Sunless Sea - Kickstarted! From the creators of Fallen London

Ouch.

One thing I wish of this game is that instead of giving me generic, abstract things like ‘Vital Information’ or ‘Moves of the Game’ or a ‘Searing enigma’ as a reward for some events or quests, it actually gave me together that a new lore tidbit that would be represented by the card. Tell me how the Khan guys are planning to manipulate the government at Port Carnelian, or what is behind the clockwork sun. The worldbuilding is the coolest part of the game, but it really gives you only scraps and tidbits. I read some cool stuff of the world of the game on Internet, but given how little I discovered in my current game, I’m guessing you need to play 50 hours to really get everything.

I cannot speak to the EA version of Sunless Skies, since I steadfastly avoided playing it.

But in the released version you encounter a loading screen in two situations only, as far as I can tell:

  1. When initially starting the game, there’s a 7-8 second load time once you choose to start it.

  2. When you change worlds – moving from The Reach to Albion, for instance – there’s another 5-7 second loading screen. You don’t change worlds very often in the game.

I too despise the journal, card, and “however we want to catalog this thing” system.

+1 like.

a. Which forum did you originally write this in?
b. What is your opinion on Skies?

I remember having this complaint with Fallen London, but for some reason it isn’t bothering me with Sunless Sea. I just started playing recently and maybe I am in the right head-space, but I love how this game is impenetrable in-part, inscrutable, and shrouded in mystery. I am just taking it all in while enjoying the ambiance of the soft water sounds or the beauty of a snowstorm. My first impression is quite strong and pushing me to further into the game.

I’m rather pleased so far. I might eventually be bothered with the repetition and slow pacing that I struggled with in Fallen London, but all of the actual added gameplay in Sunless Sea takes the edge and sting out of those complaints.

Brokenforum.com

Sunless Skies is a better game in basically all regards.
Some comparative bullet points:

  • Combat still isn’t great but it’s at least playable and an actual noteworthy part of the game.

  • You can play it without story related wiki use. Storylets and decisions are much more clear and sensible.

  • The world is very enjoyable and much more diverse than in Sea.

  • It’s still facebook game grindy in too many aspects but not quite as much as Sea.

  • Sunless Skies still REQUIRES the cheat engine speed hack in my opinion. It’s such a minor thing (and rather annoying that you have to use a 3rd party tool) but it improves the quality and enjoyment of the game by a HUGE amount. (Speedhacked loading screens are no longer faster than normal speed ones, which I guess is a good thing from a certain perspective)

  • The world is better, more diverse and more fun to explore than in Sunless Sea. There are some disconnects between narrative and game design though. Albion is the center of a celestial British empire but it’s just a couple of tiny ports strewn about on a really huge empty map (again helped by the speedhack option). The Reach (the region you start in) is much better designed for spatial and narrative background.

  • The roguelike, death and linage system is still stupid and superfluous. Basically no gaming benefit, just a sink for your accumulated stuff to enable more grind. Storylets still do NOT get more interesting the third or forth time you do the exact same one (of course!). Yet the developers build a notable part of their game around just that.

  • Ambitions are puny, disappointing and silly still. Fame and wealth are 100% grinding based and boring. Truth and the 4th ingame-quest ambition are more story focused but don’t really manage to rise above the standard gameplay in any way and -also- include a lot of grinding.

  • The testicular cancer and Superman issue is still there. The world is extremely static, decisions have at best internal but almost no practical consequences. Nothing changes or develops. You are there to experience and soak in the present world and past storylets, not to create them.

Overall Sunless Skies still has many, many weaknesses as a game. But it is much better than Sunless Sea in practically every aspect. If Sea had any appeal on a person Skies is a far superior sequel.

Well, I prefer my games when the obtuseness is limited to inside the game wold, and not outside of it.

In other news, I modified my mod to increase the cargo space of all ships by 30. It was being a pain in the ass, as the game don’t have any warehouse kind of feature, and in between the fuel, the food and 5-6 rare items that I’m keeping to eventually use in quests, I didn’t have enough space to do trading, and gain enough money to buy a bigger ship.

First major update coming in early April, including a re-work of Albion.

Deets:

Should go to the other thread. 😉

Right. I forgot someone went back to play a 4-year-old game and then kept bumping this thread. :D

There’s a mod that adds a warehouse. Just FYI.

I just tried this for the first time and I’m not sure I ‘get it’ or if I do get it than it’s not for me.

Sometimes I get a reason to go explore to the NE or something and sometimes I’m just exploring to try and uncover something.

Sometimes when I encounter a port it may have some options that I can’t do because I don’t possess something. Later on is there any way to see what options were available in ports I visited and what was needed, or am I expected to remember / take notes.

Most of the time the options to pick are just a matter of ‘what sounds like it might be cool’ right? Sometimes there is some info like a success chance - but for many things I don’t really know if something will be beneficial or harmful?

Is the main point of the game just to uncover stories I think are cool (and reach my end goal)?

If the above things are true, than the game isn’t for me. Or am I missing / not understanding something?

Thanks

Sort of. It’s also a bit of a survival horror game combined with an exploration game. You see how far you can push from the starting port and what you can uncover. How much you can build up and what you’re willing to risk to explore further out into the sea.

I think it’s probably not for you. I wasn’t for me, either - not enough of a “game” underneath all that great atmosphere and world building.

Yep, not for me neither. If you have a lot of games on your plate, you might want to play something more enjoyable. Developers don’t really respect your time in that game which can be really frustrating.

Or maybe not.

The game is about exploring and discovering the world (and also upgrading your boat or buying new ones, etc.). The exploration is the core of the game, really. And as such, in a big game world, that exploration does take time because that is the nature of that gameplay loop.

Some people do not like that. Some people do. The good thing is: you’ll know pretty quickly if it isn’t for you, which it sounds like it might be the case! It isn’t, however, disrespecting a gamer’s time. That’s just a too-easy trope.

(For the record, my biggest complaint with Sunless Seas is that it constricts your exploration too much – especially early on – with the rate of fuel use and that fuel expense. Games that want me to explore their worlds but make it difficult for me to do so are pet peeve of mine. Thankfully, Sunless Skies fixes that issue and gives you even larger and more interesting worlds to explore.)

I decided to play a bit more today because my brain doesn’t want to think about what to play next. Inertia caused me to fire it up this morning. There are two main reasons I will probably stop for good soon.

There doesn’t seem to be a story with characters to get to know and progress through the story with. It feels like some people were tasked with writing atmospheric snippets.

There doesn’t seem to be a way that the game tracks information to help the player decide where to revisit. For example:

I’m not going to remember that there is a location on Frostfound that I can enter if my terror is <= 20. Just like I’m not going to remember that I need some enigma or 7 floofles for some other choice on some other location. If the journal kept track for me I think I’d be more likely to play for longer because then I might be able to plan my travels better. I could keep track manually, but I’m too lazy.

I guess the game also just feels arbitrary to me too.

I sunk quite a few hours into Sunless Sea, but ultimately Sunless Skies turned out to be far more of what I wanted from the game.

What’s the main improvements?

Less punishing, less grindy, more world, more (superb!) writing, more upgrades, better economy, more and better quests, etc., etc., etc…

Honestly, I think it’s better in pretty much every single respect?