Subnautica Below Zero Revisitied

 

By Rita Mariner 

For Rita's first review, Click Here.

 

 It's been awhile since I wrote about my gaming.  I am still playing both Subnautica and Subnautica Below Zero.  According to STEAM counter, I have over 11,000 played in Subnautica and closing in on 4300 hours, in Below Zero. How can I play both games, for so long and not get bored?  Simple, both games NEVER play the same way twice, in a row. Your starting point varies and stuff does get randomized.  The best thing is, you can chose to play the games, anyway you want.  For the most part it you search, discover things for yourself.

  Both games have 4 modes of play.  Freedom, where you only worry about health and air.  Survival, where you have to keep track of health, air, food and water. Hardcore, pretty much same as survival, but you only get one life.  You die, you lose everything and have to start over. Creative, you start out with everything, don't have to worry about anything, just play..

Two months ago they had a major update to Below Zero, fixed a lot of annoying bugs and added a new,Sea Truck Dock.  When you unlock the Moon Pool, you also get the new Sea Truck Dock. This allows you to now enter the dock, with your entire Sea Truck train. No need to detach any modules. It also has a built in vehicle control panel, allowing you to color and name your Sea Truck.  It also repairs and recharges the Sea Truck cab, while docked. You also get access to modules from the dock.  So it's very useful.

With the new Large Room addition, you can really get creative with your base building.  That is probably the nicest thing about the game. I put the Large Room out first, then build the rest of my base off of it.  Of course, you can build you base in any configuration you like.   

They also added a Control Room, you can add this to your base.  It was multiple functions, but the one most players like, you can color and name your base now, just like your Sea Truck and Prawn suit. I have seen some players color their bases in eye blinding colors.

As to the creatures in the game, some are retreads from the first game, but all the bigger ones are new and 90% of them think your on the menu. While most are just plain annoying, a couple can eat you in one gulp.  Even after 4300 hours, I still get unlucky, BITE!, SWALLOW! TASTY!

Regarding the alien in the game, I died laughing when I first heard his name. It's the same as my RL name, so I comment, "When I play this game, I am talking to myself."

Overall the game is beautiful to watch, they really did a great job on the environments.  It's easy to play, that helps a lot.  There is no real set path you need to follow, you go in your own direction and speed.  They give you prompts, but when you heed them is up to you. Plus the game is cheap and the music is awesome.

I can therefore highly recommend both Subnautica and Below Zero to play, if you want a good, relaxing time, mixed in with moments of horror. 

 

Images from Rita's steam account

Rita Mariner

Reader Submission: Moving About the Metaverse

 
By DrFran Babcock

INTRODUCTION

Greetings, everyone. Since I left Second Life for Philip Rosedale’s VR-inspired High Fidelity, I have not been around Second Life much. Sadly, High Fidelity, as a 3-D virtual world, died a little over two years ago. If you ask Philip Rosedale, co-creator of both Second Life and the subsequent High Fidelity, why this happened, he attributes much of it to the slow adoption of virtual reality hardware and some other reasons that have to do with how people choose to interact.

I love virtual worlds. I have never left virtual worlds since I left full-time Second Life in 2014, moving to the aforementioned High Fidelity. Since then, I have spent most of my time in Vircadia (the open-source world based on High Fidelity’s architecture), Sansar: The virtual world created by Linden Lab as the successor to Second Life; and even Horizon Worlds—Meta’s foray into virtual worlds.

What I plan to do, in writing a sporadic column for the Newser, is to share some news and tidbits from the rest of the Metaverse. It’s important to understand that my view of the Metaverse is colored much by the work of Tony Parisi and Avi-Bar Zeev. Thus, many worlds and One Metaverse.

Last, I want to thank Bixyl Shuftan and Gemma Cleanslate for nudging me back to writing again. I am in Second Life, but only for brief periods of time.

NEWS FROM SANSAR

It is sad to report that Sansar is on life support. At the time of this writing, all of the employees have been furloughed, and many have gone on to other jobs. They are still open, and are still filled with the most beautiful worlds bar none. The remaining community of about 50 avatars are fiercely loyal, and continue to function as if things are without problems.

I would recommend that you go in there, and look around, because I fear that it might evaporate. Sansar was sold to Wookey Technologies a while ago, and at that point, all communication with the owners ceased. There were no more Product Update meetings, and each time the Umbra License (a tool that helps the graphics to run better)  was not repurchased it took a while for it to be repurchased. I believe, at this writing, that the license has lapsed.

It would be a tragedy if Sansar was lost, because I still believe it’s the best looking virtual world. It has drawbacks, chief among them that you cannot build collaboratively, but how many people know you can have 20 worlds completely free?

NEWS FROM HORIZON WORLDS

I was lucky (?) to score a closed Beta invite to Meta’s Horizon Worlds. I have no love for Facebook, but I was curious to see what they had to offer. I will discuss the positives and the negatives here:

Positive:

Building, while rudimentary, is easy, and you can do some creative and different things.

You can build in collaboration. It’s very cool to make your avatar huge, and look down on your build, manipulating objects as if they were a diorama.

The scripting language, proprietary, is visual. This means that hopeless coders like me can manage to script some life into the worlds I build. This is a big plus, in my opinion.

At present, the developers were accessible and willing to answer questions. Since they have opened Horizon Worlds to all USA and Canada adults, it seems to have change.

Negative:

Well, it’s Facebook/Meta, so they want our data.

The avatars have a lot of variety, but I want legs. Come on, Meta.

Children are running rampant in Horizon Worlds. I attended a scripting question and answer meeting, and children kept disrupting the meeting with profanities and racial slurs. The lone developer was unable to manage the number of trolls, and the session was ruined for me. If Meta wants their world to succeed, they will have to deal with this. I think it’s a problem of children “borrowing” their parents’ Quest 2s.

I will leave it at that, and promise more to come.

NEWS FROM VIRCADIA

This is the world where I spend most of my time. It is most definitely not for everyone, because it is not easy to download, easy to use, nor easy to create.

Vircadia is developed by a small, dedicated, committed, and productive group of content creators and residents. There is one event every night except Tuesday, and the folks in their Discord server are helpful, and not fatigued by answering the same questions over and over.

Currently, we are working on a live-action play based very loosely on A Christmas Carol, but with a dark satirical bent, and a focus on virtual worlds. It will take place on Tuesday, December 28, at 2PM Pacific Time.

IN CLOSING

I also attend other virtual worlds, and I am glad to talk about what I do, but I would love to hear from you. If this is content you want, let me know and I will continue to share what I see as I move about the Metaverse.
 
