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23 December

Dev Update 7

Last week, Subnautica was released on Steam Early Access. Since then, over 11,000 games of Subnautica have been played. That's crazy! Subnautica's development was already pretty open before December 16th, but now the flood gates have opened.

We're absolutely swimming in ideas and feedback. Treading water is boring, so naturally we've been diving into all sorts of stuff in the days since release, and a new development build is available on Steam. If you have Subnautica in your Steam library (get it here), you will receive the update automatically.

Here's a quick summary of some of the changes and additions that have been made. We can never fit everything in these updates, so please check out the Subnautica Trello Board and Checkin & Changes list for all the goods.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p9D5SoXd5SI

Charlie had a bit of fun, and created a new craftable item called the 'Gravsphere.' When deployed, it sucks small objects and creatures towards it. It effectively allows some serious loot-hoovering!

It's now possible to store loot in the life pod, using the storage locker found behind the ladder. Left click to open the storage, and then drag items between your personal inventory and the locker.

Got an Oculus DK2? We’ve got a present for you. VR-integration has proceeded pretty well, and while the game does have significant issues in VR, it is a great experience. We’ve written up a comprehensive Steam Guide to get you started.

Back to storage: It gets better for loot-hoarders. You can now use ‘storage cubes’ to store even more stuff, anywhere in the world! Storage cubes can be made at the fabricator (costing 3 metal each), and then place anywhere by dropping them from your inventory.

Gasopods are now more flatulent, and it’s harder to just swim around them without copping a nasty serve to the face.

Those with Nvidia SLI setups had a slightly sub-optimal introduction to Subnautica – The oxygen bar was not showing up! This now fixed, and those with intense GPU set ups can now receive some warnings before they suffocate!

The Beacon will no longer stream out when you swim very far from it. This is good, because a homing beacon that stops working when you need it most is not a very good homing beacon!

Oxygen now replenishes at twice the previous rate when you visit the surface. This means you can get back to exploring more quickly!

Large creatures will now spend a lot less time shoving their faces into rock walls and the sea floor. You be judge as to whether this is a good thing. Some of them have been known to eat players, and if they’re not running into walls, they’re probably swimming near you…

That’s it for this update, but remember: We don’t include everything in these summaries! To see everything that was changed, added, improved in this update check out the Changes & Checkins list and Subnautica Trello Board. Sign up to the Subnautica dev mailing list to get notified when new updates go live. And stay away from the Stalkers…

http://store.steampowered.com/app/264710

18 comments Read more

20 December

Next Update Scheduled

The next update to Subnautica Early Access is coming on Tuesday. The development team is on a slightly abnormal release schedule because of the upcoming holidays, and the release of Early Access this week! Go to the Subnautica blog to find out more!

12 comments Read more

System Requirements

Minimum:

OS: Windows Vista SP2 or newer
Processor: Intel Haswell 2 cores / 4 threads @ 2.5Ghz or equivalent
Graphics: Intel HD 4600 or equivalent
Hard Drive: 4 GB available space
Additional Notes: Subnautica is an Early Access game, and minimum specifications may change during development.

Recommended:

OS: Windows Vista SP2 or newer
Processor: Intel Haswell 4 cores / 4 threads @ 3.2Ghz or equivalent
Graphics: Nvidia GTX 550 ti or equivalent
Hard Drive: 4 GB available space
Additional Notes: Subnautica is an Early Access game, and recommended specifications may change during development.

	Interface	Full audio	Subtitles
English

Interface

Full audio

Subtitles

English

Yzo

147 products in account

Recommended

3.2 hrs on record

Posted: 23 December

For all Fans of FarSky:
This is the game you should aim for!
- It is more beautiful than FarSky.
- It will most definitely get a lot of content which is similar to FarSky, and even expand on what FarSky had to offer.
- It gets updated daily (if you activate the experimental branch).
- You can vote on what you want to have in the game:
https://trello.com/b/WEDPjhjg/subnautica-feature-vote
- It is not just one person developing it :P
Even though right now the game is in a very early alpha state, I regularly get the urge to dive into the game, because every game is different and it just looks so real and beautiful!
Buy it and support the development of it :)

Was this review helpful? Yes No

The Risen

109 products in account

1.5 hrs on record

Posted: 22 December

Tip:
Don't play Depth and then play this directly afterwards.
10/10 nearly pooped.

Can't wait to see what this turns into. Props to the Devs.

50 L337 17 |-|UR7Z

177 products in account

4.4 hrs on record

How do I swim?

