#stonehearth

[princecharmingtobe]

You came to the wrong neighborhood

[closetededgy]

Time for my review of autonauts, a game I recently purchased which has turned out to be an almost perfect combination of games I’ve been wanting to combine recently, I say almost because there are some things it do with to make it truly perfect. That brings said the combination is as follows, stonehearths cheery nature and graphics as well as an open and inviting world. Factorios lean towards efficiency, production chains, research, and elegance (basically Always trying to make elegant solutions when you know how you could do the same thing inelegantly but effectively). And another game I recently started playing which is duskers for the micromanaging robotics that it brings to the table. All of this combined makes a very cheerful and slightly sinister (please watch Aavaks current series on it find out how sinister). There’s no real story or lore that I can tell, it’s just automate things, but it’s done in such a way that you can never keep things quite clean so there’s always something more you can automate, something more you could clean, the progression never makes you wait, you always have something to do something to craft something to automate. There’s always better ways to do something you’ve already done and somehow there is no external pressure to keep moving, yet there was never a time I just didn’t do anything unlike in factorio Where I’m always waiting for research and resources before I can do anything, or duskers where I’ll be sitting on one station looking at the last room I need access to for half an hour. Then there’s performance, I wouldn’t call my computer a potato or a toaster but it isn’t anything you could accurately call a gaming computer and this game runs wonderful not only can I keep the settings on fantastic while having 80 bots constantly working, but there doesn’t seem to be much or any slowdown in the thought process of the bots unlike stonehearth where regardless of my settings even if I set the speed to 1x a 12 hearthling colony will begin to become ultra confused and idle way too often. and remember the only things you can do that the bots can’t, is design programs. The Only thing

Now as I mentioned it could use a couple things:

Mod support: every game is better with mods this would be no exception, whether it’s changing progression to fit your balance or completely altering how you play the game, mods will always be an extra source of content for the player base by the player base.

A method of writing a bots commands out rather than having to record you doing the commands, it would be so much more enjoyable for a lot of people to use a separate building to write out a bots commands exactly how you want then save it to a data storage.

A more top down view in which you can hide things like items on the ground and make things a little more 2d to easier organise things but this ones kinda whatever which is why it’s last.

How many hours have I put into the game: 20

How many do I think I’ll have in the game by the end of the month: easily 150 I think.

All in all it’s a wonderful game

[per-ineptia-ad-astra]

This isn’t the kind of thing I normally do around here, but it seemed like it might be a bit of fun. I’ve absolutely no idea if it’s something you all would be interested in, though, so let me know if you like it or not—if not, I’ll just leave it as a one-off and go back to the regular memes to fill the time while I’m working on Space Seed.

Recently I’ve been playing resource management/base building type games a lot, which I suspect stems from the fact that managing resources in my real life is going rather less well, the latest of these being Stonehearth, a cute voxel game where you guide a group of beady-eyed little people into building a village for them to live in. I’d played a fair bit of it over the past winter but hadn’t touched it in several months, enough time for there to be a couple of updates to the content*, so I decided to see what had been added in the interim.

*Technically the officially-approved-but-player-created-mod-expansion.

But once I got around to selecting my starting villagers, I ran into the same problem I always have at these moments in games—what to name everybody? I’m a massive overthinker about this sort of thing, you see, the sort who will spend ages scouring Wikipedia to find the most thematically appropriate set of things to name all the characters after. On this occasion, though, as I stared aimlessly around my desk trying to come up with something, inspiration struck in the shape of the copy of Star Trek: The Classic Episodes that I still hadn’t put away. Or possibly it was the Data Funko Pop. Either way, I thought, well, why not…?

[ID: A screenshot of the ‘Customize your party’ screen in the video game Stonehearth. On the left are five miniature profiles for cartoonish voxel versions of Kirk, Sulu, McCoy, Scotty and Uhura. Their Mind, Body and Spirit stats are, respectively,  4/5/4,  3/2/6, 4/3/4,  6/2/5, and 3/4/6. On the right is an appearance customization screen with Uhura selected.]

And thus was born a quest to see the crew of the Enterprise through their colonization of wherever the hell it is they’ve ended up this time. Or at least, some of the crew of the Enterprise. I don’t think my computer could handle simulating the full four hundred and thirty of them.

