Explorer's Beta

Sunless Sea
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I whiled away about three more of the wee-small hours of the morning last night on various games, made it to ports I hadn’t discovered yet on my first night of beta-gaming and tried a few of the other backgrounds and hired a few different officers.

It is apparently lucrative to sell curios to the University, and that gave one of my brave captains who was lucky enough to find a few the supplies to try venturing out towards the East where I discovered just how manic the Terror menace really is. It was like being at the end of a Call of Cthulhu game where nearly everyone has gone mad and your own character is sure that they haven’t… The menace cards fly pretty thick and furious, and also seem to pause your play and by the time I managed to un-pause myself to try and make it the last few yards back to Wolfstack Docks the next card would pop up and pause me again… It would be nice if these cards popped up at a slightly less frenetic pace, although atmospherically it certainly contributed to a growing sense of dread and anguish… That particular captain lost all hands literally seconds away from docking in a frenzy of zailors flinging themselves overboard. Maybe they thought the docks were close enough to try swimming.

I managed to gather more supplies due to a sudden presence of giant crabs in one of my play-throughs (I think in all of my other play-throughs I had only encountered one heading away from me that I couldn’t catch) and in that game I felt slightly less pressed for initial supplies (although once the initial stampede of giant crabs subsided there were no other zee-monsters to be found). I also had the &quotgift&quot of supplies/fuel encounter pop up in another play-through so I took it, although I lost all hands before I could discover the consequences for accepting such largess. Perhaps that was just as well.[li]

Combat went much better for me this time around as I had managed to more correctly interpret the little boxes and even managed to claim a pirate ship with a prize crew once!

I’ll send in bug reports after work because there were a few times I had the Gazetteer freeze up on me while docked at various ports and I could only access it again by launching and re-docking. Also there seem to be some issues with the Legacy system.

All in all I am immensely pleased with how the game is going so far and I fear for my sleep schedule.

42

I was going to mention the same thing, about the Chart legacy making it so you can’t get fragments anymore. If it’s an extra choice you get to make (ie, choose a skill or officer, and choose whether to keep map yes/no) that would be fantastic. I probably wouldn’t keep it most times but I love the idea of being able to once the procedural element is added back in.

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…I funded at Pantherine level but I don’t seem to have received the email with the access code etc. :([li]

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Sry, but does that include the bonus pet or is it not yet included?

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Don’t know if this is a bug or not so won’t report it unless told otherwise.

My problem is that I never see any Officers at Wolfstack Docks but I have got two engineers; two gunners; two doctors (one from my initial choice of past) and the starting mascot. So no cook or first officer.

Before I bought/hired all the ones I have I did see different options when I didn’t have the echoes. So my question is is there a limit on the total number or should I report this as a bug?

47

I got a first officer (but I forget if maybe that was due to the background I chose - poet). I’ve not gotten a cook once though and new characters seem to have stopped appearing for hire at Wolfstack, so maybe it is a bug. Anyone else have any problem with new Character Card Crew-hire option disappearing entirely. I’ve come and gone a number of times so I don’t think it’s random bad luck.

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I think there’s only one Officer you can hire in London- the Carnelian Exile- but I think the only way to get a Cook at the minute is to start as a veteran soldier.
As for officers for hire not showing up as often; as you get more officers, new ones start appearing less frequently. Which stands to reason. New officers showing depends on your Someone Awaits You quality, so if you’ve been spending that on the Alarming Scholar’s gifts then none will show up either. It probably really is just bad luck, most likely!

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[color=#009900]SM is correct; there will also be other ways to gain those same officers.[/color][li]

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Thanks for the answer … I better stop visiting the University before the docks then and maybe I’ll start a new game as a Soldier, haven’t tried that one yet.

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That was the problem … just got back to London and there was a new one there, another doctor, but hopefully next time I’ll get the First Officer or a mascot

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Is anyone else having a problem where visiting Palmerston shows the same markets as in London? 1(Including wolfstack docks!)

Is this a known/common issue?

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[quote=Tanedra]Is anyone else having a problem where visiting Palmerston shows the same markets as in London? 1(Including wolfstack docks!)

Is this a known/common issue?[/quote]
I believe the thing there is that certain ports don’t have their own individual markets set up yet, so the basic London interface is being used for placeholder shops, so that you can still buy important things like fuel and supplies.[li]

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[quote=Allanon Kisigar][quote=Tanedra]Is anyone else having a problem where visiting Palmerston shows the same markets as in London? 1(Including wolfstack docks!)

Is this a known/common issue?[/quote]
I believe the thing there is that certain ports don’t have their own individual markets set up yet, so the basic London interface is being used for placeholder shops, so that you can still buy important things like fuel and supplies.[/quote]
That might be the case, but I believe there’s still a bug there from time to time.

There were a few occasions in which I’ve had access to the London shops even in established ports (such as Hunter’s Keep). I had to Launch to zee and re-dock to get the proper shops (and local stories).

