Talk:Sea Dragon Leviathan/@comment-71.63.183.168-20160118193554/@comment-99.188.230.214-20160121132212

If any of the current equipment even has the slightest effect on any of the new leviathans, it'd be too ridiculous. Whirlpools and shocks delivered from a seamoth shouldn't have an effect on a creature that looks like it could eat an entire cyclops as a light snack. I'm not even sure the stasis rifle or repulsion cannon warrant a mention in this discussion.

Furthermore, giving the cyclops similar upgrades in order to ward off larger monsters would be a bit unnatural. The vehicle is based around being a giant impervious home-base by itself, and it's so clunky to maneuver that I can't imagine trying to turn it to fire torpedoes at something else, or using some PDS and running. However, a cloaking device might be a good way to improve the player's odds of surviving a run-in and retaining both the sense of security within the cyclops and vulnerability without.

I'm mostly under the impression that they'll finagle the creature so that there's some other non-violent way of dealing with it. Maybe they'll be easy to sense and avoid (hearing some audio cue when they are close), or maybe they might not be fast enough to chase down a fleeing cyclops. It might even be possible to just outmaneuver them through relatively small openings or to maneuver them into another big bad and have the two duke it out.

Finally, if the new leviathans are too unbalanced in terms of frequency in appearance, aggression, or power, the whole non-violent researcher aesthetic starts to become unreasonable and I feel like at that point, it would make sense to introduce actual equipment that is based around, and effective at, killing other animals. While it may sound unprincipled for some non-violent explorer/scientist to wield equipment solely designed to kill against alien fauna, it seems even more ridiculous for an explorer/scientist to be going toe-to-toe with a reaper or even a stalker that is actively trying to eat him/her with what is essentially a stun gun and a swiss army knife. And, I don't think he/she would be using a harpoon when there's lasers and matter manipulating devices around.