Deepest Blue

Deepest Blue is a space game set as humanity takes its first steps into deep space and encounters the SEIDDAB, an old enemy. You control up to nine ships and send them on missions, which you can fly yourself or assign to co-pilots. The scenario spans several star systems and unfolds as you explore sectors and discover warp gates.

Missions and exploration

You can take on missions or fly freelance in an open world. Missions include:

• Pioneer: find new warp paths and discover where they lead.
• Survey: map new sectors and use stealth to scan unidentified features or enemy bases.
• Prospect: collect several types of resources and ship them to a processing plant.
• Deploy: collect base parts or munitions from a base and deliver them to a deployment point.
• Freight: ship cargo between bases.
• Military: attack or defend, hunt intruding craft, or support other missions.
• Salvage: recover freight, base parts or munitions abandoned in combat.

As a freelance pilot, you can buy and sell freight, search for valuable resources and sell them to the highest bidder. You can also accept renegade missions or switch off your FOF to go off grid and try to force other pilots to abandon their cargo. If identified, you receive a bounty, and you can hunt ships with bounties on them.

Factions and pilots

The game simulates over 500 ships interacting in real time. Your actions affect the development of your faction and can shift the balance of the conflict. You gain experience and credits when you fly a ship; co-pilots earn you a share of credits while gaining experience themselves.

Other pilots behave like player ships. NPC pilots can contact you for help or join forces with you, and gain experience based on their completed missions, becoming more formidable in combat. You can switch control to or from a co-pilot at almost any point, letting them take over an action you do not want to control or allowing you to take a break without pausing the game.

Ships and combat

Combat ranges from first-person dogfights to controlling multiple gun banks on capital ships, which can fire broadsides in up to four directions. You can manage energy and shields and adjust damage controls manually or leave them to the ship's AI. Weapons include beams, missiles, mines, plasma shells and decoys. Ships can have up to four electronic enhancements, including stealth, jamming and various power-ups, as well as boosters for emergencies. Ships are controlled remotely, so pilots are safe when a ship is destroyed, but the ship must be replaced.

You can customise existing ship designs or build new ones from parts, with more parts becoming available as technology advances. Ships can be tested in a combat arena while the game is running.

Ship and fleet management

From the Ship Form, you can monitor your ships, group them into squads, assign missions, swap co-pilots, order new ships and choose a ship for the camera to follow. Squads can include NPC ships, and you can serve as a squad leader, fleet leader or squad follower. Some missions may require several squads. A carrier can join a squad to carry, rearm or repair damaged small ships.

Systems and trade

A 3D map displays known star systems and the warp paths you have pioneered. You can view each system's sectors and discovered sector warps, then inspect known sectors for surveyed features and identified ships. Enemy ships may appear as sightings. The maps let you set a destination for your current ship and show its mission route.

Trade forms show market price trends and resource volumes. You can buy resources from bases, collect them through prospecting or salvage, and trade resources you own with a base.

Scenario settings

The scenario generator lets you adjust scenario size and difficulty by changing the number of systems for each side and their development. You can add unexplored systems. A densely populated scenario brings combat closer, while a sparsely populated one puts more emphasis on exploration and building bases.