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Well, for the past two or so months, I've been re-obsessed with this game. It's my 3rd playthrough and I'm taking it much, much slower, so it was just last night that I was able to meet the sea emperor and cure the disease. Eventually, I'll replay BZ, once I get it on Steam, as I'd originally played it on Switch when I didn't have a Steam deck. I'm pre-giving mad props to UW for having the somewhat unenviable task of making a true follow-up to the masterpiece that is Subnautica. I have no doubt that they've heard all of the critiques of BZ and then some, and will likely take that all to heart, but for the life of me, I cannot even begin to think of how they're going to frame the plot of the 3rd game. Except for one, small idea: being hunted. See, when I first got the Warper transmission and heard the audio logs from the other 'survivors', it seemed very apparent that those things were actively hunting you down. Unfortunately, that doesn't seem to be the case at all. Sometimes, I can barely have them engage with me for more than a few minutes and of course, I'm only speaking for before I'm cured. For the 3rd game, I think it'd be fantastic to (safely) arrive on 4546b, maybe in a large region that has both warmer and colder climates, for the purposes of research and resource collection (think Olimar in Pikmin 2). But during that time, someone or something sabotages your craft or ride back, and now your mission isn't so much to get stuff for Alterra, but to once again survive, just how Riley and Robyn had to. All the while, being slowly hunted by something or someone. It's just hard for me to think of any other reason that would mandate that you stay on the planet, in a dangerous environment, and not just go 'Welp, BYE!' and fly away the moment you see a Reaper.  Anyway, I have only two gripes with the original; the aforementioned lack of danger from the you-know-whos, mentioned above in spoiler text, and also that the super useful Ion batteries and power cells showed up way later than they should have. Anyway, I am so excited for 3 or whatever it'll be called. Maybe it'll be called Subnautica 2, or just Subnautica: <subtitle>. Either way, I am pumped. Now I'm just trying to decide whether I jump in during EA or wait until the full release. I'm not a streamer, but this would be the game that would make me one. Rupert Buttermilk fucked around with this message at 18:20 on Jan 9, 2024 |
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Jan 9, 2024 18:17
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It would be neat to have an apex predator of some kind, basically Shark for example, that's not too much larger 5han you, but is veey fast in a charge and will kill you in a hit or two. There is only one roaming the map, and it can go anywhere you can. It doesn't get forcibly drawn to you, but getting bit by critters means blood in the water, and it can smell from a LONG ways off juicy human blood. So best leave now, or find a spot to hide til it swims by and leaves. And when you get subs, well you still gotta check outside before going for a swim.
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Jan 10, 2024 04:10
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Neddy Seagoon posted:It would be neat to have an apex predator of some kind, basically Shark for example, that's not too much larger 5han you, but is veey fast in a charge and will kill you in a hit or two. I can't think of a concept less fun than "you might randomly get got by a mako shark while swimming"
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Jan 10, 2024 04:35
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More dangerous sea horror sounds great actually. I'd even be happy with 'reapers but they don't give up immediately'
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Jan 10, 2024 11:50
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Pander posted:I can't think of a concept less fun than "you might randomly get got by a mako shark while swimming" It’s the same basic concept as the nemesis/Mr X in resident evil, that can be pretty fun. (Although too intense for some players) you just have to use proper sound cues to warn the player of what’s happening.
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Jan 10, 2024 11:57
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Putting MrX into Subnautica is perhaps not the vibe people are looking for here.
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Jan 10, 2024 12:25
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Serephina posted:Putting MrX into Subnautica is perhaps not the vibe people are looking for here. Yeah, I wasn't necessarily referring to this level of absolute dread and terror, but a lighter, less intense version of this. Maybe. And maybe it's not constant.
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Jan 10, 2024 12:27
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Just swimmin' around while the Jaws theme plays, growing and lessening in volume for no discernable reason, and your seamoth keeps turning into a pile of scrap every time your back is turned.
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Jan 10, 2024 12:30
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Reapers are meant to echolocate and they could really have done another horror thing with echolocation clicks.
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Jan 10, 2024 12:32
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Serephina posted:Putting MrX into Subnautica is perhaps not the vibe people are looking for here. Subnautica fans seem to be a split between the base builders and the survival exploration horror fans (or the people who like both halves I guess) Mr X predator is exactly what I'm looking for, as long as its presence doesn't feel too artificial and gamey
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Jan 10, 2024 12:39
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Have the survivor start out with a device that can detect him coming and recommend you seek shelter immediately. Over the game you can upgrade it to detect him better or maybe have a timer that can accurately predict when he arrives, or something, I don’t know. But I’d be ok with the game focusing on dealing with him as he is what’s preventing your escape. Maybe he could be tied into planet somehow in that he only hunts in the dark at night or when that weird hour or so happens during the eclipse.
