Let's Cover the Lands in Progress: Gold Release Community Colony

Day 28

Layout:

You see that the laboratory’s roof is broken and enquire how the scientists can work there. You find out that they can’t, as the only scientist Pathena Robinhooke is at the pub already. But it is just morning! The sun just came out! Doesn’t she want to get to work? You decide to search her out later. You will tell her the Hard Cold Truth.

Before leaving for the public house, you sit behind your desk and begin your work on the new town layout. The non-Euclidean geometry of the colony has dominated the view long enough. You set out lamps in such a way that six feet always lie between them. You also relocate the farms, now closer to the kitchen.



Science and might:

That Pathena Robinhooke, who you had read so much good about from the reports of previous bureaucrats on the airship before arriving, is no good. “Salt of the earth,” they had said. Maybe back when she had still worked as a constructor that might have been the case. Well, the woman’s a drunkard now as all scientists usually are. This is one of those sentiments of your father, which you actually share. You would never go into science. In your eyes, it is always so that the simplest methods lead to the best ends. Automated colonies? You’d rather have people. Luckily enough, it seems that your decision to stop prioritizing booze has had a positive effect. The booze is out, so Robinhooke is forced to return to her laboratory. Hopefully she is sober enough to read what she herself has written on the chalkboard. But you have heard stories that scientists don’t follow the same rules of efficiency and productivity as normal people.



You turn your attention to NCO Mudhooke, whose bones and flesh the barber Benedict Carnifex has just fixed. The chemical workshop can stop producing medical supplies for now and begin lacquering planks for the church instead. At the same time on the other side of the colony, the soldiers have just gathered to teach themselves to fight. One of them asks for your assistance. “How do I get better at this war, sir?” You advise him to stand before that pub door and think about it. He doesn’t understand the speech and manners of Capital’s parlours and really does do it. He wouldn’t make a good bureaucrat, but that’s what you like about him. Mudhooke can work with this. You don’t ask for his name though. He really is of the salt sort.


Day 29

Eugenia Steelhatch:

As recommended by a previous bureaucrat (at least you assume so, for the chart they had created was hard to read and translate; there was her name and then a bunch of arrows turning in different directions, twisting into knots but always ending at the same symbol of an eye) you keep your eye on Eugenia Steelhatch. She seems alright, as she has taken away that awful name she had given to the carpentry workshop. It is now called The Jolly Joinery and you think that it’s a good and sound name. She is still often bothered by visions of what she calls ‘sigils’, but at least you can now see her smile at times. You’re worried about her, but at the same time, if something shameful about her were to emerge, you wouldn’t want anyone to speak of you having had a close and caring relationship with her.


Home:

You feel proud at the work you’ve done. It’s welcoming to see the morning bustle of the colony. Fresh maize being picked from the stalks, always more to feed the machine of mankind. At least the food situation is stabilized now.


When the night comes and the lights burn you see that it is in fact a place you would call home. It calls to you somehow, and you accept the call. It feels nice for some reason. What would your father say?


And you’ve finished with your plans for the city layout. You’ve designated a square in honour of the Queen and a road to remember Mudhooke when he dies. This will be a great city one day, and you take a deep breath in satisfaction.



The airship travels home:

But as you grow more attached to the place by the second, the airship arrives for you. You see your father’s face in the window of the pilot’s chamber. You climb the ladder up and feel that maybe, you never wanted to stay. Maybe you were just tired and unstable, having left your real home for the first time in your life. Your father doesn’t speak to you, but hands you a glass of whiskey. He nods at you, meaning to say that he won’t say a word before you have finished your drink. Your father’s manor awaits and you soon forget the memories you had of the colony.

END
[***]
The 10000 character limit and 10 image limit is very annoying, but I understand that there must be a reason for it. Anyways, I hope you enjoyed the read, hopefully it isn't too long. And the different style should also be interesting, though I didn't really utilize its advantages. The character names are highlighted so they would be easier to learn about and remember. I myself have the problem when reading these that it's hard to understand, who is important and who is not. Steelhatch has been in the story before, she's done TWO great works of whisperings, so she's important, I guess. The NCO Mudhooke will probably die soon enough, but I think they are important to mention, as they are bound to get the most action. Sorry about rushing this out, but I need to get back to NaNoWriMo.

Also, I recommend everyone to participate in the community colony. The game really comes alive in a way that it usually doesn't when you focus on the characters and the story by writing about them. The usual gameplay doesn't allow for that.

 

Highlighting the names of significant colonists is really good idea, actually.

