What was the story before the big rewrite?

[darkscaryforest]

Hey I played through Below Zero shortly before it was released. I've seen a ton of references to a major story rewrite some time ago (perhaps the frostbite update), but couldn't find a good resource outlining what the story changes were and why (https://subnautica-belowzero.fandom.com/wiki/Cut_Content covers some things). Does anyone happen to have a link to a summary? Any personal commentary is also welcome!

EDIT

I think this covers some of the why: https://unknownworlds.com/subnautica/how-we-approach-story/

[Tux]

watch Better Call Saul instead, its way better then Breaking Bad,

[darkscaryforest]

Originally posted by Tux:

watch Better Call Saul instead, its way better then Breaking Bad,

Lol, I definitely appreciate both shows and agree BCS is maybe more of a technical masterpiece

[ParrotLord]

i can give u some details from me personal experience in EA, however i dont have any link, and can only speculate on the causes of the story rewrite. Let-s a go:

1. In the old story Robin & Sam where both working for Alterra, with Robin only recently having joined. Sam worked on a (back then existing) orbital space station that surrounded the planet (the "vesper" i think, was visible, quite nice).
Both where studying the planet as well as the Karaa bacteria and the enzyme 42 and had frequent calls etc. on the progress. Sam would also give Robin some fetch quests, and Robin then had to get those and would send Sam probes to her orbital base lab, which Sam would then analyse (via a small Rocket launch pad which used to exist where the transmission mast is now).
AL-AN was present in the game the same way he is now, with the difference being that Robin, once having "optained" him, had to hide his presence infront of Sam for him not to get discovered (made for some nice interactions and tension, when Sam was alrdy suspecting things after a while). AL-AN wanted a body the same way he wants it now, however no ending was present after that.
Marguerita was present also kind of the same way (same undersea base, same first encounter scene etc.) with the difference being that she had not met any Alterra since she crash landed on the planet with the Dengasi, and she was actively avoiding them and in hiding for fear of legal issues. She and Sam never met in the old story.
Most of the Alterra bases where also present kind of the same way, in fact the game started with Robin in one of the Alterra bases (the one on the surface north of the current starting area) - all those bases got destroyed by the meteor shower in the old game, so Robin and Sam where still the only Alterra people on and around the planet.
One more thing: Some hours into the game some kind of alien force field was suddenly activated (i think to some thing that AL-AN did unintenionally) which basically activated a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ force field spanning the entire planet (looked really cool, blue grids the whole way across the sky) and this lead to the connection bewteen Robin and Sam being shut down completely, and Robin being alone suddenly as a consequence.
Oh and some time in the game also another meteor shower hit, that actually damaged the orbital space station where Sam was in, so we didnt know if she survived that.

Story never progressed any further after that i think -Maybe someone else can add more to it, thats all i remember now.

2.As for the mayor rewrite i can only speculate. What i know is the lead writer left sometime during the production. I also know quite some people actually left the team mid-production, with the leading Developer wandering off to "another project", and the music composer being fired (cancelled) over some edgy twitter posts, where he basically made some edgy jokes about gender and diversity - there is a Kotaku article about it.
The old story back in the day had its fair share of critique still, with players stating that it didnt feel enough like the first game and it was not "survival" enough, with Robin being on the planet alrdy and the frequent interactions with her sister Sam, which meant she was almost never alone etc.
So one of the official goals of the rewrite was to make the game feel more survivalish,
It is up to debate wether this aim was successful.
I personally did enjoy the idea of giving the story more dynamic to it, but having experienced the full story now, i gotta admit, the old one was way better.

[Cougarific]

Not gonna summarize but you can skip through these if you want - they're all from the first early access release. I did full playthroughs with every new update, they're all on my channel.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QyU_ocUDv08
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qUUedIFC_H4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lHzx1_xyhDM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CMhx_3vr6s0

[swoopnhuck]

Originally posted by Cougarific:

Not gonna summarize but you can skip through these if you want - they're all from the first early access release. I did full playthroughs with every new update, they're all on my channel.

Just want to say that your YouTube videos for both the original Subnautica game as well as Below Zero were very good. Keep up the good work.

[Cougarific]

Thanks swoophuck!

[ParrotLord]

i only now realise HOW MUCh stuff was cut out in the process of rewrite... the old story was basically almost done

[Bleachbaby]

Originally posted by Tux:

watch Better Call Saul instead, its way better then Breaking Bad,

Factually wrong in every capacity but sure bud, the show that's a glorified suits rip off is better than the show that has not ever been matched in ratings, and was considered the most planned out show in modern history.

[Sputnik]

They said the same about the New Testament !

(um . . . why the circling crowd with the stones in hand?)

[Ignis]

If you are curious you can try it by yourself with the beta code "belowzeroearlyaccess" and ue the early access 8.1 build.

Since this thread derailled from its original topic and it's almost three years old I'll close it.