Where I Really Wish Banished Would Go

[A Nonny Moose]

@solarscreen :  Just a quick bio so you'll know where I am coming from.

I got started in the computer industry in 1962 working for a Canadian Chartered Bank and was on the selection committee for their first main frame.  I've been in the industry ever since, first as an assembly language programmer, then as tools provider, then as manager and consultant.  I've worked for three computer manufacturers and several service bureaus.  I spent my last 10 years or so in the work force teaching computer science at a college.  Much of the teaching was programming with various languages including C/C++ which are my preferred languages for O/S work.  I have limited to no game programming experience, but was always on the application side except when I was coding/debugging operating software.  My 77th birthday is this Saturday.

When I started you had to write your own drivers for most peripherals, and sometimes there wasn't even an assembly program and you had to toggle the program in from the console.  One of my earliest successful projects was a macro that could not only call in a printer driver but could then be used to expedite it's use in the manner of a report writer.  In 1964 this was a big deal.

[rkelly17]

When I started you had to write your own drivers for most peripherals, and sometimes there wasn't even an assembly program and you had to toggle the program in from the console.  One of my earliest successful projects was a macro that could not only call in a printer driver but could then be used to expedite it's use in the manner of a report writer.  In 1964 this was a big deal.

Ah, the good old days! One of my early adventures as a computer user who tries to understand what is going on was as a graduate school registrar in the early 80s. The  institution had a shiny new DEC computer and bought software from a school in Northern California (written by their IT guy) to do course registration, student records and billing. In the process I had received one of the early NEC small, desk top printers so I could print reports on my own without bothering the IT guys constantly. First report I tried to print, it did the first three lines nicely and then on the forth line switched to Japanese.    Got the printer re-set to English and tried again with the same result. After consulting with our IT guys and the software author, it turned out that the same control code that told his printer to print in 132 columns told my printer to print in Japanese characters. That was my first lesson in "peripherals."

[solarscreen]

I got started about 12 years after you did.  Moved along a more systems track rather than programming although I have dabbled from time to time just to be familiar.  I started out with a DEC PDP-11 and then a few AIX machines.  I moved from that side of the house to MS as my work became more end user related.  Windows XP drove me crazy with lack of security so I moved back over to the server side and focused on virtualization and integration. 

I have loaded just about every distro of Linux at one time or another but never fell in love with any of them. Ubuntu has looked interesting with Unity but not enough to change over to.  I even ran a Hackintosh with Snow Leopard for a year.  I spend so much time in the MS realm I guess I'm comfortable there.

Over the last couple of years as people ask me what to replace their computer with, I ask them what eco-system they live in - Apple, Android, Amazon, Windows... then I find out what they actually use their computer for. If it's just email, Facebook, Twitter, and simple games I point them to an appropriate tablet and get them away from a big machine that needs lots of support.

[Pangaea]

How is Minecraft different and what could modders do to make Banished the kind of game Minecraft has become?

Haven't read the rest of the thread yet (this is from the OP), nor have I ever played Minecraft. However, Timber and Stone, the early builds at least, was quite similar in the building aspect, and that is something I liked a lot with that game (it since took a direction towards more and tougher combat). Building stuff with blocks like Minecraft (and Timber and Stone) does really opens up options as the imagination is quite literally the limitation.

Something like this won't be possible in Banished, but it would be great with more variety when modding takes off. Or perhaps some other means to build buildings using raw material instead of the 'finished' product (Hunting cabin, etc). I'd love to be able to build a castle on top of a mountain for example. Yummie! 

(I see this thread has gone a... little off-topic )

[solarscreen]

How is Minecraft different and what could modders do to make Banished the kind of game Minecraft has become?

Haven't read the rest of the thread yet (this is from the OP), nor have I ever played Minecraft. However, Timber and Stone, the early builds at least, was quite similar in the building aspect, and that is something I liked a lot with that game (it since took a direction towards more and tougher combat). Building stuff with blocks like Minecraft (and Timber and Stone) does really opens up options as the imagination is quite literally the limitation.

Something like this won't be possible in Banished, but it would be great with more variety when modding takes off. Or perhaps some other means to build buildings using raw material instead of the 'finished' product (Hunting cabin, etc). I'd love to be able to build a castle on top of a mountain for example. Yummie! 

