Sunless Sea

Tinkershuffle · July 09, 2014, 09:44:42 AM

Sunless Sea, a steampunk ship captain RPG set in victorian/lovecraftian universe, how cool does that sound? Anyone played this yet?

http://store.steampowered.com/app/304650/

Tpek · July 09, 2014, 10:03:32 AM

I did.
It's kinda nice, though a bit hard to learn.
Especially how to properly start and get going.

If you do I suggest you do start by doing this daily:
Read the news at the lodgings to get a "News" item.
Pick up 3 Tomb Colonists.
Go to Hunter's Keep, Reconnoiter the area, and then use the News item to talk with one of the 3 women (try a different one each time).
Then go north to the Tomb Colony, gather gossip there and unload the colonists.
Head back to London, file your reports to the Admiralty.
Rinse and repeat until you've grasped the game enough.

In the meanwhile try to combat bats, they're really easy and very rarely bother to damage you.
You should first use Signal to get at least 25 illumination on them and then spend time observing until you have at least 10 observation points.
Then, go back to using Signal until you've got 50+ illumination. After that, just use the basic shot on them until they're dead.
Once dead, study them (this will give you 5XP for your observation), and then you can either eat them (turn them into supplies, the more useful option),
or if you are high on terror just throw away the corpses to reduce the terror by 1.

Avoid letting other sea-monsters get close to you, they don't need illumination as much as to close the distance with you.
And once they do, they can do terrible damage.

Pirates on the other hand fight like you (though are often weaker). And killing them will give you some random loot (mostly supplies or fuel,
and sometimes some market item to sell).

bayonetbrant · July 09, 2014, 10:15:34 AM

We covered this in GARPA last year
http://grogheads.com/?p=2535

I played around with their browser-based RPG "Fallen London" (same universe as Sunless Sea). It story-based (virtually no combat), but I found it hard to hold my interest as there weren't a lot of 'signposts' to help new players get into the story.

tgb · July 09, 2014, 10:56:14 AM

I'm interested, but as far as I know they it only has one fixed map. When a random map generator is developed I'll probably bite.

Tinkershuffle · July 09, 2014, 10:57:37 AM

Well if it's Cthulhu game, ain't it supposed to be difficult, nerve-wracking and about losing your characters rather than surviving? :p

Nefaro · July 09, 2014, 10:58:49 AM

I watched a gameplay video the other night. It looked pretty dull, despite the interesting setting & mood.

DennisS · July 09, 2014, 12:37:08 PM

Quote from: Nefaro on July 09, 2014, 10:58:49 AM
I watched a gameplay video the other night. It looked pretty dull, despite the interesting setting & mood.

I watched about three hours of gameplay the other day. By the end of the videos, I believe that I had seen approximately 100% of the gameplay. If that's all there is, I'll pass.

Not that the game isn't fun..there just isn't much to do. Sail to point A, talk to someone, sail back to London, gain exp and money. Rinse repeat.

The entire time, you are getting closer to going mad, or eating your crew. Not the kind of gameplay suspense I am looking for. Combat is simplistic, no help there.

bayonetbrant · July 09, 2014, 12:56:33 PM

Quote from: Tinkershuffle on July 09, 2014, 10:57:37 AM
Well if it's Cthulhu game, ain't it supposed to be difficult, nerve-wracking and about losing your characters rather than surviving? :p

Are they Cthulhu-based? I never got that sense from Fallen London or the KS campaign for Sunless Sea

Tinkershuffle · July 09, 2014, 01:33:43 PM

Hmm, I'm not sure if it's officially "Cthulhu" but Victorian London with sea monsters and people going mad sounds like Cthulhu to me. :)

bayonetbrant · July 09, 2014, 01:41:56 PM

Quote from: Tinkershuffle on July 09, 2014, 01:33:43 PM
Hmm, I'm not sure if it's officially "Cthulhu" but Victorian London with sea monsters and people going mad sounds like Cthulhu to me. :)

OK, that's probably a fair assessment :)

Nefaro · July 09, 2014, 05:47:12 PM

Just not quite as good?

I mean... Big Crabs. And Bigger Crabs?

My assessment was similar to Dennis'. Lots of dull Rinse-Repeat. Whilst being chased by crab monsters on the sea.

At first I was interested with the dark (Semi-horror?) Victorian setting, and the text adventures mixed in. Had the hopes that it might be something similar to King of Dragon Pass in a new setting, but not so.

panzerde · July 09, 2014, 06:24:33 PM

I played with it a few hours this past weekend. It was fun, but I died a lot.

There are supposed to be more stories coming, and a much extended map. It feels more like an interactive story than a game. I actually found it kind of relaxing to play.

BanzaiCat · October 14, 2014, 01:40:45 PM

I went ahead and gave it a shot - it was a bit discounted on Steam (twelve bucks and change). I liked the first two Let's Play vids by Splattercat, and this was on my wishlist. Won't have a chance to play until later tonight though.

Steelgrave · October 14, 2014, 03:16:43 PM

Please forgive me the slight thread derailment, but I'm trying to remember the name of the upcoming steampunk/Cthulhu/colonization game that is greenlighted on Steam. I wanted to keep track of it, but that's difficult when one forgets the name.....

Tpek · October 14, 2014, 03:34:03 PM

Clockwork Empires
http://store.steampowered.com/app/224740/