Ideas On Improving The Game

[Desblat \ Обломов]

After playing Skies for 80+ hours and finishing 3 ambitions (Fame, Cup, Truth) in 1 lineage I want to share some thoughts on things to improve in game. 1st of all I really loved it, but there are some small nitpicks I want to be fixed.

Locomotives in general:

1. Lack of options in locomotive choice. In my run once I bought "Moloch" (1st captain in lineage) it was over, all other locomotives seemed worse than it.
Most likeliy you will only use starting locomotive and then buy either "Moloch" or "Atari" (because it has 3 auxilary).
Idea: buff end-game locomotives, add classes like "Dreadnought" (with rotating gun) ship or "Liberator" for player.

Locomotive modules:

1. Crew modules are nearly useless.
Carrying more than default max crew means wasting modules that are better used to add more hold for transporting goods.
Yes. There are quests that require you to spend crew, but those are too few to actually buy modules.
Idea: more crew descreases terror gain rate. Better crew modules reduce terror gain rate.

2. No heat management modules.
You can upgrade your ship speed, but can not improve heat management, so vital for combat.
Idea: a slot for heat-module at locomotive, 4 levels of "cooling" modules.

Weapons:

1. They are good enough, but more variety would be cool.
Ideas: random weapon buffs/debuffs that change stat of weapon. (Example: "long barrel" buff - slightly increases range, "rusted" debuff - decreases damage).
Ports sometimes sell weapons with buffs, debuffs. Weapons with debuffs are cheaper.
Enemies drop random weapons of their tier mostly with lots of debuffs.
Certain quests give weapon of choice with buffs as a reward.

Quests:

1. Rewards could use a bit more variety.
Idea: Unique modules and weapons as rewards.
Example: Rewards for factions - Unique ship classes "Dreadnought" (available in London, if you help Queen much), "Liberator" (in Winchester, if you help Tackities much).

2. Worlebury vs Terror vs Repetitive Storylets
If you visit sky corner near Worlebury you will always visit this station, because you always want to lower terror.
This leads into reclicking all the terror-reducing storylets. You will need to click a lot because each one reduces terror just a little. At 4th captain I have already read all of those storylet choices.
Idea: Add option like - "Spend all day at Worlebury" (costing some money) available once you visited this port a bunch of times already.

[Elitewrecker PT]

You finished the two main ambitions and a starter one in 80h?
I'm at 90 and haven't even finished Eleutheria or gone to Blue Kingdom.

[Desblat \ Обломов]

Originally posted by Elitewrecker PT:

You finished the two main ambitions and a starter one in 80h?
I'm at 90 and haven't even finished Eleutheria or gone to Blue Kingdom.

I explored all 4 regions with 1st captain in 40+ hours, after this I finished Song of the Sky and passed lineage to captain with King Cup. At this point I started to use Cheat Engine to boost game speed, Cup and Truth were way faster because map was already discovered and I had most of the needed items in bank.

[MadArtillery]

Locomotives
There is 3 ships I consider worth using endgame. Medea (smuggling and blue kingdom exploring, raw tank), Outrider (3 aux and super speedy), and I suppose Moloch for hauling if you have some reason to do ordinary hauling lategame when smuggling is so much more profitable. Juggernaught could be useful too as it is the strafing king sliding around like a mad thing.

Modules

Medea Class Destroyer, the highest level combat ship is the only ship that needs crew slots especially for using the t4 engine. It is VERY short on crew otherwise. for any other ship though other then running crew to the various locations you can leave em to work ya crew is useless.

Please ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ god yes heat modules. It's rediculious a Medea class destroyer overheats as fast as a rustbucket newb ship Gimme some sweet sweet ways to shoot my missles more often!


Quests:
I worked really hard to get that Tackety ship unleashed hoping I could buy one :(

Why the hell are you going to Whorlberry for terror? Home Office is nearby. Drink some tea, nuke your terror in a jiffy. I go to Whorlberry for cultist fun times.

[lys_xen]

Definitely agree about the heat modules.

The stuff I'd like to see tend to be more along narrative content, or more to do in locales. Heck, a little more interaction with some of the new mascots would be cool.

My biggest one? Being able to do more with the Skin of the Incognito Princess. After all we can forge our own companion...as well as forge immaculate souls or more crew members.

Surely we could have the forged companion take on the shell/skin of the princess, or forge another soul for it...and now I have a vision of the Reforged Princess.

As I said, the rest of the stuff amounts to just having more stuff to enjoy in game. I would kill to have the Rubbery Suffragist as a crewmember.

Some of the stuff that was added was great like interacting with Skyhenge, etc. Heh, I could see a wealthy, maybe snooty NPC wanting the player to be tour guide (and yes I'm thinking of the tomb colonists in Sunless Sea).

