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Carcer
Aug 7, 2010
Isn't ark incredibly buggy, and more importantly, only "good" as a multiplayer game?

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boar guy
Jan 25, 2007

The Long Dark is pretty okay but you'll eventually die no matter what

Mr. Crow
May 22, 2008

Snap City mayor for life

Carcer posted:

Isn't ark incredibly buggy, and more importantly, only "good" as a multiplayer game?

Like 2-4 friends multiplayer or large numbers of people multiplayer? The former sounds more fun.

Evil Mastermind
Apr 28, 2008

My understanding is "large numbers of people" multiplayer, but I may be wrong. I did try playing solo ages ago during a free weekend but I didn't find it very enjoyable.

Paracelsus
Apr 6, 2009

bless this post ~kya

TTBF posted:

I was messing around in Creation mode before discovering the beta has a ton more content, and I've switched over to Survival mode on that. I'm doing decently (forgot to eat a few times, whoops) but I've encountered a new problem: I've got two full deployable chests full of batteries, and about 75% of those are spent. I'm 50% on a battery charger but I can't find another half. Any suggestions on where to find one? A power cell charger and where to find a moon bay schematics would also be really helpful.

Most wrecks in the Kelp Forest and Grassy Plateaus should have at least some. You can also try the Mushroom Forest wreck, I think.

Moonpool is in the Grand Reef.

Power cell charger fragments I've usually found lying in the open in the Sparse Reef, but I think they're also in the Mushroom Forest wreck.

boar guy
Jan 25, 2007

ARK sucks balls, take it from me

Carcer
Aug 7, 2010
Its Rust style lots of people multiplayer. I've read that its fun (if you enjoy that sort of game) until someone rolls up in power armor on a T-rex and annihilates you with a plasma rifle while you throw rocks in retaliation.

OwlFancier
Aug 22, 2013

Carcer posted:

Its Rust style lots of people multiplayer. I've read that its fun (if you enjoy that sort of game) until someone rolls up in power armor on a T-rex and annihilates you with a plasma rifle while you throw rocks in retaliation.

So, every game in that genre, then.

Section Z
Oct 1, 2008

Wait, this is the Moon.
How did I even get here?

Pillbug

Plek posted:

Thanks! But I have never built a scanner room. Ever. Are they actually useful?

Not really, without some real stretching to proclaim "useful". As things stand even if you did build one, it MIGHT point you to some deposits or salt within it super tiny range. Or it might do gently caress all and/or point to empty spots where some quartz would have been if you hadn't already looted it long before you made the scanner room.

Also the drone cameras (are those allowed to scan things yet?) like to go missing even while still docked in the room. People generally write that off as 'Well clearly a stalker swam by and stole it while you were gone. You have no proof that ISN'T what happened!" But this still happens even if all the animals in an area have basically gone extinct so the closest stalker would be a rare occurrence over 100m away in a kelp forest.

Finally, the previously mentioned sound bugs for having the nerve to make one. Which are why I don't even keep one around for decorative purposes because it at least looks cool.

Carcer
Aug 7, 2010
That should be easy enough to test. Build a scanner room where there will never be stalkers and see if a bot goes missing.

GrandpaPants
Feb 13, 2006


Free to roam the heavens in man's noble quest to investigate the weirdness of the universe!

Dear Subnautica devs,

Please patch in this monster:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K_7ByiYbCYM

Section Z
Oct 1, 2008

Wait, this is the Moon.
How did I even get here?

Pillbug

GrandpaPants posted:

Dear Subnautica devs,

Please patch in this monster:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K_7ByiYbCYM

Stuff like that is apparently "Planned(?)" about as big as an X hallway.

http://subnautica.wikia.com/wiki/Spike_Trap

Though given it's nature, It's made me wondering what's going to happen to Sandsharks "We were totally there the whole time, legit honest!" sand digging. Will they just give them straight up NoClips and a few sand particle effects instead so they can keep their gotcha gimmick?

Section Z fucked around with this message at 23:38 on Jan 14, 2017

Danaru
Jun 5, 2012

何 ??

Section Z posted:

Stuff like that is apparently "Planned(?)" about as big as an X hallway.

http://subnautica.wikia.com/wiki/Spike_Trap

I want every image and word of this page erased from history

Section Z
Oct 1, 2008

Wait, this is the Moon.
How did I even get here?

Pillbug

Danaru posted:

I want every image and word of this page erased from history

You mean, suggest they have a symbiotic relationship with hypnofish? :unsmigghh:

On it's own I'd be okay with such a thing so long as they didn't troll position it to body block objectives (Flashbacks to burning through prop gun batteries dealing with the creeper vine spammed insides of the undersea lab).

