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[Zangi]

Move the stockpiles closer to the pick-up.  I believe haulers bring goods from workshop to stockpile if they are idling?

[Neyvn]

Move the stockpiles closer to the pick-up.  I believe haulers bring goods from workshop to stockpile if they are idling?

I have stockpiles close to everything yet I always find Iron on the other side of the map, and no I am not harvesting world Iron or anything. The logs are stocked all over the map yet nothing seems to work. Houses next to areas where I want them to work are compleatly filled by people working on the other side of the map too...
I build a farming district, built houses there and such, but when I checked the Pathing, I found someone that lived on the other side of the main town in my Mining/Livestock area who walked the whole way over to do one nanosecond of work then walked back. I lost like 20 people to starvation/cold because of this, I was like. WTF THERE IS A HOUSE RIGHT THERE MOVE INTO THAT OR CHANGE YOUR FUCKING JOB!!!

[Tack]

This. Also I believe that industry buildings can take resources from marketplaces, which is nice.

[Descan]

Yep. I try and build workshops close to markets, and houses can bugger off to the outskirts if they would otherwise take up space for a workshop.

In fact I might need to re-arrange some stuff, I have a woodcutters or two near my trade-post which is on the outskirts...

[Mephansteras]

I think my biggest problem with the game is the fact that there isn't really any simulation of the people in the village. They don't do anything logically, they're just abstracted bits of population doing sort of abstract things. Despite the fact that the game never has more than a few hundred people and they all actually do normal things like live in houses and walk to their jobs.

It's a bit disappointing that he went the high level simulation route for something like this. You don't really get any stories out of your people, you don't care about them, and they do really dumb stuff like pick the furthest house from their job. Which would be ok if you could tell them where to live or where to work, but you can't.

It's still fun, and relaxing to play, but it lacks those little touches that would have made it special.

[Zangi]

I think my biggest problem with the game is the fact that there isn't really any simulation of the people in the village. They don't do anything logically, they're just abstracted bits of population doing sort of abstract things. Despite the fact that the game never has more than a few hundred people and they all actually do normal things like live in houses and walk to their jobs.

It's a bit disappointing that he went the high level simulation route for something like this. You don't really get any stories out of your people, you don't care about them, and they do really dumb stuff like pick the furthest house from their job. Which would be ok if you could tell them where to live or where to work, but you can't.

It's still fun, and relaxing to play, but it lacks those little touches that would have made it special.

I totally agree.  As I said earlier, this game has no soul in it. 
They do stuff... then die.  Their names may as well be 'RoboCitizen #789'.  Their is no chance of any of em ever doing anything awesome or fail spectacularly.  They just live and die.


As for people living where they don't work... try setting all your housing to demolish, then reclaim it?  It should redistribute everyone in a sane manner? 
I have housing dotted ALL over my settlement.  So I have not seen any problems with people living across the map from their workplace... but then, I've only just hit roughly 40 stone houses and am leaving the sim on at speed 1 to chug along while I'm away at work or sleep. 
6 automated trading posts and no mines or quarries(cause hur-dur, preserve my environment and oh yea, it permanently scars my map).  Maybe I'll find half the place a flaming husk when I do come back...

[Knight of Fools]

I made a quick video detailing my thoughts on the game, for those of you who are still on the fence about it.

Ignore the cheesy intro. It was all I could think of.

[majikero]

I learned a few things from non-stop play trial and error.

First of all, it's quite relaxing when things are going well.

Second, always have 10k in food and I think you need fewer meat per person than fruits and vegetables.

Third, putting out fires is pointless if you have less than 10 laborers and not next to a well so take into account how much is going to burn when you build.

[Tack]

Hey, Dwarf Fortress has a bunch of simulation robots, which happen to hang out at the meeting hall every now and then, and get progressively better at their trade.

[nenjin]

Hey, Dwarf Fortress has a bunch of simulation robots, which happen to hang out at the meeting hall every now and then, and get progressively better at their trade.

They also have the details that create interesting narratives, and do a lot more besides what you mentioned. Meph's complaint is basically what stops me from buying the game.

[Zangi]

I made a quick video detailing my thoughts on the game, for those of you who are still on the fence about it.

Ignore the cheesy intro. It was all I could think of.

I want to point out that, your ancestors were pedophiles too.  All of our ancestors.  Perhaps if this game was based on modern society...

Interesting note about pastures...  I think you need a minimum capacity for you to be able to split the animals to a backup ranch.
Sheep, 5 capacity is 8x10 pasture.  (1 sheep per 16 tiles.)
Cow, 5 capacity is 10x10 pasture. (1 cow per 20 tiles.)

