The definitive guide to World of Diving (work in progress)

Overview

Over time this guide will be a complete work with hopefully an answer to all your questionsUpdated for version 0.13.5

How to start the game

After purchase and installing simply start the game as you would any other game on steam. The first time you start the game it will ask you to link your World of Diving (WoD) account with your Steam account. This can not be skipped. If you do not have a WoD account you’ll be asked to create one.

After linking accounts, the game will log in automatically every time you start the game.

Navigating the main menu

After starting the game you’ll see the main menu. You can navigate the menu by using your mousecursor, the arrowkeys, or your controller. Select an option by either clicking LMB or pressing Enter.

Starting a new game-session
Connect to the multiplayer service to see if there are any sessions
Start the mission editor
See and manage your friends (not yet implemented)
Open the options menu
Quit the game

1. Starting a new game-session

After selecting the “New Mission” tab, you’ll see this menu;

Start a new public game. This means your session will be visible to other players, and they can join you anytime they want.
Start a new private game. This means your session is closed to other players, and not visible to them.
Start a new friends-only game (not yet implemented). This will let you start a session that’s only accessible to your friends.
Return to the main menu.

After selecting either #1, #2 or #3, you’ll get to the following screen;

This is where you select the wreck/map you would like to dive. Selecting this will start your dive immediately. Wrecks/maps with a lock icon are not yet implemented and therefore cannot be played yet.
Return to the game-menu.

2. Joining an existing game

If you’d like to dive with other players around the world, you can select “Join Game” in the main-menu. This will connect you to the multiplayer server of WoD.

If somebody started a public game, you’ll see them here. Like this;

Selecting a players session will start your game immediately. You’ll be joining the wreck/map they chose to dive when starting the public session. The counter at the end shows you how populated the session is.
Return to game-menu.

3. Starting the mission-editor

See the video in the Mission chapter below on how to use this fun feature.

4. Managing your friends

Not yet implemented

5. The options menu

This is where you can select different options for your game. Some will help your game to run smoother, and some will make your game more enjoyable to play for you.

The options “Quality Level” and “Resolution” will determine how much strain the game will put on your computer. Downgrading these options will make the game run smoother, but at the cost of beauty.
The option “Show controls” allows you to decide whether you’d like control hints in the top right of your display when playing or not.

The option “Fast swim” enables you to choose between holding Shift to swim fast, use it to toggle between fast and slow swimming, or holding it to swim slow. Selecting hold to swim either fast or slow means your character will do the opposite when not pressing down on Shift.
The following option can be set to suit the players whishes.
- Disabling the option “Fullscreen” will let you play in windowed-mode.
- Enable this option to use limited head tracking with the Rift, this is optional because some players get motion sickness using this.
- Enable this option to invert the Y axis. This means pulling the mouse or controller down, makes your character look up.
- Enable this to help the development of WoD and make it more stable.
- Enable this to display the names of other players when in a public or friends-only game.
- Enable or disable Anti-aliasing. When enabled this will smooth out edges on textures.
- Enable this option to see a little Frames per Second counter in the top of your screen when playing.
Select “Apply” after making changes to the options to save them.
Return to the main menu.

6. Quit

Exit the game and return to Steam.

The Blue Shark dive-shop

This is where you can customize your character. To the right is your character, so you can see what you look like to other players. This view can been zoomed in and out, and rotated.

This is your current amount of in-game currency. The little + next to Pearls is used to buy extra pearls. Please note you do not need pearls to play! These only enable you to buy certain cosmetic items, but they will never stand in your way. They can also be found while diving, but you won’t find hundreds at a time. You can also pay for items using dubloons. These can be found on each map and respawn every time you enter a map.
Pearls and Dubloons are semi-interchangeable, meaning 1 pearl has the same value as 100 dubloons, although 100 dubloons can not be used to buy an item which needs 1 pearl. Later on we might get to see pearl-only items, so it’s wise to save the ones you find.
These menu’s are used to select certain parts of your character. Some are still locked. When an exclamation mark is shown, there are items you haven’t looked at yet.
These options let you;
- Save your avatar image, to be shown on the official website
- Hide your gear, to see what you look like beneath all that cumbersome equipment.
- Refresh the menu, when a purchased item is not yet visible or exclamation marks don’t disappear (not certain)
- Select this button to dive into the water! (only visible when in a game session)

Buying and equipping items
This works the same for all items, except boats/yachts which are unlocked at certain levels. We’ll buy a new mask in this example. First navigate to the correct tab within the dive-shop by clicking the symbols. In this case Gear, and after that Masks.

