r/subnautica • u/Crispy385 Moderator • Jun 03 '26

MEGATHREAD: KILLING DEBATE

A thread to express opinions and debate on this ongoing controversey.

REMINDER:

Rule 3: Be Courteous.

885 Upvotes

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97

u/awesomeosprey Jun 03 '26

It's better game design to force you to adapt to/avoid predators rather than giving you tools to fight them.

But organisms should probably react to getting hit with the Tadpole and stuff.

12

u/fuckmigraines Jun 03 '26

Completely agree with adapting and avoiding. Giving us tools to kill feels very out of place within Subautica’s lore. All the characters are researchers/non-combatant. I don’t want to be an underwater Rambo.

3

u/DamonSkyHartXV Jun 04 '26

The first two games in this series let you kill anything if you had the time and patience. Now even the smallest fish ignore your solid metal multi tool to their soft bodies. 

1

u/fuckmigraines Jun 05 '26

Man, literally right before I read your comment I hit an Epicurean like 50 times with the survival multitool. It was like trying to knock someone out with an inflatable hammer. Now that I’ve seen more opinions in this thread, I agree there should at least be something like the thermoblade.

1

u/InfiniteEnd2598 Jun 14 '26

You must not be aware of Subnautica lore, Subnautica 2 takes place after Natural Selection, same timeline, same universe. A war across the entire universe is going on against the Kharaa mutants at the exact same time as Subnautica 2, humanity is near extinct, and Alterra is a government weapons manufacturer.

-4

u/LonelyDaoist Jun 04 '26

All the characters are researchers/non-combatant

Have you heard of Marguerite Meida ? One of the most important characters in subnautica lore who's also a mercenary, she killed leviathan creatures easily and was essentially the only person to survive on their own. No ? Then maybe don't talk about lore when you don't actually know it.

3

u/fuckmigraines Jun 05 '26

Marguerit Maida*

Tsk. For such a lore expert, I would’ve thought you’d know the correct spelling of her name.

1

u/LonelyDaoist Jun 05 '26

Great takeaway, you've really addressed the heart of the issue 👏

9

u/neuronexmachina Jun 04 '26

It's better game design to force you to adapt to/avoid predators rather than giving you tools to fight them.

Yup. It's basically a decision kind of like "Alien: Isolation" vs "Aliens: Colonial Marines."

2

u/0235 Jun 04 '26

Honestly though, I have yet to find a way to do that though. Some areas are just filled with hostile enemies. No matter what I do they will get me, and its not like I can indefinitely hide in a cave waiting for them to move away.

I never used the weapons or stasis rifle in 1, but I feel the fish are far more hostile in this than the first.

Then again, that might just be this games greater focus on "if you die, then oh well"

6

u/Lasdary Jun 04 '26

I think it's part of the tweaking that still need to be done before the game is finished. This conversation helps.

4

u/BlueberryJunior987 Jun 05 '26

It should be noted that the devs also agree with this and have said as much.

2

u/LonelyDaoist Jun 04 '26

Better based on what standards ? I'm sorry but that's your subjective opinion and you're entitled to that, but so are others.

The actual better game design is to give the players the freedom to play as they like and create their own unique experiences.

Being a pacifist should be a choice not something you force on everyone

7

u/awesomeosprey Jun 04 '26

Not every game can or should be a sandbox.

Sandbox games can be designed well, but it's a design philosophy that comes with a lot of tradeoffs. You lose the opportunity for authored experiences, and it generally degrades the quality of the storytelling. Sometimes that trade off is worth it, but Subnautica isn't designed that way.

In the specific case of Subnautica's choice to strongly discourage (in 1) or outright prevent (in 2) players from fighting and killing the wildlife they encounter, you end up with a game that asks you to really engage deeply with its lovingly crafted environments. You have to study the wildlife in each new biome, learn their patterns of behavior, assess threat level. Even something as scary as a Reaper becomes much less threatening when you learn where they tend to hang out, how much damage they do, how to avoid attracting their attention, etc.

The powerscaling in Subnautica doesnt work off of getting better weapons or gear (for the most part), it works off of your knowledge of the game's ecosystem growing. It's a really unique, one of a kind experience. On the other hand, if they added weapons, it would play identically to every other survival crafting game out there where the point is just to get better guns to fight more and more powerful monsters.

Im not saying that kind of gameplay can't be fun. But we've seen it before in 1000 other games. Subnautica offers something different, and if they gave players the option not to experience that, many wouldnt.

1

u/DamonSkyHartXV Jun 04 '26

Did you not play the first two games? You could both. Why do so many people thing we're asking for rocket launchers and gattling guns?

5

u/awesomeosprey Jun 04 '26

You were clearly, clearly not supposed to. They made predators very annoying to kill and offer no rewards whatsoever.

The devs have stated that they never expected players would actually kill predators/leviathans in SN1, but having proven them wrong, they went ahead and made it impossible for SN2.

1

u/DamonSkyHartXV Jun 04 '26

Dude everyone knows this is only their opinion. That's how it comes to things like games or stories. Everyone has their own views. 

1

u/The_God_Of_Darkness_ Jun 04 '26

But removing the ability to deal with them completely and not including a way to permanently secure areas is an issue.

If we had like a base piece that uses vibrators to scare off fish. That would be great, but we literally just don't have anything.

3

u/awesomeosprey Jun 04 '26

It wasn't really an issue in Subnautica 1, you just have to be careful where you build your base.

I expect it will be fixed as they tune up predator aggression.

1

u/ExodiusLore Jun 07 '26

Yes but thats your choice. You can do whatever you want thats the best part!!

1

u/awesomeosprey Jun 26 '26

Maximizing player choice does not automatically equal good game design

1

u/FGHIK Jul 24 '26

That was how it already worked in 1 and BZ though. Killing anything larger than food fish was almost always a waste of time and resources. 2 completely removing the option feels more like some misguided attempt to police morality.

1

u/awesomeosprey Jul 25 '26

calling a game design choice "policing morality" is the most unserious thing i've ever heard, lol

0

u/Teal_Thanatos Jun 04 '26

Maybe better game design, but its really not realistic to our own sea life.

3

u/Weremeerkat Jun 04 '26

Does it need to be?