Watch the launch trailer on YouTube

We hope you are as excited for the full release as we are! We'll be going live at 1800 GMT on 31st January with the launch update, which includes The Blue Kingdom region and a host of fixes, updates and stories.




At the same time, the SUNLESS SKIES 10k Challenge goes live! We're donating £1 to SpecialEffect for every minute of SUNLESS SKIES streamed in the 24 hours after launch.

Find a streamer who is taking part by searching twitter for #sunlessskies10k. We hope you'll show them support and help us raise some much-needed funds for a great cause!

Until next Thursday, we remain your friends,

Failbetter Games

The Failbetter office is slowly winding down for the holidays—our last little revitalising break before LAUNCH(!)—but before we snarf many a minced pie here’s our exciting COMMANDER update!

This release features:

• a huge new UI update
  
• all remaining player weapons
  
• updated docking mechanics
  
• and SMUGGLING[/list[
  IMPORTANT NOTE: Please remember to we're no longer supporting save files older than the SURVIVAL build so please check this info thread for instructions
  
  You’ll also notice we’ve upgraded the SUNLESS SKIES branding with a fancy new logo and delicious hero art! This has been an industrious journey and on the part of Paul, Tobias, John, Haley and Hannah who combined their art, design and marketing powers on this one.
  
  
  
  SUNLESS SKIES will launch on 31 JANUARY 2019. We’re almost there! Thank you in advance to all our amazing backers and community members who’ve helped us along the way. In this final stretch we really appreciate any shares or word of mouth recommendations. Wishlisting the game will help us on this last push to launch!
  
  And if you’re looking to be part of all our launch activities, your best bet is to join our Discord, where we’ll be sharing plenty of tantalisingly secret things on the run up to the big day.
  
  
  
  Improved UI
  
  
  
  After our revamp of the Character Creation screens, the Reach update and throughout the evolution of the game’s branding, we felt that the UI within the game no longer matched SUNLESS SKIES’ general aesthetic. And we wanted to improve the experience of reading our stories, which is after all a core part of the game experience.
  
  
  
  Our artist Tobias is behind this beautiful update to our user interface and HUD. If you’re keen to learn more about our sources for inspiration, Tobias is writing up a design blog all about his UI work! After designing an entire new framework he worked closely with our programmers Barry and Liam to implement it in the game.
  
  
  
  It’s no small feat to get the new UI working for the mouse and keyboard controls, and syncing it up to work with game controllers added an extra layer of difficulty. We’ll be continuing to tweak and finesse the control functionality through till launch, so if you experience any weirdness, please check out our How to Report a Bug page.
  
  
  
  If you’re interested in a little tour of the new UI, check out our stream from last week.
  
  
  All Remaining Player Weapons
  
  There are two new types of player weapon available in shops: mines and rockets. Mines detonate when anything—player included, so watch out—enters their proximity zone. Rockets can be detonated remotely by a second press of the fire button.
  
  
  
  There are two versions of each new weapon type. The rockets are the Portsmouth House 'Albertine Candle' and the Portsmouth House 'Her Renewed Majesty's Jubilee,’ while the mines are the Wit & Vinegar 'Sneeze-Lurker', Wit & Vinegar 'Zounderkite'.
  
  There are also several powerful new exotic weapons hidden within the game. We can’t wait until you find them…
  
  
  Updated Docking
  
  As much as we enjoy watching all the dastardly ways players attempt to dock, we've added some improved functionality.
  
  You'll now need to use the 'R' command to officially dock at a port. This will then steer your locomotive into the appropriate position and open the port's info panel.
  
  
  
  
  New Content
  
  Our writers have been simultaneously working on Blue Kingdom content as well as weaving together and finalising stories across all four regions of the High Wilderness.
  
  Included in that was quite a bit of officer work including the Clay Conductor and two upcoming Blue Kingdom officers; the Forged Companion and Felined Eccentric.
  
  The Wealth ambition received some final adjustments and you can now retire in Eleutheria! Our Narrative Director Chris Gardiner has been furiously typing away at the last ambition, entitled The Stars are Dying—which will be available at launch.
  
  
  Smuggling
  
  We’re sure a few of you have been waiting very earnestly for this one! This was one of our stretch goals on the Kickstarter for SUNLESS SKIES and we’re excited to offer MORE opportunities for nefarious deeds in the High Wilderness.
  