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Jan 10, 2024 12:46
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MikeJF posted:Reapers are meant to echolocate and they could really have done another horror thing with echolocation clicks. I'm assuming there's a mod that makes this actually function properly. I remember learning about it and thinking "oh man, that's so cool!"... And then learning after my first 20+ hour playthrough that it didn't actually work in-game.
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Jan 10, 2024 13:34
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Sassy Sasquatch posted:It’s the same basic concept as the nemesis/Mr X in resident evil, that can be pretty fun. (Although too intense for some players) you just have to use proper sound cues to warn the player of what’s happening. Mr X is significantly faster than the player and kills in 2 hits?
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Jan 11, 2024 00:48
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Sounds like a way to make the player like the teleporting assholes. This is not a “swim away from the scary thing” game, you get attention of aggressive creatures if you stray too far into their habitats. A random chance encounter of apex predator just, hunting you down, is very much not my idea of why this game is good.
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Jan 11, 2024 00:58
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JawnV6 posted:Mr X is significantly faster than the player and kills in 2 hits? No, that would be Alien isolation. If you want to get into the details of it, I think with a game like subnautica you'd need to tone the aggro of such an enemy way down simply because there's a lot of open space with not many ways to hide. It's not like Subnautica has tons of closets and desks to jump under. Occasionally having to hide in kelp next to some horror from the depths or navigate a wreck Soma style could be cool though. (well, not cool but you get my point)
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Jan 11, 2024 01:03
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Alien Isolation in janky VR is the most terrified I’ve ever been in a workplace, I don’t even like remembering it
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Jan 11, 2024 01:07
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I think just givving big apex predators large patrol ranges in certain biomes would probably accomplish the same amount of tension without distracting too much from the fish petting simulator. Like if the reapers in the dunes actually patrolled the whole biome and no other behavior was changed. You have enough time to gather resources etc. between passes but you have to be wary. Dyz fucked around with this message at 12:52 on Jan 11, 2024 |
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Jan 11, 2024 12:50
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Subjunctive posted:Alien Isolation in janky VR is the most terrified I’ve ever been in a workplace, I don’t even like remembering it I don't think I could play thay game on a computer but playing it in VR sounds genuinely harrowing. Literally childhood nightmares come to life stuff
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Jan 11, 2024 13:04
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Dyz posted:I think just givving big apex predators large patrol ranges in certain biomes would probably accomplish the same amount of tension without distracting too much from the fish petting simulator. True, I completely agree with this, I was mainly just trying to justify a future game's reasoning for having the character not be able to leave the planet. No Dignity posted:I don't think I could play thay game on a computer but playing it in VR sounds genuinely harrowing. Literally childhood nightmares come to life stuff I played it for the first time about 2 years ago and I had nightmares, on and off, for weeks. I was 38.
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Jan 11, 2024 13:27
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My elementary school had an Alien The Movie Picture Book in the library and I read it. It had stills of everything, like the chestburster bursting out of John Hurt. It hosed me up so bad There was also a Dorling-Kindersley book on the history of medicine, and I thought the paintings and engravings of old dissection theaters were vivisections, like the guy was alive when they dissected him
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Jan 11, 2024 17:12
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Do it like that latest Metroid game. Love the game or hate it, the hunter zones were stressful, and you had to choose to enter one and try to get across, a sort of tension that the original Subnautica also shared, pushing deeper and deeper, forcing you to choose to do things that a part of you really doesn’t want to do. So you enter the zone, know it’s extremely dangerous, and while you’re there, the danger is actively looking for you, and if it does see you, you have to RUN. And you can survive, you can make it out! But until you do, you can’t focus on ANYTHING else, and you may have to make concessions about where you actually end up going. This is also how the Alien movies portrayed it, they had to keep pushing into places they didn’t want to be, flirting with danger or diving right in, taking huge risks for small gains, against their better judgement but also unavoidable. Makes for great steal-the-bacon scenarios.
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Jan 11, 2024 17:29
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Okay but Subnautica did that already, in the Dunes, Mountains and Lost River regions
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Jan 11, 2024 17:32
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Like you get an area where your AI goes 'jesus gently caress HOW many reapers??'
