Some suggestions of changes regarding the "Terrors Below" beta

[mblt]

These are simply my thoughts and concepts about a few aspects of the beta that I think could be changed about them, I spent a lot of time thinking about these so some people may of already beaten me to the punch which I'll acknowledge, I'm not stealing ideas or claiming credit for them, these are just my thoughts. I hope these ideas are nice and somewhat agreeable, perhaps able to be built upon too. 

There is a lot of text so I'll simply provide a TL;DR at the bottom.

The things I'll be talking about will be about Charlie's appearance, the Scrapbook, the new item sounds and earthquake boulders.

 

First thing's first, probably one of the most impactful things storywise, the appearance of Charlie.
To me it feels... Underwhelming? Unsatisfying? Not to offend. The first time in a nearly a decade for both us and (some of) the survivors meeting her in person, in game, and this is how it plays out? It feels like this isn't as special as it should be, just her fixing the gateway while we stand around and nothing really else at all. This is the one that we are not starving to get after all, the main antagonist, the darkness that haunts us.

The change I propose simply alters how this interaction plays out, the end result is the same.

Replace the beckoning hand with simply needing to drop 5 Dreadstones onto the floor of the arena, they don't need to be a stack. This will be hinted somewhere as well so it isn't a random thing you'd need to guess.
The hand won't be removed entirely, it'll serve another purpose which I'll explain more below.
Saves it needing to be included with the death of Fuelweaver, I do understand it's something that's unlocked and very direct in what it needs, but having something be included with the Fuelweaver kill feels strange to me, that it feels out of place.

Once 5 Dreadstones are on the floor, the survivors would leave the atrium as usual.

Three requirements, technically speaking, need to be met in order for rifts to appear:
5 Dreadstones are on the floor of the arena, in a stack or not.
Nobody is inside of the atrium.
The gateway is currently on cooldown.

Once all requirements are met, an invisible countdown of 3-6 minutes begins, this countdown will define when the gateway will be repaired.
If you do not return to the atrium during this cooldown, then the gateway will repair off-screen and the cave rifts will still start as per usual.
You'll be able to return to the arena and see that the gateway is fixed afterwards, but you would of missed the cutscene of it being repaired.

However, if survivors return to the atrium and make their way back to the arena before the countdown stops, they have an opportunity to witness the cutscene.
Technical things can be explained later if required, such as how telepoofing would work, what pauses the countdown and how survivors would stay safe during the cutscene.
Once the countdown reaches 0, all survivors that are outside of the arena and 1-2 tiles near the Ancient Gates that serves as the door to the area, will be able to watch the cutscene.

The camera will pan towards the gateway while the survivors remain outside of the arena, as if to watch it from a safe distance.
Shadow hands will extend from the void towards the Dreadstones to take them.
Extra hands will appear if there's additional individual stacks of Dreadstone on the floor, one hand per individual stack, up to a maximum of 5 hands. The hands will prioritize the highest stacks of Dreadstone in an effort to spawn as minimal hands as possible. If there's more than 5 Dreadstone offered, it will subtract from the stacks until it will take only 5.
The shadow hands slither back into the void having taken the 5 required Dreadstone.
Charlie appears and fixes the gateway as usual, then disappears.
The camera would pan back to your character who'd make a remark about what just happened, then you are free to enter the arena and investigate further.

This makes the cutscene play out like a secret bonus, and/or something that the survivors weren't meant to see, optional and making the encounter more cinematic as it's a pretty major occurrence that shouldn't have disturbances or interruption, deserving some level of immersion.
You can still drop the Dreadstone within the arena and the gateway will repair regardless of what survivors do, it'd just be a secret and optional opportunity to witness the gate being repaired by Charlie in person, from a safe distance of course.

 

Next very remarkable change, the Scrapbook! I do enjoy this new catalog but I believe it deserves some tweaks to a degree.
The notifications of new Scrapbook updates may be very annoying to people after a while as there are many, many things to discover and fill out, and you'd have to see the notification that many times, or ignore it and have it be a permanent part of your HUD. You'd most likely clear the notification only for it to appear again as soon as immediately.

Either skip everything I'm about to explain below about the Scrapbook and make the notification automatically disappear after a while of appearing...

