Feedback on my first playthrough

[Vindicit]

So I generally enjoy automated systems where you spend a lot of time setting up the inner workings of the automation and make sure they run smoothly. This game definitely has that in its core but currently it needs a lot of work on the settler automation. In my playthrough I was not able to make it to my first winter. I stopped just before winter. Most of my problems came from the storage of materials. Most of the materials have tiny storages so you need to build a ton warehouses. For workers to fill these storages you need to put a ton of markers all around the map which I did not like. There ended up being a lot of wood pieces littered around the forests. I thought the workers would use the wood pieces to build with and then go pick up more in the forest but the entire playthrough the ground was just littered.
I watched the hunters do their thing and noticed after them using their arrows to kill the animals they would just leave the arrows on the ground. Im not sure if they ever went back to pick them up as I never noticed stray arrows on the ground after that. But fiber is used for way too much and no easy way to get it. You only get it from bark and thatch, 1 each, and they dont stack. Thatch does not respawn that fast and the workers did not easily break down these materials to get fiber. Most of the time I noticed my warehouses were empty but there were a ton of resources around that did not get picked up.
Most of the resources do not respawn. Before my first winter I noticed I was basically out of feathers. I placed gathering markers all over the map and did not want to make a brand new village way far off just to get resources that I felt I was out of within my first year. Building roads uses a ton of small stones which you can easily run out of in the vicinity close to your base. Before winter I noticed that my villagers need clothes and every piece needs fiber which was not easy to get. I was not going to fully clothe 40 villagers with a resource I hardly had any of.
Every Necromancer boss did not work correctly. They fight for a bit then disappear under the map and do not come back up until I restart the game.
The game needs more custom game options.
I did not like sacrificing a villager when I die or losing 30% of my stats.
So yea... the game needs bigger storages, better AI and system to gather resources and better balance so small resources are not over used and you run out of them.

[Ralathar44]

Originally posted by Vindicit:

So I generally enjoy automated systems where you spend a lot of time setting up the inner workings of the automation and make sure they run smoothly. This game definitely has that in its core but currently it needs a lot of work on the settler automation. In my playthrough I was not able to make it to my first winter. I stopped just before winter.

Thankfully for you since you only did like 1/10th of a playthrough almost all your issues are user error. As someone who's played the game much more let me help out.

Originally posted by Vindicit:

Most of my problems came from the storage of materials. Most of the materials have tiny storages so you need to build a ton warehouses.

- Warehouses: I advise having the following warehouses:
- a 1 square warehouse that you'll expand later to 2 squares for long sticks, logs, sticks, bark, thatch, stones (prioritize logs/long sticks at first)
- a 1 square warehouse for your 1st workshop that will also become your tailor/leatherworker
- a 1 square warehouse for cookhouses (no food storage needed before cookhouse, the BBQ has enough). Raw food, cooked food, fish and meat stands, water barrel, seed storage
- a 1 square warehouse that you'll later expand to 2 for your carpenter and metalworker later game.

This should get you to at least 50 villagers. 4 total warehouses. I never saw the need to build more than 2 storage for any given resource except seeds and small crafting materials storage.

Also keep in mind you can aim at the storage and hit Q to manage to tasking of things like logs/long sticks once you have a warehouse worker assigned. Many things you can set priority (including turning it off) or even set exact numbers desired to be stored there of some things.

Originally posted by Vindicit:

For workers to fill these storages you need to put a ton of markers all around the map which I did not like.

You're almost certainly using too many flags. Only Food Foraging and Hunting flags end up using alot of flags in the long run. Trees and Stones do not respawn. Place fewer flags, deplete an area of resources, remove the flags and place more.

The flags only determine where your woodcutter, gatherer, hunting, and stone gathering huts can obtain their resources. They do nothing to make it faster or slower. That's determined simply by how many workers you have doing it and how far they have to run.

Also, technically, the warehouse worker fills the warehouse storages. The others fill the storages of their harvesting huts and then the warehouse workers pull from that. If you feel like helping out your workers build a sled, they can let you haul up to 6 big items + numerous small and medium items at a time. If you choose to help you can stock up your storages quite fast when using a sled.






Every Necromancer boss did not work correctly. They fight for a bit then disappear under the map and do not come back up until I restart the game.
The game needs more custom game options.
I did not like sacrificing a villager when I die or losing 30% of my stats.
So yea... the game needs bigger storages, better AI and system to gather resources and better balance so small resources are not over used and you run out of them. [/quote]

Originally posted by Vindicit:

There ended up being a lot of wood pieces littered around the forests. I thought the workers would use the wood pieces to build with and then go pick up more in the forest but the entire playthrough the ground was just littered.

This happens because you're using more logs and long sticks than other resources like firewood. So they keep cutting down more stuff to get the logs and long sticks but end up with extra other stuff.

If you start building things that use those you'll quickly clear alot of ground. Flimsy Fences are good for using sticks, raincatchers are good for using long sticks, watch towers are good for using long sticks, sticks, and bark. But you'll want that bark for your first cottages and your shelters. So if you've got alot of bark laying around go pre-plan your housing district and get ahead of the game. 1st cottage is a game changer.

Coal Maker will use ALOT of firewood.

Originally posted by Vindicit:

I watched the hunters do their thing and noticed after them using their arrows to kill the animals they would just leave the arrows on the ground. Im not sure if they ever went back to pick them up as I never noticed stray arrows on the ground after that.

Hunters do pick up arrows thankfully.

Originally posted by Vindicit:

But fiber is used for way too much and no easy way to get it. You only get it from bark and thatch, 1 each, and they dont stack. Thatch does not respawn that fast and the workers did not easily break down these materials to get fiber.

