Messages

1

Not bugs / [Not a bug] Steam beta branch missing

« on: November 01, 2024, 06:36:14 PM »

At least it didn't use to require any special code to access it. Did this change or is there a hiccup somewhere?

2

Development News / Re: Version 3.85 beta released

« on: October 31, 2024, 02:49:48 PM »

I'm a bit puzzled by the removal of the water skin. While it's true there's a lot of water in the world, it's rather inconvenient to get at during the winter. A water skin kept close to the body should keep it liquid, so you don't have to spend a lot of time making a hole in ice each time you need water.
It would be fine if there was a corresponding closed container, such as a wooden flask, but now you'd have to resort to using an open container, which works in the game, but not in the real world. You'd have to move extremely carefully to retain the water inside a bowl in the backpack...

Yep, I thought this change might be a bit hard to digest, but gameplay wise it doesn't hurt that much. But true indeed, immersion wise it does hurt a bit, as the current available containers are open ones. During the era closed wooden containers (eg. "kimpileili" (fin)) were used for carrying liquids, and those would be a proper substitute for a waterskin.
I was actually considering possibilities to introduce them already in this version, but the crafting technique is so sophisticated that it was too costly to start implementing now.
Hmm. Maybe we could first feature these as a village crafts.

Having them as village crafts would be good enough in my opinion, player crafting can come later. I always buy my waterskins (from village hunters) as is, since crafting them is rarely practical (either you need ton of bird skin or need to de-hair valuavle fur which you could have used to just buy the skin).

3

Bug reports / Re: Stackable Items not stacking

« on: September 12, 2024, 12:10:52 PM »

The only time I have noticed furs not stacking without quality or weight difference is that player tanned furs don't stack with generated (from villagers etc.) furs. Been that way for ages. The only weight difference I have noticed in furs is stags and elks producing different sized elk furs.

The handaxe stacking thing is due to there being separate versions of handaxe in game.

4

Solved'n'fixed bug reports / Re: [3.63] [3.62] Game freezes on exit if audio device has been unplugged

« on: March 02, 2024, 07:58:40 PM »

Seems fixed on my end. The game properly switches audio device and doesn't crash on exit afterwards.

5

Gameplay questions / Re: Is it better to cover largest body parts first for warmth and protection

« on: February 06, 2024, 01:14:02 AM »

At least in the current edition of Harnmaster normal blow has 26% of hitting chest or abdomen but only 9% chance of hitting hip or groin. The URW system is a bit different, but I doubt it's too different. In addition abdomen is a weak spot more vulnerable to mortal wounds than most body parts (which, based on personal experience, seems true in URW as well). Plus hip and groin are likely to have good protection anyway since both torso and leg pieces tend to double down on it (cuirass being a rare exception).

For warmth I do know that your hands and feet are the first thing to freeze given equal warmth coverage. Since that's realistic (blood being diverted from extremities to vital functions) I'd expect the rest of the system to not be too far out of line. I suppose testing how far you can get while neglecting to stack clothing to areas like knees, elbows and shoulders would be interesting. E.g. woollen dress, linen dress, nettle cloak and furs for the extremities, I do suspect it will have worse result than switching one of the dresses for an undershirt would as the game does seem to take some issue with entirely unclothed body parts.

6

Guides and tutorials / Re: Carrying Penatly and fatigue tested

« on: January 31, 2024, 09:58:37 PM »

Have you explored how carrying penalty affects other activities, particularly combat, beyond running, and have you noticed similar effects on fatigue?

They have similar effect. I haven't tested it systematically so not sure of the exact ratios (but likely they are exactly same as for running), but there are very notable differences in fatigue build-up from heavy duty work at 0% (tool on the ground) and say 2%.

More generally, it's worth noting that the fatigue build-up is NOT based flat on the percentage of encumbrance penalty, it's more fine grained than that. For instance, a character might have same rate of fatigue build-up at 0% and 1%, but if they pick some more stuff (while still remaining within 1%) they can start becoming tired more quickly.

7

Development News / Re: Haft them axes, haft them spears

« on: January 12, 2024, 08:02:24 PM »

Ability to get them re-hafted at suitably skilled blacksmith's without quality loss chance would be nice.

8

Off-topic / Re: 10 Medieval Arrow Types

« on: January 12, 2024, 01:26:08 PM »

He actually got the idea for those bouncing ones from Sami's Youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Owy6sAPusoc

Tod is a bit wrong on their provenance though, they are from Uralic Ugric peoples and not from Lapland.

9

Suggestions / Allow pre-loading of crossbows without nocking

« on: January 09, 2024, 11:34:16 AM »

Currently it's only possible to load crossbow in advance by wielding it and then wielding an arrow in the other hand. Problem with this is that it makes crossbows practically unusable with skis. In addition if you change the nocked arrow to one of different type you need to reload the crossbow for some reason. I'd propose that it should be possible to load a wielded crossbow in advance by using the apply action. The load action should be the default selected action in the apply menu (over the bowstring one) to save bit of keystrokes. After this the crossbow persists in loaded state until unwielded or shot with. If you load the crossbow by wielding an arrow at the same time as we currently do, the crossbow should also maintain the loaded state even if the arrow is unwielded or changed to a different one.

