Messages

61

Suggestions / Re: Snake venom arrows

« on: January 25, 2019, 01:56:19 PM »

I don't think there's any available poison that's sufficiently fast acting to be of use in Finland, and I very much doubt there's any historical indication of poisoned missiles (poisoned bait is a different issue, but I wouldn't be surprised if that wasn't used during the Iron age).

Oh, there's plenty of suitable poisons (see below). Question is if were they used, and if not, does it matter? This game is a fiction in a fictitious world, so why should it be limited to what we know about the history of real region, especially since we know not that much (before Sweden and Novgorod/Russian conquests?)

While we don't know if the natives of ancient Finland used poisons, we know that their neighbours Slavs (all three groups, including the ones who would later form Poles, and Rus') used poison arrows, Balts and Lithiuanians used poison arrows, Mongols and other Asiatic nations used poison arrows, and before them Scythians used very infamous poison arrows. If the action of the game is in the beginning of middle ages, then the Njerp could have been based on marauding Scythians (maybe after the fall of their empire), and they should definitely use poison arrows. It could be balancing to the game if they used it, actually.

As for what could be available, because it can be found in Finland and was used as poison by neighbours:

1. animal - viper venom was the main ingredient of the scythicon (toxin of Scythians) along with excrements, very deadly concoction, though it would work even better if infection (gangrene) was implemented in the game

2. plant - hemlocks - cowbane a.k.a northern water hemlock (Cicuta virosa), poison hemlock (Conium maculatum), both very toxic, effects can occur after 20 minutes if dose high enough, works similarly to curare; prefers wet places near rivers

3. plant - wolfs bane - varied Aconitum species, especially strong wolfsbane (Aconitum firmum), which is one of deadliest plant of Northern
Hemisphere, contains potent neurotoxin, also works similarly to curare, Japanese natives used it to hunt brown bears, but it was used in Central Europe and by Asiatic northern tribes too; it grows in mountainous areas

4. plant - false hellebores - varied Veratrum species, especially white hellebore (Veratrum album) and black hellebore (Veratrum nigrum), were used in warfare both in North America (by Natives) and in Europe and Asia (for example historically by Slavs and Lithuanians). This is interesting, because the same plants were used for the same purposes in completely different cultures, some of them were geographically close to Finland though.

Slavic princes after Christianisation began to ban use of poisons on religious grounds, but there still remain villages founded in this time which basically are named "poisoner's village", because their inhabitants were required to prepare battle poisons (as other villages were required to make iron, or hunt beavers, which is reflected in their names). Lithuanians and Balts are known to oppose Christianity, even after formal conquests, and they used poisoned arrows even till Renaissance (there are complaints to their Christian kings which describe this "unchristianic" practice). And they lived very close to Finland, so I wouldn't rule out a technology transfer. If not to natives, then at least to Njerps.

Also, poisons in real life take time to act. If used for hunting the idea is that the hunter follows the animal (or runs away from it if it's a bear) till the poison kills it, which may take hours. This would be perfectly in tune with present technique of shooting an animal with broadhead arrow and then following it. I think that poison arrows could be a home-made alternative to broadhead arrows, if available to the players (maybe only some cultures), or a valuable find when looting Njerp.

When used in warfare, it can debilitate the enemy rather quickly (cramps, loss of hand-eye coordination, sight loss, or even consciousness loss, like after hemlock), but is shouldn't kill quickly enough to fire-and-forget-and-select-another-target technique, more like should add penalties first. After all, it was more often used in guerilla style tactics than in open, huge battles.

62

Suggestions / Re: No harpoons? Unique ranged hunting weapons in finnish culture?

« on: January 24, 2019, 09:53:06 PM »

If you define the harpoon as something which is attached to the boat, then they didn't use this kind of contraption. But I use the definition that harpoon is the the spear with a strong line attached. And they used it - they attached it to a bladder or bag or some other float, to both impede movement of the animal, and to retrieve it easier from the water later.

Actually I use "harpoon" for fish spears in general, because many archaeologists use this word in this meaning. The oldest harpoon named as such is made from deer antlers, it was initially dated 6000-8000 years (later revised to ~12000 after carbon dating), and of course there is no shaft anymore (because it was wooden), it's named the Leman and Ower Bank Harpoon, and was tied to a Kunda culture, which are by scientists considered ancestors (or rather one of ancestors) of Sami. Still, if the carbon dating is correct, it was made by some even older culture...

