Future plans for human crush depth?

[Lazy Fangs]

I'm not sure I read it somewhere, but what will be done with the player's crush depth? Will we be able to survive on any depth, or will there be a point at which we'll have to stay inside a vehicle?

[G-Man]

I've never heard of any plans to introduce a maximun depth for a human, besides the obvious difficulties of air supply. Speaking realistically, the true crush depth for a human would be far beyond any depth reachable in this game.

Of course, the submersibles also have unrealistic crush depths, but that at least serves a gameplay purpose as it creates a system of progression. First you get a Seamoth to explore further, then you need to upgrade your Seamoth to go deeper, and later the Exosuit will serve as the next step.

Adding a crush depth for a human would be an unnecessary hastle, because it would prevent you from repairing your vehicle, building a deep base or eating/drinking. It's easier for the devs to just let your leave your vehicle, than to find a way to do those things without getting out.

[Lazy Fangs]

That was the point I was trying to address. I can see no reason why we can't access our inventories inside the Seamoth or Exosuit - it should be entirely possible to heal or eat without being vulnerable outside (which I assume will be a big thing with lava biomes), as well as exchange batteries - you know, anything you should be able to do in a vehicle designed to keep you AWAY from the hostile environment

I'd also find it more exciting if, for example, I was deep underwater and would actually have to watch my submersible HP instead of having the luxury of being able to step out and slap a band-aid on it any time I like.

Overall, yeah, having a human crush depth would suck, but would add a whole heap to the claustrophobia and feeling of dread on lower depths

[SMRT]

well they sort of have an effect if you don't have the re-breather, you consume oxygen at a much faster rate at lower depths, which is very very scary for even short trips outside.

[Brobius Maximus]

Well the Exosuit is more or less an Atmospheric Dive Suit with power. The maximum dive depth achieved in a free dive was 830 feet, that is holding your breath and not using an aparatus. The deepest SCUBA dive ever was 1090 feet. Without an atmospheric dive suit that is about as far down as you can go. Human crush depth? That's an incredible 22 Miles or 116,160 feet. At that depth our bones will not survive the atmospheric pressure and will be crushed. The absence of gases makes us incredibly hard to crush. Your soft tissues will be pushed to their elastic limit and you will likely be in excruciating pain and would likely die from other causes on the journey to 22 miles. Temperature would be a huge factor as well. At 10,500 feet the average temperature is around 4 degrees Celsius and you would be traveling over 10 times that distance. If you did manage to survive it would take you 26 days roughly to decompress to avoid decompression sickness at 1 atmosphere.

[Lazy Fangs]

Originally posted by Obi:

Well the Exosuit is more or less an Atmospheric Dive Suit with power. The maximum dive depth achieved in a free dive was 830 feet, that is holding your breath and not using an aparatus. The deepest SCUBA dive ever was 1090 feet. Without an atmospheric dive suit that is about as far down as you can go. Human crush depth? That's an incredible 22 Miles or 116,160 feet. At that depth our bones will not survive the atmospheric pressure and will be crushed. The absence of gases makes us incredibly hard to crush. Your soft tissues will be pushed to their elastic limit and you will likely be in excruciating pain and would likely die from other causes on the journey to 22 miles. Temperature would be a huge factor as well. At 10,500 feet the average temperature is around 4 degrees Celsius and you would be traveling over 10 times that distance. If you did manage to survive it would take you 26 days roughly to decompress to avoid decompression sickness at 1 atmosphere.

Titanium-made Seamoth can only go 200m below surface. Let's assume that realistic physics are out the window, where they belong, and focus on the gameplay/fun factor of such mechanics :P

[Grim]

Why would you apply Earth physics to other worlds? We don't know what the gravity pressure on this planet is really like, what the water is really made out of, or anything like that. True the physics right now seem identical to Earth but that could change, it is early access and we don't even have fall damage yet. We also don't know that the player character is an ordinary human, either. When you're talking Science Fiction, just about anything can be left to question.

It does seem pretty odd that the submarines can't go as deep as a human can. For gameplay purposes the sub is just a giant air tank with a power supply. We use it because otherwise we would need to load our inventory with O2 tanks to reach those depths.

I always assumed that with the Exosuit, crush depth for the diver would be integrated. Otherwise, there didn't seem to be much point for the suit. Surely it would be slower than swimming, with more limited movement. You would need the Cyclops to reach those depths and you would have to deploy directly in the exosuit from which you could collect resources without leaving the suit. I also assumed that the reinforced diving suit was originally intended for this purpose, so the Seamoth could take you deeper and the reinforced suit would keep you form dying.

But the reinforced suit was just used for damage protection and was removed because players thought it was too broken and make the game too easy. So I don't know what they'll wind up doing.

[Lazy Fangs]

It does seem pretty odd that the submarines can't go as deep as a human can. For gameplay purposes the sub is just a giant air tank with a power supply. We use it because otherwise we would need to load our inventory with O2 tanks to reach those depths.

Idk about you, I use mine to stay away from scary teeth and insulate against said teeth, should they catch up to me. It's funny as the dumb sharks just bonk against the hull, lol

[Grim]

True but ultimately you can deal with every creature in the game without it, except for the reapers. You must because you have to leave it anyway if you want to collect anything.

