#StarHearth

[tabithachrysanthemumscarlet]

about me: name - sophia age - 20 pronouns - she/her interests - horror, niche indie games, and researching history main blog/simblr - @therococoprometheus

scarlet hollow: woe is me, a postmodern cassandra! mc - agatha cassandra scarlet traits - talk to animals, mystical romance candidate - wayne playlist

baldur's gate 3: tav - idreneth starhearth class, race - circle of the land druid, wood elf romance candidates - astarion/gale (depends on the save)

[per-ineptia-ad-astra]

starhearth: episode five

Second Month of Spring, Day 5-6

Early in the morning, while the last of the rain from the day before is still petering out, the explorer who promised to trade us some cricket golems returns.

[ID: A screenshot of a notification box titled ‘The explorer returns!’ The text inside the box reads, “The explorer returns!--I’m back! It looks like you’ve made me the 5 Wooden Window Frame I asked for. Are you still interested in 2 Autonomous Cricket Golem in exchange? I assure you, they are more useful than any normal person at carrying things!”]

Once activated, the two little golems quickly go to work picking up items and moving them to the stockpiles. These guys will be very helpful to us. As more and more of the villagers become crafters or warriors and spend most of their time focused on that, there are fewer and fewer people to do the necessary work of just hauling stuff from one place to another. The cricket golems will help pick up the slack.

[ID: A screenshot of the item stockpile, containing animal pelts, bones, strips of rawhide and blocks of wood, as the two golems pick up items from the stockpile. The golems are dark gray and rectangular in shape, with four stubby legs, small square gray heads, two glowing yellow eyes, and two glowing rectangular antennae.]

More good news: we’ve got enough food and networth to pick up another villager.

Now, I realize that you may have increasingly been thinking, as this game continues to progress, “uh, where the hell is SPOCK? you’ve literally included LESLIE in your roster before SPOCK? what are you even doing here” or something along those lines. Well, you can rest assured I did not forget about Spock. The reason I haven’t made him a villager yet comes down to one simple thing: I had no absolutely no idea what to do with him. There is no position available to the Hearthlings that even remotely corresponds to ‘science officer’. Herbalist, maybe, at a stretch—but there are multiple characters who fit that job better by virtue of being actual medical professionals. I thought about making him a warrior of some kind, since Spock takes out a fair amount of foes throughout the series, but that didn’t seem to fit him very well. Spock’s not a warrior at heart. He’s just a guy who’s willing to nerve pinch a bad guy or two if the situation calls for it.

But of course, we’ve gotta have Spock in here somewhere. So in the end, after much deliberation, I decided...to make him a Weaver. Weavers are a crafting class that refine fibers and animal pelts into thread, leather and cloth, which can then be used either by the Weaver to make clothes that provide various benefits to Hearthlings, or by other crafters to make things like bows and armor.

My reasoning for this? Spock’s fabulous sense of fashion. That’s it. That’s literally it.

[ID: A screenshot of Spock’s Character Info window, which shows that his mood is content, his stats are 6 Mind, 5 Body and 4 Spirit, his class is Worker, he has the trait ‘Night Owl’--represented by a crescent moon icon—and his mood is being improved by the ‘Pioneering Spirit’ buff. Below, Spock’s portrait is seen in the information box at the bottom of the screen, showing him to be a white Hearthling with brown eyes, short square black hair, and thick black eyebrows.]

Spock has an impressive stat spread—6 Mind, 5 Body and 4 Spirit—and the trait Night Owl. You might remember that Kirk also has this trait; it makes the Hearthling stay up later at night and wake up later in the day. So Kirk and Spock can keep each other company. As it should be.

The character appearance options aren’t exactly equipped to make Vulcans, so the best I can do is give Spock some really big eyebrows. Unfortunately, a strange graphical glitch results in those eyebrows floating in the air next to his head instead of remaining on his face as eyebrows usually do.

[ID: A screenshot of Spock the Hearthling running over the grass with his eyebrows floating at the right height, but to the right of his head instead of on it.]

my god, those NBC execs were right all along! his eyebrows are demonic!

Well...it’ll probably sort itself out.

Meanwhile, McCoy needs to build himself a cauldron so he can craft potions. This requires a bit of stone. Once we start mining for ore, we’ll have more stone than we know what to do with, but for the moment we’re fresh out. Luckily there are some boulders standing out in the fields around the village, so McCoy goes out to break those down for stone. Apparently he doesn’t much feel like picking it up afterward, though, because he just kind of stands there while a cricket golem comes to collect the stone instead.

[ID: A screenshot of McCoy standing in the grass staring at the stockpile and doing nothing, while behind him a cricket golem picks up a block of stone.]

what? did you not get your coffee today?

Once the stone is in the stockpile, though, McCoy—begrudgingly, I assume—goes to craft a cauldron out of it, and begins brewing some potions. A few energy potions made from the ad hoc little herb garden will make everyone move a bit faster for a while, which hopefully will speed up production of the tavern.

[ID: A screenshot of McCoy bending over a bubbling cauldron next to his workstation in the grass. The information box below describes him as ‘crafting energy tonic.’]

Uhura has befriended another rabbit, this one named March. I really hope March and Thumpy don’t breed, because if we get into a Trouble With Tribbles situation I don’t think my CPU will be able to handle it.

[ID: A screenshot of the camp with a small rabbit sitting next to the empty hearth, while Kirk patrols nearby and McCoy gets something from the stockpile in the background.]

Night Owl Spock stays up to finish putting the roof on the tavern after everyone else has gone to bed. He’s not completely alone, though; he’s got his eyebrows to accompany him.

[ID: Spock walking across the roof of the tavern in the dark, eyebrows still hovering next to his head.]

The next morning is warm but a bit rainy. With the tavern itself completed, all that’s left is to place all the windows and doors. Everyone chips in to help.

[ID: A screenshot of several villagers walking across the grass towards the tavern, each carrying a door or window. Rand is selected in the information box below, which says she is ‘placing Wooden Door.’]

Some more Entlings attack...or rather, they try to, but they’re up on the cliffs surrounding the town to the north, and can’t get down. So they just kind of stand there angrily for a while before wandering off again.

[ID: A shot from the front of the tavern, showing four Entlings standing on the cliff some distance in the background.]

The tavern is finally finished, and everyone takes a moment to celebrate.

[ID: A screenshot of McCoy, Rand, Chapel, Leslie, Spock, Chekov, and Scotty all standing in front of the tavern with their hands in the air as confetti and clouds of dust fly up from the completed building.]

There’s not much time to stand around, though—now that the building is complete, it’s time to start moving things into it. Eventually we’ll make individual houses for people and use the tavern as, well, a tavern, but for the moment it’s more pressing to just get everyone under a roof, so the beds are moved into what’s theoretically the tavern pantry. Well, almost all the beds. One of them can’t be moved for a while, because Kirk is sleeping in it.

[ID: A screenshot of Kirk passed out in the one remaining bed next to the berry bushes.]

The berry bushes and herb garden are also moved over to be closer to the tavern, and the outside storepiles decommissioned in favor of moving all our supplies into some more neatly organized boxes inside. Scotty queues up some more storage boxes as well as a few more beds to support the growing population, but he needs wood to make them, and building the tavern has used up our whole supply of it. So a few people are sent to cut down some trees. Just cutting down the trees growing nearby has given us enough wood so far, but that’s not going to be a sustainable solution forever. We’re going to need an orchard for wood, so a few acorns are also planted out back to get that started.

One of the felled trees drops a bee’s nest. This is actually a good thing—a Herbalist can collect the bees and put them in a hive which will supply honey. McCoy is sent to go pick up the bees, but he decides he’d rather get a drink instead.

[ID: A screenshot of the field behind the tavern, mostly cleared but with a couple of tree stumps in the corner. One of the stumps has a swarming bee’s nest on the ground next to it. McCoy is running away from the stump, and the information box below says that he is ‘getting a drink.’]

Yeah I can’t really say I blame him.

[per-ineptia-ad-astra]

Starhearth Episode 8

Third Month of Spring, Days 5-7

The next day passes without much incident. Sarek takes a break from his crafting to work on the house, while Scotty is hard at work making all the doors and windows for it. There’s a couple more attempted goblin thefts; a second camp has now spawned on the other side of the field, which means even more goblins are going to be coming after our stuff until the camps are destroyed.

I’ve been putting off attacking the first camp because the squad was pretty low level, but this is getting ridiculous. Anyway, the repeated skirmishes have given everyone enough experience to make it to level two, so they should be alright.

In fact, both camps go down very easily.

[ID: 1. A screenshot showing the field across the tavern, with Chekov, Kirk, Leslie, and McCoy spread out and running across it towards a couple of goblins standing around a campfire ring made from skulls. 2. The three warriors running across the field towards another ring of skulls, while McCoy trails behind them with his head down. 3. Chekov, Kirk and Leslie running after a goblin named Figi the Thirsty, which is down to a quarter of his health and fleeing with his hands in the air. McCoy stands a little way away, still with his head down.]

