World of Banished

So, right now it's -

More insert points for sound, animation ... everything

Better zoom with better tilt too.

Resources needed when building - up to 6 (two rows)

Clothing levels increased one or two.

Requirement option. A production building continually needs resources to function.
Be it - pen and paper - firewood - fishing net - else no production.

And is discussed - release trading post code separate to be used for other buildings (barn, stockpile)

---

This is the main body of an email I sent to Luke a week ago.

Quote
We are a thriving community which brings life to a very static game.
The basic version lacks several options which could easily be sent
with the gamekit. We have NO information (except a chicken) about
animation and what is needed to make it work in game.
There are (what I know) very few insert points in the code for events
like sound or animation.
I guess all things work on a basic level and when it is explained
it will be obvious to us how to do it. (or not if it is impossible)

Please consider that modders are supporting a good game.
Do not stop supporting the modders!

I write this here because some wanted it to be public. OK.

This is a way to rally our forces and maybe make Luke (who made the game) listen
to requests from modders. We all have something we wish could be better in the game.
Some want more complex functions in the game and modders try all the time to break
the limitations.
If we can sort out some of the really useful ideas, we can present them to Luke with
suggestions on how we want them done.

I know he does not answer emails and maybe Banished is a passed stage in his code-writing
but it can not be too hard for him to give small hints on the use of the modkit / more examples
to clarify what can be done.

A game is as good as its popularity.

First out is a wish (from Necora) about more diversified clothing.
We now have rags/warm/warmer but could need more options.

More options to workplaces (also from Necora).
Make them not buildable if certain things are not available.

Luke has provided some code for nomads arriving -

int _requiredPopulation = 8;
ComponentDescription _requiredStructures
[
"Template/Market.rsc"
"Template/TradingPost.rsc"
]

This shows that certain demands have to be met before an event happens.

Why not some more of these '_required' options to make a more interesting gameplay?
Available tools and resources before you can build a certain building.

And sounds. Right now there is no way to hook a sound to certain events.
It could be useful with a global variable for adding sound to buildings.
Not like ambient background but specific. Church bells when you are near a church,
train sound when near RedKetchup's stations.

Thanks for making it public Kid :)
Not a big issue doing it through PM but I think the more people chime in the better ideas we can get together to present to Luke.

And players are now able to chime in too.

Yeah, the clothing levels should be increased by maybe two levels. (IMHO as a hobby programmer myself not too hard to get in by Luke)

The tradingpost using code that the player can tell the game how much of a certain good they want to store there.
The only thing is that Bannies are not able to take it. Use that code for storage buildings but change it to allow the Bannies to take it if they need it out of storage.

This way a better infrastructure is available to the players.

First of all I'd like to say that I think it's a wonderful initiative to talk about this as a community. I can imagine that any developer would be more likely to respond to one clear request that is backed by the whole community, rather than to a bunch of emails from individual people. Furthermore, it would actually give both us and Mr. Luke a good idea of what is desired by the community.

As for what kind of things we would like to see, I think those are going to fit into two categories: actual changes to the game that give us modders more options, and more (or better) explanations of the options that we already have.

Personally I think that we should be rather careful with asking for the former. As we don't know anything about the part of the program that is not visible to us, it's hard to tell how much work a certain change to it would be for Mr. Luke. Sending him a whole list of demands that could take him weeks, if not months to implement, is therefore probably not a good idea. If we instead would make a small selection of highly supported suggestions for changes, we might have more chances of some of these actually being honoured.

Concidering the need for explanations, I think there is much to be gained. There are major parts of the code that are difficult (if not impossible) to understand completely without knowing how they are handled by the program. As Mr. Luke regularly writes lenghty blog posts about his work, I think it would not be unreasonable to ask for a few that would focus on explaining some of these elements. However, I do think that here too it would be better to ask for a few much needed explanations rather than sending a three page wishlist.

@kid1293 good idea, I agree with info for added sounds, church bells, train sounds, and a fog horn, to start with :)

I was just going to ask if something could be done by modders or if Luke would have to do it, that is if the town statistic info box, that is now larger because of the added new flags, could have a miniaturize button added to it.

Closer camera zoom would be good.

I would like a reset button for the achievements and an option to achieve with or without the use of mods would be nice.

What I would most like to see is a way to get crop seeds other than waiting for the boatman to bring them, an on land crop seed vendor.  Even with specialized trading posts and expensive special orders it is a long wait to get "needed" seeds.  The last thing I would want is for the bannies to take my trade goods out of the trading post, there are tons of markets, stockpiles, and storage buildings in all shapes and sizes and specialties made just for them.

Oh no, added sounds and a crop seed vendor would force me to update my game.  :)



Edit:  Also see if there is a way to fix all the red compatibility warnings for simple shared resources in the mod list.

@kid1293 thanks for bringing this discussion up.

I agree with the request for a closer zoom, with the quality of the buildings that are produced now, I don't see why we can't see them closer to appreciate all of the work we put into them.

Regarding the things I mentioned in the PM, let me clarify about the building requirements, because that wasn't exactly what I meant. I do like the idea of requirements as you state, like you can only get nomads with the town hall and trading post. It would make late game more interesting, although I know there are some people who are not to fond of the idea of such 'unlockable' buildings. But that wasn't quite what I meant. I was thinking more of the actual work done in a building, and more interesting use of tools. For example, at the moment, bannies need a generic tool to work more efficiently and these tools last a certain time before needing to be replaced. However, they are just a generic tool. It would be way more interesting if you had to produce specific tools to do a specific job.

Take the new fishing boats I introduced as an example. A fisher needs traps to catch lobster. Yet there is no real way to incorporate this into the game mechanic. I have it now so that the traps are built by a fishing supplier, and are then used as a build requirement for the fishing boat (along with the boat itself). The work place is a boat that lasts a few years, catches a load of lobster, and then needs to be replaced. Now, what I would really want, is for the traps to be consumable. At the moment, I could make it so that 1 trap is consumed and 20 lobster are produced. However, it is pretty un realistic and a lot of traps will be used, plus you have trouble balancing it as it is a long chain (wood = trap = lobster) where the value or output needs to increase respecting this. It would be better if the trap was a type of tool that a fisherman uses for a certain amount of time before it breaks and they need a new one. So it acts like the current in game tool, only instead of a generic tool for all professions, it is a specific tool needed by specific buildings, and we can add different tools depending on the building.

A fisherman needs a trap or nets or lines. A farmer needs plows or horses. A hunter needs guns or bows, a trapper needs traps, a gatherer needs baskets etc. etc.

I think that would make the game far more interesting, give us more buildings, more realistic things in the blacksmith (like tackle, horse shoes etc.) rather than just generic steel tools for all.


Also, something that I think is quite important, would be to change the way that the high/low create values are associated with the rawmaterial template. I think it would be much better if the high/low create values were associated with the building and the naturalresource template files instead. This would make balancing complicated chains and adding difficulty to simple chains much easier. At the moment, there is 1 apple resource. But because it is from the orchard, the high/low create value is 50/65. When you make this apple from a natural resource, it means that every time an apple natural resource is harvested, 50/65 apples are created. It took a lot of work to balance that down. Same with flax and maple sap, they were far too low for a natural resource, and I don't think I can possibly increase them. But we can't make another flax or apple, because it will be incompatible with any other mod that uses them. It would be far better if you could say 'OrchardApple' = 50/65 apples in the apple orchard template file, then 'NaturalApple' = 20/25 in the naturalresourceapple file. In the above example of lobster, the only way I can increase the amount of lobster produced from 1 trap would be to increase the high/low create of the lobster template file. But then that would mess it up for any other mod like CC that uses lobster. I could make my own lobster, but then we have multiple instances of essentially the same thing (still trade value 1, still 1 protein, still 1 lobster). Or I have to have an intermediate and fish a generic fish which is separated into species at a fish monger, but that just adds even more steps to this.

