This guide has come in to existance because I was playing around in Creative mode and put together a Seabase that I thought looked neat - so neat in fact that I wanted to recreate it in survival mode.


figure 1 - what I thought would make a nice hub-base in survival mode

Before I even began to re-build it in survival, I had two thoughts:

• how much resources is this going to take?
  
• will it have a positive hull strength so that it won't fall apart?

As such I then looked up all the recipes for every room, collected all the information about how each structure affects hull strength, noted how depth affects that and then put it all together in one place. Now I can easily figure out if anything I build in creative could actually work in survival and how much stuff I would need to recreate it, with this guide and a spreadsheet of my design you will be able to too.

UPDATE as of 26/08/2016: You can find a new version of my spreadsheet here[1drv.ms], some minor tweaks, added power suppliers to the calculator and have unlocked the spreadsheet so you can make edits if you wish.

The introduction has already used some terms which relate to how seabases exist in subnautica but were not explained, if you already know how to build a seabase in general and what hull integrity is then you can probably skip this part - the planner and how to use it is in the next section.

For the completely new, seabases are inhabitable structures that can be created in game by using the builder tool, in creative mode you will start with a builder tool in your inventory with unlimited resources and so can build anything you want anywhere you want - this guide is more concerned with translating that in to survival mode where there are limitations. The first limitation of survival being that you need to actually gather the materials to build your desired structures, these requirements are shown for everything you try to build and so I won't list them here (plenty of places to find them - more about that in the next section).

When it comes to creating your ideal base in survival mode, the other limitations are around the depth of your base. Large sprawling bases will require a lot of resources and it will save you some headaches later if you know how much stuff you need - which won't matter if you don't take depth in to account, as bases are affected by water pressure and if the depth is too great then the base will be damaged and begin to flood.


figure 2 - dramatic recontruction of a flooding base

A base's resistance to pressure is called "hull integrity", in survival mode it will appear on the HUD (Heads Up Display, your screen) every time you build or alter a base. Every base starts with 10 hull integrity, most structures will lower that number (e.g. rooms, corridors and windows all lower hull integrity) and if it drops below 0 then the base will begin to flood - fortunately there are some structures which raise the number so that you can build bigger or more elaborate bases without flooding (e.g. foundations, reinforcements and bulkheads).

The negative modifiers to hull integrity are also affected by depth, the deeper you go the larger their impact becomes - for example a corridor built at around 100 metres depth causes -1 to hull integrity, at 200 metres that figure becomes -1.1 and lowers by 0.1 for every 100 metres beyond that depth (i.e. 900 metres depth has a modifier of 1.8, so a corridor lowers hull integrity by -1.8 instead of just -1). This only applies to structures underwater, if you build on land you don't have to worry about any of this stuff, however if you build a base that goes from the land in to the water then the part that is underwater will be affected by depth - you can connect the land to the sea but the two sections of base will not influence each other.


figure 3 - a beach based base that doesn't care about hull integrity, except for the moonpool under the waves

On top of that depth only modifies the negative figures to hull integrity, structures which increase hull integrity are always constant no matter the depth (e.g. a bulkhead will always increase hull integrity by 2.0). The most efficient way to increase hull integrity is with reinforcements, at a low cost of two titanium and one lithium it is able to increase hull integrity by 7 (due to a glitch in the current build as of the 28th of September 2015, some reinforcements actually increase it by 14, fantastic value). A full list of hull integrity modifiers by structure is not part of this guide but is linked in the next section.

I will note that if you do mess up your seabase and it does breach, you will need a welder to repair the breaches to stop the water flowing in - after that as long as the base has positive hull integrity then the breaches will cease to be created and the base will automatically start to pump out the water. So keep an eye on hull integrity if you're planning on adding a lot of rooms at a time, especially moon pools as they're a -5 to hull integrity at a minimum!

Now we've covered the basics, on to the next section: regarding seabase planning

So, you want to make a seabase and have an idea of what you want -for example you may want a large base in the safe shallows with 6 moonpools so you can recharge a small fleet of seamoths that you intend to use to travel between smaller seabases around the map.


figure 4 - still not enough seamoths

Afterall, there are 9604 combinations of seamoth upgrade modules (aesthetically at least), there may be at least two or three different configurations you may want to keep at hand for different situations or exploring different areas. No matter what you want to build, if you want to do it quickly in survival mode then you should have an idea of how big you want your base to be before you gather all the necessary resources - you will save a lot of time if you know how much titantium you need from the get-go rather than running out early.

