How the story can be fixed (SPOILERS!)

[Zixinus]

Right now the story setup and the end of the game is disjointed. So much so that can completely ignore the original story and finish the game. You can make Al-an body and never actually find out what happened to your sister. It is entirely viable to play through the game just by random exploration this way.

And what I find sad is that it could be trivially solved by something that would make perfect sense: have Al-an insist that the player finds and uses the cure against Khaara.
Why? Well, that's his entire purpouse to coming to the planet in the first place! Even if we make a body for him, he can't return to his home-world without data on the cure (which Robin does not start out with even though it makes sense) and testing it to make sure it works.

So all that would be needed to fix the game's story should you make Al-an's body without finding the cure is Al-an not opening up the gateway until you find the cure Sam stashed away and having you test it. It would also give a chance for Al-an to do more than just sympathize with Robin about closure, as it would be closure not just for Robin but for Al-an as well. He came to the planet for a cure and now, through Sam's sacrifice, he has it.

Oh, and also have Margeurit give you the story bits where Sam told you where she hid the cure. The blueprint too, if not have the cure require you to use the blueprint. Then it would be all tied together.

[Matt]

I dunno why you even try to fix the story of an already complete game.

[Cougarific]

Good early access feedback.

[TheAchromaticSoul]

It's insane how the Sam/Frozen Leviathan part is optional. That's the whole reason you came to 4546b. Imagine not finding it, and then beating the game without it. Feels like there's a missing connection between the two stories that was completely ignored.

[Vince]

Originally posted by Cougarific:

Good early access feedback.

:rolleyes:

[Fighting-Priest]

Nah the story was changed because,

1) "Our initial attempts at nailing down a living story about a scientist who meets a sentient alien – in the context of a game that was built around survival mechanics – have been a bit messy. We like doing things that are big and ambitious at Unknown Worlds, but we managed to get a bit stuck. We’ve had trouble defining our characters’ motivations clearly and building key relationships. We want our players to care about the characters and what happens to them. Based on feedback from the community and playing the game ourselves, we realized that some changes to the story needed to happen."

and

2)"As some of our dedicated fans may have noticed, our writer Tom Jubert recently left Below Zero to pursue other projects. Tom’s brain was responsible for much of what fans know and love about the Subnautica universe fiction and lore, and we will miss having him around. The Subnautica universe will always carry a bit of Tom’s spirit, humor, and imagination."

[The Big Brzezinski]

The main problem with the ending is that it doesn't mean anything. If Below Zero was a tabletop RPG, Robin would basically have the inner life of a munchkin character. The result is a vapid survivalist power fantasy with an equally vapid conclusion. No questions are answered. No issues are resolved. No emotional closure is given.

It's not like the game doesn't have characters to consider with a lot of past mistakes and ways of dealing with them. Al-An has long meditated on the enormity of his failure, and wants to make amends. Sam refused to listen to her friends and colleagues, and was talked into a course of action that killed her. Maida doesn't even recognize her failures, instead burrowing deeper into her sovereign-citizen-survivalist delusion. Robin's animosity towards Alterra made her assume they were covering up some perfidy about Sam's death for their own profit, only to find that Alterra was innocent and just as confused about it as Robin was.

So I would not change any events of the game aside from the ending. Instead, I would add dialogue in which Robin reflects on all she's seen and felt. I'd have her resolve to let go of her arrogance and try to keep an open mind in the future. Whether or not she decides to destroy the kharaa sample or trust Alterra to continue studying it would be left up to the player. For the ending itself, I'd have her say goodbye to Al-An instead of going with him. To leave the planet, she would have arranged for pickup with the ship chartered to return the Alterra staff to Sector Zero. Her covert rendezvous would be accomplished by configuring her prawn suit with two grapple arms and grabbing the ship as it passes over the pickup site, right before it begins its STO ascent. This would reflect her reckless audacity. Learning to admit her mistakes certainly didn't make her a wimp, after all. Plus it would also be a cool cutscene that mirrors Subnautica's escape sequence.

[Atomsk]

Is it actually worth fixing at this point? It's almost more efficient to wipe the slate clean and compose and tighter script. Of course that would most likely involve reworking set pieces, adding/removing cutscenes, and etc. Might as well be an entirely different game at that point. That's how far off the mark BZ's plot landed.

[Matt]

Originally posted by Vince:

Originally posted by Cougarific:

Good early access feedback.

:rolleyes:

He's got a point.

[Andreas]

Originally posted by Cougarific:

Good early access feedback.

Not that anyone would have listened to it ...

[Zixinus]

What I propose would require a handful of extra voicelines and some script changes. Something you could deliver with a patch.

Originally posted by Cougarific:

Good early access feedback.

I avoided early access because I was not interested in a beta. I played the previous game in early access and that kind of ruined the final experience.

[ParrotLord]

Well, to link Al-AN to the Karaa cure would definitly improve his character, as u are right stating: That was his primary motive on comming to the planet in the first place.

Addtionally, there should be some sort of mid game "ending" sequence" where Sam`s story is rolled up after everything is finished in regards to her side quest. There has to be some Scene where Robin reflects on that all and brings it to some kind of end. This has to be implemented as Robins main goal was to find out about her Sis in the first place.

In Regards to the story progress connecting these two main quests: Sam, and Al-AN, there have been really good ideas stated alrdy. U can connect some certain items (like depth upgrades) to some certain PDAs that progress the Sam Story. Like this, in order to be able to go deeper and continue Al-An Story u will need to discover Sam's story, as u will not be able to dive deeper before doing that. This would make some nice "invisible" frontier for the player, to subtly force him into a certain direction.

[Zixinus]

Depth upgrades could be tied to exploration of Alterra work sites and thus to Sam's story.

[Evi1 Abed]

Originally posted by TheAchromaticSoul:

It's insane how the Sam/Frozen Leviathan part is optional. That's the whole reason you came to 4546b. Imagine not finding it, and then beating the game without it. Feels like there's a missing connection between the two stories that was completely ignored.

This literally just happened to me two hours ago. I’m actually shocked.

I reloaded my save, googled what I missed, and did all that stuff. Felt much better.

[Matt]

Originally posted by Evi1 Abed:

Originally posted by TheAchromaticSoul:

It's insane how the Sam/Frozen Leviathan part is optional. That's the whole reason you came to 4546b. Imagine not finding it, and then beating the game without it. Feels like there's a missing connection between the two stories that was completely ignored.

This literally just happened to me two hours ago. I’m actually shocked.

I reloaded my save, googled what I missed, and did all that stuff. Felt much better.

How did you even find this four year old post?

[Billy Banjo]

Originally posted by Evi1 Abed:

Originally posted by TheAchromaticSoul:

It's insane how the Sam/Frozen Leviathan part is optional. That's the whole reason you came to 4546b. Imagine not finding it, and then beating the game without it. Feels like there's a missing connection between the two stories that was completely ignored.

This literally just happened to me two hours ago. I’m actually shocked.

I reloaded my save, googled what I missed, and did all that stuff. Felt much better.

same. i just finished the game and remembered the leviathan... was so confused so i googled it and figured out its optional. bruh