Testing North7

I started a new game. It feels good to be a “test pilot” again. First, I didn´t know what starting options I wanted to play. Usually, I try to test new settings but the only really new starting option; the seafarer is not for me. When I read about the changes, I see nothing about farming, so I´ve decided to play a game on “harsh”. Which to me means no farming and why not make it as extreme as possible with the “survivor” start.

I´m kind of glad for this choice. Not because this is a smooth, calm game but because I discovered one important thing that needs to be changed: the herds of deer are much too small and fragile.

With “survivor” you have nothing from the start. After you´ve taken away the spawning berries from the start (good, and logical) the only option left for survival until summer is the “instant hunting”. There were 2 small herds in an acceptable range from the start. I killed 3 deer. That´s an absolute minimum. I even needed to “fake demolish” the first house to let the 102 venison they have hoarded “out on the market” for everyone. This “overhunting” (?) lead to that one of the herds was totally extinguished. I never saw the single deer left again. The other herd did come back with 4 deer. After I´ve killed two of them, I occasionally saw 2 deer but never again more. A bit later one of them seemed to have died of natural causes, so now the settlement occasionally is visited by a single deer and I can´t see any herds nowhere on the map. There might be a few deer hiding in the forests but hunting totally 5 deer seemed to make more or less every deer on the map disappear.

I don´t think this is your intention, Tom. I can agree that hunting was a bit overpowered. But I find that reducing the output of meat from each deer and maybe also only allow one hunter in the hunting lodge can solve the “problem”. It might be OK to make the herds generally a bit smaller but I don´t find the idea of not letting the herd grow if there´s only one single deer left good. Deer seem to die of natural causes, hunters also kill a deer when he sees one on his way to “his” hunting circle, so it´s not possible to prevent to extinguish small herds by accident.

So imagine a Nordic game without farming and without hunting. I say; a real struggle! It feels like “Ironman” even if it´s not. (I don´t even think it´s possible to survive an Ironman game) The poor Bannis have walked around in rags most of the time. I was happy as one merchant brought wool but after I´ve built a tailor, I realized that you can´t make any coats with only wool. I don´t mind that you need to make Wadmal first, that´s good and logical but why do you need leather for all kind of clothing? Maybe you think of shoes. That might make sense.

I also made some other notes;
The possibility to make stone tools at the campfire makes the “survivor” start much easier. They certainly don´t last long but help a lot at the beginning.

Is it possible to have different “buttons” for small and big stones? It´s hard to see the stones in the forests and I accidentally cut big ones as I wanted small and it was also a struggle to find 18 boulders for the Thingstead.

I´m not so fond of the changes of the mini clay pit. First, the miner can never climb out of it after he´s got his 12 clay. There´s a homeless sign on his head and I guess that he will starve to death unless you send a builder to liberate him fast enough. You need to refill it with clay? A never-ending loop? I find some spare soil of minor quality would be more realistic. That would mean that it costs work but no material to demolish it. Like the changes, you´ve made at the pastures. I find that´s a good compromise between your old version and the vanilla costs.

The bloomery seems to follow the limit of logs.

I have a few more things on my notes and I can also show some screenshots later. But this is enough for now.

I´m pleased that you appreciate my thoughts and findings.

Reindeer
I´m sure that there is something wrong with the deer. At least at this medium valley map. I can´t imagine that that´s purely bad luck. I went back to an early save (unfortunately I haven´t made many) and in year 4 there are actually quite a few deer to be seen all over the map, among others one larger herd. At the next save in year 17, I can´t find many and now in year 21, I only see one single deer. There might be a few hiding in the woods but certainly no herds. I also can’t remember that I´ve ever seen a small deer, so my guess is that there´s something wrong with the reproduction. (And I haven´t killed more than those 3+2 the first couple of years.) The same thing may go for the black grouse. They are harder to spot but there aren´t many to be seen at the later saves.

Leather
My shepherd has just started to slaughter and I can see no sheep hide to make leather from. And it looks like animal fat is food. I think I read in your description that it can be used for some production chain but since there isn´t much produced, my Bannis are very keen on this fat and it´s gone fast, so there will not be much left for the production of oil, candles or whatever can be made from it.

Stone tools
I don´t know if I find them good or bad for a survivor game. It made the start easier, faster and more relaxed. And since they wear out very fast, there´s no risk that you want to delay to build the iron production chain to use stone tools for a longer time. I didn´t make any notes but if I remember it right, you can make 3 tools from one stone and the production was surprisingly fast for a tool-less person. Maybe you could cut the production numbers a bit so that you need to invest more time and material to be able to take this shortcut. And there will still be enough other challenges with the survivor start.

