Just finished my first pioneer settlement!

[[GWJ] Puce Moose]

Very late to the party here - I just discovered the game a few days ago. I'm typically not a big fan of rogue-lites, but the promise of one mixed with a city builder was very intriguing.

I made it through the tutorial without too much trouble and decided to give the next level, Pioneer, a try (mainly because of the huge jump in rewards). I actually had to stop woodcutters during the storm (something I didn't have to do in Settler), so it was a nice, noticeable jump in difficulty. I had a perpetual shortage of stone, which made for some interesting choices.

Anyway, I am feeling a little bit overwhelmed on the City Upgrades. I see a lot of basic game tips/settlement tips/etc. for beginners, but almost nothing on recommended city upgrades. Anything to chase right away to unlock, or is it a case of "doesn't matter, gotta catch 'em all?"

So far I really like the lizards, so I find it interesting that they seem to be the least favorite race from the bits I've read. I love how easy to please they are (and thus to start generating rep), compared to those grumpy beavers. I suspect when I get out of the woodlands I'll start to appreciate the beavers a lot more, with their better wood skills.

I also wonder if some of the cornerstones are better at the higher difficulties, as so many of them just seem flat out terrible. Some nearly made my eyes bulge at how good they were (Silent Looting, Crowded (the one that lets your houses hold an extra villager), and the woodcutter one (even though it makes you lose all of your fuel.)) I've been trying to never use the "Decline and get $10" option, as I'm hoping it will help me learn that even the crappiest of cornerstones might have their uses.

[Hariman]

Congratulations!

[mike42_de]

Nice. It takes some time to learn the mechanics. I also started not long ago. Found this guide https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2910831094 very helpful. Try to take the city upgrades which are most helpful to produce the goods for the needs of your guys you play in the map. It might be different for combination beavers - humans than for lizards - harpies eg

[MagpieOAO]

Congratulations!

Likewise late to the party, but as for your questions;

There are some fundamental city upgrades for trade routes and rainpunk which add mechanics to the game, very important ones. I think also the ability to choose your races might be very handy and some unlocks give "X race" as a embarkation item which means you can lock in that race for a map, very handy.

RE trade routes, trading is incredibly useful. The routes themselves are OK but the ability to buy whatever you need from a trader, whether fuel, food or materials in a pinch is absolutely fantastic way to work around the RNG thrown at you. But even traders have RNG.
The trading post doesn't operate on logistics (no one runs it or carries stuff to and from it) so build it away from your hearth, so that hearth-space can be used for thins that need it.
And you can probably wait until after you've opened a bunch of glades and finished orders, so you actually have things to trade.

Bad cornerstones are a good opportunity to get amber and trade for things you actually need in a pinch.
Some are very niche but can also be broken powerful. Say the blood money one where you get amber for people leaving/dying. On higher difficulties you could have humans, who are very hard to break, and harpies who would basically be free money.

[arjensmit79]

I advise to pursue the following upgrades first:

First and foremost, push up the third and fourth collumn to get the top priority upgrades:
-"Stocked caravans", 20% more embarkation bonus" (counts for everything, not just the things you add to your embark caravan, so this is HUGE)
-"more citadel resources" (more resources = faster to get the rest of the tree)
-"increased town vision range" (not only more options, but settling further away also gives more rewards, so this is super duper important)
-Embarkation points.

With some remaining points you want the cheap but important early picks:
-Trade routes (and use them !)
-Embarkation bonus: newcomers
-Embarkation bonus: meat
(newcomers and food are your basic and most used embarkation bonusses, later also amber)

Next priority is about halfway up the leftmost collumn, another stocked caravans for 20% more embarkation bonus, and amber embarkation option.

With that you are setup to sail trough the rest of the tree as easy and fast as possible. The rest is "doesn't matter, gotta catch 'em all"
(there is actually another set of "more citidel resources and "town vision" higher up the tree, but thats too high up to worry about right now)

[[GWJ] Puce Moose]

Thanks for the responses everyone. I made it to my first question mark on the map, but I don't think I'll be able to reach the bronze seal in time. Oh well, I have one more settlement before (presumably) the cycle ends. We'll see if my first shot at a cursed royal woodlands map is a success or a tragic failure. That "can't see glades" condition sounds kind of scary. Rumor has it ghosts wander the woods here...

Oh, and a UI question - is it possible to save camera locations on the map and quickly jump between them with hotkeys? I know H takes you back to your main hearth, but it would be nice to be able to save other camera view locations (second hearth, woodcutters, glade events, etc.) to quickly jump to. I couldn't find an option in the key bindings, so it may simply not be possible right now.

[Clawyer]

The closest to what you want might be to build specific buildings at those locations and then switch through them via the arrows.
Warehouses might be the right decision but that depends on what you are trying to mark..?

[[GWJ] Puce Moose]

Originally posted by Clawyer:

The closest to what you want might be to build specific buildings at those locations and then switch through them via the arrows.

That's a good idea. I could use something cheap like a makeshift post and plop it down to an area of the map I want to quickly return to via the arrow building cycling.

On an unrelated note, I just reached the part of the upgrade tree when you can unlock rainpunk stuff. One thing I'm curious about - does it replace glade deposits/events with the geyser, or is it in addition to the regular deposits? From what I've read the rainpunk integration seems to divide people quite a bit on its usefulness, so if it just replaces existing glade resources I might pursue another upgrade tree path for awhile.

