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Buildings and Maintenance


Lucidus

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Many commenters seem to enjoy the challenge of building and maintaining the various useful structures in the Haven forts. For me, they have been mostly a source of frustration as I progress through the game.

First, I was frustrated to discover that you can only possess a maximum of 50 units of each different building material. You can avoid hitting this limit by making frequent trips to any fort to spend resources, or to Greatport or one of the three remote forts (Fort Darkfen, Fort Mist, or Crossing Keep) to sell or trade resources. But if you do this regularly, you find yourself spending a significant chunk of game time running back and forth.

If you don’t do this, you end up either discarding resources or, again, wasting a lot of time backtracking to collect materials you couldn’t carry when you first encountered them. Does it make sense to return to the Flint Pit to pick up 3 wood? It hardly seems worth while to keep track and go back later, but on the other hand, it bothers me to leave resources behind or, even worse, to pick them up when they are just going to evaporate because I am already at the limit. None of these options are satisfying.

Second, resource management also requires you to watch the clock - only there isn’t any clock. Every 2 days, you get an accounting of what resources you have gained and lost in the interim. You obviously want to use your resources before you hit the cap (or before they are lost to thievery), but I haven’t found any way of keeping track of the date and time so I can know when the totals are about to be updated.

Thirdly, I was frustrated trying to balance my maintenance costs against my resource income. I initially screwed up badly, and found myself seriously short of iron. I corrected that problem and then found myself without any stone for a long time. The game kind of warns you that this is going to happen, but you really have to experience it firsthand to figure out how it works. For me, the learning process was not enjoyable.

Finally, I was annoyed to eventually realize that there is a way to get around all the issues that I have just been complaining about, although I don’t think we are meant to approach the game this way. The trick is this: you can build structures at any time, without putting them in place (except for the guard towers and the upgrades to the forts, which are constructed immediately). So you can use your resources without incurring any maintenance costs. You will ultimately need 7 of everything, so go ahead and buy them as you can afford them.

Only place structures when you actually need to buy stuff. Even then, you can remove a structure that has already been placed; just click on the ‘Place Shops’ button, then click on the shop, and click on the ‘Cancel’ button. It will go back onto the list of available structures.

One limitation to this is that you have to keep enough shops to support any items you have purchased. For example, if you buy a high level weapon, which requires a certain number of Blacksmiths to purchase, you have to keep that many Smithies in place in order to use the weapon.

By purchasing your structures fairly early on, but only putting them in place later in the game, you can largely avoid resource bottlenecks.

I have a couple of additional tips. The Mill, Distillery, and Bakery each generate 10 gold every 2 days. That’s not a lot but over time it adds up.

You should upgrade your forts as quickly as possible after activating them. There is no maintenance cost, and there is a significant boost to resource generation.

Don’t purchase too many goods early in the game. You won’t need them for the early battles, and you will need the gold for building.

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