Stuttering hasn’t happened to me. Well, actually it happened once, but I blame it on my computer which is overheating (it happened already before the new patch).
Regarding light buoys, the devs are continuously changing their positions so I don’t think it’s a bug (for exemple, it seems to me that the now terror-free path to go to Hunters Keep due to the presence of two well-positioned buoys was not existing before).
The lorn-thing continuously seeking is actually something that I saw happening for many monsters once in a while, so I think it’s a more general AI problem. But if Failbetter dedicates a full study program to improving combat in a new “steel” patch, perhaps this problem will become obsolete by itself with the change of method.
As I wrote above, the shuffling of the map with all the tiles, the not ready ones included, is quite a bummer, I hope there will be the possibility to tweak it.
In general, very excited about this Emerald release so far!
Also, it seems to me that at this moment the Terror issues that were plaguing the first versions of the game are largely resolved.
As I wrote above, the shuffling of the map with all the tiles, the not ready ones included, is quite a bummer, I hope there will be the possibility to tweak it.[/quote]
My guess would be the algorithm they’re using doesn’t make it particularly easy to exclude those tiles from shuffling, without adding more work later to undo that, so I’m not especially confident anything will come of it.
There do appear to be placeholder islands in those spaces for the time being, so at least there’s light buoys and shoreline to hug to get through them; I found at least one empty black hole in the world. At least, I assume it’s a placeholder, although with this setting I’m not entirely sure :P
Apart from being a horror to download (I got two corrupted downloads and cancelled a couple more that said they would take 12 hours to finish!) I’m liking what I see so far. I do have just a few slightly negative thoughts, but on the whole I think Emerald is looking very good.
The light-buoys shifting was a bit disconcerting and some new rocks and movement of islands meant that I had to be a bit more careful about steering than before. Also I was in lights and still gaining terror in places, I don’t know if this is because of the shifts so that the game didn’t recognise that I was meant to be in a safe zone.
The new Zee-bat mechanic is good if there is somewhere out there to discover but it is slightly annoying to have to dismiss a pop-up.
Not too sure about the new engine sound but I like the other sound effects I have heard so far.
Does anyone else think that the bell for SAY is a bit too much? I like the little light bulb when you have it but the sound is too much like the one for gaining a secret, unless that has changed. I haven’t earned enough fragments to gain one yet.
I think the Brisk Campaigner might be bugged, I had my first dinner with her and then the other options are locked as needing 4 and 5 of her quality.
I need to do a bit more Zailing and see if I can discover any more changes and I will probably have to start a new game as well to see what the map shuffling is like.
I was about to ask the same thing about the Brisk Campaigner. First dinner down, got the zoup and secret for the second but I don’t see how I could raise her story from 1 to 4 for that stage.
I like the Iron Republic, it feels sufficiently different, plus it’s nice seeing things happen where previously there were only blank tiles.
Still haven’t managed to garner enough favor with the nobles of Khan’s Glory to get that trading license.
And the Serpent keeps guzzling fuel… but I’m learning to deal with it, the stats bonus are too good to ignore at this stage.
Chess is still not working (or at least I can’t figure out how to do get in at the exact right moment).
Now, if I could get a better ship… the Serpent’s requirements in fuel are taking up too much of my cargo space…
[quote=Westerfeld]
And the Serpent keeps guzzling fuel… but I’m learning to deal with it, the stats bonus are too good to ignore at this stage.
…
Now, if I could get a better ship… the Serpent’s requirements in fuel are taking up too much of my cargo space…[/quote]
Wait, what Serpent? You mean the engine that the Genial Magician gives you through his quest-line? Because I am pretty sure that a+10 to Fuel efficiency should have the opposite effect of more quickly diminishing our fuel supplies. Or is there another serpent in the game?
No, that’s the one, The Serpent gained through the (now Satisfied, yay!) Magician’s storyline.
It costs me more fuel to get anywhere now and the benefit in speed is not that great, but the stat bonuses are too important to ignore (at least for my current level, with Mirrors at 78, Iron at 72 by two best stats).
Maybe the engine needs some tweaking, but it’s not the vast improvement I was hoping for. Or maybe I need to learn to use it more efficiently. Switching off lights whenever possible is pretty important now.
I’ll probably get some extra provisions so I can convert them to fuel, and see if I can get to Khan’s Heart and back with 12 fuel. I used to be able to do that, now I have some serious doubts.
