This is a great little colony simulator that really lives up to the name more than others. It's got unique systems and succeeds a lot where other games that I've played flag. I've been playing since release, and with the nautical voyages update released I figured I would throw my hat in the ring for thoughts. If you don't care to read in depth, then I recommend it highly.
Starting off with playing buildings, Whiskerwood uses a box layout so every construction regardless of shape fits into a number of squares both on the ground and higher up. I appreciate the simplicity, and it helps you easily space out a new area for whatever construction you need as you can measure whatever layout you're looking for by just counting boxes. Buildings are all constructed by non-assigned colonists, or whiskers, but there is a maximum number that can work on any one building, so assembling a gigantic warehouse will take more time than building a log cabin. Whenever you put down a construction, if any part isn't on solid ground, the blueprint auto-adds in a log per square of empty space needed and automatically adds supports for the blueprint cost. That's really simple, really effective, and I like it a lot. It also connects to probably my favorite aspect of building.
Infrastructure, that is to say roads, conveyer belts, and fluid pipes, are all built immediately, assuming you can afford them. These also take into account any log supports if you're running belts or pipes above a path for example. It really is hard to overstate how amazingly helpful this decision is. As much as I kind of enjoy everything being built in some other colony games, the more building block feel used here is tremendously by being able to immediately pipe, path, rail, and belt any path you can draw, and can afford resource wise. Speaking of resources!
Resources follow a pretty simple line forward. Starting with simple logs, fish, and berries, you can immediately make factories for planks, and with those make most of the advanced buildings. Most factories also require machinery, which we will talk about later, but suffice to say it's a very precious resource, so you are prevented from immediately industrializing everything. Still, you immediately have farms and crops to plant, some of which feed your whiskers and some of which serve as crafting materials for more improvements. From planks and stone, you eventually build up to copper, then bronze, then iron and steel, all of these higher tier materials needed to assemble more late-game items like steam pipes and cart rails. I like that your most important resources will populate the top of the screen as you unlock them, so you will start with just logs planks and cut stones, but will get a number for copper bars once you start making them at scale. A more detailed inventory can be accessed on the side, but in general the resources don't have a lot of fluff. Everything you have in your warehouses can immediately be used, consumed, or sold by your whiskers.
Your whiskers, little mice far from their home, are your primary workers and the bulk of who will be living at your colony. They come with 1 of 4 general work profiles, as well as little quirks that somewhat affect their actions, though not much. Some also come with special perks that need to be cherished, as many factories and workplaces later on cannot be staffed without them. Apprentices are the most common, both to need in factories and to get, but there are also craftsmasters, educated mice, and the new additions of sailors and officers for navy operations. Thankfully, all of these mice can slowly be converted as needed with a school, where you take one whisker with a specialty and use them to teach others who don't have it.
Whiskers have a work value that they contribute to their workplace. Higher values means faster output. The easiest way to increase any output is to staff it with whiskers that fit the profile. Food service whiskers work well in farms and bakeries, while mining whiskers work well crushing rocks or breaking down ore, while machine guild whiskers excel at the more complex operations such as oil presses or water pumps, with exploration whiskers working well in foraging stands and certain crafts. I enjoy the system, it's simple enough that you aren't pulling hair out, while still moving around the right mouse to get the right job as best as you can. It's also a nice touch that each whisker will actually need to do the whole of their job, including collecting and delivering inputs and outputs, so smooth design and pathing will help your colony thrive as you build out more industrial whisker production centers. But, where are these whiskers coming from? And why aren't they paying any taxes???
That's right, you're the colony manager, and everything you have is on rent from the far-off Claw government. These monarch felines will arrive with frustrating frequency and demand payment. This payment is both easy to calculate, and still annoying. The Claws charge you per whiskers living in your colony, as well as daily taxes and upkeep fees. They will charge you for each ship they send containing more whiskers, and each ship with supplies comes with an extra tax burden that you agree to when you take them. If you decide not to take the supplies the Claws will see this as seditious and monitor you more closely through a small trust bar displayed on the tax screen. Not productive enough? The Claws will shell your colony. A lot. I received my first backlash for non-payment after the nautical update and I was almost entirely killed. It was also comical since the ship bombarding me was sailing away and firing sideways while it left.
That's what I believe is a good overview of the gameplay of Whiskerwood. I've already said I'd highly recommend it, so try it out!
Okay, now that the normal readers are gone, I do have a small note for the developers if they happen to see this. It's mostly in regards to the "forbid warehouse dining" option restaurants have. Whenever I toggle this button on, my whiskers starve. At first, I thought that this was just my fault for having too little in the way of dining options, but I have observed on multiple occasions that starving whiskers will wake up, walk directly past my bistro stationed outside their housing district, stand at the railcart station, go to work, and sit in their workplace until they die, while many whiskers who are not starving will start their day by dropping in for a quick snack at the all day cafes I have. Then I thought okay, well clearly I need to do more in-depth research so I followed a hungry whisker on shift end to see what he did, and noticed that, before food he was seeking services. Oh perfect I thought, I can make a cloak production line and send it to a warehouse right outside the housing district too. Then they can grab a coat from JC Penny and a Panera Bread sandwich, and go to bed. I made the line, I watched my mice. Now instead of seeking a cloak, I saw this whisker beeline for the bathing facilities. Oh no problem I thought, I'll build a bath-house complex right next to the housing district. Now, SURELY my whiskers will feed themselves, right? Well no, apparently! I watch in horror as some whiskers collect their Marshalls fall collection coat, go to the local YMCA to get a hot shower, and then GO TO BED. ALL WHILE THEY ARE HUNGRY! It baffles me, and I beg and implore that something be implemented so whiskers will prioritize food from restaurants before shopping at Kohls and going to the swedish spa. Also, I'm positive that some of the whisker behavior is affected by where they're working, because I have lost 2 whiskers to starvation in the school when there is nothing stopping them from getting a snack before class. I get the dedication to higher learning but damn.
(I hope anyone that reads that little diatribe understands that it's a very small issue I have, and my infuriation is mostly humorous)
