Messages

46

Suggestions / Re: User-adjustable quest frequency

« on: September 19, 2017, 12:53:16 AM »

As PALU says there are lots of quests that take a lot of player time, if not a lot of game time (herbs! and well... finding those pesky robbers).

There is one quest I thought of that I almost never can take unless everything feels squared away, and can involve a lot of walking - the escort to your homeland quest. If you happen to be from a far-away culture that one can take a lot of time and is certainly disruptive... though if things are relatively stable it's not hard to complete within the time limit. But more often than not I've had to turn it down, which seems to delay future quests a fair bit.

I personally don't mind the quest frequency right now, though it depends. If I am a relatively unsocial character, I get as many as I need and turn down a lot of things. If I am hanging out near villages more, it does feel like not quite frequent enough. And lots of quests can be done really quickly... chores and messages are frequent and usually doable in a day.

47

Bug reports / Re: Impossible quest

« on: September 17, 2017, 04:40:09 AM »

On a sort of unrelated note. Any way to move this thread from bugs to gameplay questions? I don't think it should be classed as a bug unless Sami had no intention of it being impossible (and it may not be impossible), but I think players in the future will ask these questions and it's nice to have the reference. Sami, as forum administrator maybe you could move it?

48

Gameplay questions / Re: Baiting Wild Pigs

« on: September 17, 2017, 04:23:10 AM »

Well, if they eat something they'll eat it, but my experience with spoiled goods is that the "pull" effect of the bait very rarely exceeds the "push" effect of the trap (I don't know if that can be completely negated by trap mastery). Trapped animals very rarely seem to eat spoiled stuff in the traps.

It's a good point. Foxes always (I think) eat whatever spoiled thing I left in the trap. As a sort of experiment I left a pile of rotten (uncooked) meat and fish on a shore where I've seen foxes and ermines. Over a week or so it was all eaten and I frequently found them sitting on or around the pile. I also had lever traps and fox traps in the area also with spoiled meat and caught them way less frequently, so you're probably right about the "push" effect.

On the other hand, I catch about equal hares and birds in loop traps I set up in a cluster with berries (usually along a small fence.. superstition), even though the hares seem to have no interest in the berries (never eat them) but the birds do. There it seems the pull almost doesn't matter.

Perhaps, if I fence in a pig, I'll set a few kinds of traps in the fenced area with various baits and see what happens.

49

Bug reports / Re: Impossible quest

« on: September 17, 2017, 04:18:01 AM »

That's a good point about areas where the flowers haven't dropped. I've been sampling every time I find the plant in question so far, but have been looking within 2 or 3 regions max, so I'll go further afield.

The wiki says heather can be found on cliffs and pine mire (and river banks), but I am in the islander areas so I haven't seen a lot of pine mires. I also only just learned that animals can eat the herbs! Or at least I think so... I found cliff islands where I've never visited (but spent time near by) with piles of old tracks around, and all the herbs were "picked". I even saw one small patch of picked herbs (with others not picked around) that had reindeer tracks leading right up to them.

Edit: Your report on heather's harvestability seems to add evidence that the plant I think is heather actually is. I can still harvest it but when I thresh I get the "no usable parts" message.

50

Suggestions / Re: Herb Collecting Quest

« on: September 17, 2017, 04:11:00 AM »

Yea. Knowing the plant (before mission completion) might be too overpowered, so getting pointers is definitely a good way. It can be a surprisingly hard quest (at least on the eyes) if the plant happens to be displayed as one of the really faint ones. I don't know if the image always matches the name but in my game "fancy grasses" were nearly invisible. And if it's rare (as you say), that makes it really challenging, at least to the human playing the game.

Learning about a plant as a general quest reward might be nice though if the quest was relatively tough (not 160 branches hah). I haven't done much analytical thought on the rewards you get for the plant quest now... but really good herbal blends seems already like quite a good reward... maybe once in a while it could be that he teaches you about the plant (Like how others teach you about stealth or ritual tricks) after the quest. I had a couple characters with really good herblore but even then learning about plants was often challenging.

51

Bug reports / Re: Impossible quest

« on: September 16, 2017, 08:03:56 AM »

I was slightly hesitant to bump this thread what with the off-topic hijinx, but I've reached a point where I am pretty sure my quest is impossible. As JEB Davis said it's not necessarily a bug, and I don't particularly mind but still wonder if impossible situations are possible (you know what I mean). It's also possible that I'm somehow just not finding it.

I've been asked to collect heather flowers in dirt month (wiki says it shouldn't be withered yet) and don't think my character recognizes heather. Nothing odd in that... however I've gone around from cliff to cliff for quite a long time and cannot find a matching herb. Only three plants still seem to be alive... two of which gives me leaves (that the old man scoffs at, and one of which is likely sorrel), and the third says there is nothing worth harvesting at this point. My gut tells me that the uncollectable one is heather. I definitely could be wrong, but figured it was worth including in this discussion.

52

Suggestions / Herb Collecting Quest

« on: September 16, 2017, 07:25:22 AM »

Just a small thing, but I think it would be good for the Herb Collecting quest if you could offer to forgo any kind of reward (at the beginning) if the old man would teach you how to recognize the herb.

Definitely does not have to become completely known but even if it you could recognize it sometimes it would be helpful, and a good way to gain a foothold in herblore. Even just a temporary boost to herblore so you have a chance of recognizing it would be nice.

I've done the particular quest about 10 times, and I've never known the plant in question. You can work it out deductively, but that always feels very gamey. Even if getting the knowledge beforehand feels too overpowered (and easy to just not bother with the quest), it would still actually be a nice reward at the end. Doesn't solve the problem, but would feel very appropriate.

