Impressions-Style City Builders?--(Morphed into the "BANISHED" Thread)

[bhlloy]

Originally Posted by Scoobz0202

Edit: Also, build houses each time you build jobs away from the main town. Build a house or two with each Forester colony... one by your fishing..one by your trade post... a handful by the mining... This realllllly cuts down on travel time for your little people.

Maybe a stupid question, but how do you make sure that the people who move into your houses are the ones that work nearby? I tried this, and the ppl moving in worked all the way over the other side of my town, so it didn't work so well

[Scoobz0202]

Try pausing the game. Dropping all the jobs to 0. Then restarting the game at the slowest speed and redoing your jobs. See if that fixes the pathing.

[chinaski]

20 hours deep. Someone send supplies.

[chinaski]

Couple tips ive discovered... only jobless builders will make pathways and if you hold shift while plotting a path, you can make it go diagonal. Also, micromanaging isnt too neccessary... when workers have nothing to do, like farmers after harvest, they automatically act as laborers.

[HarryLime]

Banished Review - IGN IGN review of Banished.. Quite good score and agree with the sentiment...

[bhlloy]

Ah, that's a good tip for pathing. I find it slightly annoying that people won't use a path if it's not exactly their best route, but knowing how to build diagonal can help.

[HarryLime]

Originally Posted by Blackadar

Please let us know what you think. I've never heard of this one and I'm always leery of the complexity of games that go on tablets, but it like Theme Hospital in an old west setting and that could be a lot of fun.

So, i have played through the first 5 campaigns, and i think Theme Hospital is probably the best comparitive i can think of to this game.. (Theme Hospital in 1849, but totally devoid of the character/humor of TH)

The campaign is very similar.. complete the objectives on a map, to move on to the next map with more complicated objectives, rinse and repeat for at this stage a total of 20 campaign maps, but with the promise of added scenarios in the future.. Eash mission has a totally different starting setup, determining what you can export, as well as different imports. This is a strength, as you can not invoke the same strats at the start of each map.

So in this respect, and many others it is totally opposite to Banished. You need money to buy all the raw material fields, as well as the manufacturing facilities, as well as to conduct trade. Also, at this stage there is no randomized map for sandbox play, which i think would make this game an absolute gem... (not that i can find, maybe after completing campaign..)

Whilst I enjoyed those missions, and look forward to finishing the campaign, I just found myself not immersed in the world.. At this stage, the game really just lacks personality. With Banished, the change from seasons really draws you in.. "Winter is coming" (sorry I had to) damn i hope i am ready, whereas at this stage, the 1849 environment has been static, pretty, but static

On the positives, it is more complex than first appearances suggest, but that is probably through a lack of automation than anything else. trading has to be completed manually, no setting "buy x amount of y every week" but at the same time getting the balance right is an absolute challenge.. to many unemployed, expect a crime spree completely killing your industry.

The game is great at letting you know if there is a problem, such as raw material shortage, or crime issues.. It doesn't tell you how to fix them, that is for you to work out, and this is something i really like about it.

Also remembering it is still in Beta, so the "personality" might still be coming.. By personality, any text in the game is bland, just does not make you feel that you are in the gold fields in the 1840's

All in all, it is a solid little game now, but has a hell of a lot of scope to improve if the developers in fact decided to go down that path. If you got a spare $10 and like supporting indie developers, go for it i think you will get that value from it, but at this stage it has that 1 and done feel, with limited replayability.. As a simulator, I think it is pretty rock solid at what it is designed to do.

Edit : Only 5 of the campaign missions are available in the Beta!

[Groundhog]

Damn it guys stop making me want to buy yet another game

[HarryLime]

Originally Posted by Groundhog

Damn it guys stop making me want to buy yet another game

we're not.. we're trying to get you to buy 2 games :P

[sabotai]

Bought Banished this afternoon thanks to you sons of bitches.

"You've played: 8 hours"

[Lathum]

Started second campaign last night and doing much better. Going at it slow. Been through 2 winters with no deaths yet and no hungry or cold. I have a sweet set up where there is a river I built town on one side and industry in the other. There is a huge Forrest on the other side and it sets up real nice.

[MizzouRah]

It blows my mind that one person is behind this game. I keep it on 1x speed and like to just watch my people go about their daily lives while I tell them all what I want done.

I'd say for $20 it's money well spent!

[Blackadar]

Got home from work late last night (I travel during the week). Bought it and downloaded it late. Started playing this morning. I just looked up - it's 11:00 and I've been playing for 5 straight hours.

