Current Events > I think I'm gonna play Banished again

(+) Yeah! (+)

https://store.steampowered.com/app/242920/Banished/

You know, the addictive game where you play random settlers in the middle of nowhere and have to establish villages, raise crops, eat magic mushrooms in the forest, build some vestiges of civilization, etc. All my previous saves got deleted (Why, Steam Cloud, why????) 'cause I haven't played 'em in forever, though...or maybe I did it when I deleted everything recently. Either way, gonna use some of the mods to make mines give infinity stone and other stuff.



Gonna build another Ballack Rise, some old village I made based on that cool place in Wild Arms 3. Yeah, I'm digging out obscure references. SLAMMING!!



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Shotgunnova posted...

Either way, gonna use some of the mods to make mines give infinity stone and other stuff.

Which infinity stone?
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I haven't played that game since like 2015

The theme is burnt into my head though

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dIqVoYKCJH8

Maybe I should play it again lol

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Yeah, the theme got stuck in my head about five seconds in. Haven't played since 2017, so I'm gonna try to remember some useful stuff. Took me a little while to remember how to do a minimap and other overlay stuff, haha.

Duncanwii posted...

Which infinity stone?

Mines and quarries can create iron and stone, respectively, but they get depleted. They end up leaving caved-in mines when they're done, ruining the land and preventing other stuff from being built there (IIRC). So, a mod to get infinity stone/iron makes them way more useful. Thanos approves!

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Yeah, I never did mines, but I feel like even if they were infinite, it still would take way too many villagers to produce a such a small quantity of iron. I get by just fine just prioritizing a trading post.

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I could go for a playthrough of this. It's been a while since I've played it.

There's some decent mods out there to give this more depth.

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I prefer to have a homegrown source of stuff since...I think you get iron (etc.) through random ships? Something like that. Mines and quarries also kill villagers occasionally, so populations don't get out of control.

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Shotgunnova posted...

I prefer to have a homegrown source of stuff since...I think you get iron (etc.) through random ships? Something like that. Mines and quarries also kill villagers occasionally, so populations don't get out of control.

Naw. Gotta keep pumping those population numbers! Let in those nomads! Who cares if they're likely harboring disease?

Hmm, that fun gameplay mechanic is a little trouble nowadays...

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Dammit, most of my village died 'cause I built stupid things (like a bridge to nowhere) and didn't have any food in the winter. Just gonna start up a new Ballack Rise -- with blackjack and hookers! I have a mod for better medieval housing, so maybe I'll use that this time.

NightRender posted...

Naw. Gotta keep pumping those population numbers! Let in those nomads! Who cares if they're likely harboring disease? Hmm, that fun gameplay mechanic is a little trouble nowadays...

Ahh, I loved having nomads come in. Gotta build a town hall to do it, though, I think. But yeah, they can bring diseases and stuff, so gotta have herbalists and doctors and whatever.

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Okay, got a couple seasonal fields and two fisherman huts going for round-the-clock foodin'. Gonna try to get my herbalist/forester/gatherer game going in some southern region. I think I have a mod that increases all their ranges, so that's good.



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Lookin' good

I always struggle with how my "town squares" should look. Centering those houses around that field is a nice choice.

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It only looks that good because I just put a field in between the initial houses. This map has all kinds of crags and rivers, so I can't do an optimum 15x15 field unless I go west. That's why the current fields all look so damn wonky, haha. Yeah, I'm a little out of practice. Can just bulldoze that stuff later if I have to make room for more fishermen, I guess. I'd like to get an orchard going, too, even though they don't produce anything for...what, two years?

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Alright, made a bumper crop of cabbage, an apple orchard, and got a woodcutter/blacksmith/mine going. Also bought wheat seeds. Although I'm playing with mods, I really want to try for that achievement where you do fifty years as a hunter-gatherer society. Those gatherer huts make about 1000 food each year, which is about double both my fisheries combined. Mama Nature's bounty is a wondrous thing.



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Okay, screw it. I'm in.

Main street.



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I love this game, but eventually you get to a point where youre sustaining everything and I now have enough villagers that not everyone has to work

And I just want to send them to war to start my empire lol

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ShyOx posted...

I love this game, but eventually you get to a point where youre sustaining everything and I now have enough villagers that not everyone has to work

And I just want to send them to war to start my empire lol

I played it years ago and that's about where I quit. It's fun and pretty tough at first, but once you get things up and running and sustainable I lost a lot of interest.

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unknownhombre posted...

I played it years ago and that's about where I quit. It's fun and pretty tough at first, but once you get things up and running and sustainable I lost a lot of interest.

Yeah then it's just medieval sim city. And the same reason I stop playing sim city as well; I want to go to war lol

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I enjoyed Banished, although it lacks depth, whats there is really fun.