All very good and valid points Necora.

The game is limited in quite some areas.
But this is not the fault of Luke the Developer himself as he pictured a survival game in his mind and developed Banished out of it.

I said in a post a while ago I would like to know what Luke is thinking about the success of Banished play/and modding wise.
It would be so nice he would chime in here so once in a while to talk about that experience.
Even once a month to just answer some questions would be a nice gesture.

But beside that:
The problems came in when huge mods were created and tons of goods, crops, and chain building/upgrades were developed by modders.

The mods technically outgrew the basics of the game and that is why we are in the state we are in.

Luke gave us, besides bug fixes, 10 more flags/limits what was IMHO very much needed and I, as I am certain many other modders as well, are grateful to Luke.
Those new Flags/Limits are already a good improvement and so he not completely forgotten about Banished.
The huge amount of mods, and therefor partially responsible for the success od Banished,  created for Banished is IMHO something a Single Indie Developer can only dream of.

But of course more can be done. It all depends how much time Luke wants to spent on Banished while he is also working on his new game.
Luke once said that sometimes he needs a break from the game he is working on and maybe that is were he can go back and make some needed changes to banished to make it even better then it currently is. I am a hobby programmer (Sadly not C++ but RAD Studio Delphi) and I know some functions/procedures can be added to Banished without that much of a hassle.
I said this before that adding the 10 new limits/flags is code wise not that hard or time consuming to do.

The best idea is to come together as modders/players and compile a short list of the most wanted features we want to see implemented. Ofcourse we modders and players alike want it ALL but we must be cautious as a too big a list will most probably just turn Luke off where a small but very carefully chosen list of features he will be able to do it.

Like I said before asking for animated buildings is I think just too much of a hassle to implement for Luke but some features where we modders can make the most out of it should be certainly feasible as long as Luke want to spent some time on it.

I've given this some thought,
Necora's idea is a good one. Professions should have different tool needs. Right now the only thing making them different to each other is in text, sprite and death likelihood.
Also the natural resource production rates are a good point.

A simple thing I would like to see the game allow, is buildings to have more building resource requirements. So a town hall could require 5-6 or more different construction resources.

More ability to alter the behavior and needs of the citizens in general.

the things i wish to be fixed : stupid "false" red warning.
the game has already have an "hashtag" control module. when you load a more recent version of a mod, it automatically detects it. it tells you "hey you are loading a more recent version of this X mods!!!" it sees it.

the thing i wish is : when the mods between them has a "conflict" and see there is 2+ mentions of the same resource... it should process an "hashtag" verification. and if it happends this is exactly the same code/image/resources... it should "flag" it another color instead of "red".
yellow would be great instead, if not simply "green".


other thing, yeah maybe flags are great, but more specially for "limits" or to bypass the fact a new ressource has been added later in a later mod...
i always wished to have the ability to target a "specific resource" instead to target a specific flag.
both would be great.
but if we wish to target a specific item instead of a flag, it would be more specifically more customized as we wish.
example : take a soap and go to bath house and get health... instead to go to apothecary and make a "soap" infusion and drink it ("Health" flag)
or example: take a pottery or a jewel and "use it" "drink it" at a pub or tavern because it has been "flagged as luxury" :S


and third: yeah, using more than 3 maximum resource for a future building which is very limited now.... would be great !

The maximum of 3 resources for a building is an annoying limit indeed, and something that would probably be very easy to change.

Another thing I noticed that I find a shame is that we can't have buildings consume resources without them giving a produced resource in return. Now at first it might seem strange to desire this, but it's something that happens in the real world all the time. Schools need books and pens and paper to function, but they don't use those to produce anything physical. A baker would need wood to keep the fires burning, but would only use wheat to bake his bread. From a gameplay perspective, the only ways in which we can currently 'consume' end-products of a resource chain is by having them as construction materials, as food, or by selling them. For a lot of resource types, the first two options don't make sense, and the third option means that they are not a necessity and thus not very attractive to the player. Being able to set resources as requirements for the functioning of a building would give us another way of consuming resources in a way that actually gives incentive to the player to produce them.

Red, you are right about flags still being a limited factor.
But I am afraid that doing it on the material side means a complete overhaul of the code.

The flags/limits are not bad. It is that just way too many resources/materials where added to the game.
I understand why it is done because it is just our nature, many players want it all but the game is not up to it.

How many crops are there these days?
How many resources what are not much more then for trading?

Sure many buildings are a please to look at, but a lot of it is artificial gameplay wise.

Some chains make sense in the real world, Bakery, using Flour and whatever to make an end product what gets eaten by a bannie. worth 3 for example
But that bannie is just as happy with just a jug of water(No nutri) or eating raw wheat. (worth 1)

Anno 1401 had four or five levels where better products where needed so the people could advance to the next level. Banished is not written with that in mind.

The basics of the game are too limited for all those chains.
I truly believe that even Luke is amazed by what all the mods have done to the game but I am afraid, beside some small changes/improvements, not much going to be done to enhance the gameplay a lot.
It would require a Banished 2 with modding support added from the start.

BL is working on a game I believe but developing a game from scratch (Even if some use a Engine like Cry ,Real, or Unity) is a daunting project and will take many, many man hours.

@Bartender that is exactly what I was getting at with the specialised tool idea, only you explained it better!

@Necora - @Bartender
I would happily have a requirement for buildings, it makes sense.
How complicated is this for Luke to develop?
It would probably need an overhaul of the graphic menu of the building.
But since he is doing most that stuff modular I think he can do that rather easily.

Then he needs a 'prerequisite flag' attached to the code. And an absolute must is
that the flag governs a group of items.
How often should these requirements be updated? Once when built or more often?
So, two variables, one for items and one for time.

While we're talking about buildings. One or two more resource limits would do a lot!
edit - why not three? Would make a nice double row of resources in the build menu.

Can we go to Luke and wish for an overhaul of the resources needed for buildings?
It's a good point we make this as a primary wish and focus on this.

Two more things - closer zoom (just change a variable in the code)
and asking if he is willing to share some information now and then on his homepage.

I'd like to hear more voices!! We need every convincing voice we can put into this.

@Necora Yea now that I read it again it indeed boils down to the same idea ;). My focus was more on a prerequisite for the building itself, but I think your idea of a specific tool for everything is more elegant. A lot of professions now don't even have a tool type associated with them, so having a specific tool for each profession would be more consistent than the current situation.

I don't know how easy/hard it would be to implement this though. In my idea, it would be something like enabling the posibility to have the 'consumeproduce' part of a building template accept entries that only have a 'consume' part, which is currently impossible. I still don't know what kind of changes would need to be made to the game code for this ofcourse, but it might be possible to do this without having to design a completely new mechanic.

Not directly an answer, but, a suggestion as well.

