Captain Inks' guide to Silt Skimming Survival

[Inks]

ARR me lads, so ye be wanting to explore the mysterious and fickle silt? Best be listening to this grizzled Captain with some spoiler-free guide, lest ye crew be damned to code jankiness.

If any of this has been fixed or altered since, I invite and implore imms to chime in.

This guide is completely to avoid any meta and ridiculous code deaths, and not in any way to ruin any mystery of the silt.

1. Look down - Not all rooms are clear whether they are shallow or deep, if you look down while seated on the skimmer and see either darkness or another room ((usually smothered in silt)) that is clearly a bad time. So keep all extremeties inside the skimmer until looking down where you depart.

2. You can't disembark in knee high or shoulder high silt, as well as other many shallow silt rooms the message says you will die, but you won't. I think this is a bug. In an emergency you CAN walk off the skimmer into an adjacent room. Now fixed.

3. Order of Captains - Whoever enters skimmer first is in captain position, second is second position, etc. If the captain is afk, unconcious, or dying, there is ZERO way to commandeer the skimmer and pilot it. Do not afk in position one. You can throw the captain off the skimmer, or if the captain otherwise leaves the skimmer, then position 2 is automatically the new captain. It is crazy janky and if you don't know this your whole crew can die an unrealistic death. If your captain is not in the first position the only way to have them control the skimmer is for everyone of higher positions disembark and re-enter until your pilot is at position 1.

4. Skimmers, like wagons, can pilot out of combat, so stay on the ball, Captain, there is no time to afk on the silt in position 1.

5. There is a rumor you can scramble for purchase in the silt if drowning. I can't confirm it at all, but worth a try? At least believing this will give you hope. Heheh.

6. Put bag/ tent/ whatever skimmer. No dropping. You won't be able to rent the skimmer with stuff on it so don't worry about forgetting it before renting.

May this guide from an old hand stop your unrealistic and silly code-based death in the silty Sea. Arr. Where are me buccaneers? On me buccin' head!

[Jihelu]

1: I'll preface this: I have no fucking idea if what I'm saying is 100% correct. My credentials are: I mapped out the entire silt sea.

If the room isn't described in terms of 'height' you probably will die in there. /Probably/, there are rooms farther out that you can walk in just fine but the l d thing is good advice. I'm not sure if there's a slim 'I fucked agility' roll of dying in a shoulder length or knee length room, but honestly I wouldn't walk around in those to begin with. If you are in a shoulder length room: You are like 1 bad direction sense from falling to your death. Also, nasty things like the deeper silt so get the fuck away from there if you aren't on a skimmer.

2: I found this out once, was weird. Was trying to explore [Redacted] but couldn't get off my fucking skimmer but I could enter the room off my skimmer? Was weird.

3: Good advice

4: To add to this: SKIMMERS ARE FAST AS FUCK
You can drift your way to safety if you know the route.
I want to see what master pilot + a macro could do, I assume you could get from the west to east side of the silt sea in like 3 minutes.

5: No idea, IIRC you just die instantly but don't @ me I could be lying.


Other tips to add:
Piloting doesn't require spare hands. At least, it doesn't as of now. You can flavor adjusting sails, ordering crew, etc, but I highly recommend having a weapon + shield out at all times. You'll be sitting and the minute something nasty comes in and attacks you and you get your ass handed to you because you decided it was more fun to emote with the rudder (Or penis) than your greatsword, everyone on that skimmer is fucked. I had a character with doo doo stats and no where near a combat class survive horror encounters on the regular. The only time I almost died, I didn't have a weapon out.

[Inks]

Would you mind removing the stuff about nasty things Jihelu? Is supposed to be 0 spoiler m8. Would appreciate.Thanks for contributing though much love <3

Great additions. I would just re-iterate there are many rooms that don't mention height whatsoever, follow the advice on looking down. Icly your PC is feeling about with their weapon to see if an area is shallow. I really do think it is a bug that stops you from disembarking in shallow silt.

[triste]

Love this, thank you. Played this game on and off for a decade and never skimmed because I heard rumors of the code being hard to navigate, 100% appreciate this.

[Pariah]

I know you can scramble and survive in deep rooms adjacent to walkable rooms.

I've direction sense failed and started falling to type up and scramble and stop myself.

Whether that works in silt with no ground around it? No idea.

[lostinspace]

All of this seems accurate as of the last couple months.
Unsure about inability to disembark in knee-high silt, didn't test it.

+1 on advice to have shield and weapon equiped, you're already sitting, you don't want to be unarmed as well.