Also only one group of Sami regularly pursues whales (Sjo Sami, a.k.a Sea Lapps), others do it only when the whales are in the shallow coastal waters. But all groups living near seal hunt seals.

63

Gameplay questions / Re: How exactly to make elk leather

« on: January 24, 2019, 09:33:42 PM »

Well, I assume water skins are heavier than bags exactly because they're water proof, unlike the bags that shouldn't be (or else the contents would risk getting moldy fast).

Also, since bags have a higher capacity, they weigh a lot more than a water skin when full... You typically don't need to haul more fluid than a waterskin's worth between topping up anyway (and my characters usually don't carry any water at all, but that's at least partially because the Nerp Cooking Mod's goulash and, in particular, borstch, contain some water).

Hm, I do carry a wide range of containers, for different purposes, and different names and sizes help me to organise it a bit. Skin is too small to me - I need more (or less - birch-bark box), because I often make use of hideworking skill in the place where the animal was killed. Often it has no water. The same with cooking. My dog carries some pots (to make soups, mushrooms and herbal beverages, which I use a lot), while my bull carries some tubs of water, but I have to carry some water (bowl preferably) on my character's person, because animals often are dumped or tied some tiles away for safety, and I want the cooking going before I start looking for them.

Also a character has to drink very frequently, so both while wandering and while spending time at home I just have to have water, even without making hides. I live in caves only, and they rarely have water nearby.

However, the main reason skin is bad is that it has lesser volume than a cooking pot. So bowl (identical volume) or something bigger is needed to empty the heavy pot quickly.

The biggest inconsistency is that skins require 4 lbs of leather to make - while they weight 0.3 lbs. I wonder what happens to the rest. When you make a shirt, it takes as much material as it weighs later.

64

Bug reports / Re: Persistent injury effect on speed?

« on: January 24, 2019, 10:36:52 AM »

Is there a chance you had your gear repaired in the meantime? Damaged clothing weighs less than new one, and may be responsible for the difference. Similarly heavier weapons.

Also, I keep some archival saves (they compact pretty nicely with 7zip or similar), especially from the beginning, and can compare stats from older saves with new one. This allows me to know how stats changed in time, for example after finishing a course and increasing attributes.

65

Gameplay questions / Re: How exactly to make elk leather

« on: January 24, 2019, 10:31:50 AM »

Also, leather skins for water are great because who would carry a wooden bowl full of water as they tramp through the wilderness? Again... realism / roleplay versus what game mechanics allow.

I also use skin, when I can acquire it for free (for example after a quest which gives credit), but realistically bags are better - empty ones weigh less than the skin, they have much higher capacity. Bags are feasible water containers, if you assume they are made of water-proof material.

66

Suggestions / Re: No harpoons? Unique ranged hunting weapons in finnish culture?

« on: January 24, 2019, 09:30:17 AM »

Sami people have been using harpoons for thousands of years, certainly before middle ages. And they used (and still use) to hunt walruses and whales, apart from seals. The people in UrW are based on Sami, so I don't see a reason other than technical to not implement it.

However, not all changes in the game in the past bring it closer to reality, some changes actually make it less close. For example Sami use a method of hunting reindeer by skiing in deep snow, tiring the reindeer, and finishing it with spears or arrows. It used to be easy and possible in UrW, but after changes to the skiing not so much.

67

General Discussion / Re: How to survive (maybe) wolves

« on: January 23, 2019, 11:31:59 AM »

Is the 180° turn usually on the numpad 1? Mine is on the pgdown key.

It is at least on four keys: End key, Page Down key, 1/End key on numpad, 3/PgDn key on numpad (regardless of Num Lock status). I suppose End means turning left-wise, Page Down means turning right-wise, but since the effect is the same, there's no real difference.

As for wolves, I had one encounter in open mires, when I killed about ten of wolves with a bow. I had to be careful not to damage my dog/animals too much (I haven't unleashed dog to not loose it). The whole battle was quite epic, it spanned two days (with one sleep in the marshes, dog acted as a watchman), and many tiles.I was finding dead wolves (and many arrows) five tiles from the place the fight started, in opposite directions. But fighting wolves in a spruce mire is a nightmare.

