So I haven’t had too much time to play, but should have a bunch today. Spoilering my situation…
[Spoiler]I have two bases, one right at the start and one 200 meters down just off the crash site. I have just completed my Cyclops and am preparing to explore the real depths.
I’m thinking the next place I should go is that containment facility I learned about after searching the big gun building. Supposedly I can learn more about this infection there, and I finally feel prepared for the journey.[/spoiler]
Hot damn, the deep is SPOOKY! I found what I was looking for, but was missing a certain item required to enter… I will be building a base down there to harvest all the unique deepwater resources and to prepare a breach.
It’s reasonably easy to make a little auxiliary base down there, at least if you site it near a good thermal source. I made a temporary one, but I found I never used it, so I deconstructed it to use the materials on my palatial digs above the jellyshroom caves. My Cyclops was entirely self-sufficient by that point; I had an on-board grow bed, chargers, and fabricators. With a thermal generator, I just had to park over a hot spot to recharge occasionally.
If you build a deep base as a harvesting hub, it’s probably worthwhile to put a scanner room on it. (You can always deconstruct the scanner room and rebuild it anywhere you want.)
I don’t remember if this is mentioned elsewhere, but it’s entirely possible to fit all of the materials for a scanner room, hatch, and generator in any of the craft - portable scanner room for all your harvesting needs.
Yeah, I enjoyed having a tiny cabinet on my Cyclops, and emptying the cabinet into my backpack, and using the contents of my backpack to build two rooms, an entry hatch, a power source, and a computer.
It’s a good idea, although you might need an extra storage module on the Seamoth:
Scanner room = 11 components, plus 2 more optional spots for range and speed upgrades.
Hatch = 3 components
Thermal Plant = 8. (Or bioreactor/solar panel = 5, but require on-site sunlight or fuel collection.)
So, it takes a minimum of 19 components for a basic scanner room kit, and up to 24 for a deluxe model. The Prawn suit locker holds 24, but the Seamoth storage module only holds 16, so you’d need an extra module on the Seamoth to hold it all–or you could just keep a few pieces in your inventory. (I also like stashing emergency supplies in all my vehicles, so that makes space for this a little tighter for me.)
I built myself a little base at the very bottom of a deep sea trench, near the entrance to a massive cavern filled with fossils. And one not so fossilized giant… and the little tiny entry I built my base over isn’t the way I came in, so I figure I can use the cavern to get around, eventually.
Meanwhile, I was faced with a new challenge here – I needed power, and with no sun and no thermal vents nearby, I decided to go with a bioreactor. The trench is filled with a unique type of kelp, and I’m going to farm it around my base in order to keep the bioreactor running. Once I’ve got a little facility up and running, I’ll head back into the cavern, armed with the necessary key.
I found reginalds to be a very efficient fuel for my bioreactor, but it takes some setup to make them work; it’s probably not worth it for a small outpost.
My main base included a 10-story high alien containment unit full of reginalds, which provided a steady source of both high-value food and reactor fuel, supplemented by gardens full of lantern fruit and melons. Like I said upthread, I’m kind of prone to overpreparation.
Am I the only one who finished the game with just one base? I mean, yes, I played no-food/water, but I still never felt the need for more than a single room in the shallows by the pod.
I only had one actual, fixed base, and that was because I like base building. I like building big, efficient, nice bases with lots of amenities, so I tore down the one little outpost base I made for more resources to upgrade the nice base. Moonpools, workshop, storerooms, aquariums, conservatory, lab, office, bedroom (with knicknacks, houseplants, and custom art on the walls), outdoor garden for my pets to play in…
My last complete playthrough used just a very minimal base (corridor, hatch, and solar panel) just to put a ton of lockers in for storing things.
My last run has been all about building a monster base in the Dunes. We’re talking room for matched pairs of Seamoths, Cyclops, and Prawns, eight spires surrounding a larger (3x3) central spire, separate tanks for each biome, observation decks everywhere, and massive underwater gardens. And a bed.
I’ve decided to more thoroughly move into my Cyclops. Now that it can get 900 meters down, I am confident in being able to reach most places where I need a base, and go with the PRAWN suit from there.
I’ll be setting up scanners, fabricators, and limited storage in each biome to make resource gathering a breeze, as well as power cell chargers, but I have the feeling that I’ll be using my Cyclops a lot more from now on.
