I'm working on a game that takes place primarily underwater...

>some kind of building
>fun exploration
>spooky and interesting sea life

What are some good inspirations for deep sea creatures? Doesn't have to be realistic. I think subnautica was lacking in scary deep sea life, like anglerfish, those bigass creepy eyed sharks, giant squids, etc.

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Make an underwater 4x game with mermen.

>A good sense of the vastness of the environment involved.
>The environment being truly dynamic by nature - constant shifts in current and terrain, which help make the setting feel more living.
>A thriving biosphere (ties into the first and second points), which helps make the place feel alive. Shoals of millions of tiny fish representing fluid dynamics, odd structures generated by organic growth of seaweeds and coral, etc.

I'd love this.

underneath the SEEEEEAAAA LAAAAAAAB
UNDER NEATH THE WA TER
SEEEEEEAAAAA LAAAAAAB
AT THE BOTTOM OF THE SEA~

Timed escort missions with oxygen management

>I think subnautica was lacking in scary deep sea life
Subnautica started development strong but a lot of it's later creatures ended up just looking goofy.

Maybe part of the story could be some fuckery happened in a lab and you could get original with the spooky sea life

Make it so you die if you ascend too quickly and add a coral reef

I was around 12 when they show aired and the sex scenes always got my willy excited because it was so new to me

This

Pretty sure almost everyone loves those

slowly fighting and overcoming the environment, which subnautica really fails to do
>no guns because shithead politics
>just forced to swim away from anything remotely dangerous

Isn't SS13 basically PRESSURE in space?

>just forced to swim away from anything remotely dangerous
Maybe if you're a shitter who doesn't know how to knife fight.

whatever you do, don't make it anything like subnautica. that game is the most boring piece of shit ever and is such squandered potential

Diver warfare. Ever seen Thunderball (James Bond), user? I wanna see someone try some shit like that in a game.

deep sea horrors in pitch black with a flashlight

I miss proper late night deep sea threads. Thanks janny

Exploration. Avoiding dangers.

I liked exploring biomes and poking things.

that sounds way too realistic to be fun, coral reef for sure though, awesome environment ideas there
honestly disagree, the lack of weapons makes you feel a lot more powerless, which is fitting in a game based on the ocean. today we're still struggling to overcome the pressure and vastness of the ocean
i haven't seen it, will check it out
i like your taste user

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Image search "sierra ecoquest," use that aesthetic- beautiful but mysterious and scary

The seafood.

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>honestly disagree, the lack of weapons makes you feel a lot more powerless, which is fitting in a game based on the ocean.
Counterpoint: the trend of attempting to disarm the player to evoke feelings of powerlessness backfires because it forces the player into a "flight mode" mentality - players will simply stop deriving feelings of power from being able to kill a creature, and instead feel powerful for being able to outsmart and outrun them.

Giving players weapons and then presenting them with situations where those weapons are effectively useless is far more powerful for eliciting feelings of powerlessness because, to a very real degree, you cannot make someone feel powerless unless you give them some power in the first place.

Do you want the mustache on or off?

off please

...too bad.

In a certain area, one with a designation 6 preferably, you should be able to hear a muffled version of this playing on a radio.
youtube.com/watch?v=Y1Q8a2jmfMk
If you can't get away with that due to legal reasons, have someone sporadically whistle it instead.

m.youtube.com/watch?v=OPSx283jpJE

There's an old game called Fatal Abyss you could check out. It's nothing special and I'm sure it wouldn't hold up, but I remember being blown away by how creepy it felt being underwater stuck in a submarine with limited visibility then suddenly a warning siren sounds signaling you're being locked onto. I think just about any underwater game needs to have lighting, visibility, and sound play a large part. Make stealth a huge part of the gameplay.

Whites only in the game it would be free press and net you better profit. Make the movement very fluid.