[Scoobz0202]

I think building only wooden houses for your initial families and then nothing but stone houses may be a good idea. The difference in demand for firewood is pretty large i think

[Scoobz0202]

dola

Also, in my town mentioned above, I think I am going to try something. I have 50/11/11ish town. Have 7Kish food, 2-3Kish firewood, 2-3kish logs, 120ish wool, 300ish herbs.. but I am having to divert so many of my people to mining and the quarry to get that material. I wonder if I say fuck those if I can just continue putting everybody on my surplus to build that up if i can sustain my place on trade for stone/iron/coal.

[sabotai]

Originally Posted by MizzouRah

I'd say for $20 it's money well spent!

Absolutely. But...

Just know that when I finally finished my strategy game that will surpass Paradox Interactive, or when I finally start releasing the next great blockbuster fantasy novel series......the release date is going to be at least one week later than it could have been thanks to you guys.

[chinaski]

Originally Posted by Scoobz0202

dola

Also, in my town mentioned above, I think I am going to try something. I have 50/11/11ish town. Have 7Kish food, 2-3Kish firewood, 2-3kish logs, 120ish wool, 300ish herbs.. but I am having to divert so many of my people to mining and the quarry to get that material. I wonder if I say fuck those if I can just continue putting everybody on my surplus to build that up if i can sustain my place on trade for stone/iron/coal.

From my experience, i think its best to ignore mines/quarries. Better to concentrate on tools/firewood and trade for the resources instead.

How'd you get 300 herb? My herbalists do absolutely nothing until a full forest is matured, and then its only like 20 herbs max for a season.

Ive been experimenting with the gatherers/hunters/herbalists. So far ive found that hunters will produce the same no matter where they are, ie barren plain or matured forest. For gatherers, lets assume a full forest cycle (seed to fully grown) is 4 years. Gathers are worst year one, and seem to peak year 3. Herbalists.... I have no clue. Im going to remove them from my Forester/Gatherer/Hunter combo and let them do their own thing. Perhaps having water in their collection radius?

[chinaski]

Some ENBSeries eye candy for Banished.
Banished with ENB ! Installation Guide in the comments : Banished

Im liking it, much more vivid.

[Scoobz0202]

Originally Posted by chinaski

How'd you get 300 herb? My herbalists do absolutely nothing until a full forest is matured, and then its only like 20 herbs max for a season.

Ive been experimenting with the gatherers/hunters/herbalists. So far ive found that hunters will produce the same no matter where they are, ie barren plain or matured forest. For gatherers, lets assume a full forest cycle (seed to fully grown) is 4 years. Gathers are worst year one, and seem to peak year 3. Herbalists.... I have no clue. Im going to remove them from my Forester/Gatherer/Hunter combo and let them do their own thing. Perhaps having water in their collection radius?

I just checked and it's only 21 herbs per season for me. I have only one herbalist with one worker in one of my three gatherer/forester areas. So thats about 84 per year.. Not sure if winter decreases that. I am in year 20ish or so, so its been a gradual build up of the stockpile. They must not be used much because I have a wide variety of food so my people are probably pretty healthy.

I double checked and now i have 225 herbs in storage, with an additional 400 at my tradepost. So yea, it takes time to build up but with a diverse diet they don't get used much apparently.

[GrantDawg]

Some good tips in this thread: My tips in no particular order : Banished

Not so much the op, but the rest of the comments.

I must be doing something wrong. My first play-through, I did very well with food/firewood. But since I've tried to have a serious play, my people keep starving and freezing. I had a bad harvest (unfortunately someone called and distracted me, so I have no idea why) and went from 50 people down to 20 in one year due to starvation. I had two farms, fishermen, and a hunter, forester, gather group. I just can't figure out why my food production sucks so bad.

[MizzouRah]

Originally Posted by sabotai

Absolutely. But...

Just know that when I finally finished my strategy game that will surpass Paradox Interactive, or when I finally start releasing the next great blockbuster fantasy novel series......the release date is going to be at least one week later than it could have been thanks to you guys.

[Scoobz0202]

Originally Posted by GrantDawg

Some good tips in this thread: My tips in no particular order : Banished

Not so much the op, but the rest of the comments.

I must be doing something wrong. My first play-through, I did very well with food/firewood. But since I've tried to have a serious play, my people keep starving and freezing. I had a bad harvest (unfortunately someone called and distracted me, so I have no idea why) and went from 50 people down to 20 in one year due to starvation. I had two farms, fishermen, and a hunter, forester, gather group. I just can't figure out why my food production sucks so bad.

I at times wonder if there is any variability to certain things, especially farming. Like, does the map and land play a role? I've read other forums where people say they did great with a certain crop and others didn't do well. But there could have been variable in size of farm and amount of workers.

For you, I don't know. Did you give the forester time to grow the forest before cutting? Maybe it was an early, and harsh winter. Early winter could kill crops before harvested, and I believe especially cold winters freeze the river and removes fishing for the winter.

