Board Thread:Questions and Answers/@comment-34683932-20180215115229

After taking the first few steps in "Freedom" mode, and trying out habitat building in "Creative", I pretty soon ended up in "Hardcore" because, hey, where's the thrill if you have multiple lives?

This morning, the non-existant habitat hatch animation killed me when I was exploring the second Degasi seabase for the first time.

You see, when you build your habitat, you will never see the hatch in "open" position. You approach, you click, and you instantly see the other side of the hatch (which really should be a two-door airlock, because, physics). If you don't really think about it, you never really realize it's only that small window that's opening, with you having to squeeze through there.

Especially since you can approach the hatch from almost any angle, click, and you're through.

Until you get to the second Degasi Seabase.

The hatch is open, ajar. Oh, so it *is* only the small window that is... oh my god what's that thing it's doing damage get INSIDE!

So you get in there in a hurry so the Crabsquid won't eat you, you swim around in the two levels, then you look at your oxygen and think, "heck, I need to go dodge the Crabsquid to top off my tank", and swim back to the hatch.

From the inside it looks closed. Metal outer ring, and you can see outside through the inner ring. You don't see the window hanging ajar, not from the inside.

All it takes at this point is some part of you getting caught on the outer ring (you never had to aim for the inner window before!), you thinking more about your rapidly depleting oxygen and the Crabsquid and not what exactly you saw when you came in, some confusion about no "click to exit" appearing, taking another turn around the Alien Containment tank ("am I at the wrong hatch?"), a little bit of panic (18 seconds remaining and the Seamoth 120m away...), and you drown in front of a hatch that's open, but not quite.

Solutions:

1) Show a proper hatch animation at your habitat, one that involves some idea of which part of the hatch (which really ought to be an airlock...) actually opens; or

2) Make the "broken hatch" model more broken, so a player cannot mistake the missing window for a closed window.

Please. This was a rather irritating experience, after having dodged so many dangers in Hardcore up to that point. 