I sincerely want to extend my thanks to the Failbetter crew for the hours of enjoyment I experienced playing Sunless Sea. I found it an engaging and thought-provoking experience, and I think it holds a great deal of promise. [li]
However, I’m not what you’d call a typical "gamer". I don’t look for exploits, cheats or bugs. I prefer to be heavily invested in a story, and watch it grow and develop over time.
The latest patch sort of ruined that for me, however, and I realize my opinion on the matter is most likely that of a small minority.
Sunlight smuggling, in so many words, simply made this game playable. The decision to "nerf" it quite simply killed my interest in continuing. Purchasing new hulls, supplies, or any of the sundries that helped me to actually explore and move forward with the story suddenly became an incredibly tiresome burden. I wasn’t invested in learning more about my officers, exploring stories between ports, or working to uncover hidden sections of the map any longer. I was simply now struggling to eke out a rather dull, joyless slog - just to afford to keep moving from one dull, joyless slog to another. A fatal mistake that results in a complete reset of the map, the loss of half of what I’d made and one or two heirloom items was bearable - SOLELY - because I knew there was a way to resume my progress with a new Captain that didn’t involve an ungodly amount of mind-numbing boredom slogging it out all over again.
The death of this last captain, my Eighth, is the last. I guess I’m not going to learn how to finally defeat Mt. Nomad, or uncover any of the rest of the mysteries of this game…because they’re now squarely out of my reach. I don’t have the time to slog through countless low-paying jobs that don’t take me anywhere near where I need to be to advance the story. I simply can’t handle that frustration, coupled with the dread of more slogging. Which I thought was vaguely humorous because I’ve heard Sunlight smuggling described as a slogging grind. I, however, didn’t find it to be so.
It’s not likely you’ll change your minds. I just wanted you to understand that this decision, while it doesn’t kill my interest in the game (I’m still fascinated by the stories), has simply rendered it far too exhausting for me to try yet again. I’m a bit disappointed, but I’m sure I’ll live.
That having been said, I hope you continue to innovate and create compelling content. I thought Sunless Sea was a fantastic game to play, and I enjoyed the living daylights out of it.
Best of luck to you.