The Winter Update for Depth of Extinction comes with a lot of changes.

Winter Update is Live!

20 DECEMBER, 2018 - HOF STUDIOS
The long awaited Build 48 is finally ready! I've put some thought into how I think people might react to this update but am looking forward to hearing more detailed feedback on the changes and if you think they have improved on the game's shortcomings without compromising what you liked about it.
If you didn't like the game at all when it launched or you were turned off on it for some other reason, then this update is probably not changing your mind.

If you were on the fence about the game and just thought thought it was repetitive or imbalanced or too easy, then maybe you could give it another try. I've worked on addressing this feedback and even though I don't think the game is perfect, i do think it has improved from launch.
If you are one of those people who would prefer to get the high level summary of the update or see the visuals, then this video is for you. For more details, please read on!

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The first thing to mention are the New Maps we have added to the game. There are three new ones that each add slightly different dimensions and are introduced as you progress through the game.



I’ve also added some new level tilesets that you’ll see in later areas. They are the Cultist “Temple” and the Android “Citadel” and they definitely have a different look that the current tilesets. I don’t have a significant amount of new cover or environment items added to the game yet though. Look for that in a future update.



I’ve also completely removed the “Zone Chooser” from the game in favor of just listing the currently available objectives for you to choose from across zones. Only one objective of a type will be available at a time from now on, so you won’t see more than one “Find Sub” at a time, for instance. The concept of choosing the objective based on difficulty is also gone from the game. This has been replaced by difficulty that scales with the current team. Objectives will have a difficulty floor however, so it is possible to undertake an objective that is too hard but not one that is too easy. Enemies will scale up to roughly match your level.

To make the game more accessible to new players, we have added a “casual” mode. The first time you play the new version of DOE, you will be asked which difficulty mode you want: Casual or Classic. Classic will be basically the current version of the game (with the other changes in Build 48) while Casual will have a few differences:

• You will have the option to retry any mission where you failed (team wiped out), aborted or even lost a character.
• Characters will have a higher “base” health value than the enemies, allowing you to take a few more hits.
• The difficulty will ramp up just a little more slowly

[...]

The Sci-Fi RPG Depth of Extinction has been released:

Depth of Extinction

In a world rife with violence, rumors of killer machines have spread far and wide. As a number of factions emerge – violently vying for power – you become the sole defender of humanity’s last standing government. Only you can create the ultimate squad and save humanity!

Explore an emergent storyline filled with random encounters and turn-based tactical battles as you traverse an underwater world. With just yourself and your soldiers facing an unknown enemy, gear up and prepare to engage in combat at any any given moment – uncovering the deep storyline one battle at a time. Choose from 10 different classes, each with their own unique skill set, and give your soldiers a choice of more than 150 different weapons and armor to strike back at the enemy.

A word of warning, though: Depth of Extinction is not forgiving – and death is permanent.

Gather your troops and take part in intense turn-based tactical battles on humankind’s last stand against the unknown!

GAME FEATURES

• Emergent storyline on randomly generated maps with random encounters
• Unlock 8 unique character classes
• Outfit your team with 115 different weapons, armor, and items
• Fight 25 unique enemies from 5 factions
• Perma-Death

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In a recent blog for Depth of Extinction, we are informed that the game is almost ready to be launched. Here is the launch trailer.

We skipped an update for Build 44 but are going to cover that build plus 45 in this extra special “last” blog post before the final stretch run to release the game onto Steam, GOG and itch.io! We will have an announcement regarding the launch date later this week.

A new update from HOF Studios regarding Depth of Extinction, announces that they are pushing back the release date to sometime in September.

...

What’s keeping me from delivering the build today? 

Mostly just bugs from changing so much of the back end encounters and objective/mission structure. I’ve also not got the story missions totally in place and am planning to change the tutorial mission. Plus a little bit more polish on various elements such as adding the portraits to the tactical HUD.

As for the schedule

It’s looking like I will split what I had planned for Build 44 into two smaller builds (44 and 45) and then push back the launch about a month. I know this is disappointing to a lot of you since we thought the game would be ready in August, but there are some good reasons to delay!

