Getting started guide?

[squatter1]

Hello all.

So, you buy Barotrauma with a couple of friends. You do the tutorials. Then you start a campaign. You select a submarine. You spawn in a colony.

Then what?

Any guides out there discussing how you take your first steps in the game? What the goal is? How you get started?

Much appreciated.

[FourGreenFields]

The goal is mostly to have fun. There is an "ending" for the campaign, but it's a placeholder.

Not sure about any guides, but the wiki[barotraumagame.com] is usefull.

[squatter1]

Thanks FGF.

As someone new to things as of yesterday, it's surprising how little documentation there seems to be about campaign 'first steps.' None of the guides here on steam explain what you need to do to get started (at least can't see any) and the wiki has an overview of the campaign, but not really a run-down of what everything is, and how you get started.

I guess most players have been with the game for years already, and everyone's forgotten what it's like to be a noob?

As it stands when you start a campaign, you find yourself asking questions like:

Which sub should I choose at start, and why?

What is the overall point of the game? What am I going to be doing exactly (ie running missions/making money/forging a career etc)

How do I get started? Who are all these people in the base? How do I get a mission? Do I need to buy anything? What happens if I steal?

What should be my initial goals? Etc Etc.

I've started to piece the answers together by trawling the wiki/guides, but I'm just very surprised that among the great amount of online literature the game has generated already, it doesn't include a 'getting started on your first campaign' guide?

[teravisor]

Originally posted by squatter1:

Thanks FGF.
I guess most players have been with the game for years already, and everyone's forgotten what it's like to be a noob?

As it stands when you start a campaign, you find yourself asking questions like:

Which sub should I choose at start, and why?

What is the overall point of the game? What am I going to be doing exactly (ie running missions/making money/forging a career etc)

How do I get started? Who are all these people in the base? How do I get a mission? Do I need to buy anything? What happens if I steal?

What should be my initial goals? Etc Etc.

I've started to piece the answers together by trawling the wiki/guides, but I'm just very surprised that among the great amount of online literature the game has generated already, it doesn't include a 'getting started on your first campaign' guide?

Game changed several times a lot and rarely any streamer is in it because it's long and slow. Not really streamer material. Resulting in almost no guides.

Try them all and see whichever you like more. If you don't like them, get modded from workshop, although a lot of them are OP and make game trivial.

What's the point of playing a game? To have fun. This game has most fun in failing by doing who-knows-what with friends, especially in beginning when you don't even know what's going on.

To get mission speak with three dot marker. Some mission givers have multiple missions so speak multiple times to get them all.
People are:
shopping cart - shop
arrows up - upgrade submarine
submarine icon - buy another submarine
human icon - buy crew (bots)
Orange circle with exclamation mark (only visible when directly seen by you) - event
three dots in white speech bubble - mission

Recommended in beginning is to buy fuel rods and thorium fuel rods. Rest is learn-as-you-go I think. Mostly you'll be buying resources to craft ammo (if your sub has fabricator) or ammo itself. Maybe some medicine, but it's a bit more advanced, just a rule for non-medics: morphine/opium for all but bleeding; plastiseal/bandages for closing bleeding; blood packs/saline for restoring blood level; antibiotics and calyxanide against husk infection. Make sure someone wears Health Scanner HUD to see what status others have, don't trust bot medics.

If you steal and someone sees you, you lose some reputation and security might attack you.

Goals: get to rightmost edge of map. Or just have fun.
Initial goal I'd say get some money and upgrade submarine's reactor efficiency to not drain all your fuel in ten minues and hull durability so that you can dive deeper (right areas on map are deeper).

P.S. first playthrough I suggest to disable Jovian radiation. It serves as sort of time limit, you don't want that when learning.

[アンジェル]

Originally posted by squatter1:

Thanks FGF.

As someone new to things as of yesterday, it's surprising how little documentation there seems to be about campaign 'first steps.' None of the guides here on steam explain what you need to do to get started (at least can't see any) and the wiki has an overview of the campaign, but not really a run-down of what everything is, and how you get started.

I guess most players have been with the game for years already, and everyone's forgotten what it's like to be a noob?

As it stands when you start a campaign, you find yourself asking questions like:

Which sub should I choose at start, and why?

What is the overall point of the game? What am I going to be doing exactly (ie running missions/making money/forging a career etc)

How do I get started? Who are all these people in the base? How do I get a mission? Do I need to buy anything? What happens if I steal?

What should be my initial goals? Etc Etc.

I've started to piece the answers together by trawling the wiki/guides, but I'm just very surprised that among the great amount of online literature the game has generated already, it doesn't include a 'getting started on your first campaign' guide?

It is probably because the whole idea about the game is more of a sandbox, with the campaign being a good addition.

It would be interesting if there is an actual story campaign. But so far it seems more like "it is nice to have, so you do not bore yourself out doing mission after mission without having any feel of progression".

While the real goal is the path to the goal.

I have been thrown into the game like 5 minutes after I bought it with an experienced crew. Most exciting game session I ever have had, aside of those crisises where everyone else died and I still managed to safe the submarine because I was the only one who did the tutorial at some point...

Plus it is really hard to provide some fixed guide for a game in continous developement. What is important to know today might be obsolete tomorrow. Even the vanilla submarines have a lot of design flaws like that in where some combos were clearly made in an earlier version. Kinda funny when you have two automatic doors with wirings and components but it looks like there have been ages in technology between them on the same ship.

[Grimwulf]

If you're playing with friends, I'd recommend you play some missions before embarking on a full campaign. Missions are pure fun - no need to bother yourself with inventory management or long term consequences. This is also a great way to try out different submarines, both vanilla and modded ones. The downside is there will be no feeling of progression (no levelups, stocking on supplies, submarine upgrades - nothing except getting more experienced at the game and teamwork).

[squatter1]

Many thanks all. That's all I needed - just a general heads up on how to get started. First MP game gonna happen tonight with two pals, looking forward to it...