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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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?

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.

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!

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.

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%

I see.

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

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

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-...-fisherman.jpg

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.

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...

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.