I wanted to know how long a speedrun would take for completing the full story of Subnautica (Not just building the rocket), but couldn't find a category that does that. Is there a category for this?
Any% has to complete the 'story' in order to leave the planet. All Achievements is otherwise the most 'complete' run.
any% does not have to complete the 'story' in order to leave the planet.
playing subnautica for the first time, without help, requires either getting the message with the captain's room code, or guessing a 4 digit numeric code, which is not part of 'the story'. getting the message requires repairing the radio, which, according to the alterra pda survival instructions, is one of the first goals of the story.
this lack of the getting the captain's code is the biggest story flaw with all the speed run categories except perhaps 100%. but a speedrun is about knowing what to do in advance, and it is possible (1 in 10,000) to guess the code.
the story has certain clues, and follows a certain path that assumes the player does NOT know what to do. so a story based speedrun is a conflict of playing modes. but i would say that a 'story' run might be sufficient by following the main objectives as they unfold, and not even getting all the pda's which include more of the story. the first time i beat it i had to follow the story but i didn't find all the pda's which include more story but are unnecessary.
so there's the essential story, like repairing the radio, and there's the full story.
if there were a full story speedrun, though, it would necessarily include all radio messages, all pda's, all research scans, and all flora and fauna scans, and even any before and after messages like the one you get when trying to disarm the enforcement platform before the cure. rare blueprints aren't so much part of the written story, per se, but they do add illustration.
but the mystique of the game is that you're left stranded on a deserted planet, and don't know what to do. the game even leads you into believing that the game is just to catch fish until rescue arrives. and when rescue doesn't arrive, you may be lulled into building a cool base and never even realize that there's a way to beat the game, unless you play it enough, and that's when it gets interesting.
it's the mystery of not knowing what to do that leads to discoveries in the game, and leads to focused gameplay. and that focus then finds its conclusion in world record speed runs.