First of all, the amazing tactics game Phantom Doctrine (the follow-up to Hard West) is planning to launch on August 14 so it seems smart to not be in the same window. I've also been putting in so many hours lately that I was feeling a bit burnt out, so my wife and I took a few days off this week to recuperate. I think it's important to stay healthy and crunching to get the game out sooner doesn't seem to be the right call for us. Hopefully you all understand.

I feel pretty good about the dates below but everything in game dev always takes longer than you think! Adding that extra build gives us more opportunity to get your feedback on the game also and try to assure that the launch build is fairly solid.

• August 2-4: Deliver Build 43 to First Access buyers
• August 16-18: Deliver Build 44 to First Access buyers (details coming soon)
• September 3-5: Deliver Build 45 to First Access buyers
• September 13: Launch on Steam

(these are just estimates as usual)

Feel free to let me know your thoughts in the comments!

[...]

Depth of Extinction is targeting a mid August release on Steam. You can read the latest update here.

Hi everyone! I'm taking a break from working on Build 43 today to give you a sneak peak or what's coming, talk a little about what the schedule is looking like and also make a few announcements.
Let's start with the announcements!

A lot of people have been asking about the DRM free versions of Depth of Extinction, and we are ready to announce the sites where the game will be available at launch.

• Steam - technically the game will be DRM free on Steam since Steam DRM has to be enabled. I have heard that many of you don't like Steam so we have explored a few more options as well. Steam version will support Achievements, Trading Cards (we are good to go already) and Cloud Saves.
• GOG - I am excited that GOG has approved DOE to launch on their site as well. The GOG version will support Achievements and Cloud Saves. I'll investigate whether First Access buyers can get a GOG key.
• Humble Store - we will sell our DRM free version on the Humble Store as well. I believe buying the DRM free copy there will also include a Steam key. The DRM free Humble version will not support achievements and cloud saves.
• Itch.io - Of course we can't forget about our favorite PC indie store itch.io and this version (like Humble) will include a Steam key and won't be able to support achievements and cloud saving.

Another cool announcement is that we have hired game writer Chris Krubeck to work on the story and lead the writing effort in DOE. Chris has worked on several games, notably the cool story driven adventure game Tokyo Dark. We're very excited by the ideas he is bringing to the project and think you will be intrigued by what he has in mind.

[...]

The planned schedule

You know what they say about the best laid plans but this is what I would like to happen (and what I think is possible) but as always subject to change.

• Stop selling keys to DOE First Access on itch sometime next week (probably July 4) or when they run out (currently 20 left)

• Deliver Build 43 to itch.io in about 2-3 weeks (so between July 14-21)

• Start distributing Steam Beta keys to selected buyers after Build 43 goes live (we will probably email First Access buyers and ask you to sign up for this)

• Collect feedback and playtest data from Build 43 and make modifications

• Deliver Build 44 as "Launch Build" in mid August (planning for August 16 but may change)

• All First Access buyers will get a Steam key through itch and we will ask for preference on other platforms (i.e. GOG) if possible

Now about that Build...

It was a little slow getting started on Build 43 but a lot of progress has been made in the last 4 weeks toward realizing the final vision for the game. I took a few weeks "off" around Memorial Day, the first to do MomoCon, where we introduced "arcade mode" which might make an appearance later in a content update as a "daily mission" and leaderboard mode.

[...]

Build 42 of Depth of Extinction features two new character classes:

Build 42: The Wrecker and Warden are here! Plus the HUD got a facelift.

Depth of Extinction First Access » Devlog

Hey all! I know a lot of you have been waiting eagerly to try out Build 42 and it's finally here. So much new and updated stuff that I'll just dive right in.

Well, first I'll mention that we will be appearing at MomoCon in Atlanta again this year (May 24-27)! We're part of an amazing lineup of games at the Unity Atlanta User Group booths (yes, there are 2). It's an honor to be alongside some great games like TwinCop (GA Award Finalist 2018), Neon the Ninja (early access masocore platformer), Voiceball (alt.ctrl.GDC finalist) and Arbiter (co-op VR game). If you are going to the con, please stop by and say hey!

Now on the Build 42 details... but one note first... we had to reset the save data for this update so you will be forced to start a new game. So much changed that it's worth it to start over anyway!
Character Class Update

Wrecker

We covered the Wrecker in the Build 42 preview post last week but we should mention that their preferred weapon class (Heavy) has had some improvements since then to it’s effects. Updated GIF with the Shadowfury (tier 3 ballistic minigun)

Warden

Protector of the weak. The Warden is a defensive focused class whose skills are focused on providing protection and taking fire for other allies. They are a kind of variation on the tank that is probably best built with high health to be able to take a lot of punishment while others dish it out. When fully leveled, the Warden can be very dangerous by laying down covering fire to any enemy who fires on an ally.