You can tell McCoy is just SUPER enthusiastic about this whole thing.

With that out of the way, work back at the camp can proceed without interruptions for a while. Sarek has crafted enough stone lanterns to get himself to level two, meaning he can finally make Rand’s promotional item.

[ID: The Mason crafting screen, showing the potential crafting recipes on the left as rows of icons grouped into sections like Workbenches, Tools, Storage, and Refinement. On the right are shown the details of the currently selected recipe, a Cook’s Spoon. Its required ingredients are 2 Stone, and its description reads, “Required to promote a hearthling into a Cook...COOKED FOOOOOOOOOD!!!!--Alton the Bard.”]

Now we finally have a Chef! Rand immediately starts making her crafting stations so she can get to work on cooking up some real food.

[ID: Rand, now wearing a blue shirt with a white apron and a square white hat with a blue ribbon, running out of the tavern past the berry bushes. The message box on the right reads, “Janice Rand has been Promoted!--Janice Rand is now a Level 1 Cook!--Camp Cooking: The Cook can make basic, nutritious recipes.”]

Over in the fields, Sulu is harvesting the first batch of silkweed. Work is also progressing well on the house. Most of the villagers at this point are unable to build because they’re occupied crafting or patrolling, but now that Scotty has finished making all the doors and windows he’s able to help out, and he and Sarek are making good time.

[ID: The in-progress house, floor now completed and walls partly up, surrounded by scaffolding. Scotty is standing on some of the scaffolding, building a ladder.]

By the next day, Rand is all set up to start cooking, and sets about making several portions of stew from all the root vegetables and jerky we’ve accumulated.

[ID: Rand standing over a cauldron in the main room of the tavern, crafting Tasty Vegetable Stew.]

Having prepared food to eat quickly improves the general morale. For the first time in a while, everyone is content. Even McCoy!

[ID: The Citizen information box, listing the current eleven villagers and what task each of them is currently performing. The icon for ‘Morale’ is at ‘Content’ for all of the villagers.]

Later that evening, we have an encounter with...a fearsome goblin?

[ID: 1. A notification box reading, “A fearsome goblin approaches!” 2. A dialogue box titled, “Maybe not so fearsome...” with a blue-skinned goblin wearing a skull helmet above the top right corner. The inside of the box reads, “The goblin approaches, revealing itself a bit shorter than expected. “BONES! BONES!” They shout in a playful, almost childish voice. “BOOOONEEES!” They continue. It seems to be harmless.” Below that, much smaller text reads, “Is that a child? Are there goblin children?” and two available dialogue options read, “Bones!” and “Huh?”]

Turns out the goblin is just a child, and a very enthusiastic one at that. She also has a chaperon.

[ID: 1. Another dialogue box featuring the goblin child, titled, “They continue...” The box reads, “They’re clearly happy about it, hopping around in circles. “BONES! BONES! MANY BONES!” Suddenly, a stern and yet compassionate hearthling voice rumbles nearby, “There you are, Rattley!” The single dialogue option below reads, “Who?” 2. Another dialogue box, this one titled, “Now a man approaches!” with the goblin being joined by a hearthling in a blue tunic with a large brown mustache and a small patch of brown hair. The text reads, “He wears the colors of the Northern Alliance. Strong and grizzled, he rests his hand on the head of the little goblin. “So there you are! Going out and making friends, eh?” He notices the people around. “I apologize. Name’s Thorulf, traveler and former Scout of the Library.” With a gentle pat the goblin goes back to jumping around.” Below that, the available dialogue options read, “Greetings!” and “You have a pet...goblin?”]

Thorulf proceeds to explain the situation a little more:

“Rattley is like a daughter to me,” he says with a bittersweet smile. “I am the reason she is alone in the world and she is the reason I left the Library. One watches over the other now!” he laughs, shoving away the past back where it belongs. “I know you are busy so we’ll go find a place to camp for some days!” He waves his hand, calling Rattley closer.

So I guess Thorulf probably killed her family? Um. Okay. Well, we can’t really claim much moral high ground at this point when it comes to killing goblins, I guess.

[ID: Another dialogue box, this one titled, “They turn around...” The text reads, “ “Oh, I was almost forgetting...” He scratches the back of his head and smirks. “I’ll be busy setting up camp and won’t have time to hunt so soon...Would you mind gifting little Rattley a couple of bones?” The little goblin reacts to it. “BONES! GIVE BONES!” Thorulf stares back at her. “Rattley, what have I told you?” She looks down. “Please?” Thorulf smiles. “We would appreciate it, she loves carving them!” Below this is the dialogue option, “Of course!”]

You can’t have Bones, we need him!--Oh, no, I see, okay.

It’s no problem to gift Rattley a few bones—they’ve been piling up from all the animals Uhura traps for some time now, since we don’t currently have any use for them. She seems quite happy with her gift.

[ID: Another dialogue box, this one featuring only Rattley, titled, “The little goblin rejoices.” The text reads, “She quickly grab [sic] the materials. “BONES! BONES!” Behind her, Thorulf is finishing setting up the camp. “Rattley, thank them for the gift!” She looks back before continuing. “BONES! You make Rattley happy!” Below that, the single dialogue option reads, “Have fun!”]

Rattley and Thorulf leave to go make camp elsewhere, and the sun sets on the last day of spring. It’s been hard going for this first season of our settlement, but we’ve gone from everyone sleeping on the ground and living on wild berries to having shelter to sleep and work under, a band of warriors to keep everyone safe, several crafters working on providing goods for the community, fields to grow crops in, and hot stew to eat. I’d say we’re not doing too badly! Hey, no one’s died.

Time now to see what summer will bring.

[ID: An information box showing the day’s weather. It reads, “Today: Hot and Sunny. A nice and warm sunny day! Maybe too sunny, the heat is not good...Normal sunlight levels. Fairly reduced humidity. Unsheltered hearthlings are too hot to work as effectively. Unsheltered pasture animals are affected by the heat.”]

heat stroke, apparently

[per-ineptia-ad-astra]

starhearth: episode seven

Third Month of Spring, Days 3-4

The early morning calm of the next day is rather abruptly shattered by the arrival of, of all things, an angry feral bear.

[ID: A screenshot of a notification box reading “Feral Bear Approaching!”]

OH SHIT FERAL BEAR GET IN THE CAR

I don’t know why this particular godless killing machine has formed a grievance against us, but apparently it has, so the warrior squad charges forward to defend the settlement.

[ID: A large brown bear standing next to the crop fields as Chekov, Kirk, and Leslie charge toward it, each carrying a wooden shield and sword. The information box reads, “Brown Bear—It seems quite angry...and big! Attacking Pavel Chekov.”]

Surprisingly, despite the rather poor odds one would usually give three guys with wooden swords and one guy with a book versus one large, angry bear, the squad manages to take out the bear pretty handily. There’s some health lost all around, but not so much that McCoy can’t take care of it. For their trouble we get a couple cuts of prime bear meat, plus Kirk levels up.

[ID: Kirk, Leslie, and Chekov walking away from several animal pelts, bones and pieces of meat left where the bear died, while McCoy stands in the middle surrounded with gold sparkles as he casts healing spells. Each of them has a heart representing their health floating above them, with a quarter or third of the heart missing. A notification box in the upper right reads, “James Kirk, Log-Splinter has achieved Footman Level 2!”]

oh yeah I forgot he still had that title

With that excitement out of the way, the crew goes to eat breakfast, while McCoy chases them down with a hyprospray healing spells.

There are still a couple more promotions to hand out. For one, it’s time for Spock to assume his true calling: fashion.

[ID: Spock, now wearing blue tunic and square blue hat, walking away past the berry bushes while Kirk and Leslie patrol behind him. The message box on the side of the screen reads, “Spock has been Promoted!--Spock is now a Level 1 Weaver!--Standard Catalog: The Weaver can now make basic hangings and décor.”]

Spock’s looking glum this morning, and his new job doesn’t seem to have raised his spirits any. It’s probably Sarek’s fault somehow.

Speaking of Sarek, he’s going to get a new job too: Mason. Masons are a crafting class that make items out of stone; they can make a lot of the same sorts of things as carpenters, so we haven’t badly needed one so far, but we need one now to make the promotion item that will allow Rand to become a chef. Why give the job to Sarek? Because he’s...um...he’s...look, I don’t really have a reason at this point. We just needed a Mason so he’s gonna do it. Maybe it’ll be a good experience for him. Build character, and all that.

Spock and Sarek both work on making their crafting stations. Meanwhile, a bitter disappointment occurs: someone eats the basket of cherries before Chapel can level up enough to use them. The worst thing is, who eats the cherries? Chapel herself. CHRIS. CHRIS HOW COULD YOU.

