Hybrid MP/SP Balance

Not much, if any, thought has been given to the new(ish), hybrid SP/MP games when it comes to balancing gameplay in a single game between them. They’re generally considered too hard or too easy; just right or too grindy; etc.; depending which mode is being played.

Right now, Sub2 feels balanced for multiplayer play. For example, it takes too many trips in solo play to gather resources because a single player is performing that task alone whereas in MP, several players are performing that task. It’s much more of a grind to perform repetitive tasks in SP in relation to exploration and discovery.

As you probably know, this is a problem for all such hybrid games and they’re usually optimized for one or the other mode of play: SP or MP. Subnautica 2 could help set a new precedent and standard of quality for such games by attending to the difference in some capacity, e.g. using different numerical values for inventory/storage slots; amount of materials gathered and/or required for habitat building; number of creatures and/or damage dealt by creatures based on solo or MP considerations; etc.; that would vascillate depending which state a save is in currently. As a SP save can be turned into a MP save and vice versa, this would have to be applied on the fly, as it were.

Please note: I am not speaking of a “custom mode” that caters to the preferences, desires and whims of individuals, but a balance to be struck in the primary survival mode of the game. I think such a balance would broaden the overall appeal of the game and bring in players who play either single player or multiplayer games exclusively.

Thinking of the days when a single player game was a single player game; a multiplayer game was a multiplayer game and/or a single player had separate, multiplayer “modes,” e.g. FFA, CTF and Duel. I don’t know if it can be said hybrids are better or worse than those, but it can be said, they’re not balanced for both SP and MP play.