Saturday, October 17, 2015

By Mex

“ If you aren’t in over your head, how do you know how tall you are? T.S. Eliot ”

Ahoy there!

I hope you all had a nice week. We’ve been working hard on our next build of Nantucket, that is going to be showcased at the Milan Games Week. We will give you more information about the event and how/where you can find us in the next days. Meanwhile, I’m going to complete the discussion about dangers at sea that I’ve started in my past post.

So, we have seen how piracy works in our game and how you can deal with it, but that is just a part of the dangers you will face sailing the seven seas. What about the other? Here we are, top 5 dangers at sea in Nantucket (excluding pirates):

Running out of vital resources: I’ve stressed a lot of times the importance of planning your travels, and vital resources (food and water) management is just a perfect example of this. There is nothing worst than being far away from an harbor and running out of one vital resource. You and your crew member start starving (or dehydrating) and that’s it, you are gone in a few days. Some event can trigger to help you (or worsen the situation), but at that point it becomes a battle to survive. In this case, you have really few chances: Reach the closest city , hoping to do it in time.

, hoping to do it in time. Reach or create a safe harbor. Safe harbors are docking areas placed in uninhabited part of the coast where you can send your crew hunting food or looking for water. They are really good, especially if you don’t have enough money to buy resources or if you are running out of resources far from a city. The problem with safe harbors is that you need to think about them in advance, because you need someone with the right skill to create them and other crew members specialized in hunting and finding water. On the other end, once created, safe harbors remain on the map, so you could just create a couple of them in “safe times” and use them when you are in need.

Safe harbors are docking areas placed in uninhabited part of the coast where you can send your crew hunting food or looking for water. They are really good, especially if you don’t have enough money to buy resources or if you are running out of resources far from a city. The problem with safe harbors is that you need to think about them in advance, because you need someone with the right skill to create them and other crew members specialized in hunting and finding water. On the other end, once created, safe harbors remain on the map, so you could just create a couple of them in “safe times” and use them when you are in need. Hunt some whales, well, at least if you are running out of food. Whale meat can be used as food (and you still get blubber to sale).

well, at least if you are running out of food. Whale meat can be used as food (and you still get blubber to sale). Forget your moral dilemmas and start drinking your own pee or eating the corpse of the first crew member to die. A lot of events will spawn during these stress situations and your choices could make the difference between life and death. Running out of wood: running out of wood is bad, almost like running out of food or water. Wood is used basically for two main reasons: fixing your ship and create safe harbors. Without wood, you will not be available to contrast the ship wearing while sailing and, ultimately, you will sink. Your alternatives are similar to the ones presented above, but you have to consider that creating a safe harbor (where you could be able to chop some wood) requires wood, so it will only work if you had previously created one. A randomly built crew: picking the right men in the tavern is vital, because once at sea you have to manage them in a confined space where all the problems are amplified. Look at your crew traits and compare them to see how they can work together. Picking a xenophobic american sailor and putting him in a crew full of people from all over the world could be risky, especially if the morale is not that high. That is the only answer to a crew problem. If you made “mistakes” in picking your crew, just try yo keep them happy, they will less likely cause problems. Dangerous sea areas: during your travels you will meet dangerous sea areas. They have no gameplay effect apart a chance of triggering bad events. Dangerous sea areas includes: perilous sea bed, perilous water, icebergs, and when they are combined with a bad weather condition they become deadly. So this is my advise: try to avoid them (if possible) and avoid to cross them with adverse weather conditions. Sailing through an iceberg area with fog is as bad as it sounds.

Your crew: I have already mentioned the importance of building a coherent crew, but that’s just the part under your control. An important part, but don’t think you are not going to have problem just because you picked your men carefully. You are not safe. Ever. It’s all fun and games until somebody gets malaria.

This is it for today. Next week I’ll be in Milan but don’t worry, Captain Eatbones will take care of the DevBlog. So, keep following us for news and updates!

Mex