A few things about the game

[Winterclaw42]

1. Can we please sell our stuff to ships for silver?

2. Our population needs to either move to the closest house to their job or take jobs based on their house. I was noticing earlier that half of my farms were sitting empty while seeing people walking across the map to get to them.

3. Can we prioritize more than one thing at a time? If I've got 5 builder huts, I can still only have 1 priority.

4. I feel like we need more information in the game. Sort of like graphs on the maps or something like that. Things to help track supply chain issues would be nice. Other things like "why aren't the crops getting picked in autumn" or "why aren't my some of water sources making much water when they are right next to all the things they need to be" are frustrating to impossible to track down it feels like.

5. The early game is the worst. Aside from the mad rush to get seeds and livestock before they disappear, and then the mad rush to get basic things like food and water set up it's a little boring. Yes I've played Banished. I think some of this has to do with the tech tree, once some techs open up it gets a little quicker and more interesting. Some of it might be the initial population and lack thereof.

6. The time is too slow, even at 10x. I feel like the base speed needs to be upped a little. Then a bunch of stuff happens at once and you need to pause the game, slowing things down more. Waiting for my population to grow is painful. That's probably the low point of the game, several things happen at once and you don't have the population, buildings, or infrastructure to deal with them.

7. I feel like the tech tree is off somehow. In some places it's simple, in others it's a case of "okay what 4 things do I need to research before I get this other thing that I want." There's a few places like the sand pit and the kiln that I feel should be combined into one. There's that gathers get you herbs tech that is either extremely important or if you have the unlimited mine and silver minting, largely useless (saves you money but wastes a point, kind of a bad trade IMO, plus you don't need groves early on probably). Then there's some things like wearable clothes that come in later where you'd either have to rush past a tech you aren't going to use for awhile to get to it when you need it most.

I don't hate the tech tree and the fact that I have to make tough choices is good, I feel like it needs a pass or two. For example if I want to prioritize better houses I have to do the 5 mining options and then the tent.

What does a tent have to do with upgraded houses? Why are tents even a tech? Does anyone even build them?

8. Speaking of the 5 mining techs (getting to forge) it seems like despite your choices, there's only a couple of things you want to rush early in the game. Half the things in the game open up with the kiln and the other half seem to want the forge. Exaggerating a little here, but still.

9. There's no easy way to pause a bunch of things being worked on at once or turning off a number of buildings at once either. It's annoying when you've got them in neat little rows and the little icons are above them when you don't want them to be and you want to make sure you are clicking the right building hidden by an icon.

10. There doesn't seem to be a way to give a priority to resources, building projects, etc. Especially when I need 1 freaking lantern to get a mine going or upgrade it. Take the butcher, I can't give it priority for the meat I want him to use (and maybe get fat from too)

11. I feel like we are getting hosed badly by traders. It'd be cool if some things were in demand or he could say "next year X is going to be worth a little more but Y is going to be worth less." You know, like a real economy.

12. Only 1 ship per year? In banished I can have several.

13. IDK if this is intentional or not but it's hard to get a good read one what to use as a trade good, especially if you don't have 2-3 silver mines up and running. This combined with the 1 ship per year, the randomness involved, and the lack of space at the ferry dock makes this a more painful part of the game than I'm used to. I haven't even started the land traders year. I liked trading in banished, but despite the higher potential in this game, it feels so much worse overall.

In banished, trading posts are something I fine putting up once I have a steady source of firewood (really early). In SS, I'm asking myself why am I even bothering. I don't even have enough firewood to go around as it is.

14. Do we need both cattle and buffalo? The seem like they are filling the same role.

15. It kind of sucks that your location in the world is determined by difficulty. Not sure what the point of the world is during creation either.

16. Building roads seems to be the lowest priority despite it's importance to the game. Then the builders miss a spot or three.

17. It seems like more building options would be nice. Like a tavern people could go to get food, drink, and R&R. "Parks" would be nice. Maybe add musical instruments as an upgrade to the tavern and theater.

18. I don't like reeds. I'd rather skip to leather shoes and using paper for the schools or whatever seems like an extra burden on my supply chain and limited workers.

19. I either have too much fat lying around or not enough of it. Same with feathers. They are either clogging up my warehouses or when I get the 1 building where they are useful, they go missing.

20. I feel like some of the numbers need tweaking. Sand pits seem to make more clay than sand despite having 4 (2 making each) right next to each other. Needing to build 100 steel tools or whatever it is, and hope my people don't steal them first, so I can make gears for 1 reservoir seems rough. Please don't tell me it's only a 10% bonus. I'm not sure if some of the area buildings are the right size and I'm not sure every building should have a hard circle around it.

[Jeffus Maximus]

Yes. Yes to all of this.

Also, let us choose specific, individual items to limit a warehouse to. The categories are too vague. I want to be able to put all the fat and feathers in one place, and keep that stuff out of everything else.

