Banished (Settlers/Tropico type game) - Released

[lozina]

people only move into houses when they are a couple right?

My village is full of pedophiles then.

I've got a 39 year old guy living with a 10 year old girl...
http://pics.bbzzdd.com/users/pontifex/pedovillagers.jpg

several others are like 21 and 14.

I don't think so, I've had a 52 year old man living with a 2 year old girl (definitely not related). I also saw a house with two females around same age living together. So not sure how it works...

 

[mizzou]

I don't think so, I've had a 52 year old man living with a 2 year old girl (definitely not related). I also saw a house with two females around same age living together. So not sure how it works...

Does anyone even know the specific schematics on how children are "born" in the game?

 

[imaheadcase]

To you, maybe. To me, not at all. I'd have paid $10 for it. Over $10 and I expect high levels of replay ability. This game doesn't have it. Once you reach that plateau on the hardest setting, the game is no longer challenging and becomes instantly boring because there's nothing left to do.

The game forum seems to be packed with two different kinds of players, too. One kind of player is the kind that constantly struggles and loses a lot. The other kind of player seems to be the kind that isn't challenged and very quickly masters the game and is done with it.

Yah the second half are called liars. lol

 

[velillen]

Yah the second half are called liars. lol

I definitely not a master but I'm sure plenty of people are. The biggest key is to micro manage like crazy. I'm constantly changing numbers. Getting high on wood...switch to farmer...wood and food good then switch a couple something else. I early go a season without some shuffling.

Also schools are a great way to help in a pinch. I have two with like 30 students in them. When things start going majorly down hill....turn the school off and get an instant 20 laborers to go where needed. Then turn the school back on.

I'm enjoying the game. Honestly I've found you can make it as in-depth as you want.

 

[pontifex]

I built a mine but it's only gathering iron, not coal. if I set iron to 0 and only leave coal, they stop working. Am I missing something?


edit: nm, i see there is a drop down box to select what you want them to mine.

OK, another question though. I got 2 sheep and they made a baby so now i have 3. But how do you get wool from them? I've had them for at least a year now, maybe 2 and I don't see any wool in my inventory. Do you get wool only when they are killed? if so, that seems kind of dumb.

 

[maevinj]

I definitely not a master but I'm sure plenty of people are. The biggest key is to micro manage like crazy. I'm constantly changing numbers. Getting high on wood ...switch to farmer...wood and food good then switch a couple something else. I early go a season without some shuffling.

Also schools are a great way to help in a pinch. I have two with like 30 students in them. When things start going majorly down hill....turn the school off and get an instant 20 laborers to go where needed. Then turn the school back on.

I'm enjoying the game. Honestly I've found you can make it as in-depth as you want.

Getting high on wood huh?

 

[velillen]

I built a mine but it's only gathering iron, not coal. if I set iron to 0 and only leave coal, they stop working. Am I missing something?


edit: nm, i see there is a drop down box to select what you want them to mine.

OK, another question though. I got 2 sheep and they made a baby so now i have 3. But how do you get wool from them? I've had them for at least a year now, maybe 2 and I don't see any wool in my inventory. Do you get wool only when they are killed? if so, that seems kind of dumb.

i bought 6 sheep and they started out giving wool every so often. I dont know exactly when but i was getting a decent amount (like 30) per a year.

Getting high on wood huh?

Of course! My foresters like getting high




Well my starting area i built up had a major fire. lost probably 70% of it. Which steam rolled into all sorts of problems. mainly the two blacksmiths i had were both in the town so i quickly was short on tools. Which meant food went down quite a bit. Luckily though i didnt have anyone die. Kinda surprised by that actually. Its been a rough few years since trying ot recover but it hink that is part of what makes th egame so fun. be doing great and expanding then BAM its a struggle again.

 

[pontifex]

I'm into year 21 or 22 and have 48 adults and 12 children. there are students too but i forget how many.

Got plenty of food, wood, and other resources. Built at least 1 of everything except a tavern so far. don't have wheat to make alcohol yet though.

 

[lozina]

Built at least 1 of everything except a tavern so far. don't have wheat to make alcohol yet though.

The game has alot of options for making alcohol, it's not only wheat based. You can use berries and just about any fruit such as apples, peaches, pears.

