Pangaea: Hulmevil

[Pangaea]

Have been playing the game a bit again after coming back to it, after playing through Pillars of Eternity (almost twice) and Witcher 2 (twice), and untold Mahjong solving. I'm playing without any mods, because I like the gameplay essentially the way it was designed, and since there were stability issues last time I tried the game on Linux, I figured it was best to go with as little risk as possible. But I had to turn off the ambience to get rid of that damn howling wind.

Start of [sic] with your seed and your settings and game version so we can try the same map if it looks like something we want to do too!

Verily I say unto you, the era of the sword and the axe is nigh, the era of the wolf's blizzard. The Time of the White Chill and the White Light is nigh, the Time of End. The world will die amidst frost and be reborn with the new sun. It will be reborn of the Elder Blood, of Hen Ichaer, of the seed that has been sown. A seed which will not sprout but will burst into flame.


No, that isn't politically correct talk about global warming; it is a prophecy from The Witcher books by Andrej Sapkowski 

What? That's not the seed you had in mind? Okay then... 



The map looked fine enough for a fresh go with the game. No big or special goals, apart from the usual self-hamstringing of not building trade ports or cropfields for many a year. This time I waited between 15 and 20.

One thing I decided to do differently, however, was to not build any chapels or graveyards. Means happiness could become an issue, but these structures cost a lot of stone, and since I'm not relying on (early) trade ports but building stone houses from the get-go, stone is bound to be in very limited supply, because I also prefer to collect it as we expand, and not fly all over the map to get it. This map also happened to be limited by rivers and streams, so we need bridges once the initial area has been settled.

The starting area looked fine, though, and not as evil as the randomly generated mapname would have me believe. There is plenty of stone and iron, and more trees than you can shake a stick at. The initial area also appears to be fairly flat, but unlike many others in here (I think), I don't pause the game and lay down a zillion paused structures from the get go. Within the first few years I do put down a market and plan around that, but otherwise I like to develop villages organically and ad-hoc.

We start by grabbing some resources from the surrounding area, put up a gatherer's hut, hunter's hut and herbalist, and soon after a house or two. A school is also erected, but unfortunately one kid missed the cut and maybe became the village idiot.

Looking at some screenshots, we've got two trade ports by year 16, and I see a few cropfields as well. Celestie is an old lady here, and sadly she passed away shortly after, aged 89 or 90. Kamare is the "village idiot", so it looks like they did allright, and supported each other through thick and thin.

By year 23, the village has expanded a little more. We had cut down a few of the trees surrounding the village. Then two traders dropped by, offered iron, stone and food, and our stores depleted a little bit... 

Don't think I've seen such a high output from a woodcutter before, a little over 1200, but it must have been a particularly good year, because otherwise all of them are usually well short of 1000 (more like 400-700).

As you can see from the year 23 overview shot, I've set up a bit more "traditionally" for ale and woodlogs exporting in this village. I wanted to try it out for once, and does seem to work decently enough. At least when we get some logs from traders, since logistics in this game is a pain in the neck, with most logs and such stores in the outer reaches of the town, usually in places where vendors/traders don't bother to travel. Not unusual to have the vast majority of logs stores waaaaaay out of bounds.

By year 23 we were slowly approaching pop 200. A bit less than some others, who may have 2-3000 by now 

In year 26 I accepted 28 immigrants, of which 10 were children who could attend school. Unfortunately this caused an outbreak of Yellow Fever, our first illness. But fortunately we already had a hospital in town. Bannies being the curious type, however, they stormed to the hospital in droves to check out news about the gravely ill patients. Many caught the illness, but only one person ended up in the morgue.

The year after, year 27, we had a particularly good hunting season, when 5 of 7 lone hunters caught ~1000 venison each.

In year 29 we cross the 300 pop threshold, which I'm sure you'll all agree has never happened before, and will never be bettered again 
Finally the area across the river has been amended. The forester-hunter-herbalist-gatherer quadruple has been torn down and replaced with a market and infrastructure support for the trade port. I've even built a third trade port, because I quite frankly got fed up of 3 years running with only seed and livestock merchants and wanted to improve my odds.

Year 30, and this is the overview picture of essentially the whole settlement, though there are of course some forester and hunting/gathering outposts farther away. We've got a very ample storage of stone and iron hogging up all the space, so thankfully the seed and livestock merchants sailed by us and visited some other outcasts instead.



I'm a little surprised happiness hasn't dropped beneath 4.5 stars. Naturally people become deeply unhappy when their spouse or parent dies and there isn't a grave to visit, but overall these people aren't numerous enough to significantly drag down the average.

