World of Banished

Conversations => Challenges => Topic started by: solarscreen on July 21, 2014, 06:51:47 PM

Title: Forum Challenge #6: Best Storybook Village
Post by: solarscreen on July 21, 2014, 06:51:47 PM
Calling all storytellers!  This is your chance!
Gone are the most this and the biggest that!  This is all about the story!

Start your village and craft a story around it.  Tell us about your people and their joys and sorrows, their successes and failures.  Tell us about the village and its best and worst attributes.  Capture our hearts and imaginations.  A failed village can have as great a story as any 200 year success.

Post your village as a blog in the Village Blog section and weave your magical tale, your romantic history, or your chilling tale of horror!  Screencaps and paragraphs will form your story!

Title your blog post in this format:  A Storybook tale: "Village Name"


Maybe this will lure @nmid and @Boris_amj back to the forum for awhile!

Any seed, any setting.

This challenge ends midnight GMT August 31st.
Title: Re: Forum Challenge #6: Best Storybook Village
Post by: Zephormite on July 21, 2014, 07:20:47 PM
Right, so Trading up til August 1st, and then into writing a story....
Title: Re: Forum Challenge #6: Best Storybook Village
Post by: slink on July 21, 2014, 07:23:36 PM
@solarscreen, you are a naughty, naughty man.  I had just decided not to enter into any more contests because they were all for the largest and most, and you spring out one based on storytelling.   ;)
Title: Re: Forum Challenge #6: Best Storybook Village
Post by: solarscreen on July 21, 2014, 07:57:11 PM
Quote from: slink on July 21, 2014, 07:23:36 PM
@solarscreen, you are a naughty, naughty man.  I had just decided not to enter into any more contests because they were all for the largest and most, and you spring out one based on storytelling.   ;)

:)
Title: Re: Forum Challenge #6: Best Storybook Village
Post by: rkelly17 on July 21, 2014, 09:02:58 PM
Quote from: slink on July 21, 2014, 07:23:36 PM
@solarscreen, you are a naughty, naughty man.  I had just decided not to enter into any more contests because they were all for the largest and most, and you spring out one based on storytelling.   ;)

Yes, yes he is.
Title: Re: Forum Challenge #6: Best Storybook Village
Post by: mariesalias on July 21, 2014, 10:35:03 PM
I am looking forward to everyone's stories!
Title: Re: Forum Challenge #6: Best Storybook Village
Post by: nmid on July 24, 2014, 05:21:45 AM
I always get a nice warm feeling when I get a notification from the WOB forums :)

To quote D'artagnan from the TV series "The Musketeers" is so apt here :)
"Remember my name in a kind way... if you think of it at all"

I've been swamped during the week and my weekends.... my evil idiotic friends have gotten me to try out Rimworld, Factorio and then skyrim in a row.
You can't imagine what that resulted in, but suffice to say that I've played out rimworld and factorio in the last 3 months, but it's only after about 30 hours of skyrim that I realise that even 300 hours won't be enough !!
And I still have to try out Prison Architect and Gnormia.. and perhaps Tropico5 :x

I guess I'll come back to Banished when the mod comes out..... I've been following Luke's updates regularly.
Thanks again for mentioning me :)


edit - grammatical typo
Title: Re: Forum Challenge #6: Best Storybook Village
Post by: slink on July 24, 2014, 05:23:25 AM
Good to hear from you, @nmid.  Now we just need to hear from @Boris_amj.  *big smile*
Title: Re: Forum Challenge #6: Best Storybook Village
Post by: RedKetchup on July 24, 2014, 07:16:16 AM
personally i m waiting Civilization: Beyond Earth in november (24th i think)
Title: Re: Forum Challenge #6: Best Storybook Village
Post by: mariesalias on July 24, 2014, 01:15:45 PM
Didn't @Boris_amj  say he was going away for a month or two? It would be nice if he were back in time for this challenge.

