Messages

61

Gameplay questions / Re: Quality Questions

« on: May 24, 2023, 10:04:31 AM »

It's probably known by most, but it might be worth mentioning here anyway: Quality of a product is capped by the quality of its input, and that means some things can't normally be made to have a quality higher than Decent, such as things made out of logs and small trees. There is a small number of exceptions where the input material quality is ignored, letting skill determine the quality of the result (planks, for example).

As mentioned able, it's possible to find staves of higher quality than Decent out in the world, even though it's only possible to make them to the Decent level at most yourselves. These higher quality staves can then be made into javelins of higher quality, although I don't think I've ever managed to get a Superior one.

When it comes to high quality clothing, it's been discussed in the past. The argument is basically that high quality clothing production is a time consuming process that the current system cannot really handle as products have to be possible to make in a single session (making the work possible to pause and resume would help, while additional production steps quickly results in menu cluttering that may well require menu logic rework).

62

Solved'n'fixed bug reports / Re: 3.80 (beta) hangs on setting change (minor issue)

« on: May 23, 2023, 10:05:37 AM »

I don't encounter this when trying 3.80. Thanks!

63

Development News / Re: Version 3.80 released

« on: May 23, 2023, 09:53:41 AM »

A question regarding arrow shaft making: The current logic allows you to make planks of higher quality than decent (as well as worse), which presumably an carry over to slats, but I would guess saplings are all of decent quality. Does this mean you have to go the slat route to get high quality shafts, or can you get those from saplings as well (the sapling path is presumably shorter with less work involved, but you may have issues with finding lots of saplings. However, the sapling route seems rather reasonable for a starting character even if the quality would be restricted, and starting character skills are probably low anyway)?

64

Development News / Re: Blacksmith orders viewed on the map

« on: May 19, 2023, 10:05:01 AM »

I certainly think it would be an improvement to word things in a manner that makes it clear the estimate is approximate rather than a fixed one.

While they don't have clocks, the UrW characters are still subject to time limits in the form of checking traps and nets, hides, and, in particular, feeding the sauna stove when smoking meat. The last one is a task that locks the character up for weeks with limited wriggling room. Traps also result in planning interruptions when something gets caught and has to be processed (potentially resulting in getting locked up in the smoking cycle).

65

Gameplay questions / Re: Stuck on a rock...

« on: May 19, 2023, 09:50:29 AM »

So you can't even climb down? I didn't even know anything was that steep (I essentially don't climb at all).

I believe it is possible to hack the save to move your character, but I don't know how to do that myself. With a bit of luck somebody with that knowledge will post a description of how to do it.

Unless your homestead is on a water tile you're zoomed in to the wrong tile, as you've ended up on the water tile rather than terrain that is normally available for zooming in. There is a long standing bug in auto zoom in causing my characters to zoom in to a tile one step away from the one they zoomed out from, so I've disabled auto zoom in to homestead (manual zooming in works correctly).

66

Development News / Re: Blacksmith orders viewed on the map

« on: May 18, 2023, 06:36:47 PM »

A definite improvement of the feedback, but I'd rather know when it's supposed to be ready, as you'd otherwise still have to remember how long this particular item takes to make (and I suspect there's some weird truncation going on here, as I'm fairly sure I timed a two week job to return after two weeks and one day, and still had to waste another one - two days waiting around doing nothing, or spend the same time going home and then back again).

67

Solved'n'fixed bug reports / Re: 3.80 (beta) hangs on setting change (minor issue)

« on: May 18, 2023, 10:06:53 AM »

It most probably is the same.

I tested now by starting the game, turning music on and switching to windowed, exited, started again, and disabled the music (only). It hung when exiting, so it's most likely tied to the music (Yes, I'm an oddball who starts any new game with turning off whatever music there is as the very first action: I find music annoying and distracting in games). I basically did the reverse of what you suggested. After that I of course restored the windowed setting to full screen (because that's what I use), with no ill effects.

68

Suggestions / Re: Make nettle seeds a thing

« on: May 17, 2023, 11:06:44 AM »

Probably doesn't add much to the discussion, but my character threshed mature nettles the last year and has planted the seeds produced this year (it's probably not really a good idea, as I've also bought flax and hemp seeds and have planted some of those as well, and those are probably better choices).

69

Suggestions / 3.80 (beta) Allow cancellation(?) of non delivered goods

« on: May 13, 2023, 01:54:18 PM »

This is a borderline between suggestion and bug report...

I ordered a fine helmet from a blacksmith, and while waiting for it to be produced I managed to buy a Masterwork Spectacle Helmet from a trader. Nevertheless, I'd made a deal, so I went to pick up the helmet after about 2½ weeks (with an expected delivery time of 2 weeks), but the bugger said that something came up so he couldn't deliver the helmet, and that's all. I can ask him again and he gives the same answer. Thus, I don't know if he doesn't intend to deliver (which is what I really want, as I don't have a use for it anymore), or whether he intends to deliver at some future, unspecified time (another full two weeks? something less than that?).

I believe the blacksmith should make clear what the new expected delivery time is if he insist on it still being a deal as a needed feedback, or make clear the order is cancelled if it is (which is probably not the case as I can't place a new order). Ideally, however, I should be given the option to cancel the order if work hasn't commenced, or confirm that I still want the item even if it is delayed.