Stonehearth villagers (or ‘hearthlings) have three stats—Mind, Body and Spirit-- as well as up to two traits that influence their behavior. In the starting roster, you can’t directly alter their stats or traits, but you can randomly generate villagers individually or as a group for as long as you want until you get something you like, and can change their names and appearances freely. By default, all the villagers are workers, but with the right items they can be promoted into special classes, such as warriors who defend the village, crafters who make necessary items, or resource-suppliers like farmers and trappers. My starting selection of characters was based on the roles that I judged most important to the getting this colony off the ground. (It may be helpful to keep in mind throughout this, though, that I am not very good at Stonehearth.) The traits I just kind of took where I could get them, since it would have taken an enormously long time to roll for the absolute most character-appropriate ones.

Kirk has the traits ‘Night Owl’ (he’ll stay up later at night and sleep more in the day) and ‘Jokester’ (he likes to tell jokes to the others, which has a chance to increase their moods). I was unsure what to do with him at first, since there’s not really any kind of leadership position for hearthlings. In the end I decided he would make a good Knight, a heavy armor combat class. After all, protecting everyone else in the group at the risk of his own life is a pretty Kirk-ish thing to do. He’ll have to spend some time as a Footman, the basic combat class, before he can promote to Knight, though.

Sulu has the traits ‘Green Thumb’ (he gets a happiness boost from being around plants) and ‘Pack Mule’ which means he can carry more than usual. This is a good combo of traits for a farmer, and since Sulu likes plants he seemed like the most natural choice for that role.

McCoy has the trait ‘Pessimistic’ which makes him more affected by things that cause negative mood modifiers, because of course he does. His class was far and way the easiest to pick: he’ll spend some time as a Herbalist, a crafting class that can make bandages and medicines, until he can promote to Cleric, a combat class that can heal.

Scotty has the traits ‘Gregarious’ (he enjoys talking to other villagers more) and ‘Animal Companion’ (he spawns with a pet, in this case a raccoon named Cactus). Alright, perhaps not the most Scotty-ish of traits, but hey, he had good stats. Scotty’s going to be a Carpenter, the staple crafting class for the Ascendency faction, who use wood as their primary resource. (There actually is an Engineer class, but it doesn’t come into play until much later and the Carpenter is considerably more important for the early game.)

Finally, Uhura has the ‘Empathetic’ trait (she gets a negative mood modifier from being around other villagers who have negative mood modifiers) and is going to be a Trapper, a class that traps animals for meat and fur and can promote to the Shepherd, who raises livestock animals. A bit of a stretch, I know, but hey, there’s no communications-based class, and someone had to be a Trapper. Plus, Trappers have a chance of bringing animals home as pets, which is what started The Trouble With Tribbles, so, hey.

With the starting roster confirmed, all that remains is to first pick a starting resource package—I’ve gone with the Merchant Caravan, which will give us some starting food and gold as well as the promotion items for a Trapper, Footman and Herbalist—and then roll a map. Eventually—after spending far too long generating and re-generating maps—I’ve settled on a nice location by a lake, with plenty of trees, and mountains nearby to dig for ore and stone in. The only downside is it’s a bit exposed, so hopefully nothing too big attacks before we’re able to build some walls.

[ID: A screenshot showing a zoomed-out grassy landscape near a lake, with a message box reading “Click the banner to choose your settlement’s location.” At the bottom of the screen is a blue banner that reads “Click me to place your town banner.”]

Soon after selecting our starting location, a messenger bird arrives with a letter.

[ID: A screenshot showing a message box with a voxel bird displayed above it, titled ‘A Bird...Messenger?’ The box reads “An odd bird arrives with a letter in its beak, stamped with the official seal of the Ascendency.” In smaller text: “The bird also carries a nametag, which reads ‘Harold’. Below the box are two options: ‘Open the letter’ and ‘[skip] We know what banner we want.’]

The letter reads:

Dear Expedition 142,

I hope this letter finds you well. By my guess, you’ve likely set up camp by now.

As your Capital Liaison, it is my honor to preside, remotely, over the official Founding of your Outpost! I trust that you had ample time to choose a name on your journey.

As you know, every new settlement must choose a Banner.

This Banner reflects your spirit and vision, the uniting factor which brought the Expedition together!

What future did you foresee when you embarked on your quest for Township?

