Do Resources reseed/respawn?

[Osamaru]

Do things like Salvage, Quartz or Metal Nodes respawn?

[Rin 凛]

only living things respawn

[Zemecon]

Here is Michael Schouten, one of the developers, explaining how resource respawning works in Subnautica:

https://youtu.be/QdDkVg6pELQ?t=12267

Go to 3:24:27 of the video stream if the video won't take you there itself.

Basically, it is possible to completely deplete an area of resources at any given time but they do come back, apparently. Or atleast that is the way I understood it. See for yourself.

[DeFragged]

Iiiiinteresting. So he says they DO respawn eventually. This will be interesting to test, seeing as I've scoured one grassy plateau of all metal salvage and most of its quartz.

[NeoDraconis]

Huh that explains why the coral used in CPUs keeps reappearing in that crevice in the Crash Zone. Oddly enough the Reaper Leviathans tend to stick to the front and the rear of the ship... provided you don't attract their attention.

[Tjack Morris]

It probably depends on how much you take and how much is there in the first place.

[margalus]

No, resources do not respawn. Fish do, inorganic resources don't.

Originally posted by DeFragged:

Iiiiinteresting. So he says they DO respawn eventually. This will be interesting to test, seeing as I've scoured one grassy plateau of all metal salvage and most of its quartz.

No, actuallly he did not say that. When he was talking about resources the only thing he was saying was "how they spawn", he did not mention respawning at all. He only said fish will eventually respawn.

And that happens to be exactly how the game actually works. Fish respawn, resources don't.

[Nyello]

So I went through and watched the stream around the time listed by Salinite. I listened multiple times to what he said and even transcribed it. See below:

“I think the most challenging thing for me is doing the loot distribution. So basically how, choosing where we’re spawning resources and plants and things like that. At what rate and density we want those things to appear.

It’s a balance between introducing these new resources and not neglecting the resources introduced earlier, I guess. So that’s maybe the trickiest part of the whole distribution thing.

So basically, we have a tool for visualizing how any one resource will spawn in the world, globally. So for example, I can tweak the numbers for limestone and then just hit a button and basically it shows everywhere in the world that limestone will have spawned.

.....

We do have a system that’s basically simulating some kind of, like environmental cost that you’re doing to the biome that you’re in. Like when you pick up fish in the world you can entirely deplete an area of the world just by...but eventually, they will regenerate and will start reappearing.”

-Michael Schouten

I’m not trying to start any kind of flame war here but I’m still not seeing where there is any evidence that resource, specifically outcrops that hold metals, are respawning in game. Michael certainly doesn’t ever make that statement. He does when it comes to fish, but we all already knew that.

So to me at least, there is still no definitive answer as to whether outcrops containing metal crafting resources respawn.

[Zemecon]

I found the video difficult to interpret, myself. There are several times when you are not sure whether he says "spawn" or "respawn," or "distribution" or "redistribution," for instance. It could be either way. Or when he talks about introducing new resources while not forgetting where other resources are. Atleast I would like to think this question is still inconclusive.

Anyway, the video is still up to interpretation. Make of it as you will. Maybe I am right, maybe I am wrong. Not gonna say which because I still don't know, myself. If you've seen it then you have your own conclusion. I am not going to say anything more on this. Sorry for any resulting confusion.

EDIT 1 & 2: Added to response.

[Kossu]

In my experience some resources respawn... partially atleast. For example if you clear out those big tubes in safe shallows from limestone and quartz and come back bit later some nodes have respawned. Also some big (drill) nodes respawn but raw material could be different. For this test I used NW mushroom forest/dunes intersection and cleared all nodes with prawn and some node points respawned but material changed from quartz to salt etc. But after 2nd time everything is harvested they tend to be gone forever.