Fallen London/Sunless Sea

[DuskEngine]

Welcome, Delicious Friend!

The Sea Does Not Forgive.

Spoiler: Explainer for the interested

Fallen London and Sunless Sea are games from Failbetter, set in a world where Victorian-era London has been dragged deep under the earth by a living marketplace known as the Echo Bazaar, into a vast lightless cavern known as the Neath where horrible and hilarious things happen.

Fallen London is a text-based browser game, and Sunless Sea is a top-down exploration/horror RPG. They are both fantastically written and I would recommend both of them.

What have you folks been up to in the Neath? I've been getting back into the University questline recently and polishing off the Exceptional Stories as they come. Add me or send me social requests (no fucking affluent photographers though)

 

[millais]

I think I fucked up my main save. I was pretty far along in the delivery mission quests on behalf of the shady pub owner in London when they wanted me to pick up a package at Khan's Heart. I was supposed to pay for the package on receipt and bring it back to London, but I had unwittingly already spent much of the 1000 currency the pub owner's agent gave me, mistaking it for the reward I was supposed to receive for completion of the preceding quest. So if I go back to London without the package, I'm screwed, but to earn enough money to pay for the package I have to go back to London because my main source of incoming is filing Admiralty reports. At the same time, I'm doing the delivery quests for that evil Santa Claus monster, and the island I'm supposed to deliver his package to just fell to Khan invasion, so I can't dock at the harbor, and I haven't discovered the alternate delivery location yet (an Isle of Cats that I suspect is somewhere in the southwestern quadrant of the map, since I've already uncovered most of the rest). That delivery quest is time sensitive, so is naturally my first priority now. So far the Santa Claus monster hasn't been paying me in cash for his delivery quests, so I suspect I will have to look for yet another way to get together the 1000 I need for the pub owner's quest.

 

[AnOminous]

I think I fucked up my main save. I was pretty far along in the delivery mission quests on behalf of the shady pub owner in London when they wanted me to pick up a package at Khan's Heart. I was supposed to pay for the package on receipt and bring it back to London, but I had unwittingly already spent much of the 1000 currency the pub owner's agent gave me, mistaking it for the reward I was supposed to receive for completion of the preceding quest. So if I go back to London without the package, I'm screwed, but to earn enough money to pay for the package I have to go back to London because my main source of incoming is filing Admiralty reports. At the same time, I'm doing the delivery quests for that evil Santa Claus monster, and the island I'm supposed to deliver his package to just fell to Khan invasion, so I can't dock at the harbor, and I haven't discovered the alternate delivery location yet (an Isle of Cats that I suspect is somewhere in the southwestern quadrant of the map, since I've already uncovered most of the rest). That delivery quest is time sensitive, so is naturally my first priority now. So far the Santa Claus monster hasn't been paying me in cash for his delivery quests, so I suspect I will have to look for yet another way to get together the 1000 I need for the pub owner's quest.

You gonna get raped.

One thing I can suggest is if you can find anything for the Curator's quest in Venderbight, they mostly pay in things like Captivating Treasures. You can sell those in Khan's Shadow for exactly 1000 Echoes. But Santa Claus is going to rape your butthole long before you get to those two places and then the Isle of Cats.

You can also sell Outlandish Artifacts there for 100 each.

Still, looks pretty bad for you, dude. OTOH you can go back to London, but the Blind Bruiser is going to kick your ass. Maybe kill you. Mr. Sacks will DEFINITELY kill you, though, so it's probably a better gamble.

If you've already had Sacks start taking things from you, you'd probably best prioritize finding the Isle of Cats, as he might finish you before you even can do that one thing. That's the main, imminent threat you're facing.

 

[millais]

You gonna get raped.

One thing I can suggest is if you can find anything for the Curator's quest in Venderbight, they mostly pay in things like Captivating Treasures. You can sell those in Khan's Shadow for exactly 1000 Echoes. But Santa Claus is going to rape your butthole long before you get to those two places and then the Isle of Cats.

