Essentially what the title says.
[li]Well, it’s a really big geode. Big enough to have an Admiralty base inside it.
So, then, the question becomes - what exactly is that Admiralty base? Well, it’s a convenient post for the New Sequence to work on their secret project.
So, then, the question becomes - why are the New Sequence, and what is their secret project? Well, that’s classified, and dangerous, and terribly mysterious. And the basis for the Dawn Machine storyline. But, in broad terms, it’s a reactionary force within the Navy attempting to bolster their power in the Neath by… quasi-scientific semi-supernatural thoroughly-inadvisable means.
It’s geode. That is grand. :P
I sort of agree, except that most of that information needs to be in actual game interactions, rather than in a separate Encyclopaedia. More locations need their own multi-part stories, not just a handful on the farthest reaches of the map. And Venderbight, I guess.
edited by Olorin on 2/16/2015
No particular reason your zee-captain should know about the New Sequence.
If you play the Sphinxstone story long enough to meet the New Sequence agent in London, your character will actually know something about them and comment on their reputation. It is, I grant you, easy to miss something like that if you’re skimming or don’t know what you should be looking for, but that’s what these forums, the wiki and the various fanblogs are for - asking for help and clarification!
[quote=malavore]I do wish that failbetter would provide more explanation about the various factions in the 'Neath and their relationship with each other. The first three days playing Sunless Sea, I did enjoy the feeling of arriving in a foreign world. By now, I just wish there’s a Codex / Ledger / Encyclopedia that explains things. The individual stories become less interesting when the larger implication is unknown to me.
edited by malavore on 2/16/2015[/quote]
Perhaps there is a codex, but it’s stored in codex so nobody will tell you what’s in it :P
But seriously, I don’ think a codex specifically would make a lot of sense, since this is a game that’s like, primarily reading, and those tend to be stuck in games that are mostly NOT reading so people who like reading can go and read up on the background that isn’t strictly necessary to know. It’d make more sense to like, let you ask people in London about the various factions, or something.
I mean I didn’t personally have a lot of trouble with it, but I’d played Fallen London and the new sequence had a cameo there, and the fourth city is pretty significant so the Khanate’s name was pretty much enough. But people who don’t have that existing background might need more.
I suspect Varchas and the Chelonate are less common knowledge though, especially considering the people from Varchas never leave the city. The Presbyterate is probably more significant.
Are they plotting against the Masters as well, or just the Bazaar?
edited by TheD3rp on 2/16/2015
Slightly off-topic, but am I the only one thinking that Frostfound looks like a frozen, abandoned version of the Dawn Machine (maybe a prototype)?
[quote=malavore]Or provide both. We’re playing as Zee-captains. These are the things zeecaptains should already know.
[/quote]
Technically, we’re playing poets/street urchins/etc who just inherited their first ship. The idea of the game is that your first captain literally has no idea how the world works and has to piece together the secrets of the Unterzee – hence why the game uses "secrets" as levels and "fragments" of information as experience.
That said, I would love a place in Fallen London you could go to learn about the world from other Zee-captains. In fact, just being able to interact with other captains in any way might be interesting.
[li]
Given what can be found in the heart of Frostfound, you may not be very far off. I get the impression it’s a good deal older than London’s Fall, though.
Well, yes, that’s more or less the kind of thing that happens to new players.
[quote=malavore]Either the zeecaptains have to have some experience as sailor OR have a mentor on board in form or officer. Either way it would imply some knowledge of the 'Neath.
.[/quote]
Enough to know that you want out of it and on to the sea…
As for inexperienced captains, anyone with money and the will to go out on the water, lured by false stories of Moths that s*** sapphires and reading secrets from the entrails of Lorn Flukes no doubt, the story I’m writing requires that the captain doesn’t know everything or it wouldn’t work.
Honestly, I think "a completely inexperienced captain with a cheap, semi-competent crew" is a great way to describe our starting position in Sunless Sea. Consider the limited power and prospects of Fallen London’s labourers - the Masters have industry locked down, and every day, someone dies, or goes mad, or gets eaten by something squidgy that slurped out of the marshes. People are desperate to get work, and if a posting includes bunk and zeebiscuits, all the more tempting. Of the really experienced zailors, well, that’s our officers, and even the best of them have ulterior motives for going to zee - they’re dying, or on the run, or searching for the Legendary Lost Treasure of the Empire of Hands. No-one starts out knowledgeable and noteworthy in the tramp-zailing game - if they were knowledgeable and noteworthy, they wouldn’t be tramp-zailors.
This is a reasonably accurate description of mankind’s age of sail captains as well. They were basically petty tyrants on the sea. Sometimes they knew what they were doing - sometimes the first mate or someone else on the ship was the one who really had the skills to keep the ship going. Sometimes the captain was drunk, or nuts, or both. Syphilis is a cruel disease, and it was quite common. Sailors took their life in their hands every time they signed on, and the reason they were often very loyal to competent/sane/kind captains was because thank God they found a good one!
I mean, have you read Moby Dick?
I think Malavore has a good point - imo the game DOES do a good job of introducing common-knowledge things, but i came in familiar with FL lore. Separating the wheat from the chaff and just REMEMBERING all the stuff is probably quite the challenge, and some sort of codex thing probably would help a lot.
Some way at least to look back at text you’ve already seen (ships DO have logs) would be especially nice, though idk how hard it’d be to implement.