Tag Archives: subsurface

Subsu… Barotrauma v0.2

Unsurprisingly my “one or two week” guesstimation of the release date wasn’t accurate, but here it is now! Also, thanks for all the name suggestions even though I ended up going with Barotrauma.

Here’s the changelog for the new update:

Multiplayer:
- major optimization and much better lag compensation
- tons of bugfixes that should fix most of the syncing issues
- admins can play on their own server without launching another instance of the game
- setting the job preferences actually does something now
- reconnecting to a server if the connection is temporarily lost works much better now
- proper error messages if UPnP port forwarding fails

Items:
- security guard gear: ballistic vest, helmet & stun baton
- wifi components that can be used for transmitting signals between devices
- wall labels with a configurable text
- a bunch of new sprites and sounds
- wearing a diving suit slows the characters down
- supercapacitors
- attempting to fire the railgun when there are no shells loaded doesn't consume power anymore

Submarine:
- improved version of Aegir
- a new submarine, "Vellamo"
- nuclear reactors overheat much more slowly and there are warning signals for overheating and a remote shutdown button in both of the default subs
- ambient sounds change according to the speed of the sub
- fixed parts of the submarine getting stuck in the level on collision
- the autopilot is a much better driver now (although it may still crash at very tight spots)

Crew:
- aiming underwater is much easier
- improved humanoid animations
- stunned/dead characters can be dragged
- all characters can now use plasma cutters and welders regardless of their skills, but insufficient skill level will make them flicker and work much less efficiently
- same for the harpoon gun, anyone can shoot but lower levels will make the gun less accurate
- rewiring devices may cause electric shocks if the electrical engineering level is too low

Creatures:
- some random "prop fish" swimming in the background
- a new hostile creature

Misc:
- a tutorial going through all the basic tasks and game mechanics (more in-depth tutorials will be added in future versions, including one for making custom subs)
- an auto-updater in the launcher
- the game generates a detailed report if it crashes
- physics optimization (i.e. using simplified physics & animation for off-screen characters and disabling them entirely if they're far enough)
- lighting optimization (caching the lights/shadows if a light source hasn't moved instead of recalculating them every frame)
- two new background music tracks
- better looking explosions
- better looking water particle effects
- minor UI improvements
- better UI scaling on different resolutions
- health/oxygen bar improvements and status icons for bleeding and water pressure	
- gap-hull connections are visible in the sub editor
- pumps don't have to be manually connected to a hull in the editor anymore, they automatically empty/fill the hull they're inside
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Barotrauma?

Subsurface is progressing nicely and I’ll be releasing a new version in a week or two. However, it probably won’t be called Subsurface anymore. Back in the first posts about the game I mentioned that Subsurface was working title, but it kind of stuck and I started liking it. Now I’ve noticed that the name is a bit problematic: apparently there’s an indie game studio called Subsurface Games and a dive log program called Subsurface, which makes the game somewhat hard to find by googling.

So, I guess a new name would be in order. So far I’ve come up with one potential name, which I think sounds very appropriate for the game:

Barotrauma:

Barotrauma is physical damage to body tissues caused by a difference in pressure between a gas space inside, or in contact with the body, and the surrounding fluid.

Barotrauma typically occurs when the organism is exposed to a significant change in ambient pressure, such as when a scuba diver, a free-diver or an airplane passenger ascends or descends, or during uncontrolled decompression of a pressure vessel

 

If any of you want to share your thoughts about the name or have any other name suggestions, I’d love to hear them!

Also, here are some of the things that will be in the next update:

– Major optimization and a ton of bugfixes/improvements in the networking code. And by major I mean MAJOR: most of the time I’ve spent on the game after the last update has gone in testing everything I can think of and making the multiplayer mode smooth and stable. The game now also generates a detailed report whenever it crashes, which will make it much easier to fix the bugs that I’ve missed.