DrFran Babcock
 

Reader Submitted: Game Review - Subnautica: Below Zero

 
By Rita Mariner

I will be commenting on Unknown World's latest release, Subnautica: Below Zero. This video game has been in testing for two years.  I started playing it, on STEAM, in the experimental mode, at that time.  Since then the game has gone through several rewrites, primarily due to change in writers.

Below Zero still plays in the four basic  modes of the first game.  Survival, where you have to watch and manage your air, food, water and health. Freedom, where you only worry about air and health.  Hardcore, where you have to manage air, food, water, health and you get no PDA prompts reminding you, so if you die. YOUR DONE and have to start all over from scratch.  Then Creative, where you worry about nothing, you get everything at the beginning and you just poke around and do whatever you like. I would get bored in like two minutes.

In Below Zero, you play Robin Ayou, a female, Xenobiologist, who comes to Planet 4546B, to investigate the death of her sister Sam Ayou.  You aren't buying Alterra's story she died from negligence. While here you discover and get stuck in your head a rather annoying alien. So between investigating your sister's death, you now have to help an alien, so you can kick him out of your head.

Now for the good points of the game I have found.  The alien world is beautiful, lots of great detail, interesting new plants and creatures you get to investigate. The idea you are playing a female character, this time is a nice touch.  When you get a message to listen to, on the PDA, the face of the person talking will appear in your HUD, I like that. There are several references back to the first game, if you find them. Some of the plants and creatures you will encounter are brought over from the first game, but the bulk of the creatures and plants are all new and you will need to check them all out to see if they are useful, or not. One of the more interesting creatures, is the Sea Monkey, or Sea Thief! They look cute, but if you swim around them, with any of your tools out, it becomes THEIRS! You can swim after them and attempt to get it back.  

There are many bases and wrecks to explore and you will need to do that to collect all the blueprints you will need for the game. Make sure to make beacons to mark them, encase you need to return to any of them later.

Now for the parts of the game I wasn't to thrilled with.  One is right at the beginning.  Our character PLANNED to come to Planet 4546B. She knows where she is going is COLD! Yet the only item she brings with her is 3 bottles of water, 3 nutrient bars and a PDA?  She doesn't bring a full set of basic tools and a COLD SUIT! She is suppose to be this experienced xenobiologist, and planned this trip and brings NOTHING with her?  PLEASE!

The next thing they never explain is, why did ALTERRA leave the planet, no one from ALTERRA is there, period.  Also at the KOPPA MINING SITE, there are no habitats for an office, crew break room, power supply and storage.  Plus they have drillable chunks of Titanium, Copper, Ruby, Gold, Diamonds, Quartz, in the game, but no Lead or Lithium and you need a boatload of those two items, in this game. Since they changed most of the blueprint recipes around.

There are several new leviathans in the game, a couple you want to avoid at all costs, especially if your outside your Sea Truck or Prawn Suit, they can KILL You.  The Chelicarate and the Shadow Leviathan. Even then, they will put a serious hurt on your Sea Truck or Prawn Suit. Unless you have the Perimeter Defense Module for the Sea Truck.

Which brings me to the Sea Truck, I hate it! If All I had to do was haul stuff from point A to point B, it does okay.  Unfortunately, that's not all you need it to do.  You have to explore!  The Sea Truck is ill-suited for that job. It gets caught on everything, plants damage it,  hard to control and clumsy.  I have gotten to the point I explore the Sea Monkey Tunnels, near The Pilot's Last Reported Position, in my Prawn Suit.

Is Below Zero a bad game? No, it's playable and can be enjoyable, but it could have been so much better.

Rita Mariner
 

Reader Submitted: Subnautica Revisited

By Rita Mariner

I have played SUBNAUTICA now for one game shy of 6500 hours.  You might ask how can you play a game that much and it not get boring?  Simple, the game is never the same, each time you play it.  The developers mix things up, each time you start a new game.  While the basics stay the same, they do like to move some of the elements around to keep you guessing.

The game still has the four basic game modes of play. Survival, where you have to watch your food, water, air and health. Freedom, where you only have to watch your air and health, they figure your automatically watching your food and water.  Hardcore, where you have to watch your food, water, air and health, but you only get one life and if you die, you start over! Ouch.  Creative, you don't have to worry about anything, you get all blueprints from the start and build everything at no cost. Basically you ignore the storyline and just explore for fun.

Since I have been playing, there was a huge update to the game and they installed a new graphics engine, which is suppose to make the textures pop more.  It might have, but it also caused havoc with the game, tossing bugs in everywhere.  Which I constantly ran into and reported and they have seemed to have fixed most of them. I still run into new ones, or at least I think they are bugs. They might have changed the story slightly.  Who knows.

The best thing I love about the game, is building.  Make your builder tool, collect all the blueprints to all the base modules and elements and go to town.  What you can create, is limited only by your own imagination and how much time you willing to devote to collecting the resources needed to building your dream home.  I have come up with a design that works wonderfully for me. It does take several hours to collect the blueprints and then the resources to build it.  Followed by zipping around to various wrecks to loot them for collectibles, to decorate my base. There are toys, posters, lab gear, caps, dolls all waiting for you to discover, grab and put on display in your new base.

Then we have Time Capsules.  These little surprise gift packages are what other players leave behind, when they depart the planet in their escape rocket.  They can put in a few items, a picture and some comments who comes across it.  You never know what will be in the capsule.  Could be some good stuff, could be useless stuff, but to open one, you will need at least six open spots in your inventory.

There are also numerous different biomes in the game and each is unique.  Not only in how they look, but in the flora and fauna that dwells within.  I have also learned hat each of these biomes specializes in one or more resource.  For example.  The Jellyshroom Caverns, are brimming with Gold, Lithium and Magnetite, but not much else. Unless you count Crabsnake trying to eat you.  The Lost Tree Biome contains Nickel, Crystal Sulfur, Lead, Silver, Titanium, Copper, some Lithium, some Magnetite, but also a rather unfriendly Ghost Leviathan and a bunch of nasty River Prowlers and Blood Crawlers.

The last biome you need to tackle is the Lava Zone.  Here you need to go to collect Kyanite to finish construction on your vehicles to complete the game.  You you also run into WARPER Central, LAVA Lizards and the Sea Dragon.  If you remember the old saying, busier than a one legged man, at a butt-kicking contest.  This is the place it can happen, and it isn't fun. If they all gang up on you, RUN and try to fix your PRAWN Suit and heal yourself ASAP.  You will have no place to go otherwise.

The Thermal Plant is in the area, once you collect enough Kyanite, find the entrance on the mountain. Go through it to the Thermal Plant, get the needed date inside.  Make your up grades. Come back, then head to the Primary Alien Containment Faciltily a short walk away to meet the Sea Emperor, help her out. get the cure, turn off the cannon (important), then blast your booty off the planet.  Simple enough.  Not really, the last few items will take you about three hours, if you know what you're doing and if you have the resources to make the potion on hand, add a few more hours, if you don't.  Isn't Subnautica fun?  I love it!

