I am going to attempt to blog my town here, after having played with a few towns, one having got to >600 population I am going to try and build this one up slowly and use my experience to do it.
Seed: 13, Valleys, Large, Fair, Off, Medium.
(http://worldofbanished.com/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=251.0;attach=1367;image)
The town will start a bit close to a mountain onthe northern side, a small creek running NE-SW across the site, and the main river North-South to our West. North of the mountain is a very fertile valley stretching north to a pair of twin streams, this is likely to become my farming valley in the future.
For now we shall start with a Boarding House, Gathering Hut to the west, possibly two forest nodes (N & S) if I can manage it.
My Villagers
Rome M 13
Nanner F 15
Minniel M 12
Elin F 12
Garol M 18
Giovannis F 15
Delvilermo M 16
Beller F 16
Essica M 15
Hatti F 17
Kamilet F 9
Hayde M 1
Chaun M 2
Terrat F 5
Jakaylynn F 2
Tawandace F 0
Adelber M 1
Rowlandy M 4
I think Kamilet will end up uneducated, so I have a few years to get my school constructed, will start with the boarding house, and a south forest node and then where to go from there.
The set-up
You can see over to the West my starting Forest Node, Forester & Gathering Hut. Second Node will be to the north of this. Boarding House ready to be started, Market placed, and our first field ready to go.
Summer 1
So we have rolled into Summer of our first year, and managed to welcome three new children into the world: Lowells, Reddie & Durwarden. We have managed to complete the Boarding House and Gathering Hut, the addition of a field of corn should keep some food flowing in.
Currently there is some clearing going on around the centre of town, the construction of the Forester, and the beginning of the School House.
The placement of a few houses and Woodcutter can be seen in this screenshot as well.
i want to say thanks you
@Zephormite for this new blog and i wish you best of luck. May your city become prosperous and beautiful :)
No Problem, I have always enjoyed writing about my games, so this should be fun.
Hopefully the name is a sign of the future ;)
1st Year Completed
The rest of Summer saw another child born as Weave joined the village.
Autumn saw the completion of the School, our first student will be along shortly. We also got the Woodcutters up and running. (Screenshot 4)
In Winter we started on our Hunting Cabin, and completed a second crop field for more food, and a bridge over the stream to the south, this was purely a labourer bridge. The area around the village is a little short on stone so we will head south to collect that for now. (Screenshot 5)
Late Winter saw Terrat become our first student, and as such will be our first educated townsperson. The Hunters Lodge is getting built, and the Farmers are preparing their fields for the new sowing. (Screenshot 6)
One Year down, and we have moved from a population of 10/0/8 to 11/1/10 with our four new additions. Knowing that we only have 11 workers for the next few years means we need to focus on survival at this stage, so Food, Firewood being the most important needs. Expansion will come in the future.
Heading into the Third Year
The population increased by 1 during the year as Hann was born in Late Spring, now that we are settled and surviving we aim to build the population as I start building houses to get people out of the Boarding House, we currently have 7 students between the ages of 10 & 14, so these will soon start to become labourers and we can get them breeding.
We managed to plant a second field last spring, but the cabbage only brought in about 500 food, that was 300 less than the corn, so both fields will now make corn for the following season and see how that goes. Our woodcutter managed to get the stockpile up to 500, so I have stopped that production for now and he is back as a builder helping out.
Will look to build our houses now, and a Tailors so we don't run out of coats.
Year 10
My daughter distracted me earlier tonight and before I knew it was year 10, luckily I had stuff set to go. Does mean I am now racing to build houses to make sure my people don't all get past 40 and unable to make new citizens.
I have got plenty of firewood, clothes, tools, food. Struggling a little bit for stone, this could be an issue.
First screenshot shows the main town, square yet to be built as I am attempting to work on my houses getting built before I build the town hall, and decorate it.
Second picture shows the Southern Development, I have a row of farms down there, and some housing to be built. No real plans on building up right now, but just chasing the flat land, and a route towards the main river.
Third picture shows our Eastern extension. Going to be a massive farming development to the north of here, but for now just building the first major housing development at the edge of my marketplace.
hehe a good while i didnt see.... raining lol. these graphic effects are OFF in my options :)
First Death
In Winter of Year 11 we lost our first citizen as Delvillermo has passed away from old age, there is no cemetery, will have to fix that problem.
As you can see expansion is now slightly more rapid. The main town has a hall, and a full area, it will start to develop to the west now where the forest node has been removed, I have placed a trading Port and Fishing Dock over there.
The Eastern Development is complete, and the Southern Farming Community is looking good as well. You can see the new forest node in development to the North West as well.
