Reprinting has a Cost
The reprinting revival system is awesome. I’d love the idea that you are pushed fresh out of the vat (biobed). I’d love to see it have concequences. (probably this would be a difficulty option since not everyone will enjoy it)
Needing to re-outfit gear on reprinting - I feel like getting to keep your stuff breaks the illusion. You get a new body but need to gear up all over again; ALL of it. This would force you to be prepped with a backup tank and fins and whatever else you might need to go get your body. It would also be a fun multiplayer task to help your newly revived partner go get their stuff from a dangerous location.
Needing to (re)supply the biobed with biomass could also be a fun addition. If you find a new biobed, you can set it as your respawn point but if it doesn’t have the biomass to support a reprint then you get printed somewhere that does have the materials. The starting lifepod might collect it’s own to always have a fallback (add some flavor text about it collecting algae from the surface).
Thank you for considering my idea(s)
I would love thiss pls add thiss!!
thou I would like if there was a base atachment to auto colect.
This only makes sense. It’s cool that being “reprinted” has been incorporated into the game world as an in-universe reason for allowing death and respawning, but it feels too easy. Dying should be a setback.
Both of these ideas are insanely well thought out, afaik. I really love both of them and think they would add to the game a lot.
I think the idea of the reprinting system having consequences, especially if Subnautica 2 wants to lean into the science-fiction aspects of biological reprinting, wouldn’t be bad.
However, I think requiring players to completely re-equip all gear after every death may create more annoying repetition than meaningful gameplay.
From a lore perspective, it makes sense that a reprint comes without equipment. From a gameplay perspective, though, it is more like an artificial extension of the time you invest in the game without any real benefit. The existing mechanic, where you lose part of your inventory, is enough, I think.
The idea that you have to prepare resources in bioprinters that are not at the starting location would be the better choice, in my opinion.
Alternatively, you could introduce a temporary debuff to swimming speed, oxygen capacity, or health. The in-universe explanation could be that the reprinted body is not operating at full strength immediately after the reprint.
Overall, I think consequences for death are a good idea, but I would prefer consequences that create new gameplay decisions rather than extra preparation chores.
Such concepts would also be another reason why Subnautica 2 should include the customizable difficulty settings from Subnautica: Below Zero. In that case, even losing your equipped gear on death would be fine; players who really want that experience could simply enable it.
All of the other pioneers fear reprinting, so why shouldn’t we? Great idea!