For the combat reasons outlined by MidnightVoyager and the money by Kirr, I’ve quit playing. I was really enjoying the game, but now it’s just too hard.
[color=rgb(172, 178, 184)]29 hours into it and I’m still loving this game. Here’s my combat feedback thoughts and suggestions:[/color]
[color=rgb(172, 178, 184)]Combat insight: [/color]
[color=rgb(172, 178, 184)]It is a very simple game now and can be very short lived, for either myself or the enemy I’m fighting which varies from 5 hp to 500 hp. The more life an enemy has, the more boring the fight, as I sit and maneuver carefully out of range and dwindle the enemy down with torpedoes with it never spotting me. Of course terror goes up…but I’m concerned about how this will go when terror is increased again. To fight and leave the lights on would mean potentially taking some torpedoes myself, which after two for the Steamboat, it’s game over.[/color]
[color=rgb(172, 178, 184)]Solution #1: [/color]
[color=rgb(172, 178, 184)]When terror is increased to X, allow lights being off during battle to be reassuring thing to the crew that the zee monster can’t see them as well, hence slower terror rate during combat. If not in combat, normal terror rates apply with lights off.[/color]
[color=rgb(172, 178, 184)]Solution #2: [/color]
[color=rgb(172, 178, 184)]For longer fights, more things should be happening that DO NOT need to take place screen-action wise. For example, if a player is engaging a Fluke and sitting back just firing torpedo (like I do) lets say after the third torpedo a warning window pops up pausing combat and says, "Your crew yell from below, ‘Cap’n a torpedo has jammed!’ Heart options occur: #1 you can try to fire again but it may result in damaging the hull. #2 Repair it quickly, penalty ensues. #3 Leave it be, man the engine room and gain +5 speed for evasive maneuvers.[/color]
[color=rgb(172, 178, 184)]Solution #3:[/color]
[color=rgb(172, 178, 184)]Random window events during battle:[/color]
[color=rgb(172, 178, 184)]These events would be drawn from a huge basket of options, so that they rarely are seen twice. They would be short sentences of situations that are taking place, such as:[/color]
[color=rgb(172, 178, 184)]RANDOM EVENTS:[/color]
[color=rgb(172, 178, 184)]Example: "During battle, it would appear Storm has favored you and a stalagmite has fallen on your enemy." Effect: Ends battle or reduces the enemies HP by X amount.[/color]
[color=rgb(172, 178, 184)]Example: "A massive wave has interrupted the battle and has swept your ship leagues away from your foe." Effect: The player is moved to where the enemy is now just visible on the edge of the screen. [/color]
[color=rgb(172, 178, 184)]Suggestion #4:[/color]
[color=rgb(172, 178, 184)]It was under my first impression of the game that while zailing, a random zee monster might come up from the depths and initiate a battle. However, I know now that doesn’t ever happen. It would be very exciting to see monsters sprout up out of the zee when crossing big open swaths of ocean where there is nothing going on, making those longer trips very boring. Sometimes I get up and go the bathroom and come back. Very rarely has an random event popped up during those times as I’m aware of those.[/color]
[color=rgb(172, 178, 184)][font=Arial, Helvetica, Verdana, sans-serif]Also since combat can be very unforgiving depending on your position, facing toward or away from an enemy, let’s say a player is crossing the deep and a zee monster begins to surface, game pauses, an event window pops up saying something like, "Your crew scramble in panic as the zee begins to churn and appear as moldy porridge. You’ve heard of this legend back in London…this must be the dreaded Crawfisher." Options: Fire the engines and try to escape. (100% chance and take 20 points of Hull Damage) or Steel the mens souls, you know how this creature has been defeated. (Temporarily gain +15 iron and choose your facing position before the creature surfaces.)
It would be sweet to also be able to even buy battle ‘events’ from say the Brass Embassy or some other deviless sort who is willing to trade souls, or your soul, or some strange currency for your fate in the open zee during battle. Ex. One captain’s soul for nine lives-phoenix-down-type resurrection/save item.
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Nemo, those are superlative suggestions. I agree wholeheartedly.
Oh for ------'s sake.
As I said I would, I left it a while until the system was rebalanced, then just logged on to try again now. I’m just so d–nably frustrated by the whole thing. I appreciate that pirates and bats do vastly less damage. I appreciate I can probably survive now. But I can’t get the hang of how to move or evade effectively and combat is making me furious. I gave up again halfway to Venderbight.
I really want to be able to deal efficiently with the small enemies, but it’s not intuitive even after the handful of fights I’ve now been in. Am I just supposed to run away from them? Am I supposed to just exchange shots and accept the hull damage, trading it off against the reward? I was too exasperated even to check if the rewards are any better than they used to be.
It’s possible SS isn’t aimed at me in its new version, but after having hours of fun with it that’s a hard pill to swallow. Alert me when there’s an in-game tutorial, I suppose? I’ll be over in Fallen London.
well, since Carnelian should be just round the corner this will probabaly be the last post in this thread anyway. regarding your questions:
I for one found combat to be almost ridiculously easy as of now. If you have Veils around, or higher than, 60 - and do not forget to turn OFF the lights in battle! - totally nothing short of Lorn-Flukes (and probably Mt. Nomad) even ever manages to deal damage to me anymore … as I can trail, target and shoot’em all for minutes before they even detect me. They mostly even keep failing to do so after my cannons hit’em for the seventh time. Feels quite… weird. Of sorts.
Two more things you might already know or not (so I’ll mention them anyway):
- Forward guns have about double the range of the deck cannons. Make use of that.
- You can click on an enemy on-screen to initiate combat mode yourself. Don’t wait for them to do so.
as said, this might well be obsolete as of now, with Carnelian being already out. We’ll see that soon :)
Reshemin, I agree. I think that’s why combat should be dark with a fog of war. That way neither the AI nor the player can see his opponent without the vulnerability of lights.
Haven’t had very much time to play Sunless Sea until yesterday, and was surprised that I was getting a ridiculous amount of lag only after the steel update. Before, it was totally smooth on max settings and now I can’t even get it to run on “Adequate”. I’ll probably have to send out a bug report but I’m posting this here to see if anyone else has had this same problem.
I don’t know if it’s specific to this build, but I’ve had a lot of repeatable rewards. The Blind Bruiser seems happy to pay me repeatedly for delivering souls, for example. I have also successfully fought for both sides of a certain conflict between certain hirsute factions and been rewarded by both sides.
edited by Gulbasaur on 11/9/2014
Oh, and I’ve had a few duplicate port reports.