(I see this thread has gone a... little off-topic )

Thanks for bringing it back around!

Castles sound fun!

Hopefully we will get to be able to mod so we can have different environments with all the different buildings and jobs.  Africa, Asia, Oceanic, Amazon Rain Forest,... that kind of thing.

[Pangaea]

That sounds like fun. Playing as Vikings would be fun too, in a cold and tough climate.

Speaking about linux and such, I've tried quite a few distros as well, but always found it difficult to stay with them, because I run into some trouble and have no idea how to fix it. Windows sucks in many ways, but at least I know my way around it, and things usually work without any fuss. I quite liked Linux Mint, though, a variant that could be customised to the hilt and back. But as I usually just surf the net or play games on the computer, at some point it was simply easier to go back to the slave owner 

When I bought a new computer with SSD, I did cut it in half, intending to install Linux on the other half, but I've not yet done it, and it's been probably 3-4 months now...

[rkelly17]

Over the last couple of years as people ask me what to replace their computer with, I ask them what eco-system they live in - Apple, Android, Amazon, Windows... then I find out what they actually use their computer for. If it's just email, Facebook, Twitter, and simple games I point them to an appropriate tablet and get them away from a big machine that needs lots of support.

For those of you who work or worked in the computer field, the best piece of advice I ever got was from a friend whose advice I asked when I had the money to get my first serious computer. He was a programmer and he told me: "Decide what the best software is for what you want to do and buy the computer that will run that." That's what I did and I'[m still happily running the latest version of the software that did the best job of what I needed software to do. So, @solarscreen, I think your advice is right on.

As to the original point of this thread (we do get off topic around here, don't we?  ) up until I found Banished my three favorite games series have been Sim City (not counting the last one), Railroad Tycoon and Civilization. I have also played almost all of the Impressions "city-builders" from Caesar to Emperor and others of a similar ilk. What I like about my favorites is (1) that they allow (and in some cases encourage) the community to run amuck with modding and customization, and (2) they allow a variety of styles for planning and building a city, railroad empire or civilization. I hope that Banished follows a path that gives a foundation for the kind of communities that have built up around SC 4 and Civs 4 and 5. Unfortunately the last iteration of Sim City did not take the community seriously and did not make SC 4 better. I have yet to buy it. Something similar happened with the latest Railroad Tycoon. There were already issues in the transition from RT 2 to RT 3, but most of those had to do with scenario authors not understanding how 3 was different from 2 (e.g., change in what traffic was picked up for what reasons). Again, instead of improving on the series Sid Meyer decided to do something that was graphically nice but where the gameplay was behind what the original RT and RT Deluxe had.

[A Nonny Moose]

Well, the news today is that MS did buy the Minecraft parent company, so now perhaps your worst fears have been realized or there is some new life in Redmond.  Wait and see.

[solarscreen]

Well, the news today is that MS did buy the Minecraft parent company, so now perhaps your worst fears have been realized or there is some new life in Redmond.  Wait and see.

Facebook bought Oculus Rift and the world didn't end so maybe Satya Nadella has a vision for MS that just might be good.

[A Nonny Moose]

I would refrain from enumerating any feathered progeny before the incubation period is completed.  Microsoft has a lot of inertia.

[solarscreen]

Interesting article here:

http://www.tomshardware.com/news/gaming-notch-microsoft-minecraft-acquisition,27677.html

Apparently, Microsoft has been working with Mojang since 2012. 

[A Nonny Moose]

Too much heat, so get out of the hitchin'.

[Mr_Maison]

I hope Banished mod kit makes it possible for full conversions like Luke mentioned months ago. I guess depending on how deep we can go, some futuristic mods would bring in more players. It always amazes me how creative people are all over the world when given the tools. It says a lot.

[A Nonny Moose]

If you can take the modding community at Simtropolis as an example, the mod kit will extend the life of this game far into the future.

[Pangaea]

If you can take the modding community at Simtropolis as an example, the mod kit will extend the life of this game far into the future.

Definitely, as long as modders are able to put their creativity in the game. It's the same with Civilizatoin IV (I did not like the direction 5 took). The game is actually pretty darn old by now, but the Civ IV community is still vibrant to this very day. Of course it helps that the stock game is bloody good too, with so much complexity, but mods help a lot.

Who knows; maybe in a year's time there will be a futuristic mod where the bannies are robots or something