Upgrades Review

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Version 0.10.4

Hi there devs! After playing 0.10.4 consistently since last month, I really love the upgrade system that you guys have implemented. The thing about the current iteration is that there are a large amount of upgrades that players would always get first, and those that they would avoid until the last possible moment. Some effects just doesn't feel different per upgrade. I'm going to go through each upgrades and how I feel how they stack up in the current version. Lets go!

General/Modding First I am going to critique about how the upgrade system works. Upgrades are not additive, but multiplicative. This makes earlier increasing upgrades really weak early, and decreasing upgrades really weak later. You basically have to buy upgrades in bulk to actually feel the difference. On the modding end, I thought I'd be able to easily increase/decrease the amount to what I wanted exactly, but that wasn't the case. For instance, if I was going to upgrade battery capacity, I would've loved it if it was static per level, so that I can make "10%" per level makes the battery capacity doubled when upgraded 10 times. Easier to calculate.

Hull - Tougher Hull Full Effect = +62.89% to Durability

The only thing I can really say about this upgrade is that it really only prevents crawlers from breaking in. Almost every other aliens in the game will break through the hull. Mudraptors attacks the hull very fast and hard already, so this upgrade doesn't do much against them. Bone Threshers still creates a big hole in two or three hits. Pretty bad when there's 3 or more of them going at it outside. Hammerheads aren't much of a threat because they don't really kill the players on the inside of a sub. Hammerheads also tends to get into fights with other aliens, drawing the bigger threat's attentions away.

My opinion: The maxhealth "+5%" should be doubled to "+10%" so that it should take aliens double the effort at the least.

General - Energy Efficiency Full Effect = -9.56% Power

This upgrade is necessary for submarines that requires high amount of power and/or have a reactor that isn't able to run everything (Humpback/Typhon2/Kastrull). However the full effect isn't even a full 10%. It contributes to preventing overvoltage, brownouts, and fuel cost.

The problem with this upgrade is that it's split into multiple category of items. Merge the upgrade into one general upgrade. Increase the price. Increase powerconsumption from "-1%" to "-1.5%". Though I would personally love it if it's increased even more.

General - Simplified Repairs Full Effect = -22.62% to Required Skill Level

It's split into multiple category of items as well. You only really buy this for items you have a lot of: Junction Boxes, and Pumps. The other ones are overshadowed depending on whether or not you have a custom sub that relies on the other systems.

My opinion: Merge the upgrade into one general upgrade. Increase the price. Increase the cap to 10. This'll make it easier for new characters after dying actually feel like it's easier to repair stuff late game where deaths should be more common. This would make junction boxes requires level 32 by then instead of the current 43.

General - Quicker Repairs Full Effect = -22.62% to Repair Time

It's split into multiple category of items as well. Honestly items still takes pretty long to repair and is hardly noticeable until Level 5. It's one of the upgrades I would pick up after all the game changer ones are upgraded.

My opinion: Merge the upgrade into one general upgrade. Increase the price. Increase the cap to 10. Double the fixdurationlowskill from "-5%" to "-10%". This'll make it more appealing. Players like to feel like they repair FAST.

General - Enhanced Redundant Systems Full Effect = -40.1263% to Deterioration Speed

It's split into multiple category of items as well. It falls short of expectation slightly. I only pick up this upgrade if there's almost nothing else. Doesn't work against water damage either.

My opinion: Merge the upgrade into one general upgrade. Double the decrease from "-5%" to "-10%". Players want this upgrade to make it feel like they should have twice or more time to repair things at full level. Water damage should either be covered here as well, or as a new upgrade.

General - Enhanced Durability Full Effect = -40.1263% to Deterioation Delay It's split into multiple category of items as well. It falls short of expectations by a large amount. I only pick up this upgrade if there's almost nothing else. Doesn't work against water damage either.

My opinion: Merge the upgrade into one general upgrade. Double the decrease from "-5%" to "-10%". Players want this upgrade to make it feel like they should have twice or more time before they start to deteriorate at full level. Water damage bypasses immunity, making this upgrade worth less.

Junction Boxes - Fire Resistance The only time junction boxes catches on fire is due to overvoltage. Inferior to Enhanced Resistors.

My opinion: Either a new junction box problem needs to be introduce to cause fire, or else it's inferior to Enhanced Resistors.

Junction Boxes - Enhanced Resistors This upgrade only really affects submarines with high dynamic load (Typhon2/Kastrull) or when high load junction box chain breaks down. Most of the vanilla sub are stable otherwise. This upgrade is unnecessary when you have a wire engineer that knows how to dampen load or rework the reactor.

My opinion: Default Overload Voltage setting on junction boxes needs to be lower to introduce the problem to more stable vanilla subs. From "2.0" to "1.8" and keep the upgrade as is, or "1.7" with "+3%" resistance.

Pumps - Faster Pumps Full Effect = +21.9% to Max Flow

This upgrade is sort of on the weaker end. A necessary upgrade to the late game, but the effect isn't as as large as one would hope.

My opinion: Change the maxflow from "+2%" to "+5%". This will actually make a noticable difference before hitting full level.

Battery/Supercapacitors - Enhanced Capacity Full Effect = +61.05% to Battery Capacity Full Effect = +27.63% to Supercapacitors Capacity

This upgrade is hindered by default battery settings or the amount of batteries on the sub. Vanilla submarines usually has two batteries, some of them can't even power the sub enough, or lasts too little to begin with. Most people modify the capacity or put down more batteries in their custom subs to bypass power issues. The only time supercapaciters really runs out of juice is when you're fighting a moloch or swarm of threshers, and trust me this upgrades still leaves more to be desired. Not really much of an upgrade to subs that uses railguns a lot. Does well when paired with Enhanced Charging.

