I just wanted to take a few moments to talk about the motion of the ship. It just feels…right. It’s rare for me to play a game like this where the motion of my avatar is intuitive. But this is. It doesn’t seem to lag, or jump ahead of my intention or anything. The turns seems exactly right. Sometimes I’ll just swerve back and forth and do donuts in the middle of the dark waters just to watch my wake wiggle back and forth. Even though I know I’m wasting fuel and the crew is going mad and I’m running out of food - it’s just…fun to move.
[li]
And the lights! From my ship or other ships or lighthouses filtered through intervening islands. sigh Gorgeous.
Players rarely notice when game physics are done right. I just wanted to let Failbetter know that I noticed. You done good.
Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got a Phosgene Slalom and a gristly cabin boy who needs some Worcestershire Sauce…
Did you see the post they did about using parallax to make it look like the boat is ever-so-slightly tipping during turns?
I didn’t notice the post, but I have noticed the tipping. It makes me happy in ways that I can’t fully describe (there may be children in the audience).
The boat pivots around its stern. It’s as unlike real boat movement as anything I’ve ever seen. Real boats swing, while preserving linear momentum. It’s the reason why bigger, heavier boats are harder to steer, regardless of engine or rudder size.
That’s not actually at odds with what I was trying to say, Densewords. I think of Game Physics as existing somewhere along a continuum of 0 (pure fantasy) to 1 (absolutely accurate real world physics). If Sunless Sea boats were at 1, I think I would get mighty frustrated and annoyed. (“I said turn West, not point West but keep going North!”) They could probably adjust the physics a bit in either direction and I’d still find it fun, but the point they’ve got it at now works great for me.
I just wish I could zoom in more. The ship is so cute![li]
The addition of currents could be fun.