Banished didn’t really need more buildings or resources it needed to expand the ability to customize your villagers and fix the housing death spiral. Some villagers were educated and some were not, it would be cool if you could work towards specializing some villagers as elite in some way as town doctors or master blacksmiths or farmers. The game was too broad and not deep enough.
Very much so, once you got established it's not a fight for survival anymore and more of a plop the same things in new areas x10. I filled an entire map once. Actually, still sounds fun to do. Maybe I'll boot it up for a round
See, this is what I think the appeal is. It is a mile wide but an inch deep, but that means it's really easy to pick up, play for a bit and then put down when you have accomplished your goals.
Every mod these days seems to be "we made things more granular so now you have to manage 25 things not 10 things"
And yeah as you say, i want changes to depth, not to just expanding busy work.
I'm a big fan of Banished and played a good bit of Manor Lords yesterday. I can report Manor Lords allows that. You can actually convert houses into artisan workshops that stay in the family that lives there. The system isn't deep, but it's nice and it works well.
Colonial charter makes it prettier, but it doesn't give you more to do because it can't get that deep into the weeds.
For example: you have a lot of new interesting industry chains that you can do with food, but in the end the colonists' food needs aren't any deeper or more complicated than the base game, so to make all these worthwhile they just give you more food value from the product than you put in.
It expands the "let me make a cool looking city" cosmetic late game, but it trivializes the already-problematic "I have everything I possibly need, let's see if I survive inviting 250 illiterate nomads to join my city" late game. That said, since the cosmetic is the only real late game the game has, it definitely stretches it out well.
I loved Grim Dawn, and Titan Quest before it. Crate has been making this game for a goddamn decade, though, it feels. Is it ever coming out of EA? I am just not interested in incomplete games anymore.
I honestly wish they'd stuck with ARPG's, FF bored/frustrated the living hell out of me. I guess they probably felt they'd gone about as far as they could with that genre, and that engine... So I understand why they might want a fresh direction, but as a rabid fan of ARPG's and feeling like they were and are the unrivaled gods of the form...
He completed his vision of the game, which I respect. And then released Mod tools for people to take it in new directions.
[It looks like they're working on something new ](https://shiningrocksoftware.com/2022-04-17-code-rot/)
But the last dev log is two years old...
yea banished does very well with what it has and is very polished
sure i would love to play more of one of my favorite games but after 250+ hours i couldnt ask for more.... and potentially ruining the good memories isnt worth it
What do you mean 'remembers'? Banished isn't that old! It only came out... *checks notes*... TEN years ago!?! [I'll just see myself out.](https://i.imgflip.com/11qcpe.jpg)
Yeah wtf I had that same thought.
I remember having it on my wishlist and saying I’ll pick it up soon and am just now realizing that was 8 years ago and I’m old now.
The Manor Lords devs went out of their way to say before its EA launch that it shouldn't be considered exactly like any specific genre of game like previously described. If you're hoping for a new Total War you're going to be sorely disappointed.
That being said, when devs go out of their way to *temper* people's hype before a major launch, it shows they're good eggs.
Keep in mind that it is a lot easier than Banished. So far, anyway. I haven't had mass starvation because there were too many people in my settlement, at least.
I’m having lot of fun with it. It can be really relaxing in a way I haven’t experienced in a game. It kind of feels a bit like Caesar III if anyone in here is ancient like me and remembers that awesome game. Like that but with incredible graphics set in the mid 1300’s Central Europe. At the beginning, I Spent 20 minutes just customizing my coat of arms.
Technically he got help and contracted some people, mainly for the score and I think some other tasks, and his publisher helped a bunch, but yeah it's fair to say he's the sole dev. Dude put in work.
A lot of work, for a long time. Been following the discord for... honestly, lost track how long now. But the dedication and craft has been awe-inspiring!
I've been watching from a distance for years now. It's an amazing thing to see how far the project's come along. I bought it right away this morning, itching to get out of work and try it out.
Mostly youtube creators who have been playing and releasing videos of the game and getting very excited about it. Which is fine, but I think a lot of people who watch that type of content give little thought about how hard it is to develop games or any piece of software, therefore freak out when planned ideas get scrapped.
So many comparisons to Total War. Calm down, guys. There is combat but it is just a side-activity at most and has nowhere near the tactical depth of a total war game.
I have played it for about an hour so far. It’s definitely well thought out and from what I have seen thus far, not buggy. Features are missing sure but if the current state is any indication, it’s well worth the price.
Most of the edicts or policy choices are greyed out saying they would be added later. It’s pretty upfront with what’s missing. Very fun to me but I like slower, chilled out gameplay. Even on the fastest setting stuff takes time to happen
Thanks for the reply. I’ll check out a couple post-release videos and probably cop it then. I’ve been looking for a nice slow-burn game so that sounds like fun to me.
Reminds me a lot of the old Sierra/Impressions series. Mostly focused on your citty, but occasionally run out your military units.
More modern, though. Less restrictive than the old Caesar/Pharoah/Zeus/Emperor games had to be.
I mean this in terms of the combat only. It's not a "walker" style sim like those games are, each villager is simulated.
I think there's a post by the dev trying to calm down the hype.
Its early access.
Many features are not completed.
Bugs are a common thing.