@nmid Glad to see you again, I'll look forward to seeing you again when the mod kit come out. Enjoy Skyrim, not sure you can plan on 'finishing' with it though. ;D




Quote from: RedKetchup on July 24, 2014, 07:16:16 AM
personally i m waiting Civilization: Beyond Earth in november (24th i think)

:o   *googles*  But I have goals to achieve this fall.... 
Title: Re: Forum Challenge #6: Best Storybook Village
Post by: slink on July 24, 2014, 03:30:55 PM
@Boris_amj said he was going away for a week, and that he would be back on June 12th.  He then made one post on June 12th and vanished from the face of the forum.
Title: Re: Forum Challenge #6: Best Storybook Village
Post by: solarscreen on July 24, 2014, 04:01:50 PM
Quote from: slink on July 24, 2014, 03:30:55 PM
@Boris_amj said he was going away for a week, and that he would be back on June 12th.  He then made one post on June 12th and vanished from the face of the forum.

I think he got distracted or something came up from his trip.  I hope he shows up again, he is currently my only moderator!  Although the forum doesn't need a lot of that! 

@Boris_amj are you still out there? Hope you are well!  We miss you!
Title: Re: Forum Challenge #6: Best Storybook Village
Post by: mariesalias on July 25, 2014, 03:27:12 AM
Quote from: slink on July 24, 2014, 03:30:55 PM
@Boris_amj said he was going away for a week, and that he would be back on June 12th.  He then made one post on June 12th and vanished from the face of the forum.

Ah, I thought he said longer. Well, hopefully he comes back to us soon. :D
Title: Re: Forum Challenge #6: Best Storybook Village
Post by: canis39 on July 27, 2014, 01:09:34 PM
nmid, I've got about 800 hours in Skyrim and I finally feel like I explored most (although not all) of what I wanted to. I am currently on a break from that game...but I'm sure I'll be back.
Title: Re: Forum Challenge #6: Best Storybook Village
Post by: nmid on July 29, 2014, 11:27:32 AM
@mariesalias Before I started Skryim, I did think I should try out TES3 and 4.. but got impatient (/didn't want to play a world with a lesser UI/features..) and started off on TESS.
I still think it was a good decision, but for a different reason... I saved myself a lot of time :D

@canis39 800! Lol.. and here I was thinking 250-300 would be enough with plenty of buffer time to do my pack-rat hoarding and inventory management.

I've put in about 86 hours so far (as per my save file, so not counting all the reloads I've done :p).
I just spent a day today (A national holiday) checking on Skyrim mods and I think I went a bit overboard and installed 20+ mods in one go :D. (No ESB/Graphical mods yet.. playing on the lowest graphical settings currently).

I did clean out the master files using TES5 edit, but I haven't checked on how to clean the mod files.
I played an hour with the mods turned on and it seems to work fine, so here's keeping my fingers crossed that I don't get bloat saves or bugs.

Edit - The list of my installed mods so far....
.\Mod Files\Installed\A Quality World Map Installer-4929.7z
.\Mod Files\Installed\Achieve That-30212-2-3-1.rar
.\Mod Files\Installed\Alternate Start - Live Another Life-9557-2-4-1.7z
.\Mod Files\Installed\AMatterOfTime_v2_0_7-44091-2-0-7.7z
.\Mod Files\Installed\Bandolier - Bags and Pouches v1dot2-16438-1-2.7z
.\Mod Files\Installed\Better Dialogue Controls v1_2-27371-1-2.zip
.\Mod Files\Installed\Brawl Bug Plugin v1-1-23435-1-1.zip
.\Mod Files\Installed\CategorizedFavoritesMenu v0_1_18-4862-0-1-17.zip
.\Mod Files\Installed\Convenient Horses - Faster Sprint-14950-.zip
.\Mod Files\Installed\Convenient Horses v5_0-14950-5-0.zip
.\Mod Files\Installed\Enhanced Blood Textures 3_5d-60-3-5d.rar
.\Mod Files\Installed\Glowing Ore Veins 300 2_00-193-1.rar
.\Mod Files\Installed\Lost Art of the Blacksmith-1020-1-45.zip
.\Mod Files\Installed\Player Headtracking 3_3-23600-3-3.zip
.\Mod Files\Installed\Realistic Force-601-1-9.rar
.\Mod Files\Installed\Run For Your Lives-23906-2-0-3.7z
.\Mod Files\Installed\SkyUI_4_1-3863-4-1.7z
.\Mod Files\Installed\Sneak Tools 1_00-19447-1-00.zip
.\Mod Files\Installed\TouringCarriages-38529-2-2-1.7z
.\Mod Files\Installed\UFO - Ultimate Follower Overhaul-14037-1-2i.rar
.\Mod Files\Installed\When Vampires Attack-28235-2-0-2a.7z
Title: Re: Forum Challenge #6: Best Storybook Village
Post by: canis39 on July 29, 2014, 04:45:45 PM
If we are going to start discussing Skyrim mods, we might need a separate Skryim sub-forum!

