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[Mephansteras]

With the new version of Unreal World out I decided it'd be fun to do a Let's Play of it. For those of you who don't know it, Unreal World is a survival rogue-like set in a pseudo Iron Age Finland.

Based on an idea from Girlinhat, I've decided to try making a Fortress. Now, this is a huge endeavor and will take quite a while to do. I have to survive long enough to make it, and get enough supplies to keep myself fed while I make it.

Your input is welcome, but I'll be making a bunch of decisions on my own since the focus is on eventually creating a Fortress (as opposed to any other goal)

With that in mind, I'm going to play this as if my Character was a Dwarf. He'll start off from the most civilized group, the Driikilainen. I will also be somewhere in the South-western region, since I'll want to have reasonable access to good quality equipment.

Now, here comes the first Question: What kind of starting scenario should we use?

Here are the options:

The Unreal World - Start playing at the middle of a wide, unfamiliar wilderness.
The Village - Start playing outside a strange but cosy-looking village. Can give some advantages, but doesn't usually have a big effect.
Runaway Slave - Having been slave to Njerpezit for years you finally take a step to escape from your captors. Very difficult start (and quite likely that I'd die before getting anywhere).
Unfortunate Hunting Trip - Your father lies dead on the ground and the beast who killed him is still present. Can go really well or really poorly.
Lonely Settler - You find yourself alone on foreign ground with two unfinished cottages. Can give a few equipment advantages, but we'll almost certainly abandon the starting spot so it's mostly wasted.
Hurt, Helpless and Afraid - Wounded and left for dead, you struggle to survive in the wilderness. Very difficult start (and quite likely that I'd die before getting anywhere).
Traps and Trapping - You start playing fully equipped with the tools for passive hunting. A half-way decent starting set that gives some extra equipment.
I Want to be a Fisherman - Carrying extensive fishing equipment you start to follow your path as a fisherman. Makes initial survival pretty trivial. Probably the easiest starting scenario.
Abandoned Trap Fence - You find an old trap-fence in the wilderness. Might be a little helpful, but usually gets abandoned pretty quickly.
Abandoned Camp - You find an old camp with firewood, shelter and useful items. Occasionally gives something decent, but tends to have little effect.
Agriculture - You posses some valuable seeds and are ready to try out your agricultural skills. Nice bonus for later on, but doesn't do much for initial survival.

The next question is whether or not I want to do the optional quest lines. They act as a tutorial (which I don't need) and give some nice free equipment (namely an Axe and Fishing Pole). Mostly acts to make the game easier, but does feel a bit like cheating to me.

[jester]

Runaway slave, there is no other option.

[Girlinhat]

A bit of background for the game, and why a fortress is an impressive endeavor...

Food is important.  You have varying degrees of Nutrition, and the higher your nutrition the slower your hunger bar fills.  Fish are amazing for nutrition, meat next, and plants least, with water technically filling hunger but giving no nutrition at all, so you get hungry faster.  For the purpose, "I want to be a fisherman" gives you 2 nets for passive fishing and a rod for active, and is the easiest start since you will assuredly have food, and that means more time to do other things.

"Hunting Trip" is nice too, since you start with a bow and arrows and you can butcher your father for early food (cannibalism is A-OK!) and this will last you a few days.  If you start with bow skill, that's also easy hunting.

As for the castle?  Wood buildings are the only option, and they take 6 whole trees per 1 wall segment.  A modest 3x3 house has a perimeter of 20, for a total of 120 logs felled.  Trees are about... 10-25% of the map, so in order to build a suitable fortress that'd be probably on the order of 800+ tiles scoured, which is roughly 28x28 area, and for all intents that's MASSIVE for just a modest 3x3 walking room house (5x5 including walls).

So for any proper fortress... good land management will be important to understand the size of the thing to fit into map tiles politely.  This is actually important because each overmap tile has a limit on the number of items it can hold, so keeping things in different zones can help reduce item loss due to memory overflow.  A farm zone would have to be in another map tile, for sure.  Similarly, the smoking room (for curing meat) and drying area would probably be best in other zones, which begs the question of just how big this thing will be.  If we're counting it in overmap tiles now, it should probably be at least 2x1 enclosed zone, with additional farmland zone(s) nearby, all of which would be enclosed in cheaper fences+spike pits.

This will surely be a massive undertaking, though I may suggest you actually not build on a mountain, but instead on some marshy-ish land.  Certain lowlands where there's few trees, there's plenty of conveniently flat land, and there's usually herds of animals in the large open spaces, like reindeer and elk and stuff.  That's good hunting, and there's usually pockets of water to drink from as well.

[ansontan2000]

Fisherman. Survival is what we need to secure first.

