Opening Builds

[Olleus]

I'm curious as to how people start their settlements. Mine are generally the same, at the very start. Before I unpause the game I set the following things to build, in this order of priority:
2 Woodcutter camps
1 Camp (for whatever resources are nearby, some type of food normally)
3 Houses
Paths tight around the main storage and hearth in a figure of 8
4 Decorations

I fill up the woodcutters completely (beavers if possible) and set them to beeline towards the closest safe glades but NOT to open them yet. The first batch of orders often asks to open a handful of glades, so I delay opening them just a little. Dangerous glades in year 1 feel far too risky IMO. I fill up the scavenger / harvester / stonecutter camp if I have the man power, but I always leave at least one as a builder for the houses. The initial paths are there both to speed up the most common places where they walk, and to provide a grid for where my other buildings go. Decorations bump up the hub for that sweet, sweet resolve.

After this it everything changes depending on circumstances. But picking and building blue prints for planks, fabric, and cooked foods are highest priority. Depending on loadout, this might mean temporarily using a rough workshop. A Trade Post is also a top priority (in order to not delay the first trader), but there's not need to build it right at the start as the timer starts ticking down even before building it. As such, and because it has no workers and nothing gets transported to or from it, I like to build it out of the way in one of the glades I open up early. This saves the space close to hearth/depot for the buildings that will make use of it.

I find that this start means I have a basic economy running, some idea of my environment, a solid base of resolve, and hopefully one or two orders completed before the first storm. I started playing this way back on Pioneer, and I find it still works on the first few Prestige levels very well after ~40h of play. How do other people play? I'm curious if my idiosyncrasies are any good, or if I should change my habits.

[Kyresti]

Depends on what's needed at the time. But generally I've got a fairly specific workflow.

2-3 woodcutter camps (3's if the best caravan has extra people in it)
crude workshop
trading post so I don't forget (though saving hearth-space is an interesting thought!)
maybe a resource camp if I've got some spare hands? Most caravans have enough food to last through Y1.

I've started delaying houses, as they're often unnecessary on Y1 and easy to set up

But generally I'll peek at the first set of blueprints. If there's obvious immediate synergy (say, a kiln/lumber mill on royal woodlands or a smelter on crimson forest) I'll try to rush that. If not, or if I'm undecided on like a remaining blueprint roll I'll go poking at a few safe glades first and get a feel for how the map's gonna treat me with resource patches and soil. Of course I've had one map be really nasty and have all the nearest ones dangerous. That was fun to figure out XD

Next up is seeing which orders proc, and getting a makeshift post up (or rarely a provisioner) if I'm seeing some semblance of food-stability early on. A lot of early orders ask for packs, and sometimes I can get lucky with easy trades. By now I've generally got a good enough feel for the map to know-ish? what production chains I'm likely to get.

Last things I try to focus before things start getting entirely map-specific are blightpost, where I want the decorations for the first hub upgrade, and what I need to do to clear at least a couple orders quickly. Blightpost since on P2 and above it becomes relevant pretty quickly with my playstyle, and orders so I'm not backed into a corner on blueprints.

If it's not going to tank resolve I'll generally start going for houses during the first storm, since I usually have most (if not all) the woodcutters free up to help with the building.

If anything I feel like your strat might be a bit better, though they're fairly similar. :3

[alexshiro]

(Pioneer, so fairly casual)
Stone T on left side
1 woodcutter (put 2 beavers in)
camps for resources (2 guys in if i need food, 1 on fiber or stone)
other woodcutter
4 houses
2 beavers in the other woodcutter when the houses start to ask for wood
benches behind the houses
rest of the stone 8
path out of the sides of the 8 as far as it will goas far as it will go
chill untill orders

What do you get from early post? I usually forget untill the base is complete or i'm stuck on the second set of orders, since that early I neither have amber or anything to trade

[HeathenSW]

I usually start the same build order, but I use 4x4 blocks all around the place. Also with opening glades my strategy shifted due to more embark points - I usually get oil, so there are a lot more chances that the first dangerous glade will be easy due to this. The only time I may open small glades is exactly in the first two years if I got some farm building plus no farm land in a dangerous glade and if the starting area is way too small for some reason. Also with embark points I try to get planks/fabric/bricks in this priority - sometimes it allows me to completely skip crude workshop that I dislike very much. Crude workshop, makeshift post and raincollector are very dangerous sources of blight on prestige 11, so I try to avoid them whenever I can.

