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[nenjin]

Sunless Seas' gameplay bored me to tears, which was a shame because I really enjoyed the setting.

Unless they massively overhaul the gameplay, I think it'll just be immediately tedious.

From the looks of it, it's SS's combat refined.

One of the big issues with SS was the structure of your trip. You always set out from FL and always returned to FL, which means your trip was usually plotting how to make the most cash with your port stops and stories. In Sunless Skies, you start from a hub rather than from a corner of the map. So possibly it's higher on exploration and lower on repetitive tedium.

[Retropunch]

From the looks of it, it's SS's combat refined.

One of the big issues with SS was the structure of your trip. You always set out from FL and always returned to FL, which means your trip was usually plotting how to make the most cash with your port stops and stories. In Sunless Skies, you start from a hub rather than from a corner of the map. So possibly it's higher on exploration and lower on repetitive tedium.

I'm not convinced by the gif I saw - it still just looks like a very basic strafe and shoot arcade-y thing. I honestly thought the old system, if it was heavily overhauled to make it actually tactically challenging, would be much preferable to basic arcadey-ness.

[lordcooper]

So, this has to be the fastest funding I've seen so far.  100% in pretty much exactly 4 hours.

RE combat, I'm not expecting great things here.  It's neither the studio's strength or the point/focus of the game.  If it's good then all the better, but I care so little that I'd be fine with there being none in the game.  Above all else I want fantastic prose, unique locations, an interesting expansion of existing lore, and a pretty backdrop.  It'll be amazing if I don't get those things.

It's just....I'm willing to buy steam power, moving ships in an underground ocean. Steam getting you to space, supporting space stations? Pretty much destroys my suspension of disbelief. Then again, Steampunk has never really resonated with me. It was in the background enough of FL and SS I didn't think much of it. But this pretty much cuts right to the core of a believable world for me. FB leans heavily on whimsy to make their worlds work but there's a limit for me.

Two things that might help here.

1. It's not set in space as we'd understand space.  There is air here.  The laws of physics are different.

2. I think you have the mental image of a steam powered rocket taking off from Earth.  I'm 99% certain the way they got to the High Wilderness involves nothing of the sort.  Spending some time around the Merchant Venturer and The Avid Horizon in Sunless Sea should give you a pretty decent idea of what's going on here.

Spoiler: The Avid Horizon spoilers (click to show/hide)

It's essentially a gate to the High Wilderness, although it functions very differently to a normal gate.  Ever wondered why gazing at the stars there increases terror?  You're seeing the distant Judgements rather than merely a reflection of the false stars on the roof.  You can pass through in both Sunless Sea and Fallen London, although I'm loath to explain how.

[forsaken1111]

Did anyone else enjoy the old turn-based observation/approach/fire combat more than the circle strafe arcade combat?

[nenjin]

Did anyone else enjoy the old turn-based observation/approach/fire combat more than the circle strafe arcade combat?

If only because it allowed for a slightly more relaxed game. But there were serious flaws with the "card game." It might have been better with time but I'm not really sure.

Re: LC. I've done all those storylines. And it's a testament to FB's writing that it's not all that clear. You can easily look at SS and think "space", based both on the writing and the imagery. As someone else said, FB's world can already get plenty weird but it's still grounded. Cut loose from anything familiar?  A little afraid it'll end up as almost complete nonsense and people with no names, just job descriptions.

[ChairmanPoo]

...sounds like more Sunless Sea. And to me Sunless Sea was not bad but it was not "whoah" either. I probably wont go for it unless it has a 40-50%+ discount.

[Neonivek]

Crud I forgot what it is called when we have an oxygenated space...

Aetherscape? Dang it I used to know.

[Retropunch]

Did anyone else enjoy the old turn-based observation/approach/fire combat more than the circle strafe arcade combat?

Much more - I sincerely wish they'd have built on that rather than go for arcade combat - it just comes across so cheap to me, and not with the feeling of the game at all.

[nenjin]

Did anyone else enjoy the old turn-based observation/approach/fire combat more than the circle strafe arcade combat?

Much more - I sincerely wish they'd have built on that rather than go for arcade combat - it just comes across so cheap to me, and not with the feeling of the game at all.

