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Jeez, this thread looks like something leaked from the NSA. What is the actual gameplay here? Are you just walking throughout the ship and playing memory snippets when you find a dead body? And then trying to match names with faces? I like the idea but I'm not sure what I'd actually be doing if I spend $20. I see you guys talking about getting different endings -- how can your actions make any difference? Murder mystery aboard a sailing ship sounds interesting, but being an insurance agent rather than a detective is weird. Am I solving murders or documenting the ship for the insurance payout?
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Oct 24, 2018 16:11
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Phenotype posted:Am I solving murders or documenting the ship for the insurance payout? The latter. Some murders are solved but that's a happy byproduct. What you've described is the gameplay, but it doesn't really do it justice. The game is one huge logic puzzle so if that's not your thing then feel free to give it a miss.
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Oct 24, 2018 16:17
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It's about saying (person) was killed by (method) by (person). But it's also about going back through a set of memories after you've seen the start and trying to figure out if one guy got clubbed because of a misunderstanding because he was standing over a dead body and a guy who'd shouted out who was stabbed in the back, or if he got clubbed because the other guy was in on the reason for the fight starting. It's about the realization that there's an entirely different way to verify whether some people are alive during a scene or not. It's about the realization that you do have a way of figuring out what became of people after you thought they went out of your ability to find them in a memory.
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Oct 24, 2018 17:04
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Phenotype posted:I see you guys talking about getting different endings -- how can your actions make any difference? Apart from uncovering the story, your actions have only a very minor impact. The biggest difference is that you only ever get to see Chapter 8 if you fill out all the others correctly, although it doesn't hold any shocking revelations. You don't actually have to get anyone's names or fates right, though. The only condition for reaching the ending is witnessing every scene. Once you've done that, you can get back on your rowboat and leave even if the rest of the book is a complete blank. And hey, maybe you don't want the East India Company to know the whole truth. If your report implicates anyone in a killing, even an accidental or justifiable one, then the Company will fine their family . Maybe you decide you don't want that happening to someone, so you fudge your report to say their victim or victims had a different killer or a different cause of death. Hwurmp fucked around with this message at 19:18 on Oct 24, 2018 |
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Oct 24, 2018 18:39
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Really Pants posted:If your report implicates anyone in a killing, even an accidental or justifiable one, then the Company will fine their family . Maybe you decide you don't want that happening to someone, so you fudge your report to say their victim or victims had a different killer or a different cause of death. Should probably spoiler this.
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Oct 24, 2018 19:15
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Really Pants posted:Once you've done that, you can get back on your rowboat and leave even if the rest of the book is a complete blank. Speaking of the latter, while there's only one "bad ending" achievement, (early ending spoilers) the letter from Jane Bird will vary depending on how much you've completed. The possibilities range from Evans lamenting that the complete truth won't come to light but thanking you for trying your best, to Jane implying that you killed him through sheer disappointment
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Oct 24, 2018 21:56
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man this game owns managed to figure everything out on my own, but had to resort to guesswork for the Chinese topmen and a few of the seamen, especially since i never actually found the bunk tags. I assume that's the key to non-cheaply identifying them? i think my single biggest breakthrough was figuring out how much information the Justice at Sea sketch gives you - all the stewards wear the same uniform, the gunner's mate is standing right to the gunner, the 4th mate's steward is standing right next to him, ect.
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Oct 25, 2018 00:53
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GraveVideos posted:I discovered yesterday that when you're in the memory scene and hold the right mouse button when looking at a crew member - the game will overlay his/her face with the corresponding person in the crew picture. You can also just hit the journal shortcut when holding the right mouse button to dirctly jump to the person. Was this explained in some tutorial? because I only found this by accident. Really Pants posted:I don't think it gets explained before you actually try it. You can also jump right to somebody's journal page if you open it while looking at their remains and holding up the watch. Chev fucked around with this message at 00:58 on Oct 25, 2018 |
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Oct 25, 2018 00:56
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Just finished. Definitely feel like I "cheated" by doing a lot of educated guesswork but still felt detective-y enough that I'd say I beat the game properly. Like someone else mentioned, the Life at Sea sketch gives tons of information, more than enough for you to start winnowing down possibilities without necessarily knowing precise details. What also helped me a fair bit was realizing that in the dialogue transcripts, an X is next to any lines spoken by the person who's death you're investigating. And lol at people worrying about fudging the reports so peoples' families don't get charged. You're working for the East India Company, the OG evil corporation. They'll probably charge the families' anyway for the hell of it. Not quite the absolute masterclass in game and narrative design that Papers, Please was but still heads and tails above other indie games. Really hope Pope continues to make amazing stuff.
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Oct 25, 2018 05:51
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dmboogie posted:i think my single biggest breakthrough was figuring out how much information the Justice at Sea sketch gives you - all the stewards wear the same uniform, the gunner's mate is standing right to the gunner, the 4th mate's steward is standing right next to him, ect. Is that the EZIC star shining from the sea?
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Oct 26, 2018 02:20
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Dominoes posted:Is that the EZIC star shining from the sea? Short answer: ________________________________no________________________________
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Oct 26, 2018 02:42
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I'm at 56 fates solved and have a question about whether it is time to leave the boat or not, any spoiler-free advice would be appreciated if possible (heavy spoilers follow of course): There are four fates left, two of which I'm sure can't be solved until I get off the boat: Martin Nichols the 3rd mate, and Filip Dahl the Captain's steward. Neither of these dudes have any fate shown so far as far as I can tell, so I must learn during the Bargain. The other two seem solved to me, but I haven't gotten any confirmation: Zungi Sathi, the ship's steward, was shown in Soldiers of the Sea 7 dying of spikes shot by a terrible beast after spending a few scenes crawling away into the port walk. Not sure what else I could do here, but no confirmation. Aleksei Toporov, one of the Russians, was shown falling off of a boat during the Calling, so I've got him down as drowned by a terrible beast, which has worked for other characters who drowned during various beast attacks even if not directly pulled under. But again, no confirmation. So... is it time to get off the boat?
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Oct 26, 2018 02:48
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Bold Robot posted:The other two seem solved to me, but I haven't gotten any confirmation: This one's wrong.
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Oct 26, 2018 02:51
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Really Pants posted:Short answer: Really Pants posted:This one's wrong. Dominoes fucked around with this message at 03:00 on Oct 26, 2018 |
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Oct 26, 2018 02:57
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Really Pants posted:This one's wrong. Aha! Thanks, a closer look helped.
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Oct 26, 2018 03:00
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Bold Robot posted:Aleksei Toporov, one of the Russians, was shown falling off of a boat during the Calling, so I've got him down as drowned by a terrible beast, which has worked for other characters who drowned during various beast attacks even if not directly pulled under. But again, no confirmation.[/spoiler] The phrasing "fell overboard" worked for me on this one. You will also be told very specifically when there is nothing left to discover on the Obra Dinn.
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Oct 26, 2018 03:10
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So once I've got all the fates solved, is that the "good" ending?
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Oct 26, 2018 03:23
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Yes.
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Oct 26, 2018 03:24
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Hell of a game, amazing puzzle. Very glad I picked this up. The one thing I am still unclear on is what was the 2nd mate's plan? After the mutiny, where was going with the Formosans and their chest? Am I right that the shells were in the chest all along and opening it out at sea caused the initial attack by the mermaids?
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Oct 26, 2018 04:05
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Bold Robot posted:Hell of a game, amazing puzzle. Very glad I picked this up. I think he was trying to sail to one of the nearby islands or mainland Africa. And I think the chest was not opened until the end, when...something pacified them. My pet theory is that the Shells were a means of controlling the sea people that the Formosans has, which is why they stopped attacking once the dude opened the chest and why the sea people attacked them; The wanted to seize their own leashes, so to speak.
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Oct 26, 2018 04:30
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I have a question about proper labeling of fates. If I see a guy who got in a dinghy which was subsequently picked up and thrown into the sea by a giant squid, would that properly be filed under "fell + overboard" or "drowned + beast"?
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Oct 26, 2018 04:43
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Occultatio posted:I have a question about proper labeling of fates. the first one might work but the second definitely will
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Oct 26, 2018 04:54
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Occultatio posted:I have a question about proper labeling of fates. I used the latter and completed all fates. I did not use the former at all. Unlucky7 posted:I think he was trying to sail to one of the nearby islands or mainland Africa. And I think the chest was not opened until the end, when...something pacified them. That makes sense to me.
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Oct 26, 2018 04:54
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the thing that really gets me about the second mate's mutiny is that the poor old royal guy sacrificed his life to fend off the mermaids... but by the time he manages to open the chest, the only one left to save is the rear end in a top hat who started the whole mess, and he only lives long enough to bring the doom back to the ship before getting rightfully blasted in the face. honestly if there's one complaint i have about this game it's that i was to know more. none of the characters are really more than sketches, but they're interesting sketches! i wanna know how the hell the first mate went from sorrowfully cradling that midshipman who got knifed in the back to trying to break down the captain's door! how much time passed between those two chapters? were he and the other two crewman just exceptionally greedy bastards who planned to sail the ship to riches with three men and no lifeboats? was everyone just driven insane by all the death and misery by that point? you can make a lot of reasonable guesses, but the mystery isn't really concerned with motives
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Oct 26, 2018 05:37
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Bold Robot posted:The one thing I am still unclear on is what was the 2nd mate's plan? After the mutiny, where was going with the Formosans and their chest? Am I right that the shells were in the chest all along and opening it out at sea caused the initial attack by the mermaids?
