Banished by Shining Rock Software

It's not a spoiler-ific game but I'm avoiding in depth videos so I can explore and learn once it's in my grubby hands. I had emailed the dev about being on 3MA but never heard back, which is a bummer. I will have to bug him again.

Michael wrote:

It's not a spoiler-ific game but I'm avoiding in depth videos so I can explore and learn once it's in my grubby hands.

I somewhat agree, although I did just watch the 12-minute video that D-Man posted. So excited for this game!

While I am likewise excited about this game, I have a huge backlog that just got longer because I (finally) upgraded my machine. Now, a bunch of stuff like Skyrim and Arkham Asylum (which have been in my Steam account for ages) and games like Bioshock Infinite and XCOM are playable. Adding to those I have some recent acquisitions (Distant Worlds, The Fool and his Money, Gridiron Solitaire).

Some problems are nice to have.

2 Weeks to go! Sheesh. Still no word on pricing?

Also, TheWanderer has already played 1 hour! No fair!

omnipherous wrote:

2 Weeks to go! Sheesh. Still no word on pricing?

Also, TheWanderer has already played 1 hour! No fair! :P

I know, the wait is killing me too.

As for price, he said in an AMA that it would be about $20 US.

omnipherous wrote:

2 Weeks to go! Sheesh. Still no word on pricing?

Also, TheWanderer has already played 1 hour! No fair! :P

I know 14 days or 336 hours or 20160 minutes is sooooo danged long.

By the way who is TheWanderer?

omnipherous wrote:
D-Man777 wrote:

As for price, he said in an AMA that it would be about $20 US.

Nice! Wonder why there's no pre-order.

jeffsceu wrote:

By the way who is TheWanderer?

Some GWJer on my Steam Friends list. I'm unsure of his connections.

He works for Polygon. Real name is Charlie Hall.

D-Man777 wrote:

As for price, he said in an AMA that it would be about $20 US.

Nice! Wonder why there's no pre-order.

jeffsceu wrote:

By the way who is TheWanderer?

A GWJer on my Steam Friends list. I'm unsure of his connections.

Well that explain s that then. Still, no fair

Would be good if he could give us a Yay/Nae in his opinion on day1 purchasing

I doubt he can do that. Professional integrity and all.

Pfft, who needs integrity!

Not I, but his kids may want to be clothed and fed.

Wait, it's for the greater good, comrade. Spill the beans!!

Depending on whether the save game system allows, this might be a fun game to do a round robin play where each person gets to play for X in-game years (like 5 or 10) and then passes the save along to the next person.

Or another possibility since the maps have a seeded number for generation would be to all play the same map for a set X number of years and try to meet some goal or maybe just see how the different towns end up.

Great idea! My pile progress is going to take a hammering when this arrives, barring any game breakers (which I doubt there will be any). Once I get the basics, I'd be up for a shared starting point to see where we each end up.

I have seen all of quill18's let's play.....i was screaming at the screen telling him how, where and what to build and place.

I want this now.

I watched one stinking preview video and I MUST HAVE THIS GAME.

I am afraid to watch quill18's videos in case the game is only good for 5 hours. I want to enjoy this game.

I've avoided every single video other than the development gameplay ones. I want this to be all fresh and new the day it comes out, just like games were when I was a kid

omnipherous wrote:

I've avoided every single video other than the development gameplay ones. I want this to be all fresh and new the day it comes out, just like games were when I was a kid :-D

Admirable. As one without your level of self control, and one who has watched a few hours of gameplay videos, let me reassure you that it will be well worth the wait. While the graphics are not top of the line, it looks remarkably polished and deep for a one-man project. It also looks very stable. I haven't seen a single crash or even anything that looked buggy.

Eleven days and counting.

I'm also quite glad he didn't go down a kickstarter/funding route, refreshing for recent times.

11 Days to get through all of Feb pile progress. Gulp.

I am excited and I have watched 0 video's of this game no joke. Unfortunatelly its release falls really close to Tales of Symphonia so I am not sure that I will be a day one buyer.

Vega wrote:

Depending on whether the save game system allows, this might be a fun game to do a round robin play where each person gets to play for X in-game years (like 5 or 10) and then passes the save along to the next person.

Or another possibility since the maps have a seeded number for generation would be to all play the same map for a set X number of years and try to meet some goal or maybe just see how the different towns end up.

I'm in - let me know if this ends up materializing!

1 Week to go!

Must... not... watch.... videos....