I think between Steam Workshop and the Nexus, I downloaded about 80 mods or so. There are some unbelievable ones out there that completely changed the game for me. Without mods, there's no way I would have played as much.
Title: Re: Forum Challenge #6: Best Storybook Village
Post by: slink on July 29, 2014, 04:50:16 PM
We're currently playing TES 1, again.  It's the first time either of us finished it.  We're cheating, of course, but that's okay.  We're lowering the casting cost of all of our spells.  All that does is keep us from having to go back to a town to rest so often.  We still die sometimes, and have to go back to a town to sell loot.

I wrote several mods for TES 3 (Morrowind), and a standalone utility for TES2 (Daggerfall).  The utility repaired all the items in inventory, automatically.  I may have a copy, somewhere, but I don't know if it will still run.
Title: Re: Forum Challenge #6: Best Storybook Village
Post by: slink on August 01, 2014, 05:24:24 PM
I began my story, but make no promises about the progress.  The muse is fickle, and I am tired these days.  I did finish cleaning and redecorating the home theater or TV room or living room, whatever you want to call it.  This involved scrubbing twenty years of grime off a 22' x 14' hardwood floor and painting the walls with three coats of paint using 2.5" brushes.  It also involved shifting a large pile of boxes of memorabilia (otherwise known as "junk"), repeatedly.

Two days later the new sofa and the two new lounge chairs were delivered.  I felt as if I could sleep for two days without waking, but only slept for ten hours.  Since then I have been fighting allergic reactions to paint, floor cleaner, ceiling tile cement (my husband did that part of the redecorating), leather furniture polish, and summer in general.  The room is gorgeous, at least in my eyes, even with the wall of boxes along the outer wall of the room.  I think of them as a layer of insulation. 

The cats are gradually forgiving our apparent cruelty in throwing out their furniture and dousing the floor repeatedly with water.  I dread to face their reaction when we hire someone to remove the old cement driveway and pour a new one.  Actually, I dread my own reaction, but it has to be done.  The old one was cracking even before its first winter arrived, and after twenty-odd years it is crumbling before our eyes.  Blacktop won't cure the problem, even if we wanted to continually track tar into the house.
Title: Re: Forum Challenge #6: Best Storybook Village
Post by: rkelly17 on August 02, 2014, 05:24:33 PM
I know @solarscreen said to take a break, and it is my normal policy to do exactly what I am told, but in this case I didn't. Seeing @slink's first section got my creative juices flowing and I set out on the storybook challenge. You can find the first installment in the village blog section: http://worldofbanished.com/index.php?topic=306.0

Title: Re: Forum Challenge #6: Best Storybook Village
Post by: slink on August 03, 2014, 05:55:03 AM
Wow, @rkelly17!  That's a great start.  It reminds me that, no matter my imagination and facility with words, I was a sciences major and not a humanities major.   :)
Title: Re: Forum Challenge #6: Best Storybook Village
Post by: rkelly17 on August 03, 2014, 06:13:25 AM
Quote from: slink on August 03, 2014, 05:55:03 AM
Wow, @rkelly17!  That's a great start.  It reminds me that, no matter my imagination and facility with words, I was a sciences major and not a humanities major.   :)

@slink, don't forget that I am retired from a 40 year career of producing high grade, footnoted prose (or whatever you might call it) for a living. It's way easier when you can just make it up.  ;D

I am looking forward to your sci-fi take on Banished.
Title: Re: Forum Challenge #6: Best Storybook Village
Post by: mariesalias on August 11, 2014, 10:21:11 AM
I have not had much time (or any) to play the past couple weeks. Thankfully, school re-starts next week and I should have some free time again! I don't know why I ever thought summer time would give me more time to relax!

