[quote=Dr. Hieronymous Alloy]Sorry, I’m not trying to claim any special skill. I agree it’s really easy to die with a new character under the new system but it was really easy to die with a new character under the old system too (especially if you picked non-combat starting options).
It’s possible my view of things is slanted because I started my new character under the beta branch of Steel where you could just steam right towards enemy ships and they’d turn around and run away giving you a free shot, so maybe that got me through the awkward early stages.
I do agree overall that the ships need rebalancing, especially the newbie ship; more importantly, enemy ships need their maneuverability significantly nerfed, because right now they have a HUGE rate-of-turn advantage that can turn new players into sitting ducks very easily.
I still think the best overall advice is "embrace death with your first few characters." Part of roguelikes is taking it on the chin every so often, and that’s part of Sunless Sea too. If you pick the "preserve a skill" option you can ladder yourself up a fair bit and each new death is an opportunity for growth!
I don’t think that those problems are condemnations of the whole new system though. Remember, we’re only seeing about, what, a month or two’s worth of development on the new combat system? This is just the bare, raw framework.
EDIT: if your goal is just "ignoring combat," ehh, I get that you just want to explore but combat and danger seems like a necessary part of that to me. You can’t have a terrifying underground ocean without sea monsters and pirates, and I want to fight those sea monsters and pirates. In terms of immersion and feel, this combat is a big improvement over the old combat. The old combat was monotonous and boring and grindy and broke my sense of sailing on an underground ocean because it ignored the terrain and landmarks and coastlines and was just HIT BUTTON. Now when I’m battling a sea monster, I’m not just HITTING BUTTON, I’m chasing a sea-serpent through the Labyrinth of Eels, or being chased by pirates through the Phosgene Bleaks. There’s an added element of strategy (I can’t run away forever or I’ll run aground!) but more importantly there’s increased immersion because the combat is constrained by the geography in a way it wasn’t before.
Would you be happier if "old combat" came back, or if there was just a mode select on startup that turned off combat completely?
edited by Dr. Hieronymous Alloy on 10/13/2014[/quote]
I don’t mind having combat, but I didn’t want to have to make it my entire focus. In the old system, I could get over it and go on my merry way. I could swat down weaker things and pay attention for the bigger things. I could form a strategy and pull it off. I could even avoid it if I wanted. As it stands? It does not improve my immersion at all because I don’t enjoy it. I haven’t found a single bit of the new content yet, and I am losing money left and right, and I can’t bring myself to play for more than a few minutes at a time without getting tired of it or annoyed at it. I can only back up and wait for bars to fill so I can hit a button so many times.
I can’t understand what you’re saying about the new combat system being more strategic, really. You back up. You wait for bars to fill. You fire. It is equally monotonous, boring, and grindy as the old system once you figure it out. But in the old system, I could queue things up and not pay attention to how monotonous, boring, and grindy it is when the enemy’s something basic. You make it sound a lot more pleasantly exciting than it is. You CAN, in fact, run away forever without hitting ground, just turn away from the land. And you better, because it is the only functional strategy. The times I have died after I figured things out (and started avoiding bats like the plague) are because I got tired of losing ground and tried something different. Of course, I’ve barely got away from London without giving up my will to explore, so all I’ve fought is pirates and crabs.
And the game has claimed to allow for different styles of play. You’re supposed to be able to go out and hunt or pursue trade or pursue stories. Now? The only thing that keeps you from constant combat is an incredibly lowered concentration of enemies, trade is something I can’t figure out because of how limited everything is and I lose money every time, and the changes are keeping me from exploring.
I don’t really think requiring that someone dies every one or two steps out from the port until they can handle the zee and giving them a really specific needed build to survive helps anything. It certainly doesn’t help having more than one option of playstyle. A lot of what people say you need to survive on the zee is stuff you need to purchase, and you don’t keep money between deaths. And money is the hardest thing to get at the start.
I never had a problem with dying in combat in the old system once I gained some competence at it. Because I could avoid combat. The things that killed me were running out of money (because it was still difficult to get a good cash flow) and supplies or hitting high fear or trying to fight something big and scary I’d never seen before. I felt like I could attain basic competence right out of the gate with a new character and blind experimentation. I could get away from things. I died because I made a bad decision, not because I dared peek out of the harbor and ran into a damn bat.
I had great, harrowing experiences in combat on the zee that added to the story that was going on behind it. I decided to explore, and I had a mutiny near the Khanate. I survived it by killing most of my crew. We crawled back toward London, torn between avoiding combat and diving into combat for supplies. I stalled right outside the harbor and only survived because a pirate ship attacked and we took their fuel. That was great. As it stands now, my great story about high life on the zee is about how a bat sat right behind me and took down a third of my hull because I couldn’t face it. That is the dullest combat story I have heard in my life, and it was really irritating to experience.
It’s a lot of effort for no satisfying reward is what I’m trying to say, I guess? And I feel like I’m being jammed into a specific style of play and character.