Hello Sea people!
The fifth developer video is here, and we're talking about Expeditions this time. Now, bear in mind that Expeditions are one of the non essential features in Aquatico, meaning you don't have to build or use them at all throughout the game, but at some point they can be a very useful tool to expand quicker.
How do you access them?
Expeditions become available when you build an Expedition house. That building has a dock for your Expedition submarine, and once created, you can access the Expedition panel.
How do you use them?
Once available, you can enter the Expedition panel, and start equipping your submarine with essentials for an expedition. Each submarine will need some people for the crew, some batteries for submarine power and some food to sustain them while travelling. The amount that you need of these resources depends on how far you'll be sending your Expedition. When the submarine is well supplied, you can choose any destination on the global expedition map and send your submarine. Once it reaches the destination, you can explore and see what they find, and that can be any number of things: additional survivors, some basic or advanced resources etc...
While an expedition is underway, you'll see an icon on the main game screen showing the quick stats of your Expedition - how far they are from the destination, if something happened during their trip, the status of the remaining resources onboard and so on. If you run out of supplies (and the game will project the required amount of supplies based on the destination set), be careful to send a resupply craft before your submarine crew perishes.
You can also divert your submarine to a different destination, or choose to head to a next point of interest after the first destination is explored, without returning to base. But if you choose to keep your submarine out there exploring one destination after another, make sure they are always resupplied.
Also note that your submarine can sometimes be intercepted during an Expedition, or some event can trigger during one, so there is always a chance for unexpected thing to happen.
Something to pay attention to...
Expeditions can yield very nice and useful rewards, but beware that Expeditions are costly, especially if you're sending them far away or to multiple destinations. It is wise to send out Expeditions only once you're certain you have enough spare resources to equip and resupply your submarine, otherwise you risk losing both the resources and the crew.
And once you take your submarine for a spin, if you get to a tight spot regarding resources in your colony, you can always recall your Expedition back to home base and let it wait there until the next opportunity.
Well, that's it for today, hope this is helpful!
Stay safe and watch your oxygen levels!