Rita Mariner

Reader Submitted- Game Review: Super Animal Royale

By Aegis J. Hyena (Xymbers Slade)

Recently I saw a couple of my friends playing a game called Super Animal Royale and decided to try it out. It's a free game on Steam, in the genre of battle royale games. You take control of a little animal and wander about the map picking up weapons (a shotgun, machine gun, assault rifle, pistol, or magnum, with a desert eagle added in the most recent update) and go on to shoot the other 63 animals that are in the map along with you. Weapons are color coded for rarity, with higher rarities having faster reload times, rate of fire, and the like. There's three tiers of armor, which can be repaired by finding duct tape scattered about the map and in boxes, and you can even run over enemies in hamster balls although it has to be in a dead-on hit as far as I can see.

Matches are short and fast, so this game is excellent for killing some time with friends or just chilling out rather than being truly competitive (at least, as far as I can see). The "free" version is no different from the paid version (about $13) except you can actually equip clothes for a basic appearance -- there's no microtransactions to fast-track yourself to be better than someone else.

After each battle you gain "Animal DNA" that is used to unlock other appearances. You start with Fox, Bear, "Skullcat", Tiger, Cat, Dog and Songbird and there's more varieties every 5 levels (although I think you have to upgrade to the paid version to actually be able to use anything other than the beginning animals). No animal has advantages over another -- it's strictly an appearance choice.

Currently the matches are full of bots because the game is still getting off the ground. Lobbies before a match can hold 64 people, and if there are less than that in a lobby it populates with bots (I've seen as many as 26 people in one lobby before). You can play solo, or duo with another player; only the paid version can invite friends, if I remember right. The devs have said they'll unlock squads fully where four players can play together once more people start playing and the lobbies fill.

As of this writing, squads are open for the weekend in an attempt to drum up some interest.

If you upgrade from the free version to the paid version everything you've earned as drops for appearance editing carries over.

I like it for its cutesy style. It's a refreshing change from all the realistic gritty battle royales out there like Apex or PUBG, and I think it has the potential to be a real gem if the devs (who are active in their discord) approach it right. The community also isn't as toxic as most of the other battle royales I've seen (well, yet... this is the internet after all). I'm going to give it four dragon hoards out of five here, if only because I can't tell if it's a mobile game ported to Steam or not. It looks simplistic enough to be a mobile game, and I'm no fan of mobile games.

Addition: Aegis would later say,  "I've learned it's not a port, but I'm keeping it at four out of five to give 'room for improvement'." He would also say the four-person squad option was closing later today, so it'll be limited to solo play and two-man teams.

Aegis J. Hyena

Reader Submitted: Subnautica Below Zero, Part Two

By Rita Mariner

To read the first review, click here (link).

Subnautica Below Zero has been out now since the end of January and is already causing quite a stir in the gaming community.  I have already logged over 200 hours in an Early Access game, with about 2 hours of prepared game play,  What I did, since I am running mine through STEAM, is log into the experimental option. 

In the experimental option, there are daily micro updates to the game.  Some are obvious, others are simple bug fixes.  Some of the things they have added are, without having to use Console Control 'cheats', as I call them. You have a battery charger!  I guess enough players yelled and screamed, they finally added it, along with the power cel charger.

You now have the Sea Truck, along with three out of the five planned modules for it.  Fabricator, Aquarium and Storage.  You still have to search for the fragments, for each item and it takes three fragments each, to acquire the needed blueprint. When I first saw the blueprint for the Sea Truck and what it would take to construct one, I thought the developers of the game had lost their collective minds.  After chatting with other players, I find I wasn't alone, in this opinion.  The Cab alone needs a Titanium Ingot (which you can now make) two glass, three lead and 'FIVE"  *repeat  "FIVE"  Advanced Wiring Kits! One Advanced Wiring Kit is a major investment in resources, They want "FIVE" for the Sea Truck Cab alone.  *faints* Plus the only place to get the needed Table Coral is in the Twisty Bridges area aka DEATH VALLEY!  So nicknamed by me for the abnormal number of Crashfish and Brutesharks there waiting for you.

They have finished the DEEP Twisty Bridges area.  There you can find the fragments for two of the Sea Truck modules, also some Sea Truck cab too. Plus if your extra special, you can meet the Squidshark, who will enjoy sucking a bunch of your health off you.  The other nasty down there isn't as obvious, the Spikey Plant.  I lies in wait to ambush you if get to close.  Shooting a tendril out to grab you and drag you inside to "EAT' you.  You do need to traverse the area too anyways.  Way too many valuable and needed resources down there to ignore.  I built a scanner setup down in the Twisty Bridges, just to help me find the stuff easier, plus most important QUICKER!

They have also redesigned the Cargo Rocket Island, which I approve of.  They also fixed a few annoying bugs there.  You can find a boatload of resources too around the waters of the island.  It is known as the Thermal Spires biome..  You can meet the Rock Puncher and the old favorite Mr. Bone Shark. As to the Cargo Rocket, the first one is on Alterra, but needs repair.  After that, you need to construct any new Exchanger Rockets (two titanium). You will also find a base up there, make sure to scan 'everything' inside that you can.  That is where you will get the bulk of your blueprints to build your base.

I found three other bases in the game so far just swimming around. Two have items you need to send to the Vesper.  The third one is under construction, but I did leave a beacon marking it's location, plus I got to see the new Snow Stalker beastie.  The little one is soooooo cute.   I also got a few plants I can plant once they give us something to grow them in.

The reason for so many hours is simple, the game breaks, so you sometimes have to start over to get stuff to load and or work right.  Welcome to early access.  Just make sure to pass along any problems, bugs or ideas to the developers, via Feedback.  Next major update is early April.  Can't wait.  Bwahahahahaha!

Rita Mariner

Reader Submitted: Game Review - No Man's Sky

By Xymbers Slade/Aegis Hyena

It's been a long long time since I've written for the Newser (only reason I don't come back to Second Life is because "Why? I did what I wanted to do there" and I'm out of touch now anyway). I've been wanting to write this one for a long time for Bixyl, so here it is.

No Man's Sky has had its share of ups, downs, and zero-g moves that make the Titanic crashing about in a storm look like a mother rocking her baby to sleep. Pushed out far earlier than it should have, it met with fury from the fans, almost dropping to less than a 18% positive rating on Steam for quite some time. As I understand it, the investors knew it couldn't be done in time, pushed the company, took the money and ran (probably to another planet).

The game was marketed as being all procedural. With over 18,000,000,000,000,000,000 planets, it marketed as everything being new and original. The problem is, is that it's a computer game. Computer games need assets. As I wrote in a steam review, "There's not enough assets on this planet (heh) to completely make it seem like the universe truly has random plants and animals on every planet."

