Roll up for the great community colony experiement!

Day 32 (colonial time)
I arrived to a colony in despair.
Hunger ran rampant through the colony, and all they could offer was liquor!
That's why they chose me for these few days? To avert the crisis? And what had happened to the other manager before me? Will I ever know?

Probably not.
I set to work.

I stopped all beer production that used precious wheat and went to investigate the kitchen.
It was old and worn out and the crew didn't seem to like it that much. Not at all, honestly.
So I ordered a new kitchen to be built. A small one, just for churning out a quick amount of food.
In the meantime I ordered more food to be foraged and more wood to be chopped. And stopped all non essential productions to free up more people.

All seemed well and good.

Night 32 to 33.
The hunger struck.
Somewhere far from our raw food, some colonists tried to steal back our stolen bottled food from the bandits. But as they approached they got scared and ran until the hunger made them turn back again. A vicious circle!
Some died that night, others took their place in the line.


I had to do something about the "no killing bandits" policy our empire had ordered.
That's when it hit me. Mines! Build and place mines in their camp and then deny ownership of them!

Day 33
Although the empire knew about our dire crisis they tried to send me more colonists. I used my charm to receive none.
At the same time they thought it would be good to occupy the colonists thoughts with some scientific experiments. I agreed and watched the newly dropped box get picked up by the slightly not-so-sane Agamemnon.

Like a child with a new toy he picked it up and started to study it.... moments later he no longer existed.
It was a disaster!
But to further add to my insult a group of Novorusians wanted a piece of the cake. No sire! No More!

No casualties from the Novorusian confrontation. But as I watched my troops in the after-slaughter them I saw something peculiar. Our soldier Guy Mapple went away to a bandit camp and offered them a pistol. I was about to frontier justices him when I decided against it. This requires more study.

Multiple casualties from starvation hit just when the first oven started to churn out delicious stew!

Day 34
The stew got eaten faster than it could be produced. With only one oven in action and two on the way all I could do was wait.


Not long before the nightfall the two remaining ovens were in action. Gracefully the new kitchen crew worked their magic.
I have left the old kitchen standing, as a monument of the deaths it caused.

Before I took the air ship home I made sure the production of the mines were in effect. The crisis is far from over. But with some delicate management at least some of the colonists can survive. As for the rest... Lucky me that the air ship has plenty of food and booze.

 

Great job averting disaster.

I'm going to be pretty busy this weekend and I don't want to rush my turn, so I'll skip this round.

 

Waiting for the current save. I think mrclint uploaded his starting save by mistake

 

Yep! I thought the save's the same file you loaded.
Should be the right one now.

 

Day 35

It took me a while to post this report due to the current state of chaos in the colony.
People everywhere, shops clogged with back orders, the kitchen at a standstill while a giant pile of cabbages and pumpkins lay strewn about
Bandits still taking as they please, and beside the bandits camp is a hellish Bermuda triangle where colonists walk in a circle. For hours. And hours. I'm hoping eventually they'll get tired and come home.

..and then theres this.

Yea.

Suddenly I had an idea.
An awful, wonderful, crazy, terrible idea that just might work.

So we've got these bandits taking all our stuff and frightening our colonists, right?


"Colony Tax" my ass

If we can't get them OUT.. then lets wall them IN!


MUAHAHAHA

This wall is just a test, to see exactly how close we can build to thier camp.
If we're careful, and quick.. we can wall them up before they even know what hit them, and then.. no more bandits.
...at least, no more from this particular group, if we can pull this off.



Day 36

The circle of doom claims its first handful of colonists.



I've forbidden all foraging jobs at the moment, in hopes that the colonists will eventually stop trying to forage near the circle of doom.
I've expanded the graveyard to accommodate. I hope this isn't an omen of some sort..
Later in the day a brigand from a nearby bandit group asked to join us. Apparently word of our Wall has reached far and wide, and they're starting to feel intimidated.



Day 37

The circle of doom claims more innocent souls.



I can only pray the Wall is finished before many more fall victim.

Our graveyard is now nearly as long as our colony is wide.

 

Hey. Seen the save file and will play it sometime today. I'm a bit ropey still, but I'll try to get something entertaining up.

 

Dear Diary

Strange how distant the colony seems after my long negotiations with the fishmother, although oddly I find it hard to remember much beyond her great beauty. I have returned to the colony to bring news of open borders for anyone who wants to walk into the sea and generally promote the superior qualities of the sea.

Immediately on my arrival a bedraggled mob came to me, begging for assistance. What happened to the colony?


Welcome back

I demanded an immediate supply report and headed to the stockpiles. On the way I discovered fields and fields of grim gravestones. Did we even have a cemetery before I left? What on earth had happened in my long absence?


Unable to get a straight answer from anyone, I inspected the stockpiles and found to my horror that while raw food was in abudance, we had 16 meals total fit for civil consummation between about 60 people. Doing the numbers I saw we would be reduced to raw cabbage inside a day.

Investigating the kitchens I found that the staff had defied logic and the previous overseers by shutting down production, to the extent that an entire new kitchen had been built.Unfortunately the overseer is middle class and within his right to manage the production queue as he sees fit.

In the middle of the night, the ministry airpost arrived with a new overseer. I requested an NCO be assigned to us, in fear of needing to defend the stockpiles against a starving mob.


What is going on in this colony?

By this time it was dawn of the first day of my return. Feeling that our food situation was precarious, I ordered the construction of a third large kitchen, as the replacement kitchen seemed barely enough to cope with the needs of 60 odd colonists. I've also started looking into the records for any sulpher sources for use in calming chemical beverages.

Feeling that our food shortage would soon be diminishing, I've also taken the opportunity to give orders for a second metalworks with the intention of using one for ore processing and the other for finished goods in order to get on top of the lengthy work list they are currently dealing with.