I will enjoy reading everyone's town stories but it is doubtful I will be able to participate in this one.
Title: Re: Forum Challenge #6: Best Storybook Village
Post by: rkelly17 on August 12, 2014, 08:02:23 AM
I've been going a bit slowly on the story for the last ten days. Our granddaughter has osteogenesis imperfecta (brittle bone disease) and broke her left femur a week ago Sunday. That required an ambulance to the local ER and then another to Sick Kids hospital in Toronto (130 km) on the Sunday of a 3-day weekend. Then a 4 hour surgery on Monday afternoon to replace the rod in the femur which had gotten bent. Her own doctor, who is an authority on OI, was away, but the surgeon on call is a specialist in fixing lower limbs of pre-adolescents (for our American members, all we had to do to get this level of care was show her Ontario Health Insurance Plan card and pay our taxes). Fortunately no cast, so she came home on Wednesday and after the pain started going down is making a good recovery. We have five steps between the living room (where the TV is--very important for a 10-year old) and the bathroom and by last night she was navigating them by herself with her walker and crutch. Kids! Anyway, we are getting back to normal--at least for us--so more story is on the way.
Title: Re: Forum Challenge #6: Best Storybook Village
Post by: mariesalias on August 12, 2014, 09:54:22 AM
@rkelly17   I am so sorry to hear about your granddaughter! I am very glad she is doing well though! It must be difficult for her to have to always try to be careful. I am glad your healthcare is so good. :)
Title: Re: Forum Challenge #6: Best Storybook Village
Post by: rkelly17 on August 14, 2014, 11:27:12 AM
New chronicles today: http://worldofbanished.com/index.php?topic=306.0

Title: Re: Forum Challenge #6: Best Storybook Village
Post by: rkelly17 on August 18, 2014, 09:30:02 AM
I posted the final chapters of St. Colmcille in the village blogs this morning along with an edited introduction to bring the story together. That will constitute my entry in the challenge. Now I'm going to do a town just to be doing it.
Title: Re: Forum Challenge #6: Best Storybook Village
Post by: slink on September 02, 2014, 09:32:22 AM
So, this is over now and I'm voting for @rkelly17.  I think there are only two of us competing, so he must be voting for me.  Are we co-winners, or is someone else voting?   ;D
Title: Re: Forum Challenge #6: Best Storybook Village
Post by: Bobbi on September 02, 2014, 10:10:40 AM
I loved both stories and they were very different. I would love to see two winners.
Title: Re: Forum Challenge #6: Best Storybook Village
Post by: RedKetchup on September 02, 2014, 02:35:49 PM
yeah, for one : i m very very very bad to make a fairy tell ^^ a storybook.

for 2, i was more in : 5000 citizens project.

but its all good. and now i m more in moddling than ... doing the waterfront. but it s ok there again ^^
Title: Re: Forum Challenge #6: Best Storybook Village
Post by: mariesalias on September 02, 2014, 06:57:05 PM
I catch up on both stories tomorrow and cast my vote then. I would toihgt but I have 5 mins until raid time and then have to get the kid to sleep, fold laundry, and so forth tonight. I suspect it is going to be a difficult choice though.
Title: Re: Forum Challenge #6: Best Storybook Village
Post by: irrelevant on September 02, 2014, 07:23:50 PM
Quote from: mariesalias on September 02, 2014, 06:57:05 PM
... I have 5 mins until raid time and then have to get the kid to sleep...

I really love our 21st century ;D
Title: Re: Forum Challenge #6: Best Storybook Village
Post by: mariesalias on September 02, 2014, 07:28:57 PM
Unfortunately a couple members are having latency issues so we yeah, still waiting.  I may end up with some unexpected free time this evening.

Before I started playing video/computer games, I played card games all the time.  :D
Title: Re: Forum Challenge #6: Best Storybook Village
Post by: solarscreen on September 03, 2014, 04:53:31 AM
Everyone reading, please read both stories and then cast your votes here in the thread!

Thanks to both challengers for your entries!  I hope we can get more participation when we run this challenge again in October!

Title: Re: Forum Challenge #6: Best Storybook Village
Post by: rkelly17 on September 03, 2014, 07:57:43 AM
Quote from: slink on September 02, 2014, 09:32:22 AM
So, this is over now and I'm voting for @rkelly17.  I think there are only two of us competing, so he must be voting for me.  Are we co-winners, or is someone else voting?   ;D

Indeed, I am voting for @slink.

