Greetings Overseer!
This week we will discuss the light, dark, and exploration in Surviving the Abyss.
In the deep ocean, no light is present, and darkness rules.
Lighting our way through the darkness is an integral theme of Surviving the Abyss. The darkness acts as a fog of war, obscuring most useful information about the surrounding areas as well as prohibiting you from building and gathering resources there.
The map extends far beyond the starting area and spans multiple biomes. There is much to discover, which brings us to the exploration tools and strategies within Surviving the Abyss.
There are several ways to navigate and explore. There's short-range exploration, which will allow you to explore your immediate surrounding area, and long-range exploration which will enable you to set up additional bases in new biomes to expand from.
Short Range Exploration
The most direct way to reveal what is hidden in the darkness is by building ‘light towers’ which will illuminate the surrounding area in a small radius. Light towers can only be built within a small distance from another lit area, so their construction is more suited to short-range exploration. Light towers are also resource-intensive and their power consumption means they can be a costly investment in the early game.
Blindly trying to light the darkness with no indication of what lies beyond may be too costly. The Sonar Tower can help you see in other ways through the dark. You can scan your surrounding area to pinpoint areas of interest and the best direction for the expansion of your base. You can choose to scan for fuels, resources, habitats, and points of interest.
Long-Range Exploration
With the research facility established, and local areas explored, attention will soon turn to longer-range exploration.
You will be able to send out exploration submarines to points of interest further from your base. However, long-distance exploration will require a number of crew to operate the submarine, along with fuel and food to keep them sustained on their journey. Additionally, not all expeditions are guaranteed to be successful, and you might risk losing your crew and resources if you don't prepare for the voyage well enough.
Once the exploration sub reaches its destination, it drops a flare that will illuminate the area for a short period of time, which you can use to set up an Outpost.
Outposts & Docks
Outposts help the player establish a new base of operations, separated from the central hub. They include a light tower and produce a small amount of oxygen and power from which you can start building. To allow crew members to move to the new outpost, a dock building is required.
The crew will be automatically transported as required between 2 docks buildings. This allows you to separate your tunnel networks and move crew over long distances to new outposts.
Next time on Surviving the Abyss:
In the next developer blog, we’ll be discussing Population, Crew Vitals & Cloning.