A quick list of suggestions
Hi there. I’ve been with the series since the first, enjoyed Zero, and have 40 hours in the current Early Access for Subnautica 2 and I thought I would provide some feedback.
I honestly do not believe letting small fish be killable while larger fauna immortal is enough. I like many others would love to see the return of Fish having health and death. Having immortal fish feels really artificial and forced unlike the more organic environment of the prior two. While I understand combat is not a primary goal for the game, it does make things feel more real and natural. Just because a Leviathan can die, doesn’t mean you can kill it. Between it’s high health and damage towards the player, it remains a threat regardless of it’s state. Off all current choices, I feel this one is the most gamey and arbitrary that dramatically shifts the feeling of the game from “terrifying ocean”, to simulated ocean that feels like it’s designed for no other reason than “because we said so”. Games are suppose to let players make their own choices, if you don’t want a player doing something, you then make it extremely hard or unrewarding so players won’t. The current direction completely scraps the freedom that was originally valued so much in the first game. There’s a major difference between: “We want you to feel vulnerable, so killing wildlife is difficult, inefficient, unrewarding, and dangerous.” and “You are not allowed to kill wildlife because that is not how we want you to engage with it.” The first is full and intentional game design. The second feels like your reaching through the screen and vetoing the player’s interpretation of the world. The game is a sandbox, and part of the fun is realizing that fighting an apex predator is pointless and terrible, but you do it anyways. There’s wanting a peaceful game, and there is what feels closer to overcontrol.
I’d also like to see the return of the Statis Rifle, especially if there are no plans to reintroduce fish mortality. It was a fun tool to use and I really missed it in Below Zero.
While I am sure it is still in development, vertical building would be really helpful. While rooms exist, they can be laggy and unstable for towering up, granting the Corridor the ability to flip upwards and build a ladder in it would help quite a bit.
A new feature that would be really nice is the ability to somehow connect distant bases to make more use of the really cool storage fabricator sharing system.
The Haul Chassis for the Tadpole is a bit too slow. I get the purpose is to slow down but carry more resources. Unfortunately it is so slow that it seems more effective to use the Ray Scout and just make multiple trips. You are also slowed dramatically for what is honestly a rather minor boost in storage space. I find myself using a lot more resources in Subnautica 2 for building and gear than I ever did in the previous games and it just doesn’t feel like I can transport everything very efficiently.
Also, it would be nice to see the return of numeric values on battery power for tools since the meter can be deceptive.
Some bug reports:
- Tadpole docking can report not having enough space when there is an astronomical space value. This is bypassed by approaching the dock from an angled position below it. Some alterations to the collision and detection box, or a reduction in what the space restriction would probably help.
- In multiplayer, all of another player’s gear appears below their feet (or where their feet would be on land) as of the new update.
We don’t need deadly creature combat. All we need is less robot-like behavior of predators so hitting them on the nose feels meaningful instead of pointless and repetitive.
We have the feedback resonator that pretty much is a less effective counterpart of the stasis rifle
Although yes it doesn’t work on leviathans as far as i know