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29 March

Up Next: Crash Site

Here’s a peek at what will be coming to Subnautica in the next few weeks: The explosion and exploration of the Aurora starship.

Steam limits what we can embed in news posts. To see the full post, including interactive 3D models and SoundCloud files, go to the Subnautica Dev Blog

Back at in 2014, an extremely early prototype of Subnautica was shown at PAX East. A two dimensional starship, cut out from Cory's concept art, was placed on the ocean horizon. It was impossible to get closer to the ship, it would forever recede into the distance no matter how far a player swam.

Despite this a significant proportion of players would constantly swim across the surface towards the starship. They ignored objectives, vehicles, creatures, and even the whole undersea environment. There was something utterly compelling about the crashed Aurora, lying stricken on the sea floor.

At that time, there wasn’t a strong plan in place for what to do with the crashed ship. Various ideas were being tossed around, and continued to circulate even past Subnautica’s launch on Early Access. Approaches to the Aurora were cut off by deadly radiation fields, while we’ve figured out what to do with it.

Now, we’re ready to bring the Aurora into the game. In the past few weeks, crash site gameplay brainstorms have been category 5 hurricanes. Concept art, prototypes, gameplay ideas have all been flying around. The thing that most accurately describes what we’re thinking about is perhaps this sound made by Simon:

Boom

That’s the sound of a big starship going bang. When it goes bang, it will litter the sea-floor with debris, impact craters, and goodies formerly trapped inside the Aurora’s hull.

Michael, Jake, Russell and Oli are hard at work crafting the ocean floor at the Aurora crash site. This includes digging a huge impact trench out of the rock, and decorating it with debris, silt, and rubble. This represents a unique level design challenge, as it forces the mixing and disruption of existing biomes.

Some of the debris pieces on the sea floor will be large enough to enter and swim around in. Here’s a particularly large one:

Wreck Model

What of the deadly radiation field that currently prevents approach? You will soon be able to craft a radiation-resistant suit, capable of protecting you from pesky alpha, beta, and gamma rays. A new ‘paper-doll’ style inventory system will allow you to easily swap equipment, and know what you are wearing at a glance.

Radiation might be the least of your worries when swimming near the Aurora’s wreck. We don’t want to say too much – We’ll let this experimental video from Andi do the talking…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5HY6S9uMnMs

This blog post can’t contain everything we’re working on at the moment. Heaps of stuff is being done, including the addition of new sea-base functionality, and rebalancing of loot/crafting mechanisms. To see more, check out the Subnautica development Trello board, and the checkin & changes list.

We can never be sure when we will release updates. The Crash Site might happen in one, two, or three weeks. It’s likely to be some time in April. Sign up to the Subnautica mailing list to find out the moment the update is released.

286 comments Read more

13 March

Seabases Released!

Subnautica now features underwater bases. They are available now, and allow the construction of habitats on the sea floor. Bases are composed of modular units such as compartments, windows, and hatches, bases allow you to create an outpost from which you can go forth and explore Subnautica's vast ocean.

Bases are the biggest new feature we've added to Subnautica since the Cyclops submarine. Like the Cyclops, bases are unfinished, buggy, and rough around the edges. Subnautica is an Early Access game, and we aim to give you the latest stuff well before it is truly 'finished' - Game development is more fun this way!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q-oa3bzir9A

Despite being incomplete, bases are tremendous fun to muck about with. To build a base, craft a Builder tool at a Fabricator. Then, right click while holding the tool. You will be presented with a crafting menu that offers various different base components.

Base construction requires lots of resources, particularly Titanium, so pick your site carefully. In the screenshots in this post, the bases have been built on sand in safer coral areas. You don't have to follow that lead: Bases can be built just about anywhere - Including inside caves!

There are a wide variety of base components to choose from, including L junctions, T junctions, X junctions, windows of various shapes and sizes, hatches, and foundations. Compartments can be stacked on top of each other and connected with ladders to create multiple decks.

