Collective thread about useful infos, tips and know how

[Foxman]

This will be a collection thread about useful info and stuff related to the game.

- [Slave Slot 1 is for AutoSave function]. You can save there manually but the autosave (if you enabled it in the options) will overwrite it again. btw. using autosave is recommend because it works very fine and saves you for lost your game.

- [SOS Service] dont forget enough money when you explore the high sea. The refuel service on high sea is not for free.

...to be continued

[marmacc]

A few new starters (as well as old players ) have asked for advice and tips on how to start a successful game.

In my experience, two factors are important. Firstly, effectiveness. You can compare your performance best in the Hall of Fame. Fewer miles per vern and more experience points than other players tell you how effectively you play. Secondly, you need to fully understand the mechanics and possibilities the game has to offer you. Start the game in Story Mode, this will help you make a smooth transition into a successful trader.

In detail:

- first, invest all you have in cargo space and earn first money with that.
- buy a new vessel as soon as possible. But have enough money set aside for new cargo modules and to buy goods so that you can start right away with a full load.
- never ever travel with an empty hold. Fill the remaining space with other goods that will sell best in other cities.
- never exceed the contract performance deadline, the penalty cost is high.
- avoid problems with the police; buy a wholesaler license to carry 40+ tons without penalties.
- buy a new motor ASAP and tune it, this will help you fulfill your contracts on time.
- improve the strength of your hull, this will allow you to visit cities that are located deeper.
- explore the world ASAP to discover all the cities that your present vessel can reach. This will greatly expand your routes. You'll be able to transport goods not only between Hamburg and Paris but also from Stockholm/Old Danzig to Alexandria, etc. Take different contracts between different cities.
- take also long distances and use the refueling service at sea. Fulfilled contracts are always worth such an expense.
- have very good contract management. Take as many contracts as possible. Always have a wholesaler license. Apart from 40+ tons, it will also let you take one additional contract.
- use all save slots (including the remote server if you play online), that's the best protection against bad decisions or if you miss something.
- mining is a very good supplement to earning good money and also serves as a change from the monotonous sailing between cities.
- work on your good reputation by fulfilling contracts and/or tasks taken from NPCs.
- talking again and again to NPCs is very important. They may offer you a delivery task without time pressure.
- optional: I have (at the start) a handwritten list of all cities I discovered and the goods they produce. This allowed me to calculate the best possible route and time frame.

To be continued...

I hope this will help you make a successful start in the world of Aquabyss. CU at the top of the Hall of Fame

[Aged Code]

Excellent tips, Marc! Thank you for sharing them with us

[Reth]

Thank you for these tips. Playing for a few hours now and reached level 2 with +83 reputation (?). But still nobody is telling me his/her name despite spending everything that is possible for every guest in every bar. Sometimes I even waited hours for new guests to appear.
Also there is no possibility yet for a new ship nor a better engine or hull (more than 70.000 verns available).

What is the average level, money, reputation or level necessary to get a better ship or at least a better engine?

[Cyrano]

Well, quite a bit outdated, but for all other players who are also confused on these matters (validated up to version 0.98.52):

There are (apart from the most obvious "level caps") "reputation caps" and "attitude caps" for NPCs; think of them as gatekeepers for certain stages of progression.
If you can talk to them (= not dismissed at even your first approach), you already have reached their first reputation cap.
So, in these cases, general communication isn't a matter of mere reputation anymore (although NPCs may have another, higher reputation cap for most personal matters, e.g. personal quests).
And as every NPC gets his characteristics rolled at the very start of your very own started game, there will also be quite a bunch of them who
a) may have a higher personal attitude cap than other NPCs to say their name, reveal their profession etc. (= deeper interactions) and/or
b) just may start with a personal attitude too low towards you to do so.
So you may have to get them preferred drinks, food, news and personal presents quite many times - and days! - over to befriend them.
The one exeptions to this rule are bartenders, whom you can adress freely anytime (but even they may have a cap for personal quests).

All local NPCs arrive at the bar after their work shift once a day and leave again for their work shift and therefor mostly remain for "only" 10 or 14 hours at the bar (depends on the duration of their complementary work shift which may vary from city to city).
Exeptions from this rule are bartenders (they stay 24/7 in their bar) and police officers, who seem to be a bit more reluctant to show up in bars, and - if given - scripted story events for NPCs (but even then a local NPC typically will resume his normal routine on the next day).
Any non local NPCs, almost only NPC-Captains of other submarines, will show up very rarely and inconsistently, but may hang around for days, then.

There are "class restrictions" for equipment and "level restrictions" for submarines and equipment; again these function as gatekeepers.
Engines or hulls as any other equipment for submarines mainly refer to "classes".
And those correspond to the certain submarine class, from prawn = class 1 up to Barracuda = class 9 (although the submarine class itself is rarely stated explicitely). Any equipment that should exceed "class 9" is still covered by a Barracuda (since it's the best submarine available).
And then these said submarine classes are indeed linked to player levels and therefor to xp (quite linear in the beginning, but more level demanding in the end).
At last equipment can also have an explicit level restriction (= player level) on top, although that's barely of importance, because most times the submarine class already covers the highest cap (mostly best equipment for Barracudas has even higher level restrictions, e.g. level 18).
Finally you need to know where to get your stuff and you need to be able to descend into the very depths of the few cities that offer it.
If you're too mesmerized by this explanation, just follow the thumb rule of "the subs (1-9) rule them all".
Those are in detail: Prawn, Medusa, Crab, Seahorse, Starfish, Crawfish, Belone, Cuttlefish and Barracuda (Sawfish and Calmar are mere pirate classes).

