this post was submitted on 18 May 2026
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Subnautica 2 mod makes creatures killable, despite its devs' desire to convince players to "use non-violent and more creative solutions" (www.rockpapershotgun.com)
submitted 4 days ago by RedWizard@hexbear.net to c/games@hexbear.net
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cross-posted from: https://lemmy.zip/post/64554515

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[–] Frivolous_Beatnik@hexbear.net 35 points 3 days ago (2 children)

Played Subnautica 1 and 2 and never went out of my way to kill creatures, but...

If they're committed to the no-kill rule, Subnautica 2 really needs a way to get aggressive creatures to fuck off for more than 10 seconds.

Some little bastards (looking at you, Sitaray) will just continually attack you or your submarine about every 5 seconds. You can throw a flare or bop them with your sonic resonator to stun them for a few seconds but if you have to do anything in the area it becomes extremely tedious having to stop everything to tell the shark to politely piss off again and again. They will stop at nothing, ignoring all prey species or the fact that your sub is inedible, just to whittle your ship's hp down

I'm not gonna mod the game to kill fish but some sort of sonic or electromagnetic deterrence field would be really nice.

[–] WhatDoYouMeanPodcast@hexbear.net 22 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (1 children)

That's strange to me

with devs Unknown Worlds having been clear that strong feelings have propelled them down that path. Yet, as they've also acknowledged, not every Sub 2 player will agree: cue a mod that makes creatures killable quickly springing up now the survival game's out in early access.

"Getting into Subnautica 2 for the first time and then realising they took away the ability to kill made me angry," modder Domelll wrote in the description of their Killable Creatures mod. "Why take away a feature so simple, especially when it's a sandbox survival game?

Reggie Fils-Aime, ex-president of Nintendo of America, stays unbeaten with the philosophy of "if it's not fun, then why bother?" If you have an ideological position you want to glorify, even for good reason, taking out a core mechanic from the genre and not replacing it doesn't sound fun. When I put communist societies in my magic college novel it's not like they're devoid of magic because the union is more powerful than any spell. No! They're part of the fantasy and involved in the geopolitics that influence the main character! It's fun to have them and their idiosyncracies on the page.

So if nonviolence is so important, maybe the animals are more than terminator-style hurtboxes like you are getting at. Maybe you can influence them to fuck off when they're curious or befriend them as you adapt. Give them cookies and they'll reward you. Make nonviolence feel good and replace the core mechanic of enemy-obstacles with something else

[–] Sanctus@anarchist.nexus 10 points 3 days ago (1 children)

All they had to do was play a little rain world and they would have had all the ideas they need for interacting with creatures in the environment in other ways that hurting. Though I hesitate even there because, its not unique or hard to think of. Do we even need an example? Why are all these comments mentioning just stunning? You can't feed them to pacify them at the very least?

[–] WhatDoYouMeanPodcast@hexbear.net 5 points 3 days ago (2 children)

I think it speaks to the genre more. A stun gun is simpler to imagine than a feed-satisfy gun, but one of them is necessary of enemies are what keeps you out of certain parts of the map as is typical of survival crafting games. A sequel to a big game with a moral point to prove is the most perfect place ever to rethink the genre and how to make a fun and engaging loop for animals that may be aggressive to humans and tech

[–] Sanctus@anarchist.nexus 5 points 3 days ago (1 children)

What is a feed-satisfy gun? Just put the food in the creatures mouth or by it. Rain World has a full ecosystem to interact with, and I feel if they wanted more ways to interact with the environment that has some clues. What if Leviathans actually like specific shells and would gladly accept one to become non-hostile, or maybe even friendly to that specific leviathan (not the whole species) by gifting it and seeking it our over again? Rain World does that, and just because one Scavenger likes you doesn't mean the next won't spear your face in with no warning. It just seems like theres a lot of other choices here rather than "we only set phasers to stun". Since admittedly it doesnt sound fun that I can only stun things periodically and now have to babysit and reapply every couple of seconds.

[–] WhatDoYouMeanPodcast@hexbear.net 2 points 3 days ago (1 children)

A feed-satisfy gun is my way of wording something that simply bypasses the need to shoot enemies to access areas by feeding them instead. So in terms of gameplay loop it is equivalent to shooting them so they despawn except it's just reskinned so as to remove the violence and its opposite would be a shoot-kill gun.

The rest I agree with you. I think it's an interesting idea. I would want some transformation of the gameplay loop so as to not simply reskin the violence and its place in a survival-craft game and instead integrate non-violence in a new fun way.

