Are the other areas in the game as cluttered as the Reach?

[Argon]

The Reach feels vastly different from the openness of the Neath. Making my way around feels like I'm navigating a maze praying I take the right turn when I just want to get to the port I'm looking for. I don't know if I'm "doing it wrong" or if I'm just too used to Sunless Sea, but the amount of times I've felt like I've hit a dead end or had to hug a wall to keep traveling in the direction I want is ridiculous. In short, it feels like I'm navigating corridors instead of exploring an open space.

I don't know whether or not this was intentional. I might only be this frustrated because I have very little of my map filled out and am still finding key ports. Are the other zones of the game like this?

[bridgeofblues]

I'll be enough for being an industrial hellscape and graveyard is incredibly open

[iCanTucan]

No, the other regions are quite open; reach is cluttered because of the narrative; it's a wild, unforgiving region that still isn't quite colonized because of how different it is from vast openness of everything else. Hybris, Reserve, Avon, Tomb, those places wouldn't have made as much sense being just few drifting "green" islands.

[Devin]

Albion has a lot of relatively empty sky.
Eleutheria has some dense regions and some empty regions.
The reach is by far the most cluttered.

[Argon]

Originally posted by Wabbit:

No, the other regions are quite open; reach is cluttered because of the narrative; it's a wild, unforgiving region that still isn't quite colonized because of how different it is from vast openness of everything else. Hybris, Reserve, Avon, Tomb, those places wouldn't have made as much sense being just few drifting "green" islands.

Yea I always thought that might be why the Reach was designed like that, but I wasn't sure. It's a valid reason. I didn't want to spend the whole game trying to reach locations only to end up going in the wrong direction due to a massive wall of plants.

[MrGrudge]

The Reach was much more open in the Early Access, open too open to the point of near boredom in some areas, and it was somewhat controversial when they redesigned it to be this way. I would myself prefer a better middle ground between this and the early design.

[Conan, Cimmerian]

The problem in Sea was that you could basically go everywhere in a straight line with very minor course adjustments, I think this makes exploring much more rewarding.

[Argon]

Originally posted by blaa:

The problem in Sea was that you could basically go everywhere in a straight line with very minor course adjustments, I think this makes exploring much more rewarding.

Except that the straight-line exploration allowed for more accurate planning of expeditions and resource management. You knew approximately what distance equaled how many food or fuel.

For example, I wanted to explore North of New Winchester to find Hybras, since I had a couple of quests there. I set out and ran into a wall (like you always seem to in the Reach) and decided to follow it east. I thought that it would eventually open up and let me continue north but no, it gradually sloped south and led me straight back to Avon, a port that I had just come from and had nothing useful for me at the time. I was now in the middle of already explored territory having completely wasted my time.

It hasn't happened to me yet, but I'm sure that the reverse will happen, where I'll be out in unexplored territory thinking a route will lead to a port only to end in a dead end and starve. I get that the whole navigating-a-maze concepts adds tension, but I just always find myself angry at the constant walls, misleading routes, and dead ends.

[Conan, Cimmerian]

I see your point, personally I enjoy the added tension though. I played SS for 100+ hours and ran out of ressources maybe 2 or 3 times, it was way too easy in that regard. In this game you simply sometimes have to turn back when it seems to get close, which isn´t that bad since money is relatively easy to come by, or take an actual risk if you insist on pressing on.

[MHC]

As someone who almost hated Sunless Sea (More due to the grind than anything) I actually like the fact that the Reach has terrain to it. There are annoying instances where I head off down some path and end up going the wrong way, and there's at least one port that takes longer than it should to reach just due to unfortunate pathing, but it makes the map a bit more interesting to me. Especially since little random popup things like finding floating supplies and such happen often enough that my eyes don't glaze over in boredom when I'm making a routine trip to places I've already mapped out.

Overall been enjoying Skies significantly more than Sea, even though I like Sea better thematically and Sea has way better music.

[Conan, Cimmerian]

Man the music in Sea is some of my favourite music, and I don´t just mean game soundtracks.

[Erebus Von Mori]

I agree that the constant corridors is infuriating when it comes to judging travel time in terms of supplies and fuel. In Seas I had pretty much mastered the art of cruising into London with exactly zero fuel and supplies after a round the map journey. Skies, well my hold is punishingly small and most of that's being taken up with a buffer of fuel and supplies so I don't run out.