Short Questions/Quick Answers

[LoLotov]

Ticks are the little plus sign (something like that) things that appear next to a skill when it has been raised that day. You may only raise a given skill three points in a single day, and every time you use a given skill you have a random chance to raise it. The lower a skill is the higher the chance to raise it, ie the fewer times you have to repeat the action for it to successfully go up.

Also, for my previous question about murdering an unarmed old man, that was not an issue of ease, it was an issue of ethics. Is it right? Some would say he doesn't deserve two houses and five fields, but some would say I don't either, and they're already his. Will he ever die of old age?

[Privateer]

snip..
Also, for my previous question about murdering an unarmed old man, that was not an issue of ease, it was an issue of ethics. Is it right? Some would say he doesn't deserve two houses and five fields, but some would say I don't either, and they're already his. Will he ever die of old age?

He won't die of old age.
As to the ethics of attacking an unwitting victim can only be answered by you. Maybe he will be your best friend in the game, a reliable hunting companion, a comfort during flu season, Or maybe he's a giant douche.. Who knows

[Theroleplayer]

@caius THe roleplayer suggests fire, fire fixes everything. Except loneliness.

You can burn corpses and they will go away, Saami added this as a way of cremating your dead dog, since you can't bury them.

[graider2001]

I am new to the game and have a question.  When I visit how do I know who has something for trade?  Do I have to talk to everybody?  I see that there is stuff I can trade in various houses, is that they same stuff that individual villagers would trade or me is it different?  Thanks!

[PALU]

There are essentially two kinds of trade in a village:
- Trade of communal resources: Pick up what you want and talk to any (adult) villager to pay for it.
- Private property. This s a sub selection of what they're carrying that they're willing to trade away (you can't trade for characters' weapons and then attack and kill them to take everything). This is also a sub selection of what you can see a character is carrying when looking at it.

Note that occasionally villagers refuse to trade some kind of item because they already have more than enough. For communal resources you just talk with someone else, but for private resources you'll have to come up with something else to trade.

[graider2001]

There are essentially two kinds of trade in a village:
- Trade of communal resources: Pick up what you want and talk to any (adult) villager to pay for it.
- Private property. This s a sub selection of what they're carrying that they're willing to trade away (you can't trade for characters' weapons and then attack and kill them to take everything). This is also a sub selection of what you can see a character is carrying when looking at it.

Note that occasionally villagers refuse to trade some kind of item because they already have more than enough. For communal resources you just talk with someone else, but for private resources you'll have to come up with something else to trade.

Thanks for answering my question.  Is there away to know who is trading private property, or do I have to just talk to different villagers?

[LoLotov]

Hunters and woodsmen are almost always willing to trade, and usually have pretty generic but useful trade goods. Most others won't normally trade unless they have a lot of gear. Press the L key and click on individual villagers to see what their job description is and their complete inventory. Works for foreign traders especially well too, just use the look function to find the one with the item you want rather than go through chat dialogue with each and every one of them.

[graider2001]

Hunters and woodsmen are almost always willing to trade, and usually have pretty generic but useful trade goods. Most others won't normally trade unless they have a lot of gear. Press the L key and click on individual villagers to see what their job description is and their complete inventory. Works for foreign traders especially well too, just use the look function to find the one with the item you want rather than go through chat dialogue with each and every one of them.

Thanks!!!  Never thought about using the Look button.  Happy Trails!

[The Jester]

Howdy folks! First post for me, and while I've got plenty of questions as a newbie in my first year, I'll keep this one simple...

Are the women in the village useful for anything? I've heard they can alert you to certain dangerous things going on nearby, but I always check in with them and they're never feeling chatty. Once, I could see a Njerpez fellow who was wandering just a few tiles away from a village for weeks. Thought somebody might have wanted to warn me about it, but alas...

[PALU]

Unfortunately not (yet). You can trade with them, but that's it normally. I've seen women being involved in quests to some extent, but I think the case where a woman was the quest giver had someone else direct my character to her, so that wasn't a "have to talk to anyone lest I miss a quest" case.
You're supposed to be able to give some info on traders in the vicinity (and a few other things as well), but I've never managed to get anything beyond the standard from anyone except when it is a quest.

[LoLotov]

Found on the corpse of a skilled and well armored Njerpez that nearly killed one of my two companions in the dark, was an object called a "hunting horn" that has no encyclopedia entry and is listed under tools in the inventory screen. I have never seen this object before and am afraid to use it for anything.  Before I try it, has anyone else found one of these and noticed any effects? I would hope it is some kind of ritualistic item for boosting hunting success in the same manner as the early morning Hunting Incantation.

[PALU]

I've seen a description for it somewhere (the wiki?). If I remember correctly, it's used to recall hunting dogs from out of shouting distance. At least one of my characters had one, but I've never used it.

[PoisonPen]

Is there any way to make more than one serving of porridge at a time?  I have an entire cauldron, but it doesn't seem to be possible to prepare multiple batches unless I have multiple cauldrons.

[PALU]

Is there any way to make more than one serving of porridge at a time?  I have an entire cauldron, but it doesn't seem to be possible to prepare multiple batches unless I have multiple cauldrons.

Not in vanilla. The Njerpezit Cooking Mod contains recipes that are designed to make use of the full capacity of cauldrons. You can either use that mod or use it as a starting point to adjust the vanilla recipes to produce larger batches (I think some of the recipes are just adjustments in size).
Also, as soon as one batch is ready I pour the contents over into a bowl to make the cauldron available for the next batch. I typically try to have 3 of these full batches at a time, as that is about the amount I can have without it degrading in quality before it's eaten (assuming it's stored in a cellar).

[PoisonPen]

Now that I have some experience in URW, I've been trying more challenging starting conditions.  The Robbers start is really starting to piss me off.  I understand that you're more likely to start the game with weapons you're better skilled with, which makes sense, but is it deliberately inverted for certain starts?  I've now done eight Robbers starts, which seems like a statistically significant number, and in every single one I've started the game with weapons with which I am completely unskilled.  It doesn't seem statistically likely that this can be just the RNG.  I've tried switching around which weapons I'm trained in, but no matter which I pick, I always start with a different set of weapons -- none of which I'm trained to use.  In the latest game, out of frustration and curiosity I created a character with maximum skills in every weapon class except knives and axes... and the only things I started out with were a knife and an axe.

Am I just cursed by the RNG, or does the Robber start deliberately give you terrible weapons?