Speaking of bugs, am I the only one who gets stuck in permacombat after engaging the ratbarges, who for some reason aren’t lootable, respawn within seconds and are somehow chasing you across the map?
rather obvious, but you cannot make a port report of Varchas. Not implemented, or directly intended?
I’ve found the steel update to be a bit of a mixed experience. I really like the combat changes and the terror changes in general.
The mixed part is in the game balance.
I started a new game as a poet and it was horribly frustrating. I just couldn’t seem to make any progress at all. I only just had enough money a the end of a voyage to pay for a new one and nothing left for upgrades and no leeway for a bit of exploration. And every time I encountered a Pirate Pinnace it’d take me down to 1/3 hull and I’d have to spend money I couldn’t really afford on the cheapest repairs I could. I was completely dependent on getting Strategic Information every time out or I couldn’t fund the next trip. I couldn’t really afford to explore because the budget was so tight so every time the Admiral asked me to get information from somewhere I hadn’t discovered that was the end of the line. I ended up saving the game, filling up with fuel and steaming off into the dark to get a general idea of where all the important bits were so I’d have a chance of fulfilling Admiralty requests but that really takes away the fun of exploration which kinda ruins the game. So a really frustrating experience.
Then I started as a veteran with the aim of having a half decent iron score so that when I inevitably died I could carry it over to my next character. But my veteran character didn’t die, he made enough profit off of the second or third voyage to buy a forward cannon(the cheapest) and from then on just went around destroying everything and raking in buckets of cash(relatively speaking). Which seems rather too easy.
So for me it seems like the problem with the balance of the game is that you can’t afford not to do combat. There’s no reward in turning off your lights and sneaking around things so you don’t have to fight them. It seems like the balance is such that if you sneak around enemies you just can’t make enough money to progress, killing enemies is a necessity because the rewards they give in food and fuel allow you to extend a voyage enough that it becomes profitable and from there it’s all plain sailing. But straight out of London you don’t have the capability to actually kill anything without taking horrible losses so you end up stuck making no progress at all.
more feedback; again, not necessarily Steel related, but I wanted to make mention of them.
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While I think a lot of people here would agree the logbook needs an overhaul, I still think there’s use for a “ticker” to let the player know certain things, and I think a log is a great concept for it. There is, however, a discrepancy that bothers me - many times the entries in the log appear to have been made “by the captain” - that is, the player character, as they chronicle their voyages: “we are approaching X” or “We have encountered Y”. And yet there are also entries there that break this pattern and instead describe things happening to you from the perspective of an invisible third party, a narrator of sorts. If the logbook is to remain, I think this should be addressed. A small issue, in the grand scheme of things, but the incongruity of it takes you out of the experience.
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I have just discovered, completely by accident, that pressing H blows a horn. Will there be any ingame use for this or is it just some small bit of flavoring?
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Since you can potentially save the Scarred Sister, I wonder if the interactions you can have with her terminate with what is currently available. Can you develop a more profound relationship with her, as with the rest of your crew, or can you only deposit her in some port and wave her goodbye, as it were?
Has anyone played to the end of the Merchant Venturer’s story. I didn’t have the hold space and was a bit worried about where he wants to go anyway
It’s not actually all that much of a bad idea.
I mean, you don’t suffer any negative consequence for bringing him along, and you get something neat as hell if you go along for the ride. Something which can be passed down to all your future characters! And I’m not being all Seekersy Hooray The North is Wonderful And Good And Nothing Bad Happens There; it’s honestly not all that unpleasant and is in fact a really interesting ending.
At least, ah, not all that unpleasant at first, but it doesn’t send you screaming to some godawful mr eaten hell
edited by Spacemarine9 on 10/16/2014
Next time then :)
even more feedback: I feel Blue Scintillack is far too underpowered in combat, considering how rare and valuable it is. Definitely requires an upgrade - maybe in addition to immediately filling up the firing solutions, it will also stop enemies in their tracks (blinding them?) and/or cause a bit of damage?
In other news, Varchas is awesome!
I had the same problem with "crack pirates" at one point – it got to the point where I was using the un-lootable remains to block off certain parts of the Zee to bottleneck oncoming attackers – and I did make an interesting observation. Firstly, enemy ships literally spawn as they are destroyed in these areas – you can see them spawn on the visible map’s edges as other ships explode. More importantly, however, I have determined that it is not the new ship that has you locked in "permacombat" as you put it – in fact, oftentimes the NEW ships don’t even see you. Normally, once you destroy an enemy ship it is no longer a valid target, but the illumination levels remain active and if you fire more shots, they go to the old target, not the new one.
I suspect the "permacombat" is not a result of the newly spawning ships, but of the system not realizing that the previous target has been destroyed…
[li]
So far the experience has been enjoyable. I like how I have to balance my terror and consider where I fight my enemies and how. But being unable to evade enemy ship damage is rather annoying.