Skills:

• Distraction - Draw enemy fire for a few turns
• Hunker Down - Automatically defend if moving on both actions
• Covering Fire - Fire on enemy that attacks an ally if in range

Remove Saboteur
We love the Saboteur class in principle but unfortunately, in game development, sometimes you have to make hard choices. The Saboteur really needed the Stealth system to be more fully realized in order to be an effective class and there is unfortunately just not time to do so before our launch. We could possibly bring them back in a post launch content update !

Rebalancing

We touched on this topic in the Build 42 preview but there are a few areas to cover in more detail.

Walls As Cover
We’ve heard the feedback: some of the interior level rooms are just not fun as there is sometimes a lack of cover. One idea we’ve been toying with for a while is to make the corners of walls function as high cover. We’ve added it into this build with the ability to “lean” around walls and fire. If this seems to play well, we’ll consider adding an additional firing animation (or something) for the lean.

Fog of war also clears around walls when you are on a corner, allowing you to safely get a look down hallways. I think this is the really interesting change and the one that has most affected my play style.

Overwatch
I also reworked overwatch as the previous implementation would take some bad shots most of the time. Now I calculate the hit chance at every waypoint (tile) on the moving character's path. I exclude the start and end and any location that is lower than a base percentage. The I choose a random value from the remaining locations. This ensures that the shot is always reasonable but sometimes really good. We will see how it plays but it seems solid so far in testing.

Trapped Containers
Another interesting change is that we now will spawn different amounts of enemies depending on the situation. One such situation is that the loot containers are sometimes booby trapped, which makes an alarm go off alerting enemies to your presence. We will continue to work on these types of situations and refining them to match with situational dialog in the encounters as well. This will be a focus for the next few builds.

[...]

This is new in build 41 of Depth of Extinction:

Build 41 - UX Improvements, Character Customization and More Loot!

Depth of Extinction First Access » Devlog

Hey everyone! We’ve gotten a ton of feedback over the last few months, and as you may (or may not) have seen, we have posted a final release roadmap for the game that hopefully clears the way to release to Steam in late May or early June. Very exciting but busy times for us as we get ready and try to finish up everything on that list!

[...]

So enough about the launch and the future - let's talk about the present and all the changes we have in Build 41.

Build 41 Release Notes

Tutorial Overhaul - shortened it significantly, added doors to the tutorial steps and hopefully made it a bit more interesting for new players. When playing the tutorial, you will also skip the objective screens to get you right into the action!

Icons Updated - almost every icon in the game was updated, including equipment, missions, map areas and the Republic icon is now a Kraken!

Movement Path and Hovering - A pretty big change was made to remove the need to click to draw a character movement path (except in some cases) and a redesign to how the path appears. Should make it a bit more satisfying to move around and eliminate that extra click.

Custom Cursor - When hovering over a targetable entity (enemy, cover, etc) the cursor will turn into a reticle. When hovering over something you can interact with (doors) it will turn into a hand or a hand with an “x” if you are out of range. Between this and the path changes, it seems much easier to tell where you are moving and what you are clicking on!

More Loot in Levels - in addition to the usual 2 items of loot (which we are going to mix up soon) there are between 1-5 extra items scattered around the facility. These are either credits or fuel.

Procedural Level Generation Improvements - the levels are less similar now and will be in numerous shapes. You’ll also see larger and smaller facilities mixed in all areas.

Music tied to alert levels - nine new tracks were added to the game and we have categorized them by “alert level” in the game. So now when enemies come in sight, the music transitions to a faster track!

Credits Editor on Objective Loadout - when you are prepping your team for loadout, you can now allocate any amount of credits stored in the base to take with you on the mission. Remember, this is risk/reward as the credits may help you but if the team gets wiped then they are lost!

Character Customization - a new pane is added to the character settings to let you change your unit’s name and permanent equipment if you want. Any name can be typed in or you can choose from our random name generator.

