Matewis: Yeah, but you know I kind of prefer it this way for Sunless Sea. A major part of the appeal for me is the atmosphere, and the brutality of the world plays into that for me. It's tense, but also exciting exploring all the island events with that backdrop of fear/uncertainty. To be fair though, I don't know if this is also your impression and if I'm remembering this correctly: Those deadly terror events don't tend to drop out of the blue (or black rather). E.g. that deep pit you can descend into on that post-office-island-thing. It's kind of to be expected that something very bad can happen, so I make sure that I have enough supplies on me before I try. Just for in case :)
I'm totally onboard with the mood they created for the game, but after losing
18 captains and tons of progress, having to restart and do everything all over again is starting to irritate me. Hell, I almost quit yesterday after losing my last few hit points to a tiny Jellyfish that was aggroing me.
As for the major Terror events, here's the most ridiculous example I can remember. During my first few playthroughs, meeting the Commodore at Zelo's Town went pleasantly enough. Suddenly, on a different playthrough, talking to him got me +20 something Terror (which ended my game shortly thereafter). According to the wiki, there's a 30% chance that the dialogue will give you +25 Terror. Maybe it has storyline implications, but I just think it's bullshit. That is a far cry from, say, choosing to explore a creepy-looking pit when your protective stat is only 22%.