 

[greenhawk]

I don't think so, I've had a 52 year old man living with a 2 year old girl (definitely not related). I also saw a house with two females around same age living together. So not sure how it works...

I had something like that too, but the ones that get me was on my second town (expanded too fast), I had three houses with just one female in them (12-15). On next check, they all had kids and not a male in any of the three.

Just wondering a bit there about that....

 

[greenhawk]

I ended up buying it. Kind of lost a bit on what to do with regards to wood. I seem to run out constantly. I have a forester but I seem to keep clearcutting to keep up with wood demands. Stone is another thing I keep running out of.

Also I want to keep building stuff my people need but I run out of people to man the buildings...how do you keep up with that?

On wood, I one forester is not enough. I have two people in each building (two buildings, area of effect not over lapping). Even then I have a section of wood set to be chopped down so any idle workers have something to do. I also find having small goods depos near the work helps speed up wood chopping. Other things that effect the rate of wood being chopped is good clothing for your people (they walk off when the they get cold) and having enough tools for all workers. Someone mentioned a tool improves speed by 50% on tasks. I do know that fishing stops working (for me anyway) when the fishermen do not have tools).

stone I have not found a easy fix for as I do not want to create mines for it. Though for my current game, I think I have nearly 1/3 of the map cleared of stones and iron

As to people usage, that is the point of the game. No need to do it too often as workers that can not work go temping as labours until they can work again. It helps when building things not to start until you have the resources to complete it. Other things to help is to place roads to speed up movement, place storage near the item that will use it (less walking) and do not over stock the number of people in each building. Building placement becomes important too as overlapping or having buildings that do not complement each other close together will negatively effect how well the buildings work.

Farms and other similar buildings which allow you to set the size of them I find the hardest as you need to balance them with your labor vs distances. Have a farm with not enough people and they will not get finished planting before winter comes back and you do not get a harvest without clicking on the "harvest NOW" button. Having your farmers off doing manual labor jobs during winter is good, but if they do not get back before late spring, they do not bother starting to plant so a wasted year being a farmer. I have been having a good run with 15x4 sided farm areas but I am playing medium. on harder it might need to be smaller to account for the more common early winters. For me with that size it helps as only one person per farm is needed as well. Having two small farms with two workers appears more consistent than a single farm twice as large. Just need to watch that there is one farmer per building as one might be forgotten about (not used) and causing one farm to be planted and harvested by the end of spring, resulting in the farmers going back to being laborers for 3/4 of the year.

Only had one chance with orchards so far and it appears you only need the person to plant the trees to start with, then you can remove him for a few years (trees do not produce for the first few years) before needing them back to harvest.

No idea on cattle/sheep/chickens yet as not had a game go long enough to play with them. (long game last night crashed, the game before I gave up on after a tornado killed all people of a child rearing age, only children and 50+ people left).

 

[greenhawk]

Mining is an extreme pain in the ass. I also wish there was a way I could tell my villagers to stop stealing my blacksmiths coal to heat their homes..that's what the firewood is for! lol

just need to over produce fire wood before looking at getting coal .

that and upgrade the wooden homes to stone to help reduce wood usage

 

[imaheadcase]

I hate when you have fields, and you lose all the crop because you planted to late. lol

I really enjoy the casual play, yet its not super easy like lots of sim games are. The main guy said he had a list of about a hundred more things he wanted to put in game but did not want to spend another year+ on them. I really hope mod tools because available, lots of potential for this.

 

[slag]

Have you ever played Age of Empires or Settlers and just wanted to cut out all the combat, block out all other players, and just build the biggest and best city you can?

Honestly, no.. that shit sounds boring. Why would I want to build a city when I could just go play with legos or doodle on paper. Building is boring, destroying things, shooting at mobs, and winning battles is fun.

Well, then Banished might be for you. It makes city building the priority and focuses building a strong town that can survive out in the wild.

YAWN.. Does anyone really buy this shit? How fucking pathetic...

Combat is secondary to city building in this game and regardless of whether you like combat or not in your city builder, it is still a sad time for lovers of the genre with few games to choose from and not a lot to be excited for.