Sometimes I forget about houses, since they are not that crucial for the first year. Plus on year two there is a chance that I can start with race houses skipping general ones alltogether.

Trade post I build sometime in the second year. It's a bit of a waste to place it in the first year. The only exception is when I get a perk that gives 10 amber per trader visit. Then trade post is needed ASAP.

I also look what I have in terms of raw food and forbid consumption of meat every time and sometimes forbid consumption of every type of raw food I don't have a node for. That way whenever I get to cook I will have more food.

I also unexpectedly come to dislike beavers after 59 hours of gameplay, so when I can I choose a caravan that doesn't have them. Sure they are good in industrial stuff and have more of a chance to double on wood production, but after some meta progression you can have everybody have the same bonus. But they are very hard to please, so I tend to roll with harpies (their hearth bonus is amazing plus blight post bonus production), lizards (meat, coal and cooked food for days) and humans (hearth bonus and farming). Plus all of the three get bonus resolve from jerky.

[Ghostlight]

I do not do houses until a lot later than OP since they really have no tangible effect in Y1 other than using your precious initial wood. Go for economy first with the initial wood.

[Olleus]

By houses I meant the basic shelter, that might have been unclear. The reason I prioritise them fairly highly i:
1) They're quick to build and cheap - wood is abundant, especially early on, that I really never run out in Y1 or Y2.
2) The extra resolve is handy the early orders that ask to be above a resolve threshold. Combined with lighter treatment and the hub upgrade (and maybe some food/clothing bought from a trader) they get over the threshold quickly. Getting a few extra blueprints in my pocket really helps plan what I'm doing after.
3) They give enough resolve to keep a couple of wood cutters running during the storm and counter any initial exploration I've done.

Race houses on the otherhand require a steady supply of building materials, I tend to delay those substantially to when I have a second hearth and am balancing pop between them to upgrade both as much as possible. For the initial orders, between those that involve new glades and those that require resolve, I find I don't need the makeshift post all that often. Which is good because it is super inefficient at converting stuff.

I'm curious in the idea of picking up oil as a load out. Is it that helpful for dangerous glades? Tools help everywhere, and there's usually one building material that can be used, but it's a substantial cost either way. Never noticed oil being there so often, but I can't remember ever using oil (or resin) much for anything, so maybe I've just been ignoring it.

As for caravans, I think lizards might be my favourite. They're easy to please, and always have a need for them. Beavers and humans are fine. Harpies only come in when population is high enough that reputation from resolve is a major factor. Early on they can be a pain to manage with storm.

[Lantantan]

I never bother with safe glades, not enough resources there for the permanent hostility penalty. I like to get use rain collector to get 40 dew to resolve a dangerous glade after the first storm. I always bring oil as starting bonus for dangerous glades too.

[HeathenSW]

Originally posted by Olleus:

I'm curious in the idea of picking up oil as a load out. Is it that helpful for dangerous glades? Tools help everywhere, and there's usually one building material that can be used, but it's a substantial cost either way. Never noticed oil being there so often, but I can't remember ever using oil (or resin) much for anything, so maybe I've just been ignoring it.

There are some events that can be solved with scrolls/incense/oil/tools/"blue tools". You will probably not have any of that in the first three years and the effects of these events can be brutal, so oil is nice to have if you were unlucky enough to roll any of these events.

Plus on some maps you don't have resin, so you will have no way of solving events that need it. It's usually resin/coal/sea marrow/oil and tools or something like that.

