Banished

[Fr8monkey]

Anyone heard of this game? Kind of a medieval Simcity. Been following closely for a while and is close to being released.


Searched but didn't find.
http://www.shiningrocksoftware.com/

http://www.shiningrocksoftware.com/wp-content/gallery/banished_sept_05_2013/x01.jpg

[Crécy]

I've been following it for a while now and waiting eagerly for its release. Looks magnificent. Always been a sucker for these kind of games.

[Lionclaw]

Same here, looking forward to it. :yep:

[Nippelspanner]

Oh my God! Oh my... YES!
No, I never heard of it, THANK YOU for bringing it up. Oh how I would love a medieval Simcity!

Awesome!

[Arclight]

Been following as well. :yep:

To be honest I had some doubts about how engaging it would be; seems like an (more complex) Anno game without combat. But then, I never liked the combat in Anno and thought it would be a better game without it, so... Don't really know what I was worried about. :hmmm:

[Fr8monkey]

And the whole game is being made by ONE PERSON...:salute:

[Oleander]

Gunpoint was developed by one person as well, and it turned out great. The gameplay in the video reminds me a lot of Civ City Rome, looks like it will be good if he doesn't go crazy and charge $60 for it.

[Fr8monkey]

Unsubstantiated rumor is it is going to be around $20!

[Nippelspanner]

Unsubstantiated rumor is it is going to be around $20!
Very reasonable for what I've seen in the trailers.
Let's face it, this game won't be a block buster. The graphics are meh, things look outdated and the trailers did not really give away much about the game so far. But 20$ for a medieval and finally NOT fantasy game? Yup, have my support. And who knows how this game will look 1 year after release. Deserted or well supported, we will see.

[Nippelspanner]

Release Date?

Banished will be available for purchase on February 18, 2014

:88)

[Betonov]

There's my birthday gift :)

[Pisces]

Just now watched this preview gamplay of Bannished. I'm getting interested too:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gale3t75CRc

[Sailor Steve]

First I've heard of it. It looks like a lot of fun. :rock:

[Nippelspanner]

FAQ (http://www.shiningrocksoftware.com/)

Will cost $19.99, will be DRM free, available at STEAM (Ok, kinda DRM), GOG.com and the Shining Rock Store.

Sounds great, time to get rid of DRM.
It is funny how well so many indie games do without any DRM. All the "Z0mg dem pirates!!!" panic-making was nonsense after all. Very most people ARE willing to pay for a game they are interested in.
So screw you, AAA studios and your DRM crap! I won't support you anymore! :arrgh!:

[danlisa]

Fill your boots with some LPs (I'll add to them as they're released):

Quill Playlist: http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL44QQEzXAoRcz9HEfn2BXsKotdtp3BAUG

GamersDissent Playlist: http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL44QQEzXAoReqH6iT6MYHJUI8o8HMnvPS

Biffa Playlist: http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL44QQEzXAoRdXlC99N-xlqgORhsF3XbC-

1 Week 4 Days to go. :D

@ Nippelspanner

If you purchase directly from ShiningRock (using the Widget) you get the HumbleStore DRM free version with a Steam Code.
Luke (dev) has not stated that the DRM free exe will be patched in the future, whereas he has stated that the Steam release will be. Not sure what to make of that.

[Nippelspanner]

Ah! Didn't think of some LP's available already, thanks!

[Arclight]

http://www.shiningrocksoftware.com/buy/

Wink wink nudge nudge (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jT3_UCm1A5I&feature=youtube_gdata_player)

[danlisa]

Done & Done.

Steam is waiting to unlock later but I do have my DRM Free copy already.

Now, Work, Do One! :shifty:

[Nippelspanner]

Just bought it.
BTW guys, if you can't wait 4hrs till STEAM release, just buy it in his store - you get a STEAM key as well which you can activate there later :D

Edit:
http://gyazo.com/8077c669ea981d4036ac9de21fdec993.png

[Stealhead]

Been lurking on this one just bought it 8 minutes to D/L.

[Stealhead]

Well pretty fun game thus far.I am a bit confused by pastures though I had one cleared and when it was done I could not add animals to it.I assume that you must start a pasture by trading for a particular animal.

The tutorial is unclear here during it you already have some sheep just wandering around and it does not imply how one acquires live stock(assuming this is a requirement). My assumption is that you must trade for it.Anyone get far enough to find out?

I see from the tutorials that you can trade for livestock from a merchant but they show up in the little stockade and then get transferred to a pasture.

Good thing I can build a hunting lodge to gather wild game.

EDIT:OK so you do have to have live stock on hand to start a pasture.
Now I am having a new issue or bug not sure which.For some reason even if I have plenty of general laborers(to gather) and builders as well as resources sometimes they simply will not build a structure even if that is the only one to be built they just wander around.It also seems that general laborers will only focus on one project at a time which is a pain in the butt.Seems like all you can do is change the priority of a given project but that only makes them all work on that.

I wish that the tutorial had been more through.

[Arclight]

I noticed that the "gather resources" thingy, where you drag a zone for them to collect stones/iron/logs, is always highest priority. As soon as you place that, every available hand goes to do that, including builders.

[Stealhead]

That is what I was suspecting kind of a pain that.

Not sure if the increase priority option has an effect or not even if it does it makes things a little annoying.To me personally it is not logical for a person whose job is to build to go around an gather resources seeing as it is not their job.To me the general laborer is the one who should be clearing land carry resources to a stock pile and also delivering resources to projects that way the builder need only concern themselves with actual construction.

Anyway I figured that it is far easier to not bother with farming or livestock right away.Instead it is better to have fisherman,gatherers(that pick wild plants) and hunters.

From what I understand you do not what any producer to have a radius that overlaps with one of the same type(two fishers overlapping for example) this will cause one to gather far less.Not sure what effect the production ratio has yet.For example can you over fish or over hunt a location? There are quite a few game mechanics that are not explained and you just have to figure them out.Another I wonder is the capacity of a house? EAch home will hold a man and woman and the children they have but what is the capacity.I have seen one household have 5 kids already.

The good thing is that kids will start working at a young age 10 so you get new workers fairly quickly.It might even be younger which would make sense in the environment of the game an agrarian society child are assets and can perform work from a young age.