There's a few ways you can do that, either you can memorise all resource requirements for every structure that can be built as shown in the build menu in game, or you can refer to the subnautica wiki on seabases[subnautica.wikia.com], or you can write it all down in a spreadsheet, like I did.


figure 5 - oh good lord, the numbers

Now I can't tell you what will work best for you, what I can say is that by putting all that information in to one place I now have a resource I can use to instantly calculate how much resources are required for a seabase of any size. Very simple to use too, all you need to know is how many structures you base will include, type in the numbers and it will automatically calculate the raw resources you require to build such a base - if you wish you can find a[n updated] copy of my spreadsheet here[1drv.ms].

figure 6 - what to do if you want to use a spreadsheet

The numbers it will generate will tell you the raw cost of all the rooms you add, so if your base has 6 glass corridors the spreadsheet will tell you that you need 24 quartz - this is the case for the more complex structures too (so the moonpool will tell you the cost in silver and coral and whatnot because the advanced wiring kit needed requires a microchip). Below that the sheet also tells you the hull integrity of your chosen structures at most depths, it will also tell you if the structure will be secure or if it will fold like a stryofoam cup in the abyss.

figure 7 - what to look out for if your chosen structures won't hold

On top of that it will also tell you roughly how much available space there is to add reinforcements...so if you have planned a base that isn't structurally sound you will know how much reinforcement real estate your base can utilise to stop it leaking like a sieve.

Both the wiki and spreadsheet linked above will show you all the resources and hull integrity modifiers of all the structures that build a seabase, only the spreadsheet will do the mathematics for you provided you know many structures you have. For example, remember figure 1?


figure 8 - figure 1: return of the figure

Well I counted up all the rooms, corridors, moon pools, windows and foundations and put them in to the table...

figure 9 - the ugly truth

...so at the bottom I can instantly see the big problem, it's about a water tight as dry sponge cake, also there's the little cost factor of 348 titanium (that's 87 reclaimed metal) and 126 quartz. Still, there's potentially room for 76 reinforcements...which of course due to my layout is not possible as many of the walls are being used as connections or windows, taking that in to account still allows for 36 reinforcements - if I did that then suddenly this base would be fine to a depth of 700 metres and I would only have to add on another 72 titantium (so a total of 420, or 105 metal salvage...).

So, ultimately I think this base would not be impossible to re-build but it is very expensive in resources and in survival I would probably want to cut it back a bit to perhaps only 3 or 4 moonpools and far fewer rooms and observations domes for practicalities' sake. Still, if I did not take the time to plan it out then I may have only realised the flaws after hours of resource gathering and building instead of a few minutes contemplation.

I hope you have found this brief guide of use should you wish to plan how to re-create your creative seabases in survival mode, or if you find it useful for planning your next seabase in general. Personally I found my little spreadsheet handy when imagining what kind of base to build next and I thought this might be a good place to share it. Whilst I have not seen a resource like this around, I have not looked very hard and I do suspect that this may have been done before - so apologies if this is nothing new to you and I would be curious to see what other people have created to aid their exploration of Subnautica.


figure 10 - I think rabbit rays break up conclusions quite nicely

The scope of this guide was to only cover seabase construction, I am aware that my planner does not include the other aspects of a seabase such as the facilities you can build within it (power, storage, fabricators, et cetera). This is something I can add to the planner if anyone is interested, although I don't think I would make a seperate guide for seabase decorating.


figure 11 - as you can see, my fishtank has poor feng shui, I'm so ashamed

My thanks to the Subnautica wiki[subnautica.wikia.com], which is where I learned most of the information I put in to this guide and my thank to anyone who has managed to read this far - your perseverance for reading through my blather is astounding and should be recognised as an achievement in endurance.


figure 12 - I just like my Dauntless, it's my guide and I'll put in what I like!

Happy building out there,

Malagate

UPDATE as of 26/08/2016: You can find a new version of my spreadsheet here[1drv.ms], some minor tweaks, added power suppliers to the calculator and have unlocked the spreadsheet so you can make edits if you wish.