A minor thing is an option to keep the name of a locomotive between legacies (the game changes it), or at least one yard where we can do it without buying a brand new one.

[Desblat \ Обломов]

Originally posted by MadArtillery:

Why the hell are you going to Whorlberry for terror? Home Office is nearby. Drink some tea, nuke your terror in a jiffy. I go to Whorlberry for cultist fun times.

I have different placement, worlebury on the one side of London, Mausoleum and Sunless Sea on the other, so I visit worlebury if I lurk near it.

[Desblat \ Обломов]

Originally posted by lys_xen:

Surely we could have the forged companion take on the shell/skin of the princess, or forge another soul for it...and now I have a vision of the Reforged Princess.

To be able to pursuade her not to do that macabre thing in the end... Skin is so disgusting, I couldn't help but destroy it.
The game made such a big and cool progress since I last played it, so much more content was added.
Btw I think it's possible to change train name via save edit.

[Krag]

I agree with you on locomotives and gear.
The big problem comes from the lack of variety when it comes to gear and weapons, and how easy it is to acquire special parts from the royal society that fit any slot.
Each locomotive should be defined by its available slots, and they do in a way, but the way stats and slots give access to pretty much all kinds of gear with no real focus on certain aspects is what ruins it.

Some changes and additions I'd like:
- Modules that remove heat faster or increase the maximum heat gauge
- Modules that increase dodge distance
- More weapon variety: long range snipers, missile salvos, directional shields
-Moloch, instead of being literally the best ship in the game thanks to the others being lackluster, should be the king of trading but sport lower armor and fighting capabilities, remove its large weapon slot, give it plenty of auxiliary slots.
- Agravain should be the tankiest locomotive, give it only one large slot but plenty of plating slots.
- Medea could be the damage focused locomotive if you gave it a larger heat pool so it can make use of the two large weapon slots, give it a better dodge, bridge slots for heat dissipation modules
- Hearts should give you access to better plating modules and shield type weapon slots
- Irons should give access to heat dissipation modules and better machine gun and shotgun weapons
- Veils should give access to hidden compartments, dodge modules and mines + sniper style weapons
- Mirrors should give access to better scouting and gathering modules, as well as mystical weapons like Wrath of Heaven

Those are just some ideas

[Desblat \ Обломов]

Originally posted by Krag:

Some changes and additions I'd like:
- Modules that remove heat faster or increase the maximum heat gauge
- Modules that increase dodge distance
- More weapon variety: long range snipers, missile salvos, directional shields
-Moloch, instead of being literally the best ship in the game thanks to the others being lackluster, should be the king of trading but sport lower armor and fighting capabilities, remove its large weapon slot, give it plenty of auxiliary slots.
- Agravain should be the tankiest locomotive, give it only one large slot but plenty of plating slots.
- Medea could be the damage focused locomotive if you gave it a larger heat pool so it can make use of the two large weapon slots, give it a better dodge, bridge slots for heat dissipation modules
- Hearts should give you access to better plating modules and shield type weapon slots
- Irons should give access to heat dissipation modules and better machine gun and shotgun weapons
- Veils should give access to hidden compartments, dodge modules and mines + sniper style weapons
- Mirrors should give access to better scouting and gathering modules, as well as mystical weapons like Wrath of Heaven

Thousand times yes!

[ycrnc68]

I'd like their to be peaceful interactions with various agents. Like you can help a Tackity you is running low on fuel or damaged, the ministry monitor gives you the option to look at all the naughty stuff they've saved the public from, maybe when curator attacks you can calm it down my giving it some nostalgic crockery.

[Nikiforos V Fokas]

Heat sinks are a very sound suggestion. Seconded, or fourthed. Maybe jettisonable ones as per Elite Dangerous.

[squbber22]

I know this thread is old but I love this game and I have a bunch of ideas. Here are some:
- moving obstacles such as asteroids to avoid.
- dynamic traffic between ports
- play as a pirate. Loot and board civillian vessels, at the cost if obtaining a bounty and lowered reputation with the associated faction.
- rolling blackouts in albion if the strength of the sun is low
- new questlines could include an invasion of albion from the reach if the tacketies win. And the war in heaven between albion and the blue kingdom. Questlines should have multiple endings that meaningfully change the world e.g. if the blue kingdom wins the war in heaven the clockwork sun is destroyed.
- a weight system where having more cargo without a better engine slows you down, but inversely, having less cargo and or a better engine will allow you to move more quickly.
- train cars. Massively expands cargo at the expense of speed and maneuverability
- more types of weather. Weather that moves around the map (actually move not just appear and disappear) moving fog, storms, etc
- barriers can spawn in narrow passages which need either packed munitions or a powerful weapon to destroy.
- albion has gates which open and close on a schedule throughout the day, guards can be bribed or hours can be spent to progress time to when the gate is open. During the blackouts i mentioned above, all gates ate closed.