News and Commentary: More On InWorldz's Closing

By Bixyl Shuftan

InWorldz is gone.

Due to shut down on Friday July 27, the place began going down Thursday night as sims were shut down, and people packed their items away as the management stated they would try to save what could be through an OARS. On Friday, people could still log in at 2:30 PST, but soon after when yours truly was there, the last of the sims couldn't be acessed. From the chatter on Discord's InWorldz group, and the newly created InWorldz Disporia and Relay For Life of InWorldz, it looks like a few people were able to hang on for a while and even relog. but by Saturday July 28 at Noon, the last few people finally lost their grip as the place went completely offline.

There's a lot of sadness, confusion, and more than a little anger. And that's certainly to be expected. While HyperGrid Business reported about merchants in the virtual world being "concerned about perceived drop in users and commercial activity and worry that the grid owners are no longer committed to the success of the grid," the announcement on Monday hit people by surprise. "Why did she not have the funds to pay her bills?" As the co-founder of the place hasn't been around for over a year, he can't say. When another noted virtual world, Avination, went down, the reasons were the company's cash reserves being wiped out by thieves using stolen credit card numbers to buy virtual currency, and then a "catastrophic" data loss it couldn't afford to pay to fix. And this grid had a far smaller population, and numbers of private sims than InWorldz. How did a larger gird that escaped problems on this scale go under?

All we have to go on is Beth Reischl's explanation was that she took out a loan from a subsidiary of Paypal, of which she seemed to be saying she'd taken out loans before to cover development costs, and despite the money being available to pay them, for some reason the company declared "non-sufficient funds" and took out a lien against them. She stated when she called them to resolve the issue, the person she talked with was "very combative" in blaming her for the situation, and further attempts to resolve the situation were fruitless.

The Gofundme campaign Reischl started adds to the confusion. Started in an attempt to try to save the grid, once most of the money was raised, she stated that instead the money would be used to help make a new grid. Why the sudden change? Her words, "What then, what about next month?" was a suggestion the money troubles were pretty deep. The sudden change in the reasons for the Gofundme plus questions as to how the Grid could have found itself in need of a loan made for a lot of confused people, as well as a number of angry ones who suspected something fishy was going on.

Those whom were exclusively or mainly using InWorldz have a choice of where else to go. At least one, Mobius, is taking the moment to offer them a break if they move there.

To every resident of InWorldz,

We are sad to see InWorldz go, and you might need a new home so we at Mobius are offering to InWorldz Residents who want to make Mobius that when you order a region with the coupon code TTL31 you get the region 50% off for each month you have your region until you close it down. This offer ends 9/9/2018.

As Hypergrid Business stated, "for people looking for a closed, commercial grid" like InWorldz (or Second Life), which offer greater control over who can get in (such as griefers) and more power to protect content creators, there aren't that many options out there, "The three major closed grids are The Adult Grid, Virtual Highway, and DreamNation. There are also several educational grids that are closed, and some grids run by companies and other organizations that require privacy or control. Almost all other grids are hypergrid-enabled. As of May, hypergrid-enabled grids accounted for 98 percent of all OpenSim land area and 97 percent of all active users." According to a poll Hypergrid is doing, and still ongoing, the results as of the writing of this article suggests the greater shares of InWorldz users are heading to the Discovery and DigiWorlds grids, with Kitely in third place. As of July 28, Hypergrid says in DigiWorldz there have been "more than 250 new user registrations since July 24, and has up up 71 new regions." Maria Korolov's article would give a rundown of many of the worlds InWorldz users could head to (besides Second Life, of course).

Besides how come InWorldz went down, there have been a few questions yours truly has been asked. One is will there be a replacement for the InWorldz grid and when will it be? As of the writing of this article, there's been no date given for the opening of this replacement grid, or it's name. And outside the core group of hopeful inWorldz fans, it's usually being called the possible new grid or plans for a new grid. But there are a couple Discord groups, InWorldz and InWorldz Disporia one can join to talk to InWorldz members for possible information. But at this time, so far it's all speculation. It's current tech department head, Jim Tarber, has stated that he will not be part of any successor to InWorldz.

