One of the nice things about sunless sea was the trading gameplay. Things differed very slightly in price, allowing you to fill your hold with mushroom wine before you leave london, and sell it elsewhere, then come home laden down with sapphires or stygian ivory or coffee or somesuch, to sell in london
Now, on its own, trading would be rather drab, and it certainly wouldnt work as the sole means of making income. But trade routes gave you a reason to visit certain ports in certain orders, and carefully plan out your route before leaivng home. It gave an extra factor to think about, ontop of quest and exploration, when deciding where to visit
So i am sad to see that this mechanic seems to have been entirely gutted for sunless skies.
Firstly, the cargo hold is now tiny. A mere 10 spaces in the starting train. I always thought cargo holds were too small in general. seeing them shrunk even farther is unfortunate. There’s a certain joy to carrying a vast hold full of wierd oddities, nd always having something useful onhand for various requests and requirements. It’s why i actually modded sunless sea so the dreadnought had the same capacity as the cargo ship
Secondly, and this is a really baffling decision, everything is the same price now!
When i go to the lush port avon, and buy wood or seeds straight from their orchard, the prices are identical to buying them from the bustling urban markets of new winchester. The verdant mushroom forests of hybras don’t engender any cheaper prices - food costs the same there as anywhere else
Aside from making trade impossible, everything being the same price also nullifies a lot of strategic decisions. In Sunless Sea i’d often plan a route to go past the iron republic or MT palmerston, to buy cheaper fuel. Or zail near the carnelian coast to buy up supplies at a slightly reduced rate (and bring cofeee home to sell in london)
It seems like all of this gameplay has simply been removed, and not replaced with anything. there’s less depth to things now
Oh we still have a variety of new and interesting trade goods. The bronzewood, the stained glass, the carefully packed munitions, et cetera
But we can barely carry any of it, and anywhere we sell it will only buy it at-cost, with zero profit
I’d like to see a return of trading. Perhaps even a better, more dynamic trading system, with prices that fluctuate every couple weeks so old trade routes need to be re-thought
edited by Nanako on 8/31/2017