I met an old friend in a new place and triggered some dialog that I probably shouldn’t have.
I was disappointed in my inability to sit on a lilypad.
There are no leviathans in the void…yet.
Beyond the void, the world repeats the playfield biomes, but not the terrain/contents.
If you swim 8 kilometers away, the game dumps you back in the area where you exit the intro.
You can do literally everything from your Cyclops, once you have it set up properly. It does carry a risk, however, as the Cyclops can be destroyed. If you’ve got everything on board, losing it can be a huge setback, which is one reason I kept a well-stocked base back in a safe area. I was prepared to build and kit out a complete new Cyclops at any time before I ventured into the end-game area.
I got this when it was free, and I’ve just dabbled a bit until now. I’m ready to actually get in to it and play for real. How much of the experience is missed by playing freedom vs. survival mode? I putzed around with both, and it seems like survival is quite a PITA chasing after fish…
Depends on what you want out of the game. My take on it was that there wasn’t any game challenge to the eat/drink requirement – within a few minutes of the beginning of the game you’ll know how to take care of both, and after that it’s just a chore you need to do. Others find survival is more realistic, or like the added time management requirement, or finding ways to make the chore less of a chore through farming and such.
I restarted in Freedom, and was perfectly happy with it. I generally am not a big fan of open world games being particularly difficult – I want to see their world and the story they’ve put in it, and I want to finish before my attention is diverted by the next shiny thing.
Great, thank you. That’s good input. I generally play games on easy, or sometimes normal. I too just enjoy being in the game and see what it has to offer. I’m terrible at games, really, so I’m usually challenged anyway.
As TimeWinder said, it’s mostly a question of what you want out of the game. Turning off the food/water requirements is basically turning off the “survival” element of the game. Part of the fun for me is planning and building systems to automatically supply the character’s needs. Provisioning also means more planning for expeditions. If you actively pursue base-building, you can be mostly past fish-chasing in a few hours.
If you’re not interested in the base-building and management side of the game, then Freedom mode is probably what you want.
The way I see it:
Exploration? Fun.
Puzzle solving? Fun.
Overcoming the risk of drowning? Fun.
Overcoming the risk of being crushed by the depths? Fun.
Overcoming the risk of being killed by sea monsters? Fun.
Overcoming the risk of dying from hunger and thirst? *Not *fun.
Farming, gardening and interior design? Booooooring.
My farming involves grabbing seeds and putting them in a planter, then leaving. I go explore, look for resources, track down radio signals, etc. When I get back to the planter my stuff is grown so I eat some, harvest seeds from others, and plant the new seeds. Then leave and do more fun stuff.
This isn’t Harvest Moon or Stardew Valley where you’re pulling weeds and buying fertilizer and hoeing and watering and such. It takes a very minimal amount of planning and maintenance.
And interior design? That consists of, “Hmm a fabricator would be handy here.” Pull out a tool, grab the few materials needed, aim the tool at an empty spot and zap it for a few seconds. If you want to go all Feng Shui with your space and fill it with chairs and coffee tables and flower pots and windows to watch fishies swim by you can if you want, but that’s not required or even beneficial to the game.
I’m also not sure why the risk of drowning is fun but not the risk of starving or dehydrating. They’re just different meters you’re keeping an eye on. Fun is subjective of course and there’s no “wrong” way to enjoy the game, so I understand having preferences, I just don’t grasp the reason for them. (Not that it matters if I do of course.)
I’ve drowned and been killed by monsters but never came close to starving or dying of thirst. The most compelling argument to me for freedom mode is that in survival mode it’s already such a non-issue anyway you might as well cut it out of the game. I personally like the fiddly requirement of maintaining a steady source of food and water because it’s a fun problem to solve and once you find a more efficient way than chasing down bladder fish and peepers it is extremely satisfying. But I get that not everyone gets that joy like I do. I’m glad the game lets you set those challenges yourself.
That’s perfectly fair, and why there’s an option to play without hunger and thirst. The game accommodates people who just want to go straight for the story as well as those who enjoy building and juggling multiple requirements. (And creative mode suits those who just want to build stuff without risk or resource gathering.)
Random Below Zero thing: How the hell did they get here?
