Hellraiser
Arcane
Let's civilize the Heart of Darkness... err... Sogwood (Clockwork Empires)
An Index, as required by the royal bill of after action reporting:
1. Days 1 to 21 - Dawn of Colonization (this particular journal entry you happen to be reading good sir or madam possessing a penis)
2. Days 22 to 42 - The Troubles at Savannah Landing
3. Days 43 to 68 - Bureaucrats and Bandits
Days 1 to 21 - Dawn of Colonization
The Preparations
Right, it is that time of the year again. A new update which forces me to do another let's play of Kerbal Space... I mean Clockwork Empires. Clockwork Empires progressed nicely since the last LP I did and in the 15 or so months since it went into early access, although it is still in Alpha and needs at least another year of development IMO. But it is a lot more playable as you will hopefully see in this LP.
The first notable change on the embarkation map, the loadout selection screen. No custom load-outs (yet? Not sure if they have that on the to do list).
Also you can see the randomly generated world, but for now it does nothing. They're probably still busy hooking up the actual region map generator to the worldmap output. So there are still just two sites (biome pre-sets) to pick for now. A temperate praire/forest/desert/shoreline kind of deal called New Antipodia and the Jungle land of Sogwood.
It has been a while since I played in Sogwood, mostly because it lagged like hell after a while. But now the game had a few more optimization passes so why not see what happened to the tropical Jungle/Savannah/Swamp biomes?
Oh, right. The first loadout:
"My First Colony starter pack" (name not visible because it appears as a tool-tip I believe and Fraps did not capture it). Banal shit boring, makes for a safe but slow start without the exciting prospects of rapid industrialization, urbanization and cannibalistic death-spiral.
"Advanced Colony Starter Pack", basic difference compared to baby's first colony is that this one adds some bricks and either iron plates or glass or something else. Bricks are used to build what are basically Tier 2 workshops and offices, this pack allows you to get some T2 stuff far sooner than you can build a ceramics workshoop. Oh and you can get 3 times less food (not an issue).
"Instant Colony - Just Add labourers", this one also sacrifices food, but for more basic building materials and more colonists. Arguably the best option if you want to jump-start your deforestation and slum-sprawl machine.
"Our Best and Brightest", you start with overseers who already have one level in a skill. Which means they are just "inept" instead of unskilled or whatever the lowest default level of skill is. And 2 days of food, not sure why. Would rather get an extra gun or ingot than an extra day's worth of food.
"The Metalworker's Trove", for the avatar of Vulcan in us all. Starting to produce ingots and other metal goods requires considerable investment. A decent but risky start option. This could be more lucrative once regions are varied by mineral distribution and deposit size, in ore rich regions. And once trade gets implemented. For the moment though, it is not that appealing.
"Stalwart Supply", the "ITZcoming saps" pack. This would be great for going into hostile turf, but for the moment even the Jungle is not that scary. Then again, if you want to go aggressive on everything, this is probably the pack to go with as weapon scarcity is the primary bottleneck to defending a colony in the first month or so. Weapon producing is more or less at the end of T2 or beginning of T3, and before that the only way of acquiring more is hope bandits drop them.
"Nature's Bounty", this would be great for regions where foraging and farming options are limited. Unfortunately the desert biome in New Antipodia borders lush praire's and forests so until a fullblown arid or frozen region appears, this will not be much of a valid option.
"Lord Palmerstoke's Choice", SCIENCE! is very tempting, because the lab enables some fun (and Fun) events. Also scientific discoveries grant prestige, which earns favour with the Empire, which can be used for favours (such as supply air drops or a temporary squad of redcoats). A lab requires bricks and glass IIRC, which puts it into T3 territory.
"The Dauntless Dare", this is what you pick for a real challenge. Tempting, but I decided to pick an option already shown.
"Friends in High Places (EXPERIMENTAL)", a loadout that may or may not be changed. Aristocrats granted prestige, but I am not sure how they tie into the new diplomacy system. They definitely enable some events to happen. Especially if they die.
I decide to go with "Our Best and Brightest". Although the skill increase is not much, but it will save time and pay off.
The Landing
There is no place for lower class rubble on airships, so they will arrive a bit late. Oh well, the overseers are enough.
Peons do nothing without overseers, they need to be assigned to an overseers work crew first (they get auto-assigned). The overseers skills determines how well they perform.