I have been looking forward to Farthest Frontier, the new game from the devs of Grim Dawn looks a lot like an improved Banished:

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1044720/Farthest_Frontier/

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Restarted again to try and get that "400 villagers in civilization without pastures/fields/orchards" achievement. Strictly fishing, gathering, hunting and trading...although I haven't build a trading post yet. Mostly just expanding and stuff. You can get so much done when you're not bogging yourself down with a bunch of silly farmers! (I hope the achievement isn't null 'cause I started with sheep that I never built pens for...)



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Alright, almost got my population up to 100. I should've been making those crappy wooden houses from the start, since they'd presumably use more logs/firewood and cut down on my gigantor stockpile. Also built two breweries since they can use forest berries and take a little slice out of my full-up barns. Hopefully the achievement won't be banjaxed by me buying seeds (but not using 'em) from the trading post. Honestly, its ridiculous storage is a godsend when you have a bunch of barns at max capacity.



Also made a boarding house when a mother and a 0-year-old (!?) were kicked out and died of exposure. There've been times where I make that first, but they're more of a "nomads go here" type building with proper expansion factored in. Guess my population outpaced me for a sec, so death was inevitable. Haven't build a chapel or cemetery either, since they're kinda wastes of space (well, the latter more so, since they have finite capacity) and eat up tons of stone, which I'm only foraging for at this point.

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Shotgunnova posted...

Haven't build a chapel or cemetery either, since they're kinda wastes of space (well, the latter more so, since they have finite capacity) and eat up tons of stone, which I'm only foraging for at this point.

Haha... I built a cemetary as my first "major" building because I'm scared of the happiness penalty from dead banishees.

On the flip side, I'm putting off making a herbalist because screw their health.

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I made an herbalist early on, but then herbs started clogging everything up, so it wasn't that useful. Probably. I have a doctor, too, but I don't think they actually do anything outside of nomads' plagues? I have disasters turned off, so maybe they're mostly useless right now.

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Yeah, I'm not sure about that.

I wish there was more granularity in the disaster settings. Doing everything except tornadoes would probably be the best way to play, as far as mixing things up but not feeling screwed by the RNG.

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I remember playing this when it first released and stopping before long because it never clicked. Might be time to give it another shot

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Today's progress.



"Downtown" is developing nicely. Started developing some agriculture on the east side of the river. There are some gatherer/forester/hunter pods off screen to the west and south.

Still not totally comfortable with the population level. We dipped pretty low after the first generation die off, but we stabilized and are growing for now, after some minor micromanaging trying to get younger villagers to move in together and start plowing.

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Is there any point in making two trading posts besides extra storage? Do boats come more often? Might consider doing another later in my map if that's the case (even though I'm not using most of the stuff I buy for that achievement).

As for my stuff, I built my chapel, town hall, a quarry, a boarding house, an extra school and brewery, and a bunch of wooden shacks so my population could crank out babies quicker. Oddly, I still haven't found a single nomad group. I thought you just needed a Town Hall, but maybe there's something I forgot. Could always use more meat shields in the mines...that I haven't made yet. Tomorrow, perhaps.



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I loved playing that game, but it feels unfinished. Once you manage a stable balance between resources and population there's nothing new to do but expand. Wish there was more late game content.

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Yeah, the fact that there's no endgame can be a little annoying, but just subsisting and surviving in random maps is nice, casual fun. If people want excitement, they can turn on disasters. :P

[LFAQs-redacted-quote]

Don't give up! I remember sucking when I first played. Lots of starvation, a couple fires, sometimes people died from no firewood/homes, etc. Gotta expand in a balanced way -- make a stable food supply, then build some houses so there can be some kids (a.k.a. future workers) in the village. When I first played after coming back, I didn't bother with new houses, so when I did get around to it, there were a bunch of 60-year-old couples that weren't going to procreate. Oops!

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Shotgunnova posted...

Is there any point in making two trading posts besides extra storage? Do boats come more often? Might consider doing another later in my map if that's the case (even though I'm not using most of the stuff I buy for that achievement).

Each trading post gets about trader per year, so multiples definitely help out. It depends on your map size, but I think having 2-3 really does help out in not having years of traders only having seeds you already have, or just a few logs.

I've also had settlements where I produced almost no resources myself. I would have an entire industry of just buying logs, turning them into firewood to sell, and buy everything else my settlement needs. The amount of trader posts you need to support that is pretty ridiculous and you do have to micromanage inventory too much for my tastes, but it was a fun little experiment.

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Why not produce logs with foresters, though? Just to challenge yourself? I mean...they're needed for basically every single building, so it'd be kinda hard to never produce 'em. :P

When I expand, I'm gonna make a few more traders. As you can see on my minimap, I have a gigantic confluence cutting right through the heart of the place, so there'll be a few more good uses for 'em. Once I hit that achievement, maybe I can add in some pastures and stuff. Mostly just buying seeds and stuff I can't produce (pumpkins, chestnuts, etc.), haha.

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You are severely underestimating the amount of woodcutters I had lol.

I wish I had some pictures of that old town. It was cartoonish.

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Oh, I skipped the part where you said you were turning them into firewood. Thought you were just buying logs and not producing any logs, lmao. That'd truly be a tree-hugging society.