[Jihelu]

The silt sea 'having nasty things' isn't a spoiler....there are things called 'silt horrors'.
Silt.
Horror.
It's in the name.

[Pariah]

The silt sea 'having nasty things' isn't a spoiler....there are things called 'silt horrors'.
Silt.
Horror.
It's in the name.

I remember the first time a Silt Lurker ran outta the sea. I panicked so hard and ran like a meklillot was on my tail.

Then I lost connection foraging on the sea and when I came back had two bodies of them at my feet and felt like a fool.

[Pariah]

I wish there was a way to get into silt skimming that didn't cost a metric ton of coins and lead to almost assured death.

[Narf]

I wish there was a way to get into silt skimming that didn't cost a metric ton of coins and lead to almost assured death.

Man, back when you could play "Merchant" as a class, your starting coin was enough to buy a cheap skimmer. And you started with pilot.

Doesn't really help with the assured death bit though.

[Jihelu]

With not poo poo forage you can spice forage enough for a skimmer in like...an IRL week? Assuming like 1-ish hours a day and you do more than just spice forage.

[oggotale]

With not poo poo forage you can spice forage enough for a skimmer in like...an IRL week? Assuming like 1-ish hours a day and you do more than just spice forage.

what is poo poo forage? the dung minigame is kind of "shitty" for coin.

[Pariah]

With not poo poo forage you can spice forage enough for a skimmer in like...an IRL week? Assuming like 1-ish hours a day and you do more than just spice forage.

what is poo poo forage? the dung minigame is kind of "shitty" for coin.

He means if your forage doesn't suck, you can forage yourself up some spice/salt enough to buy the skimmer.

[Inks]

It really is something you need to feel for IC. Back when I explored it last there were no living pcs with experience so was a lot of trial and error. Now there may or not be captains around. Joining someone else's crew (if they exist) is the best way to learn the ins and outs. Back then most of my PC's crew ended up being skimmer captains and knowing their way around. Good times out there, Kudos to those crew members you know who you are. 

Also Kudos to the random Stormers we recruited as a trip-by-trip temporary crew. Felt very Stormer to just walk into the tavern and hire anyone wanting to make some quick coins on one time trips. Felt like a real adventure as group trips into the unknown are in this world.

Involving other PCs in any exploration anywhere makes IC sense and allows others to enjoy/ die in a part of the known they may not otherwise see for a long time.

[TragicMagick]

I have a question! How can you effectively hunt on the silts? I've noticed a lot of the creatures will fall into the room below after you down them. Is there a way to put them on your skimmer deck or skin them in the room or do you have to kite them to shore?

[Inks]

You could easily test that ic my dude! If you can lift something and the skimmer capacity can hold it, you can put it on the deck though.

[TragicMagick]

You could easily test that ic my dude! If you can lift something and the skimmer capacity can hold it, you can put it on the deck though.

They keep falling into the room below when they die. Are you supposed to subdue them and then set them in the skimmer to skin them? I didn't think NPCs were objects until they were completely dead.

[Jihelu]

You could easily test that ic my dude! If you can lift something and the skimmer capacity can hold it, you can put it on the deck though.

They keep falling into the room below when they die. Are you supposed to subdue them and then set them in the skimmer to skin them? I didn't think NPCs were objects until they were completely dead.

I've, admittedly, never tried to skin anything in the silt. I also haven't killed things in deep silt rooms...because silt horrors are scary.
My idea? Bait them to the shoreline where they won't sink or something. Never tried this but it's the first thing that comes to mind.

[TragicMagick]

Edited.

In other news I've learned that adding %s or standing position to my prompt is a life saver. Being able to look and make sure I'm sitting on the skimmer and not standing on it has prevented a lot of heartbreak.

[Inks]

Please do not mention too much about the silts in this topic. This is a 0% no spoiler guide. This guide is only to avoid the ooc code nonsense. So stop, please.

Edit: Appreciate you editing m8.

[Inks]

This is an update to say stepping off skimmer in shallow silt is now fixed, you beautiful coders you.

[TragicMagick]

Nvm

[RavingTregils]

Can you give the skimmers a name? If so, how? Don't see anything under help skimmer. Help title seems out of date - says it removes the names of mounts if you quit.

[TragicMagick]

Can you give the skimmers a name? If so, how? Don't see anything under help skimmer. Help title seems out of date - says it removes the names of mounts if you quit.

To my knowledge, no. It's less like a mount and more like a table-object IG.

[Jihelu]

Skimmers are basically tables that you can drive.

Small wagons/carts are the same way.