Yep. Ship required. I also went for making the zubmarine my first ship. Just finished it about a week ago. I did it because I was stubborn, but I wouldn't recommend it unless you have a high threshold for excruciatingly painful grinding.

(no idea how to get a Copy of Your Tale of the Future)

Jabberwok wrote:

I've done a fair amount of grinding on it already, which is sort of how I ended up here. I reached an impasse on designing my zubmarine, as I need Scholar of the Correspondence 3 (no idea how to get a Copy of Your Tale of the Future), but I've been kicked out of the university, which seemed like it might be the only way to raise that. And the only avenue I've seen for continuing my university career is this Dilmun Club expedition.

I wouldn't mind switching ships, as people advise, but I'm worried it's going to waste all of the grinding I've done already on the zubmarine, if I change my mind. Any advice?

Copy of Your Tale of the Future is from writing a novel (specifically a tale of the future) in the Empress' Court.

For that level of Scholar of the Correspondence, you still have quite a few options left. There's one of the Airs dependent options in seeking curios in the forgotten quarter, but if you're below level 3, I think you can still do the 'Beneath the Neath' storylet in the carnival. If you have access to the Empress' Court, you can also write symphonies.

The really annoying part about SoTC is that almost all the options for it have really low caps or are in areas that you can easily progress out of like the Empress' Court and the University. Having long been locked out of both, I've had NO way to increase it until I somewhat recently got a certain fate locked feline. It's one of the reasons I'm itching to do those scientific expeditions myself so I can eventually restore my University status.

Edit: Also, if you're at the "Designing Your Zubmarine stage" then I don't think you've actually done any grinding for it yet. What you've done so far has just been the general work to get ANY ship. You can absolutely back out and pick another ship with no loss at this point. It should put you right back at the ship selection page.
edited by Scienceandponies on 10/31/2015

Jabberwok wrote:

Okay, good to know. Sounds like I can get through the current stage, then. I guess I'll see what the next one looks like before deciding whether to back out and go for something easier. At some point, I plan to spend some money to get access to unique stories, but the thought of skipping a step with Fate feels vaguely unsatisfying.

I'll say this, I hope you haven't been selling any magnificent diamonds you come across. The other materials are all very grindy, but those are grinding AND luck. Either you spend an obscene amount of cryptic clues on bags of low quality diamonds and hope for rare successes, or you do a whole lot of archaeological expeditions for thieves' caches (which itself requires a good stock of favours criminals) and hope the reward roulette is kind.

Kaigen wrote:

... one of the islands is in the Sea of Voices, so you're going to need the Screaming Map ...

I don't think you absoutely need to. It's the principal source of one type of the notes, but you can get all three types of notes just from the two closer islands.

Ben wrote:

Would somebody care to clue me in how to get sent for the expedition?

Once you have finished the University storyline, you should be able to start the expedition through the sneering gentleman.