In Profundis progress (5/8)

Been going very slow due to frustrations with the Kickstarter project and trying to work on another article about it, to get up whatever little publicity I can in the few days until the project inevitably fails.  I don't think the game will be abandoned when the project fails to make its goal, but it is going to take me longer, much longer probably, to work on.  As such, it'll probably be longer between posts here unfortunately.

Background information: The wisdom of stone

At the Cavern Exploration School at Alpha Centauri, they teach about the many dangers of spelunking throughout the known galaxy: landslides, sudden washouts, poisonous gas, sand buryings, gaping pits, acid baths, equipment failure, alien monsters, suffocation.

But as Doctor of Speleology and veteran explorer Mendius Schlum says as the first lesson in his class "The Fundamentals of Caving," the primary danger facing any cavern explorer is, ultimately, rocks.
This prompts the more alert students to ask, what kind of rocks?  Cracked and weakened?  Corrosive?  Radioactive?  Explosive?

"No, not that kind of rocks," says Schlum.  "The rocks you most have to worry about are your own.  The rocks in your head!"

As he goes on to explain, most of the dangers a cave explorer faces are, ultimately, those of their own making.  Over thousands of years, caves settle into a situation of minimum energy.  Landslides don't happen randomly; if they were going to, they'd probably have done it centuries ago.  Over time, rocks, water, sand and stone, they settle.  But that state of equiliberum can upset easily.  A pushed boulder could release a deluge of water, washing the sand from in front of a sealed cave, releasing poisonous gas.  Whatever you do, you must do it with care, lest you set in motion a chain of events that could spell your doom.

And yet, everything you do in such an environment changes it.  Your footsteps echo across the stone vaults, possibly unsettling a pile of rocks.  The pitons you hammer into sheer stone walls to climb them unavoidably damage those same walls.  To pass a blocked route requires pushing boulders.  To find sunken chambers, you have to swim.  Even the air you breathe is a limited resource.
So, you're in an environment in which everything you do could be foolish, because just being there is foolish.  But here you are anyway.  According to Schlum, learning what choices are less foolish than others is the beginning of wisdom.

The wisdom of stone.

Gameplay narrative #2

"If I hadn't brought that emergency parachute I'd be dead now, killed by that 200-meter fall.  I survived that, but how am I going to get out of here?  The shaft ends high in the ceiling above me, so I can't use pitons.  I could climb up a side wall and extend a spanner out, but they're heavy so I only brought one and it won't get me up high enough.  And the expedition isn't yet profitable enough to use high-tech tools like jet packs.  I did find some gold nuggets down here; if I can make it out, maybe that jet pack will be mine yet.

"A thought.  Water is dripping through cracks in that wall.  If I hammered at that a little I might break through and flood the chamber.  I could use one of my compressed air canisters to fill my inflatable life raft, break the wall, then ride the flood back up to the shaft.

"The situation looking dire, I inflated the raft before smashing through, weighing the possible wasting of an air canister against the water damage to my equipment if I had to swim.  Fortunately it was more than enough water to fill the chamber.  By the time the flow died down I was up to the shaft and even partway through.  I hammered the pitons into the wall to give myself handholds for the remaining distance, noting with concern the cracks forming in the stone surface as I did.  That might be trouble later.

"Back at base I had the nuggets appraised.  They were only worth 1,500 credits, enough to replace my used equipment and then some, but not nearly enough for the jet pack.  The word from the natives is that there are incredibly ancient ruins down there, unseen for millennia, loaded with treasures both historical and valuable.  I'm more interested in the latter, but either would make the expedition a success.  I hope I find something soon; the equipment needed to explore these alien caverns isn't cheap, and so far profits have been barely worth the dangers.

"But I'm getting close.  I can feel it.  Maybe this next trip will be the one."

New Project: IN PROFUNDIS

Coming to Kickstarter soon!  This is really promising, so watch this space!