While we are at it, how about a challenge that looks for the most aesthetically pleasing settlement. I've been trying out the flat map mod and when you put it  on the flattest setting it gives a huge canvas for avenues, plazas, and all sorts of things.

Title: Re: Forum Challenge #6: Best Storybook Village
Post by: RedKetchup on September 03, 2014, 07:59:55 AM
and of course Slink will vote for Rkelly ^^ haha

i ll try to read that tonight or tomm and give my votes :)
Title: Re: Forum Challenge #6: Best Storybook Village
Post by: slink on September 03, 2014, 08:36:08 AM
Oh-oh.  Time for me to download the Flat Map Mod.   ;D
Title: Re: Forum Challenge #6: Best Storybook Village
Post by: mariesalias on September 04, 2014, 10:05:57 AM
I was finally able to finish reading both blogs. I do not know how I can decide between the two; they are both excellent! I particularly enjoy the whimsy and the twist that @slink's story took at the end. And I enjoyed the history and attention to detail of @rkelly17's story.

A very difficult choice! Since I have to chose one though, I will chose @rkelly17's. I feel like both should win though!
Title: Re: Forum Challenge #6: Best Storybook Village
Post by: Bobbi on September 04, 2014, 01:56:19 PM
Agree with everything @mariesalias said, so to make things more difficult, I will vote for @slink
Title: Re: Forum Challenge #6: Best Storybook Village
Post by: irrelevant on September 04, 2014, 03:14:11 PM
This is such a tough choice, both are so well-done. I'll come back in a bit to vote, I have to go find a suitable coin to toss  ;)
Title: Re: Forum Challenge #6: Best Storybook Village
Post by: irrelevant on September 04, 2014, 05:24:07 PM
After reading through both for the fourth time, although I love the surprise ending of @slink 's story, I have to go with @rkelly17, only because I am forced to make a choice. I really enjoyed both. 
Title: Re: Forum Challenge #6: Best Storybook Village
Post by: RedKetchup on September 04, 2014, 05:24:40 PM
Quote from: irrelevant on September 04, 2014, 03:14:11 PM
This is such a tough choice, both are so well-done. I'll come back in a bit to vote, I have to go find a suitable coin to toss  ;)

yeah very hard to decide  :-\ i ll choose @slink , but @rkelly17 is as good as well :)
Title: Re: Forum Challenge #6: Best Storybook Village
Post by: solarscreen on September 04, 2014, 07:18:11 PM
Looks like it's too close to call from two of our best players!  Thank you for playing and giving us great stories to go along with a great game. 

@slink ties again and @rkelly17 notches another win in his Banished stick he uses to beat his opponents with.

Congrats to both of you. Thank you again!


Title: Re: Forum Challenge #6: Best Storybook Village
Post by: RedKetchup on September 04, 2014, 07:28:27 PM
what another tie ?

Congratulations BOTH OF YOU !!!
Title: Re: Forum Challenge #6: Best Storybook Village
Post by: solarscreen on September 04, 2014, 07:38:43 PM
Quote from: RedKetchup on September 04, 2014, 07:28:27 PM
what another tie ?

Congratulations BOTH OF YOU !!!

@slink won't let @rkelly17 get a win by himself!

;)
Title: Re: Forum Challenge #6: Best Storybook Village
Post by: slink on September 05, 2014, 06:49:47 AM
I am flattered to tie with a professional writer.  :)  My writing experience as a professional scientist was in writing progress reports, year-end reports, and project-end summary reports.  My career as a scientist consisted of collecting my own data, and then presenting theories and predictions based on the data.  The only difference between science and science-fiction is the degree of imagination used in the theories.  ;D  Then there is faith, in which the practitioners invent their own data, as well.  Climate science tends toward this latter category, in my opinion.  ::)
Title: Re: Forum Challenge #6: Best Storybook Village
Post by: rkelly17 on September 05, 2014, 07:19:03 AM
Thank you everyone. I find it interesting that in our storybook villages @slink and I both did what we have done professionally, but with a fictional/imaginative twist. The difference is what used to be done under some pressure (If I don't get this (expletive deleted) journal article out now the dean will be all over me!) can now be done for the pure joy of it. That is one of the great things about being retired. Plus having the time to hang out with all of you.  ;D