Modding Diary – August 2018

Hello everyone,

August is almost over but I still want to show some news, in the future regularly and every month if possible. This time it continues with models around workplaces and production chains for the planned Viking update. After all the homes and houses, where no new functions can be added to the game I now really need this more exciting aspect of modding. But before it starts, there’s are some storage locations to be done for the Viking townhouses..

Building Pit Houses

The frame houses were completed in 6 variants and then I made some simple storage sheds in the same style, called pit houses. They are quite unspectacular but cute and also useful. On 2 x 3 game tiles and with a capacity of 1,200 it will be the second storage building after the small log sheds and a standard building in your Banished town. I also experimented with the idea of a lowered entrance to create a real pit but without a satisfying result. The terrain cannot be changed in small dimensions (only overwriting the grid of game tiles). So the little pit houses are finished this way for now and in these 3 variants:

Making Pottery

Clay as an ancient building material will be more important with the half-timbered houses of the next version. To further expand this nice production chain, pottery comes to mind. For the Vikings, it was a very common thing and I want to include it as utensils and trade goods. I planned two workplaces for potters, a house with furnace and chimney as a proper workshop for high productivity and also a simple kiln for early game and to better simulate the old days.

After some researching, I made the sketch below. This kiln will be simply built from clay and fired from the side with wood. At this time, people certainly just made the raw vessels in their homes and then built the kiln outdoors. In game there has to be a possibility for this included to avoid a useless intermediate product. Therefore, I added this small shelter with a workplace for crafting and to dry clay pots and things. The worker can switch then between this and the kiln for some “action”. ;)

Tailoring Tunics

Another production chain which I have neglected so far is tailoring. Honestly, there are new models for almost everything in the North but not for the poor tailors (apart from the hunters campfire and the farmers cabin annex). So it’s about time to replace the last vanilla buildings. In search of a nice tailor shop, I googled once again to the Fotevikens museum in Sweden. The tannery from version 6 is from there and I remembered even more interesting buildings.

In the picture below you can see the reconstructed and so called weaver’s house of the Foteviken town but I need both and this one will be the tailor shop. It is very well matching the townhouses while the weaver’s hut can be also more rustic. The design is a bit finer and more detailed than my frame houses, so very much what I need for this profession. Also, I want it side-gabled like this to break the rows of houses and to make the tailor shop more recognizable. Clothes can then be stored in front of the shop and I would like it so that people pick it up directly from there, without detouring via barns, but this idea needs to be tested.

Weaving Linen

The main product of the Viking tailors will be tunics made from wool or linen as the essential raw materials. This means we finally have to introduce flax cultivation in the North, as other mods already have it. For this mod, I want flax as a crop, grown on fields and harvested as a raw material, which is processed by weavers into linen. Linseed can be a byproduct in this step. Thus, there is a new profession in the North and a new building, the Weaver’s Hut. An advanced weaving mill with hydropower and so on, we will make later.

Finding a suitable original is not easy here either. While looking for pictures, I came across this simple house. Probably it is conceived and reconstructed as a dwelling house or storage, but for me it can also represent the weaver very well: It’s simple, rustic and busy with some storage space around. For a ground plan different to homes, I put it on 4 x 5 tiles, with this small area to the left. Flax bundles can be stacked there and the wattle fence is also a fitting detail. For the roof I spent more effort than usual, to create some additional recognition value for this rather inconspicuous building.

Repairing a Windmill

Last weekend I started a windmill, not because Vikings need it or had it (I don’t know) but Banished people would like a comfortable way of making flour already in early game. The mill in this photo is one of those objects where I instantly get the thought, this and exactly in this way it should be in Banished. So I wanted to repair this broken windmill.. It is probably not from a Nordic country if you look at the landscape around, but the style of simple logs fits perfectly in our theme. I think we even can get the miller walking up the stairs. I made the following plan on 5 x 5 game tiles and finished the basic model in Sketchup. I really liked to draw this mill and I would like even more to see it animated in game one day.

That’s it for now. There is still a lot to do with these models and after this I want to make some religious buildings to hopefully complete version 7 soon.

Enjoy the late summer and come around again for my little diary. :)

Tom

⇠  July 2018

September 2018  ⇢