Messages

1

Off-topic / Re: I am the new one

« on: March 30, 2025, 06:29:14 PM »

Unfortunately, this newcomer has been so far having a rather typical spam-bot bevarior. So, just muting the account before we get a spree of spam links. And, in case this happens to be a false positive of me misjudging the situation, I'm confident that a real human can easily figure out who to contact or where to send e-mail to resolve the issue.

2

General Discussion / Re: Where from comes myth from the game's intro?

« on: March 05, 2025, 07:37:06 PM »

The first winter is an adaptation (and combination) of "stealing of the Sun", and "Sampo" myth. The idea that a long long time ago there was an age of prosperity, when earthly life was somehow free of trouble. And then something happened (the sun went down and didn't rise up the next morning), things got difficult. But the humanity coped, and eventually the Sun returned - but somehow it was no more the same, things were different, something had changed permanently.

I remember that about the same time when UnReal World turned from a more generic "sword and magic" phantasy to Finno-Ugric mythology, Sami was also considering changing the title of the game. But a considerable number of players resisted, saying that they had grown attached to their mental images of a phantasy world which is somehow "unreal".

So, we took these ingredients and cooked a fictional mythology which both keeps the original name of the game, explains it, and still draws from Finno-Ugric mythology - not being a direct reference, but an artistic adaptation of the age old themes.

EDIT: Hmm, so I think that the theme of "unreality" as such isn't a theme in Finno-Ugric mythology. But there is this idea of world being made of various layers, most of the layers being unseen to the normal waking consciousness, but those unseen layers oftentimes being the most influential. So, the "unreality" is an adaptation from that idea, thinking that once humans had a direct contact and communication with all the unseen layers, but then they lost it - humanity survived, but the direct contact with the unseen world became more like a rarity, something for trained professionals, and rare occasional supernatural encounters experienced by common folks, and a loose collection to beliefs and rituals to manage these relationships.

3

General Discussion / Android remote controller updated

« on: February 20, 2025, 11:11:24 AM »

The remote Android controller for UnReal World has been lingering in some sort of limbo; at Google Play, but not available for modern phones. Until today. I finally upgraded the source code to meet the current Android requirements, and after a little bit of juggling the upgraded version got approved by Google.

So, this is an experimental helper utility for irregular players who have trouble remembering the key bindings, a smooth landing for newcomers, a quality of life improvement for anyone who feels more comfortable with gently tapping a touch-screen button which says "eat", an alternative to wireless keyboard for those who wish to play from the couch with a big monitor (or anything else you come up with - these are the use-cases I've heard of. Just trying to say that if you are familiar with the keybindings then there hardly is a need to try the remote controller, this app is just an optional alternative for those who might find it useful.)

There is a free version, so it is safe to test with no financial risk.

The paid version gets rid of the in-house ad banner, and enables custom layouts - you could import your own XML files to make a virtual keyboard layout to match your liking. It is also possible to chain a sequence of commands under a single button, sort of macros.

(still no iPhone version - developing and publishing for iPhone is a bit more tricky to get started with. But that remains a future possibility, as with Ancient Savo development I've been experimenting with some possibilities of deploying to iPhone - but that will still take me time to learn, and it is not on the top of my priority list)

If you are interested, take a look at Google Play

4

Suggestions / Re: Different phrasing when receiving payment from villages

« on: January 31, 2025, 08:53:02 PM »

Squirrel hide has been one of the historically used "standard units of measuring barter value" in Finland. The word for "money" in Finnish is "raha", and the etymology of that word derives from (squirrel) hide. This dates back to the same era UrW draws its inspiration from. So, generally speaking - foreign traders were interested in buying the valuable winter furs, and a squirrel hide was a base unit to measure the value of bigger / more rare furs. A bit simplified, but something like this =)

5

General Discussion / Re: Version 3.63 still the best? Long time no play

« on: January 13, 2025, 03:51:43 PM »

There is also a youtube tutorial to the current fishing system. They also have an advanced tutorial. I'm under the impression that these videos cover a lot of topics including baits, fishing locations, timing, and all the methods from lippo to the nets etc.

6

General Ancient Savo discussion / Re: Question about the game

« on: September 25, 2024, 09:16:20 PM »

At the moment bowls and mugs don't have that much use - I didn't have enough time to fully implement the functionality before hitting the deadline for Steam release.

