Just how exactly is one expected to level ones skills? I realize that you can carry over a high skill from legacy, but I’ve only ever gotten 12 secrets at most from explorations. Is there an event or tactic I’m missing out on?
Apparently defeating Lorn-Flukes will gain you secrets - you can also gain them from the wistful deviless by either selling your soul or talking to her when you have her.
While I agree with what a lot of you are saying about how important Mirrors and Veils are, I do get the guy’s point about the randomness of combat. Actions are really, really swingy in this game. With the same stats I might have to hit a Lifeberg four times or hit it once; I might have to illuminate it three times or just once, to meet the same threshold; I might have to Evade twice to counter a single enemy Flare or counter two flares with one Evasion.
Given how deadly combat can be, especially if you’re playing invictus and not using alt-f4, it would be nice if it were a little more predictable. Of course, on the other hand, predictable combat can get boring, so I guess it’s a tradeoff.[li]
[quote]
[color=rgb(182, 172, 160)]Home soothes the fears of the zee. If your Terror is greater than 50 when you return to London after spending some time at zee, it’s reduced to 50. However, if it was very high, you may suffer Recurring Nightmares later. (There is currently only one Nightmare in play while we test the mechanism.) [/color][/li][li][color=rgb(182, 172, 160)]
[/color][/li][li][color=rgb(182, 172, 160)]- Crew now returns after prize money is claimed (if you have insufficient Quarters, you’re out of luck.[/color][color=rgb(182, 172, 160)][/quote][/color][/li][li][color=rgb(182, 172, 160)]
[/color]
These don’t seem to be working for me with the latest patch. Panther is working fine.[/li][li]
edited by Dr. Hieronymous Alloy on 6/24/2014
In the bar on Mutton Island, there’s a rare success that raises your Iron and Veils by 1 each if they’re less than 50; expect to spend three or four thousand echoes to level them fully, but four thousand echoes for Veils +25 and Iron +25 is a really good deal.
(The only data I have on how many tries it will take–and thus how much it will cost–are from my one stop there, so bear in mind that four thousand echoes is a ballpark number at best if you’re planning a trip).
Are the rewards from To the Victor, the Spoils supposed to be random? I captured and sent home 2 pirate steam-pinnaces with prize crews but only got 100 Echoes. I thought it was 100 Echoes per prize. Or are they supposed to not stack?
Ongoing notes about terror,
-
I still think that marking on the chart the position of the lightning buoys would be a useful implementation that would help people to manage terror.
-
After several runs, I have learned how to deal with terror and it’s much better now, it’s rare I go over 70 and only in the long travels, and when I’m back to London with relatively high terror I stick to close ports for a couple of voyages and terror gets lower (note, speaking before the last update).
Ultimately I think that the resetting to 50 when back to London is not really necessary, but if it triggers other interesting mechanisms (as nightmares) it could be fun!
- I kind of think that what’s still missing is a more logical dealing with terror, more than nerfing tricks to make it easier. For example, I find it has no sense that I increase terror even if my ship illuminates a land nearby, or if I make a 180° turn at maximum speed just because I get slightly too far from the coast, and so on.
I also agree with others and Alexis that the terror mechanism should be put more forward and more in evidence that it is done in the present version.
About fuel: yes, indeed you can have problems if you calculate the distances badly, or if for any reason you make a longer travel than planned. But this is one of the challenges of the game :)
If some ways to burn supplies and/or some inflammable goods are introduced, together with the possibility of being rescued by neutral ships or something like that, I don’t think the system needs much more adjustment.
(for example, to compare with terror, the fuel and supply stuff is a much clearer managing issue)
About something completely different that I’m sure has been underlined by other people but I haven’t found the post: why is Polythreme having the London screen regarding shops?
[quote=Dr. Hieronymous Alloy]While I agree with what a lot of you are saying about how important Mirrors and Veils are, I do get the guy’s point about the randomness of combat. Actions are really, really swingy in this game. With the same stats I might have to hit a Lifeberg four times or hit it once; I might have to illuminate it three times or just once, to meet the same threshold; I might have to Evade twice to counter a single enemy Flare or counter two flares with one Evasion.
Given how deadly combat can be, especially if you’re playing invictus and not using alt-f4, it would be nice if it were a little more predictable. Of course, on the other hand, predictable combat can get boring, so I guess it’s a tradeoff.[/quote]
I wouldn’t like a more predictable combat. Perhaps less fluctuation around the average, but I haven’t really done a study on how random is combat in its various actions.
Something that could be nice is if the description of each action give the range of increase/decrease of illumination/distance and the dealt damage (that would of course depend on the characteristics. I would appreciate something like "your Mirrors allows to increase Illumination between [x] and [y]" and similar if you pass the cursor over a specific action.[li][/li]
edited by Master Polarimini on 6/24/2014
edited by Master Polarimini on 6/24/2014
edited by Master Polarimini on 6/24/2014
[quote=Master Polarimini]P.S.: don’t ask me why this is written in purple![/quote]It’s purple because your message starts with a quote tag (since you’re quoting Dr. Hieronymous Alloy) but there isn’t a closing quote tag before your own text is written. Instead, there is a new regular quote tag, without the "/" in front of it. So the entire message is formatted as a quotation of a previous message.
