It's time for another quick video Dev diary from us. Today we'll explain a little bit more about the second building layer in Aquatico - the Dome section.
In general, your underwater city will consist of two separate and different layers: the sea floor level for mostly industrial production and pipeline infrastructure layout, and the upper Domes level on top of the first one.
The main difference between them is that "ground" level is exposed to the environment directly, meaning all the work done here must be performed by either mechanical drones, or by people wearing underwater "walker" suits. Domes, on the other side, are fully pressurized with their own micro environment, meaning inside them your people can live unhindered, with no life support suits. Basically, in Dome section citizens can live very similar to the way they used to live in any surface city before the catastrophe that drove them into the oceans.
In Domes, you also don't need to set up any pipelines (base pillar of each dome is already connected to the pipeline on the ground level), and here you'll do most of the work to make a good and cozy life for your people - build houses, trade companies, cinemas, restaurants, bars, schools, make parks, plant trees etc...
Note that in the early stages of the game, your Domes will be used mainly for simple housing, all other features of Domes will come in play more and more as you progress. When the population reaches higher numbers and your city becomes more advanced, people will require better living conditions and more amenities. They will also desire a better looking environment to live in, so you'll have plenty of tasks to perform in Domes.
Through research and development, you'll eventually get access to three different sizes of Domes, and at one point you'll essentially have an entire city on top of a city.
Of course, once you expand both layers of your colony, you'll also have an option to build and connect cable cars between Domes. This transport system allows your people to cross between Domes without the need to descend to the sea floor level, equip underwater suits and head to another dome. There is literally no chance you can build everything necessary in a single dome, so this feature greatly simplifies everything.
Some more details on all of this you can check in our dev video!
Stay safe and watch your oxygen levels!
