Well that was epic! I got to build all the buildings, got up to a population of 32 and started building the ship, I also then started on the wheat farm and such for kicks, but that didn't work out sinse despite having over 120 meat, 260 odd vegitables and about 10 barrels of wine (why do people burn through wine so much quicker than food even without the alcoholics fault), someone starved.

I did check the tavern, and though it listed zero meat, there were five vegitables.

I did wonder if it was that my peasants were too busy to take food to the tavern from the storehouse, which would be very silly.

it'd actually be nice to get some warnings about when people are starting to get hungry or miss their meal so then you can do something about it, sinse everyone seems to have had this happen in a game, pooof, someone starves!

the ship was going well, though it was a litle difficult to see how things were going. I gathered I'd finished on the lumber sinse my peasants started taking lumber elsewhere after a while, but I was less sure of metal, and it was rather annoying having a miner and metallergist working away for no bennifit when they could've helped out my peasants and builders more.

Anyway, i did eventually get the ship completed, and assigned some more peasants to hopefully stave off starvation by moving things around, then suddenly booom!

Castaways
Run-time error '9':
Subscript out of range
OK

Very annoying sinse I was just about to start building the thing, and though I do have a saved game it's just before I started on the wheat farm, so it was a ways ago, and if the smith business is fixed that would make things much easier sinse I did seem to spend a lot of time mucking about with smiths who weren't doing their job.

TheLuckily the same problem didn't seem to come up with taylors who would! use stockpiled firs, however the butcher was so useful for increasing meat output I kept her going anyway.

I'll be interested to see the new version and what things are added, and to see if I can get that blasted ship built this time ;D.

Oh btw, one really serious problem I did run into after my population got above 25 or so was too many dam messages! I had to play the game on slow just to be able to here what was going on.

I'd really appreciate it if something could be done to make these more efficient and cut out the spam, by using names at the end of sentences and by having some filters, or replacing some with sfx. Lots of the resource messages could be fine as sfx, and some, such as the message that the farmer has harvested something or that a lumberjack has cut down a tree are imho completely unnecessary, sinse you'll find out both happen when the peasant brings the farm produce to the tavern or the tree to the sawmill.

Eddit: bad news, I tried multiplayer co op and got:

Castaways
Run-time error '339':
Component 'MSWINSCK.OCX' or one of its dependencies not correctly registered: a file is missing or invalid
OK

I set my first perk to union smasher, my second to green thumb, and my fault to light lunch.

Whew! I'm on the latest version, and I think I might actually be able to beat the thing if it doesn't crash (I have enough metal, and am close to enough cloth and lumber, a population of of nearly 60, and I have eight knights and a soldier keeping the goblins plenty far from my settlement).
I'll add another soldier, though, just because one of the children is named Arthur. I'd make him a knight, but I don't feel like wasting some of my metal on armor and a sword when we're so close to being able to build a ship.

Anyway, the only real problem I have is that with such a huge populations, I get the sounds and pauses indicating pregnancy, birth, injury, coming of age, Etc, but the actual message explaining what exactly happened comes way later in the queue. This isn't really a problem so much as a nuissance, except that in one instance my cook got injured (again--I'm on the same game from my last post...). I managed to replace him before anyone starved, this time, but oy! Frightening!

At one point my peasants got really slow at bringing materials to construction sites--I lost track of how many houses I had under construction (I think I have enough now, thanks! XD).
I've noticed that brick production slows as the game continues, though I think this was intentional, since rocky terrain and fields become rocky soil after use. I don't think I need any more bricks at this point, though, so I've reassigned my stone mason to farming, since I can't keep bread in storage anymore (People go through bread faster than it can be produced...).

I have over 250 vegetables and am trying to keep my meat around 50, though, so I don't think starvation is likely.

[edit] Working on stocking the ship. For some reason, the peasants keep bringing meat there, even though the building details claim the ship has plenty of meat. :?
[/edit]
[edit2] They're doing it again with vegetables! Though I don't have much bread or wine... but... still, they're like, totally wasting our food... [/edit2]
[edit3] It seems they've finally realized that the ship is full and they need to take the meat and vegetables to the tavern while we wait on the bread and wine. It wrecked our supply of meat, though.[/edit3]

hello.
I downloaded this game,and have ran it without any problems.
However a friend of mine isn't able to run it.after pressing enter on finilise character, this runtime error comes up
---------------------------

Castaways

---------------------------

Run-time error '13':

Type mismatch

---------------------------

OK   

thanks. I'll report again if something else comes up.

WHoa, epic win.  Congratulations. 
Dark, forgive me if I'm missing something here, but is more resources a bad thing?  Granted, I like the idea of a df-like trader of some sort perhaps, but still, more resources only seems good in my book.

Dark, I'm sorry to hear about that run time error.  I wish I could get mine to crash, so I could find out what caused it.  I've actually decided to set the multiplayer code aside while I work on shortening the messages, grouping them so they can be muted, aligning the automatic pauses with the correct messages, and moving injured people into their own group.  It seems that these 4 things are currently the number 1 annoyance for everyone, so I want to get them fixed.

