Death from depth

In the real world you exceed a depth you die. If this was added to game it would increase terror and difficulty. Be nice that you have to modify yourself to survive certain depths. In end game maybe force you to find hidden base with extinct animal and you can only enter base with new prawn due to crush depth. Make tritan more important and fun. Maybe make one where only way to get crush survival depth is by scanning a dangerous leviathon and it dropping something like stalkers did with their teeth than collect that dna for modification. Make it more releastic and stressful knowing exiting vehicle means death

For that, the would need to change the intro as depth resistance is the starting “upgrade” you need to get out of the wreck..

It befalls their plans.. if they have in plan to add very deep areas (like SN1), it would make sense to have such upgrade moved (along with the EV suit as a mid-upgrade to get there).. alas, only the devs know what the entire map and gameplay is and if such change in in plan.

<edit> note, I would not add instant death.. like on SN1, it would be a faster oxigen spend rate.. like x5 normal.. x2,5 with rebreather.. you could get out but wouldnt last long.

The intro does not give you depth resistance. It allows you to breath the pressurized air of Proteus. Further compression would still cause problems. This is a wonderful idea.

To end your concern it would be easy to make that a side effect of the first bio modification is an enhancement in surviving depth. Also the set limit to survival depth can be adjusted

I’d like to see a route where you can beat the game without any of the bio modifications. Which means you will need to make modifications to your O2 tank. …
First one we already have, the rebreather. Not only should it not change how much O2 you use the deeper you go, but if you run out, you should get CO2 poisoning instead of just drowning the moment you run out. This should be good up to a certain dept, in which you’d start getting O2 poisoning.
Here you need to add a noble gas to the mix. We use He here on Earth, but I think any noble gas would work. (It’d be funny when they add proximity and decide to use He. The random up pitch to people’s voices I’m sure would catch people by surprise)
Surprisingly there is a dept where you’d just lose all buoyancy, and will just sink like a rock. I think we could add the fabled Liquid Breathing, as shown in the movie Abyss, to counter that somehow.

IRL, when you dive, you need to equalise as you descend. Most of us do it without thinking. You’re too buoyant otherwise. If you don’t your sinus cavity will collapse, and your mask will be full of blood. But as you ascend, you need to equalise as well. Your blood will… boil… if you don’t (aka getting the bends.) Seeing how we already have the dive elevator and the air bladder (both of which would kill us instantly irl) I don’t think the Devs want to add this. It’d really will add to the Horror though.

I would also like to see more O2 managment. Have the builder and the repair tool use an O2 tank and not a battery. That’s how underwater welding works.
Have us setup an algae tank in the base as a CO2 cleaner (this will need light btw)
Add O2 tanks to the vehicles.
Stuff like that. Saying that you have if you have power, you have O2 seems kind of like a cop out, and makes the game really easy. Maybe add this for a Hardcore feature?