Subnautica 1.5 (a sequel pitch)

What really happened to Ryley between Subnautica 1 and Below Zero? Play as an Alterra search & recovery droid to follow his trail.

(Loosely based on the Rogue Trooper character from 2000 AD comics)

Story Synopsis

• You play as 'Harper', a flawed android dropped from orbit by Alterra, concealed inside a meteor. Your mission is locate Ryley to disable the now reactivated QEP gun. Even if that means presenting it with the downed Ryley's freshly severed hand.
  
  
• You splashdown in a neighbouring caldera where Ryley's Neptune crash-site can be found (yes, he fell out the sky shortly after the closing credits). However, Ryley's body is missing, and only his bloody ETI remains (Employee Tracking Implant). It''s unclear now if Ryley really IS dead.
  
  
• Harper follows a trail of clues that suggest some 3rd party interference, leading you deep into a scattered complex of Precursor ruins. During this mission he also hopes to repair his fragmented build and perhaps recover some memory of a seemingly disastrous earlier mission on Obraxis Prime.

Explore a second caldera in pursuit of the accident prone Ryley Robinson

Bridging Cut Scene

Inside an orbiting Mongolian Observer craft, a spacecraft tracks across a screen as it struggles to escape the planet's ocean embrace. The crew exchange their series of well-drilled orders culminating with command "Fire at will." Ryley's rocket tumbles, then descends in flames.

The Captain notes in his log: "While in orbit of 4546B - forced to take defensive action - apparent surface-launched missile attack". He turns to his Coms Officer "Please inform Alterra of our tragic error resulting in the loss of their vessel."

Turning now to his XO: "Regrettable, but necessary. Alterra cannot be permitted to retrieve another bio-weapon quite yet.".

Regrettable

Opening Scene

Strapped inside a hollowed out meteor the player hurtles towards the ocean planet. You look at your clenched fists to see those of a robot! The rock glows red and fragments around you - burning its trail through the atmosphere. Bad luck - your case of ammo tears away and explodes spectacularly in your wake. Looks like another pacifist run!

Splashdown is gonna hurt

Protagonist & Play Mechanics

As Agent Harper, you were once a feared AID-Worker (Alterra Intelligence Directorate). History records an organic Harper earlier 'died' during the legendary 'Massacre on Obraxis Prime', but his skills were successfully uploaded into a suite of military hardware for continued service

Harper's AI-equipped Components

• Suit (a physical sensation seeker)
  
• Helm (an information junkie)
  
• Backpack (an acquisitive hoarder)
  
• Gun (perpetually irritable, since Alterra saw fit to deploy him without ammunition)

In this state Harper retains his all old Agent skills, but is also afflicted by a kind of multiple personality disorder. Each unit has it's own chatty AI and must be kept happy in order to function at full capacity.

Split Personality Mechanic

1. There's 4 'Morale Meters' - one for each of Harper component AIs.
   
2. Each can be topped up by doing what its particular AI asks of you:
   
   • Suit - might want to bathe in the warmth of a volcanic vent a while.
     
   • Helm - would rather be reading PDAs, or hacking computer systems.
     
   • Backpack - wants to be filled to capacity, even if its just with rocks.
     
   • Gun - hungers for the rare opportunity to shoot off a round or two.
3. A component with high morale has increased abilities (e.g Suit's max swim-speed)
   
4. Each meter will deplete while its component's cravings are neglected.
   
5. But when all four meters are maxed, all components get additional performance boosts, plus a brief cut scene will play of some long forgotten event (see below)

Backstory Flashbacks

There should be enough detail in these for an astute player to deduce Harper's backstory outlined in Appendix 1 (and based loosely on the legend of Orpheus and Eurydice)

Harper's fragmented mind has no coherent memory of his human past, nor any role in the massacre on Obraxis Prime. But each time he 'maxes all his meters' he experiences an odd first-person flashback - seemingly once experienced by some human AID Worker agent:

• Agent work and training scenes
  
• A marriage ceremony, the bride's face still veiled.
  
