Status Report - Shipwrecked Banished Series

In brief, there are some major mod conflicts between some of those I've been using for a long time and the latest version of Black Liquid's Journey released just before Christmas 2017. Even worse is the fact the worst of the crashing issues do not become obvious until your city reaches the 20 to 30 year timeline. The only one I know of for sure is the Cold Realism mod confirmed by my viewer Wicca Robin (see comments under Chapter 01 for the series.)

What I'm going to do is a reboot of the series using the same map and so forth, but minus the Cold Realism mod. If that can be played thru to the 30 year mark without running into crashing issues, then I'll start breaking the recording of that play thru up into several chapters for posting on my channel. (Minus that first Chapter which should be very similar to the one finished.) If crashing issues continue, more mods will have to go and then try another reboot. Hopefully it won't be too hard to sort this out! When I do get that sorted I'll make another post here on the blog with a revised mod list.

As always, thanks everyone for your comments and support!

Footnote!!!! See updated mod list for reboot!
(Scroll down thru intro section. Sorry, Blogger's software doesn't let me create internal Anchor type links within one.)

We Happy Few - Technicolor Update

I have decided against doing another series on We Happy Few until its full release in April 2018. The Technicolor Update (last major for the early release version), as it is known, does contain a LOT of new material; but is rather buggy too. In fact, after numerous tries, I have yet to manage a complete play-thru where something did not fail. For the benefit of the developers and others, here is a brief run-down on the most commonly occurring bugs and fixes, if sorted out:

1.  Metal Shutters on Old Soldier's homes - On every play-thru the metal shutters would come down at some point, usually an end of day, and never re-open. Depending on where I was, the only re-course was to use the developers console to "ghost" in or out to finish things.
2. Vanishing Skill Books - Before leaving Eel Holm Pie, all skill books found will be lost at some point. At first I thought this was associated with picking up the health skill book found in the rafters of the puppet theater (where you rescue Peachy). Further testing demonstrated this would ALWAYS occur after picking up the 8th, 9th, or 10th book; not clear on the exact number. Only way to avoid this is to avoid picking up books in the Eel Holm area until after traveling to Lud's Holms and then back. This was only test a very few times to see if this would avoid the loss of any skill books, so I'm not sure if it is a good fix. It is the only way found to avoid it.
3. Failures Involving Jubulator - Once you become tired while in the underground area, it seems wherever you are in that quest line will start to fail with no ability to recover. There is no place to rest once down there, after all. For example, if you haven't crashed the Jubulator you'll become stuck in and endless loop of that happening, your death, and crash again. "Ghosting" out and returning does not get you out of that loop. If you are to the combat point when you become over tired, either Peter or the "bad" Jubulator will vanish (or - in the case of the Jubulator - double itself) making completion of the quest impossible.  Again, attempts to "ghost out" and return later did not change anything. 
4. Tranquilizer Darts Not Working - Not really a bug, but a major flaw in that they don't work as before. Yes, those hit will become tired but option to knock them out is no longer available.

Health Challenges - August 2017

Most of my viewers know that I'm dealing with a fair number of health issues. The tremor, in particular, has gotten quite bad over this past year. After reviewing all my meds, the plan is to change some of those out for others in hopes of improvement. These all being drugs that effect my brain & nerves, sudden changes cannot occur or it could make things even worse (seizures, stroke, etc.).

After 2 weeks I'm off the 1st one and about ready to start phasing out the next. However, this has made the tremor even worse. I have not given up on doing videos, but I'm not going to post ones that are really horrible either! So bear with me folks, there will be new videos coming eventually!

Journal's Table of Contents

Blogger's software doesn't support menu systems of any sort, so this post will act as a Table of Contents. Posts will be categorized under Headings by Subject so as to make it easier to find what you are looking for.

Table of Contents

• YouTube Gaming Posts

• Banished

• Frequently Visited Posts
• Banished Startup Conditions, Mods List for all Series
• Efficacy Test
• Performance Tweaks for Banished that Work!
• Banished - Red Flags in Mod List
• Posts Relating to Specific Series
• Water World Series Herb Grower Locations
• Status Report - Shipwrecked Banished Series 
• News Posts
• MEGA Mod Now in Public Beta!
• Stable Release for Banished and Other Updates

•  We Happy Few

• Game Saved Game File Location
• We Happy Few - Technicolor Update  

•  Posts Relating to Production

• Software & Hardware in Use
• New Laptop Details
• Recording Fun!
•  Setup Tips
•  OBS Settings for a MSI Gaming Laptop - Fix for no Video
• Getting Things Working Again

• About Athena Artiste

We Happy Few - Game Saved Game File Location

As outlined by seleste [developer] on Steam, the easiest way is to:

"From your Windows desktop, press the Windows key + R together. This will bring up the “Run” dialog. Type in %LOCALAPPDATA%\GlimpseGame and press Ok.

This will bring up a File Explorer window showing the directory where the game stores its local data. You should see a folder called Saved."

Thanks selestefor posting that!

Banished Water World Series Herb Grower Locations

In a comment for Chapter 12 of the Water World Series, I was asked if I had placed any Herb Menders in addition to the Herb Growers. There are 4 on the map by the end of that episode, with some more being constructed near the newer Markets. One area was missed! (Stars indicate location of 4 in operation.)

Banished News - MEGA Mod Now in Public Beta!

Last week Mr. K announced the public beta release for the MEGA Mod. In brief, this is a huge compilation of over 80+ mods created by a wide variety of talented people. Even better is how the work of sorting out load order and conflicts is done for you. That, in itself was a tremendous undertaking! All one has to do is download the archive of the mod, and extract to wherever the mods for Banished reside on your machine. If you've never done a manual install of a Banished mod it is not hard (read directions on the Banished Info website).

The best news of all, for viewers of my YouTube Channel, is the fact the MEGA mod does not interfere with the current mods in use for my ongoing series (Water World). Happily, that can continue for a while. I will, however, start doing a few videos on the MEGA mod quite soon. The interface, for example, for selecting structures to build has been revamped so as to consolidate types. Options, in many cases LOTS of them, are available for all standard building along with some totally new ones. I've only had my hands on it for a few days, so the first videos will be overviews and so forth.

One word of caution, however. Those with older machines may find it impossible to run. The performance tip I wrote about a short time ago would probably help some, so do check that out. I'm seriously considering re-installing Banished and so forth on my old laptop just to give it a whirl. It is 3-4 years old in so far as today's tech, but can run Windows 10 just fine. Until I try that, I can't say too much else! Happy gaming everyone!