The airship also para-dropped some supplies, right on top of my overseers. Bloody dreadful, but hopefully the wounds will heal before any actual combat happens.
The first thing to do is to erect a proper carpentry workshop. First you build the building proper, or rather design it. The empty shell of a workshop of this type and size will require some wooden logs and raw stone, easily obtainable from trees and rocks without the need to process it anywhere.
Walls, a roof and a floor are not enough to have a functioning workshop. The workshop needs modules. At this point I will settle with the very basic carpentry workbenches and a pair of doors. This spartan decor will not make the workcrew very happy, but I have little resources and bigger priorities now. Like surviving.
Colonists are tasked with 3 gathering tasks. Mining rocks, chopping wood and gathering coconuts.
A most disgusting giant beetle, accompanied by an even more disgusting sogwood deathworm, have wandered into the not-yet-worthy-of-being-called-one settlement. And effectively stalled the erection of the workshop
Thanks to the efforts of my sole professional soldier, the colony now gained some protein. The Deathworm runs off into the fog of war (they added it since the last LP I did, ditto for deathworms). Casualties are none, wounds are minor.
Looting the jungle for all it is worth. This is how you do progress!
Meanwhile the colonists gained some new features in their simulated personalities. Namely desires. Fulfilling these makes them happier, although not all of them may to be the benefit of your colony. Especially those of the more non-euclidean persuasion.
Also this window got overhauled, now it show you previously hidden variables, such as sanity level, anger, fear, the works. Oh and colonists can now own stuff, so some of the desires may be purely materialistic in nature.
The colony is an equal opportunity workplace, women enjoy not the right, but the privilege of doing the same jobs as men. Such as toiling away in the quarry. Have a taste that patriarchal privilege!
Speaking of which, Preshea is actually a trained gluttonous vicar, with a desire for some occult experience.
Ah yes, gluttony. Time for a more permanent solution to hunger, a day has passed so I am only guaranteed at one more day without famine due to my supplies. Coconuts alone will not do much. Growing chilli is fast, but not very efficient. Still, better than starving to death.
Coconuts and Chilli Peppers however, now those can be combines into delicious Coconut Curry synergizing their nutritional value. If I would have a kitchen, but that is next on the to build list.
The new work crew interface is great, you can exploit your proles further by making them work in the night. Oh and it shows the status of all workers (idle/working) so you know if there are too many peons assigned to a work crew. Judging by what I see the best farming team is Bellis Robin's.
Day 2 begins with the arrival of those lost labourers. Deforestation is progressing nicely, chilli is being planted and the walls of the carpentry workshop have been erected.
This is not good.
His sanity suffered a bit, to say the least. His walking animation actually shows him prancing about like a lunatic due to this.
Not sure if actual hint or an alcoholic's plot to get more booze
It seems that overseer immigration is now tied to your productivity. This makes sense.
The first bushels of chilli have been harvested and the airship corps reports a group of *something* walked towards the sea...
It is something for sure. And now for the first policy event. It changed, fishpeople are no longer the goblins of Clockwork Empires*, attacking you for no reason, wave after wave. There's fishperson diplomacy! So they're more like eldricht horror worshipping natives you can exploit There's also other diplomacy and other policy you can set.
For the moment, I will deny and cover-up anything, hoping nobody notices. Before my career as a colonial bureaucrat is ruined by a ministry investigation or being bludgeoned to death with a coral reef club.
*bandits are, although you can also reason with them. In all cases though, there are consequences.
This is merely an illusion caused by swamp gas reflecting moonlight. No cause for concern
I choose to not bother the fishpeople unless they bother my colonists. It is actually possible to be friends with them, they will bring you the most bizzare of gifts (like a cube of raw flesh or sand). The Empire might not like that though.
The kitchen is being erected. It uses two module types. Ovens/stoves and worktables. The tables are used for doing pickles and stuff. I will mostly need the stoves.
As long as they're not from the Levant...
The Expansion
With the kitchen done a prole baracks will be erected. It will feature minor decoration, or else the cramped together populace may feel uppity. Also a wall shrine, this should help ease their minds and stem occult behaviour, slightly.
This thing seems to be contagious.
Also you can see modules in boxes. Previous module construction required you to haul raw resources to the modules build site and build it there. Now, similar to dwarf fortress, you build the modules in a workshop, pack them into snazzy wooden boxes, and they will be picked up and assembled where you please. This makes supply lines more efficient.