Yeah, I turned the weather off too. Too much rain, very dreary. ;)
@Zephormite, I like your work. I love these blogs to see how others build settlements. It gets me out of my habits into thinking about new ideas.
I often get caught by the first deaths. In Morita I got a cemetery built before the first old-age death (these usually come in years 9-11) but in another town I'm building I got caught when a boar trampled a hunter in year 5. That got me going and I was ready for a death in childbirth in year 8. I had been waiting to build a maximum size cemetery (20 wide by 19 high fits 144 graves, same as 20X20), but I'm finding that building a small one early helps get through the early deaths.
I didn't know I could turn it off...gone now :)
Thanks for the support guys, love being able to read about and see others progress as well. Just wish I had some skill at making things "pretty"
Summer 15
The village continues to grow, we accepted a small number of Nomads this year which has boosted our population, and worked to stop us running into population flatness which we were with a big gap between the two lots of older citizens and the ones born in Year 10.
As you can see from the screenshots expansion is going well, the main village has a square now, and a few more houses around, the hospital and chapel are ready to build (Hospital probably priority due to Nomads), in the Northern Forest node I have developed a good workload up there, producing enough for everyone, the Forester is next to be built. To the east we have a small farming village, this has a few labourers living here as they work to the north collecting Iron & stone which I have run out of. In the southern farmland we have seen the construction of a quarry to try and get some stone, small population is hurting at the moment. To the West I have added more farmland, and a Fishing dock & trading dock are now in place as well. First aim is to try and bring in some Stone & Iron because I am desperately short and need it to build the town up.
At this point I am planning on developing the area to the West of the main town first as I can really build that up, hopefully a second trade port and second fishery as well as the houseing and farms.
Year 25
Using a few nomads here and there to build the city up, stone is still our issue, though unbeknownst to me at this point I was about to fly into a starvation period, the village is building very well, but relying on Crops for food is causing us to run short in Summer at the moment, so I really need to get more stored in advance.
You can see in these first screenshots our new development building southward, our farming extension to the west, and the new quarries and mine.
Our Labourers are over the hill to the East stripping the land of everything they can. I am slowly building south through the market, and I now have a couple of sheep so a pasture or ten will sprout down even further south on the banks of the stream.
Three more screenshots that wouldn't load on the previous post.
WOW! I just had someone stabbed to death...
thats a new one
Quote from: Zephormite on July 11, 2014, 01:33:43 PM
WOW! I just had someone stabbed to death...
A vendor, right? I've seen it about once every third or forth town, as have others. Who says there's no crime in Banished? Everybody has a "special" death or two. Vendors can fall off a ladder or be stabbed. Then there is The Death That Cannot Be Named for farmers. The log just says "Demon the Farmer" and names a replacement.
in fact these farmers are subjected by aliens, this is why it cant be said :P
The special deaths are pretty good.
Spring 43
Has been a big period of building, advancing the town meant I didn't see the time go ticking past. Has seen a huge new development to the East of the town (Screenshot 31), the main town has seen a few more houses built, but in general is just ticking along as it is (Screenshot 29).
To the south the development of my ale production, and farming land took off, especially as it headed south and saw the addition of some Cattle and Sheep, this has resulted in an additional 4000 food each season which is a huge bonus for the town. You can see the forest node still to the East of this development, and the second one (across the stream) which has started to develop as well (Screenshot 30).
Kidney Lake
The development to the east was a tough start, I added some nomads and trued to get them building over there, but it ended up being a toucgh land and they ALL died of starvation, had a couple of down periods of starvation around Year 36-38, both were my attempts to populate Kidney Lake as the builders had too far to travel and starved. I have fixed that now and the development has taken off with a forest node to the north with a new mine to help our iron production, to the south is a HUGE farming section, that will continue to grow, my aim is for that to head to the west taking up the land of the forest node once the northern one kicks into top gear. I have also started to place some fishing villages around the lake, these will be built once this market town on the western shore of the lake is completed.
Stats update
Here you can see the stats of the town to this point, we are producing enough food finally. I have made it over 100 Farmers as the city grows.
Houses seem to be the main storage spot for our food as they are holding onto SOOO much, trying to trade Ale, Tools and Firewood now..
ouch, your food level is so low its barely 30% of what they eat in a year.
Yeah that's an ongoing issue, though they have ~26k food stored in the houses (Half a years worth), though my farms right now are only just producing over the intake, I really need to boost food production. Think that is going to be my biggest push over the next while, farms for africa.
The Half Century
The town of Endwellsworth has now been in existence for 50 years, it has slowly ballooned into a town of over 600 people spreading across the landscape.
