NOTICE: The following training module covers extraction protocols and associated survival statistics. Salvage Solutions Inc. reminds Associates that extraction is a privilege extended to crew members who return to the designated zone before the Company Timer reaches zero. Historical data indicates that 23% of Associates describe the extraction window as "generous." The remaining 77% were unavailable for comment.
- S.A.L.L.I.
Extraction Is the Whole Game
I spent three months studying extraction games before writing a single line of extraction code for Deep Haul. Not because the code is hard - a trigger volume, a countdown, a level transition. Mechanically, extraction is simple. But emotionally? Extraction is where your entire game lives or dies.
Extraction is the moment where every decision you made during the mission crystallizes into one question: do I have enough, or do I push for one more room?
Get that moment wrong and your game is a walking simulator with a timer. Get it right and players will talk about their extractions for years.
What I Learned From Five Games
Before designing Deep Haul's extraction, I analyzed five games that each solved the problem differently.
Lethal Company: The Clock Is God
Lethal Company's extraction is brutally simple - the ship leaves at midnight whether you're on it or not. No negotiation. No override. The ship is leaving. Are you on it?
What makes this work is that the timer is controlled by an external authority (the Company), not by player actions. You can't call for more time. You can't delay departure. The clock is ticking from the moment you land, and every second you spend debating a door is a second closer to being left behind.
What I took from this: External time pressure creates the best tension. Players shouldn't control when extraction happens - the Company should.
Deep Rock Galactic: The Sprint Back
DRG flips the script. Extraction isn't passive waiting - it's the most exciting part of the mission. Hit the button, the drop pod lands somewhere far away, and you have five minutes to sprint back through territory you already cleared... except now it's swarming with enemies.
The genius: familiar spaces become threatening. That room you looted ten minutes ago is now a gauntlet. Your map knowledge pays off - veterans find shortcuts, coordinate fallback positions, know which tunnels to collapse.
What I took from this: Extraction should be an active experience, not standing in a circle. The journey back should feel different from the journey in.
GTFO: The Last Stand
GTFO's extraction scan is a hold-the-line mechanic. Stand in the zone, defend while a scan completes, survive infinite enemy spawns. Every bullet you saved, every mine you placed, every resource decision you made throughout the mission - it all pays off (or doesn't) in this one moment.
The kicker: only one player needs to survive the scan. This enables heroic sacrifices - one player drawing fire while the other completes extraction. Stories happen here.
What I took from this: The "one survivor = success" option creates incredible player stories. And tying extraction to resource management rewards the whole mission, not just the ending.
Helldivers 2: The Pelican Has Personality
Helldivers 2 did something subtle that changed my thinking: the extraction vehicle is a character. Pelican-1 hovers, provides cover fire, can be damaged, and leaves if nobody boards. It reacts to the situation.
This turns the extraction vehicle from a game mechanic into a moment. Players cheer when the Pelican arrives. They panic when it takes damage. They feel rescued.
What I took from this: The extraction experience should have personality. In Deep Haul, that personality is S.A.L.L.I.
Escape from Tarkov: Vulnerability at Maximum Stakes
Tarkov's 7-second extraction countdown is peak tension design. You've survived 30 minutes, you're carrying a fortune in loot, and now you have to stand completely still in a known location for 7 seconds. Everyone knows where the extracts are. Everyone knows you'll be there.
In Tarkov (PvPvE), those 7 seconds are an ambush magnet. In Deep Haul (PvE), I wanted that same vulnerability - but with AI threats instead of player campers.
What I took from this: The final seconds before extraction should be the most vulnerable moment. The AI should know where the extraction zone is and patrol near it.
Deep Haul's Hybrid Approach
After studying these games, I designed a hybrid of timer-forced extraction (Lethal Company) and vehicle personality (Helldivers), with the vulnerability window of Tarkov and the cooperative dynamics of GTFO.
The Core Flow
Here's how a Deep Haul mission actually plays:
Mission starts. The Company Timer begins counting down (10 minutes default). Your ship - the Hopper - is docked at the derelict. You know where it is. The clock is visible on your HUD at all times.
Explore. Find doors. Scan them (or don't). Open them. Find salvage, find hazards, find Sentinels. Every room is a gamble. Every piece of salvage makes you heavier, slower, and louder.
The question. At some point - maybe 5 minutes in, maybe 8, you ask the question. "Do we have enough?" And someone says, "One more room." That's where Deep Haul lives. In the gap between "enough" and "one more."
Head back. Navigate back to the Hopper. Except the rooms you cleared might have new threats now. The Sentinel you snuck past might be between you and the airlock. Your oxygen might be lower than you thought.
Board. All living players enter the airlock. Ready indicators light up. When everyone's in, a 15-second "All Aboard" countdown starts. Anyone can leave during the countdown (maybe you forgot something), which resets it.