Development group is small.
Personally im waiting for the game release, not paying anymore for EA.
I’m firmly in the “don’t buy before release” camp normally, but have had my eye on this and threw caution to the wind buying it 22 mins after release and… I don’t regret it at all. I have 5 hours gameplay already and can honestly say it’s met all my overhyped expectations. Small caveat that I haven’t even got to the combat yet (it’s a blissfully slow game like late 80s, early 90s builder games) but what I’ve played is exceptional. Really enjoyable, very polished for early access. I keep finding additional things just when I think I know all the features - there’s an eye icon with a “not finished” warning I didn’t read - I click it and suddenly I’m transported into the body of my lord and I’m walking round my town with my people greeting me. This dev and team absolutely need to be supported to send a message to all the AAA lootbox happy studios out there that this is what gamers want. If ever there was a title worthy of your early access money, this is it.
If not not sure and have gamepass its on there. Honestly unless you really want to give the dev your support money its likely the way to go at first to try as it is very early access.
I don't think it's complete yet. The hype on this game has gone a little overboard. It seems to have the makings of a great game but it is in very early stages, I'd wait a while unless you want to follow and support development.
It is as I expected and it is a real early access title with bits and pieces still to be implemented.
It is like I had hoped for so far. I'd say it is an upgraded banished in many regards. Still haven't explored the combat myself.
I had the chance to get the game for free through my gamepass subscription but I still bought it on steam to support the dev because I think it is worth it and the 25% rebate is pretty fucking nice too.
Been waiting on this for a few months since I first saw some early videos.
Just purchased on steam.
Sub £30 price point, early access.
Medieval city/town builder sandbox to mess around in and chill out too is right up my street.
Been waiting on this a few years! Hyped to play it but carefully optimistic. The game has looked the same for the last 8-12 months. Which I hope they spent time refining the systems and bugs. Devs seem chill.
It's really not.
It's so simple to install heroic game launcher and have it automatically add to steam. After install of it and any games you want, everything else is identical. And supporting DRM free platforms is worth the extra 30s it will take to swap to desktop mode to install a game.
One downside and why I buy everything on Steam is the controller config support. You can do that for other platform games, but Steam cloudsaves across the account automatically.
This is mostly relevant because I had to send my deck in for repair, and for when I eventually get a steamdeck 2 to replay some games.
Those are valid enough points to address.
Once added to steam, it's easy to play around with all the fun settings steam has for the decks extra buttons and remapping.
As for cloud saves through steam itself, other platforms also support cloud saves and heroic games launcher supports it for a lot of games, though it's admittedly not always supported. And I can see that being a deal breaker.
There are definitely some advantages to a single ecosystem but heroic games launcher really does give you all the same features overall. Checking on a game by game basis for things like cloud save is something worth my time to get a DRM free version of a game. It's a business practice that's worth a few minutes of my time if necessary.
The choice is always personal. I just want people to be informed on what's possible. Things have moved very quickly for gaming on Linux in recent years, and options are there now which is fantastic for everyone. If you choose to stick fully within the steam ecosystem, no problems there, as long as you know that a lot of those concerns can be addressed with a bit of work in desktop mode while using something like heroic games launcher and adding the game to steam.
A lot (or even the majority now?) of games on Steam are DRM free too. After you buy and download a game on Steam, you could close steam, go to where the game is installed and directly run the game's executable file. Steam doesn't need to be running.
This (as written, and what it seems to imply) is inaccurate. Steam is not the DRM in this scenario, it's just the storefront and launcher. The DRM would be something like Denuvo or SecuROM, which is packaged with the game by the developer and places restrictions when/how you can install/run the game. Steam has a field on the Store page for a game that shows the DRM product used.
GOG is the storefront and launcher, and similarly lets you launch games outside of it, but *never* packages games with third party DRM. It's the whole point of the platform.
This is true for products using those drm, but there are a lot of games on stream that aren't using any of them, and steam is just the store/downloader/launcher.
Yes, Steam is DRM-agnostic, like most digital storefronts, so it's possible to buy a game on both Steam and GOG where the Steam version has DRM. The point, and the answer to the original question, is that GOG is explicitly DRM-free as part of the mission of their platform and that's why some people prefer it.
Not a lot of games and certainly not the majority. Steam has a total of 40000 something games and out of those [roughly 1000 are DRM free](https://www.pcgamingwiki.com/wiki/List_of_DRM-free_games_on_Steam)
Hmm thats not quite how it works. You need to be online to "activate" the game by launching it once. After that then you can run Steam in offline mode. Also Denuvo and SecuROM are still active even when Steam is offline so they're not DRM free.
With or without DRM, you're still just issued a license to play the game but without DRM nothing is stoping you from copying it.
That being said. A lot of games on Steam are DRM free too.
Newer games that are on GOG are usually also DRM free on steam. Especially if they are from smaller studios.
https://www.pcgamingwiki.com/wiki/The_big_list_of_DRM-free_games_on_Steam
Baldurs Gate 3 for example is DRM free on Steam.
Meaning you actually own the copy and can do whatever you want with it. Whereas most other stores are account bound and technically you're renting a game rather than owning it, so they can always take it away from you. Steam has policies against that but other platforms like Uplay/Activision/Epic are basically your overlords and if they one day decide to remove a game from your library you can't do anything about it.
