The new version is up now! The changes to the way the game handles moving the submarine “under the hood” were definitely the the biggest and most time-consuming change in this update, and unfortunately it isn’t something that’s visible for the players (at least until underwater ruins and shipwrecks are added). There’s still quite a lot of other additions and a huge amount of bugfixes in the update, as seen in the changelog.
Here’s some gameplay footage that shows some of the new stuff:
Since the last update I’ve been mostly working on changing how the game handles moving the submarine which is why there hasn’t been much to show. In the current version the levels actually move around the submarine while the sub itself is stationary, which makes it really difficult to have multiple submarines in the same level, or any structures outside the sub for that matter. Even though a game mode with multiple subs isn’t on my to-do list at the moment (maybe at some point in the future though), some sort of explorable underwater structures (sunken subs, alien ruins…?) are a must, so I needed another way of moving the submarine.
How it works now is that neither the submarine or the level actually move: instead there’s an invisible submarine-shaped physics object moving around the level and the insides of the ship are just rendered wherever that object is.
Here are a couple of screenshots of some other additions:
Some UI improvements
Items and devices are grouped by category and the fabricators actually work now
Nicer looking levels and a new enemy
The crew members now have an AI and can take orders from the player