Some in forums say that households will claim to many resources and leave others lacking but that makes sense and occurs in other games like Children of the Nile so I do not see that as a problem.

[Stealhead]

Well my little village of Chickoryuk (I promise you the game randomly generated that name) is doing fairly well. I built a gathers hut and assigned 3 people it proved to be highly productive as did my fisherie with three workers that alone produced plenty of food.

I am not sure how farms and orchids work yet.Each village I try the seed options are different. I think if you start with certain you'll be able to grow them if you have some in storage.

I think the map seed effects what trees and crops you can grow.In one map I was able to only seed beans and the orchid could grow either pecans or plums.All where just the selectable option I had no seeds from trading nor a trading post for that matter.

Even my fairly small farm plot (it only needs two workers) managed to produce 660 (bushels ?) of beans.

Another thing I found useful was to build a foresters lodge they can cut trees and plant saplings and they also gather stone and iron (if it is right by a tree that has been cut) if you have to people working as foresters they'll mange to cut a decent supply of logs which frees up labors for other duties other than constantly cutting logs.


I also built a trading post no merchant has shown up yet.I am not sure though how they work.According to the in game guide the post must be on the main lake or main river of the map.It does not clearly state if building on a tributary lake,stream or river can be reached.I think it can so long as it connects to the main river.I hope so as it will be a bit pesky to have to build directly on the main body.

Another thing I figured out is once a person is 13 they are old enough to get married.That is who you can tell when to build a new house just look for two 13 year old(or older kids still at mom and dads) When the house is completed the two unmarried adults will move in.This is key because they will not reproduce at mom and dads no privacy I guess.

[Arclight]

That is what I was suspecting kind of a pain that.

Not sure if the increase priority option has an effect or not even if it does it makes things a little annoying.To me personally it is not logical for a person whose job is to build to go around an gather resources seeing as it is not their job.To me the general laborer is the one who should be clearing land carry resources to a stock pile and also delivering resources to projects that way the builder need only concern themselves with actual construction.
Thing is, anyone is also general labor. Builders that don't have construction to do, farmers in winter, etc. all take general jobs that need doing. Bit of an annoyance, but you can work with it once you're aware of it.

[Stealhead]

I notice that people who do not have a job or can not perform one become general laborers.Farmers only work a portion of the year then they do general labor.

It seems as though the amount of full time laborers vs. the size of the job assigned has some effect.So I try to assign clearing jobs in small bits and I'll only assign one resource rather than gather everything which means more work.I have been doing that lately and thus far the issue of jobs not getting done has gone away.

Another funny little detail I have seen is fishermen sometimes "catching" logs and once a chicken coop harvested 38 beans.

I like how you must gather resources though.One thing that nearly got me was tools.Well they break every so often so you always need at least a dozen spare tools(more as the population goes up). Which can be tricky as you need iron which is an extra resource to keep track of.

[Stealhead]

Something I notice looking at paths of travel is that the villagers are surprisingly efficient they will try to work a job that is near their home if they can.I Notice that as new jobs become available a person will change their job to one closer to their home.This of course excludes general laborers.

[Rilder]

Been enjoying this, a bit tedious at times but I enjoy the pacing and just the overall feel of the game. Plus its just fun building a quaint little medieval town. Can't wait for them to get modding stuff added so people can go about adding stuff to the game where I think it will really shine.

Also couple pics from my current town: Shieldsburnum:
http://www.img.ie/8uf8u.jpg
http://www.img.ie/q57mf.jpg

[Stealhead]

What is the deal with merchants I have a port for them and after a season or so one rowed right on down the river and did not stop.I assume that he has to make a pass to that you are there and then he stops next time.

I was like "Yo Zacariah I wanted to make an order wanker you better keep rowing before I stick my foot up your arse!!"

I guess that you do not get a notification when he arrives if so ever so slightly annoying.

[Rilder]

I haven't found out precisely what the deal is with merchants but they seem to come around every so often. (Make sure your port is on the main river btw) It does notify you with a little blue button by the time control button and also states in the log. I believe you have to make sure at least one person is actually working in the port?

There seems to be several different merchants that each bring different goods and want certain things, so can take awhile for the one that actually brings useful stuff to stop. In addition there seems to be just some random merchants that sail by without stopping at your port?

[CCIP]

Hooray, it's out! :D

I'm loving this so far! It's like everything I loved about Settlers, but in a somewhat more realistic, city-building-like, survival-focused package. Looks like it will be a lot of fun, glad to say it's living up to my expectations for now :)

Maybe the main downside is the learning curve - unless you're familiar with this kind of game, the tutorials only really walk you through the basics of the interface. You won't learn much about actually managing your town there.

[CCIP]

My word.

This is addictive :o

I thought for sure I had it figured out 3 years into the game, when suddenly everything started collapsing. But even collapsing, this game proves to be darn fascinating!

[Betonov]

Gooooooooooooood I love this game :)

Hard enough to be chalenging but not frustrating, remarkably stable, not one issue. Still a lot to figure out.

About merchants. Noticed they do arrive even if your trade post is empty and no traders working there. But they are few and don't always have what you need. It's a gamble to get what you want even with orders and when you do finally receive what you needed you may find yourself unable to pay :dead:


Let me add: avoid making large crop fields. I had max size potato fields with 6 farmers each and they only reached 60% yield before they were automatly harvested to avoid frost.
Now I have 5 medium sized fields with 3 workers each, together about the same size as the prevoius two fields combined and each field gets to 100% yield. Twice the food with only 3 workers more needed.

[Tribesman]

Gooooooooooooood I love this game :)

Let me add: avoid making large crop fields. I had max size potato fields with 6 farmers each and they only reached 60% yield before they were automatly harvested to avoid frost.
Now I have 5 medium sized fields with 3 workers each, together about the same size as the prevoius two fields combined and each field gets to 100% yield. Twice the food with only 3 workers more needed.

Big medium and small, I have had them all do 100% and all do below 50%.
Year 9 and the worst so far was a big wheat field at 21% and a small squash field at 18%

[Betonov]

I see.

I'm sticking to medium fields. If need arises I can early harvest one and leave the rest for the autumn

[Egan]

And there was me looking for a new game. Looks interesting.

