So there’s been a few changes on the waves…
Some good, some not so good…
Like very much that the stat increase on the weapons has been taken away, makes for a much more interesting game when you have to fight everything with what you are, not what the howitzer makes you. However, one thing I would say is that it would be good to have the stats for the weapons listed when you’re looking to buy them, as (for example), the Hellthrasher has weapon stats of 26-36 and 36-46 for 1500 echoes, whereas the Majesty has stats of 30-40 on both and costs only 400 echoes. This might be a way for people to not have to spend the entire of the sea on getting a weapon that’ll do some damage, but it really does need to be pointed out when people are looking at weapons to buy.
Interesting that you can now fit deck guns in the forwards position and vice versa, makes for more interesting weapons configurations, particularly as a lot of the really nasty things out there really need flensing now.
I understand why reversing has been halved in efficiency, but I’m with everyone else on the idea that if you’re going to take away the only chance of preventing the ramming pack from getting to you, you need to provide some sort of other option so that beginning players don’t get utterly smashed by even the smallest opponents.
Blue Scintillack, nope, really not liking that at all, particularly with the new weapon effects, while it allows you to get a first strike in, when you’ve got suitable weapons on board, the creatures never get chance to get near you in the first place, and that includes the Savage Lorn Flukes and Mount Nomad, so on the one hand, as long as you’ve got weapons that stun, you’re never going to be in any danger, if you don’t have weapons that stun, you’re going to take a lot of damage because those creatures will keep charging and you haven’t got any way to avoid things.
Terror – Well, that’s certainly changed hasn’t it… Goes up at twice the rate it used to, which on the one hand is understandable that things are nasty out there, but I got the update when I was out at sea in a ship that’s well armed, well provisioned, well crewed, and was on 12 terror at the time I started back from the Chelonate on the eastern edge. I fought five things on the way back, two lorn flukes, two pirates, one Jilly, got back into port with Terror 82 and seriously wondered a few times if I was actually going to make it back before the drownies got me. I understand creatures causing additional terror, but I think that there needs to be something in return when you drop the aforementioned creature in battle. For example, one of the Lorn flukes I came up against didn’t do any physical damage, but managed to boost my terror by forty points in a single engagement, which was truly terrifying as a player, and (I felt) more than a little unfair, because when I finally killed it, I didn’t get anywhere near that amount of terror back as a reward for beating it.
I know the argument there is going to be that the creatures could still be out there, but I’m with Brody and Hooper on this matter. After Jaws got killed, both of them were in the water paddling away like kids because the big bad they’d dealt with was gone and while I appreciate that’s a film, there’s a lot to be said for killing the thing that was terrorising you. Even if the mechanic was something simple like you lost half the terror damage that creature has caused you, or have the terror caused reduced by the number of crew you have left (or a half of that, similar to hunger), which would represent the idea that huge numbers of crew would be there for each other, and that terrible things aren’t so very terrible when you’ve got an army at your back…
Weather, a curious thing to be sure, lovely effects, but the practicality of the effects is a concern.
For example – fog reduces visibility for all concerned, which is fine, but then it also sets your terror accumulator to red, no matter where you are, what you’re near, and what you’re doing. If you’re retreating from a monster and you encounter a fog bank that you can’t just change direction from and power through, you can end up ten terror worse off than you were, not counting whatever terror the monster comes up with. I understand the reduction of visibility, but not the terror. Increase the terror penalties for anything you encounter while you’re in the fog, but the fog shouldn’t cause it all by itself.
Snow causing the engine to slow down I don’t get at all, reduce visibility by all means, but slowing the ship down should work both ways, if you’re sailing into the storm, slow down, if you’re sailing out of the storm, speed up, but not an all purpose engine kill.
Love the wax storms down near Varchas, lovely idea, doesn’t make any difference to the engine but it’s a nice effect, and I think that most weather effects should be like that. I also think that there should be some sort of limiting effect upon them, either within a certain range of home waters or when the ship gets down to minimum provisions or fuel, most people don’t mind buying the farm in a fight or tacking it out to the eastern edge, but running out of fuel because you had enough to get back when you started but had two storms on the way back is a bad way to go out and smacks more of bad luck than bad judgement, and most people will be fine with their own bad judgement, Bad luck on the other hand…
On a whim I started a new game, using the knowledge that I’ve got from a few months on the waves, sunk all but ten echoes into fuel and supplies and set out, managed to get around eight ports with a careful combination of blowing up bats and taking the supplies, full powering around Lifebergs, blowing up crabs for terror reduction, and having a rough idea of where all the ports were in the first place. Got back to base and spoke to the admiral, first piece of strategic information I’ve got to retrieve is on the Avid Horizon, and I’ve managed to accumulate a hundred echoes from the port reports, used up most of my admiralties favour on repairing the ship which was badly damaged. I’ve had to take the Blind Bruisers offer (Which is railroading any way you want to look at it) because without it, I’ll never get out on the waves again, I’ll not even make it to hunters and back without running out of everything.
It’s easy for us to look at this from the point of view of experienced captains and sailors, all of us running around with frigates and heavy weapons, good engines, plenty of officers, and all the money needed to make it back every time, even if we have to refuel out there and resupply. The problem here is that if the game is ever to grow from those of us that have already got the game into something that others will play and enjoy, there has to be a learning period, a moment where the full horror of what’s out there doesn’t impact on you till such time as you’ve had chance to acclimatise to what you’re doing out there. Starting the game with little chance, no fuel, no hope, and every chance of running out of fuel or supplies before you go anywhere serious.
There was comment that most captains have to be out there and fall a few times before they get enough money and skills to make a good go of it out there.
And I quote all the gods of the sea out there when I say…
Sod that…
If the first five times you go out there, you end up dead, starving, eaten, crunched, out of fuel or stark raving nutty, you’ll have one of two reactions.
1: I’ll stay with this till I have it…
2: I’ll go play something else…
The problem here is that a lot of people will take door number two, and we’re in the position now of understanding that the things that don’t work will still be looked at and possibly changed, when the game hits final release, that option will no longer be there, and while experienced captains will be fine with going out there and going that bit further because they know other things are out there, I remember what it was like when I first started on this game and didn’t know what I know now. There has to be something that keeps people interested in the game, something that gives them a way to see what’s going on straight away without having to die those many times.
Has there been a consideration to have home waters visible from the off?
After all, go out there more than once and you’ll know where the basic fixed points (Venderbight, Hunters, Mutton) are, but you need to be willing to take that journey up to get to Venderbight, and the first time you go past Venderbight, you encounter a lifeberg and you never go any further than that because you don’t know that what’s beyond them is worth it.
It’s just a concern that everyone playing this now has seen the score and knows how it works, beginners don’t have that wealth of knowledge and I think that there needs to be something along those lines for beginners, perhaps something in the navigators boon, just something that gives them something to work with…