I like the idea, but not sure if it can endure for me without some small skirmish level combat. Guess Ill wait til I read more reviews here.

omnipherous wrote:

1 Week to go!

Must... not... watch.... videos....

I broke a week ago and I've probably watched 10+ hours of videos (Quill18 and GamersDissent). The most frustrating part was sometimes watching them do things and wanting to take control of the mouse and do something else. Why are you doing that?! No, build that over here, not there!

Naterstein wrote:

I like the idea, but not sure if it can endure for me without some small skirmish level combat. Guess Ill wait til I read more reviews here.

While there's no combat, there are emergencies you'll need to deal with that kill your people. Starvation if your population gets out of control, freezing to death, fires will break out, diseases will spread, tornados will ruin your day (not sure about floods or earthquakes).

That said, in the Reddit AMA the developer did say a combat DLC wasn't out of the question. He's also going to release a modding toolkit sometime after the game's release which I'm sure will lead to interesting additions.

Vega wrote:
Naterstein wrote:

I like the idea, but not sure if it can endure for me without some small skirmish level combat. Guess Ill wait til I read more reviews here.

While there's no combat, there are emergencies you'll need to deal with that kill your people. Starvation if your population gets out of control, freezing to death, fires will break out, diseases will spread, tornados will ruin your day (not sure about floods or earthquakes).

Yeah, that's plenty for me. I don't want combat in my city-building games.

He's also going to release a modding toolkit sometime after the game's release which I'm sure will lead to interesting additions.

Good to hear.

Vega wrote:

I broke a week ago and I've probably watched 10+ hours of videos (Quill18 and GamersDissent). The most frustrating part was sometimes watching them do things and wanting to take control of the mouse and do something else. Why are you doing that?! No, build that over here, not there!

Been there done that, and I quit watching the let's play videos as I was getting worked up wondering whether quill18 had ever played a city building game at all and if he was qualified to play the game at all due to the sheer disbelief in the decisions he made when he was filming the let's plays. And who the fark cares how herbs is pronounced.

Naterstein wrote:

I like the idea, but not sure if it can endure for me without some small skirmish level combat. Guess Ill wait til I read more reviews here.

No skirmish please. That part was done in the Impression Games series and the Settlers series and I really hated it.

jeffsceu wrote:

Been there done that, and I quit watching the let's play videos as I was getting worked up wondering whether quill18 had ever played a city building game at all and if he was qualified to play the game at all due to the sheer disbelief in the decisions he made when he was filming the let's plays. And who the fark cares how herbs is pronounced.

Have you tried watching his CK2 videos? Fortunately, I bought that game anyway.

jeffsceu wrote:

No skirmish please. That part was done in the Impression Games series and the Settlers series and I really hated it.

Agreed. I like what I have seen in the GamersDissent videos, and think that adding combat would detract from the game. If he has tools that allow combat to be included as a mod, I've got no problems at all with that so long as the vanilla game is designed without it.

I think the issue with combat is, in games that are essentially city/village-builders, the combat always comes off as tacked-on. If more focus of the game points towards combat, then it risks becoming more RTS than builder. I don't mind combat when it is done right. Gnomoria etc have a constant combat threat, which works well, so it's not that Banished couldn't have combat, I'm just looking forward to more builder than combat focused. Maybe a Tropico level of combat wouldn't be all that bad. Either way, I'm already clearing my schedule for the day after release day. According to Steam, this will unlock at 10pm GMT on Tuesday. That's not enough time to download and play on a weeknight.. So, Wednesday it is.

Yeah, I've always hated combat in city builders because it's generally terrible. Also, I've played millions of hours of SimCity and other realistic city builders and NEVER once wanted combat, so I'm thrilled that a medieval city/village builder doesn't have it as it completely kills my enjoyment in some games.

Some city builder games (looking at you Tropico) the combat felt tacked on and meh. I don't necessarily need anything that is too in depth, but I like the idea of bandits and/or other armed conflicts as another survival situation where you can pay them off, hide (lose resources), or fight (lose some people but gain something). I wouldn't want it to be the focus, but I think it would only add to the game.

A long time ago, I played a colony building game called Outpost and in that game, once you created your settlement eventually (unfortunately scripted) a group would splinter off to start their own colony.

Maybe a few villagers leave to start their own camp or maybe just another group end up creating a village near you. Maybe due to proximity, lack of resources, or whatever decide that since you are doing well they will come and take your stuff. Maybe you aren't doing so well and you need to raid their village to survive the winter. I just think it would add another immersive layer to the game is all.

Just seems that armed conflict would be a problem you would have to survive in this setting.