68

Gameplay questions / Re: How exactly to make elk leather

« on: January 22, 2019, 09:09:54 AM »

Skis don't use leather, they use exclusively furs. Additionally they are hard to make (use Carpentry), and it's possible the first effort will make poor quality ones, so probably more fur is needed to make decent skis.

Ski pole yes, I would add grainflail, but both of them can be made only once and there's no need for more. Maybe they can be remade later with better quality. There's also a skin (container), but it's practically worthless, given you can buy bags and birch-boxes, or make bowls.

The real reason for acquiring of leather may be repairing stuff: it takes as much leather as is missing from the clothing, plus 3% of base weight. I use most of leather this way. Also sometimes you just can't find boots, so have to make them yourself.

69

Gameplay questions / Re: ermines weasels and pine martens

« on: January 22, 2019, 08:55:24 AM »

I had them with light deadfall trap too, with meat bait. I set the trap up after sighting, it's very rare if they fall in it on their own.

Worth of their fur is the same as hare, which is double the squirrel, so not that much. But their value per pound is quite higher, thanks to their small size, although still far cry from values of some high end animals (glutton and lynx especially).

I think the reason ermine furs (products) in real life are expensive is the amount of individual ermine pelts you need to use to make them.
I just checked in one online fur trader the prices of ermine furs, and they are as follow:
- ermine pelt = 13 USD (on sale, reduced from 18 USD)
- ermine pelt second quality = 6 USD
- ermine/weasel brown season (i.e. summer coat) = 10 USD
For comparison:
- arctic fox = 90 USD
- badger (standard) = 90 USD (in URW badger costs twice as much as ermine)
- beaver (standard) = 40 USD (in URW beaver costs 10x more than ermine)
- beaver (black) = 80 USD
- black bear = 460-480 USD (bear in URW is other, bigger species than this one though)
- coyote = 50 USD
- red squirrel (canadian) = 10-13 USD

So it seem ermines aren't individually valued too much in real world too. Of course to make a coat you may need a few hundred of them... But in URW making a clothing item out of expensive fur doesn't make it more expensive. In fact self-made clothes are worth only 20% of original value of standard item, so you are decreasing worth very significantly by using relatively expensive pelt. From the roleplaying perspective though it seems proper - you are a trapper of sorts in the game, not a tailor.

70

Solved'n'fixed bug reports / Re: All forest reindeer are does, no stags

« on: January 19, 2019, 08:31:41 PM »

I see.

Yes, I also don't have identifiably male forest reindeer. I don't know if they would be even named "stag", or maybe "bull", but they are missing in the herds. The only "stags" now are some of these domesticated reindeer from the north (not "forest"). It seems as if only does and calves varieties are present amongst forest reindeer. Maybe it's only a naming bug, and some of the does are bulls.

As for boars, they were always kind of rare to me, just like sows. I've seen only two wild sows, separate, in current version, and no wild boars. But this may be just a small sample.

EDIT: I've encountered a wild boar and checked them, and they are treated as different species entirely (just like in the past) - they are also technically females (or default gender, which is female), though it doesn't mean anything in practice, because they don't have offspring anyway. As a side note, they are not only bigger than wild sows on average, but their meat is more nutritious and expensive.

71

General Discussion / Lynxes tire real fast

« on: January 19, 2019, 04:03:41 PM »

Anyone observed that lynx in the current game (3.52 at the moment) tire really quickly, at least to comparison to ~3.40? It seems as if they had this "tire a lynx" spell applied. Sometimes they are breathless after running from my character for one screen, which isn't much. Now, I know real lynxes tire pretty easily, have not much endurance at all, but I'm not sure if it was modelled in the game, given that birds carrying a couple of javelins can outspeed a running character...

My character doesn't have this spell, so I'm curious if someone noticed this, and if the spell makes them breathless even faster, if it's possible at all.

72

Bug reports / Re: Are forest reindeer supposed to be afraid of escaping into water?

« on: January 19, 2019, 03:49:50 PM »

Well then so it's not just me. I definitely remember in a previous version animals like elk had been modified to escape into water when pursued by the player. I don't remember if forest reindeer were supposed to have been modified to escape into water too. Anyway, can Sami comment on this? Are the animals supposed to escape into water or not? That's definitely what a real life animal would do (refer to National geog documentaries etc).

