I’d guess for him it’d be accessibility.
However, as a warning to @Logo, they plan on having siege weapons in this game at some point, so I’d watch out! ; D
-Surly
First off, I like your start off, building in the foothills. That’s one play-style that I find to be a little more rare than the others.
Secondly though, I may not have caught it while reading, but you said that once you switch to “village” phase you then build permanent houses. Do you build those houses within your primary base or do you move to the plains? Just curious.
And then third and finally, what do you think could be improved with the start of the game or do you like it the way it is?
-Surly
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Am i the ONLY one who PREFERS raayas children over the ascendancy? i think they’re more of a challenge as it’s a rush to gather what’s needed, get the jobs maximized in a timely fashion to prepare for the first boss attack, soothsayer.
ultimately I think the thing I do first depends on what my attempted scenario is for that time around.
if i’m doing a Manhattan playstyle which is a city on an island, compact with tall tall buildings, i first chop down the trees on the island and use the wood to construct a bridge to the mainland where i can gather berry bushes and more resources, i might take a small small section of the island and cut it off and away from the main island and build a mineshaft on that piece turning it into a mini mining island and then go from there, building first floor structures, roads, etc. granted the maximum of 50 hearthlings makes it difficult to refer to it as a CITY but it’s more compact than a village the way i’d build it so it’s for all intended purposes a city lol.
other scenarios i attempt are TOWER homes in this case a single structure to contain all of my hearthlings and their needs. i look for an area where i can have the tower kept safe in an enclosed area with only one way in or out. as usually i look for berry bushes, chop down trees, etc. dig out a mine in the side of the land for easy access near the foot of the tower.
I’ve attempted under ground cave cities digging to the lowest point in the map while systematically moving my starting location down with the resources i’ve gathered to that point. i find a location underground with dirt/mud so i can plant farms and dig a hole down to that location for sunlight (would LOVE to see lighting effects for this kind of stuff in the future like godrays and stuff to give the feeling that there IS sunlight being gathered down there by the crops. even if sunlight currently isn’t needed for them to grow)
the list of scenarios i’ve played through go on from there but now that i’m thinking about it there are only a few things mandatory for an playstyle really, gather food, get shelter going, train your hearthlings. there really is only ONE proper way to play these kind of games for the best results regardless of the scenario you wish to attempt to play through.
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Walls, trenches, moats, islands…all common tactics used by a lot of folks no matter what mode you’re playing. I destroy the temp walls once I have my city walls/gatehouse built.
Has nothing to do with trying to be hardcore, just a matter of challenging myself. 
My biggest problem is I’m kind of a groundhog day player lol. Every time there’s a new update I wanna start from scratch so I wipe all my saved games.
Haha, I can’t wait Surly! I’m all for giving enemies a way to get around defenses and I also hope that means they can make rafts to come at cities on islands. I’ll have to up my game then. 
Was just responding to an old post about this topic about a week ago lol. Ways for enemies to invade your town when surrounded by walls
I tend to keep my main town in the foothills, using the original campsite as the town square. Farms, shepherds’ cottages and the like may spill down onto the plains, but it mostly depends on how much area there is to build on the foothills. That’s why I usually settle in a valley – then I can keep the buildings together and theoretically defend them more easily, while the farms and livestock are just beyond the village limits.
My dream vision for a town like this is to have it spread from the plains right up into the mountains, with a sort of hierarchy built directly into the town. The lower levels are farms, carpenter’s shop, and other “down to earth” professions, the mid levels have housing and social spaces as well as the weaver and markets, and then moving into the mountains you get the more advanced and high-falutin’ jobs like potter, engineer, herbalist and an abbey for the clerics.
As for improving the early-game experience, I can’t think of specific improvements – I’ve adapted to the current state of the game so to me there are no glaring issues, but new players might not see their early-game experience in the same light. One idea from this thread that I love, though, is @GamingSilverNox’s suggestion of a cart. Banished does the same thing, spawning a cart full of supplies which works like a temporary building to store stuff in; and Stonehearth could easily replicate that with a large item that works like a crate and comes pre-loaded with your starting supplies (rather than spilling them on the ground.)