This Whites only in the game.

good point actually. gonna try mechanic and see how it pans out

good point but irrelevant because the game does give you weapons but makes them ineffective most time

Make it so movement feels free, like you're flying except you know, underwater and a bit slower. Also, make it fucking scary

Make the protagonist a handicapped minority trans merperson fighting against president poseidon's sea wall project

I would say what would be my dream undersea game would be:

-A big world to explore, not necessarily entirely underwater. And underwater air pocket cave would be neat.
-A mix of man-made (or alien-made) structures or wreckage vs natural environment to both walk or swim through
-Crafting that isn't a pain in the ass. No needing to do multiple rounds of go out, finding little rocks, hitting the rocks, and then praying they drop the right thing. Maybe give the player access to a miner bot that can slowly but steadily deliver resources. The emphasis should be on exploring, not digging.
-The ability to create a safe space regardless of the hostility of the surrounding area. Maybe some sort of sonar wall that keeps creatures away. Make it expensive, but something that's available to the player.

Basically keeping the emphasis on the player exploring as progression. They can be given the option to take time off and collect resources if they want, but keeping away from the dull routine of swimming around, stuffing your pockets full, then returning only to find you need even more.

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Yeah the surrounded by water, pressurized at that, setting actually makes most projectiles not a great idea and you're not likely to have robust caches of ammo in a location cut off from land, so you're actually in the green for limited self-defense methods and supplies makes sense.
Assuming you meant ineffective in a practical sense, and not that the weapons just do jackshit, because the latter is a bit sketch given Whaling has shown you can take down a great many things a great many sizes with the right bloodlust and tools.

OP here. I need a name. 11, 22, 33, 44, or 55, decides

Animu mermaid.
Imagine swimming together with cute mermaid, saving her when her fins stuck to a net, getting CPR when your oxygen tank broke, dressing her with various seashell bra, etc.

We don't do doubles here chief.
You'll have to plus or minus a digit.

Mizu

Rollin for Mizu

All Subnautica needed to be a 10/10 imo was
>for the devs to not be pussies and include weapons
>leviathans that aren't just "big sea worm/snake variant"
>more base building options
now my dream underwater game would be that, but with the option to go beyond the crater edge and have to deal with all kinds of fuckhuge beasties that can swallow your sub whole.
Once you've fallen off the edge of the map and gone so far down you end up spawning in the shallows again, the game kind of loses all its mystique.

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Guns

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actually putting weapons into the game

Base windows need blinds or something. I don't want bone sharks watching me while I sleep.

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The game could have remained weaponless if there were any actual threats. Once I figured out all the big spooky leviathans stop following you very quickly, the game lost its mystique. The scariest part of the game was right at the start when you have very limited air. Everything past that was just a spectacle of weird fish things.

Actually complex cave systems, none of this 'one tunnel with three branching paths' nonsense. Makes planning your route and maintaining resources like fuel/air paramount.

Creatures/environments interacting with each other. You can show predators hunting, crabs sifting for food, seaweed forests hiding nesting grounds, etc. Make the world vibrant AND alive.

All I got at the moment.

I propose a system of three D's: Depth, Darkness, and Dread. There should be a meter for each and each character should have an individual profile of resistances to each D. Depth and Darkness should be manageable with use of technology, but not Dread, and as your Dread meter rises, the chance that your tools fail you and make the situation even more dangerous should increase. You should juggle the D's as you craft your narrative creating suspense by chocking the player with D's, and allowing relief by taking the D's out. The main base should definitely be above water where the player is absolutely free of all D's, which will create a feeling of safe haven. Maxing out on any of the D's should mean death.

>working on a game that takes place primarily underwater
Does it have mermaids?

I remember hearing years ago about a Japanese game (ps2?) where you play a waiter in an underwater restaurant that's slowly filling with water. Maybe I hallucinated this memory, but either way I give it to you.

>It's easier to completely skip using the Cyclops and just rely on the Seamoth and P.R.A.W.N Suit.

One of the only glaring issues with Subnautica. I know that the Cyclops is supposed to be a movable sub-base that you use for storage and resource gathering expeditions, but it's so bulky and annoying to use that it's so much easier to collect materials with the Prawn and then travel back to your main base with the grapples.

They can't swim so you won't have to worry about that.

Am I the only person who absolutely hated the prawn suit?