[马小褂]

on lower diffculty lizards are probably the best species.

some of the previous discussions on lizards being the least favorite specie is based on p20 difficulty modifers - 50% chance of cosuming double food and higher hunger penality means food can be very scarce, and lizards eat more than humans/beavers/foxes. also you will need more reputation points to win but lizards have the highest decadence so it gets way harder to please them for the late game.

on beavers, their biggest advantage on higher difficulty is actually their trait of +1 trading offer from all neighbouring towns. so for upgrades, definitely try to get those species trait first

[Farmbuyer Misfortunado]

Originally posted by GWJ Puce Moose:

On an unrelated note, I just reached the part of the upgrade tree when you can unlock rainpunk stuff. One thing I'm curious about - does it replace glade deposits/events with the geyser, or is it in addition to the regular deposits?

I just recently unlocked rainpunk myself, and as far as I can tell it's in addition. At least, I haven't noticed the glades suddenly containing fewer of other things.

From what I've read the rainpunk integration seems to divide people quite a bit on its usefulness, so if it just replaces existing glade resources I might pursue another upgrade tree path for awhile.

Even if you don't take full advantage of the building integrations -- and in fairness, sometimes it's really hard to get that many pipes if RNGesus has decided not to bless you with copper ore or magic crystallized-dew-bearing trees or traders carrying pipes or etcetera -- it's usually worth it to build the geysers themselves just for the water. Many dangerous glade events have a solve option using rainwater, and a lot of production recipes have a crystallized dew option. With the first geyser upgrade it gets a robot worker so you don't even need to assign a villager.

[Spacesuit Spiff]

Glad you found the game, this genre mashup looked totally insane until I thought about it and went 'wait that's actually genius'.

Relative to the playtime the people posting here have, you'll finish the citadel fairly quick and then the game becomes much closer to a true roguelike. Since nearly everybody here is posting from that perspective, there'll be a lot in this thread that isn't necessarily applicable

[[GWJ] Puce Moose]

Thanks again for all of the responses. I was just about to unlock some more tech (haven't spent anything yet this cycle), but then I noticed that I think I can reach the bronze seal for the first time. I noticed that the mouseover on the seal reads "+10% citadel resources at the end of the cycle". Does that mean that it increases my existing unspent resources by 10% at the end of the cycle, implying it's smarter to not spend any resources during a "seal run" cycle?

One other question: When you move a building that's actively producing/carrying to storage, do you lose the resources that the workers were hauling?

[el Darkness]

I think reforging a seal will give you bonus currency based on how much you have earned during this run, not based on how much unspent you have.

When moving a building you will not loose anything that is being moved or in store, but you will lose progress for whatever is being produced at the moment.

[[GWJ] Puce Moose]

I just finished off my first bronze seal! That was a fun map - I didn't expect the multi-layered "fight" against the seal monster, and some of those special storms were something to see. I bet the "double storm length no sacrificing during storm" one has ended more than one higher-level run. Even on Pioneer I had to keep an eye on things, as the majority of my population was harpies and lizards, and I didn't have access to harpy/lizard houses, or the ability to make jerky until nearly the end. The cool animation at the end during the sealing process was a nice touch as well.

Originally posted by el Darkness:

I think reforging a seal will give you bonus currency based on how much you have earned during this run, not based on how much unspent you have.

Yep, that was indeed the way it worked. One thing that surprised me a bit was that the "seal mission" told me I was embarking early. I did it anyway, to make sure I had a shot at the seal, but it looks like as long as you end within your travel distance of the seal (two hexes for me currently - I wonder if travel vision helps extend that?) you still get a shot at it. Is that true even if you "run out the clock" on the cycle time? As in, if you are within range of the seal at the end of the cycle, do you still get one shot at the seal, regardless of the amount of years left?

[Clawyer]

Originally posted by GWJ Puce Moose:

Yep, that was indeed the way it worked. One thing that surprised me a bit was that the "seal mission" told me I was embarking early. I did it anyway, to make sure I had a shot at the seal, but it looks like as long as you end within your travel distance of the seal (two hexes for me currently - I wonder if travel vision helps extend that?) you still get a shot at it. Is that true even if you "run out the clock" on the cycle time? As in, if you are within range of the seal at the end of the cycle, do you still get one shot at the seal, regardless of the amount of years left?

You can play your last settlement before the cycle ends as long as you want to and then afterwards, when the "End Cycle" button is already active, still embark to forge the seal. It's still a good ide to have the second to last settlement close enough to the seal that even if you fail the last settlement you still have a chance to reforge, but yeah, if you see an interesting world event or a map modifier that can give you more bonus embarkation points within range of the seal, go for it!

[[GWJ] Puce Moose]

Originally posted by Clawyer:

You can play your last settlement before the cycle ends as long as you want to and then afterwards, when the "End Cycle" button is already active, still embark to forge the seal. It's still a good ide to have the second to last settlement close enough to the seal that even if you fail the last settlement you still have a chance to reforge, but yeah, if you see an interesting world event or a map modifier that can give you more bonus embarkation points within range of the seal, go for it!

That was solid advice, as I managed to land a +4 Embarkation points prior to attempting the Lead Seal. It ended up being quite a challenge for me, as I started with Foxes and Harpies - great for the glade events, but pretty dicey once the storms rolled around. I think what saved me were lucking into a monastery, and that fantastic cornerstone that gives you +5 resolve when you open a glade.

I think my biggest weakness right now is my seeming inability to keep complex food in reasonable numbers. I've tried not letting them eat the "good stuff", and then only enabling it before the storm. Then, it often seems I am left waiting for them to actually eat the food, only to have it disappear so fast when they do I can't believe it. "Argh! I spent ten minutes making all that gourmet chow, and you clowns gobbled it all up in under two minutes - right AFTER the storm ended!" Do you guys tend to just let them chow down whenever? Or do you strictly limit their consumption for specific situations?

Is there some kind of accepted general ratio on complex food producers to population numbers to go by? I know that it's pretty darned complicated, with travel times/perks/breaks/different consumption levels, etc. I have just moved up to the Veteran difficulty, for reference.