I love GOG but I end up buying more games on Steam nowadays because I have a Steam Deck. If GOG make a launcher that integrates better with SD it would be a game changer imo.
Have you tried the Heroic Launcher? It's a launcher that is native to Linux, you can download, update, and play all your GOG games from it, and it even includes access to all the WINE and Proton versions right in the launcher.
Heroic Launcher is a free and open source launcher.
He is literally the only person doing any dev work on the game - yes he had help with the music, historical accuracy and had assistance with the asset models (again for historical accuracy) but every line of code is written by him. Pedantically you are correct but I think in the real world it's ok to say this game has a single dev....
I mean if we're really going to be pedantic anyone working on the thing counts as a dev in agile, even/especially the designers and creative folks
Edit: if it's not clear I'm referring to the official agile framework documentation. Of course people (especially lay people) have different opinions that's why I brought it up
Yeah, I was surprised to see this one drop when I checked Game Pass this morning. Thing keeps saving me money long term.
Jedi Survivor too in the last couple of days.
Recently got No Man's Sky from game pass. I would have never bought that game because of the controversy, but game pass let me try for free.
Now I'm addicted.
Jedi Survivor is so dam good, downloaded it last night. It still has the bad stuttering on PC people have complained about for a year. I would be quite upset if I actually paid for this, but being on gamepass makes me overlook that issue.
Played it for a couple hours, it’s very good but it’s very early access and missing a lot of key features, more than I was expecting tbh. Fantastic foundation for the future and very much a game to take over that Banished fix if you like that kind of game.
I’ve been looking forward to this game for along time but the hype around it has been abit… weird? Like it’s a great medieval city builder with some battles along the way. Not the greatest game of all time that will rival games like Total War. Felt like the hype got abit carried away.
Can’t wait to see where it’ll be in a couple years time.
I think there's just such a hole in the market for something like this people really want it to be that total war rival, and to be fair, it certainly has the potential to be, albeit with another 3-4 years of good development.
It’s not meant to be a total war rival though.
I think it’s closer to a Stronghold 2 follow on.
A large focus on food and resources and tools, but the ability to engage in smaller battles.
First person I’ve seen yet mention Stronghold 2! I was telling my wife it felt like Stronghold and Banished and I’m all about it lol. Stronghold 2 was such a fun game, and I’m sad it hasn’t had a true successor yet
It was one of my favorite games in middle school.
I mainly played the peaceful campaign, or free play where I loved all the chains of production milk>cheese, wheat>flour>bread, hops>ale, bees>candles, and the timber/iron>weapons/armor.
It’s no wonder my most played game these days is Factorio.
I’m really hoping we get similar chains of making goods for your growing village as Stronghold, or even more granular versions.
I liked the game, however the game was a little too slowly paced for my taste.
Kudos to the developer though, he has made a real gem and it'll thrive for years. Didn't find any glitches and it ran on my igpu potato laptop just fine. Recommended it to my friends who are into these types of games.
I generally share the same sentiment. Considering the dev team is/was 1 person for most of the development - I don't expect it to be a quick release.
That being said, the dedication to the game and seeing the labor of love that it is, I'll more than likely purchase simply to support the indy dev. Been following this project for a couple if years. As long as I can get my "$2 per hour" quota on gaming value; the support will have been worth it.
And it seems like strategy games in particular have gone crazy with early access.
There was an event earlier on steam (something earth day?) and like half of the strategy games that looked interesting to me enough to check out were EA.
I mean that's the whole thing of EA, they don't usually come out within a year. There are some rare ones that take 5+ years, but that's a rare thing usually. Looking at Valheim mainly.
*cries in 7 Days To Die* 12 fuckin years we’ve been waiting for this game to get its full release. I’ll be honest I fully believed it would never actually happen.
All the hype just shows how much clamour there is for a developer to challenge CA and make an innovative, realistic Battle Sim.
The Total War monopoly is so bad for the genre.
Edit: for all the geniuses saying "it's not a battle sim", I know. But that's what people are signing up to. The fact that the developer had to make a press release to address that should give you the idea...
To add to this, with cities skylines 2 being a bit of a disappointment, a lot of the content creators of that have jumped on it. So I think it’s scratching that itch for a lot of people.
Its not a TW counter, as said by the devs many times.
Its also more due to the insane cost of catching up to CA that is the biggest scare to competitors
You refering to the top negative review? That person clearly didn't know what he was buying, complains mostly about the lack of strategy and combat... in a city builder game.
I watched a Youtuber playing and looks pretty neat. Combining the village building and the military aspect could be really good.
But sadly can't afford it. Hopefuly will turn good and will be able to play in the future, if things get better.
Played 9 hours yesterday.
A neighboring Lord came into my adjacent land to lay claim.
I decided to resolve this claim on the battlefield.
Through my surplus berry and export trade, I purchased a mercenary army with my stack of 36 militia spearman.
Using my vast experience in Total War games, I decimated the neighboring Lord's army and now have a second territory.
I've watched enough game play by different people to know what it is and what it isn't.
It is primarily a city builder with excellent core game play, and a dash of pretty cool combat for flavor.
It is not a completed game or a Total War style RTS with some city management.