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I’ve just lost a day. The music is superb. I love how it shifts with the area like the old Scumm system in Monkey Island. Terror is expensive to keep in check, so in between foraging I am spending a lot of time as the regular delivery man between London and Venderbight, ferrying colonists and prisoners honey to the tombs, and returning with spider silks for the London market. The margins are atrocious when you figure in the cost of carousing and supplies but periodically someone finds an outlandish idol which helps make it manageable. I wish there were more shops with differing prices but so far all I’ve found is the cloned London shop in far off half completed towns, and venderbight. If there are more I’m sure I’ll work it out before long. I enjoyed the placeholder that I fought at mount palmerstone, but there’s no good reason to go out that way at the moment but for exploration, and where’s the profit in that? Ok a few echoes from the admiral if I manage to get a port wotsit. But you don’t even get them for Cecil. I thought of going to Cecil at the end of a life and spamming chess for maximum pages before sinking myself, and keeping the attribute. But it felt too much like cheating. Hunters Keep is sad. It’s so central, but quickly becomes redundant and nobody moves in. A good source of easy money though if you loot before it burns.

Occasionally I meet a trireme and I haven’t beaten one yet. I’m saving up for a dreadnought though. But with the margins and the price of terror I would have to grind a lot of prisoners honey unless I can find a better way of making money. Perhaps the valuable coral out at Cecil, but it’s a long way and even with upgraded engines and full steam the terror mounts up fast. I’m liking the feel and the atmosphere of the game a lot though. For an early beta there is already plenty to like and it’s not too easy which is a relief. Going exploring still feels threatening. I even had to eat my ferret one time, as I misjudged my return from the Far East and couldn’t sell anything to make money for supplies. Made it back to port with about 98 hunger and one crew, thanks to the little ferret. Then hired a load more (oblivious) men. Fools. They’ll be jumping overboard with cooking implements round their legs in no time.

I don’t really use the zoom. It’s nice to occasionally go ooh pretty! But it just makes you hanker for a zoom out, which of course defeats the object. Although often when I discover something I can’t see it yet and end up wasting valuable time going for a closer look to make sure it doesn’t have a jetty. I save a fair amount. Often just before I go exploring so I can work out and refine a quick route in the direction I want to discover, and then reload and travel it more economically. I also save before making a big purchase like a new engine, to make sure that I still have workable capital after the expenditure to continue my trading route profitably.

There’s a half speed feature…? Hmmm Edit: oh yes. It’s not terrifically useful but it adds flavour. I prefer it to just Stop/Start

I think maybe it could be darker. It’s pretty clear on my screen. That doesn’t bother me really though. I’d love for it to be really obvious when I am leaving the light and entering the darkness though from the perspective of terror management. I tend to steam straight up north and burn the engines hot to get through the dark bit between London and venderbight but I bet there’s a fully lit way if I hug the coast. I just can’t see it so I’d sooner cut the corner, as if I try it and it isn’t lit then it’s a waste.

But all said it’s great. I can’t wait for more. The random monsters are few and far between, but also it’s a tough balance to strike, as you don’t want there to be too many. Having a few more deep sea dwelling beasties, or ways to trawl for monsters while navigating the big empty spaces would be good as that’s when you just watch as everything falls apart with terror and hunger.

But thanks for what you’ve made so far and looking forward to more.

Edit: oh anyone know what I can do with these watchful curios? I have 2 now. They’re clogging up my hold…
edited by alhimself on 5/5/2014

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Thought I should post this somewhere. I will be sending a bug report

When Speaking to the Carnelian Exile and spending a secret to increase my Mirrors. I lost the secret but didn’t get any increase as I got a message saying that “This quality cannot currently increase past 100” even though the text before doing so says spend a secret to improve your mirrors unless it is higher than 150.

Thought I should warn people just in case.

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  • While at sea, if I spend a secret on a officer to increase as skill. I can access the shops tab and ship tab afterwards.[li]
  • While in combat. Once the timers for the salvos expire, you can use them without sufficient illumination.
    edited by talin on 5/6/2014
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[quote=lady ciel ]Thought I should post this somewhere. I will be sending a bug report

When Speaking to the Carnelian Exile and spending a secret to increase my Mirrors. I lost the secret but didn’t get any increase as I got a message saying that &quotThis quality cannot currently increase past 100&quot even though the text before doing so says spend a secret to improve your mirrors unless it is higher than 150.

Thought I should warn people just in case.[/quote]
Yeah, I got this as well. No characteristic seems to be upgradable past 100 right now.
Which could be fine, considering I can boss pretty much every task in my best run anyway.

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I haven’t seen this mentioned anywhere else yet, but I’d like to be able to slide the ‘feed’ limit on the supplies bar so that I can control the value of hunger that triggers eating. A higher value might mean a greater chance of mutiny independent of terror, or even zailors leaving the ship at port due to their mistreatment during the voyage - that seems like a nice, easy dynamic to add in. A lower one might add a temporary increase to some stats - full zailors iz happy zailors!