More realistic water physics and environmental interaction

This is part 1 of 2. I had quite a lot of feedback and suggestions to share, so I had to split my comment into two posts due to the character limit.

Hello to the entire development team. I would like to take a moment to share several comments and suggestions regarding Subnautica 2, in the sincere hope that this comment will be read and perhaps taken into consideration for the future development of the game.

First of all, I think it is a real shame that the water physics are still so underdeveloped in a game whose main environment is precisely the ocean. I would really love to see the water become a true physical element of the environment. For example, when moving quickly with the Tadpole, it would be really interesting if it created visible turbulence behind it and if its movement had a real impact on its surroundings. When passing close to the seabed, especially over sand, the sand could be slightly lifted and moved by the current created by the vehicle, just as it could already happen in the first Subnautica when certain objects were placed on the ground. In the same way, aquatic plants, long vines and other vegetation could actually be pushed and displaced when we pass through them, rather than simply being passed through by the vehicle. This would add a huge amount of life and realism to the environments. I would also really like fish to be affected by these movements in the water. When a Tadpole moves quickly through a group of fish, they could be pushed aside or briefly thrown off balance by the movement of the water, with slightly chaotic movements for a few seconds before returning to their normal behavior. These may seem like small details, but I sincerely believe that these are precisely the kinds of small details that can make an underwater world extremely immersive and give the feeling of actually being in a living ocean.

Secondly, I feel that there is currently a significant lack of diversity in the wildlife. When I compare Subnautica 2 to the first Subnautica and even to Below Zero, I often feel like I keep encountering the same creatures over and over again throughout a large part of the exploration. The animations and movement of the fish are nevertheless very successful and already create a strong sense of life, but the lack of diversity unfortunately ends up creating the opposite impression: you quickly recognize the same species, and the ocean feels less rich than it could be. It would therefore be fantastic to have many more different smaller species, especially fish that can be caught, cooked and used in the different recipes.

Since the food system seems to be aiming to offer more different dishes, I would also really like each dish to have a distinct visual identity. At the moment, if several recipes have very similar icons, it becomes difficult to immediately know what you have prepared without reading the name. Each dish should be recognizable simply by its appearance, which would make the inventory much more enjoyable and would also reinforce the feeling of food variety.

Another point that I consider particularly important concerns the structure of the map. I sometimes feel that the early areas are too flat and organized into different levels or plateaus, with ultimately very little natural relief and vertical variation. I would really like to see more cliffs, slopes, crevices, tunnels, narrow passages and genuine differences in depth. Depth is precisely one of the things that made up such a large part of Subnautica’s identity: being able to look down and not know what lies several dozen meters below you immediately created a feeling of the unknown and sometimes fear. In Subnautica 2, especially in the early areas, I currently often feel that we remain relatively close to the surface and that the seabed is too flat. More varied terrain and more caves would make exploration much more interesting and, above all, would create the feeling that the ocean continues much farther down beneath us.

Agreed on more diverse water physics, but I find the biodiversity already much higher than SN1, especially when comparing equal development states.

please just do one idea per post, as soon as someone finds one thing they don’t like they’ll dislike the entire post even if they like the other ideas

ditto to ReplyIo on ‘one suggestion per post’. And I’m a verbose person (just made a post kissing the 5000 char limit) but tight writing gets more views. To be frank, you are over-qualifying your suggestions (a pitfall of my own). There are some good suggestions in here, but they are buried in tl:dr.

Your second paragraph could literally be: “The biodiversity is still lacking compared to prior games. I suggest focus on adding more mobile life with unique behaviors, interactions, and uses in crafting”. This as its own post is an easy upvote. Buried in this… not as much. Just trying to be helpful in boosting signal and getting your ideas seen.