Well, so much for the cherry bushes.

Once they’re finished, I put Spock and Sarek’s crafting stations on either side of the room, so they don’t have to work next to each other. Spock starts spinning some thread, while Sarek makes some stone lanterns to light up the place a little; it’s kind of gloomy in the tavern at the moment.

Two more goblins attempt a raid on the camp. As usual, one of them makes a run for the stockpile while the other one is keeping the squad busy, but they both go down in the end. You know, if the goblins just asked, I’d be perfectly happy to negotiate a mutually beneficial trade agreement with them, but no. There’s no option to do so, so all we can do is keep whacking ‘em.

After harvesting another load of carrots and turnips, Rand makes it to level two. She’s now able to promote to a Chef—we just need Sarek to get another level so he’ll be able to make the promotion item.

Now that the tavern is completed, it’s time to start work on making some actual houses for people to live in, since while the current sleeping arrangements are better than what they were, no one’s all that thrilled with them. First, though, we’ll need some wood. The orchard out back hasn’t quite grown up enough yet, so Chapel goes up to cut down some trees from the nearby cliffs, with the squad accompanying her in case any wild animals decide to attack. This does result in a bit of a delay, as Chapel decides to stand around and chat with Kirk for a while before getting to the job.

[ID: Chapel, standing among some blocks of wood in front of a few trees, talking to Kirk. Chapel has a dialogue bubble with an ellipsis in it floating above her, while Kirk has a thought bubble containing a crossed knife and fork.]

While that’s going on, we get a surprise visitor. It’s Mer Burlyhands, our liaison back at the capital who’s been sending us letters by bird. He’s come by in person to see how things are getting on, and seems impressed...for some reason.

[ID: A message box titled Not a Bird This Time, with an image of a hearthling with pale skin and brown hair and beard above the upper right corner of the box. The inside of the box reads, “Kind greetings! At last, I can see your Settlement in person. You’ve developed even faster than I anticipated, you should all be proud!” Below this are the options “Thank you!” and “[skip] We know what Hearth we want.”]

It seems that Mer has come with a decision for us to make:

“I came out personally to help you on your last step towards being a true Settlement of the Ascendency! You’ve grown large enough now that it’s time to choose what Hearth shall represent your town, as is tradition.”

Tradition? “Indeed, Hearths have served as shining beacons for Towns all the way back to the Phoenix Empire. Their glow attracts settlers and prosperity, and the particular qualities of a chosen Hearth reflect where a town finds its value.”

Value? “For instance, a Hearth of Cheer is for those who believe that a town’s value is found in being a happy home for its citizens.”

Sounds quaint. “A Hearth of Makers, on the other hand, is for those who believe that a town’s value is in its work, and that its work is best measured in gold.”

Sounds productive. “Finally, a Hearth of Glory is for those who believe their destiny is to stand strong in a hostile world, as the Knight Cid did at the founding of the Ascendency.”

Sounds heroic. “Cheer, Glory, or Makers—the choice is entirely yours. Envision what your Town will one day be, and follow that beacon into the future!”

So, basically, whatever Hearth we choose will give us a permanent beneficial effect of some sort. I’m going with the Hearth of Cheer, since our other choices are bloodlust and capitalism. The Hearth of Cheer boosts our daily net worth depending on how happy the villagers are, and gives a random buff to all the villagers ever day. We don’t get it automatically after choosing it, though. First you have to fulfill some requirements; for the Hearth of Cheer, this means that all the villagers have to have a mood of at least Content, at least five of them have to have a mood of Merry, and we have to have twenty items of prepared food. Once we actually get a Chef making the food will be no problem, but meeting a requirement of having everyone be in a good mood might take quite a long time with McCoy around.

So for now, getting the Hearth of Cheer will just have to sit in the quest log for a while. In the meantime, there’s work to be done. Sulu has also leveled up, which gives him the ability to plant silkweed, a plant that can be harvested for fibers. We’ll need that if Spock is going to be able to actually make anything, so Sulu and Rand start planting that in the turnip field. (We’ve got enough turnips for the moment.)

With enough trees felled to supply the stockpile with the wood we’ll need for the first house, the ladder up the cliffs is taken down and the squad returns to their regular patrol. Not a moment too soon, either—there’s yet another goblin attack. On the plus side, this gives Leslie enough experience to reach level two.

As the day ends, work begins on laying the foundation for the first house.

[ID: The partially completed floor of a house laid up against a corner of the cliffs, with part of the floor transparent to show that it hasn’t been placed yet. Sarek is walking across the finished section, holding a block of wood.]

[per-ineptia-ad-astra]

looks like the starhearth eyebrow glitch got fixed

Yep, both Spock and Sarek’s eyebrow problems only lasted as long as the initial session that they showed up in. As soon as I closed the game and restarted it they went back to normal.

I don’t think it’s actually a bug with the game itself per se, but a bug with the mod I’m using that lets me choose what new villagers look like instead of having them be randomly generated. I just kept rolling with it once it showed up because it was so funny.

[per-ineptia-ad-astra]

starhearth: episode six

Second Month of Spring, Day 7-Third Month of Spring

After fortifying himself with some berries and a cup of water—I’m sure he’d prefer something stronger but that’s what we got—McCoy successfully harvests the bees. Which is not really a sentence I anticipated typing back when I first started this blog.

[ID: A screenshot of McCoy standing over a bee’s nest next to a tree stump, with single-pixel bees swarming around McCoy and the stump. The information box at the bottom of the screen says that McCoy is “harvesting Bee Nest.”]

With the bees no longer hanging around threatening to sting the workers, the tree-felling can continue once more. While that’s going on, there are some promotions to carry out.

So far, the camp hasn’t been attacked by anything bigger than some tiny mobile tree stumps and rocks, which Kirk has been able to protect everybody from all on his own. But that won’t last forever. As time passes and the settlement gets bigger, more serious foes will start showing up. Kirk’s going to need backup before too long.

McCoy sets to work making a Cleric’s Tome, an item that will allow him to promote from Herbalist to Cleric. Herbalists are a strictly civilian crafting class who can craft healing items, but Clerics are warriors who can cast healing spells which are much more powerful. In other words, McCoy can finally achieve his greatest desire: being able to heal people just by gesturing furiously at them.

[ID: 1. A screenshot of McCoy standing among some items in the stockpile, hands raised and eyes closed with a blue and gold book floating above his head. 2. A screenshot of McCoy standing in the stockpile, now dressed in a white tunic and gold robe and with gold sparkles floating from him, with a message box on the side of the screen reading, “Leonard McCoy has been Promoted!--Leonard McCoy is now a Level 1 Cleric!--Healer Training: A cleric can use Sheep tamed by a Shepherd to practice their magical gestures and earn experience up to Job Level 3. Healing Aura: The cleric’s presence heals everyone around them periodically.”]

Leslie and Chekov also get promotions, both becoming Footmen. As I’ve mentioned before, I intend to make Chekov an Archer eventually, but a Hearthling can only become an Archer after taking a few levels of Footman first.

[ID: Leslie and Chekov standing in the stockpile, Leslie, now wearing a blue and silver tunic, jumping into the air with gold sparkles around him while Chekov crouches on the ground next to him. A message box on the right reads, “Ed Leslie has been Promoted!--Ed Leslie is now a Level 1 Footman!--Combat Training: A footman can use Training Dummies to train their combat techniques and earn experience up to Job Level 3. Damage Up 20%: The footman knows that all combats may have mortal consequences, and attacks with renewed determination.”]

McCoy, Leslie, and Chekov now join Kirk on a patrol around the tavern, vigilantly guarding against the terrors of the night. Not that any have shown up just yet.

[ID: A screenshot of the field behind the tavern at night, with rain falling, as Chapel runs in one direction and Kirk, Chekov, Leslie and McCoy walk in the opposite direction, tightly clustered together.]

We’re not quite done with the job-changing yet. We’ll need another Herbalist to replace McCoy, so Chapel takes up the mantle.

[ID: Chapel standing next to the crates inside the storage room in the tavern, glowing gold as she promotes to Herbalist. A message box on the right reads, “Christine Chapel has been Promoted—Christine Chapel is now a Level 1 Herbalist!--Junior Practitioner: The Herbalist can attend to 2 hurt hearthlings at a time. Natural Regeneration: The Herbalist channels the spirits of the forest and gains natural regeneration. Willpower and Diligence increased.”]

It’s also finally time to get some farming and cooking started. Everyone’s been surviving on jerky, berries, and water, but that’s not much of a life. They’ll be a lot happier with some proper meals. So Sulu and Rand promote into Farmers. The job comes with a nice hat, apparently.