[Girlinhat]

Since this is an objective-oriented LP, I do vote fisherman.  You can get secure food, but then ignore it and go hunting.  The nets are there to make sure the game doesn't end prematurely, even if you get all your meat from hunting.

[SomeStupidGuy]

Having played this game before, I think we wanna be a fisherman.

[Girlinhat]

Also worth noting: Dump skill points into climbing.  Do it.  Climbing trees on the overmap is the best way to go hunting by far, and without it you'll barely be able to see any wildlife.

[RedKing]

This is an absolutely insane idea. I've never even managed to finish a cottage before in UW (even starting with the half-finished cottage).

[Azated]

This is an absolutely insane idea. I've never even managed to finish a cottage before in UW (even starting with the half-finished cottage).

The last time I played, I build a 3x3 house, a 20 tile large farm and a trap fence spanning the shore of an entire island. Then I gave up.

It's all about dedication.

[Mephansteras]

Ok, fishing it is.

So, here is Bomrek, exiled Dwarf:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

We'll...just have to pretend he has a better beard then that. And is much shorter and stockier. But all around a decent set of stats for a Dwarf!

And here are his skills:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Probably should have done the Easy custom options so I could dump points OUT of skills (like club) but...whatever. It's good enough, and he's great at building which will be a huge help for this.

Our Starting Area, full of animals. But a bit light on water:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

We are off to a great start, though. I IMMEDIATELY found a squirrel in a tree, which I knocked out with some well thrown rocks and hacked up with my sword. So we have a squirrel skin and some fresh meat.

Our inventory, including the recently acquired squirrel meat and skin.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

I'll start a proper journal from his perspective tonight. Just wanted to get things kicked off before I headed to work.

[Girlinhat]

Off to a poor start!  Barely any skills and no water!  First objective is to run to the closest shore, then run along it until you find a river and then rapids, and set your nets.  Then work on some big fence+pit lines, so you can capture animals/merchants.  They become larders that don't decay, so you just come by and kill an elk in a pit, harvest food, reset trap, and go about building.  Since live animals don't rot, you basically have food on demand, and this works even in winter.  Plus rapids don't freeze, so there's that too.

Also worth noting that if you build an item on ice and deconstruct it, it leaves ground.  Ocean Forts, anyone?

[Mephansteras]

Yeah, finding rapids is certainly my first objective. But I'm not worried. I've done plenty of Fisherman runs before, and nothing about my current situation concerns me too much. I should find some rivers to the West, if I remember the map correctly.

[Mephansteras]

The Diary of Bomrek - Exile from the Mountainhomes

The sun rises behind me. The armok-damned sun is rising. And I'm out here in this cold, and far too open land.

But what choice did I have?

My name is Bomrek, and until today I was an apprentice Carpenter in the great Dwarven Fortress of SpikeMenaces. Most of my time was spent deep in the great caverns building scaffolding for the masons to work on. I had just started tutelage under my father in the more refined arts of woodworking and furniture making.

Of course, that wasn't my problem. No, the problem is that no one got around to making the fancy glass goblets the Duchess ordered. And they picked out a random dwarf to blame. Me.

Why me? I've never even set foot in a glassblower's shop, let alone have a clue how to make a goblet out of the stuff. But there it was. My sister warned me that the Hammerer was coming for me bless her little heart, and a few friends of mine helped me scrounge up some supplies as I bolted for the exit. None of us doubted for a second that the hammer blows would be the end of me.

And so I left. My friend in the smithy got me an exceptionally nice Bastard Sword to use, as well as a knife I can at best call functional. Some practice work for an apprentice no doubt. I have a bit of food, the clothes on my back, and I nicked a fishing rod and some nets as I passed the fisher's area near the door.

Fortunately for me the guards hadn't heard yet, and no one raised a fuss at me heading out.

But I can't go back. The penalty for dodging a Hammering is almost as bad as the Hammering itself. Both combined would probably make me a permanent fixture in the floor.

So here I am. In exile, surrounded by Trees in the over world. And here I will have to learn to survive. There should be humans around to trade with. Well, somewhere, anyway. If I'm going to do anything meaningful I'll need to get myself an axe. This sword, while masterwork, is hardly a fit tool for carpentry or tree felling.

Before any of that, though, I'll need to survive. I need more food. With these nets that should be pretty easy, so I'll need to find a place to set them out. Preferably a River.

I will head West, and I shall see what I can find.

I am a Dwarf. I shall not give in. I shall prosper. I swear on my beard that I will!

[RedKing]

I'm apparently a few versions behind in UW. 

[jester]

If you set up on the edge of water/lakes, you can also use your punt to transport logs, makes building sooo much easier.

  And damnnn thats a good sword to start with.