Update – North 7 “Vikings”

Two years since the latest major update of this Banished modding project but finally it’s done. You can now download and play North 7. This update has its focus on old Nordic style from Viking era and expands especially the early stage of a game. But it also fills gaps in building set beyond medieval and polishes many other aspects of the mod. For a first glance on new buildings, resources and gameplay changes, just scroll down.

Many thanks go to all people who participated on the beta test last month. Especially to Nilla, Vrayna and Smurph for intensive testing, reporting bugs and balancing issues as well as giving inspiration for a couple of more items. And a special thanks to the Nordic fashion designer known as just “1” for pretty citizen skins that are now included.

Before starting a new town, please read a few notes for handling this mod version: The pkm file does not overwrite North 6, so you can keep the old version in your mod folder and continue games but you should disable it when you start a new map with version 7. The Norseman citizen mod is now included and not necessary as add-on anymore. This also means, real time aging is now default in the North. If you are not happy with it, you can download the new Speed Aging mod on top, to set it back to vanilla speed. I suggest you to give the default setting a try since the whole mod is balanced around it and you can grow your settlement by immigration from the beginning.

Now let’s start a new venture and leave talks for later.. whenever you like in forums.

New Buildings

That’s new in the North waiting for you to be built. For details please check out wiki pages linked from here. The Wiki on this site is an ongoing project of its own and needs to be expanded and polished in future. Old entries still showing North6 values will be updated next days.

Turf Houses

To build up settlements under tough conditions.

Frame Houses

For dense and prosperous Viking towns.

Pit Houses

Small and cheap but efficient storage buildings.

Stabbur

Two-story building for even more efficient storage.

Loft-Storehouse

Special storage building with a passageway.

Big Trading Dock

With a large storehouse for ambitious traders.

Export Trading Dock

Where goods are shipped to other Banished towns.

Stepstones

Fording to cross shallow streams.

Thingstead

The Vikings place to meet and to decide about things.

Mead Hall

Most important building. For drinking and feasting.

Wooden Idols

of one of the old gods.

Norse Temple

To become a famous and growing Viking center.

Healer’s Hut

For consuming healing herbs in the old days.

Infirmary

To finally replace the vanilla hospital.

Smokehouse

To preserve all the meat and fish of your town.

Granary

Managed storage for grain to support mills.

Small Windmill

For flour and power generation.

Pottery Kiln

To make the finest pots in the whole Banished world.

Stone Mason

Breaking boulders and cutting stones.

Tar Kiln

The Nordic black liquid
for building and trading.

Weaver’s Hut

For weaving the best linen from flax fibers.

Tailor Shop

To make true Viking style clothing.

Wattle Fence

New fences made in old techniques.

Paddock Fence

To fence in livestock in a suitable style.

Also, existing buildings were reworked and optimized. You will notice new models of small and big barn for example. All models got new AO maps which now simulate a hemispheric light that is actually not calculated in Banished. New outline meshes reduce geometries to be loaded in game for better performance. Many buildings also got improved textures, more building stages or other small things for a better look and feel.

New Resources and Productions

And here what’s waiting for you to be crafted, consumed or traded away for gold and silver.

• Boulders scattered on the ground and used to build special things.
• Ashlar as advanced material for stone masonry made from rubble stones.
• Wadmal, the old Nordic woolen cloth made of raw wool.
• Sheepskins can now be turned into leather to make your people self-sustainable.
• Flax and Linen production is now also available in the North.
• Linen Tunic and Wool Tunic as new but simple Viking clothes.
• Winter Clothes combined from tunics with additional material for cloak and boots.
• Hide Capes in fair quality replace the warm parka crafted at campfires.
• Animal Fat is now dropped by cows, sheep and deer, rendered to Tallow.
• Linseed and Linseed Oil as healthy by-product of linen production.
• Millstones are now necessary in wind and water mills. Stonemasons can make some.
• Pottery not only for trading but as a requirement in homes and certain production buildings.
• Iron Fittings as building material forged from Iron Bars, compatible with DS Mods.
• Anvils needed for efficient forging in advanced Blacksmith Shops.
• Tar production is now included, used for roofings and everything built in water.
• Ropes for modern wells and where else they are needed.
• Potash as a necessary supply of glassmaking which makes this material more expensiv.

The whole set of resources was re-calculated in terms of output, trade values and used storage. And some models of natural resources and raw materials are remade.

Gameplay and Balancing Changes

Last but not least an overview of changes that are important to know, especially if you try the North under harder conditions or even with Ironman On.

• New starting condition “Seafarer” to arrive in a new land far west, the Iceland scenario.
• New starting condition “Nomads” for players who like to grow a town faster also in real time.
• Citizen skins for banished people in northern style, made in Finland.
• Christianity now comes to the North by trade. The way to attract more people from outside.
• New merchants coming along the Volga trade route and further North from Sami people.
• Imports are now more dedicated to different regions like wine from Francia for example.
• Fire is now easier to take out with wells but more buildings can cause fire.
• Tiled roofings now reduce risk on fire while thatched roofs and wooden shingles are less proof.
• Hunting Cabins don’t store meat anymore to avoid an unbalanced diet in secluded homes.
• The number of reindeer herds was reduced.
• In addition, the output of meat is reduced by 20% to nerf incoming protein.
• Milk output was increased to make cows more to a dairy livestock.
• Nuts now count as grain to balance food categories.
• Markets and Village Shop are now more focused on food and don’t store many raw materials.
• Crayfishing now has a randomized yield performed by gatherers auto-pulled from shelters.
• Removed wrong spawning wild fruits and herbs at the beginning of a game.
• Tallow replaces Lamp Oil used in mines and tunnels.
• Clay Spots can’t be abused for endless clay anymore but filled up to overbuild them.
• Iron Tools and Steel Tools got +100% durability to balance expensive iron processing.
• Building materials were re-calculated by model surfaces for more realistic and consistent costs.
• Glass Panes were added to all buildings with windows moving them to midgame.
• Used storage of food now differs by nutritional value.
• “Tunneling” of natural resources making people able to cross map tiles with ore, stones etc.
• Banished people start with a couple of iron bars to forge important items early on.
• Herbs are now more efficient keeping up health over 3 months.

Many more small changes were done that affect balancing, visuals and user interface. You will notice them in game and hopefully like it.