Preshea, my occult-drawn vicar, wanted to form a cult. Cults are now factions and the events and mechanics for them have greatly changed. The occult is now a more sophisticated affair than random acts of shrine erection on murder.
For example, there is a proper etiquette in place for the formation and joining of a cult group. There can be multiple cults. Not sure if they can murder each other, but there may certainly be butthurt about one group trying to recruit the other, leading to fisticuffs.
Unhappy with not being able to form a cult, Preshea opts to rename the carpentry workshop to something more occult.
One of the colonists, possibly an overseer, is outraged that I seek to deny the fishpeople's existance. I continue to anger him by continuing my policy of indecisiveness.
The good kind of migrants.
This guy just does not give up.
Criminal scum! Shoot on sight!
Unlike fishpeople who are benign unless provoked, bandits demand tribute or they kill. No way in hell I pay them any, so there can be only blood.
As part of a solution to the bandit question, a barracks is erected where the sole NCO and his cannon fodder will reside. The barracks is an office, similar to churches, the foreign office, labs and some other building. This basically means that like with a workshoop, there is a crew assigned to it, however instead of manufacturing it does services.
This workcrew's name was too good to not designate it as a militia.
The soldiers will get some cots and cabinets. They will also rain so that they become proper soldiers instead of militiamen, with enough push-ups and marching.
Meanwhile the madness was momentary and Preshea renamed the carpenter's back to something proper.
And she became better at carpentry, just as 3 more immigrants arrived.
Let's see how the Unfortunate Company fares in battle. There's four of them, which gives them numerical superiority.
Theodorick, true to his name, ends up unfortunately cornered by two saber-wielding ruffians.
With the militia leader dead, the sole NCO finds himself outmatched 3 to 1.
After stabbing and slashing him to death, the bandit makes off with a precious bushel of my Chilli
As it turns out, one of the colonists hold little regard to legal systems and private property laws. I decide not to take my chances.
Agreeing would grant me some stuff, but it could trigger the "clerk finds unaccounted supplies during audit" event later on, which would result in a loss of reputation with the Empire.
With the loss of the militia captain and the NCO, the colony needs a new militia. Nellie rivet is (forcefully) promoted to captain and two proles are assigned under her command. They take up residence in the barracks.
Hopefully they can train enough before bandits strike again and murder-steal some more.
Another policy event trigger a bit earlier. It was a choice between letting bandit corpses rot or burying them. Unfortunately there is no "hang them posthumously for all to see" option. Bandit or no bandit, I rather have them buried at the new cemetery.
Construction of the textile workshop has begun. The initial stockpile of cloth has ran out and I can't build more cots without it. Also you may see some swamp gas, dressed in conch-shells.
More immigration, and it must be that time of the month again because Preshea is up to renaming workshops again.
Beatles attack! The new militia makes short work of the creature and some protein is gathered.
A new farming field is designated where flax will be grown. The textile workshop won't make cloth out of thin air after all.
The textile workshop is close to being complete, it can already start production in fact. A ceramics workshop will be erected next, this will allow me to produce bricks which are necessary to start building offices, middle class homes and the airship mast.
In even better news, one of the new militia members has trained enough to be upgraded to a red coat. This will improve his morale and fighting prowess.
Soldier effectiveness can be further improved through supplies. Unless they changed how that work. Ammo-production was replaced with supplies, as it introduced too much micromanagement.
Visitors in the night...
Speaking of disposition, why not show the faction screen? Factions include foreign powers as well as the Homeland, Bandits, Cultists, [redacted] and fishpeople.
Currently, the game randomly sets one of the three foreign powers as hostile, one as neutral and one as at war. I can change that once I construct a foreign office and have my bureaucrats pursue a new foreign policy.
The Empire hates the novorusskies, they may attack my colony. Depending on the regiment they send, the fight may not be easy.
The sauerkraut, discipline und wurst obssesed Stahlmarkians are my allies. They may come to my aid, killing hostile foreigners, bandits or fishpeople.
The L'Auto Dictateur thinking machine and its human thralls are neutral. They may wander about my turf but will do no harm.
Another militia member gets promoted and colonists arrive.
Also food is becoming a problem and some are experiencing hunger. A field of Maize has been designated and more people assigned to farm work as well as Coconut gathering.
Luckily more overseers arrive, so I can have more crews working on the food issues.
