The nights are drawing in, and Team FBG are drawing the blinds and lighting our candles for the last push to complete SUNLESS SKIES. Today’s update and the Commander update on the 19th of December are the last ones before we launch, on 31st January.

In this release we’ve got a new opening experience for you, a revamp of New Winchester, and the remaining Survival elements. Also a note about save games - please read closely to avoid disappointment!


Something we especially hoped to improve on from SUNLESS SEA was the abrupt nature of the game’s opening, which contributed to a lot of players feeling lost and confused (not in a fun way), and giving up on the game before it even got started.

In SUNLESS SKIES, you now begin with a morsel of story and a lightly tutorial opening. It will hopefully ease you into the game, introduce elements at a reasonable pace and in an appropriate order, and provide some key context for the setting. (The full tutorial with tips will follow in the launch build; we have to create it last, when everything else is in place.)

You still start in the New Winchester segment, but now your initial position is explained by the opening story: you’ve just emerged from the Blue Kingdom's transit relay, and your current captain is dying as a result of what happened there.




The New Winchester segment is the same size as before, but the city of New Winchester itself is now much bigger – it sprawls across most of the segment, and Company House and Victory Hall now have their own platforms, where you can turn in port reports.




The occasional injuries, the infections, the endless arguments over whose turn it is to do the dishes: in isolation these things are insignificant.

What happens in the skies, when you’ve lost crew but your engine hungers and your nightmares worsen? Probably nothing good.


We’ve introduced a host of difficult decisions for your Captains. The crew are lax, exhausted. Would extra rations bolster them - if you can spare some? Or should you crack the whip, use fear to get things running as they should? Repair your ailing engine yourself?



These choices will appear periodically when your Crew is less than the Safe Manning Number for your locomotive (check this under Possessions > Your Train).


From the Commander release onwards, we will not support saves from any versions of the game older than the Survival release.

Play with the Survival build at least once - before 19 December, when Commander is released - to ensure save compatibility at launch!

We recommend you start a new save so you can check out the opening and various updated stories.

Note: we hoped to have player weapons in this release, but we’ve had to move them. You can expect rocket launchers, mines and some very special, unique weapons that can be claimed from your enemies. Sorry to keep you waiting: they’ll be worth it!

For the full patch notes, check the Failbetter forums or the Steam forums for Sunless Skies.




Did you see that we released a companion pen and paper RPG for SUNLESS SKIES? It’s called SKYFARER, and it’s free, and reports are that people are enjoying it very much! (It also works well as a system for SUNLESS SEA, we’re told.)

Download the SKYFARER book, story supplement and digital character sheet

There’s a Sky Story competition to win fabulous prizes including a deluxe SKYFARER set which comes with custom Correspondence tokens. Simply tweet us a story from one of your play sessions. Here are all of the details, and terms, etc on the FBG blog.


We’ll be going live with @kjr_kisuke for the launch at 4pm GMT! Come and take a look at the new game opening and see what awaits in New New Winchester!

Follow kjr_kisuke on Twitch to be notified when we go live.

Build Version: Survival update. 1.1.6.2.e8412a5
Release Date: 07/11/2018
Known Issues


New Winchester Redesign
In order to bring it up to the standards of the recent Reach redesign, the central New Winchester segment has had a fresh lick of paint. Along with the visual changes, we’ve tidied up the storylet options at Wolvesey Station and also removed the Victory Hall and Company House areas. They are now available at separate Platforms where you can dock and hand in your port reports.


New Opening Game Experience
Now when starting a new game the player’s initial position (which is still in the New Winchester segment) is explained by an opening story. The player will emerge from the Blue Kingdom Transit Relay, their captain dying, on a mission to get to New Winchester Station.

Part of this narrative will be conveyed via storylets, and part of it will be shown via ambient messages in game. The story will continue once you dock at New Winchester and it’s at that point that a new player will go through the Character Creation screen. In future updates the opening narrative that begins at New Winchester will continue in Albion and the Blue Kingdom.

We highly recommend starting a new game with this build so that you can experience the updates and for additional reasons that shall be explained below.

The Opening Game Experience is not totally complete, some things need to wait until the launch build, so there are a few things to note about it. Please do not report these as bugs:

• The loading screen text on a new game is not displayed for very long - we will be extending the time so it can be read without having to rush
  
• In a future update we shall be adding tutorial tips which will explain controls and mechanics as you progress through the opening sequence and the early game - these need to wait until closer to launch when all features are locked down
  
• You need to shoot your way through the barrier at the end of the opening game area before you can reach New Winchester, in a future build this will be made clear with the use of said tutorial tips
  
• It’s possible to come away from the wreck of the Ozymandias without a Scout. This is a player choice and it is signposted via the pink instructional text, this is not a bug. We will be adding other ways to acquire a Diffident Bat in a future update (other than from Mr Menagerie)
  
• If we have time we may tweak the opening sequence so you are shunted from the relay, or so it starts with you inside with the doors opening to reveal your locomotive - this is yet to be decided
  
• The chart in the starting area is slightly different before character creation, i.e. there is a gap in the terrain of the opening area on the chart - this is deliberate

Survival changes
In the previous build we introduced new survival content triggered by high Terror and also low Fuel. In this build we’ve added an additional survival complication; your Crew. The low Crew storylets will fire periodically when your Crew is less than the Safe Manning Number for your locomotive. This value can be found in the Possessions interface under the Your Train section.

Having low or even zero Crew will not kill you outright, but many things can go wrong when you don’t enough staff to operate a locomotive, things that will impact your other survival qualities. Engines may fall into disrepair causing Hull damage. Accidents may cause loss of fuel, supplies and even the death of yet another crewmember, filling the survivors with Terror. Best to make sure you keep your locomotive fully manned.


Terror reduction
Now, when you discover a new port your crew will be flooded with relief and Terror will be reduced by 20 points. This will only happen the very first time a captain comes across a new port. Subsequent visits are a “been there, done that” sort of affair.

Players with existing save games will be able to take advantage of this new feature the next time they load the game and visit already discovered ports. Enjoy the little exploit while it lasts as it’s the only time you’ll ever see it.


As mentioned, we highly recommend you start a new save file in this build. Not only will this allow you to go through the Opening Game Experience but you’ll also gain access to a lot of new content, as well as old storylines which have been heavily tweaked (such as those at Traitor’s Wood and Polmear & Plenty’s Inconceivable Circus).

Once we release the Commander update (in December) we will no longer be supporting save files older than those created in this build, the Survival build (1.1.6.2.e8412a5). If you do wish to keep your existing save game however, then all you’ll need to do is make sure you load the save file up and save it in the Survival build.