Combat secondary. yeah, this game will not go over well.

Banished is aiming to be an old school singleplayer only city builder that has you building up a rural pre-industrial revolution village and turning it into a large city that requires a bit of complexity to create and manage. You will have to deal with hunger, supply, trading, schooling, keeping the population motivated and more, especially if the sole developer for Banished decides to add combat in to the game.

Sounds like a boring minecraft clone with better graphics and a timeline.

 

[stag3]

diff strokes for diff folks, go play cod then

 

[pontifex]

Have you ever played Age of Empires or Settlers and just wanted to cut out all the combat, block out all other players, and just build the biggest and best city you can?

Honestly, no.. that shit sounds boring. Why would I want to build a city when I could just go play with legos or doodle on paper. Building is boring, destroying things, shooting at mobs, and winning battles is fun.

Well, then Banished might be for you. It makes city building the priority and focuses building a strong town that can survive out in the wild.

YAWN.. Does anyone really buy this shit? How fucking pathetic...

Combat is secondary to city building in this game and regardless of whether you like combat or not in your city builder, it is still a sad time for lovers of the genre with few games to choose from and not a lot to be excited for.

Combat secondary. yeah, this game will not go over well.

Banished is aiming to be an old school singleplayer only city builder that has you building up a rural pre-industrial revolution village and turning it into a large city that requires a bit of complexity to create and manage. You will have to deal with hunger, supply, trading, schooling, keeping the population motivated and more, especially if the sole developer for Banished decides to add combat in to the game.

Sounds like a boring minecraft clone with better graphics and a timeline.

umm..ever heard of a small title called Sim City?

 

[EDUSAN]

man i used to loooooooooveeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee the settlers 2 soooooo much (the last one is not that bad), although im not sure if i see myself playing a game like this nowadays. Takes too much time to get things right, but the addiction in these games is so damn high XD

 

[lozina]

Sounds like a boring minecraft clone with better graphics and a timeline.

Whaaaaat?? By that logic Battlefield 4 is a minecraft clone too.

 

[pontifex]

NOOO!!! 2nd tornado wiped out 1/3 of my villagers and a ton of buildings! and I was doing so well too. got a good source and store of materials and food and was starting to build up my population and this happens!

It was the 2nd one to go through. Luckily the 1st one only killed a fisherman and my fishing dock.

 

[mizzou]

NOOO!!! 2nd tornado wiped out 1/3 of my villagers and a ton of buildings! and I was doing so well too. got a good source and store of materials and food and was starting to build up my population and this happens!

It was the 2nd one to go through. Luckily the 1st one only killed a fisherman and my fishing dock.

i lost 8 educated young working men in my mines to a tornado...AND it took out my brand new boarding house!

I was furious...but we shall rise again.

 

[Dresdenboy]

I had something like that too, but the ones that get me was on my second town (expanded too fast), I had three houses with just one female in them (12-15). On next check, they all had kids and not a male in any of the three.

Just wondering a bit there about that....

Looking at reality I'd say, this is well modeled.

 

[imaheadcase]

So what do foresters do with the trees they cut down? Do the villages have to go get it? Or do the forests put it on the storage places?

 

[clok1966]

Game is quit fun, have to say I'm not having much problems so far except Disasters Or stupid management early in game.. And i was wondering about the latter. When i start I normally go, Fishing hut (sometimes 2 if its close), 2 fields (random crop, 2 differnt if available), wood chopper, then housing. When all this is going I will harvest some stone and wood. I can normally get a good start before winter sets in. I then build my forestry Hut, and herb (beside each other) and set forest to plant only. At start there is normally enough wood all over to manually manage its cuttin, often around the forestry hut. Next spring i will plant a orchard (earlier the better I "think"? if i can manage it first spring I do, but its often hard unless fishing is very close). After that i add gather (by herb), Hunter (also by herb, or next closest forest area if large enough). School, and Blacksmith.

So, Quarry, stone does seem finite, build one early or late? Mines, see no reason early in game. market, early or late? Like so many It would be nice to know some stuff. Smith- my people dont seem to quit working even if there are no tools, do they work slower (chopping a tree down with your hand has to be hard work). Schools, I assumed they only took kids- non labours, but i see people closing them and having instant labour. At waht age do they start to work? it appears around 10-11 to me.
Housing- I assumed i needed to make new housing to increase my population (nobody wants to ... um.. "join" with 5 people in the house.. but i get houses with 2 people in each (male-female) is this how you GROW population?