International Relations
The first group of foreign armed forces arrives. All factions have groups, there can be multiple independent ones present on the map and they exist as long as they are present.
Luckily these neutral machine-thralls are actually doing me a favour by going after bandits, how fortunate!
Unfortunately more of them appear.
The fishperson debate continues. Also the Militia Captain is getting better at the whole war business.
The mecharepublicans left the region, but some nasty critters started eating my crops. Better shoo or shoot them away.
It could have been worse, there are events of hungry swarms striking your crops like a pack of oversized locusts.
The ceramics workshop is done, brick production can begin. The thing was actually built on top of a clay deposit, so supplying it is not an issue. Unfortunately, only the worst and slowest types of furnaces can be built because the better ones demand bricks. And need to be built at a ceramics workshop.
The great Duchy of Stahlmark sends some troops over. As they are allies, they will reveal fog of war and the map. Oh, and they will kill some bandits for me. This is great...
...because they will reveal the camp, clean the scum inhabiting it, leaving it ripe for looting by my colonists. Bandit tents can yield various items, from booze to rifles. And its free!
It seems I also have a criminal vicar around, could use a church.
Beatles are discovered eating my crops. Time to acquire protein.
We shall cover those forests in Progress*!
*or cut them down to fuel brick-making
Diving helmet-wearing fishpeople are gazing upon the latest farming field, the bamboo plantation. Bamboo is basically a source of timber. The same crew that farms the flax field was assigned to this.
Production is going well. A new, much less cramped lower class bungalow is being built. I kind of forgot about building beds and have enough for maybe a third of the population.
Also one of the bandit leader must have been killed, possibly by fishpeople, as they have a new one.
Population growth continues.
And here is a reason why there is a renewable source of timber in the game: maintenance. Stuff breaks down after use and needs one of the resources used to build it to repair it. Colonists with construction jobs do it automatically.
Novorussians attack! The bandits, luckily enough. While my militia is fairly strong, plus I think I added one or maybe even two more conscripts to it, it could have inflicted major damage.
Also I plan a mining shaft, without surveying the area. I only learn that it will produce clay. Which is not bad, as bricks will always be needed. But I need coal, haematite, malachite (surprisingly, there is no tetrahedrite) more than clay, which can be gotten on the surface easily unlike all of those just mentioned.
One bandit attacks, is he silly?
Also I will cancel the mine in a moment.
The ministry recognizes my struggle and paradrops a bar of gold. Why a bar of gold you ask? Well, it will possibly be used for trade in the future. If not, it can be used for some high-quality modules, a church altar for instance or furniture for the upper class. Also SCIENCE I think. Good to have around at any rate.
You can see the gold paradropping here.
As I said, these guys are the Goblins of Clockwork Empires.
With brick production at a steady pace, the airship mast has been erected and I can build a new office. The foreign office.
As you can see, the crew there will collect reputation and diplomacy points with one chosen faction at a time. I can spend it on one of three diplomatic missions (which reset daily).
Surveying the Land
Redcoats chase away the lonely armoured bandit that was raiding me. Your days of Chilli-stealing are over, scum!
Also with the foreign office erected, I begun the construction of another office. The naturalists office will allow a crew to do geological surveys, study the wildlife and plants for prestige, plus some other things. Mostly I need it for the geological survey.
The Ceramics Workshop has been upgraded. The basic stone kilns are being dismantled and the better, more efficient brick kilns are installed.
Captain obvious find sphalerite deposits underground next to surface sphalerite nodes. Who would expect it?
I do not need zinc, yet. So I ignore these.
More bandists wander about. The naturalists office is now equipped with a chemistry workbench (it does nothing in that office), a wall-mounted giant beetle's head and a blackboard.
The colonist attack is rather morbid, fascinated with dead bodies.
Banditry intensifies.
A source of precious copper ore is found. Useful, but getting iron and coal is a priority.
Coal, good good.
Sand, useful for glass, but I need iron first.
Jackpot! Time to build a mine. A mine is also an office.
So the mine has 4/6 odds of producing hematite, 1/6 of clay and 1/6 of stone. Not bad. Sand or coal would be better but stone and clay are good as well, in addition to that iron ore.
5 bandits raid me, but my militia captain gained another skill level
Also work has begun on middle class housing. The area around the Airship mast will be a proper neighbourhood, unlike the industrial slum in the south. That is where I will build housing for my overseers and more offices.