We do appreciate that a number of you have already sunk many hours into your current captain and may feel reluctant to start a brand new game. The whole purpose of Early Access has been to give us feedback and to help us find issues, and throughout that time there have been a number of bugs and content changes that might have left your qualities in unusual states. We’ve always done our best to manually fix save files for affected players when they report issues to us, but now that we are coming closer to launch we will be unable to do so for old save games and we recommend you start anew.

• Victory Hall and Company house are now Platforms within the New Winchester segment.
  
• The quest at Polmear & Plenty’s Inconceivable Circus has been reworked.
  
• We’ve made several updates to the chart:
  
  1. Regions are no longer in view of each other, instead you need to transition between them using the cycler.
     
  2. We’ve restricted the maximum zoom level.
     
  3. The legend cycler works correctly in both directions.

• We’ve addressed some performance issues around agents engaged in combat.
  
• Players will no longer take damage when flying over the bullet colliders of rapid fire weapons before they despawn.
  
• Players will no longer get stuck in the Traitor’s Wood storylet.
  
• The Isambard line signal boxes now set qualities correctly on interaction, allowing players to complete the Fatalistic Signalman's storyline.
  
• Crew, Hull and Terror are now capped correctly.
  
• Vessel and backer names will now display correctly for Tacketies and Dreadnoughts in Albion.
  
• The name for the Curators will now display correctly when the headlight is shone on them.
  
• Terror once again increases after using the transit gate to Albion.
  
• The Fog of War can no longer be lifted to reveal the entire chart using the mouse wheel.
  
• The - and + keys now work correctly when using the cycler on the Chart.
  
• The Storm that Speaks no longer has a chart icon when encountered in game.
  
• SFX will no longer play at the same time when returning to the title screen from the Reach.
  
• The Altani once again has a large weapon slot.
  
• The avatar tooltip will now close down correctly when Must Events fire.
  
• We've corrected the wording on the tooltips in engine yards when trading in ships with the same stats.
  
• We’ve fixed several typos and grammatical errors on the Legacy, Victory and Loading screens.
  
• We've fixed several typos in ambient messages.
  
• We’ve corrected a large amount of typos and grammatical errors in our content - a huge thank you to the dedicated player who has been sending us lots of reports.

As always, if you find a bug that's not on the Known Issues page then send us a quick Bug Report.

Our REACH update is now live! This update completely transforms the first region of the game and features improvements to Terror, Condition, Fuel and Crew.

In case you missed it, we’ve also just announced some other exciting pieces of news:

RELEASE DATE
Sunless Skies has a release date! It’s coming out 31 January 2019! Those of you who have been holding off until we’re finished now have a date for your calendar: hooray!

SKYFARER
To accompany Sunless Skies, we've released a free pen and paper RPG system, called SKYFARER, set in the Fallen London Universe. If you want to check it out, it’s available via digital download at http://www.failbettergames.com/skyfarer/ (for free)!

FALLEN LONDON SITE REDESIGN
Our free-to-play browser game Fallen London has a new face! It’s the site’s first makeover since its origins in 2009. Besides having a more modern look, it’s now on HTTPs, has some nifty sorting/organisational features, and has received improvements to help it run more smoothly in mobile browsers! Our festival of secrets and masks, Hallowmas, also begins 24th October.



https://youtu.be/C52e4nm6LkY

After creating the Albion and Eleutheria regions, there were a few improvements we wanted to make to the first region we created: The Reach.

These improvements focused on two main aims:

• to adjust the segment design and pathfinding within the region to match the more evolved design strategy used in the later regions
  
• to ensure the atmosphere of the region matched the depth and complexity showcased in Albion and Eleutheria

SEGMENT DESIGN IMPROVEMENTS

One of the reasons we evolved our strategy for segment design across the three regions is that earlier on in development, players gave us feedback that areas like the Reach felt empty. It was possible to fly for long periods of time without seeing anything but the sky below your locomotive.



So when we started building Albion and Eleutheria we made it a rule that players should always be able to see *something* physical, preferably something you could hit with your locomotive.

In his talk at EGX, our Creative Director/CEO Paul Arendt explained that this actually came from an idea of replaying Sunless Sea for the PS4 port, as Sunless Sea is largely about coastal navigation - you follow walls.



So with this update, you'll be able to see we've redesigned the segments of the Reach to be more labyrinthine. Captains may find that journeys now need to be more planned, which should make flying feel more engaging than before. And, if you’d like to look even further behind the curtain, Paul’s also written a design blog about this very topic.

THE ATMOSPHERE AND THE DARK
Many different art tools and strategies are used to create that more contiguous atmospheric feeling, to make sure it feels like you’re flying *within* something not just on top of it.





As you travel through the new Reach you'll notice branches and other luscious (often horrific) foliage that the player locomotive will sail beneath, as well as more complex middle layers to add that visual depth and richness.





Upgrading our post-processing tools in Unity also meant our artists could add more intricate 'profiles' to specific areas within the region. Profiles can contain things like colour grading and lighting effects. For example, one of the things they control is blooming, which is a term to describe a light effect that looks like a glow on brighter objects or diffused light. These effects are great for areas like the Nature Reserve that should look quite humid, or Lustrum for that snowy haze.







Our next build in November will focus holistically on Survival upgrades, but we've made changes already that you'll be able to see in this build, most notably with Terror. Terror is now less predictable, which will encourage desperate tales of survival and reduce the reliance on central ports to manage Terror. We'll be monitoring the effects of the changes closely, and gathering feedback to make any tweaks that are needed.



TERROR

• Terror now increases at about half the rate it did before.
  
• Falling below half crew no longer increases the rate at which you gain Terror (expect to see new consequences for low crew in a future update).
  
• Terror reduction opportunities are quite different: Wonders now lower your Terror much more quickly, docking at hub ports like New Winchester will no longer set your Terror to zero (they will reduce it by a chunk if you haven't visited them too recently), other ports now have opportunities which include terror reduction options.
  
• As your Terror rises you will begin to experience Terror Events. The higher your Terror, the nastier they may be!
  
• If your Terror reaches 100 you will experience a dangerous event that is likely to kill your captain.
  
• However, a number of options there and on the Terror Events give you the chance to reduce your Terror by 50 in exchange for increasing your Nightmares. Oh yes, nightmares!

INTRODUCING: NIGHTMARES!



We've changed how Condition works, and renamed it Nightmares. It now begins at zero and can go as high as four. It no longer increments automatically; Terror events will offer opportunities to drastically decrease your Terror at the cost of increasing your Nightmares. As Nightmares rise - as before - you will experience increasingly horrifying story events.

You’ll also notice we’ve changed:



FUEL
The rate at which fuel is consumed is now determined by your locomotive's weight, taking into account cargo, equipment, and the locomotive itself. The chart will now make it easier to see where fuel and supplies can be bought. When you run out of fuel you will no longer die immediately. Instead, you'll enter a story event where your captain has three last, tantalising options to find a way to keep going.

