IMBACORE'S "Let's Play Clockwork Empires" Series

IMBACORE's Let's Play Clockwork Empires Series


Part 1 - Tutorial: Building, Farming, Stockpiling

Part 1:

Part 1 - Where we learn how to build basic structures (carpentry workshop, low-class house, and the kitchen shown here), set up stockpiles (including a graveyard), and how to farm. We successfully make a self-sufficient community in this video, with our first batch of colonizers staving off starvation with their produce.

Skip to 9:24 for the gameplay proper if you don't like watching changelog discussions.

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Questions for Part 1:

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Part 2 - Wrapping Up the Tutorial

Part 2:

Part 2 - Where we learn how to set rally points and make our 3-man military move to specific locations.

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Questions for Part 2:

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Part 3 - Player Gains the Character Trait "Confused"

Part 3:

Part 3 - Where we finally figure out how to complete that errant kitchen, lose our NCO to fishmen and bandits, and conscript several colonists into our military to make up for the loss.

And oh, here I miss several in-game prompts and get confused.

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Questions for Part 3:

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Part 4 - Where we make a carpentry workshop and stave off the first protracted bandit and fishmen raids!

Part 4:

Part 4 - Where we make a carpentry workshop and stave off the first protracted bandit and fishmen raids!


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Questions for Part 4:

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Part 5 - More Colonist Meat for the Grinder!

Part 5:

Part 5 - Where we encounter cryptic error messages, try to make gabions to safeguard our stockpiles, and enjoy a healthy influx of new colonists.

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Questions for Part 5:

 

1) It could be that, or it could just be them being lazy. They will sometimes just stand around for no good reason.

2) No, this is normal in the sense that crews will do the next job on the list and if you have other things to do it can take a little while. There was some fighting and some farms that needed tending, so that's probably why.

3) I do not know if that is in the tutorial, but the only way is to use the "set rally point" option within the work crews tab under each crew. It does not guarantee anything, but it helps. They can still be quite stupid and carry stuff or whatnot. Military logic is still WIP, though it is getting noticeably better month by month.

4) Uh, that is a good question. Maybe artifacts or something like that? I never really pondered about that before.

5) Yep. It will take a little time until it kicks in, but usually within 10-15 seconds they will run to the stockpile and get a weapon. As with other logic it does fail once in a while, but he should go and pick it up sooner rather than later.

6) You did not have any stone needed to build that oven I think.

7) As a wiki contributor I must admit that there is no article on memories yet! *Scurries away* You are right that these are important and if I get some time I will sit down and look through every single possible memory in order to write an exhaustive article. For now I did a small stub covering the basics.

Also I have only skimmed your video right now, though I think I will watch it properly when I have a bit of downtime during the weekend. Always interesting to see a new perspective on things.


Feel free to ask more questions as I'm sure I or other people can answer them in a timely manner

 

1 and 2: Ah. Thanks!

3. Yeah I finished Part 2 of my video and found that out.

4. It's odd that the devs have made a very vague umbrella term icon. Help?

5. What happens if bandits steal all the extra weapons? I can make some with the more advanced buildings right?

6. Yeah, I just noticed that there are "x/y" pop ups whenever I hover on unfinished blueprints. Still can't make heads and tails out of the small drawings though.

7. Hopefully you guys can finish that. For now I am at a loss on how to assuage fears and inhibit murderous thoughts.

Adding Part 2 in a bit...

EDIT: Part 2 added

 

On the 3 part. yep, though requesting might be easier via supply drop;

Also on the wiki side it has been slow over the holidays, but I hope to make some soon again!

 

Added Part 3.

Thank you Rahbek23 and Nicholas!

You guys might want to read my questions about video #3; it does contain some serious concerns. Confusion aside, game still rocks!

 

Hey Imbacore, I've been watching your videos too, good stuff. In particular, I've been watching to see what parts of the game new players might have questions about, to give some directions toward our efforts in the Wiki.

Regarding some of your questions in video 3:

What's up with the Work Crew interface?