[quote=dov][quote=Master Polarimini]P.S.: don’t ask me why this is written in purple![/quote]It’s purple because your message starts with a quote tag (since you’re quoting Dr. Hieronymous Alloy) but there isn’t a closing quote tag before your own text is written. Instead, there is a new regular quote tag, without the "/" in front of it. So the entire message is formatted as a quotation of a previous message.[/quote] you are indeed right, correcting it now :D (the problem of writing when you’re still sleepy! and I even though "but there is the quote (between []) at the end of the quote, why is it doing these strange things?!")
edited by Master Polarimini on 6/24/2014
edited by Master Polarimini on 6/24/2014
[color=#009900]This kind of discussion around combat is massively useful, folks - all your impressions are draining back into the Feedback tank. Combat is due some more love quite soon.[/color]
[color=#009900]
[/color]
[color=#009900]A couple of points:[/color]
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[/color]
[color=#009900]- damage is likely to be less variable (and there will be descriptions of damage bands eventually - this is absurdly difficult, for absurd reasons)[/color]
[color=#009900]- distance was originally introduced solely to make the Flee option relevant. It may eventually figure into combat damage, but we’ve been wary about calling attention to it because it makes beasties more problematic (this is why Bite became Lunge).[/color]
I’ve just limped back into London after a difficult but profitable voyage, and found myself able to purchase a Caligo-class Merchant Steamer.
And then I realized that the London crew replacement options don’t scale their caps–they still cap at 10, even with 30 Quarters. So now I’m stuck at half-speed until I can scrounge up another five crewmen. (I really hope my physican was right about the Snuffer being gone…)
This makes no sense to me–why should I not be able to hire Zailors in Wolfstack if I have plenty of room to quarter them? Is this deliberate, or have scaling caps not been implemented yet?
EDIT: This problem seems to have corrected itself after restarting the game, but now buoys aren’t always working. I can be sitting right next to the buoy in Davies Bay and still have Terror building up.
edited by Jack Vaux-Harrowden on 6/24/2014
So, after being hit by the frozen in dock bug, I started a new game. Love my Panther and am very pleased that I backed the Kick Starter to get it :)
I don’t know how much this has been influenced by the rebalancing of terror and beasties. But here are some thoughts after I’ve done 3 voyages - one just to Venderbight and back; one to Shepherd Isle, Abbey Rock and Mutton Island and one that took me out to Port Cecil.
Your choice of past (and stat bonus) really makes a difference. I’m now doing pretty well at fighting things. As I chose the option that boosts mirrors I can get my enemy illuminated in one or two flares and then blast them, if I am lucky, before they make an attack. It didn’t always work and I have suffered some major damage a couple of times.
I did limp back into London with 5 Hull and 1 crew member - but the crew was deliberate as I was already on half speed and met a pirate just before coming into the harbour so I wasn’t going to be going any slower and went for the Prize Money. But I was slightly unhappy not to get any of them back when I got the money in my lodgings. But I think that is a luck check anyway and I might be lucky next time.
I seem to be managing terror a lot better now, judicious battles with bats, taking tea at Demeaux, etc and I’ve kept it at less than 20 on a circuit out to Port Cecil, my first mission from the Admiral,.
After getting my first Strategic Information I decided I would be better off getting a gun to boost my Iron and give me the opportunity to use flensing attacks so hopefully on my next voyage I won’t take as much damage in fights.
I haven’t been getting the crew back from the pirate ships either. Maybe that was an error in the update description?
is there going to be text descriptions of places on the “locale” panel for different ports eventually? I’m not really sure what that panel is for otherwise.
I did get crew back once on an earlier game, so it is possible.
Edit - typo
edited by reveurciel on 6/24/2014
[quote=Alexis Kennedy][color=#009900]This kind of discussion around combat is massively useful, folks - all your impressions are draining back into the Feedback tank. Combat is due some more love quite soon.[/color]
[color=#009900]
[/color]
[color=#009900]A couple of points:[/color]
[color=#009900]
[/color]
[color=#009900]- distance was originally introduced solely to make the Flee option relevant. It may eventually figure into combat damage, but we’ve been wary about calling attention to it because it makes beasties more problematic (this is why Bite became Lunge).[/color][/quote]
This was one of the big logical disconnects to me. I expect monsters to close the distance to attack, so avoiding them seems like a viable strategy. But when they can attack at 40, 50, 60 yards, they don’t feel like beasties. They basically are like reskinned ships with whacky weaponry.
Also I really want Distance to add some more variability to the combat results.If I knew that less distance = more potential damage to me, I might try other strategies than seek → illuminate → fire.
edited by Nenjin on 6/24/2014
Yeah, if the Bound Shark can attack from 50 yards away… that’s one hell of a shark.
Also, Secrets are not accruing for me. According to the fragment-gauge, I’m 250 fragments over due for a secret, and yet, nothing.
Also, how soon can we expect some new economic opportunities? I’m going out of my gourd from all the Venderbight runs (stupid Khanate and their stupid expensive bribes). At least something like a few more passenger runs. Beside the tomb-colonists (who aren’t much fun) and the Deviless, nobody else seems to want to travel around.
I’d be ok with monsters having a unique ability to close the distance faster than seek and what not.
Or maybe a ranged tentacle attack that both does hull damage and reduces the distance between combatants.
edited by Nenjin on 6/24/2014
Alexis - if you have a second, any chance you could comment on whether the need-new-discovery for conversion of Fragments to Secrets is as intended? Seems perfectly plausible to me, but if it’s going to be fixed/changed then I can wait until my now >1200 Fragments have the potential to become >1 Secret. If it’s the intended behavior than I shall go make finding something - anything! - new a priority :).