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Jan 11, 2024 17:33
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The reapers were there, but the whole "hunting you" thing is just flavor text. They don't actually do that. They just swim aimlessly and agro within range. It's very different. Plus, with the moth or clops, you can just truck through and move on with your life. The tension is reduced to zero at that point. In Metroid, the little hunter bots would patrol, and hit chokepoints, and react based on where they saw you last, trying to cut you off at passes and such. In Alien, the loving alien pointedly hunts people, laying ambushes and poo poo. It's terrifying and far more compelling. Bad Munki fucked around with this message at 18:21 on Jan 11, 2024 |
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Jan 11, 2024 18:18
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No Dignity posted:Like you get an area where your AI goes 'jesus gently caress HOW many reapers??' I need a mod that does one thing, and that thing is replacing the line "Are you sure what you are doing is worth it?" with Tim Robinson, animatedly asking you "You sure about that? You SURE about that? Hmm?"
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Jan 11, 2024 18:19
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I mean the dunes is probably the scariest area i've seen in any video game so big ups for that the only thing they actually need to do is either get rid of the sonar upgrade or make it aggro nearby reapers, which it would if they use echolocation
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Jan 11, 2024 18:26
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sharkmafia posted:I mean the dunes is probably the scariest area i've seen in any video game so big ups for that Yeah the way the game present reapers, it's all bark and no bite. Lots of flavor to set the stage for this cunning, intelligent, devious hunter, and none of it actually matters, just don't swim straight at it if you don't want hugs.
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Jan 11, 2024 18:30
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Bad Munki posted:Yeah the way the game present reapers, it's all bark and no bite. Lots of flavor to set the stage for this cunning, intelligent, devious hunter, and none of it actually matters, just don't swim straight at it if you don't want hugs. Yes although I think the general lack of visibility in the areas where reapers are found means that this isn't noticeable until you have the mentioned sonar upgrade. That takes away a lot of their mojo, but until then the experience of investigating a wreck as a reaper roars in the distance is spooky as all gently caress excellent work on the close range reaper roar as well, that poo poo is goddamn visceral
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Jan 11, 2024 18:34
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Reapers: nature's quitters
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Jan 11, 2024 18:34
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sharkmafia posted:excellent work on the close range reaper roar as well, that poo poo is goddamn visceral All the sound work in general in the game is so great and compelling. The progression of craft voices culminating with the Cyclops’ fantastically authoritative “WELCOME ABOARD, CAPTAIN” gets me fired up every time. HOOOOONNNNNNNNNK
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Jan 11, 2024 18:41
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I had a half-nightmare last night about Alien, thanks brain.
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Jan 11, 2024 18:42
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Bad Munki posted:All the sound work in general in the game is so great and compelling. The progression of craft voices culminating with the Cyclops’ fantastically authoritative “WELCOME ABOARD, CAPTAIN” gets me fired up every time. I loooove the Cyclops voice. So good. Also, yeah, having the reapers get tipped off to your location if and when you use sonar would go a long way to further improve their behaviour, in a game-balance sort of way. It really sucks the terror out of the situation when you know what they can (kill you in 2 grabs of your seamoth) and can't do (make tight turns)
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Jan 11, 2024 19:21
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There's one weird trick, reapers HATE it! (Do an upwards corkscrew motion)
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Jan 11, 2024 19:26
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Hands up if you've ever been directly killed by a warper. Anyone? *crickets*
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Jan 11, 2024 19:47
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Rupert Buttermilk posted:Hands up if you've ever been directly killed by a warper. You're not alone.
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Jan 11, 2024 20:46
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If y'all keep talking about it I'm gonna have to look up the Sonar Upgrade in the wiki or something.
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Jan 11, 2024 20:53
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Who needs all that finesse when you can just zap the poo poo out of them for daring to interrupt your day?
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Jan 11, 2024 21:38
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I don't really think Subnautica needs to try to be that much more structured about its horror (and to be honest it seems evident from sub zero that they don't particularly want to amp up the horror). I feel like the horror of just the abyss is enough. You are in a big world that might not hate you, but it doesn't care for your existence, and it's dark and you don't really know what's out there. Maybe through in some more somber and sorrow about the wrecks. When the warpers sent out a radio message about how they were stalking the survivors of the crash to eliminate them, that was dumb.
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Jan 11, 2024 21:46
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Warpers were definitely the weakest part of the subnautica 'horror' and felt way too sci-fi to be interesting compared to the literal titanic fish trying to eat you which felt way more natural in a you-hosed-around-and-found-out way.
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Jan 11, 2024 22:12
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Isepic posted:You're not alone. Oh, I wasn't clear; I've never even gotten close to getting killed by one myself. I wish they were more deadly.
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Jan 11, 2024 22:32
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