I know many developers also gain more benefit from having Q & A events, a way to chat with modders and players, and a way to get a few things sorted out, and perhaps also prioritise, and also, a way for them to get 'tips' etc handed out and notated in a way that may have been harder to do than before, and it's a good way to also come up with some brainstorming ideas.  It's a fabulous tool, and often very under utilised.

So, I propose this - (yes, please don't suggest reddit, I am aware of reddit, and it's great successes, but for what I have in mind, it's not worth it as Luke would need a transcriber to take his thoughts to 'paper', voice to text mod).  A voice Q & A.
I've run extremely successful dev workshops & Q & A's using Ventrilo; Teamspeak & Discord.
I also have my own servers of the above, so access wouldn't be an issue at all, and I can white label it for Banished for the day.

Luke doesn't need to spend hours and hours typing up blogs etc, he can sit in his comfy chair and a mic and talk off the cuff.
A voice to text mod can be used to record all of the chat, even a mod that can record the voice session.

The idea:
Invite Luke to an event, ask him to choose this platform of choice, and a time of choice.
Nominate moderators, an Emcee, and a person who reads the questions from the 'audience'.
Modders are invited as 'modders', and will be able to ask their tech questions etc
Players will be invited to participate, and ask some questions.

Even voices will be heard, a standardised question sheet will be used (taken from these ideas etc), but more can be asked on the fly.

For the ones that will be 'known' upfront, a copy will be sent to Luke (just like here has been proposed), so he knows what's coming up, and for the technical code items he will need to address in writing anyway so that the code can be given out correctly.

My idea is certainly not replacing this one at all (in fact this has my full support), but, also as a way of bringing Luke into the community a bit more, and when he has a couple of hours where he can sit in his jimjam jammies (pyjamas), a cup of choice, and some time with his community.  :)

As for what the OP was about:
- a way to stop all the RED loading :D
- a way to have animation explained
- a way to nominate by Flag/Limit OR by item (eg:  pig = pork, sausages, etc, rather than Animal/Food (protein))
- easier modkit use options
- an easier way to organise the mods (up/down & top); bottom; alphabetical; by modder
- better water system, or at least allow modding for irrigation systems in farming districts, utilising water sources better
- terraforming tools for players, or better resources for modders to make a better terraform tool (nice water edges etc)

I am sure I will think of more, but for the most part I second nearly all of the above already mentioned.

Glad to see you back @QueryEverything ,I hope all is well.



The real problem is to get Luke to react at all.
Whatever comes out is more than we have.
Your approach is interesting, but boils down to a single session
with us throwing all we got at Luke.
If we think of it as a continuing interview we have to convince
him to participate either with a blog or as you said in a special forum.
That's a big step if we think of his silence now.

@kid1293

That is the problem the more I think of it why Luke is avoiding forums unless he is here incognito.  :)
Other companies have at least forum moderator(s) who can relay questions to the developer(s) to keep the players/modders in the loop.
But even his own forum is as dead as it can be.

Luke is all by himself so I understand he's not willing to spend tons of time on forums.
But even if he can spare an hour a month or so on this forum just to answer some questions about the modkit it would be a nice gesture.

It is up to him when and how much he wants to show up.

@embx61 - That leaves us no other choice than to beg...


It must be something not messing up his schedule or scheme.
All I have read here is taking some time to do. Some take a lot of effort.


So far there is only two things that can be considered fixes/updates/small adjustments
that is -


BETTER ZOOM - Just a change of one variable in the code to get closer to the action!


Possibly ONE MORE RESOURCE (for a total of 4) added to build menu. Should please many of us!
This is more or less a graphics fix, but that part is very modular. The code should be simple.


Those two wishes put minimal stress on Luke to complete, but have a huge impact for all,
modders and players alike. Are you people interested?

I have followed this thread, but said nothing. I don't make mods, so it's hard to know, what to ask for. Most of what you all have said make sense. I've followed your work with the mods on this page, since the first days of Banished mods. One thing, that I've seen from the first day: " We can't do that, it's in the hardcoded part". If I understand it right, it's a part of the game, that Luke for some reason, keeps to himself. I am sure, that if more of these secret parts of the game, would be released to the hands of you resourceful modders, a lot of new interesting things would be created. What is, if you would ask for that? I can understand, that he don't want to reveal everything from a new game, but it's not new anymore. I can't understand, that it would give him a lot of work.

Nice touch @Nilla !!!
What do you say about a simple request for Better Zoom and One More Resource?

But I don't know what to say to him. I even thought of bribing him.  :-[
He should have a lot of fun coming here. :)
Someone with words should write.

can we ask to seperate trading post UI from merchant ?
or seperate merchants from TP UI ?

Do you want merchants separated to be placed ... where there is a need for a merchant?
Right now it's connected with boat animation. It's a big job.

Quote from: kid1293 on April 07, 2017, 09:43:56 AM
Do you want merchants separated to be placed ... where there is a need for a merchant?
Right now it's connected with boat animation. It's a big job.

the idea is to be able to use the TP:UI without having a merchant system connected to it.
it is sad i didnt kept that email answer he sent to me when i asked why we cannot take the UI and without the merchant code out; we crash and cant compile.
he told me that the merchant code is linked together with the trading post UI and cannot seperated.
in fact it is a mess, this merchant code should have been made inside its own files, not in middle of something else code.

but probably it would too much complicated to ask to seperate it and put the oranges in the orange basket and not with the apples basket^^ and fix the mess.

so ... forget it.

there were other things that pissed me off... but i can stay silent ^^
go ahead and try to get these 2 things if you can :)

For me a fourth building material is the most interesting thing which I would like to see. I think it can be easily fixed by Luke. I almost had it but the game crashes because of any internal UI problem. Actually I would like to define more than 4 materials. For example wood, stone, bricks, tiles, window panes and a paint but it would probably mean to rework the UI. So 4 is better than 3. Otherwise I have to go for packing materials and that's not really nice in game.

Talking about zoom. I don't want to zoom closer to buildings but I would like to tilt the camera more (via page up and down). So we can look to the horizon and see the sky. It would drop down the FPS but it should be up to the player. With that we don't need zoom hack anymore for nice screenshots.

I have a long list of things which can only be solved by Luke but don't want to distract from the building material issue.

I again vote for the added sounds and a way to get crop seeds other than by trading post merchant.  One of the best parts about the original Banished is planting and harvesting the crops.  All the mods and added none edible crops seeds make it even more difficult to get food seeds without multiple trading posts and expensive special orders. 

I would not like to have to acquire more than 3 building materials or juggle around more goods from place to place.

Quotehe told me that the merchant code is linked together with the trading post UI and cannot seperated.

No, not by us modders because we not have the C++ Source code.
But it can be separated by Luke if he want to do it.

I miss some logic in his coding, some things like for example the UI is quite modular coded and some parts are just too tight hardcoded.

But your Warehouse does at least work Red, only a boat comes along so once in a while and then moves on without doing really anything. Correct?

I for sure vote for stuff what IMHO, and others, are not that hard and time consuming to do for Luke.
Of course I want as much as possible but we have to be realistic too.
Even if Luke give us 1 or 2 from the list we have won something.

Like:
The more materials for buildings up to 6 as it just needs another row in the UI besides expanding the array and code the hooks for it.
More clothing options (Increase the levels by maybe 2) are IMHO not that hard to do either.
And the requirements (Like the nomads) expanded as this option give us modders quite some stuff to play with.