Or the second idea, remove the Scrapbook button from the escape menu and instead...
...Turn it into an item! Much like the Cookbook and Gardeneer Hat.
It'll appear as a non hidden craftable that'd require a Science Machine to prototype.
You can prototype it with a number of Papyrus, as Papyrus also requires a Science Machine. The resulting book would be a "Survivalist's Scrapbook", a book that behaves much like the Cookbook.

The game will still record all of your discoveries as you make them and place them in the Scrapbook, providing notifications based on settings.
Notifications can be toggled either within advanced options or inside of the book itself; "Off" To have them never appear at all, "Cataloger" to have them only appear when a book is in your inventory, or "Always" to have them always appear. Default is always.
You'll receive the notification that the Scrapbook's been updated when it updates and the settings allow it, but instead of being able to click on it, it simply tells you that it's been updated when hovered over, automatically disappearing a few seconds after it's appeared. Once you use the Survivalist's Scrapbook, you'd open it up much like a cookbook and the Scrapbook catalog would appear, updating you on every recent discovery.

There should be a way to view all "recent" entries somewhere separated from the rest of all entries, a way to view every new entry to the catalog since the last time you've opened the book. Not every entry that hasn't been clicked on yet, but entries that's been updated since the last time you've opened the book.
There should also be a "Mark all as seen" button with a "yes and no" prompt that simply clears all new entry notifications. Saves people needing to click on every single entry seeing there's, hundreds. Especially people who have seen as good as everything already.

I think I heard something about Scrapbook Pages? Having the Scrapbook be an item could be a fun synergy with these pages, being able to slot them into the Scrapbook or something.

I think these changes allow the Scrapbook to be more freeform, if people care about it, they can opt into engaging with filling it out as well as being informed by it in return. If people don't care, they can basically avoid it entirely, not even needing to craft it or have notifications appear. 
It would probably be annoying sacrificing an item slot just for this book which I see is very fair, sometimes one item slot is important. I believe changing priorities would be the way around this, if you can't afford to lose many item slots such as early game gathering, perhaps being able to view Scrapbook entries is the least of your problems. Scrapbook wielding feels more appropriate once you've already settled down a base and can allocate items to there, now being able to comfortably document things. Learning to survive before learning to thrive.

 

Next would be the new item sounds.

It's a change I'm already seeing mixed opinions of, the concept is nifty but I'm sure people will miss the old pickup sound playing for all items. While people may appreciate the new sounds design wise, others may also be afraid of change. 

Maybe add a new option within the Advanced tab to toggle between "Refined" and "Classic" sounds, default is Refined. This will let people be able to change based on preference which is what options should be doing, especially being client sided, it's more personalization.
If this isn't added, most likely a workshop would be made of it instead, so it may as well be an official addition seeing it changes something extremely commonplace within the game. 

 

And lastly, the new boulders that come down during earthquakes with active rifts. 

They're obviously highly unfair to people who set up bases in caves or care about how the map looks, mostly because boulders don't go away until mined and, they will only increase in numbers as time continues unless dealt with every single time, something that they would have to deal with forever. The only way to disable them is with world settings, which implies that you have zero power over it in-game. It feels very one-sided unless you simply don't care and see it as renewable rocks that you can mine, and/or new obstacles to avoid as earthquakes are simply more dangerous.

One idea I have is something like the "Lightning Rod" but for the caves.
Some sort of structure that you can place down which will cover a huge radius. Within this radius, earthquake boulders cannot drop down inside of it. Earthquakes will still cause rocks to drop from above however, perhaps the structure could reduce how many fall? That would be use outside of defending against boulders.
Antlion will still be able to attack and ignore the defense of the structure, as it is a focused attack and not something the structure alone can prevent, letting her still be a threat.
I wouldn't think that the structure would be a giant beam or a pillar but, maybe some sort of stabilizer machine which doesn't require too much logic to it, simply because it'd fit right at home with the rest of fictional logic-less structures.
Just like Lightning Rods defending your base from lightning strikes and subsequent destruction, this almost feels like the same thing. Except boulders immediately destroy a structure whereas lightning ignites it, which can be extinguished if dealt with accordingly through a few methods.