The plan is that jars (and wooden containers, to be added) should affect the storage of crops.
I'm not yet entirely sure what would be the actual impact of mugs and bowls; probably something like not having them would make their life more unpleasant. (There is a hidden variable simulating how satisfied they are with their lives, that has a subtle effect on things like recovering from ailments etc)

Also, high quality clayware will have good barter value. But this is also something not yet fully implemented.

What comes to cauldrons, they do have a real impact on the simulation. Lacking a cauldron (or, having too small a cauldron relative to mouths to feed) means that all cooking must be roasting or other such methods, so cooking takes longer. With a proper cauldron it is easier and less time consuming to prepare stews to feed the family. If the cooking is being hampered due to lack of a cauldron, I think there is some feedback about that in the info for cooking routine - but sure, the UI could be more intuitive, so I still need to think about ways to make the relevant information easier to spot, without constantly spamming too much pop-up dialogs all the time everywhere...

7

General Ancient Savo discussion / Ancient Savo 0.9.01 released

« on: September 20, 2024, 12:51:22 PM »

Ancient Savo version 0.9.01 is now available on Steam and at Itch.io

Establish your homestead in pristine woodlands. Farm, forage, fish and hunt for food. Craft tools and items, barter supplies. Get married, raise children. Teach your kids the skills of self-sufficient life - some skills like iron working are so complex that it might take multiple generations of accumulated experience to learn the secrets of the craft. Send you adult offspring to start homestead of your own. Once your family tree has more than one unit, you can freely switch game focus, choosing which family to play as. Or, if your family happens to die, you can continue playing as another family of your clan. There are no combat elements; cold, hunger and accidents are your main enemies.

The game is designed to be moddable by editing XML files. This allows not only adding new items, terrain types and tasks, but also modifying the existing ones to add new attributes to any existing element. A modding tutorial is planned, and will be published once I have time for that.

8

Off-topic / Re: Currently in Finland, travelling by gravel roads, asking for advices

« on: September 14, 2024, 11:04:20 AM »

about cities: they add some stress for me when they are big: traffic jam with limited vision angles when I have to find my way in a coutry where rules and signs can be different; it's not easy to park the car which is pretty big. Good point is the behavior of finnish drivers which is so neat compared to the french one.

I totally understand, as I also avoid driving in urban areas; it simply feels too much information too rapidly to process for my brain.

just tell me how and when to reach you the coming days if you are in the mood.

Do you use Discord? That would be the easiest (if you follow the Ancient Savo link in my signature, I think it takes you to a page which has an invitation link to Ancient Savo discord, which is the easiest place to spot my user account there). I'm rather busy with indie coding and working for money, but I'd guess in the coming days I can always arrange at least a short break just to say hello and a small chat or something. Or, we can can meet at the town of Mänttä and I'll help you to find the local Alko =)

9

Off-topic / Re: Currently in Finland, travelling by gravel roads, asking for advices

« on: September 13, 2024, 08:11:19 PM »

One example of cloudberry liquor. Alko stuff, not every village has one but I'm sure that with a little bit of searching you can find an Alko which doesn't require too much compromise from your smaller roads adventuring.

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Off-topic / Re: Currently in Finland, travelling by gravel roads, asking for advices

« on: September 13, 2024, 03:52:05 PM »

Other possible food items to look for

SavumuikkuSmoked small fish, canned in vegetable oil

Kalakukko

Sahti but I have no suggestions on where to find it - every time I've had sahti it has been bought directly from the producer, but I don't have the contacts.

Another thing which came to mind is that some bigger gas stations have something like souvenir shops - although it sounds like you generally wish to avoid such places, but with a little bit of planning it might be easier to stay on small roads and stop by some bigger gas station instead of a city (if avoiding cities is one of your preferences?)

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Off-topic / Re: Currently in Finland, travelling by gravel roads, asking for advices

« on: September 13, 2024, 03:40:45 PM »

Salmiakki can be found in pretty much any supermarket or gas station.
For Salmiakki Koskenkorva (or any other beverage with alcohol content over 8%) you need to keep eyes open for Alko, as they are only stores licensed to sell spirits.

Otherwise it is hard to say, as it depends so much on what you wish to see. Also, for culture like visual arts you are mostly off-season; here and there around the countryside we have visual art exhibitions like Purnu art center and Haihatus but I'm afraid they are closed at this time of the year. But one possible route would be via my hoods (if you wish, you can stop by to say hello, unless I'm terribly busy with other schedules), despite being a small countryside town there is Serlachius Museums, with both modern and classical art.

