Mark's Ramblings

[Nilla]

"Ironman" is brutal. As you might have read, I had some starvation and needed to go back, too. It´s very bald to try "Ironman" without much experience from the North. But we know you; no fear!

[MarkAnthony]

I don't think Ironman had anything to do with it. Idling at the very start if the game with 5 hearts and Stars? Clearing like 3 pieces and then stopping and idling again and refusing to do anything ever again from that point on? Nah, something else is going on.

I said I was going to bed after that last post but before I went to bed I tried restarting. The only thing I did differently with the restart is I selected a small area for them to clear since they seemed to have wanted that first in the original start. Things went a tad better but then they "bugged out" again. I got several of the places built this time but I had trouble with the Builder from then on. She was working on the bridge next to the two Goathi's. She got a bit more than 1/2 way done then stood "working"/"twitching" in front of the Goathi nearest the bridge. I switched her back and forth between Laborer and Builder to reset her and that cleared it up for a few more Work Units on the bridge and then she went back to standing in front of the Goathi again. Maybe there was some sort of pathing issue. I don't know.

I'm here again only a few hours later; couldn't sleep (in pain), so here I am.  *sighs Because of my mood and lack of sleep I don't feel like restarting it a second time, I'm going to change maps. (1)Either the pathing was bugged; (2)the pathing was bugged because maybe I built some things too close to one another or (3)maybe that map seed was bugged. I don't feel like figuring it out.

I wasn't too thrilled with the Trapper start anyhow I guess mostly because I couldn't decide which I needed for the Trapper furs since I forgot; either the Tanner that worked with hides (don't think so) or the normal Tailor. I was just gonna figure it out after everything else was built first but then I ran into my issues. I think I will just go with the Farmer start this time, I never played that one either. I think half of my North games were with the Shepherd's start and a couple with Anders and Ella.

[MarkAnthony]

Been up for two hours now; I've had my morning ciggie  (don't judge lol), my very important glass of yummy chocolate milk  (chocolate milk in the warmer months, hot chocolate or coffee in the winter months) and I think I managed to put some semblance of a brain on and I've calmed down. 

Because I hate to think myself the quitter-type I am going to retry this start for a second time. I took a closer look and it does look like I had a pathing issue but it was of my own making (nah it wasn't, it was all Tom's fault!  lol j/k). There was indeed a pathing problem with the bridge and Goahti next to it; I've been spelling it Goathi, my apologies to you Euros out there.  It appears as though there is a passable space around the Goahti because of it being round but there wasn't. I tried putting a dirt path down between the Goahti and bridge but couldn't. I moved the bridge one tile over to line it up better with the Trapper's Cabin and the Goahti that was next to the bridge was relocated further away, and just to be certain I laid down dirt roads this time to make sure of my spacing. I think this will fix things at least I am hoping it will, I'll let you know.

               

[Nilla]

It looks like a very hard starting position. I can only wish you luck and hope that you manage the hard start..... and you are probably right; Tom is very resourceful and may have come up of some evil stuff, none of us can understand.

[MarkAnthony]

Okay so the pathing problem was fixed but I had two starvation deaths (2 out of 6) just now. I had a Fisherman and Hunter working the food and I had a Smoking Shed for the fish and the Campfire for the Venison to try to extend the food but it wasn't enough. I just got that bridge built when the two died; the Gatherer on the other side of the bridge was next to be built for another food source but it's too late now. I need to tweak my build orders a bit further I guess.
Six adults, zero children and no need for a school (that's kind of nice really to not have to fuss with that):

   
• 1 Hunter
• 1 Fisherman
• 1 Smoking Shed
• 1 Campfire
• 1 Builder
• 1 Laborer

Maybe I should forgo the two food processors and increase the builders on the bridge so I can try and get that Gatherer Shelter built sooner; I really don't want to move that Gatherer's Shelter to this side of the bridge but I may have to do that if this next attempt doesn't work.
               

[MarkAnthony]

It looks like a very hard starting position. I can only wish you luck and hope that you manage the hard start..... and you are probably right; Tom is very resourceful and may have come up of some evil stuff, none of us can understand.

Maybe not a very hard start but yeah, because of the placement of the starting Trapper's Cabin with it's radius overlapping a river on one side and a stream on another I am forced to build 2 minimum/of 3 necessary bridges at the beginning of the game lest I chance the Trapper getting stuck on the other side without a way back. I could always not use the Trapper at the beginning like I did this last try so only one bridge to get to the Gatherer would have been needed but the Hunter has only gotten 1 hide in each of these start attempts. After the start of the game I have 0 clothes remaining and the Trapper gets about 3-5 Furs, better than 1 Deer Hide anyhow. /shrug

I'm gonna try getting that bridge built faster to get the Gatherer Shelter up, I'll worry about clothing immediately after that... somehow...  maybe just snap my fingers and I'll have an extra worker fall out of the sky!  Oh yeah, that never works! 