The big issue with such a creature design, is the inevitability they would clip it into the ground, or rock crevices you cant see through without already being on top of it. All the other dick move positioning that would negate the visibility of "Bright orange bioluminecent feelers" as fair warning.

It would just be another lazy "Gotcha! :iamafag:" gimmick then. Also it would probably completely ignore any and all predators bigger than a bleeder, if it even goes for those. I'd loving love it if I could bait a boneshark into one of these things, but that's the fun and convenient kind of "Realism" so it would send many people who would want this in game into such a tizzy.

Section Z fucked around with this message at 00:04 on Jan 15, 2017

Gothsheep
Apr 22, 2010

Efexeye posted:

ARK sucks balls, take it from me

Hey, I like Ark, and I play it single player a lot. I find it really similar to Subnautica. You spend most of your time wandering around collecting resources to build up your base, exploring the landscape and dealing with the local wildlife.

U.T. Raptor
May 11, 2010

Are you a pack of imbeciles!?

Gothsheep posted:

Hey, I like Ark, and I play it single player a lot. I find it really similar to Subnautica. You spend most of your time wandering around collecting resources to build up your base, exploring the landscape and dealing with the local wildlife.
Yeah, you can alter the single-player mode to suit your desires (increase the damage you do, decrease the damage you take, jack taming speed way up so it's actually reasonable, etc), so if you want to play Robinson Crusoe On Dinosaur Island you totally can.

Carcer
Aug 7, 2010

Section Z posted:

It would just be another lazy "Gotcha! :iamafag:" gimmick then. Also it would probably completely ignore any and all predators bigger than a bleeder, if it even goes for those. I'd loving love it if I could bait a boneshark into one of these things, but that's the fun and convenient kind of "Realism" so it would send many people who would want this in game into such a tizzy.

I'd love if it was actually something the player could use. Let the player hide in its tentacles like a clownfish and it'll be a good way to provide safe zones that players can retreat into.

scuba school sucks
Aug 30, 2012

The brilliance of my posting illuminates the forums like a jar of shining gold when all around is dark

Carcer posted:

I'd love if it was actually something the player could use. Let the player hide in its tentacles like a clownfish and it'll be a good way to provide safe zones that players can retreat into.

Sounds like a good use for the DNA splicer. "Well thanks to my clownfish DNA the stinging tentacles no longer recognize me as a threat" or something.

Section Z
Oct 1, 2008

Wait, this is the Moon.
How did I even get here?

Pillbug

Carcer posted:

I'd love if it was actually something the player could use. Let the player hide in its tentacles like a clownfish and it'll be a good way to provide safe zones that players can retreat into.
If they don't last second cut the gene toys/keep it in "We'll fix it in post" land, I'm honestly curious what we'll get out of the genetics for ourselves that are not simply gate checks, "Please inject yourself regularly to avoid crippling virus debuffs", Or very minimalist perks that don't feel wort the effort it took to get them.

scuba school sucks posted:

Sounds like a good use for the DNA splicer. "Well thanks to my clownfish DNA the stinging tentacles no longer recognize me as a threat" or something.

This would save me so many loving propgun batteries and be a nice little QoL boost that hardly breaks the game, yes. Stuff like this please-*smashes up Seamoth on tendrils* Guess Id still have to get out and prop gun tendrils even if I were personally immune to them sometimes. But it would still be a nice touch, along with not triggering tigerplants.

boar guy
Jan 25, 2007

Gothsheep posted:

Hey, I like Ark, and I play it single player a lot. I find it really similar to Subnautica. You spend most of your time wandering around collecting resources to build up your base, exploring the landscape and dealing with the local wildlife.

I guess single player would be fine but there's no real challenge- Ark is meant so that you team up with others and raid other factions' bases. It sounds fine but in theory it works out to "who can stay online longer"

and the performance of the game is balls too

Gothsheep
Apr 22, 2010

Efexeye posted:

I guess single player would be fine but there's no real challenge-

You could say the same thing about Subnautica though.

mmmm
Jul 26, 2010

hey
you're one of them fancy lads, ain't ya?

Mr. Crow posted:

What's a similar game to scratch the build/survival itch as this? Preferably complete or mostly complete.

7 Days to Die is the only one that's come close for me, and that has plenty of its own bugs & issues. It's somewhat fun SP (play the default handmade map if you're new) but really shines on a whitelisted MP server. Closest game to Romero's "Dawn of the Dead" in that humans are the real adversary once you get the fundamentals of survival figured out, so if you do play solo it'll eventually end up being a "listen to podcasts while you collect garbage and build stuff" experience, nothing wrong with that but it really needs an endgame.