[–] Sanctus@anarchist.nexus 2 points 3 days ago

I used to have a better breakdown but I feel.like a system like this would fit nicely in subnautica. Mind you one person programmed this and made the art (and migrated engines 75% of the way through the game). So its definitely possible to do.
https://rainworld.miraheze.org/wiki/Behavior

With this system you could show your message. Make the Leviathians slow to mature, and reliant on their parents until they are grown. Killing them eventually breaks your gameplay loop as the sea becomes devoid of them. It would send your message pretty clear and be a clever game mechanic. If you want to keep progressing and not swim in empty waters you have to live with nature, not subjugate it.

[–] Damarcusart@hexbear.net 2 points 3 days ago (1 children)

I do like the idea of getting to feed them, sounds like a really fun gameplay mechanic, like needing to find specific items to craft food for an animal and needing to learn their habits and behaviour to figure out what they like and how to pacify them, but then that would require them to actually have habits and behaviour and not just behave like Goombas from the original Mario Bros and just head straight towards you with mindless aggression.

[–] buckykat@hexbear.net 1 points 3 days ago (1 children)

There was a creature in the original subnautica that would attack you occasionally but if you gave it a piece of metal scrap it would focus on playing with that instead of attacking you, and in its play would drop a rare crafting resource

[–] Damarcusart@hexbear.net 3 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Yeah, the stalkers, right? I hope there will be more of that in the second game, and other creatures like bone sharks would eat a fish out of your hand and leave you alone as well.

The devs shouldn't make it impossible to kill wildlife and then also give the player no options for dealing with them properly. I think that's why a lot of players want to murder everything. They're prevented from doing things because of these creatures and given no ability to do anything about them, and the default in video games is "murder" which is why people have made mods focused on that.

[–] buckykat@hexbear.net 3 points 3 days ago

Yeah, the stalkers.

So far from what I've played the stalker equivalent in S2 is much more aggressive and willing to come back for more bites. Even without the scrap, stalkers would leave you alone for a while after one bite.

[–] LENINSGHOSTFACEKILLA@hexbear.net 15 points 3 days ago (2 children)

I'm going to assume this is because the game is still in early access. I don't remember being that annoyed by anything in the first one, but I didn't play it until it was actually finished.

[–] fox@hexbear.net 13 points 3 days ago

There was an electrical deterrence ability you could use to shoo away beasts in Subnautica 1. And the stasis rifle of course.

[–] Frivolous_Beatnik@hexbear.net 10 points 3 days ago

I have to imagine it's mostly early access concerns. The game is still very fun but it's also equally unfinished - I expect they'll add some more viable creature deterrents as the development continues

[–] LeeeroooyJeeenkiiins@hexbear.net 25 points 4 days ago (2 children)

Real mindfuck knowing the devs ideological opposition to guns in subnautica and learning they're the same devs who made the Natural Selection mod and NS2 and it's all in the same universe with kharaa being the infection

[–] NephewAlphaBravo@hexbear.net 13 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (2 children)

i'd bet that the choice of an underwater setting was partly influenced by the fact that guns don't work underwater, you want a game about building/exploring with minimal shooting/fighting and you have a fantastic diagetic reason for that to happen

also i just noticed a funnily ironic parallel with NS and the kharaa's deep-sea inspired aesthetic for their buildings

[–] LeeeroooyJeeenkiiins@hexbear.net 12 points 3 days ago (2 children)

Yeah i dunno im Extremely Bothered by it, they're like "oops teehee your lil ol 3d printer just can't make weapons" like motherfucker if im stranded on planet with wildlife even a hundredth the size and hostility of what's in Subnautica 1 i'm making a weapon and it doesn't matter if the printer doesn't like it

[–] chgxvjh@hexbear.net 12 points 3 days ago

It's actually a cautionary tale about regulatory overreach (3D printed firearms bans)

[–] Damarcusart@hexbear.net 2 points 3 days ago

I think it worked in the first Subnautica, because everything is owned by a big megacorp and I could totally see a big megacorp hard coding into their 3D printers to not make guns in survival situations because it could cause bad PR if survivors shoot each other with an Alterra^TM^ Brand laser rifle.

[–] LENINSGHOSTFACEKILLA@hexbear.net 13 points 4 days ago

I had no idea it was the same team.

I played NS1 and loved it, but never got around to NS2 but I wanted it so bad

[–] BimboChristmas@hexbear.net 15 points 3 days ago (1 children)

I don't want to kill them, I just want them to get appropriately deterred when I whack them on the head with my survival tool. The animal aggression is still very wonky, but the devs have acknowledged that and are apparently working on a solution that doesn't involve killing. Sounds good to me.

Though it was a lot of fun the first time I cranked my Cyclops up to RAMMING SPEED and crashed a reaper leviathan.