The bandits have been successfully defeated.
Now I need to focus on building a proper gun factory, these attacks are the tip of the iceberg. With the iron mine up I will need to either mine coal or have the ceramics workshop build a charcoal furnace.
Right, it is that time of the year again. A new update which forces me to do another let's play of Kerbal Space... I mean Clockwork Empires. Clockwork Empires progressed nicely since the last LP I did and in the 15 or so months since it went into early access, although it is still in Alpha and needs at least another year of development IMO. But it is a lot more playable as you will hopefully see in this LP.
The first notable change on the embarkation map, the loadout selection screen. No custom load-outs (yet? Not sure if they have that on the to do list).
Also you can see the randomly generated world, but for now it does nothing. They're probably still busy hooking up the actual region map generator to the worldmap output. So there are still just two sites (biome pre-sets) to pick for now. A temperate praire/forest/desert/shoreline kind of deal called New Antipodia and the Jungle land of Sogwood.
It has been a while since I played in Sogwood, mostly because it lagged like hell after a while. But now the game had a few more optimization passes so why not see what happened to the tropical Jungle/Savannah/Swamp biomes?
Oh, right. The first loadout:
"My First Colony starter pack" (name not visible because it appears as a tool-tip I believe and Fraps did not capture it). Banal shit boring, makes for a safe but slow start without the exciting prospects of rapid industrialization, urbanization and cannibalistic death-spiral.
"Advanced Colony Starter Pack", basic difference compared to baby's first colony is that this one adds some bricks and either iron plates or glass or something else. Bricks are used to build what are basically Tier 2 workshops and offices, this pack allows you to get some T2 stuff far sooner than you can build a ceramics workshoop. Oh and you can get 3 times less food (not an issue).
"Instant Colony - Just Add labourers", this one also sacrifices food, but for more basic building materials and more colonists. Arguably the best option if you want to jump-start your deforestation and slum-sprawl machine.
"Our Best and Brightest", you start with overseers who already have one level in a skill. Which means they are just "inept" instead of unskilled or whatever the lowest default level of skill is. And 2 days of food, not sure why. Would rather get an extra gun or ingot than an extra day's worth of food.
"The Metalworker's Trove", for the avatar of Vulcan in us all. Starting to produce ingots and other metal goods requires considerable investment. A decent but risky start option. This could be more lucrative once regions are varied by mineral distribution and deposit size, in ore rich regions. And once trade gets implemented. For the moment though, it is not that appealing.
"Stalwart Supply", the "ITZcoming saps" pack. This would be great for going into hostile turf, but for the moment even the Jungle is not that scary. Then again, if you want to go aggressive on everything, this is probably the pack to go with as weapon scarcity is the primary bottleneck to defending a colony in the first month or so. Weapon producing is more or less at the end of T2 or beginning of T3, and before that the only way of acquiring more is hope bandits drop them.
"Nature's Bounty", this would be great for regions where foraging and farming options are limited. Unfortunately the desert biome in New Antipodia borders lush praire's and forests so until a fullblown arid or frozen region appears, this will not be much of a valid option.
"Lord Palmerstoke's Choice", SCIENCE! is very tempting, because the lab enables some fun (and Fun) events. Also scientific discoveries grant prestige, which earns favour with the Empire, which can be used for favours (such as supply air drops or a temporary squad of redcoats). A lab requires bricks and glass IIRC, which puts it into T3 territory.
"The Dauntless Dare", this is what you pick for a real challenge. Tempting, but I decided to pick an option already shown.
"Friends in High Places (EXPERIMENTAL)", a loadout that may or may not be changed. Aristocrats granted prestige, but I am not sure how they tie into the new diplomacy system. They definitely enable some events to happen. Especially if they die.
I decide to go with "Our Best and Brightest". Although the skill increase is not much, but it will save time and pay off.
The Landing
There is no place for lower class rubble on airships, so they will arrive a bit late. Oh well, the overseers are enough.
Peons do nothing without overseers, they need to be assigned to an overseers work crew first (they get auto-assigned). The overseers skills determines how well they perform.
The airship also para-dropped some supplies, right on top of my overseers. Bloody dreadful, but hopefully the wounds will heal before any actual combat happens.
The first thing to do is to erect a proper carpentry workshop. First you build the building proper, or rather design it. The empty shell of a workshop of this type and size will require some wooden logs and raw stone, easily obtainable from trees and rocks without the need to process it anywhere.
