Ideas for Playing the Game Long Term

[snapster]

They say you're a good one though. 

[irrelevant]

Yeah, I can plod better than anyone. I leave the creative stuff up to the creative folks. I'm a technician not an artist.

[snapster]

Are you exacting in how you play the game? How much do you plan ahead of time? Do you even sit planning much of a game out before playing it? How much needs to go different in a game for you to find it worthwhile in comparison to another game/town of Banished?

[A Nonny Moose]

I don't.  I have a few "rules of thumb" like: Shelter first, warmth next, food next on starting a new town.  If an agricultural situation, one large field for each 10 souls in the game.  And so on.

[irrelevant]

Are you exacting in how you play the game? How much do you plan ahead of time? Do you even sit planning much of a game out before playing it? How much needs to go different in a game for you to find it worthwhile in comparison to another game/town of Banished?

Planning varies, depending on what my goals are. In my current town I'm not doing much planning at all, as I am just for the first time experimenting with a variety of mods. Since I don't know what to expect from them, I'm just feeling my way around.

If you really are interested, I'm blogging my current town here: http://worldofbanished.com/index.php?topic=567.0

If you want to see what my planning looks like, my previous town was far more goal oriented, it is documented here: http://worldofbanished.com/index.php?topic=327.0  Pages 3-6 can give you an idea of the kind of planning that I often do.

@snapster You have so many questions, now I have one for you. Have you ever played this game? Do you even own it? If as I suspect the answer to these questions is "no," why are you so interested? And why don't you just try the game yourself? Asking questions like this is a bit like someone who has never had sex, asking people who do it every day what it is they find interesting about it and why they aren't doing more to make it better.

[Admin]

Ok folks...

Look, some people are going to want to learn everything they can before they buy the game and try to play it.  Money is limited for most people when it comes to buying games and other hobby items.

I totally understand getting frustrated with people who want you to explain in detail games they haven't played but unless these new members are attacking you personally or pushing buttons, then let's find a way to provide your perspective if you care to, discuss the esthetics and the intangibles with those who want to think about the game rather than play, and be helpful to them too.

@snapster please try to understand those who prefer to play to learn versus talking about it first.  Everyone else, join in the discussion or don't, but try to see @snapster 's desire to mentally walk through the game and the mods before making a commitment. 

We want a good and helpful forum that people can come to knowing there won't be the verbal sparring and abuse that other forums seen to get overrun with.

I see both sides and I want both sides to enjoy the forum.  Sound good?     Thank you!

[snapster]

Here's an interesting discussion of what could perhaps be done currently:

http://worldofbanished.com/index.php?topic=567.45

One thing that stumps me is if there would be enough constant adversity for rising demands on the player to create a real challenge.

[irrelevant]

That could be your cue to fire up a game 

[snapster]

I'll be playing it.

[Coug_r]

I think that the lack of objective is both a default and a quality.

It is a default because indeed you never know when you "win". Is it when you stabilize all productions? When you reach a certain population? When you filled 100% of the map?

It is a quality because the game will not be stopped by any given objective, even if you really enjoy your village. I remember for instance playing AOE2, sometimes I would let the enemy survive way longer than necessary just because I wanted to fully develop my town before finishing the game.

It is not easy to set objectives in Banished, but i would appreciate something like: the neighbour country recognizing you as a country/free city based on a mix of indicators (X years of reserve in food/clothes..., population x% educated and over x citizens, production of all kind of food... any other indicator that might be relevant).

This could be an objective to reach in any city, and the difficulty of this recognition could be chosen depending on whether one wants to spend 5 or 50 hours on his new city.

This would not end the game but would be displayed whenever the city reaches the required level of development. It would create a new motivation when you want to start a new game: instead of just thinking "I will start a village and see where it goes" one would be able to think "I will try to reach this objective in less than 50 years".

[A Nonny Moose]

Lack of objective isn't a problem for many people.  Banished, like SimCity 4, has only one final objective which is to avoid losing. 

You can lose in Banished quite easily in early months by simply having all your people dying out on you.  In SC4, being budget driven, you can go bankrupt.

Objectless or open-ended games with custom content by the community is what makes games like this live forever.

[snapster]

There is still the question of why the game is being played, which some of you don't really answer. There is also little argument to be had over objectives increasing the appeal of Banished. The two ways of playing actually do not strike me as mutually exclusive as you can use the content for reaching an objective or end-game to play around with (right? it would literally be just more content; are the links the issue?), let alone when we consider that mods are separate. Then there are the sort of quantity objectives brought up by Coug_r that really do not conflict with open-ended playing in any way, except that they exist and maybe that's what some people have issues with.

[salamander]

@snapster -- With all due respect, you have been told by several people 'why' they play the game.  In some cases, there are specific answers to the question, for others it's not been possible to pin down why the game is appealing (I'm one of these).

For many people, there is an appeal to Banished in the vanilla version, and the mods that are now possible can only increase that.  In this sense, I wouldn't consider the mods that are being developed to be 'separate' from the game -- they are extensions that you can choose to use, or choose not to use.

For myself, I enjoy the playing of the game, not just being able to say I reached some 'end-point' objective.

[snapster]

Which is why I plugged the word "really" in there. Put yourself in my position and try to interpret what you're writing. It ain't eaasyy, to bee, me.

[slink]

Which is why I plugged the word "really" in there. Put yourself in my position and try to interpret what you're writing. It ain't eaasyy, to bee, me.

We are really saying what we really mean. 

The game appeals to me because it is peaceful, because I am entertained by the passing of the seasons, because I like laying out towns, and now also because I can fiddle with the innards to some degree.

It is like Dwarf Fortress without any warfare, which I turn off anyway when I play that game, and with graphics.  Dwarf Fortress has much more flexibility.  Perhaps you should have a look at that game.  It is completely free.  You don't even have to register anywhere to obtain it.  I would personally stick to the slightly older version for now, but that is up to you if you should decide to try it.

http://bay12games.com/dwarves/index.html

There is a large following at the forum.

http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/