Edit:
I returned to the non delivering blacksmith a month or so later to see whether he had finished the goods, and he has not, but is now open for new orders.

70

Not bugs / Re: [3.72 p#1] Sauna Stove not an Oven for baking

« on: May 13, 2023, 01:35:39 PM »

I've always operated according to the assumption that a sauna and a cabin for living are two different things, so I make a sauna building where smoking and sauna baths are dealt with, and a building for actually living in.

The sauna is a small building according to my blueprints (the stove and a table to sit on (that also doubles as a surface for hide working), although a larger building that also allows for a bench to provide for two different levels to sit on for different amounts of heat is also an option).

You don't want to have the building you live in filled with smoke, so you couldn't realistically use the same building for smoking and living in (on the other hand you probably can't really smoke food and take a sauna bath at the same time either).

A sauna stove tends to consist of a large metal container (or built from stones) containing a lot of stones inside to act as a store for retained heat. A normal stove would have an oven instead of the stones in that section above the fire (and there would be additional differences as well, to allow the sauna stove to either lead the smoke out of the building or lead it into it, depending on whether you wanted to take a bath or smoke food, although that might just be a standard function to block of the chimney/hole in the roof to switch between letting the smoke out and retaining the warm air inside).

71

Suggestions / Re: Working with water in winter

« on: May 05, 2023, 09:34:00 AM »

Even a grandmaster will have a variability in how long things take. There are always room for unforeseen circumstances, such as a pesky wasp buzzing about, a misplaced tool, a sudden urge to relieve yourself, hidden defects in the materials, etc. There's also the possibility that the spirits are helpful so everything go perfectly, with no need to adjust anything after the initial placement, etc.

72

Gameplay questions / Re: Has persistence hunting been made more difficult?

« on: May 05, 2023, 09:24:42 AM »

You can still wear down animals with more speed and stamina than the PC provided you can pin them against an obstacle and get them to run back and forth along it, such as e.g. along a river (as few UrW animals swim voluntarily, unlike real world ones). However, you can easily find that a single slip up may result in them escaping to either side and leave you in the dust.

73

Suggestions / Re: Where is the robber gang seems too awkward to complete

« on: May 04, 2023, 09:17:49 AM »

I don't think I've found bear/wolf tracks on the world map in conjunction with the injured adventurer quest more than very occasionally.

The robber quest is very tedious since you have to visit every tile in the area, and even if you zoom in on every tile you may still miss both them and their tracks (the only quest worse is the animal in forest cover one). Traveling through every tile on foot ought to work as the robbers should home in on you, but it takes an enormous amount of player time to do that.

I believe you have the standard low chance to find human tracks on the overland map, but that chance is so low that it's not useful as a method of finding them, just a potential small bonus.

I agree there is a need for additional indications of their presence, such as blood scapes (as suggested), or seeing smoke/fire in the distance. Footprints in an area around the target would help as well. A smaller target circle might be another alternative.

74

Gameplay questions / Re: Has persistence hunting been made more difficult?

« on: May 04, 2023, 08:58:36 AM »

I've seen waist deep snow. I'm unsure if I've seen deeper than that, but can't rule out chest deep being possible.

The introduction of snow effects on animals and the introduction of crust makes major differences to animal endurance.

Snow now affects animals, so elk and reindeer tire very much faster in deep snow, and it seems to get worse the thicker the crust is. At the same time, a sufficient crust now makes it possible for the player character to ski without losing stamina.

I very recently gave up on trying to chase a glutton with my fast (7 km/h) character during "spring" (thigh deep snow still, I think) due to it recovering stamina completely even though I didn't lose its tracks more than very marginally, while elks and reindeer are fairly easy to hunt down in open terrain while skiing. They can shake off my player when getting into spruce terrain and have their tracks get into a mess of older tracks. I've found badgers to be very easy to tire out (both with and without snow), with the main problem being to track them (so open terrain is a great advantage).

Slower characters have a harder time and they require more luck when it comes to the prey movement (a straight line will allow the animals to recover stamina while moving), but with meandering and walking in circles it's still possible to hunt elks and reindeer down. However, even slow characters have been able to catch elks and reindeer, but the failure rate is higher (you can (ab)use the system to try to zoom in on the map close enough to an animal to hurt it with a javelin or arrow: with a bit of luck you're able to cripple them, which makes a rather significant difference to the difficulty of tiring them. Using arrows should be possible even at fairly large distances, although the hit rate will be fairly low. I haven't used broadheads, but I guess that would improve your chances of bleeding the prey out).

I'd say the Calle character definitely is on the poor side when it comes to tracking, although it matters less during the winter, but losing the track means losing time that the prey can use to recover stamina, and it means any spruce terrain is a gamble. 4 mph should be about 6 km/h, which I consider to be a fast character, so I'd be happy with that speed on a character of mine (I consider 4 km/h and less to be slow, and 5 km/h to be about average).

75

Suggestions / Re: Transport sea or land, carry not based on weight

« on: May 02, 2023, 11:53:10 PM »

As far as I understand the inflated carrying capacity is a work around for the inability to pull logs after a water craft rather than loading them onto it. If realistic carrying capacities were used you wouldn't be able to use rivers to move logs (well, you might load one or so onto a raft).