Topics

1

Bug reports / exploit: running while skiing

« on: July 27, 2019, 12:32:02 PM »

The game does not normally allow this but if you switch to running mode and then put on your skis you can in fact run while skiing. This gives you the speed bonuses of both skiing and running, so you're faster than if you would just run normally without skis. It's very tempting to use this to get away from robbers or warriors - just quickly take off your skis as the encounter begins, switch to running and then put them on again. I achieve a speed of about 15km/h in the snow albeit briefly.

2

Bug reports / "unpaid" status gets stuck

« on: July 26, 2019, 05:06:30 PM »

This happened several times to me by now, when I pick up items in a village and then drop them again, sometimes the (unpaid) marker gets stuck - the item on the ground will still be marked with (unpaid). This isn't just a cosmetic issue, villagers actually still believe I have the item(s) in question on me and want me to pay. When I leave, they run after me and get mad. I can tell them to take the item(s) back but I lose reputation with that village. Since that in turn appears to ruin trading prices, this is affects my gameplay quite a bit - the village effectively becomes "unusable" in terms of trade for a long time until the rep resets. Alternatively I can try buying the items and then buying them back but this of course only works if I have enough items available for trade and the villager doesn't decide to keep them after the transaction.

I have tried picking up the item again, walking around, waiting a bit and then putting it town again but it didn't help. The item will be marked as unpaid forever, though after they yell at me and I tell them to take it back they stop holding me responsible for having it on me at least. So far I couldn't determine the exact pattern when this happens and when it doesn't.

edit: when noticing it before leaving the village it's also possible to go to a villager and simply hand them the "unpaid" items back to at least avoid the rep loss. This still isn't ideal though because it moves the item(s) into that villagers inventory away from the village's general store of items.

3

Bug reports / Dog leash disappeared

« on: July 13, 2019, 04:32:41 PM »

When making camp I tied my dog to a tree, spent the next day fishing just a few meters away then as I wanted to leave I noticed that the rope had disappeared. Normally it's on the same tile as the tree you tied the dog to but this time it was just gone.

The dog is still shown as being "tied in place". Tried cutting down the tree but no change. Tried applying a different rope but it just tells me the dog is already leashed. Looks like I have no way to untie the dog so I'm just gonna lose it...

4

Suggestions / Improved trading system

« on: July 03, 2019, 11:29:35 AM »

Hi there.

I've recently been getting into URW again after a rather long pause and there's something that cosistently bugs me, it has from the beginning but for some reason I forgot to mention it in my first forum post where I already gave some feedback.
I've been a gamer a very long time and I'm sorry to say that URW's trading system is probably the worst I have ever seen in any game. I don't mean to be rude, it's just a fact. This is not because there is no currency and it's purely barter based, that part is completely fine - it's all about the interface, the usability and accessability. I'll list the reasons point by point.

1. At no point anywhere does the game ever actually inform you about the trading values of items. The only way you can know is indirectly by "faking" a trade, i.e. offering or taking the item in question and then adding / removing reference items step by step until the trade is accepted, at which point you have the value of the item in terms of the number of reference items (say, arrows). Even then, you still can't be 100% sure if that value is correct, it may be worth a non-whole number of arrows... so then you have to take a lesser value item, like staves, and repeat the process. Needless to say this is slow and tedious and of course you have to then write down what you learned so you even remember. I have a rule of thumb: if you feel the need to make a spreadsheet for a game, then the game is badly designed. The larger the spreadsheet, the worse it is. I have one such spreadsheet for URW that lists values of items in terms of arrows, staves, turnips or meat cuts plus quality modifiers etc. Can you guess how many hours that took to compile that could (and should) have spent actually playing the game instead? Just because the game doesn't list these values anywhere? It doesn't matter that there's no currency, just use squirrel furs as basis, which I believe was commonplace back then, or some other item, I don't care. And those values HAVE to exist at least somewhere on code level otherwise the system wouldn't work at all.

2. Closely tied to nr.1 like I mentioned, you always need to slowly add (or remove) items step by step in a transaction until it is accepted, ideally in as small steps as possible if you don't want to just give loads of your stuff away for free (keep in mind any "gifts" like this if trades aren't balanced add up, your character is going to trade many times). Unless of course, you have the values noted down and can do the math ahead of time... and that's a prime example of something the game should take care of for you.

3. There is no way to just remove one or a few items from an offer you have made, you always have to start over from scratch! This is outrageous, especially when combined with the previous points. How can you even design such a thing in your mind let alone have it be like this or something similar since the early 90s (I assume)? I just don't get it.