The game has crashed a few times, but thankfully it appears to be more stable than when I tried it last on Linux maybe a year ago. Whether this is down to no mods or not I don't know, but I'm glad I can play it without too much hassle -- although I'm always anxious when saving, because that's when the game typically crashes.

[Nilla]

Nice that I'm not the only blogger!

It looks like you're a real collector: Iron and stones! There's a lot of of it!

I use to build like you; not planning too much in advance. I like too when it grows as it comes. That's the way enjoy playing the most.

1200 from one woodchopper is very good. I've seen it, too but not often. Your location is perfect, as long as there are enough logs at the big stockpile just in front of him and he probably lives in one of the houses just beside.

As long as you build enough new houses, you don't have to worry much about the happiness of your people. Churches doesn't have a large influence. It's a idling location with a happines circle but as long as they have others (like the very popular hospital ) it doesn't matter much. The graveyards are important for people who loses familymembers, yes, but I seldom build any and that normally costs ½ star, not more.

[Pangaea]

Thank you for the comment, it's nice to see some feedback and comments Makes it look less like I'm just talking to myself

Some years later, and we still have tons of iron and stone sitting around, though I've used some stone to build stone roads and many more stone houses. Up to around 150 now, in year 35, with pop ~450. I may have bought a little too much iron and stone after lacking stone for such a long time in the early game

I'm a little concerned about the food situation. 50k is much less than I am used to, barely a year worth of food for such a relatively small village. Therefore more farms have been built. It always pains me to tear down those nice forest nodes with springy animals jumping about and cut down so many trees that haven't matured yet. I kinda just want to leave it the way it is. But in the name of destruction progress, trees were chopped down, animals chased off, and farms planted 

Quite a few mountains and streams around us, so it's a little awkward to expand, but we've gone west for now, where at least there was some land to easily connect with. I'll need to figure out where to put roads and bridges for further expansion -- and go through the heartache of burning down forests and forest nodes again...

Despite not building any churches or graveyards, I got the achievement about good health and happiness, and so far it's only taken happiness down to 4.5 stars. On the other hand, I see many very unhappy people around, so it certainly has an impact, though I'm not sure how much that really affect these individuals in terms of extra idling and suchlike. Good point about the chapels. With so many other happiness spreaders, the chapel isn't likely to contribute much, if anything. It has simply been a habit of building them when expanding before, to make sure everybody were covered. Naturally that is tricky to impossible with huuuuge cities, but this time I've ignored it altogether.

Much of the spike in food has come from a huge batch of plums for alemaking, and although much more than I would have liked went into people's homes, most of it will still go to the many alehouses. I've also ordered some coal to make steel tools, but as usual it feels pretty darn futile, due to people hoarding coal for heating their homes. Currently 275 coal "stolen" away, and in truth it's even more due to previous heating, and I "only" bought around 1000 combined. Probably just as well to forget about coal and just pay out the nose for steel tools from traders instead. Less frustration that way. In the past I've tried to gradually release coal in the spring, but such micromanagement is just a pain in the neck. Those 275 coals could have been 550 steel tools. ARGH! 

Pathing and decision making in this game sadly leaves a lot to be desired At times I see barns that the bannies outright REFUSE to use, and I've no idea why they chose to deliver the coal all the way down that way instead of to the stockpiles just around the corner from the trade port on the east side of the river (where the coal was bought).

[kid1293]

Man, you build dense towns.
I always make space to seed some trees and get some air.
But then I always stop before there to many bannies wanting
to expand. It feels like a race when you pass 200-300 and
it's just more of everything...

[Tom Sawyer]

Yes, the settlement is very densely built and plastered with materials. Also not my play style. But that's Banished and not called as Forest Village.^^

To me, it looks like you were not challenged. That goes all too quickly and easily.

[kid1293]

I'm challenged to feel good.
What is there to the late game speed-rush?
All you want is more of the same.
I like to build - friendly (happy) communities.
And the visual aspect is important. If you can recognize
yourself in an enviroment you like, it is easier to feel happy.

[Gatherer]

I have to agree with kid1293 on this one. There are always plenty of decorative trees and flowers in my towns plus orchards. I'll cut the forest down viciously when expanding but my townsfolk always enjoy good air.

[kid1293]

  Hehe, that's where I started - The Garden Shed.
To make the town more green.

[Tom Sawyer]

I meant Pangaea. His vanilla game seems to be too easy for his skill and he urgently needs a tougher environment.

That's what I like about the game. You can play a bit in the forest, hunting and gathering and conserve the landscape. Or you make intensive farming or manufacturing and trade or build a large dense city or a particularly beautiful town. But however you play, if you get it all too quickly and easily, it gets boring.

