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Abandoned - Meadowbrook - Story 15

Started by Abandoned, July 07, 2017, 02:13:00 PM

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Abandoned

Intro

This is the 15th Story in the Smallville series and tells the tale of 2 nomads who join up with the 11th expedition to leave that town.  The expedition left Smallville shortly after the last one, approximately year 37 SVT, and went in search of farmland over the mountains to the west of Smallville.   The main starting mod I am using is Natural Diversity by @Bartender and @despo20, thus the town name Meadowbrook.

The meadow reminds me of my favorite song "Home in the Meadow" sung by Debbie Reynolds in the 1962 epic film "How the West Was Won".  The movie covers 3 generations of American history and tells the tale of a family in the 1800's that left the east and headed west.  They took the wrong fork in the Ohio river and were caught in rapids and went over the waterfalls. The parents did not survive.  The eldest daughter said ma and pa wanted a farm in the west and that was as far west as they got so she reckoned that was where the farm was meant to be and that's where she would stay.  The beginning of my story is based very roughly on that part of the movie.  The song is sung to the same melody as an old English folksong "Greensleees", a song by Elvis "Stay Away", and the Christmas song "What Child is This".  I sing the song all the time outside in my garden (and still my noisy neighbors here in the peace and quiet of the county, won't pack up and move away).


Edit:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FcldPotf82Q


The map for this story is #171036330, Plains, Small, Mild, disasters Off, (NatDiv) Easy Start.


I have updated my game to Banished 107. The 106 & 107 mods I am using are:

Starting Mods:  Call of Nature soundtrack, Banished UI Mod, Maps, & Professions, RK Minimized Status & Vanilla TP, Plain, Maritimes Riffle, Natural Diversity, New Flora

Tweak Mods:    Better Fields, Bigger Wheelbarrow, Busy Pastures, Fishing Dock 25%, More Stone, Iron, Wood, 1:1 aging, Rock Respawn, Simple Tombstones, Tool Value Up, Woodcutter +3.

Major Mods:    An Empty Square*, Smallville (sign)*, Kid Alotofseeds Trader, Forest Outpost (NatDiv), & Plimouth Harmonized.

Supporting:   Better Stockpile Storage, Brads Smoking Shed, Coal Furnace, Chicken Coop, EB Natural Irrigation Deco, EB Sunflower, Fenceless Pasture, Garden Shed, Idle Small Fisherman   Dock, Kid Old Fence, Kid Washing Mod, Old Hunter Hut, Sample White Chicken, Storage Crates, Tiny Chopper, Market, Mine, Town Hall, Trader, Quarry, & Vegan Scarecrow.


Mod note: The two * mods are not major mods but rather frequently used dividers in my mod list.  Also note:    Originally for test map I had New Flora before Natural Diversity but got no firewood branches. I changed load order before starting story map but now have no New Flora items spawning.  I will leave it as is.


Edit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LQu6mc3VvU4



And so weary traveler,

"Come, come, come away with me, where the grass grows wild, where the winds blow free"

               "and I'll build you a home in the meadow."



brads3

WB,glad you have the work on updating done.

Abandoned

@brads3 , me too  :) what a project updating and arranging.  I still have The North install and CC install to do but decided to take a play break and try some of the new mods.

brads3

i know that feeling well. i spent so much time testing i forget how to play sometimes.LOL. i just tried testing EB's canals for texture affects to my mini map. i been a week or more trying to decipher glitches with the pine mod.the forever orchard doesn't like the nat div. lots of stuff takes full play tests to find too. we will be at this a year.lol

Abandoned

@brads3 that is one of the reasons I like playing a select group of mods.  I've been looking at Necora's sets and they all seem to have something one of the other needs.  I am eager to try them, especially the pine set. I hope this map and story goes well, I am already experiencing some lag especially when it rains and I don't have much built yet.  I hope it doesn't freeze like cc did.  This may be a short story.

brads3

not really. you can run the pine mod by itself with no others. i run that and the sherbrooke now. the storage is just extras.i think the pine matertial barn is included with the pine.the storage i think is mainly a shed and the food cellar.i don't run the fish mods since the new setups. i have a dock set in CC,so opted not to add more.
   as for speed,i never have any but i can run many mods. i actually have more speed by minimizing the screen and let the game run a minute.my load up since i shuffled a few mods is slower.are you using the autosaves? full screen? you could try changing some options.

Nilla

Always nice to see new stories from you @Abandoned. :)

One question: I see you use the 1:1 mod. Why this in a story? OK, you say, it will probably not be a long story, so the weirdest effects might not be shown. I can remember once I used this mod with an Adam&Eve/Anders&Ella start and a 12 year old hooked up with his widowed grandmother (or was it the great grandmother?). In this case you could say to take care of her but I also had very young girls moving in with old widowers...... :( :o

RedKetchup

lol whats happening when you play adam & eve when eve dies while giving birth ? lol
> > > Support Mods Creation developments with Donations by Paypal  < < <
Click here to Donate by PayPal .

Abandoned

@brads3 This mod with all the spawning is the only time other then trying cc that I had any lag. (Most of CC trials completely froze up)  Here game lags when it is raining (adding note to notebook, next time use light rain mod) and lags when by thick tree sections of map.  I will see how it goes before adjusting settings.

@Nilla  you must be feeling better.  :)  Regarding 1:1 aging, I've tried all the aging mods and like this one best, better than vanilla. Yes it is very good for story telling especially at the beginning, I really like school starts at age 6 and at age 12 I have an educated worker.  I try to get a school built for first child, not only for education but to avoid weird stuff.  But weird stuff does happen but later in the game and then I don't often notice.

