I just installed it fresh from the Humble Bundle page, and have no windowed mode. Also, there’s no 1920x1200 resolution, so everything appears ever-so-slightly vertically stretched at 1920x1080. I think, could be fooling myself. Finally, the screen flickers black intermittently. I didn’t even start the character creation section before I decided to wait a build or three before continuing.
Resolution options were moved to the ingame Options menu, rather than something presented to you every time you start the game up.
also yeah i do have to echo the “dang things are real hard now” sentiment; even with the Khan’s Heart Port Report bug it’s really easy to just end up dead to zeebeasts or terror. Though, uh, starvation seems to be rarely an issue. Cannibalism is more fun than lemming-esque suicide!! i think
Also; Secrets giving only 1 stat each isn’t new to Gold, but dang heck it’s real awful. Even with places like the New Khanate that just vomit Secrets all over you, you still can’t get enough to progress any of your stats to any appreciable level. I know that was a balance measure enacted to stop stat gains being ridiculous with the whole map present, but… the whole map’s not going to be in until September! And even then you’d still have to explore a goddamn lot to get any stat mileage whatsoever. I think you could maybe get 30 or 40 Secrets total from the current map just from guesswork and extrapolating from the locations I know, which is not really a lot of stats for like a third of the map.
I’d prefer it if it was more like the original iteration; high starting gains, and then slowly (or even quickly) diminishing returns. coz’ right now the only way you’re getting any stats at all is through Officers and Equipment, and some stats really can’t be boosted easily that way, which makes certain starting backgrounds way better than others.
It also means that the only good way to get any amount of stat at all is abusing those starting bonuses and skill preservation, but even with artificially inflated stats a lot of things feel way too difficult (like, for instance, chasing bats away with Fuel is still really difficult even at 80 Mirrors. They’re bats for god’s sakes, not hell beasts from the darkest netherworld, it shouldn’t take 5 Fuel to scare away one swarm. Especially when Drownies can be chased off with just one.
okay that was rambly as hell and way longer than i intended but it’s the middle of the night and i’m allowed to vomit words all over the place every now and then
Even in the last few versions I rarely had much of a problem with suicides (or murders) at high Terror, I’d just attract a lot of drownies and creepy things swimming under the boat* that ratcheted up my terror even further, and then I’d hit 100 Terror and get slapped upside the head with a mutiny. (My current captain has survived three mutinies.) Honestly I wouldn’t have minded the suicides being a little more common if it gave me more opportunities to throw Supplies at the problem and subtract 5 Terror when my terror is already in the eighties or nineties. I don’t mind losing a zailor or two if it means I can limp into Wolfstack with like 92 Terror, instead of being mutinied and losing three or four crew members if I even survive! (And that’s on the tramp-steamer, I have no idea if the loss to mutiny is proportionate when you have a bigger ship.)
I’d like more chances to trim off a few terror points at 80+ Terror without spending like a hundred echoes to lose 2-5 points. Right now it seems almost like the more Terror you have, the more you accumulate.
*I suppose these descriptions are not mutually exclusive
edited by CameoAppearance on 6/18/2014
I’ll agree with others here that many things (acquiring echos, using secrets, reducing terror) feel very grindy right now. Almost like a pay2win game that hasn’t added its microtransaction store yet.
[li]
Yeah, that’s actually a good analysis. I’m not really sure what I’m supposed to do, as a player, to get to a point where all of these sea monsters are in the "intelligent challenges" category and not just "instant death." There doesn’t seem to be an in-game way to advance your character sufficiently that even "mid level" opponents like bound sharks or western crabs are consistently beatable. You get the best weapons and the best officers and . . .you still get your face pushed in by anything that isn’t a total newbie monster, and when that happens, you have to start over again.
Maybe it’s a deliberate decision to just be a survival horror style game where everything’s crushing you and that’s the point?
Ouch. I can see your point, and I don’t think I disagree all that much, but that’s like the harshest possible way to describe it.
