Trading/Economy?

[Schwift Master]

So I've been seeing this game for a while.. reviews leave me iffy on it. I'm tempted to try on sale, but still not sure if it's ready for me..

Is trading and economy a factor in it at all? Is producing goods and selling them and buying them a big part of the game?

I see there is no combat.. so what's the loop? The reviews that left my iffy said its a big grind.. that the citizens are useless and can't even drink water on their own. That tools and things are priced crazy and unrealistically. Is that accurate? Is there a good amount of automation or will I be the one chopping every tree and plucking every crop?

Any info is appreciated. I'm really Interested after reading praise on the devs attention to detail, but it makes me wonder if the game just looks good or if it has good mechanics to back it up as well..

[Morri]

It's a great game with amazing atmosphere and looks stunning, and I absolutely love it, but it's not for everyone.

Your character is a peasant; and while you do have permission to build in the valley and therefore can build your own settlement and recruit people, a peasant is all you'll ever be. Many of the complaints come from people expecting raids, and castles and knights and lots of combat where you end up becoming a lord or a king. This game is not about that; but has a more peaceful intake where it simulates the life of a peasant in this era and region.

As for the economy part, you can obviously buy and trade goods, but imo that part is not that deep. Later in the game money is really easy to come by as well, and once you have all blueprints unlocked, there's not really any need for more money other than an achievement.
I play on 1000% taxes and some self imposed rules to have more challenge money wise :-)

About the big grind, that complaint comes mostly from people with not much patience imo. You can fully automate your village so that everything your villagers need is produced by other villagers (including the tools they need for their work) so that in the end you won't have to lift a finger anymore. Obviously you are not gonna get there immediately straight away. You'll need to expand your village, your villagers need to get more skilled etc. So in the beginning you will definitely need to help out as well.

But If the "grind" bothers you, the game is highly customizable (also for existing saves). You can for example have your villagers gain xp quicker, unlock technology quicker etc. Reduce their needs so you can recruit more of them and expand quicker.
Fastcrafting and fastbuilding for yourself so you don't have to wait for each item to be crafted or do that many hammerclicks etc.

I personally did the opposite and made everything slower to unlock. Because I enjoy working towards something, and I find it fun to RP and have my character have to work hard (he IS a medieval farmer after all!) and to slowly pluck the fruit of my labours.

As for what's there to do without combat? Slowly seeing your village thrive, your son growing up and taking over (that does take quite some ingame time), decorating the village, trying to perfect and automate everything, finding different spots on the map to build, ... Ofc there's also the small story arc, where you arrived at the valley looking for your uncle.
As for me; I enjoy having a story in my head and rp'ing that; keeping my village deliberately small and not recruiting more people so I can see it slowly expanding over generations.

Definitely check out some youtube videos about it to make sure it's something you would enjoy.