Messages

541

Gameplay questions / Re: Question about Combat and Accuracy!!

« on: June 09, 2020, 08:34:56 AM »

UrW combat is deadly and unpredictable: it only takes a single lucky shot to kill, and the combatant who draws the first blood usually ends up being the one who lives. Also, as mentioned, NPC skill varies hugely, so some are pushovers, while some are overcome only by cheesy tactics (or lots of luck).

Maximum armor protection helps a great deal in reducing or negating the effect of enemy hits, but it also reduces your skill and increases the rate of fatigue accumulation, so you need to find a balance.

Note that aiming is makes it even harder to hit a target, so you need to decide whether you want to go for a lucky blow to an unprotected head, or trying to get at least some hits in that would whittle away at the enemy's health.

542

Gameplay questions / Re: Stop me, before I kill again!

« on: June 09, 2020, 08:25:14 AM »

Not really (and I have the same issue). Having the items on the ground will block inventory access and make the mistake impossible, but you'd be tied to a specific location.

My routine is to check the weather, the herbs, and then eat, whenever my character gets hungry. I also tend to avoid carrying unidentified mushrooms, although there is now a check and warning for eating those.

543

General Discussion / Re: Take it or leave it - Forest Reindeer Meat?

« on: June 08, 2020, 08:52:27 AM »

I don't kill more than one at a time (obviously, successfully defending against a wolf pack, or a herd of reindeer getting themselves trapped in a trap line is a somewhat different case).
In general I kill, skin, haul, drop in cellar (return to get the rest of the meat if an elk), clean, tan, prepare meat (dry or smoke), tan, dry/smoke again if there's more to process, finish tanning (essentially takes a day for an elk hide), with sleeping in between as needed. For trapped animals I'd then proceed to the next one.
If I were to deal with multiple dead wolves (or, potentially a bear and her cub, which so far hasn't happened to me), I'd skin first and butcher afterwards, doing as much as I can before having to sleep, storing hides in the cellar. I'd prioritize tanning over meat processing.
Also note that you've got a lot more time in winter when meat basically doesn't degrade (I don't know to what extent carcass degradation is modeled, though, but given that you can sometimes find perfectly fine elk cadavers from ice accidents in autumns, I suspect it isn't a factor).

Another thing to consider is fatigue. I don't do skinning or tanning when having fatigue (sometimes I don't care if the skin preservation has already failed in a previous step), but wait to do that until the fatigue is gone (to get the best possible skin), and meat processing is a process that actually reduces fatigue, so I may well process a small batch of meat rather than just twiddle my thumbs.

544

General Discussion / Re: Question about farming barley?

« on: June 05, 2020, 05:34:11 PM »

However, you should plant only once per tile. Each planting is of a fistful of seeds, and it replaces the results of the previous planting, so the only reason to plant the same tile over and over is to train the agriculture skill (apart from trying to repair the damage caused by animals eating your sprouted plants).

The game will tell you if it's too early to plant the particular kind of seed you're trying to plant. It will also block your attempt if the ground is frozen (even if the time is right).

545

Suggestions / Re: Dog's Priority List for Food

« on: June 05, 2020, 12:32:29 PM »

You can pick the carcass up and drop it by your feet (or move the character on top of the carcass, unless too fatigued). It's possible to do in the current version, although it doesn't do anything about dog stupidity (such as refusing food thrown at them only to bark of hunger a few minutes later).

My typical approach with any game that's small enough to carry with relative ease is to pick them up, bring them back to the homestead, walk to the water front (rapids for never freezing water), drop everything carried (which includes the carcass, of course), recover the breath if needed, skin, clean, butcher, tan.

When it comes to any predators, your dogs can get agitated and attack the animal even when it's trapped, so I typically tie my character's (single) dog to a tree before dealing with predators that aren't too dangerous (chasing a badger around the yard, for instance), but wolves and bear in the wild definitely should be taken seriously, unless they're breathless (at which time I can tie the leashed dog to a tree when dealing with the mostly neutralized creature). I'd also be wary about gluttons and wild boars.

546

Suggestions / Re: Dog's Priority List for Food

« on: June 04, 2020, 06:58:18 PM »

In your case I'd pick the carcass up to protect it from potential harm by dogs (putting it in the cellar if I'd have to go to sleep overnight).

547

General Discussion / Re: What are you doing while being fatigued?

« on: June 04, 2020, 02:43:32 PM »

You can train trapping by setting and resetting a snare trap you bring with you. Note, however, that the spirits don't seem to like excessive setting of traps, and they don't seem to take removal into account. At least that's my explanation for why I got a fairly bad relation for no apparent reason.

Working 'till you drop gets boring when it results in constant interruption of work, though, and for a number of tasks (e.g. hide working) I want my character to have zero fatigue (at least until it's I've failed the first step, so there's no high quality to maintain).

548

General Discussion / Re: 6 for 6 Bear trapping?

« on: June 02, 2020, 04:28:40 PM »

And some time you'll find yourself attacked by a bear from behind while working on building a trap...

But yes, I've been reasonably successful building traps near to bear sightings (although it took longer than a day).

549

General Discussion / Re: Early-Mid-Game Progression Questions

« on: May 31, 2020, 02:42:13 PM »

I'm not afraid of accidental robber encounters, as you can easily save your life by surrendering (and potentially return to take your stuff back when prepared after having grabbed backup equipment), and even when you fight them, they typically just steal your stuff and dump you somewhere (usually badly injured, but alive), even when you've killed one or more of them. Wolves are dangerous, though, as are bears and Njerps.
I think I've lost two characters to wolves and the rest to Njerps (well, there was an early case of drowning as well, before understanding the mechanics).

550

General Discussion / Re: Early-Mid-Game Progression Questions

« on: May 30, 2020, 11:58:15 PM »

I have my characters settle by rapids, as that provides easy access to water (no need to smash ice every day during winter).

Quests are generated as some kind of background activity, and so are not directly tied to your character, but the rate at which they're generated is limited, so I make a tour of the nearby villages about two weeks after finishing the previous quest.
There are sort of three kinds of quests:
- "Public" ones, where asking any villager about how things are will reveal if someone has such a quest in the village.
- "Hidden" quests, where you have to speak directly to the quest giver to get the quest, and nobody else will know about it, and so won't be able to direct you to the quest giver.
- "Active" quests, which are similar to hidden ones, but where the quest giver actively seeks your character out and may well speak first. These quests are typically to give the quest giver some equipment of above average quality to them (typically knives and arrows). Don't bring your masterworks knives with you when visiting villages, but bring a spare Fine one instead).

My quest tour goes to the nearest village, then the next one, etc. for a two day tour if I won't get any quest. On the next attempt I'll try to speak with more people in the villages to find a hidden quest, and on a third attempt I'll chase around every village to locate all the men (kids don't give quests, and women give one a single, rare one (with special conditions), which I think is public). I don't think the spirit standing messages have anything to do with quests, but I can be wrong.

Foreign traders often have quality equipment, but they're restricted in the range they carry, so they won't have some kinds of tools, for instance. Also, they only accept payment in furs.

A large cow of burden or a bull can be used to carry logs (but not tree trunks, at least not on cows), which can save of the hauling effort when building. Better tools allows for faster building, but it's possible to get by with just a standard quality hand axe.

The more you travel the more people you encounter, I'd assume. However, combat is brutal and risky, so selecting your fights when you can and retreat when the odds don't look good (before the fight: within it it's typically too late).

551

General Discussion / Re: Noob Questions

« on: May 28, 2020, 07:40:20 PM »

3. Don't forget the humble shelter. It's probably possibly to live only using shelters and warm hides for sleeping.
4. True, but you'll likely have your characters die due to stupidity/bad luck eventually. My longest lasting character survived for about 10 years before stumbling into a very tough Njerp (in my fields) unprepared, made a couple of bad decisions, and that was it (it took a few turns, but once it starts to go south you know the end result).
5. UrW doesn't model nutrition to any extent, so you can live off cooked meat only without any ill effects.

552

Not bugs / Re: Bear Traps aren't nothing for villagers

« on: May 27, 2020, 10:19:28 PM »

Avoid and disable I would understand and accept but to walk straight over them is very immersion breaking. I can understand them walking over smaller traps but that trap hurts. I tested that character out and almost died from a crushed chest from walking into the bear trap. 

Yes, if you trigger it. Those characters pass through the traps without triggering them, a skill the PC doesn't have.

553

General Discussion / Re: Fear the Walking Dead?

« on: May 27, 2020, 10:17:11 PM »

If they were separate they definitely shouldn't stack. If a dog had been nibbling at the bones those bones would show wear, not disappear. Map maintenance might be to blame, though, although that seems odd.

554

Suggestions / Re: Graphical representation of known people.

« on: May 27, 2020, 07:20:40 PM »

I agree with the suggestion of allowing you to see at a glance if NPC's are known by name or not, and I'd also welcome an indication telling me if I've spoken to a character this day (or visit, if that's easier to manage). Both of these are things the PC should know without actively squinting (or whatever 'l'ook would correspond to). However, the modern RPG "new conversation" convention doesn't fit well the style UrW has, although I certainly wouldn't mind a "Hey, you, I want to talk to you! (basically indicating the NPC gesturing or shouting)" indication on characters who currently actively seek out the PC (such as the "I'd like to have your nice knife/arrows" case, initial robber contact, and "Hey, you'd better pay before you leave"), but the ones where you have to seek them out (e.g. bird thief) you shouldn't get any indication.

An indication on known NPCs known to be involved in the current quest would also fit the pattern of showing what the PC knows at a glance.

555

Not bugs / Re: Bear Traps aren't nothing for villagers

« on: May 27, 2020, 07:01:47 PM »

A modification of Privateer's comment: Humans can recognize traps being part of a trap structure (such as a trap in a trap fence, or a line of traps), but not when they're alone. I had a stupid visitor (as in not invited, but not hostile either: I don't tend to chase them away) at my homestead who first cut down the trees surrounding a trap, and then get his legs broken in that trap, as it was no longer recognized by him. I've also found a dead merchant in a stand alone bear trap of mine. While both incidents happened a couple of years ago, I don't think that part of the NPC logic has changed since then.