I have completed a handful of the Achievements, and still know less about the mechanics then I should, even after a few weeks of forum lurking.
I decided to tackle Mountain Men
I started out on Hard for the challenge, and after getting to over 125 Citizens, ran out of tools before the mine became operational and watched it die a slow painful death
And on reload watched it repeat for every attempt over a few days
Then, brilliant idea, Nomads will save the day
Then I learned that the Town Hall doesn't bring in Nomads, it is just part of the Nomads spawn process - DOH!
So one more attempt from the save, ended in me and the last 6 geezers hanging out by the well near the bridge, chatting about the good times watching each other die.
How morbid
And how sad, that a game can have you sitting there just unable to fix the problem, and admitting your fate.
At least they dead together
I restarted from the initial save, and for 4 days, in between actual stuff, kept stabbing at the map
Everyone died right away
Or I ran out of resources
Or they starved
Or, Or, or or
The over 100 was never repeated, and I went no closer to the goal
I plunked my last quarter in the slot, went down from Hard a notch, and just finished in year 34 with almost 150 happy citizens,
No one was running around the mountains naked but 25% of them are inbred illiterates out of necessities to handle disasters.
I had a spike to almost 200 bring all kinds of chaos including the disappearance of 16 months of surplus food
The simplicity of this game at any short-term decision point certainly hides its complexity over time
Now, why has no one made a mod for hemp and cannabis? I don't smoke it, but come on, its a virtual world, why has no one made a mod for this yeat, as a building material, a food, or as an alternative to the tavern
Quote from: storpappa on November 06, 2014, 05:05:53 PMThe simplicity of this game at any short-term decision point certainly hides its complexity over time
That's well to the point :)
Just play the Mountain Men on hard again after a few days - you'll get there ;)
QuoteNow, why has no one made a mod for hemp and cannabis?
There is, in the
Colonial Charter 1620 Mod... you can make ropes, oil and clothes... or turn it into Pipe Weed to turn on your peeps... or sell it for good profit...
@storpappa Sounds like you had fun! I have a Mountain Men game blogged, if you are interested it is here: http://worldofbanished.com/index.php?topic=494.0
Just to be sure you know, "easy/medium/hard" affects only what resources you start out with, there is no other difference in how the game plays after that.
That starting difference is huge sometimes :)
Indeed it is. That's why I always start on "medium" ;)
The most critical comment in your write up is
but I got the crucial bridge built
It took me a few tries on the small /mountain/harsh map to realize how important it was to plan the bridges right away not for expansion but survival of those needed resources
Making a mistake and having all the resources on the wrong side of a river ruins getting this achievement fast :)
Good catch! Having, or not having, a bridge can be huge.
Another really important idea is considering to build a forester in a spot where there are no trees. It takes 4 years to pay off, but when it does....!
Interesting. I am glad I am not the only one who starts out on medium. I get just too frustrated on hard, and easy gets you a premature population explosion.
For me, the most important part was the map. Some of the small maps are impossible. I don't remember what the map seed was that I used for my successful Mountain Men achievement, but it is posted somewhere.
Quote from: slink on November 07, 2014, 09:37:22 AM
For me, the most important part was the map. Some of the small maps are impossible. I don't remember what the map seed was that I used for my successful Mountain Men achievement, but it is posted somewhere.
I think I used one I found in the SRS forum thread on maps: http://shiningrocksoftware.com/forum/discussion/331/best-map-seeds-/p1
Quote from: storpappa on November 06, 2014, 06:40:22 PM
The most critical comment in your write up is
but I got the crucial bridge built
It took me a few tries on the small /mountain/harsh map to realize how important it was to plan the bridges right away not for expansion but survival of those needed resources
Making a mistake and having all the resources on the wrong side of a river ruins getting this achievement fast :)
I have found that it is important to plan out your bridges, fisheries, and forester lodges especially before you even build your first structure on a Mountain Man map!
I've completed the Mountain Man achievement twice and then a third time doing it along with Isolationist and One With Nature. The map is important, but especially important when combining it with other challenges. Don't be afraid to re-roll another map until you find one with enough space that you need. I recently started a new Mountain Man map (random this time but re-rolled until I got one that looked good enough) with and intend to include the other two achieves again, since I need something to get me back into the swing of playing again.
My Mountain Men town was I think the most enjoyable town I've made. So different from the others.
Quote from: irrelevant on November 12, 2014, 04:51:56 PM
My Mountain Men town was I think the most enjoyable town I've made. So different from the others.
Yeah, I also surprisingly (to me) really enjoyed the challenge of it. I think I enjoy challenges (achieves and here on WoB) because they force me to play in ways I might not ever try otherwise. They break me out of my comfort-zones.
One of the things I love about this forum is getting to see how other people play the game, how many different ways there are to play this game.
Have you tried SC4? It is like a blank urban development canvas and can go in many ways. There is a tonne of custom content.
Did the mountain men quite a while back. Slow growth without them hetting too old to breed was the key. Tried to get isolationist and one with nature on the same map without success- forgot to monitor tools and education while searching for places to put all the nessecary houses.
Sadly I deleted my save that had the MM achievement accomplished. I do recall that with hard start (my preferred start) it took several try's just to get a town to year 10 or 20 as I kept getting wiped out by tornado's.
I agree that slow growth is critical to this challenge, as was a trading post.
ps, almost forgot building at least 1 bridge during the 1st & 2nd year was also critical