Hmm....  need to account for the boom and bust cycle of the population if I am to leave it running on auto.  At one point, having +15 laborers, but they take up space, grow old and die with only 1-2 kids or none.  Also, shouldn't leave any population as builders...

[Fikes]

Hey, Dwarf Fortress has a bunch of simulation robots, which happen to hang out at the meeting hall every now and then, and get progressively better at their trade.

They also have the details that create interesting narratives, and do a lot more besides what you mentioned. Meph's complaint is basically what stops me from buying the game.

It is true that there is no way to get to know your people. When  child is born it just gives you a name, doesn't even tell you the names of the parents and it doesn't give you a last name. It is disappointing, it would be nice to be able to click someone and see their past or their lineage or something.

But I don't understand why this is such a major sticking point for people. MOST city builders don't really tell you anything about your people, even the ones where the population caps around 200, like Tropico. People keep waiting for the Dwarf Fortress-esk stories to come out but this isn't that type of a game, neither is SimCity.

The game, at its core, is a less polished Tropico in a less forgiving environment. You will struggle to make enough coats to cloth your people or enough tools to trade for some chickens. In the end though you are just building a city little simulated people interact with on a basic level. If that type of game isn't fun for you than Banished just isn't your type of game.

[nenjin]

Eh? In Tropico citizens aren't one dimensional either. They live, age, work, get skilled, have political beliefs and occasionally act on them. I've had Tropicans I keep my eye on, assassinate, discredit and other things.

As for what most other city builders do....they have scale and scope. Features are metered out over the course of a playthrough, you build up to things. You build monuments and you beautify. You sculpt. You do a lot of other things besides set down some buildings and re-task your people.

[Fikes]

Eh? In Tropico citizens aren't one dimensional either. They live, age, work, get skilled, have political beliefs and occasionally act on them. I've had Tropicans I keep my eye on, assassinate, discredit and other things.

Having played Tropico quite a bit, I can say that even though your statement is true, people in that game are still pretty one dimensional. They have political beliefs that they might act on sometimes, but really it just comes down to a faction percentage you have to keep up and that isn't really very difficult to do. I can see their parents and which faction they belong to, but it doesn't really add anything to the game play.

As for what most other city builders do....they have scale and scope. Features are metered out over the course of a playthrough, you build up to things. You build monuments and you beautify. You sculpt. You do a lot of other things besides set down some buildings and re-task your people.

Here I disagree. While you never unlock a new building in Banished (unless you count different field types), your city does have scope and scale. You don't simply build every building at the start of your play through and just add houses. You start with a little hamlet centered around your first storage barn that is just a couple of houses, farms, fishers, and a wood cutter. A few years in you have a forest operation up and running and enough leather to add a tailor to your hamlet, then a market, then a town hall.

It isn't like your city doesn't grow and change. I am finally to the point where I can build stone houses instead of wooden ones. I am too the point where food is less pressing and happiness is more of a concern so I will likely be building a brewery soon.

Banished isn't a grand scale high end city builder like SimCity or Cities XL (which is funny because I remember many people complaining about the unlock process in that game) but it is 20 dollars. A game that is only fun for 2 or 3 play throughs is still a fun game.

[Knight of Fools]

While the village does grow and evolve to some degree, I think the major complaint is that there isn't anything interesting after the mid-game (~200 - 300 people). You have a couple churches, a couple breweries, and after that it's mostly making sure your food bank is balanced. Heck, churches and breweries aren't particularly interesting and had no noticeable effect on my villages. It would have been nice to have something slightly more complex to aim for after that, even if it was just a monument of some kind - And, like churches, markets, and breweries, the only barrier to creating them is how many resources you have. There doesn't have to be an unlock system to make things interesting.

Having played Tropico quite a bit, I can say that even though your statement is true, people in that game are still pretty one dimensional. They have political beliefs that they might act on sometimes, but really it just comes down to a faction percentage you have to keep up and that isn't really very difficult to do. I can see their parents and which faction they belong to, but it doesn't really add anything to the game play.

The thing is, Tropicans could be attributed a personality despite the little information you're given of them. They have families, skills, jobs, beliefs, and they do stuff independent of what you may want them to do. You can imagine that a person would act a certain way depending on all of this stuff. Sure, they become slightly more faceless as the game progresses, but in the back of your mind you'll know that these people are at least simulated to a higher degree than a bunch of robots. Banished doesn't have that feeling, even though the number of people between the two games are almost the same.


Don't get me wrong, I enjoy Banished quite a bit, but those two things would have added a lot, doubly so if there were interesting mechanics behind them.