CAE_Jones, congratulations!  What difficulty did you beat it on?  You are correct, the brick, lumber, and hunting will eventually slow down as the land is stripped of natural resources.  The fact that hunting slows down might surprise some people, but hunters can actually only hunt in forests.  Once lumber jacks have thinned out a forest enough to turn it into scattered trees, it is no longer usable by hunters.  This is another difference between hunters and fishermen, since fishermen will never slow down as the game progresses.

grryfindore, make sure your friend extracted the game in to a folder first.  It sounds like he is trying to run the executable from within the zip file.  This would prevent the game from seeing the other, necessary, game files.  Let me know if that doesn't help him.

Hatred, I believe I will put your write up in with the game's read me file.  I've been too lazy to write one myself, and the one you've written seems very thorough.

I've actually considered adding some type of store, market, or trading option.  For the moment I've decided against it, but that's mostly because I don't believe it fits with the current scenario.  Once other game additions come along, it will make more sense for me to add a market for trading.

I've been meaning to ask.  What is everyone's thoughts on the perks and faults?  I originally put them in because I though it would be a fun way to both customize the game experience, and to give people another strategic decision to make.  I haven't really heard much discussion about the perks and fault people use, so I'm wondering if it is really something people care much about.  Don't get me wrong, I'm not planning to remove them, I just wanted to get people's opinions on it.  Do you think it helps the game, hurts the game, or makes no difference?

Hi Aprone,
Speaking for myself, I like the percs and faults a lot.  It adds depth and challenge to the game, and I like the fact that you can make a different experience depending on the combination you pick.
Best,
Zack.

Hi guys,and aprone
okay. I made her to check and delete the old folder,to unzip it again into a folder,and the same messege appears.
The perks and the falts make the game a little bit more interesting as then you can try different things for different effects.
as for the messeges,in my opinion,I'd like to here where are  those pesents dropping things and all that.as for the other messeges the lumber jack and the farmers I don't mind them really. but I suppose others would,and it'll make a difference when there are like 60 to 50 people working.
Again though,thanks for a awsome game,and hope that you will be able to solve this problem.

Dam! my post for this didn't come out, how irritating!

The interface fixes would be appreciated, especially given how many messages you have going on, I'd also appreciate some sort of warning about hunger sinse frequently I don't know things are going wrong until someone drops dead! it'd be nice to get at least a litle advance warning of this. As for trading, as I said, I just found too many resources built up whatever I did. The butcher for instance is great for meet production, but taylers just don't! use that much cloth.

While I agree a markit or similar perminant trade option might be a bit much at this stage, I do think a df style trader who turned up only every so often and offered to trade through a menue would be a worthwhile addition in the game to handle your surplus resources.

I generally always have a building on the go so need a lumberjack and carpenter working away constantly, but this nearly always leaves extra lumber unless i've got a barrel maker and am making wine.

Gryf, wait until you've got a really large population and your peasants are doing all sorts of things like spinning yarn, milling grane, and lots of fetching and carrying, then it gets a bit much.

One rather odd thing I've been wandering recently, which may be another aesthetic change, is who the kids' fathers are? especially when the same woman becomes pregnant three times in very rapid succession ;D.
This might actually have a serious baring on the game if child helper jobs ever make it in, sinse it'd be quite fun if the child actually took on the job of one of their parents, though obviously you'd have to know who the father was for this to work, sinse if the mother became pregnant again the child couldn't really help much with that ;D.

As for perks and faults, I like the system, my problem is it's a litle unbalanced at the moment.

Some perks and faults run all the way through, some just affect the start, and indeed some perks can be problematic like the new one about pregnancy.

Myself, i usually play with union smasher, then either strong bones or green thumb. dogfood seems to do litle at the moment from what I can gather, and while trojan man could be a problem, neither is as bad as all thumbs!

Myself, I'd actually suggest changing the system a litle.

Give the player a "start" catagory as well as a perk and fault, and move strong swimmers, light lunch and strong start in there.

Then, if the player chooses a starting fault like light lunch, let them choose a third perk to balance. So, it would become a choice betwene a strong start and average, or a hard start and better.

Here are some suggestions (actually I thought of loads of these but the forum ate my post annoyingly).

Starting fault: baby on board, begin with two of your population as children.

Starting fault: lost cargo, begin with fewer scattered resources.

Starting fault: riggers of the journey, your population will recieve initial injuries quickly after start.

Starting perk: shelter from the storm, begin with two houses.

Starting perk: I also cook, begin with a tavern.

Starting perk: smuggled goods, begin with more supplies.

Starting perk: hardy, your people won't recieve injuries for a while.

Fault: working up ranks, takes longer to trrain soldiers into knights.

Fault: eternal child, takes longer for children to grow up.

Fault: potatoe weval, vegitables grow more slowly.

Fault: vegitarian, your people will consume more vedge.

Fault: sticking plaster, your doctor requires more cloth to treat injuries.

Fault: motherhood, pregnancy lasts longer.

Perk: fleet footed, everyone moves more quickly.

perk: I'm okay, more lumber production.

perk: landed in france, increased production of bread and wine.