End of the first day. Have just discovered we have a secondary mining village developing to the north of us. No one will tell me what is being mined there, but it is apparently important enough to warrant building right next to bandits so I will assume it is iron for the time being and have sent a squad to defend it. In other surprising news, we've received a crate of science, for sciencing - I was unaware we had a lab.

While searching for a source of sulphar, I've happened on our supply of gold, in the hills near the colony. Sensing a promotion opportunity I'm laid out blue prints to enable us to establish a permanent mine to source material for upper class dwellings, which to my shock have yet to be prepared, leaving our best citizens improperly living with their inferiors.

Day 2
Our prepared food stores remain in a critical state, and the new kitchen is still under construction. I've also requested a naturalist to get to the bottom of what some of these mines are producing while feigning disinterest.

To promote the natural order of things, I've authorised the construction of our first upper class dwelling. Not wishing to overtax our crews I've restricted myself to a single building. Promotion surely awaits!


In other good news my naturalist / spy has reported that the mysterious mining village is in fact producing sulphar. I will issue orders to the chemical lab at once! In less good news our science crate apparently contains nothing but his lordships medicine cabinet. I am uncertain of the purpose of this, but the upper class know best - that is why they are the upper class after all.

Dawn of day three. Our food shortage seems to be getting better. We had one case of death by starvation in the night. I've been reviewing our mineralogical surveys with a view toward constructing an iron mine. and it appears we have a few options, but most deposits are a considerable distance from the colony. However there is iron sighted on the cliffs south of the gold mine. I've ordered the space flattened to enabled construction.

And so ends the second authority of MailersMate. I'm returning by airship for my presumed promotion.

Note to next player
As I saved, I got a bunch of x is starving messages, so food is still a little problematic You'll probably want to keep an eye on production.
Also, I am thinking if we establish farms shelter and kitchens at our more remote mines, we could potentially start full blown daughter colonies

 

Paging Dr Fibinachi, paging Dr Fibinachi

 

OK, its looking increasingly unlikely that Fibinachi is going to complete his turn within the time limit. Thoughts on passing the save to Streaky Haddock instead?

I'll default to passing the turn by 11pm UK time unless we get a consensus on not doing that,

 

I don't know time zones, but I think the original 48 hour limit we've got is pretty fair.
The turns tend to go around fairly quickly, and its not exactly a huge list, so he wouldn't be out of the game for long.

 

This is now the 20th most viewed thread on the general board. Been a great pleasure to read and first thread I look to see if updated. Good show fellows.

 

I'm available.

 

OK I'm calling it. The turn is passed to @Streaky Haddock

 

Didn't make progress on this today since the Forums were down all day. I've downloaded the save though, so if it goes down all day tomorrow at least I'll have made some progress

 

Just a note in advance, in case my turn should come up again, I am going camping, and will therefore be away from electricity for a full week, so I will not be able to participate again until the 14th, at the earliest. (It so happens my birthday is on the 12th, so I expect to spend that day scratching bug bites and complaining about the weather.)

 

Isn't the fishpeople attack event currently disabled? Their only hope for a dramatic end is to be slaughtered by Bandits.

 

WHAT, R42 will come out while I'm away camping? Boo.

On the bright side, I see 41E has just gone live. Yay!

 

Day 42

BACK AGAIN LET'S TAKE A LOOK AT THE JOB LIST OOOOOH WHAT A SURPRIIIIIIIISE.
My job ONCE AGAIN is to cut back on the overambitious planning of my colleagues and restore some semblence of order and productivity.
I notice first off that there are tons of broken beds and ovens, tons of building construction orders, and lots of forage orders.
Yet there is no stone or planks.
FIRST JOB: Designate Stone Mining and Plank production so buildings can actually be constructed.


I approve of the massive bunkhouse that'll hold about 20 labourers, but I did a count of every bed and for our 72 colonists (25 of them are middle class, 1 upper class) we only have 34 beds. So no wonder productivity is through the floor, and no wonder half the beds need repairs.

"hey can i join i like not walking around in a circle carrying picked black fungus"



Yes. Yes you can. THIS IS HOW WE SHALL DESTROY THE BANDITS. RECRUITING THEM.

I've also noticed that our people have a distinct lack of COG in their life.
I need to build something grand. Something massive. Something that will stand the test of time, inspire awe and the protection of Divine Mechanics in their heart and draw pilgrims from miles around to WORK INTO THE GROUND.



Thaaaat'll do it. Only trained Vicar was a former Redcoat, and considering we have an abundance of NCOs and no actual fighting, it seemed prudent to reassign here.

Day 43

Welp rip Zachary Minewidow, I have no sympathy, we have food.



He only has himself to blame.

We have 53 buckets of opium, and I need people to help build and repair stuff. So I'm stopping the opium farm for now.
I continue urging on construction efforts, reassigning labourers to construction teams whilst keeping an eye on our food and commodities.



We have a surplus of wheat, and we have the resources to produce Laudanum so I begin whisky and beer production. The Laudanum is very quickly gone, but I suppose it's doing something to fix the cult problem that somebody permitted.





That's it. THEY KEEP FLEEING/STARVING. THAT'S IT. I'm CANCELLING ALL THE GABION/LANDMINE JOBS. Oh. Wait. I can't. WELP. YOU WIN THIS TIME BANDITS.

Stupid Colonists. Stupid bandits. Stupid gabions.


Day 44

Completed the Lower Bunkhouse. Designated another. The Modules aren't being repaired but i'm hoping that's coming soon. A Kitchen blueprint has been sitting with full logs and no stone for a while now.
Metalworks aren't producing anything despite not having any reason not to be producing.
AT least the Mines, Kitchens and Farms work.