I knew a long-term issue was slowly creeping up on me. I was depleting my local area of resources. The amount of time it was taking to get wood and other supplies back to my main village was starting to have negative effects. I was just not expecting it to take as long as it did.
All the way back on day 66, which feels like forever now. I could see the receding line of trees around my main village. I had to put up more gathering markets further away to keep things going smoothly.
I knew we would really be in big trouble once I depleted the three sections of forest I was chopping down for hardwood. While day 120 was far off from day 66 with the issue started to be felt around day 90. Once those resources were gone, the walk to get more was going to be massive. It was going to be a huge issue. I also had no idea at the time just how long or not I had.
Short term, the solution was just building roads out to different areas. This allowed some quicker travel both for my villagers and myself. I, however, knew it was not going to be a long-term solution. Roads were just going to be part of the solution to help resolve the issue long-term.
I ended up finding another area filled with trees that I wanted to farm. I then started to build an outpost in the middle of nowhere. It was not so far away that I'd spend all day running to and from it. It was, however, at enough of a distance that it just felt stupid to be hauling trees back from that location as I had been. Let alone for my villagers.
What I was not expecting was the amount of infrastructure to get an outpost up and running. If I assist any worker at the actual outpost. They just became a worker for it, but it’s not like they will go out and gather. So, at some point, I'd need to build the different kinds of gathering huts out here.
There is also another issue. Do I want villagers walking home every night from my outpost? While it was sure possible. That just seemed like a lot of wasted time. So, I'd need at least one cottage to house the few people I wanted to be working there.
These people were also going to need things like water, food, tools, and so forth. For some of the things, like clothing, I felt I might as well have them walk back down for something like that. It would be a once-in-a-year type of ordeal.
They would also need a wall around the village to protect them from the smokers and, much later, other troubles they run into. Ideally, I'd need some watchtowers and guards in them as well.
To get the rest of the needed supplies to the outpost. Along with the more important part of getting resources from it. I’d need to set up a marketplace back at my main village. I’d need to build carts for people to use to haul a few items at once. I’d also need villagers to run those carts.
As if I was not already struggling with that feeling of not having enough villagers as it was. Now I'd need to have two people just hauling between the locations. Another person is running the outpost. I’d need some people still doing their old jobs, getting more basic items that were still around. While having further villagers set up at the new outpost.
All these things I'd have to learn the hard way when slowly over time trying to get an outpost that I kept sinking way too much time into. It sat empty for quite a lot of time. I’d only show up there to do some work when I could find the time. My builders at my main village also rarely had the time to be over there either.
So, like a lot of things in Aska. You have plans for something, and then you get invasions, blood moons, food issues, and other stuff going on. Having an up and running outpost was not a must-have; it was now kind of thing. It was I had time to delay getting it working still. Till it was not.
Over time, I got the cottage up. I was also in the middle of building a road out to it. That road naturally comes at a cost. While I was out trying to get that all worked out. One of my villagers was killed.
Roads also cost a lot of stuff. I was taking all the stone we were getting out of the mine and every few days hauling it up to a new section of the road to work on. The road, which cut into a forest, had to go around things, and my general can’t do anything in a straight line. Let it all over the place. The road was at least well worth it in the end for how much use it would see.
Then, as one might expect. After a decent amount of time had passed. Suddenly, that outpost I had been ignoring. It was going to be needed sooner or later. As the few remaining trees I even had left for hardwood would soon turn into passive piles like this on the ground. Leaving behind the lower-tier trees that I would also need, but in much smaller amounts at some point as well.
I knew it was time to start investing in the remaining infrastructure I was going to need at my main village. As soon as the resources to build it were going to be gone. I’d be stuck having to haul back from the outpost by myself. That would come at quite the cost of time that I always seemed to never have.
So, I built a market in my main village. I wish the entire system were a bit smarter. I must set up trade routes in each direction. I must tell it how much of something to bring, assuming it’s in stock at the warehouse or the outpost. Each of those two buildings must also have storage for the type of goods you want to move.
I first started with one villager who would make the trip a couple of times a day. He was quite lazy. If he had run the cart all the way up, and it was the end of his working day. He would not load the cart. Instead, he would leave it there and run all the way back home. Only to have to run all the way back in the morning to get his cart.
Then there were moments where he would be hauling items back and forth, but not unloading anything. Sometimes, storage would be full. Other times, it seems like he just did not feel like offloading.
Finally, you have supply and demand issues. At one point, my village might need equal parts of both hardwood logs and long sticks. Then I'd have long amounts of time of only needing loads of long sticks. So every once in a while, I'd have to check in on our current stockpile back at the main village and adjust the hauling loadout.
There were even many moments where I'd set forth and help haul back. After all, once I had villagers next to enough resources that they could gather them quickly and bring back the outpost. The new issue became getting what was needed back to the main village so our projects could move forward, and progress could be made.
Over time, as resources were drying up and more things than just trees were affected. I’d have to expand the outpost even further. That would then require even more markets, storage, and villagers doing the duty of hauling carts all day long.
It’s also kind of funny looking back at it now. At the time, it felt like I had to get that outpost up right away. Then things happened in the game that gone in the way. It turns out the outpost was critical; I just had the time to get it up and running still. For that, I was quite thankful.
Screenshots were taken, and content was written by @Enjar about ASKA.
Disclosure: A review copy of the game was received for free.
Disclosure: This content was written during early access.
