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Irrelevant: Hedestad, Ironman in The North

Started by irrelevant, October 11, 2019, 05:01:13 PM

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irrelevant

So I thought that since I want to write about this town, I should start my own thread and stop being OT in @Nilla's, as much fun as that is ;)

Playing The North with Ironman activated. As I understand it, this mod includes one-year-is-one-year aging, doubles consumption of food, tools, and coats, and increases the age for forming families and childbearing. It also changes health and happiness conditions and effects in some way (makes them HARD, is what it does).

Image 1: The map. Fair climate because I already tried once using harsh, and it wasn't pretty. Disasters off because it'll be hard enough without that aggravation. Shepherd because that is how I roll, baa!

Image 2: The mods. Mainly @Tom Sawyer The North™ stuff, but a couple of other things that I like, notably @kid1293's Tiny (mainly for the Tiny Town Hall), Log Cabins by @rageingnonsense (gives you a very nice, slightly smaller and less costly alternative to the log cabin from The North), and Smaller Vendor Buildings by @Elfecutioner, which I nearly always use for its Farm Stand, a very small market perfect for starting up and expanding.     

irrelevant

#1
Year 4

Got a few things going. First (well, following a stockpile), built a single Goahti each year for the three initial families, including one right away as the first building. Gotta have someplace for everyone to warm up. When this first dwelling was complete, I learned something interesting about the family that moved in. There was a "married" pair, and a daughter who was 7 years younger than the mother and five years younger than the father. I can only hope that she was adopted. You can see this family at bottom center of the image.

Next was the sheep pen. The location was selected mainly to get it built quickly (which means, very few items to clear out first, so in the clearing). I'm always paranoid about waiting too long and having them start to die, to the point where I probably get them penned long before I really need to. This sheep pen will need to be relocated later in a very laborious and convoluted manner.

After building a barn, I started the all-important chain for tools: charcoal pit, bloomery, smith's workplace. No chopping block yet, you gather firewood using the "collect firewood" tool. Similarly, food comes from the "collect wild food" tool, and the "hunting" tool.

Also figured out where I would going to put the first few "real" houses, and built an extension for what would be the first one, a Farmer's Workshop. A very important and versatile producer, makes not only coats but also wheelbarrows (required to build a TP), flour, ale, jam, and lamp oil. Extremely useful.

Finally built the Farm Stand (center of the circle) to make it easier for my guys to find stuff without wandering all around more than they already are. Even with three stars, they spend incredible amounts of time idling, which is so frustrating, particularly when a huge herd of deer parks itself close at hand, but you find your hunters are all more interested in what is happening at the farm stand.


MarkAnthony

Quote from: irrelevant on October 11, 2019, 05:19:01 PM...they spend incredible amounts of time idling, which is so frustrating... but you find your hunters are all more interested in what is happening at the farm stand.
Idling is frustrating for sure, especially if it happens at the immediate start of a game which has happened to me a few times. I try to think of their idling more as naps! We can't expect them to be working 24/7 now can we?  ???   It frustrates me less when I think of it that way, each idle time = a 2 hour power nap to refresh! You also probably got some good gossip going on at the farm stand/(water cooler). I'm curious to know.  ::) :P
Sometimes it's the very people who no one imagines anything of
        who do the things no one can imagine.

irrelevant

#3
Year 10

A few large developments. Most obvious, I have built a TP, bought seeds, and now am growing turnips, corn, and pears. It's a bit of a struggle, not only because of the short growing season but also because I just can't seem the keep the farmers interested in farming. They are far more interested in idling in the Sauna and visiting the Herbalist. The sauna supposedly increases happiness, but if it does I haven't noticed it, dropped down to three stars right away and hasn't budged for anything.

Also have a fishing dock, a decent food producer, 400-500 salmon/year with one fisher. Of course have a couple of small barns right there so the fisher can concentrate on his work and not go wandering all over. He does anyway.

Built a chapel and every spring I get a pair of nomads. Accepted two pair by year ten, maybe turned one pair away. There are never enough workers and always too many mouths to feed; it's never an easy choice.

Up top you can see three Goahtis, two of them with two children each (not supposed to happen, discussed over in @Nilla's Filling Small Maps thread, replies 88-90), and one with a single lady. She is the one original child, and is going to remain on her own until Ralpheus there in the middle goahti turns 15. She's got a long wait ahead of her.

