The Oceans are the World of Aquanox Deep Descent. They are the game’s “Outdoors”, where players will spend most of their time in the game.
The world of Aqua is first and foremost divided according to the oceans. Further divisions are based on the ruling factions of each part of the sea or other geo-political circumstances. Most of the game takes place near the deepest trenches of all oceans, respectively around the ridges of major tectonic plates. Here hydrothermal vent fields can be found, which are at the core of the game’s political conflicts.
The oceans dictate the broad, natural division of Aqua. In the actual game they are further divided into larger zones as well as minor segments which the player will be able to visit.
Our gameworld will be divided into zones, as players progress through the story they unlock each zone and they become available for exploration. In a nutshell, it’s a semi-open world. Once a zone is unlocked, it can be revisited at any given time.
Next to directly fast traveling via the world map, players will have several methods of traveling available:
Current Gateways, not to be confused with any kind of space “Jump-gates” as such. In the game there will be gateways that artificially produce high speed currents, like the Gulf Stream – just much more focused and smaller in size. By using these high speed streams, ships can travel faster with minimal effort required, the same way a ship can sail downstream on a river.
For traveling between zones, that are not directly connected to each other, players will be able to use the following types of these gateways:
Within Zone Current Generators that act as support for reaching one side of a zone to the other side of it. They are generally much weaker in power. Traveling with them is optional, they just provide faster movement within the sub-zones. The player can actively see the travel as it does not prompt a loading screen. Smaller types of these generators can be compared to turbo pads in racing games.
Connecting Tunnels, in between sub-sections of zones. These are not really fast travel elements as such, but rather tunnels to travel through larger cliff formations. They do however provide a level of artificial current. This allows us to divide up various zones into smaller sub-sections in order to optimize the game performance. These will prompt a form of Loading Screen to load the next section.
Large Zone Gates. These are high powered current generators, which provide fast travel options between distant points on Earth. There will be one Large Zone Gate per major zone, for example North Atlantic region gate, Indian Ocean gate, etc. Travel is not visible, they also prompt a Loading Screen.
Of course adventurers who thrive for risks and danger can always choose to travel manually, which increases the chance to find hidden secrets.
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