Walls, a roof and a floor are not enough to have a functioning workshop. The workshop needs modules. At this point I will settle with the very basic carpentry workbenches and a pair of doors. This spartan decor will not make the workcrew very happy, but I have little resources and bigger priorities now. Like surviving.
Colonists are tasked with 3 gathering tasks. Mining rocks, chopping wood and gathering coconuts.
A most disgusting giant beetle, accompanied by an even more disgusting sogwood deathworm, have wandered into the not-yet-worthy-of-being-called-one settlement. And effectively stalled the erection of the workshop
Thanks to the efforts of my sole professional soldier, the colony now gained some protein. The Deathworm runs off into the fog of war (they added it since the last LP I did, ditto for deathworms). Casualties are none, wounds are minor.
Looting the jungle for all it is worth. This is how you do progress!
Meanwhile the colonists gained some new features in their simulated personalities. Namely desires. Fulfilling these makes them happier, although not all of them may to be the benefit of your colony. Especially those of the more non-euclidean persuasion.
Also this window got overhauled, now it show you previously hidden variables, such as sanity level, anger, fear, the works. Oh and colonists can now own stuff, so some of the desires may be purely materialistic in nature.
The colony is an equal opportunity workplace, women enjoy not the right, but the privilege of doing the same jobs as men. Such as toiling away in the quarry. Have a taste that patriarchal privilege!
Speaking of which, Preshea is actually a trained gluttonous vicar, with a desire for some occult experience.
Ah yes, gluttony. Time for a more permanent solution to hunger, a day has passed so I am only guaranteed at one more day without famine due to my supplies. Coconuts alone will not do much. Growing chilli is fast, but not very efficient. Still, better than starving to death.
Coconuts and Chilli Peppers however, now those can be combines into delicious Coconut Curry synergizing their nutritional value. If I would have a kitchen, but that is next on the to build list.
The new work crew interface is great, you can exploit your proles further by making them work in the night. Oh and it shows the status of all workers (idle/working) so you know if there are too many peons assigned to a work crew. Judging by what I see the best farming team is Bellis Robin's.
Day 2 begins with the arrival of those lost labourers. Deforestation is progressing nicely, chilli is being planted and the walls of the carpentry workshop have been erected.
This is not good.
His sanity suffered a bit, to say the least. His walking animation actually shows him prancing about like a lunatic due to this.
Not sure if actual hint or an alcoholic's plot to get more booze
It seems that overseer immigration is now tied to your productivity. This makes sense.
The first bushels of chilli have been harvested and the airship corps reports a group of *something* walked towards the sea...
It is something for sure. And now for the first policy event. It changed, fishpeople are no longer the goblins of Clockwork Empires*, attacking you for no reason, wave after wave. There's fishperson diplomacy! So they're more like eldricht horror worshipping natives you can exploit There's also other diplomacy and other policy you can set.
For the moment, I will deny and cover-up anything, hoping nobody notices. Before my career as a colonial bureaucrat is ruined by a ministry investigation or being bludgeoned to death with a coral reef club.
*bandits are, although you can also reason with them. In all cases though, there are consequences.
This is merely an illusion caused by swamp gas reflecting moonlight. No cause for concern
I choose to not bother the fishpeople unless they bother my colonists. It is actually possible to be friends with them, they will bring you the most bizzare of gifts (like a cube of raw flesh or sand). The Empire might not like that though.
The kitchen is being erected. It uses two module types. Ovens/stoves and worktables. The tables are used for doing pickles and stuff. I will mostly need the stoves.
As long as they're not from the Levant...
The Expansion
With the kitchen done a prole baracks will be erected. It will feature minor decoration, or else the cramped together populace may feel uppity. Also a wall shrine, this should help ease their minds and stem occult behaviour, slightly.
This thing seems to be contagious.
Also you can see modules in boxes. Previous module construction required you to haul raw resources to the modules build site and build it there. Now, similar to dwarf fortress, you build the modules in a workshop, pack them into snazzy wooden boxes, and they will be picked up and assembled where you please. This makes supply lines more efficient.
Preshea, my occult-drawn vicar, wanted to form a cult. Cults are now factions and the events and mechanics for them have greatly changed. The occult is now a more sophisticated affair than random acts of shrine erection on murder.