Clay
Maybe my miners couldn´t leave because I built my 3 spots close to a mountain. (all 3 had the same issue). Does it have a front side? I can´t see any but if there is one and I happened to locate this side to the mountain, I can understand that the miner has problems to get out.
I find it weird (from an engineering point of view) to refill a hole in the ground with valuable and difficult clay. There must be some spare rubble all over the place after all construction work that would be more suitable. You don´t need to see it and measure it, same as you don´t need to see and measure the spare wood you need for the animal shelter of the pastures.

Other notes
Since it takes quite some time to build a pasture, it would be nice if it would be possible to use more than one builder. Sometimes you would want it fast and I can see no reason to deliberately slow the construction time down.

Do I need to bother to buy flax seeds on “harsh”?

We might have talked about this before; you can´t build a road on spawning firewood without clearing it first. That´s pretty annoying.

I haven´t looked all too much into the production numbers, yet. Just a little bit to see from what it´s worth to produce a surplus to sell. Here are a few remarks. More calculated numbers will come later: The value of the raw materials for wheelbarrows are higher than the product. The profit for iron fittings is very high (but I still haven´t sold many because there´s not much iron ore on the close ground and I can´t afford a mine, yet). You need less firewood to produce charcoal at the tar kiln than at the normal pile. Iron and iron tools are now more profitable with uneducated workers than it was. Maybe I was unlucky but now I have had no merchant bringing gold or silver. I liked very much to buy these metals from a merchant who pays well for my export goods and later use it by other merchants who are more stingy. This possibility seems to be gone. It´s just observations, I don´t know yet if I like the changes or not.

I will try to add some screenshots.

First picture
An impression in year 4. We have just started to produce iron tools.

Second picture
Location of small clay pits.

Third picture
Overview of the settlement, its inhabitants and its storage in year 17. There´s a very small random interval between siblings. If one child is born in the first family, it takes a few months and one is born in the other family as well.

Fourth picture
An impression of an area with many pit frame buildings. Maybe it would be nice if there was a larger general barn in that style as the small one in the left low corner.

I like the fences. Much more realistic for pastures and fields than the other types.

As I promised; a few pictures from my new settlement.

First picture
Starting options. You can see that the birches are quite spare around the starting spot.

Second picture
The first years managed. The most important rule I followed; use as few logs as possible. This scenario might suggest that we are on Iceland but we will not do the same mistake as the vikings did. That means; use as much firewood from dead branches as possible. If there´s a choice; choose buildings that need few logs. You can see the stores; a small log shed need 10 logs for 400 goods, a pit shed 4 for 800 and a storehouse needs 36 logs for 1800 goods. That´s the reason for the many small pit stores.

You may also see that I have no ordinary charcoal pile. When I first looked at the numbers, I thought that you´ve made some mistake, Tom. The ordinary pit needs 16 firewood for 12 charcoal, the tar kiln only 8. But when I think about how the production works, these numbers are totally logical. Both sites use the same principle; burning wood in the absence of oxygen. The difference is only that with the more complex construction, you can take advantage of the tar that´s also produced at the more simple kiln, but here it´s simply seeping into the ground and can´t be used. With the tar pit, I get the same amount of charcoal out of each firewood, the tar is simply a bonus. In that other game, I had both kilns and my impression is that the production at the normal charcoal pit is a little higher, so later if you need a lot of charcoal but not so much pit, it might be better. That´s good.

Third picture
We Nordic women have always been tough and strong; like carrying heavy stones in the snow slush.

I´m not sure which God this idol represents. I hope it´s Freja; the fertility goddess. I´m pretty sure that would be the most likely idol for a peaceful settlement like this. The others are obvious male warrior Gods.

Fourth picture
Here´s where I stopped yesterday.

I deliberately built the small clay pits close to the mountain, and yes, you fixed that bug, Tom. The miners needed no builder to be liberated from the pit.

I show the food graph. I was a bit too ambitious about making a lot of food. The first summers were also warm and everything grew well, especially the heavy turnips! I built more small barns but they were filled in no time. The sinking food storage is partly deliberate. A combination of testing rye (no good idea at “harsh”), no more turnips until most of the stored turnips were eaten and cold weather. I hope I wasn´t “over-eager”. This is also a cold summer, the temperature is at its peak; 10 C at the moment. It´s August and soon time to start the harvest but you can see how the fields look like; not much to get this year. That´s why you need an overproduction of food good years if you want to be dependent on farming on “harsh”.

The idea of making some food heavier than other is interesting. It gives a crop like turnips, that has a high output also with uneducated farmers when it´s cold, a disadvantage compared to other crops. Even though I find a weight of 4 a bit too much. (Unless you develop this further and change the weight of more food. But in that case, the capacity of storages and markets needs to be looked at, as well)