Are somecrops better then others?

just lots of questions if anybody wants discuss.

 

[Wardawg1001]

When i start I normally go, Fishing hut (sometimes 2 if its close), 2 fields (random crop, 2 differnt if available), wood chopper, then housing.

I would advise building homes as your very first task, with the only exception being some sort of food production if playing on normal/hard (you start with a limited supply of food, and run out fairly quickly if you don't start gathering right away). I also wouldn't recommend building any crops for the first couple of years. They provide less food per worker than any other type of food production (but they provide more food per amount of space used, which is why you will want them eventually).

I then build my forestry Hut, and herb (beside each other) and set forest to plant only.

Herbs grow better in long standing forests (i.e. ones that aren't being cut and re-planted constantly), so its counter-productive to place your herb gatherer with a forestry hut. Even if you only ever set it to plant trees and never cut, there is really no need for the forestry hut at all. I've had towns of several hundred citizens supported by a single herb gatherer who is just placed off on his own within a naturally growing/aging forest. You can place hunters and gatherers with the herb gatherer with no ill effects though.

Next spring i will plant a orchard (earlier the better I "think"? if i can manage it first spring I do, but its often hard unless fishing is very close).

Orchards are pretty unnecessary. The amount of wood they provide is completely negligible, and they take several years to begin producing food at all. In the first few years, you have much higher priorities. They seem to produce slightly less food than a crop field on average, but also need less workers, so efficiency is probably roughly the same. I think the only thing they give you that you can't get otherwise is nuts (fruits are produced by gatherers), and I'm not even sure that nuts count as one of the food groups (this is related to health). Certainly they can add some extra flavor to your town, but are hardly worth worrying about in the early game.

After that i add gather (by herb), Hunter (also by herb, or next closest forest area if large enough). School, and Blacksmith.

I would recommend getting a hunter up quickly (right after houses, and right along with your first set of food production buildings), and a second hunter not far behind. Unless you started with sheep or cattle (which is not possible on normal/hard difficulty), they are your only method of producing leather for clothing, and one hunter barely produces enough leather for your starting population.

So, Quarry, stone does seem finite, build one early or late? Mines, see no reason early in game. market, early or late?

There is a finite amount of stone on the map, but theres usually enough of it that you can survive a good 5-10 years without a quarry. Steel tools require iron (also a finite amount found on the map) and coal (cant be found on the map), and are more effective than iron tools. It isn't imperative that you get them immediately, but I would start mining as soon as you have the population to handle it, probably around year 5-8.

Smith- my people dont seem to quit working even if there are no tools, do they work slower (chopping a tree down with your hand has to be hard work).

Yes they do work slower. You start with enough tools to last several seasons, but getting a smith operational should be one of your top priorities, right after homes, food production, and firewood production. Iron tools are good enough for the first few years, but you should eventually work towards getting steel tools.

Schools, I assumed they only took kids- non labours, but i see people closing them and having instant labour. At waht age do they start to work? it appears around 10-11 to me.

I don't know the exact age numbers, but yes schools to extend the amount of a time before a new born child enters the work force. On the flip side, if you let them graduate from school, they will be much more productive workers for the rest of their lives. Its definitely a worthwhile trade off, but not one you can afford to make in the early game. Children and students use up resources (food, clothing, firewood, etc) but don't produce anything. Having your ratio of adults/students/children too far in the wrong direction WILL destroy your town. I usually wait until I have all of the basic infrastructure set up (housing, food, fuel, logs, tools, clothing) and am bringing in a surplus of food before I set up a school. Once you do, make sure to closely monitor your ratio of adults to students/children, and closely monitor your food supplies from season to season. I usually aim to have at least 60-70% of my population being adults.

Housing- I assumed i needed to make new housing to increase my population (nobody wants to ... um.. "join" with 5 people in the house.. but i get houses with 2 people in each (male-female) is this how you GROW population?

