Advice for anyone considering buying Banished. Buy Ostriv.

[Kaioti]

Buy Ostriv instead. It is similar in feel with better mechanics, pathing and ai. And it is still in development rather than abandoned like Banished is.

[Lazy Girl]

"Buy Ostriv instead."
I did and it does not work: It is jerky, not smooth like Banished is. I have posted a comment ob the Ostriv discusion page and awaiting some advice: i.e. it could be my mistake! Can I get my money back from Steam?

[eien no shikaku 永遠の刺客]

Originally posted by Lazy Girl:

"Buy Ostriv instead."
I did and it does not work: It is jerky, not smooth like Banished is. I have posted a comment ob the Ostriv discusion page and awaiting some advice: i.e. it could be my mistake! Can I get my money back from Steam?

Only if you played the game 2 hours, if more then you can't request a refund.

[Garce]

I bought banished about four years ago. Played a couple of hours. It was fine. About a year later I was bored and re-installed Banished and download Colonial Charter. Then I fell in love with Banished. Have over 1,600 hours in the game since then.

Luke made a very small, very focused game that was released almost seven years ago. He added tools so fans could change the game and add pretty much everything they desired. The game was released in 2014. It was - and still is - quite successful. There are hundreds of mods in the Workshop if you want to change to game to suit your desires.

No need for a developer to keep updating a single player game for the rest of his life. Banished is FINISHED. A complete game that not only works as advertised, but is copied by dozens of other games. None of those "other games" get it right. None of them have improved upon the Banished formula; that is why they fall by the wayside and are forgotten. Yet Banished still sells, and it is still played. Almost seven years later, this game still sells.

Yes, Banished can be hard. It was designed to be a challenge. So many similar games have come and gone, yet Banished is still talked about - and its still played. But once you wrap your head around the mechanics of the game, it becomes relaxing.

[eien no shikaku 永遠の刺客]

@Garce, great reply.

[dixiechow]

Greetings Garce Well said

[sfbistimg]

I have Ostriv and in now way is it better then banished,

[Morkonan]

Originally posted by Garce:

I bought banished about four years ago. Played a couple of hours. It was fine. About a year later I was bored and re-installed Banished and download Colonial Charter. Then I fell in love with Banished. Have over 1,600 hours in the game since then....

^-- This.

Once a developer creates a game, they are not enslaved to that game or the game's fans for the rest of their lives.

"Banished" is finished. It is a good game. end_of_line

[Lazy Girl]

@Garce said "No need for a developer to keep updating a single player game for the rest of his life. Banished is FINISHED"

I am an ardent Banished player but to say that Banished is finished is not quite true.
The "Banies" are programmed to be highly inefficient and any of you players will know what I am talking about.
e.g. A forester when planting or cutting down trees will walk within his assigned area from one extreme to the another wasting his time. "Banies" will go home to eat, leave home and a few seconds later return home to get warm. They do not deposit goods in a rational way. The hunters sometimes walk through their prey. When they change the professions they don't deposit their goods prior to taking up the new job! etc, etc.

Newbies will be initially confused by these pre-programmed constraints. Why did the dev do it this way?

But I still love the game and agree with @Garce's sentiments!

[Royce]

Let it be known that people prefer Banished 50 to 1 in a taste test. Comparison over. Look at the stats.

[Jaggid Edje]

Originally posted by Royce:

Let it be known that people prefer Banished 50 to 1 in a taste test. Comparison over. Look at the stats.

Hahaha. Ostriv seems to have received good reviews too though, no?

I appreciate this thread, if only because it put Ostriv on my radar. I hadn't heard of it previously.

Not going to buy it atm though, as it's in Early access and it is rare that I fork out a single dime for a game that isn't done. Too many early access projects end up as abandonware before they are finished.

[Royce]

Not saying anything is wrong with the game Ostriv. What i am saying is it has some mighty big shoes to fill competing with banished.

[eien no shikaku 永遠の刺客]

Ostriv was in Alpha stage for few past years but Yev is working hard on it so it's in a really good shape after one-person development, now with larger team he should progress faster.

[ROFLpl0x]

Originally posted by Royce:

Not saying anything is wrong with the game Ostriv. What i am saying is it has some mighty big shoes to fill competing with banished.

Banished's shoes have been filled times over by modders who work for free and give the game more than 30-40 hours of playable content. In fact, it was the modders who provided the shoes in the first place. About all the developer provided was an AI program he admitted sucks (Why do you think he won't let anybody mod it?) and a crappy engine that can't even support building animations.

Banished is a good game but it survives at the top because until recently no one else worth a damn has tried to do a better job of it, not because it's some amazing thing that's difficult to replicate. It's not even original. Take Anno 1404/Dawn of Discovery, remove 90% of the game and "Voila!", you've got Banished complete with nomads, a grid-based map, and a (not) surprisingly similar minimalist UI.

Then there's Foundation which, if you can get around the cartoony graphics, is on track to hang Banished's shoes from a power line.

[UglyBird]

I bought banished 6 years ago and Ostriv some 12 months ago.
I am still playing Banished, Ostriv is boring after a while.
You cannot beat banished, it is a great game and mods made it infinitely replayable.
If you do not have Banished, BUY IT.

[Kharn Terrer]

I bought this game a while back but it never gets updated. I bought mine back at the end of July. Its never been updated since and its now nearly November. So im not entirely impressed (Ostriv that is).