You can also sell Outlandish Artifacts there for 100 each.

Still, looks pretty bad for you, dude. OTOH you can go back to London, but the Blind Bruiser is going to kick your ass. Maybe kill you. Mr. Sacks will DEFINITELY kill you, though, so it's probably a better gamble.

If you've already had Sacks start taking things from you, you'd probably best prioritize finding the Isle of Cats, as he might finish you before you even can do that one thing. That's the main, imminent threat you're facing.

I'm actually making really good time on Sacks deliveries so far, no penalties yet, and I'm confident of my ability to finish the remainders of his deliveries on time. Still might end up having to revert to an earlier save since I'm so strapped for cash for the Bruiser

 

[AnOminous]

I'm actually making really good time on Sacks deliveries so far, no penalties yet, and I'm confident of my ability to finish the remainders of his deliveries on time. Still might end up having to revert to an earlier save since I'm so strapped for cash for the Bruiser

It will only kill some of your crew, but that will kill you if it's more crew than you have, so top that off before you return. The loss is 2-11 crew, so it probably won't kill you, unless you only have a 10 crew ship in which case it's possible.

 

[Agent of Z.O.G.]

I wish these devs would make a regular VN instead of bothering with gameplay.

The writing is good but it's nowhere not good enough to deal with the awful awful grind.

 

[Organic Fapcup]

I wish these devs would make a regular VN instead of bothering with gameplay.

The writing is good but it's nowhere not good enough to deal with the awful awful grind.

You don't know what an awful grind is until you're grinding for an Overgoat in FL. I estimated it'd take me about 2 and a half months of grinding just to get one.

Anyways, with Hallowmass 1894 around the corner, you can upgrade a variety of companions. Right now I'm farming Rubbery Man favors on Flute Street to try and get a Rubbery Bellringer, then upgrade it by the 31st.

 

[Wärring Ornac]

You don't know what an awful grind is until you're grinding for an Overgoat in FL

How about fucking "Knifegate" in Ambition: Nemesis

Anyway the Bag a Legend ambition had been finished today. It's wild to think that two of the main ambition are finished now, since their unifinished state have been the butt of the joke since 2016/2017ish

 

[Local Wordmason]

Holy shit I'm surprised people still play this stuff. I got back into FL recently with a new character and I'm a fan of the world, if anyone still views this thread add me for some shit. Not a POSI yet so I could use a mentor and some other friendly actions for my various grinds

Fallen London

www.fallenlondon.com

Deactivated that account, I have a different account now.

 

[cummytummies]

I played FL for a little bit, but dealing with the real-time game timers just wasn't worth it. That shit is a deal breaker, I never want to think "oh it's been 12 hours, I should play some more". I want to play the game when it suits me, not the other way around.

Shame though, because the writing seemed really good for video game standards. If I could pay a single-time fee to skip all the timers I'd definitely consider it.

 

[Pope Urban]

I still play the browser game. If anyone wants to add me just message and I'll send first city coins and the like.

 

[Ughubughughughughughghlug]

I really wanted to like Sunless Sea but it is broken at a conceptual level. I won't say narrative roguelikes are completely doomed as a concept, but narrative roguelikes based around visual novel textwalls that don't change from game to game, and that really do expect you to trial-and-error your way to victory, are a problem.

I think they wasted the idea of alteration, it should have had the alteration happen within playthroughs.

Add on to that the writing-by-thesaurus (a stylistic choice, but a shitty one) and the kiddyish feeling of its adventure setting (there's an island of sapient guinea pigs and a city of sapient tigers, but it still wants to have a brooding horror atmosphere) and the thing is a mess.

I still play it every now and again because it's one of a few things that I find too interesting to give up on (like my view on Everywhere at the End of Time for music).