On top of that (also copied word for word from my review), they took a concept and applied a synonym to it... while you might find an Abandoned Planet somewhere, you'll find the mostly the "same kind" of planet if you find one that is marked Airless, Dead, Desolate, Empty, Forsaken, Life-Incompatible, Lifeless, Low Atmosphere, or Terraforming Catastrophe -- one planet type, many descriptors to simulate depth even though it's the same bloody thing. Come on, devs, you can do better than that. Problem is it requires work time and money which most people don't have.

You start on a hostile world, having to find materials to power your Exosuit (Sodium, to be exact, as well as oxygen, dihydrogen, and carbon). You have a mining laser strapped to one arm, which can be upgraded over time if you find better models. You then proceed to find a crashed spaceship, repair it and take to the stars, exploring planets and warping from place to place, learning to manage inventory (the starter ship has very little room, as does your Exosuit and you need creative managing talents) while you piece together what's going on.

You start alone, and while there is a multiplayer function, I think it's more fun as singleplayer. Sometimes other players CAN warp into your system, and by default voice is activated, so you can communicate with the visitor for trade or PVP or whatever. I've only seen one visitor (because the universe is vast -- it's *that* rare that it happens) in my time playing and might soon jump into multiplayer and trade with whomever I randomly join.

The main storyline is something that revolves around something called Atlas, and the goal of the game seems to be to get to the center of the galaxy where you might be able to warp to a new one. As I selected "free explore" instead of going about on the main paths, I don't know a lot about it and have spent all 130 hours of my current game in my starting system, trading and shooting pirates.

There are three races in the universe: The Korvax (computer hivemind), the Gek (lizard-people) and the Vy'keen (reskinned Klingons). I haven't followed the lore enough to learn more about them.

As with any game of this large a scope, there are an unfortunate amount of bugs. There are more bugs in this game than there are lies coming out of most politicians these days. One bug is a "crate" bug, where you can't remove stuff (I find shutting down the game and coming back 15 minutes later wakes it up). This bug is almost 3 years old, so either the devs won't fix it, can't, or don't know how without breaking the game. Another bug is that locations you loot can only be looted once. If the game later assigns the location as a quest, the terminal is already looted and the quest can't complete. A third bug has quest "return locations" go to empty spots where there is no questgiver present to give the reward, so the quest has to be abandoned.

The opening questlines are very linear. You can't "hire randomly" -- you need to go to specific spots for specific races to join your base, wherever you decide to build it. If the quest requires you to make antimatter, and you find some elsewhere first to use it to warp to another system before you follow the steps / get the recipe for it in order to make it, it'll bug out and possibly lead to problems later.

Finally, and this thing bugs me, is that you can only have nine crates. These crates are twice your size, but only have five slots (a starting exosuit has about 25). If later you get a freighter, the crates you put there mimic the ones you have on the ground, sharing their inventories. What genius was responsible for that idea? This is the 9999th century up in space here. There should be planets that sell warehouse space!

The game is *very* pretty to look at if you're a casual kind of gamer, but like I wrote above, you'll run into repeats (especially locations) very early and very often. The grind especially in the early game will wear you down from a six foot long spear point to six inches of blunt shaft of wood, so be prepared to put in long hours. I like playing hardcore (one life, deleted save if you die) but after a few deaths on this game? Not here. The grind overpowers that of Minecraft's grind for iron and diamonds by a factor of about sixteen.

Overall, the devs got pushed too hard too fast, paid for it, TRIED to rebound (18% positive to 80% positive as of two or so weeks ago, it's back down to about 50% now) and are at least TRYING to come through on their promises. It's still not worth the $60 asking price, so I say get it if it's on sale as an impulse buy. It gets three dragon hoards out of five from me, because at least they're trying and will continue to try.

Aegis

Editor's note: When I wrote about the problems of "No Man's Sky" in Sept 2016, it looked like the game's days were numbered. It seems it's been sticking around due to enough people continuing to buy, the developers determined to redeem themselves, or something of both.

Reader Submitted: Game Review - Subnautica Below Zero

By Rita Mariner

After becoming seriously hooked on the original game of Subnautica, Unknown Worlds, is in process of developing a follow up called, Subnautica Below Zero.  The game is now out in 'early access', which means you can play it, but it is incomplete, buggy, and some stuff doesn't work. But that just means they want you to give it a whirl and provide them feedback to fix the issues and ideas for the storyline.

The game takes place on the same planet, 4546B, but in the frozen north and at a time after the crash of the Aurora.  While they have kept much of the flavor of the original game, there are some different twists and turns to the new game.  Some of the recipes to build items have changed.  Some of the old nasties are still there and they have added some new critters to study, or eat, if you play in Survival or Hardcore mode.

There are also new a different area to explore with many new and different flora to see.  Unfortunately, this being early access, almost none of it can be scanned. The types of resources available to you has changed some too, during this early access.  I can only hope they will fix some of this, during one of the regular updates, or in full release.

As to vehicles, so far, all we get are the Seaglide and if you find the Dropbox, a Hoverpad Databox, which will allow you to build the Snow Fox, hover bike.  The one drawback for the Snow Fox, it only works on land, it doesn't work on water.  So you have to be careful where you construct the hover pad.

I hear that the Cyclops and Seamoth will not be in the new game.  The PRAWN SUIT will be however.  As for a replacement submarine, I hear they are kicking around the idea of a Sea Truck.  A modular type sub,  The Cab, with different modules you can attach to it, like a train, at reduced speed and performance, but with upgrades can fix some of that.

Some of the tools and base pieces that you use to build in the original game, you don't in this version.  They are Dropboxed to you, or they are not included yet. One piece that is missing, that is driving all of the players out of our freaking minds.  NO BATTERY CHARGER!  You burn thru so many batteries in Subnautica Below Zero, it isn't funny and without a charger, you have to keep making new ones, which gets to be a PITA! It looks like there will be some new base pieces for us to construct, but of this release, they are not available yet and will probably require Titanium Ingots, which we can't make yet..

I finally got to see how a Grav Trap works, so for those players in Hardcore, Survival mode, it makes collecting dinner or water, much easier..  Who knew?  (laughing out loud!) Just hope they fix the game about certain items, before you eat, drink or harvest yourself out of existence. 

I understand they will do major updates about every 6-8 weeks, maybe minor updates more often.  Full finished version isn't due for at least a year and everything we do now is probably subject to change, so no fear of the game getting old, or stale.  So for the two hours of fairly completed game, I think it's worth the $20, I put down, knowing it has just scratched the surface and you can still explore beyond what they have semi-officially completed.  Have fun getting your feet wet and seeing new and interesting areas and critters.

