From the Depths
From the Depths is a Physics-based Real Time Strategy (RTS) game, and the first game produced by Brilliant Skies, although it's really more of a parasocial cooperative project between the official development team and various members of the playerbase.
Yes, you read that right, it's a physics-based RTS game. Want another shocker? All of the vehicles and buildings are voxel-based, and many of the construct blueprints included with the base game were at one time donated to the development team by random members of the playerbase. Never mind the countless community-supplied revisions to keep said blueprints up to date with new aesthetic features and gameplay mechanics.
Anyway, it runs on Windows, Mac, and Linux, and has been on Steam since it was grenlit in 2014.
Welcome aboard.
Overview
Coming soon
World maps
Ashes of the Empire
A fairly small and primarily land-based map measuring 45x45km, Ashes of the Empire is the setting for the campaign by the same name, which depicts a violent power struggle between various fledgling factions during the final days of the Steel Empire.
Neter
The largest of the included world maps, at 95x95km, Neter is the meat and potatoes of the base game. Beginning approximately 10 yeears after the events of AotE, Neter's first twelve Story Missions depict the journey of the "River Rat" player character leading up to the beginning of this map's main "Quest for Neter" campaign.
"QfN" itself may be played as a whole at various difficulty settings, or in chunks, taking on one NPC faction at a time.
Additionally, there are nearly as many story missions for the main successor faction to the Steel Empire, played from the perspective of a young lieutenant who's recently recieved his first command; a coastal gunboat by the name of "Ghost".
Lastly, there's "Adventure mode"; a general brawl pitting randomly selected NPC constructs against both each other and the player, in an endless sea of carnage.
Glao
A Very small (15x45km) map designed for for a "more relaxed and strategic style of gameplay" than the other maps.
Factions and diplomacy
The "Ashes of the Empire" setting contains six NPC Factions which fight, both amongst each other, and against the player, for territory and resources. Every now and then they declare peace and try to sort their differences out in a Council meeting, where one faction may change sides in a conflict, or the player may bribe -or be bribed by- a faction into declaring war -or end a current war- with another faction, in exchange for various resource incentives.
These factions -or at least their spiritual and cultural successors- make a reappearance in the significantly larger Neter setting, along with two newcomers, for a total of eight.
Construction
Construction is the process of constructing constructs (Say it three times fast!).
There are three general types of constructs to choose from:
- Structures. These are fixed to the terrain wherever they're built.
- Sky Fortresses. These levitate above the terrain, and can even move (very slowly), but require a constant supply of power.
- Vehicles. Depending on their weight, bouyancy, and methods of propulsion and control, vehicles can be anything from armoured cars (we do have tank tracks, but they're just for looks), to submarines, to ships, to airships, airplanes, helicopters, and spacecraft.
Logistics
In order to build a construct, the various factions (including the Player) must have enough resources to do so. Makes sense, right?
To facilitate the timely supply of resources to where they're needed, FtD provides a tiered priority system to determine the flow of resources between constructs.
Combined with a suitable arrangement of waypoints for transport vehicles to travel between, this allows for the creation of supply networks throughout the map.
Multiplayer
Yes
Gallery
Eventually
Glossary
There is one! Why? Because most discussions around FtD tend to involve quite a bit of technical jargong.