[UG] Amm1992

536 products in account

3.3 hrs on record

Posted: 16 December

I have to say I would recommend this game. But not in its current state, I rarely truly say to anyone they should get a game when its in early access because most people complain about bugs or the game being unfinished.

However if you would like to join an amazing game company for an amazing journey whilst they create this game then I say WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR?

I played each of their prototypes for this game and have been following it since they first posted about it a while back now. It looks amazing for an early access game and they are continously developing new things with regular (almost twice daily it seems) updates to their experimental version (although not particularly large amounts of content added), eventually I believe there is meant to be a variety of submarines with interesting hull breach ideas hinted at and equally some customization involved with them, I believe as for the gameplay the species will be continously added upon until you are immersed in a living and breathing underwater otherworldly ecosystem, but for now you are given a handful or interesting and nice species instead, as for what to do with these species I believe they are adding scientific tools for DNA sampling etc after all you were on your way to make the planet habitable.

There is also a simple and friendly feedback reporting system in game so you can highlight bugs and glitches quickly which helps them sort them quicker

Equally to remain on top of their development they are extremely open and post everyting on their Trello: https://trello.com/b/yxoJrFgP/subnautica
And also on this site for more specifics as to what was added/changed last : http://subnautica.unknownworlds.com/#/subnautica/checkins

Peeper

70 products in account

12.5 hrs on record

Subnautica is one of the best early access games on steam.

You crash on an alien planet wih nobody to help you. Just you and the fish.

The creatures of subnautica very from the titanic reefback to the miniture holefish.

You'll have to make submarines to go deeper to find better resources but there isn't a 100% chance you'll make it out.

Its still buggy but its still awesome for an early access.

I reccomend this game 100%

Czar Hoodyhoo

234 products in account

7.3 hrs on record

Posted: 18 December

Since this is early access, my recommendation is for those who enjoy taking part in a game as it's being built. If you are looking for a complete, near-bugless game - stay away for now.

If you are still interested in taking part on a true voyage of seeing a game in its infancy as it blossoms into a full fledged polished game, this is a great place to start! Subnautica is made by the developers of Natural Selection - a company who has a history of taking good care of their games and listening to their fan base. Even in its current state, Subnautica is looking like UW is pooring love into it!

What should you expect right now? Underwater exploration in a very pretty environment. There's a crafting system similar to minecraft where the gathering of resources can allow you to build advanced tools and toys (like drills and vehicles). There's not a whole lot to do at the moment but explore. However, the graphics are very beautiful and you'll probably catch yourself swimming around for minutes on end just admiring the scenery and saying high to the alien manitees.

Overally, I think this game has the chance to be something really special when it's done, and if you have some spare money to blow on an early-access - give this one a shot!

Teal'c

171 products in account

6.8 hrs on record

It's a pretty game with a steady flow of new content, but not much else at this point. You can only really get couple hours of moderately entertaining gameplay at its current state. Don't buy this game expecting it to keep you entertained for a week yet. I would definately recommend at least following or wishlisting it though. The potential is certainly there, and the devs have been devoted to its progress with healthy concern for keeping the playerbase informed while getting community feedback.

Kodijack! (ex SledgeHammer!)

594 products in account

0.9 hrs on record

Posted: 17 December

"World-of-Diving" without ingame-shop meets the average survival-/building-game. Plus a big pile of atmosphere!

The bad things i will list here are more likely just early-access-alpha-"features", so nothing to worry about in the long run IMHO.

Right now it's more a "World-Of-Diving" than a survival-game though, but you'll definately see where this is intended to go!
This is what "FarSky" should have been or wanted to be.

Is it worth the money NOW? Depends on you. If you enjoy an hour of diving and exploring for a mid-range pricetag, you're in for a fun-ride!
If you fear the uncertain future of a not-finished-at-all-early-access-game you'd better keep off. But follow it and keep it on your wishlist! :-)

My prediction is that this developer will deliver. I knew why i instantly put that one on my wishlist #1 a long time before and now it shows.
And i'm not one of those trying to judge his bad purchase. I've bought "Spacebase DF9" too ,-)

The good:

On "experimental" quality (whatever it means) it runs smooth, solid and with >100fps average on my machine @ FullHD.
Atmosphere! This game really captures the mood of being stranded in a mysterious underwaterworld. Brilliant!
Superb soundscape! So many developers underestimate the need of a fitting and well done sound! It's not all about graphics!
Fitting soundtrack (not much music yet though). Captures the mood but does not annoy.
Considering this is the Day1-early-access-release it runs like butter. No crashed, no hickups (yet)!
Own body is rendered too, like every true 1st-person game should do.