[–] WokePalpatine@hexbear.net 10 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (2 children)

Haven't played it, but would be nice if they have behaviour that modifies over time. I'm guessing they're just as aggressive no matter what? If you're in an area it seems like they should get less aggressive over successive defensive things like stunning them, etc. Maybe they'd just leave at some point. I don't think wild animals here attack people indefinitely unless they're the ones who are trapped.

[–] BimboChristmas@hexbear.net 11 points 3 days ago

Yeah I just want to bonk them enough that they know I'm not worth hunting anymore. These are supposed to be hungry animals, not angry monsters.

[–] WokePalpatine@hexbear.net 7 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

This is part of a pattern I see in games where the way they depict all life that aren't human (and even a lot of humans) as basically just pests for the player to mow down because they can't or won't produce more interesting stuff for them to do. They're either just 2D birds as set dressing (fine) or some variant of the mosquito who drops food upon death. So even if the devs here have a different plan for them, they're still crafting them in the mold of "video game nuisance creature." Vs. like The Last Guardian where not once was I like "I wish I could kill Trico."

[–] Big@hexbear.net 12 points 3 days ago (1 children)

At least it didn't make them fuckable, knowing the mod communities

[–] comrade_pibb@hexbear.net 9 points 3 days ago

leviathan big boobs mod realistic nudity mod

[–] Des@hexbear.net 10 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

i was torn for the 1st game. (haven't got this one yet going to wait a few mos and play coop with my partner).

i love the idea of a pure science and exploration game. this is why i love things like kerbal space program and space engine. but the game wasn't about that. it was a battle for personal survival and to potentially save others. the science and exploration element was a side thing, sort of like when playing Cyberpunk 2077 and buying cars/dating Judy/being a merc vs trying to deal with the relic.

so of course my character would try to make actual, lethal defenses if possible against highly aggressive creatures (especially those fucking warpers). so eventually i got the blue-green laser mod, which would make sense i think as a sort of "weaponized tool". it wasn't particularly powerful and was more a deterrent, but i went hard against the warpers since they weren't actual native fauna.

so yeah, i think you should be able to at least have access to stun weapons/deterrents and i'm not sure if i like the idea that creatures are invincible. but then again i don't know the plot to Subnautica 2 and don't want to know yet

(also the first game teased you with a literal directed energy rifle sitting in an abandoned alien base and for some reason you just couldn't grab it. like, come on)

[–] meatcringe@hexbear.net 14 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Loved the first one but hated that people could kill the animals. At least it sounds like you can't in vanilla in this one?

[–] NephewAlphaBravo@hexbear.net 20 points 3 days ago (2 children)

you can cook and eat the small fish and crabs and stuff like in the first games, you just can't kill the leviathans

[–] LENINSGHOSTFACEKILLA@hexbear.net 12 points 3 days ago

those little blue and yellow fish were basically the only thing I ate in the entire game. So many of them around, just snag a shitload of them, cook em up and leave em in a box until hungry again

[–] meatcringe@hexbear.net 10 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Are there still nutrient blocks and fruit and such? I'm not always im-vegan in games but I found it to be a fun challenge in the first one.

[–] Frivolous_Beatnik@hexbear.net 14 points 3 days ago

The worldbuilding and ecology in this one is actually really interesting, and it makes a note that this world actually appears to have no plant life whatsoever - everything is some strange form of animal life, all the "plants" includes.

So I don't think it's technically possible to play vegan in this one sadly

[–] NephewAlphaBravo@hexbear.net 14 points 4 days ago

modding is a nonviolent solution tbf

[–] take_five_moments@hexbear.net 8 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

prob ignoring the sequel til it's out of EA, lost all the mystery from the first game following it though every phase of Early Access. might be a skill issue. arctic one was whatever played a couple hours of it wasn't really into it.

[–] DogThatWentGorp@hexbear.net 12 points 4 days ago

Wait they took stabbing and ramming my problems away? I kinda felt like finally crafting the things that let me do that was rewarding enough in the first games. Not like it was exactly safe to try and stab something in the mouth anyways.

[–] Goblinmancer@hexbear.net 8 points 3 days ago (1 children)

give the sea creatures so much hp it takes 10 IRL hours to kill one

[–] robotElder2@hexbear.net 9 points 3 days ago

Basically what they did in the first one. You could kill reaper leviathans i think, it just wasn't worthwhile to spend that long stunning it, hacking away with the survival knife, and restunning it. Either way im glad killing the animals is off the table. Hiding, running, and working around the leviathans is how the main gameplay loop creates and releases tension. I wouldn't place subnautica in the horror genre, but the leviathan encounters are structured just like a horror game chase scene and that is an essential part of what makes the game exciting. If its possible to kill them then those tense chases get replaced with boring ammo collection in the shallows until you can have a boring torpedo fight with a whale that can't shoot back.