See likes

See likes given/taken


Your posts liked by others

Pages: [1]
Post info No. of Likes
Re: Snowshoes
As someone's who made attempts to manufacture snowshoes at home, in the most traditional way possible, I'm also willing to speak up for snowshoes. Though we might need to look into potential historical accuracy issues (I know URW isn't historical, but it is Finnish-inspired), I think snowshoes would be a wonderful addition to the skis.

The ancient Finns are likely to have used a sort of a swampshoe to walk on swampy ground, and this type could be used as a snowshoe as well. You can find a picture of a swampshoe and swampskis here - as you can see the swampshoe bears strong resemblance to the "bearpaw" type of snowshoe, but would carry less weight, being more open design to avoid getting stuck in a swamp. The gap between a swampshoe and a proper snowshoe looks like it's quite short, but it does seem that the type of snowshoe that developed in North America was never really developed in Europe. But it would not be completely anachronistic.

Very interesting, thank you ! Especially for the link.

Looking a bit further back than the Iron Age, at the European Neolithic, we also have some evidence of "ice-shoe" footwear accessories, created as a means to prevent skidding while walking on icy or frozen-over surfaces.

One such type, a sort of detachable outer cover for the simple straw-filled shoes underneath, was found among the equipment and clothing that belonged to "Ötzi", the remains of the famous Chalcolithic era man found in the Alps back in the early 1990s. You can have a look here, I've put a timestamp on the spot where his clothing and footwear is discussed. (A thing that amused me was that his outermost layer of clothing was a cloak made of grass. Reminded me immediately of the cloaks made from nettle fibers we have in URW. :D)

December 05, 2018, 05:36:46 AM
2
Re: Craftable punts ? And what should the limitations be ?
I've been thinking of multi-steps for what Erkka posted which is close to the dugout recipe in memory. As Novrus has a birch bark one I've not been too mindful of writing the code and testing it right now. Borrowing from my block tubs the concept is

(...)

Plus you would need to make a paddle (already in game)

Nice ideas ! I like the multiple-steps nature of the process.

December 13, 2018, 06:33:03 AM
1
A Christmas present to the community by me Sorry if the title sounds a little grandiose. ;D

Since late November, I've been updating the official wiki, on and off.

Mostly just adding categories and structure to the whole thing (though a lot of it was good to begin with, so I had my work cut out for me, in a sense), occassionally uploading some new images for the still missing ones in articles (there are still many), expanding several articles with more detailed information and improved formatting (sections with headings, instead of unbroken paragraphs), and occassionally creating a few new articles (I did one on NPC conversations, a few short ones on terrain types (this I still want to extend), and one article on the types of "pets" the player receives at the start when they select the last starting scenario). Images are now neatly sorted into their own subcategories within an image category, so you'll be able to make sense of the images uploaded to the wiki much, much more easily than before. There's a Healing and medicine subcategory in the equally new Gameplay category, and so on and so forth.

Hope you like the category work in particular. I tried to be as rigorous and logical as possible while expanding upon the already existing categories and adding new ones. Hopefully you'll find the additions useful and quick to work with (making it easier to find inter-related stuff quickly on the wiki). I'm still working on improving some articles or finishing a few of the newer ones, but much of the planned work is done by this point.

Feedback is very welcome !

And if anyone wants to help the visual side of the wiki by providing screenshots of still missing content from the latest release of the game, that would be very welcome. For certain objects and concepts, we still only have images from pre-3.30 versions, and even though those have their historical value, we also need more up-to-date images (3.52 and higher).

As Christmas is nearly here, I'd like to wish everyone a peaceful, healthy and relaxing holiday season. :)

December 20, 2018, 07:50:56 PM
11
Re: Could whistling arrows prove a good addition to ranged hunting ?
I don't have reference books at hand, but based on my memory: a whistling arrow works with aquatic birds, when the flock is flying above a body of water. The arrow is shot so that it flies above the flock of birds - they hear the whistling sound above them, take it as a sign of danger, and seek cover by diving into the water below them. Then the hunter readies ordinary hunting arrows, waits for the birds to surface one after one, trying to hit them the very moment when they surface - that often is the moment when they don't move for a second, and we all know that hitting a stationary target is far more easier than trying to down a flying bird.

Yes, that's what I meant. It's all about tricking the birds to land temporarily, making them an easier target to hit (even with conventional arrows) than if they were in flight.

February 06, 2019, 06:34:01 AM
1
Re: Hillforts and tribal protected areas You could also have occassional fortified settlements in marshy areas and on lakes. Either on a small artificial island or a larger natural island. Lowland fortified settlements did occur in prehistory and antiquity, though hill forts at elevated locations were generally more popular. I think the obvious fortification-heavy culture would be the Driik, but a few of the other sedentary cultures with larger settlements could build simpler defensive palisades and so on.

I tend to occassionally build improvised hillforts of a sort, if I have a homestead (a log cabin and all the accessories) built on a hill top. I craft a lot of wooden stakes and then build a series of fences. Not much defence against intruders, certainly less so than a palisade, but it is easier to defend your home if you build several defensive rings of wooden fences. :D

October 11, 2020, 09:58:03 PM
1
Basic emblems for the individual cultures, to tell them apart quicker ? Hello.

Just a minor suggestion: Could the individual cultures have simple, stylised emblems that player characters could use to tell them apart quickly ?

I think the fact that the game portrays the cultures in a more anonymous way at the moment, largely through their lifestyles and the tools they use, is actually better for immersion purposes.

Furthermore, given that this is a late Iron Age civilization, with more scattered populations, no real towns, no cities whatsoever, no stone structures and institutions yet, no nobility or peasants/serfs, etc., that it is good the individual cultures do not have any flags or coats of arms or more standardized symbols. Again, it's better for verisimilitude and immersion.

All the above said, I still think it could be beneficial for gameplay purposes if a few menus occassionally featured a simple, stylized emblem that would represent one of the 9 (10 ?) cultures. For example, the northern tribes would have a silhouette/outline of their totemic animal, from which they derive their monikers. The other cultures could have simple emblems that would reflect their typical economic and cultural strengths, and so on. Due to the more primordial feel of the setting, I think the background texture of these emblems could imply they are painted onto or burnt onto a decorative piece of leather, or painted on a smooth enough piece of bark (specifically, the inner side of the bark).

Why would emblems be needed ? Because, as much as I like that more anonymous approach, sometimes I wish I could just look at a conversation screen and see that the other character has more than just a boring text description there, saying they are from this or that culture. Ergo, I would find it nice if they also had a little emblem representing what culture they are from, situated in some empty part of the conversation screen.

I think a game mechanic that should stay in place is that an unknown individual or unknown village would not have its corresponding culture's emblem shown to the player until he or she met with them, they introduced each other, and gained at least some basic familiarity. Then it would appear somewhere in the corner when talking with an individual. It would also not appear in the player character menu, other than the player overview screen, showing the stats. The fact that the characters already have "surnames" based on which culture their character belongs to is more than enough during usual gameplay.

Finally, I feel that different simple emblems could give the cultures further distinct personalities, beyond what in-game behaviour patterns they use while creating their settlements, or hunting or trading, etc.

Just a thought. :)

October 11, 2020, 10:12:19 PM
1