[ID: Sulu standing in the tavern storage area, now wearing a broad-brimmed straw hat and labeled in the information box as Hikaru Sulu—Level 1 Farmer. The message box on the right reads, “Hikaru Sulu has been Promoted!--Hikaru Sulu is now a Level 1 Farmer!--Speed Up: Running fresh food from field to table has increased the farmer’s footspeed.”]

I only intend to keep Sulu as a Farmer permanently. Rand’s going to become a Chef. But like with Archers, Hearthlings can’t promote into Chefs directly; they have to promote from a level two Farmer.

Rand and Sulu start plowing a couple of fields by the lake to plant carrots and turnips in. As Farmers level up they gain access to a wider variety of things to plant, but for now, carrots and turnips are all we got.

[ID: Sulu and Rand, who is wearing a straw bonnet to match Sulu’s straw hat, digging rows of upturned soil in two square fields next to the lake.]

Early the next morning, a farmer stops by with some goods to sell. One of those goods is a basket of cherries, which has potential—cherry bushes don’t spawn in this biome naturally, but a Herbalist could use that basket to make seeds and plant bushes from those, giving us an additional food source. (Yes, I know cherries grow on trees. But in this game, they grow on bushes. Don’t ask me why.) We still don’t have much money, but selling all our healing potions (we don’t need them, now that McCoy can heal everyone directly) gets us just enough to buy the cherries.

Only problem is, since Chapel only just became a Herbalist, she’s still level one. She needs to be level two to be able to craft cherry seeds. One wouldn’t think that getting the pits out of cherries would take advanced skill, but apparently it does. Since the basket of cherries counts as a consumable food item, it’s a race against time to get Chapel up to level two before someone decides to eat all the cherries. Exciting, huh?

Meanwhile, we’ve qualified for another villager.

At this point, I was seriously starting to run into a quandary. The inherent problem with trying to play a colony-building sim game with all your villagers named after TOS characters is that there’s just not that dang many recurring characters in TOS. By ten villagers in, we’ve pretty much tapped out the main cast. In desperation to find some more significant TOS characters, I wound up looking outside the actual crew of the Enterprise.

And that’s how Sarek joined the colony.

[ID: Sarek, a Hearthling with pale skin, brown eyes, brown hair, and thick rectangular eyebrows that are floating next to his head, as he runs past some trees towards the village.]

Sarek has 6 Mind, 2 Body, and 6 Spirit, and the Opinionated trait, which means he likes to tell other Hearthlings in no uncertain terms what he thinks about everything...so that’s accurate. You may also notice that his eyebrows are floating next to his head as well. Must be hereditary.

Everyone gets on with their work for a while. Chapel is making potions. Sulu and Rand are harvesting vegetables. Scotty is upgrading the beds to be slightly nicer beds. Uhura has now started a second trapping area, this one for catching bugs. Yes, bugs. There are some remarkably big ones around here, and they can be caught for food. Because the current rations weren’t unappealing enough for everyone as it was.

At some point, while looking around the map, I was very startled to realize that a giant zombie guarding a treasure chest had spawned not that far away.

[ID: A zoomed-out shot from above and behind the tavern, showing a wide field stretching into the distance with tree-covered cliffs on the left and the lake on the right. A very large figure is standing on the other side of a large patch of open dirt from the tavern and is selected in the information box, which reads, “Giant Zombie—Blaarhgh...don’t touch Master’s treasure!!”]

HOW LONG HAVE YOU BEEN THERE

As deeply unnerving as that revelation was, for the moment the zombie seems content to leave us alone. Unfortunately, not everyone shares that outlook.

[ID: A pair of small green figures with beady eyes and pointed ears approaching the camp from across the field. The one in front is wearing a helmet and carrying a serrated sword, while the one behind is bare-chested and carrying a hammer. The goblin in front is selected, and the information box reads, “Nag The Bonesm...(the rest is too large to fit into the text box and is cut off)--Covetous and armed!”]

A pair of goblin thieves try to sneak into camp and steal from our stockpile. Seems a small goblin camp has appeared not too far from our budding little village, and its denizens are keen to try to take our goods for themselves. The warrior crew is able to dispatch them without much trouble, but they’re only the first. More will follow.

Meanwhile, Spock has already gotten into an argument with Sarek.

[ID: Spock’s character info page, which shows that his mood is Glum, and that one of the negative modifiers for his mood is “Had an unpleasant talk -3. I can’t believe Sarek said that!”]

Why am I not surprised.

[per-ineptia-ad-astra]

starhearth: episode four

Second Month of Spring, Days 3-4

The snow stops falling in the night, and the next day dawns clear, but still cold. A few people sit together by the berry bushes as they eat what’s currently passing for breakfast. Thanks to the berries and the jerky from Uhura’s trapping the crew is in no danger of starvation, but no one’s exactly real happy about the quality of food they’re getting either.

[ID: A screenshot of McCoy, Chapel and Rand sitting among the berry bushes, eating from plates of square purple berries.]

As everyone sets to their morning work, a new villager arrives. This one has 5 Mind, 5 Body and 5 Spirit, and the Courageous trait (they get a happiness boost after defending the town from enemies). That naturally makes them best suited to being a combat unit. This does raise the minor problem of what to name them; we’ve got most of the main crew here by now, and while there are any number of characters in Star Trek whose job it is to fight things, most of them don’t tend to stick around long enough to leave much of an impression. In the end, he gets named after one of the show’s more frequently recurring redshirts, Leslie. Leslie doesn’t ever have a first name mentioned onscreen, so I named him after his actor, Eddie Paskey.

[ID: A screenshot of Leslie, a villager with short light brown hair, fair skin and blue eyes. His character page is open, showing that his mood is Content, he has the Pioneering Spirit happiness buff, and he has a trait called Courageous, as shown with the icon of a little cartoon sword and the caption, “Courageous: Ed Leslie loves to save others, and puts the safety of the town as paramount.”]

In other news, Uhura has made it to Level 2, which means she’ll no doubt soon be bringing a lot of pets home.

[ID: A screenshot of a notification box titled Nyota Uhura has Leveled Up! The text in the box reads, “Nyota Uhura has achieved Trapper Level 2!” Below are three icons: a pink square with a cartoon rabbit with hearts for eyes, with a caption reading, “Charm Pet: The trapper will occasionally choose to turn a particularly fine animal into a pet!” a blue square with a red and white bullseye above a cartoon animal trap with the caption, “Job Opportunities: The trapper now qualifies for advanced jobs. Click the promote command for details,” and a red cartoon heart with the caption, “Max Health +10.”]

By the next day it’s warmed up again, but now it’s raining, which isn’t improving anyone’s mood much. McCoy sets out to go gather some more berry bushes and move them into the camp, but winds up falling asleep on the ground before he makes it all the way back.

[ID: A screenshot of McCoy sleeping on the shore of the lake with a berry plant in a pot at his feet. The info box at the bottom of the screen reads “Leonard McCoy—sleeping on the ground.”]

mood

We don’t have enough food and net worth to attract a new villager today, but never mind that right now, we’ve got another problem: water. We’ve run out of all the drinks that came with our starting rations, and with no other source of drinks, everyone’s getting pretty thirsty. (In my defense, this wasn’t even an existing gameplay mechanic the last time I played, so I completely forgot about it until the negative mood modifiers started piling up.) At the moment we don’t have the ability to brew up anything fancy, but we can at least dig a well for water.

The well is set to be placed next to the tavern, near the kitchen door. Only problem is, digging the well counts as a building project, and since the tavern was placed first, everyone’s prioritizing that. It takes pausing the construction of the tavern entirely before anyone—Leslie, specifically—will address the well.

[ID: A screenshot of Leslie digging a well outside the partially completed tavern walls. The unfinished well, a simple post with a bucket attached to a rope, hanging above a hole in the ground, is visible but transparent to show that it has been placed but is not yet built.]

Once (finally) started, the well doesn’t take long to complete. Soon, everyone’s stopping by for a nice cool drink of water.

[ID: 1. A screenshot of Chekov sitting on the ground next to the well and drinking from a simple cup. 2. A similar screenshot of Kirk sitting on the ground and drinking from a simple cup.]

But Kirk’s break is rudely interrupted by another attack. This time it’s a group of Entlings, who are much like the Stonelings except they’re little tree dudes instead of little rock dudes.

[ID: A screenshot of Kirk holding his sword ready as he fends off four Entlings, which resemble blocks of wood with arms and legs, about half Kirk’s height.]

For some reason, Chapel decides this would be a great time to strike up a conversation.

[ID: A screenshot of Kirk fighting the last Entling, with a red heart over his head that is three-quarters full, showing his depleted health. Chapel is standing behind him, while the info box at the bottom of the screen reads, “Christine Chapel—talking to James Kirk, Log-Splinter.”]

No, go on, I’m not busy or anything.

Apparently this distraction isn’t enough to deter Kirk from handily wiping out the Entlings. The achievement even earns a title for both him and his sword. Not sure who hands out these titles, but hey.