 

Sorry for the quick digression, but wow, you're actually doing this! Tried a few years back and couldn't make half the wordcount. Much respect.

 

My hopes for him were to get him to be the second NCO in the colony, and NOT a replacement for a dead one

Anyway, maybe we should really pump the labourer population for soldiers or get a foreign office for reinforcements... we almost lost a third NCO XD

 

Yeah, it's pretty time-consuming, good exercise for the brain though.

 

So, @Jagwithtude , are you in or are you out?

 

@OddProphet I'll give it a go, but I do have a question which might sound dumb, since I am on the experimental branch, how do I get on the stable branch, is it just to re download the game?

 

You can switch back in the Steam menu, I think. Try it first, make sure the version number matches the one in the first post, then grab the save. The list has been edited, by the way.

 

Right click on game in Steam library / Properties / Betas / NONE - opt out of all beta programs

You'll be able to retain saves from your earlier experimental games, so no worries.

 

Ah cool, so its that easy, Just tested the save out and it works I take it I'm up? If so I will start later in the day as it's 3 am here.

 

You are indeed, make the Empire proud!

 

Well righty-ho then, I will try my best to make the Empire proud.

 

Well, that was fun, nothing really exciting happened no one died but we did go past 30 pop (38) I will do my write up in a bit.

 

I eagerly await word of Benedict Carnifex and Eugenia Steelthatch.

 

Not to give too much away, both Eugenia and Benedict were fine when I left them, although Benedict was going a bit stir crazy working in such a little barber shop and was annoying all of the other colonists by singing rather loudly and in a tone deaf voice a few songs from Rossini's opera The barber of Seville, thus in time saw himself as Figaro, he came to me with a request to change his name legally to Figaro but thinking Figaro was a tad silly but he begged me, a grown man on his knees begging, really a terrible sight, so I decided for the good of the colony and it's ears, to let him be known from this day forth as Barber Ofseville. He was so happy he cried gave me a big hug and went on his merry way, now, he only sings while tending to his barber duties in quieter tones but still sadly he is tone deaf.

Thus my time in the colony was rather delightful, more to come.

 

Finally, I am home once again, after washing the dirt and stench off my body I thought it would be a good time to write in my journal of the adventures I had in our fine colony.
But how should one start this tale? Should I start by writing I Lovisa Bengtsdotter, being of sound mind and body, no, no, no, that's not right at all, I am not writing my last will and testament, how about, To whom it may concern this is a faithful narrative of my time in our glorious colony, Yes that sounds much better.



To whom it may concern this is a faithful narrative of my short time in our glorious colony,

Sunrise day 30, I arrived safely although a bit disheveled, the colonists were all ready busy starting their morning tasks and were in no mood to direct me to the foreign office and being new here it took me quite a bit until I found it, to my surprise it was empty and looked like no one had been there for some time, no wonder the empire was upset, I must remedy this at once. After several tries I finally found my way to the public house, it was full of people enjoying cups of tea before starting their daily jobs, as I stood there watching all of this, a very shy man came up to me and asked "if I was the new junior bureaucrat?" I replied, "indeed I am my name is Lovisa Bengtsdotter and who might you be?" He introduced himself as Mr Chainbreaker and he wanted to have a word with me, he asked me if I had been to the foreign office yet and in which state I found it? I told him that "yes, indeed I found it and it looked like it hadn't been used in a while" His reply to me was was that the colonists didn't think it was that important in their day to day living so had abandoned it a bit a go. He told me "I looked like someone that knows the importance of paper work" and asked me if I would give him that job? Which of course I did so forthwith.

Let me now introduce you to Mr Chainbreaker plus an assistant of his choosing.
(please note these photos are my own tintypes of what went on while I was there)



With that having been sorted it was on to other things, as I went about checking on what everyone was doing I noticed that we had a mine that while yes, it was working and had already mined a lot of clay, sand and stone I thought we as a colony should disable it as it had no ore deposits and was frankly in the way, so good bye mine you served us well and also freed up a spot to build something else and I didn't know when if any new Immigrants would arrive seeing that we were in minus standing with the empire. tsk, tsk you fools for leaving the foreign office empty for so long, we did manage to write a few positive assessments and send them away while I was there.

Back to assessing the rest of the colony, I noticed that we only had Professor Plumb (I promise I will get to her later) in the lab and nothing was getting done so I removed a few farm hands and put them to work in the lab right away, Professor Plumb decided that we need to start our research with the military which I wholeheartedly agreed, thus ends day one of my journey.