[Oberon]

The fishers are conspirators...my whole village died of starvation except the male and female fishers and their daughter, who had managed to collect 31 fish in their house.

http://troll.me/images/ice-cube/god-dam-feels-good-to-be-a-fisherman.jpg

[Egan]

I just bought it - the steam download is less than 300 meg? For a full game? :o

I haven't seen anything that compact for a long time. Nice one.

[Nippelspanner]

My current village, Bannockburn, is doing tremendously well. I left home for 3hrs and when I came back no one died of starvation or disease, food and all other resources are stable, most buildings are build...

I bet my arse there's a fire on the horizon...

[Egan]

Oh God, I wish I hadn't bought it. I've got too much to do in real life...reminds me so much of Caesar III - so simple yet so addictive.

[Nippelspanner]

Oh God, I wish I hadn't bought it. I've got too much to do in real life...reminds me so much of Caesar III - so simple yet so addictive.
Yep. And it will get worse once the most annoying bugs are fixed and especially once the mod tools are released which will be able to change a lot in the game, from adding new jobs, buildings and resources to changing skins and meshes to simulate other cultures.

I pray to Odin for a Norse-themed mod...

[Stealhead]

I haven't found out precisely what the deal is with merchants but they seem to come around every so often. (Make sure your port is on the main river btw) It does notify you with a little blue button by the time control button and also states in the log. I believe you have to make sure at least one person is actually working in the port?

There seems to be several different merchants that each bring different goods and want certain things, so can take awhile for the one that actually brings useful stuff to stop. In addition there seems to be just some random merchants that sail by without stopping at your port?


Yeah I did not notice any icons but I might have missed it.I have one trader working.The port can be along the shore of the main lake that the main river flows on as I understand.Just not on any tributary or smaller lake.

Might have been a random merchant.

[Rilder]

One thing I learned about on another forum is that each dock seems to have their own set of traders so if you want more trading going on you need to build more trading docks, though it sounds like it could become a bit annoying to deal with moving goods from dock to dock.

[Stealhead]

I read that as well but it seems illogical to me.Why trigger a trader for each dock?That sort of flies in the face of the whole survival concept of the game if each dock is assured a merchant.

I think they randomly show up(but they will at some point show up after that first dock is built sooner or later) and you might get more than one in a season and you might also not see one for a season or so or when they do show up they may not have anything that you want/need.

[Nippelspanner]

I think that's just a myth.
I'm always using a single dock and get all the traders. Cattle, seeds, food, goods, ...
So don't worry, you can easily rely on a single dock.

Well, it has been a while since I played a video game for like 8hrs straight... but Banished made me do it...:doh:
Bannockburn is doing fine though:
http://cloud-2.steampowered.com/ugc/3300314916609107145/0C9335B21207BD016063D996268E3954A2A2FE6C/

http://cloud-2.steampowered.com/ugc/3300314916609104331/03BE44F468031183076E1B94DFFE728726567102/

Worst thing that happened has been some crops dying to infestation. Yet the food storage and over-production is solid enough to compensate such unhappy moments.

[BossMark]

Just been trying to download this game from steam but their servers are down at the moment :wah:

[CCIP]

Still waiting on my first trader here... /twiddles thumbs :hmmm:

[Egan]

Just been trying to download this game from steam but their servers are down at the moment :wah:


Steam has been dodgy this morning for me too. Seems to be ok now, though.

[Egan]

Yep. And it will get worse once the most annoying bugs are fixed and especially once the mod tools are released which will be able to change a lot in the game, from adding new jobs, buildings and resources to changing skins and meshes to simulate other cultures.

I pray to Odin for a Norse-themed mod...


New buildings would be great. For a game set in the Middle Ages, a Mill would seem to be a big omission.

[Betonov]

If it's set in the middle ages, what is corn doing on the menu :hmmm: :)

[Egan]

Another thing I figured out is once a person is 13 they are old enough to get married.That is who you can tell when to build a new house just look for two 13 year old(or older kids still at mom and dads) When the house is completed the two unmarried adults will move in.This is key because they will not reproduce at mom and dads no privacy I guess.

I've had a 13 YO and a 10 YO set up home together. I wonder whether this is dependant on the difficulty chosen at game start.

[Egan]

If it's set in the middle ages, what is corn doing on the menu :hmmm: :)

Right enough. What should be there instead? Wheat, Millet? I'm actually looking forward to the modding tools.

[Betonov]

Right enough. What should be there instead? Wheat, Millet? I'm actually looking forward to the modding tools.

Wheat is included. He did make the choices very diverse. Half of the stuff you can plant I never heard of.

First thing I'd mod in, if I'd know anything about modding, is animal feed.
Grown like any crop but maybe less labor intensive (less farmers per yield) and would increase meat from a slaughtered animal and faster reproduction.

[Nippelspanner]

New buildings would be great. For a game set in the Middle Ages, a Mill would seem to be a big omission.
Thing is...the game isn't set in the middle ages.

I thought so too but the dev never said something about time frame. Taking a closer look at the people, what they wear, we just can't be in the medieval, not even renaissance era. They wear vests for example and remind me much more of Amish, rather than a medieval town folk. Also, they build houses just as fast as the Amish!
What's missing to make this an Amish simulator is the many colored clothes and no hats for the men... Add those and you have the "Amish Paradies Simulator - Deluxe Edition":)

[Stealhead]

I've had a 13 YO and a 10 YO set up home together. I wonder whether this is dependant on the difficulty chosen at game start.


I do not think that effects it.In one village I have a 13 year old and a 2 year.:hmmm: In the same village there is a home that has one female and it has been so for 3 seasons now.These occurred since I made that early assessment.

The age of work is 10 if you have no school and 16(I think or 17) if you have a school.They will begin attending at 10.I have a household that has two students(as the couple) and several that have one "partner" who is a student.

The 13 and 2 year old who was zero when the home was first occupied so I suspect that it was some sort of glitch as is the home with the lone female or perhaps she is a lesbian and just waiting for another lesbian.She is one of the gatherers after all doing lots of lesbian soul searching in the woods.