[Aged Code]

Very nice tips, Captain Cyrano!

I’d like to take this opportunity to announce an upcoming change that also introduces a new feature.

From the very beginning, the code was designed to support expanding NPC behaviour. However, this feature was never fully developed, as other pressing matters took priority.

Up until now, making friends with an NPC simply required repeatedly offering them things they like. This method wasn’t originally planned — it was only implemented due to time constraints before release. And so, it remained.

The upcoming system will be much more complex, aligning with the original vision. Most NPCs have friendships with others, which you might have noticed when taking delivery side quests. Though never explicitly explained, these deliveries are not entirely random. Every time an NPC says, "I'd like you to deliver [article name] to [recipient] in [city name]," both the quest-giver and the recipient are actually friends. This is an active part of the dormant NPC relationship code.

So, what’s changing? According to the original idea, if you befriend someone who happens to be an enemy of an NPC you've already befriended, this will impact your relationship with the latter — and may even result in losing their friendship completely. It will be up to you to decide whom to stay friends with and whom to distance yourself from. This will also lead to NPCs developing neutral, reluctant, or even hostile attitudes toward you.

Another significant change concerns maintaining friendships. The current system of "once a friend, always a friend" will no longer apply. Just like in real life, friendships can weaken over time. If you don’t actively nurture a friendship, it will gradually fade, eventually returning to a neutral state.

I hope you’ll like these changes, as they will make this aspect of the game even more engaging.

When can we expect this change? Definitely not very soon. Other aspects of the game currently have a higher priority. But once they are addressed, this long-carried foetus will finally be born.

If you have any suggestions (or concerns), feel free to comment.

[Cyrano]

Thank you for your early announcement to wake this part of the game from its long-time slumber, Piotr!
But I fear for quite grave balancing problems.
Interactions with and befriending of NPCs in bars are very nice and satisfying and meaningful at the beginning of the game, but just after a while it turns out as a more atmospheric goodie than a great (and scaling!) way of making money, xp and progress itself.

Almost only NPCs who can mod your submarine equipment remain relatively attractive; and even then it's only temporarily worthwhile to buff a friendship, because you don't "need" certain NPCs later "anymore" (well, related to NPCs and not people in rl, of course ).
Let's take Birgit in Hamburg as an example. She works at the shipyard in Hamburg and can buff your equipment for your Seahorse.
Once you go ahead and have aquired a Starfish, you never look back anymore for anyone who enhances stuff for Seahorses.
Moreover till you don't plan to advance to the almighty Barracuda, you won't be specifically interested in the Barracuda-NPC in Old York, neither (and even less given the fact that this once and/or "prematurely" built friendship would either decay over time or need constant nurturing and therefor a kind of uphold cost).

I totally understand the concept and meaning of decaying friendships - and would like to like it.
But if you implement these on top of an already very "fragile" added value for players to build up and invest into good and best relations to NPCs, then they will get obsolete for even interested players or even perfectionists like me.
Although with regret I would pump only relations to shipyard NPCs who benefit my current or next submarine class, and even then I would do this "just in time" to escape any later "decaying malus" (apart from letting the friendship decline afterwards to avoid said uphold costs, anyway).
And as it is already a kind of herculean and idle task to befriend all NPCs in the game - if you should be up to it as an atmosphere liking player like me -, the "decaying game" kills any meaning to pursue such an only enclosed aspect of the game, especially spoken in terms of wordwidely built up friendships.
Furthermore satisfying and immersive feelings, like returning to an old acquainted city full of hard-earned old friends after years of absence because of having sailed other corners of the whole seven seas for a long time, would die on top.
All friends and chummers of the past are back to neutral and pretend to be unknown to me just like at the start of the game? What a bummer!

And although there are only a handful of LPs for Aquabyss around on YouTube, even these few show drastically, that players neglect relation building of NPCs more and more after they were quite interested in this aspect of the game initially, anyway.
And that counts already for the status quo - and not for any future "decaying bummer" on top.

So it's hard to give a constructive advice on this matter, but here are my two verns:
Don't wake the "decaying factor" from its coded slumber as it would bereft a nice side aspect of this game of its last and lasting meaningful surplus.
Moreover: I can't imagine any constructive implementation of this debuff as it just hits and punishes only players who interact deeplier with NPCs - while careless players even profit from this "decay" in a competitive way as they haven't "dumbed" so many efforts, real and ingame time and quite some verns into now "decayed friendships over time".
But implement the friend/foe system; maybe a little defused, so it would take twice or thrice the effort to bond with both NPCs (or whole networks of them) who disdain each other at the same time?

