World of Banished

Conversations => Tips and Tricks => Topic started by: Nilla on March 27, 2018, 04:00:34 PM

Title: HOW TO avoid mistakes by building a canal
Post by: Nilla on March 27, 2018, 04:00:34 PM
In my actual blog game, I wanted to build my 3. canal. Again I made a mistake; a different one from those I made before. So instead of writing about it in my usual blog, I decided to make a new thread and tell about what mistakes I made, and what you should think about when you're building a canal for the first time, to avoid these and maybe some other mistakes.

First decide where to build your canal. I like to build it on locations, where people used to build canals, like connecting a lake or a small stream to the river. It can also be a good thing to connect a remote area to the trading system, and build a canal with one (or several) trading ports leading to this corner. But there are no limits. You can built it everywhere. If the ground isn't perfectly flat, I recommend to flatten the terrain before you set the canal pieces. It can be used afterwards as well, but it might not work perfect. (first picture)

Then decide what texture your canal should have. There are 8 different. Note that some need stone, other brick and one of them only logs. Chose one and stick to it. I forgot that I wanted to use a different texture on the 3. canal than on my 2. (and on most buildings in my town). It doesn't look good. (second picture)

As next you need to decide, how wide your canal should be. This isn't as fixed as the texture, you can variate it with the so called jokers, JX menu. If you want to use the canal fisher, I recommend to make the canal at least 6 tiles wide. The catch from a fisher at a 4 tile canal is poor.

Now we can start to build our canal. I'm no stop-the-game-to-plan kind of player but I realize, that it might make sense. I use to set down the speed, but I guess I would make less mistakes, if I would stop the game. There are a few things that need some focus.

The canal pieces shows in which direction the water flows. It's been a while since I made that mistake, so I have no picture of it (and I'm not sure, that you can see it good on a screenshot) but I can tell, it doesn't look good to mix the directions. So, all arrows in the same direction. (not like piece A on the second picture). For some pieces, there are two different icons; they are mirror images of eachother, so you can choose to have the "function" on each side of the canal for each flow direction.

It might be a bit tricky to set all canals parts parallel, especially if you use the joker to change the width. On my second canal I made that mistake with the last piece. (third picture) (B on the second picture shows how the footprint looks like, if it's wrong.)

And most important. DONT FORGET TO BUILD ENOUGH BRIDGES. (C on the third picture is just a reminder)

If you make a mistake, the footprint is easy to delete, but if they've already started to build the piece, there will be a hole in the ground. You must fill it with the levelling tool before you can set a new piece on that spot.

If you don't like grass, trees or flowers on the banks of the canal, you can build an (invisible) road on it.

I hope, this will be helpful. The canals are really nice, highly recommended!
Title: Re: HOW TO avoid mistakes by building a canal
Post by: brads3 on March 27, 2018, 04:36:51 PM
Don't be afraid to try something different. i used an 8 wide 3way connector that allowed me to build Necora's sawmill.could do the same thing for his boathouse or a different mill.note the canal does have a bottom so some pieces can't be placed out into it far.in this case i couldn't use the mill's bridges to reach the open door.

   
Title: Re: HOW TO avoid mistakes by building a canal
Post by: okkisafire on July 28, 2018, 06:39:01 PM
Hi Nilla, what mods did you use for those canal?
Title: Re: HOW TO avoid mistakes by building a canal
Post by: RedKetchup on July 28, 2018, 08:58:52 PM
Quote from: okkisafire on July 28, 2018, 06:39:01 PM
Hi Nilla, what mods did you use for those canal?

NMT 3.11 Canal System : http://worldofbanished.com/index.php?action=downloads;sa=view;down=312 (http://worldofbanished.com/index.php?action=downloads;sa=view;down=312)
these canals are also part of RK Editor Choice Mod : http://worldofbanished.com/index.php?action=downloads;sa=view;down=436 (http://worldofbanished.com/index.php?action=downloads;sa=view;down=436)
Title: Re: HOW TO avoid mistakes by building a canal
Post by: Nilla on July 29, 2018, 03:06:30 AM
If I remember it right, I only used RK Ed Choice in the game from where I took these examples. It's one of those great mods, that contains so much, that you can build very variated interesting big towns, with only one mod.
Title: Re: HOW TO avoid mistakes by building a canal
Post by: galensgranny on July 29, 2018, 07:47:47 AM
Do the traders use the canals?

Title: Re: HOW TO avoid mistakes by building a canal
Post by: embx61 on July 29, 2018, 08:06:03 AM
@galensgranny

Yes, the traders use the canals.
It can be that the trader bug creeps in in certain situations but that has nothing to do with the Canals but is merely a path issue what can also happen in Vanilla.

Nice write up @Nilla
Title: Re: HOW TO avoid mistakes by building a canal
Post by: okkisafire on August 01, 2018, 06:30:10 AM
Oh, another big mods. Thx @Nilla and @RedKetchup
Title: Re: HOW TO avoid mistakes by building a canal
Post by: BlueFireChelle on August 18, 2018, 12:15:21 AM
I built some canals recently in my game that's based on Red's new mod. It was the first time I'd really used them and I think I made ALL those mistakes you mentioned. I had to re-build half the pieces because I started with them backwards, forgot the bridges, and somehow mis-aligned them part way through! LOL! Lucky I had lots of brick laying around the place and far too many lazy labourers so it didn't matter that I had to re-do it all. I've not yet added a trader inside my lake, but am looking forward to watching a boat travel along the canal :)
Title: Re: HOW TO avoid mistakes by building a canal
Post by: brads3 on August 18, 2018, 07:18:26 AM
clearing the land helps so you can see the arrows when you place them.at least cleared enough for the 1st piece. depending on the set up and how long it is,i like to place a bunch with the game paused. you can always pause the pieces themselves so the bannies will build 1 at a time.then again clear a patch of trees at the end  begore laying out more pieces. the laborers will do this while the builders are busy finishing up the digging.

       if you can't put the next piece tight to the end,the spacers help. just use the dig tool to flatten the ground between the 2 pieces and then a 1x spacer.terraform mods help to clear up dirt left at the ends where the canal runs into the lakes or rivers.i have the terraform.pkm and it allows a -1 or -2 option below the 0 point. they do help dress up the ends so they aren't so square looking.