@Bentov to me it seems more like 17th or 18th century judging by the clothing and the way the structures look like Nipplespamer said they kinda make me think of Amish or perhaps a group of people settling in a North American colony like Brits or Acadians.

[Betonov]

Maybe an alternate reality where Christopher Columbus dies when reaching America and the entire Europe thinks that the ocean to the west is too large to sail across and only when steam ships are invented they dare to cross the Atlantic only to find a new world and queen Victoria orders settlers sent to what is today Canada. But then the title Banished comes into conflict :hmmm:

[RickC Sniper]

Lots of comments on the Steam forums that this game has crash and other bug issues. (Even the guy who created it posted at Steam that he is working on the problem)

Did you guys buy the Steam version or did you buy it elsewhere?

[Betonov]

Did you guys buy the Steam version or did you buy it elsewhere?

From his website. Even added a $10 extra :) (I'm bragging, so sue me :O: )
No crash, no bugs even. Maybe just one when I try to drag a square and it automaticly lets go before I finish

Oh, and a couple of times I lost side scrolling and the ability to close popups. But I believe that's because I alt-tab the game and then go out for a couple of hours

[Arclight]

I've been reading the crash reports as well. Got the impression it's mostly involving low-end and mobile cards. From the ones that actually bothered listing their hardware at least.

I've not heard a peep about instability from people I know. People who all have a decent computer. I know it's a rather "superior" attitude but make of that what you will.


Ran both the DRM-free one and Steam version. Steam version mostly at this point. Most stable game I've seen in a while.

[Nippelspanner]

I logged 48hrs total now. That means I already wasted 2 days of my precious life on this... Won't miss a single second :har:

Anyways, I had 2 crashes total, which is a joke considering that this is an indie title freshly released. The regular Ubi**** title isn't even playable before the first real patch arrives after 2-4 weeks.

Yet, I am getting annoyed by "the little things" this game does wrong. Most problems are AI related. Their stupidity to starve on long marches, the refusal to fight fires (just had one, a whole satellite-town (farming area) burned down. I even prioritized the area (hoped it might help) and had like 20+ laborers available to put it out... Most of them were just ignoring the spreading fire. And those who did care, reeeaaallyyy took their time to get water from the well that was right NEXT to the burning building...and then it won't even help :nope:

The overpowered fire disaster can be so severe, it could be considered "game breaking".
Just a minute before I got a fire, the 300+ town of a buddy burned down to the ground. He had wells all over the place, lots of laborers... yet now all is gone.

I was more lucky:
http://gyazo.com/41e1af402343c6947814db1f76a542c2.png
http://gyazo.com/fa8d45316e4926e43564d275648f0740.png

[Fr8monkey]

I have 30 hours and no crash yet over here...

[RickC Sniper]

@Nippelspanner
You need to quit breeding arsonists!!!!!!!!!!!
:D


Thanks guys, I'll give the Steam version a go.

[danlisa]

Feel bad turning away Nomads but I'm struggling with stabilising Food Production.

Farming mechanics seem a little off. Even with spare labourers and fully staffed farmers, most of my crops won't be harvested before the onset on winter, where they start dying off. It makes for some twitchy bum moments towards the end of winter.

Not much I can fault with banished. A couple of niggles. For example, why can the population walk over terrain and I can't build a road over it?

http://cloud-4.steampowered.com/ugc/3282300518269127181/4E500E900E7656D26D77F7CD9D104B565FBF29F3/

[Egan]

Is it possible to over fish or over hunt an area? One of my hunting lodges was turning out a huge amount of venison but has, over the last year, really reduced it's output. I am aware that the edges of the village have begun to encroach on it's hunting area, and that has an effect as it scares wildlife away, but can simple over hunting be a factor too?

I really really must stop playing this game. I've got a bunch of articles I need to write and it's impossible whilst looking after those little buggers.

[Arclight]

I noticed the same with a fishing dock. According the game's web page it's possible for such things to happen:

Farming for many seasons in one place will ruin the soil. Taking fish and game faster than they reproduce will lead to extinction, and your starvation.
http://www.shiningrocksoftware.com/game/

Would take a fair few years though. My fishers are at half capacity and hunters at 3 quarters, seems stable. Farming output is still steady.


Dan; haven't had issues with farming. Got 8 15x15 fields, 6 farmers each. Some crops are ready for harvest early/mid summer. Getting 1400-1500 per field each year. Are the farmers all educated? :hmmm:

[Egan]

I noticed the same with a fishing dock. According the game's web page it's possible for such things to happen:
http://www.shiningrocksoftware.com/game/

Would take a fair few years though. My fishers are at half capacity and hunters at 3 quarters, seems stable. Farming output is still steady.


Yes, that seems probably a good compromise. I have three hunting lodges. I am toying with the idea of keeping one manned at a time, and moving those workers from one to another as game becomes over hunted. As for farms, I have noticed this year that my potato crop is much reduced. I am going to try to leave a couple of fields fallow for a year or two and see whether that makes a difference.

Hell of a clever little game.

Well, Didn't manage to put the theory into practice in time - lost about 25 people to starvation in the course of one summer. I'm having real problems creating enough firewood as well - no building underway, plenty of timber in the stock piles and two woodcutter working 24 hours a day and i just can't keep up. Seems a might strange considering I only had a population of about 120 at the towns peak.

[danlisa]

Dan; haven't had issues with farming. Got 8 15x15 fields, 6 farmers each. Some crops are ready for harvest early/mid summer. Getting 1400-1500 per field each year. Are the farmers all educated? :hmmm:

It's possible that some aren't. Currently have a population of 346/60/78, so some may not be fully educated, I do have 58 farmers.

Trying a new tactic and creating farming communes, exactly enough homes per field/orchard should result in a more dedicated workforce.

Of course, it could be the crop at fault. Do certain crops take longer to yield and therefore harvest later? I aqquired my last missing seed from a trader today, I should test it out.

[Arclight]

Yeah, was gonna bring that up; beans grow really fast, harvest early summer. Corn is fast too, then wheat and cabbages. Potatos are slow growers (stopped planting squash, pumpkin and peppers at some point, can't remember how well they do).

I was playing in a mild climate too. Started in a fair one now, seems to get cold a lot sooner.