[Lazy Fangs]

Originally posted by herugrim:

True but ultimately you can deal with every creature in the game without it, except for the reapers. You must because you have to leave it anyway if you want to collect anything.

When the exosuits come into play, you can apparently battle them on even ground.

Mine will be the drill that pierces the heavens!

[Explore]

Originally posted by Obi:

deepest SCUBA dive ever was 1090 feet. Without an atmospheric dive suit that is about as far down as you can go. Human crush depth? That's an incredible 22 Miles or 116,160 feet.

Although as you point out, you'd already be a corpse for the final 115,160 feet ;) So let's think more in terms of "Lethal depth", but what's more important than a determined lethal depth is the nitrogen narcosis effect when you go down deep and then rise too quickly.

There's a nitrogen console command you can play around with, but it doesn't work as it should - it very slowly adjusts your adjusted depth downwards, so you can still rapidly go up and down huge distances without any ill effects.

I'm not going to stop playing the game over it, but I'd really like to see an option (at the very least) for realistic depth mechanics, as well as flooding when you open a door to your base or sub. If the game is possible to mod at the end of development, I'll add it in myself.

[Mag]

Originally posted by herugrim:

It does seem pretty odd that the submarines can't go as deep as a human can. For gameplay purposes the sub is just a giant air tank with a power supply. We use it because otherwise we would need to load our inventory with O2 tanks to reach those depths.

Actually the reason for a sub having trouble going deep is because it IS an airtank. Keeping the structire intact around the air is problematic.
As humans are mostly water, we don't really crush (as early). The biggest problem is how air behaves under pressure. There are tricks mixing up other gasses than surface air.
But I think the main reason we have not gone deeper with scuba gear, is that it is just easier to put people in a pressure suit. Then decompression also gets much easier...

And well, Obi already gave some facts. Human crush depth is at a much deeper point that subs made to contain humans.

[Zefnoly]

Originally posted by Obi:

If you did manage to survive it would take you 26 days roughly to decompress to avoid decompression sickness at 1 atmosphere.

Some years ago i read about an aparatus that makes you breathe in a breathable liquid (a liquid that can be safely taken into our lungs) And then carrying a mechanic fish lung (not sure of the english name for it) which would take oxygen from water and add it to the blood stream while you breathe in this liquid. The point is: Filling your lungs with liquid will add allot deeper deph we would be able to go without needing a pressure chamber when reaching surface again. Since we then fill our body with liquid and not a gass. Pretty interesting.

[or0b0ur0s]

Originally posted by r@BiD-@nT:

well they sort of have an effect if you don't have the re-breather, you consume oxygen at a much faster rate at lower depths, which is very very scary for even short trips outside.

Yeah, but at extreme depths you STILL lose more than 1 O2 per second even with a rebreather. I always assumed that the Lava biome would either be so hot you'd take damage being outside, or the depth would do it. Which is why they gave the Exosuit an inventory and hands to pick stuff up. It looks (circumstantially, of course) like you should be able to free dive just about everywhere except possibly the lava biome.

That said, there is no good reason why you can't access your PDA in the seamoth. The exosuit is iffy, but the way they've animated it you should be able to take your hands off the controls and have room to do so. I also think it's bogus that you can't weld a seamoth inside a moonpool, but that's a little off-topic.

[Mag]

About the nitrogen narcosis, is it not exactly how it works in reality? It takes a few minutes for your body to adjust to the new pressure level of the nitrogen. So you can the go a little deeper after a few minutes...

You don't decompress because of the narcosis, but because of the expanding bubbles of primarily CO2 in your body when rising from below...

But I guess to anwer the primary question. I guess you will always be able to go outside the vehicles when it comes to depth. If you are in xtremely hot water as in an active lava zone, probably not. And yeah, I hope we will be able to access tha pda while inside then :)

[Explore]

Originally posted by Mag:

About the nitrogen narcosis, is it not exactly how it works in reality? It takes a few minutes for your body to adjust to the new pressure level of the nitrogen. So you can the go a little deeper after a few minutes...

You don't decompress because of the narcosis, but because of the expanding bubbles of primarily CO2 in your body when rising from below...

But I guess to anwer the primary question. I guess you will always be able to go outside the vehicles when it comes to depth. If you are in xtremely hot water as in an active lava zone, probably not. And yeah, I hope we will be able to access tha pda while inside then :)

In reality you compress a lot faster than you decompress - for simplicity (relatively) I would suggest having it so you compress instantly, and decompress slowly.

There is a lot to think about if we were to have it like this - the vehicles would have to act as automated pressure devices that compress to the depth you were at when you get inside, and prevent you from getting out if you were to then rise to the surface in the vehicle and attempt to open the door before it has re-adjusted your pressure again (otherwise, instant death!). Also you would have to choose what depth you want your base compressed at; if it was at the depth it's at, then you wouldn't be able to jump into your seamoth and go straight to the surface (and open the hatch), but if it was at 1 atmosphere, then you wouldn't be able to go straight inside your base without first going through a decompression sequence.

There would be a lot to think about, which is probably why the devs haven't spent any time on it, but I'd like all this in a "Realism" game mode.