How To Win This Game

[Tyrael Raven]

So, I keep being told over and over and over and over that I just need to get better and I don't know what I'm doing and I'm just terrible at the game, and no game is unwinnable. The streamers keep insisting that if you're just good you can win literally any game.

So the last game I played, I started with 2 small berry patches and 2 small stone patches. Over the course of the next 2 small glades and 4 dangerous glades I would receive 3 large wheat (grain) nodes and ltierally nothing else for food beyond the 2 starting berry patches.

As far as I can tell, there is literally no possible way to win a game with literally no food of any kind outside your starting glade. I am 99% sure literally nothing I could have done would have allowed me to win this game.

Would someone care to prove me wrong please? I want a specific explanation of how to survive past year 5 (with 180 hostility from year alone, leaving you over 2 base hostility with villagers) when literally no food of any kind, let alone complex food, is available. HOW can you possibly win every game when games like this can happen? IT DOESN'T MAKE SENSE TO ME.

Can these guys just literally NEVER have games like this thanks to magic or something?

[Tyrael Raven]

Oprindeligt skrevet af DG:

Oprindeligt skrevet af Tyrael Raven:

I actually cut off population inflow at year 3. I ended up taking my year 3 inflow of population sometime like mid-year-4 because I had no one to work some of my production (I had gotten an apothecary and a market, and was hoping to get tea going so I could get a market up and get that service rolled out to try to maintain my harpy population; never managed to get the planks saved up to get the market out, albeit I was very close (like 28/30 planks when I finally lost to impatience)

At that point though my base hostility was like 3ish, and despite having gotten a kiln early on (and getting some coal accordingly) I just didn't have the resources to keep sacrificing and lost a ton of pop and ultimately lost to impatience from pop loss storm of year 5. With no complex foods I couldn't maintain a population at hostility 2 so the game was a total loss by that point

OK there are errors here. If you can't feed people then you shouldn't be taking more people. Stick at 10-14. The market can wait. If your workers are not gathering food because there's no food to gather then you shouldn't be short of workers. If you are woodcutting during a storm to make coal to sacrifice then it's all in a tailspin already. You should be able to keep people at hostility 2 unless they are starving. You could build a second supplier, or kiln , or a mine if you need more building happiness. The resolve bonuses from rainpunk are pretty useful too. With a small population these details can work.

Resolve bonuses from rainpunk worked for the first couple years when I was only a couple resolve short on my harpies. By year 5 I was at hostility 3 before woodcutters and hostility 2 after sacrificing a stack of coal and on one storm a stack of wood as well (higher stacks were obviously unsustainable, I tried to keep hold of things below that and accepted it was a lost cause when that level of mititgation was failing across the board due to lack of food). I'm definitely using that strategy as much as I can though

And what do you mean do 10-14? I need a minimum of 6 for woodcutters, 1-3 for blight posts, at least 6-8 for food at that level, 1 for the crude workshop, and at least 1 or 2 for other buildings

Any lower amount of food production and it's just not sustainable, so basically anything that generates a workable amount of wood requires insane amounts of food. Considering the "50%" boost actually amounts to an almost 70% boost to consumption due to whatever implementation error causes that, it's extremely difficult to keep food up and running

[bella]

I mean I had a few rounds that were tough because I got unlucky with food nodes, but it's always doable. You can still focus on other productions and buy food if reeeally necessary (for whatever reason).
Not trying to call what you said ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥, but it's very unlikely to not get ANY food nodes or fertile soils when opening multiple glades. You sure you didnt miss something?

Or are you wasting too much time maybe? Dont take this as an insult. Coming from city builers like Anno, I lost the first two rounds I started because I simply took to much time to plan things through. Since everything is RNG, theres no point in planning THAT much anyways.
I feel like the most important thing in this game is not trying to force a specific way (like, for example, trying for fertile soil all the time and losing while doing so), you rather just roll with what you get. Atleast thats what I do.
Waiting for the first few buildings I get and what traits I get and try to build from there.


If you really had a round where there was absolutely no food on the map, either try to sell other expensive stuff and just buy food or accept you were unlucky and just start the next round.

[GrimReaper1789]

The biggest problem with you asking this is that each map is dynamic. There isn't a cookie cutter approach that will work for every map. That said, if you're having issues finding food, then take easier contracts that award food.