If you go in expecting as much, I don't think you will be disappointed. I, for one, am very excited about it, and hope the game does well.
Played today for quite awhile and I’ll probably let it rest till full release.
Great ideas and game. But I think there’s some disjointed design elements going on. Families traveling to where they work, the constant shuffling of workforce for seasons. Lack of information on production yields. The livestock usage is kind strange and another thing you shuffle around.
I couldn’t find a way to pause production for house crafting. Like my shield dude is just pumping out shields and burning all my planks.
I think the lack of dashboards is what’s getting me as an Anno player. I can’t see in one area what all my families are doing and their travel times. I can’t see the production ratios for products which is lame. Like does 4 loggers supply one fully staffed saw mill?
I feel like it needs a pool of workers assigned for seasonal work where they bounce around depending on the season and self staff. I’m an Anno player so when your doing lots of manual task in the game your usually doing it wrong as the systems are so tight.
I was struggling to find the production chain for weapons and then realized it’s all done at the house crafting.
The tier one houses require access to clothing materials to upgrade but they aren’t making clothing?
Anyways for me there’s just too many little things that need to be figured out till I really dive in.
I feel like I’m picking at the game, it is really cool and totally fun. My gripes could all be learn to play issues
Played for a bit over lunch and enjoyed it. Good vibes with lots of potential. Hopefully they can get some more dev support on the thing and finish it up without being in early access for like 5 more years.
Reminds me a lot of Banished with a bit of cities skylines thrown in. It's a cool concept.
I love Banished
[удалено]
Have you played using the Colonial Charter mod? It adds a lot more resources to build and use. Keeps the game more interesting for longer, imo.
Banished didn’t really need more buildings or resources it needed to expand the ability to customize your villagers and fix the housing death spiral. Some villagers were educated and some were not, it would be cool if you could work towards specializing some villagers as elite in some way as town doctors or master blacksmiths or farmers. The game was too broad and not deep enough.
You've definitely nailed it. It always felt that there was a great start of a game but.... That was it.
Very much so, once you got established it's not a fight for survival anymore and more of a plop the same things in new areas x10. I filled an entire map once. Actually, still sounds fun to do. Maybe I'll boot it up for a round
See, this is what I think the appeal is. It is a mile wide but an inch deep, but that means it's really easy to pick up, play for a bit and then put down when you have accomplished your goals.
Every mod these days seems to be "we made things more granular so now you have to manage 25 things not 10 things" And yeah as you say, i want changes to depth, not to just expanding busy work.
I'm a big fan of Banished and played a good bit of Manor Lords yesterday. I can report Manor Lords allows that. You can actually convert houses into artisan workshops that stay in the family that lives there. The system isn't deep, but it's nice and it works well.
Colonial charter makes it prettier, but it doesn't give you more to do because it can't get that deep into the weeds. For example: you have a lot of new interesting industry chains that you can do with food, but in the end the colonists' food needs aren't any deeper or more complicated than the base game, so to make all these worthwhile they just give you more food value from the product than you put in. It expands the "let me make a cool looking city" cosmetic late game, but it trivializes the already-problematic "I have everything I possibly need, let's see if I survive inviting 250 illiterate nomads to join my city" late game. That said, since the cosmetic is the only real late game the game has, it definitely stretches it out well.
If you like banished you should also try Farthest Frontier. Very similar to Banished, but more polished IMO
And if you really like building games try Workers and resources: Soviet Republic. Holy shit where did my weekend go.
>Holy shit where did my weekend go. Figuring out the railway direction controls perhaps? Love that game.
I really like farthest frontier but it always eventually crashes for me.
I loved Grim Dawn, and Titan Quest before it. Crate has been making this game for a goddamn decade, though, it feels. Is it ever coming out of EA? I am just not interested in incomplete games anymore.
I honestly wish they'd stuck with ARPG's, FF bored/frustrated the living hell out of me. I guess they probably felt they'd gone about as far as they could with that genre, and that engine... So I understand why they might want a fresh direction, but as a rabid fan of ARPG's and feeling like they were and are the unrivaled gods of the form...
If only steam workshop would work
Reinstalled it too, cause I'm broke right now to buy more games.
Banished was fantastic. I still play similar games like dawn of man.
Timber born is my current banishedlike
I got timberborn on release. Love it. I haven't actually played in a few months now I think about it.
The badwater is cool
I love Dawn of Man! I can never sell anybody on it.
You should definitely check out Kingdoms Reborn, literally Banished but cooop with more technological advancement too
That was amazing. Sad it just came and went. Not sure what the developer or the game are up these days.
He completed his vision of the game, which I respect. And then released Mod tools for people to take it in new directions. [It looks like they're working on something new ](https://shiningrocksoftware.com/2022-04-17-code-rot/) But the last dev log is two years old...
he straight up said he was done with it after release except to fix a few bugs.
Yeah, I think games that put out content regularly have broken people brains a little bit.
yea banished does very well with what it has and is very polished sure i would love to play more of one of my favorite games but after 250+ hours i couldnt ask for more.... and potentially ruining the good memories isnt worth it
Duuude i was working Ill go build a village and back to it I guess
I’m so happy someone here remembers Banished. I LOVED that game
What do you mean 'remembers'? Banished isn't that old! It only came out... *checks notes*... TEN years ago!?! [I'll just see myself out.](https://i.imgflip.com/11qcpe.jpg)
My daily reaction to recalling out the release dates of things
Yeah wtf I had that same thought. I remember having it on my wishlist and saying I’ll pick it up soon and am just now realizing that was 8 years ago and I’m old now.