That orchard and the two farms aren't nearly enough to feed this crew. Everyone spends all summer collecting wild food and all winter collecting firewood. I form ad-hoc bands of hunters whenever I notice deer nearby; sometimes they bag a good haul, sometimes they don't. Especially frustrating is when a flock of wild chickens intervenes and I get 2-3 chickens (8 food each) instead of 2-3 deer (100 food, one hide, and one tallow each). I hate those little cluckers.  >:(

The growing season is short enough and the farmers easily enough distracted that I always need to assign extra farmers to the harvest. That's okay, I needed more micromanagement. :)

Another important addition is the smoking shed. No, it's not where you go when you leave your desk to go burn one, it's a small, cheap building where a farmer can turn 50 venison, mutton, or salmon into 60 smoked meat/fish. Not only does it extend your protein, it also increases TV from 1 to 3 each. Smoked meat is an important trade good for Hedestad. Thanks, @Nilla!

Speaking of TV, every year my goal is to buy as much grain/honey/bread as I can, as that is what is missing from this town's diet. Got five hearts, so that part is going okay at any rate.

irrelevant

#4
Quote from: MarkAnthony on October 11, 2019, 05:26:34 PM
! You also probably got some good gossip going on at the farm stand/(water cooler). I'm curious to know.  ::) :P
I don't have time to listen, I'm too busy sending guys out to pick up a deer hide or 4 sticks of firewood.

irrelevant

#5
Year 15

Got some real houses built, but so far no bump in happiness. I guess they need "really-real" houses, ones with windows, before that can happen. Glassmaking is still a few years away though.

A second orchard, a third farm, relocated the sheep pen....and still everyone spends most of their time collecting wild food. But at least now I have a trapper cabin, which collects decent amounts of furs that fetch a decent TV (15 TV each). Selling furs, deer hides, smoked meat, wool coats, lamp oil, and herbs lets me buy enough grain to keep everyone healthy. Once upon a time there was gold, but that was spent long ago on seeds.

When I first built the trapper cabin I made too many traps (the trapper cabin needs 20 traps to build, a significant investment). I put the extras in the TP, and they are a great trade good, I think maybe 40TV each at a cost of 1 iron? But it is impossible to spare the iron (and the time!) as it is such a pain to make (firewood into charcoal, charcoal and iron ore into iron bloom, charcoal and iron bloom into iron, and finally charcoal and iron into traps) and I need to keep the tools coming. Same with wheelbarrows, they cost one log and fetch 16TV each, but if I can spare a worker to be at the workshop, he needs to be making wool coats. Sometime soon I'll make a second farmer's workshop just to make stuff other than wool coats.

By now I've accepted two more pairs of nomads. 

Also built a woodcutter cabin over in the west woods, by now a steady supply of logs is a must. Can't go nuts though, because the woodcutter doesn't plant new trees, and a Forester's Lodge is expensive (12 glass @ 20TV each IIRC!).

You can see there are no farmers working in the fields or orchards. They are all out gathering food and herbs, and occasionally hunting. There's 3283 food here, which might seem like a fair amount, but one year's worth is 5200 at this point.

irrelevant

#6
Year 17

Ralpheus has finally noticed Tashani and moved into the last goahti with her. The first new family formed from the original Bannies. I try not to eavesdrop on them.

Accepted two more nomads.

Tired of micromanaging hunters, going to give a hunting cabin a shot. If this was vanilla I'd say I picked out a great location for it (paused at lower center). In The North? We'll see.

A tiny corn farm just to keep some grain coming in case the merchant brings none. Even to produce 168 corn last year required extra hands (6!) at harvest. I do have more than one year's worth of food, though. A little bit more.

Trying to decide where to put a couple more turnip farms. Jury is still out....

The green circle on the right is the trapper cabin (furs) and to the left is the woodcutter cabin (logs).

I've bought enough glass to make a glass factory and a glass storage.

And that's Hedestad up-to-date.

Nilla

Nice to see your own thread @irrelevant. It´s OK to use mine but this is better.

You´re doing well! Your settlement looks as prosperous as can be. But I don´t think that the "Ironmen" need more tools, food and clothing, yes.

Just a few hints on the happiness; one, two or three happiness buildings don´t have any influence at all. You´ll need at least four to see anything and to get everyone happy, you will need all six of them. And if one is fulfilled; a second one of the same category has no influence at all. And as I´ve said; living in a goahti or turf house or inside the area of a black circle takes away the effect of one category.

Security; inside the circle of a well
Health; inside the circle of a sauna or a hospital with happiness circle with a working doctor or living in a Nordic red house
Business; inside the area of a market or trading port with a trader/vendor working
Spirit 1; inside the area of a church (or another graveyard than the Nordic)
Spirit 2; member of a church (working priest)
Entertainment; inside the area of an alehouse with alcohol or special meals (no worker necessary)

And my experience is; it pays off to try to make as many as possible happy early. The work of the priest and a little alcohol is well compensated with a considerable increase in production.

