Modding Diary – July 2018

Hello everyone,

It’s about time for some info about new content for the North expansion! I’d like to have a faster progress with this modding project but haste makes waste, and the next update to version 7 is definitely coming. It will be dedicated to the old Vikings and of course, they want some suitable homes – nothing fancy but nice and as authentic as possible. So what can I show for now …

A Thingstead

First, there will be an open meeting place providing some administration functions for your settlement like overviews of population, production, stocks etc.. The model is created from a photo sent by Darnok on World of Banished. It is the reproduction of a Thingplatz in Stoltebüll (Northern Germany). It will be easy to build just from a couple of stones and perfect as a village center for your arriving banished people. And that’s how the model will look in game:

Turf Houses for your journey west

In sparsely wooded settlement areas of the Vikings, especially in Iceland or Newfoundland, these guys had to be inventive and built houses made of turf. Wood was used only as a scaffolding and for the entrance or lining of the interior walls. Soon, you can build such homes in Banished to survive the early game and to create a Viking outpost. This is how the houses look like in real life:

The turf house is positioned in the very early stage of the game with simple materials (a few wood and stone). The log cabin becomes the successor and will require a few glass for windows, representing the late Middle Ages. These models gave me a bit of a headache with their round shapes and special textures. It has taken more time than expected, but 3 houses are completed and I am quite satisfied. Here are screenshots from model making and how it will look like in game.

Frame Houses for real Viking towns

Of course, Vikings built not only small settlements on remote islands, but also famous trading towns such as Birka, Hedeby or Jorvik in England. These towns were big settlements with dense buildings, large dock areas, workshops of artisans and so on.

The trading dock in North 6 was already built in this style and I want to continue the idea. Typical for Viking town houses is the use of wood and clay for framework constructions and often with a thatched roof. The houses had no windows and no chimneys, but open fires in the middle and simple smoke vents in the roof or on the gables. I want my models for Banished to be close to the original, which is not so easy. There are only drawings in books and a few reconstructions in open-air museums. I used various sources and one of them is also the TV series “Vikings”. The second house from the right is almost Ragnar’s house where he was living as a farmer with his small family in the first season.

For a nice gameplay, these houses should allow a denser settlement than rural homes. They are placed on 3 x 5 tiles which means only 3 tiles per inhabitant instead of 4. Building materials will be wood and clay, as well as some iron for fittings to place it in the technology tree above turf houses and below log cabins. I will start with 6 variants and want to add more later if players use them a lot.

Over the next weeks, I would like to supplement this set of townhouses with storage buildings and workshops, especially for weavers, tailors, potters and other craftsmen. In addition, I will finish the mead hall and build a pagan temple or heathen hof to fully support the happiness system for really happy Vikings.

Support Forum

For questions, suggestions and bug reports, I added some forum features to this website. Now there is a suitable place for feedback and you do not have to make comments on scattered pages. There you can also post pictures to make suggestions or to show a problem in screenshots. You reach the forum in the main menu on top and if you have an account on this site, you can already write there.

Thank you for reading and have fun in Banished. And a special thanks to the new supporters of the last months!

Tom

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