One too many

[harken23]

I've owned this since before the Foxes were introduced in EA, for the record.

I started a new game not long ago, and I'm at about the 60-bread-per-upgrade stage. I'm finding that, the farther up the upgrade ladder I go, the less fun the game is. It's not that it gets harder, it's just that, for instance, the buildings picks get less useful as there are more choices available. IE, I was just playing, and already had a 2* pickled goods shop, and in the next set of (4) building choices, 3 of them make pickled goods (and I'm out of re-rolls and amber).

Also not sure what the Conditions screen means, in the Embarkation phase or the mouseover in, like, the Trader screen. I was picking a Cornerstone, and didn't take the +2 leather (Drying Racks, I think), because according to the conditions, there was no leather there. Later on I look at my supplies, and I'm getting leather from somewhere (and could have had triple that amt if I'd know there was actually leather there).

I opened a Bronze Seal, and I'm not sure what I got for it. Seal fragments? Do they just turn into bread when you end the cycle? That's the only thing I've ever seen them do.

Archaeologists Hut? I've excavated one or two ruins, but never got the blueprint to build it, is it more of an abstraction than an actual, physical building? That whole business is lost on me.

And I haven't even gotten to the Blight Rot and all that stuff. At this point it's unlikely I'll even play past the point where you have to unlock it, just because it's another pain in the arse to deal with.

Is there a downside to abandoning a settlement or ending a cycle early?

I like the game a lot, but it gets less entertaining as I go on. I'm not interested in being a power gamer who masters every mechanic, and it appears that's the only way to continue my current save.

[arjensmit79]

The double recipes, yes of course happens. I don't find it such an issue. Usually you just use a building for 1 recipe anyway. So the fact that 1 of the 3 is a copy of what you already have shouldn't matter too much.

The conditions shows only the primary resources. Your resource nodes however also provide secondary resources. Leather is a secondary from meat nodes. The devs read here too, maybe they can take this as a suggestion to add this info to the conditions screen. (they are that cool yes, they read everything and often take requests)

The archaologist hut surely is a blueprint. It is available at the start of the game when you're in the scarlet orchard biome Its main function is to tell you where you can find the excavation sites. Though you can choose to gain some perks instead of that information. https://hoodedhorse.com/wiki/Against_the_Storm/Scarlet_Orchard

Abandoning a game in the cycle costs you the years in the cycle that you spent on it with a minimum of 3. Also its a tarnish on your record of course. No more 100% winrate ;)

Yes the game is in it's design more suited for the perfectionist gamer who likes to micro the ♥♥♥♥ out of his games. The amount of mechanics however isn't that bad, of course you will need to get used to them a bit. Thats why they are introduced gradually, so you learn them 1 by 1. There won't be much more mechanics though, its not like the tech tree is full of new mechanics all the way to level 20. They are all in the bottom part.

[harken23]

Originally posted by arjensmit79:

The double recipes, yes of course happens. I don't find it such an issue. Usually you just use a building for 1 recipe anyway. So the fact that 1 of the 3 is a copy of what you already have shouldn't matter too much.

The conditions i think shows only the primary resources. Your resource nodes however also provide secondary resources. I think leather is a secondary from meat nodes.

The archaologist hut surely is a blueprint. It is available at the start of the game when you're in the scarlet orchard biome Its main function is to tell you where you can find the excavation sites. Though you can choose to gain some perks instead of that information. https://hoodedhorse.com/wiki/Against_the_Storm/Scarlet_Orchard

Abandoning a game in the cycle costs you the years in the cycle that you spent on it with a minimum of 3. Also its a tarnish on your record of course. No more 100% winrate ;)

Yes the game is in it's design more suited for the perfectionist gamer who likes to micro the ♥♥♥♥ out of his games. The amount of mechanics however isn't that bad, of course you will need to get used to them a bit. Thats why they are introduced gradually, so you learn them 1 by 1. There won't be much more mechanics though, its not like the tech tree is full of new mechanics all the way to level 20. They are all in the bottom part.

What's the point of the training missions? I get to build a settlement that doesn't actually produce anything in the overall game? Why would I want to do that? I def don't want to spend precious upgrade material on something that useless that I won't use.

And the seals make no sense, either. I know there's no endgame, exactly (tho there are rooguelites, etc that do), but am I just turning them in at the end of the cycle for a few Citadel upgrade items? Last time I think I turned one in and got 9 breads. Woo.

[glitzerpaillette]

Originally posted by harken23:

And the seals make no sense, either. I know there's no endgame, exactly (tho there are rooguelites, etc that do), but am I just turning them in at the end of the cycle for a few Citadel upgrade items? Last time I think I turned one in and got 9 breads. Woo.