When building bases, it is necessary to manage hull integrity. Placing lots of compartments, or weaker components like windows, lowers hull integrity. The effect is more pronounced the deeper the base is built, as water pressure increases. Placing hull reinforcements can increase hull strength, and allow the placement of more windows and hatches before hull integrity fails.

If your base has low hull integrity, it might flood. Flooding can be stopped by restoring hull integrity and repairing hull breaches. To restore hull integrity, place more reinforcements or remove weak components like windows. To repair hull breaches, use a Welder tool on the breach. Once all breaches have been repaired, the water will be drained by the base artificial intelligence.

Some base components, like Fabricators, require power. Place a power generator outside a base to give them the juice they need to function. If you don't have a power generator, you will see a big red 'Power' warning at the top of the head-up-display.

Remember: Bases are, like the rest of Subnautica, a work-in-progress. They will break frequently and sometimes with disastrous (or hilarious!) consequences for gameplay. This is the fun of Early Access, shaping a game over time rather than just throwing a finished product at people and hoping it works. Leave us feedback notes via the in-game F8 feedback system, talk to us on the forums, (here or on the dev blog!), Tweet at us, do whatever you can to tell us what you think. Your feedback will shape our work on bases, and help make them better and better as development continues!

135 comments Read more

System Requirements

Minimum:

OS: Windows Vista SP2 or newer, 64-bit
Processor: Intel Haswell 2 cores / 4 threads @ 2.5Ghz or equivalent
Memory: 4 GB RAM
Graphics: Intel HD 4600 or equivalent
Hard Drive: 6 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, 64-bit
Processor: Intel Haswell 4 cores / 4 threads @ 3.2Ghz or equivalent
Memory: 8 GB RAM
Graphics: Nvidia GTX 550 ti or equivalent
Hard Drive: 6 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

DBY014

138 products in account

3 reviews

Recommended

5.4 hrs on record

Posted: 19 March

The ocean is brighter than my future 420/10

Was this review helpful? Yes No Funny

Elate

515 products in account

8 reviews

10.3 hrs on record

Posted: 22 March

I have been burned by early access. Developers that spurn their own customers, and games that become vapourware.

On that note, I've been in a chat room, actively chatting to the developers and other players over the weekend, having only bought it on Saturday. I've never seen a dev team more engrossed in their own player base, from helping people with crash problems, to taking on board suggestions, to talking about planned features, they're completely open. There are stable releases every few weeks, and (three times a day) experimental developer builds to keep folks sated. I can without a doubt say that this game is made with passion, and as such, I think it'll go far.

The game itself? In its current state, it is highly enjoyable as an exploration game. I'm rarely one to enjoy a purely scenic experience, but with the sound design and asthetics, more often than not, I found myself just buildng a base somewhere pretty and pressing my face to the glass. There isn't a huge amount to do at the moment, collect resources, build the mini-sub, and larger submarine, build a base (though without much to put in it yet), considering this only came out on steam 4 months ago though, it's coming along at break neck speeds, and is astoundingly polished already.

I was worried I'd spend 2 hours and experience everything and be done with it, now I'm having to pull myself away less I spend another 5 hours today swimming around petting carnivorous fish.

Reese-Chan

92 products in account

10 reviews

8.0 hrs on record

Posted: 2 April

>Buy game
>Starts game
>Looks around
>Everythings Pretty
>catch fish and get salt
>eat fish
>decide to explore
>swimming on surface
>goes back down for a look
>sees open water with no land nearby
>lost
>freak out
>quit game out of fear of open water

1/-3 Would piss myself again.

Lady La6yrinth

74 products in account

2 reviews

2.8 hrs on record

Posted: 21 March

Okay. This game is gooood. Beautiful really, and easy to learn. Yeah, there a few minor bugs here and there, but it's fun, and that's what games are all about. Having fun.

I recommend it if you just wanna, ya know, relax underwater or get chased by angry fish.

Riley2142

101 products in account

30 reviews

3.1 hrs on record

Posted: 20 March

Two words:

Buy It.

fromthedepthsbelow

126 products in account

23 reviews

1.0 hrs on record

Amazing! This game is genius! Once you craft a knife and a builder, say good bye to an hour or more....

