So, started anew after running around in Emerald with a dread and all the goods in the world, and the first thing I found was that in the game I had been playing, I’d got complacent, biggest ship out there, all the money in the world, mansion, massive sets of weapons, and no real threat to what I was getting up to out there.
Which is really not the point of the game I think, and when I started again, I certainly found that to be the case. The main difference between this and the previous time I’d started is that I’ve now logged a good amount of time on the game, so I have some idea where things are, some idea of what’s good and bad out there, and less fear of the possibility of running out of fuel or supplies, so I was far less cautious in getting out there and trying to find things.
First trip out, took a tomb colonist up to Venderbight and found that they wanted a companion bringing from Gaiders, so back down via Hunters Keep and then south a little further to the Canal, just to see if it was still there.
It was…
Back to collect the money for the port reports and then spent everything on more supplies and fuel, then back out again, this time a little further south to the Iron Republic (still where it was last time), and then on a whim, east in a straight line to see if the Fathomkings hold was still out there…
It wasn’t…
But the Mangrove colleges were, and that’s even better, so properly supplied up, I continued around in broadening circles, finding the Salt Lions and then Godfall, then Polythreme, and finally Port Cecil, where a truly staggering set of lucky results got me to finding more pieces for the chess players.
And here’s where prior knowledge of the game came in really useful…
Jillyfleurs if left alone give you zee stories, and if you haven’t used up all your secrets, Salts attention gets you searing enigma’s, so where previously it had taken me the best part of a few weeks to build a few thousand and consider buying a new ship, I’ve been playing this for less than a day and I’m already heavily armed and have nearly enough to pick up the merchant cruiser. The difference being that the steamer now has only one weapon slot (compared to three previously), and as a result, shooting your way through things takes a lot more time. So the first purchase was a better engine (can’t kill it if you can’t outrun it), then heavy weapons that didn’t need torpedoes, and given that the steamer only has one weapon slot, I no longer have any issue with trading it in for the merchant cruiser, and that’s likely to be what I’m going to do.
The other thing is that when I started the other game, crushing enemies didn’t have the same bonuses, so things like Lifebergs were worth practically nothing, as opposed to the artifacts, trophies, and tons of resources that can be had off them now, so solving the merchant venturers requests for artifacts becomes much easier and there’s a lot of money involved in that.
In all, the biggest difference between the last time I set out and this one was that this time I know what I’m doing, and it’s making the game a lot more interesting because while I’m not as worried about new creatures and new horizons as I was the first time, the first time out wasn’t as much fun as this because I didn’t know enough about ships and distances and hunger to venture out further than a small distance every time. For me, the biggest part of this game is being willing to take the big venture, which is something you only do when you’ve got some knowledge about what you’re doing, which a captain going out on the sea the first time would have, but not necessarily the player behind that captain.
Still, got a single big gun, nice townhouse, and a child waiting for me in port, the world is a vast open horizon, and I’m enjoying it far more than I did last time…