Talla Adam of the Metaverse Traveller would say, "No date has been mentioned for InWorldz II to open but it will probably be several weeks given the amount of work to do. When it does open, some may well return. So for some of the departing refugees it might be a two-way tip - hard to say really. But there is a lot of bad feeling and people feel put out losing stuff and having to move anyway. The longer it takes to rebuild will also play a part in determining how many will return."

What will happen to the Relay for Life in InWorldz event? In short, without an InWorldz and no date given for the supposed replacement grid, it's a safe bet that the event won't be happening. What is likely to happen is that the event will be moved to another virtual world. Which one this will be is unknown as to how long the decision might be. One can check the Relay for Life of the Metaverse Discord group for possible details.

Could this happen to Second Life? In short, not any time soon. While Linden Lab has been accused of a number of things, rightly and wrongly, over the years, not having a desire to watch the bottom line is something it seldom is. About a little over a year ago, it was suggested the Lab was making 65 to 70 million dollars USD. But while it's finances are sound for now, over the past several years Second Life has undergone a slow but persistent long-term decline in the number of it's sims. While it has been hoped that Linden Lab's recent adjustments in what it charges for sim tier can reverse this trend, the results are still less than conclusive. Even if this trend is halted, there's still the chance a future CEO could pull a series of blunders on the scale of the Content Creator Terms of Service controversy right when someone develops a virtual world that unlike Sansar people can make a virtual home instead of simply an experience. So trying to predict Second Life's future beyond a decade becomes problematic. But unless there's a global catastrophe such as a worldwide economic depression or a planetary power grid failure from a solar flare, it's a safe best the virtual world we know and love will still be around for several more years at least.

As hundreds, probably thousands as the days go on, set up in a new virtual world, and residents from Second Life look outside wondering what happened, no doubt there's many smaller stories to be told. Feel free to send the Newser any reader submissions about your experiences in InWorldz, or your new home.

Sources: Hypergrid Business, The Metaverse Traveller, New World Notes

Bixyl Shuftan

InWorldz's Rise and Decline

By Bixyl Shuftan

Four and a half years ago, the future of the InWorldz virtual looked bright. It was growing in terms of both active users and regions, notably a number of residents of Second Life whom were taking an increasing interest in this other grid which while the largest of the OpenSim worlds had remained a distant second place compared to the larger and more established virtual world. Today, InWorldz is facing the end. A statement made by it's owner Beth Reischl stated due to financial troubles, the virtual world's servers would be going down Friday July 27.

So what happened? While the relationship between Linden Lab and it's customers, the residents of Second Life, has always been a little problematic, about four and a half years ago it was worse. This was the "Rod Linden" period in which aside from responding to problems, the Lindens didn't talk much to the residents aside from the occasional statement. They made a number of clumsy moves, such as the 2013 Third-Party Currency Exchanger Ban that was lifted only when there were entire communities talking about leaving Second Life for other places. A few months later was the Content Creator Terms of Service controversy in which a poorly-written change to the Terms of Service in regards to the rights of content creators that with a public already wary of Linden Lab's moves, the result was some seeing the Lab as preparing to sell the content of it's users as it's own, possibly as part of an "exit strategy" of either closing down Second Life or transforming it into a much more tightly controlled place. It's hard to saw how many believed this, but the way Linden Lab had been acting, even those less prone to panic were thinking it could happen.

And so many residents of Second Life began taking a more serious look at the second-largest virtual world around: InWorldz. Tuna Oddfellow closed down his one of a kind performance in the more established virtual world and reopened it in the second-largest. I soon found the free Wingless avatars on InWorldz, then Luskwood was offering to give SL residents on IW a copy of the avatar they purchased on the larger virtual world. The Podex third-party currency exchanger set up shop in InWorldz. While there was already a Relay for Life in InWorldz, it became much larger, an InWorldz-Second Life Connection Center to aid SL residents new to the smaller grid sprang up, there was a meeting to discuss questions about InWorldz in Second Life, and more.