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(Click here if the video fails to play)

Rita Mariner

Reader Submitted: Game Review - Farm Simulator 17

by Rita Mariner

Have you ever wanted to be a farmer?  Well in real life, I had several relatives who were, so playing this new addiction, was like coming home for me.  I saw a couple of my Second Life friends playing this on line video game and finally decided to check it out, on Steam.  Farm Simulator 17 ( it is up to 19 now).  I started to play and once you figure it out, can be quite addicting.

First off the game does have a bit of a learning curve and the game tutorials suck, so don't waste your time with them.  Go up on You Tube and watch actual videos done by actual players and see how they play the game.  It will save you a lot of screaming and pulling out of fur.  Trust me!

You can play the game, either as a single player, or in multi-player, your choice, You also get a choice of maps to pick from to play on.  I have only done Goldcrest, so I have no idea what the others have to offer.  You can grow crops of 10 different types, raise livestock or doing logging, depending on the farm you pick.

You start out with a basic set of farm equipment, I have three tractors, cultivator, sower, harvester, pickup truck, tipper, a house you can't use. a silo and some sheds and out buildings. You also start out in debt, $55,000.  Each day at midnight, you are hit with vehicle maintenance, land maintenance and debt maintenance, so you better start earning some money off your 3 fields right away.

Fortunately, crops grow fast and they start you off with your first set of seeds and fertilizer, as part of your setup.  You get to pick what crops you can grow, based on the equipment you have available.  You can't grow all the crops available, some require specialize and expensive equipment.

Now if you decide to start off on Goldcrest map, there is an interesting feature to that map.  100 Gold Nuggets!  If you find all 100 Gold Nuggets, the game will credits you with 1 Million in game dollars.  To help you out, you only have to find the first 10, once you stumble across them, which really isn't all that hard.  The first one is in your Chicken Coop.  The other 90 will pop up on the map and you just have to move to them to collect them.  Most are fairly easy to collect.  Others are more difficult, you will need one of your tractors, so you will have a means to climb up to get to the roofs of several of the buildings where the nuggets resided.

How you spend you Million Dollars, once you get is pretty much up to you.  I spent mine, paying off my debt and then buying all the Baling equipment I would need. Also picked up a 4th field and added a couple of upgrades to my land, to boost my income.  Like Bee houses and Solar panels.

You will find as you play,  you will have a lot of work to do, more than you would like, but the game has provided you with an assist, or Helpers.  Remember this though, the Helpers are dumber than a box of rocks.  So they can handle only the simplest of tasks.  Plowing, Cultivating, Sowing, Harvesting anything else and they look at you funny. Also they are easily blocked by anything and can't figure a way around it.  So you will have to do many tasks yet, yourself. As well as, bailing out helpers that get blocked.  The one advantage Helpers have over you.  They can work in the dark!

As you play, you will unlock achievements, I have completed about half of mine, going broke is one I doubt I will make, since I always have a positive bank balance.

Plus to make extra cash, in between harvesting your stuff, you can look at the map and see what other fields around you need work and hire yourself out to them for money..  Now these other job are time time sensitive, so you need to complete them within the required time, which usually isn't that hard.  I usually get them done ahead of time.  I not only get the regular payment, I get a time bonus.  Also the more you work a field around you, if and when you decide to buy it, the cheaper it is.

So if you looking for a game that is relatively slow paced, yet has some challenge to it, Farm Simulator 17 or 19 might fit your bill.  It's a nice way to spend a couple hours, racing around a field at 6mph!

Rita Mariner

Reader Submitted: Game Review - World of Tanks

By Rita Mariner

I first got introduced to on line video gaming, with World of Tanks.  I have always loved tanks, ever since I was a cub. So here was a game made to order for me.  I downloaded the game, which you can play for free.  Ran through the tutorials and then proceeded to play my first tier one tanks..

Now the tanks are divided into various nations and then into various tiers, from I to X. Each tier getting more and more powerful, and expensive, in XP and credits needed to get it.  Each nation is usually divided into subgroups as well.  Light Tanks, Medium Tanks, Heavy Tanks, Tank Destroyers and Self-Propelled Guns (artillery).

Teams are made up a mixture of these tanks that total 15 tanks/SPGs to a side.  Object is to kill all enemy tanks or capture the enemy base.  There are a few different variations of this scenario, but they usually end up the same way,  players usually don't play as they should.

Wargaming has put in many patches to World of Tanks.  Many of which are in my opinion, stupid.  They have buffed already hard to kill tanks to the point, that unless you are willing to actually dip into your pocket and BUY Gold ammo, you will not be able to damage some enemy tanks, meanwhile they have no problem, blowing the turret off of you.

My biggest issue with Wargaming was when they bent to pressure and nerfed the SPGs to death.  They took away our penetration, damage, they said they gave us stun damage, which means nothing, reduced our reload time 10%.  Our reloads are so long now a couple seconds is nothing. Improved our accuracy.  Not by me, I hit less now.   I had one battle I fired at one tank five times, didn't hit it once.  In another battle, I hit a tank seven times and only knocked it's Hit Points down 40%.  If I had not been nerfed, two hits and the tank would have been scrap.  The real kick in the teeth after this was they kept the cost in XP and silver the same to buy the SPGs, which were, at best , 40% of what they use to be.

Now they keep adding new tanks and nations to the game, which was a nice touch, until you start to play them and find the lower tier tanks of the  tree, aren't all that great and it is a pain to play them.  Play them you must, to grind your way through, to earn enough XP and credits to unlock all the modules and finally the next tank in the tier.  Only then do you find, it too is a piece of c**p!  You repeat the process again and again, until you reach a high enough tier, that the tanks no longer sucks too badly.

When I first started the game, the only real issue I had were the Russian Tanks and their Stalinium armor.  They seemed immune to hits.  Which for a real Russian tank was impossible, they were junk, until you realize, the game was designed and is headquartered, in RUSSIA! Do'uh!  Once I got that bit of trivia through my head, I just got down to trying to kill whatever got in front of me, or die trying.

So for the next four years I played constantly, all day long, happily pouring real money into the game, to speed along my advancement and to buy the occasional premium tank.  It was the after they destroyed my artillery and added so many new, nearly impossible to kill new tanks into the game.  Almost making it a Pay to Play/Win game, I lost interest.  I still occasionally will fire up the game and play a couple hours, here and there.  Nothing like I used to play however.  Also I absolutely refuse to spend one more dime on the game, until they fix it, back to they way it was, which means probably never!  Oh well.

Rita Mariner

Editors Note:  Having played a number of Russian tanks in the game, as well as against them, it seems the easiest way to blow one up is to drive it into battle yourself.

