Ghost Leviathans in Dead Zone - Awful Game Design

[wanderlustry]

So I was trolling around past the Foating Island area and all of a sudden a ghost leviathan spawned. I turned off engine and just chilled hoping for it to go away. Nope. Then another. And a third one. I read stuff on wiki and the internet and apparently they spawn to "deter" people from this area.

Well if you're already there, there's basically nothing you can do. I tried to pilot the cyclops away but it got destroyed, predictably, and I lost a ton of materials and everything I built inside it.

This isn't a nice experience, especially for something scripted to deter people. It should at least either

1. De-spawn / let them swim away at least a bit in order to allow retreat
2. have a warning like "dead zone ahead: leviathan presence, recommend turning around"

Losing two vehicles and tons of stuff just because devs don't want you near the edge of the map doesn't feel fun

[Taconter]

Originally posted by Darth Warez:

Originally posted by Legas:

They do warn you the first time you enter the dead zone, not the other times though.

To be honest that happens only after you already in 200 meters inside dead zone and ghost leviathans already spawned.

And that shoul happen before entering, not so late.

It happens when you can see the drop off tho

Tho my pc has huge delays with some pda audio clips

I was at the losr river and got the seatreader path dialog

[OKOK]

i will like red light to flash non stop instead. and spawn far away ps. Not spawn just next to me.

[1ostcat]

If you had three on you it means that you ignored the warning of the first one spawning. You only get second and third spawns if you are still in the dead zone at certain time intervals after the first Lev spawns in.

You should have dropped decoys and headed back to the nearest biome immediately.

This game requires cautious play, and if you choose to be wreckless you will lose your vehicles and/or life.

[wanderlustry]

Originally posted by textheavy:

If you had three on you it means that you ignored the warning of the first one spawning. You only get second and third spawns if you are still in the dead zone at certain time intervals after the first Lev spawns in.

You should have dropped decoys and headed back to the nearest biome immediately.

This game requires cautious play, and if you choose to be wreckless you will lose your vehicles and/or life.

I had no decoys or shields since I just got the cyclops.

The warning came and within like 10 seconds there was a leviathan. Zero time to react. AND I didn't read the PDA immediately because I was driving.

If yuo read my posts, I shut off the engine after the first spawned. Then, the others kept spawning. There was no way to escape and I didn't know it would just spawn more.

At least they should be far off in the dead zone and start as shadows in the distance so you can avoid them.

Of course now I know obviously to avoid it at all costs, but I just think that could be accomplished more elegantly, hence, bad game design. I was being very cautious and in the lost river idled my engine and then slowly inched away from a ghost lev and with seconds I was in the dead zone and tried to use the same tactic to get clear of the ghost lev, but it just kept spawning more

[Malidictus]

Originally posted by wanderlustry:

If yuo read my posts, I shut off the engine after the first spawned. Then, the others kept spawning. There was no way to escape and I didn't know it would just spawn more.

Yes, you had a way to escape. Rig for Silent Running, slowly turn the boat around, then go to emergency speed and floor it. If you turn around slowly enough you won't aggro the Leviathans and the engine on Silent Running produces very little noise. If you do your turns in small increments, you should be fine. Failing that, escape in your docked vehicle if you have one, craft a decoy, then come back, if you didn't have resources and equipment to do it on-board. Failing even that, just try to make it out of the dead zone. Even if your Cyclops sinks, gear from it can still be recovered by swimming into it.

[CrazyGoblin]

Originally posted by Malidictus:

Even if your Cyclops sinks, gear from it can still be recovered by swimming into it.

Unless it's beyond the ledge, in which case it will sink down several thousand meters and be irretrievable unless it gets looped and transported to the air above the safe shallows.

[Malidictus]

Originally posted by CrazyGoblin:

Unless it's beyond the ledge, in which case it will sink down several thousand meters and be irretrievable unless it gets looped and transported to the air above the safe shallows.

Right, there is that. Which is why I proposed going into Silent Running, turning the boat around slowly and then gunning it for the shallows. Even if you get killed, chances are your wreck will end up retrievable.

[gerald2]

Originally posted by wanderlustry:

So I was trolling around past the Foating Island area and all of a sudden a ghost leviathan spawned. I turned off engine and just chilled hoping for it to go away. Nope. Then another. And a third one. I read stuff on wiki and the internet and apparently they spawn to "deter" people from this area.

Well if you're already there, there's basically nothing you can do. I tried to pilot the cyclops away but it got destroyed, predictably, and I lost a ton of materials and everything I built inside it.