 

[Haramburger]

Cultist Simulator and Sunless Sea are both great games with atmosphere and writing, but they expect way too much mechanical grind from you, it's quite disgusting. Making money/your job and dispelling depression or the steps to madness is Cultist Simulator are on WAY too tight of a timetable, to the point that it's distracting from the actual narrative elements. Then you start worrying about investigators and you can barely get anything done to even think about attempting puzzles on your own.

Sunless Sea starts out great and I love exploring, but there is literally only one way to make any kind of reliable money in the game, and it's shipping the super-illegal liquor from that one aristocratic Epstein island. Nothing else compares. And in a bad way, like you might stumble into mining the salt sphinx and that's okay money, but then it literally RUNS OUT. Selling golem men is very little reward for the effort as well. It should not be so hard to make money in a multitude of ways in a game about naval trade, it's retarded. Again, it literally hurts the narrative because you can't afford to explore.

Both games need hacks to ease up on the difficulty level, or be turned into visual novels like someone else said. I got two or three hard endings in Cultist Simulator and then satisfied my general interest in the game by reading the wiki and full flavor text/card descriptions that way. I boot it up like once a year, then I start getting fucked on working every 90 seconds and taper off real quick.

 

[wtfNeedSignUp]

I really wanted to like Sunless Sea but it is broken at a conceptual level. I won't say narrative roguelikes are completely doomed as a concept, but narrative roguelikes based around visual novel textwalls that don't change from game to game, and that really do expect you to trial-and-error your way to victory, are a problem.

I think they wasted the idea of alteration, it should have had the alteration happen within playthroughs.

Add on to that the writing-by-thesaurus (a stylistic choice, but a shitty one) and the kiddyish feeling of its adventure setting (there's an island of sapient guinea pigs and a city of sapient tigers, but it still wants to have a brooding horror atmosphere) and the thing is a mess.

I still play it every now and again because it's one of a few things that I find too interesting to give up on (like my view on Everywhere at the End of Time for music).

In general I see Roguelike games as being just as bad as gacha. Like at least Gatcha you can pay to win, those Roguelike games exist so autists can waste most of their time on earth replaying the same shit until they get a lucky run and memorize a boss that takes half an hour to approach once.

 

[Ughubughughughughughghlug]

In general I see Roguelike games as being just as bad as gacha. Like at least Gatcha you can pay to win, those Roguelike games exist so autists can waste most of their time on earth replaying the same shit until they get a lucky run and memorize a boss that takes half an hour to approach once.

It depends on what it's a roguelike of. If it's a survival or horror or otherwise bleak game the permadeath may be necessary to capture the feeling of fear and suffering that the game wants, like something like Don't Starve. Or it may be a game that is designed around replaying excitement of uncertainty, or to encourage problem-solving instead of rote memorization, like Invisible Inc or Spelunky.

But Sunless Sea screws up bigly because while it does go for that first kind, it is too long and repetitive, unlike Invisible Inc that can be taken as little puzzles or Spelunky that's just glorified Mario. (My mother saw me playing Spelunky once in high school and said, "That's Mario!")

 

[wtfNeedSignUp]

It depends on what it's a roguelike of. If it's a survival or horror or otherwise bleak game the permadeath may be necessary to capture the feeling of fear and suffering that the game wants, like something like Don't Starve. Or it may be a game that is designed around replaying excitement of uncertainty, or to encourage problem-solving instead of rote memorization, like Invisible Inc or Spelunky.

But Sunless Sea screws up bigly because while it does go for that first kind, it is too long and repetitive, unlike Invisible Inc that can be taken as little puzzles or Spelunky that's just glorified Mario. (My mother saw me playing Spelunky once in high school and said, "That's Mario!")

Yeah some of them are playable but most are just time/money wasting to the point it's unplayable once you are a functioning member of society (ie, have a job). Annoyingly both "genres" make high viewcount YouTube content since gacha tubers have whales funding them, while people playing roguelikes do it as their day job, and the viewers don't really have the means to play the games themselves.

