Deepclaim 1.2: two careers, a Daily Dive and Steam achievements

The biggest update since launch. It finishes the list from the forum, answers the two design questions from the same post, and adds the most-asked-for features. Thank you for all the feedback!

Two careers, side by side

• Keep a Peaceful career and a Perilous career at the same time, each with its own dive: cash, upgrades, kit, jobs and world. CONTINUE on the main menu picks up either one.
• NEW CAREER replaces only the mode you pick, and asks first. Your existing career is kept exactly as it is.
• Claim, the Deep Charter, relics, the ore codex, records, paints and achievements are shared. Each career opens its own seas; a prestige opens its seas for both.

The Daily Dive

• One dive a day, the same for everyone: the same sea, the same rock, the same sub.
• You get ONE tank. The rig can't refill it, so bank what you can carry home before it runs dry. Your score is what you bank.
• Your first dive each day (UTC) goes on that day's Steam leaderboard; after it, practise all you like. It never touches your careers or your Claim.
• Each day is the next sea down, from the Home Shoal all the way to the Claim, then round again. The first Daily is in the Home Shoal. On the Salt Throne's day the sub carries 12 plates instead of 6.

Steam

• Achievements are now Steam achievements. Any you earned before 1.2 unlock on Steam the first time you start it.
• Your friends can see where you're diving.
• Shift+Tab opens the Steam overlay and pauses your dive. It no longer uses your item on the way: an item on Shift is now used as you let go of the key, so the overlay can never set a bomb or fire your beacon.
• Steam Cloud saves will be switched on shortly after this update. We'll post when they are.

Prestige and the Engine (from the forum)

• Deep Charter levels now work the moment you buy them: a Signing Bonus pays its cash at once, and Veteran Rig lifts your current upgrades straight away.
• After a prestige your new career starts at the rig, on the PRESTIGE tab, so you can spend the Claim before your first dive.
• Crisp braking: the Engine keeps its top speed, but when you let go the sub now stops as quickly as it did at Mk1, at any Engine mark. High-Engine subs are finally easy to steer.

Perilous is fairer and fiercer

• Ramming works as promised: charge into a creature at full throttle, from your very first dive, and it dies. (It used to be wired backwards, so a head-on ram hurt YOU.)
• Creatures now arrive from out of sight, in the caves, instead of popping up right beside you or inside your own tunnel.
• Kills stay killed: the water where you made a kill stays quiet for a few minutes.
• A fair warning: a creature that has just arrived can't bite straight away, and a hunter that spots you flares its lure or eye for a moment before it strikes. Once it has seen you, its lure or eye shows even in the darkest water, so the warning is never just a sound.
• The rig is a safe harbour: nothing is born near the surface, nothing can follow you up into the rig's water, and docking or being towed home clears the sea around you.

New things to find

• 31 achievements (17 new): some for your first hour, and long ladders for the deep game. They have their own AWARDS tab at the rig, and each pays a little Claim.
• Treasure maps: some sunken chests hold a map to a hoard buried off to one side. X marks the spot, and a gold needle points the way.
• Beyond checkpoints: every fifth level of the Beyond you reach becomes a place to start from on the CHART.
• Every sea now has its own darkness and lamp reach, and glowing ore glints through the dark.
• Lava glows: it shines through the dark in every sea, with a soft glow spilling into the water exactly where it would scald you.
• The Vents now burn from their Magma Shelf (about 3,640 m) down, as the sea's name promises.
• Your sub changes as you upgrade it: at 10, 30 and 80 marks an upgrade shows on the hull.
• A second RECORDS page (X): your play time and every career you've burned.

Less busywork, more information

• An item bar: keys 1-7 pick a kit slot, Q/E skip the slots you carry none of, and you can click a slot.
• At the rig: RESTOCK buys back the kit you set out with, CLAIM ALL claims every finished job, and an optional Auto-sell on Docking sells your hold for you.
• Sell your kit: the ITEMS tab has a SELL button (X). A piece sells for half of what you paid; kit that came free with a job counts as $0, but selling it still frees the slot and weight.
• Docking shows a short dive report, and the rig suggests one upgrade based on what held you back.
• The HUD shows your record in this sea and the Claim a prestige would bank now. Cash counts up on screen, and gains pop.
• A depth gauge down the right edge shows this sea with its core as the goal, and the hull creaks as you near crush depth.
• The death screen tells you what sank you, with a tip, and waits for you.
• A HOW TO PLAY page in the game (main menu and pause menu). The tips now name your own keys, or your controller's buttons, and no longer cut each other off.
• Hold W/S (or up/down on a controller) to scroll long lists at the rig.
• Relic markers on the CHART and in the HUD show which seas' relics you've found.
• Combos explained: the counter shows the cash your streak has paid, and RECORDS shows your best combo and everything combos have earned you. The ARM bar now says it's the Salvage Arm's charge.
• A new career's Home Shoal posts starter jobs a new player can actually reach.
• Air canisters and air pockets now keep pace with the sea: they give the same breathing time in every sea.

Controller and comfort

• Once you use a controller, prompts name its buttons (Xbox or PlayStation), and the game reads whichever pad you're using.
• Controller rumble, with a slider in Settings.
• New settings: Reduce Flashing, Deep Water Darkness, Larger HUD (great on a small screen or a Steam Deck), and a tap-to-toggle Salvage Arm. Colourblind Marks now also put a letter on each power-up capsule.

Fixes

• Your saved dive is safe on the title screen: changing a setting, pressing F11 or quitting from the title before pressing CONTINUE could overwrite it, and leaving through MAIN MENU could put you back at the rig.
• Late-game "single haul" jobs no longer show a negative target ($-9.22Qi) or finish themselves. A broken job in an old save is swapped for a fresh one automatically.
• Claiming a job while your hold is full of ore now asks you to sell first, instead of leaving its free item behind. CLAIM ALL says when an item had to be left behind, and the JOBS tab warns you before you claim.
• A job keeps the sea it was posted in: it counts there and in any deeper sea, but not back in shallower water.
• Creatures are no longer deleted while still on screen (wide monitors, or near the side of a sea).
• The Settings list now scrolls, so every option fits on small screens.
• Controller safety: a stick still held when a question or menu opens can no longer move it. It used to be possible to flip "Erase All Progress" to YES, or to land on QUIT when pausing mid-dive.
• A racing wheel, pedals or a flight stick plugged in beside your gamepad no longer takes over the steering.
• Reduce Flashing now also steadies a bomb's fuse light and the PERILOUS tag.
• The Iron Will achievement now says what it asks for: take six cores.

If you haven't played since launch

The 1.1 update also added full mouse support, a BUY MAX button (M), an "Are you sure?" before PRESTIGE, late-game numbers that never go negative, a pause when the window loses focus (with your air and hull saved with your dive), and controller fixes.

If you're enjoying Deepclaim, a Steam review (good or bad) helps a solo developer more than anything. Thank you!