10/10 so far so good!

Zarenimizxax

151 products in account

1 review

2.7 hrs on record

Analysis

This game is first and foremost, absolutely beautiful. If I was pressed to come up with another term, I would have to go with pants-sh*ttingly terrifying. See that extremely useful pile of scrap metal at the mouth of that cave? Don't you dare try to pick it up unless you would like to permanently modify the scent of your computer chair.

And you better believe I'm going to keep playing it.

The game is fun, nice to look at, and much more unique than the other survival games that are currently bloating the shop. With the ability to construct your own bases and ships, survival is just the surface of the gameplay. Rarely do we get to experience a game that builds such a desire to explore. Just when you thought you've seen all the creatures this alien sea has to offer, you stumble across a cave full of entrancing pink jellyfish, or a monstrous horse-shoe-crab-whale.

With the recent addition of underwater bases, a little bit of my faith in early access games has been restored. As steam citizens, we are far too used to dissapointment while watching games develop (or... not develop?... starbound?), and this team shows promise. If you need a new game to put your faith in, try Subnautica.

Rating

Visual:
8.5/10
Although the textures could use some polishing, I absolutely love the overall appearance of the game and can not wait to see more areas and creatures added.

Audio:
7/10
The music does a great job of providing a sense of loneliness and inensity when necessary, but the transitions should be smoothed an dperhaps modified so the "intense" moments become less frequent, increasing the effectiveness.

Story:
-/10
There is a brief cutscene at the beginning regarding your ship crashing to the planet and you being the only survivor. Hopefully, the developers can come up with something a little bit more elaborate and original. That story seems like a placeholder, and as such, I will wait to post a score.

Hymen Assault

299 products in account

21 reviews

Posted: 18 March

The deep sea is a beautiful thing.

CardinalStorm

154 products in account

12.5 hrs on record

Posted: 24 March

I'm a bit of a graphics junkie - why else would I build overpriced rigs? So Subnautica struck me with it's colourful underwater world. For £15 I didn't really expect much other than a nice, relaxing timewaster. But hey, the devs might well be onto something here.

I was speaking to a friend earlier and he asked me what Subnautica was like. and I immediately thought of Minecraft. I'm not sure if the devs had Minecraft in mind when discussing the idea of Subnautica, but the intrigue that Minecraft has, of wanting to keep exploring and discovering is clear to see in Subnautica. The scavenging for items, construction of modular abodes, seeking out food and defending yourself against surreal creatures, is also hugely reminiscent of Minecraft.

And all these similarities are a good thing in my opinion. I'm no Minecraft fanatic, although I did enjoy approximately 20+ hours of it some while ago. And Subnautica has that same intrigue, albeit in a nicer looking environment. I've no idea if I'll tire of it oneday, for no reason, like I did Minecraft, but for now (after 11 hours), I'm really enjoying it.

I hope the devs continue to work hard on what could be the next big thing.

ApplesMang

93 products in account

4 reviews

16.7 hrs on record

Posted: 23 March

Love the game so much. has lots of stuff to do and if you run out of stuff to do you can just swim around and look at the beautiful sea floors

volksgasmaske_v2

12 products in account

8.2 hrs on record

Subnautica is a joyful, outstanding and long-time motivating game. Concerning the fauna and flora this title is detailled and plausibly modeled. In combination with the great matching sound effects and music Subnautica develops a unique atmosphere that you will find only in a few other games e.g. Metroid Prime (GCN)/Super Metroid (SNES) or Treasures of the Deep (PS1).

On daytime (in the game) it is a pleasure to discover the underwater world, collect and store materials and use them later to produce items in your safety capsule. Later on you will be enabled to build your own submarines and underwater base. In the early stage the capsule seems to be the one and only place were you can feel safe. Especially when night time approaches your mood changes radically. It is harmful out there. During night time I always develop goose bumbs because of the shock effect when suddenly a creature appears and bites you. You can hardly await for the next daytime to feel safe and carry on your discovery journey or make screenshots ;).

