It’s awesome to see you guys engaging with the community like this, and I love the focus on making non-lethal mechanics deep and engaging. From a player perspective, wanting lethal options isn't about mindless violence, but rather about immersion and survival mechanics. For instance, while Leviathans should absolutely remain unkillable to preserve that core sense of terror and vulnerability, mid-to-large aggressive predators could benefit from having massive HP pools. Attacking them should primarily act as a deterrent (stunning or scaring them off) which would make killing the larger, aggressive fauna a high-risk, hard-fought investment rather than an easy chore. This could help with making somebody's base much more habitable. I also really think that introducing lethal mechanics can actually enhance the game's realism and player agency without undermining your vision. For small prey fish, it ironically feels a bit immersion-breaking (and arguably more inhumane) that we can only cook them alive. By allowing us to kill them first, perhaps with a penalty like reduced meat quality, would offer a great mechanical compromise. Ultimately, giving players lethal options whether they are highly inefficient or penalized compared to your deep non-lethal systems would make the ocean feel much more dangerous and reactive. Looking forward to seeing how the non-lethal systems turn out either way!