Now that I have played "Sunless Sea" for a little while, I too would like to share some of my initial impressions about the game.
Perhaps the most peculiar, and not altogether pleasant, feeling I got from playing it is the creeping sense of dread that starts tickling me the very moment I leave the port. That would be a marvellously good thing had I been exploring the far edges of the Unterzee, but you run the very real risk of running out of supplies and/or going insane even if you’re simply ferrying tomb-colonists to their final resting place just north of Wolfstack Docks.
While I realize that something needs to be done to prevent people from farming the safest possible route until they have best-in-slot equipment and more money than you can shake a neddy man’s cudgel at, the idea of losing right out of the gate is not very much fun at all. First thing I did after leaving port for the first time was accidentally running into a Khanate war ship. BOOM. I barely had the time to understand what happened.
To wrap my sad story up, I am of the opinion the initial difficulty needs to be a wee bit lower in the earliest stage of the game (the first 15 or so minutes of playing, in the well-known and properly charted waters around Fallen London itself). And oh dear God, the cost of supplies. Something needs to be done: either the price should go down, or the crews should curb their appetite a little bit…
P. S. Perhaps some kind of tutorial that shows up during the first battle and the first visit to port is needed. I feel that someone who has not played Fallen London before may find himself confused not knowing what to do with the Gazetteer tabs and storylets.
I don’t mind the difficulty, really. Once you’ve played through a few times and get a sense if things, it gets easier, but it comes with a sense of mastery. The sea is merciless, but you have peeled back a few of its secrets and now you glide along her surface with a bit more confidence, but never really shaking that niggling sense of dread that you described. edited by StormKoala on 5/7/2014
The early gameplay (or, rather, getting past the early gameplay) seems sort of luck-based at the moment, since the way I’ve found to break out of ferrying tomb-colonists back and forth and only making a little bit of money after expenses revolves around being lucky enough to find treasures that the Alarming Scholar will give me lots of echoes for. Once you’ve got a few hundred echoes you don’t really have to worry about running out of supplies unless you have really bad luck or do something incredibly unwise, making Terror your main concern instead of Hunger or Fuel, and you can go explore some more and expand your shipping business.
You probably will find something valuable sooner or later in the Southern Archipelago, but it could potentially take a while. edited by CameoAppearance on 5/7/2014
I always think the always creeping feeling of dread is a worthwhile benefits rather than a problem. And as long as your get the feeling of the game, it’ll be easy peezy. And yes, that is me hoping Murphy is listening.
Also, since when can we find ANYTHING in the southern Archipelago when it isn’t yet finish?
Er, the Southern Archipelago is the name of the starting area, where London is. Mutton Island, Hunter’s Keep, and Venderbight (which is not actually in the Southern Archipelago, but in the next sector over; I overlooked that) are close to London and you can at least occasionally find expensive treasures there.
I do agree that a creeping feeling of dread is a feature rather than a bug in this game.
It is possible, once you know your way about, to start trading between London and Venderbight at a profit, without accumulating Terror except through random exploration events in the Tomb-Colonies. I expect this fact will be more clearly signposted once, for instance, the light levels have been further developed. The game is definitely still thoroughly creepy - running Tomb-Colonists and goods up and down the coast is just a good way to save up for supplies for exploring the creepiness!
[quote=Sir Frederick Tanah-Chook]It is possible, once you know your way about, to start trading between London and Venderbight at a profit, without accumulating Terror except through random exploration events in the Tomb-Colonies.[/quote]Indeed. Just zail not too far from the shoreline and you’ll get no terror increases whatsoever between London and Venderbight.
And since you know that the round trip (without any exploratory zailing) would take no more than 4 supplies at most (and 1 fuel), just invest everything else in trade goods for a few runs. This will quickly give you the money to both upgrade your ship and get more supplies to explore further.
[quote=CameoAppearance]Er, the Southern Archipelago is the name of the starting area, where London is. Mutton Island, Hunter’s Keep, and Venderbight (which is not actually in the Southern Archipelago, but in the next sector over; I overlooked that) are close to London and you can at least occasionally find expensive treasures there.
I do agree that a creeping feeling of dread is a feature rather than a bug in this game.[/quote]
Oh, sorry bout that, I thought the Southern Archipelago refers to Cumelean Canal