Ancient Tablets and Archaeology

[Olleus]

I've had a weird game with a hard start, that turned into my fastest and highest scoring win on the highest difficulty I've played so far (Prestige 11). I put it down to a single factor: the benefits that ancient tablets give with the archaeology post and the way that synergises with certain perks.

Here is what the settlement looked like at the end (I'm annoyed that I didn't get the "no deaths" bonus due to blights killing some pop half a second before I burnt the offending cyst...):
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2893533139
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2893533492

It did not start very well. My initial blueprints were all fairly useless. I didn't get a brick making building until very late, and even then I never had a reliable source of stone/clay. I struggled with food for a long time because the map contained more fertile land than food nodes, but the RNG stubbornly refused to give me any type of farm and only offered jerky making buildings on a map with no meat/insects.

But I was lucky with orders and could complete the first batch quickly. The map had the watch tower modifier (no hostility from opening glades) which made that easier than normal. That turned into a few ancient tablets. Being able to explore freely meant I found the first dig site quickly too. In all the glades I opened I picked the option that gave ancient tablets - an option that seems more common in scarlet orchard. Then I built the Archaeological Post and got the options that reduce hostility and boost production per ancient tablet (no need to boost carrying capacity when it was already at 20). This meant I could explore and solve events ever faster, leading to more ancient tablets. I picked up the perks that gave me resolve and some resources for opening glades at this point leading to the whole thing snowballing.

Importantly, I resisted the temptation to sell my ancient tablets to the trader, even when I could really have used the gold.

Long story short, I ended up with 16 ancient tablets at the start of year 5, giving me something like -200 hostility and +100% bonus resource chance, despite an underwhelming start. That turned into tons of reputation quickly, to the extent that I finished with ~20.5 reputation from completing the archaeological dig just before I was about to win from resolve. Also called a trader to sell the ancient tables at the last moment for extra score.

Why am I sharing this? Yes, I admit it, it's partly to show off lol. Also to highlight how powerful archaeology is after the latest patch. But mostly to show that that what the RNG gods can taketh away in bad blueprint rolls, they can giveth back in insane map/perk/cornerstone synergies.

[HeathenSW]

I envy your luck, what can I say :D

I had an amazingly terrible run the other day on prestige 14 myself with that modifier where you can't favor anyone and can't control what they consume. Couple of events in the first two opened glades about dead species that give -12 resolve to one species if you work on them and if you don't work on them spawn 2 living matter, open vault event, no farm buildings rolling... Hunger for years. I think that I didn't luck out on planks production till the very end and only because in one glade there was an abandoned lumber mill.

Amazingly terrible. Won only due to the archeological sites basically and having 21 tablets in the end - 80% of the run was around 10 impatience and race against the clock.

-315 hostiliy helped a lot (don't mind 11 hostility level lol - lighthouse, fishmen cave and lightning rod events are being worked on at the same time):
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2893547780

More carrying capacity is also tons of fun with such amount of tablets, basically zero time for transport needed if a single worker can carry that much. A whole village of Hulks I suppose:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2893547754

I'm quite liking the changes to archeology office and the profits of holding tablets instead of selling them.

[Olleus]

Sounds like you're being punished for being too greedy and working on all those dangerous glade events at the same time. What were you thinking!?! The RNG gods don't like hubris :p.

[HeathenSW]

Nah, I only go skyhigh on hostility if it's just after the storm. All's calculated to finish before the next storm, plus bonemarrow is being sacrificed. Plus it's the last year, since there was archeology site finishing up and some crates to give me 1 final point. Open vault was being pretty somewhere the whole game, since I couln't even touch it this game. Also had modifiers that gave more living matter if anyone died during the storm and living matter on farm fields. Yikes, what a map it was.

If it was not for that I'd be commiting unlife by doing so, you are right :D Normally I work on a single, maybe on two events at the same time.

[Olleus]

Haha, fair enough. Yeah, no planks for ages must really hurt. No bricks annoyed me enough and that's nowhere near as critical. A combination of bad modifiers and bad glade events can also certainly grind the game to a halt. That's why I'm not keen to try prestige 12, I'm not super keen on having my options restricted so much more.