Aside from that, a few more loadouts would be nice; but I can see why they’re not the top priority right now. The good news is that they can be modded in easily enough, and the team will get around to updating the official ones in good time.
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I didn’t really mention it in my post above but I almost always play with raaya’s children. I’ve played the other one once when I first got the game but have played raaya’s children since! I like it is a little more challenging and enjoy the over all look better.
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I do feel there might be a better way, but it’s pretty hard to test every possible way. If you wanna go the gold’s path possibly a weaver before cook or maybe even get a sheperd as soon as possible to get the earliest possible township (Cid)
I immediately build a stockpile, send my hearthlings out to collect wood, and set 2 carrot plots to be farmed, and start building houses with two beds in each, unless i’m making a house that has the carpenters workbenches, mason’s workbench, and the weaver’s spindle and other stuff all in one long house with an upstairs with their beds and a table downstairs with chairs, there’s also two chairs per house(every bed is comfy and so are the chairs, no uncomfortable splinters). I rapidly build my city and get it walled up with 4 layers of stone double doors so I have time to prepare if needed, and only recruit the best warriors well suited for the job with higher levels of spirit and health.
Currently got the best mapseed ever, lordk nows what it is but I’ve been playing for a while.
This is the setup
Build a bridge and gatehouse, send your army to defend there and calmly build up to the point where you force your trapper/farmers out of the island and start rebuilding the inside for proper crafting and storage. Currently the army is 7 big, I have 30 people and can easily feed myself from off the island for some 5 months.
I really recommend trying it like this, awaiting your enemies at your gate is so much more fun than hunting them.
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I usually start off on a hill in the desert biome so that enemies are unable to reach my settlement. I then build up my town by having a lot of farmers and selling food until i can defend my land. I mine out the inside of my hill and put all storage areas underground. I find that this is the most effective way to survive the beginning.
So this thread got me thinking of new ways to start my towns. Someone mentioned tents and I thought that was a neat idea so that’s exactly what I did! The two white tents are where 4 people bunk and the blue tent is for eating. The best part is the hearthlings find the tents quite spacious (even if they still don’t like sharing the space with another hearthling)!
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Hi,
I must further what @Fornjotr said, Please @GamingSilverNox share the template 
What I do is level a good chunk of forest, then build 2 living quarters (4 beds each by default but I fit in 3 more) and a dining room. Then I slowly expand, make a military to hold off enemies and so on.
A new strategy I like more , is that following what I build as above, I only build one living quarters but then I build a fortress wall after mining a large chunk of a mountain out and then developing the inside of the fort, till I spill outside.
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@Fornjotr and @LordGovernorGeneral, I will figure out how to do that tomorrow at some point! I have to make some adjustments first (make the bottom layer two tall so they don’t walk over the tents like staircases!).
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If you have not yet figured out how to make a mine for your hearthlings to sleep you are wasting precious time !
I would counter by saying that if you plan to have your hearthlings not sleep underground for the rest of their lives, moving them into the mine in the first place is a waste of time – building small tents is quick, and it very quickly raises your town worth so you can attract more immigrants; but you can knock them down whenever you need and get all the resources back. So, tents and other small buildings are actually really viable as short-term accommodation in the early game.
That’s very rare in this genre; and yeah I’m very used to getting everyone to live in a hole in the ground (or in the side of a mountain)… to each their own of course, I won’t tell you how to play your game. But my priorities are to get more immigrants and to fill out the job roster; so I find tents are more constructive to that end.
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I rarely have a day I can’t get my networth up there because of that. The few bucks per wooden cottage can be achieved by fences as well. On the other hand building a tent doesn’t give you any ore or stone, extra room or any of the above combined in any way.
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