CREW AND RECRUITMENT



As it’s now possible to recruit crew through Port Opportunities, this means we've now removed shops where crew could be acquired.

The game now keeps track of if you have enough crew aboard your locomotive to run it properly - dubbed the 'Minimum Safe Manning' quality. We'd recommend remaining fully staffed, after all, you've got a lovely locomotive. It'd be a shame if something happened to it. Out there. In the dark.

Kat Brewster, a Sporadic Academic and occasional streamer, will be streaming from the REACH update today at 15:30 BST with our Editor/Writer/Content Manager, Olivia Wood, on her Twitch channel!

We hope you'll join us there and come with many questions, brave skyfarers.



In our November build, you can expect even more updates to Survival mechanics! Plus an overhaul to the New Winchester segment, the final opening game experience, and more player weapons (hooray)!

Build Version: 1.1.5.3.aa85c96
Release Date: 10/10/2018
Known Issues


The Reach Redesign
The redesigned Reach has finally arrived. Dark, verdant and dangerous, we’re very proud of it and we think it’s going to blow you away, especially if you’ve been playing throughout Early Access.

We received a lot of feedback in Early Access that the Reach was too big and too empty. We listened and iterated our segment designs as we introduced the Albion and Eleutheria regions. Each time we felt we improved the atmosphere and use of space but this left the Reach feeling rather lacking, which is quite a big problem considering it’s the starting area of the game.

Not only does the redesign address the atmosphere and emptiness of the Reach, but its labyrinthine layout helps create interesting choices when navigating to points of interest. Will you travel into dead ends full of lucrative discoveries knowing there’s a chance that the Candlewind may appear and make escape difficult? Do you risk a detour through agent infested areas to visit a Wonder that will lower your Terror? Should you choose the shortest route to your destination and risk encounters with Terror inducing Horrors, or should you play it safe and go the long way around which uses more fuel?

Just like Eleutheria the Reach no longer has an inner and outer ring around a central hub. Instead it has just one, larger ring that is divided into five segments and so each segment now has two Stations within it.

When importing a save file from previous builds you’ll see a notification informing you that the Reach has been regenerated and the Fog of War will have covered the chart once again. You won’t lose any story progress, but you will need to rediscover the entire region. We hope you have fun exploring and making potentially life or death decisions in the process.

You’ll notice that New Winchester hasn’t had a makeover yet and that’s because it’s tied into the opening game experience which is coming in a later build.


Terror and Nightmares
We’ve made some really big changes to way the Terror mechanics work in this build. The old system linked Terror to a quality called Condition, which rolled over each time a Captain reached Terror 100. This effectively meant we had a Terror meter of 500 and while you started to experience Nightmares as Condition ticked over, it made Terror gain feel inconsequential and Terror reduction choices seem unattractive.

In this build Terror now runs from 0 to 100 and hitting the limit has a good chance of killing your Captain outright. Even if you do survive, the cost may be very high.

We’ve separated Condition from Terror and renamed it Nightmares, since that is literally what it tracks. Nightmares is a quality that affects your captain directly whereas Terror is more about the state of your crew. Nightmares runs from 0 to 4 and can be gained in various ways throughout the game, but will always increase if you survive a Terror 100 event. Reaching Terror 100 with Nightmares at 4 will also kill you.

To help existing players cope with the changes we’ve added a storylet that will fire when you next load your save file. You don’t have to accept the assistance it offers, but we recommend it as it will give you a chance to get used to the way the new Terror system works.

Here’s a summary of the Terror changes:

• Ambient Terror now increases at a slower rate, approximately 1 point for every 20 seconds.
  
• This rate will still double if you encounter a Horror or if you turn your headlight off, and quadruple if both conditions are met.
  
• Falling below half crew no longer increases the rate at which you gain Terror (we will be introducing new consequences for low crew in a future update).
  
• Wonders now lower your Terror at a much quicker rate.
  
• Docking at hub Stations like New Winchester will no longer set your Terror to zero, instead it will be reduced by 30 if you haven't visited them too recently.
  
• Other Stations now have a set of storylets that you can play once per visit. Almost all offer a way to reduce Terror, and they might also offer chances to recruit crew, gain rewards, or have other effects.
  
• As your Terror rises you will begin to experience Terror Events. The higher your Terror, the nastier they may be.
  
• If your Terror reaches 100 you will experience a dangerous event that is likely to kill your captain. However, several options on the Terror Events give you the chance to reduce your Terror by a substantial amount in exchange for increasing your Nightmares.

Fuel
Now when you run out of fuel you will no longer die immediately. Instead, you'll enter a story event where your captain has a few tantalising options to find a way to keep going. There are many different things that can be burnt after all, but at what cost?

Fuel is also no longer available to buy at every Station but you can check which ones sell it by clicking on the Station’s chart icon. Plan your journeys carefully.


Fuel Efficiency
The rate at which fuel is consumed is now determined by your locomotive’s weight and that of any cargo and equipment it is carrying.

Engine yards now display a locomotive’s base weight alongside the Quarters, Hull and Hold capacity. Mousing over this icon will show you details of the change in fuel efficiency if you trade your current locomotive in.

Your current locomotive’s fuel efficiency can be seen in the Hold and you’ll see it change as you equip items, acquire cargo and use up fuel and supplies.


Supplies and Crew
Now the more crew you have, the faster you’ll get through your supplies. And while falling below half crew no longer increases your rate of Terror gain, we don’t recommend keeping a low crew count. We now check if you have enough crew aboard against your locomotive’s 'Minimum Safe Manning' quality. Expect to see new consequences for low crew in future updates.

We’ve removed shops where crew can be acquired at a whim. You can now recruit crew through ‘Opportunity’ storylets found at Station. Since these opportunities often leave you with the option of either reducing Terror or acquiring crew, you may have to make some tough decisions.


Chart
Since fuel is no longer sold at every Station, we’ve tweaked the information on the Chart icons so it now tells you whether or not fuel is sold at a particular Station. Click the Station icon on the chart to see this information along with the Station’s description, export details and whether or not new Prospects and Bargains are available there.

On loading an existing save file, or on discovering your first Station on a new save, the Station icons on the chart will be highlighted with a red exclamation mark. This is simply to draw attention to the fact that the icons are interactable. After you’ve clicked and displayed Station info for the first time, you won’t see the exclamation mark again.

• A bunch of new Prospects and Bargains are available in the Reach.
  
• The Prospect and Bargains directional system has been reworked to take into account that Eleutheria and the Reach now only have one ring.
  
• The Titania storyline has been reworked.
  
• The Traitor’s Wood content can now be completed.

Below is a list of known issues for this build. For a full list of known game issues see our Known Issues page.

• Erroneous text can be seen briefly when moving between shops.
  
