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1

Suggestions / Musical Instruments

« on: April 04, 2019, 02:48:11 PM »

I am working through the tedium of a long winter and was thinking on music in the game. I thought I had a wonderful idea to suggest player craft-able musical instruments. I went to the development list (http://www.unrealworld.fi/urw_development.html), and lo and behold, they were there as a future goal.

I do know that modding can add in instruments right now as objects. I love the idea of making drums, flutes, various stringed instruments, etc..

But I'm talking more about craftable instruments having some function above just a craftable object. They would have some effect in the world in addition to a sound effect. That got me thinking to the Shaman Duel video (http://www.enormouselk.com/?q=media/video) or other Enormous Elk videos and how instruments might affect a player's use of magic or spells in the world, friendliness of villagers, traders, etc..

Got to say, I still love this game and where EE is taking it.

2

Suggestions / Map Generation

« on: August 01, 2018, 03:39:32 PM »

This is more a question/suggestion. I believe previous URW versions had options for map generation. Has there been any thought to have toggles or sliders in map generation to create customized or varied maps at character creation? Some of the options could include:

Map size
Landmass and island distribution
Terrain type prevalence (mountain, bog, rivers, lakes)
Size or distribution of settlements/cultures
Prevalence or frequency of forrester villages
Frequency, goods, aggression of traders
Frequency, aggression, party size of robbers or Njerpez
Prevalence of wild predators or prey
Prevalence of birds
Prevalence of seals, beavers, swans, or other uncommonly encountered animal types
Prevalence of large fish
Sensitivity of the spirits (how easy they are to appease or offend)
etc.

3

Gameplay questions / Lost Ram Quest Question

« on: May 08, 2018, 07:11:15 PM »

I've gotten a quest to help find a ram that is lost in the forest. I need some advice and the rest contain spoilers...

Spoiler: show

4

Suggestions / Defense in a building

« on: April 19, 2018, 10:25:01 PM »

I recently had a Njerpez warrior enter my cabin in the night and almost kill my character. (See Stories --> Topic: He was in my cabin!) I have never had this happen through multiple other characters.

Having said that, is there anything that can be done to make a building more secure? I'm sure others have ideas of how to make this work.

For example, can a new "lockable" door be constructed either be modifying the existing door OR by creating a new craft-able item of a "Door Bar". The Door Bar could be made from 1-2 boards and tying equipment. It is then applied to a closed door to secure the door. It would need to be picked up from the adjacent door (and enter the character's inventory) for the door to be opened OR it could be hacked through using an axe to break the door (which would then create firewood?).

5

Stories / He was in my cabin!

« on: April 16, 2018, 10:45:35 AM »

The following is a story of Ossi.

It was my first winter alone since I escaped from my Njerpez captors. You see, I had cleared their camp earlier in the spring and used it as my homestead, remaking two of their buildings into my own cabin. My homestead was then a central camp with my cabin and sauna with a pine mire to the north and east, all surrounded by spruce mire. I had ringed my homestead and border of the spruce mire with a contiguous trap fence and staked trap pits. In the months between then and mid-winter, I had explored and become friendly with local villagers: trading for many goods I needed, helping them with chores, traveling between regions, and even finding a bird thief.

In those travels, I had encountered numerous Njerpez warriors wandering the forests, especially near my homestead. More so even than I had ever heard of. I had had numerous encounters, and almost perished a few times. Because of this, I often wore my best armor and was armed as I traveled around the forests near my homestead.

One morning near mid-winter, I checked my trap fence and found a lone small wolf caught in a pit. I killed, skinned, and butchered the animal, offering up a gift to the spirits for this bounty. I set the meat to dry and tanned the fur. I came back and picked up the rinsed winter wolf fur and took it into my cabin to finish at my table. I had a decent fur at the end, was weary and moderately fatigued, and it was evening. So I decided to add the fur to my sleeping pallet and rest. I decided not to re-kindle the fire that night and was about to lay down on my furs against a cold winter night ...when I heard my door open.

Confused, I was about to look to my door when I was hit from behind and felt something break in my thorax. I turned and I was being attacked by a Njerpez Warrior holding a mace! He was in my cabin! He had apparently scaled my fence, snuck across my homestead, rushed into my cabin, and attacked me, all in the darkness of the night as I was finishing a fur. I wasn't wearing armor and had no weapons, so I grabbed a handaxe nearby and fought the intruder.