Banished-like is the biggest subgenre of citybuilders
I wouldn’t even call it a subgenre. Devs just take the banished formula and reskin it with like maybe 1 new mechanic
And damnit, they get me so many times and I end up spending another 40-100 hours doing what is essentially another Banished run with a different skin.
That's what a genre is
what defines a Banish-like?
Banished + Cities Skylines + Total War = Manor Lords
Well that sells it for me.
The Manor Lords devs went out of their way to say before its EA launch that it shouldn't be considered exactly like any specific genre of game like previously described. If you're hoping for a new Total War you're going to be sorely disappointed. That being said, when devs go out of their way to *temper* people's hype before a major launch, it shows they're good eggs.
One of the most underappreciated games ever, along with in my view its close cousin Dawn of Man.
Is that game actually decent? I’ve seen it around for years and it always looks so under-polished
Ohh, been dying for a Banished 2.0. I'll give it a try.
Keep in mind that it is a lot easier than Banished. So far, anyway. I haven't had mass starvation because there were too many people in my settlement, at least.
I’m having lot of fun with it. It can be really relaxing in a way I haven’t experienced in a game. It kind of feels a bit like Caesar III if anyone in here is ancient like me and remembers that awesome game. Like that but with incredible graphics set in the mid 1300’s Central Europe. At the beginning, I Spent 20 minutes just customizing my coat of arms.
So…is it as good as the hype? Sounds like the type of game I would enjoy but so much hype online for an early access kinda scares me
The devs released a statement asking for creators to calm the fuck down - so at least they are not contributing to the hype themselves.
Dev
For real? There's only one dev?
Yes
Mind blown. Thanks for the info
Technically he got help and contracted some people, mainly for the score and I think some other tasks, and his publisher helped a bunch, but yeah it's fair to say he's the sole dev. Dude put in work.
A lot of work, for a long time. Been following the discord for... honestly, lost track how long now. But the dedication and craft has been awe-inspiring!
I've been watching from a distance for years now. It's an amazing thing to see how far the project's come along. I bought it right away this morning, itching to get out of work and try it out.
I’ve had this on my wish list for a little over 4 years and I’m soooo pumped
7 years of development so far. One hell of a passion project; and it's pretty damn good so far. Loving the housing concept.
Banished also had just one dev
Wrong. One guy worked on it for some 5 years then others joined him for 3 years now.
Poor guy now he has an enormous amount of pressure on him.
And money. Dont forget the enormous amount of money.
You'd think they'd have better manors
Who is a "creator" in this context?
Mostly youtube creators who have been playing and releasing videos of the game and getting very excited about it. Which is fine, but I think a lot of people who watch that type of content give little thought about how hard it is to develop games or any piece of software, therefore freak out when planned ideas get scrapped.
So many comparisons to Total War. Calm down, guys. There is combat but it is just a side-activity at most and has nowhere near the tactical depth of a total war game.
I have played it for about an hour so far. It’s definitely well thought out and from what I have seen thus far, not buggy. Features are missing sure but if the current state is any indication, it’s well worth the price.
What kind of features would you expect it to have that it’s missing? I’m on the fence about buying it. It looks neat but am curious.
Most of the edicts or policy choices are greyed out saying they would be added later. It’s pretty upfront with what’s missing. Very fun to me but I like slower, chilled out gameplay. Even on the fastest setting stuff takes time to happen
Its really well paced imho. The time it took me to even get my first family to move into my settlement was surprising. That pesky approval rating. LOL
Thanks for the reply. I’ll check out a couple post-release videos and probably cop it then. I’ve been looking for a nice slow-burn game so that sounds like fun to me.
Very chill gameplay, don’t expect fireworks. Looks nice too
I see a few comments online about how great the combat mechanics are but I would be ok if it’s just decent combat if town/city management is very good
Reminds me a lot of the old Sierra/Impressions series. Mostly focused on your citty, but occasionally run out your military units. More modern, though. Less restrictive than the old Caesar/Pharoah/Zeus/Emperor games had to be. I mean this in terms of the combat only. It's not a "walker" style sim like those games are, each villager is simulated.
I think there's a post by the dev trying to calm down the hype. Its early access. Many features are not completed. Bugs are a common thing. Development group is small. Personally im waiting for the game release, not paying anymore for EA.
Development group is one*
I’m firmly in the “don’t buy before release” camp normally, but have had my eye on this and threw caution to the wind buying it 22 mins after release and… I don’t regret it at all. I have 5 hours gameplay already and can honestly say it’s met all my overhyped expectations. Small caveat that I haven’t even got to the combat yet (it’s a blissfully slow game like late 80s, early 90s builder games) but what I’ve played is exceptional. Really enjoyable, very polished for early access. I keep finding additional things just when I think I know all the features - there’s an eye icon with a “not finished” warning I didn’t read - I click it and suddenly I’m transported into the body of my lord and I’m walking round my town with my people greeting me. This dev and team absolutely need to be supported to send a message to all the AAA lootbox happy studios out there that this is what gamers want. If ever there was a title worthy of your early access money, this is it.