A nicely timed evasive manoeuvres which are dependent on your veils would be cool.
Spawn rates seem quite reasonable. Wouldn’t want to be battling constant monsters and ships.
The new terror rate is reasonable as a result of the new combat system as well. Terror is now manageable.
edited by Carol Liddle on 10/18/2014
Want to point out minor bug with Wisp-Ways at Mangrove College - on successful Veils check (ants) you’re booted out of expedition, while on unsuccessful your expedition continues without any losses with description that suggests that you should lose one crew.
…obviously removing engine helps to fail here.
Please, take the old battle system back.
- Blemmigans & Mangrove college:
- i see no option for releasing a blemmigan in Mangrove College (unless some bizarre characteristic is needed).
- However, one of the “scenes” of the exploration (the one in which you encounter a little fort, i believe), checks if “Propagation: Mangrove College” is 0.
Is there some other ways to put blemmigans in the island?
- Blemmigans and Pirate monks:
When you release blemmigans in the Godfall, there is no counter “Propagation: Godfall”
I am not sure whether this one is a feature (it makes sense to have blemmigans lost in the subterranean not “infestate” the island), but it seems strange to me, since in all other island you can just have a single blemmigan abroad.
Thoroughly enjoying the game. Dived into the world just before the combat updates, so I managed to see it in both forms. Definitely preferring the latter.
I found it tricky to begin with, but that’s to be expected - I soon learned that sneaking up on anything unpleasant with my lights off was the way to go, allowing me a key shot or two before retaliation.
edited by Ashe on 10/20/2014
You have to acknowledge just how many people would complain if they brought back the old system. Personally, I think the new system has more potential – it just needs more options – and perhaps more stat influence (iron affects damage, but hearts should also reduce it, etc).
edited by SouthSea Rutherby on 10/21/2014
I think terror needs its bite back. Right now the Zee is way, way too safe. The terror reduction also makes monsters less of a threat. If you can’t kill it in one volley, turn off the lights. This is literally the only thing you need to know right now. Perhaps more nuanced detection would help? i.e. let monsters detect you if you ram them.
I greatly like the new combat system, although I did encounter the glitch where after fighting a lifeberg, I am locked in combat and can’t flee because it says I’m being chased, and thusly can’t loot the corpse.
Also, I haven’t played for a few updates so I’m not sure how bad it was before, but the patch notes say the zee bat search is more accurate than before, yet about 1/3 of the time its directions are dead wrong (like saying something is a long way south when it’s north east of me.) A purchasable item that increased the range on the bat search would be great too (though there may be one somewhere for all I know).
For my money terror was way too hard to deal with before, but Is a little too easy now, but I’m sure that’s temporary.
I love having the venturer around, though I’m stalled out right now as he is requesting things from the carnelian coast (and the chelonate which is just farther than I’ve ventured). His hefty rewards though make it more possible to break out of the early-game doldrums of barely making enough money per trip to cover fuel and supply costs.
It would be very nice if the blind bruiser gave some indication of the vague location of where he wants you to go, like the admiral does for strategic information. I almost had to return empty handed when he wanted me to go to polythreme, which I looked for down south where it used to be and almost ran out of fuel after finding it far to the east.
All in all I’m enjoying the game a lot more than when I last played a couple months ago. Mostly because I was finally able to make it out of the early game stages which aren’t very fun and are very difficult for people who have no experience with roguelikes, even in easy mode. You have to get some serious momentum going before it gets fun, but the venturer makes that a lot easier.
Or they could make it more common, or replace it with something as common as "strange catch" or "unclear device" items.
[li]
I’m really enjoying the new combat system – it’s much more interesting to me than the card-based system was. I’ve also had the bug of getting “stuck” in combat, unable to fire, pick up any floating loot, or end combat, although docking somewhere seems to reset it. I do find it a little irritating that some “placeholder” enemies can now do serious damage to you (i.e. the Faustian Corsairs) but still don’t pay out more than 1 supply – would be nice if they were either harmless or had normal rewards for killing them.
I think the Venturer content really helps with money. I wish it were made clearer before you leave London that taking him to his eventual destination includes an option that can only be played if you’re ready to end your game; I would have preferred to postpone that option and use it as the end to my current playthrough, but that would have left me stuck with 40 Supplies for the Journey in my hold. Either a heads-up before you set out or a way to offload the supplies and the Venturer but postpone accompanying him on his journey would be nice.
Finally, (and not specific to Steel), I wish there were some way to convert Echoes or a wider variety of loot into Captivating Treasures. Right now, you either have to sock away all the Captivating Treasures you get in the early game – which postpones ship upgrades for a frustratingly long time – or go on what feels like a tiresome grind later trying to find enough Captivating Treasures to give your next character a good start once you’ve exhausted the reliable sources. I wouldn’t want accumulating Heirlooms to be trivially easy, but in the late game, I’d appreciate being able to buy Captivating Treasures even at a ridiculously punitive exchange rate.