– Several things to prevent people from sinking the sub within minutes of the round starting. There are security officers armed with stun batons now, who may attempt to immobilize and capture saboteurs. Blowing up the reactor is also much harder: it takes almost a minute for it to overheat, and when temperature starts to get critical, a warning light switches on in the command room and a button can be pressed to shut the reactor down remotely.

– A basic tutorial which walks players through the most common tasks on board the sub. In the future there will also be additional tutorials that take a more in-depth look at the various game mechanics (and why not one that explains how to use the submarine editor).

– Server admins can now play themselves without starting another instance of the game.

– A bunch of new items, graphics, sounds and a second submarine in addition to Aegir Mark I.

– An auto-updater, so you won’t need to re-download the entire game whenever there’s an update.

– Linux port of the game is almost finished and will most likely be released alongside the next update. After that, I’ll start looking in to the Mac port.

dgfjdsfgb launcher

Subsurface v0.1

title text

The first public pre-alpha version of Subsurface is now out!

DOWNLOAD LINK

There’s also a wiki now, and separate sections for Subsurface on the SCP-CB Undertow Games forums. There isn’t much content in either of them yet, but I’ll be adding more stuff in the following days (including tutorials for modding and the game itself).

EDIT: The current wiki is temporary, it will be moved to gamepedia shortly.

 

Wiring and signal processing

Subsurface now has wiring and signal processing mechanics similar to the ones in Space Station 13. For those of you who aren’t familiar with SS13, think redstone in Minecraft. Basically different constructions/items can send various signals through wires to other constructions, and with some logic gates and other components you can built pretty complicated contraptions.

Here’s a clip of connecting a button to a door – I think I’ve managed to make the system a little more intuitive than in SS13:

 

You just have to equip a screwdriver to open the “connection panel” of the item, and then equip a wire and drag it to the connection of your choosing. In this case “signal_out”-connection of the button, which just sends out “1” when someone pushes the button, and “toggle”-connection of the door which toggles the state of the door whenever it receives a signal.

At the moment there aren’t that many components to use in the contraptions, just basic logic gates (and, or, not), but at least the following are to be added soon:

  • “signal comparer”: sends out “1” if it receives a signal matching to some user-determined string
  • “voice processor”: whenever someone says something in the vicinity of the component, it sends out what the person said as a string
  • “speaker”: reads the input it receives out loud (not using a speech synthesizer though, the message just appears in the chat box at the lower right corner of the screen)
  • “wifi component”: sends out the signal it receives through an user-determined a wifi channel – can be used to send data remotely
  • probably something similar to the RegEx components in SS13 in case you need to analyze an incoming signal in a more complicated way
  • obviously something that can be used to do some damage – maybe a detonator which can be connected to whatever explosives you have available

So, what can you do with these? Here’s some ideas:

  • a system which only allows a door between an airlock and the facility to be opened if the airlock is free of water, and prevents either of the doors to be opened if the other door is open
  • a voice prosessor in a command room, which shuts down every door in the facility if it hears someone saying “SHUT DOWN EVERYTHING”, or some secret phrase set by the captain
  • a system which analyzes air quality through the facility and isolates sections that are running low on oxygen
  • shutting down non-vital devices/systems if running low on power
  • functional computers (I’ll be disappointed if we won’t see anyone build a tic-tac-toe game inside Subsurface)
  • a number of detonators and explosives hidden throughout the facility, connected to wifi components and signal comparers allowing the detonators to be activated remotely using some secret phrase – or the moment any of the players says “lol” in the vicinity of a voice processor


Some men women just want to watch the world burn drown

Harpoon

Two clips of a little addition to Subsurface:

As you can probably see, it’s still a work in progress, but already pretty fun to play around with.

Also, if any of you are wondering about the release date SCP – Containment Breach v1.1; the release of Containment Breach – Run has unfortunately been pushed back a little and as the plan is to release v1.1 along with it, it will still be a while before it’s out.