[Mossflower]

The order you place things is important because that is the priority they will be worked on. So the first thing I do is place a single woodcutter camp. Then I build paths in a circle around the hearth, and out to the camp along one of the path lines. Then I complete a hash pattern around the hearth in paths. Like this # all the way out to the trees. At the beginning, you have a ton of free workers without much to do. Paths are free to build and need no resources. Building them earlier gives you a big boost later and can be done very quickly at the start of the game. As soon as the woodcutter finishes, I fill it with three workers, and then place a second woodcutter camp, which is also filled when completed.

Next I build a crude workshop to start making planks. If I manage to pull a lumbermill, I build one of those quickly, and use that for building planks. Then I start building large settlements. Large settlements take 2 fewer squares than two small settlements and that gives you room for decorations. You can usually get two of them out before the storm and that's all you need for now.

[Olleus]

Originally posted by HeathenSW:

Originally posted by Olleus:

I'm curious in the idea of picking up oil as a load out. Is it that helpful for dangerous glades? Tools help everywhere, and there's usually one building material that can be used, but it's a substantial cost either way. Never noticed oil being there so often, but I can't remember ever using oil (or resin) much for anything, so maybe I've just been ignoring it.

There are some events that can be solved with scrolls/incense/oil/tools/"blue tools". You will probably not have any of that in the first three years and the effects of these events can be brutal, so oil is nice to have if you were unlucky enough to roll any of these events.

Plus on some maps you don't have resin, so you will have no way of solving events that need it. It's usually resin/coal/sea marrow/oil and tools or something like that.

I think the fishmen cave is one of them?

I'm curious as to what the minimum set of resources is to be able to handle any dangerous glade event.

Just tools (12) can do it I think, but they're hard to find. I tend to buy them from traders whenever appropriate. I think planks (24) + fabric (24) + bricks (24) + resin/oil/coal/fossil (36?) might also work? Any other combination that people are aware of?

Getting dangerous glades is super powerful, but I'm loathe to enter one if I don't think I have a very good chance of solving it before the storm. With some events taking 5min to resolve, even opening a glade right at the start of drizzle only leaves a couple of minutes to gather resources and transport them. Not much time to respond, even by forcing a trader to arrive.

[Olleus]

Originally posted by Mossflower:

The order you place things is important because that is the priority they will be worked on.

You can also just manually set building priority, which is much easier IMO

[Lantantan]

Really, with 30 oil you're able to solve about 90% of dangerous glades. 30 coal is more like a 50%. Thing is you'd like to save that 30 oil until it's the only option. Often 40 dew also works, and sometimes 20 planks are sufficient. So these are things to get ready in the first year, along with cutting a path. Playing on prestige 20 btw, so getting the early game perfect is pretty important.

[happybjorn]

2 woodcutters and a trading post. I also take whoever is assigned to the hearth off of it and leave the hearth untended for the first minute to minute and a half. Everything else depends on the map.

The trading post is to use the call trader button asap (it may even be worth using the button if you have the decreased time between traders forest mystery, although you should time it so your first cornerstone becomes available before the trader arrives. Don't actually trade until your first set of orders comes up). Very rarely the trader will have nothing you want, or can afford, and the cost is half a point of impatience. Most of the time you can get some building materials (to get your buildings up and running), resources for glade events, or a blueprint or useful buff.

[Starseed]

Originally posted by Olleus:

I'm curious as to how people start their settlements. Mine are generally the same, at the very start. Before I unpause the game I set the following things to build, in this order of priority:
2 Woodcutter camps
1 Camp (for whatever resources are nearby, some type of food normally)
3 Houses
Paths tight around the main storage and hearth in a figure of 8
4 Decorations

I fill up the woodcutters completely (beavers if possible) and set them to beeline towards the closest safe glades but NOT to open them yet. The first batch of orders often asks to open a handful of glades, so I delay opening them just a little. Dangerous glades in year 1 feel far too risky IMO. I fill up the scavenger / harvester / stonecutter camp if I have the man power, but I always leave at least one as a builder for the houses. The initial paths are there both to speed up the most common places where they walk, and to provide a grid for where my other buildings go. Decorations bump up the hub for that sweet, sweet resolve.

