I am pretty sure that you have reached the end of the current chapter of this story. You can do nothing further at this time. I think the next chapter does not come out until after 1/1/23. If you are like me, all you can do between now and then is forget everything that has happened so far in the story 
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Regarding the issue I describe above where my relatively safe zee lane disappeared, I asked support@failbettter.com about this. Their reply said, “Apologies for the confusion – you need to independently learn the route to Godfall in addition to providing the zee lane (the fictional use for the zee lane is to find a safe way around the pirates hounding you, rather than for uncovering the route). I believe the route to Godfall can be obtained by speaking to the Loquacious Vicar in London, or by encountering monks while zailing in Shepherd’s Wash.”
Can anyone tell me what happens if you uncover the route to Godfall via one of the two methods mentioned by the game owners and then you zail there WITHOUT having a relatively safe zee lane?
I don’t know yet, but I suspect it will be something similar to how the tomb colonies part worked - if you access the place “normally”, you won’t see the evolution-specific parts. You will need to take a “special” storylet in your captain’s cabin to progress, and that will only be takeable with the RSZL.
I’m not sure this is the correct place to ask this, but would anyone be so kind and throw me the echoes of the card readings for Malleability and Cunning? Apparently I have lost my ability to find echoes through googling.
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Since someone else is probably looking for Acceptance, I’ll post all three:
Naturalist’s Cunning 3:
He lifts a card from the centre: The Hanged Man. Around the table, seventy-six other cards are arranged in an expansive constellation. The Bat. The Clubfoot. The Leviathan.
“What does it mean?” asks His Amused Lordship.
“Bumpy road,” says the Thirsty Croupier.
Approaching the Gates of the Garden is dropping…
Naturalist’s Acceptance 3:
He lifts a card from the centre: The Hierophant. Around the table, seventy-six other cards are arranged in an expansive constellation. The Lantern. The Chalice. The Twins.
“What does it mean?” asks His Amused Lordship.
“Something delicious,” says the Thirsty Croupier.
Approaching the Gates of the Garden is increasing…
Naturalist’s Malleability 3:
He lifts a card from the centre: The Wheel of Fortune. Around the table, seventy-six other cards are arranged in an expansive constellation. The Rose. The Twins. The Chalice.
“What does it mean?” asks His Amused Lordship.
“Beats me,” says the Thirsty Croupier.
(No change to Approaching the Gates of the Garden)
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Much appreciated, thank you!
I need some help figuring out how to rescue the youthful naturalist from the ship, Delight. I boarded the Delight. I have been up and down the 3 decks. I have recovered my Blue Prophet to achieve 1 level of Sacristan’s Benediction. I have done the “Worship with the devoted deckhands” to achieve a 2nd Sacristan’s Benediction. This latter action moved my “Associating with a youthful naturalist” to 410. This 410 prevents me from worshipping with the devoted deckhands again. I am wearing the shattered mask and have been the entire time I have been aboard the Delight.
It appears that I need to enter the second Sacristan’s cabin as my next step but in order to do this, I need a 3rd Sacristan’s Benediction. Unfortunately, it appears that both methods of obtaining these (recover blue prophet and worship with the devoted deckhands) are closed to me.
Can anyone help me to understand how to proceed? There is not even a way that I can find to leave the Delight.
Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks.
Nevermind… I figured it out. A particular combination (deck 2 with troubled waters) unlocked a new option.
Everyone else playing Evolution: “Wow this is a pretty cool narrative“
Me playing evolution: “Can I continue the story?“
My Troubled Waters Stat: “No.“
Me: “Can I continue the story?“
My Troubled Waters Stat: “No.“
Me: “Can I continue the story?“
My Troubled Waters Stat: “No.“
Me: "Can’t you say anything else but ‘no’?!
My Troubled Waters Stat: “Try asking again.”
Me: “Can I continue the story?”
My Troubled Waters Stat: “No!”
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I was about to go on a long, bad-tempered rant about this but you summed up my experience thus far. After much experimentation, despite the story proclaiming that now you are a REAL pirate, I have discovered the fastest way to progress the bounties is to make as short a trip as possible to and from London and pray you inexplicably run across your prey. Which given the way hunting bounties works, you eventually will.
I’m internally demanding the game give me seven more free ranks of Zailing for my trouble because the token one feels like a slap to the face more than anything at this point, and also wondering how intentional it is that the game ensures the city-slicker ex-prisoner PC from Fallen London is infinitely more prone to dying at sea than the zalty zee-dog of Sunless Seas.
I haven’t eaten my crew yet, but not for want of trying. And after the novelty of paying the toll just to see what happens wore off, I’ve come to appreciate my Hesperidean Cider for letting me continuously tell the Fathomking to get stuffed since the Boatman has no choice but to kick me out of the river anyway.
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I’m just stunned that they expect you to get 10k of treasure before you can progress anything.
Either lower the amount or give an alternative storylet.
As it is I’m not in the Cider Club so aside from the bit at the beginning of the chapter in London I’ve spent more time being Dead than I have progressing the narrative.
This is not a joke, I’m currently dead right now.
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Is it really that big a deal? I thought it was pretty easy to get 10k treasure in a few days of sailing around. Why is that something to be “stunned” about or “go on a long bad-tempered rant”??