[Guurt]

Too many of your suggestions take away the complexity. Banished was too easy. Way too easy. Boringly easy.

I much prefer this game in its current state as I actually have to think about what I am doing.

[Schervonne]

I agree with everything especially point 17, I do think that we may need tavern or somesort where the workers could get drinks or food. I lost some people due to thirst or hunger because they are working on different part of town and didnt make it on the way back home to eat or drink. LOL

[Tenoshii]

Originally posted by Winterclaw42:

1. Can we please sell our stuff to ships for silver?

I suppose that would add a measure of convenience, particularly early on in the game.
However, the Grocery Store and Trading Post buildings allow you to generate silver from the sale of goods throughout the year in an automated fashion which over time is likely a more efficient option.

I suspect they did this on purpose, perhaps to avoid having to balance the realism around how much silver a given merchant ship should carry each trip and how much space they should allow for what they purchase.

Originally posted by Winterclaw42:

4. I feel like we need more information in the game. Sort of like graphs on the maps or something like that. Things to help track supply chain issues would be nice. Other things like "why aren't the crops getting picked in autumn" or "why aren't my some of water sources making much water when they are right next to all the things they need to be" are frustrating to impossible to track down it feels like.

Would you mind providing a summary of how you approach troubleshooting situations like this? Both of these are likely solved by taking a look at the logistics aspect of the situation. You can click on the building or plot in question and then click on the workers to see what they are currently doing. As far as I'm aware usually the things that interfere with prompt execution and completion of work is transit time, transit distance and satisfying inhabitant needs.

Having the game provide you the specific information in a very precise view is going to be more complex than it seems. For example, what additional information are you asking to see? The game already has a good amount of data points you can look at across the UI, so it sounds like you want a specific screen view that tells you what's going on. Given the number of variables at play, that's not a simple or straightforward thing to do.

Originally posted by Winterclaw42:

5. The early game is the worst. Aside from the mad rush to get seeds and livestock before they disappear, and then the mad rush to get basic things like food and water set up it's a little boring. Yes I've played Banished. I think some of this has to do with the tech tree, once some techs open up it gets a little quicker and more interesting. Some of it might be the initial population and lack thereof.

Boring in what way and how does that change after the "early game"? Sure, you won't have some of the technology and mechanics available at the start that making progression smoother, but isn't that how these types of games are supposed to work? The player starts out and continuously builds up and becomes more effective at dealing with things that were a challenge previously. In addition, that typically results in new challenges that present themselves, some of which can be resolved without further technology. Then the cycle continues until all technology is available, then it's a matter of trying to maximize efficiency and balance out the production/consumption chains.

Originally posted by Winterclaw42:

6. The time is too slow, even at 10x. I feel like the base speed needs to be upped a little. Then a bunch of stuff happens at once and you need to pause the game, slowing things down more. Waiting for my population to grow is painful. That's probably the low point of the game, several things happen at once and you don't have the population, buildings, or infrastructure to deal with them.

Perhaps I'm missing something, but it sounds like you want time to pass faster, but things currently happen faster than you can deal with them? What specific things are happening where you don't have the population/buildings/infrastructure to deal with and how is making time pass faster going to help out?

Originally posted by Winterclaw42:

7. ...I don't hate the tech tree and the fact that I have to make tough choices is good, I feel like it needs a pass or two. For example if I want to prioritize better houses I have to do the 5 mining options and then the tent.

What does a tent have to do with upgraded houses? Why are tents even a tech? Does anyone even build them?

A lot of the prerequisites and links have to do with the underlying raw and refined resources that the building requires. There's also the consideration that they likely don't want to make it so easy to get to the final tech of a given feature or building that no one bothers using the in between buildings.

As far as tents go, they have a significantly lower resource requirement than houses and don't require markets. So sure, people with enough stone probably won't build very many. I've built some in my playthrough scattered about as areas for inhabitants to warm up in, though I'm sure I have a handful of extra murderers roaming around because of it (since I don't bother putting a church in range).

Originally posted by Winterclaw42:

10. There doesn't seem to be a way to give a priority to resources, building projects, etc. Especially when I need 1 freaking lantern to get a mine going or upgrade it. Take the butcher, I can't give it priority for the meat I want him to use (and maybe get fat from too)

As far as the butcher goes, a supply station helps with providing a deliberate amount of raw materials for use only by in range production buildings.

Originally posted by Winterclaw42:

11. I feel like we are getting hosed badly by traders. It'd be cool if some things were in demand or he could say "next year X is going to be worth a little more but Y is going to be worth less." You know, like a real economy.

Hosed in what way? Unless they add enough information so the player understands what is going on in the rest of the world to justify the changes in price, it's going to appear like just another aspect of RNG to the game, which may generate more frustration overall.