With all the attention on InWorldz, it was time for the Newser to make a small change. Where we once stuck such articles in "Extra," we created a new section, "Other Grids, MMOs, and Games." We would interview the founder of InWorldz. And then there were my virtual neighbors in the Sunweaver/Angel community. Nydia took an interest in the Connection Center, and when it's founder suddenly up and closed it she helped create a new one. The Sunweavers/Angels would also get a couple sims as a "life boat" for our community just in case Linden Lab really did shut down Second Life, still spending most of our time in the established virtual world, but getting to know the new one a little. With all this attention, InWorldz soon reached a total of 100,000 accounts, and it's fifth anniversary party was a happy occasion, that of a small but growing virtual world on the rise.

It's a good question of how things would have turned out for InWorldz had Linden Lab persisted in it's 2013 third-party currency exchanger ban, and if it's blunders in 2015 such as the closing of the SS Galaxy and the near-shutdown of the Grendel's Children mall had happened a year earlier. But even as the smaller virtual world was celebrating the promise of a brighter future, things were already turning around at Linden Lab. In January 2014, Rod Humble stepped down as CEO, and in February Ebbe Altberg took his place. Linden Lab under Altberg became more talkative to people, and among the first things he announced was that the controversial changes in the Terms of Service in regards to content creators would be undone. And in July they were changed to the satisfaction of most.

With the reasons InWorldz was getting more attention now relaxed, residents in Second Life became less inclined to hop over. The Relay for Life would continue to hold events there. But overall attention fell. With Linden Lab announcing the development of their next-generation virtual world Sansar, perhaps attention that would have otherwise been paid to InWorldz by residents of Second Life was focusing there. The Newser itself would continue to pay a little attention to InWorldz, but not as much. The numbers of active users would go up and down some, then in Spring 2015 start a decline that would continue. The number of sims would spike in mid-2015, then start to decline. The decline in sim numbers was slower than the numbers of active users, though. Then InWorldz found itself facing competition not just from Second Life, but another OpenSim world. Kitely grew rapidly in just a few years to become about half InWorldz size in the number of registered users. By 2015, the two grids were about equal, and in 2017 Kitely had become the largest of the OpenSim grids. Another grid, Avination, which was a competitor for the largest OpenSpace world in their early days, was the target of theft by criminals, and then hit by a "catastrophic" data failure that led to it going under in 2017.

InWorldz itself began making some moves that raised more than a few questions. This had begun early on when in August 2013 their General Discussion forums were closed, citing an increased activity of trolling and hateful posts that was taking time and effort to moderate them away from their activities in keeping up the grid. In April 2017, they announced they would no longer publish their statistics of how many regions or active users they had. And to a number, this was a signal the grid was in decline, and the owner wasn't sure how to stop it other than hide it. Reischl was distancing InWorldz from other OpenSim worlds, insisting it wasn't really one, "InWorldz has moved on from Opensim a long time ago," and seemed to be saying she was no longer publicizing the statistics because of an "us vs them" attitude there.

In January, Hypergrid Business published an article saying merchants in InWorldz were becoming concerned about the grid's future. "...we have seen a drastic decline in sales and residents," one merchant told Hypergrid, requesting anonymity saying he was concerned about possibly being banned. An "InWorldz Chamber of Commerce" had been set up in fall 2016 "To help promote in-world commercial activity, and to collectively advocate on behalf of their interests." But their director expressed disapointment in her meetings with Reischl, Hypergrid reporting, "She said it was not her job to keep merchants or residents in InWorldz." The article also stated, "Residents have also complained on social media that the founders haven’t been paying attention to their concerns. Of the top managers, owner Reischl moved to Panama and founder and CTO David Daeschler has mostly moved on to other projects." Another resident commented that early on, "one of the best things about IW was the fact that it was so easy to talk to the founders on the forum and they actually listened to us and gave us feedback it made IW feel like a community." But now it was looking more and more like how she saw Second Life at the time she joined InWorldz.

