Second Thoughts!

My main problem with the zee-bat is not so much the yards given, but with the direction being all over the place and unreliable.
There were several cases of the bat telling me something (e.g. God’s Fall) being to the south, when it was in fact east-south-east. I kept zailing south and it kept giving me weird distances while insisting it’s still to the south (even though by that point it was already to the north-east. The minute I’ve turned the ship to the north-east (without traveling much yet), the bat changed its directions and correctly reported the right heading.

Happened with Bonny Reefs too, so it’s not just a case of God’s Fall not being implemented yet.[/quote]

I once use the zee-bats function, it says that temple of light is 9XX yard to the South, I accidentally went NE and found it instantly

I am probably one of the older players. This makes me atypical and probably negates most of my comments. Personally, I can’t keep up with all of the modern point and shoot games, Sunless Sea is perfect.

Between the speed of the game and the music, I feel generally melancholy when playing. I sail around, make a few ports, kill a few sea monsters and act like a newborn zee bat. So far, I have not been able to survive long in the deep, but with a little bit of luck, I will get the hang of it. Also, it is a pleasure to come upon the location named after me.

Thanks

I don’t know if this is a bug or a feature, but I repaired my ship while at sea, thinking it would use one supply. It used all 10 of them. I was lucky to be close enough to a port to restock before any kind of cannibalism or mascot-eating took place, but this still makes the “repair” option very dangerous.

here’s a second thought: up to this point we’ve always seen the tomb colonies referenced as just that; meaning, in the plural. But in the game there seems to be only one tomb colony, which coincides with where, according to the in-progress map, said colonies are supposed to be.

So I’m wondering: is the word colonies meant to refer to Venderbright alone, or are there (or will there be) other tomb colonies we may see or visit?

I think Venderbight is the only port in the colonies.

But should ports the only places allowed to dock? Maybe not. Of course you couldn’t dock just anywhere, but in FL sea roaming it’s been possible, in certain events, to momentarily abandon the ship without a proper quay.

[quote=Alexis Kennedy][color=#009900]We’re looking at removing all damage from buoys, because the little fsckers are so lethal due to collider quirks and we don’t really need them to be menaces anyway.[/color]

[/quote]

This. Many times this. I ran into a buoy in Wolfstack harbor about 4 seconds after launching and there was a horrifying grinding/crashing noise and it killed me. I was sad.

I’ve played a bit more.

First off, I think that a little bit of work on the way that story cards and the gazeteer work together would make for a big improvement. I keep finding that my story finishes, clearing off everything in the gazeteer, and then I have to click the card again to re-open the basic options. It ought to default to the &quotgeneric&quot screen, from which all other subordinate story options branch - much like a location in FL. Having multiple paths, that are only partially interconnected, and which sometimes close out entirely, is odd.

Actually, I think I’d like it even more if the cards were moved entirely to the Story or Locale page, and the book was just bigger.

I definitely agree with what others have pointed out regarding terror events.

I don’t know about everyone else, but when I’m in London, I only ever have the option to hire officers that are redundant to my starting officer. When I play as the Fallen Priest, all I get are Engineers, etc. Maybe it’s just me, but it’s odd.

The pricing of goods in the local ports seems odd. There are literally no profitable trade options between Mutton Island and London, and the only profitable thing to take to Venderbight are Tomb Colonists. That seems unnecessarily basic.

I’m still new to the game, so take this as you will, but I’m not quite sure if the balance between &quotlong-form game&quot and &quotrogue-like&quot has quite been hit yet. The dangers seem more focused on the rogue-like side of things, but the tasks and the time it takes to achieve them seem close to a &quotlong-form game.&quot I really don’t know at this point.

Finally, I’d like to chime in with whoever above suggested that officers ought to affect basic consumption and movement rates. Cooks should decrease food consumption (or perhaps increase it, with a corresponding decrease in Terror at feeding time, or other odd combinations). Ship parts would also tie in here - modifying speed versus fuel consumption versus usefulness in battle. The systems seem quite simple here, but the bones for a more satisfying customization experience are there.

I have an idea: If you’re down to 1 Crew and you have tomb-colonists in your hold – I always pick some up when I’m in London because I can drop by Venderbight on the way if I’m going anywhere vaguely east or north – maybe you could have the option of trying to hire them? I mean, a creaky walking corpse who doesn’t necessarily know anything about boats is not exactly a great candidate for your crew, and it’s probably not what they’d prefer to be doing either, but surely it’s a better deal for all concerned than the captain starving to death or something and marooning the passengers. There could be an auto-fire storylet at the next port that deducts them from your crew, unless you get a rare success and one of your tomb-colonists actually likes being a zailor.

