Posted February 07, 2018 by HOF Studios
Almost from the beginning of development of Depth of Extinction, I’ve envisioned the game as an open world RPG where you can explore and find interesting and unexpected things spread out in this crazy undersea world. For the past few months, a lot of effort has gone into thinking about the right way to bring that open world aspect back to the game.
Here’s the basic outline of what we plan to implement over the next several builds to bring the game into its final state.
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The first change you will notice is that the map is now broken down into “Zones” that are primarily designated by the faction that primarily controls that area. Not all zones will be accessible initially, but all will unlock as the player progresses. The first missions will be of shorter duration in the Republic zone, which should allow players to acclimate to the game and be relatively low compared to the steep jump you experience after going through a few areas currently.
Available objectives will be visible on the Zone map. When you choose an objective, then you will be taken to the Loadout screen.
Loadout is where you will decide on the launch options for your team. The total funding available at the start of an objective, which can be spent during the Loadout, is the total of your funds plus the objective start bonus.
You’ll start off with a few team members on your permanent roster, but can choose to take or leave those team members with you, or supplement with mercs that are hired for only this objective.
Subs can also be rented for use on that objective. If you find a sub out there in the wild, you can let one of your characters pilot it back to base and use it on the next mission.
There will also be the option to abort an objective in progress and return to the base. There will be some penalties for failing or aborting an objective though.
We’ll continue to iterate on these ideas over the next few weeks as we get this ready for our First Access players to try out, so if you have feedback, we’d love to hear it.