4. If you want to know (and of course you will want to know) what items a village has available for trade, you need to go through every single house and look at every single floor tile - and then remember the items of interest in your head, or pick them up and move them to a separate spot. For every single village. Even then, you don't have the information about what any villagers have in their personal inventory that they are willing to trade. Also of course, the "items of interest" can and will change over time. You're not always going to be interested in a woodsman's axe for example, so when you look for something else you need go through everything again? Why not just be able to talk to a villager and say "I'd like to trade" at which point you get a list of all the items that village (and any villagers in it) has available?

What I would like to see is a trading system similar like the ones in Gothic or Morrowind for example, they did both a very good job with that. It doesn't matter that those were AAA that didn't care much about realism like URW does, none of what I mentioned had anything to do with realism, it's purely interface convenience. We need something like a screen with three lists: your inventory, the village's (or other person's) inventory and the list of items that should change owners. At the bottom, show the current value balance - how many more items need to be offered by either side to make it fair, and an indication whether the trade will be accepted as is or not. Of course you need to be able to add or remove items at any time *without* being forced to start over from scratch and the values of items have to be listed somewhere.

I really like this game, I much appreciate its realism and attention to detail, I spent nearly 200 hours with it until now even though my "ancestors" list keeps getting longer... While I can think of several things that could be improved, I believe the trading system should be at the top of the list. It's something that consistently annoys me quite a bit and needlessly so if only the interface was done a bit better. At the absolute bare minimum, we need to be informed about the values of items.

Anyway, just my two cents.
Best regards.

5

Stories / The Njerpez Stalker

« on: July 23, 2018, 12:00:00 PM »

Heikki, the 16 year old Kaumolais kid who left his home village one early spring in search of adventure and a home of his own, spent his first several months roaming the wilderness of several different cultures and in between, trading and making friends, while at the same time scouting for a suitable location to build his very own log cabin. Once the summer neared its end and it started to get a little colder, he picked a patch of coniferous forest on an elongated island between the two arms of a river fork. It was long and hard work but eventually he finished his cabin in time for the winter and also managed to hunt enough game to last him through and even had some surplus for trading.

His first winter was comfortable and peaceful, until one day he left his cabin to check his traps. One paw-board fox trapped appeared to have been triggered but there was no animal in sight. Once he got closer he suddenly realized it had in fact not been triggered but disassembled... by someone else... as he slowly turned his head, he jolted at the sight of Njerpez warrior in a full suit of lamellar armor wielding a spear and cursing at him. Grabbing his shortsword and shield, a fight ensued which seemed evenly matched at first. Heikki only took a few hits from his opponent's spear which didn't do much against his own mail armor. He himself got a few good hits in but struggled to overcome the warrior's superior lamellar armor. After this went on for a bit, the warrior lost his grip on his spear, which Heikki immediately took advantage of and grabbed it. This however, only made the warrior switch to his broad knife instead, which apparently he was even better at than with the spear. Regardless, the warrior was wounded and after just a short while he turned and fled, which Heikki was happy with since he was wounded himself so after his enemy was out of sight he retreated back to his cabin to treat his wounds.

Once he was almost finished cleaning his wounds he was startled to see that same warrior again who was standing just outside the cabin window. Interrupting what he did, Heikki immediately grabbed his weapons again and rushed outside to confront the villain in a second fight. This one fortunately proved to be easier, as the warrior was still struggling with his wounds which he appeared to not have tended at all. He fled again and not wanting to risk more grievous injury, in light of the warrior appearing to be more proficient with his broad knife than Heikki was with his own shortsword, he again let him escape.

Days passed, maybe weeks. Heikki thought he had seen the last of this warrior, but he was wrong. One day, in late winter when the snow and ice was beginning to thaw, he was walking across the riverbed thinking about what tasks next to do when he was surprised to see his enemy of two fights yet again - wielding a hunting bow and swearing and cursing at him. Heikki rushed in and confronted him a melee engagement before he got the chance to shoot, prompting him to pull his broad knife again, which he then wielded very proficiently. Heikki took hit after hit, against which even his fine mail habergeon did not prove entirely effective. He himself only managed to deal a serious wound to his opponent's knee and a couple of minor ones to his arms. Exhaustion started to overwhelm Heikki, he stumbled and fell, lost the grip on his shortsword struggling against the pain as he realized his very life was in the greatest danger it had ever been. He started to doubt the quality of his weapon which had proven so inferior relative to the Njerpez's simple broad knife. In a desperate attempt to improve his odds, he therefore drew his own broad knife - one that was masterfully crafted and of much higher quality than the one used against him, and Heikki had so far only used for hunting. He started to imitate his opponent's strikes, stabbing at his torso in several quick movements. To his surprise, these strikes did manage to get through a couple of times and the Njerpez, swearing and cursing turned to flee yet again for a third time, which Heikki allowed, knowing that he was in no shape to continue fighting.

