Subnautica 2's first update will add a sprint button, because players are building their bases too big: "they might want to go a little bit faster"

Also: proximity chat, co-op revives, emotes, and crafting tweaks

Subnautica 2 splashed into Steam early access yesterday, sending tidal waves of money into the bank accounts of developers Unknown Worlds and publishers Krafton. You planning on paying that $250 million performance bonus, then, Krafton? Now that the game has been on sale for a whopping 17 hours – roundabouts how long it takes to clean out the current early access build - it's time to start squawking like seagulls for patches, updates and expansions.

Fortunately, creative media producer Scott MacDonald told RPS and other journalists a little about Subnautica 2's first patches in a roundtable interview last week. The short version is that the initial update will mostly add stuff to the progression and base-building systems, alongside tweaks to the voice logs, some extra lore, and an on-foot sprint mechanic. After that, there's a co-op-focussed update with proximity voice chat, emotes, and player revives. And after that, we enter the realm of proper expansions with new vehicles, biomes, leviathans, tools, resources, and the continuation of the story.

Subnautica 2 update 1.1 will be a "quality of life" update, if that's the right word for a hearty injection of disease and genetic abberations. "So we're going to do planned improvements to the biomod system, that you got a glimpse of earlier," MacDonald began. "The blight encounters, rex gameplay, vehicle docking and fabrication, some old PDA databank entries for players to read, because they really enjoy those."

For context, the biomods are non-permanent abilities and buffs, like dashing and consuming less oxygen when stationary. The "rex" stuff is about creature interactions.

"And the voice log priority system will get a bit of a bump," MacDonald went on. "So that the most important voice logs will play for players, depending if they've got more than one coming in at the same time. We also plan on adding a more passive biomod slots, a storage cache and the ability to sprint, because that's something we've seen people who have huge bases - they might want to go a little bit faster, so we're going to be bringing those in the next quality of life update."

I've constructed just the one base in Subnautica 2 so far. It's basically a barrel with a moonpool at one end and a fabricator at the other. Having a sprint button would only make it feel more claustrophobic, but perhaps I will add a looping race track with pleasant views of the Marrowbreach spawning grounds. Come, feast your eyes upon Seabase Edwin.

Subnautica's 1.2 update, meanwhile, is all about larking around with your mates in the briny blue, though it also makes further changes to the HUD and base construction. "So we're going to be doing planned improvements to the HUD systems," MacDonald continued. "Our base building tool will get some improvements as well, and also improvements to the pinned recipe system, which will have a little bit more colour to help players figure out what's going on, and what they need to complete a recipe. So just some quality of life things there.

"One of the biggest things that we've heard from our community already, before we're even in early access, is they really want proximity voice chat," he went on. "So we are currently looking into getting that in for our early access 1.2 release, which is going to be great for them, as well as player emotes. So like animated emotes, so they can kind of wave at each other and things like that."

Last but not least, the developers are "looking into" a player-to-player revive system, together with more "customisations", which I think means more cosmetic options for your avatar.

Thus the immediate future. Beyond that, expect "a big expansion of the world" with "new biomes, new creatures, new leviathans, new resources". The devs are also making a new vehicle and new player gear, alongside the next chapter of the storyline. We already know that one of these new areas is a lair for local NEET kraken the Collector.

I have played seven hours of Subnautica 2's early access build, and I consider it to be a hoot and a holler and AAAIEE, I'm running out of air, glubglublglubbulglub. It is very similar to the first game, but then again it's been 12 years since the latter entered early access. I fear that some of you were not yet hatched or at least, not yet capable of navigating extra-terrestrial oceans, when the original Subnautica made planetfall.