CulturalGeek
Posts: 79
12/4/2014
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Ok, I have no idea what I'm doing wrong, but starting this game right now is incredibly frustrating.
I played some a few weeks ago, when the tomb colonist runs were still a thing, but even then I was playing on merciful mode. I decided to start playing properly from scratch today and... yowch.
I've read some of the guides, and every single one mentions tomb colonist runs and prize crews to get started. Now that they're not an option... well...
Every game ends the same: no echoes, no fuel, no supplies. If I try to stay reasonably close to London and make frequent trips back to resupply, I rarely make back my food and fuel costs, and thus can never make longer voyages out to further places. Like, sometimes I go searching for a quest related location and don't find it, and if I head back while I still have a decent buffer of supplies and fuel, I usually can't pick up enough profit to try again. But when I say "OK, I'm only going back to London when I know I have enough echo-granting stuff to make my next voyage" I end up dying.
I'm not sure whether or not I should be fighting things. The only times I've gotten a decent supply of echoes is getting lucky on the tiny pirate ship near Hunter's keep, but recently it's been only dropping one fuel or supplies, which is normally a lot less than I spend fighting it. But when I avoid fighting anything at all, I end up without any money.
Bah, I love Fallen London but I can't seem to get the hang of this. I've gone through five captains in a single day, and it's the same thing every time: start the beginner missions and deliver the tomb colonist, maybe get a few reports or the start of quests from the close-in islands, then do another run where I try to go slightly further out. Pick up a few more "start-of-quests" style things and then get back to London without enough echoes to go any further out.
I don't know. Maybe I shouldn't hire officers right at the start? I'm totally at zea here (heh). I'm normally not bad at video games, and I'm familiar with the FTL-style "play until you die" game, but this one is just so difficult and I don't know that I'm making any progress. Usually I can at least figure out what I'm doing wrong and make a plan to do better in the future, but I have no idea what I could possibly do differently at this point, and all the guides mention things like doing tomb-colonist stuff.
I am not very good at ship combat, I will admit. I understand the idea of it... but I can't seem to execute consistently. Sometimes it goes great and I take out a ship or some bats completely unscathed, other times I'll get demolished by the same thing.
So yeah, any tips?
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http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/CulturalGeek
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Kerine
Posts: 72
12/5/2014
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My suggestion would be to, immediately out of the gate, load up with as much extra fuel as you can get and set out exploring. Don't worry too much about keeping a buffer for fuel, as you'll often find yourself using less fuel than expected in the starter engine. I would recommend heading north to Venderbight and from there making a loop through the third line on the map and either just one down to london, or two down towards the cumaean canal before returning. The funds you have at the start should be enough to get the fuel for this (in the past, 15 fuel could get you halfway around the map before shuffling at least). Terror doesn't matter at this point. Gravitate towards lights nearby when you can, but don't do much more than that, as you're just discovering new areas anyway. You'll have time to find the most terror-efficient routes later.
With only the starter ship, I wouldn't recommend fighting at all. Even when you're able to take down the smaller ships they never really become worth the trouble, and you'd be no match for anything worthwhile. Turning off your lights is essential for this, and can also be used to conserve fuel.
Overall, don't be afraid of going out into the darkness, or running out of supplies, or even a mutiny. Definitely don't pick out a simple grind and do that until you're sick of the game or have so many echoes there's no risk to the game. There are little things that can help a bit - finding the best path between locations, knowing what items are for, knowing the best stories, etc. - but those can be picked up as you go along. The main thing is to get out into the darkness and look for things and follow your terribly bad ideas through even though they'll probably end horribly, despite whatever consequences you've seen before or might have.
I suppose i'm a little short on practical tips there, aren't I? Alright then, a few thoughts:
- When you go out to the unterzee, don't head just to one port and back. When you have a specific destination in mind (or destinations), plan a route around it in a big loop. Stock up on mostly fuel and supplies, then head out. Planning a stop at Mount Palmerston or the Iron Republic can allow you to circumvent your hold space some.
- A lot of items needed for other stories are gained as rewards from stories. Unless it's a diamond, selling to the alarming scholar tends not to get you much and destroys items that will come in handy pretty soon.