…now that I’m thinking of starvation-related peril, I guess tomb-colonists must not be very edible either. Too decomposed and dusty, and possibly full of frost-moths.

Once you have more echoes and can afford to buy things other than supplies, you can sell prisoner’s honey in the tomb-colonies and Scintillack in London and make a small profit.
edited by CameoAppearance on 5/7/2014

[quote=Emperor Norton I]
I don’t know about everyone else, but when I’m in London, I only ever have the option to hire officers that are redundant to my starting officer. When I play as the Fallen Priest, all I get are Engineers, etc. Maybe it’s just me, but it’s odd.[/quote]

This is unfortunately just you. I’ve yet to acquire a full cadre of officers, but I’ve had several games where the only position I was missing was cook (and sometimes had a couple of redundancies as well). Keep looking. They’ll show up.

I’m just wondering, has anyone acquired a cook yet? I’ve not seen one yet. I’m thinking my crew use so many supplies because they burn their porridge or something.

D’you know, I don’t think I have, aside from the beginner one soldiers get. Actually, who have I seen to hire in London so far? One first officer (The Carnelian Exile), two Gunners (The Irrepressible Cannoneer and the Presbyterate Adventuress), three Engineers (the Genial Magician, Maybe’s Daughter, and the Sleepless Mechanic), two Surgeons (the Haunted Doctor and the Brisk Campaigner), and one Mascot (the Wretched Mog.) I did manage a full complement once - in part thanks to inheriting a Legacy Officer, if memory serves.

(Minor, unrelated quibble: does anyone else think the flavour text for nearing the Tomb-Colonies is a bit wordy and specific, given how often we see it?)

You can buy Prisoner’s Honey in London and sell it for a small profit in Venderbight. Pick up Spider Silk for the return journey.

[li]

Be very careful if you upgrade your ship, repairing your hull won’t take it above 100 at the moment.[li]

Edit to add - it is bigger and it handles differently and colliding with buoys is still very damaging:(
edited by reveurciel on 5/7/2014

Your count matches mine.

I think that for now I am done w/ current beta: as far as I can tell, I’ve completed the one significant story (of the Deviless), explored all of the current map, acquired my mansion and dreadnaught, and grinding for the Zee Zong components has reached the point of irritation.

…if there’s something significant that I’ve missed, I would welcome a pointer.

[quote=Ewan C.]I think that for now I am done w/ current beta: as far as I can tell, I’ve completed the one significant story (of the Deviless), explored all of the current map, acquired my mansion and dreadnaught, and grinding for the Zee Zong components has reached the point of irritation.

…if there’s something significant that I’ve missed, I would welcome a pointer.[/quote]

I’ve not had the time to grind for the boat/house, but yes, I can’t think of anything else - I wanted to advance the story of the genial magician, but the place he wants to go hasn’t been finished yet. Bummer.

[quote=Ewan C.]I think that for now I am done w/ current beta: as far as I can tell, I’ve completed the one significant story (of the Deviless), explored all of the current map, acquired my mansion and dreadnaught, and grinding for the Zee Zong components has reached the point of irritation.

…if there’s something significant that I’ve missed, I would welcome a pointer.[/quote]

After trying things out, I’ve been spending my time hunting bugs and typos. Which is surprisingly more fun than I anticipated.

I don’t know whether it is a bug or not, but when in London, I have a &quotTalk to the scarred sister&quot tab-thingy hanging out with the others at the bottom right, and I don’t really find it necessary. I mean, I can talk to the scarred sister like to any other officer, whether in London or not, and having tabs like this one for all the officers and whenever I can talk to them (which means all the time) would be more annoying than useful. Also, there’s a similar tab for the Brass Embassy, even though I have finished that storylet and have nothing to do there. Perhaps it could be removed.

More second thoughts - still loving it and roaming around the Sunless Sea. Still haven’t uncovered all the dark areas on the map but now that I can stock the hold with supplies and the things the Genial Magician needs I am going to see what is to the East and South. I have sailed off the North of the map but that was easily fixed by just reversing. Really looking forward to seeing what will be available in the unfinished areas.[li]

Also loving all the new Terror Events but must admit to not letting my crew starve so don’t know if there are any changes.

Edit to add have also started another game and there were some interesting new things, love the new thing when you transport Tomb Colonists.
edited by reveurciel on 5/11/2014