So, right now it's

Better zoom with better tilt too.

Building resources - up to 6 (two rows)

Clothing levels increased one or two.

And that nasty requirement option. He has to do code for not having met
the requirements too. Who is going to get the required stuff? The baker?
A lot of code for all possible variations.

Keep it simple! The three first I agree with.

Quote from: embx61 on April 07, 2017, 02:09:54 PM

Quotehe told me that the merchant code is linked together with the trading post UI and cannot seperated.

But your Warehouse does at least work Red, only a boat comes along so once in a while and then moves on without doing really anything. Correct?

yes the warehouse has full TP code. It is just some tab are hidden with some:
       Flags _flags = Hidden;

well placed in a personalized custom /dialog/trade.rsc file to make the TAB disappeared from player eyes.

Just a thought to clothing. Instead of more levels (actually normal and warm is not bad as it is) I would suggest to connect the live period of coats to the rawmaterial files instead of the citizen.rsc where it is set for all clothes to 4 years. If it is defined in the materials we can create clothes with different durability like tools. For example warm but not long-living wool clothes and durable but not warm leather coats for some interesting tailoring options.

Another idea given the new Community Toolbar and subsequent discussions:

The ability to have the mod/item listed in 2 sub-bars, the ability to have a house listed in "houses" and in 2nd designated toolbar, whether it be in the CT under modder, or in a designated "theme".

@kid1293 is it perhaps worthwhile updating your original post with all the subsequent ideas people have had?  So new readers can come along and see all the ideas at the top of the post?

Thanks @QueryEverything - will continue to write at the top.

Honestly, RK's suggestion about separate TP code to be used elsewhere is very, very good.
But, I guess, hard to do for Luke.

I try a new approach.
I sent what we got to Luke and hope he reads it.

Quote
Hi again!


I have learned that you do not answer many emails, but that does not mean you don't read them. :)
We (modders, players, visitors at World of Banished - Gather our forces! (http://worldofbanished.com/index.php?topic=1613.0) ) have started a,
what we call, gathering of our forces to contact you.We need your attention to be able to continue with mod development.
We don't want to be running in small circles or heading in the wrong direction.


Right now, some things have crystallized and I give you a small list:


1. More insert points for sound, animation


2. Better zoom with better tilt too.


3. More resources needed when building - up to 6 (two rows)


4. Clothing levels increased one or two.


5. Requirement option. A production building continually needs resources to function.
Be it - pen and paper - firewood - fishing net - else no production.


And is discussed - 6. separate trading post code to be used with other buildings (market, barn, stockpile)
so that we can manage the amount stored in-game.


This list will continue to grow or diminish while it is being discussed.


As you can see, all points are found from a need to further the gameplay.
Some are easy to fix, some require more attention.
Since you are rounding up your beta versions and getting ready to release 1.0.7
we send this now and hope you understand our love for Banished!


You are welcome to participate and discuss with us.
That is the whole meaning!
Sincerely / Kid and the rest over at WoB.

(I don't know what's wrong with Windows10. It inserts extra lines)


Anyway. My hope is that he sees our need.

whenyou say " Hi again" ... again means you already say Hi one or many times ... :)
did you got answers on the other ones ? did you asked things ?

Hi again just signals I am Banished but alive. :)


No, not really asked, more trying to communicate.
Yes, I have questions and I have wishes. But most are
too far away to be sent to him. That's why this post.
The people here have very good ideas.
Don't let them disappear!


I hope I didn't upset anyone with this letter.
It's a first attempt from all of us.
The timing is important. Now he is going to release 1.0.7
and then ? Maybe he will be gone again.

Hey @kid1293 thanks for taking up the charge here I appreciate it. I like the way you structured a few of the easy changes followed by some possibly more complex ones, although I don't really see how it is too complex to add a work requirement for a building, as @Bartender said earlier it seems like it could be the consume/produce but without the produce part. But then I have absolutely no idea how this stuff is dealt with under the surface so perhaps it is not that easy.

It will be interesting to see if he responds, and if he is interested in continuing to develop the game in terms of fine tunes from feedback from us.

@Necora

We have to wait and see.
He gave us the flags/limits and honestly was not expecting that at all so who knows Luke goes over his code to see what can be done.

Other similar games are on the horizon as well.
It is up to Luke keep this game alive in a good sense. We are not asking for a Banished 2 but for some very needed changes so we can keep modding alive with fresh content.

If not, I fear that the other similar games when they start to roll out will probably take some modders away from Banished if those games have a better and more varied modding features implemented. I am not suggesting Banished will die play and/or modding wise, but it is just the nature of us human beings to go where more modding support, modding features, etc. are implemented for a certain branch of games.

Just to toss this in...

As a player, there's a list of things I wish banished had to make it more manageable and some things that would just be nice.  But the standout has always been a delve feature.

Like being able to see the exact attributes of buildings in a tab on their windows, for example.  Being able to see the capacity of a house and it's warmth rating.  Storage capacity on a barn.  Or the exact recipes in production buildings.  Right click food and see what food group it belongs to and its trade value.  Durability on tools, clothing rating, etc.

That's the main one, for me, for the year I've played. Have spent crazy amounts of time running tests to find out basic info on what things do that a simple delve would have explained.

Another would be being able to control production in buildings of the same type on one window and, most notably, trade posts, but that's more of a wishlist kind of thing for me...A delve function is something I've always felt the game needed.

Great work @kid1293 and the reference to this thread is excellent, that way as we update what ideas we have (collectively) and you update the thread post, there may be a small chance he sees it, and sees something he may wish to implement that wasn't in the email.  (Who knows, it's wishful, but hopeful, thinking).

:)

& I second @Maldrick thoughts - a way to see the details of the buildings.
With the amount of different barns I use I forget which has what limits, haha

Sorry, last post ...

Building requirements and consumables, just a thought, but, has that already had a work around with @Discrepancy baskets & fishing tackle, and @Necora has included his new inshore boats.
Or are you thinking something more complex?   

@elemental, gosh I am surprised they didn't jump all over you for that comment about modders leaving in favor of new games like they did me when I made a similar comment a while back.  One of those new games is already out, forest outpost, that some players have already tried. Several other games look very promising and both CC and Luke are also developing new games, maybe Banished 2. 

@QueryEverything I too hope Luke reads the thread.  I know others in the past have also requested a means of getting crop seeds other than the riverboat merchant, but my request that didn't make the list.  I wouldn't have thought adding a minimize button to the statistic info box would have been that difficult either.  Oh well.

Though I appreciate the effort that you're putting in to this @kid1293, perhaps it would have been better if we would have decided as a community which things we wanted to put in the email to Mr. Luke. This is a group effort after all ;). Doing so could have prevented people from feeling left out because their idea did not make the list.

Quote from: Abandoned on April 09, 2017, 04:32:01 AM
@elemental, gosh I am surprised they didn't jump all over you for that comment about modders leaving in favor of new games like they did me when I made a similar comment a while back.  One of those new games is already out, forest outpost, that some players have already tried. Several other games look very promising and both CC and Luke are also developing new games, maybe Banished 2. 

That sounds like something I said a while back but I don't remember when or where.

