Subnautica - Feature complete release

[DaveYanakov]

Stable ship date is August 10. Price will be increasing one month prior to the October 31st PC launch date so this seems like the best time to pull the trigger if you have been waiting.

https://trello.com/b/KbugnSRJ/subnautica-roadmap

[AdmiralJonB]

I've been thinking of picking this up for a while, but I was just wanting to know what peoples opinions are (as well as whether people think this would be a decent game for me).

I have a huge issue with survival games in general, partly because I don't like the goal of a game to be just survival. Have to have an ending goal to work towards. Unfortunately setting my own goals doesn't give me the drive to get through a game. Also has to have good survival elements, and I think you'll be able to tell what I like by the fact I'm posting on this forum what kind of difficulty I like in survival games :)

[Katalliaan]

There is a goal - get yourself off the planet. However, I'm not sure if the ending was implemented in the feature-complete update or if they're waiting for the full release in two months.

[Gilberreke]

The game has a more linear progression and the map isn't random, so there is a more direct goal of where to go at all times. Difficulty wise, it's less of a survival game than BTW, but there are some cool interactions with oxygen and enemies that make it an interesting puzzle to figure out how to get what you want to get. In many cases, you can see the resource, but have trouble figuring out how to actually get there and back in one piece.

[Psion]

to expand on gils comment, lets take a wreckage site from the Aurora. you clearly see a giant hunk of scrap metal thats undoubably chock full of fragments you can scan for new technology inside.... but its 300 meters down, which by default depletes your oxygen much faster past 100 meters. you need a way to get down there, explore the wreckage, and back to oxygen in time to not drown.... but you only have 110 seconds of oxygen with your (heavy) tanks that slow you down a bit, swimmingwise.

you have to figure out a way to safely explore said wreck with what you got, whether it be using vehicles, oxygen tubes, moaaar tanks, or whatOHMYGODITSACRABSNAKE, RUN FOR YOUR LIFE. ok yes, we did forget to mention the monsters that occasionally guard these wrecks, didnt we.


and this game is survival, but its really half exploration. because the map is handcrafted there's a lot of fun places to see and explore, maybe make a base in, that sort of thing. i play hardcore only because the game seems too easy for me without it, but ive owned the game for a long time now so i'm kinda used to the dangers. (but seriously, screw crabsnakes.)

[FlowerChild]

Yeah, I'll corroborate what others are saying in that there's a clear sense of progression in Subnautica, and there's always a number of goals provided for you to pursue. I also find the map big and detailed enough to appear to be randomly generated. I go back and do a play through every few months, and I've yet to feel like the map was too familiar.

That kind of map won't offer the same replay value as something like MC mind you.

Biggest problem I have with Subnautica right now is framerate stutter. This seems to be a common problem independent of gaming hardware or graphics settings. It's particularly annoying IMO, as you can have a perfectly smooth frame-rate going, and just when you move in to catch a fish, it'll stutter epicly making it an exercise in frustration to grab the little bugger. I think it may be a sound loading issue (fish make little noises as you pursue them) hopefully that'll be fixed before release.

But, having said that, it's probably in my top two early access games, alongside The Long Dark (which just left early access this past month). If you're looking for progression and end goals though, I'd recommend Subnautica over Long Dark, as the latter is more of a pure survival game.

[Katalliaan]

From what I understand, the earlier versions had randomly-generated terrain, but it's definitely a static map now. There's maps of the world and lists of where you can find the things you need to unlock new blueprints.

I had assumed the stutter was due to garbage collection, but sound loading would make sense as well.

[FlowerChild]

I had assumed the stutter was due to garbage collection, but sound loading would make sense as well.

Could be both. Sound buffers might not be properly cleared, delaying loading of new sounds while they are.

I think I did see mention of it being a sound buffering issue at one point when I last looked for a potential solution (doesn't appear to be any), but not 100% on that.

[DaveYanakov]

They have made massive improvements to loading lag and stuttering in the ghost leviathan update. In addition to making the game far more terrifying

[FlowerChild]

Been playing the full release of this that came out a few days ago. Is totally awesome :)

They have made massive improvements to loading lag and stuttering in the ghost leviathan update. In addition to making the game far more terrifying

I was still getting a bit of the lag when you mentioned this back in the day, particularly when trying to catch fish. With this final release though, it's entirely gone.

[Gilberreke]

I should give this another go soon, such a wonderful effort from the devs on all of this.

[FlowerChild]

Yeah, it really is an awesome game. I played through the entire game back when we talked about this last (this past August I guess), and with release decided to start over again from scratch instead of just finishing the last segment with my previous save.

Been thoroughly enjoying it so far, even after having played most of it through a number of times now.

[Psion]

Does the cuddlefish annoy you as much as it did me? Maybe i'm weird but happy baby sounds creep me out. lol Wish it made some other kind of noise.

[FlowerChild]

Does the cuddlefish annoy you as much as it did me? Maybe i'm weird but happy baby sounds creep me out. lol Wish it made some other kind of noise.

Funny you should mention that, as my previous play-through was pre-cuddle, and when I stopped playing yesterday I had just constructed a containment chamber (I only found the blueprint very late game for some reason) and put a cuddle fish egg in it, but it has yet to hatch.

As you know, I'm a huge fan of pets in games like this, so looks like I've got something extra special to look forward to here :)

EDIT: Hatched it. Wow. This thing is more useless than wolves. On the bright side, the wiki has informed me that it'll give me 250 energy in a bioreactor, so not a complete loss.

[RezDev]

I just have to say that I am thoroughly enjoying the hell out of this game.

Saw a little bit of an LP on it and just picked it up at the beginning of the month. I'm 30 hours into it and know that I'm just barely beginning.

Wish my GPU was more robust so that I could handle some higher graphics settings, but I suppose that's what I get for gaming on a Mac. :)

Can't wait to see where this game goes.

[FlowerChild]

Can't wait to see where this game goes.

It's awesome. I loved it. The ending did not disappoint when I finished it a couple of weeks ago.

As a non-spoiler help thing, at the end, make sure to keep your sound on until the credits finish rolling, as there's one last bit right at the end that shouldn't be missed.

[RezDev]

As a non-spoiler help thing, at the end, make sure to keep your sound on until the credits finish rolling, as there's one last bit right at the end that shouldn't be missed.

Cool, I'll keep that in mind when I get there.

I'm just entering the late-early or early-mid game phase at the moment (I think) and still have a lot of exploring to do. I really dig how everything is a slow reveal as you wander aimlessly trying to survive.

I've been pretty good at not spoiling anything for myself so far (and I'm a bit of a min-maxer and I like knowing the mechanics of games before I play them, so good on me, I guess?), lol.