As of the writing of this article, Reischl has launched a Gofundme that was initially stated as having the goal of trying to save InWorldz. But then after most of the money needed to reach the goal was reached, the objective changed from trying to save the grid to packing up to move to another grid. The result has been confusion and some anger, and eventually comments on the Gofundme disabled. And then donations were no longer being accepted. One complication of getting the facts about the situation is that one major source of news about InWorldz, Hypergrid Business, is not particularly liked by the virtual world's owner, "InWorldz has repeatedly complained about unfavorable coverage"

Either way, things look poor for the future of InWorldz. If the grid is saved with the intention of keeping it up, the near-shutdown will make it a challenge to do so. If instead the place is closed with it's staff forming a new Grid, they will essentially be starting all over again, along with anyone who goes with them. Not everyone wants to start all over again, even if they could take most of their things with them. One recalls the virtual world "There" which reopened a couple years after it closed, but has been a tiny shadow of it's former self. Also, not all of the content creators are happy with the idea of their goods being moved to another grid without their consent, so there is the possibility of legal action.

Where InWordz's residents go from here, judging from the comments I've read at least some will be sticking around, either in InWorldz or whatever grid takes its place. But others have expressed that from their point of view, the place they have known is finished. Where they go from here is speculation. It's a fair guess some will head to Second Life, especially those with friends and other ties there. Others will move on to Kitely, the virtual world that overtook InWorldz to be the largest OpenSim world. Perhaps some will move onto smaller OS worlds, or start their own for themselves and close friends. Some will have lost heart in virtual worlds alltogether, either taking a break before going back, or for good. And those with a lot of friends who go different directions may likely end up splitting their time between where they go, whether Second Life, another virtual world, an MMO, etc.

As a resident of Second Life whose main interest in virtual worlds has always been here, to me InWorldz was a smaller cousin of the virtual world I knew. It was place with a less of the hustle and bustle of the more established virtual world. There was less of a variety of things to buy, but I eventually found an avatar I was happy with. And if somehow Second Life went away, InWorldz would be there as a place me and my friends could continue to meet up. Now, it is going away, at best becoming something smaller and different from what we have known. It is an irony that a few years ago, a number of us were thinking Second Life was about to close down and were seeing InWorldz as our next home. Now, we watch as instead for all of our problems we are still afloat, while the place we were considering moving to is sinking. While perhaps someday there may be another virtual world that will take the place of Second Life, InWorldz isn't it.

Sources: InWorldz, Hypergrid Business, Gofundme

Bixyl Shuftan

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

Reader Submitted: Game Review - Subnautica, Part Three

By Rita Mariner

(Continued from Part Two)

In the SUBNAUTICA storyline, you will get a series of radio messages from a starship Sunbeam.  They will finally determine that they need to come to Planet 4546B to rescue you.  They will send coordinates of where it is they want you to meet them. It's about 1.5 km from your Lifepod.  Hopefully by now you will have secured yourself a Seamoth, it makes the trip much faster and safer.  You will be a bit surprised when you reach the island and see what awaits you there.  You will be even more shocked when you see that it blasts the Sunbeam from the sky, right in front of you.  You will have to explore around the building, to locate, up to three new Purple Tablets.  You can then enter and explore the alien facility and learn the awful truth.  YOU'RE INFECTED!  You can't leave the planet because of that. Seems the entire planet is quarantined, due to a deadly bacteria, called Kharaa. So NO ONE is allowed on or off the planet, as long as they are infected!

What do you do? Follow the clues to a possible cure?  Your just one lone survivor and these precursors, with all this tech, were not able to solve this problem, over 1000 years ago. Plus they left these nasty enforcer units behind, called Warpers, to hunt and kill any infected individuals.  Your life just went from piss poor, to now it sucks bad.  Personally, I use the Subnautica wiki to help me locate wrecks and lifepods that have stuff I need or the coordinates don't popup on my PDA.  I put each wreck on a piece of paper and list the various fragments and or Databoxes they contain.  I then use the F1 key to show me the planet coordinates of where I am and move to the spot I need to go to collect the items I need.  Remember you will need a laser cutter for most of the stuff, to access it and also WATCH YOUR AIR,  unless your using the Rebreather, over 100m down you suck your O2 Tank dry fast.

