the_bee
Posts: 6
2/18/2015
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Let me preface it by saying that I have literally spend several days, morning to evening, playing Sunless Sea,and I love it to bits.
But this game needs a speedup button right now, because it wastes your time. This has nothing to do with atmosphere and mechanics, sailing for several REAL minutes is boring! Especially in a single-player game. It is just a waste of time. And there is even no music most of the time...
As I understand, most of the people have shift-tabbed on some occasions to do different things while the ship was sailing. This should not happen. This is not a good design. Please make a speed-up button, let us fast-forward the boring bits.
I started trading sunlight to buy a bigger engine, because I could not bear the agonizingly slow crawl of my ship through the zee. I bought a bigger engine. It did not help! It was still unbelievably slow. I installed a suppressor, a roaring beast of and engine and started running on FULL POWER all of the time - it helped, but not enough. Still too slow! And this equipment is not easy to come by. You can't do it in the starter ship. Please give us a speed-up button.
I tweaked the numbers for engine power, tried to offset it with faster fuel consumption - it did not work, everything still felt wrong. It was to easy to get away from zee-beasts. Supplies did not matter anymore.
I increased maximum speed by a factor of 20. I wheezed past sombre islands at incredible speed like a rocket, laughing as buoys flashed by in emerald haze. The madness and terror of the zee have finally caught up with me.
Please make a speed-up button. Factor of 3, or maybe 5. Stop the madness.
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phryne
Posts: 1347
2/19/2015
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the_bee wrote:
This has nothing to do with atmosphere and mechanics, sailing for several REAL minutes is boring!
I do NOT agree!
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Accounts: Bag a Legend • Light Fingers • Heart's Desire • Nemesis • no ambition
Exceptional Stories, sorted by Season and by writer ― Favours & Renown Guide
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SporksAreGoodForYou
Posts: 291
2/19/2015
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phryne wrote:
I do NOT agree!
And that's an entirely fair point to take. But adding a speedup button doesn't mean you have to use it. If you enjoy spending time puttering around a dark map, then continue to enjoy it. But from the small sampling of people I'm seeing giving feedback, one thing is extremely common - once you've cracked the survival mechanic (echoes, terror), the travelling between islands to do things takes too long, and is a causing them (and me, if I'm honest) to not want to replay. Even if the speedup button only appeared on your fourth captain, or only appeared with boats that have more than 40 cargo space, or was something you had to buy and fit in your auxiliary slot, or whatever. if failbetter want to keep the majority of "gamers" on the hook, they'll need to work out how to make this more like a real game, while still allowing the incredible story to be uncovered.
While I can tinker with the json files, and potentially release that as a mod, it doesn't solve the problem that sometimes, I do want to go slow. And that screaming around at 5x normal speed wrecks the scaling for SAY. But, there are times where I just need to get to Irem, and I'm in the Grand Geode, or Kingeaters from Frostfound, or whatever. The thought of just puttering up there for 5 minutes, knowing nothing can kill me, but also that there might be islands in the way, so I can't just alt-tab (despite my ship having a first officer/navigator and engineer who should really take care of that for me), that I have enough money to not have to stop to pick up "cheap" fuel, that no monster is going to kill me - those are reasons I find the game frustrating. I want to read more. I want to do stuff. But at this point, the sailing is reducing my enjoyment. A speedup button would massively solve this issue for me, and plenty of others, and you would never have to click on it if you didn't want to. I don't know if this game dials home to failbetter with stats, but if it does, I'd love to know at what point of a game (and on how many of the games), people buy the supressor, and just go full power everywhere. I'm guessing it's pretty high.
Take the Total War series as an example. they have speed up buttons in the real-time combat. I never use them. I'm happy doing everything at normal speed, and that can take long minutes to set up. But my friend hates it. He runs it all at high speed. Because he's impatient. We're both catered for.
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SporksAreGoodForYou
Posts: 291
2/19/2015
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I guess the point is, I'm at a stage with my captain where I have too many echoes (no, I didn't exploit the sunlight boxes, all just legit methods, e.g. lots of tomb colonist runs), a full complement of weapons (mt nomad dies quickly and and at no risk to me), but still have a few stories to wrap up. And these stories seem to send me all over the map. Which is great, except it isn't. Doing the brisk campaigner, for example, she wanted stone's attention. I went to Whither, from Mangrove college (which is in the very southeast for me), only to find I needed a watchful curio, so it's literally to the other side of the map to irem to get one of those, and then back all the way to whither. and then off to find mushroom wine, in London. That took, like, 25 minutes of just sailing directly from port to port. Which isn't fun.
Speed up wouldn't reduce the tension or threat. It would literally just make the game run faster. If you enter combat (like, click a fight button) then it could return to x1, but if you're just cruising by, keep it fast. And that's entirely the point. I don't go from port to port any more. there's no need. I've finished up most of them, and don't need the port reports for stuff.
While I understand lots of people don't want or need this feature, you can't ignore the fact that almost every person who's posted saying "here's some feedback" has mentioned it. And, as I tried to explain with my Total War analogy, just because it's there, doesn't mean you have to use it. But it's clear that some people do, because once you've eliminated the threat of the zee, it's simply not fun to to spend minutes wandering between ports you need to visit.
But, I'll stop trying to explain. If your answer is "I don't want it" then I think perhaps you're missing the point and I don't want to belabour it by just saying the same thing again and again.
edited by SporksAreGoodForYou on 2/19/2015
edited by SporksAreGoodForYou on 2/19/2015
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Alexis Kennedy
Posts: 1374
2/26/2015
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Folks, this thread has set off the Civility Alarm in the Failbetter lair. Even as I type, sad kittens cascade around me, squeaking. The sky is black. The thunder is growling that it needs a hug.
So I'm locking the thread. Remember, all, please err on the side of courtesy.
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the_bee
Posts: 6
2/25/2015
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SlashDotBeckett wrote:
If it's boring, I Alt-Tab to a book ...
Exactly. This is not good design if a player has to do that.
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SporksAreGoodForYou
Posts: 291
2/26/2015
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Actually, it wouldn't be that hard. THe number of spawns per tile are limited but also only have 1-3 spawn points. Just add a buttload of spawnpoints while keep the max tile population the same, and you'll see different things spawning from different places all the time.
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username
Posts: 10
2/20/2015
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FreedomFighter wrote:
I wouldn't mind if exploring at zee is interesting. The main problem is, it is damn boring and nothing happen. . .
So, it's a lot like actually being at sea, then?
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Shadow
Posts: 49
2/19/2015
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phryne wrote:
the_bee wrote:
This has nothing to do with atmosphere and mechanics, sailing for several REAL minutes is boring!
I do NOT agree!
It depends on how long you've been zailing, I suppose. It's most exciting in that irreplaceable part of the game, those first few hours when you're still discovering places and the dangers of the zee. But once that's done, it becomes a increasingly dull chore.
That said, I'd sooner support measures to make the Unterzee more dynamic and interesting before adding a cheap fast travel feature. Or well, I'd also support engine rebalancing so that they aren't a net loss in efficiency and range. Would be nice if they were actually upgrades, instead of a trade-off between efficiency and convenience.
EDIT: A fast travel button is also rather cheaty, as it allows you to ignore terror and zee monsters/enemies entirely.
edited by Shadow on 2/19/2015
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In Her Enduring Majesty's Service
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