  Those wishing to earn a bit of extra cash will have to season their captains first, as Smuggling won't be available until mid-game. To begin a dangerous pirate lifestyle, keep your eye out for the Gloomy Middleman in London. Beginning this quest will lead you to a familiar face who'll be more than happy to teach you the ropes.
  
  If your captain has Villainy 3+ or Veils 40+, you maybe be approached by the Gloomy Middleman directly. Or, if you've found and turned in contraband, you can look into smuggling yourself.
  
  
  
  Once unlocked, items considered Contraband will appear in one shop per region across the Reach, Albion and Eleutheria, and will require you to pay attention to Prospects to make a profit.
  
  With Smuggling comes a new type of equipment for your locomotive—Hidden Compartments. Use these to stow away any unsavory Contraband in case Customs comes sniffing around.
  
  
  STREAMS
  
  
  
  Tonight at 16:00 GMT FuzzyFreaks will be diving into the High Wilderness to explore the COMMANDER build! Join her for chats with a few of our developers like Tobias and Barry, as well as general hijinx and shenanigans.
  
  
  
  We've also announced our SUNLESS SKIES 10K STREAM CHALLENGE, a charity event for streamers and their communities.
  
  We’re going to donate £1 to gamer charity SpecialEffect per minute of SUNLESS SKIES streamed in the first 24 hours after launch!
  
  The maximum donation will be £10,000 – hence the 10k challenge! That’s about 166 hours of streamed content packed into a day… think we can do it?
  
  Streamers who'd like to get involved can check out the streamer pack, which is full instructions and all of the information and resources you’ll need to take part.
  We hope you’ll join in, help us get the word out about SUNLESS SKIES and support an incredible charity at the same time!
  
  
  Festive Fallen London
  
  This time of year our free browser game, Fallen London, is full of festive (and not at all frightening) cheer. Rejoice in a special Advent reward each day until Christmas, send Christmas cards to friends or enemies, or uncover what all this bloody lacre is all about this holiday season.
  
  And on this very day, a new festive premium story by Cass Khaw will become available for purchase in Fallen London. The Ceremony is a festive tale of rubbery romance.
  
  
  Winter Sales
  
  
  
  Our games are made for long winter nights. This winterval enjoy Sunless Sea and Sunless Skies, which will be on sale across all our platforms!
  
  Sunless Sea: Zubmariner Edition is currently 40% off in North America.
  
  And both Sunless Sea, Zubmariner and Sunless Skies are currently on sale on GOG.
  
  Stay tuned for more sales as the holidays approach, and we’ll see you in January!
  
  Fervent wishes for festive joy to you and all of yours,
  Your friends,
  Failbetter Games

Build Version: Commander update. 1.1.7.4.f187636
Release Date: 19/12/2018
Known Issues


Greetings Skyfarers. This is our last Early Access update before launch in January. We're now entering a busy period of polish and bug fixing in the run up to launch. There are several things you can do to help us between now and the big day.

• Wishlist the game to help us get noticed
  
• Keep an eye on our social media channels for updates. We’ve got a lot of different things for you to get involved in leading up to the big day
  
• If you’re currently playing then please consider leaving a review. We want honest, constructive feedback, and of course revisiting your review once we leave Early Access is always helpful
  
• Continue to be patient with us. There are a lot of outstanding bugs and we need to knuckle down now and fix these before launch
  
• If you find a bug, please take time to read the Known Issues list before sending a report in to us (this will be fully updated by the end of the day). We don't list every single bug in game for multiple reasons, but the vast majority of issues you may encounter are listed. Responding to tickets about known bugs is a huge drain on the resources of our small team. Similarly, please take the time to read the Bug Reporting page so you know what information to include in your reports.

Finally, a massive thank you to all our Early Access players who have helped us with feedback and bugs, especially those who do read the Known Issues and Bug Reporting pages. Special shout outs to those who have been tireless in their typo hunting efforts too. You know who you are.


Before we delve into the details of new features, there are a couple of important things we need our player base to be aware of:

• A small feature has been introduced to the build ahead of its scheduled time. The Tower of Chimes Wonder is now interactable (like Regent’s Grave), but the content for it is not ready just yet. If you pass over it then you’ll see an interface pop up warning you that you are not eligible for the event. Unfortunately this will lock up your UI, but there is a workaround. Simply dock at a Station and play through any branch to unlock the UI.
  
