Resource Collection

[Casanova]

Like everything requires silver and yet it is one the most rare resources in Subnautica (for me anyway). I'll spend an hour looking for one so I can make something.

[SealieP]

There's actually a lot in the game, but you need to know where to look for it. Sandstone is the only outcrop that has silver. You can find it in scattered biomes but it's rare. It's in high concentrations in the kelp forest and caves in the kelp forest and in the safe shallows. Take a few tanks of O2 and check out the caves. If you don't scan in sandstone but do scan in limestone you'll be able to tell the difference easily because the scanner icon will appear when you are looking at sandstone. There are some great caves in both kelp and safe shallows that are filled with sandstone. You should get about a 50% chance at silver so you should get some in no time. Choose what you build wisely in the beginning. Once you have the drill arm for a prawn you can mine for it and have lockers full. Then you can build anything easily.

[Archon]

Scanner room or prawn with drill arm in the mushroom caves, you will have more silver then you will ever need. I still have lockers full, you just need to look.

[Willi the Gifter of Chaos]

Originally posted by Archon:

Scanner room or prawn with drill arm in the mushroom caves, you will have more silver then you will ever need. I still have lockers full, you just need to look.

1: what about starting off and new players who don't know about the prawnsuit, those larger nodes or their locations?
2: Anyone else find it cheap how the dev team made the kelp forest just as dangerous as the koosh zone/blood kelp forest/lost river/etc? How are new players expected to handle that difficulty spike without having to look up a guide?

[Nyello]

Originally posted by Willi the Gifter of Chaos:

Originally posted by Archon:

Scanner room or prawn with drill arm in the mushroom caves, you will have more silver then you will ever need. I still have lockers full, you just need to look.

2: Anyone else find it cheap how the dev team made the kelp forest just as dangerous as the koosh zone/blood kelp forest/lost river/etc? How are new players expected to handle that difficulty spike without having to look up a guide?

I don't find it cheap at all. The kelp forest is a great introduction to the fact "woah things are gonna try to kill me". Stalkers do not really hit hard in this game. Sure a newbie gonna get snapped at a couple times. But I found that after acquiring flippers and the sea glide they were super avoidable. Also they give you a medley fabricator from the start. I have an entire locker dedicated to medkits because I try to pull them from the fabricator whenever a new one is made.

[Willi the Gifter of Chaos]

Originally posted by Lucki:

I don't find it cheap at all. The kelp forest is a great introduction to the fact "woah things are gonna try to kill me". Stalkers do not really hit hard in this game. Sure a newbie gonna get snapped at a couple times. But I found that after acquiring flippers and the sea glide they were super avoidable. Also they give you a medley fabricator from the start. I have an entire locker dedicated to medkits because I try to pull them from the fabricator whenever a new one is made.

But the change in difficulty is nowhere near natural. This game goes from minecraft levels of casual with only 2 "threats" (crash which are avoidable and easy to learn from without consequences and gasopods which are defensive) to don't starve levels of punishment with 4 threats (stalkers, mesmers which are more dangerous than you think due to:) hanging jelly vines in caves which can kill in seconds and bleeders that can prevent you from doing things for several seconds.

[SealieP]

Originally posted by Willi the Gifter of Chaos:

Originally posted by Archon:

Scanner room or prawn with drill arm in the mushroom caves, you will have more silver then you will ever need. I still have lockers full, you just need to look.

1: what about starting off and new players who don't know about the prawnsuit, those larger nodes or their locations?
2: Anyone else find it cheap how the dev team made the kelp forest just as dangerous as the koosh zone/blood kelp forest/lost river/etc? How are new players expected to handle that difficulty spike without having to look up a guide?

I think you're alone in thinking the kelp forest is as dangerous as areas with reapers and warpers. Having silver in abundance in the kelp forest is great as it forces players to learn how to work around preditors. Stalkers are actually the easiest preditors to work around because they can be so easily distracted. It's a brilliant move by the developer team and one I fully endorse.

