A16, first try, feedback and report

Gameplay
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Okay, hi there, first post, dont judge.

I didnt take a look at stonehearth since the kickstarter tbh, - then - last week found it in my steam libary. Tested the A15 for a few runs, bumped into things not to do in terms of building things and such stuff.

So Friday i decided to give the unstable A16 branch a try, hardmode.

Here’s my report.

The first two tries went horrible wrong.

The third town, - well - lets call it a fortified farm managed to survive.

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It had a rough start, lost my first two foodmen to a crocodile - so i needed to relocate into the bunker. Felt a little like cheating, but helped a lot. Cheap walls. After that i built the wall, at first only two stones high, to farm some food, then the rest of the buildings followed one by one.

There are 27 hearthlings living on the farm atm, 11 of them in the militia (2 knights, 3 footmen, 4 archers, two clerics) who can handle the hardmode mobs quite well.

I dont like the workshops still beeing underground in the bunker, but since i cant insert doors to existing walls at the moment, i dont really have the means to grow the farm any bigger - without hurting the esthetics :wink: - so i’ll pause and have another look at it once A16 goes stable.

Feedback:
-The start was challenging and the most fun i had in a game for a long time. It got a lot of easier once i had iron weapons and armour.

-Its a little sad that theres no need for the herbalist anymore. The potions are common loot and the cleric doesnt leave anyone get to bet hurt - so the herbalist is atm just a downgraded Cleric.

-For a time i had two teams of soldiers. Well. They doesnt tend to stay together. Even in an outpost tiny like this one that was quite a problem from time to time. Later i assembled the squads by the outer gate - but it feels like that shouldnt be nessesary.

-There should be a “hold position” command wich lets the soldiers sleep and eat. My first footman in i15 starved to death due to my misinterpretation…

  • Spawning.
    I’d love so see the option, that enemies spawn off map and wonder in. The -wooosh, here we are-thinngy doesnt feel right.

I guess thats so far for my experiences and feedback. Great fun so far, love to see the things coming together!!

Ah, the bunker the the guard team:

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Agreed!

I agree a little - I think both would be nice, but sometimes having them spawn into the world at a location is fine. Would be nice if there was a visual or something - puff of smoke, or a tornado swings by and drops off a creature or structure, or a cave opening bursts out of the ground, etc.

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Your experience is rather similar to mine, building a fortified farm.I quite like the appearance of the enemy houses/siege camps. I certainly agree that the difficulty curve seems a little wrong currently - the beginning is the toughest but sorted just by shutting yourself off to the world and getting yourself sorted. Once you’ve done that mobs are destroyed easily and only the odd citizen who escapes the walls gets slaughtered.

I feel that the way Rimworld does their sieges works very well how the enemy come from off the map, are seen building a mini fortress, mortar you (obviously not lore friendly in this application), and will then go for an assault wave.

I would very much agree that the cleric needs a more narrowed role of healing, or some resource constraint (mana or something gained from combat?)

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Holly :smiley: nice lil town :smiley: looks like a roman garisson D:

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The 2nd one burned down, fell over, then sank into the swamp. But the third one stayed up, and that’s what your getting, the strongest town in the land.

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I came back for this.

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Or a convoy makes their way in - like a caravan with a few guards that then deploys into the Goblin / other’s settlement, but if you can kill them before they settle, then you can stop say, 3/4 of the population from spawning - The same could be said for gaining new Hearthlings, having a caravan come through and you accept one from the caravan.

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Maybe instead of spawning off map they could spawn from lairs like the goblins. For example, from time to time a Varanus lair would spawn near water and away from town and would spawn mobs until the player destroys it.

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That is not correct (more or less),
the herbalist can still be “usefull” with crafting the buff potions.
With all three buffs active you do not need that many guards anymore.

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@groms I totally agree, this is what i use the herbalist for fully. nvm it also adds a bit of decoration to it as well

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I didnt use these potions yet. Performance enhancing drugs doesnt seem to fit in a tiny village of… oh. I see the reference now. Okay. It fits. I see it now.

Joke aside, i guess if it was possible to craft - i’m no nativ speaker, so i dont know if theres a word for it - hospital-beds it would feel more useful. We could store healing supplies in containers near it, so the herbalist could have a place to work and wouldnt have to run all through the village. Dunno. Doesnt feel fitting.

I’ll try the potions.

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I like this idea - if we could craft a ‘hospital bed’ which any hearthling would prioritize sleeping in if A) they were damaged, and B) there was an Herbalist who could heal them - that would make sense.

Herbalist is very much taken care of in the background where the player is not looking - as opposed to the Cleric who is always running around in combat and is very visible.

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