Booster Tank Woes

[dragonbornzyra]

I feel a certain way about this thing. First off, during the Frostbite update when I began to play Below Zero (purchased much earlier) when I acquired the Booster Tank, WHOO BOY. MAN. I had FUN!

First, not only was it practical in that it actually made me go f a s t e r, I also took GREAT PLEASURE and ENJOYMENT in the Superman/Superwoman pose Robin makes as she jets through the water.

*Clicks tongue* Noice.

And now, they've reduced it's speed to the point I sincerely can't tell the difference with the naked eye between normal swim speed and using the Booster Tank. Not only is it far slower than before, but it still seems to suck up oxygen just as fast!

And you can now no longer use it at the top of the surface.

Ok, look. I get it. People use use the Booster Tank at the surface and it would never run out of air since you were at the surface. And it was the fastest method of travel in the game. (Understanding how badly UWE is trying to FORCE the Seatruck down our throats it makes total sense they'd nerf the Booster Tank speed, can't have anything out performing their darling Seasnail)

I understand you didn't intend the Booster Tank to be able to be used indefinately. And I also understand you want to slow everything the player does down, to force them to experience the game "longer" to give us the false impression there's more to the world than there is.

But you nerfed it entirely way too hard. I understand cutting the infinite surface usage, that would have been enough. But why cut the speed so much?! The Booster Tank speed nerf ON TOP of the Seaglide speed nerf ON TOP of the abyssmal Seatruck speed just saps so much fun and enjoyment from the game. Sometimes if I have to make a 1.2k + meter trip I will just save and quit and make that trip next time I play because I don't want to push X and sit here and stare at the screen as the Seatruck floats along at a snail's pace.

The Booster Tank was fun. Even if you kept the speed, with the removed surface usage it's still BALANCED. Because that speed comes at the cost of OXYGEN. Which the player needs to LIVE. That burst of FUN SPEED came at the cost of the amount of TIME you had left before needing to surface, use an Oxygen Plant, or enter your Seatruck/Seabase.

There was a trade off. You sacrifice Oxygen and time spent in the water in exchange for some FUN!

I used to be able to exit a Processing and Storage substation tube at the entrance of the Mining Site and use the Booster Tank to go all the way down. I'd run out just as I got to the Oxygen Plant, and then could Boost to the second central room with the Prawn Suit fragments and my Multipurpose processing base.

As of now? I can't even make it to the FIRST SHAFT before my Booster Tank runs out of oxygen! Why don't you guys just remove the Booster Tank? You've made it useless, worthless, there's no practical point to building or using it, and it's no longer fun. Might as well go ahead and add it to the incredible and growing list of cut content from the game. Gotta make that Switch release right?

With so much fun being taken from the game, I'm questioning more and more what point or reason I'm going to have to play this game when it's "finished" and butchered even further.

No Ultra Glide Fins. Useless Booster Tank that has little oxygen, burns up that small oxygen pool rapidly, and provides no appreciate speed boost, nerfed speed of Sea Glide, and even with the Seatruck changes the end result is the same:

UWE is sacrificing game play and player enjoyment to force a vehicle on us, and to compensate for late of game content. They are slowing down all options for player movement, to reduce how quickly we can zoom across the small Below Zero map and realize how tiny it is. To give the "illusion" of depth and immersion by simply making us take longer to get anywhere and do anything.

Very little open space, many labrynthian mazes and caves, with winding turns and dips and twists. Slow us down, and making us "go around in circles" It's like taking a large room with plenty of space in a building. Then you put up partitions and cubicles and use Cabinets and desks and create this winding maze. It takes you longer to go from one end of the room to the other having to navigate the desks, cubicles, and clutter. But the room is still the same size. And just going from one end to the other is still a short trek. All the clutter does is make things less enjoyable. We're going around in circles and winding around but the area is still the same: less.

And by forcing the Seatruck on us: Not by making it FUN to use, or giving us reasons to WANT to use it, but forcing us by virtue of making every other option worthless. Thus leaving us with no better option than the unfun Seatruck.

So the Story of Below Zero starts out as find out what happened to our Sister, but then devolves into fetch quests for AL-AN and Maida...........then what? End of story? Wow what a great game. I wonder what UWE can do to finish this game, with it being "content complete" and the current version of the story. I'm having less and less certainty.

I'm having less and less fun playing the game and testing it and experiencing it. The changes being made are discouraging me.

[Cougarific]

Originally posted by dragonbornzyra:

The Booster Tank was fun...But you nerfed it entirely way too hard.

tl;dr version ^