Sunless Sea

[Dowly]

It was finally released yesterday, so it's thread time!



Wot I Think: Sunless Sea

The Bestest Best Words Of 2014: Sunless Sea

It's quite good and there will be an expansion which adds Zubmarines!

EDIT:

[Dowly]

Hooray! The OST was released a couple of days ago finally!

Have a listen, it's quite good.
https://failbettergames.bandcamp.com...unless-sea-ost

http://www.failbettergames.com/sunle...al-soundtrack/

I tried it a while ago, it has its own charm and is one of a kind, but can really mess with your head sometimes.
Not for the feint of heart.

[Dowly]

It's definitely a unique game. I just love the atmosphere they build up with so little. I've seen the log book flavor texts hundreds of times, but I still love them!

"On the horizon, a sickly yellow light glimmers for a moment, then fades."
"Far off, very far off, someone screams..."
"Where is everyone? Where did they go? ...they're here. They're here. You're not alone."
"Home. Warmly lit windows, company, peace. Thoughts of home come at the strangest times."

Just makes you feel so alone out there.


BTW, here's a great guide to some of the lore for those who never played Fallen London:
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfile.../?id=397380502

[Dowly]

Sunless Sea: Zubmariner Release Date And Unterzee Art

Sunless Sea‘s first expansion, Zubmariner will be released on 11 October bringing with it new ports and cities to explore and tales to be told. Or as developers, Failbetter, put it: “agonising choices presented in beautiful prose.” But it wasn’t the beautiful prose which caught my eye in recent dev blog entries, it was the undersea (or rather, Unterzee) flora and corals. That’s why I’ve been asking Failbetter CEO and art director, Paul Arendt to tell me a little more about how the art works in the game.

[Dowly]

Sunless Skies Takes Sunless Sea To The Stars In 2017

Failbetter’s Fallen London setting – Sunless Sea being the second
game to star in it – is a sort of greatest hits of Victorian sci-fi, steampunk
and Cthulhu mythos, all held together by sufficient, beautifully-written
string so that it absolutely feels like its own malevolent yet amiable thing.
Thus far, its focus has been on a creepy city and a creepier underground
ocean, but now it intends to look to the skies above.

[Dowly]

Absolutely nothing of consequence was released yesterday. Really, don't worry about it.

.

[NeonSamurai]

zub zub

[Dowly]

So, I've sailed the unter-Unterzee for maybe six or so hours now. Here's some thoughts on the Zubmariner DLC.


What does Zubmariner add?

Well, first and foremost it adds a short quest that allows you to fit your boat with technology that can transform it into a zubmarine.
(This is strictly against the Treaty of Nothing of Consequence signed by the factions of the Neath. There is nothing under the Zee, don't believe the rumours.)

Having a zubmarine is no good without a playground for it, so the map is effectively doubled by adding a second layer to it. This is the unter-Unterzee. You can dive virtually anywhere with a press of a button.

Under the Zee, you will find new creatures and enemies, loot, something called the "Unclear Bomb" (whatever that is) and of course, new locations to visit.

Ten-ish new underwater settlements can be visited with new stories to be found in every one of them. The writing is as usual, excellent.
(How much are you ready to sacrifice of yourself to gain access to the inner chambers of Anthe? Do I really need my liver? Spleen?)

Gameplay remains mostly unchanged. The boat and its equipment acts the same under the Zee as it does on the surface. Oxygen meter is added to the zubmarine bits that slowly ticks down and the zee-bat is replaced by a zonar which pulses every ~15 seconds and reveals if something is beyond your visibility (it is awfully dark down there).

So, the pros:
+ More delicious words from FailBetterGames. Enough reason to get it, if you liked Sunless Sea. The stories are after all the whole point of the game.
+ "Double" the map.
+ Early game is easier. Many of the underwater locations sell fuel and supplies at very decent price, allowing one to explore the map further in early game.
+ The Constant Companion. I have only heard its name and that it is the most horrifying thing in the game. It can also ruin your zee-captain's career very fast. I can't wait to meet it!!