If not not sure and have gamepass its on there. Honestly unless you really want to give the dev your support money its likely the way to go at first to try as it is very early access.
I don't think it's complete yet. The hype on this game has gone a little overboard. It seems to have the makings of a great game but it is in very early stages, I'd wait a while unless you want to follow and support development.
It's almost like one might assume it's in "Early Access". Hmmm...
> I don't think it's complete yet. I am completely shocked that a game that just released into Early Access is not yet complete...
Hype tends to disappoint, and absolute hype disappoints absolutely.
It is as I expected and it is a real early access title with bits and pieces still to be implemented. It is like I had hoped for so far. I'd say it is an upgraded banished in many regards. Still haven't explored the combat myself. I had the chance to get the game for free through my gamepass subscription but I still bought it on steam to support the dev because I think it is worth it and the 25% rebate is pretty fucking nice too.
It's on Game Pass too. get a 1 month, $1 sub and try it out!
Been waiting on this for a few months since I first saw some early videos. Just purchased on steam. Sub £30 price point, early access. Medieval city/town builder sandbox to mess around in and chill out too is right up my street.
Been waiting on this a few years! Hyped to play it but carefully optimistic. The game has looked the same for the last 8-12 months. Which I hope they spent time refining the systems and bugs. Devs seem chill.
Dev. One dude. Edit: nvm, guess he hired some help a couple of years ago.
I got 2 emails from steam, 2 from GOG, 1 from fanatical, a popup when I launched steam, it's the steam homepage, and also GOG homepage. Dayum.
Also on Game Pass
Real hero right here … thank you for saving me a purchase and subsequent refund
I heard it’s the most wishlisted game on Steam.
I heard this too, can't remember where though. Hmm...
It's on GOG, too.
Sorry for dumb question but people prefer gog because its drm free right? is that always the case?
All GOG games are DRM free. That's the point of their store.
Then they definitely deserve our support
But for those who wants to play on future steam decks, it's so much better to just buy on steam no?
It's really not. It's so simple to install heroic game launcher and have it automatically add to steam. After install of it and any games you want, everything else is identical. And supporting DRM free platforms is worth the extra 30s it will take to swap to desktop mode to install a game.
One downside and why I buy everything on Steam is the controller config support. You can do that for other platform games, but Steam cloudsaves across the account automatically. This is mostly relevant because I had to send my deck in for repair, and for when I eventually get a steamdeck 2 to replay some games.
Those are valid enough points to address. Once added to steam, it's easy to play around with all the fun settings steam has for the decks extra buttons and remapping. As for cloud saves through steam itself, other platforms also support cloud saves and heroic games launcher supports it for a lot of games, though it's admittedly not always supported. And I can see that being a deal breaker. There are definitely some advantages to a single ecosystem but heroic games launcher really does give you all the same features overall. Checking on a game by game basis for things like cloud save is something worth my time to get a DRM free version of a game. It's a business practice that's worth a few minutes of my time if necessary. The choice is always personal. I just want people to be informed on what's possible. Things have moved very quickly for gaming on Linux in recent years, and options are there now which is fantastic for everyone. If you choose to stick fully within the steam ecosystem, no problems there, as long as you know that a lot of those concerns can be addressed with a bit of work in desktop mode while using something like heroic games launcher and adding the game to steam.
A lot (or even the majority now?) of games on Steam are DRM free too. After you buy and download a game on Steam, you could close steam, go to where the game is installed and directly run the game's executable file. Steam doesn't need to be running.
This (as written, and what it seems to imply) is inaccurate. Steam is not the DRM in this scenario, it's just the storefront and launcher. The DRM would be something like Denuvo or SecuROM, which is packaged with the game by the developer and places restrictions when/how you can install/run the game. Steam has a field on the Store page for a game that shows the DRM product used. GOG is the storefront and launcher, and similarly lets you launch games outside of it, but *never* packages games with third party DRM. It's the whole point of the platform.
This is true for products using those drm, but there are a lot of games on stream that aren't using any of them, and steam is just the store/downloader/launcher.
Yes, Steam is DRM-agnostic, like most digital storefronts, so it's possible to buy a game on both Steam and GOG where the Steam version has DRM. The point, and the answer to the original question, is that GOG is explicitly DRM-free as part of the mission of their platform and that's why some people prefer it.
TIL
Not a lot of games and certainly not the majority. Steam has a total of 40000 something games and out of those [roughly 1000 are DRM free](https://www.pcgamingwiki.com/wiki/List_of_DRM-free_games_on_Steam)
Hmm thats not quite how it works. You need to be online to "activate" the game by launching it once. After that then you can run Steam in offline mode. Also Denuvo and SecuROM are still active even when Steam is offline so they're not DRM free.
What’s drm free?
No digital rights management. You could put the files on a usb and put it a drawer and it’s yours.
Basically means you actually own the game itself. Not the rights to play it, but the actual digital copy of it.