Also, referring to a previous post, why are there bull elks but no bull forest reindeer?

I don't remember animals escaping into water - certainly neither in v3.40 (where I played most) nor in v3.18. I use technique of cornering them in the marshes, and they try only to dart past my character when no other way, but never into water.

As for bull elks, they are just renamed stags from before v3.50, which were in the game for years. The stags were always to represent bull elks, and normal elks were to represent females (or adolescents) anyway, with difference in average size (stag elks were 300 kg on average, elks were 250 kg on average), and with difference in skin size. As far as I can say now, bull elks are identical to former stags. I think I saw the information about this renaming on Steam news.

Also I'm not sure that real life elks would escape into unknown water, if they don't have to (and in the game usually they don't, because they can run past you). Sure, they can travel on the bottom of lakes and the like, but they prefer to take cover in the forest and run, because they can do it much faster than in water if need be (6x faster). I have seen real two elks near my home in December (there was a third, a calf, reported nearby), and there is a kind of marsh, and they were escaping (after first staying still for 5 minutes) not into the marsh, but in the forest, though rather slowly.

Anyway, it would be more challenging, but I haven't seen it in the game.

73

Solved'n'fixed bug reports / Re: All forest reindeer are does, no stags

« on: January 19, 2019, 03:22:43 PM »

Stags were renamed bull elks simply.

74

General Discussion / Re: An observation on a lost adventurer

« on: January 17, 2019, 11:36:07 PM »

My penned dog was totally fine with it. Some guard dog she is, guess people all look alike to her

More like people all smell the same... Or at least your character smells like a Njerp. That's assuming the Njerp was found in the bed alive. Some dogs in real life do bring dead/semidead prey to their master (a behaviour more common in cats), though this is not modelled in UnrealWorld yet, I think.

75

Suggestions / Re: My little suggestion

« on: January 12, 2019, 01:42:56 PM »

I don't want to comment on most of it, but my voice on some things:

Harvesting from villages fields is not punished? Not possible. Citizens (and Spirits) need to be more strict.

Spirits should be punishing players abusing animals (like when trapped animals are used as shooting range) or killing people (including Nyerps), not some small transgressions, which they shouldn't care about. Humans (villagers) of course have other priorities.

Price of a staff is to high since its produced so fast and easy.

Really? Staff costs 2 so you need four of them for a summer squirrel pelt or a single arrow. It would bore me to death trying to make hundreds staffs for something really useful. Also it needs timbercraft skill (unlike making clubs), so with low skill the value would be also lower.

Price of Lavaret is not sound.

What's wrong with it? Value depends on nutrients and mass.

Price of cord is not sound.

Too big or too small? It costs 0.8, so it seems low value (two torches suffice), but it is also in very short supply, which makes any such worries unwarranted. You can visit several villages and do not find anyone willing to sell you a SINGLE cord. And I don't see them on the ground, unless in the wounded adventurer quest. The real source of cords is either furs (preferably ones with low price per lbs) or clothes (which are expensive, except maybe cloaks).

Why is the price of a bear fur clothes lower than a normal fur clothes when it is better in abilities?

Bear fur is not better than normal fur, it has some better statistics, and some worse. Personally I prefer normal fur, which is a default fur when the article is made of mixture of different furs.

Walking in waist deep snow is too easy.

I don't think so - you probably were on skis or had supernatural character. But there should be snowshoes as alternative to skis.

Give up on the difference between rope and leather rope since there is no real practical difference.

There is a real practical difference - leather rope can be used as a source of leather for repairs and making leather things. For this reason it's also more expensive (12 versus 8 for normal rope).

Also, for Njepr aggressiveness - they are aggressive enough without being suicidal. This is one of the things that should stay as they are, IMHO. Only players should be suicidal. Actually, if the Njerps were real, they would actively AVOID your player character and his party, because he is certainly a Njerp hunter and death to them... Though they eventually form a bigger party to punish you or villages helping you, which in the end will cause villagers to not agree to help you anymore. However, this would require further upgrade or social activities, and features of strategy game more than a survival one (which I think are planned, kind of).