Calling it a space game is a bit of a stretch, (steam engines as spaceships, bottled time, etc) but after a couple of hours of playing, I think it definitely has a nice atmosphere.
More interestingly it handles out-of-ship experience as a text adventure. You can even converse with your officers and passengers.
And ports can have several places to go about and find interesting things, missions and lore.
There's no actual mission board even. But you can go to clubs, parades and such, mingle with the locals, read newspapers and whatnot.
I also like the notion of supplies, which mostly would be relevant to us in the exploration context I guess.
Here's a gamplay from Obsidian Ant
Sunless skies
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FluffyFreak
- Posts: 1343
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Re: Sunless skies
I've actually bought this, it's got some great ideas in it, the difficulty is pretty high though.
Cannot find my way around and you can miss things that you're almost on top of!
That video linked shows the intro exploration of a ship but none of the subsequent encounters I've had with derelicts (for example) have been that in depth, it almost seems like that one for the introduction/tutorial was specially crafted so it seems a bit misleading.
The arts really cool, but I am struggling with it a little so far. I've died once already just trying to deliver a passenger because even though I was close to our destination I ran out of food and had to eat almost half the crew to survive! Finally was destroyed by a random marauder...
Cannot find my way around and you can miss things that you're almost on top of!
That video linked shows the intro exploration of a ship but none of the subsequent encounters I've had with derelicts (for example) have been that in depth, it almost seems like that one for the introduction/tutorial was specially crafted so it seems a bit misleading.
The arts really cool, but I am struggling with it a little so far. I've died once already just trying to deliver a passenger because even though I was close to our destination I ran out of food and had to eat almost half the crew to survive! Finally was destroyed by a random marauder...
Re: Sunless skies
I'm into my fourth or so captain so far.
In my latest run, I finally completed some trade opportunities, so I had a bit of money, which I spent on a mining claim at some port because I was'n paying attention. That took most of my money, I was unable to afford supplies or fuel. So I sent my crew to work that mine, to maybe gain back some money. But that meant that I had to operate on skeleton crew, taking a toll on the health of the locomotive, and the mental health of the captain, who was starting to get paranoid.
A couple of accidents after, I was down to a few crew, and starvation also kicked in. Which resulted in two more people dying, right during a battle agains a marauder at the gates of a supply cache. But at least I was able to get an emergeny suply crate and limp to the next port, which was some kind of hell-sanatorium. I tried to do some quests there in hope to get some money, without much success. But my terror meter almost filled up, crew were getting twitchy. So on the last stretch of fuel and supplies I limped back to the central port, less than half the health. I turned in some zeitgeist reports for some money, and sold a few things, recruited some crew, since I was down to to people. Finally I wasn't on the edge of dying after thinking about giving up at a few points, but limped forward nevertheless.
Then I set out back to the mining town to get back the rest of my crew, and to replenish that emergency supply cache I took from (that debt makes the crew nervous). I was able to do that, but on the way I encountered a locomotive that was taken over by some kind of tentacled monster, that got the better of me.
I'm kinda liking the game so far. Admittedly, I lowered the difficulty, because life is too short for unenjoyable games, but it's still a nice challenge.
In my latest run, I finally completed some trade opportunities, so I had a bit of money, which I spent on a mining claim at some port because I was'n paying attention. That took most of my money, I was unable to afford supplies or fuel. So I sent my crew to work that mine, to maybe gain back some money. But that meant that I had to operate on skeleton crew, taking a toll on the health of the locomotive, and the mental health of the captain, who was starting to get paranoid.
A couple of accidents after, I was down to a few crew, and starvation also kicked in. Which resulted in two more people dying, right during a battle agains a marauder at the gates of a supply cache. But at least I was able to get an emergeny suply crate and limp to the next port, which was some kind of hell-sanatorium. I tried to do some quests there in hope to get some money, without much success. But my terror meter almost filled up, crew were getting twitchy. So on the last stretch of fuel and supplies I limped back to the central port, less than half the health. I turned in some zeitgeist reports for some money, and sold a few things, recruited some crew, since I was down to to people. Finally I wasn't on the edge of dying after thinking about giving up at a few points, but limped forward nevertheless.
Then I set out back to the mining town to get back the rest of my crew, and to replenish that emergency supply cache I took from (that debt makes the crew nervous). I was able to do that, but on the way I encountered a locomotive that was taken over by some kind of tentacled monster, that got the better of me.
I'm kinda liking the game so far. Admittedly, I lowered the difficulty, because life is too short for unenjoyable games, but it's still a nice challenge.
Re: Sunless skies
1. What are "zeitgeist reports"? Just auto-generated when you enter a system? "state of system X at time YY:mm:dd"
2. After/(if) we have a walk on ship/base system where you can assassinate/kidnap/disable people/crew/passengers, it might be neat to have a "hunger" mechanism, where in extreme cases you could eat the crew. So both ship and crew needs "fuel". Does it work well in this game?
2. After/(if) we have a walk on ship/base system where you can assassinate/kidnap/disable people/crew/passengers, it might be neat to have a "hunger" mechanism, where in extreme cases you could eat the crew. So both ship and crew needs "fuel". Does it work well in this game?
Re: Sunless skies
Zeitgeist, as in collecting stories, rumors and such. A singular menu entry in any port, "Write report"… then some flavor text. It's binary, like a cargo item. The more you have, the more money it fetches, and can tip the balance between factions, depending who you sell it to.
Ships consume fuel and supplies. If you run out of supplies, the crew starts to starve, which generates text adventure events, like you can choose to canibalize the of a starved crew member body or not.
Some actions also cost supplies, and events can rob you some too. Usually there is a die roll for these against your stats.
Ships consume fuel and supplies. If you run out of supplies, the crew starts to starve, which generates text adventure events, like you can choose to canibalize the of a starved crew member body or not.
Some actions also cost supplies, and events can rob you some too. Usually there is a die roll for these against your stats.
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FluffyFreak
- Posts: 1343
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Re: Sunless skies
Yeah I think that I'l lower the difficulty too!
I was thinking that tha actual gameplay (not the graphics) could have been done back on the Amiga. A DeMake of it could be great fun :D
I was thinking that tha actual gameplay (not the graphics) could have been done back on the Amiga. A DeMake of it could be great fun :D
Re: Sunless skies
Kind of like Portal for C64, you mean? (good music!)A DeMake of it could be great fun :D