a multiplayer game of parenting and civilization building
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...And I'm again in the loop of "in order to get this, I need this resource, which is gone again, and now I need to get that too". Tiresome.
I think what really needs to be done for the sake of the tech tree and for the sake of enabling more teamwork and culture, is creating the ability to have multiple characters pulling/pushing/lifting the same object at once. For a real-life example see the ancient Egyptian sled-pulling team:
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/ … A9tep2.jpg
If getting enough people together and working on the same project at one time was the primary rate limiting factor in terms of construction and technological advancement, Jason wouldn't have to rely so heavily on tedium and resource scarcity to slow progress. It also means you're spending far more time side-by-side in a cooperative manner with other players and have a chance to actually socialize and accomplish something together.
Assuming most of these sort of 'teamwork' projects only needs one person to actually direct movements and everyone else is just providing dumb labor, it ends up being new player friendly. Most of the team is just letting their character be controlled by the lead character so they're free to ask questions and learn how things go together to make something useful. There would also be a lot more of experienced players actively seeking out others to help them do something, whereas now, I don't think I've ever had someone walk up to me and ask me to help them do something. This creates an informal currency of favor trading which is the bedrock of any good community.
Even with the simplest form of this sort of project of just dragging huge boulders or blocks around, you end up creating the opportunity for custom Stonehenge-style religious sites or massive stone temples that dozens if not hundreds of characters helped create and is inherently resistant to griefer destruction.
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I do realize what I'm describing would likely not be simple to code, or it would already exist, but I do still think it would be worth putting in a few months of work to make it happen. The cumulative impact of bringing people together to work on a common task (as opposed to separate, parallel tasks) shouldn't be underestimated.
I posted an idea a while back on Steam about how one might have non-item-based culture across multiple generations using an oral traditions system.
https://steamcommunity.com/app/595690/d … 033540475/
In brief, the system consists of three stages.
1) Old, high yum characters can /compose multi-line messages.
2) The composer or any other adult who has learned the message (see 3) can /recite it verbatim at any time for anyone nearby to hear.
3) Anyone (even babies) in range for at least half of the recited lines automatically learns the entire message. The maximum number of messages that can be learned is tied to your max lifetime yum bonus, so well-fed villages have greater access to the system.
What one chooses to /compose and /recite is purely player determined. It can be crafting info, important map directions, names of ancestors, stories of great battles, memes, or anything else you can think up. Since each player has influence over what is /composed and /recited, ideally only the most useful and/or interesting stuff persists across several generations.
The hope was it would accomplish several objectives simultaneously including: (1) making each village feel distinct, (2) giving old characters something productive to do before they pass on, (3) allow males a way to possibly have a meaningful legacy (especially if the genealogy tree allowed tracking oral traditions passed down), and (4) give a easy way to pass on useful information to babies and/or new players.
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