• Several SFX can play at once when exiting to the Title Screen.
  
• When encountering the Storm that Speaks in Lustrum the Station icon will appear on the chart over its location.
  
• Some storylets can overflow Crew and Terror.
  
• Terrain on the Chart does not align perfectly on the segment borders.
  
• Patch notes on the Title Screen have not been updated, however the build number is correct - check you are on v1.1.5.3.aa85c96.

As always, if you find a bug that's not on the Known Issues page then send us a quick Bug Report.

• We believe we’ve fixed the issue where loot storylets were not opening on Wrecks, however if you experience this issue in the new build, please send an email to us with your save files so we can investigate.
  
• The reversed surround sound has been fixed.
  
• Crew and Hull will now be removed when items are unequipped owing to Engine Problems.
  
• Locomotives will no longer become invisible when storylets fire during the transit gate animation.
  
• Peacock wind and Candlewind no longer slow the player down when travelling in the same direction.
  
• Peacock wind and Candlewind will no longer slow players out of docks.
  
• Prospect and Bargain details and Station descriptions can now be found on the chart for Eleutherian Stations and Platforms.
  
• We’ve fixed the title of a Prospect for Langley Hall which referenced delivery to Pan.
  
• All Eagle’s Empyrean prospects can now be delivered.
  
• The Regent’s Grave Horror can now be interacted with correctly as part of the Traitor’s Wood storyline.
  
• You can no longer recruit two Reckless Drivers.
  
• The Reckless Driver will no longer appear at all Stations.
  
• We fixed an issue related to the Chorister Bee SFX which was causing exceptions in the output log.
  
• Credits are back in game.
  
• Correct change descriptions are now displayed when qualities decrease.
  
• Focus icons now show on twists.
  
• Prospect Accepted once again appears over the top of the card when clicking on prospects at hub Stations.
  
• Success, Failure and Narrow Success once again appear over the top of the card when selecting branches with a difficulty test.
  
• Level descriptions no longer act as spoilers in quality icon tooltips.
  
• Quality effect messages no longer appear twice in certain storylets.
  
• The [complete] tag will no longer be seen in the tooltips for quest objectives on branches.
  
• Values for qualities now display correctly in quality effect messages, e.g. An occurrence! Your 'cheerfulness at Titania' Quality is now ! will now show the actual number.
  
• Quality requirement tooltips now deal with singular items correctly.
  
• Instructional text is now displayed correctly on branch cards.

SUNLESS SKIES will be released on 31st January 2019. It will be available on Steam and GOG for PC, Mac and Linux.

WATCH the live dev presentation from EGX which includes a preview of the revamped Reach!

“We’ve used the time in Early Access to fill the world with the most glorious stories, and to refine the play experience: improving combat, tweaking the skyfaring experience, and closing in on a dark and dread-soaked atmosphere.” says CEO Paul Arendt. “The next update, due on 10th October, will include a complete overhaul of the Reach region and extended mechanics for Terror, fuel, hunger and crew.”

To accompany SUNLESS SKIES, we’re releasing a free pen and paper RPG system set in the Fallen London Universe, available exclusively via digital download at https://www.tabletopgaming.co.uk/board-games/news/gothic-pc-adventure-sunless-skies-expands-with-pen-and-paper-rpg.



SKYFARER: A Sunless Skies RPG is a pen and paper RPG system by Grant Howitt and Chris Taylor of Rowan, Rook and Decard, the minds behind Spire, Honey Heist, Goblin Quest, One Last Job and many other games. SKYFARER follows in the footsteps of their previous work with a focus on quick-form, rapid-fire play that leaves players wanting more.

“‘Why don’t you make an RPG set in the Fallen London universe?’ has been a regular request from players for – oo, going on nine years, now. Working with Grant and Chris on SKYFARER to bring one of our worlds to the tabletop has been hugely exciting. I can’t wait to hear what delicious and horrifying adventures people have with their friends,” says Narrative Director Chris Gardiner. “We’ve tried to make the game friendly to new and experienced roleplayers, and to provide evocative adventure seeds to get things moving in an appropriately Failbettery direction. The game is completely true to our universe: player will find mystery, adventure, bad decisions, improbable characters, nocturnal horrors, and tentacles.”

About SKYFARER: A Sunless Skies RPG

While SUNLESS SKIES puts the player in the role of a Captain aboard a locomotive engine, cruising the skies looking for adventure and profit, SKYFARER gives players the opportunity to play the crew. Gunners, quartermasters, engineers, signallers – even mascots – are brought to the fore as the Captain is struck down by misfortune and the crew must band together to get out of, and probably into, trouble.

Using a simple dice-based system, SKYFARER allows players and gamemasters to easily tell stories set in the FALLEN LONDON universe with plenty of climactic moments, tense stand-offs, and grim decisions. As characters risk life and limb, they’ll accrue Peril – the more Peril they have, the greater the chance of them meeting a grisly and permanent end.

Luckily, things are made easier by spending Tenacity – a resource earned by acting in accordance with your character’s drives and beliefs. But how will those integrities change, now you’re out on the frontier of Victoria’s Empire?

Download your copy from https://www.tabletopgaming.co.uk/board-games/news/gothic-pc-adventure-sunless-skies-expands-with-pen-and-paper-rpg, and please let us know how your games go!

Today’s release is all about improvements to combat! In order to make combat more satisfying. We’ve tweaked a lot of AI mechanics so that we can make our agents’ behaviour more nuanced and layered.

We’ll go over a few of the most exciting tweaks and improvements to combat below, but if you’re keen to dive into more design detail, our developer Liam McDonald has written a more in-depth design blog about these AI behaviours.

One of the major improvements we’ve added across multiple Agents are attack Tells. Tells are animations and sounds that will alert the player that an enemy intends to hurt them.







Most enemies are now aware of your headlight; turning it off (‘L’ key) will allow you to get closer to them (or run away) before they attack. Bear in mind that turning your headlight off will increase the rate at which you gain terror.

Watch the danger indicator crescent around your ship, this will indicate the direction of potentially hostile Agents and pulse red when they decide to take a bite out of you. Enemy locomotives also have running lights which change colour depending on their level of annoyance towards you.

Aura Attacks are a new type of Agent ability. Unlike armaments, they apply an effect over an area without producing a projectile. For example, a Scrive-Spinster scream attack could grant Terror to anything in a radius around it.



Aura Attacks can affect Hull, Terror or Crew and but never harm the Agent that dispersed the attack. Aura Attacks can be foreseen by their warm-up visual Tells.


Kickstarter backers will be excited to learn that neutral vessels now show names! Now when you shine your headlight over Agents, their agent type will be listed (Cantankeri, Tackety Scout, etc.). If it's a Tackety Scout, Enduring/Glorious Dreadnought, it'll also display its backer name (UCE Dauntless, HML Balfour, etc.). Keep your eyes peeled and feel free to share your screenshots if you find you or your friends’ vessel names!