Edit: Another less powerful approach would be if the old man told you where to find it (You can find it by cliffs, my boy!). That would at least feel less gamey than going straight to the wiki.

53

Gameplay questions / Re: Baiting Wild Pigs

« on: September 16, 2017, 01:42:51 AM »

Wow that's a heck of a pig story Atwood. It makes a lot of sense though... that regrouping behaviour in pigs and reindeer is something that can be taken advantage of when hunting, but it never occurred to me that it could be used for trapping as well.

I think, when I get a chance, I'll combine both of your strategies and see the results. Trap and fence in a pig or two, and pile up some random stuff for them to eat. Then see if any of it gets eaten. Is it reasonable to assume that if animals will eat something that it will also bait a trap? I've frequently had foxes, ermines, etc. eat from rotten piles of things on my raft that I'd been saving for baiting, so I figured it'd work.

Thanks guys

54

Gameplay questions / Baiting Wild Pigs

« on: September 13, 2017, 11:57:45 PM »

They seem quite rare but I lucked out in finding a herd of wild pigs in an area. I was curious whether trapping them was possible (though their senses seem terrible... I managed to kill one by walking up behind it not sneaking at all). I figure that something like the big deadfall or even the bear deadfall would do it but I can't find anything on what bait (if any) they would go for. I put out a big deadfall with meat (pigs are omnivorous after all), but no luck with that.

I've managed to trap a couple just with pits... but for future reference has anyone ever baited a pig into a trap, and if so, what kind?

55

General Discussion / Re: Wild Animals in Villages

« on: September 13, 2017, 11:52:44 PM »

It's funny how things happen after you talk about it. I spotted a bear wandering around a village. In what I can only describe as *heroic fashion*, I threw a rock at it and ran into the village. It crippled an old man pretty good but the villagers beat it down. It's actually kind of a cursed village... after that 3 separate Njerpez have also wandered in and got wiped out. It's a strange two tile vagabond village/kota that was created by a quest (I think) so I wonder if that's effecting the pathfinding of mobs.

Edit: This village is nuts. A group of foreign traders moved in for a week, then today 2 more Njerpez entered the village simultaneous and managed to kill a couple people before being taken out.

56

General Discussion / Re: Just Wow

« on: September 13, 2017, 11:45:49 PM »

It is a phenomenal game. You'll also quickly learn that the community is just as awesome, so pop by any time.

You aren't the only one who has done this.  My first character died in the same way and I realized there was no save* or reload built into the game.  I thought, crap, this game just got real. 

*There are ways around this, but the reality that a character might die changes how you act when you: consider provoking a wandering bear, encounter a pack of wolves, agree to hunt down a band of thieves, or try to steal from a village.

This is definitely the core thing that makes the game so different. My characters are almost always too cowardly (or I am) to go confront njerps alone, so you end up doing things like gathering up NPCs to deal with threats, or even abandoning a trap fence until things seem less scary.

57

Suggestions / Re: Lookout for X

« on: September 11, 2017, 11:41:48 PM »

It's definitely an issue I run into a lot. Especially, because you can see an animal when you zoom out (ctrl -) so one is tempted to keep yourself zoomed out, but then tracks are a lot harder to see. So you either go in and out a lot, or squint, or miss some opportunities.

What I'd like to see is a simple animal icon (could be customized to animal type) that shows up on your portrait the same way listening waves do -- indicating the direction of animals you currently see). If you can see the direction of sounds you've just heard, it only stands to reason you could see the direction of things you can see.

58

General Discussion / Stag, Elk, and other Fauna

« on: September 11, 2017, 07:51:56 AM »

I've been playing URW for about a year, I only just realized today that Stags are the male elks. Anything involved with Europe turns on my European-to-North-American animal translator in my brain...
Glutton (translation: Wolverine)
Eagle-Owl (translation: Great Horned Owl(ish))
Polecat (translation: some kind of mink-ferret hybrid-like creature)
Reindeer (translation: Caribou)
Elk (translation: Moose)
Stag/Red Deer (translation: Elk)

So, I naturally assumed it meant Red Deer and also assumed that they existed in Finland in the iron age. But no, I saw some forum post in another forum where Sami mentions they are the male elk (E.G. Bull Moose). It always seemed weird that they gave more meat than the elk, but who knows... in Finland maybe they are the size of elephants! But yes, you learn something every day.

It means they are the only large ungulate in the game other than Reindeer. It's neat actually, I spent years in Newfoundland where Moose were introduced (and spread like crazy) and it has a very similar landscape and fauna as Finland (no deer, just Moose, Caribou, and endless bogs). Another reason I enjoy the game.

For the sake of a general fauna discussion, any native Finnish fauna that seems missing? What about Roe Deer (translation well...deer)? I read a thing that they came to Finland recently, but may have been seasonal visitors in the past. Any Finnish, or Finniphiliac, people know whether they'd be relevant?

59

General Discussion / Re: Wild Animals in Villages

« on: September 11, 2017, 05:50:04 AM »

That's interesting, I would expect a bear to do more damage. My village was seal tribe and mostly women, old men, and children, so that made a big difference. Also, the wolves were just sneaky... I don't know if it was amazing AI or just circumstance of where the wolves wanted to go, but they were awesome at running away when outgunned, and then hitting from another side.

60

General Discussion / Re: Feed the Njerpez Foundation needs your donations!

« on: September 08, 2017, 03:12:31 AM »

Just look at little Igor. He's only had 3 elk cuts in the last week. And you can help him for the price of only one squirrel hide a day.