So I came back to the game after the Eleutheria update, and I have a lot of thoughts about the regions that I’ve visited. I like the atmosphere, first off, and for better or for worse the “Something Dark” designation makes me feel like exploring every discovery my scout makes just in case I find a port or crossroad. It’s really easy to gain terror in Eleutheria, which makes sense but feels unfair in some cases. As far as I can tell you always gain terror when choosing a Douser defeat option, which feels like a punishment you have to endure to get a nameplate on top of having to actually kill the Douser. Enemies range from weak to super dangerous, with Dousers and Empyreans topping the list. I think that Grievers could have their damage upped a bit and the later two ships could use a nerf to make them less deadly, especially if you run into a pack of Dousers. Finally, I feel that Crossroads could be more common or at least located in areas of Eleutheria like the Collywobbles where you get a message like “This used to be a major intersection” or some such. The only place I’ve ever found them is near the Empyrean, and this makes it harder to fulfill the Princess’s quest.
I love the system of Eleutherian Mysteries, Port Reports and Factions. Port Reports definitely give you different benefits here, and if you need money there’s always the Empyrean. I joined the Heart Catchers on my first run, and the benefits were worth it, if expensive in mysteries sometimes. Mysteries also make the House of Rods and Chains potentially very valuable and a shockingly good place to reduce terror for a place called the House of Rods and Chains.
The only ports I’ve completed storywise have been Alchys and Caduceus. Both have good rewards, but I felt that the Caduceus story ends abruptly after the Rose Rite completion. Also, I was expecting a reward from Murgatroyd for
destroying the Midnight Vine
even a small one like a discount on buying tea from her. I have yet to complete the Langley Hall and Piranesi quests, and the major House quest seems like a placeholder for future regions. I’m not sure how far the Empyrean quest can go, or if you can alienate the Londoners or Khagians completely.
I’ll be interested to see how the region changes in future updates. Also, apologies for misspellings of Port Names - very few of them are on the wiki, so I have to go by memory and guesswork. edited by Lord Garuda on 8/15/2018
Getting Crew in that region is really hard. And hours in Pan are too punishing - i am losing 1 Hearts half of the times. And it feels really bad because there is no way to raise your stats except level ups.
Hull repair is fine.
Overall region feels like moneysink. It is easy to make fortune in Reach and slightly harder in Albion. In Ele you are losing money and other resources. edited by Waterpls on 8/16/2018
I know what you mean about Crew. Even with an extra cabin, there are a good deal of events in the region that cost 3 crew for failure. I think that one of the crossroad payments costs half your crew, which in my case was 11. Ouch.
I actually think that Eleutheria fills in a couple important economic holes, although some ports like Langley Hall can drain your resources if you try to grind them. Albion was tougher for me at first because the Bazaar requests asked for rare or uncommon things like Glass, Bombazine and Gemstones. It’s easier to get things like Gemstones, Caged Catches and Immaculate Souls in Eleutherian ports, which made it easier for my to pay these things in Albion. On the other hand, it’s harder to get things like Nectar and Verdant Seeds outside of the Reach, so finding the Empyrean early on is really important.
I agree with this - although my perception of how much damage Grievers do may be clouded by the fact that I’m running a Medea-class destroyer with tons of armor. I went to this build specifically because I kept getting butchered by Dousers and Empyreans in my Altani-class outrider, which was a much more fun ship to play but couldn’t survive Eleutherian threats.
My biggest worry is the fact that Empyrean ships appear to fire (ahem) homing missiles at us. Is that what those are? Can I have some?
I think everything right up to the "give them your head" story is very satisfying here… Would love you hear your thoughts on that in my recent post on the subject.
This hasn’t happened to me much here, but with the Eleutheria update, Traitor’s Wood can cause stat damage, too, and it’s much harder to raise them than it was in Sea. I also broke one of the rules of Piranesi on a previous run, and that’ll really cost you. I still kind of hate the place.
Piranesi is pretty rough, yeah. If and when you get incarcerated, it would be nice to have a reminder of what your facets do before you change them to new ones to see how they affect your stats. Being able to gain Soul Flaws could be good if you’re done with Caduceus, though.
I just finished a second run through the game writing the Song of the Sky and I got to explore more of Eleutheria this time, as well as some other stories that I had yet to do. I think I may have locked myself out of the Langley Hall quest, but I was able to finish every port but that and the House of Rods and Chains, which doesn’t seem finished yet. Dousers are still really dangerous, but they can be attacked from behind without too much difficulty if you turn off your light before they become hostile to you. I finished as a member of the Brazen Brigade this time, and the quests added an interesting coda to the Caduceus quest line. The options they gave you were pretty useful too, especially
the facet that allows you to gain an affiliation in Boheme or Villainy.
One thing I would like to see more of is quests that link directly from Eleutheria to the Reach or Albion, because those ports have more connected events with each other than either does with Eleutheria. That would give me more incentive to make more than 2 or so visits and flesh out the world further. Doing quests in the region let me finally do things like the Patchwork Devil quest and to unlock every area in Carillon. I like that each region helps build upon the previous in that way, it would just be nice to have that even more so.
I’m glad that expanding upon the Reach is a priority, because after exploring Eleutheria and its terrain the Reach and Albion seem empty and traveling from port to port can feel like autopilot. I hope that Albion gets the same treatment before launch as well.
I’m glad that I was able to choose so many different options this time and experience so many stories that I hadn’t seen before. There are still some that I can explore in full, such as the New Street Line and the alternate end of the Princess’s quest, but I’ll save those for when there is significant new content. I’m enjoying the stories and options a lot, and I hope that Eleutheria is as much of a blueprint in region design going forward as the blog posts suggest.