* just like housing, barns in close proximity help a lot too.
Yes, that seems probably a good compromise. I have three hunting lodges. I am toying with the idea of keeping one manned at a time, and moving those workers from one to another as game becomes over hunted. As for farms, I have noticed this year that my potato crop is much reduced. I am going to try to leave a couple of fields fallow for a year or two and see whether that makes a difference.
Maybe the deer roaming the map are an indication of the total population? I recall seeing a lot of deer wandering at first, right around town, but I don't recall seeing them around lately. Theory that needs investigating. :hmmm:


Well, Didn't manage to put the theory into practice in time - lost about 25 people to starvation in the course of one summer. I'm having real problems creating enough firewood as well - no building underway, plenty of timber in the stock piles and two woodcutter working 24 hours a day and i just can't keep up. Seems a might strange considering I only had a population of about 120 at the towns peak.
Ran into that issue as I had small stockpiles scattered about the place. Particularly, I had a 5x5 stockpile just outside the radius of a forester, with 2 wood cutters beside it. Logs tended to rest against the limit, so not a lot of cutting went on, and even then that forester was only 1 of 4. Once the logs in that stockpile ran out, those cutters ended up traveling a hell of a long way for logs.

Prolly better to have few large, centralized stockpiles than many small ones. :hmmm:

[Arclight]

Ah right, the thing that kind of crippled my thus far most succesfull town: markets. Do not put producers close to a market. They end up delivering their goods their, and it won't get distributed to other markets.

For example, if the closest drop off point for your fishing docks is a market (:roll:) then all the fish ends up in there, and no one else gets any. It gets really problematic if, say, the majority of your tools or clothing ends up like that. Not sure if citizens will even make the trek, but needles to say that trek would become longer and longer as you expand. Much better to get your goods into barns and stockpiles so the market vendors can pick them up and distribute to markets.

[danlisa]

Did you build 'around' the market or add one in as a latter thought?
One thing with markets that I have learnt is that it should really have a Stockpile next to it. This ensures that any material that can be stockpiled doesn't take up space that could be better used by food items.

Just opened up my second seed, this time I'm going to plan the entire town layout first, pause everything and bring it online when needed. Let's see how that works out.

[Oberon]

I broke it. :O:

It would seem that if a farmer accidentally leaves a basket of wheat/whatever in a field over the winter, the field will not be replanted come spring. :dead:

http://i.imgur.com/Bqdznr6.jpg

Apparently it is a known bug, so hopefully it'll be fixed. Thankfully it was on my smaller, first, wheat field, so I can probably put a house on it or something.

(and yes, I know in the screenshot it's not in the right mode, but that's because I deactivated it to switch the workers to my other field which was currently being rested.)

[Arclight]

That's an odd one. Does a laborer pick it up though? Field becomes useful again?

Haven't seen any stray items laying about too long.Did you build 'around' the market or add one in as a latter thought?


Afterthought. First town went tits up pretty quick, that was my 2nd which ran for 76 years with some 300 citizens before I felt I had to give up on it. The logistics became unmanageable since I was just learning while going along. Worked myself into a corner basically.

[Oberon]

That's an odd one. Does a laborer pick it up though? Field becomes useful again?

Haven't seen any stray items laying about too long.



I've been told here:
http://shiningrocksoftware.com/forum/discussion/1660/wheat-basket-preventing-planting

That changing the priority might do the trick, so I'll have to give that a try, had to rattle the report off quick though since I was just about to head to work. :haha: Still, on the up side, I have yet to have a mass starvation loop this time, which is odd because I was under the impression that going to crops straight away was a bad idea, and yet so far it's been the most successful strategy I've had, since my other towns fishing/gathering/hunting ventures all ended in the starvation feedback loop. I've managed to weather one blight so far, so we'll see how it goes.

I fully expect another mass starvation feedback loop before my population reaches 50. :yep:

[Nippelspanner]

Is it possible to over fish or over hunt an area?
Yes. Every food source can break down if you get too greedy. For this reason, I never use more than 2 people for each building, no matter if it is a hunting cabin, a fisher hut, or a gatherers hut.

This has three positive effects:

1. You won't extinct any food source
2. In case of emergency, you can add workers to these buildings and double your food-income for a short time to prevent starvation.
3. You don't need as many workers for food production, so you can use them elsewhere.

[Arclight]

Well, that was... new. Didn't freeze all winter. Coldest it got was 0C early winter, after that it got gradually warmer until hitting 8C at the end of winter.

http://cloud-2.steampowered.com/ugc/613917745944666653/2289944391E8304065FBEED703DEBF5AD4C48052/

Then as soon as spring hit it rapidly dropped to 3C for a bit. :doh:

[Penguin]

Got 8 15x15 fields, 6 farmers each. Some crops are ready for harvest early/mid summer. Getting 1400-1500 per field each year. Are the farmers all educated? :hmmm:

I went from 6 farmers for a 15x15 to 4 farmers. The harvest was only minimal less (about 5-10%), but having more free population outweighted the little production drop - though I haven't tested it before they were educated and had steel tools.


I broke it. :O:

It would seem that if a farmer accidentally leaves a basket of wheat/whatever in a field over the winter, the field will not be replanted come spring. :dead:


:hmmm: Did you have a fire or did a farmer just switch jobs or kick the bucket?

The only time I notced dropping crates was in case of a fire, however this goes only for laborers. We deperately need an emergency button: hey cratfsman, you won't get a medal for working while your neighbor's house is burning down, move your fat arse and get a bucket of water, you know, fire can spread! :stare:

[CCIP]

So far I've been doing my farming mostly with 14x10 or 12x12 fields, manned by two farmers each. Seems to work pretty well and brings in about 1000 food a season per field. That seems to be the most optimal that I've been able to get it.

[Betonov]

I have more people employed as farmers than all other professions together.
Talk about a textbook pre-industiral society.

Does it says that intensive farming in one place will exaust the soil, or you can counter it with crop rotation. He got most of real life farming hacks right, why not crop rotation

[Oberon]

:hmmm: Did you have a fire or did a farmer just switch jobs or kick the bucket?