Banished has come a very very very long way thanks to modding but does that translate into many new sales? more importantly, does Luke care about the money? Sadly Banished doesn't seem to be a high priority for him.

I do agree that better zoom and tilt would be nice. Zoomhack works but it's clunky.

Quote from: Abandoned on April 09, 2017, 04:32:01 AM
@QueryEverything I too hope Luke reads the thread.  I know others in the past have also requested a means of getting crop seeds other than the riverboat merchant, but my request that didn't make the list.  I wouldn't have thought adding a minimize button to the statistic info box would have been that difficult either.  Oh well.

but the minimize button isnt already in the game ? CC put a such feature in almost everything.
i dont though

@Abandoned

It was me and not elemental who made the comment.

QuoteIf not, I fear that the other similar games when they start to roll out will probably take some modders away from Banished if those games have a better and more varied modding features implemented. I am not suggesting Banished will die play and/or modding wise, but it is just the nature of us human beings to go where more modding support, modding features, etc. are implemented for a certain branch of games.

Nah, I don't mind if people will jump over me because of that comment.
It is my opinion and have seen it before in other games.
Let's face it, Banished is a nice game, made by one man, but it is not the pot of cold without it's flaws as some seem to think it is.

Quote from: Abandoned on April 09, 2017, 04:32:01 AM
@QueryEverything I too hope Luke reads the thread.  I know others in the past have also requested a means of getting crop seeds other than the riverboat merchant, but my request that didn't make the list.  I wouldn't have thought adding a minimize button to the statistic info box would have been that difficult either.  Oh well.

Not really necessary though to have the new crop seeds come that way, the work around now which @RedKetchup (Garden Walls) , @Necora (Maple & Pine sets), & Kral (he released a full range of trees in CC, I couldn't find a separate mod though), which is by the use of modded foresters, is quite a good one.  You place your Forester down, you send your gatherers in, and there you are, beautiful fields full of XYZ products.  Also, being able to use custom traders, there are a couple available, with the most recent one being @kid1293 new Alotofseeds here (http://worldofbanished.com/index.php?topic=1628.0;topicseen#msg30877).

Whilst I agree having the ability to have new seeds available from gathering them in the wild, or from a greenhouse, should have come in the game, the work arounds now are excellent, and I no longer miss this missing feature.  All we really need to do now is ask the modders nicely for more types to be made :D

As for the blasphemy of modders moving on, @embx61 was absolutely right, modders will move on to new and amazing products, it's natural game evolution, and as much as I love Banished, the newer games that aren't treated as Abandonware by their creators will attract players & modders alike.  My hope though that Banished will keep it's status alive because of the modders, and not because of Luke.


{edit}} Updated my first comment to also include the new mod @kid1293 has released:  Alotofseeds (http://worldofbanished.com/index.php?topic=1628.0;topicseen#msg30877)

Thanks @QueryEverything

I also hope that Banished will stay alive and flourishing.
At the moment I have no desire to move to other games to mod :)

So you guys are stuck with me at least a good bit longer :)

How soon they forget.  @QueryEverything dear, back in Feb sometime you criticized my opinion of modders abandoning this game in favor of new games (been there, done that) as being defeatist. I then took flack from elemental and others.  Now you are agreeing with embox61 and defending his comment.  I agree with him, I said it first, and I've experienced it many times before, been there, done that!. Oh, so now you are saying I was absolutely right, right?

And I happen to like seeing the crops planted and harvested in the fields as Luke intended.  It is more and more difficult to get seeds because of all the unnecessary items in the game. Dear, don't tell me about specialized traders, I know all about them.  I've even written stories about them. This thread was a request to get something added by Luke that didn't come with the came.

I have asked "nicely" for items to be made and even went to the trouble of summarizing a to-do list of other people's request, however items I asked for and ones at the bottom of the list did not get done because of other asked for, more and more storage barns and beach houses and butchers etc.  The modders can and do make whatever they like.

so, dear, my hope is that you will soon move on to a new and better game. (Not Luke's)  End of Discussion

Quote from: Abandoned on April 09, 2017, 08:13:58 PM

I have asked "nicely" for items to be made and even went to the trouble of summarizing a to-do list of other people's request, however items I asked for and ones at the bottom of the list did not get done because of other asked for, more and more storage barns and beach houses and butchers etc.  The modders can and do make whatever they like.

can i ask what you asked nicely and you didnt got ?

@RedKetchup , no, it doesn't matter.  And regarding the minimize button, I don't think it can be done anyways.  It's the statistic box shown in the screenshot, I usually keep it open to keep an eye on everything. But that top line is where it shows the sick or homeless or workers without workplace so that is probably why there isn't one.  With the update that info box will be bigger with the new added flags but it doesn't matter, I don't think I will update.

@Abandoned

I see were you are coming from regarding many items in the game.
It is a sort of evolution what happened. Someone made a crop and suddenly the guy (I think it was Kralyerg) was overwhelmed with request's to put this crop, that crop, and that crop we not even find on earth, but who knows it grows on Mars in the game. LOLOL

So here we are 100+ crops further and a lot of them are gameplay wise worthless besides the look. But for a lot of people the look counts too though.
More variation on the farm fields.

I said it before. With the tons of production chains added the game has gone beyond it limits.
Lots of products in mods, mine too, are just for Trade as there is no way to make good use of them because of the limitations of the modkit.
Sure, some modder will find a hack or workaround to utilize something but it will come to an end unless Luke expands the modkit.

It is humans nature to just ask for about anything to mod. I do not care as long it is feasible and I am able to do it. But lots is not possible at all, some with hacks and workarounds, and others are fully possible but we finally end up with 30 butchers, 10 churches, 20 mills, 15 bakers, 200 houses, etc. etc.
But that is not bad because lots of people want the variety of buildings.

If another game hit the road it will be after some time in the same loop as Banished unless the developer(s) keep adding stuff to the mod kit.

Quote from: Abandoned on April 09, 2017, 08:53:52 PM
@RedKetchup , no, it doesn't matter.  And regarding the minimize button, I don't think it can be done anyways.  It's the statistic box shown in the screenshot, I usually keep it open to keep an eye on everything. But that top line is where it shows the sick or homeless or workers without workplace so that is probably why there isn't one.  With the update that info box will be bigger with the new added flags but it doesn't matter, I don't think I will update.

@Abandoned  :

it is not your fault... nor any moddler's fault....
often sometimes people ask something .. but sometimes the moddler is occupied to do something else... sometimes they finish something but had something that was haunting their mind like crazy and want to get on it.....
moddlers goes with the things, what are in their mind and also they need to "feel" it ... they are persons, not a robot or a program ^^


what you asked.... is it that ?
like it is ... is it perfect for you ?
http://worldofbanished.com/index.php?topic=1629.0 (http://worldofbanished.com/index.php?topic=1629.0)

Quote from: embx61 on April 09, 2017, 04:40:56 PM
@Abandoned

It was me and not elemental who made the comment.

QuoteIf not, I fear that the other similar games when they start to roll out will probably take some modders away from Banished if those games have a better and more varied modding features implemented. I am not suggesting Banished will die play and/or modding wise, but it is just the nature of us human beings to go where more modding support, modding features, etc. are implemented for a certain branch of games.

Let's face it, Banished is a nice game, made by one man, but it is not the pot of cold without it's flaws as some seem to think it is.