But -315 hostility is so overwhelming. I wonder if the balance is too extreme now: on other maps ancient tablets should usually be sold (unless the queen wants one or you have the right perks), but on scarlet orchard they should never be sold. What was a real decision is now a no-brainer, and the dig takes a back seat compared to what you get from tablets. I think that changing one of the options on the archaeology post to something like "Ancient tablets sell for 3x the normal price" would add more diversity back into scarlet orchard.

[OverThere]

Epic run Olleus! Thanks for sharing.

I agree that now archaeology is a bit too powerful for the cost. Prior to the recent changes, archaeology was not worth the investment. Now it's the opposite. Very cheap, high powered upgrades usually make it the obvious path to win when you are on the Scarlet Glade.

[Lantantan]

I do enjoy a good brag, nice one OP!

[Olleus]

Originally posted by Lantantan:

I do enjoy a good brag, nice one OP!

It's nothing compared to the difficulty you and others play at haha. But I must admit, looking at the Prestige modifiers at 12 and up, I'm not tempted to try them. Partly because I'm a coward who doesn't want to risk losing my 32/32 win stats, but I also like to have a challenge without feeling like I'm treading water and struggling to survive. I've even moved back down to Prestige 7, I think that's the right balance for me: it keeps me on my toes but still lets me enjoy the fantasy of building an awesome settlement.

[HeathenSW]

Jesus christ can it scale with hidden reward cornerstone. Especially if you roll it thrice :D Had like 140 of them tablets in the end. I've never had glade events take 1 second to do.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2895103938
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2895103958
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2895103974
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2895106471
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2895104076

Prestige 15 never have been so easy, with shole map explored and every not small glade opened. Should've taken more carry capacity to check how absurd it'd be, but alas - it's the only perk that is a bit weaker than other tablet dependant ones. And you are right, on this biome now under no circumstance should you sell ancient tablets - only if you want an extra hard time. I kinda like the suggested perk of x3 on tablet sell prices tho. Could add the necessary diversity.

[OverThere]

With the current version of Archaeology, Scarlet Orchard becomes super easy if you know what you are doing.

[Olleus]

Originally posted by HeathenSW:

Jesus christ can it scale with hidden reward cornerstone. Especially if you roll it thrice :D Had like 140 of them tablets in the end. I've never had glade events take 1 second to do.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2895103938
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2895103958
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2895103974
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2895106471
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2895104076

Prestige 15 never have been so easy, with shole map explored and every not small glade opened. Should've taken more carry capacity to check how absurd it'd be, but alas - it's the only perk that is a bit weaker than other tablet dependant ones. And you are right, on this biome now under no circumstance should you sell ancient tablets - only if you want an extra hard time. I kinda like the suggested perk of x3 on tablet sell prices tho. Could add the necessary diversity.

Wow. Insane. Were you deliberately milking the end there to explore as much as possible?

How did you get the event working time so low though?? +700% means 8 times faster so it should take ~50s rather than 7min30. Or does this perk reduce time taken rather than increase work speed? Those are not the same thing, especially when you stack up the percentage modifiers high.

[HeathenSW]

Originally posted by Olleus:

Wow. Insane. Were you deliberately milking the end there to explore as much as possible?

Yeah, I could've won at year 6 I think, but decided to stretch, since it was the last city for the cycle. I started to forbid consumption on everything even if I didn't have it so deliberate hunger all the way. It's weird when resolve is around 2-3, then you allow them to eat some insects and within a minute resolve is at 30+ :D

Originally posted by Olleus:

How did you get the event working time so low though?? +700% means 8 times faster so it should take ~50s rather than 7min30. Or does this perk reduce time taken rather than increase work speed? Those are not the same thing, especially when you stack up the percentage modifiers high.

Hmm, I actually think that it may reduce time taken, since we can see only it and not work speed parameter. I think that it's the only modifier that I got towards changing this, but I may be mistaken. Will need to check the next time I play orchard.