Many of you will be delighted to know that we’ve added turrets to some locomotives, such as the Deranged Dreadnoughts. Turrets can fire either armaments or aura attacks. You'll notice they have the wonderful ability to rotate to try to face you, though they may fire opportunistically at anything the agent considers hostile within their firing arc!

We also wanted to improve ramming attacks. There were a few issues we wanted to address such as:

• It isn't clear to players when an Agent was about to initiate a ramming attack;
  
• Since Agents move at their standard speed while ramming, it doesn’t feel like contact should be particularly damaging (and it can be hard to notice that you’ve actually taken damage);
  
• Ramming doesn’t create satisfying avoidance challenges;
  
• It’s not clear when a ramming attack has been completed or terminated.

Agents now have three ramming stages: Preparation, Acceleration, and Collision.

At the Preparation Stage, Agents will rapidly come to a standstill when a target is in sight, and will indicate with a Tell.

Then, the Agent will accelerate rapidly towards their target. During the Acceleration Stage their default movement parameters are thrown to the wind and they'll have a more powerful speed.

If they manage to hit a collidable object, they'll transition into the b]Collision Stage[/b]. This means that if they hit a player or Agent, that locomotive will suffer damage; if they hit a inanimate object (like a chunky rock), the ramming Agent may receive some damage; and—the most fun bit to test for our development team—both the ramming Agent and their target will be knocked back. Below is an example Barry was testing before we balanced out the mechanic:



For those exploring our newest region, Eleutheria, you may now have the pleasure of meeting The Undeparted. These spritely chaps were featured at the very end of the Eleutheria trailer. They’re quite good at sidling up beside you. They’re particularly fond of hiding in patches of darkness like extinguishments.



You'll also find new Bull Cantankeri and Senior Scriveners roaming about, who are a bit tougher to beat than their little brothers and sisters.




New knockback and recoil effects have also been implemented to ensure that when projectiles are fired player locomotives and Agents will react in a more realistic and satisfying manner.

With Eleutheria out in the wild, our writers are busy preparing the Blue Kingdom. Our Narrative Director, Chris Gardiner, recently shared a cryptic design chart in the Failbetter Discord.

Our art and architecture inspiration for the Blue Kingdom starts with Mesopotamian structures.



The grand scale of ancient structures seen in things like Pieter Bruegel the Elder's drawings of the Tower of Babel were hugely inspirational.



We were also drawn to the incredible blockbuster effect in John Martin's paintings. In our design document for this region, Chris has put specifically, "They generally show civilisations in the middle of apocalyptic scenarios, which isn't exactly right for us, but the sense of dynamism and risk they convey is valuable. The player should feel in danger in the Blue Kingdom, and as if they could be crushed by vast cosmic forces"





We’ve also been working on plenty of research and development for the improvements to survival mechanics and the Reach segments, which will be part of our next release build in October—stay tuned!




For this build, our most skilled locomotive captain, Lesleyann, will be showing off some of the latest combat mechanics along with Haley, today at 15:30* directly on our Steam page! We hope you’ll come join us!

*Note: Stream will start around 15:30 BST but may be a few minutes late as we upload builds. Keep a look out on our Failbetter Twitter for the most recent updates.

In case you haven’t heard, Sunless Sea: Zubmariner Edition has just launched on PS4! It’s our first ever console game and we can’t wait to see what you think of it!



And, if you’re eager to try it out and in the Seattle area, it’ll be playable in the Sony section at PAX West 31st August - 3rd September. If you attend, be sure to send your pictures to @failbettergames on Twitter!

Build Version: 1.1.4.5.2f2c56e
Release Date: 29/08/2018
Known Issues


Combat

Agent behaviour
We’ve spent a lot of time improving the Agent behaviour in this build. We want combat to feel diverse, realistic, fun and above all tense. Each encounter should be a challenge with different Agents employing different tactics, and likewise the player should need to approach each fight with different strategies. Here’s what we’ve been working on:

• A major overhaul of enemy AI: improved tactics, new aggro rules and tweaks to enemy movement.
  
• Enemies can now drift and use lateral thrusters.
  
• Enemies are more manoeuvrable and less likely to collide with terrain, if they do they can extricate themselves.
  
• New ramming behaviour for Cantankeri, Grievers, Chorister Bees, and Star-Maddened Explorers.
  
• Tells (animations and sounds) to alert the player that an enemy is about to launch a particular attack.

Knockback
Knockback is now in place on all player and Agent weapons, including area-of-effect type attacks. When you fire your weapons your locomotive will recoil, and all projectiles cause knockback to player locomotives and enemies alike, making combat feel more weighty and realistic. Many Agent projectiles also deal blast damage so try not to get too close!

N.B. Knockback has not been added to small asteroids and space debris. While it would look amazing, we are not sure at the moment whether it’s something we are going to implement. It may have an impact on performance for example and we’ll need to assess that first.

Turrets
All Dreadnoughts and the Empyrean Outriders now have turrets mounted to their locomotives. Their turrets will cease to operate at a certain level of damage, but they are no longer an easy target from behind, and close range combat with them is not such a good idea. Their turrets will rotate and fire at you or any other beastie that the Agent is feeling wrathful towards.

Arcing
We’ve implemented arcing on Agent weapons. The Empyrean Outrider’s turret uses powerful homing missiles which will relentlessly hunt you down unless you are nimble enough to get out of their range. Arcing has only been implemented on Agent weapons so far, we didn't have time to balance this feature on player weapons. This will go out in a later update.

Auras
Aura attacks are a new type of Agent ability. Unlike weapons, they apply an effect over an area without producing a projectile. Empyrean Outriders for example, will drop a barrel bomb which will tick down and explode. If you are within the blast radius when it goes off, you will take damage.

It’s not just Hull that can be affected by these AoE attacks, the Outriders bomb will kill Crew for example, and the Scrive-Spinster’s scream attack will also grant Terror to anything in its range. Aura attacks can be foreseen by their warm-up visual Tells, so a sharp sky-captain will have time to react and get their locomotive out of harm's way.

Headlight awareness and wrath crescents
We introduced the wrath crescent in the Threat build and with Eleutheria we saw the arrival of the first Agents that react to headlights (Dousers become wrathful when headlights are on, Outriders are angered when it’s off, Grievers don’t like a light shining in their face when they are trying to catch forty winks)

In the Combat II build most enemies are now aware of your headlight. Aggressive Agents will be able to sense you from further away when it’s on. Turning it off will allow you to get closer to them, or enable you to run away before they attack, though at the cost of increasing your rate of Terror gain.

The Wrath crescent has been improved and will start to indicate the direction of potentially hostile Agents much earlier, allowing you to react accordingly. Will you turn tail and run or will you head into the fray?

