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

Our first and so far only Community Colony can be found here and ended about as well as one could expect. With the release of Clockwork Empires, it's high time this game got the round-robin clusterfuck it deserves. For those new to the idea of community colonies, here are the ground rules, lifted shamelessly from the beta community colony:

• Each player in line will play for three in-game days, post what happened (screenshots encouraged) and post their save for the next player. You can do less if you're time-strapped, but please try not to go much over three days on your turn, even in the middle of Interesting Times.
  
• Each player has approximately two real world days in which to either take their turn, or inform us that they must forfeit their turn to the next player. Otherwise, the colony will move on to the next player without your input.
• Please don't intentionally try to destroy the colony. It's poor sportsmanship.
• While not trying to destroy it outright, players may make things Interesting, should the opportunity present itself.
• Remember that death and failure are inevitable. Don't worry if a decision you made with good intentions leads the colony down the path to hell. We'll either claw our way out or look exquisite as we burn.
• For the time being, Mac users need not apply. Gaslamp is working hard to bring Civilization to the Apple Frontier, but going gold took priority.

We will begin this Saturday (the 29th of October) so we have time to iron out logistics. Post below if you want in!

Brave Colonial Management:

OddProphet
Cthulhu_Awaits
Unforked
Puzzlemaker
Alephred
Noratoxin
Jagwithtude

 

This is interesting... I will offer my services to the Empire.

 

Ah good, here we go! You will make a fine host.

I'm in, of course... Hopefully I'll have time for my turn.

 

Count me in!

 

@Nicholas Are you the one to ask about cross-platform save compatibility?

 

It's fine. It's not like it's already on the subreddit or anything.

whoops

 

You just have to explicitly define the platform you will use.

 

Lower priority, though. I have lived with it for this long...

 

MUAHAHAHAHAHAHA

The thread here and on r/clockworkempires has been edited to point out this restriction.

 

Count me in!

Just a note, there have actually been two community colonies prior to this one.

 

Glad you're onboard.

Despite this minor inaccuracy, I think we can still say that this is the first Community Colony on release. Let's make it memorable!

 

I'd like to participate. I'm ready for some communal .

 

This is it. The first great Land War since the discovery of the Polycephalic Islands, and we're the first wave. But the Foreign Office, in its wisdom, has decided that this war will be won not by bullets, but by bureaucracy. By sending dozens, possibly hundreds of citizens out to this strange new continent, we will be able to capture the majority of this territory by right of common law: should a Foreign Power attempt to enforce some nonsense like “eminent domain” or “contractual obligations” we may simply claim prima nocte cum matre natura, or so the Foreign Office calls it, and see them off without firing a shot. Critically, this plan will only work if we can actually make the wilderness look like a proper colony: housing, industry, a proper Public House, that sort of thing. My status as Junior Bureaucrat (Colonial Grade) has given me my choice of landing locations. We need someplace warm, but with plenty of lumber, and rich soil so we don't all starve to death...



There! Sun, land, and water! The perfect landing zone: the only possible issues are the encroachment of disease from the swampland and the potential for conflict with the Grossherzoginnentum von Stahlmark. Both problems can be alleviated with the expenditure of manpower, of course: natural selection will winnow the weak from the genetic pool through disease, and fresh companies of redcoats can be conscripted virtually at will from the population. After all, what can those poor buggers do? Go home?



I was given a small pamphlet entitled “The Prudent Bureaucrat's Guide to Colonization” as the airship was preparing for liftoff. “Prudent Guide” indeed! This pamphlet, according to its front coverlet, was written by a “Captain Nicholas Strangeways”, noted Con Artist and Laudanum Fiend, doubtlessly designed to pervert my colony's priorities and cloud my mind. I threw it over the side as soon as I was out of sight of land.



A gaggle of likely-looking sorts to be sure, but they nearly ran to the ship when their recruitment papers were signed. The basics of colonial management require that the earth must be beaten before it submits, like a horse or dog. That means lumberjacking, mining convenient boulders for usable stone, and flattening the land for suitable building plots. All this pristine wilderness will, someday soon, be a thriving colony, packed with formerly degenerate Poor and Unfortunates put to work by our industrious Middle Classes.



After tea-time today a bizarre cross between a chicken and a duck crossed by our worksite. Fearless to the point of suicide, the plump creature took bits of debris and overturned sod to create a nest not far from our landing zone. As I looked on the creature, I was struck by an epiphany. This brave creature, caring not for the thoughts of those outside its kind, took the bounty of the land and made a home for itself wherever it pleased! And judging from the calls I heard from the creature, and matching calls from all points in the day, there must be at least a dozen more within mere walking distance! It is clearly a sign from the Holy Cog: this creature has the strength necessary to tame this land and make it its own, and if we are to thrive here we must emulate its bravery! I shall write immediately to the Foreign Office for permission to commission a medal commemorating our beach-head into the unknown: The Royal Order of the Dodo!