I agree and also disagree. It's complicated.   :)

People do like shiny new things. New games will inevitably draw modders and players away from Banished, and they don't even have to be games in the same genre. But that doesn't necessarily mean a new game will hold modders' and players' attention. You could have a game with all the features you could ever want - everything discussed here on WOB and more - but that doesn't automatically guarantee that it will be a good game or even an enjoyable game. Features are only part of what makes a game good.

Banished certainly has its flaws but obviously we all think it's a good game. If we didn't we wouldn't be here. But will we still be playing it in 1/2/5/10 years time? Who knows. New players are still joining this community, and that's a good thing and I think it's mostly because of modding.

Asking Luke for new features is a good idea. But whether or not he wants to develop the game further...? Again, who knows... No harm in trying though.  :)

I agree, no harm in asking.
But, if he has 'gone beyond'  Banished maybe we never get his attention.  :(

So what shall it be? Are we asking for a list of things or just one?

Personally I think the build menu has to be expanded.

It removes the burden of many complicated CC build chains.
And @Tom Sawyer with the North. (bricks and roof tiles)
I know @Discrepancy  wants a production requirement added,
but can't we simulate that with more slots for building material?
Or is it me being short-sighted?

edit - I'm in favor of better zoom and more clothes levels too...

i wish there is a way to make water :(

i remember when i started my canals... i digged an hole in the ground ... i tagged the tile as Water and/or DeepWater...
i was very deceived when i saw there was no water particle appearing and there was no way to call that function back from the map creation where it creates the map with all the lakes and rivers....
the code is there, it does it when it create the map, but no way to call it thenafter.

@kid1293 I'm confused, did you send the list from a page ago?

I like the way that was done, a list of small things to larger things. It is a hard choice, but I wonder if the more we ask for the more it shows that there is a committed community to advancing the game, and possibly the more likely he is to put the time and effort into it or even an improved Banished 2.0 or an expansion pack that will allow more focus on late game scenarios. On the flip side, perhaps he would only bother to do a little thing and not something more complex. I have no idea, I don't know anything about him, but I would hope that the first case would be the one. I would like to think that if he saw a decently long list of things that will collectively improve the game a lot and that we as a community would like to see in the game, as long as they are reasonable like that list is, then he would see it as something worth putting the time and effort into.

Plus, I really want the ability for a building to a) consume and item independently of the production chain (like a tool or fuel) and b) dictate the number of a resource produced, not in the rawmaterial template file ;) After reading @Nilla 's testing of @Discrepancy 's newest stuff and my stuff before, I think that these would be very valuable additions to making some of the current buildings and chains much more interesting and easier to balance individual buildings against each other. I just had a good example of this, if you use the Pine Set with CC, then either the pine set charcoal is going to be super powered production wise, or the CC burner is going to be almost useless depending on what mod is on top. this is because the CC charcoal is set to a very high create value, because the building takes so long to make it. But mine is the opposite, a low create value because the buildings are relatively quick. Now I can change this for the next update, but there are probably so many of these little issues between mods that it is hard to catch them all.

And I don't know about keeping the game alive, but there are new players coming to the forums all of the time who have purchased the game for the mod additions rather than the vanilla game. There are always a few new post on the BL site, and a lot of people are drawn to it because of the mods that have been created. Certainly, that is why I started playing the game. After I lost patience with Sim City, I really wanted another community orientated and mod developed game, and Banished fit that bill perfectly. The game itself is relatively simple, it is free once you have bought the game (a MASSIVE bonus for me relating to many new games being released which often have a lot of additional pay per play options that I absolutely hate, why should I shell out a lot of money for a game then keep having to pay more just to keep playing it?) yet the modding has allowed people to expand it with a lot of imagination and various different themes and items to enhance the game. Now it would be nice to just get a bit more from the developer so we can continue doing this, because if we can, then I am sure Banished will keep attracting more people in the future.

First, yes, I sent the email.

I am very split up about how to proceed. Somehow I feel like you do (and hope)
that Luke will think about us and be concerned/happy/proud about the current
developement. Then of course we should give him all support and give him free hands
to better the game. In that situation it is OK with a long list.
But - maybe he just doesn't have the time to commit himself to a long list and skips it all.
Then it would have been better with just one wish from all of us. He makes the upgrade
and he knows that he fulfilled his 'duty'.

The ten flags he gave was no big deal to code. The same can be said about building requirements.

Production requirements on the other hand... He probably has to go deeper in the program to
insert a programmable hook. Two for that matter. Item(s) needed and time span. Of course
it could be global and we could supply rugs/linen/furniture to keep a standard house going (could be fun)
but we talked about production buildings only so there must be code for that too.

For all I know, I don't want to go deep into my rowhouses again. I kind of left them. They're stable and
they live happily now. People probably want more of some things but right now I just fix bugs if there are any.

Keeping the game alive. Yes I guess it can be said that we give first aid all the time. We just don't have the tools
to make Banished immortal. :) Jokes aside, I feel I am running out of steam on this one. I have made the call.
Thanks for being there @Necora and I hope other people have their minds set. Not just 15 pages of wishful thinking.

Quote from: RedKetchup on April 10, 2017, 09:36:06 AM
i wish there is a way to make water :(

Did you add RiverMaterial?

From his blog it seems that he wants to port Banished to Mac and Linux. It seems to be taking forever though.

How much dev time can we expect from a game that hasn't really changed since it was released 3 years ago? We got those new flags which was a huge surprise. It's really hard to tell what Luke thinks of Banished and what he wants to do with it.

I suggest we submit a wish list, not just one thing. He doesn't seem to be very community-focused (read - doesn't respond very often) but it can't hurt to ask.  :)

Better zoom
More building materials
Ability to add water tiles that look like water
Buildings can consume goods to function
Better happiness system
Fix that road bug, if it hasn't been fixed already
Horse and cart and land traders! <-- I would happily pay for these as a DLC!
Animated buildings  ;D
Probably lots more...

Quote from: kid1293 on April 10, 2017, 02:06:51 PM

Quote from: RedKetchup on April 10, 2017, 09:36:06 AM
i wish there is a way to make water :(

Did you add RiverMaterial?

i dunno, a long time ago. i played with things that supposely added water to the map but dont remember exactly what it was

I agree that the list while not crazy huge can contain up to about 10 - 15 wishes from the community?

We cannot expect he will do them all anyway, if any that is.
On the other hand if he is about done with Banished we not getting anything anyway, besides maybe a bug fix, so it does not matter if the list contains 3 or 15 items :)

Yes his port to Linux/Mac takes a long time but I think he is working on his newer engine too for the new game.

He seems to shuffle a bit from one project to the other at times he get bored with the one he is working on I read sometime.
That is where he can maybe still go over the code for Banished.

We will never know if he read the forums unless he tells us.

If he does he will see that we have a very nice and very talented community in all shapes and forms, like modders, testers, players, screenshot takers, and a very civil community I must say. While not trying to stand on a pedestal here but I doubt without the Modders and the community Banished would not be as successful as it still is currently.

Luke surely can be proud of his creation. Now it is up to him to keep it going.

Quote from: RedKetchup on April 10, 2017, 03:15:40 PM

Quote from: kid1293 on April 10, 2017, 02:06:51 PM

Quote from: RedKetchup on April 10, 2017, 09:36:06 AM
i wish there is a way to make water :(

Did you add RiverMaterial?

i dunno, a long time ago. i played with things that supposely added water to the map but dont remember exactly what it was

so what we want me to do with this river/rivermaterial ? assign it to a .png like foliage ? cause that i just tried : crash.

Quote from: RedKetchup on April 10, 2017, 03:37:29 PM

Quote from: RedKetchup on April 10, 2017, 03:15:40 PM

Quote from: kid1293 on April 10, 2017, 02:06:51 PM

Quote from: RedKetchup on April 10, 2017, 09:36:06 AM
i wish there is a way to make water :(

Did you add RiverMaterial?

i dunno, a long time ago. i played with things that supposely added water to the map but dont remember exactly what it was

so what we want me to do with this river/rivermaterial ? assign it to a .png like foliage ? cause that i just tried : crash.

Too bad, that was all I could think of. But you certainly did a good job making those canals.

Another attempt. Sent today (April 12)
If this does not work I do not know what to do!

Quote
Hi!

We, people at the World of Banished forum, have been wishing
for you to be more active and participate now and then.
It would mean the world if you could drop by sometime and maybe
straighten things out. We are often in the dark about functions
and calls we can make with the modkit.

For example - How do we use the modkit to add seeds, usually obtained from the trader?
We have thoughts about gathering seeds from wild plants for later cultivation.
Or for that matter a shop which specializes in seeds.

Is it at all possible to create areas of water (ponds, canals...)
with function and look like the water which is created at the start of a new map?

And, of course, more advanced functions which demands you to write new code.
Buildings consume goods to function.
More slots for building material.
One or two more clothing levels.
Better happiness system. Now it barely works.
A better storage with possibility to customize what/how much is stored in different barns/stockpiles.
A little like the trading post, but available to people.

Aesthetic improvement - Better zoom with possibility to tilt camera and watch skyline.
A horse and cart for that heavy load. (And eye-candy)

We don't have the money to bribe you. :)
And we will absolutely not bully you.
We can only beg.

Respectfully /Kid

Very nice letter @kid, hopefully it will get a reply.  You did leave out added sound.  I remember reading on Black Liquid forum a while back someone was looking into that, maybe @kralyerg , so maybe hope for that without Luke's help.  I thought of something else I will post under suggestions.  good job

Hello! I've thought about the same things for some time - since I've get back to Banished. Few things to say.
My main point is that all this 10 new limits are useless, as for me, without new needs.

1) What about just one more necessary food type - fats/oils? For the pure game it may be attributed to nuts, maybe fish and meat.

2) New house needs! I would suggest water as a necessary resource, like firewood. For some other things there are two problems - what exactly need they would fulfill? And how to implement them not making the beginning of the game too hard? I think it would be great if they just give some bonuses, for example, one to decrease food consumption (pottery, spices) and one to decrease fuel consumption (furniture, linen). I'm not sure though if that is possible and if that is the best variant.

3) One more material, that would vanish at summer (not at winter) but not move at wind - that way modders maybe could make people and animals to change clothes/fur.

4) And I double the request for explanation of animation, especially for blender users.

So good to see you back Tany! Been missing you!

Personally I agree, there are way too many resources now. But we have made them,
now we have to live with them.
House needs, yes that would go well together with needs production buildings.
I don't think changing food/fuel consumption is possible in-game. That would require
some sort of script to work. Luke has not implemented any scripts.

And yes, I still experiment with animation now and then. :) No luck.

Quote from: kid1293 on April 13, 2017, 01:44:20 AM
I don't think changing food/fuel consumption is possible in-game. That would require
some sort of script to work. Luke has not implemented any scripts.

Look, people can work without tools, though very slowly, better with tools, isn't it the right mechanics? Well, water can be made food type too, furniture can be made a construction material, but what about pottery? New specific use for it would be great. One more possible use - to increase house storage capacity.

Just made a test with Blender. Imported figtree.fbx - exported figtree_edit.fbx.
I didn't do anything.
The size went from 53kb to 216kb! Blender certainly has a strange import/export of fbx.

edit - the exported fbx didn't compile.

I've tried it many times. It increases some stupid stuff in "Data-blocks" -> "actions" if I remember right. It has something to do with export parameters, there is a tab "animations" with several flags, but none of their combinations gave the same file size as the original model. And none of them worked.

I can't afford 3DS Max. But someone with access to it could do the same test.
Import figtree.fbx -> export directly. Try to compile and see if it's error free.

I have a suspicion that Luke used his own parameters when building animations.
His way of treating a chicken does not look like anything else.

...even Kralyerg and ShockPuppet have trouble WITH 3DS Max.

As a matter of fact, I've got it (a chicken) to compile. It just looked and moved ugly, very ugly. I'll try to find this draft.

Well, here it is. It was just a quick experiment, so a texture is plain, but the model have turned into something monstrous.

I think my export parameters were not including "baked animation", but I'm not sure.

Sorry, been away.
Just tested your bird. Hmmm, very ... alien. :)
Whatever. It is moving. More than I could make.
A good try and a bit on the way.

I'll check more when I'm not so occupied.
Got trouble with internet connection too... used to be good.

personally i suspect Luke is doing his animations with Maya or SoftImage.

Maya sound possible since he is using FBX Dev Kit from Autodesk

Quote from: kid1293 on April 13, 2017, 08:52:24 AM
Maya sound possible since he is using FBX Dev Kit from Autodesk

world of warcraft do all their mobs and bosses animations with Maya

@RedKetchup - Can you import figtree.fbx into 3DS Max and immediately export it again?
compile the figtree and make a check if it is working (if it is falling) ?
I wonder if Blender is totally broken in fbx import/export of animation.

Quote from: kid1293 on April 13, 2017, 08:57:15 AM
@RedKetchup - Can you import figtree.fbx into 3DS Max and immediately export it again?
compile the figtree and make a check if it is working (if it is falling) ?
I wonder if Blender is totally broken in fbx import/export of animation.

i can do that quickly before going to bed

Quote from: RedKetchup on April 13, 2017, 09:16:08 AM
i can do that quickly before going to bed

no problem to compile and in game it is still working

THANX!!!

Wow! That maybe means all our trees can be animated.

Trial version next. :)

So if we replace the fig tree with out trees but keep it all the same... will that work? If someone exports it with 3DSmax not blender?

Yes, that was my thought.
Now, to just replace we delete old reference points and we add new.
Those new must be working with the animation too.
If I try that in Blender, I have a nice animation but it won't get exported.
Actually I Ctrl-Join the meshes first and then delete the old figtree.
I hope the reference carries over. Don't know. Stupid me.
Well there is only one 'bone' in the fig tree so it can't be that hard to reference
all vertices to that bone. May have to ask Kralyerg. But it's hopeful.
If not we get 40 figtrees.  ;D

i tried already, 2-3 weeks ago to delete everything but the gizmo and melt ti with mine and did all anim... but didnt worked. i ve even posted some image of it back in time.
in 3dsmax everything was working, it compiled, no error, no crash, but animation wasnt happening.

Glad you said that!
I was going to download 3DS Max and try.

I guess that means it all became a Gaming Easter instead.  ;)
I found some open-source, small, free games I want to check.

Happy Easter everyone!

Happy Easter @kid1293 and everyone.  Stay safe.

Happy Easter !!!!!

Quote from: kid1293 on April 14, 2017, 12:20:52 AM
Glad you said that!
I was going to download 3DS Max and try.

I guess that means it all became a Gaming Easter instead.  ;)
I found some open-source, small, free games I want to check.

Happy Easter everyone!

Happy Ēostre / Ostara; Easter to all those here supporting WoB :)

@kid1293 if you need something converted for 3DS, I can help you out, if someone else isn't available.  Shoot me a PM with the details and the file link and I'll get it done (or at least attempt to, means being nice to hubby, hahahahaha, or bribing him with my Easter Chocolate) :D.

Thanks @QueryEverything ! I have converters and Blender import/export of .3ds
but I don't have 3DS Max.  :'( :'(

I guess I'll survive. :)
This far it has been going very well.

Actually - everything needed for modding Banished is free if you want.
...just don't tell me time is money.  ;D

Quote from: elemental on April 10, 2017, 03:07:24 PM
From his blog it seems that he wants to port Banished to Mac and Linux. It seems to be taking forever though.

How much dev time can we expect from a game that hasn't really changed since it was released 3 years ago? We got those new flags which was a huge surprise. It's really hard to tell what Luke thinks of Banished and what he wants to do with it.

I suggest we submit a wish list, not just one thing. He doesn't seem to be very community-focused (read - doesn't respond very often) but it can't hurt to ask.  :)

Better zoom
More building materials
Ability to add water tiles that look like water
Buildings can consume goods to function
Better happiness system
Fix that road bug, if it hasn't been fixed already
Horse and cart and land traders! <-- I would happily pay for these as a DLC!
Animated buildings  ;D
Probably lots more...

HEY i ve got some news from Luke today !!!!!!!!! about to upgrade the building requirement from 3 to 6 materials :)

here's a quote copy paste from my email ( his answer is coming first in the quote and then after at bottom, a copy from my words sent to him)

Quote
Hi Michel,

I'll look into it - I think it should be a fairly easy fix/addition without changing to much code, but I won't know until I reproduce the crashes.

As far as my next project, I'm still undecided and working on a few different things. Also working on a bunch of lower level code to support new things which takes a bit of time.




On 4/12/2017 2:38 PM, Michel Guénette wrote:
Hello Luke !

I hope you are going very well !
How goes your games developpement ? Have you decided what is your next project ? last time you told me that you have "some designs in the works for new projects" going on and depending which is most fun... any news on this ?

The moddler community here on world of banished, we tried to look at a way to make pass the 3 building resource requirement to 6 resources instead.
we almost making it even if at first look it should have been impossible without crash...

in fact we found that the game is supporting it, more than 3 resources but there is 2 little rsc that make us crash but if we // comment the
BuildRequirementUI in ToolTipToolbar.rsc and CreateBar.rsc we avoid crashes. The ToolTipUpgrade is affected too. And it works.

so do you think this can be fix easily to allow this 100% fully working ?


In hope to get feedback from you, Luke 😊
Regards,

Michel

Thank you Luke, great work @RedKetchup :)

This is great news! It shows that there are possibilities for improvements on some of the things we came up with. Probably only as long as they are 'low-hanging fruits', but it's great nonetheless.

Quote from: Bartender on April 21, 2017, 12:46:57 AM
This is great news! It shows that there are possibilities for improvements on some of the things we came up with. Probably only as long as they are 'low-hanging fruits', but it's great nonetheless.

yup :) till we dont ask too much .... it is like we can get some bits here and there :)

That is good news, good job guys.  :)  Even though I am not a big fan of production chains especially when there is a great looking house or building I want to build, I know this is a fantastic game improvement. 

I had a thought but with the all the changes and updates you modders all have enough to do already but I think a very very helpful addition to the larger more complex mods is an in-game help like cc journey has.  It shows all the items they added to the game and where you get them from. If I'm not mistaken the icon is under tools by the original ? help.  I found that list to be extremely helpful and referred to it often.  I hope they include it with pertinent modular.

Thanks guys and Luke.

Quote from: RedKetchup on April 21, 2017, 02:00:29 AMit is like we can get some bits here and there

Very cool, good job  :)

I been thinking - we should make a small gallery folder with the juiciest screenshots of mods and screens and send him that link, so he can see them all in one sitting... I have a feeling he has only seen the tip of the mountain when it comes to what modders have achieved...  :(

Not a bad idea if it starts small with small additions and is still recognizable as his game.  :)

Quote from: Abandoned on April 21, 2017, 07:10:32 AMstill recognizable as his game.

Hmmm...? Nobody is reverse engineering Banished - whatever mods, modders and players do, they do it based on Banished. Luke has allowed and encouraged modding - he should be thrilled seeing how much inspiration people draw from it...  ;)

@Paeng I think it is a great idea to highlight the diversity and pure amount of content that has been added to the game by modders.

Quote from: Necora on April 21, 2017, 12:11:21 PMgreat idea to highlight the diversity and pure amount of content that has been added to the game by modders.

Yeah... I quite regularly search on Banished, and the output is rather poor unless you are deeply involved and know where to look or what to ask auntie google... and I doubt that Luke is very much into that.  ;)

hello, I did not say I did not think it was a good idea.  I meant I think the gallery should show a progression not jump right into what has become almost unrecognizable as Banished.  The modders have done a fantastic job adding to Banished, no one can dispute that.

Quote from: Paeng on April 21, 2017, 07:49:15 AM

Quote from: Abandoned on April 21, 2017, 07:10:32 AMstill recognizable as his game.

Hmmm...? Nobody is reverse engineering Banished - whatever mods, modders and players do, they do it based on Banished. Luke has allowed and encouraged modding - he should be thrilled seeing how much inspiration people draw from it...  ;)

I couldn't agree more with this @Paeng  & @Necora
In my world, the industry I have been in for over a decade, when a game developer, platform designer releases their game with a devkit (mod kit in this instance), it is to see what "joe blow" can do with their game & platform, they release it knowing that what they have created as a foundation will be completely reimagined and completely unrecognisable.

It works in the biggest known way:  brings new gamers / developers / customers to their doorstep and that brings in more money.

What some don't understand is that the modders here are fabulous, but the more work they do, the more that they craft a different world, the more people this game will reach, and the more people will see it and will eventually buy it.

One developer (much, much bigger than Luke) was candid with me when they told me - if it wasn't for the addon market, we'd have to pay for publicity.  They still do, to an extent, but it's the modders who truly bring it to life, and create the buzz for the platform.

Now, in this case, Banished is a niche as the world I am in, the numbers are much smaller, but, the more modders keep breathing life into it, the more the game itself will stay alive - so, unfettered modding is the way moving forward.

Being on Steam now helps, but even that will, over time, slow sales growth, so, the more mods on the steam workshop, the better it is.  Which is also why i suggested the mod the other week, changing the map load screen with screenshots of artists work and listing it on Steam, the more the creativity is shown, the more life there will be in the game.

Any game developer I know, who has released a modkit, they want to see what comes of their creation.

It comes to something when only specific people in the world can recognise a game engine because the game is so heavily modded - land mass, land textures, weather changes, sky changes, cloud changes, colour balancers ...  And even a game exec is stunned that it's their game they are still looking at, then encourages you to do more.

If I'm wrong, sorry Luke, but, I don't think I am - I think there is a part of him that is truly excited to see what is coming out now. 

:)