Spreading Blemmigans a good or bad idea?

Sunless Sea
1

On my 3rd captain now who didn’t die horribly through trial and errors, had just made it through long enough to explore 2/3 of the map.

So I get to the Uttershroom and notice that they take prisoner honey in exchange for supply and a blemmigan (jellyfish thing). And noticed a part of my journal now records where I leave blemmigans to propagate. So I decided &quotwhat the hey, lets drop off the little buggers&quot. At first, I exchanged for blemmigans and started dropping them off to nearby islands (or the ones on my planned trade course).

It was good at first, people started giving some goods and stuff back at the uttershroom for &quotpleasing mother&quot through spreading the little jellies. But then it got bad. Mangrove college is apparently teeming with blemmigans that my crew can’t salvage supplies anymore, The option in port cecil to collect scintillak is no more (At least I think it was the blemmigans who caused this because it happend after I dropped them at port cecil), and some light ships wont trade with me anymore.

Now I’ve stopped spreading them for fear of negative impact on the other islands. Others where I dropped them off like Sheperd isle and isle of cats seem to have no bad consequence but I’ve been sending them to london instead to get some random item and a novel. Is there a grand reward to be got here for spreading blemmigans or am I just better off not to?

2

First of all: great post. You’re one of the first people to openly acknowledge the negative consequences of this seemingly profitable enterprise in such detail: Sunless Sea is full of such situations where you have &quotsafe&quot trades that don’t yield much money, explorative opportunities that are profitable-but-inconsistent, and than the &quottoo good to be true&quot opportunities that seem like easy money-makers but often have dangerous hidden costs, like getting curses, menaces, or other negative effects. Trading sunlight, for example, gets riskier as you build up the &quotSunlight&quot menace, and choosing the more lucrative trades with the Salt Lions can have disastrous effects on Fallen London itself.

       In the cases of many of these situations, Fallen London refers to an age-old gaming concept: make the player have to choose their level of risk by determining how much is too much, and how much is too little.  For example, selling [i]some [/i]Sunlight is a good thing -- it's free money with relatively low risk if you don't abuse it, but [i]Sunless Sea[/i] is all about having to determine just how much risk you're willing to take -- do you just go the safe route and save money the hard way, or do you go just a [i]little[/i] bit more risky, or just throw up your hands and take a huge risk for the excitement of a huge reward... or certain death?

Indeed, part of the fun of most games is in this decision making process – it’s a step up from the old &quotmemorize patterns&quot or &quottrial and error&quot style games of previous generations. By making the Unterzee so dangerous, Sunless Sea makes a fun experience by giving you literally super-lucrative opportunities in exchange for high amounts of terror, menaces, or other bizarre (and often hilarious) consequences that, even in death, can result in improving your next character. Game choices that result in you killing your captain, sinking your vessel, or even inadvertently destroying London are all meant to get a funny reaction out of players or have them swapping war stories about the bizarre things they’ve done in the game.

            Blemigans themselves operate the same way: if you propagate seven of them, you get a small (but substantial enough) reward for the Curator quest.  If you propagate more your reward gets greater -- you can give more to the Alarming Scholar, trade the Cinder at the Empire of Hands, or even complete the Father's Bones ambition which is often requires you to take slightly more risks.  However, if you propagate them recklessly, you're going to start seeing negative repercussions just as you do with sunlight -- negative consequences that creep up on you anytime you go overboard with easy-money-making opportunities.

Personally, I loved the crazy Blemigan stories – but if you look at some of the foreshadowing (which the writers are wonderful at) you’re going to see some early signs that propagating them too much might just not be a good idea. ;)

[li]
edited by SouthSea Rutherby on 4/30/2015

3

If you’ve played Fallen London, and the recent story of the Blemmigan Gift, you might get a little more insight into these cuddly ecological menaces. (People do mutter about inconsiderate zee-captains, you know.)
The Principles of Coral is one of the places where the environment is worse for the blemmigans than vice versa, and I believe scintillack collection depends only on SAY or the quest line there. They obviously have a particular biome they prefer, and their effectiveness is more pronounced at islands that belong in that zone - I found bringing them to the north to be especially satisfying.[li]

4

Yes, this game has been very fun for me. Getting all these reactions and consequences from different islands by spreading blemmigans truly gives you an idea of what they really are: Cute little buggers that are ferocious and deadly that are to be reckoned with in numbers. The fact that there are even consequences to be considered here gives an impression that there’s a lot to be explored in the game.

So I stopped spreading them now, at least. I got some sort of &quotseed&quot from the people back at the uttershroom that I don’t know what to do with but at least it doesn’t take cargo space.
edited by Capt. Bandaid on 5/1/2015

5

It’s the best idea EVER!!! Blemmigans are soo damnded CUTE!! their adorableness needs to be spread across all of the Unterzee!!

6

I enjoy blemmigans in an disproportionate amount to how much I’ve had dealings with them.

7

Speaking of Blemmigans and unexpected quirky stories, try getting an Elegiac Cockatoo and wait for the “blemmigan colony” story to show up on some island - there will be a new option.

8

I was unaware the blemmigan menace ramps up as I’ve generally only spread them the first 7 times to get the cinder. I will have to spread the little guys to all corners of the neath, for science of course.

9

Sunless Sea needs some kind of encyclopedia or a more robust achievement system. There are so many little things you can do or that aren’t discovered until a few times through the game. I’m always worried about missing something!