[Nilla]

In a vanilla game, I never make steel tools. Too much coal is "spoiled" as heating. As you have noticed, too, it's also hard to control the distribution of the coal. So producing steeltools makes no sense, I use to buy them, and only keep the original blacksmith(s) as emergency.

Yes, @Tom Sawyer, I can see you're advertising your Nordic mod! A vanilla game might be too easy for a good player like @Pangaea (I always thought you are a girl, but it doesn't matter) I recommend it, too. Maybe the houses are a bit too Swedish for your liking, but you can find houses like that in Norway, too.

Banished is an interesting game, that you can enjoy in different ways. Here @Pangaea shows us a very efficient settlement; very tight, short paths between everything, big stockpiles, many barns, high productivity in each plant, nothing unuseful. It has its beauty. Others like you @kid1293 and @Gatherer puts more efforts in aesthetics and decorations, also fine. (We want your blogs here, too!)

[Pangaea]

Man, you build dense towns.
I always make space to seed some trees and get some air.
But then I always stop before there to many bannies wanting
to expand. It feels like a race when you pass 200-300 and
it's just more of everything...

It's definitely very densely populated, so I probably wouldn't like to live there myself, but it's how I've always built my towns in Banished. One of the things I like to do is to try to cram in houses or barns or farms in the corners of the map (like close to mountains), to get the most out of the available space. A bit ironic given I am yet to truly fill a map before starting anew.

Definitely agree with your line about 200-300 pop. Before that stage, growth goes slowly and you can casually expand. Then you hit 200-300 pop, and everything kind of spirals out of control. Babies are popping out from every floorboard, you need more houses, then more babies, you need more food, more farms, more babies, more schools, more houses, more... you get the picture. It can actually get a little stressful -- and I play on 1x speed! 

In a vanilla game, I never make steel tools. Too much coal is "spoiled" as heating. As you have noticed, too, it's also hard to control the distribution of the coal. So producing steeltools makes no sense, I use to buy them, and only keep the original blacksmith(s) as emergency.

Yes, @Tom Sawyer, I can see you're advertising your Nordic mod! A vanilla game might be too easy for a good player like @Pangaea (I always thought you are a girl, but it doesn't matter) I recommend it, too. Maybe the houses are a bit too Swedish for your liking, but you can find houses like that in Norway, too.

Banished is an interesting game, that you can enjoy in different ways. Here @Pangaea shows us a very efficient settlement; very tight, short paths between everything, big stockpiles, many barns, high productivity in each plant, nothing unuseful. It has its beauty. Others like you @kid1293 and @Gatherer puts more efforts in aesthetics and decorations, also fine. (We want your blogs here, too!)

Unfortunately I'm not very good with aesthetics. I can draw stickmen and that's about it  I like to build efficient villages and constantly check buildings just to see their output for the current year. But I also don't like to tear down the forest nodes, like I wrote about above. If it was easier to get a stable population going in this game, without these up and down curves, it would be more interesting to build small villages with large plots of land per house and such. But of course, particularly in the vanilla game, there isn't much room for artistic design, so it was good that @RedKetchup and surely many others by now have offered us mods with many new buildings and "eye candy".

I do like these compact and efficient villages, though. And one of the downsides to having put many, many hours into the game (and reading various forums) is that I know my way around it, roughly know what is efficient and what isn't, which means the game becomes a bit "easy". The toughest part is getting started, but once you have some basic infrastructure and resource chains going, the rest of the gameplay is expansion and building more of the same. It can become a bit boring, but also challenging in its own way. For instance, I prefer to have few trade ports, because otherwise the game becomes ridiculously easy. But I do want a few, because I can't stand the sight (and workings) of the quarries and mines.

I'd like to continue this town a bit further, maybe get a few more achievements when I'm first diddling around with the vanilla game, but later it would be interesting to try some mods -- though I've always preferred a "light" footprint modwise. Love the Better Fields mod, though, because we are then less constrained in where to place farms and orchards, and it's even more fun to try to cram in farms up the mountain sides and such  Maybe I'm weird as hell, but I find it fun to try to "waste" as few squares as possible, by putting farms, houses and barns and such into corners here and there, and filling out small gaps with tiny stockpiles. Not very pretty, but it is what it is.