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Oct 26, 2018 05:47
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dmboogie posted:honestly if there's one complaint i have about this game it's that i was to know more. none of the characters are really more than sketches, but they're interesting sketches! i wanna know how the hell the first mate went from sorrowfully cradling that midshipman who got knifed in the back to trying to break down the captain's door! how much time passed between those two chapters? were he and the other two crewman just exceptionally greedy bastards who planned to sail the ship to riches with three men and no lifeboats? was everyone just driven insane by all the death and misery by that point? Maybe they wanted to make sure the captain had actually tossed the shells and didn't believe him when he said he had? I definitely also wondered what went down between them and the captain, they seemed like good dudes beforehand. Extortionist posted:I don't have it installed anymore and can't check, but doesn't he explicitly say where they're going in the first (chronologically) scene in the boats? Not that that clarifies much... This rings a bell yeah
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Oct 26, 2018 06:01
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Bold Robot posted:Maybe they wanted to make sure the captain had actually tossed the shells and didn't believe him when he said he had? I definitely also wondered what went down between them and the captain, they seemed like good dudes beforehand.
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Oct 26, 2018 06:09
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Dominoes posted:That was my guess as well. I'm curious about that sequence-of-murders scene as well. The midshipman overheard the gunner's mate talking with the Bosun and someone else about something he shouldn't hear, so the gunner's mate stabbed him? Then the fourth mate heard about it and mutiny plans, so he shot the gunner's mate. Brennan then clubbed the 4th mate because he knew about the mutiny plan? So the fourth mate and midshipman were murdered because they knew about the planned mutiny by Hoscutt/Brennan/GM. Therefore Hoscutt had already planned the mutany while comforting the Midshipman. The Gunner’s Mate is talking with the Fourth Mate about his mutiny plan after the Bosun expires. The midshipman hears this, screams mutiny, and is knifed by the Gunner’s Mate - you can hear the Fourth Mate shouting at him to stop. Fourth Mate struggles with the Gunner’s Mate, and I think wrestles his gun away from him, shooting him in self defense in the struggle. Brennan comes down and clubs the Fourth Mate because holy poo poo, a man was screaming mutiny, a dude’s face just got blown off, and there’s a guy with a knife in his back. Unfortunately he didn’t give the Fourth Mate any time to explain himself.
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Oct 26, 2018 06:20
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I like your explanation, esp re: 4th mate's role. Of note, I think your explanation about Brennan's role isn't giving enough weight to the fact that he ultimately participated in the mutiny.
Dominoes fucked around with this message at 06:37 on Oct 26, 2018 |
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Oct 26, 2018 06:34
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Dominoes posted:I like your explanation, esp re: 4th mate's role. Of note, I think your explanation about Brennan's role isn't giving enough weight to the fact that he ultimately participated in the mutiny. True - it definitely establishes that Brennan is no stranger to violence, especially since he was the only one in the firing squad who actually hits his target. He also might have a tendency to rush headlong into things. I think it’s pretty safe to say that the first mate’s mutiny was entirely separate from what the Gunner’s Mate was planning, though - I don’t think Brennan had an ulterior motive to club the dude.
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Oct 26, 2018 07:00
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dmboogie posted:True - it definitely establishes that Brennan is no stranger to violence, especially since he was the only one in the firing squad who actually hits his target. He also might have a tendency to rush headlong into things. I think it’s pretty safe to say that the first mate’s mutiny was entirely separate from what the Gunner’s Mate was planning, though - I don’t think Brennan had an ulterior motive to club the dude. I dunno. It felt weird to me that the first mate and Brennan were roaming the ship at night, looking at the escape's aftermath at the same time the other would-be mutineers were discussing how the captain couldn't be trusted following said escape. Unlucky7 posted:I think he was trying to sail to one of the nearby islands or mainland Africa. Two post-endgame spoilery thoughts: it took me two days after finishing the game with the best ending to realize that the glint you see far behind the ship was from a shell. Personally I think it's from the mermaids that brought the Obra Dinn back to port. Another thing that dawned on me much earlier is that the Memento Mortem pocketwatch is on board. The surgeon has it, naturally. I realized it when he was escaping because he was holding the case (which is also the moment I thought to re-check the preface of the book to see who had signed it), but you can see the case in the surgeon's room in other scenes too. And of course he already knew how it works, since he deliberately sacrificed his monkey to create a spawn point in a location he couldn't physically access. I wonder if there's any reason other than coincidence that at least two kinds of highly supernatural artefacts were on the ship from the get go, but that's probably left to imagination. Chev fucked around with this message at 10:27 on Oct 26, 2018 |
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Oct 26, 2018 10:21
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dmboogie posted:the thing that really gets me about the second mate's mutiny is that the poor old royal guy sacrificed his life to fend off the mermaids... but by the time he manages to open the chest, the only one left to save is the rear end in a top hat who started the whole mess, and he only lives long enough to bring the doom back to the ship before getting rightfully blasted in the face. He was also sacrificing his life to keep the shells out of the sea people's hands...which they now have.  
