When I first heard the Clay Men recount tales of horror from Polythreme, it struck me as silly. A place where everything was alive? Sounds like good, anarchic fun! Well, to visit, at least. Wouldn’t wanna LIVE there. But I looked forwards to when my travels might carry me there, at some point.
Well, now they have, and what I’ve found is horrible, all right… though not for quite the reason the Clay Men said.
A carousel of NOTHING but luck-checks… where you need to be lucky pretty much all the time to get ANYWHERE? Unless you want to ‘pay your way’ with enough goods to send all thoughts of profitability fleeing straight back across the Sea of Voices. Heck, even if you buy every advantage you can get for Surface-Silk and use relevant cards for the rest, you can STILL wind up short of the magical 12 levels if you’re just a bit unlucky. Which, of course, makes whatever you paid a colossal waste. Oh, and the only cards in the deck that actually involve a skill-check? You have to first reach 12 of the relevant value, once, to even activate them.
This place is just… horrid. shudders But since it’s also a royal pain to GET there, I now feel obliged to stay there until I’ve accomplished my goals, though so far, I’ve failed to make any kind of progress. I wish Polythreme had a tourist-department so that I could lodge an official complaint there. >.< edited by BlakeTheDrake on 9/1/2015
It’s not completely horrible if you only use the opportunity cards for the one quality you’re working on (and not the ones for both either). This guide is quite a bit of help.
I had the same reaction, but then I found this thread, which is very helpful at strategy for Polythreme. And now it’s one of my favorite destinations. And now that they’ve changed the zee voyages and the cards are unlimited draw, it’s much easier to get there.
This, exactly. Polythreme was the first and only time I recall being seriously agitated with the game. Once you know what you’re doing, however, it becomes much less aggravating.
[quote=BlakeTheDrake]
This place is just… horrid. shudders But since it’s also a royal pain to GET there, I now feel obliged to stay there until I’ve accomplished my goals, though so far, I’ve failed to make any kind of progress. I wish Polythreme had a tourist-department so that I could lodge an official complaint there. >.< edited by BlakeTheDrake on 9/1/2015[/quote]
I hope I don’t sound unsympathetic, but I am hugely tickled by the idea of Neathy Tourist Offices. In Polythreme they would give you a map if they could get one to stay still long enough… ‘or, I could draw one… have you a pen? No, me neither - I have no idea where they all go. Honestly, it’s as though they’re ali… oh, yes.’
In the Iron Republic, it would have inexplicably erratic opening hours, change premises on a frequent but irregular schedule and when you got in there, they’d just make buzzing noises and poke you with sticks.
I hope I don’t sound unsympathetic, but I am hugely tickled by the idea of Neathy Tourist Offices. In Polythreme they would give you a map if they could get one to stay still long enough… ‘or, I could draw one… have you a pen? No, me neither - I have no idea where they all go. Honestly, it’s as though they’re ali… oh, yes.’
In the Iron Republic, it would have inexplicably erratic opening hours, change premises on a frequent but irregular schedule and when you got in there, they’d just make buzzing noises and poke you with sticks.[/quote]
Hahahaha!!! I just laughed out loud at the thought of being poked with sticks.