Perk: managerial skills, cloth, barrels and armour is produced more quickly.

Perk: education, your children grow up faster.

Perk: shipwrite, the building requirements for your ship are lower.

perk: environmentalist, natural resources will run out more slowly.

perk: heart of iron, mining and smelting metal will be performed more quickly.

Wow! coming up with these was fun! let me know what you think.

I assume more maps will come later, so things like "more or less resources on map" or more or less free land i'm guessing will come later, ---- as I hope will be the ability to clear scattered treets and rocky soil and make it into freely useable land.

I personally love the perks and faults system, and believe it deserves its place in the game, and if you can think of anymore, I'd be ready and willing to try them.  I've yet to try any others than the ones I have stuck with thus far, which are, union smashers and strongbones as perks, and dogfood for a fault, which, doesn't really seem to work or affect anything, though that might be a good thing, because in my last game, my hunter was injured, and though I didn't bother to check what might have happened to her, I can honestly say that I was super glad she started working again.

I never got to beat the game, but I did get way closer.  I had some twelve nights who, at first, were dealing the goblins quite a number of blows.  I'm actually glad I saved my game early on enough to where I could reproduce what I did before, but late enough to where I wouldn't have to do all the work over again, because I got erorr 9 as well, and I'm not really sure how it occured.

right now, though, it's time to go to sleep.  I've had a long one, and there's more to be done with my machine when I awake.

A few things I'd like to add:

I honestly hope that most, if not all of the game system stays the same, because changing it in any direction might make the game either too easy, or too hard.  right now, it seems quite beatable on easy, and I haven't dared to try it on any of the other difficulties.  I think one of the problems with adding sounds is that five or six sounds might play all at once when a tick of time occurs, since so much is going on, and it would be hard to differentiate between all the sounds played at once.

so here's a suggestion: when cycling through the job categories with e and r, allow messages to be presented for whatever category currently has focus, while keeping important messages like illnesses, injuries, pregnancies, deaths, goblin attacks as they are currently displayed.  I'm ot sure if this would work for everyone or not, but I think, that this way, one could retrieve the messages for whatever job they are most interested in while playing the game.  I know that I would probaby have mine set to the peasants more often han not, since they ar ethe ones I generalyl tend to try and stay on top of, owing to their importance in the game.  What does everyone else think?

I must confess nocturnus, I don't like the idea of job restricted messages, sinse most of the spam I've seen and the stuff I'd want not spoken is stuff my peasants do, but there are a certain catagory of things peasants do that I would! want spoken.

for instance, I'm not bothered about messages telling me food has been dropped off, or indeed when yarn has been spun or flour ground. however, I'd very much like to keep the messages about when material is dropped off at a building site, sinse it means I can plan my buildings more completely and more easily know what I'm doing.

Also, as a miner interface tweak, I just had someone starve ecause I didn't happen to realize that my cook had just got pregnant and the person starved really quickly. Not only would a starvation warning help considderably with this, but it'd also be nice to be able to check in the mothers catagory what their previous job was, the way that currently other jobs like builders show up as "filling in as a peasant" sinse then I would've known my cook was pregnant.

Actually, sexist though it sounds, I think I'm now going to have to make certain I always have a male cook in future ;d.

Dark, I've switched to male cooks for the same reason... I've had games where my female cooks get pregnant constantly!
Though I actually had three cooks assigned at the end of the game I completed, since one was bound to get injured at some point--and indeed two of them managed to get injured in rapid succession! And this was when the messages were way behind the events, so I onlye figured it out by checking by jobs and looking at the cooks directly.

[edit] Oh, and regarding maps, this map system seems fairly easy to randomize (although, not knowing how the code works, that might not be as simple as it seems). A random map would certainly be different in terms of strategy, though I'm not sure if it'd be easier or harder.

Another thing... when I first started, I was thinking Lunimals with random disasters, and deliberately built my storehouse far inland to avoid future storms or giant waves of doom. When I found out those weren't a problem, I started building beach-front property all over the south coast.

Well I see your meaning about cooks. My cook got injured and the first I knoew was someone starving due to far too many messages, then the doctor! I assigned to fix the cook started working, then she starved! and that was with me playing on slow speed to try not missing messages.

i actually really think some starvation warnings need to happen as well as the message fix.

I also wonder what's wrong with these people that they instantly starve after missing one meal ;D.

Rather than lumber, I'm now constantly waiting on stone, even one lot of bricks seems to take ages to get, though I've not been going for too long.

i will say though I now prefer bread as a third food source than wine, sinse the baker becomes a part time peasant and you don't constantly have to use lumber, ---- also it might be that I'm working with the green thumb perk, but I seem to be building up bread quite quickly as well for a change, though Aprone may have tweaked this.

Difficulty or not of the map I was thinking mostly in terms of amount and spread of available resources as a difficulty factor, though random maps just ofor difference would be fun anyway, especially if more map based features come into the game later. As to desasters, being stomped on by Godzilla or having to fight off giant plagues of locusts or something, ---- well I'm pretty sure those will come ;D.