The bad:

Not much options to setup the game to your liking (yet)
Not much too do yet, gather some resources, make some things, don't starve...
Made things like an extra-O²-tank are, upon activation, held right in front of you. Floating in the air. Looks stupid :-)
Sure, early access and survival...but the O²-Tanks are a joke. Just dived 50m, reached the ground, need to go up again.
Some hostile fish-things which i cannot fight yet.

Mycroft (Canada, NS)

18 products in account

58.5 hrs on record

The game has finally been released, and what a beautiful release day it has been. The game is being sold at amazingly cheap price. Of course price range depends on where you live in the world, and is subjected to change without notice of course.

I only started to poke around to find out what this grand game has to offer, and so far it's jam packed full of wonder, excitement, and will give you plenty of reasons to ooooh, and aaaah over.

So exactly what is the story of the game? Well simply put you crash land on an alien world which you will start to colonize. Mankind for whatever reason has decided to explore for other worlds to inhabit, and it's your job to do this BUT, you crashed landed, and there is no way back home. Suffice to say you are out of luck getting any help from Earth so it's up to you to shake the cobwebs out of your head, get a grip with reality, and get to work.

Your first order of business is to gather materials to create food, tools, and harvest coral to create water.

Now certain fish give have different advantages when you cook, and eat them. Take the wee bitty peeper, this fish will not only feed you, it will also sustain you has far as water is concerned, and it give you enough time to convert coral into bleach which will allow you to create fresh drinking water.

Tools do break after too much use so keep that in mind as you smack away at the coral, and trying to defend yourself from the Sand Shark, and the Scary alien looking half croc, and I don't know what creature.

Do I like the game?

I sure do, it's one of those titles we don't see all that often, and when it does finally poke it's head out of the sand you can rest assured that it's going to be one of the best games made in a very long time.

It's not too often that a game feeds the imagination, and this game does just that, it fills you full of wonder, and it does bring back those days when you were young when everything is new, and all you had were questions.

This is what this game has done for me, it has allowed me to open my mind, explore, and get lost in an environment that is just beautiful, and deadly.

Well folks, thanks for reading this small article, and I hope you take the time to purchase the game, and take a stroll through wonderland.

Finally a game for grown-ups, and kids alike.

Draegast

416 products in account

Posted: 19 December

VERY beutiful game with loads of potential, at it's current stage it's not much aside from a few hours of survival goodness. But as this is an early access title that is more than acceptable. With the right development this will be a great game in the survival open world genre.

I really think the idea behind this game is what makes it shine, so many generic survival games out there this one brings you a totall unique experience of being trapped in the ocean of an alien planet. The visuals expesially at night are amazing. The crafting system is extremely user-friendly and well done, overall with my first baby steps in this game I am really amazed. I have looked at over 200 early access titles and this one is easily in my top 10, buy it now if you want to support the devs.

Here is the video version of what I just said if you prefer it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UdOJ3VwKQN4

Spiritwind

471 products in account

4.1 hrs on record

Still early access, so its missing a lot of content that they have planned, but you can tell they are overall heading in the right direction. Is in great shape as is right now however, and is in the best shape that I've seen an early access title get released for quite some time!
Can't wait to see things like base building, ship building, and with any luck multiplayer!

In its current early access state, most of your enjoyment will be exploring their terrain, which is a true beauty! Played some of the early prototypes of this, and it has come a long ways since then, so I am expecting this to go pretty far! Really hope Unknown Worlds keeps up with it, as I see it as being the first UnderWater survival game that has the ability to provide 100s of hours of gameplay, instead of mere hours like most of the other ones!

So far my frames are solid, haven't experianced a crash, and haven't really seen any glitches!

Update-
Been playing the experimental version, which they have been pushing out updates almost every 15 hours on. Have experianced some bugs on that, but when I tried the main branch, was perfectly smooth!

yamalight

1,143 products in account

1.8 hrs on record

Posted: 21 December

As of build from 14th Dec. 2014:
Subnautica is a survival game. And even though the genre itself is quite oversaturated by now, Unknown Worlds take on it is unique enough to capture your attention.