Or, then there are all the natural parks, and smaller sites of interest, like ancient hill forts, or just places with a scenic view - if you are interested in those, ask and I and others can try to post some suggestions.

Among the possibilities are also places like this: Mystical sculpture park in eastern Finland (which seems to be open all the time), or this: Alpo Jaakola Statue park which in September is open only on weekends

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General Ancient Savo discussion / Ancient Savo beta 30 : pottery, children learning skills, and the modding script

« on: August 25, 2024, 10:17:51 PM »

Ancient Savo public beta version 30 is now available at itch.io. And the work continues towards planned September release on Steam

This version adds pottery and related tasks. You can dig soil to get clay, and craft clay items. Construct a pottery kiln to fire clay items to turn them to ceramics.

Another new feature is simulation of characters learning skills when working together with more talented people. So, typically children first helping their parents, then working together with them. Each skill can be defined to have unique learning curve, and skills (very) slowly degrade if not used regularly enough.

There are also some new ailments, and accidents. The likelihood of an accident is mostly determined by the character fatigue, and partially affected by skill level. An accident can simply spawn an ailment, or trigger an interactive text story so that player decisions will affect the outcome.

Like most of the other game elements, ailments, accidents and text stories are defined in XML files making them fully moddable. The modding system was already capable of handling variables and logical conditions. Now there is also a GOTO statement, which can be used to re-direct the script flow.

For more information see the release news on itch.io

---

And, a little bit of background information for those who haven't been following the early stages of the Ancient Savo project; this is an Enormous Elk sideproject, a smaller sister game to UnReal World. From the development point of view this gives me a development sandbox where I can freely test with different algorithms and simulation mechanics without a risk of messing up the vast UnReal World codebase. So, some of the Ancient Savo features might eventually get adapted to UnReal World. But also, as a side project Ancient Savo allows coding adventures of its own. Ancient Savo is built to be moddable from the ground up. At the moment the weather and the map generation are hard-coded. I have some simmering ideas about a possible future sequel, which would be just a set of tools for any modder to create their custom survival scenarios. Ancient Savo already has fully moddable menus and submenus, and the modder can add pretty much anything from terrain types to animals and items and their variables. Well, but future developments depend on the reception and resources - and after so much of coding Ancient Savo my fingers are increasingly itching to write some pieces of UrW code to help Sami with the development.

13

Off-topic / Re: Books adjacent to UW

« on: August 12, 2024, 09:20:16 PM »

And, in an attempt to reply; this one is what I found looking for titles in English:

Fibula, Fabula, Fact - The Viking Age in Finland

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Mod Releases / Re: BAC looking for new caretaker

« on: June 14, 2024, 11:21:55 AM »

A customer coming into a store having a staff tell them its a "battle" and how "little" the customer means the staff is an asshole.

I 100% agree with that. But I must admit that I haven't seen that happen in the context of this discussion about "please add a new hotkey for modded crafting recipes". I have seen Brygun making that interpretation, and then sticking with that feeling. Okay, I think that is natural for humans, so not going to continue more on that theme.

So, the way I understand it, this is what we have at the moment:

1. The discussion and considerations about adding a new key for modded crafting recipes is still open, a final decision has not been announced. I haven't seen Sami saying that the suggestion is already rejected, I have seen him saying that before making the decision it is good to think about it from many different perspectives to make a balanced and well-grounded decision.

2. Currently there is no-one actively maintaining the BAC mod. And if anyone / some people want to continue maintaining it, they are free to do so.
(And, both there in the forums and in the community Discord I have seen players mentioning that they'd like to have an updated version of BAC compatible with the latest version of UrW, but maybe those players don't have the modding skills themselves, or then they somehow perceive it as "a ready-made project handed down for us", or, somehow perceiving some distance between them as players and mod creators, while the fact seems to be that mod creators are players, and players can be mod creators, and that the magical "someone" does not exist, but it is always this or that person, you, me, them, everybody.)

15

General Discussion / Testing after technical problems

« on: June 06, 2024, 03:38:04 PM »

Hello!

We encountered some technical problems, but everything seems to be back to normal again.

EDIT: Oh, but at first I had trouble posting this message, but I suspect that was because of old cached data lingering around from my previous log-in. So, if you have trouble posting at the forums, try logging out, (force)re-loading the forum main page and logging back in again.