Cons:
- No new equipment. Airtank and Zonar upgrades would be nice.
- No new music. I was really hoping to hear new music.
- Early game is easier. I've been playing Sunless Sea since it hit EA and back then, the game truly was hard. Especially terror management was much more difficult. Having more ports where you can resupply and thus take all the precautions to not get your terror too high, imho, takes away part of the "gameplay terror".
- No separate chart for the Zubmarine bits. It is impossible to know which parts of the unter-Unterzee you have visited unless you memorize it.

That's about all I have to say about it. It is a solid DLC and I am enjoying it very much.

DISCLAIMER: It is impossible for me to not be biased, having 70 hours on the base game and still loving it to bits. Also as EA backer I got the DLC for free.

[Dowly]

Sunless Skies kickstarter is live. £15k in 12 minutes, not bad at all.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects...to-sunless-sea

[Aktungbby]

WOW an update of an old favorite: ASTEROIDS https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asteroids_(video_game) When not playing Sea Wolf or Pac- MAN this was IT!

[Takeda Shingen]

Zubmariner is on the short list of things to pick up. I thoroughly enjoy Sunless Sea and have thrown my money behind Sunless Skies.

[Dowly]

Originally Posted by Takeda Shingen

[..]and have thrown my money behind Sunless Skies.

Oh yes. I was there watching their livestream, waiting for them to press the button to start the KS.

I really hope they find a way to make the combat more interesting and less easy to cheese, though.

[Dowly]

Yesterday's livestream, where they answered bunch of questions about the differences Skies will have compared to Sea:
https://www.twitch.tv/videos/121073110

Q&A starts at about 09:50

[Dowly]

Final hours of the Sunless Skies kickstarter, nearly 370% funded at the time of writing, all monetary stretch goals met, bunch of social goals met, all around a great success.

Starting at 1600 GMT, they'll do a 3 hour livestream @ https://www.twitch.tv/failbettergames

Plenty of snippets have been released on twitter about stuff in Skies.

New trade goods for Sunless Skies: Bronzewood. A Caddy of Dried Tea. A sack of Verdant Seeds. A Roll of Thirsty Bombazine.

Scouts require a little treat on returning to your locomotive, and will consume Supplies. No supplies, no scouting!

If your Scout discovers something nearby, it will be updated on your chart. Could be a port, a discovery, or a spectacle.

A new quality in Sunless Skies: A Royal Dispensation. Her Enduring Majesty's family is generous. They know when to promise, and when to pay.

A new quality in Sunless Skies: A Condemned Experiment. The process was unconscionable, of course. But results are results.

A new quality in Sunless Skies: Cask of Navaratine Gemstones. They say these are the ever-cooling sparks that fall from the Forge of Souls.

A new quality in Sunless Skies: An Unlicensed Chart. There are courses through the cosmos which the Ministry would prefer remain untraveled.

A new quality in Sunless Skies: A Crimson Promise. What is a life worth? This.

A new port: Traitor's Wood. An hallucinatory labyrinth. It is said a Great Regent sleeps within, until they wake to lead their people again.

A new port: Lustrum. A burgeoning, ramshackle, frontier town, where frantic prospectors hope to strike a rich vein of unsullied years.

A new port: Carillon. A place of penance, staffed by devils interested in the opportunities it provides for the cultivation of souls.

Light can be bad for you in the skies. Brigs are comfortable, allowing victims of space madness to be interred until the inclination passes.

Locomotives are not immune to the elements. A hull breach will cause warmth to leak fast, so emergency patching is a key engineer's skill.

How do skyfarers cope with cold? The galley stove is left to simmer, mealtimes are communal. Engine-heated water runs through pipework.

In some Sunless Skies regions, high-quality supplies will be scarce. Those Sprouting Biscuits look alright to you now...

In Sunless Skies, some supplies will keep your crew fed for longer. Imperial Rations are better than Sprouting Biscuits!

Those who don't know, a quality is what the devs call an item, or a card. In Fallen London, Sunless Sea and Sunless Skies, the items can be pretty much anything. From a barrel of fuel to a secret. Read a news paper and get 1xRecent news? That's an item you can exchange to something, somewhere. Have a secret? You can use it or exchange/pay something for it.


The Prince-Consort's Mausoleum. (concept art)


Dreadnought. (concept art)