Tom Sawyer.
NillaIn my last game, I tried to make the settling of Iceland as realistic and historically correct as I could, I think you´ve followed my story on WOB, Tom and some things that I missed have been mentioned but I will write a bit more here.
I like what you´ve showed so far but it looks like you want to make it in 2 pieces, to have room for 2 families. Why not also a middle piece, so that the initial 3 families in a seafarer (and many other) scenarios all can live in it? To make it look good and make it less interesting to build a long row of cheap(?) room-saving middle pieces, it could be for a 3 person family. (Mean but unfortunately historically correct; if the thralls got too many children, the babies were left in the forest to die).
Since there was a lack of firewood, peat was used on Iceland (as well as on many other places) as fuel. I´ve read that each farm had some land suitable for this. They put the grass by side, dug the peat out about 1 cubit deep then put the grass back, to let the sheep grass the following year. That´s why it´s hard to see any traces of peat extraction. Now, I don´t know, how to make this in Banished. But maybe something like a quarry that you can rebuild to a pasture when depleted could work.
Meat from pigs was considered the best meat to this time. A larger farm would most definitely have held pigs that could be slaughtered to all main “events”.
I´m glad that Banished is a peaceful game where you don´t need any weapons! But the Viking period wasn´t peaceful (even if authors from Iceland Sagas to modern TV films may exaggerate). But people on larger farms were armed and those on smaller farms who wasn´t able to defend themselves were dependant on strong neighbours. But how could weapons be used in Banished without being just another “trade only thing”, that make little sense? Make them feel safe? Like I think you mentioned, Tom when I started to arm my people using RedKetchup´s training camp mod. But how? Maybe by building some weapon house or training area that have a happiness radius “safety”.
I would like to see some Viking style ships, even if they would be only decoration. As far as I know, you can´t make any moving ships in Banished. But even with an “at the moment parked” ship that just happens to be at home, you may simulate raiding or trading. Give it an input of weapon and it will “return” after a raid with a random amount of silver and gold. Load it with wadmal, wool coats, smoked or salted fish or meat and it will “return” after a trading trip with a random amount of silver and gold.
We´ve already talked about it. The modern graves on the normal graveyard look odd. Simple stones for simple people could work. But I would also like to be able to build a real big Viking tumulus. Maybe just as decoration or maybe as a spiritual happiness maker. people would go to idle by the imposing grave of their dead chieftain. That would make sense.
The main reason I stopped the game 20 years earlier than I wanted was the micromanagement of all fields. Of course, it should be harder to farm on “harsh” and give less output than on mild but I would appreciate if it would work also without starting the harvest manually. Could it be possible to let barley and turnips grow also by much colder temperature? So that on normal years the harvest would start automatically in August/September with 100% growth. In return, the output on each tile could be set down. If I´m playing on “mild” I usually change to wheat and cabbage/beans anyway after a while, and if you want to/need to grow barley and turnips on “mild”, one farmer could work a bigger field than now and the output for each farmer could be the same, even if you need more land (and at the beginning of a game it´s hardly an issue.)
It would be fun to play in an even harsher surrounding with no trees, no good prospects of farming (even if they have found traces of farming). Maybe with the export of hides, rope from wale- and sealskin, walrus teeth and textiles.
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Tom SawyerOf course I have read your bloody Viking saga. =)
The turf storehouse was already inspired by your blogs. Your ideas here are all interesting and even with approaches for solution. Most I had in mind since some time or they were discussed here like peat for fuel. Especially on shipbuilding I’m keen on but connected with some game mechanics, also if not perfectly possible.
The longhouse I want to finish as a beta version tomorrow. It comes in one piece for 2 families. That means they move out when a single house is available but for early game it should work. Let’s test it in real games than. Combined or split buildings I want to avoid as much as possible.
On these ideas I will look again when starting the next thing.
NillaOK, so the longhouse will be a small boarding house. That´s a good thing. Usually, in Nordic games, I take a lot of nomads and if they must walk around for a long time without a home, they are harder to get happy. So it will be useful also after the start. But also in this case, I would prefer it for 3 families. I also read that living in longhouses were abandoned about year 1000; a bit later on Iceland a bit earlier on the Scandinavian mainland. They were still in use but only for feasts on the big farms.
Tom SawyerCan be a good idea with 3 families. It is very dense then but otherwise it might be pointless in the existing housing set. To just build 2 frame houses instead would be not much more effort. Also, for 3 families it will be an interesting option as first house in many starting scenarios. Let’s test it so..