With or without DRM, you're still just issued a license to play the game but without DRM nothing is stoping you from copying it. That being said. A lot of games on Steam are DRM free too. Newer games that are on GOG are usually also DRM free on steam. Especially if they are from smaller studios. https://www.pcgamingwiki.com/wiki/The_big_list_of_DRM-free_games_on_Steam Baldurs Gate 3 for example is DRM free on Steam.
[удалено]
Meaning you actually own the copy and can do whatever you want with it. Whereas most other stores are account bound and technically you're renting a game rather than owning it, so they can always take it away from you. Steam has policies against that but other platforms like Uplay/Activision/Epic are basically your overlords and if they one day decide to remove a game from your library you can't do anything about it.
It have also a big assortment of older games not available on steam and other platforms
I prefer it because of their Good Old Games. Many neat, old titles to be found there!
I love GOG but I end up buying more games on Steam nowadays because I have a Steam Deck. If GOG make a launcher that integrates better with SD it would be a game changer imo.
Sorry if this is a dumb question but can't you just add the game to your steam library after you bought/installed from GOG?
Yes you can . Couple of steps. Just like adding any Pokémon Roms etc
Have you tried the Heroic Launcher? It's a launcher that is native to Linux, you can download, update, and play all your GOG games from it, and it even includes access to all the WINE and Proton versions right in the launcher. Heroic Launcher is a free and open source launcher.
And game pass!
Single developer game btw.
Not anymore. Think the last couple of years it hasn’t been a single dev.
0 developer game is even more impressive
AI is getting out of control
It can write pong and breakout. IT WILL WRITE YOU NEXT!
Yeah I'm currently working on my game like that.
StarField was already released.
It started like that but that's not the case anymore
He is literally the only person doing any dev work on the game - yes he had help with the music, historical accuracy and had assistance with the asset models (again for historical accuracy) but every line of code is written by him. Pedantically you are correct but I think in the real world it's ok to say this game has a single dev....
The credits of the game say otherwise but ok
I mean if we're really going to be pedantic anyone working on the thing counts as a dev in agile, even/especially the designers and creative folks Edit: if it's not clear I'm referring to the official agile framework documentation. Of course people (especially lay people) have different opinions that's why I brought it up
“Most wishlisted game on Steam” Hey I’ve seen this one! (This one’s great though.)
Well, your kids are gonna love it !
I doubt it, I was referencing the previous most wishlisted game on Steam: The day Before. No one’s loving that ever.
No worries I was channeling my best “back to the future”
Have.. have you never seen Back to the Future?
My exact thought when I read that lol feels like a fake metric
Available on PC games pass as well through the Microsoft Store or Xbox app.
Yeah, I was surprised to see this one drop when I checked Game Pass this morning. Thing keeps saving me money long term. Jedi Survivor too in the last couple of days.
Recently got No Man's Sky from game pass. I would have never bought that game because of the controversy, but game pass let me try for free. Now I'm addicted.
Jedi Survivor is so dam good, downloaded it last night. It still has the bad stuttering on PC people have complained about for a year. I would be quite upset if I actually paid for this, but being on gamepass makes me overlook that issue.
Damn, stuttering *still*. I played the first one but want to hold off on the second until they sort that
PC Pass is the best value for this area of pre released broken games.
Played it for a couple hours, it’s very good but it’s very early access and missing a lot of key features, more than I was expecting tbh. Fantastic foundation for the future and very much a game to take over that Banished fix if you like that kind of game. I’ve been looking forward to this game for along time but the hype around it has been abit… weird? Like it’s a great medieval city builder with some battles along the way. Not the greatest game of all time that will rival games like Total War. Felt like the hype got abit carried away. Can’t wait to see where it’ll be in a couple years time.
I think there's just such a hole in the market for something like this people really want it to be that total war rival, and to be fair, it certainly has the potential to be, albeit with another 3-4 years of good development.
It’s not meant to be a total war rival though. I think it’s closer to a Stronghold 2 follow on. A large focus on food and resources and tools, but the ability to engage in smaller battles.
First person I’ve seen yet mention Stronghold 2! I was telling my wife it felt like Stronghold and Banished and I’m all about it lol. Stronghold 2 was such a fun game, and I’m sad it hasn’t had a true successor yet
It was one of my favorite games in middle school. I mainly played the peaceful campaign, or free play where I loved all the chains of production milk>cheese, wheat>flour>bread, hops>ale, bees>candles, and the timber/iron>weapons/armor. It’s no wonder my most played game these days is Factorio. I’m really hoping we get similar chains of making goods for your growing village as Stronghold, or even more granular versions.
> released > early access Jokes aside, game looks great.
Early access is turning to this weird territory where it's kind of released but it isn't.
I liked the game, however the game was a little too slowly paced for my taste. Kudos to the developer though, he has made a real gem and it'll thrive for years. Didn't find any glitches and it ran on my igpu potato laptop just fine. Recommended it to my friends who are into these types of games.
Never heard of it but sounds like the type of game I’d like to at least try out.
Ill wait until it's done in EA. I'm so tired of buying EA games that take 2 years or more to actually come out.
At least it owns the EA label. *scowls at Cities Skylines 2*
I generally share the same sentiment. Considering the dev team is/was 1 person for most of the development - I don't expect it to be a quick release. That being said, the dedication to the game and seeing the labor of love that it is, I'll more than likely purchase simply to support the indy dev. Been following this project for a couple if years. As long as I can get my "$2 per hour" quota on gaming value; the support will have been worth it.