Extract. Countdown hits zero. The Hopper detaches. You're safe. S.A.L.L.I. comments on your performance.
The Three Ways Extraction Goes Wrong
Timer Expires. The Company Timer hits zero. S.A.L.L.I. announces: "Extraction window closed. Goodbye." The ship leaves immediately with whoever is aboard. Players outside get a 500-credit Emergency Extraction fee charged against their debt - if they survive at all.
Emergency Extraction. The Company randomly triggers this mid-mission. S.A.L.L.I. gives you 60 seconds warning. Drop everything and run. This is pure chaos - four players scrambling through corridors they half-remember, Sentinels alerted by the noise, someone inevitably getting lost.
Crew Down. One or more players are dead. The living can still extract - their salvage counts, dead players' salvage is lost. The results screen shows exactly who made it and who didn't, with S.A.L.L.I. offering cheerful commentary like "Only one death - well below the mission average!"
Why "One More Room" Works
The extraction loop only works if the temptation to stay is real. Here's how Deep Haul creates that temptation:
Escalating value. The deeper rooms tend to have better salvage. The first few rooms near the airlock are picked over - previous crews got there first. The real money is deep inside, past the doors nobody opened.
Sunk cost. You've already spent 6 minutes. Your oxygen is at 40%. You've found 800 credits of salvage. But the room ahead has a Data Core worth 600 credits by itself. Do you grab it and risk the walk back, or do you leave money on the table?
Carry tax. Heavy salvage slows you down and makes you louder. That Data Core might be worth 600 credits, but carrying it means you can't sprint past the Sentinel guarding the corridor back to the airlock. Is 600 credits worth a slower extraction?
Social pressure. In co-op, there's always one person who wants one more room. And there's always one person watching the clock. That tension - between greed and caution, between teammates - is the extraction loop working exactly as designed.
The Architecture Under the Hood
For the UE5 developers reading this, here's how the extraction system is actually built.
Server-Authoritative State Machine
All extraction logic runs in ADeepHaulGameMode (server only). The extraction state is replicated to clients via ADeepHaulGameState:
EExtractionState:
Inactive -> Available -> Boarding -> AllAboard -> Extracting -> Complete
|
Failed
The AExtractionZone actor handles player overlap detection. When a player enters the zone, it notifies the GameMode. The GameMode tracks how many alive players are in the zone vs. total alive players. When those numbers match: 15-second countdown begins.
GAS Integration
Extraction state is tracked through Gameplay Tags, not booleans:
State.InExtractionZone- applied when player overlaps the triggerState.ReadyToExtract- applied when player confirms readinessMission.Extracting- global tag during the countdown phase
This means any gameplay system can query extraction state through the tag system. A Gameplay Effect could drain oxygen faster during extraction (stress breathing). An ability could be blocked during the countdown. The AI could detect the Mission.Extracting tag and send enemies toward the zone.
The Results Screen
After extraction, the debrief screen shows everything:
- Per-player status (Extracted, Deceased, Left Behind)
- Salvage breakdown with individual credit values
- Company deductions (30% cut, O2 consumption, equipment wear, mortality fees)
- Net earnings and debt remaining
- S.A.L.L.I. commentary calibrated to how badly things went
The deductions are the dark comedy. You risked your life for 2,137 credits of salvage, and after the Company takes its cut, charges you for the oxygen you breathed, the equipment you wore down, and the teammate who died? You're left with 311 credits. Against a 52,000-credit debt.
That's the extraction loop. Not "did you survive?" but "was it worth it?"
What's Next
The extraction system is functional in beta. What I'm iterating on:
- Emergency Extraction frequency tuning. Too often and it feels random. Too rare and players forget it exists. Currently testing once every 4-5 missions.
- Sentinel behavior near the extraction zone. They should patrol near it but not camp it. The walk back should be tense, not a guaranteed boss fight.
- Per-player extraction rewards. Borrowing from Deep Rock Galactic: bonus credits for extracting with all crew alive. Incentivize cooperation, not abandonment.
- Extraction type variants. For future mission types: timed scans (GTFO-style), conditional extracts (need a keycard), hot extracts (triggering extraction alerts all enemies).
The extraction loop is Deep Haul's core pillar. Everything else - the doors, the oxygen, the AI, the salvage - exists to make that moment of decision hit harder. "One more room" should feel like the most important words in the game.
Because sometimes one more room is how you pay off your debt. And sometimes one more room is how you end up as a line item on S.A.L.L.I.'s casualty report.
"Extraction protocol training complete. Associates are reminded that the Company Timer is a firm deadline, not a suggestion. Historically, Associates who treat it as a suggestion experience a 94% career conclusion rate. Salvage Solutions Inc. wishes you efficient decision-making."
- S.A.L.L.I.