail and specific interactions with the environment that could not be achieved with PG. For example, caves systems that are designed to only be accessible when you have enough O2 tanks.

They tried it at one point and say they were not happy with the results. Though, I think it may still be possible that an end game biome could be added around the current world that would be PG. Perhaps even it could spawn all the other biomes in random clusters.

not sure with the caves, allt hey need to take care is the procedure to make vital game stuff not generate in unreachable patterns. The rest would be cool to be very tricky, The default map should of course still exist and the generated landscape be "optional" and labeled with danger ^^

 

[Monk]

Xbox friends...Subnautica is coming to the Preview Program on April 1 (always suspicious of anyone using that date)

http://unknownworlds.com/subnautica/subnautica-xbox-one-release-date/

 

[lysan]

Full controls are

Diver
Mouse point of aim (up down left right)
W forward
S reverse
A left (strafe)
D right (strafe)
C dive
Space up (jump when out of the water)
Right mouse use current tool
Left mouse interact (catch fish/pick up item)

Seamoth
As Diver only slower to turn with a faster speed
Right mouse turn lights on and off
Left mouse activate selected tool (eg torpedo) select with 1-4 must be fitted at seamoth upgrade console

Cyclops
W forward
S reverse
A turn left
D turn right
Space up
C down
Mouse look around from the front mounted bubble canopy
Left button sound massive parp horn
Right button no use found by me yet.

Got stranded, kind of same type of game.

 

[Lily from anim.o.v.e]

Got stranded, kind of same type of game.

but less scifi ^^

btw do you know the real stranded, and stranded 2 besides a bit worse graphics, mods like titanium make straneded 2 in a great game. Looking forward for Stranded 3.

 

[mattig89ch]

I picked this game up, when it was on sale a bit ago.

I've been keeping an eye on it, since its creation. So I have a basic idea what to expect. But my first 10 minutes in, I found a bug I can't get past. Using quartz on the replicator from the escape pod, didn't give me glass. I had the correct amount, and the pod has power. I just don't get glass when I try to create it.