Maybe I'll learn to build pretty towns at some point too. Maybe some of you ought to post a blog of your own, and teach me  


@Nilla, I'm a guy btw, and am not sure if it is a good thing or not that you have confused me for a girl, heh

[Pangaea]

Speaking about problems with logistics, here is a typical example, especially after buying stuff in the trading ports. Instead of walking a little farther, to where enormous amounts of firewood is stored, the vendors will go to the nearest stockpile and pick up pitiful amounts of firewood, and repeat this pattern a thousand times until the quota is full again. And as a consequence of that behaviour, the stockpiles are bursting at the seams further inland from the village's core. I think the only reasonable way to deal with this is to fake-demolish it, and nearby stockpiles, so the stores of firewood is hopefully moved closer to the trading ports, from where they can be exported or taken for home heating.

May as well throw in a small update. I've expanded further west, and since I'm way behind on homes now (damn race, eh?), I've put down a pile of new stone houses, a few schools, yet more cropfields and barns, connected to a market. I like to make a new 'hub' near markets, so there will also be a couple of alehouses and woodcutters, plus a blacksmith and tailor. I know it's kind of hopeless, but I'm still making steel tools and warm coats. Probably easier to just order them, but I do prefer to be somewhat self-reliant and not order almost everything. Now when I have focused more on getting a solid supply of firewood and ale, I can see how easy it can be to exploit this via exporting. Just look at all those logs and firewood... 

You can see how compact my villages tend to be, and that I like exploiting as much space as possible. Close to the river I've crammed in some houses and barns. It may look silly, but I like this kind of stuff 

Also turned down a boatload of immigrants (which perhaps hits a little too close to home these days...). Would like to get education rate up to 100%, and the population boom is too high for taking in more people anyhow.

edit: Well, blimey. It looks like the lone chicken I bought (purely to tick off an achievement down the road) has fucked himself and managed to reproduce. Nature will find a way? 

[Nilla]

I hope you see it as a big compliment, being taken for a girl! So I will not apologize! 

Yes, this game is simple. But it still has many possibilities to change the gameplay. I use to set myself some limits; ...no schools.....  no trading ports..... no farming....... small mountain map...... as fast as possible....... you name it. Each little limit forces you to think; make things different as standard. That's the reason, I still play this game (together with all the new mods). I make a brake for some month regularly, but I always return. Other games doesn't "get me" like Banished.

I like your hospitals at the mountain on the "wrong" river side. There are still some idlers but it seems like there are not many people, who have other reasons, than their curiosity to visit this spot or just pass by.

[Pangaea]

OMG.... Small Pox!!     

This could be bad. I've not had that before. I think. Looking at this excellent thread, it could have been worse, but not much. Quite a test for the hospitals across the river -- though I'm sure it will spread horribly at the other location (close-ish to a market place). Hopefully 3 hospitals will be enough, and the disease won't spread to virtually everybody. Didn't even take in any immigrants.

Apart from this terrible disease, not a lot to report. Have expanded with a few more farms and a pile of houses, but despite building many more houses, I'm getting further and further behind compared with families. This "race" isn't a fun part of the game. The early stage is more fun, if a little slow at times.

[Pangaea]

Must have been exceedingly lucky. The person who contracted small pox died in hospital, but despite walking quite the distance to get to the spot across the river, nobody else got it. Disaster averted

Have played 50 years. Not a lot has happened the last 10 in all honesty. Much time spent just watching people go about their business, building a few farms and yet more houses. The main thing has been expanding the western side with a new marketplace surrounded by some infrastructure and a residential area.

The Merchants' Guild have sent an impressive amount of livestock and seed merchants our way, and I'm not interested in those (animals are WAY too loud without a quieting mod). Even so, the food situation has been okay. Clearly in decline given the population has kept going up without much farm expansion, but not by a huge amount.

I've collected a lot of stone and iron, hoping it would be possible to get the achievements without mines and quarries. The stone one may be possible, but doubt iron. We're up to around 8000 stone now, but only 4000 iron. We have so much firewood to spare, so I bought a pile of coal, and eventually just released it all, hence the high count. Naturally loads is wasted on heating now, but I couldn't be bothered to micro it in spring every year.

The game is a little boring now to be honest. Think the main goal now is just to tick off a few achievements since I'm playing without mods, then either start a game with mods or one to go for some of the other achievements, like isolation, uneducated and so forth.

1st picture: The western side of the encampment, with the new marketplace and houses.

2nd picture: The eastern side. Finally built some farms beyond the alehouses.

3rd picture: This looks like a nice spot to live. Close to the river for a skinnydip. The roadless bridge had to be built to save some idiot from starving to death. Should tear it down, but of course then some moron will be stuck on the 'wrong' side again, so...

4th picture: Some graphs at the 50-year anniversary. The population increase is fairly steady, with a few plateaus when I didn't build houses. The food trend is in decline. A lot is taken for alemaking, but at times I've also ordered abundant supplies of plums, particularly at that big spike when a chap with 40k arrived. Exactly 1000 people