Hello readers, today i make this post to suggest some of my ideas for future Subnautica updates, as it says in the title. If any of these ideas have already been posted/suggested then i apologize, though i am new to the site so forgive me for that. Anyway, onto the ideas.
#1: Weather/Natural Events
I'm pretty sure this must have been suggested at one point or another but i digress. The game needs a weather system for a multitude of reasons such as immersion and gameplay. Please note that no more than one of these weather conditions can happen at the same time. For example:
(1) Raining | When it is raining underwater becomes darker than it has before, not to mention that the closer you get to the surface the louder the pounding sound of rain becomes. The sky turns grey and very small waves form, though only for immersion. Benefit wise, your thirst goes down 20% slower regardless if your on the surface or not. Raining has a 1-in-4 chance of happening each day.
(2) Storm | When a storm begins, it starts off somewhat slow. Shortly beforehand (around 2-4 minutes before) your computer-friend(?) will say ''Incoming storm approaching, recommend that you find a secure location''. When the storm does hit the sky goes a dark grey, rain pounds down louder than a normal rainstorm and the occasional lightning bolt will strike/echo in the sky. Waves form and can push your escape pod around and even move it from its starting position. The Cyclops can be moved a bit but not by a lot, the seamoth on the other-hand can be pushed around quite a bit - meaning it becomes a wise idea to store it inside the Cyclops. Storm has a 1-in-7 chance of happening each day.
(3) Heatwave | The heatwave can only occur during daytime and will vanish at night-time. It starts around noon and while has immersion it is mainly a gameplay-related event. Less than a minute before it starts your computer friend says ''Incoming heatwave, dehydration and wildlife reduction is likely''. When the Heatwave happens your Thirst goes down 20-40% quicker, oxygen degrades 10-20% quicker and most creatures goes further down into the ocean to take shelter from the burning heat. This can be used to your advantage to some extent as ferocious creatures such as the Reaper Leviathan will attempt to go deeper and gives you a guaranteed chance to get into the Aurora without fearing for your life. Heatwaves have a 1-in-8 chance to happen each day.
(4) Tsunami/Tidal wave | This event in particular has a much bigger meaning than just a natural event, if you want to find you more go to the 'Game-Changing events' part later down the post. 12 Hours before the Tidal Wave happens your Computer friend will say ''Large volume of water incoming, possible tsunami'. After you panic about and the 12 hours pass a medium sized wave appears on the other side of the aurora(the side you don't see when you spawn) and makes its way towards your escape pod. Once it hits your pod will be moved a few meters, your Cyclops will be moved slightly and your seamoth will be moved a few meters (10-20 if its on the surface). This will happen on your 7th day in the world, after it happens your AI comrade will say ''Vital signs stabilized, The Aurora shows signs of capsizing... will continue to monitor''. The next wave happens on the 16th day and your comrade will say the same message as before, the wave this time is around 2-4 meters taller but still has the same effect, your friend will say ''Aurora shows more evident signs of capsizing, hull is weakening near the port(left) side. Will continue to monitor''. The next one will appear on the 30th day and once it does an event know as 'Capsized' will occur, see further down the post for details.
(5) Sea Tornado | The Sea Tornado(for those who don't know) is a tornado on water. When it happens a tall tornado will surf the sea and if you get caught in it your are whirled around before either dying randomly or are thrown back down like a skipping stone and killed from the fall damage. If you are in a seamoth your are just a replica of a skipping stone and are thrown back at the water and bounce for 50 odd meters. You cannot be picked up if you are in the Cyclops, because that's just a bit too much. For game balancing reasons and spawn issues, the tornado does not have its own AI but rather has several set paths it can take - it randomly picks one and goes on that path until it reaches the end where it dissipates. If you are near the surface of the water but still underwater you can sometimes be picked up - the safe distance where you are guaranteed to not get picked up is anywhere from 15-25 meters. Less than 3 minutes before it spawns your AI companion says ''Incoming Sea Tornado, advance with caution''. The Sea Tornado will never collide with the Aurora, Escape pod, vehicle depot or cyclops. Sea Tornadoes have a 1-in-12 change to occur every day.
