I’ve barely started this but is it really so different from Sea in that respect? I can’t imagine going more than 10 minutes between ports in Sea.
I’ve sometimes gone longer, but not that much longer, and that’s even on cross-world trade runs. And when I am on a long run between ports, I get super careful about making (or not making, more like it) attacks on marauders.
Regardless of it’s it is like the first game or not (a game Steam shows I only have an hour in), it’s maddening to me.
I fired it up again this morning after taking a day off from it and was able to have a lot of fun again, made some more progress, finished a trade run, and upgraded my ship and picked up a few more stories and crew as well as quests, and hit level 5. So, I’m back in!
I’m just trying to work out how you’re going so long between ports.
Some little things that make Skies more forgiving and approachable than Seas:
-
Fuel consumption is MUCH more forgiving in Skies. You can scoot around within a region pretty well on 2-3 barrels of fuel. And fuel costs are such that after about the first hour of play, the actual “cost” of fuel is the space in your hold (fuel barrels aren’t cargo!), and not the monetary cost.
-
Fear levels for crew and captain are much more manageable here, I think. Which makes it completely more viable to fly around without a headlamp on when you’re in Marauder territory, and not having a headlamp on makes Marauder fights in the first zone (The Reach) a lot more forgiving.
Some of the routes are crazy long on my map, and that’s going through known territory. Going from Port Prosper back to Winchester is half the map, and going to any other port I have discovered (from that port) is even longer.
There is every reason to believe in the dark of the fog of war there are new ports, but if I’m wrong or I pick the wrong direction and don’t find one, that’s even worse when I die. I think I need to think of it more like a Dark Souls, where I have a save state, and then just go out and explore knowing I’ll probably die, but when I reload I’ll know what’s out there (give or take) and I’ll be a bit better ready. But that’s kind of a bummer way to do things as well.
On the other hand I ugpraded my ship with a second, much more powerful cannon and +10 hull points this morning. So maybe I’m getting a toe hold.
First big post release patch is all about bug fixes. And also one huge interface goof that I couldn’t believe was in the final game has now been fixed (see “Updates”):
Bug Fixes
Summary
-
Players no longer need a permit to travel from the Blue Kingdom back to the Reach – anyone dying and passing on a legacy in the Blue Kingdom will now be able to return.
-
All players will now be able to travel to the Reach.
-
We’ve fixed another Winchester War bug involving an invisible branch storylet. We think it was the last one, but if you do see one of these, please send your save file to [email protected]. The issue is weird but harmless; if you do see it, just click that invisible branch and all will be well.
-
The oath of silence option for the Thief-Oath past now increases Mirrors by three, as intended, instead of setting it to three. (If your character has been affected by this, please send your save file to [email protected]; we’ll repair it and get it back to you as soon as we can.)
-
Players stuck in the Song of the Sky after playing the backer build should now be free of it.
-
You can now move down officer interface and select officers using gamepads even when when you have no officers of a particular type.
-
The screen will no longer shake after closing a facet selected from the second screen while using a gamepad.
-
The highlight in the Hold now selects items correctly when there are more that two rows of items and the player is using a gamepad.
-
Using a controller to cycle quickly through interface panels will no longer cause the wrong footer buttons to be displayed on the officer and hold panels.
-
The area list will no longer remain open when selecting story areas using a gamepad.
-
Gamepad users can now select port tooltips on the chart in order to see details about exports and fuel/supplies.
-
Abandoned Structures in Albion now give out Condemned Experiments correctly.
-
Bazaar selling visibility now works correctly on 4k monitors.
-
The Undeparted now depart on death, instead of clinging tenuously to existence.
-
We’ve temporarily removed absurdly overpowered Guests wearing the shells of Dreadnoughts. (They slipped in by accident; we’ll restore them in a future update when they’re finished.)
-
Two branches of The Truth ambition no longer have mismatched requirements.
-
Fixed mismatched text and requirements at Sweet Jane’s Counting House.
-
Removed duplication of branches on the Island of Unflowers.
-
Fixed a repeatable experience grind on the Reunited with an Old Friend Storylet.
-
We have fixed a text bug in the Mausoleum where you’d see plain Deathless due to level description values being incorrect.
-
We fixed an issue where if you played the final branches of one route through The Truth in a particular order, you’d be locked out of completing it.