I sailed to the Khanate to pick up the weekly bounty, sailed home, sailed to/from the elder continent a few times, it really doesn’t feel like a big deal. There’s a bunch of new options on cards so I wanted to find and play them all anyway. The bounty doesn’t get reset when you dock so there’s no need to let Troubled Waters get anywhere near 8, if you dock at a safe port anytime it hits 6 there’s no real risk of dying…
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As someone who took a while to figure out that yes, in fact reducing Troubled Waters is something I need to think about instead of maximising pirate booty gains? I am asking you very politely. To please understand. That for some of us who don’t keep track of things like safe ports, or how exactly Troubled Waters resets, because we don’t zail as much as you (in my case, at all).
It is, in fact, a big deal.
I too liked playing around with the new card options at first. It was fun. It became substantially less fun when I quickly discovered my options were “play with the new options as much as you can” and “don’t repeatedly sink your ship and flip off the Boatman with your cider”
Update: I have just paid the pirates’ toll. I am annoyed there is no option to intimidate the information out of them, even for those of us without a pet Vake, a dangerous friend on the surface, an…affinity with mirrors or some other potent advantage.
I’m excited to see what awaits me at Gaider’s Mourn! Piracy being worth the risk or not in the long run, I’ve been waiting for it to be an option.
Man, people will complain about anything and everything no matter what. The whole Corsair/Piracy update is fun and adds a new breath into zailing, and I think most people appreciate it. Yes, the stat checks are tough. Yes, you now have to watch Troubling Water, but do you not watch Menaces otherwise?
Pay attention to what’s happening, none of it is a big deal. And if you don’t like it, don’t do it other than what’s required to advance Evolution. Getting 100 E of plunder doesn’t take long, even if you’re not actively doing Piracy and Piracy only. Grinding a Stone Tentacle Key took longer.
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I’m finding it a fair bit harder than other parts of the game at this point, which is a bit startling now that I’ve gotten used to most things being easy-ish as an endgame player, but I don’t think that’s a bad thing once I’ve adjusted to the idea; the whole game used to be like that when I was fresher and newer, and the challenge is fun. Going shorter distances at a time in order to keep Troubled Waters down enough to pirate freely is slightly inconvenient, but the amount of grinding to progress in Evolution didn’t feel like too much to me. It certainly wasn’t Knifegate!
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How many chapters of Evolution are left?
Since there are two Unterzee map locations left that we can’t yet visit (Station III & Irem), I expect there’ll be two more chapters?
I actually don’t :P. Wounds and Scandal I don’t even notice until they hit 6, and don’t act differently until they hit 7.
And that’s why this update has taken some adjustment! I’ve literally seen the Fathomking as many times this weekend as over the whole preceding two years of Zeefarer content.
But the thing is, I have been forced to adjust and I have adjusted. I am now being forced to approach Zailing in a different way than I did previously, which is to say that I actually engage with the Troubled Water stat that before I simply ignored (I had a zub and false-star which helped). I think on the whole this is a good thing, it’s not great when I can simply ignore a risk mechanic entirely and not get punished. And since I’ve made the concious effort to change my play, I haven’t seen the Fathomking again yet.
Like just this morning, I actually stopped at a nearby port to clear Troubled Waters. I did that a grand total of 0 times before Piracy.
I’ll say this: TW must be manged proactively to a much great extent than any other Menace. Between the card-based nature, and the fact that many actions give TW even on success means that I need to pay attention to it at like 5 even though “technically” it doesn’t matter until 7. This is extremely different from other Menaces in Fallen London. A lot of places in Fallen London have “slow and safe vs high-risk/high-rewad,” but some of the dicier Zee regions feel like the floor is “slow and medium-risk vs high-risk/high-reward,” which is qualitatively different.
Overall I’m enjoying the content because something which used to be fairly mechanical is now more interactive and I have to weigh decisions more. And because I get to Commit Crimes, and interact with law enforcement disrespectfully.
I also have, for some reason, a total of +7 to Zeefaring from gear. Players that are having a rough time of things right now might have a qualitatively different experience with another point or two; I hope Pelagic Eggs are still in style during Whitsun.
I don’t know why FBG decided to revoke Cecil’s Safe Harbor status, but I’m really feeling it. There are no safe ports in-between the Khanate and London, and the Steppes and Pillars are difficult zones. I hope Irem will be regarded as Safe. But right now, I can only think that FBG actually wants us to weigh the trade-offs of going the shorter route through the Snares, or going Against The Currents.
Two content tweaks that I think would help:
- Provide some indicator of Safe Ports. Something visual on the map would be ideal, but I would settle for some metatext on the action to dock.
- The Zeefaring challenges have a cliff and I think the scaling should be smoother. Right now the four zee zones closer to London have difficulties between 6 and 8; while the three “hard” zones (Steppes, Pillars, Snares) have difficulties between 12 and 14. No zone has a difficulty between 8 and 12! This honestly seems like an actual bug, and I will be submitting it.
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From the Corsair announcement:
This is the fifth of Evolution’s seven chapters
Irem has been confirmed as the last Port that will be added for Zeefarer. The original announcement mentioned that some parts of Evolution will hit areas that will not become permanent ports, which we’ve already seen in Cline. Station III could be another, although there’s also the Cumean Canal.
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Thank god, this means we won’t have to refer to it with wacky tenses any more.
I rather expect that whole chapter will has been writ in wacky tenses.
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