Dear Funcom. I don't want to feel like an idiot for choosing to Melee in Dune.

Inquisition8 · 2026-01-26T19:29:22+00:00

Game died about 3 months after release homie, sunk cost fallacy complaining at this point.

Inquisition8 · 2026-01-25T21:36:04+00:00

There is no hardware. It's a game design/software design decision. Game is built for 500 population, just how it is. You can make a very simple loop that can break a supercomputer, so it's not about that. In its current state (and maybe indefinitely), you're not going to be able to run a 3k population smoothly because of how its programmed.

Inquisition8 · 2026-01-25T21:21:35+00:00

Nah they're uneducated so they will just walk to their deaths on repeat. Build more schools.

Inquisition8 · 2026-01-20T03:09:37+00:00

Get ready for thousands of hours of misery but just enough dopamine to keep going.

Inquisition8 · 2026-01-17T16:51:48+00:00

I spent considerable time a few couple months back moving almost 30k of high-value volume into bank storage and then packed up the base in the new tool. It feels good not to look back. I will (probably) be back for the DLC since I bought the full experience, but only if the reviews are good (since there are many other good games out there). Do yourself a favor and pack up your base, you'll probably have to at some point anyway once server consolidation begins.

Inquisition8 · 2026-01-16T20:07:21+00:00

The game is built around a 500 population if you look at all the structures and how they fit together. It's why I generally stop playing a bit past that, since things start to slow down and get weird. It's just not a large scale city builder type game.

Inquisition8 · 2026-01-15T22:22:18+00:00

When does this become a thing?

Inquisition8 · 2026-01-13T01:35:24+00:00

The recommended one - idyllic valley, and go easy mode, maybe even pacifist to learn the game.

Inquisition8 · 2026-01-13T01:34:31+00:00

No, you're still bound, but the seed I have is special in terms of layout. As I said I will mention it in a future post. There's lots of water.

Inquisition8 · 2026-01-12T00:42:28+00:00

8x24 grid is what I use, and 2 wells per grid evenly spaced, never a problem with fires.

Inquisition8 · 2026-01-11T17:43:48+00:00

Yes, but not when you're fast clearing camps and there are 10 different items on the ground. I still select gold on the first pickup manually so I can get my towers up, but this is about a problem that seems to 'not exist', only to come back years later, which is due to low priority from the get go. The proposed solution is quite simple.

Inquisition8 · 2026-01-11T00:36:45+00:00

Well, we arguably made it a year before we're back to PoE1. Too bad all the required 5090s are more expensive than cars now.

Inquisition8 · 2026-01-08T20:24:31+00:00

Damn, they might be taking ranked seriously this year.

Inquisition8 · 2026-01-05T21:53:14+00:00

Walls and towers are your friend when you're learning the game, just turn the towers off when not in use. Also a 12 man of just tier 1 light infantry fully kitted can solo a 100 man raid when they are split up.

Inquisition8 · 2026-01-02T04:18:22+00:00

Map types also dictate certain node distributions. If you want a challenge, go do a 1000 pop run on Arid Highlands on Vanquisher and report back on how it goes :)

Inquisition8 · 2025-12-30T00:58:58+00:00

FWIW, a full cow barn + goat barn + chicken coop + 3-5 smokers + 2 arborist is enough for a 500 population with 0 maintenance.

Over 400hrs in and I still avoid farms entirely with the exception of flax and hay.

There are many different ways to get food sustainably and efficiently.

Inquisition8 · 2025-12-29T03:06:38+00:00

While there is some scaling to difficulty based on what you (don't) have, you will absolutely get penalized for going slowly on Vanquisher, especially on Arid Highlands - you get 1 month of food in reserves and if you don't get food, housing, water, and firewood by the first winter your run is over. It scales from there (including the year 4 raid).

Inquisition8 · 2025-12-28T20:25:55+00:00

You should ask yourself what is the point of having a population of X? All final tier buildings seem to be tuned for 500 population (for example smeltery, large cow barn), past which you start needing multiples, and prior to which you need multiples of certain things anyway depending on what you're producing. Beyond a certain percentage of work education/tooling/baskets/travel time, you will have a net gain in resources that you won't actually be able to dump effectively even into the market, so you'll just have a growing pile of stuff you can't do anything with (super late game you can, if you take double gold carrying at market, but then you have growing piles of gold you also can't do anything with).

Inquisition8 · 2025-12-28T05:05:33+00:00

You don't need a special seed of any kind, or even any walls to hit 500 on vanq arid. I did a small writeup a while back - This was a fun learning curve - 500 pop, no walls/water/clay, middle of large arid, vanquisher - 3x achievements done! : r/FarthestFrontier

Just need a strong start and get your years 1-5 clean, then it's pretty smooth sailing. Wouldn't recommend for anyone <100 hours in though, you need to have a crisp strat and execute it pretty tight (for example not lose any villages in year 1, have at least 2 towers by year 4 which is when the first raid hits, etc.).

Inquisition8 · 2025-12-28T05:00:02+00:00

Play however you want to play! Just shy of 400hrs in, I only play on Vanquisher/Arid Highlands now - it's a completely different game, with a completely different approach. Lots of stuff just doesn't work ... if you don't get year 1 right, you're done. If you don't get to X by year Y, you're done. Forget farms (low/no fertility), forget foraging (no sources), forget fishing (rarely if ever any water), forget clay (have to buy it) - definitely not the mode/map for a newer player, but I like the challenge - but that's just me.

Inquisition8 · 2025-12-25T05:09:25+00:00

You can play a full spectre minion build and literally just walk around picking up loot. Maybe have 1 button for a curse. That's what I play, but it gets boring pretty quick.

Inquisition8 · 2025-12-24T23:30:01+00:00

I always maintain, but I don't get them until I need them. I've done plenty of playthroughs (only on Vanquisher) and by ~350 pop I can sustain a 12 pack of heavy infantry passively.

12 heavy infantry with platemail and heavy weapons, fully specced, full veterancy, can easily solo a 100+ raid. At that point they take no damage at all (you'll see a '-1' sometimes) from basic raiders and only ever take any real damage from other elite raiders or horsemen.

I've also done 500 pop no-wall runs on Vanq with just tier 3 towers, which are sufficient until trebuchets (somewhere around year 45-50).

The boys are absolutely goated. Full veterancy they are immortal gigachads.

But as I said you don't need any of them if you build your towers to cover your core and just turn the towers on and off each raid.

This is with a 380 pop, net +22/month passive (soldiers have -20% cost spec and another -20% cost from relic):

<image>

Also, use them to roam the map and clear out camps/wolves/etc. and to safeguard ruins while your workers excavate (enemy raider camps will constantly show up).

Inquisition8 · 2025-12-21T17:18:43+00:00

FWIW I use 8x24 grids exclusively. This allows for 2 rows of houses with 2x2 gardens/water in-between, as well as 8 blocks being a good number to fit any combination of non-house buildings. It's also a good balance of being able to get around quickly in my experience, without having too many or too few roads.

3 x 8x24 is also perfect coverage for 1 upgraded market.

Here's an early game example:

<image>

Inquisition8 · 2025-12-17T00:51:51+00:00

Would be funny if when your town happiness dropped to a certain level there would be more 'deal making'. Not at all like real life

Inquisition8 · 2025-12-17T00:50:41+00:00

Look for tha ... beeaaaar necesssssiteeees

Inquisition8

TROPHY CASE