DLC Public Testing Feedback & Suggestions

[SUZUNE]

 

Hello,

I am a player who greatly enjoys Oxygen Not Included and also streams the game. I recently participated in the new DLC AQUATIC PLANET beta test and have some balance-related feedback and suggestions.

1. Regarding the acquisition of Refined Carbon

Currently, AQUATIC PLANET allows players to obtain natural Pearl (Glass) and Plastic, which is a fairly interesting change. However, if Iron (Steel) can also be obtained easily at the same time, the game difficulty would become quite low.

My suggestion is to completely remove all means of obtaining Refined Carbon on AQUATIC PLANET, including Coal and Wood (and if possible, also remove the recipe for Palm Trees producing Refined Carbon), and move Coal and Wood to the second planet.

The reason Coal and Wood are needed on other planets is for renewable power generation, so this change should have essentially no impact on the character of AQUATIC PLANET.

As for the new plant Sea Urchin, which is related to Refined Carbon — I think it can be kept. Let it produce a small amount of resources in its wild state, and only allow large-scale cultivation once Refined Carbon production becomes available.

2. Regarding the acquisition of Iron Ore

To reinforce the distinctive characteristics of AQUATIC PLANET, I suggest removing natural Iron Ore deposits and replacing them with Rust (including Snails and Turtles), so that players must go through an additional step to produce Iron.

3. Removing Radioactive resources and avoiding large amounts of Uranium Ore

AQUATIC PLANET is a planet with very low survival difficulty. As a thriving ocean ecosystem, I think low survival difficulty is quite an interesting design choice — but for the sake of gameplay, adjustments need to be made in other areas.

One of these is increasing the difficulty of obtaining radiation-related resources. A small, fixed amount of Uranium Ore could be generated in a specific location to allow research into a limited number of technologies, while renewable uranium resources (primarily High Energy Particles) would be placed on the second planet.

4. Removing Crude Oil acquisition

This mainly means removing the possibility of generating oil_drip Geysers. Similar to the Uranium Ore adjustment, this is a balance consideration. When I discovered an oil_drip Geyser in my game, I genuinely felt like I wasn't lacking any resources at all.

5. Adding Divergent Beetle and Worm Plant

Divergent Beetle and Worm Plant are both very interesting designs in the game. However, when they appear, there is no way to obtain large amounts of Sulfur in the early game.

Since AQUATIC PLANET has introduced a substantial amount of new content centered around Sulfur as a resource, I think it would be excellent to reintroduce these Sulfur-heavy creatures and plants — Divergent Beetle and Worm Plant.

In terms of balance impact, this would mainly increase Sugar, Mud, and large amounts of Food. The increase in Food and Mud would not have a particularly significant effect on AQUATIC PLANET itself. The increase in Sugar would expand the use of Sucrose Rockets, which I think could serve as a distinctive planetary feature and also act as a balancing mechanism for the relative scarcity of Carbon Dioxide.