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[Urist McScoopbeard]

Sunless Sea's strength is it's world. The stories are solid--but not great (in my opinion.) There are actually not THAT many stories where things really "happen". Also, I get the sense that what's actually on the map in SS is literally the most boring part of the unterzee. All the most interesting locations are places we dont get to go to. All the most interesting things have already happened.

[lordcooper]

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.

Just in case you aren't aware, turning off your lamp lowers detection range quite significantly (as does increasing your veils).  You can also press F to get a significant temporary speed boost, although this does burn through fuel at a massive rate and risks damage to your hull from explosion. 

London isn't the only place you can obtain crew either, Khan's Heart and the Fathomking's Hold have unlimited available (although it ain't cheap), and several places like Demaux Island allow you to pick it one in SAY events. 

You might also find you make more cash from exploration and stories than trading, particularly as you get further east.

[Teneb]

You might also find you make more cash from exploration and stories than trading, particularly as you get further east.

An easy cash source early on is the Salt Lions. You find those, you are set for the early game.

[lordcooper]

You might also find you make more cash from exploration and stories than trading, particularly as you get further east.

An easy cash source early on is the Salt Lions. You find those, you are set for the early game.

It's a nice little early infusion of echoes for sure.  That and the blind bruiser's questline should serve to get most people over the initial hump for sure.

[nenjin]

Eh, for me once you know what storylines yield captivating treasures, the game is downhill from there.

[forsaken1111]

Unfortunately I haven't found any of those places yet. I'm playing more or less blind, no prior knowledge or reading so I'm taking it as I find it.

[nenjin]

The stuff the Curator in Venderblight asks of you is probably the easiest and quickest route to captivating treasures. I usually manage to find one of the pieces within the first half dozen hours.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

If you're willing to exploit furry creatures, Pigmote Island (depending on where it spawns...) can get you a part of the Neathbow within the first hour or two.

[forsaken1111]

I don't know what that is either, but I will keep my eyes peeled

[lordcooper]

Their latest podcast thingy was pretty informative and addressed many of the common issues people had with Sunless Sea (pacing, lengthy journeys, mediocre combat, overly punishing deaths, earlygame resource struggles etc).

There a text based summary of a lot of it in the latest Kickstarter update.

[Neonivek]

My big issue with Sunless Sea beyond all that... was that the game was very opaque.

"Ohh, I got... Salty bandages... Uhhh... What is this?"

The sheer number of things you get in the game that amount to "Go around until you find the square peg" is immense.

As well the way it told its story made me question if I was actually doing anything... even as I advanced the story.

[Hanzoku]

I haven't played the game, but I did read an excellent Let's Play of it, and I have to say that even trying to research the lore, for my liking they leave things too opaque. It's fine to hint at things, but if you never reveal anything fully, that all you have is an unsatisfying collection of hints about the importance of things. There's always the feeling (for me at least) that there's some amazing lore there... if they could just be bothered to share it.

[Urist McScoopbeard]

I still maintain that they do a poor job of world building in the fact that all the most interesting places are places you can't visit and have very few storylines related to them. All the places where you can sail off the map are the places I want to go.

[Harry Baldman]

I still maintain that they do a poor job of world building in the fact that all the most interesting places are places you can't visit and have very few storylines related to them. All the places where you can sail off the map are the places I want to go.

Going East is an actual ambition you can have, going North through the Avid Horizon is a possibility in one of the storylines (plus the Chapel of Lights, which relates to the North in a different way), another ambition relates to going South, or at least piecing together the way somebody else did it before you. The only place you can't seem to go at all is West, but that's because the Dawn Machine is operating out there (I suppose going to the surface might be an equivalent). Going into the really strange and fascinating places is consciously made part of the endgame.

I do agree that their lore is pretty inaccessible, particularly if you haven't played Fallen London. For instance, the fallen cities were a thing that seems like a basic thing I should know, but that I've only really grasped with the newer stories in Sunless Sea (like Babylon being the First City and so forth). They nail the moment-to-moment feel of it though, which is why I enjoy the game as much as I do.

[Urist McScoopbeard]

I also have only played  before you could do a bunch of that stuff. So there's that. But... the game frustrates me in that it feels like they keep giving you this fascinating loglines for stories, but never allow you to explore them. I know this is a gam about the unterzee... but maybe there is a better format to explore the fallen london universe? I feel like there's a lot that just can't be communicated here.

[Neonivek]

I do find it funny that Sunless Sea... takes place in Ryleh

Like outright...

Yet the game REALLY REALLY tries not to bring attention to it