• A funeral scene
  
• Mission drop on to Obraxis, passing through a brilliant equatorial aurora
  
• Firefight with rebels on Obraxis
  
• A naked woman emerging from a crystalline boulder
  
• Turning from the controls of an orbiting shuttle craft to see a seated stone statue of the woman, clad in a spacesuit.

'Helm' explains these a merely 'programming artefacts', resulting from a 'skills download' from a human AID Worker agent. It's normal he reassures you, and these bugs will be gradually deleted with each software upgrade.

Equipment & Upgrades

As in other Subnauica games, plans and upgrades for vehicles, buildings etc. are found by scanning Alterra wreckage. Of course, Harper is so heavy he won't fabricating any swim fins, and he can stomp along the seabed without any need for a Prawn-suit either.

You're a bit of a square TBH

Mid-game

Mini-bosses

Early midgame sometime, and the player can observe a meteor shower crashing into the water on the horizon. 'Helm' calculates their origin near the orbiting Mongolian fleet.

Thereafter, Harper will periodically be engaged by a Mongolian-built assassin drone arriving on the scene to thwart his mission. A stasis rifle, utility knife and a lot of patience will come in handy at first. Defeated assassins will be the only source of gun ammunition - to be used sparingly. And Harper's 'Gun' AI is always happier with a least one round chambered.

EEK!

Choke Points

At certain points, progress will be barred by some obstacle or other. So your scarce ammo might be better conserved to clear a debris-blocked tunnel, or perhaps to lure a leviathan out of its nest in a phasegate. But In all cases there'ill be a number alternative tactics to choose from to solve these predicaments (e.g stealth, discovering hidden or puzzle-locked detours). Of course, as an android Harper can occasionally hack into equipment directly R2-D2 style, allowing him to open alternative routes through Precursor ruins,

Late Game

After following a lengthy paper chase of clues, Ryley will finally be located. He's alive and in good company - with Bart Torgal sheltering under a submerged and overgrown phasegate. This is Bart Torgal's hideaway (who although presumed dead, had survived the events recorded in the first game).

But by now Ryley is somewhat changed in mind and body. While your own evolution has been technological, he's undergone some major biological modding - thanks to the bio-tech genius of his rescuer, Bart (the evidence of this sits a little below his ear).

Shaving was never this awkward

Bart is less pleased to meet you. As the heir to a Great House he knows enough about galactic politics to argue well in favour of Mongolian resistance.

But Ryley reminds you Mongolian's are no angels either - having 'gone medieval' on a clutch of independent settlements standing in their way, a little while back.

Ryley also tells you he now needs to stay on 4546B (pointing to his gills), And he certainly does not want Alterra to turn his paradise into a mine-site. He and Bart are planning to hack the QEP so it can no longer be turned off again. They both want you to help them with this.

If you agree then:

1. Bart will observe your droid body contains clumps of living neural tissue within each component He will offer to graft them together with cultured nerve threads. - restoring Harper's full abilities and memories (a cut-scene of Harper's past plays out, revealing the true story behind Obraxis Prime (see Appendix below).
   
2. After repairing the phasegate the three of you travel through it to the QEP gate.

End Game Tri-lemma

Your choice of actions at the QEP will determine which of three possible endings will unfold.

Bart explains the hack requires combined organic and technological approaches. Only a Precursor can access the QEP controls, so he will inject a harmless Precursor protein into Ryley's bloodstream. Your job is to patch-in while Ryley has his blood sampled.

All goes as planned. Once 'patched-in', your HUD displays "CURRENT THREATS" with a schematic of the ships currently in orbit - you see your Alterra AID ship faced off against the Mongolian Observer. The QEP's AI then asks you to select from a list of commands:

QEP COMMAND OPTIONS

1. Increase Quarantine to Maximum:
   Permanently disable the blood-test override
   
   
2. Authorise Quarantine Shutdown:
   Permanently disable the QEP's gun
   
   
3. Emergency Preemptive Strike:
   Overcharge the gun to destroy a ship in high orbit
   (Warning: Overcharging will permanently destroy this platform's defence capabilities)

Choose your Ending:

Option 1 is the ending Ryley and Bart have brought you here for:
Choose this and the credits roll, showing the years passing on 4546B. The boy's seem happy enough swimming about, but your metal frame rapidly rusts and finally becomes immobile. Eventually you become the centrepiece of some kind of weed-strewn memorial.