[ID: A screenshot of two message boxes overlaid together, titled James Kirk has achieved a new Title! And Practice Sword has achieved a new Title! The first box reads, “James Kirk...is now James Kirk, Log-Splinter! They killed 5 minions of the Wilds! Doesn’t that title have a nice ring to it? You can select which title one of your citizens is using by right-clicking their name in their character sheet or the selected unit window. The second box reads, “Practice Sword...is now Practice Sword of the Forester! It killed 5 minions of the Wilds! Doesn’t that title have a nice ring to it? You can select which title this item is using by right-clicking its name in the selected unit window. You might also consider giving Practice Sword a fancier name to go along with their new title by left-clicking its name in the selected unit window.”]

But the newly acquired accolades aren’t enough to make up for the rest of Kirk’s morning. He told a joke that didn’t go over well, his drink was interrupted so he’s still thirsty, and now he’s all scratched up too. What a lousy day! Now he’s glum too. So are McCoy and Chekov, but that’s probably just them being themselves.

[ID: A screenshot of Kirk’s character information window pulled up over the villager information window. Kirk’s mood is shown as Glum, with one positive mood modifier (“It’s raining...+3”) and five negative mood modifiers: “Very thirsty -8”, “Pain (Scratched) -6” “Tough crowd -5” “My meal was raw -5” and “Slept in a shared bed -2.”]

Apparently, the joke was told to Sulu.

[ID: A screenshot of Sulu’s character information page, showing that his mood is glum and he has several negative mood modifiers. One of them, “Had an unpleasant talk -3” is highlighted, showing the caption, “I can’t believe James Kirk said that!”]

The bad moods don’t last too long, though. Once everyone’s gotten a drink, they start to feel better. By evening, they’re all back up to content. Meanwhile, work on the tavern is progressing nicely; by now the walls are up and work has started on the roof.

Also, as predicted, Uhura has already brought home a pet: a rabbit, named Thumpy.

[ID: A screenshot of a small brown and white cartoon voxel rabbit sitting on the ground, with the crafting stations and stockpile behind it. The information box at the bottom of the screen reads, “Thumpy—befriended by Nyota Uhura.”]

Not really the choice of name I would’ve gone for, personally, but you do you.

[per-ineptia-ad-astra]

starhearth: episode three

Second Month of Spring, Days 1-2

Early in the morning, a trader approaches town, offering to trade us some garden lanterns in exchange for wooden window frames. This isn’t a very useful offer since Scotty can make garden lanterns just fine on his own, so they’re declined.

The Daily Update has gifted us with another new villager. This one has 4 Mind, 6 Body and 5 Spirit, which is such a good spread that it’s difficult to know where to put them. The high Body stat would make them a great combat unit, but 4 Mind and 5 Spirit would make them a great crafter. In the end, I figure we need crafters more at the moment. Specifically, we’re really going to need a chef soon.   So, our new villager becomes Rand. (She served coffee once? That’s...that’s about all I got. Look, no one else fit the job any better.)

[ID: A screenshot showing a villager with fair skin, blue eyes, and blonde hair worn in a braid around her head, walking next to a small fox. The description box below reads ‘Janice Rand—Worker.’]

Rand can’t be a chef right away, though, because we can’t yet make the item that’s needed to promote her. So for the moment, she goes to help work on the tavern.

Not long after Rand joins the group, a spot of excitement occurs: we’re under attack! Three Stonelings, little mobile rock dudes with some unspecified grudge against us, come charging towards the outpost. Kirk’s able to dispatch them pretty easily, though he takes a couple of scratches in the process.

[ID: A screenshot showing Kirk fighting with a sword against a small creature resembling a gray boulder with hands and large white eyes.]

After a tiring day of building, most of the group are conked out, but McCoy stays up crafting, harvesting the seeds from brightbell flowers to expand the herb garden.

[ID: A screenshot showing McCoy standing at his crafting table at night, using a mortar and pestle.]

The next day dawns with a late spring snowfall.

[ID: A screenshot of the camp in the early morning as McCoy takes something from the stockpile. The cursor is hovering over one of the three weather icons in the top right corner of the screen, with a description box reading, “Today: Late Snow. There’s still snow to fall this year...Fairly reduced sunlight levels. Regular humidity levels. Unsheltered hearthlings are too cold to work as effectively. Unsheltered pasture animals are hurt by the cold.”]

Kirk and Uhura are enjoying it. Everyone else...not so much.

[ID: A screenshot of McCoy’s character info screen, showing a list of negative mood modifiers on the left and positive mood modifiers on the right. The top negative mood modifier is a -8 for “It’s snowing again!” The description reads, “Winter should be over already, can’t believe we’re getting such late snowfall...”]

In fact, the cold weather has tipped McCoy’s dour mood all the way into Glum. (This is the second lowest mood a Hearthling can have, the absolute lowest being Forlorn.)

[ID: A screenshot of the hearthling information box, listing all eight citizens of the town. Each has a little face indicating their mood; most have a neutral expression, but McCoy’s looks sad and is highlighted, reading, “Glum—Stuff hasn’t been turning out as well as I would like.”]

It is absolutely no surprise to me that McCoy is the unhappiest person in the whole village.

Another new villager today: this one has 2 Mind, 6 Body and 4 Spirit, with the traits Heliophile (enjoys sunny days) and Tea Lover (favors tea over other drinks). This one becomes Chapel, who most likely will be taking over as Herbalist once McCoy promotes to Cleric.

[ID: A screenshot of Chapel’s character info screen. The description box below shows a fair-skinned, blue-eyed villager with medium-length blonde hair.]

A bit later that day, Harold the messenger bird returns.

[ID: A screenshot showing a message box with a red and brown bird perched on top, titled ‘Another Letter!’ The box reads, “The messenger bird returns, with a reply from Mer Burlyhands. The letter has bite marks, and is slightly drooled on. Harold is doing his best.]

The reply reads as follows:

Congratulations on your founding!

Your outpost has been entered into the registry—consider yourselves official! “Her Majesty’s Outpost of Enterprise”--it has a nice ring to it, I think. An inspirational banner design, as well.

All of us here are eager to hear of your success.

As your Outpost grows towards Settlement status, you will start to attract new immigrants.

Your Hearth now is only a spark of what it will one day become—I have faith that it will be a beacon seen all across the Ascendancy.

Take the time to consider what you consider most important, what you wish that beacon to stand for. Prosperity? Happiness? Strength? Each is a noble pursuit.

Wishing you the best of luck!

Yours in the capital,

Mer Burlyhands

P.S. A small gift to you from my personal garden.

This decision he wants us to make will become a gameplay choice later on, but we don’t have to worry about it just now. His gift is some frostsnap seeds. Frostsnap is another herb, functionally no different from the Brightbells we’ve already got, but it’s planted in the garden anyway.

A survivalist happens by the village with some wares to trade. We buy one bolt of leather from them. This takes 20 gold, which is all we have, but we’ll need that bolt to craft the item that promotes a Herbalist into a Cleric, and we can’t otherwise get it just yet because crafting leather requires a Weaver.

Meanwhile, Chapel’s gotten stuck in a window.

[ID: A screenshot of Chapel standing in a window in the partially completed tavern, with glowing blue rings around her as she’s teleported away.]

This happens pretty to Hearthlings pretty often while building; sometimes they get up somewhere and then, for some reason, can’t get back down. Thankfully the game includes a Rescue command that lets you teleport idle Hearthlings a short distance away, so you can retrieve them from the mess they’ve gotten themselves into before they starve to death.

I wonder if this is how McCoy feels sometimes.

[per-ineptia-ad-astra]

starhearth: episode two

First Month of Spring, Days 5-7

With a new morning dawning it’s time to really start getting this colony underway. Our motley little crew are still flush with the spirit of pioneering (very Star Trek of them) and have supplies to last a while, but they won’t be satisfied with sleeping on the ground and eating plates of berries around a campfire forever. They’ll be needing beds, and a roof over their heads, and more food, preferably before all those plates of berries run out.

[ID: A screenshot showing a small patch of trees by a lake with a square boundary marked, within which are a few cages.]

First off, Uhura is assigned a little patch of territory near the stockpile to do her trapping in. This will at least supply us with a considerable amount of dried jerky, which will keep the crew from starving if all else fails.  Then it’s time to consider our first building.

Stonehearth comes with a few pre-made building templates, but by and large you’re expected to design your own; once designed and placed in the world, your hearthlings will construct them from your stockpiled materials. I’m not exactly what you might call good at designing buildings, but fortunately hearthlings aren’t too picky about architecture and even I can manage to stick a few walls and a roof together. This first building is basically just one big room with a couple of smaller rooms attached, which is meant to eventually serve as a kind of tavern/dining hall, but more immediately will give everyone a place to sleep and eat inside until we can build some individual houses.