Also, with your fisherman, if you have a bend in the river nearby place them on that to get maximum water coverage.

Other than that, who knows.

[Lathum]

I seem to be struggling to find enough stone.

[Scoobz0202]

Yea, Lathum. All the other resources can be created/maintained at a reasonable rate if you get the right setup. Except for the stones. Need to find out what mining is all about, when is the right time, or say fuck it and trade for it.

[Lathum]

I just started building a quarry. Well see how it goes.

[Abe Sargent]

Yay, lots of hours. How long does it take for a merchant to show up at tjhe Trading Post?

[Radii]

I had some decent success tonight, getting a town into year 13 with no horrible end in sight, at least so far. I have made a few mistakes though, I was too conservative on building houses early, as I've expanded too quick and starved everyone before. This time I expanded too slowly and I have a weird age gap with way too many houses filled with old people that aren't reproducing. It hasn't crippled me, but it has stalled things a bit. I'm very slowly fixing it but probably have to do nothing at all for 2-3 years. The other mistake I made is that I built a second gatherer/forester expansion and started putting some houses near it. I had an eye on a quick 3rd gatherer expansion that was near it, and I built most of my houses near this area, expecting that to become my main hub over time. But when my population stalled out, that 3rd expansion never happened, so I have too many houses in an area with not enough employment. As a result, some people are travelling all over creation to their jobs and its noticeably hurting production.

I think I can salvage these things this game, and if not, I'll know better how to plan the next one. This game is really awesome!

[Radii]

Originally Posted by Abe Sargent

Yay, lots of hours. How long does it take for a merchant to show up at tjhe Trading Post?

I think it took about 2 years for me. There are different types of merchants though, so far I've seen a seed merchant, food merchant, general merchant and one other kind that was similar to general goods, I forget what its called. I was hoping to trade for stone and iron, which I have done a little of now, but it took a lot longer than I expected. Had to wait until a merchant came by with the potential for stone, but of course he didn't have any that trip, so I put in an order for it, and it as another couple years before that same merchant showed up again with the stone.

I've never seen more than one merchant a year, and I am pretty sure there have been years where none showed up.

[Scoobz0202]

I also think if you have multiple trade posts they each get merchants so I wonder if it is beneficial to build multiple trade posts.

[Critch]

I think I got two merchants in one year, one in spring and the other in early winter. I'm not sure exactly when the second one turned up as I wasnt expecting one but when I checked back at the Trading Post there was a merchant sitting waiting. No merchants turned up the following year. As the merchants and what they bring is a bit unreliable, I dont think my little town could rely on them for anything important, so far I've used them to get chickens and to add in a couple of things that I dont have a source for (coal and wool). Before the merchants my little people walked around with iron tools, dressed in rags, and with no idea what an egg was. Now they're tooled up with steel, have wooly clothing and some of them have even seen an omelet.

And now two questions:

1. I'm in year 13 (all at x1 speed, I like watching the slow development) got 110 people all well fed by three gathering posts, 1 fishing post, 1 post of lazy, useless hunters, 8 fields of squash and a handful of eggs. What would be the benefit of buying more seeds? Is there a possibility all my squash crops will die one year so it would be better to have half squash/half potato fields? The seed merchant is asking for a fortune for new seeds.

2. Does a bridge over a river block it from merchants?

Going back to the original topic of Impressions-Style city builders, Grand Ages:Rome is on steam and shows up regularly in sales. I quite liked that one til I got to the point that all the levels were timed (reach surpluses in everything in 30 minutes kind of thing) and it started feeling more like a puzzle game than a city builder. It is pretty Impressions-like though.

[Scoobz0202]

1. Your citizens health is pretty reliable upon diversity of food. Also, I BELIEVE if you have multiple types of crops if there is an infection of one field having crops of multiple variety prevents it from spreading throughout all your farming. Two types alternated may be good enough, but maybe a third wouldn't be a bad idea.

2. I doubt it, but i don't know.

[MrBug708]

Bridge doesnt block merchants

The first question is a good question, but I havent run out of seeds yet though. Maybe just as Scoobz said, diversity?

[Critch]

I didnt think of the possibility of running out of seeds, I assumed I had squash seeds now so I'd always have them.

Citizen's health hasnt been a problem so far, dropped down to 3 hearts after a couple of tough winters (firewood was a problem til the forestry camps were cutting) but as soon as I got a herb collector up and running it was back up to 4.5 hearts in no time. So as long as the herbs keep coming the citizens are happy with Squash and Trout for dinner every night.

[Scoobz0202]

You never run out of seeds.

