Topics

1

General Discussion / The Exile Challenge

« on: July 26, 2022, 01:15:51 AM »

Hi everybody,

Just to share with you a challenge idea I've been following that I've found quiet entertaining and, well, challenging: The Exile Challenge!


Description:
A easier, funnier, but still hard, version of The Challenge ( https://www.unrealworld.fi/forums/index.php?topic=901.0 ). You have committed sacrilege, and, after beating you up, the people decided against killing you; instead, you are condemned to 6 months of exile in the wilderness with nothing on your person, not even clothes. During your exile, you are taboo: you can't interact with any villager in the Unreal World.

In this Exile Challenge, unlike the original "Challenge", you can zoom out and also use the World map.   

Start:
- Roll random char
- Winter
- Random start location
- Scenario: hurt, helpless, afraid
- First movement: Discard all items, including clothes. You are naked and have literally nothing.

Objective:
- Survive the whole winter half of the year

Rules:
- No interaction of any kind with villagers (including wanderers in the world map). No trade, no quests, no talking, no fighting, nothing
- No entering any settlement, for any reason whatsoever
- Can trade with merchants
- Can fight robbers, njerpezit


So far, I'm having a surprisingly good time with this. The beginning was easier than in the original Challenge, of course, but with time the "taboo" of being an exile sets you up for an interesting midgame. You have no access to good gear for a long time, which limits your efficacy at hunting, making it more rewarding. Also, you are always exposed to the weather so caves and good planning ahead are essential (no ducking into a village when it is -1000!). When you finally have enough furs to trade, you still have to find merchants, and there are also the other less peaceful "trade" options, njerps. You are essentially alone in the wild, with no civilization to fall back to, except the merchants and, if you beat them, your enemies.

In my current run, I rolled some Proletarian Kiesse, completely average guy (60 in spear and bow, except 80 in Timbercraft, which is surprisingly useful!). Initial injury was well over 50, making him useless for active hunting or fishing. So the first 2 weeks were spent crafting a stone knife, a javelin, eating berries, curing wounds and trying not to die of cold. Always on the edge!

Finally, when my proletarian everyman was more or less cured, it was time to fish and try to catch something that could actually walk. Not that easy! With hunger increasing (the Kiesse aren't the greatest fishdudes) I finally located a herd of reindeer AND an elk, all of them right next to each other! So my proletarian spent two tense days chasing, poking and chasing again both elk and reindeer, and the usual not-dying-of-cold thing. Finally, it was the elk whom succumbed, after two lucky javelin shots.

Happiness! Basic clothing, bow and couple arrows, some meat. Setting up camp in a cave, I began to roam the mires, and a sudden drop in temperature almost killed me twice. At last I located another reindeer herd and, after a day of insistent harassment, bagged one. More clothes, meat. Cool! (not freezing).

That's the story so far. Now looking for more prey, and with proper insulation the Proletarian should be able to last longer in the field without having to build a fire. The plan: get more furs, make leather out of one to have leather rope (stone axe) and a skin (that saves a lot of time breaking ice for water). With enough furs, looking for merchants will be next (iron handaxes and knives are actually beautiful things, if you only have stone!). Hunt more, dry food, be careful with the cold, perhaps find a njerp to have some brief conversation...

It's gonna be a blast, being an Exile!

 
     

 

2

Suggestions / Rites of Passage

« on: November 08, 2021, 04:52:14 PM »

Hi everybody,

I just want to share with you a self-imposed challenge I completed a while ago that, I think, can be incorporated into the game as a "story mode" without much difficulty. In it, you are a teenager undergoing a series of "rites of passage" towards manhood.

At the beginning, being a boy, you are not allowed to do much, even to stray from your original culture area. You don't know how to do most things, like making bows, or clothes, etc (menu options are greyed out/blocked). Being a boy, your social options are limited, can't trade or even speak to most villagers except your mentor (one of the village sages) that you report to. He gives you a series of challenges, each one more complex than the last. You have to return to the mentor with a token proving that you completed the challenge. As a reward, you are allowed to do more and more things, in the shape of learning how to do things (for example, how to construct a short bow), or, socially, to move outside your culture area, or buying certain items, etc. You will advance both in knowledge and in social standing.

At the end, the supreme test of adulthood: killing a Njerpezit in a fair fight. Only after that you are allowed to settle down and build a cabin, as an established member of the tribe. You have a year to do all this, otherwise the quest fails and you'll be a child forever, and be renamed Peter Pan  .

Optional: After a few more Njerpezit killings, your are promoted to War Chief, and are allowed to hire villagers to go raiding.