The finished schematic (such as it is) calls for a bit more wood than we currently have, but there are some trees in the way of where I want to put it anyway so that works out alright. A few people are sent to cut down those trees; in the meantime, Kirk studiously patrols around the camp, while McCoy crafts himself a Herbalist’s Workbench, which he’ll need to craft other things.

Once the trees are down, the building is placed in a spot close to the lake, next to a young chestnut tree. The chestnut tree isn’t strictly necessary. It just seemed nice.

Time to start building! It’s going to take rather a while, though, because Trappers, Herbalists and Footmen can’t build, so it’s just Scotty and Sulu working on it for now. And with Scotty initially busy making the doors and windows, it’s left to Sulu alone to begin laying the flooring. Unfortunately, he’s chosen to do this while drunk.

[ID: A screenshot showing a close-up on Sulu’s character bar, with a small icon on the side showing a mug of beer, with an accompanying description window which reads: “Light-headed: Having a merry time! Maybe a bit too much...Oh, well. Courage is increased. Diligence, Willpower, Speed and Stamina are slightly decreased. Crafting takes longer and has less chances of producing high quality items. This hearthling is less menacing to enemies. This hearthling will want to engage in conversations and sleep a lot more than usual.”]

Kids! Don’t try this at home. Combining carpentry and alcohol rarely ends well.

Then he falls asleep on the spot. Oh well, that might be for the best. At least now he won’t wind up nailing his own hand to the floor.

[ID: A screenshot showing Sulu, laying fast asleep on a partly finished floor with a couple of Z’s coming from him.]

Having finished his workbench, McCoy goes to gather some herbs and edible mushrooms, starting a makeshift garden next to the stockpile. Meanwhile, Scotty has finished building all the furniture for the tavern, which has raised him up to Level 2. With that done he can start helping Sulu build the actual structure.

The next day brings us a couple pieces of welcome news. The first is that a passing explorer has happened by and they’ve got an offer for us.

[ID: A screenshot of a message box titled ‘An Explorer Approaches Your Town.’ Below that, the text reads, “Hello Enterprise! I am an explorer from far to the east who deals in various amounts of trade and collection. Recently I found 2 Autonomous Cricket Golem just sitting next to the road. I’m not sure who left them there, but they’re quite helpful at cleaning up! I don’t have much use for them myself, but a nearby village said they are in need of 5 Wooden Window Frame. I will be relaxing nearby for 5 days...would you be interested in a trade at that time?”]

This is a stroke of luck, especially so early on. Cricket golems will haul items, meaning hearthlings have to spend less time doing it, which is especially helpful given that hearthlings kind of suck at cleaning up after themselves and tend to drop things all over the place. Also, they’re super cute. We definitely want these, and Scotty can easily crank out those window frames in time, so the offer is quickly accepted.

The other good news is our Daily Update. The Daily Update checks your town’s total net worth and your total amount of provisions, and if both are high enough, a new villager will come to stay. And today, we’ve got enough!

[ID: A screenshot showing a message box titled ‘Daily Update.’ The box reads “Immigration Report: Day 7 of Bittermun, 1000. Enterprise population: 5. Next hearthling requirements...” Below this are two icons, both with a green checkmark on them, one a basket containing a pumpkin and one a chest containing some gold. The icon is labeled ‘Food 117/50’ and the second is labeled ‘Net Worth 545/275’. Below that the text reads, “A new settler would like to join your town!”]

New villagers will have randomly generated names, appearances, stats and traits, and while you can freely change their names at any time, the only way to get new stats and traits is to save immediately beforehand and then reload until you get one you want. Which I...may have done. A few times.

In the end (I’m gonna decline to comment on exactly how long this took) we’ve got a newcomer with 4 mind, 6 body, and 3 spirit, with two traits: Animal Companion (this time, the animal is a fox) and Storm Chaser (which...I’m not actually sure what that one does, but my best guess is that it gives them a happiness boost in stormy weather).

By default in Stonehearth you’re not able to change the appearance of any hearthlings aside from your starting five. In the interests of having everyone look somewhat remotely recognizable as themselves, I employed a mod that lets you change the appearance of new villagers. The downside to this is that the town quickly wound up becoming remarkably homogeneous, but, well, that’s TOS for you.

At any rate, our new villager has the stats to be a good combat unit, and we’ll need an archer eventually, so I decided to make this one Chekov. Because...firing phasers is kind of like firing arrows...look, just go with me on this.

[ID: A screenshot showing a hearthling with brown hair and brown eyes standing next to a fox. Below him the description box reads “Pavel Chekov—Worker.”]

For the moment, however, we need more hands to build the tavern more than we need an archer, so Chekov won’t be taking up his job for a while yet. While he gets to work helping Scotty and Sulu, McCoy harvests some nearby berry bushes and makes some healing potions—more because he needs the experience than because we need healing potions, but hey, they might come in handy.

With the additional help the floor of the tavern is soon finished, and work begins on putting the walls up. But it’ll still be a while before it’s done and in the meantime, sleeping on the ground is making everyone grumpy, so Scotty’s made some extremely basic beds, which are put out near the fire. Before all the beds are even placed, Sulu and McCoy have passed out in a couple of them.

[ID: A screenshot near the campfire, showing two beds placed in a row, with the outlines of three beds still to be placed. McCoy and Sulu are each sleeping in a bed while Scotty sits nearby eating some berries.]

Apparently it’s been a tiring day.

[per-ineptia-ad-astra]

This isn’t the kind of thing I normally do around here, but it seemed like it might be a bit of fun. I’ve absolutely no idea if it’s something you all would be interested in, though, so let me know if you like it or not—if not, I’ll just leave it as a one-off and go back to the regular memes to fill the time while I’m working on Space Seed.

Recently I’ve been playing resource management/base building type games a lot, which I suspect stems from the fact that managing resources in my real life is going rather less well, the latest of these being Stonehearth, a cute voxel game where you guide a group of beady-eyed little people into building a village for them to live in. I’d played a fair bit of it over the past winter but hadn’t touched it in several months, enough time for there to be a couple of updates to the content*, so I decided to see what had been added in the interim.

*Technically the officially-approved-but-player-created-mod-expansion.

But once I got around to selecting my starting villagers, I ran into the same problem I always have at these moments in games—what to name everybody? I’m a massive overthinker about this sort of thing, you see, the sort who will spend ages scouring Wikipedia to find the most thematically appropriate set of things to name all the characters after. On this occasion, though, as I stared aimlessly around my desk trying to come up with something, inspiration struck in the shape of the copy of Star Trek: The Classic Episodes that I still hadn’t put away. Or possibly it was the Data Funko Pop. Either way, I thought, well, why not…?

[ID: A screenshot of the ‘Customize your party’ screen in the video game Stonehearth. On the left are five miniature profiles for cartoonish voxel versions of Kirk, Sulu, McCoy, Scotty and Uhura. Their Mind, Body and Spirit stats are, respectively,  4/5/4,  3/2/6, 4/3/4,  6/2/5, and 3/4/6. On the right is an appearance customization screen with Uhura selected.]

And thus was born a quest to see the crew of the Enterprise through their colonization of wherever the hell it is they’ve ended up this time. Or at least, some of the crew of the Enterprise. I don’t think my computer could handle simulating the full four hundred and thirty of them.

Stonehearth villagers (or ‘hearthlings) have three stats—Mind, Body and Spirit-- as well as up to two traits that influence their behavior. In the starting roster, you can’t directly alter their stats or traits, but you can randomly generate villagers individually or as a group for as long as you want until you get something you like, and can change their names and appearances freely. By default, all the villagers are workers, but with the right items they can be promoted into special classes, such as warriors who defend the village, crafters who make necessary items, or resource-suppliers like farmers and trappers. My starting selection of characters was based on the roles that I judged most important to the getting this colony off the ground. (It may be helpful to keep in mind throughout this, though, that I am not very good at Stonehearth.) The traits I just kind of took where I could get them, since it would have taken an enormously long time to roll for the absolute most character-appropriate ones.

Kirk has the traits ‘Night Owl’ (he’ll stay up later at night and sleep more in the day) and ‘Jokester’ (he likes to tell jokes to the others, which has a chance to increase their moods). I was unsure what to do with him at first, since there’s not really any kind of leadership position for hearthlings. In the end I decided he would make a good Knight, a heavy armor combat class. After all, protecting everyone else in the group at the risk of his own life is a pretty Kirk-ish thing to do. He’ll have to spend some time as a Footman, the basic combat class, before he can promote to Knight, though.

Sulu has the traits ‘Green Thumb’ (he gets a happiness boost from being around plants) and ‘Pack Mule’ which means he can carry more than usual. This is a good combo of traits for a farmer, and since Sulu likes plants he seemed like the most natural choice for that role.

