The adventures of two "Brilliant" Sailors(From the Depths campaign)

[Breakaway25]

Welcome to From the Depths, a game where we take control of a faction, create a navy, and take on the world. Follow the campaign of myself and @KuatYards as we start our campaign to conquer the world. Where we build crazy ships,create overpowered weapons, tick off the locals, and get our butts handed too us at ever corner.



From the Depths is a game that combines aspects from Robocraft, World of Warships, Warship Gunner, and half a dozen other games. Players create ships, airplanes, fortresses, airships, submarines, and spaceships, then arm them with custom missiles, guns, and lasers, and then attack everyone who comes close. The game features a dynamic campaign, where the player's faction fights with twelve other factions for the control of the sea. The campaign is dynamic and each faction has a unique build style and background.

Me and Kuat started this time like always, on the crappiest fortress possible.


The fortress the game gives you at the start is too big, under-powered, under-gunned, and way too much of a resource hog. This thing won't be around for very long.

Each vehicle in the game is powered by an engine, which is customly created by the player. The engines supply power, which lets ships move, aircraft fly, and keeps fortresses from exploding.

The thing that comes stock with this thing was way too underpowered for our needs, so we scrapped it right off
New Engine:

Once we knew that the fortress wouldn't explode from under us, we decided to focus on the next step, building ships to supplement our fleet. Now, the game has a resource system. Resources are gathered from resource zones by collectors over time, and are used to build vessels.

The first is Natural, that just means wood and stone
Then there's Metal, which is used to make armor, weapons, and engines
Next is Oil, which fuels our creations
Then Scrap, which is used for repairs
And finally, Crystal, which builds computers and AI systems


Luckily, the starting fortress is located in one such zone, and has several collectors built it. But at the start of the game our war chest was so bare that we couldn't build much of anything

So we started by building the only thing we could afford, a PT boat:


We designed this thing beforehand, it's a simple vessel armed with four torpedo launchers in the bow, and, best of all, it's cheap as hell. But unfortunately, we could still only afford one. The game gave us a decent frigate to start with, so this will be the second ship added to our growing navy.

When we started, our fortress was located smack dab in the middle of enemy territory.

There are bad guys to the North, bad guys to the East, and they all want to see us wiped from the face of the map. Now, we could just sit around and let them strike first, or we could do it ourselves. So the 1st Squadron consisting of one PT boat and the frigate set out, hoping to clear the next sector, and expand our territory.

It wasn't long before we ran into our first enemy, a fleet of the Deepwater Guard. The Guard are a hodgepodge of pirate factions who like to use airships armed with rapid firing cannons. Luckily, the fleet we ran into was only a small border guard of three fliers and three ships.

The frigate opened the battle with a salvo of missiles, while the PT boat ran in close to fire off its torpedoes

It wasn't long before the enemy began to fall to our missiles and torpedoes.


And soon the battle was over. Our ships took some minor damage, but we managed to take the sector away from the Deepwater Guard, doubling our territory.


But while we may have won this first fight, there is still a lot of ocean left to capture, and many more people out there to fight for its control.



Time to start building.

 

[Breakaway25]

After the last battle several problems with our ships were made painfully evident. The PT boat pretty much just sailed in a circle then fired its torpedoes at nothing. So instead of trying to fix the thing, we decided that a new class a ship was in order. It had to be cheap resource wise, and fairly strong.


We decided to build a destroyer style ship built around versatile guns. Knowing that we'd be facing the Deepwater Guard's airship spam for a long time to come, AA firepower had to play fairly heavily into the design. The hull was of a standard shape with pontoons to provide additional buoyancy and help the ship keep an even keel.

This was the result:

The Mahan class destroyer. Made primarily out of wood, so it's fairly cheap. With one 5" gun fore, and one aft, it packs a pretty decent punch for such an early ship. To deal with fliers, a rapid firing, dual-barreled 40mm AA gun was fitted above the superstructure.

Even though the Mahan is cheap, we didn't have enough resources to build on just yet. So with the possibility of new power to infuse into our navy, it was time to do a little map control. The 1st Squadron(still one frigate and the DerpT boat) were sent north to push back the fog of war, and add another sector to our territory.



After an easy victory that sent the Deepwater Guard reeling, the 1st squadron turned around and headed back to the fortress. During our little land grab, the fortress had gathered enough resources to make the construction of a Mahan possible, so that was the next move.



With no more need for the DerpT Boat, it was sentenced to scrapping, and was stricken from the Naval register. The newly commissioned Mahan moved up to fill its spot in 1st Squadron, and the new ship was sent off on its first test of battle. Due to rumors and scattered inteligence reports of possible resources to the east, that was where the new ship was sent first.



We pushed back the fog of war enough to discover that the reports were right, a brand new resource zone was discovered. That was just the thing we needed to infuse our economy with some much needed materials. Unfortunately, the Deepwater guard had beaten us here. They had parked a fortress of their own right on top of the point, and we would have to destroy it, and its escorting fleet, in order to claim the point.



