Suggestion: Different draw distance above water

[Burning Tree Corpse]

I'll start off saying I'm sure this is way easier said then done, but I would like to see a much longer draw distance for objects over the ocean then they are below.

I get the shorter distance while underwater, I mean most everything is out of sight by coudyness and such and it works really well. It has become much more appereant when I'm sailing around in my cyclops, where the tower camera is avoce the surface, and you can only see a one of the single islands or the aurura but you can never see them all. There aren't many things that poke up over the water line, and I don't know the technical repricutions of it, but it would be nice if they were persistant. If I am sitting up by the mountaint and still see the floating island out in the distnace would be awsome.

Just watching lets plays, because I'm trying to absorb as much of this game as I can because I love it, and how many people dont find the floating island until much later, and never knowing it was there, is a little frustrating (for my own play through included) with how huge of a land structure it is. It should be visable for closer than 300m, and I know this is a coding and inherent part of the game, but you always can just see the stuctures way befoer the actual island pops into existance.

I"m happy with the performance here and everything I have brouhgt up will be a big memoryu drain, so it is just a suggestion, but if it means the game runs worse then that is a terrible exchange.

I think it would help newer players find these major landmarks, the floating island has critical blueprints, but after that intial discovery my point becomes worthless. For all those new people though, which is what ever game developer wants, it can be frustrating not seeing huge areas and it can stunt exploration when, for the floating island for instance, you have to be within a few hundred meters to see it but can easly sail under it without knowing

[Cougarific]

If you were a brand-new player and came up out of the Lifepod and were surrounded by water except for an island off in the distance, your first impulse would be to swim toward that island.

Hiding the islands forces the player to accept that they're gonna have to learn to survive underwater.

[Squeal Like a Pig]

Yeah, the islands are hidden from view from the lifepod, for specifically the reason that Cougarific mentioned. They are actually visible, in fact, we just purposely obscured them with cloud FX

[Phoenix]

Originally posted by Squeal Like a Pig:

Yeah, the islands are hidden from view from the lifepod, for specifically the reason that Cougarific mentioned. They are actually visible, in fact, we just purposely obscured them with cloud FX

Would it be possible to make that cloud FX a bit less obvious in future versions? Because right now it has the opposite effect, at least for me. Also, have you thought about semi-randomizing the position of the floating island for each new game?

[SpaceBallsJim]

Originally posted by Squeal Like a Pig:

Yeah, the islands are hidden from view from the lifepod, for specifically the reason that Cougarific mentioned. They are actually visible, in fact, we just purposely obscured them with cloud FX

and that is very good :-)

[Cornhole Von Diggler]

If you look closely, you can see the cloud SFX. It causes the background to look bubbly. Found this out my first play and noticed it was different. Exploring caused me to find it. Perhaps add a mist effect or something so that from the start point, it isn't obvious, but if you get closer, you see it easier?

[TBdog]

Originally posted by Squeal Like a Pig:

Yeah, the islands are hidden from view from the lifepod, for specifically the reason that Cougarific mentioned. They are actually visible, in fact, we just purposely obscured them with cloud FX

It is an odd design decision. I was expecting that you would start off on the island but are required to branch out to the shallows then deeper to survive. So I take it that will never be the case this late in development?

[TBdog]

Originally posted by Phoenix:

Originally posted by Squeal Like a Pig:

Yeah, the islands are hidden from view from the lifepod, for specifically the reason that Cougarific mentioned. They are actually visible, in fact, we just purposely obscured them with cloud FX

Also, have you thought about semi-randomizing the position of the floating island for each new game?

I would suggest having creatures that defend that open space from the life pod to the islands. Currently it is perfectly safe, as long as you have food and water, to get to the islands. There should be a fear associated with swimming through open water.

[Squeal Like a Pig]

Originally posted by TBdog:

It is an odd design decision. I was expecting that you would start off on the island but are required to branch out to the shallows then deeper to survive. So I take it that will never be the case this late in development?

Nothing odd about it. This is a game all about being underwater. We want the player to start out in the middle of the ocean, and forced to enter the water and experience immediately what makes the game so different from all the rest.

[Venrez]

Originally posted by Squeal Like a Pig:

Yeah, the islands are hidden from view from the lifepod, for specifically the reason that Cougarific mentioned. They are actually visible, in fact, we just purposely obscured them with cloud FX

Funnily enough if you're above the surface you can often spot the weird patches where the clouds ever-so-slightly blend into the surface of the water even at extreme distances and know that the island / mountain is there.

We're talking like 2-3km away.

[WillieSea]

Will the cloud FX be fixed so it stops obscuring waymarkers and their distance? Or is it just me who is experiencing that?