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Oct 26, 2018 11:29
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Occultatio posted:I have a question about proper labeling of fates. They both work (unless maybe there are some fringe cases that only allow one of them). I've tried them in different playthroughs and both were accepted.
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Oct 26, 2018 13:08
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Yeah, there's a bunch of cases in which the game is pretty generous with the cause of death. In one occasion I used "strangled" and someone else apparently used "eaten" and both were accepted. That doesn't mean some of those are always equivalent, just that there are cases where they are.
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Oct 26, 2018 13:19
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dmboogie posted:honestly if there's one complaint i have about this game it's that i was to know more. none of the characters are really more than sketches, but they're interesting sketches! i wanna know how the hell the first mate went from sorrowfully cradling that midshipman who got knifed in the back to trying to break down the captain's door! how much time passed between those two chapters? were he and the other two crewman just exceptionally greedy bastards who planned to sail the ship to riches with three men and no lifeboats? was everyone just driven insane by all the death and misery by that point? I'm thinking that it's pretty likely that the first mate and Brennan were already committed to mutiny. The gunner's mate went from listening to the Bosun saying that it was unlikely that the kraken was gone for good into a firm plan for mutiny in the span of sentences, and was ready to kill to prevent word getting out. That leads me to think that he wasn't sounding the idea out, but actively trying to recruit. If he's trying to recruit, then that means it's entirely likely that there's already a plan going. It neatly explains why Brennan goes straight to murdering the mate who killed the gunner's mate, after all he just blew the head off of one of his allies. Now for the reason I think that, which is good end specific: The captain didn't end the kraken attack, did he? It was the third(?) mate's bargain with the last surviving mermaid that did it, considering the word of it was followed. So the captain goes down there, makes a lot of noise, but crucially doesn't do the sort of thing that'd get the beast properly called off. The glowy shell disappears (Also, is there ever more than one of the Shell, it sounds like the idea of multiple shells is based on the cook incident where there pointedly isn't a glow, and the Formosans refer to it in the singular, correct?). The captain hasn't gotten rid of it. So the first mate is left with a captain who's saying it's over but hasn't done what is needed to end it. From that perspective isn't the captain a risk to the whole ship and crew? So if he's already committed, then yet another fight seems like a good reason to deal with it while there's still a few people left alive. I believe that all squares with The End and the dialog about the shells.
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Oct 26, 2018 19:48
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I believe there's a line explicitly saying there are 3 shells.
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Oct 26, 2018 21:17
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Dominoes posted:I believe there's a line explicitly saying there are 3 shells. Check it out, this guy doesn't know about the three shells!
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Oct 26, 2018 21:38
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one thing i wish the game had was the ability to view everything in chronological order after you beat it - it’d be dope to easily revisit every scene once you actually know who everyone is, especially to solidify motives and relationships. i know you can apparently reload your save to visit the ship again, but that’s still a lot of finicky walking, plus the timeline clusterfuck that is the the calling chapter
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Oct 26, 2018 22:11
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dmboogie posted:one thing i wish the game had was the ability to view everything in chronological order after you beat it - it’d be dope to easily revisit every scene once you actually know who everyone is, especially to solidify motives and relationships. i know you can apparently reload your save to visit the ship again, but that’s still a lot of finicky walking, plus the timeline clusterfuck that is the the calling chapter Agreed, this would be a cool feature - walking through the door could take you immediately to the next scene chronologically.
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Oct 26, 2018 22:21
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That was a real fun game. And every time I see someone else play they discover alternate solutions that I missed. The only thing that annoyed me is that there is no button to quickly leave a memory/teleport into one. And that the cook needs an unusually exact cause of death. I tried every beast related cause before I caught on. It was the last one I got, along with the guy in the port walk. Who is difficult in a extremely rewarding way. e: does anybody know enough about ships to tell me what those walks on the orlop deck are even for? VictualSquid fucked around with this message at 22:50 on Oct 26, 2018 |
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Oct 26, 2018 22:48
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