[Ravo]

Originally posted by Casanova:

Like everything requires silver and yet it is one the most rare resources in Subnautica (for me anyway). I'll spend an hour looking for one so I can make something.

It's knowing where to look. Build two air tanks, a light, and fins - start looking in the cave systems in the safe shallows and Kelp forest. Typically sandstone lines the walls and limestone is on the ground. If you find the hanging purple stinging things there's probably a lot near you. It's not hard to stock up on lots of valuable silver and worthless gold. Once you can make a scanner room it becomes a moot issue.

[Willi the Gifter of Chaos]

Originally posted by Ravo:

It's knowing where to look. Build two air tanks, a light, and fins - start looking in the cave systems in the safe shallows and Kelp forest. Typically sandstone lines the walls and limestone is on the ground. If you find the hanging purple stinging things there's probably a lot near you. It's not hard to stock up on lots of valuable silver and worthless gold. Once you can make a scanner room it becomes a moot issue.

So there's a very specific way to play this open world game? And i thought the subnautica world was fixed...

Originally posted by SealieP:

I think you're alone in thinking the kelp forest is as dangerous as areas with reapers and warpers.

There are reapers in the lost river and blood kelp forest?

Originally posted by SealieP:

Having silver in abundance in the kelp forest is great as it forces players to learn how to work around preditors.

Don't you think they could have done that a little better without the difficulty/danger spike?

Originally posted by SealieP:

Stalkers are actually the easiest preditors to work around because they can be so easily distracted. It's a brilliant move by the developer team and one I fully endorse.

You're forgetting about the 3 other enemies in the kelp forest, one of which can only be found in caves and kills you in seconds and is worse when paired with the mesmer.

[SealieP]

Originally posted by Willi the Gifter of Chaos:

Originally posted by Ravo:

It's knowing where to look. Build two air tanks, a light, and fins - start looking in the cave systems in the safe shallows and Kelp forest. Typically sandstone lines the walls and limestone is on the ground. If you find the hanging purple stinging things there's probably a lot near you. It's not hard to stock up on lots of valuable silver and worthless gold. Once you can make a scanner room it becomes a moot issue.

So there's a very specific way to play this open world game? And i thought the subnautica world was fixed...

Originally posted by SealieP:

I think you're alone in thinking the kelp forest is as dangerous as areas with reapers and warpers.

There are reapers in the lost river and blood kelp forest?

Originally posted by SealieP:

Having silver in abundance in the kelp forest is great as it forces players to learn how to work around preditors.

Don't you think they could have done that a little better without the difficulty/danger spike?

Originally posted by SealieP:

Stalkers are actually the easiest preditors to work around because they can be so easily distracted. It's a brilliant move by the developer team and one I fully endorse.

You're forgetting about the 3 other enemies in the kelp forest, one of which can only be found in caves and kills you in seconds and is worse when paired with the mesmer.

1. There are lots of ways to get silver early on. The caves is just an easy example to explain to people. Another is sitting comfortably in a seamoth and driving around, jumping out to get an outcrop, then going back into the safety of the seamoth. Another is to just use the seaglide and dart in and out of the kelp forest. Another is to stock up on peepers and hold them while you're searching. Another is to scan the outside edges of the biomes where there are less likely to be high concentrations of preditors. Oh so so many ways. You're only limited by your imagination.

2. There are warpers in the blood kelp an lost river. And the preditors that are in there do a lot worse than stalkers. Please.

3. Nope. I think they did it perfectly with the danger spike. Stalkers are minor and can be trained for crying out loud. The rest are all found in other biomes and areas that you need to prepare for.

4. I'm not forgetting anything else in the kelp forest. The mesmer is my favorite creature in the game (points to avatar). I've also never died from one. They're in Koosh and Lost River too and if you don't look at them you're fine. You can swim away and break the enchantment easily. I like to get a few good screenshots of it though for each game I play to hang up on my base walls.