McCoy has the trait ‘Pessimistic’ which makes him more affected by things that cause negative mood modifiers, because of course he does. His class was far and way the easiest to pick: he’ll spend some time as a Herbalist, a crafting class that can make bandages and medicines, until he can promote to Cleric, a combat class that can heal.

Scotty has the traits ‘Gregarious’ (he enjoys talking to other villagers more) and ‘Animal Companion’ (he spawns with a pet, in this case a raccoon named Cactus). Alright, perhaps not the most Scotty-ish of traits, but hey, he had good stats. Scotty’s going to be a Carpenter, the staple crafting class for the Ascendency faction, who use wood as their primary resource. (There actually is an Engineer class, but it doesn’t come into play until much later and the Carpenter is considerably more important for the early game.)

Finally, Uhura has the ‘Empathetic’ trait (she gets a negative mood modifier from being around other villagers who have negative mood modifiers) and is going to be a Trapper, a class that traps animals for meat and fur and can promote to the Shepherd, who raises livestock animals. A bit of a stretch, I know, but hey, there’s no communications-based class, and someone had to be a Trapper. Plus, Trappers have a chance of bringing animals home as pets, which is what started The Trouble With Tribbles, so, hey.

With the starting roster confirmed, all that remains is to first pick a starting resource package—I’ve gone with the Merchant Caravan, which will give us some starting food and gold as well as the promotion items for a Trapper, Footman and Herbalist—and then roll a map. Eventually—after spending far too long generating and re-generating maps—I’ve settled on a nice location by a lake, with plenty of trees, and mountains nearby to dig for ore and stone in. The only downside is it’s a bit exposed, so hopefully nothing too big attacks before we’re able to build some walls.

[ID: A screenshot showing a zoomed-out grassy landscape near a lake, with a message box reading “Click the banner to choose your settlement’s location.” At the bottom of the screen is a blue banner that reads “Click me to place your town banner.”]

Soon after selecting our starting location, a messenger bird arrives with a letter.

[ID: A screenshot showing a message box with a voxel bird displayed above it, titled ‘A Bird...Messenger?’ The box reads “An odd bird arrives with a letter in its beak, stamped with the official seal of the Ascendency.” In smaller text: “The bird also carries a nametag, which reads ‘Harold’. Below the box are two options: ‘Open the letter’ and ‘[skip] We know what banner we want.’]

The letter reads:

Dear Expedition 142,

I hope this letter finds you well. By my guess, you’ve likely set up camp by now.

As your Capital Liaison, it is my honor to preside, remotely, over the official Founding of your Outpost! I trust that you had ample time to choose a name on your journey.

As you know, every new settlement must choose a Banner.

This Banner reflects your spirit and vision, the uniting factor which brought the Expedition together!

What future did you foresee when you embarked on your quest for Township?

Hold in your mind a vision of what your Town will one day be. Your Banner will set that course, but it is up to you to finish it.

Choose well, my friends. I eagerly await your reply.

Yours,

Mer Burlyhands

We could choose a banner of Vitality, which plants to grow faster and trees to drop more wood; Strength, which increases the amount of ore you get from mining and makes hearthlings not mind living in cramped spaces; or Cunning, which makes traders visit more frequently and traded items sell for more.

I choose the Banner of Vitality. The name of the town, of course, is Enterprise.

[ID: A message box titled ‘Outpost Established!’ which reads: “Proclamation of Outpost: By Unanimous agreement of the citizens, we declare Enterprise to be an outpost striving to be at one with the environment. Trees produce 25% more wood. Plants and crops both grow 25% faster. Plants have 2x their normal Appeal.”]

The messenger bird drops off some extra starting food supplies before leaving. Now it’s time to get to the business of actually building this town. Colony. Whatever.

First off, promotions for everyone! Except Sulu. It’ll be a bit before we can promote Sulu. Sorry, Sulu.

[ID: Four cropped shots of message boxes which read “Promote to [Carpenter/Herbalist/Trapper/Footman]. In honor of steadfast efforts and resilience, we hereby advance [Montgomery Scott/Leonard McCoy/Nyota Uhura/James Kirk]. 4th Day of Bittermun 1000.” Below the text is a stamp icon which reads ‘click to approve.’]

Then we establish a stockpile—a designated location for items to go—and cut down some trees. We’re going to need wood to make buildings and furniture, as well as for fuel.

After a bit of consideration, I decide to move the hearth closer to the lake, near to where our first building is going to go up. For the moment, however, night is falling, and everyone gathers to rest around the fire.

[ID: A screenshot showing voxel-McCoy, Uhura, Sulu and Scotty sitting around a campfire on the shores on a lake.]

...everyone except Kirk, who, for reasons best known only to himself, has fallen asleep in the stockpile.

[ID: 1. A screenshot showing voxel-Kirk laying asleep on the ground in a stockpile full of logs and food supplies. 2. A zoomed-out screenshot showing how far away Kirk is from everyone else around the campfire.]

Thus was founded the town/settlement/colony/localized disaster area known as Enterprise. What could possibly go wrong?

[per-ineptia-ad-astra]

 Hey all! I know I’ve been pretty quiet over here, so I just wanted to take a moment to check in.

I’m doing alright. Can’t deny that I’m pretty stressed out right now (who isn’t?) and it is making things go a bit slower than I’d like--but I’m very fortunate that right now it is nothing more than some stress. I dearly hope that all of you are likewise as alright as possible.

I’m still working on the next recap, it’s just been somewhat delayed because, well [gestures broadly at everything]. So I can’t say exactly when it’ll come out but it will come out, I promise you that.

In the meantime, I would really like to be able to put out something that might help be a bit of a distraction. Unfortunately I’ve found that I can only push the speed of the full episode recaps so much without burning myself out, but I’ve been trying to think of ideas for content I could put out a little more regularly, such as one of the following:

More Starhearth.

A Let’s Play of the Star Trek 25th Anniversary adventure game. This would probably have to be at least largely in video form, I don’t think I could do it justice in text alone.

Recaps or discussions about the TOS Pocket Books novels. I don’t have all of them, but I’ve got enough to last quite a while.

Recaps of the Animated Series. Those episodes are a lot shorter, so I think I could put them out quicker, although they’re not on Netflix anymore so I may have to look into getting the DVDs or something.

More meta-research posts like the ones about Kelley’s ring or the command shirts in TOS.

More how-I-would-fix-it posts in the style of that one about Return of the Archons.

I can only manage one thing like this right now, so if you have strong feelings about one in particular that you’d like to see, please let me know. Otherwise, I’ll mull it over for a bit and see what looks like the best bet.

In the meantime, stay safe, stay sane, and here’s a picture of Leonard Nimoy cuddling some cute animals to make your day a little bit better.

[ID: A slightly blurry black and white photograph of Leonard Nimoy wearing a sweater over a collared shirt and smiling widely as he holds a long-haired dog and a small cat in his lap.]

[per-ineptia-ad-astra]

MOTE patch notes

Despite tumblr’s best efforts to stop me, I’ve updated some things around the blog:

New theme, new banner and new avatar. Let me know if you find anything difficult to read; I was going for something of a Star Trek-y aesthetic while still hopefully keeping it easy on the eyes.

All of the recaps have had the image descriptions changed to use the same formatting, and some of the older ones were updated to be more, well, descriptive.

Also updated the Trek Trope Tally at the end of each recap to follow the same formatting. The Trope page itself is now updated through to Space Seed.

The Episode Index page now has links to the Starhearth episodes as well as to a few of the more notable non-recap posts, like the makeup post.

Added content warnings to Charlie X and Mudd’s Women. Also took the screencap of the faceless woman out of the Charlie X recap after deciding that, for all that it’s a low-budget effect from 1967, it was a bit too body horror-y to throw at people without warning.

Fixed the Space Jam gif that wasn’t displaying right in the Space Seed recap (...boy, is that a sentence).

Sorry to go quiet on y’all for a bit there; it took longer to do all that than I was hoping, but it had to get done eventually. Now that’s over I’m--hopefully--going to get the queue filled up for a bit within the next few days so that can run while I’m doing the next episode.

[per-ineptia-ad-astra]

hey everyone,

So...unfortunately it’s been a rougher week than I anticipated and I’ve not been able to get a comic recap done before I leave tomorrow. I really tried, I swear, but...I just wasn’t able to be very funny this week. I’m very sorry.

I happened to have one more Starhearth update pretty much done so I’m queuing that to go up instead tomorrow (Saturday) night. After that it’s going to be quiet around here for a week--I’m not completely dropping off the internet or anything, but I don’t have anything queued beyond Saturday and I might not get around to responding to any asks for a while.

Thanks everyone who told me they were enjoying Starhearth--it was very encouraging. I’m going to keep doing it after I get back, but since it is so different from the usual content--and since I know it’s very easy for me to forget that not everyone automatically knows as much about a given subject as I do--please do let me know if there’s something you find confusing or unclear about it. I’m more than happy to go back over anything I didn’t explain well enough.