He was riddled with stab wounds, most of them fortunately superficial but a couple serious ones. He even took two wounds to his neck, which miraculously missed any major blood vessels. The fine mail habergeon he was so proud to have acquired was severely damaged and almost useless. The pain made it almost impossible to travel but he managed to get to a friendly village and the local sage was kind enough to offer his expertise in treating the wounds. One of the first things Heikki did after this was trading away his shortsword, which despite its fine quality he found unreliable to such a degree it almost cost him his life. He would use his broad knife for now, until he could trade for a more superior weapon.

The winter ended and he started to prepare the soil behind his cabin for planting. The wounds were still not fully healed but well on the way and his life started to normalize again. However... Heikki knows that the Njerpez is still out there, probably out for revenge, after such a proud warrior was beaten back three times. Heikki can only hope, and pray to all the gods he knows, that he would survive the next encounter as well.

6

General Discussion / Some new player's feedback

« on: July 23, 2018, 10:54:17 AM »

Hi guys.

I discovered URW two weeks ago after someone told be about it on Reddit. Never heard of it before despite it being ancient and me loving survival games. I thought a new player's feedback could be valuable so I thought I'd give some. This is gonna be long, just ignore if you don't care

First of all I do love the realism of this game, the full seasonal changes, the realistic time progression, the skills and general mechanics of the game - getting food, injuries, encumbrance etc. I always appreciate realism especially in survival games. I also found the game to be quite addictive and even immersive despite its dated graphics, then again I'm not the kind of games who always needs the hottest high end shit. I really like the setting too, iron age finland creates a naturally fitting theme for a survival game rather than having to invent a more artificial one like the post-apocalyptic setting of The Long Dark for example.

There are also some things I didn't like and some features I miss and would like to see added. I did take a look at what is planned for the future so I'm not going to mention the things already on that list. One of my first deaths was rather infuriating - it was early spring and I was walking across a still frozen river or small lake while zoomed out in the wilderness map. The first couple of tiles I could just walk normally but then once I reached the center I suddenly got the message that "Hey surprise, you can't trust the ice after all! Gotta zoom in!" so I did since I had no choice, being in the middle of a big frozen body of water and sure enough after a couple of steps I broke in. Couldn't pull myself back out and drowned. A death that I think was complete BS, if I can't trust the ice please tell me from the start in the wilderness map, like it usually happens, and not after I'm halfway across just to death-troll me.
Another case of bad communication is when you forget to put your clothes on an then travel in the wilderness map. You know those messages you sometimes get that you have to confirm by hitting space? Why don't they happen when you travel why freezing? Instead you just find yourself suddenly dead if you don't constantly stare at the message window, your cold indicator AND of course on the map to avoid robbers. This makes travelling very tedious.

Then there's clothing - anything ordinary like nettle, linen or wool for which I get the strange message "It's impossible for you to repair this item of clothing" (paraphrased) when I want to repair it, but it's no problem at all to fix up fur or leather items. I suppose that's because the corresponding raw materials in the former case don't exist in the game (yet?). Same thing for the good iron-based armors. What does this mean for the player? Even the tiniest tear or scratch to any of those items is permanent, you can never get it back to the state it was before. Maybe you've searched and traded a long time for a full set of fine clothing - it's all pretty much ruined once you meet a hostile NPC, an angry animal or even just fall a couple of meters when trying to climb. Only way to avoid this would be to stick to fur or leather items only, which completely rules out any of the good armors. Very frustratring.

A few things are also just plain wrong in terms of realism, which this game otherwise does put great importance on. Most obvious to me is the ability to drink seawater. Everyone knows you can't quench your thirst with that, it would only make it worse. Also swampwater and any other water is 100% safe to drink, always. Water in this game is basically as pure as modern day bottled water, no matter where it comes from. In reality you'd have to worry about bacterial infections (especially in swamps) and boil any water before drinking to make sure it's safe, seawater would be out of the question of course.  On the other hand, you can't melt snow or ice down for drinking water in the winter.
Then there's rope: can only be made from leather, even though hemp does exist in the game. Hemp ropes would be the first thing that come to mind for me in this case. Other plant fibres should work too, maybe at a lower quality depending on what exactly you use.
Tying equipment used for smoking or drying meat should not be lost when done. It doesn't become part of the food, it's just used for hanging it...
Some fire mechanincs I find a bit odd also: The buildable fireplace generates so much heat, you only need to put 3 branches and maybe some firewood in there every couple of days and your cabin will be a sauna even long after those puny branches are burned out. You don't need to keep a fire going for a cooking job that takes hours, or even a smoking job that takes weeks. The actual burning time for the amount of firewood added is too short. When preparing soil for planting, it takes way too long for the ground to "cool down".

That's it from me for now!