If you haven´t noticed; some merchants pay 20 for the furs, instead of 15. I use to save the furs until one of them turns up. I don´t think there are any who pays the full price for wheelbarrows and traps, however. It´s the same as furs with the smoked meat (and many other goods); different merchants, different price but I guess you have already noticed. I like this very much. You need to decide; do I need to trade now and get less paid or do I dare to wait until a better bargain can be made. It´s always good to buy silver and gold from a merchant who pays well for something you want to sell (but not order) and use it to trade from the stingy Hanseatic merchant, who has a lot of goods but doesn´t pay the higher price for anything.


irrelevant

@Nilla thanks for the happiness pointers. Not much I can do about it without bricks and glass though. I guess I could make some booze though.

Those goahtis burn incredible amounts of firewood. Made a huge improvement to get rid of those finally.

Did finally get onion and barley seeds. That should help some too. I've got to break out of having all my guys collecting wild stuff all year round.

A hunting cabin was the right choice, 11 deer and a few chickens the first year.

Hope your moving went well! :)

irrelevant

#9
Year 23

Just cannot get out ahead of this. Every spring, all the available workers must be farmers, then shut down the fields once they are done planting to collect wild food. In the fall everyone is back in the fields. Then in the winter catch up on things like tools and coats.

Some things go on year round. Hunters, woodcutters, cleric, beekeeper, fisher, inkeeper, vendor, traders. Stopped taking nomads (those guys can be so seductive, two extra workers right now!) a couple of years ago, going to stick it out until some of the children come up (six will mature in the next five years). I think this is the way out. I've let too many children be born. When I realized how much firewood the goahtis wasted, I stopped using them, but I should have kept on. I just don't have @Nilla's iron discipline here, but it was needed. I'll climb out of this, but it's been more of a struggle than it might have been.

Late snow this spring will impact the harvest. Fortunately the hunters are bagging 12-16 deer every year, plus 3-4 chickens. Maybe next time I get another worker I should build a second hunting cabin instead of another farm.

Built a simple well with no effect on happiness; did I need a stone well for that?

Got the glassworks and sand pit laid out, with enough mats to build, but I can't spare the labor for construction, or for manning when it is done! :(

Nilla

Thank you for asking. The moving gets on according to our plans. We have the advantage, that we don´t move out from anywhere; we´ll keep our house and use it in the summer. So we make the move in slow in steps. A few days in the house and a few days in the apartment. We also have the advantage that our daughter has emigrated to Australia and has stored all her "stuff" at our place and we can use what we want from it and don´t need to buy so many new things.   

I´ve looked at your screenshot and I´m sure the well has some effect. The nice Nordic well is as good as the stone well. It has, however, a tiny radius and I can see that not many of your houses are located inside it. But if you look at the inhabitants, I´m pretty sure you can see an effect. So again in a Nordic game; you´ll need to rethink the location of housing compared to a "normal" Banished game. A happy farmer living a bit further from his field inside all circles produce better than an unhappy farmer living directly at the field.

You don´t need to have the innkeeper working to have an effect of the inn. Enough alcohol or roasted meat is enough. If you are short on food, I would not let the innkeeper produce so much roasted meat. It counts as food in the statistic but will only be used as alcohol as long as it is stored at the inn. It can be eaten; carried into the houses as normal food but almost only if you use tricks like fake demolition of the inn. Otherwise, you will hardly get it "out on the market". I prefer not to make more than I need for the happiness.

irrelevant

#11
@Nilla  Glad your move is not stressful. Usually there is a time crunch that makes things unpleasant.

I was expecting my guys to go idle in the well's circle, but that doesn't really seem to be happening. In vanilla when guys go idle, they go someplace that might increase their happiness, but I don't see that happening here. Course that may be because I'm still scrambling to keep this town afloat.  ???

Almost lost it here. Lousy harvest in year 25 and I was down to 69 food in June 26. Got a good boat and a good harvest right after that.

Thanks for your advice once again, which is always helpful. If I ever get this town running, it will be in no small way thanks to you.

Tom Sawyer

If you did not find it yet, you can read some more details on this page: www.banishedventures.com/howto-happiness. It includes everything we know about happiness and how it works or how it can be achieved in the North. :)

irrelevant

Thanks @Tom Sawyer I wish I had read this sooner. I think I've made a number of errors with my town, and I'm not sure I'm going to be able to get it to turn the corner. I'll keep at it for a bit longer but I think I may be better off starting a new town and applying the lessons learned.

irrelevant

Three hunting cabins (4400 venison last year) basically are what is keeping this town alive.