We already know how to survive zombie outbreak and even apocalyps. But what about surviving crash in the middle of the ocean?
Gather materials to allow you to dive deeper, to fight with sea monsters, to get better gear and build your underwater safe-heaven (that part is not in the game yet, but already has been talked about).
Sounds easy and maybe a bit boring, but it's pretty damn awesome, especially considering colorful underwater environments.
Aside from the setting, the game is pretty much your traditional survival game, which is not a bad thing because you know exactly what to expect from it.
You can as well play it with Oculus Rift (although it's not officially supported yet).
Oh, did I already mentioned that this game has the most open development approach I'd seen in Early Access? Yeah, it does - up to commit messages. Kudos to Unknown Worlds, it's pretty fantastic way to develop Early Access title!

On the not-so-good side of the game are:
1. Little content at the moment. Gathering and building everything you can takes about 1 hour, after that you are left to just swim around the ocean.
2. No saves. Which means every time you restart, you will start from a scratch. But since 1), it's not really a big deal at the moment.
3. Bugs. A lot of bugs. Although, mostly they seem to be related to physics and wonky behaviour of objects.

So, to sum all that up:
Very promising.
Still very raw.
Little of content at the moment.

If you want more gameplay, I'd recommend waiting a few months.
If you want to join the dev process and help the devs make a better game - jump in. It's very good.

More detailed look in the video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=15PHM4VM♥♥♥

Ghost

102 products in account

1.7 hrs on record

Please read before buying, this is an early alpha access with most features missing, to purchase this you will be assisting with the development of the game.

Currently there is no save game feature so playability can be a bit tedious restarting every time.

Crafting ability is limited at the moment but i am sure further updates will be coming soon

Graphics and playability is good, i have noticed only small glitches every now and then

The developers are active and listen to feed back from the players

So in a nutshell only purchase if you want to help with the development of a bare bones game.

Nokzen

118 products in account

Just an incredible beautiful exploration game here.
Exploring this big open world under water world is amazing, weird strange creatures and dangers and you never know what you will find next. Do you enjoy exploration games? this one is new and special, you should really try this one out.
Heres a short Video of my first experience in freedom mode.
http://youtu.be/Czxb5EfcLdQ

meshuggah12345

1,437 products in account

I have only played for a very few minutes, however, this game has me excited like no other has in a long time. The game itself still obviously needs work, but what is here in Early Access is very well refined and polished. All systems in game seem to work and work quite well so far. It is already very well optimized and looks very nice. If you are interested in crafting/survival games, this is one I can fully recommend!

Marklar

47 products in account

6.2 hrs on record

This game has so much potential, and UW are definitely going to make something amazing. I have over 1k hours in NS2..looking forward to dumping that many in Subnautica. :D

[5d]Baked{Łρ}

346 products in account

2.7 hrs on record

game is great, and looks beatiful, but dont buy it until they add a save feature...seriously though

[00ffef]Arik_De_Frasia

41 products in account

2.2 hrs on record

So far this game is going in the right direction. I have great hopes that it'll turn into the game the FarSky should have been. If you're like me and Farsky's sudden conclusion of development left you pissed off, this game is your best bet for the underwater survival genre.

The only thing I want from future updates is base building.

Aknok

68 products in account

2.8 hrs on record

For beeing an early access this game is totaly awesome :)
There is not much to do exept explore and find new creatures and perhaps build a few things...
i found it interesting to try and go as deep as possible, she liked it ;)
468m and some strange sound.. i will explore this sound futher and not tell anyone, You should find out on your own ;)

twitch.tv/gamerquest

8.9 hrs on record

Early Access games can be a big risk but Subnautica, for only its first day on Steam, delightfully did not disappoint.

GamerQuest purchased Subnautica as soon as it was released on Steam and then proceeded to stream the game on Twitch for 4 hours of non stop gamplay. To our amazement the game proceeded to run the full 4 hours without any hiccups at all. Since Subnautica is only in its very early stages of Alpha we were fully expecting to run into a fair share of bugs. We also did not encounter a single bug during the entire 4 hour stream. Honestly, that is pretty impressive for an Early Access title but most likely we just got lucky and chances are that we will encounter some bugs the next time we play.

Frankly, everything from the graphic quality, stability and game mechanics, as well as the game optimization itself, were really quite impressive. Credit here must go out to the entire Subnautica team who really have exceeded all expectations of what an Early Access game should be and hopefully it sets a new standard for other Early Access game developers to follow.

Undoubtedly, from everything that we experienced while playing the game, Subnautica looks to have some HUGE potential. Development on the game seems to be in very good hands as the team working on Subnautica has already shown us a glimpse of just what they are capable of achieving.

The future seems to be very bright for Subnautica and the good news is that the journey has only just begun.

Great job on the Early Access launch to the entire Subnautica team!