I’ll try to get the next comic recap up soon after I get back. I apologize again for letting you all down on that one.

I’m going to go take a week to sit by a lake and not think about anything too much. See y’all soon.

[per-ineptia-ad-astra]

Small change of plans: gonna drop the Starhearth thing, I didn’t think it would take that much time to do but it’s taking long enough to be counter-productive as a time-filler, so. Plus I don’t know that it fits in here that well anyway.

I’m going on vacation in about a week and I’m gonna try to get Space Seed done before then. Things have been a bit rough lately so I’m not positive I’ll be able to do it, but if I can’t get that done I’ll at least put another comic recap up.

[per-ineptia-ad-astra]

Don't have a tumblr account but I was also enjoying starhearth. As a student who reads your blog on an hour-long commute, hope your work/life balance feels better soon (unsure of proper greeting? but virtual hyposprays do not work so shall have to settle for this)

Oh, that sounds like a hell of a commute; I’m glad to know I’ve provided some amount of entertainment for it. Thanks for telling me, and for the well wishes. I hope the education doesn’t get you down too much. (And your greeting is just fine. Although a virtual hypospray would also be fine.)

[darkestelemental616]

Bones no, go deal with the bees...

Also Spock’s eyebrows are just hilarious. I’m sitting over here snickering to myself.

starhearth: episode five

Second Month of Spring, Day 5-6

Early in the morning, while the last of the rain from the day before is still petering out, the explorer who promised to trade us some cricket golems returns.

[ID: A screenshot of a notification box titled ‘The explorer returns!’ The text inside the box reads, “The explorer returns!–I’m back! It looks like you’ve made me the 5 Wooden Window Frame I asked for. Are you still interested in 2 Autonomous Cricket Golem in exchange? I assure you, they are more useful than any normal person at carrying things!”]

Once activated, the two little golems quickly go to work picking up items and moving them to the stockpiles. These guys will be very helpful to us. As more and more of the villagers become crafters or warriors and spend most of their time focused on that, there are fewer and fewer people to do the necessary work of just hauling stuff from one place to another. The cricket golems will help pick up the slack.

[ID: A screenshot of the item stockpile, containing animal pelts, bones, strips of rawhide and blocks of wood, as the two golems pick up items from the stockpile. The golems are dark gray and rectangular in shape, with four stubby legs, small square gray heads, two glowing yellow eyes, and two glowing rectangular antennae.]

More good news: we’ve got enough food and networth to pick up another villager.

Now, I realize that you may have increasingly been thinking, as this game continues to progress, “uh, where the hell is SPOCK? you’ve literally included LESLIE in your roster before SPOCK? what are you even doing here” or something along those lines. Well, you can rest assured I did not forget about Spock. The reason I haven’t made him a villager yet comes down to one simple thing: I had no absolutely no idea what to do with him. There is no position available to the Hearthlings that even remotely corresponds to ‘science officer’. Herbalist, maybe, at a stretch—but there are multiple characters who fit that job better by virtue of being actual medical professionals. I thought about making him a warrior of some kind, since Spock takes out a fair amount of foes throughout the series, but that didn’t seem to fit him very well. Spock’s not a warrior at heart. He’s just a guy who’s willing to nerve pinch a bad guy or two if the situation calls for it.

But of course, we’ve gotta have Spock in here somewhere. So in the end, after much deliberation, I decided…to make him a Weaver. Weavers are a crafting class that refine fibers and animal pelts into thread, leather and cloth, which can then be used either by the Weaver to make clothes that provide various benefits to Hearthlings, or by other crafters to make things like bows and armor.

My reasoning for this? Spock’s fabulous sense of fashion. That’s it. That’s literally it.

[ID: A screenshot of Spock’s Character Info window, which shows that his mood is content, his stats are 6 Mind, 5 Body and 4 Spirit, his class is Worker, he has the trait ‘Night Owl’–represented by a crescent moon icon—and his mood is being improved by the ‘Pioneering Spirit’ buff. Below, Spock’s portrait is seen in the information box at the bottom of the screen, showing him to be a white Hearthling with brown eyes, short square black hair, and thick black eyebrows.]

Spock has an impressive stat spread—6 Mind, 5 Body and 4 Spirit—and the trait Night Owl. You might remember that Kirk also has this trait; it makes the Hearthling stay up later at night and wake up later in the day. So Kirk and Spock can keep each other company. As it should be.

The character appearance options aren’t exactly equipped to make Vulcans, so the best I can do is give Spock some really big eyebrows. Unfortunately, a strange graphical glitch results in those eyebrows floating in the air next to his head instead of remaining on his face as eyebrows usually do.

[ID: A screenshot of Spock the Hearthling running over the grass with his eyebrows floating at the right height, but to the right of his head instead of on it.]

my god, those NBC execs were right all along! his eyebrows are demonic!

Well…it’ll probably sort itself out.

Meanwhile, McCoy needs to build himself a cauldron so he can craft potions. This requires a bit of stone. Once we start mining for ore, we’ll have more stone than we know what to do with, but for the moment we’re fresh out. Luckily there are some boulders standing out in the fields around the village, so McCoy goes out to break those down for stone. Apparently he doesn’t much feel like picking it up afterward, though, because he just kind of stands there while a cricket golem comes to collect the stone instead.

[ID: A screenshot of McCoy standing in the grass staring at the stockpile and doing nothing, while behind him a cricket golem picks up a block of stone.]

what? did you not get your coffee today?

Once the stone is in the stockpile, though, McCoy—begrudgingly, I assume—goes to craft a cauldron out of it, and begins brewing some potions. A few energy potions made from the ad hoc little herb garden will make everyone move a bit faster for a while, which hopefully will speed up production of the tavern.

[ID: A screenshot of McCoy bending over a bubbling cauldron next to his workstation in the grass. The information box below describes him as ‘crafting energy tonic.’]

Uhura has befriended another rabbit, this one named March. I really hope March and Thumpy don’t breed, because if we get into a Trouble With Tribbles situation I don’t think my CPU will be able to handle it.

[ID: A screenshot of the camp with a small rabbit sitting next to the empty hearth, while Kirk patrols nearby and McCoy gets something from the stockpile in the background.]

Night Owl Spock stays up to finish putting the roof on the tavern after everyone else has gone to bed. He’s not completely alone, though; he’s got his eyebrows to accompany him.

[ID: Spock walking across the roof of the tavern in the dark, eyebrows still hovering next to his head.]

The next morning is warm but a bit rainy. With the tavern itself completed, all that’s left is to place all the windows and doors. Everyone chips in to help.

[ID: A screenshot of several villagers walking across the grass towards the tavern, each carrying a door or window. Rand is selected in the information box below, which says she is ‘placing Wooden Door.’]

Some more Entlings attack…or rather, they try to, but they’re up on the cliffs surrounding the town to the north, and can’t get down. So they just kind of stand there angrily for a while before wandering off again.

[ID: A shot from the front of the tavern, showing four Entlings standing on the cliff some distance in the background.]

The tavern is finally finished, and everyone takes a moment to celebrate.

[ID: A screenshot of McCoy, Rand, Chapel, Leslie, Spock, Chekov, and Scotty all standing in front of the tavern with their hands in the air as confetti and clouds of dust fly up from the completed building.]

There’s not much time to stand around, though—now that the building is complete, it’s time to start moving things into it. Eventually we’ll make individual houses for people and use the tavern as, well, a tavern, but for the moment it’s more pressing to just get everyone under a roof, so the beds are moved into what’s theoretically the tavern pantry. Well, almost all the beds. One of them can’t be moved for a while, because Kirk is sleeping in it.

[ID: A screenshot of Kirk passed out in the one remaining bed next to the berry bushes.]

The berry bushes and herb garden are also moved over to be closer to the tavern, and the outside storepiles decommissioned in favor of moving all our supplies into some more neatly organized boxes inside. Scotty queues up some more storage boxes as well as a few more beds to support the growing population, but he needs wood to make them, and building the tavern has used up our whole supply of it. So a few people are sent to cut down some trees. Just cutting down the trees growing nearby has given us enough wood so far, but that’s not going to be a sustainable solution forever. We’re going to need an orchard for wood, so a few acorns are also planted out back to get that started.

One of the felled trees drops a bee’s nest. This is actually a good thing—a Herbalist can collect the bees and put them in a hive which will supply honey. McCoy is sent to go pick up the bees, but he decides he��d rather get a drink instead.

[ID: A screenshot of the field behind the tavern, mostly cleared but with a couple of tree stumps in the corner. One of the stumps has a swarming bee’s nest on the ground next to it. McCoy is running away from the stump, and the information box below says that he is ‘getting a drink.’]

Yeah I can’t really say I blame him.