The only time I notced dropping crates was in case of a fire, however this goes only for laborers. We deperately need an emergency button: hey cratfsman, you won't get a medal for working while your neighbor's house is burning down, move your fat arse and get a bucket of water, you know, fire can spread! :stare:

Haven't had any non-natural deaths so far, so don't think he/she kicked the bucket, must have just switched jobs for winter into labourer mode and forgotten about the bucket.

I have more people employed as farmers than all other professions together.
Talk about a textbook pre-industiral society.

Does it says that intensive farming in one place will exaust the soil, or you can counter it with crop rotation. He got most of real life farming hacks right, why not crop rotation

I've been wondering that myself, hence switching between fields, would be nice if it was modelled but many of the indicators I have seen in my googling seem to indicate that it's not, however letting fields fallow for a year or two seems to help.

[kranz]

watched the trailer...
wow....
20 Euro....
wow...
I mean, seriously?

[Arclight]

Aparently no on the crop thing;

I figured crop rotation would be a good addition to farming. Soil quality would be a resource to manage, just like everything else. Every few years, depending on the crop, a fallow crop could be planted and left to die and rot in the field which would restore the soil.

If I was building a farm simulator only, this would be fine. But the player is also balancing many other resource producing areas, building things, placing roads, and generally forgetting to switch to a fallow crop every once in a while. This can be devastating to the town if the food production is balanced closely with food consumption. It’s also annoying to click on 30 fields and change settings.
http://www.shiningrocksoftware.com/2013-05-07-game-design-flux-or-how-i-learned-virtual-crop-rotation-isnt-fun/

[CCIP]

That could be solved with an "auto rotation" option. Maybe something for a future version/mod!

[Arclight]

He kinda dismissed that with the "if you're going to automate it then what's the point of having it?" argument.

I tend to agree on some level, in that it leaves a player free to just have fun with the game. But considering Banished has a fair level of challenge and simulation, I'd really like to see a system implemented as well. Lends a little complexity to the otherwise pretty simple "make field, grow crop" farming in there now.

Normally I'm not that big on mods, but in this case I'd really like to see some expanded and deeper mechanics. Not that it's too simplified as it is, just that I'd like to see more things to tinker with.

[CCIP]

Yup, no harm in that!

And to be fair, something like Settlers 2 (which still feels like one of the most similar games to this, and the reason why I immediately 'got' Banished) is even more simplified as far as mechanics, so I really have no big issues about that. Honestly, I don't think of Banished as a 'sim' in any hard sense, so I don't mind the simplifications. What I love about Banished is that it struck a really fine balance and manages to be both simple and really challenging at the same time.

The mod kit will do awesome things for this game though, I'm sure of it. Another thing I'd love to see is a little more complexity with things like professions and skills of the citizens, rather than "everyone can do everything".

[Betonov]

Another thing I'd love to see is a little more complexity with things like professions and skills of the citizens, rather than "everyone can do everything".

Tropico series has a nice system. One gains experience in a profession over time, educated people gain experience faster.
Just a system where people will get jobs based on distance from home and skill

[Herr-Berbunch]

If anyone is currently deciding to buy this it's cheaper from the website ( http://www.shiningrocksoftware.com/buy/ ) rather than Steam, at least for me using GBP -

Steam is £15 = $25

Dev's website is $20 - £12

Prices are rounded up/down accordingly, but only by a matter of pence or cents, not even a quarter.

You still get a Steam key for it, and prolly the dev gets more cash. :yeah:

This info prolly doesn't count for anything during a Steam sale.

[Egan]

watched the trailer...
wow....
20 Euro....
wow...
I mean, seriously?

Yeah, and it's stupidly addictive. It's one of those games thats easy to pick up but much more difficult to master. I don't actually play that many games any more, but I've been caning this since I got it. Going to have to stop, actually - it's eating into my time far, far too much.

[RickC Sniper]

Is there a place in the game statistics showing how many and what types of seeds you have?

If you farm, say wheat, does the harvest itself generate seeds you need for replanting or must you acquire all your seeds by trading?

Currently I'm getting food by fishing\hunting\gathering but my population has grown right to the point where I can begin to think about farming.

Also....I know foresters restore a forested area that I've cleared resources from by replanting trees....but how much time does it take for the trees to mature?

Perhaps I messed up by just raping a perfectly good forest but I was desperate for wood. :ping:

[Betonov]

When you build the town hall you gain acces to town statistics and a list of seeds/cattle.

And once you buy one seed you can sow anytime.
Don't buy 2 seeds it seems, waste of trade resources.

[RickC Sniper]

When you build the town hall you gain acces to town statistics and a list of seeds/cattle.

And once you buy one seed you can sow anytime.
Don't buy 2 seeds it seems, waste of trade resources.


Thank you!

[Betonov]

No problem.

I just wish I COULD STOP PLAYING THIS GAME !!!!!!!!!!
I'll go on heroin, it's less addictive

[Flamebatter90]

How is this compared to, say, Gnomoria? It does sound like another Lite-Dwarf Fortress type of game, but does seem to have it's fair share of problems too.

[CCIP]

Nah, I wouldn't really compare it to Dwarf Fortress and related games. There are some similarities, but mechanically and in spirit it's closer to games like Settlers, Sim City, or Cities in Motion, with a couple of interesting twists. I think you'll be a bit disappointed if you expect it to be like DF, but are likely to love it if you liked the games I just mentioned.

[Pisces]

I swear I was able to see in the traders building which seeds and livestock was bought. On the last tab I think.

Seeds are not listed per unit item. They are simply in your possesion and can be selected in the pulldown list of the fields. I don't think there is a way to loose them.

[Egan]

I swear I was able to see in the traders building which seeds and livestock was bought. On the last tab I think.

Seeds are not listed per unit item. They are simply in your possesion and can be selected in the pulldown list of the fields. I don't think there is a way to loose them.

One of the tabs in the town hall tells you this too. Didn't realise the trading post tells you as well.

Here's a farming question: Is there a way to split a herd of cows into a new pasture as you can with chickens? Even with a new, empty pasture I don't seem able too.

[Nippelspanner]

Here's a farming question: Is there a way to split a herd of cows into a new pasture as you can with chickens? Even with a new, empty pasture I don't seem able too.
Yes, you just need to have 10+ animals, then you can split them.