When playing Subnautica you will forget the time. When you loved Treasures of the Deep you will love this game too.
Even though it is an "early access" title it plays very smooth. Yes, it has got some bugs like crashes. When loading a saved game to continue gaming it crashes often on my machine (Lenovo W540 mobile workstation, playing in full graphics quality and highest resulution). Regarding drawbacks I have noticed some minor collision problems with objects when interacting with the environment (polygon intersection). Another deficit of this game is that within the actual build no missions are included like they are in Treasures of the Deep. But the dev-time is still in the design phase and maybe they will implement quests etc.

What is very interesting (when I noticed right) is the fact that each time you start a new game from the beginning (no save game) the topology of the ocean, position where items are placed and your start equipement is diffrent from the last one. Which is cool and an additional motivating factor of this game.

Hovewer in this early stage Subnautica makes a strong impression, especially in technical atmospheric context, and makes great value of your money spend for this game.
08/10

For the final build I would be very happy to have the opportunity ... :
- to load my own models/maps into the game or
- have an editor to design them by my own,
- quests are warmly welcome,
- grow my own see food on the ground of the ocean,
- more usage of the digging/terra morphing ability.

Dilligaf

34 products in account

Posted: 7 April

Day 1: No survivors i am alone at sea, the creatures around me are nothing like i have seen before.
Day 2: When exploring the depths i found some wreckage i could use to make the tools i need, there also was a sound so loud i felt it troughout my whole body..
Day 3: I found fragments of the Cyclops, now i just need some more resources before i can craft it.
Day 4: The Cyclops is ready now i can investigate where the sound is coming from.
Day 5: There is something out here... the Cyclops.. i don't think it can protect me from it...

Shrek

59 products in account

17 reviews

6.3 hrs on record

cool game but IN EARLY DEVELOPMENT played for two hours made an underwater base and little sea moth ship went to 100m game crashed lost my save... made me not want to play again until fixed but very fun and not developers fault because the game is in early access so problems should be expected. Otherwise had lots of fun and from where it stands now with all the stuff in it and it’s not even done will be a very fun and time consuming game.

Rest in pepperonis 2 hours of life

WasabiOne

183 products in account

0.8 hrs on record

What I find great about this game is that its not even released, but looks amazing and with these regular updates keeps getting better and better. I'll admit at first I worried the whole under water exploration/survival might get old, but I keep finding interesting things to do and did I mention BASE BUILDING!?!?! how freaking fun and cool. At the pace this game is going with content and functionality I cannot wait to see what they consider as the Release version.

The Iron Shrew

88 products in account

7.2 hrs on record

I have played a few hours on this game and for a game still in development it is oustanding! The game is absolutely beautiful and you, quite literally, have a whole ocean to explore and build in. The recent implimentation of the Cyclops submarine is quite amazing... you can even dock your small, one-man Seamoth sub inside it and you can customise the Cyclops with a few gadgets. Cool little feature: if you damage it too much the interior slowly starts to flood and you have a race against time to fix it before you run out of air. (Game within a game!)

Invest in this game!
It's far and few when it comes to finding a game that's doing this well so early. It's a procedurally generated, open-world, survival (optional), sandbox game. I can only imagine the amount of mods that will come out of this and I hope to see the opertunity for co-op gameplay sometime in the future. 9.5/10

Peanut

21 products in account

5 reviews

3.0 hrs on record

I havent played this game long. I already love it. Very easy to learn, beautiful graphics and very fun to explore. Happy I bought this!

Broilern

107 products in account

9.5 hrs on record

Great Game, its really good and its been out in alpha for for a very short time. If you like underweater life or event open world games, then this is for you. Keep in mind that its still an alpha, but I would say this. This is the best aplha game Ive ever played, and I love the concept and everything about it.

The Big Show

So far great game.
almost made me forget i had trypophobia untill i went into some sort of cavern.
10/10 cant sleep or play this ever again.

Ktulu

109 products in account

8.1 hrs on record

This game is amazing.

Very atmospheric, for the first time since many years I rediscover this feeling again.
The dev team are very present with their custommer their are working hard and listening to our idea.
Can't wait to try this with the occulus.