Screen 39 - Shows the basic stats, our number of 'families' vastly outstrips our number of houses, I just can't keep up with that as the town continues to grow. 99% Clothed and 94% Educated, the population is booming. Our Food situation is still a struggle, eating 60k per year and producing about the same, as you will see we are planting a LOT of crops to try and build up a supply to prevent the lows getting bad again.
Screen 40 - Shows the small western development that was our first expansion, it was meant to extend north, but the mountains up there were a bit harsh. As such the expansion went south in a big way before heading east.
Screen 41 - The first movement south, this farming area is making a lot of Apple Ale, and now has a pair of quarries across the river, as the far west of the river will be turned into an industrial wasteland as it seems a perfect place to strip of all resources.
Screen 42 - Slightly to the east of the previous shot shows south of the stream, two quarries stripping the land, schools, churches and the north end of our MASSIVE farming development. I think I went a bit short on the storage and houses for it though as some of the middle farms struggle to get all of their crops in before winter. I'm looking into a few houses in the middle of the farming area to try and fix the problem. Housing is currently to the West and North East.
50 Years Continues
Screen 43 - The Southwest sector, some farming and pastures as well as a fishing dock, and a small forestry node in play. There isn't much usable land south of this stream, a thin strip where the Forester is, and then mountains.
Screen 44 - Farming centre, did you ask for some orchards and crops? Well I planted a massive group of them, in this shot you can see the housing to the Northeast, there is also a block of houses to the West of the storage barns, but I think this travel to home and back is causing the issues I am having with not getting some of the crops harvested. I might need to start micro-managing in late summer and putting more farmers onto the ones that don't clear as fast, just to ensure I get the full take from each field.
Screen 45 - The settlement of Kidney Lake has continued, with a large number of houses now over here, some schools, hospital, church, a northern forestry node and one to the south as well, over to the East side of the lake I am working on expanding our fisheries with a double dock on a very small piece of land that will fit 4 houses, 2 docks and a storage barn, a Market to the south will supply this area as well. Building a Boarding house as I am planning on getting Nomads over here to develop the land.
Screen 46 - The Fishing area that is starting on the East of Kidney Lake.
I have to say it is incredible how much Labouring gets done through winter when the farmers get into it, building supplies, stripping of resources etc, the 160 farmers get involved in it all.
question: Do you think about all those crops without any houses near (providing the farmer jobs) will be efficient ? all your houses are quite far. (Screenshot 44)
Yeah that is my concern in the travel to and from work, am looking to remove 1-2 fields in the middle of that group and add some housing instead.
It seems the middle crops aren't getting harvested in time anymore.
cant wait to see how you will resolve it :)
Got an idea, including a marketplace to the south of the farms.
Hopefully it works out, that is my new development.
The distance from the field to the house is important, but the distance from the field to storage is more important. Farmers make one or at most two trips to their house during harvest, while they each may make 5-10 trips to storage.
Working on a plan, but it might involve a winter re-arrange of the crops to fit in what I want to achieve.
I have come up with a farming plan, with 2 orchards and 2 crop fields centred around a pair of storage barns, put four of these together with houses and a market in the middle. Think it will work, problem is my town got overpopulated and is now starving itseld...
dont kill your town !! personallly i would just have deleted 1 or 2 4x15 orchards, those side by crops. 4x15 is perfect for some houses 4x4. but dont over populate, just ... throw some citezens out of their houses just before the house are done built, like at 70%. it s normal sometimes people just move 2-3 streets closer their jobs :) and get a better appart ^^^
but it s your game :)
I didn't want to kill the town, and didn't think I would as I was doing it in winter and there by not stopping any food production, but I think it was already at the tipping point, and that combined with getting a whole group working to make this set-up may have just been enough of a trigger to tip us over. Working on saving it now.
But if it doesn't work then I'll start again anyway :)
So I stopped the starvation, a loss of 2-300 people, but we have survived, now am growing a lot slower this time around and building up a store of Ale for trading, and also making sure our food reserves are a lot more resiliant.
On the main point of the layout I was trying out above using 4 Orchards, 4 Crop fields, 6 houses and 2 storage barns in a group, I added a strip with Market, 6 houses, Tavern, Woodcutter, Tailor & Blacksmith to the right of this, and then another identical layout. All of the fields are now supplying maximum every single season which is much improved on before.
I think the problem is that it takes a 43 by ~70 size flat area to pull this off, which is not exactly easy to come by on most maps. Not sure it is the most efficient use of space, but am going to try some varied layouts like this based around a market place and see if I can make something better which uses the space to a better level.
Check my Rickettsville blog for my standard market kit (one of each producer plus 9 houses in 25x22; farms and orchards out from there) and also for an expansion of that idea (two markets with three ports and four of each producer and umpteen houses).
Well, I don't know how to link to a single post, so I hope you don't mind if I put the images here: