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Let's Grow a Kingdom from a Castle! What is this? Kingdoms and Castles is a city-building simulator in the line of Settlers or Stronghold or the like, where you take a small keep with only a few peasants, and turn it into a thriving metropolis full of happy, productive citizens with nothing to worry about at all or ever! Except, you know. For the Vikings. The occasional Dragon. And more! Cool! how long before all you work with is burned down to the ground? Well, since you asked so politely, I'm thinking I'll take three stabs at this game. The first is a casual no-danger run to show off the city building and the requirements that go into it. The second run will be on 'normal' difficulty, so I can show off the complications that can arise from outside forces. The last will be on Hard mode, where I will see how long I last. Spoilers? Considering there's no plot to this game? Go for it! Updates Easy Mode
02 - Expansion 03 - 100 Peasants! 04 - Industry 05 - Iterative Growth
07 - Building Armies 08 - Better Enemies Witches, Wolves and Graves Other Stuff Goes Here Like information from other players or their games, perhaps? 
berryjon fucked around with this message at 05:54 on Nov 20, 2018 |
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Jul 7, 2018 04:14
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Hello all, and welcome to part 1 of this LP. The first choice we need to make in this game is whether or not we are going to be in Standard or Creative Mode. Standard is pretty much a normal game, while Creative lets you build and destroy to your heart's content. I'm going to be playing in Standard Mode for these playthroughs.  Our next choice is our REGION. This determines the difficulty. Once again, this first game is going to be Easy Mode, so I'm going to pick PAXLON for our starting region.  Here, we can generate and preview our map. On the left, "Size" is Small, Medium or Large, depending on how much room you want to grow. There are also two types of map so far in the game. "Islands", like what is shown here, have multiple land areas separated by water, requiring some effort to get across them. "Land", which is what I'm going to be going for in this run, will be one continuous landmass.  After some randomizing of the "Seed" command to generate new islands, this is what I get. Yeah, there's only one source of Iron on the map, but without the need for an army, that's not as bad as it could get. If you want to play along, the Seed is in the lower-left, which means you should have the same map as I.  Our next choices are purely cosmetic. We can name our new Kingdom, which I have already helpfully filled out, as well as our banner of choice. I'm going with the default Blue Lion here, as there's no real reason not to.  Our first step in the game proper is to found our keep. This is the center of our Kingdom, from which we will grow and expand. Positioning is important, as you want to place yourself near fertile land to grow food, wood to chop down for resources, as well as an eye toward stone and Iron deposits.  So, with this in mind, I've chosen a great place to start my Keep off, one that has easy access to all the resources in the game!  Right here! I can build farms to the upper-right, expand my city to the left, and go down for other resources.  Each building takes time to construct, and here we can see see our Keep just starting. Each building requires a certain number of citizens to be working on it to progress. We start with five peasants, but only three are required to build the Keep. The other two are busy being useless.  Keep in progress  And DONE! Now we can start expanding. But first, let's have a look at our Advisors. These guys are kinda useless for the most part, except for the City Advisor who tells you what you need next to grow the city further.  See what I mean? USELESS! Well, except for the City Planner. He's right. We do need houses. Can't have peasants squatting in our Keep now, can we?  Clicking on the "Town" button in the lower right brings up this bar. With it, we can build "Town" buildings. Roads, Homes and sundry things to keep our peasants alive, happy, healthy and productive members of my Kingdom of GoonTown.  We'll also need to feed the ungrateful bastards by instructing them to build Farms and other important agricultural facilities using the "Food" button. We also only have 12 Wood available, so we need to be certain about what we want to build first. I'll cover "Castle", "Industry" and "Maritime" later, when they become relevant.  What I've done is I've ordered the construction of a single tile of Roads leading out from the Castle. Everything you build has to be built so that it is completely within three tiles of a Road, and Roads have to start at your Castle. We have just enough wood to lay down a single Road, then build one Hovel and two Farms. A Hovel is your most basic housing unit. It takes up a single tile on the map, and houses five citizens (of which we have exactly). However, Each Hovel also requires a single citizen to act as the 'head' of the house, meaning that they are tied up in actually running the house, getting Food and Charcoal for the people who live in the house. It takes five Wood to build one. Farms are the most basic food producing building. It takes 3 Wood to build one, takes one tile of space, Farms produce a basic 4 Food per year, however, this can be increased if the ground under it is 'normal' for +1 Food, or 'fertile' for +2 Food per year. I've placed these first two Farms on Fertile ground. The one Farmer required will harvest in Fall, adding to your food stores for the coming year. These two Farms will produce 6 Food each over the course of a full year, which will give us a nice surplus each year as each of our peasants eat 2 food over the course of a year. Roads, in addition to being a limiting factor on where things can go, also make your peasants move faster.  From the Keep, we can assign "Job Priority". This is where you tell what jobs the Peasants need to focus on more than others. Right now, we have two jobs. Builders are the Peasants focusing on building new things. Hovels require three Builders, while Roads and Farms each need one. Now, Stockpile Workers are an interesting job. They don't actually do anything by themselves. Rather, when resources are gathered, they are left where they are until the peasant that got said resource can carry it back to the nearest stockpile - in this case, the Keep - before going back to their actual job. A Stockpile Worker, however, will make moving resources their priority, allowing Farmers to Farm and Wood Cutters to Cut without having them slowed down moving things around. As you can see, we have seven slots for jobs, but only five people to do them. Which means that no one is going to Work in the Stockpile, and one of the Farms will be left un-built until something else gets done first.  Here we go! Everything is almost done. The Hovel is built, meaning our Peasants now have a roof over their heads. One farm has been built with a Peasant working it, the other Farm is almost complete, and we have an Idle worker.  Checking the Job Priority, we can now see that of our five citizens, one is tied up in the Hovel, and cannot be reassigned. One is working the Stockpile, though there is nothing to move yet. One peasant is farming, while the other is building the farm that they are going to work. As the last guy has no job to do, it's time to expand. I mean, I could just leave this here, but where's teh fun in that?  It's time to chop wood. You can manually instruct your peasants to clear-cut a tile, which can provide you with 2, 4 or 6 Wood depending on the number of trees on the tile. This selected tile will give me six wood. So I give the instruction to chop it, then another tile as well.  Here we can see the axes over the two tiles I've ordered chopped, and the job board. Due to priority, there is only one citizen working on chopping trees, despite there room for two people to do the job. So let's rearrange things, shall we?  I like to put Farmers at the top, that way there's always food coming in. Builders come in second, and for now, Timber is in third with no one working the Stockpile. I'm not generating so many resources that having someone dedicated to moving things is required.  With enough wood stockpiled, I set to work building a second Hovel. rear end you can see in the messages in the upper left, two peasants came to our Kingdom, but there was no room for them to stay, so they both left. I need more beds before I can expand any further.  Also, the snow is falling.  Winter. Nothing grows, so if you want to depopulate your farms to help with other things, now is the time. This is a casual game at the moment, so I don't.  In Spring of Year 2, our second Hovel was built, and we had three people come, but only one stayed.  With him, all of our job positions are now full. What to do now?  It's time to expand to start gathering our next resource. This Grey rock in the middle of the screen is "Stone", our third resource after Food and Wood. Each source of Stone can have up to two "Quarries" working on it at any given time, but in this case, we need to expand in that direction with a road, and then chop down the trees around the stone to place our Quarries. Hrm, we need wood to build roads, and forests are in the way of the future road. I wonder.... Eagle-eyed viewers may see the two wood lying on the ground. That's because no one has yet gone to collect them, they're still working on extant duties. Don't worry, that wood won't go to waste. I have a plan!  I've laid out the road I want built, as well as which three forests I want chopped to clear the way for my Quarries. Now, normally, the builder would go to the Keep or the nearest stockpile to withdraw the wood to build a road, as you can see the little peasant doing so around the southern Hovel. But here, one of the Builders (the actual Stockpile worker changing job to Builder due to priority), went to the wood on the ground, and used that to build the nearby section of road. Genius!  A closeup of the Builder in action, doing just that.  With seven peasants in GoonTown, we now need 14 food per year, but only produce 12. It's time for our third Farm.  The roads are complete in Winter, and there is enough wood stockpiled to build a Quarry. They require 15 Wood to build, and 4 Builders to be constructed in a timely manner.  I put it here, and realize I missed a tile of Road.   It is now the Spring of Year 3. The Quarry is built, and three more peasants have arrived in our Glorious Town. A Quarry can work up to four peasants, and each will produce 5 Stone per year. I just need people to work in them.  Once the Timber workers are done chopping down their Trees, that will free them up to Work in the Quarry, as well as provide wood for more Hovels to house more people to do more things for me! That's all for this time. Next update, I expand some more, and start building some more advanced buildings. Until then, let me leave you with a nice picture of everything I have built up to now. 
berryjon fucked around with this message at 02:52 on Jul 9, 2018 |
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Jul 7, 2018 04:15
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Ground floor  This game is absolutely charming. I'd taken a break after getting I think most of the achievements at the time, but I'm getting the itch to follow along...
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Jul 7, 2018 04:31
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This is pretty basic in terms of city building and such, but that adds to the charm. I certainly don't get overwhelmed nearly as much with Cities: Skylines or heaven forbid the Sim Cities.
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Jul 7, 2018 06:15
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I like the later updates that gave this simple game some complexity. It was city-building on par with Populous, that evolved into letting you manage offshore colonies. Some people said I expected too much of the game, but it gets boring without some effort in managing things.
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Jul 7, 2018 06:59
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Hey everyone, and welcome back! Let's start off by examining one of our lovely citizens of GoonTown - Robert Lynch!  Each Citizen has three levels of skill in the various jobs we can give them. In this case, Robert is a Journeyman (Or Level 2) in Agriculture. Meaning he's much better at it. Leveling up skills provide bonuses, including faster resourcing times, or more yields.  And here is some more detail about one of our lovely Oh, and the Hovel has a maximum risk of catching on fire. Which is a bad thing. I'll have to fix that sooner or later.  And that farm that Robert is working on. It produces 6 food per year at this point, thanks to the high Fertility of the Soil. When Robert reaches Master, he will produce two more food for a total of 8.  The Quarry also needs more people. Right now it's only producing 25% its proper output.  The next step in our expansion is to build more homes. Three more Hovels should do for now until I can move on to the next level of house. This will bring our total potential population up to 25 from 10 where we are now.  And we're done! Just in time for Winter, and still empty as Year 4 rolls around. And just in time too, as we got two new residents during the Winter! Yay!  Now, this can happen to. Not everyone who visits would want to stay here, which can happen depending on your happiness. The more happy your people are, the more likely you'll attract immigrants.  The next step in Expansion is to improve the Road system. This new segment of road may look odd, but it's actually important for future work to allow the peasants to go around the Keep rather than through it to get to their destinations along the roads. It will pay off in the long run, I assure you.  It's Winter in year 4, and it's about time I built a Well. These will provide water to nearby homes, which will reduce the chance of them burning down due to fire. In the immortal words of Buffy: "FIRE BAD. Tree pretty."  However, Wells only have so much range to them, and their effectiveness drops off at the edges. So I place this here, saving the two empty spots beside the Keep for something else later.  It is now the Spring of Year 5, and I want to start optimizing my food for having more people, and that means demolishing one of my Farms. Now, this may sound silly, but I've got enough food in store to carry me over until the next level of food producer starts up. Which is the Orchard, which I totally forgot to take a picture of. Anyway, the Orchard requires 15 Wood to build, and a two-by-two section of Fertile Land. It takes 4 people to build, and 3 to run. It normally produces 18 food per year, but gets +2 for each tile of Highly Fertile land it is on, or +1 for each tile of normal land. Now, here's the problem with the Orchard. Once built, it take a full year to grow into food production, then it will only harvest at the end of the year, meaning at least a two year wait before it can start adding to your city's supplies. I hope you're prepared for that!  While the Orchard is being built, I cue up the next building. This is the Stockpile. Our Keep can only hold so much in supplies, and the stockpile is the first major expansion for that. It can hold up to 240 total units of supplies - those items in the lower left. Taking up a single tile, it takes 3 people to build, and employs two people for general stockpile work.  The Kingdom with the Orchard and Stockpile under construction. The Stockpile was placed where it was for ease of access for the Quarry, Wood and eventually Iron.  The neat thing about the Stockpile is that there is a visual indication of what is present. Here, you can see the Stone and Wood that it is accumulating.  Spring of Year 6. Our Orchard is growing, so we just have to tough it out for another year. Things are chugging along nicely, and I think I'll be ready for the next step soon. We're running out of space to house the peasants, and the Hovels aren't going to be cutting it for much longer. We'll need something bigger.  That something is the Cottage, which takes up two tiles on the map, and can hold twelve people in total. This Duplex is slightly more space-efficient than the Hovels, but makes up for it by requiring more resources to build, and more luxuries. For now though, it's good enough.  I place our first one here.  I should have done this a while ago, but this is the Forester. It is a building that takes up 1 tile, but has a three tile radius around it for its area of effect. Employing up to three people, it plants new trees, allows them to grow, then chops them down for more wood - 24 per year! It's win-win! You just can't place then too close to each other, and they still need to be within three tiles of a road. Oh, and you need some trees already in their growing area. I like to overlap their areas of effect for better gains.  Here's the first Forester, right beside the stockpile, and its area of effect. But while that's being built, this message came up:  :yay: You get this for having 25 people in your Kingdom.  Useless advisor being useless as he can't do the math and realize that we have enough stored to carry us through the rest of the year and into the harvest season where the Orchard will make things all better. But he does have a point. With 25 people in the village, that means that we need to have 50 food on hand for them the whole year, which means our storage isn't going to cut it if we grow any more. Which means we need to expand our food storage.  Which means a Granary! It takes up two tiles, employs two people, and can store 200 food! Which will have us set for a while - until we get to about 75 peasants.  It will go here for ease of access for our food producers.  It's the Fall of Year 7, and I decide that my village has grown to the point of getting a second Forester. I'm putting it here, where the two areas of effect overlap by the stockpile, though it's also a dumb spot as half of its effect is lost over water. I don't have a picture for it, but I also put down a second Quarry in the space beside the Forester.  Spring of Year 8. The Orchard is now manned by Master Agriculture specialists, which means it's producing 30 food a year. Also, once you hit about 25 citizens, you need to start paying more attention to their happiness. And the first thing you can do for that is the Town Square.  A 2x2 building, it takes 4 people to build, but only employs one person. You can spend 50 Gold to boost your Happiness for all your citizens above the normal small amount, and attract a lot of new villagers.  I set it here, where the area of effect includes all existing houses and plenty of room in the area I'm going to be expanding to. It's a little washed out by the rain, sorry. But Storms are gonna Storm. Wait. Hold on a moment. STORM?!?!? CRIPES!  The Storm has flooded the Farm on the right, meaning it produces no food this year. This isn't great, but I can recover. Orchards don't flood, which is another point in their favor.  Now what's going to go wrong next? Ah yes. One of my buildings catches fire. Naturally. Of course. Which building is it?  The Cottage? No! I need that to house my future Tax Base! When a Fire happens, nearby citizens stop what they're doing and go to the nearest body of water - the Ocean or a Well and draw water to try and put it out.  What are you guys staring at? You failed to put out the fire in time, and now that one citizen is out of a home! He's the one with the House over his head. It's going to stay there until this gets fixed. This is going to hurt everyone's happiness.  Thankfully, a destroyed building can be rebuilt. This is a relatively new addition to the game, as it used to be you had to demolish the site and build from scratch. Instead, it's one click instead of a couple! Same resources used though as building a new one.  I think I will stop here, in the Spring of Year 9. I will pick up next time, where I make the drive for 100 citizens! berryjon fucked around with this message at 02:51 on Jul 9, 2018 |
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Jul 9, 2018 00:38
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I think you missed closing an italics tag, but I like the plain text. 
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Jul 9, 2018 01:15
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That forester sure is straight out of Settlers... as it seems the importance of roads and storage.
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Jul 9, 2018 02:33
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OddObserver posted:That forester sure is straight out of Settlers... as it seems the importance of roads and storage. If you've played Settlers, you've played this game. Except Settlers is much more in-depth. POOL IS CLOSED posted:I think you missed closing an italics tag, but I like the plain text. Removed all the tags then!
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Jul 9, 2018 02:55
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berryjon posted:Removed all the tags then!  I'm looking forward to seeing what new content has been added since I last left off. I'm guessing there's still no way to upgrade two neighboring huts into the cottage? There was a nice feature in Pharoah sort of in the vein I've hoped for, except the houses upgraded automatically when the right benchmarks (population, beautification, services, and luxuries) were reached.
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Jul 9, 2018 04:18
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One of the first things I like to do is ring my entire Keep with a road (if applicable.) Allows peasants to travel to and around it with ease and I don't have to worry too much about having to demolish something later to make room for it.
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Jul 9, 2018 04:26
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POOL IS CLOSED posted:I'm guessing there's still no way to upgrade two neighboring huts into the cottage? There was a nice feature in Pharoah sort of in the vein I've hoped for, except the houses upgraded automatically when the right benchmarks (population, beautification, services, and luxuries) were reached. Not really. I usually do it manually. Demolish the two huts with enough slack in my housing, and then build a new Cottage. Thankfully, the destroyed Hovels leave behind some wood which is then used to kickstart the construction of the Cottage. And you can't upgrade Cottages to Manors either. 
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Jul 9, 2018 04:30
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Aw, bummer. I always felt a bit guilty for evicting my peasants so unceremoniously. The castle ring road is a good idea in Paxlon. And just... wells. Wells everywhere.
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Jul 9, 2018 04:40
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Hey all! Today, I'm going to push my city through to 100 citizens, and show off some of the hurdles that need to be overcome to get there. Here is where we stand. GoonTown has 26 citizens, and has room for 25, with 12 more once the Cottage finishes getting rebuilt.  Our first order of business is making sure that we have enough food to feed all those people. +12 total in storage per year isn't going to cut it. We're going to need to at least triple our production. Also, I was wrong. Each citizen only eats 1 food per year, not two.  And to expand our farms, we're going to need to expand our road network to allow for more agriculture. This road path was part of the longterm planning I did before the game started when I was looking at the map. There's room for two Orchards on the left side of the road, but I actually have a better idea for that land.  But first, an Orchard on the right.  And while that is getting built, the Cottage is restored! Look at that happy peasant, now that he doesn't have to sleep outside. Get back to work, you slacker.  Something to note is that not only happiness a factor in figuring out how many visitors stay in your Kingdom, but also how many free spaces there are. Our growth slows as we approach our capacity.  After the Town Square, the Tavern is the next Happiness building. It takes three people to build, and employs four. It produces happiness in a 12 square radius, but can be overwhelmed if the population it serves grows too much, necessitating more taverns.  I was saving this two-block slot beside the Keep for this exact purpose. Forethought for the win!  Another problem with spring storms is Thunder. If lightning strikes a building, then it can catch on fire, like this Hovel here. However, it is raining, plus it is adjacent to a well, so there should be no problems putting the fire out before the home is destroyed.  GUARDS! Find this "James" person, and see if there really are two of him. If there are, let them go. If there are not, explain to him why it is a bad idea to be working two jobs at the same time at the same place. Also ask them why there are three Bartenders, and one Serving Wench. Assuming "Weffel Dragomir" is a woman.  Spring of Year 11. One Cottage down, another being built. Now, before I build more homes, I want to lay down more roads to attach said homes too.  That should do it.  I'm building new Cottages as fast as I can, but my limiting resource is Stone at this point. But I need to get more Wood and more Stone (25/10 each if you recall from last time), I want to get more faster.  This Road may seem odd due to its position, but it does a few things for me. First, is that three-by-three slot of highly fertile Land is being set aside for future optimization. However, I can and do build some farms in the 'nook' of the road, to help keep a positive food flow for now.  And in the Spring of Year 12, I put down my third Forester.  I have 73 beds now, in the Summer of Year 13, but only 54 citizens. I need to balance growth with Food and the resources required to expand my city even more. So, as part of that, I've made another road loop here, and installed eight Farms in a square, leaving the center space open. I'll tell you what I'm going to put there later.  And a fourth Forester goes here. This should keep me well stocked with Wood for the near future.  The most important use for this excess Wood is the Charcoal mixer. This 1x1 building needs three people to build, and employs the same. Charcoal is a luxury resource for our citizens, making them more happy. Unless they are near a home, in which case they make people unhappy due to the smoke pollution. I'm going to build three of them in a row right beside those farms.  I JUST BUILT YOU!!!! WHY ARE YOU BURNING DOWN????? Fine, I'll lay down another Well or two.  You know, I was going to use that Charcoal to make people more happy.... First major annoyance this session. But not the worst. Not by a long shot.  Spring of Year 15. Starting to grow again, and I should be getting ready to build more Cottages. In fact, you can see two of them almost complete! This will put my total beds at 97.  WHAT? NO!  Someone, put out that fire before everything burns down to the ground! STOP THE FLAMES! PLEASE!  Fire can spread quickly and without mercy. I'm now thirty bed short, which means my happiness is going to drop while they get rebuilt. I also need more Stone to build them back. And this isn't the worst thing that happened to me this session. Not by a long shot. So, I prioritize Quarry workers, behind Farmers, naturally. Turn off the Charcoal makers to free up those workers for the rebuilding project, and then I pray.  You see, for as long as your happiness is over 50, your population will grow, however fast or slow is dependent on other factors. But if you are under 50? People start to leave your Kingdom.  This occurred at 49 happiness in the Fall of Year 16.  Winter of Year 17, and enough Cottages have been rebuilt to restore our Happiness and with room to grow. And we are now at that point where the City Advisor makes his next useful suggestion.   Gold is our fifth resource. Food, Wood, Stone, Charcoal and now Gold. It is generated based on working population, Happiness, and having enough Tax Collectors. However, being Taxed makes people unhappy for some reason. You can levy up to 3 'ticks' in Tax, and each 'tick' will decrease everyones happiness by 10 points, but each tick increases the Tax you get by 100%.  And so, in the late Fall of Year 18, having saved up 50 Stone, I lay down my first Tax Treasury. It should be complete by this time next year.  But I am no longer amused waiting for Stone to become available, so I think it's time to expand production on that. Now, I can't put down another Quarry on my existing Stone source. Each source is limited to two extractors, so I need to find another one. Fortunately, there's one over here in the direction I've been expanding. I just need to shop down some trees, put down another Storage Depot for faster resource turnarounds, and set down a Quarry! Thankfully, this only takes up Wood, which I have a lot of, and it all starts in Spring of Year 19.  And by the Winter, everything is done!  Here is our economy during each year. As you can see, with 5 Taxmen, and a Tax Rate of 1, we will be gaining 35 Gold per year. At 2 ticks, it would be 85 Gold, and at 3 ticks 135. I leave it at one tick for now to keep the Happiness up.  I built this Tavern at the end of the row of Cottages, and then built a Road around for ... reasons. All while waiting for 25 Gold to be in my coffers. It's Spring of Year 20, and I have no idea what's about to happen.  Except now that we're bringing in Gold, our peasants expect us to provide them with Churches and Libraries for their pleasure. I'm not going to build those yet. I want to build something that will get me over the 100 Pop mark first. I'm at 88, I'm almost there!  Now, because the game is still in development, you can get glitches like this happening. Manors are the third and final tier of housing unit. They are a 2x2 building requiring 6 Builders. They house 25 people, 1 more than the same space taken up by Cottages, and require 4 heads of Household to operate. However, they have the special attribute that anyone who lives in one pays more taxes. They also cost 50 Wood, 35 Stone, and 25 Gold to build.  Here is me putting one down to build. You know, I love this game's simple colours and shapes. It's far more attractive and beautiful than a lot of more 'artistic' games out there. And the soundtrack? Hell yeah, it's amazing! I don't regret purchasing this on Steam at all.  Anyhow, here's a shot of a train of builders, each carrying some wood, heading for the Manor-in-progress.  And in the Winter of Year 21, it is complete! drat, I would love to live in a place like this myself. Sure, with modern amenities, but I just wish I could move the camera with more detail than I actually can in game. I really should show off some of the models in the game.  97 Peasants! We're almost at my goal! Sure, 11 idle hands, but with the 25 Gold, I can build a Church!  Churches have a huge happiness Radius. Not only do they prevent the 10 point malus simply by existing, but they affect a 9 tile radius from the edge of the building, providing +5 Happiness to all houses in the affected area. However, they employ four Priests, and take up a rather large 2x3 footprint on the ground. They're a good investment, but need to be used sparingly. You can also Tithe 10 Gold to the Church, but as of this update, it does nothing except give you a message of thanks.  Even putting the Church here affects my Hovels over by the Keep. And the nearby population centers get the best effect. This will put me over the top for sure!  The increased population is also increasing my tax base. I now make 40 Gold per year with a Tax Rate of 1. Something I like to do is boost the tax rate to 3 for a while, watching my Happiness until it gets close to 50, then dropping it back down to restore Happiness. I do this to quickly generate the needed 25 Gold to build a second Manor.  Right here. You can see the Church in progress on the left. It will take several years to complete, but I'm confident this will work out for me. And then things turn south.  PLAGUE! Plague causes a random percentage of your peasants to become sick, as indicated by the small 'skull' over their heads. If I had a Hospital, the Doctors there would rush out to cure them, but it's too late. Even if I were to build one, the plague will have run its course. But that's not the worst part. That's yet to come. You see, just having sick people adds a Happiness penalty of 75% of the number of sick people you have. So those 20 people? They're giving me -15 Happiness.  And in the winter, the worst comes to pass. Of those 20 infected, 16 died. Every Death causes 2 Unhappiness, which stacks with the Infection Modifier. So not only am I scrambling to cover up the lost population in terms of jobs that need doing, I have to watch my Happiness plummet, hoping against hope that these penalties expire before too many people flee GoonTown. I also need a Hospital.  In the Summer of Year 23, I got amazingly lucky. Only 1 person fled, dropping my total population to 80 when the penalties go away and I start to recover. I also took the opportunity to demolish my Hovels to get people to move into the bigger buildings - which I can tax better.  Spring 24, and the Church is finished. Population is back up to 88, but with a Happiness of 78 now, it's a matter of when, not if, I get up to 100 Peasants.  Summer of the same year. I just need 44 more Gold for the Library, and there's a Cottage burning to the ground that will be put out quickly. Here's the thing I noticed. Libraries, and the the Grand Library cost more Gold than Wood and Stone. However, Churches and the Cathedral, they cost more Stone than Wood and Gold. So there's options for different economies to get one before the other. Which is nice. I'm also up to 92 Peasants. Almost there. Just need to build another Cottage or Manor to make sure I have plenty of room to expand.  Spring 25. Time to put down that Library! It's only a 1x1 Building, requiring 4 people to build and run. Also, each Librarian costs money in upkeep and the building has a mere 6 tile Radius. It's a tossup as to which is better in the long run, but the bonuses they provide stack, so I like to make sure I have them both.  TAH-DAH! In the Winter of Year 25, I finally hit that benchmark I wanted! Two years past due if it wasn't for that damned Plague.  Our Residential District, with the Library under Construction. Plenty of room to expand to the South.  Our farming District. Ooops, I forgot that building in the middle there, what with everything else going on. I should address that next time.  And a long shot of our Industrial sector, with the Quarries at the two ends of the row of Foresters, and the Charcoal makers working away. Next time, I'll work on expanding the city a bit more, start in on the next three resources, and maybe even look into International Trade!
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Jul 10, 2018 16:33
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Where does everyone go (or come from), you reckon? There's no port and we don't see any settlements besides our own. Nor shall we see any special visitors for now. Do they come from and return to the briny deeps?
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Jul 10, 2018 19:40
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Is knowledge generated by libraries our sixth resource?
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Jul 10, 2018 19:47
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They arrive from spaceships that look like DC-8s.
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Jul 10, 2018 19:48
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They come from the Shrouded Isle.
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Jul 10, 2018 19:50
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POOL IS CLOSED posted:Where does everyone go (or come from), you reckon? There's no port and we don't see any settlements besides our own. Probably from the same place our original settlers came from - the "Mainland". We'll get to Docks eventually. Torrannor posted:Is knowledge generated by libraries our sixth resource? No. Our next resources are Iron, Tools and Armaments. Libraries have their own thing later on.
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Jul 10, 2018 20:45
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This game was super cute, great to see it being played. Do you think you're going to shoot for the 5,000 population milestone in this build?
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Jul 12, 2018 13:54
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I for one think that they come from the lands of the ice and snow, with the midnight sun, where the hot springs blow.
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Jul 12, 2018 14:35
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Aeromancia posted:This game was super cute, great to see it being played. Do you think you're going to shoot for the 5,000 population milestone in this build? Kingdom of the Gods Achievement? Eh, maybe, maybe not. I tend to crap out on a city once I reach 1,000.
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Jul 13, 2018 01:10
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berryjon posted:Kingdom of the Gods Achievement? Eh, maybe, maybe not. I tend to crap out on a city once I reach 1,000. Before they added deep water, it was a little easier to get the achievement as you could just build piers and homes to the borders of the game map. With a central farming area and a repeatable pattern you could build your own dystopian megacity!
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Jul 13, 2018 03:33
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Personally I'm a fan of the space needle project.
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Jul 13, 2018 03:36
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Aeromancia posted:Before they added deep water, it was a little easier to get the achievement as you could just build piers and homes to the borders of the game map. With a central farming area and a repeatable pattern you could build your own dystopian megacity! No one will ever beat Magnasanti for that. I wouldn't even dream of it. POOL IS CLOSED posted:Personally I'm a fan of the space needle project. It is kinda hilarious. Really, the only Achievements I have left are the higher pop ones.
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Jul 13, 2018 03:48
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Welcome back! First, I want to show something neat off. I should have done this during not-Winter, but eh, it was in front of me. When you zoom out far enough, the procedurally generated clouds (yes, those are procedurally generated) can get in the way of what you may or may not want to see. However, the game is programmed to dissolve clouds around where your mouse pointer is.  Like so! It's a neat little quality of life feature for the game, and so if you see odd cloud formations dissolving in the past, present or future, now you know what's going on. But first thing is first. I've been meaning to build one of these for most of last update, but never got around to it. Let's build a Windmill!  Windmills affect every Farm adjacent to them, providing +2 Food each. With this, Farms produce more food per space used, but it is also more manpower intensive. It also allows for better utilization of a building I'll show off later in the update. Oh wait, it's on the screenshot there. It's the Baker.  It will go here, in that empty space I've left open.  Once the Windmill is built, you can see it's effect on an adjacent Farm. Woo! And Weffel, weren't you working at the Tavern a few years ago?   But it's time to start out what I came to do this update. Iron! It's the end of Fall, Year 26, and I lay down the first one. Each Iron Mine requires 3 people to build and man, but only produces 6 Iron per year. And that's enough to build a full Stockpile.  Stockpiles are the full sized, 2x2 versions of Small Stockpiles. They hold a lot more stuff, and employ 10 peasants while only requiring 6 to build.  It goes right here. And once its built, I'll have it take in Iron as its primary resource.  And now that I have more people, I lay down another Windmill and Farms around it. I'll be phasing out Orchards by the end of the update.  The Small Granary holds 250 Food. The full Granary holds 500. It's 4x4, and has space for two dedicated Grain workers.  Winter 27. The Stockpile is built. You can set what resources it will accept and how much by clicking on it. Here, I've set it to ignore Wood and Stone and instead focus on Charcoal, Iron, Tools and Armaments. Also, why am I working there?  I'm supposed to be in the Castle! While I'm at it, I have spare Gold and Stone, so it's time to improve my roads. Normally, you cannot 'overlay' a building with another one, destroying the first in the process. The exception to this is Roads. Normal Roads double the travel speed of the Peasants on them, but Stone Roads Triple it.  Here is where I expand for now. The difference will be more visible when the Stone isn't covering everything. Also, you may notice the little "X Money" symbol over the Library. That means I currently don't have Gold to pay the librarians there (I spent it all on roads!) and if that state of affairs persists, they will quit on me, driving my happiness down.  Spring 28, and I check my Jobs-needing-doing against how many people I have. I have too many jobs that need filling, so it's time to expand my housing district. Thankfully, I've already increased food Production to compensate for the higher load.  Summer 28, and I've only got enough Gold for a Cottage and a Manor. But it'll cover the work that needs doing for now. At this stage of the game, your city tends to grow by increments. More Food leads to more Housing, leads to more resource gathering, which completes the cycle. I also push out the roads in that area, which you will see later.  Winter 28, and it's time to put down a Hospital. I demolish the two Hovels in the zone I've chosen, moving those Peasants into the recently completed Cottage, as well as the Well, which I rebuild a tile over to get out of the way of this 2x2 building. The Hospital employs 6 Doctors, and when Plague hits, they run around 'tagging' each infected person. Once tagged, they are no longer sick, and won't die. You still get the happy malus for the sickness, but hopefully not from anyone dying.  The Hospital and moved Well are beside the Keep. You can also see the expanded roads off to the right.  It's Spring 29, and Jason here reminds me of two things. First is that there is apparently a fourth level of experience, Grand Master. Second, I want to build some Bakeries. And the third point of two is that I can't dictate who takes what jobs. They just do what they feel like.  Bakers are awesome. 3 people, 1x2 space. For 1 Charcoal and 1 Wheat (not an Orchard's Apples, but a Farm's Wheat) and a Season, they produce 4 food.  There's also the Market. This acts as a dedicated Food-and-Charcoal storage facility for nearby houses. It's not as awesome, but it can help act as a staging point when your Granaries and your homes are far from each other. My city isn't that big yet, but I think I'll put one down anyway.  Two Bakeries and a Market are ready to be built. This should solve my food problems for some time.   In Spring 29, the Hospital is built. However, because I don't need the Doctors right now, I immediately close the Hospital to free up the 6 pops and save me 18 gold per year. When the plague hits, it'll open up and not before then. I'm a bastard, aren't I? But it'll keep me from having lazy non-productive pops at this point.  Speaking of, in the Winter of that same year, 14 people fall ill! Let's heal them right up!  When a building is selected, purple diamonds show up over the pops that are working it. Here, you can see our brave plague doctors - who only started work this morning! - rush out to find plague victims and cure them. How? I have no idea!  A cured pop changes from the 'Skull' face to a 'Happy' face. Once there are no more Skulls, the plague is finished off, and you can turn off the Hospital again.  At this point, I realized that I had enough stone for now, and I needed more money. From the Job panel, you can turn off a whole industry, rather than just a building. I tell my pops to stop working Stone Quarries for now and get to work doing other things. Like building or collecting taxes.  My Iron mine has been working for a while now, and I've been slowly developing a head of Iron. It's time to start using it. It's time to build the Blacksmith. 2x2, and it employs three people. I also realize now that I was planning on a 1x2 building where I was planning on putting it, not a 2x2. This requires some re-evaluation of space plans. But I also want to punch out some population growth as I've seemed to have stalled.  You may recall the Town Square that's been sitting idle ever since I built it way back when. Well, now it's time to do its part. For 50 Gold, you can trigger a Festival. This gives 15 Happiness to everyone in its radius of effect, and most importantly, it increases immigration at the end.  PAH-TAY!  )PAH-TAY!  It's Spring 32, and the immigration is already kicking off. I've got Gold, Stone and idle workers, so it's time to expand my roads some more.  And in the summer, I get 37 more peasants, maxing out my population for now. Time to build more, you lazy freeloaders!  I scrap the two Orchards, and lay down a Blacksmith here. It's close to the Iron and Charcoal, so this is good.  I also line up another pair of Windmills+Farms to support my exploded population.  Sometimes, your peasants will die. Not me of course. I'm the immortal god-king of this realm. This one ... um ... I'm not sure. I think I'll put this up to the thread. How did this peasant die? My favourite submission will get to have a request of their filled to the best of my ability.  Rare action shot of numbers popping up as food is being collected. You can see the difference having the Windmill and experienced farmers makes. Also, very long road expansion for later.  Spring 33, and the Blacksmith is done. You can click on the "Tools" or the "Armament" to turn production of that on or off. If they are both active, the Blacksmith will alternate between the two. As I don't have/want an army in this City, I'll turn off Armaments.  Tools can be used as a resource for a couple buildings, but their primary purpose is to act as a force multiplies for resource collecting. As they are produced, they will be delivered to the appropriate resource location and used for a year. More tools are required each year. By clicking on the resource in the lower-left of the screen, you can call up this pop-up, and choose which types of resource will get tools. For now, I want only Mines, as that gives me more Iron to make more tools. I also have sufficient income of the others to not need more.  Now, at this point, I have negative income on Charcoal. Housing, Bakeries and the Blacksmith(s) are all a drain, so I solve the problem by building two more. And a second large Granary after demolishing the smaller one. Once it's built, I'll have over 1000 space for food storage, more than enough for a long, long time to come.  Spring 34, and time for more houses. I think I want to get up to 250 peasants this update.  Spring 35, and I really want more Stone. So it's time to use some of my Tools stockpile for a building! Or rather, for the Rock Removal 'building'. All around the map, there are these little piles of black rock. They just get in the way. There's no way to use them, except by removing them first. This 'building', once finished, lets you remove one tile of rock, making the space usable.  And this pile of rock is in my way.  After one season, the building is done, and so is that rock pile. Time to put a Quarry there!  It's Spring 37, and I have more houses built. Also a second library because the first no longer served the whole neighborhood. I have 251 beds available with one more Manor almost close to completion, so to reach my goal, I fire off another Festival.  And in Spring of that year, SUCCESS! ... Oh god, I have 57 unemployed people. What am I going to do with all of them?!?!
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Jul 13, 2018 05:20
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Berryjon, a mere peasant?! Scandalous!! The matter of the deceased is quite simple; they were eaten by a common grue. The elevation of the peasant living conditions from hovel to cottage introduced the novel architectural element known as the attic, which is often not sufficiently illuminated to deter these pests.
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Jul 13, 2018 05:43
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Why do peasants mysteriously die? Why, the answer is as plain as day.The Witness posted:This man has spotted our miscreant! Those darn fiendish fairies steal into our town and take off with the souls of our precious vassals! We must mount a punitive military force to locate all the nearby fairy circles and burn them down! Fortunately it's well known that fairy kind are weak to iron, and our wise lord has recently called for a smithy to be built...
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Jul 13, 2018 06:05
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The peasant believed he had discovered the secret to your immortal god-king status. He was mistaken. (Make sure he's buried very deeply, or better yet cremated. You know. Just in case he wasn't completely mistaken.)
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Jul 13, 2018 13:13
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This is one of the games that's been in the back of my mind for a while now, but I've been too busy with other things to really look at it. I'll definitely be the following the adventure here!
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Jul 14, 2018 10:01
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Really I think they just flat-out died of dysentery.
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Jul 14, 2018 21:07
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I think I'll wait a couple more days for ideas before picking my winner. Until then, have an update! ----- Now, where was I?  Oh yeah, 54 unemployed people. Well, I know I said 57 last time, but that was before 3 of them became Heads of House for the other 50+.  First step is in laying out more food. 24 more Farms will go a long way, but I don't yet have the resources to put down all the Windmills yet.  Stone is beginning to be an issue, so I allow my Quarry workers to start using advanced tools. They now have actual picks instead of blunt wooden sticks! For indeed, I am a good King.  I also start chopping trees so that I can place more road to expand my wood production deeper into the forest.  Which in turn will fuel more Charcoal makers which will help the second Blacksmith I set up.  And a Treasure room as the resources allow. With over 200 peasants, I can tax them more. More! MORE! I figure 1 Tax Building per 100 pops is good for the most part.  Winter 37, and I'm ready for the Spring. Lots of food is going to come in, especially after I get those Windmills built.  I also lay down this road for future expansion.  Christ on his Cross! 61? drat. Well, I have the pops and income, I can leave the Doctors on for now, I think.  Maybe a second Hospital would be a good idea?  Forestry trunk road coming along nicely.  No, there's plenty of room. It's just that Quarry workers will only go so far, and the Stockpile workers are busy being reassigned to to other jobs. Just hold on, and things will get moving again. I'm not about to build more stockpiles just to hire more people. You know, I should request that as a future feature of the developers. The ability to 'over assign' workers to something for cases like this. But I'm not sure how well it would work.  But honestly? I need more citizens at the moment, so I lay down 2 Manors and 2 Cottages here, with a road there because I was tired of seeing people walk around the tax building. And think of it as less than a road and more of a ... a ... Private alley! Yeah! That'll sell people on the improvement.  Because, wow, I can double my population with this food production level.  Spring 40, and my fifth? Sixth? Forester goes down.  I'm going to eventually clearcut this whole corner of the island, but for now, I take out these forests to prepare for more housing and something I really don't use a lot of and find to be not that great for me.  Spring 41, and this Plague Doctor was doing other things when the Plague hit, and I turned on the Hospital. I swear, I leave it on this time! As you can see, he has the little hooked-mask, and is carrying some food from the end of the Winter harvest. Or was he a Marketeer or Baker moving supplies to those buildings? Eh, the image is still funny.  But it's now time to build some Docks. Docks are Storage units, much like Stockpiles and Granaries, and they can hold all types of resource, except Gold. What is special about them though is that for every two you have, you can support one Trading Ship. I'll cover that more when I get a ship.  Two Docks going up, and I filled in the space behind with another Manor, which will bring my total population up to 400.  Yay! A Merchant Ship! Now, this guy lets me trade resources and gold around, so let's see what he does.  Clicking on a Merchant ship that's in port will allow you to buy what's in their cargo hold. The price is quite high compared to what you can sell the same stuff for, and the amount that comes in off the boat is randomized. Also, boats arrive at random times. But the real problem I have is that Merchant ships will only buy what is in your docks. And there is no way to tell your Stockpile workers to deliver products just to the docks unless you want to close down all your other Stockpiles. And even if you do, they will deliver all the goods there. I suppose you could mess with the individual stockpiles such that each location only accepts a certain kind of good, and the Docks house the goods you wish to sell, but as I've mentioned before, I'm casual at this game. I'm not going to do that.  You can build your own transport ships, that will earn money as they sell off the goods in your Docks. Piers allow you to build normal buildings on shallow water (the lighter shade of blue), Bridges are Stone Roads over water, and Drawdridges are bridges that don't block off the passage of boats. Don't expect to see me use this construction panel much. I know they're useful, but Merchants are too random for my tasts, and the other three maritime buildings are just situational.  I've been saving up in order to show these next two buildings off. Levi and Barbara are two high-paying Kickstarter backers, and as such, they got to have these statues put into the game. They both provide +3 Happiness in their area of effect, and while the Queen's radius of effect is larger, Levi also grows trees around him like he's a Forester.  Let's finish that clearcutting.  GOD SAVE THE QUEEN! IN FIG WE TRUST!  I don't like how long it takes for me to get more Stone, so I'm off to get to the last source that's anywhere near me. Also, getting more stone is kinda important as I'm going to be building the most stone-intesive series of structures later on.  I really wish there was some way to get even a third Quarry/Mine onto Stone/Iron. I understand if it would be gated behind something else, but being limited to two points out of four is annoying some days.  