It's been a while since we showed any progress, and we feel bad for leaving you in the dark like that. Tons of stuff is going on behind the scenes right now, and we figured we owe you an explanation as to why things are taking so long!
So, for starters, we wound up overshooting the goals we outlined in our Q1 2015 Roadmap. When we started working on that content, we quickly realized that it could tie in to some new gameplay opportunities that would require more work, but could open up some seriously cool new mechanics in Depth. Well, we got a little ahead of ourselves and probably bit off more than we could chew. But we're finally getting close to finishing now, so the time is right to shed some light on what we have been up to
STEVE Damage & Repair
STEVE is a pretty crucial part of game, for both teams. He sets the pace of the divers progress, and contributes significantly to their chances of winning or losing the match. The problem is that while sharks can damage and disable STEVE quite easily, destroying him is very difficult. This was a deliberate choice on our part because we ran out of time to fully flesh out STEVE's health and damage system and felt that making him super tanky would get around the problem. And it does... kind of. But we really wished that we could come up with more interesting mechanics that would make divers truly care about protecting STEVE from sharks, and would open up new tactics for sharks that involve trying to take STEVE out of the game completely.
To this end, we have re-balanced the way sharks deal damage to STEVE:
- STEVE no longer takes 'stacking' damage from sharks
- STEVE takes a fixed damage amount based on the size of the shark hitting him. Larger sharks hit harder.
- STEVE no longer regenerates health on his own.
- The more damaged STEVE is, the slower he moves.
As a result of these changes, STEVE is quite a bit more vulnerable to sustained ram attacks from sharks. To counter this, we have created a new diver item that allows divers to make repairs to STEVE on the go - "The Welding Torch". It's quite affordable, and support focused divers should be able to keep STEVE in tip top condition if they choose to purchase it.
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=406877277
Oh, and in case you were wondering - the welding torch is separate from the new diver gear we promised in the 2015 road-map. Expect more diver gear to follow!
UI Redesign
We're taking the opportunity to both refresh the look of Depth's menus, as well as expand and improve what the menus do. As an example, the diver spawn menu in Depth saw many revisions before launch, ending up with the current layout:
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=406888770
This layout has some limitations:
- Inefficient use of the screen space (see the top-right)
- An intimidating wall of icons for buying weapons
- New players don't see progression-locked weapons (so the game looks content-light)
- Adding many more weapon choices will run us out of screen space
We've iterated a lot on both the visual style and the flow of the menus, winding up with something more like this:
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=406889392
- The whole screen space is used
- Weapons are broken up by category
- We're able to show progression-locked weapons to new players
But beyond fixing the limitations of the old menu, the new menus give us some cool new features, some of which become clear in the new weapon details screen:
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=406889422
Weapon Upgrades! You're going to have a lot more options for how to tweak your loadout with the new content patch. And the number of weapons and upgrades the new menus will comfortably support is huge. On top of that, there's more information on weapons shown, and choosing skins for weapons is better supported. For example: With the new menu system you could add tagging rounds to a P11, or Tranquilizing rounds to your SPP1!
Leaderboards
An updated version of Depth's leaderboards will be rolling out with the update to address the issue of scores being reset undesirably, along with some new changes :
- All Leaderboards will be seeded with the scores from all previous months. Almost all reset scores will be included thanks to regular backups
- All Leaderboards will be made lifetime, and no longer reset monthly
- All Leaderboards will be made Crown Eligible, if you are in the Top 10 on any leaderboard you will be seen with a dazzling crown in-game
AI Updates
Another area that wasn't on the roadmap but we felt strongly needed some love was our bot AI. AI for both sharks and divers have received updates for interacting with more elements of gameplay including:
- Shark AI responding to Shark Shields and no longer attacking hidden targets without first getting close to them
- Shark AI will attack STEVE when opportunity arises
- Shark AI will go for seals when low on HP
- Diver AI will place both Shark Shields and Sonar Buoys
Shark Species Abilities
When we started working on the new shark evolutions we promised in the roadmap, we felt like it would be a lot more interesting if instead of just adding a handful of generic evolutions, we instead added some that were unique to each of the shark species. We quickly realized that this wasn't going to work in the context of the current evolution economy. How could players 'buy' something that we wanted them to have from the beginning? Should we just make it super expensive? What about really cheap? After a great deal of back and forth we settled on the idea of adding 'abilities' instead of 'evolutions'.
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=406873872
Each shark species (Tiger, Mako, Great White) will now have its own built-in ability that does not need to be purchased to use. However, this ability can be improved by spending evolution points on it. We are still working out the finer details but as an example, we present to you the Tiger's ability which we call 'Adaptive Hide'. It applies a temporary camouflage effect to the tiger's skin that allows it to slip in and out of combat without being detected by sonar buoys or flares. (it also makes you somewhat harder to spot by divers, too of course!) Unlike evolutions, which are largely 'passive', these abilities are player activated, so you can use them whenever you feel the time is right!
We are very excited about these new abilities as we think they will add a whole new level of 'Depth' (OK, that one's getting old now) to the shark game.
New Map!
And If none of that convinced you that we've been working our butts off on this update, then I hope these shots of our new map will!
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=406891930
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=406891872
We will be revealing more details about the map and the rest of the content in the upcoming update in the next few weeks, scout's honor!
Finally, we would like to thank all of you for playing Depth and having faith in our promise to provide continued support for the game. Our goal is to do more than just add new content. We would also like to refine what content and mechanics are there, and improve every aspect of the game. Your feedback is a huge part of this, so please let us know what you think of our changes and what you would like to see tweaked or improved in the future! ːgreatwhiteː