Compound Clouds and the Early Game

[Buckly]

@Thim

Ok, follow-up question: what, in your opinion, is the purpose of the mesopelagic, bathypelagic, and sea floor?

First and foremost they provide separate biomes for more species to occupy niches, beyond that they have little distinction at the moment

The mesopelagic is actually a haven for scavengers right now, with the highest rate of occurrence of marine snow, with the bathypelagic receiving some to a lesser extent.

The sea floor however is merely a barren place with nothing notable at all, but that in itself might distinguish it from the others.

@Thim

Currently those are just the patches you pass through on the way to the surface, and are that distance is the main reason the player is able to leave the AI in the dust.

Indeed, if there were less patches to navigate through, there would also be less patches for the AI as well.

@Thim

A tougher early game would involve finding something distinct to do with them, while the shorter early game Maxonovien suggested might involve making a bypass to them, or dropping them altogether.

I think adding a new path from the vents to the bathypelagic might help a bit in that regard, and potentially to the caves as well to make travel to the mesopelagic less linear.
I would also connect the estuary to the epipelagic, or atleast swap it’s place with the tidepool as it makes more sense for tidepools to be isolated.
Finally, I would connect the ice shelf to the mesopelagic in addition to the epipelagic.

(Quick presentation)

Personally I’m rather hesitant to just drop the patches, and would rather put some effort into differentiating them instead. We’ve discussed terrain generation in the past as a potential solution, but I would also like to see unique environmental hazards similar to the ice shards in the shelfs as well.