Dialog UI Redesign - the dialog has been redesigned in preparation for a future update where we will add avatars for the characters to match their currently equipped items. This should come in with the Build that introduces character dialog (looking like 43 right now).
Bug Fixes

Delay on Overwatch, Defend or End Turn - the delay between turns was sped up in the last build but it looks like we missed one more thing that was causing some noticeable delays when doing an interaction that immediately ended the turn.

Commands during Dialog Cutscenes - you could click around disrupting the camera during pirate cutscenes.

Wrong Loot Triggering Evac - if the same item was in both loot boxes, then the system didn’t know which was the “goal” item

Walking through Doors when both sides aren’t fogged

A lot of small stuff!

Build number 40 has been made available for Depth of Extinction, which will also be shown at GDC, of which the hihglights are that there are new interior facility layouts, with new facility types, a trap mission and more.

New interior facility layouts that are closed in and more complex. We also separated the facility into rooms and added doors into the picture. To open a door, just position a character next to it and click on it. Opening a door doesn’t use an action. Enemies will also open doors if they are pursuing you!

It’s a Trap! Yes, you’ve seen this on the encounter text, but now this is our first “new” scenario. In a trap mission, your team spawns deep in the facility and must get back to the sub. Unfortunately for you, a lot of enemies will be hunting you. I had a lot of fun playing these and they have a very different feel since the enemy is the aggressor.

New Facility types: Farms, Reactor and Hospitals. We got a lot of new art for farms put together and some new reactor set pieces. You’ve probably seen the hospital stuff before but now we’ve made it into a cohesive level.

Missions will now "auto end" if all enemies are dead and all loot is picked up (including enemy drops).

Notifications look different now and are consistent between the mission screen and the tactical screens. They pop up on the side. We also added a new modal box to let you see what you’ve picked up on the mission. The mission screen will give you notifications when a new area is unlocked, a new sub is available or a new recruit has joined the team.

We now give you a new recruit after every completed objective.

Character voice over removed and replaced with a “text dialog” system. This is the first version, so expect to see some issues with it but I think it’s much more interesting and we are better able to customize the dialog to the character class.

New Loot and Level Up screens now only appear by clicking buttons that appear on the mission screen. The buttons will wiggle a bit to get your attention if you have a level up.

HOF Studios posted a dev log discussing the latest build of Depth of Extinction:

Build 39 - World Map, Base and Objectives

Depth of Extinction First Access » Devlog
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.

[...]

Learn more about Depth of Destinction's character classes, UI and balancing in the following DevLog:

Build 38 - Character Classes, UI and Balancing

Depth of Extinction First Access » Devlog

It’s been in the works for a few months now, but the Character Class update is finally here! We wrote down some details about it and covered the initial five classes in this blog post. We’ve also brushed up the UI again for this build, as our artist Sebastien (@vakerics) has done some spiffy new icons for the character and weapon classes, plus for icons that are used in other places in the UI. This Build was pretty complex, as you can tell by the version number, as we did 7 revisions to the initial Build 38. I think that is our most ever.

Unfortunately, this update resets save data but we think it’s worth it to start over and experience the new classes! Read on for all the details

First, let’s talk about the skills that can be unlocked in these five new classes first. Each class has 3 skills that can be unlocked when the stat value for the class is upgraded to a particular level.

[...]

The strategy RPG Depth of Extinction will be released in February - here's the DevLog for build 37:

Build 37 - Platform Environments and Pirates! Arrrgh!

Depth of Extinction First Access » Devlog

Finally! Build 37 is here. Save files *should* be compatible but for best experience, i would start a new game.

The biggest (and maybe most interesting change) are the new “Platform” environments.  These battles take place on the surface of the ocean on top of the remains of some ruined facilities. These should make for some different combat situations as the levels are laid out in a completely different way than the current interior levels and will require different tactics in order to succeed.

Platform missions are on the remains of old and ruined facilities that have been retrofitted as homes. Some may have secrets to find!

Camera controls have also been tweaked, especially the right click and drag camera movement (try it or reverse it in settings!). We also reversed the drag direction since I am assured that the old “reverse” drag is what most people consider the regular drag. I guess I’m not most people. I also realized that screen shake had been disabled prior to this build, so that’s back and improved (from before?). Also, a bug that did not actually give full control of the camera to the player when the “manual control” setting was enables has now been fixed. I hope.