Now, the Great Library and the Cathedral are not the tone intensive works I was talking about. Despite being pretty expensive in of themselves. The Cathedral is not only the largest Happiness provider in the game, it also makes all your Churches more effective just by existing. The Great Library provides a smaller bonus to normal Libraries, but it also does one other thing which I'll get to once I've built it.  The Great Hall has no mechanical effect. Yet. The game is still a work in progress, and while it is quite playable, the developers, Stone Lion Studios, are still refining and updating the game. I'll show it off perhaps next game.  I eventually save up the Gold required, and I put down the Great Library here. I should have paid more attention, as the 'entrance' to the Library is facing away from the road. It's going to take five years to build.  I think it's time to deal with this eyesore though. I've got plenty of Tools, with two Blacksmiths working on them, so I can remove both of these Stone piles, chop both forests, then put down a Statue of Levi.  It's Spring 47, and I notice my happiness is going down. So I check out the global modifiers, and what do I see? Well, the Taverns are an easy fix. I keep forgetting that they can only serve a certain population before they lose their effectiveness. But the Bathhouse? Oh, that's going to be a lot of work. And it's going to use up all the Stone.  The first step to having a Bath House is having a Noria, which is an odd choice for a name given that Noria is an Arabic word, and the rest of the game's visuals indicate a strong Germanic influence. The Noria-Aquaduct-Resevoir-Bathhouse also suggest Roman influence, so why not use the more Latin "Tympanum"? Be right back. Going to leave a note with the devs about this. ... Back!  I've been giggling ever since I saw this pond of fresh water. I can put two Noria's side by side here, and this will be BEAUTIFUL.  Screw the clipping through the ground, this is going to be awesome! The Noria, like the well, is a source of water for putting out fires. But, in order to move that water anywhere, we need...  Aqueducts! These structures allow water to flow from the Noria to either of the two end buildings, and they can be built over 'low' structures like Farms or roads. Which means that Roads now pull an extra duty of being were the water flows as well! However, each Noria can only support 16 tiles of connectivity. That's why I have a second one under construction adjacent to the one you see there.  In the Spring of 51, I've finally built enough Aqueducts to get to my first objective. The Reservoir is a building that gives every food-producing building within 12 tiles +1 food, and most importantly, it allows you to build farms and Orchards on Barren soil.  Look at all that beautiful Greenspace! And the Farms are now producing 10 food each! Yes, Richard Rudd, I am impressed with the new Aqueduct too. You should be glad one is being built over your plot of land.   It's beautiful!  And a barren tile ready for farming. Orchards are the best choice as they care less about the underlying soil quality than Farms. Less, but they do still care.  And the Great Library is finally built! It's no Library at Alexandria, but it will do. Also, requiring 30 people to operate? drat, I better push up my population. I'm only sitting at 400 right now. But the real use for the Great Library is this:  For a LOT of Gold, you can gain permanent bonuses to your city, for so long as the Great Library is staffed and funded. This is end-game stuff here, so don't expect me to push through to it right now.  And in Summer 53, after laying down water across the Farms, I finally put down the Bath House. This, once built in three years, will employ eight people, and provide a decent Happiness boost across the largest radius in the game - 15 tiles.  103 people sick? This is gonna suck....  And 52 of them died. That's gonna hurt my city for a while.  Shite....  Whelp, Levi is now built, and I have room for 500 peasants. But with only 386 in my town, it's time for another Festival to offset the Plague malus, and to ratchet up my growth again.  Also, the Bathhouse was finished. Very Roman. Much Politics. How Social.  Expanded Roads, more Farms, another Church and Tavern to support this end of the island.  And in Spring 59, over 500 pops! I think that's it for this run. At this point, it's just more of the same. Stagger new buildings, keep up the food and all will be well. So, unless you guys really want me to keep at this, I will start fresh next time with a new Island, and there will be Dragons! And Vikings!
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Jul 15, 2018 03:36
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Wow, the devs really have added a lot since I played! I'm looking forward to you leading loyal armies against the Vikings, and also covering the lands in aqueducts.
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Jul 15, 2018 04:45
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Ouch, that plague at the end was a little rough. If you are having trouble setting up a Noria due to lack of water access, you can built a moat to create a source of fresh water.
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Jul 15, 2018 05:12
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Aeromancia posted:If you are having trouble setting up a Noria due to lack of water access, you can built a moat to create a source of fresh water.
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Jul 15, 2018 05:20
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I remember playing one of those old.. Caesar games maybe? IE Sim City Rome Edition? And I was a kid who wasn't really good at sims anyway (as much as I liked them) and I just couldn't figure out how to make a good aqueduct system so my cities would all inevitably die of thirst and/or fire. Or pretty much any other way the game allowed, but aqueducts was the only mechanic I knew I had no idea what to do with.
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Jul 15, 2018 07:30
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Poking my nose in on this late as usual. Oddly, this was on my Steam wishlist as not interested - maybe because when I clicked it, it was early early access or something? I may have to reconsider as I read this LP.
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Jul 22, 2018 19:15
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Epsilon Moonshade posted:Poking my nose in on this late as usual. It's still a work in progress, that's for sure. Also took 106 pictures for the next update. Still have to find the time to write the update.
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Jul 23, 2018 00:23
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berryjon posted:No one will ever beat Magnasanti for that. I wouldn't even dream of it. No one remembers the max pop, max happiness utopia he made. Only the dystopia.
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Jul 23, 2018 00:40
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Epsilon Moonshade posted:Poking my nose in on this late as usual.
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Jul 23, 2018 00:53
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