Thank you for your hard and enduring work on this precious little gem of a game!

p.s.
To further strenghten the aspect of relations to NPCs: you could expand the list of "alltime best players" with a decidedly point system.
The number of made friendships in the game could count for this point system just as quite some other more symbolic aspects of the game, too (such as e.g. visited and known cities or the number of fulfilled contracts or even so far undocumented fulfilled personal quests).
So the sum of all accumulated points but not the highest player level (which would, of course, result in more points, too) would define the ranking and encourage players to pursue much more goals in the game than until now.

[Aged Code]

Thank you, Captain Cyrano, for your valuable input. Rest assured, none of your concerns will be ignored — I understand them perfectly.

Before I address your points, I want to emphasize that none of the features (including those added during the closed beta test) have been forcibly introduced against the will of the players. There will be no exceptions — unless a change is necessary for security reasons or to fix an exploit, as has already happened a few times.

Decaying Friendship
You are absolutely right — great effort put into befriending NPCs should never feel like a punishment. That was never my intention, but I now see how it could be perceived that way. So here’s my proposed solution:

Instead of an NPC’s friendship value dropping all the way to neutral over time, it would only decrease to the point where they remain friendly but are just one point away from neutral. They will still consider the player a friend, but this friendship will be fragile — any negative action by the player could immediately tip the balance.

I believe this is a fair compromise, but I’m open to other arguments.

This same approach would also apply to the "Your Friend is My Friend, Your Enemy is My Enemy" mechanic. Instead of fully shifting to neutrality, the friendship value would again drop to just one point above neutral, keeping them friendly but on shaky ground.

All-Time Achievements – New Entry
The number of friendly and hostile NPCs can certainly be added, and I must admit it would be very interesting to compare. However, it won’t contribute to the point system — simply because we don’t have one. The ranking is based on experience points.

We discussed this a long time ago, and no one could come up with a meaningful point system that would work for ranking beyond XP. I’m open to suggestions, but I’d recommend waiting until all the planned features are implemented. I believe they will change the way we perceive the rankings as they currently stand.

[Cyrano]

Sorry for my quite delayed response!
Yes, that's a good compromise for "decaying friendships"!
And it's a good way to add "friendly and hostile NPCs" to the all-time achievements, so they may function as another type of "b-grade".
But - reluctantly spoken as the devil's advocate - this hints out another question:
Wether there is any difference in "lowest friendly leveled NPCs" and "highest friendly leveled NPCs" in regard to their output in accessability, reaction, quest giving, pricing etc at all?
I mean there's at last a range of 30 points or more between having a NPC "friendly" with just one point above neutral and having another one "friendly" with almost maxed out points?
(At least if the "relation barometer" has a range of about 0-100 and if the certain beams should respectively indicate 30, 40, 50 and so on.)

On the matter of a ranking that's based on xp:
I'm ok with that, but I would just prefer at least a bit more transparency of the "big three" - as all three of them are the crucial markers of success in this game (and as there are different strategies to focus mostly only on one of them):
- Level and thus xp are straightly shown (hunt for everything that gives you most xp).
- Most earned verns? That's only measurable in terms of real success, if you use the formula "verns : distance travelled" (to get the verns per nautic mile ratio).
- Relative and absolute stage of your game and therefor success?
The game has a hard coded end as far as I am informed (sowewhat in the end of 1898 or in the year of 1899).
And although you can speculate on each player's ingame date by using the "distance travelled" as a vague indicator - and this is really mostly vague as someone could have e.g. either pumped or neglected the skill "navigation" - you don't know if someones ranking is earned e.g. up to the year of 1875 (with quite massive ingame time leftover) or e.g. 1897 (and therefor just one year ahead of the end of the game).

Well, I'm ok with calculating the "verns per nautic mile" ratio inofficially and by myself (and even like that, tbh).
But - even though I don't want to see the all-time acchievements be flooded by "b-grades" - it would be helpful, if the respective ingame time of the player could be listed there, too (even if the "endless mode" should be really endless and the game shouldn't end sometime in 1899).

So far thank you for all your replies and your sympathy for players' concerns!
And my great admiration for marmacc for climbing level 31 lately (even if DaMi's verns per nautic mile ratio is disgustingly intimidating, too, hehe).

[Aged Code]

Wether there is any difference in "lowest friendly leveled NPCs" and "highest friendly leveled NPCs" in regard to their output in accessability, reaction, quest giving, pricing etc at all?

At the moment, no. But it will matter when this aspect is expanded. But it's too early to say what the real impact will be like.

The game has a hard coded end as far as I am informed (sowewhat in the end of 1898 or in the year of 1899).

That's related only to the story mode. The game itself is limit-free.

it would be helpful, if the respective ingame time of the player could be listed there, too

Well, that's an interesting idea but very much controversial. I guess not everyone would like to share that information. And if we make it optional, then it cannot be considered.

With all that said, we'll have to wait until all (or at least most) of the planned features are implemented. Then we'll have more data to consider. But I believe we'll come up with something.