You don't turn them in. You finish a seal, you get longer cycles, i.e. more time before the next storm, which means more time for your next cycle. And yes, some more ressources.
Plus, seal games are different. Some people like that variety

[el Darkness]

Seal Biome is like a boss fight translated to fit AtS. Your reward is prolonged cycle by 8 years and possibility to fight even harder boss/map next time, also more resources, latter seals tend to give much more resources.

[harken23]

Originally posted by el Darkness:

Seal Biome is like a boss fight translated to fit AtS. Your reward is prolonged cycle by 8 years and possibility to fight even harder boss/map next time, also more resources, latter seals tend to give much more resources.

So the cycle is longer. What does that get you? One more settlement per, probably? I'm not sure how that helps, since, to my mind, the first settlement of a cycle is pretty much identical to the last settlement of a cycle. I don't get anything at the end of one, other than the like 9 breads from the seal fragments, which would probably be like 2 more with a longer cycle.

[harken23]

Originally posted by harken23:

Originally posted by el Darkness:

Seal Biome is like a boss fight translated to fit AtS. Your reward is prolonged cycle by 8 years and possibility to fight even harder boss/map next time, also more resources, latter seals tend to give much more resources.

So the cycle is longer. What does that get you? One more settlement per, probably? I'm not sure how that helps, since, to my mind, the first settlement of a cycle is pretty much identical to the last settlement of a cycle. I don't get anything at the end of one, other than the like 9 breads from the seal fragments, which would probably be like 2 more with a longer cycle.

I guess you can travel out farther, is that the idea?

[arjensmit79]

Originally posted by harken23:

Originally posted by el Darkness:

Seal Biome is like a boss fight translated to fit AtS. Your reward is prolonged cycle by 8 years and possibility to fight even harder boss/map next time, also more resources, latter seals tend to give much more resources.

So the cycle is longer. What does that get you? One more settlement per, probably? I'm not sure how that helps, since, to my mind, the first settlement of a cycle is pretty much identical to the last settlement of a cycle. I don't get anything at the end of one, other than the like 9 breads from the seal fragments, which would probably be like 2 more with a longer cycle.

The seals require a number of shards. Each settlement rewards you with shards depending on the difficulty level. So you will need more settlements or settlements on higher difficulties to close higher level seals. The extra years you gain make this possible. When you get up to higher seals you may find that the number of years is a limiting factor for getting enough shards.

You will also find exclamation marks on the world map. These are map events and they reward you with caravan bonusses for the remainder of the cycle. In short cycles like you have now, those are not that great and you are better of collecting lots of reserve embarkation points. For the latest seals, you will have enough years that you can do many settlements and collect many of those caravan bonusses.

For my current cycle for the adamantine seal (in QHT) i have the following caravan bonusses:
-30 grain
-30 eggs
-40 veggies
-30 amber
-20 pipes
-3 parts
-15 packs of provision
-30 oil
-30 sea marrow
-5 citizens
-3 wildfire essence
-20 tools
-40 stones
-20 planks

And 22 more years to find even more !
Collecting as much of these as you can is fun.

[Skallagrim]

As the cycle gets longer and you venture further away from Smoldering City, it's definitely not the same. The minimum difficulty gets higher and your starting embarkation points get fewer. But you also accumulate a lot of in-cycle bonuses as mentioned in the post above.

[Overeagerdragon]

Originally posted by harken23:

Originally posted by harken23:

So the cycle is longer. What does that get you? One more settlement per, probably? I'm not sure how that helps, since, to my mind, the first settlement of a cycle is pretty much identical to the last settlement of a cycle. I don't get anything at the end of one, other than the like 9 breads from the seal fragments, which would probably be like 2 more with a longer cycle.

I guess you can travel out farther, is that the idea?

Being able to travel further is ONE of the perks... Keep in mind that a longer cycle means more attempts to get seals, more upgrade materials earnt per cycle, more settlements to trade with and that's aside from the idea that the further out you go the higher the rewards become (albeit at higher difficulty too ofc)....

Eventually; having to build those first 3 settlements are a bit of a slog, ngl; because you would have to play REALLY bad to actually lose them and you end up just "going through the motions" even if you play them on higher difficulty... ofc you can still get a loss if you happen to play on prestige and get REALLY bad rng...

[Dosbilliam, Boring but Practical]

Originally posted by harken23:

What's the point of the training missions? I get to build a settlement that doesn't actually produce anything in the overall game? Why would I want to do that? I def don't want to spend precious upgrade material on something that useless that I won't use.

And the seals make no sense, either. I know there's no endgame, exactly (tho there are rooguelites, etc that do), but am I just turning them in at the end of the cycle for a few Citadel upgrade items? Last time I think I turned one in and got 9 breads. Woo.

Training missions are just that, training; they're practice without actually messing with the run you're currently on. The Seals extend the length of time you have before the Blightstorm hits, meaning each run can go on longer and you can go farther away from the city to hit farther Seals; the fragments are required to actually ATTEMPT to finish a Seal and any extras convert to upgrade resources at the end of a given run.