New Agents
This update sees the release of three new enemies: the Undeparted, Bull Cantankeri and Senior Scriveners.

Player movement
We’ve made further adjustments to player locomotives - all player vessels are now more manoeuvrable.


Engine Problems
Now when your stats drop and you are no longer eligible for an item you have equipped, your locomotive will start to suffer from Engine Problems. Your engine’s heat value will be halved, hampering your ability to take on enemies effectively. When you next dock, your equipment will be removed along with any boosts they confer.


Vessel Names
When you illuminate an enemy with your headlight you will now see its class, e.g. Tackety Scout, Cantankeri, Douser, etc. This information will disappear after a few seconds and you'll not see it for that individual Agent again. If you encounter an Agent of the same type, you won't see its name until a full two minutes has elapsed since sighting the first one.

If the Agent is a Tackety Scout, or an Enduring or Glorious Dreadnought, then you’ll also see one of our Kickstarter backer’s vessel names. These backer names will also be seen on transient Wreck discoveries.

• The new Traitor’s Wood content is fully in place.
  
• The content for the Wreck of the Berrenger is now in game.
  
• The Incautious Driver’s storyline can now be completed.
  
• Headlights now flicker and cut out when entering extinguishments - sail carefully!
  
• Agents spawns have been reduced in Eleutheria and some segments of the Reach and Albion now that their behaviour has been tweaked.
  
• The Vala now has a quality requirement 50 Mirrors.
  
• The Pellinore and Moloch have had their Hull value increased. The Parzival, Bedivere and Agravain have all had their Hull reduced.
  
• The Agravain has been replaced with the Medea at the London engine yard.
  
• Balancing to Agent and player damage, as well as Agent HP.
  
• Hull repairs at Pan now cost Eleutherian Mysteries rather than Sovereigns.

Below is a list of known issues for this build. For a full list of known game issues see our Known Issues page.

• Arcing does not currently work for Agent to Agent combat.
  
• Audio cannot currently be attached to Auras so these attacks currently have no sound effects.
  
• The final audio is not yet in place for all Agent attacks. Placeholder SFX have been added in some cases.
  
• When docking after suffering from Engine Problems, if you have a full Hold the jettison interface will trigger twice (just press cancel each time to close it).
  
• Additional Hull and Crew are not removed when items are automatically unequipped on docking after suffering Engine Problems.
  
• Agent names are missing from Curators.
  
• Agent names for Glorious and Enduring Dreadnoughts do not display correctly in Albion.
  
• Agent health visuals (smoke, fire, blood particles) are not removed as Agents heal.
  
• Bull Cantankeri do not yet have a bespoke storylet.
  
• If a wrathful Agent loses wrath towards a player and subsequently regains it in another encounter, the wrath crescent will not display.

As always, if you find a bug that's not on the Known Issues page then send us a quick Bug Report.

Eleutheria is the third region to enter Sunless Skies. We’re looking to create a feeling of dread throughout the game, and Eleutheria itself is the main harbinger: it’s the darkest region, with the most unnerving enemies, the most oppressive atmosphere and the most threat. We’ll expect your postcards!


To access Eleutheria you will need to travel through the Reach-Eleutheria Transit Relay located in the Hybras segment. Go prepared and be warned; you may not be able to come back via the same route through which you enter. Permits are not cheap, they will set you back 800 Sovereigns and once purchased you’ll need Savage Secrets or Caddies of Dried Tea to gain entry.




Your headlight affects your rate of Terror gain and in Eleutheria it will also affect the way agents behave towards you. Some cannot tolerate the light and will attack you when your beam shines over them, others will become wrathful when it’s off. Sleeping Grievers are a perfect example, shine your light on them if you dare. That said, even with your light off they can sense your presence in other ways. We recommend you keep your Terror low when entering their territories. It’s not a good idea to bump into them either.



When to use the headlight will become a fine balancing act since Eleutheria is so dark you’ll definitely need to use it to tell what terrain you can crash into. Even scouts have a difficult time seeing what’s in front of them. No matter whether they are Discerning or Oblivious scouts, they will mark all Eleutherian finds with a ‘something dark’ icon on your chart.




Just like with Albion we’re keen for you to explore Eleutheria yourselves and we don’t want to give too much away, but in brief Eleutheria contains:

• Seven new Stations (normal ports) and three Platforms (smaller ports).
  
• Three new agents; Dousers, Grievers and Empyrean Outriders
  
• Two new Spectacles.
  
• New transient Discoveries: Stacks, Blind Hermits, Extinguishments, Crossroads and Amber Chunks.
  
• New persistent Discoveries: Well of Wonders and Wreck of the Berrenger (content for this wreck didn’t make the cut off for release so the model is in place and the content will follow in the next update).
  
• A new locomotive; the Medea-Class Destroyer is available at the Pan engine yard.
  
• The Altani-Class Outrider has returned and is available at Eagle’s Empyrean.
  
• New locomotive equipment and weapons are available at Pan.
  
• Eleutherian Prospects and Bargains.
  
• Blemmigans! The Blemmigan Voyager joins the game! This chap was unlocked as part of the community goals during the Kickstarter. This completes all of the community Blemmigan content! Hooray!

(The Undeparted, seen in the trailer, didn’t quite make it into this release, so look out for them in the upcoming Combat II release.)


Some of our players have been experiencing performance issues in the last few builds. We made a bunch of fixes in the Roleplay update which addressed various exceptions caused by weather and wrath that lead to an eventual game freeze. However, we found that some rare weather exceptions remained.

We believe we’ve fixed the last of the weather issues now, but like peeling an onion, once we fixed those bugs we found other performance issues lurking underneath which had been hard to detect until the weather errors were out of the way.

We've spent the last week continuing to peel that performance ‘onion’ and we've made significant improvements. However we can see there is more for us to do to improve performance across the game, so this is not the end of the optimisations.

To help us out, you can report your performance issues and provide us with your output logs. Les has instructions on how to do that in the full Patch Notes post on the forums.



We’ve been considering our progress, your feedback and the time we have left before launch. We’ve decided, to ensure the game is the standard that you expect from us, that we’re going to move the launch release to January 2019.

There are two main reasons for this.

The first is that we want to do more work on a couple of areas of the game than we originally budgeted time for.

Since we worked on the Reach, we've gotten a lot better at designing and building regions. We're very happy with how Eleutheria has turned out, and we think it's important to bring the Reach up to the same standard, both in terms of atmosphere and the quality, variety and frequency of the experiences during exploration and traversal.

Although we anticipated we'd want to make some improvements to the Reach and had set aside some time for it, it’s significantly less time than we need for the full range of things we want to do. We think the Reach is a particularly important region to get right because of its position in the middle of the other three, and because it's where players are first introduced to the High Wilderness. We've decided it's worth taking the extra time to get it right.