Half the staff got into an argument over what precise level the ground should be for suitable construction. I eventually had to assign half the colony to other, non-flattening related tasks in order for the schism to dissolve, but that's half a day's labor wasted.

Day 2



Due to the loss of half a day's labor to the schism, I've had to move my timetable forward. The stockpile had to be placed wherever there was room: this had the added effect of ending the schism: now everyone knows precisely how far up the ground must be to be built on.



Never mind. The schism continues. I've had to laboriously re-assign each individual dig team and balance out a theo/geological dispute at the same time.



I don't know if that's the same bird, but the creature appears quite comfortable even around the chaos of a digsite with half-built stockpiles. It's this sort of unruffled behavior that we must emulate! Despite the stress and discomfort of this alien frontier, we must press on, lips stiff and backs straight!



The colonists are beginning to complain of lack of shelter. This sort of low, crass complaining is exactly why I left. Don't these fools know that if they simply worked harder they could have a nice wooden floor to sleep on, complete with roof? Instead they simply whiled their days away arguing about distances from the “water table” and some such nonsense.

Day 3 will be in the next post.

 

Day 3



Some colonists are concerned about our lack of militia. This is natural: between the Stahlmarkians (no doubt stalking the moors and waiting for an opportunity to strike, the sausage-eating cowards) and the rumors of massive horned quadrupeds roaming the woods, a few redcoats wandering about would do wonders for morale. Once we've made progress flattening the land, we shall see about building a Barracks.



Enough land has been flattened to really begin construction in earnest. Carpentry is of course priority one: we have food enough for several days, and any roof is good enough for these hardy souls. Wooden construction, however, is the rule of the day out here. Until we can get a proper Ceramics Workshop up and running we can't get good practical brickwork – without which we can't really have proper housing. Despite these logistical limitations, everyone was cheered to see that even out here, Clockworkian drive can put its mark on nature! If we had a Public House, I would call for a toast.

Mildred Fladgate has volunteered to defend the colony almost before the Barracks was finished! Surprised at her boldness, I inquired as to why she was so eager for the posting. She smiled, perhaps a little too wide, and noted that she wished only to witness the death of the enemies of the empire. I allowed it, of course – her military record made her an obvious choice. I only hope she won't become...overzealous.



Nellie Crimbleelm found some sort of seeds from a monstrous grain. The plant appeared as tall as a person, with a yellow cylinder emerging from the top like the stamen of a flower. Tearing some small seedlings off the cylinder at random, Nellie popped them in her mouth and explained to me (mouth full, the degenerate) that it was perfectly edible, and may be more healthful when boiled. Not remarking on her firm grasp of the obvious (what isn't more healthful when boiled?), I permitted her to begin a small farm plot some distance from the stockpile, just in case the flowering process releases some sort of toxin.



Night falls. It will be my last night here for some time – the airship containing my relief should be arriving at sunrise. The groundwork for Progress has largely been completed: terrain has been flattened, stone quarried, and lumber gathered. I can feel nature relaxing into our firm grip already! Compounding this good news, the colony's first house has been constructed! I can't imagine anyone of decent stock actually sleeping in there, but the house is entirely functional for the limited needs of the Labouring Classes.



Despite the new construction, most of the colony has chosen to sleep in the barracks. This is, I suppose, understandable. Most of the initial colonists are of middling stock, and have higher standards than the Lower Classes. It still does seem unseemly to sleep where fighting colonists do their training or gunsmithing or whatever it is that they do, but it's better than sleeping right next to an active Carpentry Workshop, I suppose.



Sunrise appears, and I can see the end of my first term on the horizon. As the airship drifts low enough to release the ladders, I see a pair of fresh-faced Labourers clamber down. Pointing them in the direction of Civilization (the poor creatures would get lost without my direction), I climb up the ladder and wait for my replacement to disembark and the airship to bring me home. Once home, I shall file for permission to commission that medal...

 

Nice narration! Who's the next Burocrat in the line?

 

You, in point of fact.

 

Oh, so it's in the order of reply? You caught me off guard!!
Ok, I'll take the first Airship to the Frontier! A detailed report will follow tomorrow morning, I hope it won't take me too much time to write it, since I still have a lot of electrochemistry to do... [ I live in the Central Europe Time Zone, so right now it's nearly 21:00 of the 30th of October ]

Edit:

Spoiler: first impressions

I just finished the three days, and collected quite a bit of material to narrate... tomorrow I'll put it on the forum, with corrections and more thoughful elaboration, with a cold mind. I did some, well, "interesting" decisions. I hope I've not put in too much danger the colony this early on...

 

Sunrise of Day 4

And I'm here, on the Frontier. A shabby outpost. Desolate wilderness. Ugly animals. No steady supply of food. Barely enough resources. I made some terrible decisions in my life. Yet here I am, and regrets will get me nowhere. It's time to do some Bureaucracy.

