Here’s the thing: the writing in this game is awesome, the setting is brilliant, the quests - tremendously enjoyable, the world is absolutely thrilling to explore…
and I get 10% of my time doing all this. What’s the other 90%? Just sitting and waiting till my ship gets somewhere. At a ludicrously low speed. This game is in a desperate need of either:
a) fast travel to known locations - let it even subtract fuel and supplies based on the distance
or
b) +1000% to the movement speed.
I just can’t force myself to sail all the way from Wither to Port Carnelian to complete a quest. Seriously, sitting for 10 minutes doing absolutely nothing while the boat drags there to have a minute of awesome questing to spend another 10 pointless minutes getting somewhere else is too much.
If you really don’t like the sailing bit and really want the story, you can always try editing the game file to up the base ship speed. There is a Steam guide to it.
I feel exactly the same, and that’s why I stopped playing Sunless Sea some months ago. Too much sailing… if it was interesting to sail, it would be ok, but I find it just really boring and repetitive. :/
Thanks Estelle for the tip about editing the game file !
Perhaps. But these who quit out of frustration or impatience probably would have quit long before they get the Impeller - after all the Impeller takes far more work than any other engine.
I can’t really sympathize with this complaint. In my Frigate with Serpentine, my ship already feels like a speed boat compared to earlier versions of the game. Every time I fire it up, I can’t believe how tightly it turns, or how it seems to eat up trips in seconds.
Put another way, I can’t imagine the game going any faster. Then they really would look like speed boats.*
*I’m one of those people who has never had a problem with the sedate pace of SS. edited by Nenjin on 4/1/2015
Also Alexis has said in interviews that making ship speed faster would affect the mood and atmosphere of the game. I agree with him; that feeling of loneliness and the relief at spotting land can be powerful. Also the map is more crowded than when I first started playing in early beta - then there were long journeys between ports and terror clicked up faster.
The pace is good for the size of the map. I think the best way to undo the monotony would be to have more active ways for the player to actively sail. For example you can save a little fuel by toggling lights off in lighted zones when your terror circle is empty, but turning them back on when it fills part way so you recover.
Here’s a few ideas for brainstorming
Shifting currents you can watch for, which either increase speed or decrease fuel usage.
Mini-map on main screen, so you don’t have to go in the world map to set the most direct sailing trajectory to your destination (or even unobtrusive markers on the edges of the screen indicating the exact direction to tagged islands).
Some sort of fishing mechanism, you choose baits and deploy them while you sail, perhaps add an active component where after they bite you have to struggle against it or draw it into shallower waters.
All right, question - so how do I edit the boat speed?
Also - coming back to the game itself - I disagree strongly. A sense of loneliness is not the same as the sense of boredom. A good example would be “The Walking Dead” - you do feel lonely, but not because nothing is happening or because the characters move at snail paces! There are times in sunless sea when I know I will spend the next 10 minutes doing absolutely nothing and waiting for my ship to arrive.
Here’s an example: I’m doing Maybe’s Daughter quest and looking for her mom. Had to locations left to check - Wither and Port carnelian, went to Wither, she isn’t there. So I have to sail all the way to port Carnellian - which is literally the whole map from top to bottom. I guess some people might find it fun, but I find it EXTREMELY boring not to do anything remotely interesting for 10 minutes of play time.
Part of that is a differing strategy; I would never go from Wither to Carnelian on a whim; that’s too expensive and far too little profit, even if it finishes a storylet. You should consider how you run expeditions and you end up picking up far more resources and tidbits since you’re jumping port to port.
Exactly what zanraptora said: You need to plan your journeys better. If I played your way I’d get bored too.
For example: you’re in London. You get a commission from the Admiralty to visit their contact in Whither. You’ll also want to establish another spy for your network in Port Carnelian. And you’re looking for Maybe’s mother along the way. Let’s say on your map there’s (among others) Frostfound, the Salt Lions, Gaider’s Mourn & the Mangrove College somewhere roughly north-south in between these two ports.