The drooping stingers? You can scan them from a distance and know not to touch them. You can swim close to them and not be harmed. You can swim through them and know you are being poisoned and get out without dying. I don't even consider them a threat. They're easier to deal with than the gaspods. And boy you need to learn to deal with those if you want to go to the jellyshroom abandoned base.

And then there's the bleeders. You punch them and they die. Or you go to the surface and they die. They do minor damage unless you leave them on. All you have to do is RMB a few times even if you're holding something and that's the end of it. Better learn that quick becuse you'll need it for the aurora.

None of these things are horrible. You pout on each threat about silver because apparently you're afraid of the kelp forest. It's okay to be afraid. I once was too. Then I conquered it. Now I always build my first base there. I find it one of the safest biomes. I'll take stalkers any day of the week over crabsquids, river prowlers, reapers, and warpers.

[Willi the Gifter of Chaos]

Originally posted by SealieP:

1. There are lots of ways to get silver early on. The caves is just an easy example to explain to people. Another is sitting comfortably in a seamoth and driving around, jumping out to get an outcrop, then going back into the safety of the seamoth. Another is to just use the seaglide and dart in and out of the kelp forest. Another is to stock up on peepers and hold them while you're searching. Another is to scan the outside edges of the biomes where there are less likely to be high concentrations of preditors. Oh so so many ways. You're only limited by your imagination.

1: What about new players who don't have either the seamoth or seaglide?
2: Well my imagination has me making a spear using the air pipes, fiber mesh and a knife.

Originally posted by SealieP:

2. There are warpers in the blood kelp an lost river. And the preditors that are in there do a lot worse than stalkers. Please.

You are continuing to forget about bleeders, mesmers and the hanging jellyvines.

Originally posted by SealieP:

3. Nope. I think they did it perfectly with the danger spike. Stalkers are minor and can be trained for crying out loud. The rest are all found in other biomes and areas that you need to prepare for.

So going from 2 easy to avoid predators to 4 highly dangerous predators is a perfect danger spike? well you would have an argument if not for one biome....mushroom forest with jellyrays and bonesharks, one biome that would have made a great progressive biome instead of being later game when you've got all your tech.

Originally posted by SealieP:

4. mesmer argument,

Drooping stinger argument,

Bleeder argument.

Individually, they are easy to deal with but players are expected to deal with all 4 at the same time when gathering silver. Don't you think they could have just had the close kelp forests have the mesmers and stalkers and put the drooping stingers and bleeders in further kelpforests along with the stalker and mesmer?

Originally posted by SealieP:

None of these things are horrible. You pout on each threat about silver because apparently you're afraid of the kelp forest. It's okay to be afraid. I once was too. Then I conquered it. Now I always build my first base there. I find it one of the safest biomes. I'll take stalkers any day of the week over crabsquids, river prowlers, reapers, and warpers.

And that brings us to the worse part of subnautica: replayability (in the fact it has none)

Once you've beaten those fears once, the game looses all sense of challenge and fear, leading to the inevitable speed runs as that's all that's left unless the devs plan on putting biomes in the game indevinately or infinatly, randomly generated terrain inplace of the void.
The game punishes new players who don't do previous research on the game and only, barely, rewards veterans who have played the game to death and know where everything is before hand.

[SealieP]

I'm not putting all that in the reply. Just know, that when you scream about kelp forest being oh so dangerous and then a few paragraphs later say, "the game looses all sense of challenge and fear" you completely contradict yourself. Either you think it is too hard or it's too easy. Pick one and stick with it. You don't like it and will whine and complain forever like you've done on all the other threads. In all honesty, it is perfectly balanced this way. Those preditors are not highly dangerous. None of them in the game really are until you get to something that will swallow you whole. That's not because the game isn't challenging, it's because you aren't meant to kill the preditors. You need to live wiith them and avoid their attacks. It goes along with no guns and no need for them. You can use the tools you have at hand to deal with the threats that are in game in unique ways. It's a different kind of playstyle then you can perform, apparently.

