My favourite part about returning to london was always submitting my port reports to the admiral. I loved seeing what he had to say about each new place i’d been to. There’s something comforting, about reading someone else’s thoughts on the iron republic, or Mt Palmerston, or the riddles of irem. Especiallly when - as was so often the case - his response was a joke about those people or their odd culture.
This response from a third party made those locations seem real., it solidified them in your memory as something meaningful
Right now in sunless skies, port reports are submitted all at once in a batch,without any unique text for each. No gripes about the elderly population of hybras, or the pretentious and unproductive artists of titania. You just submit your reports and get a plain reward. It feels so soulless compared to how it used to be. I want that back.
I want someone to crack a joke about each culture I submit a report on, or give their own wierd thoughts, or say something mournful and relevant.
While I agree the port reports are entertaining in Sunless Sea, it can become tedious when you’ve already seen all the text and you just want to turn them in so you can start your next journey. It seems Failbetter has erred on the side of streamlined gameplay in this case, and while that design decision certainly makes sense, a compromise might be in order where both options are available, one storylet to turn them all in and another to see flavor text. Although, frankly, if the development resources that would be spent on writing that text are redirected to more stories and a longer game I would not be disappointed.
I too miss the comments on the reports. If it’s going to be the same comment each time, then yes it’d be okay to have an option to turn them in all at once, but it was never difficult in Sunless Seas to just click quickly through them all.
Seconded, thirded and… fourthed. This is exactly what I’d want to see - when I turned in my first batch of port reports I was pretty disappointed to just get a boilerplate ‘hey, great job’-type response. I miss the Admiral’s observational wit.
Sort of. It was more of an ‘attempt to sign up, get told by the system I already had an account, retrieve old account password and wonder why I never posted before’ type of deal.
Seconded, thirded and… fourthed. This is exactly what I’d want to see - when I turned in my first batch of port reports I was pretty disappointed to just get a boilerplate ‘hey, great job’-type response. I miss the Admiral’s observational wit.[/quote]
Totally missing the individualized opinions the Admiral would offer for each port – I agree.
But bothering me more is that I’m still trying to figure out if I can survey a port a second time for another port report (like in Sunless Seas) I can turn in or if it’s one report per port forever. (which, if it’s just a one-off thing, is a big change to how I manage cash from Sunless Seas – where gathering port reports was integral to a given voyage’s profits) edited by absimiliard on 8/31/2017
I liked the routine I had going on when I arrived at London, arrive, drop off port reports, make sure I’m properly stocked/ship is repaired, carouse, relax at home and catch up on the news.
Oh good! Thanks Sara. I’m totally fine with it just being me – and a late-night, and few drinks – being clueless and missing it. I’ll take a second run at the game again tonight, I’m sure I’ll spot it.
It was a really beneficial feature - it both cemented all the far flung destinations as real places with reputations back home in London, and made the faceless clerk of the Admiralty Office shine as character.
As of now, New Winchester has its charms, but it doesn’t feel as lively, safe, as much of a home as London did. edited by Malcolm Harris on 9/18/2017