The battle started off well enough, but a fatal flaw with the Mahan's controlling AI was quickly discovered. The new destroyer couldn't fire its guns. After several minutes of pounding, both ships were lost forever, our first casualties in the war for control. With our Navy decimated by the loss, we retreated to the home fortress in order to fix our ship. With one more trip back to the drawing board, the problems with the Mahan's AI were rectified, and it was passed off for entry into our now empty fleet. But after blowing all of our resources onto the first ship, we were broke, again. We did manage to increase our territory, but with no ships to protect our gains, the Deepwater Guard could take our conquered gains back with impunity. We had to get ships back to sea, and fast.

 

[teslashark]

Man, wooden DDG-Xs! Not even wooden color, but wood! This game looks like a ton of labor even as I enjoy Battleship/Navalcraft...
Battleship Muramasa | teslashark [pixiv]
装甲巡洋艦 コルチャーク——航行中！ | teslashark [pixiv]

 

[Avalanche]

Woah. That sounds like a restart worthy error there.

 

[Breakaway25]

Man, wooden DDG-Xs! Not even wooden color, but wood! This game looks like a ton of labor even as I enjoy Battleship/Navalcraft...

Click to shrink...

They only start as wood, eventually we can get enough resources to pull bigger stuff in, with much better materials.

Woah. That sounds like a restart worthy error there.

Click to shrink...

We got it fixed eventually. The alpha state of this game means bugs occur regularly, and we forgot to test the AI in the design phase. A little tweaking and the ship works great.

 

[Avalanche]

We got it fixed eventually. The alpha state of this game means bugs occur regularly, and we forgot to test the AI in the design phase. A little tweaking and the ship works great.

Click to shrink...

No I meant like, if I suffered such a catastrophic loss in my first real battle so early in, in a 4X RTS game, that would be cause for me to simply restart the campaign.

 

[Breakaway25]

It's not that hard to recover from this early on. With the resource gatherer intact, it doesn't take long to replace ships. Once the design is saved to the game, multiple copies can be spawned in and built with current resources.

 

[Guilliman]

This is great.

 

[Breakaway25]

This report's getting split into two to satisfy the image limit, so expect a part 2 soon.

With our fleet destroyed from last time, we decided to work on something else while our fortress gathered resources for a new ship. There are two ways to push back the fog of war in this game, by sending scout parties, or by building ships with radar antennas. While I worked on making the fortress more efficient, Kuat went to a nearby island and constructed a radar tower. This should expand our view range nicely.





By the time the tower was complete, we had gathered enough resources to construct a brand new Mahan class ship. With our fleet restarted, and a good view of the surrounding ocean, it was time to take a look at the map, and plan strategy. The radar pushed back the fog enough to uncover a Deepwater Guard resource point, and a stronghold fortress. We decided to hold off attacking either until we had enough to construct a second Mahan.



Wait what's this?



As part of their war against us, the other factions will sometimes send conquest fleets in order to try to destroy us. Looks like we were overdue for one. That's a strength 40 fleet by the way, the little sector guard fleets we have been facing have been no larger than strength 15. It looks like it's time to ramp up defenses. We quickly threw down a simple "Swarmer" missile turret on the fortress. This thing shotguns things with a swarm of simple missiles. While it's devastating at close ranges, it can't hit anything at long ones.



With our fortress now sporting at least a little defense, we decided to take a look at the map again, and... You have got to be kidding me.



A SECOND RAIDING FLEET!!!??! TIme to add a little power to our fleet, in the form of a second Mahan to round out 1st Squadron.

Rare view of the citadel of a Mahan:


The newly reconstituted 1st Squadron moved out to intercept the first raider fleet, and really showed their teeth. The rapid firing AA guns ripping right through the Deepwater Guard airships.




We managed to rip right through this raider fleet, and keep on going. With minimal damage to our ships, this was a complete victory. After we had defeated the first raiders, it was time to check on the progres of the second one, and.... OH COME ON



A third raider fleet??? Welp, things just got interesting. A quick plan was made to take out the sector to our direct east(the one with the strength 15 fleet)that would allow us to make a buffer zone between our fortress and the oncoming raiders. The plan worked beautifully, we knocked out the guarding fleet, and retook the sector, but the raiders sailed right through without even stopping. Looks like we're about to have one hell of a fight on our hands.

 

[Breakaway25]

We had planned to build a third Mahan, but the ship costs about 20,000 natural, and we only had about 5,000 when the first battle ended. So we were going to have to fight off both incoming raider fleets with the ships we have now. Hold on a minute is that a....



FOURTH RAIDER FLEET????? How many of these damned things are there???

You know what:


This fight just went from long odds, to Sparta odds. Time to think about this. The way the raiders are moving, two of the fleets will hit our fortress at the exact same time. We decided to send 1st Squadron north to deal with one of the raiders.



In a heated battle with the raiders, we managed to destroy their flagship, a nasty piece of work known as an Atlas class airship.



But after suffering major damage to the Mahans, we were forced to retreat back to the home fortress and repair. Not the best showing on our part, but every ship the enemy doesn't have is one less ship that can shoot at us.



Now with two raider fleets descending upon us, it's time to bring the fortress in to let its missiles do some work.