10

General Discussion / Re: Question on Prices?

« on: January 02, 2024, 11:59:07 PM »

The wiki values on price seem generally accurate and current to me, based on personal experience. All these pages seem fine to use to determine cost:

https://unrealworld.fi/wiki/index.php?title=Weapons
https://unrealworld.fi/wiki/index.php?title=Clothing
https://unrealworld.fi/wiki/index.php?title=Fur
https://unrealworld.fi/wiki/index.php?title=Prices

The last page uses squirrel hide as unit so you need to multiply it by 8 to make it comparable to the first two. The page on fur also gives prices in arrows which cost same as squirrel hides.

Oh, and note that player made clothing has reduced price, they are not suitable as trade goods.

11

Suggestions / Give the "arrow-tip" treatment to javelins

« on: December 16, 2023, 09:17:05 PM »

In other words, allow us to manufacture bone javelin-heads, buy iron javelin-heads and ability to manufacture javelins using them. Then we can choose to use simple sharpened point as now, or make a more proper javelin with the new heads. With this I believe javelin making should also be moved under the carpentry skill, allowing player to manufacture fine and masterwork javelins with proper tips. Possibly staff making should too, to make it harder to get the proper materials for good quality javelin.

I don't think the stat line of the weapon needs to change, as the point attack is already excessive for sharp wooden stick.

12

General Discussion / Re: Thoughts on All Crops

« on: December 13, 2023, 12:52:12 PM »

The main thing that needs to change with Clayweed is that it needs to be an actual weed. While this was certainly eaten, I doubt it was planted (even now I can't seem to find Chenopodium album seeds in Finland, only for the closely related perennial Chenopodium bonus-henricus) but instead harvested away as pest in the fields. That you can use the leafs like you would use nettle or spinach is just a bonus.

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General Discussion / Re: You are from: Moron Heath

« on: December 07, 2023, 11:48:04 AM »

Lots of the meanings in these place names are pretty obscure. I wouldn't know that pännä means a moron, and the dictionary of the Institution of Domestic Languages (Kotus) tells me it means a pencil. I suppose Sami and Erkka got these meaning from some more specialist dictionary; for regional, historical or place name specific words.

That being said, Finland does have lots of funny and vulgar place names in reality too, there are for instance many hundreds of place names beginning with pasko or paska (meaning shit) and you occasionally see them in URW too. You can find a tool for searching Finnish place names there (search for word plus * to find words beginning with something, e.g. pännä*): https://nimisampo.fi/fi

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Suggestions / Re: Add cooking with wooden bowls

« on: December 06, 2023, 09:22:46 PM »

Matti as Im updating BAC again do you have more details to share?

The weblink is in Finnish and though can translate Im finding it awkward to drill out the details.

Going by the instructions from there for the modern day traditional dish from Lemi: https://www.maajakotitalousnaiset.fi/reseptit/lemin-sara-etela-karjalasta

The tub is carved from birch or aspen, and is sized to the oven. It's then soaked in salted water for "weeks", which is said to help prevent cracking (reminds me of the salted water treatment given to kuksa, traditional wooden mug). After this it's treated with sheep tallow.

For the dish itself, salted mutton or lamb (1kg salt for 10kg meat, so were are talking properly salted for preservation) is rinsed in water to remove excess salt. A heat retaining over is fired up. Any cracks on the tub are patched up with combination of water and flour. The meat is placed on the tub and placed in the oven, with few pieces of alder separating the tub from the bottom of the oven (this both protects the tub and imparts taste, alder being traditional smoking wood in Finland, I guess just branches would be closest URW equivalent). It's cooked in the oven for hours (as many as 8), with meat flipped halfway through the cooking and potatoes turnips added sometime during the latter half of it. Apparently the tub can handle about 40-60 uses, more than I thought.

Note that this is a "dry" dish, even if the meat naturally releases liquid to the bottom of the tub. I suppose we can assume the tub can handle the in-game stew type dishes as those contain minimum water, but no idea how it would hold up with a soup.

@Plotinus I suppose one could take a stance that the iron pot shouldn't even exist in the game, it's a very complicated thing to hammer that kind of thing together from wrought iron. I'm not too sure it would be easier to take care of such pot in real life. Taking that kuksa as example, it's arguably easier to take care of than modern carbon steel cookware is (wood is somewhat hygienic material naturally, as it tends to absorb moisture from the surface and bacteria don't like being dehydrated).

15

Modding / Re: BAC Mod Weaving yardage.

« on: December 05, 2023, 11:30:04 AM »

There were no oil laps or candles either, burning wood chips were the sole light source.

Did the medieval Finns really not have oil lamps or fat lamps? Using the blubber of seals?

At least not as part of regular peoples' household lighting, which continued to use these thin pulled wood chips all the way to 19th century. Supposedly they burned at rather measured rate, so not as silly as it might sound.

The wood chip production is depicted here (for sake of basket weaving, but same thing): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YbMziRumSfw