We would still need to Survey Land to find the deposits though.
I'd suggest that Survey Land is a low probability of success...
unless we perform it when we're building the Canal. Doing a survey while doing vast amounts of earthmoving is much more likely to reveal native metal ores than just walking around looking for funny rocks.
I'm still going to sit here and argue that high stability in the late stone age is a dangerous precedent to settle on. I'd prefer never to be above 1 intentionally, given our value, but without it i'd prefer 0. Stability represents longstanding tradition and a set way of doing things. It fosters a culture of intellectual stagnancy in a time when we most need creativity; "We do things this way because we do things this way. If we do things a different way all the stuff we've ever known may have to change, and as people in power, we don't like change."
Low stability (in moderation) could actually help develop more advanced technologies, on the basis that people are always looking for some means of making their lives more secure.
This would be the case if we didn't have Land of Opportunity to both generate regular stability drops with technological and cultural infusions. You don't see many xenophiliac cultures fossilize that way.
Nobody's been promoting getting Stability above 2 by active effort, though 2 is the natural stability safespot for us due to Land of Opportunity.
More seriously, they used to live elsewhere (where? I'm not sure) but the elders decided that instead of going to war with another group over the dwindling supplies to just pack up and go. They then established the Big Man/High Chief - the first of which was overshadowed by Crow from another group. His grandson became the second Big Man, and he was well-liked.
Funny thing from the early narration?
We came from the lowlands IIRC. We left because our neighbors(aka the common ancestors of the WC and DPs) took up farming so we couldn't hunt. So we walked off to the hills where the land was crappier but nobody made a fuss over it. And then developed a culture of SEVERE land development because the soil was crap.
Well, yeah then. It's why I'm so hesitant to barrel down the "GOTTA FIX STABILITY FOR RAISINS" train. If we didn't have LoO, I'd be content with -1 stability, since if it was me, I'd be applying an R&D bonus to negative stability, and a penalty if it's positive. At least for now.
Maybe when we've developed enough that philosophers and early alchemists are at least a hobby on their way to 'work of the third kind', I'd be more willing to embrace high stability, since in that case it supports the development of stringent process in early chemistry and sciences, but until then, positive stability in an era without a very specific class of creative minds just means people are less likely to innovate purposely, leaving it to matters of an accident.
We have a specific caste of creative minds, they're the shamans, and they unlocked the Study Forests/Survey Land options early.
Depending on how crowded we are, Settlement might have to be Main(We just know it's very, but our votes now could change that). Survey Land should definitely help with Canal Project as well.
Settlement Main just means faster returns. I think given the overpopulation, Secondary works fine.
Still need Festival and Walls though. Hopefully a Main Walls might make them standard for all settlements in future.
We'll probably do it next turn when we start making the canal. If we do Sacred Warriors at the same time the mysticism cost will balance out and it will prep us for beginning raids on the DP once more.
Or we could do SW the turn after and either make another settlement or just save the slot for what comes next.
@Sivantic We really do need to go to war with the DP again. They wrecked the WC and are getting tributary states... Staying out of it will just make things worse unless the nomads are weirdly successful.
Nobody expects the Nomads to deal with the problem indefinitely. Heck, the idea is largely that the Nomads will eventually merge into the problem, turning an expansionist martial civilization into a large random encounter zone of nomads which makes it nearly impossible for anyone to dominate the lowlands due to clusterfuck.
