So I got sunless skies today and have played a fair bit and wanted to give my initial feedback. As someone who thoroughly enjoys sunless sea and fallen London, I’ve been eagerly awaiting this sequel.
The good:
I start by saying that the game is majority good with a few issues. The art is some of the best I’ve seen, especially the character art. The world is just begging to be explored, and the environment is amazing. Little touches like the way your locomotive tilts when you turn makes the world feel so alive.
The bad:
I really only have one concern as of now: the ui. It’s very confusing to navigate, especially coming from sunless sea. I miss the little book with tabs like shop and hold, and I miss all the storylets being listed when you enter a port, instead of them on a little bar on the side. Lastly, I miss being able to pause easily with space bar and bring up the map with m. I’m sure some of these issues are simply not added or I didn’t realize they were there.
I’m really looking forward to exploring the reach and seeing what more delicious stories fail better has to offer.
Edit: the map can be brought up with tab edited by Ludovide on 8/31/2017
My hull is taking a battering as I work out how to control the train.
It is very difficult to dock at the ports.
I had a go at fighting some creature but it is very difficult to move the locomotive so it directly faces the target. I miss the visual signal of when you can hit something like there is in Sunless Seas.
I’m also having difficulty finding places but as I travel more I expect I will come across places to dock.
Initial impressions: I really am enjoying it so far. All the original art is fantastic, and there’s definitely a distinct flavour to everything.
My only slight bugbear so far is that while the void between planets looks fantastic, the green pea-soup background around the planets themselves is a bit bland. And it’s kind of hard to tell if I’m going to hit something or if it’s below my train.
Gotta say that I think the UI is heads and tails better than Sunless Sea already, even though its still without polish. The ability to scale text and UI separately is also a very good idea. There are issues with how scaling is currently implemented technically that need to be worked on, but considering this is the first public release of the game I’m fine with it for now.
Docking should definitely make a reappearance, though, for sure. edited by vulchor on 8/31/2017
I would definitely like a “dock” button, like Sunless Sea had, especially given the awkward steering. Twirling around the outside edge of the dock-rail for 30 seconds while the very last of your engine fumes tick ever closer to zero just isn’t something which should happen. I’d also be quite pleased if I could keep time paused without also having a storylet page up. It’s very nice to be able to take a moment to review your locomotive’s positioning and your travel plans before launching without having to worry about supplies drainage.
I also think the game screen does not zoom out far enough while the train is in motion. The artwork is spectacular, but so little of it is on the screen at any one moment that I feel like I can’t properly appreciate the awesome sky-islands. At the very least it should be possible to fit the entirety of a port (and its specific island) on screen all at once.
[quote=Anchovies]
I also think the game screen does not zoom out far enough while the train is in motion. The artwork is spectacular, but so little of it is on the screen at any one moment that I feel like I can’t properly appreciate the awesome sky-islands. At the very least it should be possible to fit the entirety of a port (and its specific island) on screen all at once.[/quote]
I’d agree with this, but i feel it should be said that the zoom distance is about the same as it ever was. It’s only the scale of the game that has increased now. Places are bigger.
Still, allowing us to zoom out more would help with seeing them. Especially with seeing corners of them while floating aorund empty space
@Anchovies I felt the same about the game not zooming far enough out while moving, and totally agree about needing just a general pause button. Honestly, I’d love the ability to zoom in and out at will (zoom in to admire the details, and zoom out to get my bearings) but I understand why they wouldn’t want to implement that (claustrophobia is tension).
@Lady Ciel The return of a visual cue when you take hull damage would be very welcome, I concur.
That said, I love the floaty yet responsive controls already, makes it feel more like space as opposed to an ocean.
i have to agree with this. i keep wanting to zoom in and examine my train
Also, claustrophobia no longer exists. The high wilderness is vast and empty. If anything, agoraphobia is the new thing
But I really want to easily be able to see my Sovereigns when shopping. I literally have no idea how much I’m going to spend, unless I remember how many I’ve picked up.
Other than that UI looks good. I kind of feel like the starting control configuration is unwieldy - I had to remap my gun control because it’s really uncomfortable to use forward thrust AND turn AND strafe AND shoot with the fingers on my left hand.
But I really want to easily be able to see my Sovereigns when shopping. I literally have no idea how much I’m going to spend, unless I remember how many I’ve picked up.[/quote]
FWIW, the Posessions menu (Chest symbol) shows your money. it can be opened on the side while shopping.
Its not entirely ideal and this number really should be shown in the shop menu (and cargo window), but its something
First impressions? I’ve been so excited for Skies since it was announced last year, and it does not disappoint. As soon as the game launched and the music started up, I was grinning at my screen. This is exactly what I’ve been waiting for.
Some initial ramblings:
The art is beautiful! I love the parallax.
I adore the new method for revealing your past. So many choices! I feel like I could play hundreds of captains and never have the same backstory.
Trees!
Combat is different. Combat is good! But I am not good at combat. Any time I actually manage to hit an enemy with my single-shooter gun, I feel immensely pleased with myself. It took me longer than I’d like to admit to remember that I have TWO guns, but once I learned that the second shot multiple bullets I fared much better.
Steering feels very fluid. It makes traveling a lot more fun than in Sunless Sea. I love being able to strafe, even if I often strafe the wrong way and crash into the rock I was trying to avoid.
I am very bad at telling background objects from foreground objects. I think I circled one port three times before realizing that I could fly over the rocks. I would not make a very good space captain.
That soundtrack. It’s so perfect that I don’t have words.
The handling of the ship is the absolute worst. I think I am getting worse at it as I go. I have taken 0 damage from enemies but over half my hull because I can’t NOT run into things or steer into port properly. I and every other ship I see look like utter idiots who have no idea how to drive. (in my case, because I don’t)
It’s like watching a bunch of balloons in a wind tunnel. I had to stop playing after a few minutes just because I am losing more money to terrain than anything else.
I can’t talk much about how it looks because I wasn’t paying as much attention as I’d like to other things due to trying really hard to figure out steering. It’s hard to tell what I can and can’t hit and what might be discoverable. (because damn if my useless bat doesn’t care about anything but ports) It was unnecessarily difficult to figure out ports the first time because they are the exact opposite of Sunless Sea’s zubmarine ports even though they look sorta similar, like the side might be a tunnel you can go straight into instead of a wall that you’ll bash off of.
I felt a lot like I had to just constantly keep my hands on the controls, which was a problem when I discovered I keep going in the map. It’s like desperately holding onto the leash of a dog that isn’t leash-trained.
I discovered two ports other than the starting one. I ran into five other random things, one of which didn’t even grace me with a “You discovered” or anything, none of which my bat cared about. I delivered one settler. I bought one thing that I needed for the second port’s quest. I immediately ran out of money repairing all the damage from running into things and not fighting anything.
[color=#6666ff]Lot’s of varied feedback here. It’s all been gathered into our feedback spreadsheet. Thank you very much. [/color]
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[color=#6666ff]Keep up the feedback, and please also draw your eyes towards our regular ‘Focused Feedback’ threads. The current one is on Terror! [/color]