I’ve never seen any other menu besides the in-game - it seems to cap out at 1920x1080, in my case. I’m running two monitors though, perhaps it’s picking up the max resolution of the other screen?
Super-newbie question, guys: what’s the first place I can actually dock? I am not at all convinced I am doing this right and would like some confirmation.
Probably Hunter’s Keep. You could also try the light-ships northish and southish of it, and Mutton Island.
This sounds about like my experience; every time I tried to explore the east, I got smacked down by sea monsters or corsairs and every time I tried to explore the south I got smacked down by Unfinished pirates, which left me running back and forth between Wolfstack and Venderbight hoping to accrue enough echoes to upgrade my ship or trade up to something nicer. Which never actually materialized for me, because terror is so expensive to manage at 10 echoes a point, but I may have better luck if I stick to the coast where there’s more light.
[li]
Yes, that’s exactly the feeling.
Echoing the everything-is-deadly feedback. Was not expecting decapodean murder just outside Abbey Rock.
Okay, thanks–I found something close (a nunnery? Not at computer) that sure looked like it had a dock, but sailing up to it seemed not to do anything.
This sounds about like my experience; every time I tried to explore the east, I got smacked down by sea monsters or corsairs and every time I tried to explore the south I got smacked down by Unfinished pirates, which left me running back and forth between Wolfstack and Venderbight hoping to accrue enough echoes to upgrade my ship or trade up to something nicer. Which never actually materialized for me, because terror is so expensive to manage at 10 echoes a point, but I may have better luck if I stick to the coast where there’s more light.[/quote]
[li]
Yeah. I don’t want to be too negative because everything else about the game is awesome. The mood, the art, the lighting, the music, the writing, it’s all excellent. It’s just the . .game . .part got crazy hard overnight and I can’t even see what the logic is behind it. I mean, I’d get it if it were just the high end stuff like Lifebergs getting a lot harder, but there doesn’t seem to be a midrange any more, just bunnies to bash at the entrance and then a sea full of tyrannosaurs.
Okay, thanks–I found something close (a nunnery? Not at computer) that sure looked like it had a dock, but sailing up to it seemed not to do anything.[/quote]
You should see a glowy circle in the water right next to the dock; once you touch it you’ll get a Dock button you can click.
Bug update: the >100 Hold bug remains (can’t close the ‘Overboard’ window, can’t close Gazeteer, must quit game). This is even after a further purge of the /entities folder
Basically what everyone else has said. The game is beautiful, and engaging, but the scaling of almost eveyrthing seems broken. I’ve had several games where I’ve gotten a good start, and used my standard extremely cautious roguelike mindset to crawl forward and slowly gain an advantage. I’ll have a full crew of officers, and I’ll have been accruing ship upgrades spending my (laughably insignificant) earned secrets on my more important combat/survival stats. And then I’ll run into a shark and take 50 damage in one hit.
All in all, I would say:
Drastically reduce monster health OR damage.
Increase the terror:echo ratio for brining down terror.
Make secrets feel meaningful early game (each secret increases your total stats by significantly less than 1%. There is no sense of accomplishment in earning or spending them)
Also just a question:
Why do you lose your crew members permanently when you send a captured ship back to port? Do they just take their wages and run off into the bowels of FL, never to be seen or heard from again? I would expect them to rejoin you once you arrived in port. It sucks that I have to spend 30-60 echoes just rebuilding my crew every time I capture a ship and choose what I imagine is supposed to be the ‘high-risk, high-reward’ option.
edited by Eggix on 6/18/2014
edited by Eggix on 6/18/2014
It is a bit cheap, but you can always alt-f4 when that happens.
[li]
I don’t have an option to play in windowed mode either.
Also the text in the journal is blurry and hard to read.
on another note, the new equipment made me think about a few other customization options in the game. I dearly hope the ships currently available in London won’t be the only additional ships in the game - if we can’t at least purchase some other classes of vessel in other ports, than at least linking a FL account with one of the three “advanced” ships (Zubmarine, Clipper or Pleasure Cruiser) should give you access to these ships in Sunless Sea.