I'd argue with that. It was very jarring to go from sedately sailing to this box with icons and bars filling up. The card game or w/e you want to call it was easy to exploit and several stats just didn't seem to matter. Why evade the enemy when you can just go max irons and blow them out of the water? Fights were actually easier and more predictable, IMO, than in the action version. And the action version allowed you to do things like hide from ships or monsters and ambush them while also not taking you out of the core game loop, which I appreciate. Graphically it just looks better too.

That said the action version has its issues too (they never quite solved how to stop just reversing being one of the more common combat strats) but not nearly so many as the card game. I remember my first reaction being "What the hell is this" when I saw it because my brain expected action combat, not some abstraction of it.

And it's GOOD that FB tried to do action, because the other thing was comfortably in their wheel house and action combat exposed several underlying problems with game performance. It sort of forced them to step out of their comfort zone (consider they basically tried to port the back end of FL and Story Nexus into a C++ application before realizing it was causing a ton of problems, because that's how little they wanted to divert from FL.) Less of that would have happened if FB had just tried to make their card game work. That was sort of a constant gripe with me for FB and Alexi; SS was so much of what they'd already done before mechanically speaking that as a veteran FL player I was a little underwhelmed by the game side of it for a while (aesthetically and in terms of story though, it was good right from the outset but the goddamn resource model....Oi. Early EA where you couldn't make shit for money and Alexi point blank said real trading was off the table really cramped the game's style.) So I was heartened to see them actually try something new as web-game devs to full on video game devs....and this comes from someone who generally complains when devs I like go try something halfbaked because "we need to do something new."

[Retropunch]

Did anyone else enjoy the old turn-based observation/approach/fire combat more than the circle strafe arcade combat?

Much more - I sincerely wish they'd have built on that rather than go for arcade combat - it just comes across so cheap to me, and not with the feeling of the game at all.

I'd argue with that. It was very jarring to go from sedately sailing to this box with icons and bars filling up. The card game or w/e you want to call it was easy to exploit and several stats just didn't seem to matter. Why evade the enemy when you can just go max irons and blow them out of the water? Fights were actually easier and more predictable, IMO, than in the action version. And the action version allowed you to do things like hide from ships or monsters and ambush them while also not taking you out of the core game loop, which I appreciate. Graphically it just looks better too.

Oh don't get me wrong - the turn based system was hideously broken and not fit for purpose at all. It would have needed a total overhaul in terms of all the games mechanics (less but more meaningful combat, lots more weaponry/loot etc.) to make it work, but I just felt that the arcade route was the wrong way to go. Whilst it was jarring to just randomly bring up another box with lots of bars and whatever, it was equally jarring to the pace of the game to go from 'reading interesting stories with a good atmosphere' to 'lame arcade game'.

Tactical combat that I have to think about fits more with the tone of the rest of the game for me.

[nenjin]

I agree it's was a change of pace for the core gameplay. SS is very relaxed until suddenly a guy sails in from the short part of your monitor and you more or less can't do anything about getting attacked.

But the simulationist in me felt it was the right move, in addition the other reasons mentioned. Like, escaping a fight actually feels like an escape because you turn off your lights and zail for the nearest fog bank. Wouldn't have gotten moments like that across nearly so much with the mini-game.

[Puzzlemaker]

Honestly something like fallout 4's V.A.T.S. system, where you can slow down time to use special abilities and the like, with limited usage, would be perfect. 

[Cheeetar]

I only played Sunless Seas quite a while after release, but I really enjoyed it. The combat was easy and simplistic for the most part, but I didn't find that taking away from my enjoyment.

[xaritscin]

i've never played this saga but the idea of steampunk in space is enough for me, i've been thinking on that for my own stories so i wanna see how do they pull it out.

[forsaken1111]

Okay I have to admit, I went back to try Sunless Sea again. The gameplay is (slightly) improved from when I last played it but it's still dull. The stories are the main draw. I had some close calls, like when some kind of roboshark assaulted me and I lost all but one crewmember which means I have to slowly and painfully make my way back home at minimum speed. That was painful, and not good gameplay. You can punish a player for failure, but this didn't seem preventable. The shark was hanging out in an area I had previously traversed safely (I was doing little trade route runs to get a bit of cash because everything seems designed to keep you in abject poverty) and the shark was much much faster than me. Escape would have been impossible if it hadn't stupidly run into a light buoy of all things and gotten stuck, allowing me to turn off my lamp and sail away quietly with 3/75 hull.

That aside, I'm banging my doctor every once in a while and sailing around the sea quite happily.