• After using a Transit Relay, you now have to press R to undock yourself before you can move away. At the moment this is not very intuitive as the prompt will say ‘Interact’. The same applies if you close the Storylet after interacting with a Transit Relay and deciding to remain in your current region. While Transit Relays look like regular docks, they actually function differently. We had to make some recent changes in order to take account of the new docking mechanics, but we need more time to implement a proper solution to the Transit Relays.
  
• There are quite a lot of outstanding minor interface bugs, and a large number related to controller support. Redesigning the UI was a massive undertaking. While it might look like we just moved things around and made them look pretty, there’s actually a lot of functionality changes under the hood. We’ve caught a huge amount of game breaking issues that resulted from the rework, but the sheer volume of new issues has meant that a lot have had to be pushed back into the polish phase that we are now entering. If experiencing bugs frustrates you then we encourage you to either defer playing until launch or to stick to mouse controls for now.
  
• We highly recommend restoring default controls from the Options menu. This will allow you to get the latest changes to the controls (which don’t update automatically with each new build), particularly for controllers. If you then wish to alter them to your previous/preferred settings you can do so.

Now for the new stuff…



Complete UI redesign
Our user interface has been completely reworked and it's not just a visual change, there are some pretty big functional changes too which we will details below.

Storylets

• We’re famous for our writing, so our stories need to be easy to read and the main focus on the screen. Because of this Storylets now open in the centre panel.
  
• Within Storylets, the branch results remain on the page and scroll upwards before revealing the next set of choices available to you. This will allow you to look back on the decisions you've made and their outcomes.
  
• Locked branches are more easy to spot with their muted titles and quality requirement icons.
  
• The port index UI which displayed on the right of the screen when docking is now incorporated into the Storylet panel - mouse over the Storylet ambience artwork and the list will appear - you can switch between Stories and Shops and then select a relevant area to explore.
  
• While you can still grab and drag the Storylet interface with the mouse in order to navigate up and down, we’ve also added proper scroll bars which are much wider and easier to select.

Side Panels

• The icons for the side panels have moved to the right of the screen and the interfaces themselves now open on the right. When opened at the same time as a centre panel, they bump it over to the left slightly.
  
• You can no longer open two side panels at the same time as there is no functional need for this. The panels are easy to flick between using the icons or the arrows at the top of the panel.
  
• The Hold interface has been split in two, you can switch between the Hold and your Possessions via the buttons at the top of this panel. Collectively they make up your Inventory.
  
• Sovereigns are now shown in the Hold rather than the Possessions (they are also shown on shop and bazaar interfaces).
  
• The functionality of all other sidebar panels (Profile, Journal, Officers) remains the same.
  
• You can now drag equipment into slots on your locomotive.
  
• Goods now stack in the Hold.

Engine yards

• Engine yards have had a makeover to make the information they contain easier to process. All locomotive stats, including slot details, are now listed along with details of how your current stats will be affected if you trade in.

Banks

• The bank interface now shows your Hold inventory and your bank storage side by side.
  
• Equipment no longer stacks in the bank, but this is a temporary solution to problems encountered with the redesign and will be reverted on launch.

Bazaar

• The bazaar remains mostly unchanged though prospects no longer disappear immediately after they are claimed.
  
• The bazaar interface now shows the number of days until prospects or bargains renew at a particular Station.

Shops

• If you have unlocked the Bank, you can now purchase items from shops directly into your bank storage. You can also sell items directly from your bank too.
  
• You can now purchase different types of items from shops at the same time.
  
• You can no longer purchase more items than have room for in your Hold from shops.

HUD

• The Officer and Survival HUD have been jazzed up, along with the heat bar and side panel bar.
  
• The Terror bar on the Survival HUD no longer indicates varying rates of Terror gain. This will be fixed for launch.
  
• Weapons do not fire when the cursor is over the an interface, including the heat bar. Keep this in mind if your weapons appear not to work (an exception are the rockets and the Wrath of Heaven which will be fixed in the next update).

Graphics settings

• Now the final UI is in place we have made the decision to support a 16:9 aspect ratio only, so now the only resolutions available in game are those that support 16:9. We understand some players will be disappointed we are not supporting 5:4, 4:3, 3:2 etc, but we need to maintain a consistent look and experience over all our interfaces which we simply couldn’t do across varying aspect ratios. If your monitor does not support resolutions with a 16:9 aspect ratio then you'll need to play in windowed mode, rather than full screen to avoid issues with the UI. Alternatively, change the settings on your graphics cards to allow scaling. This will add black bars to the game but will allow you to enjoy it in full screen mode.
  