Each row in the Work Crew list is an individual crew, and the Colonist in the leftmost portrait is that Crew's Overseer. In a Military Squad, the Overseer is an NCO. If you convert a regular Crew into a Militia, they get brown uniforms instead of the red ones professional soldiers get. Militia are not quite as good as soldiers, but they're better than nothing.

Colonists and soldiers must be in a Crew with an Overseer / NCO to work on Workshop assignments - Colonists not in a Crew will still do some things, like farming and hauling, but that's about it. Soldiers not in a Crew won't rally and will generally just operate on autopilot.

The very top row of the Work Crew list is actually a list of colonists who are not assigned to a Crew - you can drag them into Crews manually, or use the +/- buttons.

How do I call in the Favour from the Empire?

The Favour is an event just like the Immigration or Supply Drop, it happens every couple of days. Just like the other events, you need to click the icon that pops up in the lower right corner - in your video, you missed the icon, so you missed the event (the icon appears as the flag of the Empire, which closely resembles a British flag with a cog in the middle). When you click it, you'll get a menu of goodies to choose from.

Also, if you're confused about game mechanics and stuff, I too have Youtube videos which you can find in my signature.

 

Thank you Alephred!

This still leaves these questions unanswered though:

1. How do I make the veteran soldiers be the NCO of the newly-conscripted group? (That is, I want the brown-uniformed NCO to be just a common soldier and upgrade one of my common, red-uniformed soldier to be the NCO of the new military unit.)

2. Once you've missed the "Make new NCO" prompt, how do you fix that?

3. What are the functions of the building modules? Example if I make a kitchen without a spice rack or a hanging pots module, how will that affect the kitchen? These things aren't clear at this point in time.

4. Any way to store stockpiles in safer environs? I'm not too comfortable about muskets lying out in the open.

Thanks!

 

Soldiers and NCOs still obey social class conventions. NCOs and overseers are middle class, foot soldiers and labourers are lower class. You can't put a lower class colonist in charge of another lower class colonist, that Just Isn't Done, old chap.

(You can however drag ordinary colonists into a real military squad, at least you could when I last tried it; they will don militia garb and play at being a real soldier. If you put a foot soldier in a regular work crew, last I checked they change to civvies, but will put the red coat back on if the work crew is conscripted or they're moved back to a real squad.)

The deciding trait between the two is Military Training. Some lower class migrants will arrive with this trait but not the soldier profession -- drag them into squads and they will become redcoats. Overseers with this trait may become (effectively) NCOs if their crew is conscripted, but I haven't tried this yet. Also, I believe a recent changelog mentions Military Training provides a significant combat damage bonus.

Modules not tied to jobs or pathing (ie doors/loading bay) are purely decorative. ...For now.

 

1) can't be done. Yet at least.

2) can't be done. Which is a bit silly, and you'll have to hope that you get a replacement nco via immigration.

3) Many modules are purely aesthetic at this point, such as the spice rack. Should be clearer which are what though.

4) nope. You can always make one and surround it I'm gabions only.with weapons if you really want... But not really a way to lock them up.

 

Thanks Rahbek23 and Wolg!

1. I hope they tweak this; would make the game better.
2. I hope they fix that; mighty inconvenient.
3. Ah! But eventually the will fulfill a purpose right?
4. The next best thing I suppose. Thanks!

"You can't put a lower class colonist in charge of another lower class colonist, that Just Isn't Done, old chap. "

Makes sense lol!

"
(You can however drag ordinary colonists into a real military squad, at least you could when I last tried it; they will don militia garb and play at being a real soldier. If you put a foot soldier in a regular work crew, last I checked they change to civvies, but will put the red coat back on if the work crew is conscripted or they're moved back to a real squad.)
The deciding trait between the two is Military Training. Some lower class migrants will arrive with this trait but not the soldier profession -- drag them into squads and they will become redcoats. Overseers with this trait may become (effectively) NCOs if their crew is conscripted, but I haven't tried this yet. Also, I believe a recent changelog mentions Military Training provides a significant combat damage bonus."

Thanks for the heads-up!

