Ooooh, it will be so interesting ! At last we will walk the path of diamonds, and breathe the cold laws of the frozen realm of the stars. I’m really curious to discover the inhabitants of such a place. What lurks in the High Wilderness ?
I am super excited for a new genesis. It’s been amazing to see each new peek at the future, from the Calendar council to destinies. I am sure that whatever Failbetter does, it will be excellent.
I may be optimistic here, but I hope this doesn’t mess with the actual Fallen London content too much. There’s a tier of professions, final ambition updates, and the penultimate one for Light Fingers among other things that I’ve been looking forward to.
Somehow, Midnight, I doubt Failbetter would be so reckless as to damage the very product that made its reputation for quality in the first place.
On the one hand, I most certainly trust FBG’s judgement (if you’ll pardon the inadvertent pun.) On the other hand, well, many a studio has decided to shake up its franchise by rebooting the universe following some sort of cataclysmic, society-destroying event. Deadlands had the post-apocalyptic Hell on Earth and the, er, post-Earth Lost Colony. EverQuest II was set in the ravaged ruins of the original EverQuest. In short, "burn everything and start again" is an established tool of the writer’s craft.
I’m a bit skeptical regarding the setting for newcomers and new players though.
I don’t know much about the High Wilderness, but that setting seems rather “high end” and disorienting while Sunless Sea and Fallen London are way more down to earth: weird but more grounded in reality, with gradual exposition to the more weird stuff later.
I just fear that new players will be thrown off by the weirdness.
I think this will be a continuation of the existing lore, not an alternate reality. Probably the Liberation had some success, the Judgements start dying and the Imperial Navy tries to stop or revert the process.
Sounds pretty solid to me.
It’s Victoriana IN SPACE!
It’s a pretty straightforward concept and a natural progression of the story. And a much better get-out for London than “another city drops on it, killing everyone, the end”.
The reluctance in this thread perplexes me.
[quote=Teaspoon]It’s Victoriana IN SPACE!
It’s a pretty straightforward concept and a natural progression of the story. And a much better get-out for London than "another city drops on it, killing everyone, the end".
The reluctance in this thread perplexes me.[/quote]
My thoughts too!
The reluctance seems to be “My character is against the revolution of night, and by making it happen you ignore all my choices, in a choice based game.”
But then, we could argue that Fallen London is in its own way Post-apocalyptic. London is, after all, the fifth city to be squashed.
That’s exactly my point here!
If their character is against the Liberation, they join Empress and Navy to thwart those interlopers!
edited by GeorgeEarlslight on 9/26/2016
Yes, but the LoN already seems to be happening. Your fallen london character’s choices and destinies don’t seem to have mattered. Because this is what’s going to happen. (I’d like to clarify that I have no reluctance with sunless skies, and this just my understanding based on the thread)
They mattered, but they were not enough. The destinies could also be postponed for after the resolution of Sunless Skies.
I’m also trying to find links for continuity and the above makes sense to me.
I think the folks at Fallen London are such good writers and attentive to the community that they will see a thread like this and make sure there is a good bridge between the games that does not undo our choices in FL.
I share the concerns expressed here.
I would hope the game does not have a premise that invalidates FL stories (like saying that the Neath was destroyed, or that our Sun was a star that was killed and no one can live on the earth’s Surface anymore). Clearly many (if not most) FL players would work hard to prevent anything of the kind, and it would make our on-going stories peculiar or meaningless or impossible.
Likewise, FL has specific destinies with specific timelines, and the July story introduced timing that ought to be honored. At least one destiny introduces an a specific fifteen year timeline, which could be more than fifteen years from the present date, but can’t be less.
If the writers ever chose to invalidate a destiny, I would hope they would make this a really interesting player event where people with that destiny have some sort of vision, and the chance to pick a new destiny at no cost.
At the very least, a relatively minimal amount of stage setting at the beginning of the player experience of Sunless Skies could leave open the possibility that it is a dream of future that may be, rather than a thing which is.
Or to make it explicit that the forces which brought about some portion of the Liberation of Night were significantly thwarted in the Neath (which continues as the thriving city we currently play in, and not a lightless post-apocalyptic battlefield of endless predation, though that again remains a possible outcome in the future), and the conflict between those forces continues in the Neath and in the skies.
I suppose, the Neath being the Neath and Her Enduring Majesty being Her Enduring Majesty, Sunless Skies could be set ten, fifty, a hundred or five hundred years after Fallen London, with equal plausibility.
Interestingly enough, while people are focusing a lot on the LoN and Dawn Machine aspects, the “7 Facts About Our Next Game” blog post only says that “a revolution has begun, and the stars are being murdered.”
While the use of the word revolution does bring in connotations of London’s Actual Revolutionaries, there is still a whole lot of ambiguity in this message. The subtleties in the hierarchy of judgements and dragons and messengers are still largely unknown to us; for all we know this could be a revolution on a much higher end of the Great Chain, In which case most destinies continue to hold water as they’re more concerned with Space bats and under.
The who the what and the how of the stars being murdered is also completely veiled. As methods of murdering stars themselves haven’t really been brought up in the lore yet (correct me if I’m wrong, but I’m pretty LoN and the Dawn Machine are more focused on just the Sun, rather than stars in plural), I think it’s safer to assume that there are some non-human machinations going on here…
[color=#0066ff]I’m glad to see the announcement has grabbed all of you![/color]
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[color=#0066ff]Discussion and speculation are very welcome but be aware that it is entirely speculation at this stage (based on very little actual information!) and please take all of it with a pinch of salt.[/color]
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[color=#0066ff]More info and plot details will be revealed as we move through pre-production and get ready for the Kickstarter in Feb.[/color]
Stating this again in here:
"This seems like a possible future rather than a definite one for things to me- kind of like the endings and supremacies in Sunless Sea."
Because nothing changes in London. The Empress isn’t going to bugger off through the gate and take half the city with her because that would be the end of Fallen London. Everyone’s still going to get their various endings when the time comes and they’re all simultaneously going to be canon and matter and noncanon and "pointless" because the writers can and will only be able to accommodate so many people as time goes on and they make things such as Sunless Sea, and Sunless Skies, and perhaps even someday when the spheres have aligned and the rituals have failed: Fallen Paris.
edited by TeslaWalker on 9/26/2016
This sounds exceptionally exciting, can’t wait to back another Failbetter Kickstarter! And we have the bonus of enjoying Zubmariner in the meantime.
I do echo a few others in this thread also in feeling slightly disappointed that Castles in the Roof isn’t looking like it’s going to happen. —BUT— on the Failbetter website, it says “Coming on 11 October 2016: Zubmariner, the first expansion to Sunless Sea!” (https://www.failbettergames.com/sunless/). The “FIRST” expansion to Sunless Sea. Could that mean there may be more expansion(s?) in the future? Why say it’s the first, if it’s going to be the only one?
Either way, I’m excited, for both Zubmariner and Sunless Skies! Looking forward to hearing more Failbetter! Keep up the brilliant work!