[Nilla]

I wouldn´t build a gatherer at all (in fact I haven´t any yet in my Ironman game). The only way to succeed at the beginning (at least to my experience) is to send EVERYONE out to pick wild food from July until the frost comes. A gatherer only picks ripe food during this short time, the rest of the year it´s only firewood. That´s too inefficient in an ironman game. And I don´t use a built hunter at the beginning either only the instant hunter when a deer herd is close.

[MarkAnthony]

That's what I am using, the instant Hunter -- maybe just not the most ideal spot I'll have to try and find another location. And in my first and second attempts at the game when I had my pathing issues I was doing the wild food gathering (forgot to this last attempt) but here is where you are very right! -- I hardly have any to gather in my surrounding area, I think I had like 9 red dots to collect, I'd have to go more than a monitors length away to get more. So in this instance, a very hard start for sure that's why I was thinking the Gatherer's Shelter would bail me out.

[Nilla]

That's why I was thinking the Gatherer's Shelter would bail me out.

I´m pretty sure, it will not. I wouldn´t use the instant hunter on one spot on Ironman, you can only use it when you see a flock of deer coming. If it´s big. use 2-3 people to hunt as long as the deer stay. They will soon go away and the hunters (maybe except one that could work the campfire) should be reassigned until next flock return. But I suspect that not many flocks of deer are in the area of your starting position, that (and the small area to collect wild food) was what I meant when I talked about a bad starting position, not the location of the trapper. And the trapper is of little use until you have a trading port and can trade furs for food.

[MarkAnthony]

I'm not the trader you are Nilla, I think you eat, sleep and drink trading!  I'm a school guy so the first thing I think about is schools and it's nice not having to worry about schools in this game, at this time (no children, advanced materials needed). I know you do too but you got trading in your blood as well. I wasn't even thinking about trading as far as my furs go. I was thinking that since the Hunter was barely getting any Deer Hides (just 1) that I'd turn that 3-5  Fur into clothing for my people. Is this wrong you think?

And just to double-check with you, which is the correct Tailor Shop to use for Fur, the one that makes "coats" right, not the other one?

[Nilla]

I know of only one tailor shop in the North, so I would use that one (even if some other tailors may use it as well) It needs logs and clay to be built. Fur and fur coats are very expensive and you can buy a lot of food for it but at the beginning, in an Ironman game, it´s not wrong to make clothes from it. If you don´t have sheep from the start, it´s hard to get enough, you need to hunt very hard. That´s why I choose the shepherd start; less stress.

[MarkAnthony]

Tom has an additional Tailor, I added that one as well. Thanks for the info. So far this 4th attempt is going okay, not dying yet anyhow haha. I made sure I was more diligent with collecting wild food and chasing deer when nearby. I just got the bridge built and am working on getting the storage shed and turf house built on the other side, then the Gatherer itself. Making breakfast right now.

[brads3]

the tannery should help cure the leather for use with other modslike EB's shoes or saddles.you should have deer or cow hides there up north more than leather.some processing can be done at the workshops that addon to houses.you should check the fire pit to see what he does as well.the North has some different options.

[MarkAnthony]

What is the batch size conversion the Campfire is looking for when making Roasted Venison? I ask because my Campfire inventory sits at 28 Firewood and 27 Venison and it tells me "out of materials" with those amounts all the time. The only time he works is when there is a fresh batch of Venison so like 28 Firewood and 127 Venison then he kicks into action again. But at 28 Firewood and 27 Venison he does nothing. I'm thinking batches of 50 maybe? Doesn't seem to be 25 because I have 27 he won't use on it's own and after that 100 us used up I'm sitting at 27 venison again, leftover. I have plenty of Firewood in my stockpiles so it doesn't seem to be a fuel issue.

[MarkAnthony]

I had a nice long nap today to make up for last night's lack of sleep so my game is a lot further behind than Nillas and Irrelevant's. I'm really not liking this incredibly slow-pace and tons of micromanagement. I'm only in year four with the same 6 adults and three new, young children and it looks like I'm going into a starvation crisis again. With no crops and orchards or pastures food is a constant struggle and I'm actually getting bored with it all. I don't know how long I will stick with this one, sorry if that sounds weak.


Edit: Yeah, a child just died, then a Builder, then the Laborer who just delivered food to her home and died at the doorway after dropping it off. The Builder was following right behind the Laborer girl, but died before her; guess she offered to make him a sandwich but he couldn't wait any longer.

Ironman isn't for me I guess, Norseman was a tad easier but still slow... but easier. I think I'll go play with Kid's again.  I'll leave it to you to make the correct interpretation of that last sentence. lol Shame on you! 


Hey, did this site go down for anyone else? Crashed with a 503 server busy error for about 5 minutes or more at my end; seemed slow for me all day today - actually thought it was my wifi.