I rebuilt my Northgard build overlay app: now with click-through overlay, year-by-year build sections, and starter builds for every clan
Hey everyone,
I posted about this around 10 months ago, but I ended up stepping away from it for a while. I recently came back to it and reworked a lot of the app, so I wanted to share an update.
The app is called The Longhouse. The basic idea is to help people read, submit, and follow Northgard builds while playing.
I know Northgard probably isn’t getting huge clan updates like it used to, but I still really like the game and I think there’s still a community here. Part of why I wanted to come back to this is because I think Northgard can be really hard to get into. There’s just so much happening at once when you’re new: scouting, colonizing, food, winter, lore, military, clearing tiles, not dying, etc.
So I’m trying to make the app more like a simple guide/checklist instead of a giant wall of text.
Some of the stuff I changed:
- made the UI cleaner
- added a better in-game overlay
- added click-through mode so the overlay doesn’t mess with your mouse while playing
- added hotkeys to lock/unlock and hide/show the overlay
- changed the build viewer so it shows one year/section at a time instead of one long scroll
- builds now show sections like 800, 800 Winter, 801, 801 Winter, etc.
- added hotkeys to move between sections while playing
- added a step formatter so builds can be written in a cleaner way
- steps can use tags like
[Scout],[Food],[Eco],[Military],[Warning],[Goal], etc. - added starter/template builds for every clan while I rebuild the build list
There aren’t a ton of real builds in it yet. Right now it’s mostly starter templates and some older/prebuilt community-style stuff. I don’t want to oversell it like it’s already some perfect build database. I’m more trying to build the structure first so it can hopefully become useful over time.
Current overlay hotkeys:
Alt + L — lock/unlock overlayAlt + O — hide/show overlayCtrl + Alt + J — next sectionCtrl + Alt + K — previous sectionCtrl + Alt + H — first sectionCtrl + Alt + E — last section
GitHub link: https://github.com/jetpropulsioncloud/northgard-analyzer
I’d really appreciate feedback if anyone wants to try it or has thoughts.
Main things I’m wondering:
- would this actually help new players?
- is year-by-year better than scrolling?
- what kind of step tags/categories would make sense?
- what clan builds would be most useful to add first?
- what beginner mistakes should the app warn people about?
My goal isn’t to replace guides from good players. I’d rather make it easier for community builds to be organized and followed in-game, especially for people who get overwhelmed early on.
Thanks again to everyone who gave feedback the first time around.