On the Road Again; Bottleneck or Bust!

[KoE]

(for something to do while the server's down)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1TD_pSeNelU

[scroll down for the tl;dr version]

Times change. Interest wanes. People fade. And sometimes, your neighbors build a charterstone and unleash a torrent of clueless newbies to set your surroundings awash with pointless clutter, seas of clear-cut logs, and cause your GTalk to do a lively jig as it alerts you to all the trespassers attempting to grope your fir tree. (At least, that's what I assume they were trying to do. I honestly don't know.)
The above is a dramatization. It's not like it's Brodgar. Quite.

When I arrived at my current home, it seemed like an idealistic setting; moderate quality resources all around, broadleaf forest, a handsome grassland not far removed, waterway access without being so close as to attract raiders, and no rowdy neighbors. I quickly set up a camp in which I could better myself so that I might one day go forth and map the Hearthlands, a quill in my hand and a pack filled with parchment. (Oh, how much I trusted in the cartography system not to suck.)

One thing lead to another, though, and soon I found myself settling down more-or-less permanently as the head of a small clan of close friends. The palisade was extended, an idol constructed, and the forest to my south became a handsome block of houses. As time permitted, I engaged in painstaking cartography and scouting of the region, where I discovered Gangband had been looming on the other side of 'my' mountain, presumably for some time. (I still can't believe I missed that.) Cows were tamed, more farms were set up, mines were begged for. Silk production began, we traded for iron, and cellars and a road to the grassland were built.

But all good things come to an end. One villager left, and then another, and the only other remaining soul is somewhat inactive because he is as restless as I am. Today, we abandon Three Oaks, and I head to the land of my old friends. With a wagon loaded with the great majority of our worldly possessions, a few cattle, and the wind at our backs, we start the trek from B2 (-1,1) to D4 (1,-1).

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tl;dr version: I got a writing bug and decided to share my (world 3) H&H life story up until now, in whence I am relocating so I can be closer to my World 1 friends.

Expect a travelogue as it seems I'll be going through some interesting territory.

[KoE]

A few observations I've made during this first leg of the journey (that I am making as I wait for my passenger to come back from some hygienic ritual)

Cows are dumb. Their pathfinding seems to literally turn off when one is on a wagon, and I notice the same thing for gates. Getting the five or so animals that I had to follow me was hell enough; They'd bump into any old thing and then never move, necessitating careful wagon movement or getting off every couple of screens to allow them to path and catch up. I've since given up and just kept the bull and a single cow, which hopefully will be easier to manage.

Wagons are huge. This is hardly insurmountable, but I've gotten stuck twice now (once on a plow hidden behind a tree and once between two trees and a cow - yes, related to the above issue). Looking for clear-ish routes on the minimap really helps things. The control of the whole setup (cow with wagon following pretty close behind) is also a pain, especially if you get stuck and have to click repeatedly to navigate to get back around something.

Server crashes suck. In case you weren't aware.

[Onionfighter]

We await your arrival.

[DeadlyPencil]

what exactly do you plan to do when you hit water?

[KoE]

I don't plan to hit it. Well, not until I encounter the D4/whatever supergrid, at least, since I've got no maps of that area. I've already cleared most of B2 (-1,1), and abusing the fact that the supergrid system ensures landbridges between them means I've got a clear shot to the northwest edge.

From there the plan is to just go around until I find a place suitable to put down roots (if I was unclear, I didn't mean I was actually going to join the actual town, though if you would have me I certainly wouldn't mind that). If there's a lot of water, there'll probably be tears, then I'll either go crazy and set up a temporary camp so I can build a wagon on the other side of the drink, or I'll just give up and consolidate my possessions into two chests and take a boat.

At its core this is sort of a playtest of how much of a pain in the ass it is to relocate without a wagon, so water woes are to be expected, I suppose.

[DeadlyPencil]

oh you plan on walking the edge down all the supergrids? i guess that would work.

[Flame]

is a looong trip, but before they crafted boats, me and my friends travelled the grids in that way, hoping that the river will end soon or not in a crux of other rivers. It take days over days.

When you are on vagon, if server crash, what happen?

[martinuzz]

Safe travels! Hope to see your arrival soon!
I'm not entirely sure how close to us you can get without bumping into a river.
You could party up with one of our members if you arrive in D4, for navigation.

[KoE]

Thank you for the well wishes.

I know I promised a travelogue, but between the time it took and the fact I whiled away quite a bit of the time chatting with folks, that didn't happen. Not to mention travel is a bit boring and I didn't actually see much interesting.

Well, except this:



I don't think that's Flame's work (at least, I didn't match it up with the images in the Mark the World! topic), but it is somewhere on the SW side of the central grid.

With niltrias' help, I managed to get where I was going on D4 despite being mapless (and it went about as well as one would expect when you're getting secondhand instructions - a couple of detours and a couple of outright misses of landmarks).

Ultimately, I think my little experiment of 'pack up (most of) a town and see if I can tote it across supergrids' worked, but it was a big enough pain in the ass I'd rather buy swimming than try it again. With the relative abundance of almost everything, I'm fairly certain I could have consolidated my 'essential possessions' down to an inventory's worth just to save the effort of having to go through a maze of trees with that giant ass of a wagon vaguely following my cow.

Oh, by the way, unloading wagons, to paraphrase jorb, sucks monkey balls. At least when you're trying to put the contents inside a wall.

[Flame]

Welkome to my first Mark, you can see the number with the 1 dot, those are little symbols that make you know where you are. And you are in the Spider Region <3.

So is supposed that you are somewhere inside Spider Region, not so far from the south line region. :3
I need to end that mark, is quite a big work o.o

How much lucky are you to see the ONLY mark in all the world that i'm crafting?? XDD lol.