I found following this challenge produced a very focused game that was quite fun, especially when you "learn" from the old man little by little, expanding your power all the time, which is rewarding. I don't remember all the details, but here I give you a partial list of the passage quests and their rewards. At the beginning our teenager doesn't know how to do almost anything, and is not allowed to interact with any villager except his mentor. Again, this is just a sketch and can be improved. Food for thought!


Quest 1: The Young Aspirant. Hunt any animal.
Reward: Knowledge: how to build basic shelter, basic bows, arrows, javelin. Social: Allowed to leave culture boundaries.
Quest 2: To Know the World. Visit every culture, bring back tokens.
Reward: Knowledge: How to build kota, withes. Social: Allowed to trade for simple, basic tools (not weapons!)
Quest 3: The Mobile House. Build a kota from scratch.
Reward: Knowledge: How to make water skin, raft, birch ropes. Social: Allowed to trade for cows, furs.
Quest 4: To the Ends of the Earth. Visit the farthest northwestern point of the mainland, burn a trunk there at midnight
Reward: Knowledge: How to make shortbow, blunt arrows. Social: Allowed to trade for punt
Quest 5: To the Ends of the Sea. Find southermost island.
Reward: Knowledge of basic traps. Social: allowed to trade for shovel.
Quest 6: The Trader. Accumulate furs for X value.
Reward: Knowledge: how to make leather armor, overcoats. Social: Allowed to trade for simple weapons, nothing above "normal" quality
Quest 7: The Warrior. Find and kill a Njerpezit
Reward: Knowledge: How to build cabin, cellar. Social: allowed to hire villagers to help build cabin.
Quest 8: The Tribesman. Build your cabin
Reward: You are a man! Social: Can buy dogs.
(Optional)
Quest 9: The War Path. Kill 5 Njerpezit by yourself, can bring dog to fight.
Reward: Social: Allowed to buy any weapon, including master quality level. Allowed to lead war parties.
Quest 10: Marauder. Hire war party and annihilate Njerpezit village
Reward: You are acclaimed War Chief. Men respect you, women love you, children want to be like you. You can rest, at last. Long year.


As you can see, this simple uses everything already in the game, only unveiling it (interactions and menu options) after certain conditions are met. The list of quests/rewards needs to be refined, of course, but it could be a nice thing to add as an alternative of an open world that always gets too easy after a while. And is fun! What do you think?

3

Suggestions / Show statistics without needing to die...

« on: May 08, 2021, 06:37:43 PM »

Hi,

As the title says, only when you die you can finally see some basic stats about your char: distance traveled, days adventuring, etc. Why not implement a "Statistics" screen, to see your current stats? It can have the following info:

- Start date of adventuring
- Days adventuring
- Distance traveled
- # of animals hunted (per species). Don't display zero kills, to have it cleaner, or fish!
- # of animals trapped (per species)
- # of Njerpezs killed
- # of buildings and/or total area of buidings
- # of traps (per kind)
- Total length of fences
- # of quests completed
- Total value of inventory
- # of cultures met
- gain per skill since beginning (ex: +10 bow, +15 hideworking, etc.)
- Whatever other interesting things you desire 

Shouldn't be too complex. Thoughts?

Regards,
Utumno.

4

General Discussion / Killing foreign traders in 10 easy steps!

« on: September 25, 2020, 01:57:19 AM »

If you don't like exploits, don't read any further! 

Hi guys,

I discovered (or re-discovered, surely somebody already thougth of this) a simpler, friendlier way to be a mass murderer to eliminate foreign traders.

First, about you:

1. Please have your bow skill as high as possible. Above 75 is fine, but YMMV. (Be nice and please be born as an Owl guy, with high eyesight and dexterity. Thanks)
2. Have in your posession many furs. Good furs. Winter furs, from the North.
3. Also, a good bow and some arrows/broadheads may be useful, or so people say.
4. Some armor, but not so heavy it impairs your bow skill significantly. A good fur overcoat and/or a cuirass (depending on your strength) are enough.

Location:

5. Meet the traders in some kind of open terrain. A frozen lake, an open mire or similar. No one's going to hide!

Time:

6. "Frozen lake" wasn't a poetic preference. Do this in the deepest winter, with the snow almost touching your cristallized but still functioning testicles.

 
Algorithm:

7. Look carefully at the happy traders. Ascertain which ones are selling arrows and broadheads. Buy all of them with your furs (you remembered to bring them, right?) Smile. Try to learn to say "hello" and "thanks" in their language. Also, "you suckers!". Keep smiling. It is a wonderful cultural exchange (you may also buy some of their swords and axes to be extra sure, if you have enough furs). 