 

[God of Nothing]

Cultist Simulator and Sunless Sea are both great games with atmosphere and writing, but they expect way too much mechanical grind from you, it's quite disgusting. Making money/your job and dispelling depression or the steps to madness is Cultist Simulator are on WAY too tight of a timetable, to the point that it's distracting from the actual narrative elements. Then you start worrying about investigators and you can barely get anything done to even think about attempting puzzles on your own.

Sunless Sea starts out great and I love exploring, but there is literally only one way to make any kind of reliable money in the game, and it's shipping the super-illegal liquor from that one aristocratic Epstein island. Nothing else compares. And in a bad way, like you might stumble into mining the salt sphinx and that's okay money, but then it literally RUNS OUT. Selling golem men is very little reward for the effort as well. It should not be so hard to make money in a multitude of ways in a game about naval trade, it's retarded. Again, it literally hurts the narrative because you can't afford to explore.

Both games need hacks to ease up on the difficulty level, or be turned into visual novels like someone else said. I got two or three hard endings in Cultist Simulator and then satisfied my general interest in the game by reading the wiki and full flavor text/card descriptions that way. I boot it up like once a year, then I start getting fucked on working every 90 seconds and taper off real quick.

someone never realized he could farm lifebergs and Mt Nomads

 

[Haramburger]

someone never realized he could farm lifebergs and Mt Nomads

I've seen the rates on the wikis, there's an unpleasant balance to the starting ship stats/new ship & upgrade costs/actually doing the shitty combat to rack up enough money and supplies to do the story stuff. I don't want to grind bad combat in a game that sells itself on exploring and dialogue trees, and I'm a tolerant person. 99% of the people who try this game are likely chased off from the unforgiving economy as well.

I did get rich from selling wine and buy the big stupid boat/finish half the memoirs, but it just stopped being fun once I looked at the grinds remaining and had filled in my map/stopped getting interesting events. There wasn't enough variety to satisfy me. Both game's experience has prevented me from even booting up Sunless Skies, expecting the same.

 

[Local Wordmason]

I still play the browser game. Its alright as long as you can get past waiting for actions. I absolutely love the game's lore, I just wish I didn't have it piecemealed through microtransactions. One day I hope someone will leak the game so it can be played without having to pay money for anything. There are tons of stories I would love to check out but its not worth the cost once it starts to stack up. I still have a near lategame character (Pre railway tier 2 PoSI, all I need is my 5 notability points I burned getting tier 2, then I can start railway). I wouldn't mind adding some Kiwis to my contacts just message me if you want my profile. What do you guys think of this year's Estival "celebration"?

Also pissed they scrapped "Meet Your End" it would be cool to have Ambitions 2 even though I haven't finished my first one. Thanks, Knifegate.

 

[Haramburger]

The latest game in this loosely connected multiverse of "occult british lore-heavy games" is out, Book of Hours. It's more connected to Cultist SImulator than the Skies games. The year is 1930, and you are appointed librarian of Hush House, a mysterious old manor that's also the hot spot for occultists and the psychos that hunt them. It's a visually lush solitaire card game where you re-build the massive estate, find books, sort them on shelves however you want and then read them at your leisure, pursuing occult goals like making the greatest work of art in your era, or forging yourself into an immortal god, or just sipping tea with the Alistair Crowleys of the day as they come to you for similar goals. It's likely to get 3-4 DLC expansions over it's lifetime based on Cultist Simulator's lifespan and has a calmer, less lethal approach to difficulty in general. If you buy it in the first week, you get all future DLC for free.

Also the creator, Alexis Kennedy, who also made the company Failbetter Games, got kind of kicked from his own company for abusing women allegations(which do seem shaky) and had to make this game under a new company name, Weather Factory. Also to make the mobile version of Cultist Simulator he had to switch publishers and the kickstarter for this game was provably sabotaged by his old company, lol. It's starting to seem like all the best games are made by accused rapists, unironically.