Population growth works like this. Each house will hold one 'family'. When a family moves in to a home, if they are of child bearing age, they will start to produce children. The max number of children a family creates seems to be 2, maybe 3 (not all at once of course). Barring job changes that necessitate they move to another house, that family will occupy that house for the rest of their lives. No other family can move in to that house while it is occupied. So if you build 10 houses, eventually you will get families living in each one, and you'll get a number of children. But if you never build any more houses, all of the children will simply continue to live with their parents, and be unable to produce children of their own. Eventually everyone will die of old age and your town will die with them.

Assuming you have a surplus of houses, new families (consisting of a male and female generally) will move into them when they become of child bearing age, and start producing children of their own. This creates an interesting dynamic that you have to continually manage throughout the game. You need to keep producing houses in order to prevent your citizenry from growing too old and eventually dying off, but not so many houses that you can't support the child/student population (which of course, will also kill your town).

To make it more challenging, all of these decisions have to sort of be made blind. Building houses doesn't immediately cause a surge in child births, there is a delayed effect, and often it isn't fully felt until you've been overpopulated with children for a year or two. Similarly, it isn't immediately obvious when you have waited too long to build new houses and your population is primarily too old. People live for quite a long time after they stop producing children, so you could be humming merrily along for several years without even realizing there is a problem until you start losing large numbers of people to old age. Suddenly you realize you need to start producing more children, only to realize that 80% of your population is too old, so while you put up a few new houses to start making children, most of your population is dying of old age, which is causing shortages in your production industries, which in turn is being exacerbated by your ratio of adults to children suddenly being skewed heavily in the wrong direction. This situation (which I've experienced a few times) will likely spiral out of control, and kill the vast majority, if not all, of your citizens. God forbid you have to deal with a disaster at any point while trying to recover from this.

Are somecrops better then others?

Not that I am aware of. There are specific 'food groups' though, and achieving maximum health is dependent on your people regularly eating all four of them. I believe they are grains, vegetables, fruit, and meat. Grains (wheat, and I think there is one other type of grain) can only be produced on farms (obviously you can purchase them from traders as well, but this is an unreliable source to count on, especially as you grow larger). Meat comes from hunters, herders, and fishers (venison, beef, chicken, lamb, fish). Fruit comes from gatherers and orchards. Vegetables come from crops and gatherers.

Vegetables are the easiest to maintain a steady supply of. Most of what your gatherers supply is vegetables, and most of the crop types are vegetables (so its relatively easy to get one of the vegetable seeds).

Meat is also relatively easy unless you have very poor river/lake access (which is pretty rare on most maps). If fishing isn't viable, your only supply of meat for quite some time will be hunters, and while they are vital for getting leather, they are a very poor source of food (comparatively). Eventually you will be able to supplement your meat supply with chickens/sheep/cattle, but animals are fairly rare to find on a trader and very expensive, and it takes several years for your animal population to max out (you don't get any meat until the population maxes out and you start slaughtering them to keep the population in check).

Grains are obviously very difficult to maintain a supply of until you get a grain seed. Once you have that, just make sure to plant a lot of it and you never have to worry about it. Getting a grain seed should be one of your top trading priorities in the early game.

Fruits are a bit of a mixed bag. Your gatherers collect berries, which counts as a fruit, but its only 25% of their total haul (roughly). Not enough to keep your population constantly satisfied with their fruit intake. The only other source of fruit is orchards (unless there is a crop like strawberries, but I haven't seen a fruit crop to this point). Orchards also require you to have a seed (its likely you will start with one on easy mode, somewhat likely you start with one on normal, and not possible to start with one on hard mode), so after obtaining a grain seed your next goal should be a fruit seed. Orchards of course require several years to start producing food, and produce slightly less food than a crop, so you will need quite a bit of space to maintain your fruit supply. Orchards can also be planted to grow various types of nuts, and while I'm not positive on this, I believe nuts count as vegetables.

 

[clok1966]

wardwag, thanks, boatload of info and it all makes sense

the houses first- reasoning? more production from people in houses? just interested.. As i get them all housed before winter first season I didnt think i would see much difference.

The farms i was under the AOE thinking.. a farm is close, less traveling, and so far guaranteed food, but what you say does make sense.