Yeah, the late 19th and early 20th century was really a transitional era where the modern concept of the submarine was just in the process of coming into its own, before finally cementing itself with the world wars.
In any case, FL at its core plays a little fast and loose here and there with historical and technological reality and just reality in general, so I think some wiggle room is generally considered a given.
6 Likes
What??? I thought the game was not just literally accurate, but a valid predictor of the future! I feel so … cheap.
2 Likes
This is clearly a Captain Nemo-style submarine, not anything based on real-world period-accurate technology. In matters of science and technology in the FL universe I think Jules Verne should always be your first point of reference.
7 Likes
I’ve used “A Return to Terra Firma” to discover Gaiden’s Mourn, but it does not show up on my zailing map. I’ve done all I need to at Godfall but I can’t go to Gaiden’s Mourn as I don’t see it. I just daft or blind? May I know where it is? Or is this something I need to email the powers that be about?
1 Like
Are you sure? It’s called Corsair’s Forest and situated in the Snares in the middle of the map.
It’d be really nice if Docking somewhere at Zee was Actionless, that way you wouldn’t have to sit around like an idiot waiting for your actions to refill if you got there without any.
6 Likes
I have the same problem!
Discovered the route to Gaider’s Mourn via Return to Terra Firma, decided to pay Godfall a visit first (saw the Corsair’s Forest on the map)… and now it has dissppeared from the map and the Terra Firma option to discover it is gone as well.
Has anyone else experienced this?
1 Like
I also have slight problem of dying of TW buildup every time I try to leave the Snares.
The Troubled Waters can be difficult to manage but it’s a balance; you can pirate about and make life riskier, or you can try to keep your head down and focus on survival. I do really like this update, it adds a lot more depth to zailing, and I love how much riskier it makes what was otherwise a fairly clean journey.
6 Likes
I really feel like Gaider’s Mourn could have a shop. Obviously, I don’t know how much work those are to implement and the update’s already very impressive in scope, but I was legitimately surprised it didn’t have something like Khan Heart’s small stalls. It already has its own currency in the form of Treasure. It’s constantly dragging wrecks from the sea. It just seems like the sort of port that would have some thematic coats, some zee crackers and buy odds and ends in return for odd items.
4 Likes
As it is I can’t make any Gaiders Mourn money because I get some, notice my TW is getting a bit high, try to head to the Khanate because that’s closer than London, and then I get hit with a card that kicks TW all the way up to 8 and I FUCKING DIE AND LOSE ALL MY GAIDERS MOURN MONEY.
This is more a product of my gripes with the Unterzee and how it sticks you with a three card hand where you can’t discard anything.
Summary:
Zailing/piracy as currently implemented is too difficult and leads to either terrible echoes/action or rapid death. I will not be doing any more after this chapter of Evolution is over.
Details:
I have pretty high main stats (all ~300), reasonably high zeefairing at 6+5=11, and high monstrous anatomy (7+7=14). I think those are all the attributes used on the zeefairing cards. Even with all of these, I cannot even come close to zailing in the snares without my troubled waters quickly reaching 8 and, thus, dying. For all the zailing and piracy necessary for the Evolution story, I stayed in home waters and Shepherd’s Wash by zailing back and forth from the Court of the Wakeful Eye to London. These were both easier regions of the zee and both were safe harbors so my TW got reset at the end of each voyage. While doing this zailing/piracy, I used every piracy related card that turned up and also every TW reducing card that turned up and, still, my TW would get to ~5 on each voyage.
I could be wrong but I think the piracy rewards are significantly higher in the more difficult regions of the zee. Because I was zailing only in two of the easiest regions, my rewards were lower and it took a LOT of actions to chase down each bounty ship. I would estimate ~50 actions and this yields a poor return on actions. I had to chase down two ships to get the 10,000 stashed treasure necessary to move the Evolution storyline along and then another ~50 actions in the chase of the final ship, Delight.
I would estimate my echoes per action for this zailing/piracy at about 1. Once I am done with this part of the Evolution storyline, I will not be doing any zailing/piracy. Guess I will go back to the extraordinarily boring grinding and repetitiveness of “business of a licentiate” to work toward 200,000k of hinterland scrip. God, how I hate just sitting in Ealing Gardens selling pies. I currently have 1912 rubbery pies that need sold at 5/action so that is only 382 actions. As a non-fate player, that uses about 100 actions per day, this would be close to 4 days of just selling pies to get rid of my current inventory and then it is back to generating more pies. Hmmm… maybe zailing/piracy at 1 echo/action is sounding more enticing or, at least, more interesting.
1 Like
Didn’t try the piracy option, but I read that avoiding the Snares is viable.
Only if you never intend to dock at Gaider’s Mourn/Corsair’s Forest. You can only reach Gaider’s Mourn/Corsair’s Forest (same place for playing purposes) by entering the Snares.
As I see it, piracy is not a business activity by itself, but a sidekick to improve EpA for sailing (mostly for endgame players). Before update we had only few options at zee that not slowed us down and made some money. Now we have more options on cards and some of them give 3-5 echos + full movement on success.
I stopped in Evolution at the point when you need 10 000 stashed things. My plan is to collect this amount in 5-6 weeks just by doing usual loop (favours → tribute → night whispers).
Also maybe it’s now worth the actions to sail to khanate for weekly reward + crates. Not sure.
3 Likes
Overall: lots of content, very fun to engage with, have thoroughly enjoyed inefficiently puttering around looking for buried treasure and excuses to be a pirate.
Going forward, I think piracy in the Snares [250 Peril] and the Pillared Sea [210 Peril] is too difficult to risk, and it’s better to just take normal options in those zones even if one has an active target.
As said by others above, it’s a nice bonus in Home Waters, Shepherd’s Wash, the Sea of Voices, or Stormbones, (Salt Steppes are on thin ice, but I’d usually risk a 90% unless my Waters are especially Troubled) if one were already going on a trip to drop off Orphans and Missionaries for Nightwhispers, or pick up Khanate reports, or scoop up some Segmented Skeletons and Scintillack from Port Cecil. I used to cut across the Snares on the way back from the Khanate, but I think I’ll continue my new habit of just following the currents. It’s about ~3 actions slower, but maybe I’ll find a treasure map, wouldn’t that be fun?
2 Likes
For a licentiate, selling pies to the Bazaar and buying brass skulls is probably a better way to convert them to scrip than the pie stand
I haven’t tried Piracy yet, and expect the stat challenges to be slightly adjusted, as they usually are after an update.
What I find interesting from a lore perspective is that in the Fallen London game Gaider’s Mourn is the Unterzee’s nexus, while in the Sunless Sea game it was Nuncio. Particularly since Nuncio does seem to exist in the Fallen London game, too - there is the Nuncian Pocket Watch, at least. Sunless Sea didn’t have Blue Prophets near Gaider’s Mourn either IIRC, so this is a significant difference in lore between the two games.
2 Likes
Not everything in the zee drifts towards Nuncio, just undelivered messages
3 Likes
Docking at any safe port converts all “Pieces of Plunder Weighing Down Your Hold” to safe “Stashed Treasure”; you may thereafter lower your Corsair’s Colours and zail the Snares free from risk. Well, free from that particular risk, anyway.