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Welp, had my first mass die-off event. Expanded too much and didn't have enough food left for the baby boom, and my resources were already strained from building a huge suburb in the south and not adding any other food sources. Might be recovering now with several fisheries + gatherer huts, but I won't see full barns for quite some time, I wager. (Having them stuffed with hide coats doesn't count.) I've got about 200 population forty winters in, so I wonder how long until I get that achievement. Not having easier food sources kinda sucks, haha. Kinda sucks how you have to be careful with barn placement, 'cause if you expand omnidirectionally with new barns, it can rob the centralized areas of their food storage. Kinda happened to me already, I think.



Still haven't seen any nomads, so maybe they only show up when there's a big extinction event? My memory's a little foggy, but I think I've had some come randomly. Odd that there haven't been any in four decades. Granted, with the way things are now, having more people come in wouldn't be smart, anyway.

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Whew, I think my society is finally out of "guess I'll die" mode. Mostly just adding little enclaves of gatherers (sometimes complemented by foresters) and hunters. Had to build a third school out in the boondocks, too, but eh well. Think my population's up to 250-260 somehow.




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Guess my society did NOT have enough of its "guess I'll die" mode. While I was rebuilding all the food sources -- and they did eventually work -- I didn't build enough houses to avoid taxing said supplies. This lead to, 7-8 years down the line, a huge population crash, where all the old folks (who had no kids) died, ate up the 30-40 laborers I had laying around, and then had no one to replace 'em. Still hovering around 270 population, but I feel like I'm treading water a bit, haha. At least with 30,000+ food production, I can have my trading post horde some of it. Gotta have berry gathering for my breweries and hitting the food cap constantly ruins their ale business. =|

Also missing two types of seeds, but not sure what ones are left.

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Whew, finally broke the 300-person barrier -- close to the home stretch now. I have 8-9 barns and they're all full, so I built another trading post to offload the munchies. Still missing two seeds, though... Also, I've made it this far with just a single blacksmith, which is surprising to me. Might be the only profession with just one dude; everyone else has at least two (lowest is tailor/cleric, I believe).



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I DID ITTTTTT



As long as you don't build pastures, crops or orchards, I guess it doesn't matter if you start with livestock (that eventually waste away and die?) on the initial difficulty settings.

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Lol I love this topic

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These are the only achievements I have left:



Uneducated + Isolationist seems pretty easy, but to avoid boredom, I'd probably have to start on easy difficulty with a lot of crop types and pastures. I don't want to do the same exact playthrough of some crops + 900 gatherer huts. Gonna try to keep my current save in case I want to do Tenure.

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You can never have too many barns, just keep constantly building new ones.

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I built three up in one corner of my Tnetennba town, just because I wanted it to be a gatherer paradise with a brewer nearby. Could be a nice little stockpile if the population exploded, although that already happened and I was prepared for it that time.

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Okay, started a new map going for Uneducated + Isolationist. Have three barns, some fields (why do I always forget orchards are garbage??? Why????), and now a mine + quarry in some sleepy little box canyon. Left room for a few fisherman docks when those places inevitably go bust and the area becomes a dead zone.



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Ughhhh!!!

Even when you're not modding, or doing anything particularly special, even your RNG map generation is cooler than mine. That lake is amazing!

Of course, I already got all the cheevos so whatever

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I just picked a random one for this. The previous town I made had a gigantor lake that I almost needed to cross lengthwise with two big bridges. Before I learned my Banished street smarts years ago, I made a map with a gigantic bridge -- like REALLY long -- for no real reason, and people would die crossing it in the winter 'cause there was no house at the end (they need to get warm somewhere).

BTW, Banished doesn't support cloud saving, so when I deleted my stuff on this laptop, it actually removed all my old saves I'd spent tons of time on. Some had some mods, but eh well...I can make those again. Used to listen to jam to this album long ago while gently creating my pastoral culture. Still makes me wanna hear it:

https://www.allmusic.com/album/last-of-the-outlaws-mw0002603526

As for mods, if you're not playing with any, try the medieval housing stuff. You can build one-, two-, and three-story houses to make living space a lot easier. Paired with that and infinity mines/quarries, things can be pretty enjoyable.

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We live in a society!!! ...without vital supplies, so we're struggling.




A hunter-gatherer society might really be the best starting point since they don't rely on tools to get anything done. My farmers are already messing up and doing things at half yields, and the orchard always looks like Rambo dumped Agent Orange on it. Gatherers, hunters, fishermen, and (later) quarries/mines might be the best solution to an uneducated isolation policy. A redo might also give me time to build a market which, as I learned recently, is REQUIRED for nomads to visit town. Help files are so helpful.

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Okay, I started a new map: Neo Kobe City. This one also has some sweet lakes and I have some gatherers and chicken farmers set up. There was a small die-off event (why do these hungry idiots pass right by food-stuffed barns? Wryyyyyyyyyy) but it looks stabler now. Gonna try to get a gigantor chicken pen up and running soon.



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