Build 39 - World Map, Base and Objectives


We’re finally getting closer to seeing what Depth of Extinction will be at launch with the world map and objective chooser in build 39. The goal is to provide player choice and exploration plus give a bit of risk to deciding how to outfit your team to tackle the objective.

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After choosing an objective, you will have to load out your team. Each mission has a starting bonus, which can be used to rent a sub and hire crew, and a completion bonus, which is only paid if you complete it successfully. You’ll have to rent a sub initially and though you start with two permanent team members, it’s probably a good idea to use that last 50 credits to hire a merc to help you out.


Mercs will only work for you on that one objective. They will level up like regular characters and will still be available at the base if they survive the mission. The higher the merc’s level, the more expensive it is to hire them. Mercs can also be hired at merchants and they will always be at least level one and have a class already assigned. Any equipment you assign to a merc won’t be lost when thee mission is completed, but the equipment a merc starts with can’t be removed.

You can get permanent team members by rescuing hostages on missions and freeing slaves. We’ll be working on more ways to get permanent team members (more on that below).

Moving forward, there’s a lot of territory to explore now:

  • Subs - the plan is to sometimes have the team find subs on missions, that can then be piloted back to base. You’ll have to give up one of your characters to pilot the sub back, however. If they are a permanent team member, they will still be waiting for you when you get back.
  • Base leveling - the level of the base determines the areas that are unlocked, the difficulty of missions (and the payouts) plus has a part in making more subs and classes available. Currently, the base levels up as you complete objectives but this might change in the future.
  • Class Unlock Missions - we plan to create “challenge missions” in new areas. These will primarily put you in control of an enemy who has had a change of heart and decided to steal a sub and escape. If you can make it back to your base with the enemy character (and any other characters you pick up along the way) then you will have access to their class, they will join the permanent team and a sub will be owned.

Equipment allocation - it’s possible we will make an inventory management layer to allow you to being only certain items on the sub and limit the space available. Not sure if this will make it in the final game though.

Other stuff in Build 39:

Zoom - we’ve finally got zoom back into the game. Just scroll the mouse wheel up and down to zoom in and out. We’ve got 4 “pixel perfect” zoom levels that can be used. Hopefully this is a good change.


UI juicing work - the UI elements now have fade in and pop in effects (depending on the type of element) and sound effects. We’ll continue to build and refine these so feedback is appreciated!

Bug fixes - mostly minor stuff

Upcoming in the next few builds:

  • Bleeding system - rather than dying immediately when running out of health, characters can “bleed out” and the blood points will be treated similarly to health and be upgraded via the Grit stat. This won’t be a random thing like in X-Com.
  • Additional Class Skills  - we still have more unlockable classes that need their skills implemented. These classes will be covered in an upcoming blog post.
  • Gamepad support - we plan to support this for the Steam launch and we have an announcement about a console launch here soon.

Files

doe-windows.zip 143 MB
Version Build 39.3 Feb 22, 2018
doe-osx-universal.zip 146 MB
Version Build 39.3 Feb 22, 2018
doe-linux-universal.zip 142 MB
Version Build 39.3 Feb 22, 2018

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Comments

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Hi,

I'm not a fan of the Challenge missions, because i prefer to feel the attachement to MY team, and it will be broken while playing another team even for one mission. But why not. If i can skip them.

Porting to Consoles is almost never a good news for PC players... GUI is tuned down to fit the limited gamepad, gameplay is tuned down because consolers are consolers, graphics are tuned down because machines are always less powerful than a good PC and often stuck for years, etc.

The zoom is nice and a very welcome addition.

I don't know about the subs and base part, as i didn't play with it yet, but i like the idea of a "meta-layer", just like geoscape/battlescape and base/team building from another very famous tactical game...

Would be great if the world was alive with a timer (turn based or real time), with mission you have to complete before the end of the timer (but don't do timed mission, please, only timed world events...). ie there is a small gang somewhere, you kill them, gone. You don't, the small gang has a strong chief now. You don't do anything, the gang may absorb another gang, attack an outpost, kidnap someone, terror-attack somewhere...

Little by little, you may lose reputation (less mercs maybe), opportunities (the slaves can't be freed anymore, the shop is destroyed, the friendly city is corrupted, the lost sub you could get for free belongs now to the gang...), and the small local gang becomes a big final boss to reach the end of the current region.

Well, i guess it won't happen because it's a lot of work, but hey, would be awesome !

Ah I forgot to mention that a timer is already in the plan! I like your suggestions though. We might be able to get something like what you describe into the game. 

The challenge missions would certainly not be required but would unlock stuff so it's up to the player.

I don't think you should worry about console degrading the PC version. We should be able to manage to get both working effectively especially since i want to support gamepad on PC. For indie game developers you really have no choice but to try to release on multiple platforms these days. You just can't rely on Steam only. The only way I can keep making this and other games is to have this one do well!