I absolutely adore Subnautica. A futuristic survival game that pioneers the genre of 'submerged-survival'. I could go on with praises and complements to Subnautica and its dedicated dev team, but I'm not here to give a review of how good Subnautica is. I'm here to help better the Subnautica world by presenting ideas and suggestions to the community.
Now, where to begin...
Sunbeam Alternate Ending:
The addition of the sunbeam story-line was one of my favorite updates so far and the moment I saw it in game, ideas and speculation flooded my mind. I've been thinking of an Alternate Ending that centers around the Sunbeam. Most new players and/or casual players have barely reached the Lost River if at all by the time the Sunbeam arrives so the chance of curing themselves and disabling the gun would be impossible. However, what if, for the speed-running pro type player who has played Subnautica for a long time, what if there was an alternate ending that rewarded speed and efficiency? Let me break it down. The player has a certain amount of time to get all the way down to the lava zone, cure themself, and disable the gun before the Sunbeam arrives. If they do this fast enough, the player can get a secret alternate ending where they are rescued by the Sunbeam. Here's the way it would work: The Sunbeam won't come until you listen to the messages you receive on the communications relay, but I think that once you repair the relay, your PDA should be able to act as a mobile receiver as if the relay gets the message from space and then beams it to your PDA allowing you to listen to the messages anywhere. On top of that, each message has a maximum wait time. You can choose not to listen to it for a certain amount of time before It plays on its own. This would prevent cheesing the system and would progress the story and the time-limit at the same time until eventually, the last message plays where the captain tells you that they are almost there and the 40 minute timer in the top right begins. Maybe each Sunbeam message you get from the first until the last has an hour wait time before they automatically play. According to the wiki, there are 5 messages that are received from the Sunbeam. Adding the 40 minute timer at the end, this gives the player 5hrs and 40mins to disable the gun which, considering the grind and fragment hunt the player has to do, would be no small feat. If the player does successfully disable the gun, then the Sunbeam lands and waits for the player to board. The Sunbeam can land and wait for as long as the player wants, too, so if the player wishes to do something before beating the game, they can. Any casual or new player would listen to each Sunbeam message fairly quickly after they arrive so they wouldn't know to let the messages sit idle in order to have the maximum time to grind. This makes it so that the only way to get this ending would require the player to be a knowledgeable and proficient player. The 5hrs and 40mins (only an example time limit, the devs could probably come up with a more efficient time through play testing) would require the player to be skilled enough to craft a cyclops, and all the upgrades along with a prawn and all the upgrades in addition to exploring all the precursor facilities (not including the precursor caches unless the caches play an important part in curing the player) curing themselves, getting back to the gun and disabling it before the timer runs out. There are lots of games which have secret endings or easter eggs that reward the skillful and efficient player. This alternate ending would be a great addition and reward for anyone who wants to speedrun the game and can be added along with an achievement like "Speed-Runner" or "Good Ending" or "Shut up and Get Me Off This Planet".
Sunbeam Destruction Player Animation:
Another thing I've been thinking of that is related to the Sunbeam is when the gun is about to shoot it down, maybe an animation for the player can be added showing them frantically searching through the code on their PDA for some way to contact the Sunbeam to warn them seeing as how there is apparently no 2-way communication between them. The player is able to move around freely and even swim but the arms of the player-model hold the PDA and press buttons looking for some way to communicate a warning to the Sunbeam. Of course in the end, while the player searches for an option on the PDA, the ship explodes and the animation ends as the player's arms slump back to their sides.
Base Building Suggestions
-There are a few cool base building ideas I have. One would be a dock for the Cyclops that attaches to the keel hatch connecting the base to the
Cyclops directly. I'm fairly sure this has been suggested in the past, but I thought i'd reiterate it.
-Make glass variations of all hallways. There are already glass variations of straight and elbow hallways, but what about ones for T and + hallways.
This could also be done for Multi-Purpose rooms with windows in the ceiling and floor.
-Add the ability to rotate moon-pools. I'm not sure if my game is just glitched or what but when I build a moon-pool I can't rotate it.
-I'm sure the devs are probably already planing this but we need more decorations. The wiki lists only a few decorations and most of them are lab
equipment. Maybe a lap-top, more action figures, cups, dishes, carpet, display boxes for small items, small fish-bowl, alarm clock, instruments
(playable?), smaller plant pots to fit on desks and shelves, dresser, models of other ships and vehicles, coat rack for storing diving suits?, etc.
-LIGHT! There are a few external light fixtures that require batteries but what about interior? There should be lamps and hanging light fixtures
and things that you can add and there should be the ability to turn off the automatic lighting in the base to conserve power or to allow the
place-able light fixtures to create a better mood in the rooms. These light fixtures should all also not require power since they are built inside the
base itself. On top of that, light fixtures like flood lights and light sticks should receive power from the base if they are close enough to it just like a
base receives power from solar panels if they are close enough to the base. Having to replace the batteries in something like a flood light that serves
no other purpose than aesthetic decoration is honestly kinda unnecessary. Additionally, there should be aim-able lights that you can aim in any
direction up or down left or right.
-External ladders and external stairs. Yes most of these bases are meant to be built underwater, but since you have the ability to build above water as
well, external ladders and stairs for reaching the tops of a base should be available. This opens the door for look out towers and other things. It also
allows players to build up past water level without having to cheat to reach the tops of their structures.
-Vertical hatches. Currently you can have hatches on the tops of base hallways but there are 2 problems with that. 1: There's a bug when you use
them to exit your base, causing you to fall right back down inside your base only you're swimming now. 2: There should be the ability to put vertical
hatches on other structures too and not just the ceiling, the floor as well.
-Larger Multipurpose-room. Sure a multipurpose room is pretty big and practical but it gets crowded really fast. There should be a 2nd tier of Multi-
purpose rooms that are double the size.
-Moon-pool large enough for cyclops? The only moon-pool big enough for the Cyclops is the one at the precursor gun and technically the lake in the
middle of the floating island. It might be cool to have a build-able moon-pool for your cyclops too.
-External fish-tank? Maybe a fish-tank big enough to house plants and animals larger than the alien-containment unit and can fit stalkers and
gasopods and other medium-size creatures. Yes those creatures can also fit in an alien-containment unit but they don't have very much space and
wouldn't be able to grow to their true adult size.
Terrain Generation:
Subnautica is currently a pregenerated world with a world border that is a void. The world is large enough and diverse enough to be cool, interesting, and immersive, but think with me for a minute. The game's story relies on a prebuilt world but what if the current world we know is the only part of the world that isn't randomly generated. Stick the current pregenerated world we have into one where the void is replaced by randomly generated terrain. This would preserve the story, and allow the player to have access to everything they need in the pregenerated area, but near the end of the game, when they've already explored everything, it would be awesome to be able to go out past the void and generate new unique terrain and explore for hours. This would open the door to great possibilities. The devs could create more biomes and more creatures and other interesting things. With the addition of new biomes and deeper water, would also open the door to new vehicles. The Cyclops is just barely small enough to go places in the current world, but if the devs added a new biome that was deeper and wider, a larger addition of the Cyclops could be added and the same could be said for the Sea Moth and the PRAWN suit. I don't want to pretend that I know how much work goes into creating randomly generated worlds and their coding so this suggestion might be more impractical than the others.
If you've made it through this entire monster of a post than I applaud you! Thank-you for taking the time to read this and theorize with me on the beautiful potential that Subnautica is capable of! Please let me know what you think of my ideas and suggestions. Are they good? Are they bad? Do you agree/disagree? Are they all too far-fetched or impossible? Let me know!
-ThunderShock