Blightfall is a pretty neat minecraft mod that gives the game a sci-fi spin and some direction, and it's as free as any other minecraft mod. It's even got some (comparatively) high-res BDcraft textures available if you're into that.

Actually if you're OK with minecraft try downloading the Technic launcher or somesuch and get HEXXIT -- that's sorta like minecraft and nethack hammered together, with all the delightful jankiness you'd expect from such a project. I had a blast playing Hexxit over a couple of months on a 4-person server, and SP have would *have* to be more engaging than vanilla minecraft, especially since you get newer/tougher monsters & dungeons every 1000m from spawn, and have access to way more building materials/items/gadgets to craft w/out getting into industrialcraft madness.

These suggestions are all tonally very different from Subnautica though -- I think Far Sky is similar (and finished) but it's a very short game, apparently, and the graphics in the screenshots look closer to minecraft than Subnautica. So sorry for another half-answer; think I'm in the same boat as you. Subnautica might just be the first title to really nail this genre, or at least it could be once they get the drat thing finished.

Carcer
Aug 7, 2010
I'll second blightfall. Its minecraft, so if you don't like that basic gameplay model you'd best probably avoid it, but if you do its an extremely tight experience with actual goals and direction. Its probably the best minecraft modpack that exists.

boar guy
Jan 25, 2007

Gothsheep posted:

You could say the same thing about Subnautica though.

not if you play it in Survival mode. Playing ARK alone is contrary to the entire design of the game, but more power to you if you find it relaxing

Lonos Oboe
Jun 7, 2014

Plek posted:

Thanks! But I have never built a scanner room. Ever. Are they actually useful?

I built my home base in the safe shallows and built a scanner room there. They take a bit of effort and resources to do and I had hoped they would be a great way to build a map and mark it out. But it seems to just have these little limited range rovers you can remote pilot. The only useful benefit i can think of is safe exploration or finding resources. But since you have to use the thing to find the resource and go look for it etc. It seems like a waste of time. I mean, building one near a dangerous spot seems like the best solution. But again, it seems easier to just manually search the area. Mine seemed a little buggy with resources so I gave up after a while.

Maybe someone else can explain why they are any way good?

Carcer
Aug 7, 2010
I don't think they are any good. If you're looking stuff in a dangerous area just take the cyclops out for a spin with the prawn suit in the bay. As long as you don't run into a warper in a really bad spot you can handle anything short of a Leviathan or a Sea Dragon, just be circumspect around crabsquids and their emp.

Mr. Crow
May 22, 2008

Snap City mayor for life
If they made the default range like 300 and you could upgrade it to 600 it would be sweet, but 100 is kind of useless. I can literally see everything it reports from on top of my base outside.

Alternatively if they made the drones have little claws so you could safely gather resources, it would be more useful.

Thor-Stryker
Nov 11, 2005
The drones just need automated AI (A simple fish one even.) that lets them explore up to the maximum boundary. Speed upgrades could be used to make them faster/efficient.

That being said, it's nice to plop a scanner room down near a place with lots of sandstone deposits so I can get more Silver Ore for all these drat computer chips.

Away all Goats
Jul 5, 2005

Goose's rebellion

Yeah the scanner room could really use some work. Enabling a minimap HUD or being able to construct a map (maybe with the seamoth sonar?) would go a long way towards making it worth building too

Carcer
Aug 7, 2010
A map would reveal how small the map actually is. There's a lot packed in there and its got a very big vertical component but if you're not being too cautious or trying to avoid becoming leviathian food you can cross the map pretty drat quickly.

Lonos Oboe
Jun 7, 2014

Carcer posted:

A map would reveal how small the map actually is. There's a lot packed in there and its got a very big vertical component but if you're not being too cautious or trying to avoid becoming leviathian food you can cross the map pretty drat quickly.

I have never been attacked by a Reaper just swimming across the surface, Maybe the odds are with me. But you are right. it's only a few thousand feet on the x & z axis.

Yeah, I assumed when I built it that they would be like the little things in Prometheus that map out caves. Not a big map. Maybe even a localized map of certain areas you could refer to. The lack of automation, range and picking up stuff makes it useless. Especially since it's kinda late tier stuff and you will have the Cyclops around then. I found the upgrade system buggy and the whole thing frustrating. I can't help but think they are going to tweak and update it. If the drone was something you could deploy from the cyclops then we would be cooking with sexy gas. That would go a long way to making the Ironman mode feasible for those masochists.