For example, there is a proper etiquette in place for the formation and joining of a cult group. There can be multiple cults. Not sure if they can murder each other, but there may certainly be butthurt about one group trying to recruit the other, leading to fisticuffs.
Unhappy with not being able to form a cult, Preshea opts to rename the carpentry workshop to something more occult.
One of the colonists, possibly an overseer, is outraged that I seek to deny the fishpeople's existance. I continue to anger him by continuing my policy of indecisiveness.
The good kind of migrants.
This guy just does not give up.
Criminal scum! Shoot on sight!
Unlike fishpeople who are benign unless provoked, bandits demand tribute or they kill. No way in hell I pay them any, so there can be only blood.
As part of a solution to the bandit question, a barracks is erected where the sole NCO and his cannon fodder will reside. The barracks is an office, similar to churches, the foreign office, labs and some other building. This basically means that like with a workshoop, there is a crew assigned to it, however instead of manufacturing it does services.
This workcrew's name was too good to not designate it as a militia.
The soldiers will get some cots and cabinets. They will also rain so that they become proper soldiers instead of militiamen, with enough push-ups and marching.
Meanwhile the madness was momentary and Preshea renamed the carpenter's back to something proper.
And she became better at carpentry, just as 3 more immigrants arrived.
Let's see how the Unfortunate Company fares in battle. There's four of them, which gives them numerical superiority.
Theodorick, true to his name, ends up unfortunately cornered by two saber-wielding ruffians.
With the militia leader dead, the sole NCO finds himself outmatched 3 to 1.
After stabbing and slashing him to death, the bandit makes off with a precious bushel of my Chilli
As it turns out, one of the colonists hold little regard to legal systems and private property laws. I decide not to take my chances.
Agreeing would grant me some stuff, but it could trigger the "clerk finds unaccounted supplies during audit" event later on, which would result in a loss of reputation with the Empire.
With the loss of the militia captain and the NCO, the colony needs a new militia. Nellie rivet is (forcefully) promoted to captain and two proles are assigned under her command. They take up residence in the barracks.
Hopefully they can train enough before bandits strike again and murder-steal some more.
Another policy event trigger a bit earlier. It was a choice between letting bandit corpses rot or burying them. Unfortunately there is no "hang them posthumously for all to see" option. Bandit or no bandit, I rather have them buried at the new cemetery.
Construction of the textile workshop has begun. The initial stockpile of cloth has ran out and I can't build more cots without it. Also you may see some swamp gas, dressed in conch-shells.
More immigration, and it must be that time of the month again because Preshea is up to renaming workshops again.
Beatles attack! The new militia makes short work of the creature and some protein is gathered.
A new farming field is designated where flax will be grown. The textile workshop won't make cloth out of thin air after all.
The textile workshop is close to being complete, it can already start production in fact. A ceramics workshop will be erected next, this will allow me to produce bricks which are necessary to start building offices, middle class homes and the airship mast.
In even better news, one of the new militia members has trained enough to be upgraded to a red coat. This will improve his morale and fighting prowess.
Soldier effectiveness can be further improved through supplies. Unless they changed how that work. Ammo-production was replaced with supplies, as it introduced too much micromanagement.
Visitors in the night...
Speaking of disposition, why not show the faction screen? Factions include foreign powers as well as the Homeland, Bandits, Cultists, [redacted] and fishpeople.
Currently, the game randomly sets one of the three foreign powers as hostile, one as neutral and one as at war. I can change that once I construct a foreign office and have my bureaucrats pursue a new foreign policy.
The Empire hates the novorusskies, they may attack my colony. Depending on the regiment they send, the fight may not be easy.
The sauerkraut, discipline und wurst obssesed Stahlmarkians are my allies. They may come to my aid, killing hostile foreigners, bandits or fishpeople.
The L'Auto Dictateur thinking machine and its human thralls are neutral. They may wander about my turf but will do no harm.
Another militia member gets promoted and colonists arrive.
Also food is becoming a problem and some are experiencing hunger. A field of Maize has been designated and more people assigned to farm work as well as Coconut gathering.
Luckily more overseers arrive, so I can have more crews working on the food issues.
International Relations
The first group of foreign armed forces arrives. All factions have groups, there can be multiple independent ones present on the map and they exist as long as they are present.
Luckily these neutral machine-thralls are actually doing me a favour by going after bandits, how fortunate!