The farm solves this problem and you want to get a farm up well before winter. Don't worry about farming food, you can survive 1st winter on foraged items and either hunting or fishing. Farm Fiber for your fields. You'll need it not just for rope but for clothing.

You'll end up with more fiber than you'll ever need from a single farm field as your workers get skill and you slowly fully staff it over time.

Don't break down thatch, you'll need that when you get cottages. Break down bark (you'll need alot of that too, but getting more is much easier than thatch) or go hunt the easy driftwood mobs along the shore for fiber drops. Or roam the country looking for fiber plants.

Originally posted by Vindicit:

Most of the time I noticed my warehouses were empty but there were a ton of resources around that did not get picked up.

You need storage for those items and a worker assigned to the warehouse to gather them. Don't overload your warehouse, each worker can only do so much. 1 worker can basically handle 1 square at best. And for important stuff like the food storage i have 1 square with 2 workers. You can definitely use a 3 square warehouse but if you do so I'd make it focused on lesser used items. Stuff like logs/food/sticks/etc will keep your guy too busy to have your guys do that plus a ton of other stuff.

Originally posted by Vindicit:

Most of the resources do not respawn. Before my first winter I noticed I was basically out of feathers. I placed gathering markers all over the map and did not want to make a brand new village way far off just to get resources that I felt I was out of within my first year.

Nests respawn and there are a TON of feathers out there. You prolly just didn't have storage for them. They go into small crafting materials storage. Pay attention to what is filling those up. Resin often gluts those. So make sure to use Q on the storage and turn resin for that container off. Resin has its own separate storage that again, 2 of is prolly plenty.

IMO Resin storage needs to hold like double as much resin and they need to remove Resin being stored in small crafting materials storage. It's an easy rookie mistake to make because its unintuitive that those storages would end up flooded with Resin.

Originally posted by Vindicit:

Building roads uses a ton of small stones which you can easily run out of in the vicinity close to your base.

Roads are a long term project and well worth it. Build roads > stockpile stones (a dedicated small materials storage will help this) > build roads. Don't expect a continual building process.

Honestly, they serve as a needed resource sink for small stones and roads are just so freaking good that them not being fast and easy seems appropriate.

Originally posted by Vindicit:

Before winter I noticed that my villagers need clothes and every piece needs fiber which was not easy to get. I was not going to fully clothe 40 villagers with a resource I hardly had any of.

If you have 40 villagers before your first winter you massively screwed up. You focused everything on growing without making it sustainable. This would cause many issues in tons of games. I shudder to think of you trying that in Rimworld of Medievil Dynasty lol.

Entering winter with no clothes and no food because you dedicated all your resources towards growth and expansion is definitely a player caused issue. Honestly you should have like half that number of people and instead focus on getting a good stockpile of food and clothes with all that time and energy you spent overexpanding.

This is not an automation "the factory must grow" game. It's a colony builder. Very big difference.

Originally posted by Vindicit:

I did not like sacrificing a villager when I die or losing 30% of my stats.

This is easily solved by not dying. This is NOT a very difficult game. There is no enemy you cannot simply run from. And even the bear that attacks your base should die quite quickly as 10+ colonists pile into it while you simply focus on not getting hit by it and only hitting it back when safe to do so.

[casa06885]

some tips, save the bark for when you get teir 2 workshop. its 5 bark to make 8 fiber. Once you get into carpentry, they'll make massive amounts of bark. The biggest issue with wood cutters that causes them to make all that clutter is firewood. Remove that from your task the build a storage in your warehouse. Now your coal maker and warehouse worker will collect firewood. This will stop your wood cutter from breaking down logs which is the only way they can get firewood, since they won't uproot stumps. That part you'll have to do manually for right now. For clothes, its best to only make flimsy gloves, linen hood, fur cape, linen pants, leather shoes. After you work at getting your own crafting to 49 you can task gambits which will provide most of your cold resistance. As for work shops you should specialize them based on the production chain there for. Also make only one that everyone can pick from, which should include tools, clothes, food, weapons, arrows, and resin. Why resin? surprisingly it allows any ai to fill the lights not just the builders. As for how the ai works check out my guide on ai.

[Ralathar44]

Originally posted by casa06885:

some tips, save the bark for when you get teir 2 workshop. its 5 bark to make 8 fiber. Once you get into carpentry, they'll make massive amounts of bark. The biggest issue with wood cutters that causes them to make all that clutter is firewood. Remove that from your task the build a storage in your warehouse. Now your coal maker and warehouse worker will collect firewood. This will stop your wood cutter from breaking down logs which is the only way they can get firewood, since they won't uproot stumps. That part you'll have to do manually for right now. For clothes, its best to only make flimsy gloves, linen hood, fur cape, linen pants, leather shoes. After you work at getting your own crafting to 49 you can task gambits which will provide most of your cold resistance. As for work shops you should specialize them based on the production chain there for. Also make only one that everyone can pick from, which should include tools, clothes, food, weapons, arrows, and resin. Why resin? surprisingly it allows any ai to fill the lights not just the builders. As for how the ai works check out my guide on ai.

The firewood thing makes sense. Its definitely logs seeing by far the most use beyond even what I'd expect from building. IMO the devs should officially change that since its making the resource imbalance players already cause by underutilizing many buildings even worse.

[Vindicit]

Some good tips I can try to use on my next playthrough.

[Ralathar44]

Originally posted by Vindicit:

Some good tips I can try to use on my next playthrough.

Good luck, I hope you have a much better time :).