'Modules not tied to jobs or pathing (ie doors/loading bay) are purely decorative. ...For now."

You and Rahbek made the same comment; it's a consensus. Thanks for the info!

By the way Part 4 is up (with more questions).

 

I watched your part 4, and I noticed you weren't able to figure out how to automate workshop jobs, specifically food orders in the kitchen (although this applies to every workshop):

Standing Orders



You can see each food order in the Kitchen Workshop interface has its own row of buttons, from left to right:

• increase / decrease priority
• food icon
• order name and quantity
• Switch Job Order Type
• increase quantity
• decrease quantity
• cancel order

I suspect you missed the Switch Job Order Type button (it's the one with the icon that looks like a stockpile), which toggles between single order and standing order status:



A Standing Order means that the Work Crew will continue manufacturing a particular order any time the quantity in the stockpile is less that the number in the Order.

What's up with these Icons?

You also had some confusion regarding the notification icons that pop up, signifying certain events. Some are interactive, and some are not.

Interactive icons (left-click to interact, right-click to ignore):

Fishman attack - left click for menu
Bandit raid - left click for menu
Supply drop - left click for menu
Immigration - left click for menu
Favour from the Empire - left click for menu
Colonist death (left-click to zoom to death location)
Replacement NCO - left click for menu
Gabion destruction (left-click to zoom to location)
Starvation - left click to zoom to starving colonist

Non-interactive notifications (right-click to dismiss):

Increasing Cult Power
Crops withering / destroyed

 

FINALLY!! THANKS ALEPHRED!

"I suspect you missed the Switch Job Order Type button" --- Oh hell no! How could I have missed that! ) Thanks man! I think I was so busy making commentaries that I didn't read (or it didn't register lol!) the last word ("type"). I think I focused too much on the word "switch" and I thought it functioned the same way as the queue buttons; thought pushing it would "switch" the second task to the top of the first one. I suck haha! But thanks man!

About the interactive buttons, yeah, that dawned on me soon as I finished Part 4.

Glad to know that the community here is a robust one! Thanks for the tips!


Question: Any plans of patching in more military structures? Or are the gabions and the mines the only things in the military defense side of things?

 

It's a stated dev goal from the blog that they want positioning and logistics to dominate reflex clicking for combat, so almost certainly.

I'm waiting for the minim gun...

 

That the more portable version of the Maxim Gun?
Terrible joke I apologise

 

Posted several questions on the Steam forums but no one replied.

Posting here instead (copy-pasted):

 

Current experimental builds are slightly broken for job priorities and interruptions; which version?

Soldiers (normally) leave their weapons on stockpiles accepting "tools and weapons", or the ground if no such stockpile is available, when they go to sleep... but the aforementioned breakages in experimental may be affecting this too.

 

Did you say part 5 had been uploaded? Because I can't seem to find it on your channel. Perhaps it's set as 'Private'?

 

Yeah sorry about that. I got sidetracked by RL priorities so I had to keep it private. Updating my OP...

DONE! Updated!

 

Forums won't let me add more videos to the OP so I'll post it here:

Part 8 - The Militia Proves Its Worth

Part 8:

Part 8 - Where everything starts to go right: the militia prove to be reliable explorers and combatants---and finally here, gabions get constructed! Construction of a middle class house goes underway and we raise our prestige to three.



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Questions for Part 8:

3:17 - how do you force colonists to explore?
3:45 - how do you cancel "explore" nodes?
6:03 - devs you have to make the prompts more attention grabbing Jurassic Park: Operation Genesis did a good job at this.
17:22 - you need tables and chairs to make colonists eat? What happens if they just eat near a stockpile? Is there a disadvantage doing the latter?

18:25 - How do you get rid of the red squares?

18:41 - What would happen if you built lower class doors (or any other fixture for that matter) on middle and upper class houses?

22:49 - How do you take care of "missing loadout" prompts? Create weapons-producing buildings?

24:04 - A click-and-drag mechanic for creating walls and stuff would be more convenient. For an example, Jurassic Park: Operation Genesis implemented this.




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