This isn't a nice experience, especially for something scripted to deter people. It should at least either

1. De-spawn / let them swim away at least a bit in order to allow retreat
2. have a warning like "dead zone ahead: leviathan presence, recommend turning around"

Losing two vehicles and tons of stuff just because devs don't want you near the edge of the map doesn't feel fun

there is warning though it appear just once when u first time cross dead zone,i agree it should give message on screen every time u go into.especially so game have no ingame map or anything like that

[Mortemas]

Originally posted by CrazyGoblin:

Originally posted by Malidictus:

Even if your Cyclops sinks, gear from it can still be recovered by swimming into it.

Unless it's beyond the ledge, in which case it will sink down several thousand meters and be irretrievable unless it gets looped and transported to the air above the safe shallows.

This happened to me, but the behavior of the Cyclops wreck is a bit odd in the void zone. Mine was destroyed about 200m from the edge of the world. The wreck was a couple hundred meters down from the surface. It just hangs there, disabled, in the water. But, if you swim towards it and as you get closer it starts to sink. You have to catch it, so you need the sea glider to go fast enough. But, you also have to dodge the ghost levs around you. Once you are inside it will continue to sink, so you had better salvage what you want quickly. I actually ended up cheating with console commands. Enabled invincibility and spawned 60 to 80 floaters inside the Cyclops to lift it to the surface while I grabbed what I needed. The PRAWN I had docked was totally gone - the bay door was off and it presumably fell endlessly into the depths below. It would have been too difficult (but maybe not impossible) without cheats to get back what I could from the wreck. Then the December patch hit and that save game was no good anyway, so I started fresh. Oh well, them’s the breaks.

[wanderlustry]

Originally posted by Malidictus:

Originally posted by wanderlustry:

If yuo read my posts, I shut off the engine after the first spawned. Then, the others kept spawning. There was no way to escape and I didn't know it would just spawn more.

Yes, you had a way to escape. Rig for Silent Running, slowly turn the boat around, then go to emergency speed and floor it. If you turn around slowly enough you won't aggro the Leviathans and the engine on Silent Running produces very little noise. If you do your turns in small increments, you should be fine. Failing that, escape in your docked vehicle if you have one, craft a decoy, then come back, if you didn't have resources and equipment to do it on-board. Failing even that, just try to make it out of the dead zone. Even if your Cyclops sinks, gear from it can still be recovered by swimming into it.

I turned on silent running and slowly started to turn, but there were three by that time and I aggro'd them all.

I was told by some info the play the game blind in order to have the full experience, so I didn't read any wikis or guides or anything. I guess hindsight is 20/20 but I had no real idea what to do and the constant spawning of them makes it tricky to deal with. Agani, since I had used the "turn off and wait" strategy with a leviathan in the reef area literally 5 minutes prior to great effect, I thought it would work here too, but the leviathans in the dead zone just linger around your sub and even spawn more.

I went back to try to salvage some stuff but got killed again, I guess I needed the statis gun or something.

I guess in the end I just think it would be cool if the warning was more clear/dire, as it stands you'd have to open your PDA to see all the information.

[Draygo]

I' d love 1: A warning each time you're nearing the zone, 2: An overhead map (maybe that you fill in via traveling) for general locational awareness, and 3: More clear "dead zone" marking than just "floor gone" since several areas have super steep drops and MOST areas in the game you can't see more than a foot in front.

[Malidictus]

Originally posted by AceTheGolden:

I' d love 1: A warning each time you're nearing the zone, 2: An overhead map (maybe that you fill in via traveling) for general locational awareness, and 3: More clear "dead zone" marking than just "floor gone" since several areas have super steep drops and MOST areas in the game you can't see more than a foot in front.

Agreed on all counts. If the dead zone is supposed to be no-go, warn players not to sail into it. Verbally, every time, with an alert. It CAN be hard to know you've sailed into it. Like I said before - I've accidentally sailed my Cyclops into the dead zone before. Even if this is limited to just while you're in the Cyclops, it should be a thing.

As to a map - there already exists a map mod for the game on NexusMods. It's handly, though not as vital as I thought it would be. I don't know how you guys feel about mods, but it exists, at least.

[Draygo]

Mods shouldn't be relied on to fix game flaws, IMO. Especially in a game that vehemently opposes mod support.

[BlackWater]

I for one, like the Far-Cry original approach to this, in that game stray too far out to see and you get told via radio "They have attack helicopters patrolling this area and their radar will pick you up easily in the open sea" Without cheats, I managed to bring down two, but it was the fight of my life and they get you eventually. THIS is way more preferred than some bs glicthy end of map stuff, so quit complaining, yeah?

[Enheldor]

Originally posted by BlackWater:

I for one, like the Far-Cry original approach to this, in that game stray too far out to see and you get told via radio "They have attack helicopters patrolling this area and their radar will pick you up easily in the open sea" Without cheats, I managed to bring down two, but it was the fight of my life and they get you eventually. THIS is way more preferred than some bs glicthy end of map stuff, so quit complaining, yeah?

Just tell us more than the first time. I always get it mixed up with one of the blood kelp zones.