Unfortunately more of them appear.
The fishperson debate continues. Also the Militia Captain is getting better at the whole war business.
The mecharepublicans left the region, but some nasty critters started eating my crops. Better shoo or shoot them away.
It could have been worse, there are events of hungry swarms striking your crops like a pack of oversized locusts.
The ceramics workshop is done, brick production can begin. The thing was actually built on top of a clay deposit, so supplying it is not an issue. Unfortunately, only the worst and slowest types of furnaces can be built because the better ones demand bricks. And need to be built at a ceramics workshop.
The great Duchy of Stahlmark sends some troops over. As they are allies, they will reveal fog of war and the map. Oh, and they will kill some bandits for me. This is great...
...because they will reveal the camp, clean the scum inhabiting it, leaving it ripe for looting by my colonists. Bandit tents can yield various items, from booze to rifles. And its free!
It seems I also have a criminal vicar around, could use a church.
Beatles are discovered eating my crops. Time to acquire protein.
We shall cover those forests in Progress*!
*or cut them down to fuel brick-making
Diving helmet-wearing fishpeople are gazing upon the latest farming field, the bamboo plantation. Bamboo is basically a source of timber. The same crew that farms the flax field was assigned to this.
Production is going well. A new, much less cramped lower class bungalow is being built. I kind of forgot about building beds and have enough for maybe a third of the population.
Also one of the bandit leader must have been killed, possibly by fishpeople, as they have a new one.
Population growth continues.
And here is a reason why there is a renewable source of timber in the game: maintenance. Stuff breaks down after use and needs one of the resources used to build it to repair it. Colonists with construction jobs do it automatically.
Novorussians attack! The bandits, luckily enough. While my militia is fairly strong, plus I think I added one or maybe even two more conscripts to it, it could have inflicted major damage.
Also I plan a mining shaft, without surveying the area. I only learn that it will produce clay. Which is not bad, as bricks will always be needed. But I need coal, haematite, malachite (surprisingly, there is no tetrahedrite) more than clay, which can be gotten on the surface easily unlike all of those just mentioned.
One bandit attacks, is he silly?
Also I will cancel the mine in a moment.
The ministry recognizes my struggle and paradrops a bar of gold. Why a bar of gold you ask? Well, it will possibly be used for trade in the future. If not, it can be used for some high-quality modules, a church altar for instance or furniture for the upper class. Also SCIENCE I think. Good to have around at any rate.
You can see the gold paradropping here.
As I said, these guys are the Goblins of Clockwork Empires.
With brick production at a steady pace, the airship mast has been erected and I can build a new office. The foreign office.
As you can see, the crew there will collect reputation and diplomacy points with one chosen faction at a time. I can spend it on one of three diplomatic missions (which reset daily).
Surveying the Land
Redcoats chase away the lonely armoured bandit that was raiding me. Your days of Chilli-stealing are over, scum!
Also with the foreign office erected, I begun the construction of another office. The naturalists office will allow a crew to do geological surveys, study the wildlife and plants for prestige, plus some other things. Mostly I need it for the geological survey.
The Ceramics Workshop has been upgraded. The basic stone kilns are being dismantled and the better, more efficient brick kilns are installed.
Captain obvious find sphalerite deposits underground next to surface sphalerite nodes. Who would expect it?
I do not need zinc, yet. So I ignore these.
More bandists wander about. The naturalists office is now equipped with a chemistry workbench (it does nothing in that office), a wall-mounted giant beetle's head and a blackboard.
The colonist attack is rather morbid, fascinated with dead bodies.
Banditry intensifies.
A source of precious copper ore is found. Useful, but getting iron and coal is a priority.
Coal, good good.
Sand, useful for glass, but I need iron first.
Jackpot! Time to build a mine. A mine is also an office.
So the mine has 4/6 odds of producing hematite, 1/6 of clay and 1/6 of stone. Not bad. Sand or coal would be better but stone and clay are good as well, in addition to that iron ore.
5 bandits raid me, but my militia captain gained another skill level
Also work has begun on middle class housing. The area around the Airship mast will be a proper neighbourhood, unlike the industrial slum in the south. That is where I will build housing for my overseers and more offices.
The bandits have been successfully defeated.
Now I need to focus on building a proper gun factory, these attacks are the tip of the iceberg. With the iron mine up I will need to either mine coal or have the ceramics workshop build a charcoal furnace.
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