[Tyrael Raven]

Oprindeligt skrevet af bella:

I mean I had a few rounds that were tough because I got unlucky with food nodes, but it's always doable. You can still focus on other productions and buy food if reeeally necessary (for whatever reason).
Not trying to call what you said ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥, but it's very unlikely to not get ANY food nodes or fertile soils when opening multiple glades. You sure you didnt miss something?

Or are you wasting too much time maybe? Dont take this as an insult. Coming from city builers like Anno, I lost the first two rounds I started because I simply took to much time to plan things through. Since everything is RNG, theres no point in planning THAT much anyways.
I feel like the most important thing in this game is not trying to force a specific way (like, for example, trying for fertile soil all the time and losing while doing so), you rather just roll with what you get. Atleast thats what I do.
Waiting for the first few buildings I get and what traits I get and try to build from there.


If you really had a round where there was absolutely no food on the map, either try to sell other expensive stuff and just buy food or accept you were unlucky and just start the next round.

I got riipped to absolute shreds by the elite tier streamers for trying to open glades quickly; honestly if I had enough resources I'm 100% sure that crowd would be attacking me for taking on 6 glades in 5 years - they told me I was an absolute idiot for doing 5 glades in 5 years.

And I'm on P12, after P9 you get next to nothing for selling goods. I actually did buy all the eggs I could during year 4 but it was FAR too little to even make a dent into the food problem. You absolutely cannot trade your way into food solvency past P9, it's just not possible

I hat to accept I was unlucky and restart. That's my whole thing here though - the big streamers claim it's literally impossible to get an unwinnable game. This, being the worst I've gotten (and a horrible case in particular) seems like definitive proof that that's ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ and they don't really know what they're talking about saying every game can be won.

I'm genuinely open to a suggestion for how to have made that game work, but besides "find more resources" I'm now 99.8% sure this is a literally unsolvable problem. I did the best I could, and while I may not have the match, I genuinely never had the chance. I didn't make a mistake, I got stuck with an unwinnable situation. It happens. And that's fine, I just wish everyone else could acknowledge that it happens sometimes, and maybe we could look at how often it happens and work on that

[waku waku]

The chance of things unfolding exactly like that is pretty low. Between grabbing caches for food or rolling a cornerstone for that, it should require a lot of bad luck. Still, I feel the game would benefit from having sort of a crude farm which would inefficiently produce pathetic amounts of food, but would still be there as an option if you want it.

[koboldlord]

Not opening small glades is a guideline, not a hard rule. You'd really rather do the big glades instead, because they're better is almost every way, but the small glades do get you some safe food at a bearable permanent cost if you don't have enough food to get by. On the plus side, it sounds like you're on the crimson orchard, which means you have a small glade somewhere nearby that has a special glade event that gives multiple points of reputation, and that contribution toward your victory quota makes the speculative venture a lot more worthwhile.

10 farm fields should give you 60 food per year, and you can buy some more from the trader whenever you don't roll Farluf. Even Farluf can sell you stone for caches. The crimson orchard is biome with the tightest food clock, and sometimes you do have to make the hard choices that you don't want to make.

Not clicking the newcomers button is actually a pretty important tip for going up prestige, and not many people seem to talk about it very much. A group of 5 villagers is hostility hike equal to opening a dangerous glade, with no possibility of food nodes or reputation, and you need to feed them too. You do need more villagers than you start with, but a 'good enough' population is a lot lower than you'd think if you're willing to micromanage your workers rather than dropping one or two per building and letting them do their thing.

[Nimea]

I glimpsed a bit and saw that you said you had access to Flour. Pack those into Packs of Trade Goods if you can't use em, then trade those for food. Look around for caches and bust open those with foods to let you crawl over to your next glade. You mentioned you had farms going, but couldn't still solve your food production. Just disable the Wheat option on your farms or whatever, only allow actual foods to grow so you can keep subsisting. As a last resort, attack the food traders for a quick infusion. If your people are dying of hunger, might as well die fighting.

As always, don't take part 2 of a combo if you don't have part 1 of it. Since you mentioned you were on P12, that might as well actually have been unwinnable, in which case, my condolences lol.

[DG]

Oprindeligt skrevet af Tyrael Raven:

And what do you mean do 10-14? I need a minimum of 6 for woodcutters, 1-3 for blight posts, at least 6-8 for food at that level, 1 for the crude workshop, and at least 1 or 2 for other buildings

Ideally you can cut down the number of woodcutters, especially if you have a kiln for coal. Perhaps you are pushing the wood consumption too high. I hope you were using coal for the jerky recipe as a lot of wood gets consumed for jerky. You can take people off other jobs to put them into the blight post.