You should end up here;

As you can see you do not yet own all available masks. Those with a little dubloon symbol are still waiting to be bought by you. You can try those items on and see how they look, free of charge.

You can select any color you’d like, this is free to change whenever you feel like it. So if you want one in blue tomorrow, you won’t have to buy a new one.

If you already own an item, simply click the item or “Equip” to change your character. If you do not yet own an item, clicking the item will result in the following prompt;

If you’re sure you want to spend those hard earned pearls or dubloons on this item, select “Yes”, and it’s yours forever.

A new session

After starting a new session (or joining one, which works the same), you get a loading screen, followed by the poll-screen. Here you can vote for one of three features you would like to see implemented soonest. This screens looks like this;

After voting you see the percentages of the poll. Although you’ll get this screen every time you start a session, you’ll only be able to vote once. The poll changes whenever something get’s implemented.

Each session will start with you out of the water. You’ll be in a environment similar to the dive shop, for those last-minute adjustments.

Navigating in-game

After diving in, you can get an overview of all controls by pressing ESC and then selecting “controls”.

Keyboard and mouse controls:

Controller controls:

The rest of this guide will explain using the keyboard and mouse, but all options work the same for controllers. The only exception is the toggle swim speed function. You don’t need to toggle this because you can control the speed with the cyclic stick.

Moving is done by using WASD keys, as in most games. You can shift your view by using the mouse. For now you character will swim in the direction you are looking in. A free-look function is a work in progress.

Tool selection is done by holding the spacebar. When holding down the spacebar, you’ll see the below image. Use your mouse to move the little marker and simply release spacebar to equip. Once equipped you can quickly store or re-equip your tool by tapping spacebar.
Gestures are your primary way of communication underwater. You can access all gestures by pressing and holding “F”. Selection is done the same way as with the tools. The only difference is that you can display your gestures as long as you’d like by holding “F” and simultaneously pressing LMB. Release either LMB or F to stop gesturing.
While hovering above one of the gestures, you can hotkey them to keys 1 through 4. Pressing/holding key 1 through 4 will let you quickly respond to other divers.

One gesture not done through the gesture menu is pointing. Simply click and hold RMB to point in front of you.
Buoyancy is controlled by adding or releasing air into your BCD-vest. You can select the BCD-control by holding “Q”. When holding “Q” press “W” to add air and rise upwards. Holding “Q” and pressing “S” will release air from your BCD and you’ll start sinking.
Your divecomputer is a very essential piece of equipment. It enables you to find objectives, wrecks and boats. In the future it will show you your amount of air left and probably more. Hold TAB to look at your divecomputer.
- The top part shows your currently selected objective, it’s depth, and the distance between it and you. You can switch objectives by pressing 1 and/or 2.
- The little bar in the middle shows you your orientation (North, East, South, West), a small arrow indicating where your objective is, and one or more blue lines. The vertical blue lines represent objectives, which you’ve not currently selected.
- The lowest bar shows you at which depth you currently are.

Tools

To aid you in your exploration adventure, you have certain tools at your disposal. You can select these through the tool-selection-wheel.

The “no tool” option enables you to store your currently equipped tool. This can also be done by hitting spacebar once.
The camera enables you to take pictures of everything you see. If you select this you’ll be looking through it’s lens automatically.

Clicking LMB will take one picture, which will be overwritten in case you make another. To save the last picture made, simply press “Enter”. You’ll get a little preview of the picture you took last. Click left mousebutton again to save this picture to your harddisk. Your pictures will be saved at the follwing location: C:UsersUsernamePicturesWorld of Diving.

Selfies work pretty much the same to save them. You can let go of the camera by pressing “R”. Simply swim in front of your camera to take group pictures or selfies. Don’t forget to save each picture! When using the camera while it’s floating, it might be more convenient to review your last picture by pressing “F1”.
The scuba scooter lets you move from point A to point B faster. Once equipped you control the scooter with your mouse. LMB will active the throttle and you steer by moving the mouse.
It also has a booster function, which is represented by the lower part of the “speedometer”.

As you can see the bar is still full, which means all of your boost is left. By pressing “R” you’ll active the booster, and the little bar will start to deplete. When you’re out of boost, it will automatically de-active and start to refill. You can also turn of your booster by pressing “R” again.
The metal detector is equipped as any other tool. It is always active when equipped, all you have to do is point it in the right direction. When nothing is being detected you’ll have no audio or visual feedback, like in the picture below.