Here's a preview of our work on The Reach

We also want to revisit some of the survival mechanics, which in their current form don't always shape the experience in the ways we’d like – especially Condition and Terror.

This won't add an extra four months of work. We considered launching in November or December, but those are very difficult months to release an indie game. This is partly because of the large number of sales events, and partly because so many AAA games concentrate their releases and marketing in the run up to Christmas.

We'll use the extra time in that four month period to make further improvements to the game, including to the UI and the reading experience. And of course, we’ll be sharing all this work as we go in regular Early Access releases.

We'll be releasing COMBAT II as planned, in the week of 30th August. The next major update after that will be out in early October, and will include the improvements to The Reach. We'll update our road map soon with further details.



We’re celebrating the release of Eleutheria with another guest stream! This time you’ll find us on the official Caffeine channel with Alex and Meeks. A number of Failbetters will be there throughout, including an in-depth look at writing some of the new ports with James Chew - please drop by and say hi!

As a double treat, artist Tobias Cook will be appearing on the Gamasutra twitch channel talking about how art and level design intersect in Eleutheria. Drop by today at 12pm PDT (8pm BST) to join in the chat.

Build Version: 1.1.3.5.4d9e3cf71
Release Date: 25/07/2018
Known Issues

Eleutheria has arrived. It’s dark, deadly and terrifyingly beautiful. Survival here is very hard. Good luck Captain, you’re really going to need it.

To access Eleutheria you will need to travel through the Reach-Eleutheria Transit Relay located in the Hybras segment. Go prepared and be warned; you may not be able to come back via the same route through which you enter. Permits are not cheap, they will set you back 800 Sovereigns and once purchased you’ll need Savage Secrets or Caddies of Dried Tea to gain entry.

The Eleutherian region has a different layout to the Reach and Albion. There is no inner and outer ring, just a central hub and one wide ring surrounding it, which is divided into four segments. Eleutheria also features a new type of port, mini ports known as Platforms. You’ll be able to dock at Platforms and access content in the same way you do at larger Stations, as they are now known.

In our previous update we introduced the ability to toggle your locomotive headlight on and off. Your headlight affects your rate of Terror gain and in Eleutheria it will also affect the way agents behave towards you. Some cannot tolerate the light and will attack you when your beam shines over them, others will become wrathful when it’s off. Sleeping Grievers are a perfect example, shine your light on them if you dare. That said, even with your light off they can sense your presence in other ways. We recommend you keep your Terror low when entering their territories. It’s not a good idea to bump into them either.

When to use the headlight will become a fine balancing act since Eleutheria is so dark you’ll definitely need to use it to tell what terrain you can crash into. Even scouts have a difficult time seeing what’s in front of them. No matter whether they are Discerning or Oblivious scouts, they will mark all Eleutherian finds with a ‘something dark’ icon on your chart.

Just like with Albion we’re keen for you to explore Eleutheria yourselves and we don’t want to give too much away, but in brief Eleutheria contains:

• Seven new ports (Stations) and three Platforms.
  
• Three new agents; Dousers, Grievers and Empyrean Outriders
  
• Two new Spectacles.
  
• New transient Discoveries: Stacks, Blind Hermits, Extinguishments, Crossroads and Amber Chunks.
  
• New persistent Discoveries: Well of Wonders and Wreck of the Berrenger (content for this wreck didn’t make the cut off for release so the model is in place and the content will follow in the next update).
  
• A new locomotive; the Medea-Class Destroyer is available at the Pan engine yard.
  
• The Altani-Class Outrider has returned and is available at Eagle’s Empyrean.
  
• New locomotive equipment and weapons are available at Pan.
  
• Eleutherian Prospects and Bargains.
  
• Blemmigans!

Some of our players have been experiencing performance issues in the last few builds. We made a bunch of fixes in the Roleplay update which addressed various exceptions caused by weather and wrath that lead to an eventual game freeze. However, we found that some rare weather exceptions remained.

We believe we’ve fixed the last of the weather issues now, but like peeling an onion, once we fixed those bugs we found other performance issues lurking underneath which had been hard to detect until the weather errors were out of the way.

We've spent the last week continuing to peel that performance ‘onion’ and we've made significant improvements. However we can see there is more for us to do to improve performance across the game, so this is not the end of the optimisations.

Players will still see brief dips in FPS in certain circumstances (docking/undocking, deploying scouts, just before crossing segment borders as the next segment loads), but they should not experience continued stuttering. Anyone that does needs to report this to us so we can diagnose the problem. Details of what we need you to send us are below.

Any player who has experienced the stuttering in previous builds should take the following steps after today's update:

1. Go to C:\Users\[YourUserName]\AppData\LocalLow\Failbetter Games\Sunless Skies\storage\
   
2. Delete the data folder
   
3. Launch the game to regenerate the data folder
   
4. Play as you normally would

If after taking these steps you experience further persistent performance issues, please dock at the port in the segment where you experience any stuttering and send an email to skies@failbettergames.com with your save files and your output log so we can look into individual cases.

• We’ve revamped the controls menu.
  
• Controllers are now remembered between playthroughs once activated.
  
• Hotkeys are now in place for the navigation bar interfaces (H = Hold, O = Officers, etc) - see their tooltips for details.
  
• A whole bunch of new SFX are in place including Scout deployment jingles and Agent wrath sounds (we dare you to go antagonise an Enduring Dreadnought)
  
• We’ve introduced an Ambient SFX slider on the audio menu but we've not finished separating out all the SFX from the environmental sounds
  
• New Officer ambient messages for circumstances like opening the last barrel of fuel
  
• Additional scout messages
  
• Replaced the loading percentage with a circular icon

• We fixed an issue on Wefts of Unraveled time which reset the in-game date, causing time related stories to become locked
  
• We've fixed more exceptions with the weather functionality which was causing errors to be spammed to the output log and an eventual game freeze.
  
• The equipment and weapon stats at Portsmouth Arsenal, the Inscribed Tinkerer’s Workshop and Mr Menageries Stall for Delicious Scouts have now been updated.
  
• We’ve fixed an issue with the Rochester Races which stopped players claiming victory.
  
• The Amenable Host’s quests now reset correctly when you pass on a legacy to a new Captain.
  
• You can now progress fully through the quest at Perdurance.
  
• The directions token for the Bombazine prospect to the Mausoleum now works correctly.
  
• Items are now removed from the Repentant Devil when asking him about his possible enemies.
  
• We’ve removed references to Muses Marks and replaced them with Moments of Inspiration at Traitor’s Wood.
  
• Players will no longer become trapped in a Must Event at Traitor’s Wood.
  
• The Repentant Devil storyline can no longer be farmed for XP.
  