-
You can no longer repeatedly drop off a Settler once they’ve died and you’ve decided to return them to Port Prosper – you have to just take them back to Port Prosper.
-
You now lose a Vision of the Heavens when using one to distract the caretaker during the Navigator’s quest, as intended.
-
You can now pick up Crew at Sky Barnet every 15 in-game days.
-
The Sovereign requirement for funding Titania can no longer be negative.
-
When searching for a Magician for the Navigator, you can no longer search over and over until you achieve success.
-
When Facing Judgement, Captains with a very specific combination of soul flaws, terror and inspiration will no longer get stuck.
-
You can now receive Mr Menagerie’s Seal after hearing his final story, without needing to have heard all the others .
-
You can now repair your hull after killing a Scorn Fluke.
-
If you are pursuing the Truth, you can no longer lock yourself out of becoming close to the Calendar Council.
-
The Amberley Murgatroyd story can now be continued even if he was banished before finding Clay Men for the Clay Conductor on Achlys.
-
Sundry typos have been fixed.
Updates
- You can now reopen a port’s storylet without having to undock and redock.
So I let my captain die to see what happens. I’m playing on Merciful. I got the same kind of legacy you’d get if playing Legacy mode: kept my ship (minus a random part), half of my sovereigns, half of my experience, my map, and a few of my quests. (Notably the Tacketty/Windpipe situation was unchanged–we’ve recently chased the Windpipes out of New Winchester.)
I would recommend NOT doing this until you’ve achieved an ambition. It doesn’t take that long to get back to where you left off, but it’s time spent treading the same paths.
So is everyone here not blowing up targets of opportunity when you come across them?
Not sure what you mean, but I only attack Marauders and Cantankeri as a matter of course (and even then, it’s subjective, based on the condition of my locomotive and whether I can get the drop on them.)
Until you’ve made some significant upgrades to your ship, or swapped out The Orphean entirely (and then upgraded), Tackety and Stovepipe ships will have more armor, handle a bit better, and outgun you. No thanks. We give one another a wide berth.
I think eventually you have to go for them. I don’t know another way to get papers in order to travel through the gates to other realms or whatever they’re called.
Depends on the opportunity. Fish things, yes. Marauders, absolutely. Bees, sure. Specter things I avoid since I always come out beat up when I tangle with them. I still haven’t taken sides. I’ve only just upgraded my gun and added armor.
When leveling up what stats do you go for? Try to make the ones you already have stronger for better odds? Boost the ones that are low?
Yea I wasn’t sure about which side I should attack. I’m pretty comfortable with being undergunned so I don’t mind taking on either class of the two sides.
Still confused on some things:
- I see the bank tab at most ports but can’t access it when buying/selling?
- Why can’t I buy fuel at most ports? I mean, I barely make it to port and now I can’t buy anything but supplies?
- Picked up some loot and can’t seem to sell it anywhere.
Most ports don’t buy things other than the one thing they need. But you can sell anything on New Winchester. The game actually tells you that in one of the first tutorial messages, IIRC.
- The bank is only available at the main port in each area, i.e. New Winchester in the Reach. I’m not sure why there’s even a tab everywhere else.
- You can buy fuel at most ports. There are only a few that don’t sell it: e.g. the circus in my game, though it might vary (EDIT: nope, I checked. It’s always the same. In The Reach, every port has fuel except the circus, Carrilon, and Hybras.)
- Yeah, as rhamorim said, you can sell anything at Victoria Market in New Winchester. But you’ll only get a good deal on goods if you buy them at a bargain. Each port also has one good they always sell at a decent price, and you can see what it is by clicking on the port icon on the map.
It wasn’t working for me pre-patch, but now clicking on a port on the map shows you if it sells just supplies or fuel and supplies.
So, I’ve upgraded my ship to one of the 3500 sovereign ones with a big cargo hold and more expansion slots, and am making good progress on the stories in several of the ports in the Reach. (I really like how each port works a little bit differently.) I’ve worked through several tiers of my ambition (Fame) and I think I know how to get to Albion, which is my next stop. I’m really liking the game; it feels like the pace has been refined much more than Sunless Sea, so that you can pretty much continuously make progress and feel like you have something to do.
Have you taken sides yet?
Yeah, I’m actually a hero of the revolution (Tacketies), which helped with my ambition.