I want to start this blog with my first impression of this mod:
IMPRESSIVE! Thank you
@Discrepancy for sharing it with us. I very much looking forward to testing it.
There are some ideas to give this game some new challenges, there are good menus and explanations, lovely buildings and sites, many I recognise from earlier versions but there are also new creations, as always
@Discrepancy, they seem to look great (I can´t build so much of it yet because I spend most of the evening yesterday just looking around in the menus) and I hope (and believe) that I will stay this impressed after I´ve played a bit longer.
Now again my old dilemma testing mods; should I tell my opinion, make my suggestions and ask my questions (yes, sorry
@Discrepancy there will be a load of questions) here in my blog or at the thread about the mod itself? I´m usually straight forward and personal in my comments. I never claim to say the absolute truth or making requests that I expect being fulfilled. I´m just communicating my point of view that I hope you as modder
@Discrepancy will read and think about, not more, not less. That´s why I feel more comfortable in a blog I start myself. But I know, I also have questions of common interest that I think would reach more people at the original thread. So, maybe I will try to make some combination.
Since this is a challenging mod I decided not to make it more complicated than necessary to start with. It´s a medium valley map, medium start, fair climate. I thought a bit if I should play with or without disasters but I chose disasters on. Since DS has played with health, happiness, diseases (the long row of diseases is simply terrifying) he might as well have played with disasters, and I don´t want to miss that. Maybe it´s a mistake. We will see.
I loaded some additional DS mods and followed the recommendations of load order from
http://worldofbanished.com/index.php?topic=2147.msg48149#msg48149. No problems. Why these mods? A few of them; Wagon Vendor and Townhouses are old favourites, the other are mods I haven´t tested, at least not these versions. One of the new challenging things of this mod is that iron production is more difficult. The vanilla town hall needs a load of it and since health and happiness also are tweaked, statistics is crucial, especially by testing it for the first time. That´s why I have decided to take a short cut or "cheat" if you want to call it that and add a mod with a townhall easier to build. My favourite is Kid´s tiny. Maybe DS, it would be a good idea to add/recommend a Town Hall with no/less iron. To me, the absence of statistics and inventories early is a not very appealing kind of challenge.
Now some initial questions to what I´ve read in the menus and seen right at the start of the game.
Happiness: Is your happiness system different from the North? It seems so because you are mentioning safety, goods, spirit and entertainment but not health in the info menu. You are also mentioning graveyards as a spiritual location for happiness. They have no happiness circle in the North.
Health: When I read your information it looks like it´s impossible to get 5 stars only with a good diet, that you always need herbalists and doctors to achieve this. I´ve been looking at the health the few years I played. Everyone lost all their hearts very fast but as soon as they had all food categories, hearts are regained, like in vanilla. But it´s very different at each individual. Some still have no hearts, some have full, some something in between. So it looks like it´s possible to reach 5 stars with only a good diet but I guess you´ll lose hearts very fast if the house only for a short time doesn´t contain one category. Distribution of goods will be even more important than usual but it looks like you can manage without the "herbalist loop".
Menus I tried these new statistic menus with a built-in map and event log. A very good idea. But it doesn´t really work by me. Maybe I have some wrong graphic settings. The ingame options menu says a resolution of 1920*1200 so it should be alright. I wanted to look at the game not play around with settings so I went back to my usual vanilla way of menus. What´s wrong? The text of the event log is shown on the map and not easy to see. Only one event is shown at the same time and if you want to scroll back and see an earlier event, I always land at the edge of the map, annoying. Is it meant to be that way or can I change something to make it work better?
I have more questions, some of them will wait, some I will ask to the pictures.
First pictureStart position, map, settings and mods.
I also made this screenshot because of the fields. You have your own versions of a food field and a textile field following different limits but why no orchards (and pastures)?
Second pictureI like these in-game info menus. There´s even some useful information right at the start where you chose a game. Very good. As I said, the list of diseases is terrifying, but also a little amusing, Now we can finally find out who´s idling a little too much at the trading port when a tradesman/woman is visiting.

Third pictureI guess this is the first building you need for tools. The detraction area is reasonable. I suppose the "rules" are the same as in the North. The important part of the house that ought to be outside the circle is in the middle in front of the house, where the citizen goes to eat.
Here we can see this long menu with the built-in event log. As I said I don´t know if it´s supposed to look this way. I find it hard to read the text on the map.
Fourth pictureI like houses that are possible to put a bit "out of order". These are very nice. Two small flaws: If you put them as I did here, people use to take shortcuts through the walls at the corner. It´s great that the menu holds essential information about the property but that makes the menu about the inhabitants smaller. I find the important information is left on that menu; the profession, not the names you always get when you open the menu are most interesting. Is it possible, that change it that you instead see the profession first and can scroll to the names?
Fifth pictureThe idea that charcoal piles and bloomeries are only to use once and need to be rebuilt is interesting. It will for sure be a motivation to build the bigger more complicated sites later in the game.
It needs some time to get used to the symbols for resources needed to construct a building. But here I don´t understand; "anvil" to construct an anvil? Do I need to buy one to construct it or can it be produced somewhere else?
Sixth pictureA question to the timber/lumber mills. Is there a difference between lumber and timber? I don´t think so but I´ll better ask. There are different building costs for these two mills, so I guess the Timber mill is better than the Lumber yard but for the beginning, it will have to be the easiest, we are short on iron and will probably be for quite some time. I guess that was your intention,
@Discrepancy.