- Most consequences are not as bad as they seem. If a storylet gives you terror when you fail and is part of a story (not a random port event), keep trying. You'll succeed before anything gets too horrible, even if it seems bad.
-spam the zee-bat and go find everything it shows you.
-focus on improving just one stat at first, up to 80ish at least. I like hearts for the use in mutinies and port events or veils for its use both in combat and very often in storylets. Irons is increased easily with good guns, so i've never found it useful to start with.
On a final note, http://saint-beau.tumblr.com is a very nice place to go to ask questions or get tips from other answers, in addition to learning more about the lore.
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http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/Kerine
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lady ciel
Posts: 2548
12/5/2014
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For my first trip with a new captain I would do everything you can in London - definitely read the paper at your lodgings and get the Admiral's commission at least; spend your money on fuel and leave at least one echo in the bank. Hug the coast south to Mutton Island; explore and get the port report; go South East to the next tile, then East one tile, then North one or two tiles; then head back South West towards London; use the Zea Bat and pick up any Port Reports for the places you find. The first admiralty commission should be in one of those tiles and you will be coming back close to Hunter's Keep. Second trip go North to Venderbight and start the curator's quest; go up to Whither then along the northern edge of the map until you find Mount Palmerstone and Avid Horizon then head South-east back to London (edit to add - stop off in Venderbight to give the Curator the item from Avid Horizon if you got it). Doing that you will probably find a lot of places and earn a reasonable amount of money - depending on which locations are in those tiles.
After that it depends on how much money you have and where the Admiral sends you but slowly start exploring the map working out from the places you have uncovered. I will say that finding the Mangrove college is very helpful for supplies or terror reduction and if Apis Meet (somewhere on the Southern Coast) is near and you have the echoes it is worth buying candles and exploring the Wisp Ways, be careful though as you can lose crew or gain wounds.
edited by reveurciel on 12/5/2014
edited by reveurciel on 12/5/2014
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ciel
Sorry RL means I am not a very active player at the moment. No social actions unless you are prepared to wait and definitely no sparring or other mult-action things.
No Calling Cards or boxed cats please. Will take dupes on the affluent photographers. Other social invitations welcome. Parabolan Kittens usually available, send me an in-game social action saying you want one and I will get one to you as soon as possible.
storynexus name - reveurciel
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SouthSea Rutherby
Posts: 224
12/5/2014
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lady ciel wrote:
No problem, I hope it does help people. I must admit that trading Tomb Colonists wasn't my favourite activity when it was an early game option, until you got Secure Storage there was always a chance of them running amok and the profit was pretty small when you realise how much Lodgings, guns and ships cost.
Here's my take on tomb-colonists: yes, picking up the same three people and ferrying them to the same place could be boring if it's implemented the wrong way. But that was never what I used it for. Venderbight is a constant return location in the early game not only because of the curator quest but because you need to visit it a multitude of times, it made sense to stack up on colonists to offset the travel costs.
In the course of an average game, I have to go to Venderbight many, many times before I have 1) the genial magician 2) the Fingerking storylet 3) all the curator rewards and 4) the fishmonger officer. This requires dozens of Venderbight runs.
In game like SS, which has travel costs like fuel or supplies, trade may not necessarily be the focal point. But even if the game is intentionally not trade-based, there are still usually some small trades available in order to accommodate those costs. Tomb colonist runs were never the prime reason to go to Venderbight -- there were plenty of other reasons to go there already -- but the small amount of money you made off of them made it possible to make several return trips.
Taking those options away makes it that much harder for new players to return to Venderbight the required number of times to do all there is to do there.
So, my suggestion is to continue to discourage trade, but make it possible to pick up tomb colonists in a balanced manner when the player needs to make those runs. This should already be easy to balance: Tomb Colonists already take up a lot of space and occasionally consume either supplies or other ship parts like secure storage (in place of other useful things) so there's already a feeling of strategy to Venderbight runs without making them repetitive or too easy.
Personally, I think lowering the amount you make off each colonist but increase the available number would balance it further. And that might make a happy medium between repetition and story.
edits to correct formatting nightmare
edited by SouthSea Rutherby on 12/5/2014
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Now the proud captain of Mr. Eaten's Revenge
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