Version 1.1 is out. It is the first big Early Access update, and it changes most of what happens under the water. If you already own the game, it arrives inside the game: see "Getting it" at the bottom.
Equipment that works
Fourteen tools now do the job they are named for. The manipulator arm reaches, grips and lifts, with a cursor that shows where it can get to. Lift bags swell and carry a crate to the surface. The cutter takes a net apart strand by strand. There are corers, an airlift, a cradle, a grapnel, markers, a beacon, a sonar sweep, a towed fish, and cameras and lamps on pan and tilt. Every one of them has its own sound, and thrusters now kick up the seabed behind you.
Things go wrong, and you can do something about it
Eight kinds of boat fault, each with a drill you work from the seat. A cabin fire with masks, an isolator and a bottle. An alarm board that tells you what is wrong and lets you silence it. Divers over the side get their own faults and hazards, and they feel the depth: narcosis, decompression, cold and bad air. Wrecks carry snag nets. Sharks give you a warning before they come close. Before every dive there is a checklist, and some boats leave the yard with a flaw nobody has found yet.
A bigger dock
The parts bin goes from 60 to 118: a titanium sphere, a twin-lock hull, a nose dome, landing legs, trim, releases, lithium cells, new sensors and cameras, red and UV lamps, and more. Parts snap to surfaces, mirror in symmetry sets, and take settings. You can share a design as a code, take a new boat on a sea trial before you trust it, and paint it in your own livery and emblem. Six more lines of work open on the board.
A sea that is alive, and a company with neighbours
Fish scatter from a loud boat, come to bait and gather under lights at night, and the water glows in your wake. The sea has weather now, with a forecast and an A-frame that will not launch in a gale. Rescue calls come in with an air clock running. Your crew feel the pressure and say so. Two rival firms work the same water, and THE PUDDING BAY GAZETTE prints what everyone did, including you. If your company runs out of fit leads, you can sign a hired hand to keep the boats going. Difficulty presets let you choose how forgiving the ocean is.
Settings, accessibility and steadier running
Graphics presets from VERY LOW to EPIC, each row with its measured cost, and a frame-time readout. A new ACCESSIBILITY page: colour vision modes for the whole interface (red and green are never the only signal), text and subtitle size, a motion slider for every moving view effect, reduced flashes, and hold or toggle for every held key. The game is now a release build, smaller on disk, and if it ever stops it writes a crash report on your own machine and tells you where it is. Nothing is sent anywhere.
VR
In the VR build the dive instruments move onto screens in the cabin around your seat, so the view through the glass stays clear, and your hands can work the cabin controls and the drills directly.
Getting it
Start the game. If you have pasted your order link once (SETTINGS, UPDATES, ORDER LINK), it offers 1.1 and installs it for you, then starts again. If you have not, paste it now: it is in your order email, or use Get your download. Your companies and saves come with you.
Bought on launch day and your SETTINGS has no UPDATES page? Your copy came before the updater. Download the 1.1 installer from your order page once and run it over the top; every update after that arrives in the game.
Tell us
Found something broken? Press F8 in the game: it makes a folder with a screenshot, the log and your note, kept on your own machine. Send it, or just a few lines, to [email protected].