Option 2 is the mission objective Alterra gave you:
Choose this and the Alterra ship will land unscathed. Human 'AID Workers' greet you on the nearby beach and congratulate your success, A different time-lapse, this time showing the splashdown of Alterra's behemoth mineral harvesters, The blue waters turn grey with sediment.

Option 3 lets you have your revenge on one side or another:
The QEP AI will ask you to choose a target. The shot is brutally effective but overheats the gun, destroying it spectacularly. The boys curse you as they flee the collapsing structure. Credits roll, and the timelapse now shows squads of Alterran and Mongolian marines dropping in from orbit.

You've got a really big one now Harper!

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Appendix: So what Really Happened on Obraxis Prime?

Obraxis Prime was another resource-rich ocean world, much like 4546B, although apparently undefended.

Alterra had set down an Aurora-sized mining colony ship, and it unfolded over the surface like a great IKEA. Before long shuddering harvesters emerged and began to dredge up the sea-floor's HUGE mineral nodules - all in the form of Seamoth-sized hollow geodes. Ka-ching!

But this planet had a curious defence mechanism. Occasionally a geode opened to reveal a 'Revenant' human life form - a living replica of some long lost loved-one - from the past of a bereaved colonist.

Emotions ran high as more were discovered. The colony split into factions over the significance of Obraxis Prime: Was it the Galaxy's most lucrative mine site? Or a sacred place, where our beloved Dead can live again in peace? And while the Revenants were non-violent, the colonists were not. Armed conflict ensued, until the anti-mining faction emerged victorious! But not before a distress signal was received at Alterra Head Office.

That's when the (formerly organic) AID Worker Harper was deployed there - just a routine mission to exterminate Rebels. Afterwards in the wreckage, Harper came to regret his handiwork: He encountered the Revenant of his dead wife, but she was unable to survive their journey beyond the planet's stabilising aurora.

Back at Head Office, Alterra was none too pleased with Harper's antagonistic mission report, nor his decision to return and find his wife again. A PR decision was made to blame Harper as the "Rogue Shooter". Then he was "reassigned" Robocop-style, and AID did their best to excise all his memories of the events.

Naturally, Obraxis was the beginning of the weapons ban for all Alterran colonists - lest they ever again go star-crazy on the outer rim of the Galaxy. And mining has resumed on Obraxi Prime - now safely staffed 100% by androids. Though whether those androids are all 100% mechanical is open to conjecture.

ALTERRA PRIDE - IN GALACTIC BEST-PRACTICE OH&S !

Removal of weapons blueprints from our fabricators ensures our colonists of exotic planets will murder each other at a sustainable pace.

Kudos:

• Barney Calhoun, Tiksey and dragonbornzyra - for the 'Search for Ryley' idea
  
• dragonbornzyra - 'Choke Points' idea
  
• Rogue Trooper stories from 2000 AD comics
  
• Les Revenants French TV series by Fabrice Gobert, 2012.
  
• Metamorphoses by Ovid, 8 AD, for the Orpheus backstory.

Putative larger game setting

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2946311783

[Sputnik]

Dunno, but I had a go at co-op MP with this other one:

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2960304122

[Mr. Glitch]

thats the one thing the community wants

[Mr. Glitch]

tbh this sounds dope but how in the fucking hell are we gonna make this multiplayer
\

[Sputnik]

Ta

[German Doctor]

[The_Amateur_Astronaut]

cool

[Crabsquid]

ok

[Sputnik]

Hi crabsquid, 
It's meant as a 'pitch' (outline) for a sequel. I write a lot of these things, hoping some developer or modder might read one and make one.

[Crabsquid]

is this a mod or story?

[Sputnik]

Hey DB.
Added progress 'Choke Points' at your suggestion