The game doesn't punish anyone. There are so may clues that lead you to search further out for things and right away you're forced into the kelp forest for resources. It's a game of trial and error and exploration. You don't need a guide, plenty of players have figured out silver. The only ones you hear about are the very few who ask on here about it.

Saying that this game rewards vetrans is just absurd. Of course vetran players are going to know more. They've played the game. ALL games are easier once you learn all the aspects of it and have played it through. Your arguements are not valid.

[Alkpaz]

William is still on his "lack of silver" track it seems. At least, he isn't complaining about "lack of fish". :P Want another game that lacks replayability William? Skyrim.

[Willi the Gifter of Chaos]

Originally posted by Alkpaz:

William is still on his "lack of silver" track it seems. At least, he isn't complaining about "lack of fish". :P Want another game that lacks replayability William? Skyrim.

You're really pulling up skyrim, a game that has infinitly more replayability, choices and playtime than subnautica? Also, did you forget skyrim has mods?

Originally posted by SealieP:

I'm not putting all that in the reply. Just know, that when you scream about kelp forest being oh so dangerous and then a few paragraphs later say, "the game looses all sense of challenge and fear" you completely contradict yourself. Either you think it is too hard or it's too easy. Pick one and stick with it.

Please stop using straw man fallacy. My argument is that the kelp forest is incredibly dangerous to new players and should be scaled better, but once you play it through once, there's no replayability or fear due to the rigidity of the game.

Originally posted by SealieP:

In all honesty, it is perfectly balanced this way. Those preditors are not highly dangerous. None of them in the game really are until you get to something that will swallow you whole.

Sounds like terrible progression for an open world game to go from 1 1/2 threats for the beginning to 4 threats that behave drastically differently until midgame when the leviathan classed enemies are introduced. It would be like if factorio's enemies went from small biter enemies showing up only 2 at a time every once in a while to large biters and spitters showing up frequently in groups of 4 each or more only after only a bit of time.

Originally posted by SealieP:

That's not because the game isn't challenging, it's because you aren't meant to kill the preditors. You need to live wiith them and avoid their attacks. It goes along with no guns and no need for them. You can use the tools you have at hand to deal with the threats that are in game in unique ways. It's a different kind of playstyle then you can perform, apparently.

1: Keep the attacks to the discussion at hand.
2: Over 300 hours of playtime begs to differ.
3: I'm more than open to the idea of a pacifist gaming, but only when said progression and difficulty is warrented and it has the content to back it up.

Originally posted by SealieP:

The game doesn't punish anyone. There are so may clues that lead you to search further out for things and right away you're forced into the kelp forest for resources. It's a game of trial and error and exploration. You don't need a guide, plenty of players have figured out silver. The only ones you hear about are the very few who ask on here about it.

That last statement seems to contradict your 1st cause if the game has "so may clues that lead you to search further out" then why are there so many players that are asking where silver can be found?
Further more, the game does punish by means of only rewarding players if they explore very specific areas (kelp forest caves, aurora, mountain island, floating island, etc.) especially due to the limited amount of silver early on to midgame and even late game if you don't know what to do.

Originally posted by SealieP:

Saying that this game rewards vetrans is just absurd. Of course vetran players are going to know more. They've played the game. ALL games are easier once you learn all the aspects of it and have played it through. Your arguements are not valid.

Incorrect. Many games get better the more you play them due to multitude of ways to play and, most of the time, randomly generated maps which are the easiest ways of implementing replayability and longevity for the game (case and point: minecraft, terraria, factorio, space engineers, etc). This game though is like portal. Once you've played it, all challenge and fun is lost to the point where the player must artificially add fun into it to justify playing it further.