(6) Whirlpool | The same case as the Sea Tornado but doesn't move and instead of launching/killing you it just throws you about 50-odd-meters in a random direction(except up or down). Whirlpools are small and can occur anywhere in the map, they have a 1-in-3 chance to occur per day.
(7) Meteor Shower | The name says it all. This can only occur at night-time (for immersion purposes) and you can look up to see a beautiful show. Yellow-ish lights fly across the sky and anywhere from 4-to-10 meteorites will fall into the ocean. It should be noted that these cannot land within 70 meters of your base and cannot land on the aurora and with good reason. When they crash a small 20 meters area around them is contaminated with radiation. This radiation does not spread but will stay there until the meteorite is dealt with. You can use a tool(?) to break and pickup the meteorite shards(See item section of post for more details) and also the meteorite core, which is a light-lime-green ball with a smooth look and surface and gives off a faint glow. The shards are red/black and glow a faint orange (this is also the same with the meteor). Meteor showers have a 1-in-15 chance per day and you are given NO warning by your AI friend until it happens ''Sudden foreign objects have entered the atmosphere, eyes to the sky''.
#2 Creatures:
(1) SaberFin | We all want to see a Megalodon, don't we? Don't deny it. The SaberFin is a replica of the great shark, while the developers could give it a Subnautica dress-up i would like it to be easily identifiable to all players. It will spawn from the place known as the Giant's Lair 2(see biome section for more details). Once you get within distance of the Giants Liar 2 (when you could see a large creature emerge from it quite clearly) the SaberFin will spawn and immediately try to kill you, it can destroy your seamoth and kill you in one fell swoop but will just intentionally ram your cyclops. It will pursue you for 3 minutes before it loses interest, if you die it will lose interest. It will stay within close proximity of the Giants Lair 2 much like how the Reaper Leviathan stays close to the Aurora. You can use the stasis rifle to stun it for a few seconds but not for long. The size of the SaberFin is about the same length of the Reaper but is more chunky like a Great White Shark.
(2) Whipster | The Whipster is a tentacle that is attached to the ground and will slowly sway back and forth with the current but when you get close it can extend and hit you for 10% health, it can be killed to get food and hits you every 3 seconds. It dies in 4 hits from a knife. It can be found in the Kelp Forest, Mushroom Forest, Koosh Zone, Grand Reef and Jelly Shroom Caves. It makes a whipping sound when it attacks, its colour changes depending on biome. It is a common-uncommon enemy.
(3) The Kraken | Name says it all. In the Giants Lair 3(see biome section) it will spawn and stay close to that biome. It is has a large head and many tentacles with a fanged mouth among the mass of tentacles. It will spread the tentacles and eat you in one go, if you are in your seamoth it will do a similar animation to the Reaper, taking two hits to kill your seamoth unlike the SaberFin which only takes one. Although unlike the Reaper and SaberFin The Kraken can actually damage you Cyclops, it will wrap its tentacles around the Cyclops and take off 20% health each time it attacks. It is more passive-aggressive and wont hunt you down relentlessly like the SaberFin but will try to make you leave the area around the Giants Lair 3(Area is like 150-200 meters). In terms of size imagine the Reaper curled into a ball and adds long tentacles. (Sorry for bad descriptions).
(4) Flying Fish | A variation of the peeper but skips across the surface of the water and can be captured and eaten. It is passive and is moderately fast and fills 20% Hunger.
#3 Biomes:
(1) Giants Lair #1 | The Giants Lair #1 is right beside the Aurora, on the left side where the small underwater hole in the ship is. Is it a long line that expands a small portion of the ships length but goes down to around 500 meters. If you fit the Cyclops in a straight line so the front of the cyclops is facing the direction of the front of the Aurora you can descend while taking little damage. Once you reach down to 800 meters you will get into a open-ish cave that has no available light, meaning that either your cyclops or flashlight must be used. At the bottom of the cave are broken egg shells which have a similar colour pallet to the Reapers and belong to the Reapers. The closer you get to it the more the Reapers will try to kill you, they have a chance to even come down the hole and attack you while your in their cave. This is a part of the event 'Capsized'.