The Serpentine does use more fuel than the starting engine but less than its power equivalent. Still 15 Fuel gets you to the Khanat and back.
If you’re not playing unforgiving try "Full steam" a few times, it’ll go horribly wrong by releasing the Fingerking but epically right by turning your ship into a rocket.
By the way, anyone noticed changes in the frequency of terrorcards? I just lost 6 Zailors to that damned tentacle in under 2 minutes.
I’ve managed to get this far in “unforgiving” mode, so I think I should avoid messing with the Fingerking :)
(not that I haven’t pressed F more times than I care to remember, since I’m using WASD to steer and change speed…)
Still, it’s my first solid reward from the personal stories of Sunless Sea, and the Satisfied Magician is great, so I’ll roleplay a bit and let my Chief Engineer enjoy his enemy’s misfortune.
Now, if I could get my hands on that beautiful yacht in Vanderbight…
I actually set up a new game on Unforgiving Mode and just went back to my Merciful file. It wasn’t that it was too hard, but rather because it was almost as easy as Merciful Mode. The only real difference between the modes is that you cannot make save files on Unforgiving, but the fact that you can exit out of the game whenever your at sea or in the middle of a battle vastly diminishes the chance of making mistakes otherwise. And by entering and re-entering port, and reloading, I was able to abuse the Autosave for chance rolls so nothing was really out of my control.
I was also annoyed that as it is there is no way to keep two files with one being Unforgiving, because once I docked in my Merciful game I would delete my Unforgiving game. So I just went back to my already established and profitable game that I began on Merciful Mode rather than start all over on Unforgiving.
And yes, I also want that yacht and all I have to do is trade in my dreadnought :)
I mean if you’re save-scumming on unforgiving mode it’s basically functionally identical to merciful mode so I’m not sure that actually says anything meaningful about the difficulty there.
(Also you could back up the save file when you switch to your merciful character, but that’s extremely tedious if you switch between them a lot. I just stick with merciful at this point since the balance is still fairly uneven.) edited by WormApotheote on 7/31/2014
I hope there will be other sources for a couple of the curator’s items then. If not I will just do without a yacht.
By the way there is an invisible obstacle in the Swallowing Isles - I don’t know if it is a feature or a bug. It wouldn’t surprise me if it is deliberate given the name of the place:)
Edit to add also there is no docking circle at Khan’s Shadow. edited by reveurciel on 7/31/2014
I agree with lady ciel. There are items I would like alternate sources for in the Curator quest, simply because I kind of like the L.B.s and don’t want to steal from them.
That was one of them, I also feel uncomfortable about the Chapel of Lights. I’ve managed to not turn cannibal with most of my captains and it is something I would rather not have to do in order to complete the Curator’s story.
I must say that the shuffling thing irks me more than I thought… in my first new character after the patch I have a sort of wall of darkness after the coast, with the two first tiles in front of Mutton Island and Vanderbight and the first tile in front of Whither, Cumaean’s canal and Hunter’s Keep are all “to be built”.
By the way, I was wondering if the directions that are given when you get a mission from the Admiralty or the Smugglers are still valid (I mean if they indicate the real direction for that random map or if they are still locked to the original, not-shuffled map)…
I feel uncomfortable about that place too. If there was a way of getting rid of the Unaccountably Peckish quality in Sunless Sea, in much the way one can in Fallen London, it would be less worrisome. But that might go against what they want in this game, even though it would be consistent with the existing universe.
To live is to consume, and to not consume is to be dead. Being a cannibal is not inherently evil, for you are not eating life, merely cleaning up death.
I only managed to pick up the “Unaccountably Peckish” quality yesterday (and I’ve been eating at the Chapel every time I go past, must have been lucky/unlucky I guess?)
But I was disappointed that the result text that gives you the quality is the same as the normal text for eating there (ending with “leave with the juices dripping from your chin” I think?)
Since it seems to be a fairly rare result, it would have been cool to see something extra in the text (maybe wondering where they manage to get pork kidneys down here, or mention that there are no pigs on the island, or something? I dunno, I’m not a writer :p) rather than just getting the quality slapped on and suddenly you’re a cannibal :)
Obviously not a big thing, just a thought that crossed my mind. But then, I’ll take ANY extra text, since the writing is always so good :D