When challenge turns to tedium

I enjoy a fair number of games with survival mechanics. Subnautica, Rimworld, Banished, 7 Days to Die, etc. They can be a fun mechanic in games of all shapes and sizes. However, there often comes a time when the challenge of survival turns to tedium.

Unfolding mechanics

A lot of games, survival or otherwise, slowly reveal new mechanics to the player over time. This is a great design choice - giving the player only a few tools to start means they won't suffer from choice paralysis and won't get overwhelmed by the game. Gradually introducing new mechanics and concepts builds the complexity up in a manageable way. Heck, here are even some games that are built entirely on unfolding into some weird and bizarre mechanics:

Unfolding games

The problem might come though when one aspect of the game doesn't advance much, yet is still required to progress in the game.

Cultist Simulator and money

Cultist Simulator is a very interesting game about exploring the unknown, building a cult and dealing with magic in a lovecraftian world. You start the game being a simple person struggling to get by, having to earn enough money to get by while discovering the world of the unknown. Early on, scraping that money, dealing with ailments and what not are your core challenges. You'll have a job that say, produces 1-2 gold per minute and you'll be burning your cash at 1 gold per 3 minutes.

Then, the game starts unfolding...

So many cards, so many things to do!

Fast forward to mid-game. You are now able to make a living doing occult research, or being on a board of directors for a company. You can easily make 5-15 gold per minute if you try, you know exactly how to handle most of your ailments, and now your main loop is focused on exploring the world and looking for hidden lore all the while avoiding getting caught.

At the same time, you are still dealing with having to pay a coin every 3 minutes and having to go through the motions of cycling through work. It's no longer a challenge, it's something you've mastered. The mechanics haven't changed much, but have grown a few more steps to them. What has been a challenge early on has now turned into tedium.

The game could've addressed this in a few ways. Perhaps if the player has maxed out one or two careers, they could've gotten some stipend through some shady means that would give them some money instead of taking it away. Maybe the player could make some of their cultists work for the cult on a self-repeating loop and earn money, but be locked from doing anything else. Similarly there could be some rituals in place for the player to get rid of a few other looping tediums (for example, removing the "getting sick every now and then" mechanic, which essentially requires spending 1 extra coin) .

When a game moves so far past the initial challenges, there ought to be a way to solve those problems permanently using resources from much further in the game.

Subnautica and sustenance

Subnautica is an underwater survival game. You start the game crash landed on an ocean planet and have to gather the resources to survive and eventually build up to leaving the planet, but not before solving some mysteries first. You will have to keep an eye out on your oxygen meter as you dive in deeper and deeper looking for those resources. If you chose to play on full survival mode, you will also have to keep an eye out for everyone's favourite food and thirst meters.

Early game, those pose a bit of a challenge. You have to catch some fish to cook them, as well as extracting water from them using some chemical reactions. Food in your inventory would spoil over time if you don't cure it, etc. It's a decent enough mechanic overall.

However, as you move much further into the game, begin exploring underwater caves and diving ever more deeply, the sustenance mechanics will still be there to bug you. By now you can have base elements that produce water on their own, planters that grow fruit, aquariums that make more fish, knife that instantly cooks said fish, heck, even a suit that reclaims water you sweat. You have a lot of options at your disposal, but your inventory can only hold so many items, and your sustenance bars only fill so much.

By the point you grow bored of that mechanic you might already have to take care of a submarine, a handful of other vehicles, batteries for all your tools, not to mention looking for a lot of resources from all over the map to make your next tier of upgrades. As fun as it is to have the extra survival challenge at the start of the game, I never play on full survival anymore because of the drag that is feeding yourself in the end game.

The game could've addressed the mechanic by creating some high-tech consumables that make your sustenance meters last a few times longer than usual, or add some gizmo that removes that mechanic entirely.

When addressing the needs of a mechanic is no longer a challenge but a chore and players are unlikely to fail at it, it's time to move past it.

Conclusions

While survival mechanics might be interesting, but you have to recognise when a challenge of survival has turned to tedium and try addressing these issues. This is especially true when the mechanics you start the game with are much simpler than the ones you end the game with. Move players from smaller problems that challenge them early games to bigger problems for the late game.