My opinion: I think the increase just falls short of expectation. Either double the increase for both, or just increase the level cap from 5 to 10.

Battery/Supercapacitor - Enhanced Charging Full Effect = +27.63% to Battery/Supercapacitors Recharge Speed.

This upgrade is okay for Supercapacitors, but sort of weak on Battery. This upgrade increases the load of the submarine, which really requires you to have Energy Efficiency first.

My opinion: Either double the increase to sustain Battery as well, or just increase the level cap from 5 to 10.

Fabricators - Quicker Fabricator Full Effect = -9.56% Fabrication Time

This upgrade is necessary, but it's effect is pretty low. Mechanical and Electrical items are pretty quick to fabricate before the upgrade already, and doesn't help them much there. Medical fabrication on the other hand is terribly slow.

My opinion: Increase fabricationspeed from "+1%" to "+10%". This will keep Medical fabrication under a minute which people want.

Fabricators - Simplified Fabrication Full Effect = -9.6% Required Skill Level

This upgrade is necessary, and it feels good at level 5 with mechanical and electrical fabrication. Medical fabrication is still painful for non-medic characters.

My opinion: Just increase the level cap from 5 to 10.

Deconstructors - Quicker Deconstruction Full effect = -9.56% Deconstruction Time

This upgrade is necessary, but it's effect is too weak per level. Deconstructing artifacts and the likes still feels slow.

My opinion: Increase deconstructionspeed from "-1%" to "-10%". Now that's fast.

Weapons - Quicker Guns

This upgrade requires no change. Some players actually thinks increasing the speed is more of a negative than a positive after a certain point. Bots have a hard time hitting targets when their weapon skills or rotation is faster though. Doesn't work on Searchlights.

My opinion: Should also affect Searchlights. Fix bots tending to shoot behind enemies (Causes a lot of miss)

Weapons - Enhanced Periscopes

This upgrade is weak at full level to the point a Thalamus can still hook onto you when you can barely even see it with your bottom guns. Doesn't work on Searchlights and Cameras.

EnhancedPeriscope

My opinion: Increase offsetonselectedmultiplier from "+2%" to "+3%", and increase the level cap from 5 to 10. If player wants to see further than necessary, just let them. Should also affect Searchlights and Cameras.

Engines - Engine Power Full Effect = +27.628%

On subs as slow as Kastrull/Typhon, you only actually get an extra 2km/h in speed, which is pretty meh. Though for smaller subs, players aren't using them for speed when they should be. Instead they are parking to kill every single thing they can find on the map with those ironically enough.

My opinion: Just increase the level cap from 5 to 10. This'll also help players with bad helm to slow down faster.

Reactors - Reactor Efficiency Full Effect = +5.1% Reactor Max Output

Now this one is a bit decepting and it's getting a bad rep from players. Technically the effect is doubled than advertised because equipments on the submarine actually only requires half the power.

My opinion: Just increase the level cap from 5 to 10 or double the increasereactoroutput from "+1%" to "+2%". The numbers will look more satisfying, especially on the humpback.

Reactors - Fuel Efficiency Full Effect = -40.95% to Fuel Consumption

This upgrade requires no change at all. It's the first upgrade meta players would pick up as it nearly halves your fuel cost.

My opinion: Just increase the level cap from 5 to 10. If players really want to lower it even more, let them pay for it.

Reactors - Thermal Tolerance Full Effect = +159.374% to Meltdown Time.

This upgrade requires no change at all. No one really picks this one up anyways. There's also nothing that causes meltdown aside from griefers.

My opinion: Maybe reduce the level cap from 10 to 5, and double the effect from "+10%" to "+20%". Might as well make it cheap and convenient to get. Unless... you will make something that will randomly make the reactor hot?

Oxygen Generators - Oxygen Generator Efficiency Full Effect = +27.628% to Oxygen Generation

This upgrade kinda needs another mechanic in the game that is able to sap away oxygen or something (Like a biome or something?). It's pretty easy to sustain two people in each room at default oxygen generation setting (400), and only a third person would make it harder to breathe after a long time though.

My opinion: Lower the default oxygen generator setting, and/or introduce something that makes it so players need to upgrade this or wear diving mask very often. Increase the level cap from 5 to 10, and increase the generation from "+5%" to "+10%" or greater if the default oxygen generator setting is changed.

Conclusion

Now I know that when you combine many of these upgrades, it is more than enough to even run humpback/typhon2/kastrull comfortably. The players though doesn't feel much of them unless you stack a lot of upgrades. They also get unimpressed by the numbers increased/decreased by each level. To be honest, I also agree with them and I feel like if a player upgrades the sub a lot, the sub should actually start feeling powerful. You guy will need to implement some soft barriers that makes players inconvenient enough to buy the upgrades, or play differently at certain times. That's about everything about how I feel with the upgrade system in 0.10.4 and hope that the next iterations and features will make the subs gamechanging with upgrades. Thanks for reading!

P.S. I would love for an upgrade that can penetrate volcanic geyser/sonar plant interference on the Sonar. Those things are super annoying when you're half way through the campaign.

FakeFishGames / Barotrauma

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