[Egan]

Yes, you just need to have 10+ animals, then you can split them.

Ah, ten is the magic number. Cheers.

[Pisces]

Yes, you just need to have 10+ animals, then you can split them.And I suppose it requires a person to be assigned to it.

[reignofdeath]

Well I'm jumping on the train a bit late, but wow. For one person creating and working on this game alone, its incredible well done, in-depth, good looking, and optimized it seems.

I started a town and almost failed, expanded to rapidly, everyone died of starvation but 2 adults and a kid. Now I'm up to 3 and 1 child. :yeah:

Gonna see if I can make comeback.

[reignofdeath]

Did infact make a comeback, got the population up to 22 adults and 6 childeren about 30 years in, had a nice little village going. Had 3 woodcutter, hunting, and fishing buildings, as well as one gathering one spread out (I rotated the hunters and fishers to keep from drying out the supply in the area, same with the woodcutters, plant one area, cut down another, etc.)

Well came time to upgrade storage so I built a market and got rid of the old storage barn... and then all of a sudden my people all stopped doing anything and starved. I had workers in each of my hunting, gathering and fishing huts, and they all just idled around and starved. Happiness was okay, so what gives??

[Stealhead]

Well you still need storage barns the market does not replace them it is just a a secondary distribution point.It allows workers to do their job and then go to the market to "buy" goods rather than a barn(s) which takes more energy.

Storage barns will only be filled with "local" items(a worker will head to the closest open barn with his produced goods).once you have more than one barn the nearest barn will be the collection point for the good.Obviously as you build things in different areas it will become more efficient to have more than one barn even if they are not anywhere near capacity.Even early in the game it can be wise to build an extra barn if you have fisheries,hunters and gatherers spread on opposite ends of the map.


Basically it means less work for everyone which means less food consumption which means less starvation.The people working as vendors will gather the goods from the various storage barns. You also must have at least one person working as a vendor or nothing will happen as far as I am aware.

The market only makes a notable impact once your town is large enough to be spread out over a larger area.Not sure if they are even worth building until you have at least 50 people.I think one market can cover a pretty good size area.I think the only limit is the total number of goods that one can contain.

This person explains it better(the response)
http://gaming.stackexchange.com/questions/157638/storage-barn-vs-market

[reignofdeath]

Well you still need storage barns the market does not replace them it is just a a secondary distribution point.It allows workers to do their job and then go to the market to "buy" goods rather than a barn(s) which takes more energy.

Storage barns will only be filled with "local" items(a worker will head to the closest open barn with his produced goods).once you have more than one barn the nearest barn will be the collection point for the good.Obviously as you build things in different areas it will become more efficient to have more than one barn even if they are not anywhere near capacity.Even early in the game it can be wise to build an extra barn if you have fisheries,hunters and gatherers spread on opposite ends of the map.


Basically it means less work for everyone which means less food consumption which means less starvation.The people working as vendors will gather the goods from the various storage barns. You also must have at least one person working as a vendor or nothing will happen as far as I am aware.

The market only makes a notable impact once your town is large enough to be spread out over a larger area.Not sure if they are even worth building until you have at least 50 people.I think one market can cover a pretty good size area.I think the only limit is the total number of goods that one can contain.

This person explains it better(the response)
http://gaming.stackexchange.com/questions/157638/storage-barn-vs-market

Okay wow, thanks for that. Im going to start a new settlement here soon. I'll definitely work on that, another thing I noticed is I read that one guy talked about doing crops efficiently. Ie, during the spring and fall, all "Food" laborers except the bare minimum were in the fields and orchards to plant and harvest field to increase yield, and during the summer and winter, they were in the gathering huts, hunting lodges and fisheries.

Im going to try that but it's gonna take a while seeing as how I start out on hard and have no seeds to start with :)

[Stealhead]

In some forums I have seen some claim that markets prevent people from "hording" goods.This is not true for one the people do not horde and secondly the market only serves as a distribution point.If there for some reason is not enough food or goods to meet demands people will still starve.The vendors will not sell less simply because there is less of something.


Anyway here is a reddit page that lists map seeds type in the seed number at the start to get the map.
http://www.reddit.com/r/BanishedMaps

[Aktungbby]

And Welcome aboard Flamebatter90!:Kaleun_Salute:

[Tribesman]

First major setback. Typhus epidemic and two fires all hit at the same time.
Its one way to fill the graveyards quickly.

[Herr-Berbunch]

Right, next payday it's mine! :yep:

[Herr-Berbunch]

I was right, it is.

Had things set quite high and my GPU temp was reaching over 80°C, even Arma III only gets my card up to about 65°C. :o

Needless to say I've notched it down a bit.

[Nippelspanner]

There is a bet patch available that fixes a lot of small and big problems:
A beta of the new version (1.0.2) is now available. To get it you can opt into the beta by right clicking on the game in the Steam Library, select properties, and then pick the BETAs tab. You can switch to the Beta version 1.0.2.

While loading old save games from before the patch has been tested, it's recommend that you back up your save games before overwriting them. The new save games won’t work with the previous version of the game. They are located in Documents\Banished\Save\

If the community can give some feedback on the patch and make sure everything is working properly, that'd be great. If no major issues come up during testing of the patch, it will be come official in the next week or so.

Here are the list of changes:



Mouse buttons now obey system setting for flipped left/right buttons.
Input options now allow binding of mouse actions.
Input settings can now be bound to any of eight mouse buttons.
Fixed a bug that cause meat and other resources to show up in the corner of the map.
Fixed being able to pop a building back into existence after being damaged by using the cancel removal tool or reclaim button.
Fixed grave count on cemeteries when it is marked for removal then reclaimed.
Fixed crash at trading post when trading, dismissing trader, and then selecting a custom order.
Fixed a bug that allowed auto purchase to over fill the trading post.
Fixed a bug that caused cycling through laborers to show children and students.
Foresters no longer cut down orchards.
Fixed water showing inside merchant boat.
Builders will no longer walk the long way around to the other side of a bridge or tunnel when constructing it if it’s more than twice the distance to the closer side.
Fixed building pause icon staying up when a building completes construction after pausing construction.
Fixed a bug that caused starving or freezing people to get stuck in a loop doing the same job over and over if no food or warmth was available to resolve the starving or freezing issue.
Fixed a bug that caused pending roads to not be cancelable if they were under a tree, rock, ore, etc.
Fixed a bug that caused roads to be unremovable.
Fixed a bug that caused areas to be unusable after roads were removed in certain cases.
Dirt roads can no longer be quick removed by zoning over them with stone roads and then removing them. They now revert back to dirt roads and work has to be performed to remove them.
Placing stone roads over pending dirt roads no longer cause unusable areas.
Disasters are now disabled in tutorials.
Citizens are now more effective at fighting fires and putting them out.
When fires break out, citizens fighting the fire now run at high speed.
Citizens working in an area where a fire breaks out will now be interrupted to help fight the fire.
Fixed a bug that caused non-laborers to not fight fires.
Citizens fighting fires will only be interrupted by sickness, freezing, or starving.
Citizens will now only search for water in an area around the fire. Far inland areas need wells for fires to be fought.
Increased the number of citizens that can fight a single fire to 50.
Increased the area of effect for citizens fighting a fire.
If enough water is brought to a building on fire, the chance of the fire spreading is lowered.
Fixed a bug that caused buildings on fire not to be high priority.
Fixed a major slowdown in large towns when fires break out.
If citizens are already walking to get food at a distance location and become starved, they’ll now interrupt the walk and get food at the closest market or storage barn.
If citizens are working far from home and become hungry, they’ll eat food from their home as if they brought food with them. This will not interrupt the current task. If no food is available at home they will interrupt the walk and get food at the closest market or storage barn.
Because citizens can eat from home when far away, they can better deal with freezing, and visit a warm place when needed.
Fixed a bug that caused citizens not to warm up when eating at home in some cases.
Citizens now won’t be assigned far away tasks without a specific profession (pickups, gathering, clearing, etc) unless the tasks have been around for a long time, or haven’t been assigned to someone local. This keeps citizens far away from walking across the map in most cases.
Citizens now limit the distance they’ll walk in the winter when it is very cold.
Tombstones now decay in 4-6 years instead of 13-17.
Existing tombstones have had their decay time reduced by half.
The trading post volume was been increased to 60000. This allows larger auto purchases to occur without overflowing storage. Existing trading posts need to be removed and replaced for this change to take effect.
Fixed several spelling and grammatical errors.
Fixed crash in audio streamer due to missing thread synchronization.
Fixed a bug that caused very wide screen displays to calculate an incorrect FOV.
Fixed a crash that occurred if a video card doesn't support sampling from a depth texture.
Windowed mode now allows resizing of the window.
Window position is now remembered and restored on game shutdown/startup.
Graphics initialization now has better error handling and exception recovery.
Added a game launcher that allows changing video settings if the game doesn’t display properly on startup.
The game launcher only shows if an error occurred, on first time startup, ctrl is held on startup, or /launcher is on the command line.
Added selection of refresh rate to graphics settings
Added selection of graphics adapter to graphics settings.
Save games now check for truncation and crc validation to make sure save games haven’t been corrupted.
The scene shown on the background of the main menu now has better error checking in case the file has become corrupt. If the file is corrupt it will show the original scene that the game shows on first time startup.
Files are now created in a temp directory and are moved after writes complete. This stops partial files from being created if a thread crashes while a background thread is performing file I/O.


Go to your STEAM library, right click on Banished, select properties and then the "betas" tab.
You can opt out of it by going there again and deselecting it in case you have problems with the beta etc.

[Betonov]

Decided to give the mod ''Colonial Charter'' a try.

Best described as Banished spliced with Anno and then fed steroids.

[Nippelspanner]

Decided to give the mod ''Colonial Charter'' a try.

Best described as Banished spliced with Anno and then fed steroids.
If Fallout - or rather building my settlement and gardening - wouldn't consume me completely, I'd give it a shot as well. I'm kinda sad how banished "stopped" in its tracks after release (for me).

[Betonov]

If Fallout - or rather building my settlement and gardening -

Real life or Fallout ??


The mod seems a bit overwhelming at first. But it's mostly becasue the build menu is cluttered. Tier I buildings (log cabins, iron mine) are not separated by high tier buildings (town house, foundry, sugar refinery) so you really need to know where each building belongs.

[Nippelspanner]

Real life or Fallout ??


The mod seems a bit overwhelming at first. But it's mostly becasue the build menu is cluttered. Tier I buildings (log cabins, iron mine) are not separated by high tier buildings (town house, foundry, sugar refinery) so you really need to know where each building belongs.
Yes. Real Life. *Looks at the snow outside*
Crazy Slovenians... :nope:

No, Fallout 4, for now. :)
However, I start to get interested in gardening. I found it fascinating what my dad knew about it and damn, the tomatoes out of our own garden where the best I ever had!
I think it is something natural. The older you get, the more you will like gardening. Probably to leave something before you leave (I'm 31, btw xD).

I might try it when I sold the house/bought a new one/everything goes to plan.

[Betonov]

Yes. Real Life. *Looks at the snow outside*
Crazy Slovenians... :nope:


I planted 5 trees, manured the older ones I planted 2 years ago and dug up the old garden in preparation for the spring upgrade. During the hollidays. In real life :03:

I wish this was a gardening thread so I could make a novel about my discovery that I have a talent and passion for gardening, but I rather not. I rather not.
If you need an advice, PM me. I've been doing it for 5 years now.

[Nippelspanner]

I planted 5 trees, manured the older ones I planted 2 years ago...
You disgust me. :D

I will, if I start next, err, this year, thanks!
Also, make a gardening thread. I don't think we have one and you sure aren't the only one with a green thumb here!

[Betonov]

You disgust me. :D

I will, if I start next, err, this year, thanks!
Also, make a gardening thread. I don't think we have one and you sure aren't the only one with a green thumb here!

I'll have to make 2, the gardening and the hydroponics thread :03:


Ah yes, Banished.
Colonial Charter is worth instaling if you're of opinion:
a) Banished lacks depth, more production chains
b) I want something like Anno only more challenging but without the island hopping
c) Can't stand these new games that hold your hand trough gameplay

Installing is a matter of copy-paste one file.