A new faction makes an appearance in this build: Pirate! Argh! Avast! Swashbuckle! You’ll have sub to sub combat when things go south in a Pirate encounter. These should be a fun change of pace as they are short and only require you to eliminate the enemies for now. We have some more things planned for pirates in a future build.

Pirate missions are short and sweet

“Mini Boss” missions will now appear on your map and give you a bit of an extra challenge (if you want it). These missions (and the regular Boss missions) now take place in a special Arena style map that is not procedurally generated and has no Fog of War. Just beat the boss and get the heck out of there.

Some “cinematic” style text has been added to the beginning of the Boss and Pirate missions. Our long term plan is to replace all the spoken dialog in the game with this style of text. It just makes more sense from a budget perspective than voice over. We’ve got a lot of plans to make this a nice system to help develop the characters and give each one a specific personality.

Smaller Changes in Build 37:

• Refactored how missions get created/allocated to make them less random such that you won’t see a lot of the same mission type in a given area.
• Each interior station you visit will now have a more distinct theme related to the original purpose that the creators gave it. We call this the “facility” type. Some facilities we have in this build are the Computing Station, Medical Facility and the Robot Assembly area.
• The cover that you see in facilities now has some connection to the enemy faction living there
• UI work to update the loading screen and some of the modals to have a better style and more cohesion between them

[...]

The turn based tactical RPG Depth of Extinction has now a Steam page:

Build 36 of Depth of Extinction is finally here!

What’s included? Glad you asked!

• New Enemy AI
• Updated weapon effects and explosions
• More work on loot drops
• Enemy spotted movement interruption
• Alert Level indicator
• Blood on environment and walls
• Removing Androids as playable characters
• Lots of bug fixes and UX improvements

-> DevLog

Depth of Extinction Trailer

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A limited quantity of Depth of Extinction games is now available:

This First Access game is being sold only in limited quantities. If you are unable to purchase, please sign up for our mailing list to be notified when more copies are available.

Depth of Extinction is a retro style, turn based tactics game with roguelike and RPG elements. 500 years after the waters rose, humanity is dying and only your team of mercs can find out what is trying to bring mankind to extinction. Find cover and attack enemies but be careful because every move is critical if you want to keep your team alive. 

Customize your character with upgrades, skills and weapons as you explore many different environments rendered in beautiful pixel art in this procedurally generated tactical RPG.

Features

• Turn based, tactical control of a squad of mercenary pirates
• Procedurally generated undersea habitats to explore
• Tons of weapons, armor and items to find
• Many character skills to unlock based on stats and chosen class
• Recruit unique characters to your team
• Perma-Death!
• Mission based gameplay
• 15+ different enemy types, each with unique AI and attack patterns
• Beautiful pixel art environments where everything is destructible

The tactical RPG Depth of Extinction is now on Steam Greenlight:

THE SEAS HAVE RISEN

A cataclysmic event has forced humanity to build undersea environments to survive. Now 500 years have passed and we are in decline. Pirates, raiders, androids and worse things scour what is left of these habitats looking to survive.

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GAME FEATURES

• Turn based, tactical control of a squad of mercenary pirates
• Procedurally generated undersea habitats to explore
• Tons of weapons, armor and items to find
• Many character skills to unlock based on stats and chosen class
• Recruit unique characters to your team
• Perma-Death!
• Mission based gameplay
• 15+ different enemy types, each with unique AI and attack patterns
• Beautiful pixel art environments where everything is destructible

Want an Early Access invite? Sign up!

ABOUT THE GAME

Strongly influenced by games such as X-Com (originals and reboots), Fallout 1 & 2, Shadowrun and Wasteland 2, this tactical roguelike RPG stands on its own as a worthy game for fans of those series.

A demo for the tactical RPG Depth of Extinction is out now:

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This battle takes place in the Reactor environment in the DOE Demo. Download a copy on itch.io or Game Jolt.

HOF Studios are developing a new tactical RPG called Depth of Extinction:

A New Tactical RPG Coming in 2017

Depth of Extinction is a retro RPG with a modern turn-based, tactical combat system. Recruit and lead your team on raids in undersea habitats containing all that remains of humanity. Find cover and attack enemies but be careful because every move is critical if you want to keep your team alive.

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A public demo will be available at the end of October.