@RedKetchup LOL I haven't played Adam & Eve yet but have a story in mind. I won't try it on the same map I try your Garden Utility mod just to be on the safe side just in case.  :)   I nearly had a panic attack on the one map when my main character, the storyteller, came down with a disease, luckily I had the mini mod enabled and quickly built a mini hospital right next to her house and she was not one of those who died.  What would I do?  Could some wonderful talented kind modder please make me a bannie-sized ghost in a flowing white gown, ghosted ghost deco.  ;)

brads3

i was going to suggest the no rain and CC no ducks to help the freeze ups.you could try the light rain without CC also.

Abandoned

@brads3 I used light rain in last story, red desert map.  There is a cc mod No Smoke, does that work without cc?  If you're trying to quit you could use it in Brads Smoking Shed LOL

brads3

i would try it.it is noticeable very quickly. i actually dropped back to the original nat div. the slowdown became too much.didn't matter what i tried to speed things up either,nothing worked.the workers were no longer walking they were starting to stutterstep or skip. i minimize my screen and gain lots of speed but that also did not help much with the upgrade. i worry that the more a map is played and the more you build and add workers the slower the game becomes with the mod enabled.i mentioned somethings i found that maybe BARTENDER can fix  the lag times with.

Abandoned

Thanks @brads3 , if the lag gets worse I will give no smoke a try.  It really isn't too bad yet, small map, so will have to wait and see.  It is such a pretty mod, I hope Bartender can fix the problem.  I would be happy with the branches added to NatDiv Light, with my slow start 1:1 and few people the thatch chain is a little much but it is pretty cool.  I am trying to show a few more production statistic.  Here comes the first chapter.

Abandoned

#13
Chapter 1

  Welcome to Meadowbrook, weary traveler. My name is Griselle and my husband is Ibraham.  We had just been married when our village in the mountains north of here was destroyed by a flash flood.  We were the only survivors.  We had such high hopes for the future and dreamed of our own farm and home in the meadow, we wondered if we would survive to see those dreams come true. 

  It was months before we got out of those mountains and found the river.  We built a small raft hoping to find a town downstream, instead we found white water rapids and a series of small waterfalls.  The raft was torn apart and we lost what little we had but again we survived.  We still had each other.  We traveled on on-foot and did indeed find a town, or rather the very beginnings of a town.

  There were 5 families who came from a town called Smallville.  They too wandered in the mountains west of that town before following a small brook to this meadow. They marked the spot with a sign showing the way back to that town before continuing on to the river.  They had a large barn and several houses built and supplies gathered when we arrived.  It must have been fate that our arrival times coincided, we reckoned this was where we were meant to stay.  They welcomed us gladly.  We numbered 12 adults and 10 children and since Ibraham and I had no children they thought it best if we became town overseers.  We named the town Meadowbrook.

  There were a lot of hungry little mouths to feed, keeping an eye on the food supply would be vital.  We immediately gathered what wild foods we could find to vary our diet and Ethanial headed to the river to fish, his wife Anti was a builder.  Although a small school was a priority it was not completed in time for Elene to become a student.  It would be several years before the first set of twins was ready to attend.

  We made good progress that 1st year building a pasture, hunter cabin, gatherer's workplace, a woodcutter, and workshop.  Our buildings required thatch for the roofs so a reaper would gather grasses for the thatcher to process.  There was edible grain on those grasses and with the help from the thresher, we had wild cereal.  At our first Town Hall meeting we decided to plant cabbage instead of corn next spring.


Abandoned

#14
Chapter 2

  By early spring of year 2 our population had grown to 27.  During the winter months, 1 boy and 4 girls were born, including our own daughter, Shastasia.  By then, we only had 1 builder and 2 laborers, barely enough workers for the tasks at hand, and 1 of those laborers would have to become a teacher before the end of the year.  Other workers would help while they waited for supplies. We did not have enough grasses for both the thresher and thatcher to work full time.  We also did not have enough hides for coats but we did have quite a bit of wool so a tailor shop was built by the pasture and the workplace would close until we needed tool.  Wool coats and warm fires would be nice come winter, and there were plenty of downed branches to collect for firewood.  The thatcher suggested we also collect some of the reeds along the riverbank, he could use those when he was short of grasses.  Although there was plenty of wild foods, branches, grasses, and reeds there was a lot less surface stone and iron to be found. We had no spare workers for a mine or quarry so we began construction of a bridge across the river where there was stone and iron.   

  After 2 years our town was doing well.  We were a bit concerned that the bridge was interfering with our catch of fish.  Ethanial, the fisherman, said the builder scared the fish away, they'd be back.  We hoped he was right and besides we had plenty of venison and mutton.   I knew Ibraham also felt a sense of security that winter having a warm house, a wool coat, and a full pantry and woodpile. 

  In spring of year 3, 3 nomads came out of the mountains and were overjoyed at having a real house and jobs they knew they could do.  We were a bit concerned by their lack of education but they had willing hands and we needed the help.  Our food supply was good and our cabbage crop looked promising again this year. We thought Bald, the farmer, was a bit careless with the seeds when planting because several cabbage grew outside the crop field.  But no matter, we would gatherer those up too.
 
  That year our cabbage harvest remained the same, the catch of fish increased and so did the amount of wild cereal threshed.  We closed the thatcher workplace so more grasses went to the thresher hut, the thatcher's work would resume when we had more reeds.  There were plenty on the other side of the small brook so a second bridge was built.  We looked forward to expanding our town to that side of the river next year.