Ship Types and general query

Sunless Sea
1

So today for the first time ever I got a new ship YAAAAY! I am so excited!

I scrimped and saved and stole and saved some more until I could afford the Maenad-Class Frigate!

However this was the first game where I really did more then look at the price of the ships and the Lampad Class and Phorcyd-Class are really kind of useless… they cost a lot of echoes and I’m trading speed over hull capacity. Which I didn’t personally think was worth it, I want more hold-space from my ship and more hull.

So I was just curious what other people thought of them? Has anyone used them? Has anyone found that the Lampad is useful for say speedy runs to do the same money making run over and over and over? Or are there other options that appeal more?

Also just curious about some other things, like I see lots of people talking about raising the Dawn Machine Supremacy and thew Khanate
So I am wondering what I am missing? I finished the Sphinx Stone quest by taking the Geode ending but that appears to have been it. No one has ever approached me, offered me, helped me, shown me toward any possibility to continue this quest? So I was wondering what I might be missing?

2

I’m doing a run with the Phorcyd-Class Corvette at the moment. I admit, it’s a bit of a challenge. I have to make sure I have somewhere to refuel if I’m taking a long trip, and I’m definitely going to have to upgrade before I can finish quests involving hauling a lot of items around - especially the Merchant Venturer. That said, it’s a sporty little beast, and the only ship with two guns in front that doesn’t come with a Veils penalty. (At least, I think so - I admit I haven’t unlocked the Yacht to see its capabilities yet.)

To get into the realm of Supremacy, you need to turn in Vital Intelligence to the Admiral - you get it by combining two Strategic Information in your inventory. He’ll then unlock dealings with the Voracious Diplomat, who’ll give you an Agent to install in the Khanate. After that point, you can decide which of the two - the Admiral or the Diplomat - to trade Vital Intelligence with, and which of their pet causes will come out on top.

3

[spoiler] The Supremacies don’t seem to effect the game too much in the current build, only giving you some nice loot and illusion of recognition at their highest levels (while the Dawn Machine one gives you the Horizon Codex but gets rid of the Admiral from your London gazetteer).

I’d like to see the development team expand on this so that making any of the factions powerful will actually have tangible effects on the Unterzee. A glorious London claims that the sea-lanes are safer, the Royal Navy’s reputation has been salvaged somewhat and that your captain becomes a hero of the people such that they sing your name in the streets, yet no other faction (not even the Khanate) acknowledges London’s resurgence or the terrifying rise of the Dawn Machine, and when I retired the text claimed that the histories wouldn’t even remember me despite my aforementioned achievement and writing the Zong. There is still considerable gameplay-story segregation.

As for the Sphinxstone ending, the Grand Geode conclusion is basically it for that particular choice. Apparently each Captain is only offered two choices to the Salt Lions conclusion: the Dawn Machine choice that ends in Grand Geode and the &quotgood&quot ending option that differs in destination depending on your Zailor background. [/spoiler]
edited by Bardigan on 12/23/2014

4

Hmm interesting, I agree there doesn’t seem to be much too it. I mean it’d be nice to see the actions we take have an effect.

I’m not even sure HOW to pick a supremacy or start those story lines properly…

5

[spoiler] Get 2 Strategic Information, look for them in your Hold, right click on them, select &quotuse&quot, select from 3 choices to combine the 2 strategic information with a Zee-story, a Memory-of-Distant-Shores or a Piece in the Great Game and create a Vital Information, hand over the Vital information to the Admiral in London and he introduces you to the Voracious Diplomat, who can give you a spy to send over to Khan’s Heart to establish a spy network which you can build up and accrue more Vital Information from.

From now on you can hand over Vital Information (obtained through either said Khanate spy network or similarly with how you made the first one) to either the Admiral or Diplomat for a random chance to increase the power levels of London’s Empire and/or the Dawn Machine.

Giving the Vital Information to the Admiral will only have a chance of increasing Fallen London’s power, while giving the Information to the Diplomat will have a chance of increasing both Fallen London’s power and the power of the Dawn Machine. The Diplomat pays better (500 echoes compared to the 350 of the Admiral) and actually increases your Admiralty’s Favour (which is strangely lacking with the Admiral, a bug maybe?), giving you little reason to side with the Admiral despite the Dawn Machine’s alleged &quotvillainy&quot. Just don’t increase the Dawn Machine’s power level to Tremendous as that gets rid of the Admiral and all the juicy admiralty commissions/revelatory charts/port report money-making options…until the developers actually implement the Diplomat or some other Machine agent replacing the Admiral’s gameplay features anyway[/spoiler]
edited by Bardigan on 12/23/2014

6

My current character (second generation of my new &quotstart from scratch&quot challenge) tried using the Lampad-Class Cutter. A few things to point out: 1) the crew is only a maximum of five, so it needs very few supplies, even on long journeys (I can go halfway across the map to the Khanate, get more supplies from Khanate’s Shadow, etc, and the hunger meter only increases only the course of several minutes). 2) It can sneak around really easily. I can travel all the way around Gaider’s Mourn without being seen, and can even pick off a few pirates without much trouble.