Originally posted by Winterclaw42:

13. IDK if this is intentional or not but it's hard to get a good read one what to use as a trade good, especially if you don't have 2-3 silver mines up and running. This combined with the 1 ship per year, the randomness involved, and the lack of space at the ferry dock makes this a more painful part of the game than I'm used to.

What is preventing you from figuring this out? The Order menu in the Ferry lets you know in advance how much all the items cost. In general (though there are exceptions) you can take the buy price of an item and divide by 7 and that's what the sale value is. Alternatively, you can also see the sell value of an item if you mouse over it from a Grocery Store or Trading Post building.

From there, you can choose an item that you have an abundance of yet consume relatively little of. For example, I would wager on average it takes a while for a player to get to the point where they are consuming all the feathers they produce. Flax is probably also another good that's easy to overproduce early on in the game. It's all largely dependent on how the player lays out their settlement and which tech and/or production chains they choose to pursue.

How much space are you expecting at the Ferry? I sell thousands of goods when the ship comes around each year. There is also an upgraded version of the building with even more space.

It's interesting how you mention the randomness of trade here, yet in point #11 you ask for a demand aspect (which essentially would translate into further more impactful randomness).

Originally posted by Winterclaw42:

14. Do we need both cattle and buffalo? The seem like they are filling the same role.

Oversimplifying resources doesn't add value to the game. If they went throughout and eliminated everything that "filled the same role" it would significantly diminish the immersion for some and you'd just end up with many posts saying "it would be nice if there was ____".

I for one welcome the variety, especially given the RNG associated with the spawn and trade availability of livestock.

Originally posted by Winterclaw42:

19. I either have too much fat lying around or not enough of it. Same with feathers. They are either clogging up my warehouses or when I get the 1 building where they are useful, they go missing.

Sounds like a matter of balancing your production and consumption, which isn't really exclusive to any specific resource. It's not uncommon to have a large quantity of a resource you aren't currently consuming and then watch it deplete when you get the tech and buildings to consume it without reinforcing your production (or at least assessing the ratio needed for balance).

Games of this type typically don't tell you in advance the proportions you need to put in place such that production and consumption remain largely balanced so it may require some degree of experimentation. Personally I enjoy that aspect of these types of games, though I can see how it can become tiresome for others.

[Winterclaw42]

Tenoshii:
1. Didn't know that the grocery store or trading posts did that. I never even messed with the trade options because I had other priorities for both resources and development points.

5. Years 2-6ish when you are just waiting for your population to expand enough to do more, especially if you built a school in year 1.

6. Basically there can be long times of waiting at 10x because you are waiting for your builders to build everything, waiting for the harvest, etc, or it's a case of it's time to do things and I want to stop the sim so I can plan it all out properly. During the long periods of doing nothing because I'm waiting on crap, the game being faster would be nice.

7. Like I said I don't hate the tech tree, but I feel like it needs a second pass. I get the interdependencies but in practice it makes a lot of the choices you have an illusion.

13. In banished, it is firewood. Firewood is your money. In SS, it's IDK because there's so much time and resources and requirements for all the little things I'd need an excel spreadsheet to make sense of it all. Then there's the disappointment when your one ship arrives each year and the inability to use goods to make orders I really don't like this aspect of the game.

[Tenoshii]

Originally posted by Winterclaw42:

5. Years 2-6ish when you are just waiting for your population to expand enough to do more, especially if you built a school in year 1.

I see, perhaps it's just playstyle at that point. I found myself constantly micromanaging things at the start because the population tends to be low and it only takes one or two production buildings to satisfy demand. So there's plenty of laborers at your disposal to clear land and lay the infrastructure for settlement expansion. Then again, perhaps this was also due to the fact that I built a Town Hall very early so I could immediately start accepting immigrants.

Originally posted by Winterclaw42:

7. Like I said I don't hate the tech tree, but I feel like it needs a second pass. I get the interdependencies but in practice it makes a lot of the choices you have an illusion.

Not sure I really follow the second statement. Which tech tree options do you see as choices vs. the ones I'm assuming you consider mandatory for progression and thus choice is an illusion?

Originally posted by Winterclaw42:

13. In banished, it is firewood. Firewood is your money. In SS, it's IDK because there's so much time and resources and requirements for all the little things I'd need an excel spreadsheet to make sense of it all. Then there's the disappointment when your one ship arrives each year and the inability to use goods to make orders I really don't like this aspect of the game.

Well, the thing is you can turn any item into a trade good depending on the production layout of your settlement. There are a lot of resources that you gather and can sell with zero refinement involved. Many of those aren't critical to your settlement's growth. It's really just a matter of using your own evaluation criteria to determine what makes sense to overproduce and keep vs. overproduce and sell. In the very beginning there are limited options due to the technology progression so there isn't an extensive amount of calculations required. It can get more complicated late game when you are trying to determine the estimated silver per worker per year for a given advanced product because the the extended production/refinement chains involved.