Hold in your mind a vision of what your Town will one day be. Your Banner will set that course, but it is up to you to finish it.

Choose well, my friends. I eagerly await your reply.

Yours,

Mer Burlyhands

We could choose a banner of Vitality, which plants to grow faster and trees to drop more wood; Strength, which increases the amount of ore you get from mining and makes hearthlings not mind living in cramped spaces; or Cunning, which makes traders visit more frequently and traded items sell for more.

I choose the Banner of Vitality. The name of the town, of course, is Enterprise.

[ID: A message box titled ‘Outpost Established!’ which reads: “Proclamation of Outpost: By Unanimous agreement of the citizens, we declare Enterprise to be an outpost striving to be at one with the environment. Trees produce 25% more wood. Plants and crops both grow 25% faster. Plants have 2x their normal Appeal.”]

The messenger bird drops off some extra starting food supplies before leaving. Now it’s time to get to the business of actually building this town. Colony. Whatever.

First off, promotions for everyone! Except Sulu. It’ll be a bit before we can promote Sulu. Sorry, Sulu.

[ID: Four cropped shots of message boxes which read “Promote to [Carpenter/Herbalist/Trapper/Footman]. In honor of steadfast efforts and resilience, we hereby advance [Montgomery Scott/Leonard McCoy/Nyota Uhura/James Kirk]. 4th Day of Bittermun 1000.” Below the text is a stamp icon which reads ‘click to approve.’]

Then we establish a stockpile—a designated location for items to go—and cut down some trees. We’re going to need wood to make buildings and furniture, as well as for fuel.

After a bit of consideration, I decide to move the hearth closer to the lake, near to where our first building is going to go up. For the moment, however, night is falling, and everyone gathers to rest around the fire.

[ID: A screenshot showing voxel-McCoy, Uhura, Sulu and Scotty sitting around a campfire on the shores on a lake.]

...everyone except Kirk, who, for reasons best known only to himself, has fallen asleep in the stockpile.

[ID: 1. A screenshot showing voxel-Kirk laying asleep on the ground in a stockpile full of logs and food supplies. 2. A zoomed-out screenshot showing how far away Kirk is from everyone else around the campfire.]

Thus was founded the town/settlement/colony/localized disaster area known as Enterprise. What could possibly go wrong?

[amoonstonemaiden]

I can't decide if i want to get night in the woods becauee I've heard its an EXCELLENT game or stonehearth which won't mess me up so much. Or better yet not spend anything and enjoy what i have!

[apathetic-revenant]

entry #1: we have made camp by the shores of a small lake deep in the tundra, where we plan to establish the settlement of Horizon. there is a hard road ahead of us. the winter snows are falling, and we have no shelter save our Hearth, no resources save the rations we brought with us. but we are determined to persevere. 

our party numbers five: Valkyrie the archer, Baldur the herbalist, Arte the mason, Ivy the worker, and Wilder the trapper, who brings along her squirrel companion Oak. a scout from Valin’s Library has come to enter our settlement into their records. she gifted us with a small amount of food before she left, which will surely come in handy in the coming days.

entry #2: we have begun to collect wood and stone in preparation for building our longhouse. meanwhile, Wilder has been hard at work laying traps, which will be a vital source of food as it will be some time before we are able to begin farming. thus far she is only able to catch insects, but bigger food is on the way. 

entry #3: the longhouse is under construction at last, though it is slow going with only Art and Ivy able to work on it. a party of Entlings attacked the camp, causing much excitement, but Valkyrie was able to dispatch them without any serious injuries. 

meanwhile, Wilder has befriended an ant. no one is entirely sure why, or even how. 

[gyorinokedli]

A srác Dunaszegről aki kirángatta belőlem a gamert <3333

[b4nto]

Stonehearth 1.0 - Wolves in the Woods - Ep 6

[quwgame]

I did a thing.

I made a template pack for Stonehearth which is currently up on the steam workshop.

The Vasedro - Basic Template pack was designed with Rayya’s Children in mind and is built mostly from stone with clay and wood adornments.  I always found that I had way more of the former than the latter two so it made more sense for me to build this way for my desert saves.

The new builder works so good!

Not guaranteed to withstand the tentacle smash of an eldritch god but will definitely give you a jump start on your desert city.