Day two of my journey was spent re organizing a few of the living quarters as I would not have enough time making or adding new beds or decor to them I just changed them up a bit and used what we had in our stockpiles thus bringing the decor value up. The day was otherwise uneventful, *note to self colonist can be so grumpy when there is not enough food or for that matter booze. end note to self* I noticed the kitchen had too many spice racks and not enough ovens, So I asked the cook, now what was her name again? I can't seem to recall, anyway I'll just call her "the cook" for now. So I asked the cook, "wouldn't it be better if we had less spice in the food but more food in our bellys?" she gave me a sideways glance and mumbled something I didn't quite catch under her breath, I took that as a yes and promptly removed said extra spice rack and replaced it with one more oven. I was so proud of myself, that I Lovisa Bengtsdotter was making life in this colony so much better, even if they didn't think so.
My next stop was to the ceramics workshop, where I met the lovely Dorian Iron and his pet Dodo, what a fully little creature it was too.



I asked him if he had a name, Dorian just gave me a sad look and said no, I think this was because he knew that once a naturalist office was built it would be good bye to mr dodo.
It was now tea time and everyone left their work and went into to public house for tea, at least I hope it was tea as I don't think it is right to be drinking booze in the middle of the day, anyway I happened upon Barston Mudhooke, Pathena Robinhooke and a few others enjoying a rousing game of cludeo, it turned out it was Mrs White with the candlestick in the ballroom, funny that, When all of a sudden Barston Mudhooke stood up and made the startling declaration that he was hench forth to be called Colonel Mustard and asked me if I could draw up the papers to have it so, seeing that he was the NCO of the colony I told him "yes, I would get right on it" then suddenly Pathena Robinhooke said "well then if he can change his name than so can I and I choose Professor Plumb" everyone had a great laugh and started singing silly songs.*note to self, don't forget to file this paperwork, noting that we now have a military ranking in place as well, end note to self* We had one other person whose name was changed to Barber Ofseville which you can read about in the above letter..

Toward the end of the early evening we did have a bit of excitement I got to see our military run hither and yon chasing after the dreaded fishmen, which they killed with glee, I think it had something to do with their new ranks

.

Thus day two ended with nary a thing left to do.

Day three, This was to be my final day well at least for this round anyway, and it was a great day as well, quite a few changes were made, I know that we needed a chapel but we did not have enough lacquered planks to make one, I only found this out after I had ordered a wooden alter, so I abandoned that to build a Naturalists office instead, all that was needed was a rifle locker and a desk which the carpentry workshop was happy to supply and just in time because not long after I assigned Zora Steelgrass to the job and had supplies delivered, we had a ravenous herd of beetles show up, which I was able to mark for the kill.



Now there should not be any problem acquiring the lacquer to build the new chapel. As soon as word got round that the colony would be getting the long awaited chapel the barkeep Rooster Goldencowl told me that he would like to change jobs and become the new vicar, which of course I told Him "yes, why not as long as you have a replacement here at the public house?" when lo and behold Phoebe Pendlehewer spoke right up and said she would gladly take the job. I was a little hesitant at first when I noticed she was a bit of a drunkard but Rooster Goldencowl looked at me with pleading eyes and I though, I'm leaving today let someone else deal with Phoebe Pendlehewer as the new barkeep. So although we still don't have a chapel we do have a vicar Goldencowl in our little colony.

Before I leave all of you I would just like to add (patting myself on the back) that we finally on my last day here had 2 new overseers and 7 count them 7 labourers arrive to our glorious colony, our trading post has been changed so now we will get 9 traders and our reputation with Republique Macanique has improved.

I leave you now with a heavy heart, Cog save the queen, pip pip cheerio and all that.





Fare thee well until next we meet.

Yours faithfully,
Lovisa Bengtsdotter

*note to self perhaps, I should become a dentist instead of a Junior Bureaucrat, this was hard, end note to self*

 

This photo tech is out of control.

 

Is that good or bad?

 

[QUOTE="Jagwithtude, post: 121141, member: 35895"
I leave you now with a heavy heart, Cog save the queen, pip pip cheerio and all that.
Fare thee well until next we meet.

Yours faithfully,
Lovisa Bengtsdotter

*note to self perhaps, I should become a dentist instead of a Junior Bureaucrat, this was hard, end note to self*[/QUOTE]

Have to love "The Bloodletter of Seville or thereabous" < 8_)

 

My little name play on the barber of seville, I tend to rename my colonists just so I can keep track of them, Winifred Woodhouse for my carpenter, Basil Baker in my kitchen, then if I ever have to unassgn them when they are not needed for a bit, I know which workshop to put them back in.