When detecting a coin, which is the only thing that’s currently detectable, you’ll start to hear a whine and see the bars on the detectors screen start wobbling and changing color. The more green bars you have, the closer you are.

Be aware that you’re audible feedback can be heard by all players in a session, so when in a public game be considerate and switch you audio-feedback off by pressing R.

Missions

Every wreck/map has a couple of different missions. Right now we distinguish between three different types.

Daily missions, earning you experience points, but only once a day.
Challenge missions, each map will have a couple of these. They are not mandatory (except those at the divebase), but will take you on a tour of each map. You can do these as often as you want, but once completed they don’t reset. They also do not give you experience points.
Community missions. These are the missions made by other players using the Mission Editor tool. These can be played as often as you want, but will nor reward you with experience points.

To start a mission you’ll first have to find the air tanks somewhere on the map. Daily missions are purple, Challlenge missions are yellow and the community terminal is blue. Use your divecomputer to set a marker if you have trouble finding them.

When you swim close enough to it, it will prompt you to start the mission. It will state what you’ll need to do, how much time you’ll get to do it, and the specific item you’ll be looking for. In this example we’ll be looking for a little pocketwatch.

When you are more than 100 ft (25 ft when doing a community mission) away from your objective, a small bubble will appear to help you on your way.

An easy way to find objectives is using your divecomputer. Hold TAB to bring it into view. Pay close attention which direction the arrow is in, its depth compared to your own depth and of course distance to your objective. When doing a mission, the divecomputer automatically shows you the position of your objective, so there’s no need to switch objectives with 1 or 2.

When you’re near enough you might want to switch to your camera. After selecting the camera you’ll be automatically looking through it’s lens. A small box will appear around the objective once it’s in your field of view. A red box means you’re either too far away or too close to your objective. A green box means you’re in the right spot to take a picture.

Buddy fish

Once you’ve reached level “Thanks for all the fish” (9500 exp. and above) you’ll unlock the possibility to dive with a fish buddy. Buddies are in a very young stage of development, we have quite a few already, some of which are limited editions (like the angler fish for the Halloween event, or the shark for Poseidon level), but more will follow.

Because of the early development stage, buddies do not yet contribute anything to the gameplay, other than keeping you company. This is subject to change in the future, and equipping a certain buddy might give you a boost in a certain area. An example could be a sailfish, one of the fastest fish in the ocean, giving you a speed or stamina boost.

To activate your buddy, simply open the tool selection menu, and select the buddy tool at the bottom.

If you’d like to deactivate your buddy, simply repeat the activation process.

Buddies can be switched / equipped (or unequipped if you don’t want a buddy) in the store menu.

Mission Editor Tool

The mission editor tool allows all players to create their own missions. Lead designer Peter Deurloo has created a video in which he explains all there is to know about this editor.

How to earn Experience and level up

the game uses experience points and a level-system to reward players for completing missions. Every level has certain advantages over the lower levels, as can be seen in this layout.

There are a couple of ways to earn XP.

Doing in-game missions
Buying dubloons / re-pledging
Participating on the official forum

1. Doing in-game missions.
This is the primary way to earn experience and gain levels. Each successful completion of a mission will reward you xp points. You can do missions as often as you like, but you will only get xp once a day. So after completing a missions, you’ll have to wait for all the missions to reset (at around 15:30 GMT).

2. Buying currency / re-pledging
You can always choose to upgrade your pledge. This will reward you with extra pearls and dubloons, and extra xp points. This also greatly helps along the development of the game. You can upgrade your pledge by clicking here[www.divegame.net].

A similar way to buy xp points is to contribute towards either your own shipwreck[www.divegame.net], or the community shipwreck[www.divegame.net]. Every dollar pledged will award you 5 xp points and 5 dubloons.

3. Participating on the official forum.
By participating on the official forum, you’ll be able to earn more xp points. You’ll receive points for visiting the website, inviting friends to join us, posting topics, replies, receiving upvotes and giving away upvotes.

Upvotes are very important on the forum. You’ll receive only a small amount of xp for your topics and replies, unless you receive upvotes on them. Upvotes basically tell the system your topic or reply makes sense and contributes to the game and community. This is to reduce spamming and single word posts. To further reduce spamming and nonsense posts a team of moderators is active on the forum at all times to help keep the place clean.

Just like the in-game missions, the forum missions are limited and will reset at roughly 15:30 GMT each day.

World of Diving Guide