Modding Diary – March 2018

Hello everyone! It has been quite a while since the release of version 6 in December. I started to “model” again and thought it might be nice for you to hear about current activities and where the journey of the North is going. So I will just write a bit in a kind of dev diary.

First of all, I want to thank all people who play, test, stream or give feedback to this Mod. Special thanks and appreciation to the people who supported this project by donations. So what’s new:

Happiness

At the beginning of the year I did some tests with the happiness system of the game. On the world of Banished forum (smurphys7 and Maldrick brought the topic) we found out that in contrast to previous assumptions, a technical effect of happiness buildings actually exists. It is extremely minor in the original game and not really relevant, but we can modify it. In my current test version, people start with only 3 stars and require the different buildings in order to be completely satisfied and to work with full efficiency. Now I’m working on balancing and happiness settings of my buildings. These adjustment have to work correctly before the initial happiness level can be lowered. I’m pretty sure these changes will make the game considerably more interesting.

New Buildings

My focus for now is filling gaps in the building set. We need new workshops to make clothes, a replacement of the hospital and more variety of homes and decorations. Also, I got some suggestions about Viking houses. These guys are quite popular and rustic medieval architecture seems to suit the taste of banished people more than modern constructions. So I want to follow this direction, but will not give up the timeline idea. This development from medieval to early modern age based on building materials such as glassworks and brickmaking is a nice aspect and worth to keep or even to expand.

Tannery

The first new building for next version and already finished is a tannery. It provides a workplace for leatherworkers who are in the professions list of version 6 only to support other mods. Here, cow and reindeer hides can be processed into leather and maybe also some leather goods will be crafted. For this model I used pictures from Fotevikens Museum in Denmark. It’s a reconstructed Viking building. If you want to try out the tannery in game, you can download it here as preview mod. It can be added to a running game with North 6: [download id = “3710”]

Woodcutter Cabin

For medieval timber industry a simple woodcutter cabin will be included. It’s not another woodcutter but starting point for logging in surrounding forests. To simulate the old days, planting new trees is not on the to-do list of these workers and only the job of foresters later in game. The cabin will probably be combined by players with chopping blocks for firewood and stockpiles, as in the picture below. This little herb next to it is a new plant model. I made it inspired by one of the loading screens. It wants to be a willowherb and to replace vanilla herbs in forests as well as fields if cultivated.

Mead-Hall

With the reworked happiness system, alcohol will become significant and probably return as pure booze. Of course, the old Vikings can’t wait until this tavern has been built from fancy bricks and glass. They need a decent hall of pure wood. I have picked a nice hall from Borre (Norway). It’s a Viking Hall reconstructed by historical knowledge and I’m creating it for Banished. You can find more information about this object on midgardsenteret.no. Here is a sketch in game, still without textures. It will work as a tavern but should also be the political center of an old village, so with townhall function as well. Around this object I want to make more Viking style houses, storage buildings and so on. They will fit in the previous style of this mod, inspired by history more than by fantasy.

DS Mining And Industry

Other news concerns the more industrial part of the game. Discrepancy, one of the most talented model makers I know, is currently working on a new version of his known mining and industrial set including a historic blast furnace, coke oven, sawmill, weaving mill and more. We are in a lively exchange to coordinate our mods in terms of resource management, trading, balancing and so on. I’m really looking forward to that. Here a picture of his models.

So far for this first post. I hope new models and more details can be shown soon. Feel free to leave a comment and follow on Twitter to not miss future news. :)

Thanks for reading!

Tom