So here’s what you could do:
a) load only minimum fuel to reach the Iron Republic and minimum supplies to reach Carnelian
b) load 10-15 candles
c) zail south to Iron Republic, refuel big-time, pick up port report, play whatever storylet is there. zail on to Mangrove College
d) pick up port report (gives a few supplies), explore the Wisp-Ways with your candles. Pick up a passenger, if you’re lucky she’s for Gaider’s Mourn
e) go to Carnelian. Port report, establish your spy, look for Maybe’s mother. Maybe you can do something else for your network directly. Resupply big-time
f) IF you have an empty mirrorcatch box, also buy coffee in Carnelian. Go to the Surface, pick up sunlight, look for Maybe’s mother in Naples, sell your coffee in Vienna. Maybe go back to the Iron Republic to refuel
g) if you don’t have the mirrorcatch box, just go directly to Gaider’s Mourn, maybe drop off the Shady Sort. Sell your sunlight here if you don’t have the Blind Bruiser contact in London
h) if you didn’t refuel at the Iron Republic, you’ll need to quick-stop in London now. Sell your sunlight to the Blind Bruiser
i) go up to the Salt Lions, even if you’ve finished that storyline. picking over the encampment is often profitable
j) up north for a stop-over at Frostfound. you should ALWAYS stop-over there when you’re in the region
k) to Whither
l) back home to London, maybe with stops at Venderbight and/or Hunter’s Keep
m) deliver your information to the Admiralty and pick up their new commission. if you haven’t found Maybe’s mother yet, plan your next journey along the remaining ports of that quest. One of them’s the Isle of Cats, if you haven’t sold your sunlight yet take it there.
This is only a rough example, and already there are multiple ways to play it. I didn’t even take into account the Merchant Venturer or any storylines you might be following for your other officers. I usually play 4-5 quests simultaneously, not one after the other. And I never zail past more than 2-3 ports on my way somewhere without stopping. Firstly, because it keeps Terror in check, secondly because of the port reports, and thirdly because you’ll never know what profitable rare storylet might be waiting for you just now (for example the chance to catch a Harlot-Fry on Mutton Island)! edited by Rupho Schartenhauer on 4/14/2015
This guide has everything you need. If you want some panic you can always crank up the fuel consumption with the speed together to play the game on fast forward (probably not too fast however).
[quote=Levgre]The pace is good for the size of the map. I think the best way to undo the monotony would be to have more active ways for the player to actively sail. For example you can save a little fuel by toggling lights off in lighted zones when your terror circle is empty, but turning them back on when it fills part way so you recover.
Here’s a few ideas for brainstorming
Shifting currents you can watch for, which either increase speed or decrease fuel usage.
Mini-map on main screen, so you don’t have to go in the world map to set the most direct sailing trajectory to your destination (or even unobtrusive markers on the edges of the screen indicating the exact direction to tagged islands).
Some sort of fishing mechanism, you choose baits and deploy them while you sail, perhaps add an active component where after they bite you have to struggle against it or draw it into shallower waters.[/quote]
I agree with these suggestions, and maybe other things could be added.
Journeys do not need to be sped up. They just need to be filled with more things to do
[quote=Nanako]
Journeys do not need to be sped up. They just need to be filled with more things to do[/quote]
Journeys could be better if more of these officers talking event appear. I don’t think I want journeys to be more complicated, however - letting us spend more time on island would add to the satisfaction of actually reaching land.
[quote=Estelle Knoht][quote=Nanako]
Journeys do not need to be sped up. They just need to be filled with more things to do[/quote]
Journeys could be better if more of these officers talking event appear. I don’t think I want journeys to be more complicated, however - letting us spend more time on island would add to the satisfaction of actually reaching land.[/quote]
The issue is all the content like officer events is unique. That requires much more work for less content. Repeatable events are possible too, for example hooking up with Maybe’s Daughter, but too much repetition and they become mundane.
I agree more varied island interactions would be nice, although there’s still the issue of unique content being labor-intensive for the designers/coders. Sid Meier’s Pirates has stuff like walking around looking for treasure, I wouldn’t mind if Sunless Sea remained sea-focused for the real time interaction. (Empire of Hands has a treasure hunt, but not graphically represented with characters and land like SM’s Pirates)
I have no problems with the speed either.
But I never make a long travel in one stretch, I always stop at the ports I meet on the way, so the interval I’m sailing continuously is never too long.
But I agree that I would like to see more random events or, in general, interaction, during travels.
I partly agree with both sides…I do get bored sailing (even with a complex itinerary planned out) to the point where I read books or do my nails during long empty stretches. But I also agree that having the base ship speed faster would kill the atmosphere.
More civilian ships and low-level beasties to kill would be nice.