I had little hope of succeeding against this enemy with my fatigue and wound, but I struck back against his blow to my shoulder and luckily hit him in the abdomen, which wound began to bleed. I think he was shocked that his first strike didn't knock me unconscious and I was fighting back. After that, I chopped my axe against his skull and he dropped dead. I was stunned at my survival!

I gathered my weapons quickly, searched my homestead in the darkness, and found this intruder was alone. I was left with a major fracture in my thorax, a dead Njerpez next to my sleeping pallet, and bloody gore marring my peaceful cabin. I felt as if my home was violated. If there was only some way to secure my cabin or bar the door. I don't feel as safe as I did before this invasion. It is a blessing I was awake. One more moment, and I would have lied down and the Njerpez warrior would have found me asleep. I am truly lucky.

Note: In all my years of playing URW, I've never encountered so many solo Njerpez warriors in such a small geographical region. They've given me a fairly steady stream of goods for trade. But I've also never had a Njerpez invade my cabin directly. I've found them in tiles adjacent to various characters' cabins, but this is the first time I've ever had this type of experience. It scared me to death. I was literally shaking by being surprised by a Njerpez in my own cabin. I was sure my time invested into this character was about to be flushed down the tube, but was genuinely happy to survive. I also wonder if it would be possible to bar a door in a building. This would require the invader to break down the door with an axe to get in, but would give some defense against home invaders.

6

Gameplay questions / "The forest around looks extremely hostile."

« on: March 03, 2018, 03:21:55 PM »

I love the changes in mood for the new update. I just received this message when I woke up...

Quote

The forest around looks extremely hostile.

I'm kind of freaking out now. Let me give some context...

I'm in my homestead at the beginning of winter and reducing bandages to cords (harsh furs => bandages => cords) for drying and smoking meat as well as starting out on a trapping expedition. While I was sitting in my cabin, I heard a grouse whistling outside and stepped out to find a hazel grouse in a loop snare. I killed, skinned, and butchered the bird then sacrificed the 1 grouse cut in a general sacrifice.

Quote

You gently set the hazel grouse cut on the ground as a sacrifice.
You feel comfortable.

I then cleaned and tanned the grouse skin, prepared cords, rinsed the skin, and went to bed. I woke up with this ominous feeling. I'm tempted to take all my stuff and abandon my homestead for a while.

What happened? What do I do? Have any of you experienced this?

7

Gameplay questions / Spoiler: Forest Maid Question

« on: February 26, 2018, 08:10:06 PM »

The following contains spoilers...

Spoiler: show

8

Gameplay questions / Bones

« on: January 08, 2018, 07:56:44 PM »

I have my first character in 3.5 (vanilla, no mods) and keep collecting bones from butchering animals. Possible spoiler questions...

Spoiler: show

9

Suggestions / AI Response to Killing Villagers

« on: December 04, 2017, 07:17:37 PM »

An interesting thread is going on in Gameplay Questions -> Psychic enemies (started by PoisonPen - http://www.unrealworld.fi/forums/index.php?topic=945.0) . It has to do with village NPC responses to a player who kills NPCs. PoisonPen is arguing the game mechanic is broken because he can't snipe from safety (a mischaracterization of his post, but go read it and the responses).

I'd recommend that the AI be adapted so the villagers behave somewhat rationally when a NPC villager is killed. I recommend there be two phases of villager reaction when when a NPC villager is killed.

First, if a player attacks, the village can gang-up on them as the AI currently has it. However, if the NPC villager is killed, I recommend the villagers respond differently than by staying aggressive to eventually become breathless and easy to pick off one-by-one. The villagers could respond to a death by:

The warriors, hunters, and adventurers remain the principle combatants in a village while the women, children, and shamen/sages and tradesmen/craftsmen are secondary defenders who wait until the warrior/class are engaged or eliminated before attempting to fight or assist.
The villagers won't chase a person too far away from the village or other NPC villagers for support.
They flee to a fortified building that they decide to defend. Maybe they can shut and bar a door so the player can't just open a door and walk in. The player would then need to hack through the door and wade into a defended building. This might open expanded building options for defensive structures in buildings (barred door, closable shutters, defensive fences or walls in some villages.
Villagers could try to smoke out or burn down a building where a NPC killing player is hiding. (EDIT: taptap's idea)
If an attacked village is near another village (and especially if connected by roads), consider reinforcements and more fighting NPC arriving after an appropriate time.

Second, there needs to be longer-term consequences for killing NPC villagers.

Maybe the non-combatant villagers flee to surrounding world tiles/villages once a NPC is killed. The fleeing NPCs could warn others and prompt a lowering of the player's reputation in a given culture. This might allow the player to loot a village, but the remaining culture would then be hostile to the player. Maybe a player's worsening reputation, after repeated NPC killing would spill over to neighboring cultures. Eventually, the NPC killing player would find no safe refuge.
This might be a challenge, and might need balance issues, but consider having roving bands of NPCs that would pose a threat for a village-killing player. For example, if a player gains a hostile reputation from killing many NPCs from a culture (or from non-affiliated forresters), maybe that culture sends hunting parties after them. These hunting parties wouldn't spawn unless a player's reputation got bad enough from killing NPCs in villages. This hunting party would be like roving bands of foreign traders but from the revenge-seeking culture. These hunting parties would be armed and armored and maybe they bring some dogs too. Then, if the player has a hostile reputation (from killing NPC villagers), the hunting party would become aggressive and attempt to fight the player or raid the payer's settlement (take gear and equipment, burn down buildings, take livestock).

I believe a player's behavior and attitude about killing villager NPCs would change if there were more risk to it. Players wouldn't be able to have a "safe" area if they might encounter roving bands of warriors/hunters/adventurers who are tracking them down. I also imagine that in real life, if a rogue hermit was wandering into Iron-age villages and killing everyone, the word would have gotten out and a coalition of villages might send a party for vengeance.

10

General Discussion / Lifetimers and Supporting URW/Enormous Elk

« on: December 03, 2017, 03:39:34 PM »

In the Dec. 3 Development News, Sami mentioned Lifetimers and their early access to the 3.5 beta. I've also seen some of the forum posters with their "Honorary Lifetime Supporter Member" badges.

Does this relate to the purchase of a lifetime license? Are those still available?

I encountered URW through Steam and can't see where to purchase a lifetime license. I also can't see this on the URW website. I do see the donation link, but there is no mention of a perpetual license or access to the beta releases. Can anyone shed some light on this? Thanks!

11

Modding / Use of dried/smoked meat/fish in cooking

« on: September 11, 2017, 09:19:17 PM »

I'm starting to dabble in cooking modifications. I've been able to craft edible recipes and embed them in sub-menus (Thanks for the tutorials and existing mods out there). I've also created cooking recipes for dried berries, mushrooms, and herbs.

However, I want to use dried/smoked meat cuts and fish for recipes. Is there any way for recipes to refer to general dried/smoked meat/fish as it currently does to {Raw meat} or {Raw fish}? (Note: I also eventually want to use dried berries, dried mushrooms, and dried herbs (seasoning) in recipes.)

For example, if I want to use dried stag cuts for a recipe, the following don't work:
{Dried meat}    #1# [remove] [bake]
{Dried cut}    #1# [remove] [bake]

Similarly, smoked trout doesn't work in the following:
{Smoked fish}    #1# [remove] [bake]

...BUT, the following commands do work with dried stag cuts and smoked trout, respectively:
{Dried stag cut}    #1# [remove] [bake]
{Smoked trout}    #1# [remove] [bake]

I assume the same limitation exists for salted meat/fish. Would I need specific recipes for all the different dried/smoked meat/fish permutations (e.g. Dried Bear Cut Recipe X, Dried Elk Cut Recipe X, etc.)? Is there recipe text that generally refers to any permutation of the dried/smoked meat/fish possibilities?

12

Suggestions / Buying Animals

« on: September 10, 2017, 01:57:17 PM »

Can the buying animals process be changed to address: 1) buying a specific size of livestock animal from among the available animals for sale, and/or 2) buying animals in bulk?

If a village has multiple livestock animals of the same type of animal for sale but I only want one specific sized animal, it seems to be random which animal I am actually buying. I'd really like to either A) know which animal I am trying to buy or B) be able to choose which animal I want to buy.

A) Could the dialog specify I'm trading for the "small sheep" or the "big dog" or the "bull" (referring to the normal bull). Right now, I can't seem to find any pattern as to which animal I am actually buying at a time and the NPC dialogue doesn't clarify either. I've tried to determine if proximity to the bought animal or selling villager influence which animal is for sale and I can't seem to find a pattern. For example, if the village has 5 sheep and 3 dogs for sale, could the dialog proceed as follows: ""What kind of animals [do] you need? We have a few to sell around here. 1-Small Sheep, 2-Big Dog" The player would then bid and trade OR reject the sale offer and start a new trade dialogue to bring up a new list of animals... 1-Sheep, 2-Small Dog

B) Could the animal dialog actually list all the types/sizes of animals for sale not just by the animal type but also the animal size? For example, if a village has 5 sheep (1 big, 2 normal, and 2 small) and 3 dogs (1 big, 1 normal, and 1 small) and I only want to buy the one big dog, then it seems random which dog I actually get the opportunity to buy at a time. There have been instances when the big dog in this scenario is bought first, second, or third. Could the dialog actually break down to: "What kind of animals [do] you need? We have a few to sell around here. 1-Ram, 2-Small Sheep, 3-Sheep, 4-Big Sheep, 5-Small Dog, 6-Dog, 7-Big Dog"
Can I buy multiple animals in one trade? Right now, I need to buy multiple animals one-at-a-time. Can I add the animals to a tally and then trade for them all at once? This would allow the player to have more efficient trades and allow higher value items to be used for trades. Now, a battlesword is worthless when trading for animals because it is so valuable. But if I could buy animals in bulk, that sword might then become very handy if I could use it to buy a bull and cows/dogs.

13

Stories / Orja Reemailainen

« on: September 07, 2017, 08:50:34 PM »

Part 1: The Story Begins...
I try not to remember much from my time as a child, but some memories won't go away; a smiling woman with long golden braid who would comb my hair with her precious bronze comb decorated with a running horse; a huge man with scarred hands and a booming laugh who would throw me into the air and catch me as I laughed; brothers who would bring a brace of grouse or string of fish back for dinners; a large milk cow in the yard. I mostly remember light, warmth, and love. Then the demon raiders from the east came at night with fire and iron. Isa yelled for me to get help from a near village, but I didn't even make it to the trees before they caught me. Terror and my burning house... that is all I allow myself to remember of that night... my family... gone. Even now, I am consumed by loss and rage as I think of what was taken from me...

As the sun rose the next morning, I was put on a raft and taken far away from all I knew. I was made a slave to those demon raiders, the Njerpez. I secretly took care of my ways, vowing to avenge my family's spirits. One day, I saw a warrior's wife using my mother's bronze comb and I flew into a rage. I was punished, but I knew who had destroyed my life. I slowly learned the names of those raiders who killed my family, and they became my list... Kaipia, Ruuri, Kalevi, Kaipia, Hirvo, and Rautia. I learned, watched, and grew large, like my father. I banked my fury and nurtured my hate for these men as I slaved for these Njerpez.

One evening, these 6 were boasting to some of the younger warriors about a raid a few years ago into the Reemi. They boasted of their power as they described sneaking through the forest up to my home. Rautia laughed as he showed my mother's prized bronze comb and pointed toward me as I tended the evening fire as a sample of the wealth they took by their might. The young warriors lusted the glory and wealth and they began that night to return to the Reemi for another raid. I convinced Kaipia I would be a help to locate the villages that surrounded my family's homestead, and the fool agreed. I was the only slave taken to care for a raiding party of 10.

Once we landed the rafts on the shore, the raiders crept through the forest back to my homestead's clearing. They repaired 2 of the cabins that were partially standing and started to prepare for their raids into the nearby villages. As they were checking their gear, I realized I was alone in the middle of the camp and took my chance as I ran...

14

Stories / Late Night Encounter

« on: August 23, 2017, 08:56:42 PM »

Paimen Sartolainen couldn't ignore the spirits prompting anymore. He had spent 2 summers mostly near his settlement hunting, minding his growing flock of sheep, farming his fields, and tending his snares, traps, and trap fences. He certainly wasn't a warrior, but had become a master at hunting (stealth and bow) and a grandmaster working with hides. So, when the spirits told him to seek furs at the Kaumo, he couldn't put off the impression anymore...

15

Suggestions / Removing old tracks

« on: August 03, 2017, 07:21:04 PM »

Can old tracks be intentionally removed or eliminated? Maybe through the tracking skill? I know they expire after a while.

I have numerous tracks of various beasts around my cabin, most of whom I've killed. Those tracks layer over each other and make tracking a newer animal's trail very challenging.

Topics - caius

Suggestions / Musical Instruments

Suggestions / Map Generation

Gameplay questions / Lost Ram Quest Question

Suggestions / Defense in a building

Stories / He was in my cabin!

Gameplay questions / "The forest around looks extremely hostile."

Gameplay questions / Spoiler: Forest Maid Question

Gameplay questions / Bones

Suggestions / AI Response to Killing Villagers

General Discussion / Lifetimers and Supporting URW/Enormous Elk

Modding / Use of dried/smoked meat/fish in cooking

Suggestions / Buying Animals

Stories / Orja Reemailainen

Stories / Late Night Encounter

Suggestions / Removing old tracks