Reader Submitted: Game Review - Subnautica, Part Seven

By Rita Mariner

(Part of Rita's series of reader-submitted articles on the Subnautica survival game, continued from Part Six) 

Alright, you have made it the Alien Thermal Power Plant, after being chased and harassed by Warpers, Lava Lizards, Lava Larve  and the Sea Dragon, breathing fireballs on you, maybe even trying to bite and take a chunk out of you.  Once inside the power plant, it is safe to exit your Prawn suit, it has normal air and pressure. You will see a huge pile of ION Cubes, so go ahead drill the heck out it.  Hopefully you will space left in storage.  Then around the corner you will find a force field.  You will need a Purple Tablet to open it. Inside you will find a new tablet, the BLUE TABLET!  Make sure you scan it, before you pick it up, VERY IMPORTANT!  You can use one of the ION Cubes to activate TP Arch located nearby.  The head down the ramps to the actual power plant.  Here you will find a single ION cube, a Data Terminal and another force field.  A second Purple Tablet will be needed to access the room.

Inside you will find the actual power generators.  Scan the plant and then get the info from the Data Terminal.  It will tell you where to look for the last Alien Facility you will need to access.  Also very important, go up the ramp to the GOLD Data Terminal.  Here you will get the blueprints for making ION Powered batteries and power cels.  These new batteries carry five times the energy as your standard batteries and cells.   Now you have looted the power plant.  Head back up to the TP Arch you activated and walk into it.  The arch will take you to the Alien Enforcement Facility, the island with the huge space cannon on it. Walk over the alien moon pool and then pull out of the Prawn storage a good supply of Kyanite and ION Cubes. Also make sure you grab the Prawn Suit Depth Module Mk1.  You will now need to upgrade it to Prawn Suit Depth Module Mk2, since you now have the Kyanite to do so. This will give you a new depth of 1700m, even though the last Facility is roughly 1500m down.

Once you have all you can carry back, grab your Seaglide and head back to home base.  There you will need to upgrade the depth module, make new ION Power Cels for. the Prawn Suit.  Thermal Power Generator for the Prawn Suit, as well. Make sure to empty out your inventory of all th goodies you collected.  Now every important, also a Spoiler, you will need to make a second BLUE TABLET, you will need two of them.  Also make sure you have a couple of Beacons with you. They aren't game enders if you don't, but they make finding spots a whole lot easier.  Now head back to the Alien Enforcement Island, with your Seamoth.  You can find it again, by just looking for your Prawn Suit beacon. Park your Seamoth in the alien moonpool, then empty the balance of the Prawn Suit storage into your Seamoth. Now you can replace the Prawn Suit epth Module and you now can go to 1700m with it.  Replace the old power cells with the new and improved ION Power Cells.  You will also need to remove one of the Prawn Suit storage modules now to add the Thermal Power Generator Module, if you made one.  Once you have upgraded your Prawn suit and moved all it's cargo, into the Seamoth, your ready to head back.

Step back into the TP arch and it will return you the power plant. Now just jump back to the opening in the terrain, you came out of and try to land on the lava bridge you walked in on.  Now Lava Lizards inhabit the caves and surrounding area and they love to damage your Prawn suit, so again make sure you pop out once in awhile and patch it up.  If you collect Alien Creature Eggs, this cave is where you will find the ones for the Lava Lizard.  Once you reach the green archway again.  Just jump down the ground and start walking W.  You will see and overhang of lava just walk under it and keep going.  If you see any Silver nodes on your trip, drill them, you are going to need lots of Silver.If you follow the path around to a small cliff, hop on it and keep walking forward.  Soon you will come to a huge depression in the ground and across from you a large opening..

Using your Jump Jets, head for that opening, you don't need to keep the button down on your jets, use spurts and you will hit the opening. Once through the opening the mysterious image and voice will appear again,  If you time your flight just right you will land on the hardened lava.  In front of you, there is the last place you need to go, the Alien Containment Facility.  Jump over it ASAP.  Lots of nasties still around and you don't want to get turned in Warper or Sea Dragon Chow. now that your sooooo close.  You will see the opening dead center of the building so just get there and walk in.  There is a force field there, you open it with one of the BLUE TABLETS. 

Once it is down, walk up to the large center room and you will see a ION Cube fabricator there, so you can drill ION Cubes to your hearts content, but you only get three at a time.  So in-between making more, move around the room and scan everything.  Also grab some of the ION Cubes you drill, as you do, you will need them.  There are many Alien Artifacts to scan and six archways.  Four of them are TP rooms and you want to use the ION cubes to activate them.  One of the archways goes to an Alien Egg Archive, with Data Terminal. the last archway leads to a pump room,there are pipes to scan along with the Data Terminal. 

Going up the ramp to the platform, you will find another Data Terminal and if you walk behind the wall, you will find a preserved Sea Emperor Fetus. along with data about Enzyme 42..  Once you have investigated and scanned everything in the main room and side rooms, there is one last force field, this is where you need the second BLUE TABLET. Fill up your inventory with all the ION Cubes you can carry and then walk down the hallway to the aquarium.  Leave the Prawn Suit here, you will be coming back.  Dive into the water and face the mysterious Sea Empress.  She will chat with you, via telepathy..  Once she leaves, you can swim down and investigate the aquarium.

You will finally come across an alien platform, with five eggs on it, both can be scanned. You then activate the platform, with an ION Cube.  The Sea empress will them direct you to another archway, which she clears for you.  Watch your air, you can top it off down there by parking yourself over a Brain Coral, there is one next to the Incubator.  Once you scan the the new archway and activate it with another ION Cube, the Sea Empress will give you the secret Hatching Enzyme blueprints.  You then swim through the archway and it leads to an underwater TP arch, close to the moon pool, where you parked your Seamoth.  Here you drop on of your beacons, so you can find the archway again. Now head up to your Seamoth and head back to home base.

If you have been collecting plants along the way, you may have the five items you need to make the Hatching Enzyme.  If you haven't, the four TP arches, inside the Containment Facility, will lead you to four of them.  The Sea Crown, which is very rare.  You can find one located, in a cave, in the Aquarium.  Make the Hatching Enzyme and then insert it into the Incubator.  You can watch the juvenile Sea Emperors hatch and then scan one.  After a bit they will start to eject balls of Enzyme 42.  All you need to do is touch one and you will be CURED! If you remove your suit gloves, you can watch it work.  Once you have been cured, the Warpers should now leave you alone, you're no longer infected. The other nasties don't care, they will still try to eat you.

