Banished by Shining Rock Software

Yeah, there's already a bug about it, and he's actively responding. I'm sure it will be resolved soon.

EDIT: Yep, issue fixed. This system at work didn't even have DirectX installed, so that explains it. Perhaps the installer should have picked up on that fact, but hey-ho, glad it works

This is one of those days I'm glad my work laptop (a) blocks Humble Bundle and (b) won't let me install anything. There's plenty of times that annoys me to no end, but today it makes life so much easier. Glad I don't work from home anymore.

Well, I played through the first tutorial, but that's my lunch-break over so I had to call it quits. Looks very nifty so far, and all I've done is build some houses and a barn

Can't wait to get better acquainted later this evening

I played through the tutorials before going to work. After the first tutorial they get a little less in-depth. Going to have to experiment a lot to figure out how stuff works, which is great.

Yeah, I considered just ditching it and working it out as I go. Will see how adventurous I feel when I get home

tboon wrote:

I played through the tutorials before going to work. After the first tutorial they get a little less in-depth. Going to have to experiment a lot to figure out how stuff works, which is great.

IMAGE(https://efchan.net/blackjack/src/1342592595386.gif)

One of the cool things about the game, for me at least, is when you start a new game, seeing in my minds eye how my new town will look. All good city builders have this quality for me. The excitement of "seeing" what I am about to build. How nifty everything will be, how awesome it will be with little virtual citizens walking around doing their appointed tasks and living their lives in a steadily rising tide of prosperity and happiness.

Of course, I know, based on vast experience, it will not turn out that way and will probably end in disaster and tragedy or at least squalor and misery for all involved. But that initial thrill of seeing all the possibilities is wondrous.

Woohoo! Buy Banished.

Edit: Adding GoG link in case someone prefers that option.

Agh! Today is my first day back at work. Too bad this didn't come out a few days ago.

Wow, I completely missed this game. Saw an article this morning on it, and it looks great.

I was going to purchase from Steam to help boost the sales of it on there (figure if it gets to the Top Sellers then more eyes on it), but ended up buying it directly from Luke's website. Hard to pass up DRM free version and a Steam key to boot, plus I presume more money in his pocket.

Vega wrote:

Hard to pass up DRM free version and a Steam key to boot, plus I presume more money in his pocket.

I think I recall seeing an indie dev (Arcen, maybe?) post that even buying on Steam is a win because it helps the game move up in the "top selling" chart at launch and ostensibly getting more eyeballs on it and therefore drumming up more sales. I don't know if activating a key has the same effect. Either way is probably good.

Took a "coffee break" to play the first tutorial. So far it's exactly what I hoped for. I need to try it on one of my desktops though. My 650m-equipped laptop was struggling a bit I think. Easily playable but panning was choppy, even with shadows dialed back.

Bought it directly from Shining Rock, since it's still not available on Steam. Went through all the tutorials and have begun my first game on medium.

So far, exactly what I was hoping for. I watched several videos, so my town is doing okay so far. I'm sure balancing my workers, refraining from growing too quickly, and disasters will change that before long.

I can't wait.

If you're still on the fence and you have $20--go get it.

omnipherous wrote:

Woohoo! Buy Banished.

Bought!

Purchased, downloaded and fired it up.

Clicked on the first tutorial, made it go, instant crash to desktop. Booo!

Looks like I've got a lunch break to tinker with this thing and see what the problem is.

Anyone else running at 1920x1080, but noticing a big, black border around the whole screen?

There's a bug report about that - it only impacts DX11 - you can switch to DX9 mode and have no borders, or stick it out until they fix DX11

That's the config I'll be running when I get home, so no doubt I will see it also, unless it is more intricate than that.

Ah-ha! I didn't have the black border issue, but DX11 was the source of my stuttering panning and funky shadow strobing. I switched to DX9 and now it runs great, with the shadows maxed out no less. That's an awesome improvement as I really wanted this for a laptop game.

NSMike wrote:

Anyone else running at 1920x1080, but noticing a big, black border around the whole screen?

I use 1920x1080 and just played through the first tutorial. No issues with video, audio or anything else.

Damn, I wish the game had released yesterday, as it was a work holiday for me, or better yet, last Friday. I can't wait to dive into this.

LiquidMantis wrote:

I didn't have the black border issue, but DX11 was the source of my stuttering panning and funky shadow strobing. I switched to DX9 and now it runs great, with the shadows maxed out no less.

I went back to the game and realized I was experiencing the slight stutter when panning, so I switched to DX9, and now it's smooth. Thanks for the heads up.

I'm not sure what, if any, features will be lost/lessened by DX9 vs DX11. I'll see how I get on when I finally get home...

1.5hour commute coming up!

I've only gone through the tutorial, but on my [email protected], with an NVidia 680 at 2560x1600, with the settings turned up some and vsync on, it's smooth as butter. It's very, very crisp and fast. And it looks really nice, too.

A 64-bit version was a pleasant surprise, too.

Played the first tutorial. Between Banished and EU4, I will need to take a vacation week.

That didn't take long. It's all ready #1 in the Top Seller list on Steam.

omnipherous wrote:

Woohoo! Buy Banished.

Argh, you people made me break my "no game over $10" rule... which I rationalized by deciding I was getting two copies for $10 each. Right? (I mean, I didn't read the terms but I assume I can give the DRM-free copy to my kids.)

If you activate the Steam code, can you keep downloading DRM-free updates, or do you get locked into Steam?

It's all ready #1 in the Top Seller list on Steam.

Proof positive that DRM doesn't really do what publishers think it does. It doesn't even use a serial number -- but it's still selling like crazy.

He got $20 from me.

It goes through the Humble Store, so you'd just be going through them for any updates.

Malor wrote:

If you activate the Steam code, can you keep downloading DRM-free updates, or do you get locked into Steam?

I assume that you have both channels fully open to you, that's how it has worked for previous games I have on both Humble + Steam key. It gives me the added advantage of being able to run it at work where Steam wont connect due to Corporate Firewall, and I'd rather not go installing Steam on a work PC. Will see for sure when an update is release, but I'm pretty certain your DRM free won't be restricted from updates.

EDIT: Put a couple of hours in this evening, and I like what I see so far, even if I am taking things slowly. I've barely used the time-speed functions, at least until I get used to things a bit more. My biggest issue right now is running out of logs. I have 2 forester buildings up, but I have a lack of adult workers to assign to them, so there's only one each. I have 15 adults, and 9 kids so far, so once they grow up I'm sure my workforce issue will ease.

I noticed one of the achievements in game is to have a population or 900 - that seems a long way away at this stage Good stuff so far.

Will see for sure when an update is release, but I'm pretty certain your DRM free won't be restricted from updates.

Cool, I'll probably wait and ask again after the next update.

So I got a little time to play, and managed to kill a good chunk of my colony with a tragic mistake: I put down an Herbalist instead of a Gatherer. At least on my seed, the river isn't quite enough to feed 21 people with four fishermen. It *almost* is, but not quite.

It would take years and years to recover from that, I suspect, so I reloaded my initial save, and tried again. This playthrough, I've gotten both a dock and a gatherer down... what I thought I'd done before. Hopefully there will be more prosperity, less starvation.

Starvation is bad, mm'kay?

Is this a scenario-based game, or is it more of a sandbox? Is the terrain based on fixed maps or it randomly generated?