That is one of the first things you will be prompted to do is go back onto the Aurora and repair the damaged drive core and stop the radiation leakage.  That will allow you then to dump the Radiation suit and wear the Rebreather and Reinforced Dive suit, once you find it.  You will need a Propulsion Cannon, Scanner, Laser Cutter, Repair Tool, Fire Extinguishers, Med Pacs. I take my Seamoth over, but be careful how you approach the Aurora wreck, a Reaper lurks there.  I have two storage modules on it, since there are some collectibles on the wreck, if you want them, Lab Gear, posters, Bags, batteries, med packs, model of the ship.  There is also a complete set of Prawn Suit fragments to scan. You will need 4 different access codes to the various doors, you get them off PDAs or the radio message you receive. Codes will be needed for Lab, Cargo, Cabin 1 and Captain's Cabin. I find the low entrance, clear it, killing nasties that try to eat you.  You will get to the Lab and a couple of terminals with data that need downloading.  Lots of collectibles in Lab.

After you clear the two areas on the lower space.  I return to the Seamoth, empty my inventory of collectibles and then swim over to the left a bit farther and walk up the wreck that leads to the upper entrance.  You will find storage lockers along the way, as well as more nasties.  Check them, many have batteries, you might need and med pacs, you will need.  You will walk around a curved piece of metal and onto a deck that leads to the airlock opening.  Pickup the fire extinguisher you find on the way.. Use them as you need them, but sparingly.  Only where you need to get through to where you need to be. Hit Administration first, get the data there and what items you can collect or scan.  Then move to Cargo Bay.  Check the Cargo Bay for anything you can use, or scan.  Next stop, Seamoth Bay, PDA there and a Depth Module, have your knife handy from here on out a very vicious nasty lurks the the wreck, called a Bleeder. Next stop the Locker Room, need Laser Cutter.  Search the room for PDAs you will get the needed access codes for the rooms upstairs, plus more batteries and med pacs.  The out the other door and up to Prawn Bay, here you need to put out the fire, so you can get close enough to repair the door control. and open it. 

Now you have hit payday, inside you will find all the Prawn Suit fragments you need, but you will need to put down enough of the fires to get to some of them. Also kill the fires enough to grab a Storage module.  You will then clear one of the stairs so you can proceed upstairs. Upstairs is crews quarters, first stop is cafe or storage room.  Cafe you need to kill the fires then scan anything in there you don't have, pickup another extinguisher, PDA and poster. the you can go right or left and search the rooms.  Some you will need to put out fires.  Search each room for anything you can scan or collect, PDA, battery, Med Pac, poster, bag, etc. Here you will find Cabin 1 and the Captain's Cabin. I find I need to make two trips, to the Seamoth,  if I want to grab and take all the collectibles from the crew's quarters.  The Captain's Cabin is where you get the detailed info for your escape rocket. 

Once I have cleaned out all the cabins, I will head back down to hallway outside the Locker Room and head towards the Drive Room.  Put out the fire blocking your way. Proceed to the station, grab the Cyclops Engine Efficiency Module.  You will know see the problem, large holes in the reactor walls.  You scan them and hit each one with your repair tool. Keep your knife handy as you try to repair the breaches, the Bleeders will be sucking you dry. So while you have you repair tool running, keep your finger ready to bring up your knife, to slice and dice, any Bleeder that attaches itself to you.  I think there are like 13 breaches you need to repair, so it will take some time. Once you have sealed up the Drive Core breaches your done with the Aurora, grab your loot, head back to base and party.  You can now dump you radiation Suit and wear the Rebreather.  Plus the Reinforced Dive suit, when you get the plans.

To be continued

Rita Mariner