Douse the Lights and Purse the Lips! (Combat)

Sunless Sea
1

Hey all.[li]

So, I recently had not one but two runs ruined by having to grab strategic information from the Chapel of Lights. Mt. Nomad noticed me and turn me into chow. The first time I got caught in a snow storm and could only inch forward as Nomad screamed at me to death. The second time I was racing into port only to have Nomad ram into me for 88 damage (The Starting Ship only has 75 hit points D:)

You Now have x 2 Tale of Terror!
Your Quality of &quotLearning about Klubhouse&quot is 2! What a baby!


but spooky antics aside, I found myself grumbling after those two deaths as I felt that the options I had to fight the situation just do not work. The new combat update not only makes it harder to slide by enemies undetected, once an enemy does notice you, your veils and turning off your prow light don’t seem to do anything. New players with low level engines and the starting ship don’t have the engine power to outrun their foes and the hull points to tank damage, If Nomad starts eyeing you up, it’s pretty much a game over because even if you outrun his ram, it only takes two screams to put you into the drink. You could go full power, but spamming the full power button is risky and Nomad could still get a scream in to chunk you.

I feel like the combat system we have could do with a bit of stealth or cleverness to give players more options in combat.

Lie in Darkness

You ever notice that when your prow light is off and you’re putting around with no light buoys nearby that two bluish side lights turn on with your ship? It keeps the immediate area around you lit up and I bet the sailors are mighty thankful for that fact… but what if you had the ability to turn those off?

Lie in darkness, and hold your breath. Turning off the side lights would dramatically increase your evasiveness and decrease the rate at which you consume fuel and would confuse your enemies for a time, grinding their combat solutions to a halt, allowing you a moment to turn tail and run away… but beware, lying in absolute darkness comes at a price…

Turning off the Side Lights would increase the rate of which you accumulate terror. Hovering over the terror icon will read &quotWe are Lost at Zee… All is Lost at Zee…&quot The counters will turn black and the terror clicker will go up by THREE DOTS instead of two. Not only that, but sometimes a special event will occur with your crew that will exhibit a loud noise or bright flash, alerting the enemies your trying to evade and ruining your stealth.


Furthermore, enemies like bat swarms and Mt. Nomad can counter this stealth. Bats are not affected by this trick as they use Echo location, Mt. Nomad will be confused &quotfor a time&quot, but after he uses his ranged attack, his yell will alert him to your location, prompting him to continue the chase!

Don’t look directly at it!


for the clever player looking to get the jump on their foe. After a player buys a telescope or new light that increases their mirrors from the Naval Surplus yard, a new option will be available to players in the battle menu: &quotFlare the Lights!&quot

Flaring the lights would amplify the strength of your forward prow light, speeding the rate at which your combat solution accumulates and also has a chance (Based on the quality of your telescope/spotlight) to disorient your foe. crafty players looking to hunt big game could lie in darkness until their quarry gets close and light everything at once to bring a deadly first strike to the ensuing battle. Or, a player looking to make a quick getaway could run in close to their target, flare the lights and disorient them to give them some breathing room and a chance to escape.

Flaring the lights increases the rate at which you consume fuel and also may actually cause your light to fizzle out, forcing you to traverse the zee without a prow light for a time after the battle. It also makes you more noticeable to other creatures or enemies that fail to get disoriented by your barrage of shiny instruments.


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These are just two ideas I’ve had that could give players more options in combat. I know the FailBetter Team is hard at work meeting the deadline of February 6th for this splendid game and by all means, stick to that road map and chalk up this thread to just fanciful thinking if its not compatible with your vision.

I turn it over to your guys have at it! I would love to hear what you think about this combat system they got in place. I’ve seen videos showing the older builds of the game and the past combat system. Do you like this combat system more? Or do you wish for the old days? Comments on the ideas above? Have at it!

Thanks for reading!

2

I was nervous about this new combat system personally, but now that I’m used to it I prefer the level of control we have now with being able to pull off more complex maneuvers.

I have also gained a few tricks with the new combat system having fought using a Merchant ship, and recently a Dreadnaught, one of which is actually similar to your first idea.

Like how turning off the prow lights if you’re being chased helps confuse most intelligent enemies like other ships while you use a rear cannon like Damnation to keep firing. The enemy has to get closer before it recognizes you as a target, though it’ll remain suspicious until you either get out of range, and your terror goes up quickly for being in total darkness aside from side lights.

3

Yeah, I was about to say that I never had problems with Mount Nomad, but then I remembered that the evasion nerf was implemented after I switched to Frigate in order to complete the Venturer’s Venture, as was adverse weather.

Speaking of which, it seems to me that snowstorms and wax-wind ought to affect other ships too, as well as moths and any other flying beasties that might be added in future. Is this in fact the case?

Also, does Full Power do anything in snow/wax-wind? The increased temperature of overstoking the furnace ought to melt some ice/wax, right?

4

as far as I can tell, running full power does not do anything special in adverse weather besides the usual expected effect, a speed up

I would think that adverse weather should affect other creatures, but I haven’t been in too many situations to say for sure.

5

I’ve been in combat with a moth in the wax wind, and it seemed to be as affected as I was - it struggled to keep track of me and didn’t move very quickly. Possibly it was just having a bad run of the RNG, but I assumed it was the Wax Wind taking its toll.

I can’t say that the Lifebergs seem much affected by the snowstorms… but then you wouldn’t really expect them to be!

6

Every time I’ve been caught in weather in combat, the enemy has been slowed to the same extent that I have been, and as I get to the edges of the weather first, it also gives me the bonus when I get there and move faster for a short while, irritating in the beginning, but something you need to get used to.