After this it everything changes depending on circumstances. But picking and building blue prints for planks, fabric, and cooked foods are highest priority. Depending on loadout, this might mean temporarily using a rough workshop. A Trade Post is also a top priority (in order to not delay the first trader), but there's not need to build it right at the start as the timer starts ticking down even before building it. As such, and because it has no workers and nothing gets transported to or from it, I like to build it out of the way in one of the glades I open up early. This saves the space close to hearth/depot for the buildings that will make use of it.

I find that this start means I have a basic economy running, some idea of my environment, a solid base of resolve, and hopefully one or two orders completed before the first storm. I started playing this way back on Pioneer, and I find it still works on the first few Prestige levels very well after ~40h of play. How do other people play? I'm curious if my idiosyncrasies are any good, or if I should change my habits.

Here are screenshots of my layout. I pretty much do the same as what most are saying with the foundation buildings around the hearth. I have to show this one off because I achieved the neighbourhood hub level for the hearth this game by placing the "service building" and got it completed. I then do as someone suggested to me, I clear the area around the hearth to allow for housing expansion and space for the service building and place any other necessary camps. In this one I had two annoying farm fields right within the hearth area but had to utilize then as that is all I got for a food building this game and still won on pioneer level! I managed to do that by doing what someone has suggested by "tunneling" to the big glades. I avoided one that was red meaning it was going to be tougher and could have released one of those nasties that wipes out your villagers! Half way through this I had high impatience, until I then managed to get the resources to work the glades then it swapped over and I won it. As I tunnel through and open areas, I then lay down the buildings I have on the way and try to place warehouses every second glade opening.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2888408113
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2888408126
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2888408141

[Olleus]

Originally posted by Starseed:

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2888408113
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2888408126

That's.... rather tough to look at :( I don't want to be rude, but I genuinely don't understand what made you build something like that, but I think a lack of understanding of the key game mechanics is at least partly responsible (an unfamiliarity with strategic thinking might be the other). I suddenly understand why you've been complaining so much about how hard the game is for a week... I'd recommend reading through everything under the "readmore" alerts you've left on the screen (or at least close them!). Possibly playing the tutorial again and reading everything that you're told, mousing over every element of the UI to read what it says. Watch what happens in the game for a bit, how pop go from one place to another, what they spend their time doing. Then you might be in a position to play better.

Population needs to go from their workplace to the warehouse all the time to pick up/drop off resources. They need to go to the hearth every ~2min for their break to eat/rest/get clothes/services. Yet you've made that as difficult as possible for them by:
1) Having work places, for the most part, be miles away from those two key buildings
2) Not having roads leading to the entrances two key buildings
3) Almost completely blocking access to the warehouse with tons of shelters. I don't know how anyone actually manages to make it to the storage in that set up.
4) Not only are you production buildings far away, but you haven't even cut a direct line of the forest to them, instead having a path wind the long way around.

In short, your layout is almost exactly the opposite of optimal. Roads should be in an "8" around the hearth and storage, and go out radially from there. Production buildings should be as close to the entrance to the storage as possible. Shelter/Houses/Decorations can be anywhere within the range of the Hearth and are never visited, so might as well be placed out of the way. Camps go where they must, adjacent to the resources they are gathering, but ones closer to the storage should be prioritised.

[lethminite]

Originally posted by Olleus:

That's.... rather tough to look at :( I don't want to be rude, but I genuinely don't understand what made you build something like that

It actually looks quite lovely, with little paths, and nice space between buildings. lots of seats near the fire. Bits of detail work.
Ignoring game mechanics, it looks more "town" like than properly built towns.

But yes, for practicality, all the production should be around the storehouse/hearth, with houses on the outer edge of the fire's range, and decorations filling in any gaps.