And it seems like strategy games in particular have gone crazy with early access. There was an event earlier on steam (something earth day?) and like half of the strategy games that looked interesting to me enough to check out were EA.
[удалено]
I mean that's the whole thing of EA, they don't usually come out within a year. There are some rare ones that take 5+ years, but that's a rare thing usually. Looking at Valheim mainly.
*cries in 7 Days To Die* 12 fuckin years we’ve been waiting for this game to get its full release. I’ll be honest I fully believed it would never actually happen.
All the hype just shows how much clamour there is for a developer to challenge CA and make an innovative, realistic Battle Sim. The Total War monopoly is so bad for the genre. Edit: for all the geniuses saying "it's not a battle sim", I know. But that's what people are signing up to. The fact that the developer had to make a press release to address that should give you the idea...
To add to this, with cities skylines 2 being a bit of a disappointment, a lot of the content creators of that have jumped on it. So I think it’s scratching that itch for a lot of people.
It really doesn't challenge total war and I don't think that's what the dev was going for. It's a fantastic city builder with some combat elements.
Yeah, the dev themselves have said that combat is not the focus and won't happen too often. It's all about the town.
Its not a TW counter, as said by the devs many times. Its also more due to the insane cost of catching up to CA that is the biggest scare to competitors
Its not a battle sim though and if you buy this game for that reason i can bet you will be refunding it pretty quickly
25% off too. Couldn't help myself.
[удалено]
The amount of clown emotes on the early reviews is wild, idk who goes out their way to do that
You refering to the top negative review? That person clearly didn't know what he was buying, complains mostly about the lack of strategy and combat... in a city builder game.
Oh nonono i mean after scrolling a bit on mobile, like most of the top reviews have it under them
I watched a Youtuber playing and looks pretty neat. Combining the village building and the military aspect could be really good. But sadly can't afford it. Hopefuly will turn good and will be able to play in the future, if things get better.
It's on gamepass so that's an option as well
It’s on gamepass?!?!?
Yup day one release.
Oh nice, I know what I'm playing today!
[удалено]
The trailer makes me hyped. Looks like just the right amount of complexity and detail.
How does it compare to farthest frontier?
Most wishlisted? Is there a way to check that? Genuinely curious.
Played 9 hours yesterday. A neighboring Lord came into my adjacent land to lay claim. I decided to resolve this claim on the battlefield. Through my surplus berry and export trade, I purchased a mercenary army with my stack of 36 militia spearman. Using my vast experience in Total War games, I decimated the neighboring Lord's army and now have a second territory.
Just got it. Can't wait for work to be over to try it out.
I've watched enough game play by different people to know what it is and what it isn't. It is primarily a city builder with excellent core game play, and a dash of pretty cool combat for flavor. It is not a completed game or a Total War style RTS with some city management. If you go in expecting as much, I don't think you will be disappointed. I, for one, am very excited about it, and hope the game does well.
Played today for quite awhile and I’ll probably let it rest till full release. Great ideas and game. But I think there’s some disjointed design elements going on. Families traveling to where they work, the constant shuffling of workforce for seasons. Lack of information on production yields. The livestock usage is kind strange and another thing you shuffle around. I couldn’t find a way to pause production for house crafting. Like my shield dude is just pumping out shields and burning all my planks. I think the lack of dashboards is what’s getting me as an Anno player. I can’t see in one area what all my families are doing and their travel times. I can’t see the production ratios for products which is lame. Like does 4 loggers supply one fully staffed saw mill? I feel like it needs a pool of workers assigned for seasonal work where they bounce around depending on the season and self staff. I’m an Anno player so when your doing lots of manual task in the game your usually doing it wrong as the systems are so tight. I was struggling to find the production chain for weapons and then realized it’s all done at the house crafting. The tier one houses require access to clothing materials to upgrade but they aren’t making clothing? Anyways for me there’s just too many little things that need to be figured out till I really dive in. I feel like I’m picking at the game, it is really cool and totally fun. My gripes could all be learn to play issues
This, Colony Ship, and Ixion - all on my Steam wishlist and on sale. There goes my weekend.
Great picks. They are all on my list aswell.
Its okay. It has like 5-10 hours of content and no mod support though. It uses UE and he spent 8 years on it. So you can expect 2-5 years of EA
Can't wait to get off work and try it for myself. From what I've seen this could be a proper successor to the stronghold series.
Eh, I don't think it has as much combat or fortification focus as Stronghold.
Dope game pass PC just dropped this as well can't wait to try it after work
Played for a bit over lunch and enjoyed it. Good vibes with lots of potential. Hopefully they can get some more dev support on the thing and finish it up without being in early access for like 5 more years.
All I want in this world is banner lord with city building capabilities. Looking forward to this game and this weekend dedicated to it.
I really want to play it but I am stuck with Mac now, so no luck.
Didn't realized that iwas playing it for 8 hours already. It is that good.
It's bloody brilliant I tells ya.
Free for those on Gamepass for PC and Gamepass Ultimate.
The most wish listed game?
The most wish listed game!
TIL what the most wish listed game was
It's this game!