• For the same reason, we’ve removed the option to scale the UI independently. It now scales automatically with your resolution.
  
• 4k monitors are now supported.
  
• We’ve removed the option to adjust Font size independently via a sliding scale. Instead we now offer two font size options Standard and Large. We are aware of several places where the font either does not scale or it overflows interfaces on set to Large. We are working to resolve all cases where this occurs in time for launch.

Other UI changes

• New title screen.
  
• New loading screen.
  
• The Death and Legacy screen have been spruced up.

What’s not been updated
Implementing the new UI was a much bigger job than we had anticipated so we had to descope the interface updates for the Commander release. Here’s a list of things that we’ve not updated.

• Character Creation.
  
• Character Progression.
  
• The Chart.
  
• Various buttons such as those on the jettison interface.
  
• The Date is still not present on any of the interfaces - be patient, it’s coming.

Docking Rework
Docking is no longer automatic but activated by a prompt [R] - you will need to ensure your steering is good and you come in at the right angle. Once activated your locomotive will be pulled in and the Station’s Storylet will open automatically.

The port index UI which previously displayed on the right of the screen when docking is now incorporated into the Storylet panel - mouse over the Storylet ambience artwork and the list will appear - you can switch between Stories and Shops and then select a relevant area to explore.

Closing the Station’s slet will not undock you, you need to press R again to undock (or W to move forward and break the docking clamps). If you accidentally close the slet but want to access it again, you will need to undock and redock. This is not particularly user friendly at the moment and we have plans to alter this in future.

While Agents can still enter docks at the moment, if you kill them while they are in dock their loot drops are now accessible. Agents will also zero their wrath once you are docked, meaning no more death at Stations.


Smuggling
Speak to the Gloomy Middleman at London to begin a quest to unlock Smuggling. This is mid game content and you’ll either need Veils at 40 or Villainy at 3 to access it.

Once the quest is complete you’ll be able to start smuggling contraband between regions by picking up special smuggling prospects at select Stations and Platforms. While you can have a maximum of four regular prospects, you can only have up to two smuggling prospects on the go. These take up regular prospect slots in your Hold, so while you can have a combination of regular and smuggling, you can only take on a total of four prospects at any one time.

Contraband can be sourced from smuggling shops found at the same Stations and Platforms where you obtain smuggling prospects, and occasionally from Agent loot drops. The new contraband items are:

• Firkin of Red Honey (produced in the Reach).
  
• Hogshead of Starshine (sourced in Eleutheria).
  
• Trunk of Illicit Literature (acquired in Albion).

Selling a contraband item from the region from which it is sourced will result in a substantial loss of Sovereigns. Selling them in other regions will result in a small profit, but prospects are where the real money is to be made.

Each unit of contraband you carry increases a quality called Contraband (found in the Possessions interface under Smuggling) and takes up hold space. Stashing them openly in your Hold makes them rather easy to spot by customs, who will promptly confiscate them. However, equipment is available to help with this.

There are now seven pieces of locomotive equipment in game (some new, some existing) which grant the Hidden Compartments quality. When you have this quality a new bar will appear on your Hold underneath the Hold capacity bar. This quality does not increase your maximum Hold space, but it does provide secret places in which to stash your illegal goods. If your Contraband quality is higher than your Hidden Compartments quality then you are more likely to have items seized by the Revenue Man. If Contraband is lower than Hidden Compartments then your captain may be particularly savvy at finding ways to sneak things through customs.

Be warned, smuggling can be a very dangerous business. If you are caught by customs one too many times you will be arrested, and smuggling trials often have fatal consequences for unlucky Sky Captains.


New Weapons
The last of the weapons have finally arrived; rockets, mines and exotics.

Mines
Mines are explosive charges that you can deploy behind your locomotive. Wit & Vinegar manufacture two variants, the ‘Sneeze-Lurker’ and the ‘Zounderkite’.

Both mines have slight arcing abilities and will detonate when they collide with something or when something enters their proximity zone, including you, so be careful when deploying them. Mines deal both collision and blast damage so really pack a punch.