After getting cured, head up to the Space Cannon and you can now disable it.  Then you can return to the Containment Facility to drill ION Cubes and fill up your inventory.  If your interested you can go outside the facility to scan some of the stuff there, some fish, and the buildings outside.  If you still need more Kyanite, there will be a few nodes outside. Once you have everything you need, time to head home.  I walk my Prawn Suit out the arch, just to the left of the entrance to the aquarium.  This should lead to one of the Mushroom Forest,at about 240m down.  you can easily walk home from there.  To make your new ION Batteries and Power Cells, you will need one ION Cube, one silver and one gold, per battery.  So to power the Cyclops with all six ION Power Cells, you will need 12 ION Cubes, 12 gold, 12 silver and 6 silicon rubber.  You will need two ION Power Cells just for your escape rocket. and 6 ION Batteries for all your tools.  So you will need a heck of a lot of ION Cubes, Gold and Silver. That is why I bring my Prawn Suit home, since I can now go out find the large nodes of Lithium, Gold, Silver, Copper and drill the heck out of it.

Now to complete the game, you can build the escape rocket and the Cyclops.  You need the Cyclops Fabricator, on board to make a item.  Hopefully you will have found the blueprint for it, or you will be delayed, while you search for it.  Upon completion of the rocket, you will need a photo, a six items to put into a Time Capsule on board.  I put in useful stuff, but you can place anything in it, including junk.  I rarely got a good Time Capsule.  Once you have switched everything on the rocket on.  Time to get off the rock.  Just press go and sit back and watch the light show.

 You have now almost completed the game, Alterra will ask you for something,  before they let you land.  *Grins*

Now your done.  Hope if you play the game, you enjoy it as much as I do.  I still play it and it does change some each play through.

Rita Mariner

Reader Submitted: Game Review - Subnautica, Part Six

By Rita Mariner

(Part of Rita's series of reader-submitted articles on the Subnautica survival game, continued from Part Five)

Now that you have visited the Lost River, gathered the needed resources and laid a trail of beacons to follow.  You nearly ready to head down into the LAVA ZONE.  That is where you will find and mine the last resource you need to complete the game. Kyanite, a blue crystal.

Now some folks like to use the Cyclops to carry the Prawn suit down to the Lava Zone, which is fine, but it requires extra steps.  You will need to make at least one extra set of Power Cels for the Cyclops, plus you will need to haul down the materials and resources to construct a Power Cel Recharging Station, near the Cove Tree.  This is because the Cyclops goes thru Power Cels, like a pack of kids on candy, at Halloween. also make double sure both the Cyclops and Prawn suit can handle 1300m depth, that would be the Mk1 Depth Module on the Prawn suit and Mk2 Depth Module for the Cyclops.

Personally I skip taking the Cyclops down there, since I find it too big, slow and clumsy to control down there.  Mine just seems to have a a BIG KICK ME, EAT ME sign plastered all over it.  You still need to build one however, so you can construct one at anytime.  As for me I find it much easier to take my Prawn suit, on a one-way trip to complete the game at this point, but it's what you prefer.

I put the Mk1 depth Module and Jump Jets Module on my Prawn Suit, along with 2 Storage modules. Carry along one extra set of Power Cells, one extra battery, plus making sure I have the following tools at 100% on power. Seaglide, Repair Tool, Scanner and your knife.  Builder Tool, Laser Cutter, Flashlight will not be needed. I have the Drill Arm on the Prawn Suit, you can make a Grappling Arm attachment, but you don't need it for most of the trip.  You can just carry it along, encase. Carry along a lot of Med Packs, I carry six.

 Now that your ready to dive into the depths, turn on all the beacons you laid at the Lost River, including the Entrance and head off.  I usually find the entrance near the ancient Skeleton and head down that one.  You will run into a few nasties, so keep your wits about you and get to the Lost River asap. Once you reach the Lost River, just follow it, the Green Brine will not harm the Prawn Suit. If you still need some Crystal Sulfur, you can pick up some as you walk along the river bed, that's why you don't want the Grappling Arm just now, this allows you to pickup items.

You will have to cross the area, with the Ghost leviathan in your sub or suit, silent Running and shield works here, on the sub.  A good right cross with the Prawn Suit, works too. Work your way down past the Leviathan skeleton and down to the Cove Tree.  If your in the Cyclops, use your power Station  to recharge your Power Cels. If your using the Prawn Suit, you can continue to march towards to the Lava Zone entrance, or stop a bit and pickup some more Nickel, if you need some.

Once you reach the entrance to the Lava Zone, it's watch out for Warpers, Lava Lizards and Lava Larva.  Warpers mainly want you.  Lava Lizards just attack you cause your there.  Lava Larva are like the mynoks, from Star Wars, they just attach themselves to you and suck out your power! Just head down the gap in the rocks and after 5-10 minutes, you should start to see light blue crystal nodes. That's Kyanite.  Now all the nasties are down here and will be interrupting your drilling operations.  Keep your Prawn suit repaired, wouldn't due to lose it now, your too far away to escape.  Also keep the Lava Larva off your Prawn Suit, so if you notice one, when you get the chance, pop out and scrap it off, with your knife.  You can scan it also.  Move the inventory from the Prawn suit, into your own, at this time as well.  It will take drilling several nodes of Kyanite to get enough. You need Kyanite for the Escape Rocket, as wll as making the last Depth Modules for both the Cyclops and Prawn Suit, as well as the Thermal Power Generators for both the Cyclops and Prawn Suit.

Once you have collected sufficient Kyanite and survived, time to head to the Lava Castle, and find the entrance to the Thermal Power Plant  The Lava Castle is in the center of the Lave Zone and looks like a huge haunted castle.  The entrance is up on the side and marked by a lava waterfall.  I use the GPS (-75, 5) to get me close then I just look for it,  The archway is GREEN!  Enter the archway and repair your Prawn suit, if needed. The walk down the tunnel, until you reach the end.  You will see the Thermal Power Plant.  Here you walk along the wall, until you can see the lite-up entrance to the Power Plant above you.  I just line up with the entrance and use my Jump Jets to get me inside.  You may need the Grappling Arm if you aren't sure you can hit the opening with just your  Jump Jets.  I have done it enough, I can hit it first time.

Enough for now. next one, looting the Alien Thermal Power Plant and the Primary Alien Containment Facility.

To be continued

Rita Mariner

Reader Submitted: Game Review - Subnautica, Part Five

By Rita Mariner

(Continued from Part Four)

Once you have located the Lost River, you will want to start exploring it and looting it for more resources that you will need.  Crystaline Sulphur is one of the resources you will need, but it is hard and dangerous to get.  It is located, UNDER, the green, acidic brine of the Lost River..  What I have done is pack alot of med packs with me, then dive the Seamoth under the brine, until I spot the sulphur chunk.  I will then bring the sub up and over the chunk, pointing the nose at the area.  I then hop out, repair the Seamoth, since it will have taken damage.  The once you spot the chunk, use your Seaglide, swim down grab the chunk and get out ASAP.  You may or may not get more than 1 piece per med pack.  Don't go for any chunks that are deep. If you have the reinforced dive suit, you will take less damage, but it will still burn!