>Once I figured out all the big spooky leviathans stop following you very quickly, the game lost its mystique
yeah that too, once you learn where they all live you basically have nothing to fear, just don't go to their proving grounds and you'll be fine. up until a Reaper decides to set up shop right next to your shallows base

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Cool creatures for inspiration

> deep sea gulper eel
> deep sea angler
> comb jellyfish
> sperm whales
> marine iguanas
> manta rays
> cave crabs/crayfish
> blind cave fish
> plesiosaurs

>subnautica coop mod in development for 3 years and still completely unplayable and buggy
I was so hopeful for that shit when I first head about it

I’m mad that they made a stand alone dlc separate from the main game and haven’t updated the main game since.

thanks, great list. vampire squid and blind cave fish i didn't know about, wrote those down

Is sub zero any good? I'm unsure about it.

Early Access.

Everything subculture have

on my first playthrough I had the same philosophy and didn't bother with the Cyclops, especially since you're canned food for leviathans. But after actually crafting and using one I feel like a dummy for not utilizing it sooner. One trip with the cyclops can net you enough rare minerals to last the rest of the game, not to mention it's extremely comfy to pilot. Also putting it on slow/silent running and sneaking past ghost leviathans is top spooks.

I can see why people would hate it. The walking with it is super clunky and seems to have very weird speed ramp up, you start super slow and clumsy and all of a sudden you have speed increases. Once you learn how to utilize the double grapple traversal it's amazing to use, however.

eh, it grew on me once I'd upgraded the jump jets. I never bothered with the arm upgrades though besides the drill. Having an arm free to punch things seemed more fun.

You should have played back in beta.
When reapers were introduced their AI was very random and I had one following me everywhere I go for hours

I see what you mean, maybe I should give it another chance. I'll do so on my next playthrough

Underwater caves leading to fresh air and day lights coming from high above ( Think of a volcano shaped mountain which you could only access from under) are one of my favorite things to build in Minecraft.

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Monster hunter meets Moby Dick meets Sea of Thieves meets generic MMO meets the aesthetic of Dishonored
You join a crew, take your boat or sub and go hunting for big sea creatures or lost treasure. Whales to start off with for oil (the game's currency, you pay for a fraction of each hunt/expeditions fuel as an ante) then work your way towards true leviathan deep sea terrors. The materials you collect can be turned into better and more specialized parts of the ship that matches the role you want to play. For example if you want to be a pilot you'd craft engines and control mechanisms that can be dropped into whichever ship you board to increase mobility. A gunner would make harpoon guns and torpedo bays, and specialized ammo.

>as your Dread meter rises, the chance that your tools fail you
that sounds like horseshit; instead, your tools should gradually get weaker as you accumulate Dread

BY FAR, Movement needs to feel smooth and you should never feel like you're fighting your character or the camera underwater. That's the biggest problem with almost every water level in games, the movement feels like you're moving through molasses.

On the other hand, I like putting beds in observatories for maximum nightmare potential.

you absolute madman

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I liked it because it changed up the gameplay style towards the later half of the game. It felt like controlling a robotic suit while manually swimming, the sea glide, and the seamoth felt like swiming at different speeds.

Great game.

Also great game, but they should have a fixed grid to position the stuff inside the constructions.

>He can't suction arm and drill bitches to death
Warpers are fags though and despite being ably to get then to fuck off consistantly their mechanics were bullshit.

Yeah, I suppose that's better.

Not OP but I'm stealing this and adapting it a bit. Thanks.

Yikes. That's a pretty childish and bad opinion.

The prawn suit felt amazing to use. It took the powerful feeling that power armor had from F4 and actually changed how the game was played.

That sounds like a good idea if you could pull it off correctly. Perhaps something like how Fatal Frame and SH the Room handles it?

Number one priority for spoopy atmosphere is careful consideration of where you place lighting and how much ambient lighting each area should have. Being in an unknown area with little to no light triggers that animal response in the human brain. Maybe allow the player to bring in portable light sources to areas they've explored before for convenience's sake. A solid contrast between "safe" areas and "unsafe" areas is critical. But then again using it to bait the player into a false sense of security can be interesting as well.

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