If your wood is used inefficiently then you will be spending too much time woodcutting, hostility will be high, and the woodcutting will drop in efficiency once the nearby sites are used up.

[Arcane]

I am just starting to play, but here are a few thoughts where to get food:

- Use traders to buy food. You should have some resources to trade from glades and events.

- Open glades until you find more food. Just open more.

- You can attack a trader to get a lot of food quickly.

- Prioritize opening events/chests to get resources. They often contain a lot of food inside.

- Maybe keep pop size low and don't rush completing tasks until you find more food.


Overall I think strategy can be:
Use other means to get food during the first few years, and open more glades to secure more food sources.

[Shadowwolf]

At that point, you just focus on using the resources you have and to make $$$ and buy the food you need.

I will agree, before you unlock everything with leveling up, it can be possible to be in a unwinnable position, but it sounds like you are decently along with the game.

[RonEmpire]

Hey Tyrael. Join my discord and let me see if I can help you out on your future runs. Or join devs official discord. There are many players there that can help you. They even have a help me channel.

Maybe record your gameplays. Take some screen shots of your starting embarks and starting glade and blueprints and cornerstones. Makes easier to follow your situation.

What citadel upgrades do you have etc. Very hard to follow and give advice without full details.

It is possible to be in an unwinnable situation but I've yet to come across one. Which is why I probably keep playing to see how balance the game is. The challenges give me the thrill. Of the times I've lost its mostly a mistake on my part or really bad RNG but still something I could have done differently cuz I was too narrow focused and failed to adapt.

[RonEmpire]

Im trying to recall a vod in scarlet orchard and marshlands that is in a situation similar to yours. I've had a few runs actually where I was low on food and struggling with food for a long time. Popped a glade and didn't find a whole lot.

It was very rough. And yes I had to buy food from trader to get by.

[Samseng Yik]

Surely your worker is producing something and not idle.
Whatever they producing, I don't think you are "need everything for self sufficient"
Why don't sell the less useful item for food ?
I always buy food from trader if I notice my worker attention mostly spent on events and other.
Just like any game with colony/settlement, you sell you produce and buy what you need.

Before starting a run, a check with what the biome resource offer, and choose a gathering blueprint which can gather at least 2 items before embark. This not only remove the blueprint from pool choice, but you also gather with better quantity without worrying big resource.

There is only 2 directions we can go now.
1) You think something wrong with the game at resource spawning, if yes produce a screenshot of your large glade, lets see how unresourceful/imbalance they are.
2) You want to improve yourself. Then take advice better from the pro advice I see here.

Everyone have bad games. Some we can sure it is RNG. Yeah I can believe there are maybe some wild RNG not spawning food at all in a settlement. What about trading? Yeah don't tell me your 3 trader streak don't sell even a food. I never even seen such happen in my experience.
Some we can blame ourselves for bad blueprint choices or planning.

I see some pro willing to see how you play in Discord, or you can watch how he/she play in Discord (but you may blame other people has "Better luck")
No point to be over salty sore loser.
There is no shame to accept self is a weaker skilled player.

[Lil brekky]

Again, Tyrael? AGAIN?

Youve now claimed in multiple threads that you must have played essentially perfectly and lost only because the game is imbalanced. Trolls aside, many people have given you tons of advice and support, about half of which youve spat back in their faces.

I dont know if youre demanding too much of the game, of fellow players advice, or maybe of yourself... but youll take absolutely nothing as evidence that the game is balanced and generally (overwhelmingly) winnable.

YES, the game throws very uncomfortable situations at you. YES, you have to take some lumps before you get over the hump in games like this. YES, sometimes you, much like myself, act dumb, and suck, and lose a game we couldve won. That isnt the games fault.

[Samseng Yik]

Only 1 way to move forward now.
A video of recording run, or at least 2 seasoned players watch his/her stream by looking how he/she play, then sign off the evidence is this more on player personal skill issue or game design problem. Discord or Twitch.

I stay a long time in Comfort zone "Veteran" because I feel it is the "True difficulty"
I read a lot of people advice in this forum despite not asking much questions. Then try out Viceroy and still able to win despite some exhausting challenges.
A person can only improve and move forward if he/she able to identify/admit own mistake.