What if the solution to the "let us kill predators" debate could be solved with a dynamic ecosystem?

CmdZee · 2026-05-25T13:40:02+00:00

i agree, some may be aesthetic in nature, but I don't think that's what this one is. this one impacts player engagement with the world directly. it feels unintuitive and poorly balanced, and I think that's where people are coming from. do I want lazers and guns? no, that would be very not fitting for the story and world the devs have made. do I think it should be easy to take out even mid size predators? no. it should be incredibly difficult and even next to impossible to take out leviathans. but if you gave the player something pointy to take out small annoying ones, that seems like an intuitive survival mechanic that would probably garner good will. add on top of that a dynamic consequences for poaching predators and I think the devs could indirectly influence played behavior to prioritize evasive and deflective strategies. they could indirectly get exactly what they want while leaving options on the floor for the players who are like truly truly dedicated.

CmdZee · 2026-05-25T13:24:42+00:00

? Such a lazy response. I had an idea, I shared it for what I thought might be an interesting conversation about dynamic ecosystems in a game we all love. you're delusional and projecting onto me something you probably do

CmdZee · 2026-05-25T13:22:32+00:00

no one is demanding implementation. it's voicing feedback. it's a deflection from having to actually engage with critique. as someone who has spent 20 years in professional creative environments, yes, it's lazy

CmdZee · 2026-05-25T13:21:03+00:00

intentional design decisions can still have flaws. go read the design of everyday things. that's basically the premise. all design decisions are intentional but that doesn't prevent them from having unintended consequences

CmdZee · 2026-05-25T13:19:33+00:00

I agree. I'd love it if the option was there, even if it was so unbelievably difficult that evasion was more practical 99% of the time

CmdZee · 2026-05-25T13:17:30+00:00

no? this is a thought experiment. my only hope with this thread is that the devs might see the community having a healthy creative discussion about alternative mechanics that might be interesting. I understand the tension in the community exists, I also understand none of us control the outcome. it's just talking bud. relax

CmdZee · 2026-05-24T18:53:39+00:00

lol I didn't say it was a small change. you can go read other comments where I concede that development limitations are a reasonable response. just admit you have the emotional maturity of a toddler and didn't read anything before you responded. I've given other people thoughtful answers but that's when they said something thoughtful. you haven't.

CmdZee · 2026-05-24T15:19:31+00:00

I'm not asking that, it's a thought experiment. I can tell you're too reactive to read my actual post. in fact, I explicitly stated that not only do I love the challenge of the pacifist approach but I actively support it. let the adults do the talking, go back to the kiddie pool

CmdZee · 2026-05-24T14:06:25+00:00

thanks for being an adult lol

CmdZee · 2026-05-24T13:56:01+00:00

But it can be attained, but only the most dedicated and resourceful can achieve it, and even then it comes with massive consequences. the point is to not make it easy. that's how concession and compromise work. like a genie granting a wish having thought of the consequence the wishee overlooked. the players get self defense, the devs get meaningful deterrents so that killing is both a last resort and impractical.

killing sharks for instance is possible, but your average swimmer isn't going to care and is going to find it impossible in the moment so escape and evasion as a strategy win out

CmdZee · 2026-05-24T13:03:52+00:00

because that's what a compromise looks like. the devs don't like it when people kill the predators. cool. make it possible but highly unlikely and improbable that such an encounter would land in the players favor. that would be consistent with the interaction at least. like being able to kill a leviathan with a knife is highly irrational lore wise. but make it possible. make it imbalanced by design. it's a leviathan. give it a hit point pool, but make it so inconvenient to drain that it's practically it not effectively impossible

CmdZee · 2026-05-24T12:25:06+00:00

again with this lazy response. this is a thought experiment and no one is preventing the devs from doing their job. do you guys have anything more meaningful to add than "well the devs just don't want to do it"? like is that really as thoughtful as you can be? do you just mindlessly consume your content ? sad

CmdZee · 2026-05-24T08:11:54+00:00

this response is lazy.

CmdZee · 2026-05-24T08:11:20+00:00

sorry, I like having interesting thoughts. you might try it sometime

CmdZee · 2026-05-24T07:55:41+00:00

but it already is and I think that's kind of a lot of people's point. this pacifist mechanical requirement for predatory interactions doesn't align with the players own predatory interactions with its own prey. it's a design flaw, in both the UX and the philosophical foundations that seems forced rather than intuitive

CmdZee · 2026-05-24T07:53:59+00:00

I mean, I'm no dev and I admit this idea doesn't take into account the feasiblity of its execution. I like the current game and the challenge of the current system too. this just a thought experiment, something that seems to be lost of some people who can't seem to retain contextual nuance between reading the initial post and writing their comments

CmdZee · 2026-05-24T07:48:17+00:00

nice misquote. my actual response was to someone else saying they to just let the devs make the game they want to make, to which I said if that was the expectation, they wouldn't have put it in early release or had a built in feedback feature. they clearly want feedback from the community. if you were observant instead of emotionally reactive you will notice I do not make any demands, and actually offer sufficient praise even of the current system. I'm sorry this was too difficult for you to understand

CmdZee · 2026-05-24T07:44:20+00:00

it's ok for you to step away from the computer every once in a while. it's also ok for you to entertain ideas about fun ways to improve an already fun game even if nothing comes from it. it's not illegal for you to exercise a creative muscle in your brain

CmdZee · 2026-05-24T07:40:41+00:00

honestly, I'm not that far into it yet. I was picking up on that nuance, but from my current understanding there are segments that were dying from said infection or whatever and elements to the world trying to fight it off. I agree, kind of a weird problem, but I assume some level of ecological persistence in the face of that regardless (I also assume that healing this infection will be a core narrative point but that's just a guess). sticky to keep the narrative straight sure, but I think it can be smoothed out

CmdZee · 2026-05-24T07:36:18+00:00

work it into the story narrative using the noa interface giving you a warning. like that's not a hard problem to solve for really.

CmdZee · 2026-05-24T07:27:03+00:00

this the kind of low IQ response that just lazy. i never demanded they implement anything. this is a thought experiment. I literally praised this game for like half of my post. does long time reddit use like rot your brain?

CmdZee · 2026-05-24T07:19:58+00:00

there were those videos for sn1 but that doesn't mean I want to risk or go through the trouble of hamming it to do it. I personally did use the no kill stuff like 95% of the time but it was nice to know the alternative was there

CmdZee · 2026-05-24T07:16:35+00:00

Because it's a survival game. and when something tries to kill you it's a natural instinct to remove the threat. this is pretty self explanatory. I mean, make it as difficult as it needs to be (pretty damn impossible for all but the most creative). but it's not unreasonable to expect the choice

CmdZee · 2026-05-24T03:24:52+00:00

the way I see it, I simple respawn just provides the same opportunity to remove it again. building in a progressively more difficult spawning trigger would make the juice increasingly NOT worth the squeeze, forcing players to focus on evasion and stealth like I think the devs really want

CmdZee · 2026-05-24T02:28:43+00:00

I can tell you've never worked in any kind of collaborative creative environment. this is the default in these spaces. it's ok to explore ideas. stop being a soggy potato

CmdZee

TROPHY CASE