With the fortress' Macross Missile Massacre dealing with the air threats, the Mahans were free to deal with the surface threats. Chief among them, a nasty piece of work known as a Kalmar(the ugly one in the middle)



THe Mahans were able to engage him at range, and pummel him with gunfire outside of the range at which he could return fire.

Meanwhile, at the fortress,



Still scary, still effective. Just keep doing what you're doing. The battle dragged on for 40 minutes, but in the end we whittled the Deepwater Guard down to one little Antlion, easy pickings.



With our base safe from assault for the time being, it's time to build up our forces and plan our next move. Maybe a new ship class?

 

[Breakaway25]

This is a thing written by KuatYards, who is having trouble starting an account here, so I'm posting it for him.

After the Spartan Battle, we decided we needed more firepower. After experimenting with a few "out there" ideas, such as what amounted to a flying Fletcher Class Destroyer, we began work on a Missile Frigate. I figured I'd take the chance to explain our design process.

Our first step to designing a new ship is always:
1: What does it need to do
2: How much damage does it need to be able to take and
3: What's our budget

The answers in this case were

1: Provide long range accurate missile fire against all threats
2: Not much, should be staying at long range
3: Low on resources, preferred material of wood

Step one to actually building a new ship, sketch out the shape of hull we want:


Step 1

That gives us a guidline for how many things we can fit, and more importantly, what we have to leave out.

After that we go about fleshing out the hull, sculpting upward and downward, using the original sheet as the lower deck.


Step 2

We now verify that she floats, then select the location of her Citadel. A ship's citadel is an armored section deep in the hull that houses all the fuel, ammo, engines, "All the bits that don't react well to being shot at" ~Jingles


Layout of Citadel

Here you can see a trait common to our designs. Compartmentalization. Every section is seperate from all others, if on gets flooded, the others do not. This helps greatly with survivability as well as when designing systems, the compartment walls are great for keeping things seperated.

After the citadel is in place, we design the decking and superstructure, this gives us an idea of where weapons, shields, sensors, generally anything that's not critical to the function of the ship, will go. As well as make it look less like a floating wooden brick.


Superstructure

Now onto the "PEW PEW BOOM BOOM" bit of our designs, as stated, our primary weapon will be missiles, for ease of construction and 360 degree field of fire, we will go with a pair of VLS (Vertical Launch System) cells. A cluster of launch tubes in one area of the ship.


For'ard VLS Cell

Now what if something gets up close and personal with this ship? That's not her role but plan for the worst, that way you're always prepared. We need to fit a gun somewhere on this ship, oh what's this?


That's convenient

There's a nice spot in the bow and stern for a 5" gun to be fitted... you'd almost think we planned this


5" gun with shrapnel shield


Design and statistics of our 5" gun's ammunition

After coping those weapons to the stern and fitting AI's, she was finished. Atleast for now, at some point down the line we will almost certianly retrofit her with new systems or upgrades. But for now she's finished.

Here's a cutaway of the finished ship, always like seeing these





Her final costs/stats

Now that she's finished, we need a name. We decided on the USS Leahy, named after Fleet Admiral William Leahy, Chief of Staff during WW2, as well as the USS Leahy, the first USN ship designed to use missiles as her primary weapon system.

And that's how we design ships, please let me know what we're doing wrong, always looking to improve.

 

[Breakaway25]

Well, we managed to get past the first resource zone, only to discover that I had set the campaign to its hardest difficulty. How did we realize this, six assault fleets descended on our position at the same time. The fact that we can't really get anything done when we're constantly fighting off enemies convinced us to look at restarting the campaign. Then a new patch was released completely overhauling the way engines and resource collection works. Now fleets in the field will have to be resupplied with fuel and ammo in order to keep fighting.

In light of these changes, we will be restarting our campaign just as soon as we figure out how to use the new system.

 

[Gitaxian]

I've been working on my own campaign recently. Here's a few tips for using the new resource system:

- Make sure to include a small carrying capacity for resources on ALL of your ships. Primarily because you need to actually collect resources from defeated enemy ships now, and secondarily for mid-battle modifications if you run into issues. I've had battles which ended up with the remaining enemy flyer unable to damage my ships, but with no guns actually capable of hitting it. Being able to throw together a quick missile launcher when you need to is great.

- Resources are automatically transferred between ships. What you want to do is set all your ships and your bases to be a part of the same supply group. Then, select one base where you're going to build your ships and set it to keep full of all resources (NOT supplies like ammo and fuel), and set every other vehicle/base to keep empty. That way, resources will automatically transfer towards your shipyard whenever possible.

- For supplies like ammo, do the reverse - set everything to keep empty except your combat ships, so that they will be automatically refilled.

- Make a small fortress or ship that's just big enough to hold a single misc. resource storage. It should cost less than 2000 RP. If you set up a bunch in a line between your resource zones so that the green circles around them on the map connect, you can instantly transfer resources to wherever you want.

 

[CompassJimbo]

I need to look up videos of this. It looks fun.

 

[Breakaway25]

I reccomend Aavak or Enter Elysium's Lps, they're are the ones who got me into this game.