About sunk ships… since this is a rogue like (and you are NOT the only captain of the 'zee), there should at least be random events where you come across a wrecked ship near shore (mirrors check to find some goodies/supplies). Or perhaps you come across a ship floating adrift… and find it full of crazed cannibals! (say, the remaining crew from a previous failed game). If nothing else, when zubmarines are added, there will HAVE to be wrecks beneath the waves to visit. An insanely nice touch would be to find your past ships beneath the waves. You could salvage some of the items in your hull/maybe find the ship’s log/part of a map (for secrets/locations revealed). If nothing else it would be cool to come upon your last ship, even if all it had was a log saying how you died (maybe some mad ramblings about Mt. Obsidian thingy).
[li]LB -
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you can shuffle "animal zones" around a randomized map. i’m just suggesting that once gameplay begins, one or two members of each group be allowed to roam without (many) constraints.
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Into the Darkness - using shadow is standard for the horror genre. i’m not saying they should make Sunless … SUN less … but make others in the zee less obvious and easy to see. right now they just about all spike like neon in the desert night. your ship’s light is reduced to just a decoration - a little dramatic effect. reduce their profiles in some way so that they don’t spike unless they project light of their own. your lights make them easier to see. does that mean you might be taken by surprise in the dead of unterzee night?
yes, and that’s a bit of the point. the risk makes it fun. the fact that just the IDEA scares you indicates its strength and the value it could add to the game.
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LIGHT 'ER UP! - my suggestion is that Mt. P ought to be immediately ‘visible’ on your ship’s charts by virtue of the fact that it broadcasts its position like … like a volcano in the middle of a giant cave. i’m not talking about it raising ambient light levels. and i don’t see that as defeating the purpose of the game. like LONDON … Mt. P could (should) act as a beacon and point of bearing. besides, knowing where it is on a map isn’t the same as GETTING there in one piece.
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Waterfalls - the conceit of the game is that play occurs in a sea contained within a giant, underground cavern. water below, rock above. and just as in smaller subterranean examples, you’ll get seepage from the surface, sometimes in dramatic fashion. falling water and roiling mists … atmosphere. not all over the place, mind, but here & there.
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Commercial traffic - outside of animal life, the unterzee has pirates, pirates, war-pirates, and ‘you’. there aren’t any other tradeships (that i’ve seen) crossing the briny (un)blue. what’s the purpose of the lightbuoys and lightships? are they there to make life easier for the pirates? … who have nothing to hunt but each other?
the devs cite Sid’s Pirates! as an inspiration for some of the game. well, a key feature there was meeting ships. sometimes, it was obvious you were looking at trouble (frigate … war galleon, etc) but everything else? - could be a merchie ripe for the plucking or a pirate hunter in waiting. you had to decide - do i get close and try to find out? or do i run? if they aren’t immediately hostile, should i make them that way? or, instead shooting people, do you shoot the breeze and trade some buckskins?
right now, there’s nothing out there but enemies. no guile, no subterfuge, no attempt at subtlety.
no risk. it’s always a fight, and you either duck or destroy 'em.
Those ideas are interesting. Make sure you check out the road map (bottom of the page) for this game though. Points 1 and 5 are among their goals for development, so maybe we should hold off on our judgement until they’re in the game. I still don’t think showing Mt Palmerton would fit the game well. Knowing the destination and starting point puts you half-way there. There could be 1 waterfall somewhere, but having to sail around waterfalls, or through waterfalls seems really lame to me. And the thunderous noise of a waterfall would kind of ruin the atmosphere of solitude and silence that rules the Underzee. Perhaps if they had a location that went with it, that could be cool.
I had some notes myself:
-Pirate steamers and pirate frigates give one Cache of Curiocities (CoC) when you choose to ‘loot and scuttle’ them. However, the window in which you open the CoC cannot be entered by clicking a ‘continue’ button. Rather, you click a ‘Close (G)azetteer’ button. This closes the current window, after which about half a second later a new window pops up: the ‘opening a chache’ window. I think we all know how this should go: rather than closing the Gazetteer and reopening it, you should be able to ‘continue’ on to a new page, just as you do with most other monsters.
-The nightmare is gone suffers from the same problem
-Normally, carousing returns you to the sub-menu of ‘London!’ in Fallen London, but when you meet your lover, you get thrust back into the city menu
-With regards to the Lifebergs: the icon and button for feeding ‘live specimen’ to a Lifeberg are misaligned with the line separating that option from the ‘sacrifice a zailor…’ option.
-With regards to War Trimarans: the ‘go’ button for the ‘let her go’ option is misaligned with the line separating that option from the ‘Record any oberservations’ option.
-You can buy M. salt in Wither for 5 Zee-stories. You can sell 1 M. salt for 50 echoes. However, you could just as easily sell Zee-stories directly to the disturbing librarian, or what-his-name. This makes the whole process of buying M. salt for 5 Zeestories and selling the M.Salt in Fallen London a rather costly and superfluous option right now.
-You can’t sell unclear devices. These seem rather useless once you obtain obscure overload.
-Are all CoCs equal? It doesn’t seem that way. Why not think up some other names to distinguish between multiple tiers of treasure?
I have only one… well, not exactly suggestion - wish would be more appropriate word. The imaginary colours.
This idea may seem preposterous - the imaginary can’t be represented by usual visual means - but there may be more subtle methods, and I think there is at least one colour that can be suggested in some ways: gant. Because of… what it is. :)