• The Altani once again has three auxiliary slots.
  
• The chart icons on the legend are no longer stretched.
  
• The Officer's chat interface can no longer be opened over the top of Navigation interfaces.
  
• The Fatalistic Signalman's ambient message for Magdalene's is no longer firing at Polmear & Plenty's.
  
• You can now once again only accept a maximum of four prospects.
  
• We've fixed all the typos in the Officer's ambient messages.
  
• Headlights now toggle correctly when purchasing a new locomotive with the headlight off.
  
• The chart now focuses on the player when it is opened in Albion for the first time.
  
• The Guest’s projectiles now despawn correctly and their SFX can no longer be heard after death.
  
• We fixed an inconsistency with a Leadbetter & Stainrod Nature Reserve storyline at Traitor’s Wood.
  
• The election can no longer be held at Brabazon after winning.
  
• You can now speed up the credits using controllers.
  
• The headlight can now be turned on and off with a controller.
  
• The Incognito Princess is no longer referred to as Signaller

Below is a list of known issues for this build. For a full list of known game issues see our Known Issues page.

• The Spatchcock has lost its engine SFX.
  
• A few assets in Eleutheria do not have collision damage applied to them.
  
• Ambient messages and the player locomotive can appear underneath Amber Chucks assets
  
• Em dashes are not working in ambient messages - this will be seen as a large gap
  
• Headlight toggle SFX is not in place on non-Spatchcock locomotives
  
• No docking SFX on some Stations and Platforms in Eleutheria
  
• Large locomotives like the Bedivere can be shunted to the side when leaving Platforms in the Pan segment
  
• The loading icon will stop cycling making it appear as if the game is frozen during loading

As always, if you find a bug that's not on the Known Issues page then send us a quick Bug Report.

Skyfarers, in this update you’ll find a plethora of additions that embellish roleplay within Sunless Skies! This build also features:

• Updates to Character Creation
  
• A new Ambition
  
• New Origins and now Deeds
  
• 3 new Officers
  
• 4 new Mascots
  
• A slew of new locomotive weapons and equipment
  
• An interesting new twist on our FBG Podcasts!

And some extra news:The Blemmigan Gallivanter, one of the three blemmigans achieved during the Sunless Skies Kickstarter is now available in Sunless Sea!



New character origins have been added: you can now play a priest, a revolutionary, a zee-captain, and an ex-Auditor of the Ministry of Public Decency!



The whole Character Creation process has received a significant visual upgrade - everything is now much prettier and clearer, with lashings of gorgeous art. As requested by our Early Access players, you can now also cycle through your avatar's appearance options using a button rather than using the dropdown menu.



There are a few new pieces of headwear to select from within the cameo creation, and a whole new section dubbed 'Attire' which features full-body outfits such as the diving suit.

Levelling up your character has also received a substantial visual upgrade. We hope you'll find the process more pleasant and evocative!

We've also added more than a dozen new facets to develop your character. You can now choose to have been one of the first brave souls to enter the sky, to have fought at the Blockade of New Winchester, or to have received a foretelling of your own death!



Every origin now has a unique facet to develop its story: Auditors can choose why they were fired from the Ministry, for example, while priests can decide what happened when they suffered a crisis of faith.

This update also includes our first two 'deeds' - character facets that are only unlocked by experiencing certain circumstances while playing. Part of the fun of these is in discovering them, so we'll keep what they are and how they're unlocked a secret for now. Perhaps a small hint, though: one of them is called 'A Narrow Escape.'

An extensive new Ambition is now available! The Song of the Sky is a grand tale of fame and its pursuit, written by Harry Tuffs.

The Song of the Sky looms in your mind, a half-finished monument.

Unlike the Sunless Sea version of this ambition, the Song of the Sky isn't just about achieving fame; it's about actually writing the story you leave behind, the creative decisions you make while doing so, and the pitfalls of publishing it.



It's not enough to merely accomplish great deeds - you must ensure they are portrayed in a manner that does them justice! What better way than to write them yourself? Will you create a romantic adventure or a searing expose? Are you the hero, or merely the witness? Is it a story of glory or of horror? Deal with an Omnivorous Publisher. Fall afoul of the Ministry of Public Decency. Write your legend!


As you may have read, Kieron Gillen has joined the list of exceptional Sunless Skies guest writers and has written an exquisite and horrifying journey with an Incognito Princess!



Other officers becoming available in this update include the fiercely competent (and fiercely adorable) Rat Brigade and the brooding Repentant Devil, written by James Chew and Emily Short, respectively. Our next build in July will also introduce the Incautious Driver.



You may find them milling about both The Reach and Albion. As officer stories stretch across multiple regions, not all these stories can currently be completed - but as the game expands, more of them will open up.

It is now the Perfect Pangolin’s true time to shine - new mascots have arrived! Though, you’ll have to wait to meet our Perfect Pangolin in Eleutheria.



Alongside her Magnificence, the other more available mascots include the Kickstarter-exclusive Obviously Delicious Rabbit, as well as the Inadvisably Big Dog, and the Useless Cat. The canine and feline mascots can be picked up at certain locations depending on your stats.



Locomotive equipment has received a substantial overhaul, with stats, requirements and costs changing. About a dozen new pieces of equipment have been added, including the Wit & Vinegar Winch and Pully, Lamellared Sky-Steel plating, a Gleaming Galley, and Sensible Plumbing.

All the locomotives now handle differently, from the lumbering Pellinore to the nimble Parzival, which rewards the skilled player with precious maneuverability in a fight.

You'll also find two new locomotive models available:the Agravain-class juggernaut (a lighter, more versatile version of London's dreadnoughts), and the Medea-class destroyer (an experimental engine, the product of exiled genius). The Agravain is available immediately, but you'll have to wait for the next build for the Medea, as it lies in Eleutheria.



Higher-tiered levels of the shotgun, rapid-fire and project weapons are now available! Shoot your enemies with even more efficiency and power. We recommend the Cotterell & Hathersage Golgonooza:

"What immortal hand or eye, dare frame thy fearful symmetry?" The pride and terror of Cotterell & Hathersage, colloquially known as 'the Finisher'. Its recoil is never forgotten by those who fire her. The opinion of those fired upon is best sourced through a good medium.



Mark your diaries for upcoming terror and dread, as our next build release will be Eleutheria, the third region of the High Wilderness! In Mid-July expect a whole new spooky region to explore; new, nightmarish agents, and improved survival mechanics (you'll need them).



This FBG Podcast we’re trying something different! Join us on FuzzyFreaks’ channel Friday 8th June at 13:30 BST, where she’ll be trying out the latest build. A few of us will be on voice chat and we’re sure many other Failbetterers will tag along in the Twitch chat too! Fuzzy often streams for 6+ hours too, so there’s plenty of chances to catch the stream live.