[GrantDawg]

Originally Posted by Radii

I had some decent success tonight, getting a town into year 13 with no horrible end in sight, at least so far. I have made a few mistakes though, I was too conservative on building houses early, as I've expanded too quick and starved everyone before. This time I expanded too slowly and I have a weird age gap with way too many houses filled with old people that aren't reproducing. It hasn't crippled me, but it has stalled things a bit. I'm very slowly fixing it but probably have to do nothing at all for 2-3 years. The other mistake I made is that I built a second gatherer/forester expansion and started putting some houses near it. I had an eye on a quick 3rd gatherer expansion that was near it, and I built most of my houses near this area, expecting that to become my main hub over time. But when my population stalled out, that 3rd expansion never happened, so I have too many houses in an area with not enough employment. As a result, some people are travelling all over creation to their jobs and its noticeably hurting production.

I think I can salvage these things this game, and if not, I'll know better how to plan the next one. This game is really awesome!

Couple of ideas I read elsewhere:

1. If you have houses with older/single people in them, upgrade them to stone. It will kick the people out while upgrading, then younger people will move in to them once completed. Don't do multiple house like that at one time unless you have a boarding house (because the people will be homeless until the house is rebuilt).

2. If you have people not living near where they work, blank out all your workers and then reassign. The people will take the jobs closer to their homes.

[Radii]

Originally Posted by Scoobz0202

1. Your citizens health is pretty reliable upon diversity of food. Also, I BELIEVE if you have multiple types of crops if there is an infection of one field having crops of multiple variety prevents it from spreading throughout all your farming. Two types alternated may be good enough, but maybe a third wouldn't be a bad idea.

One of the preview videos I watched when deciding whether to buy or not touched on the infestation thing. The guy got an infestation in a field and mentioned two things. 1) This infestation is pretty unlikely to spread because I don't have any of the same crop nearby. 2) I'll change what I grow in this field now, if I keep the same thing here the infestation is more likely to recur next year.

Originally Posted by GrantDawg

Couple of ideas I read elsewhere:

1. If you have houses with older/single people in them, upgrade them to stone. It will kick the people out while upgrading, then younger people will move in to them once completed. Don't do multiple house like that at one time unless you have a boarding house (because the people will be homeless until the house is rebuilt).

2. If you have people not living near where they work, blank out all your workers and then reassign. The people will take the jobs closer to their homes.

Thanks, hadn't thought of upgrading the houses. I had thought about reassigning my workers, but was afraid of the potential results, since my underlying problem is that there are just too few houses in one area and too many in the other for now, so some people are gonna end up with a long trek to work. I'm a bit stalled out so that's taking some time to straighten out

[Scoobz0202]

The first mod that comes out should be that citizens should not use coal as fuel when there is plenty of firewood available.

[bhlloy]

hrm... just had an entire family starve to death when there was plenty of food in the market and the storehouse. Both the parents were still working their regular job, maybe there should be an override for "if you are starving, stop what you are doing immediately and find food"?

[Abe Sargent]

Year 11, orgy of food, building my first school house all is well.

[Abe Sargent]

Has anyone ever used their well? I haven' Stupid well!

[chinaski]

Originally Posted by Abe Sargent

Has anyone ever used their well? I haven' Stupid well!

Not yet, Ive never had a disaster in probably around 300 years of play. I did have a couple twisters touch down, but not near any of my buildings.

Kids and idle laborers seem to hang out near them though, so theres that.

[Abe Sargent]

Year 18, just had my first fire. used the well!

[DaddyTorgo]

You guys are making this game sound VERY good.

[johnnyshaka]

I've probably spent about 8 hours watching vids on youtube...lol. Jerks.

[Critch]

Originally Posted by GrantDawg

1. If you have houses with older/single people in them, upgrade them to stone. It will kick the people out while upgrading, then younger people will move in to them once completed. Don't do multiple house like that at one time unless you have a boarding house (because the people will be homeless until the house is rebuilt).

I couldnt do that, those citizens made my little town what it is, they're my greatest generation. I couldnt kick them out into the snow just because they're inconvenient. Maybe I'm not cut out to be a feudal overlord.

[Abe Sargent]

Just had my first death by accident, builder fell off a ladder. That's a cool addition.

EDIT - It's like in FOF when you get the random injury you never expected, buts really realistic.

[Izulde]

I had a worker get crushed by a falling stone and one die in a cave-in at the mine so far.

[bhlloy]

That's funny because I was thinking that would be a good addition for a mod. This game continues to surprise in good ways.

[Abe Sargent]

No offense to Jim, but I think this might be the highest quality single-player created game I've had the pleasure to play.

[Lathum]

Wife is now playing along side me and I like it. We seem to be struggling to feed our village.