Spoiler: The Outpost

This initial outpost is nothing to brag about: 3 buildings in total, and one in custrutcion. An empty barrack, a functioning carpentry, and an empty laburer block house. No cots, even though my predecessor planned to five in it. Enough but not much in terms of resources in the registry. All and all it could be worse. There could be cultis...

First things first: we need to supply the colony with food. Hungry people work badly and tend to gaze your back in a uncomfortable strong way... The farm is still on early stages, but ee need the kitchen up and runnign as soon as possible. So I decided to sacrife our soldier to speed construction. We will go nowhere following the obtuse training of muscles of a local militia. To be honest I hardly endure the sight this waste of manpower and gunpowder: progress is made via industry. And military progress is made with Knights! Knights to crush the enemy and strike the earth. And since wood is never enough, more trees will fall.

I never had a good opinion of fauna of the frontier. To be honest, I don't have a good opinion of any fauna at all. Unless it's served finely coocked and with a large amount of sauce.

Spoiler: Faune

Dodos. What an annoying creature. Too stupid to recognize the danger that surrounds them, they wander around the buildings. They will soon become a fine product of our kitchen.

The kitchen is finallt built and I discover that my predecessor didn't even bother to forage something to cook. A fresh Bureaucrat, I suppose? Well, our dear Zora Stellgrass will have to wait a bit, before getting to work on the stoves...

End of Day 4.

Progress has been made: this outpost now has a kitchen, and we have some fungus to cook tomorrow. The bunkhouse is filled with cots, but the labourses are the only ones the have enough guts to sleep on them: all the overseers choose to sleep on the floor. And I can't really blame them for doing so. I, instead, prefer to not sleep at all. In the Ministry I heard too many stories of Bureaucrats that woke with a knife firmly planted on their back. Well, it's not like they woke up at all...

Spoiler: Sleeping decisions

Sunrise of Day 5

Reports have arrived from the airships patrolling and supplying the Empire's settlements on the frontier. Strange creatures have been sighted wandering near our outpost. I hope these reports to be the result of a mistakes, the miasma that arises from the swamp can take strange shapes. And maybe a bit of booze while on service helped getting things confused...
Nonetheless, I shall not understimate the dangers of the land: I'll readily reinforce the militia, in case there is some trouble that can be solved by force.

Those stupid birds prove to be usefully stupid: a really easy prey to hunt. Their meat might me not that bad...

Spoiler: dodlicious birds

It's an Overcast Day. I was too optimistc: the frontier can become even more awful than I expected. The good thing is that at least the colonists doesn't seem to mind it that much. Stupid colonists.

The reports were tragically correct: no strange cloud of miasma in the swamps, but some dull looking monstrous scaly creatures. We could smeel the strong reek of rooten fish well before the could tell their monstrous shape in the woods. Apart from their general shape they don't share anything with humanity. From feet to their vacous fishy and malevolent gaze, they are monsters! And as such they must be eradicated from the Empire's new lands! Sergeant, to arm!

Spoiler: The creatures have come

The creature fled into the woods. No guts spilled on the ground. Those things are still lurking in the darkness and miasma.

The Frontier showed it's eldritch side to us, but that will not stop our pursuit of progress! And progress shall be made! We now need to establish a steady supply of building materials, while wood is far from being available to our farmers, and is still abundant in our surroundings, we can't seriouly rely on the occasional surface nodes of minerals to build an industrial and fluorishing colony of the Empire! Maybe the dull Novorusians may rely on what the nature has to offer. But not the loyal subjects of the Queen! We need to strike the earth and conquer the deep! An initial small mine has to be established, and with it a ceramic workshop to produce glass and bricks, materials needed to build more proper housings than the shack we have right now.

Those horrible creatures attacked us! The militia made a short time of them. We shall not fear the Eldritch! While being more harmful than the dodos, they might be an equally useful source of food for our initial outpost. Only, don't let the eater know what the recipe is... Sausages may be a good way to not upset our good fellows. Luckly, I've been enough time on the Frontier to bring with me enough food supplies from the Empire.

Spoiler: A new food source?

Day 6

Spoiler: Fresh cannon fodder

Immigrants arrive. 2 labourers. New workforce for the colony! What a wonderful news! The mine needs arms! With this we have our fist miner squad, our first step towards the prosperity of the colony!
The ceramic workshop is complete! What a good day for progress! (When is airship coming?)

Decor is meeded to make a proper colony, and alleviate the awfulness of this place. Two decor benches have been commisioned, one for the carpentry, and one for the ceramics workshop.

Evening of Day 6

(Fot the Cog's sake, where is my airship??)

Dorian Iron seemed a good bet for the worshop. He's a serious worker, and doesn't pay attention to the small details details of his workplace. Productivity is what mateers. Such a good fellow!

Spoiler: A rare colonist

Some results from the indigenous crops. I hope they will be edible enough for our colonists...
(Why isn't the airship showing?)

Spoiler: Growth