(2) Giants Lair #2 | The Giants Lair #2 is in the bottom-right of the world. It is a large cylinder hole that goes straight down and ends in a larges sphere area at the depth of 600 meters. At the bottom is nothing except for 3 parts for the SFG. When you re-emerge from it you will hear a growl(?) and your companion will say ''Incoming life form, caution advised!''. Once that happens a SaberFin will swim from outside the map and attack you and stay within 125 meters of The Giants Lair #2.
(3) Giants Lair #3 | A large hole much like Lair #2 and at the bottom lies the Kraken along with 5-10 Bleeders than are relentlessly aggressive. Once you get close to the cave The Kraken emerges and attacks, after you flee or die it guards near the entrance forever. Inside the cave you will have to deal with Bleeders but there are Modules: Stasis Cannon Module, illumination module, Overdrive Module (See items section for more details).
#4 Items:
(1) Bio-signature Detector | Made from x2 Meteorite Shards and x1 Meteorite Core | It will start beeping when a hostile enemy is within 100 meters, it is a circle object with a white background and glass covering. It has 8 sides like pizza slices and will glow red in the direction of the enemy.
(2) High Value Threat Detector | Made from x1 Bio-Signature Detector and x1 Meteorite Core | Identical to Bio-signature Detector but only alerts you when threats that can damage you badly such as Reapers.
(3) SFG (Sea Flare Gun) | Made from x3 SFG parts, x2 Copper Ore, x1 Titanium | Much like the stasis rifle but doesn't require to charge up and fires a bright red flare that is incredibly bright, the brightest light source in the game. The flare slowly floats down to the sea bed and lasts 5 minutes.
(4) Stasis Cannon Module | Used on the seamoth to add a stasis cannon that works like the stasis rifle but lasts for 2-5 seconds longer, but to balance it to make it fair it consumes 20% energy on use.
(5) illumination Module | Used on the seamoth and cyclops. When out into the module slot it will give you incredible advanced headlights that allow you to see much further despite the weather or depth.
(6) Overdrive Module | Used on the seamoth and cyclops, increases the speed on the seamoth by 50% and the speed on the cyclops by 25%.
#5 Events:
(1) Capsizing | Upon the third tidal wave hitting the Aurora, the massive ship begins to fall to the left and will fall on top of The Giants Lair #1 and block it off. There will be a pathway through the ship and allow you to enter the lair without the Reaper coming down to you. But at the same time more of the ship will fill up with water and several lockers of loot will fall into the Lair for you to collect. After this has happened a magma vent is exposed (the ship sat on top of it) and will allow you to explore that. Inside the lockers that fall into the Giants Lair #1 will be an item called the 'Universal encyclopedia'. Once the ship has capsized the Reapers will become more aggressive towards you and will be faster than before (since their nest is blocked).
(2) Eagle Down | On the 22nd day in the world your companion will tell you that something is falling from the atmosphere. During some days after that another ship will fall from the sky and land near the edge of the map. It will float on the surface for 8 hours and then for the next 4 hours will slowly float to the seabed, it will then stay on the edge of the map for 5 days before then falling down the gorge that is outside the map and will explode, losing all the items inside. Inside the small transport ship are a multitude of items that will just help you along instead of giving you one-off items that are unique to the ship. The reason behind this is because if the player cannot get to the ship in time then they aren't missing out on something super-mega important. However there is a unique item but is only for lore. This could tell you about how they were shot down and what was happening during the crash. This can either be an audio log or a message log, it is up to the developers.
Thank you for reading and i hope you like the ideas. Hope reading this much didn't hurt your eyes.
Work Continues! - Natural Selection 2
I started work on it in december 2012, and I am now detailing the map, for a final release, please continue to provide feedback, to ensure that the map will work it's best, when that day comes!
Update to Repair Missing Terrain Problem - Subnautica
.