8. Once you are the only one that has any arrows and/or  broadheads in a ten kilometer radius, step back to a comfortable distance, take your bow, bow, and start shooting. Use the broads at first against the nearest traders. Your objective is to kill or maim. Once a trader is unable to walk, let him crawl awhile and shoot the ones still standing. NEVER RUN! Ski backwards, let them tire themselves in the gonads-high snow. The more hurt they get, the faster they'll tire. After a few good-placed shots, all those sword-and-axe wielding capitalists will be either dead, crawling in the snow or so hurt/tired they will never harm you. If you are running out of arrows, give the coup-de-grace to the nearest blue sad sack and retrieve your arrows.

9. Recover your furs, arrows, and add an ungodly, game-breaking amount of loot.

10. Optionally, feel guilty. Not recommended. It is a game. (You know that, right?)

And that's it. I don't think this is an original find, but I discovered it with my latest character, a mad Owl with bow skill at 97 that got invaded by a band of traders that just wouldn't leave the settlement, and he was kind of a nervous little man. A sensitive, delicate soul, what can I say...

5

Suggestions / Rules of engagement for adventurers in the wild

« on: May 06, 2019, 10:24:51 PM »

Hi everybody,

I would like to propose a set of simple rules for making the interaction between the player and adventurers or hunters found in the wild more realistic and less prone to exploitation. Sami has said that next version is all about NPCs, so I wonder if there is still time for a simple fix regarding this aspect of NPC-player interaction.

As you know, when the player stumbles upon a pacific NPC in the wild, said NPC basically acts as if nothing interesting is happening. A completetely unknown person appears from nowhere, pointing a broadhead arrow to the NPC head. Nobody says anything, not even "hello?" or "hi, I'm gonna murder you while you are all alone here!". The NPC walks around, bored, looking at the trees, turns his back to the player and bang!, free equipment/clothing and food. Not that realistic. Luckily it is easy to remedy, in my opinion.

Two basic considerations:

First, if the NPC sees the player for the first time, the NPC should be able to react.

Second, that first-time reaction should depend on the distance from the player. If the distance is outside the "personal space" of the NPC, the NPC talks, asking if the player is friend or foe. If the player is inside the "personal space" of the NPC, it will assume aggressive intent, and the NPC will attack at once.

If the player said "I'm a friend", can he treacherously attack later? I'll say either no, or give the player such bad karma that is almost suicidal. I prefer that the player be prohibited from attacking, so he can't exploit, again, a naive NPC.

The player still has the advantage here, as he can still zoom in with weapons ready and at range while the NPC won't have his weapons at the ready, and has the option of stalking the NPC and shoot it with impunity. But once discovered, it is either challenged about his intentions by the NPC (if far) or directly attacked if too near.

The logic is pretty simple. In pseudo-pseudo-pseudo code:

if (player_not_detected)
      do nothing
else
      if (distance > NPC_personal_space)
         NPC asks if player is friend or foe
                if (answer is foe) NPC attacks; else nobody can attack,
      else
         NPC attacks
     endif
endif

As you can see, it is nothing particularly complicated and solves the naive adventurer NPC exploit.

What do you think?

Regards,
Utumno

   




 

 

6

Modding / How to spawn an animal?

« on: July 08, 2018, 02:11:24 PM »

Hi everybody,

Just a single question: is there a way to spawn an animal in a particular place? I want to test a couple of ideas and I need a bear near my settlement for that. Is it possible?

Regards,
U.

7

General Discussion / A safe place for cows

« on: July 05, 2018, 08:32:37 PM »

Hi everybody, first post in this new forum.

Just to share a design for a cow's pen (or any other animal) that seems to be safe from predators. It is like this:


   X X X O X X X
   X X X X X X X
   O X F F F X O
   X X X X X X X
   X X X O X X X


F = free space
X =fence
O = Trap pit with stakes

The idea is as follows. First, build the 1st ring around the free area, where your animal will reside:


   X X X X X
   X F F F X
   X X X X X


This will not stop any predator, so you add...traps!


           O 
       X X X X X
     O X F F F X O
       X X X X X
           O 


And, to make sure the predators will be funneled to the traps, make a 2d ring in such a way that there are always 2 fences between the exterior and the free space, or a trap. Like this:


   X X X O X X X
   X X X X X X X
   O X F F F X O
   X X X X X X X
   X X X O X X X


It looks like a 4-point castle, and it is amazingly effective. I think predators can only penetrate one fence, so, if they don't realize there is a trap, they try to take the shortcut and...bingo! A new wolf skin.

It also works with elks and the like, just bait each trap with elk-meth, aka turnips, and you are done. Last time I did this, I got like 4 elks and a wolf, while my bull Benicio el Toro (what else to call a toro?  ) just looked on, amused.

Try it and tell me how it goes!

Regards,
U.