Rockets
Portsmouth House have created two rockets, the ‘Albertine Candle’ and ‘Her Renewed Majesty’s Jubilee’. Both are large weapons which can only be equipped to large armament slots on certain ships (Parsival, Agravain, Altani, Moloch, Medea).

Once deployed you can either let the rockets reach their destination, or set the them off early by pressing the fire button again. Like the mines, the rockets deal blast and collision damage and the Jubilee also arcs towards enemies.

Exotics
Exotic weapons are obtained from rare loot drops of specific agents. All but the Mangonel are large weapons so will need to be fitted to a large armament slot. The exotic weapons are:

• Reclaimed Marauder Mangonel - obtained from Reach Marauders.
  
• The Uninvited - acquired from The Guests.
  
• The Tears of Astolat - found by defeating Deranged Dreadnoughts.
  
• The Wrath of Heaven - sourced from Scorn Flukes.

Details of tier, slot and quality requirements for all weapons and equipment can now be found on their tooltips. Weapon tooltips also detail damage, range and heat values. Rockets, mines and The Wrath of Heaven all deal blast damage on top of collision damage, however this is not yet reflected on their tooltips.

• The Phlegmatic Researcher’s quest at Leadbeater and Stainrod have been reworked and now offer higher rewards.
  
• Goods (and Contraband) now stack in the Hold.
  
• Item weights are now shown on tooltips.
  
• Several pieces of locomotive equipment have moved to different shops.
  
• The Golgonooza and Saintfire are now large weapons.
  
• There are two new pieces of equipment: Concealed Cavities and Hidden Hold. Both grant the Hidden Compartments which aid smuggling.
  
• The Pluto Miniature Law-Furnace, Wit & Vinegar Hewing & Sawing Device, Armoire of Mr Gray, Expansive Wardrobe and Contentable Cabins now grant Hidden Compartments, but have also had their other stats adjusted to compensate. You may find your Quarters or Hold slightly lower the next time you log in.
  
• Armoire of Mr Gray and the Expansive Wardrobe have been renamed to Mechanical Turk and Cabinet of Curiosities respectively.

As mentioned above there are a lot of outstanding bugs in this build related to the new features, particularly those related to controller support. Please see our Known Issues page for the full list.

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

• You now lose Crew on a narrow success of Deranged Dreadnought loot Storylet rather than gain it.
  
• The Crown & Misery Pneumatic Mining Array now has the correct colour icon for its tier.
  
• All branch results at the Albion-Reach Transit Relay now move you to the Reach.
  
• The Main Menu no longer displays over the top of the Facet UI.
  
• The Main Menu can no longer be accessed while the loading screen is displayed.
  
• You can no longer hear engine strafe/turn noises when pressing A, D, Q or E in dock.
  
• The camera no longer snaps to the centre of the screen when starting a new game or passing on a legacy.
  
• You will no longer see erroneous text when moving between shops.
  
• Highlighting is now consistent across all side bar interfaces.
  
• The auto-docking sequence now completes before Must Events fire.
  
• Quality quantity numbers are now consistent throughout all interfaces.
  
• The minus sign next to Sovereigns in the Bazaar interface no longer changes to a plus sign when purchasing Bargains.
  
• We fixed an issue where the text in Journal could become misaligned when expanding and contracting the Journal entries.
  
• The navigation panels will no longer become stuck in the middle of the screen.
  
• Terror gained in Storylets now displays on the HUD immediately.
  
• We've fixed an issue with blurry text on the Storylet panel.
  
• The Storylet ambience will no longer remain on screen when returning to the title screen.
  
• The Port index UI no longer remains on screen when exiting a dock.
  
• We have the fixed the graphical flickering on interfaces seen when changing the UI scale. If you see any further instances of this then please send us a report and let us know the resolution you are using.
  
• Hull is once again updated immediately on the HUD when making repairs via Storylets.
  
• The Spatchcock, Parzival and Altani now have correct resale values.
  
• Backspace now allows your to delete characters when naming your captain or your locomotive.
  
• The Graphics menu now remembers the resolution you have the game set to.
  
• The jettison interface can no longer appear over the top of the Chart.
  
• The main menu can no longer be brought up on the character creation screen.
  
• We've added a confirmation dialog when deleting save games from the Title Screen.
  
• You can no longer fire weapons when the Moment of Reflection screen is open after passing in a legacy.
  
• We’ve corrected more typos and grammatical errors in our content - thank you to those who continue to help us.

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.