Banished Ventures

North 7 – Beta Test

North7 Beta

Hello and welcome to the Beta test of North7 ‘Vikings’! It has taken a long time since the last update, but now it’s almost done. With your help we will find and fix all the bugs and things that are for sure still hidden in this mod version.

I started a closed beta this time because it’s a complete overhaul of the old mod and should be stable and balanced before most people play it. Access to this Beta have all who supported or contributed to this project or who I think are experienced banished people who know older versions and can judge the changes. If you are not invited yet but want to help testing this mod, please write a mail to tom@banishedventures.com. The final version should be published end of November or at the latest in December.

I do not expect something special from testers. Just feel free to play it the way you like. And if you find something that does not work or seems odd, I’d be happy if you write some notes or ask. It may be within the Beta Board of this site or over on World of Banished. By e-mail is nice too. This mod has a different file name and can be installed side by side with North6 but you should disable the old version and don’t forget the procedure of exiting Banished after changing mods.

The real time aging setup, happiness changes and all other tweaks of the Norseman mod are included. So you don’t need this citizen mod in addition but you can load the Ironman mod on top if you like to test it with +100% required food and clothing.

A special thanks goes to – 1 – for the various citizen skins. I included a collection of these textures, so bannies will still die often but they will always look good then. =)

Download

North7 Beta North 7 Beta v3 (147.4 MB) – November 25, 2019
Let’s play and test the new version!

What’s New

Not a technical change log but an overview of things waiting to be explored by you and for which I appreciate your opinion:

New Buildings

  • The Turf Houses for special conditions now for up to 3 children.
  • Frame Houses for old Viking towns.
  • Pit Houses as small and matching storage buildings.
  • Norwegian Stabbur for more efficient storage.
  • The known Loft-Storehouse with the passage way.
  • New Trading Post in two parts with a big dock and an export dock to sell for coins.
  • Thingstead to finally get development data of your tribe in early game.
  • The Mead Hall to also drink and feast in early game.
  • Some Wooden Idols for the old gods.
  • Norse Temple as the main achievement in this mod version.
  • The Infirmary to replace the vanilla hospital and limiting medicine to late game.
  • The Smokehouse you probably already used not as a toilet.
  • Granary and Small Windmill for grain processing.
  • Pottery Kiln to make nice pots that are now used in houses and some production buildings.
  • Stone Mason to deal with the new stone concept.
  • Tar Kiln to make this special Nordic raw material.
  • Weaver’s Hut to make Linen from Flax.
  • The Tailor Shop now with a new set of Viking clothes.
  • The Healers Hut to consume herbs in early game.
  • A Fording made of stone to cross streams.
  • And for decoration some more fences and an additional stone road.

The existing buildings were reworked, some more than others. You will notice new models of barns for example. All models got new AO maps which now simulates hemispheric light that is actually not calculated in Banished. New outline meshes reduce geometries to be loaded in game for better performance. Many buildings also got improved textures, more building stages or other small things for a better look and feel.

New Resources and Productions

  • Boulders scattered on the ground and used to build a Thingstead.
  • Smaller Stones can also be collected or produced by breaking boulders.
  • Ashlar as advanced material for stone masonry made from rubble stones.
  • Wool has to be processed into Wadmal – the old Nordic woolen cloth.
  • Sheep now drops Sheepskins when slaughtered that can be turned into leather.
  • Flax and Linen production is now also available in the North.
  • Linen Tunic and Wool Tunic as new but simple Viking clothes.
  • Winter Clothes combined from tunics with additional material for cloak and boots.
  • Hide Capes in fair quality replace the warm parka crafted at the campfire.
  • Animal Fat is now dropped by cows, sheep and deer, rendered to Tallow.
  • Tallow replaces Lamp Oil used in mines and tunnels.
  • Linseed and Linseed Oil as healthy byproduct of linen production.
  • Millstones are now necessary in wind and water mills. Stonemasons can make some.
  • Pottery not only for trading but as a requirement in homes and production buildings.
  • Iron Fittings as building material forged from Iron Bars, compatible with DS Mods.
  • Anvils needed in the advanced Blacksmith Shops.
  • Tar production is now included, used for roofings and everything built in water.
  • Ropes for wells and where else they are needed.
  • Potash as a necessary supply of glassmaking which makes this material more expensiv.
  • Christianity now has to come to the Norse by trade.

The whole set of resources was re-calculated in terms of output, trade values and used storage. I want to add a table here for all details.

Gameplay and Balancing Changes

  • Special Starting Condition “Seafarer” to arrive in a new land far west.
  • New merchants coming along the Volga trade route and further North from Sami people.
  • Imports are now more dedicated to the different regions like wine from Francia for example.
  • Fire is now easier to take out with wells but more buildings can cause fire.
  • Tiled roofing now reduces risk on fire while thatched roofs and wooden shingles are less proof.
  • Hunting Cabins don’t store meat anymore to avoid an unbalanced diet in secluded homes.
  • The number of reindeer herds was reduced.
  • In addition, the output of meat was reduced by 20% to nerf incoming protein.
  • Milk output was increased to make cows more to a dairy livestock.
  • Nuts now count as grain to balance food categories.
  • Markets and Village Shop are now more focused on food.
  • Crayfishing now has a randomized yield performed by gatherers auto-pulled from shelters.
  • Removed wrong spawning wild fruits and herbs at the beginning of a game.
  • Clay Spots cannot be abused for endless clay anymore but filled up to overbuild them.
  • Iron Tools and Steel Tools got +100% durability.
  • Building materials were re-calculated by model surfaces for more realistic and consistent costs.
  • Glass Panes were added to all buildings with windows.
  • Used storage of food now differs by nutritional value, e.g. grain needs less space than turnips.

Many more small changes were done that affect balancing, visuals and user interface. You will notice them in game and hopefully like it.

– Tom –

Comments

 HeinrichB

Hi. I have a problem with North7 mod. When starting a new map, the game runs for about a minute, then crashes. Are you aware of this and how to fix it or am I doing something wrong. I have the GOG version of banished.

     Tom Sawyer

    That sounds like crashing when auto saving. If you switch from another big mod like Colonial Charter or Megamod, you should first deactivate these mods and exit the game, then restart it to activate the North mod.

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