Thor-Stryker
Nov 11, 2005

Lonos Oboe posted:


Yeah, I assumed when I built it that they would be like the little things in Prometheus that map out caves. Not a big map. Maybe even a localized map of certain areas you could refer to. The lack of automation, range and picking up stuff makes it useless. Especially since it's kinda late tier stuff and you will have the Cyclops around then. I found the upgrade system buggy and the whole thing frustrating. I can't help but think they are going to tweak and update it. If the drone was something you could deploy from the cyclops then we would be cooking with sexy gas. That would go a long way to making the Ironman mode feasible for those masochists.

It's still useful, you just have to make Sensor outposts in areas where you need certain resources and then put the HUD chip on your paperdoll.

I will say that a sonar pulse module would be nice for driving the Cyclops into the Inactive Lavazone via the Aurora route, it's pitch black and like 10 minutes of driving through nothingness.

Carcer
Aug 7, 2010
Thinking about it they need to add an angler fish style enemy in. Or a deep sea eel.

Also add some sort of "safe" creature like a benign jellyfish that other creature don't like going near, but the jellyfish and the angler fish both emit nearly the same bioluminescence.

Lonos Oboe
Jun 7, 2014
It seems like a kinda lovely thing to harp on, but I was kind of hoping for more diversity. Most of the designs are beautiful. But looking at stuff like the reefbacks and the ghost rays make me want more. Stuff like the Portuguese man of war, Brittlestars or Spanish Dancer https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V6H01cUSpfQ

(Basically get baked and swim around staring at pretty creatures)

Carcer
Aug 7, 2010
They do need to add some more variety to the game. Its a little crazy that most areas have 1 major predator and 3 or 4 small fish that you can see elsewhere as well.

Danaru
Jun 5, 2012

何 ??
Is it possible to save the Sunbeam? I'm trying real hard to find this lab before it tries to land but I'm worried they didn't actually implement shutting down the gun yet

Thor-Stryker
Nov 11, 2005

Danaru posted:

Is it possible to save the Sunbeam? I'm trying real hard to find this lab before it tries to land but I'm worried they didn't actually implement shutting down the gun yet

No, the storyline hasn't even been built out far enough to allow this. I'm also curious if they're going to hardgate it, or make it a potential, real ending.

Edit:

Carcer posted:

They do need to add some more variety to the game. Its a little crazy that most areas have 1 major predator and 3 or 4 small fish that you can see elsewhere as well.

Technically, the **Spoiler**storyline about deadly bacterium can back this up.

Thor-Stryker fucked around with this message at 00:05 on Jan 20, 2017

Carcer
Aug 7, 2010
That causes more problems than it solves. How is anything still alive on the planet if carar kills within 5 weeks? The populations of anything but the smallest fish shouldn't be able to sustain themselves. Reefbacks, leviathians, crabsquid, anything bigger than a stalker (And probably stalkers too) should just not exist anymore.

The game, as much as I love it and will play it over and over, is really lacking in any interaction with the wildlife that isn't a predatory relationship. Theres no interesting interactions like being able to lose a pursuing predator by swimming through a shoal of fish or sticking near docile (to you) large fish that are aggressive towards predators or just being able to use plant life as cover. Unless the devs are planning a massive injection of new animals at some point between now and release the sum total of player interaction with the wildlife is going to be running from predators and chasing small fish.

Section Z
Oct 1, 2008

Wait, this is the Moon.
How did I even get here?

Pillbug

Carcer posted:

That causes more problems than it solves.
It's plot based. Just think about every other game with such a thing, where it's only an inconvenience (if it even effects them at all) to the player character.

I'm sure people will be begging to make it as ball bustingly a headache to deal with or babysit as much as possible given the genre. But since you can't permanently game over outside of hardcore, at most will just be a question of how much of a slog it is to deal with upkeep.

Also, stalkers are my favorite predator for some of the reasons you are talking about. Good gameplay, which happens to mean good thematic feel. They actually live up to the make believe hype about "ecosystems" and "This isn't a game about violence :downs:" because they settle down after a snack. Instead of being nonstop aggro machines of infinite hunger who only exist to gently caress with you, personally. Even if it means diving face first through an erupting volcano because it's the shortest distance to bite you.

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Plek
Jul 30, 2009
Even semi-realistic critter AI is something I most want to see out of these survival games. Ark in particular suffers badly from having braindead dinos doing fuckall mixed with ever-hungry predators that don't act at all like predators. Subnautica's AI is at least a step up because aggressive creatures can be properly scared off if you hurt. They'll even stop bothering you, usually, if you're in a seamoth and they can't get a tasty bite out of you. Hell, the animals have different behavior depending on the light level even.

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