You will also want to keep an eye out for nasties, while your there.  The Ghost Rays are harmless, but there are other ones that will take a bite out of you and your sub.  There is also one section in the Lost River that a Ghost Leviathan inhabits, consider yourself lucky, if it doesn't see you, otherwise it will  take a serious bite out of your Seamoth.  Don't hang around that area, cruise thru it as fast and low as you can.  If you take the left turn, you will come across a set of 3 green brine waterfalls, falling from the roof of the cavern, near another huge skeleton head.  If you scan to the right, you will see some alien structures.  You will want to investigate.  There is a huge opening on the side of the building, if you look for it.  Entering it, you will need a Purple Tablet to access a Data Terminal.  Otherwise there is a ton of stuff to scan and 3 ION Cubes to collect.

Once I have finished with the building I head over to the skeleton head, scan it and leave a beacon.  If you look around, you will see something very special.  It's a huge tree and very colorful., this is the Cove Tree and is the rarest plant on the planet.  Only one exists and it is where Ghost Leviathans lay their eggs.  Yet this area is the safest place on the river.  You will also see the river has changed from green to pale blue.  This water is harmless, so you can dive it without worry, which is good.  This area is where you primarily find the next resource you need, Nickel Ore.  Both Crystal Sulphur and Nickel Ore are sort of scarce, but you need them, so collect what you can find.  There are also lots of Rubies down there, you can collect, if you need more.  Rubies are used to make Aerogel, along with boosting Depth Modules.

Once I have marked the route to the Cove Tree, if you go on a bit more and look down, you will see your access to the Lava Zone.  That is where you will need to go to get your last resource, along with finding and accessing the last two Alien Facilities.  You can't do it with the Seamoth, you will need something that can go down to 1300m to start and the Seamoth maxes out at 900m.  You can get both the Cyclops and PRAWN Suit to 1300m with the resources you can access, to go deeper and also make a few of the additional modules, you will need the last resource located, in the Lava Zone. Kyanite!

You can now return to your base, by backtracking the river, following the beacons you laid.  Make the necessary modules you will need with this need resources you have acquired, provided you have found the blueprints.  Be careful to keep an eye out for Warpers and Crabsquids since they inhabit the area, sometimes more than others. Next part will cover what I do to prepare and locate the last alien facilities.

Rita Mariner

Reader Submitted: Game Review - Subnautica, Part Four

By Rita Mariner

(Continued from Part Three)

Now that you have risked life and limb, as well as death from radiation poisoning or fire. You can collect the needed resources to build your PRAWN suit.  Initially it can go down to 900m without any special mods, but the first depth mod will get it to 1300m.  You make that in the Vehicle Modification Station, you put in your Moon Pool.  If you don't have either one of those yet, your slacking off.  You can find Moon Pool fragments in the Mushroom Forest, when you go to check out the Lifepod of the religious guy, whose body your suppose to claim, he's dead.  They're all dead, Dave!  You can also find other vehicle and equipment fragments in the Mushroom Forest, while your there.  All depends on how much time you want to spend looking.

Hopefully you have discovered and looted the first Degasi base on the floating island. That gives you most of the Habitat structures you need to get started on your base. Next stop will be Degasi Seabase 2, you will find this in the Jellyshroom Cavern, near Lifepod 17. You will need the first depth mod for the Seamoth, or you can't do the trip, the cavern is at 250m or more.  There are several platforms, with cargo pods and or lights, the first one has a PDA with the location to the second base.  Once you pick it up, the beacon on the base activates and you now know where it is and you can move towards it.  The cavern is full of Crabsnakes and they love to chew on your sub and YOU! They hide inside the giant Jellyshrooms.  There is also a boatload of Shale chunks, full of diamonds and lithium all over, along with lots of loose Magnatite, a new resource, you will need, make sure you scan it.

Once you get to the base, swim around the exterior and scan all the loose items and plants you find there, before entering.  This base is covered in a nasty plant, called Drooping Stingers and if you hit them, they will hurt! So try hard not to touch them.  Inside you will find several PDAs, including one with the location to the last Degasi base at 500m.  There is also the Water Filtration machine, so if you playing in Survival mode, this will solve your fresh water issue, as well as generating salt for use in other fabrication. So it will be well worth you time to fill up your inventory down in the cavern and if you have extra storage on your Seamoth, fill them all up, with resources you find down in the cavern. 

Head back to your base, empty your inventory, and the sub's. Make the 500m or 900m depth upgrade for the Seamoth, if you can, you will need the Modification Station for this. if you don't have this item yet, you can't go the the last Degasi base and you will need to spend time now, looking for the 3 fragments you will need to get the blueprint, as well as gathering the resources to make it. Once you have the station and make the upgrades to the Seamoth, you will  really need the 900m depth upgrade for this to work, or it will be a short trip.

Check your beacon manager on your PDA and you can change the colors of any beacon you have listed to make it easier to see.  I usually make the ones I need to get to to Yellow, since that stands out the best.  You then head towards the one that shows the Degasi Deep Base (500m).  This base is guarded by both Warpers and Crabsquids.  Warpers can pull you from your sub and the habitat, so if they do, just swim away and stay out of their reach and make your way back.  Crabsquid uses an EMP blast to knock out power, but just for a few seconds.  This base is extremely important and is full of collectibles along with stuff you need, so you have to loot and scan it, both upper level, lab and lower level.  So make sure you keep yourself healed and each time you pop out for air and to dump loot into sub storage, repair the sub!

After you have cleared out the base, RUN AWAY!  If you head in the right direction, you will end up in the Lost River.  You can tell because you will start to see pools and streams of green brine. The green brine is very acidic so unless you have the reinforced dive suit, don't dive it, it will hurt you FAST!  It will hurt the sub too, but not as fast.  You should come across the skull of an ancient leviathan,  There are alien lights focused on it. If you follow them up to a ledge you will find a force field door.  If you found it in the base you just looted, you have the key to open it, I hope you scanned it first. You can open the force field, enter and gather the data, grab up more ion cubes, an egg and a bunch of stuff to scan.  Outside you can swim around and you might find a new resource, Nickle Ore, scan it first, then pick it up.  There won't be too many pieces there, but you can find a few.  There will be some rubies too.  If you have beacons with you, good idea to mark the Skelly.  Now you can continue to explore the Lost River or look for the exit which is just up and to the rear of the Skelly.  Make sure you beacon the entrance so you can find it again.  Also if you still have room in your inventory, grab some of the Blood Oil from the tall white vines you see and maybe Deep Shrooms if there are any there, you can grow them.  Enough for now,  Next trip is exploring the Lost River.

Rita Mariner