Another idea is having these boulders not become permanent, or at-least most of them. Having majority of them immediately destroy on impact with the ground, while rarely becoming a regular boulder. The ramping up of boulder count would be much slower and less overwhelming then. They'll still be a challenge to avoid as you'll still see the bigger shadows and being hit by one is more devastating, but they also won't clutter the world if unmanaged, or at least as much with the changes.

I understand the difficulty increase for the caves due to the rifts but, you should be able to do something about it for people who need to do something about it, mostly defending bases or areas from destruction. The rest of the caves would still be dangerous, making your base a bit more of a Haven as bases usually are.

TL;DR
Change the Charlie encounter to be a secret that you can miss, a more special encounter seeing who Charlie is and her role in this story.
The Scrapbook's updating notifications should be temporary as well as toggleable, and/or the Scrapbook should work nearly identically to the Cookbook and Gardeneer Hat, having it's own item like the Cookbook.
Provide an advanced option to toggle between item pickup sounds.
Create a lightning rod for caves that defend against boulders, but not against earthquakes or Antlion entirely...
And perhaps a boulder nerf could be having a high percentage of them destroying on impact.

[lenship2]

1 hour ago, mblt said:

One idea I have is something like the "Lightning Rod" but for the caves.
Some sort of structure that you can place down which will cover a huge radius. Within this radius, earthquake boulders cannot drop down inside of it. Earthquakes will still cause rocks to drop from above however, perhaps the structure could reduce how many fall? That would be use outside of defending against boulders.

right now i really love the idea of craftable support beams, which i guess would be really similar to the knobbly trees. you could craft beam kits from a stack of wood planks and rope, and when planted they have the same range of a lightning rod and in this range earthquake effects are negated entirely. it'd be great for decoration and if it becomes too op klei could make it have some form of repairable durability

[Pet Rock]

1 hour ago, mblt said:

One idea I have is something like the "Lightning Rod" but for the caves.

As others have suggested, "planting" the umbralla in the ground could make it serve this purpose.

Also, if this is implemented it should also work for meteor showers above-ground.

[mblt]

9 hours ago, lenship2 said:

 

I never thought of Knobbly Trees for the caves... That's very clever actually, and makes a lot of sense. I really enjoy that idea too.

Maybe it could be a multi step structure much like the Lunar Siphonator or Hermit Home, requiring a few steps in order to completely set up. I do worry that pillars could obstruct the view of players seeing it wouldn't be in the ocean and out of the way most of the time, maybe placements could be thought of, such as corners or areas the camera won't be commonly centered on.

This idea I'm fond of and can be really built upon.

 

8 hours ago, Pet Rock said:

 

Planting the Umbralla into the ground could make it extend upwards and be a way to defend a moderate radius around it from acid rain instead perhaps, giving you a safe place to walk around in without the worry of needing to be exposed to the rain or require holding it. If you need to free your hand slot with combat, you could place the Umbralla down as you would a lantern for light and engage in combat while it'll raise up and defend the radius around you. I wouldn't say it should be strong enough to stop boulders as I imagine it isn't some ultra durable material to stop such a thing, instantly dismantling at the first rock that drops down, perhaps these two types of defenses could be individual ways to deal with the new elements? Cave Knobbly Trees for the boulders, and the Umbralla for the rain.

What if you could combine the Umbralla with an Eyebrella, creating an upgraded Eyebrella which allows acid protection? Or something like that.

Kind of like fashion goggles upgrading into desert goggles.

Allow it to manually switch between weapon and hat mode perhaps, allowing you to either use it as a weapon with acid protection while wearing a helmet, or a head-slot acid protection, while you'd have to wear a body armor and use a regular weapon.

Depending on if the rifts can manually be enabled much like the lunar rifts in world settings. It'll be really good as a post-Fuelweaver item if you're unable to.

But if you're able to, then maybe have the recipe include something difficult to acquire early game, but not hard to get late game so you can't easily rush getting it, such as a second deerclops eyeball that you'd have to transform into an item just to use in the recipe, requiring you to still rely on the Umbralla in the meantime.

 

I don't think the structure I had in mind would be able to defend against surface meteor showers as, I think the meteors come from the moon itself which feels very far away, it'd have to be some sort of aerial defense which is already seeming excessive for something that's not too big of an issue to begin with. Meteor showers being a method of surface renewable rocks and all.

I like the Knobby Tree idea much better than what I first thought of.