 4)  The speed is [i]not [/i]nearly fast enough to merit its lack of cargo space, and it [i]absolutely [/i]needs a trade-in cost.  The 50/50 hull is fine, and the reduced crew can even be a boon when it comes to operating costs; but the lack of  cargo space [i]prevents [/i]to many quests from being completed to warrant the six [i]thousand [/i]echoes that you sink into the ship, and [i]never [/i]get back [i]any [/i]from the trade-in.  

 My suggestion?  Give the Corvette and the Cutter some generous trade-in cost and [i]slightly [/i]higher cargo capacity, just a little.  

 An even better suggestion would be to have a place in London where you can leave the smaller ships and switch back to them at a later date, but I understand that might be a nightmare to program, and isn't necessary if the trade-in cost is there.

[li]
edited by SouthSea Rutherby on 12/23/2014

7

In regards to the Khanate (once Khan’s Shadow actually gets stories) it would be nice if the player was given the option of manipulating the Khanate with their spy network so that they tear themselves apart in their civil war and London takes it over as a new colony, get the Khanate factions in Glory/Heart and Shadow to reconcile, betray London and form a united front against the Empire, or reconcile the two factions and get the united Khanate to make peace with London’s Empire through a complicated mission (favour-blackmailing with the use of more Horse-Head Tokens and installing Londoner-friendly Khaganians into the leadership perhaps?).
edited by Bardigan on 12/24/2014

8

Having just got a dreadnought for the second time, I have to say that on the whole, I’m preferring the Merchant cruiser and there’s a number of reasons for this.

First, when you’ve got the dreadnought, absolutely nothing out there is a threat, not one thing in the world, it’s possible to drop Mount Nomad twice in a row without going for repairs and still call for more, the last voyage around it started to feel like the twelve days of Christmas.

12 Bats a flying
11 Crabs a clawing
10 Pirate Pinnace
9 Jillys swimming
8 Faustic Corsairs
7 Neathbow Pieces
6 Eastern Anglers
5 Golden Dreads
4 Great Game Moves
3 Rats Sent
2 Lorn Flukes
And a Nomad as a fireside prize…

Second, the massive amount of crew required to have the thing running around makes the cost to run it prohibitive, and I know that some would argue that the whole point of having something as invulnerable as the dread would be worth paying the cost for running it, but I’m back with the lack of threat on the ocean, and the inherent boredom that comes with it (so much so that I reloaded the save before I picked up the dread and bought a merchant cruiser instead, much happier.)

I know there’s a line between the different ships out there, and as sure as the skies are dark, there’s going to be people out there who want to sail around in the biggest, most invulnerable ship that there is, just so they can sail anywhere and know they’re coming out of there in one piece, but I just don’t see the point of it, when you have a ship that can do everything, the progression goes very much in that direction and nowhere else, but when you’ve got it, it’s like so many things in that it takes away the intrinsic fear part of the game, you’re not worried when a Lorn Fluke shows up, and Lifebergs you take on a pack at a time.

That said, after completing the principles storyline and choosing the option that didn’t give the massive number of prizes…

You get a Nacreous Survivor, Searing Enigma, Captivating Treasure, and Apocyon Chess Piece, which by themselves are worth nearly as much as the Scintillack bonus without needing to have the massive amounts of cargo space

I find that the Frigate may be a viable option to use and in future games, may be the direction in which I go, because now Sphinxstone is limited, and the Frigate has enough to go around and pick up the venturers goods on each run, whilst retaining some vulnerability to the really big creatures and still holding on to the guns, it could indeed by the way forwards.
edited by Rocket Heeled Jack on 12/24/2014

9

Forgive me for suddenly going back to the topic of the Supremacy feature, but could Dawn Machine supporters please be given the opportunity to turn on that GLORIOUS golden disco effect on their ships like the Glorious Frigates and Dreadnoughts of Grand Geode (and possibly gain &quotfriendly status&quot with said ships so they aren’t immediately hostile to you), once they get the Dawn Machine’s power level to Tremendous?

I mean, if the Machine is grateful that I helped spread the Sequence around London the least it could do is help pimp my ride so I can spread its outrageously great taste to distant shores in style.
edited by Bardigan on 12/25/2014

10

Ask any sailor, any real sailor, it don’t matter if you’ve got a million lights and all the chrome in the world, sinking’s sinking…

It’s possible i’ve seen too much fast and furious over this day :) Shiny options are always nice, but I’m with useful every day :)