Can the virus actually kill you?

[Jhonis]

Or does it just sit there in you body making you look ugly?

[ImHelping]

The "Well, technically-" answer is The Virus itself is a harmless plot virus. But it is also the intended trigger flag to make Warpers aggro on you instead of ignore you

[Jhonis]

So the warper had nothing to do with the death of all the other people, except maybe the degaise?

Still rather lame that they made the virse harmless, they should of made some sort of "treatment" that can delay it as long as you take it, and it actually does something to you if you don't.

[Meewec]

at one time it was planned to kill you after 5 weeks in game. some of the other escape pod inhabitants were killed by warpers i'm sure, but a lot of them suffered damage that put them in dangerous regions. i think one pod died to radiation, and one died to stupidity with a flare, one died entering atmosphere, one mentioned what was probably a reaper, one is in reaper territory

[ImHelping]

Originally posted by Jhonis:

So the warper had nothing to do with the death of all the other people, except maybe the degaise?

Still rather lame that they made the virse harmless, they should of made some sort of "treatment" that can delay it as long as you take it, and it actually does something to you if you don't.

Well, that sort of mechanic needs a robust balance pass to hit that sweet spot of meaningful gameplay rather than padding.

It's certainly possible, but the amount of effort for the Devs to get it right (balanced, not buggy in any way, etc) as much as anything is why we don't have such a mechanic.

They already cut the genetic infusor out of ever being in the game, for example.

As well, we're in a game where the majority resources don't respawn, which is another thing to balance around.

If it's a limited resources you have to scrounge for, that's a pile of developer effort to ensure it works correctly. And luck is rewarded more than skill due to spawn logic.

It's it's a resource you can reproduce inside your own base like melons and fish, then it's just busywork for something that may as well not be in the game.

It sound simple, but it's an INCREDIBLY hard thing to implement correctly. At least if you want to do it right, rather than half ass it. And as Subnautica is a real game rather than a shovelware roguelike, they couldn't get away with half assing it.

[Jhonis]

The game already have simmiler mechanics, it called "Food", "Water" and "O2".

Doesn't these limited resources have a RNG attached to it that offers the chance of you never getting one of the items it can drop?

[LittleBallOfPurr]

SPOILERS:

One of the cinematic trailers released, the one focusing on the Degasi "kid", implies his eventual death from the Virus. He gets very ill at the end.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rz2SNm8VguE

Many years must have passed by the time he reaches this point.

If I remember right the are also playing their role in reducing the lethality of the virus.

In terms of actual gameplay though, there is no time limit by which you will die, could be a fun feature to add in for 'Hardcore' gameplay. Personally I'm glad it doesn't kill you in the standard survival, I don't think I would enjoy that forced rush through the game even now and certainly feel it would have ruined things on a first playthough.