a multiplayer game of parenting and civilization building
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Yes, my go to strategy so far has been:
1. Have carrots farming work
2. Fill a backpack of carrots and go find milkweed seeds
The industrial strength of a civilization is its raw milkweed production!
I still feel that the cycle for a milkweed stump to grow back is too long, but that's just the way it is.
Having been part of the playtesting I had similar concerns but since people have arrived I have been surprised at how much the game changed already. I understand it may seem like you lose all your progress when you die but actually the progress is saved in the ongoing culture in the world. That's really awesome to observe.
The first day, people were clueless, emptying berries, wasting milkweed on stupid stuff.
A few years later some misguided farming was occurring (40 domestic berry bushes, really?) but settlements were more stocked, there would always be tools for fire for instance.
Yesterday I went to several settlements. Most had oven, kiln and forge. Every carrot farmer was (finally!) instructed to let some seeds appear. Water trips were organized. Constant fire to help babies survive.
I am curious to see what happens in a week when the first tech tree update appears. I, for one, do not know how mutton domestication works, I am curious to see it happen.
And I have not seen people murder others yet (it just take a bow and arrow but it may be not widely known yet). I expect interesting dynamics when this happens. I am pondering making an authoritarian settlement by gaining a bow, a backpack of arrows and forbidding milkweed planting. I am sure I could do awesome things with slave labor!
Gus: He actually provides instructions to run your own server, stickied on this thread. That's a bold and courageous statement by Jason IMO
I'd love to have some kind of stats or maps on the different settlements and how far they are from each other...
We need to develop aerial photography quickly!
That's actually a very nice idea!
I guess the ideal way would be to create a github account, fork this repo: https://github.com/jasonrohrer/OneLifeD … er/objects and modify the objects description. When Jason makes an update, merge from his repo.
At this point I think that what matters to friends is to be born in the same civilization. Maybe a priority based on distance? And a way to identify each other. Maybe a label visible by them only? Actually I wonder if it would not make sense to have ways to differentiate characters. Maybe the mother could name their kids and this label would appear to all? I had to repeat a rule to everybody in the civ (don't pull carrots from the "seeds" field) and some times I could not recognize if I already said it to someone. Especially as they age.
An easy way, but it may run contrary to the mindset of the game, would be to generate an Eve for the group of friends and have the first babies in that family tree be the friends.
I guess a part of this game is to always be born in a different civ. I won't lie, I find it frustrating to not be able to revisit what you just helped built and after one intense hour, being totally unable to revisit what you just did gives a feeling, I don't know, of meaninglessness. Be prepared to have a lot of demands in that direction.
I got some instances when it was laggy (taking several attempts to pick up an object, the character does several back and forth before managing to pick it up). I even died once because I could not pickup food. I suspect server load is the culprit as I never had this issue during the test on sparsely populated servers with the same connection.
The loop thing was just lag. Picking up berries is instantaneous normally.
Stakes are made by taking one of those big straight branches from a leaved tree and using a pointy stone on it several time. First you'll get a shaft, then a small stick, and then, stakes.
Stakes are used with a rope to make snares, to catch rabbits. A source of meat and skin, that allows to make clothes.
The best renewable food IMO is the carrot field. Gather wild carrot seeds, plant them on a tilled ground, water them (using either rabbit skin bags or clay bowls) and be sure to let some carrots overgrow so that they produce new seeds. That way you can get a steady renewable food source. I estimate that 5 fields (4 for carrots, one for carrot seeds) will feed about 2 people.
A threshold in food efficiency is then crossed once you start making pies, approximately multiplying the energy you get from food by four.
Also clothing is very important: people who are cold need food more frequently. If you are a baby and there is a fire running, stay close to it, you'll need food less often.
Well, I figured out that you need an oven to dry out a wet clay bowl.
A kiln, I don't think an oven works but I can be wrong. (Add one ball of adobe to an oven to make it a kiln)
I can't find out how to till ground so I can plant stuff though!
You need to find fertile soil (happens on green ground), take some into a basket and spread it where you want to plant.
I told you kids were too lazy on the carrots farming!
It was fun! I deserted a civilization that did not manage to tend its fields correctly, and started my own. Quickly I got a few babies (and tons of baby bones piling, this game should be called: Child Abandonment, the strategy game). Quickly realized that learning the ropes to other players was time better spent than running around. Got reverently called Ma' by a small tribe quickly. But fuck me, I dies of starvation at 59 just because I was not watching. Luckily I got reborn in the same civ but my parents were too busy mourning 'ma so I died quickly. Oh well...
That's a pretty rich experience for one hour of game. I still wish there was a way to get back to that civ.
Now I need to make pies!
First time I get to see more than 3 players online. Resources deplete quickly but it is interesting to coordinate!
I would say that now a feature that really feels missing is the ability either to see what people say when they are slightly offscreen (I can see their legs but not their head) or the ability to move the view window around a bit. It is hard to predict how it will move and whether people are able to see what you say.
So many baby died until I could grow out to be a strong man! So many babies abandoned until we could plow fields to feed more!
It is really interesting to see it go! Coordinating even a 4 persons tribe is hard!
Awesome!
What are the fail stats that appeared on the main website page? I can't make sense out of them...
Also do you think it would be possible to have a page showing how many people are online? I'd love to try some new features but I would like to do it when others are online so that I don't restart from scratch all the time...
Thanks for the replies. I also saw that I can't put the carrot first in the pot. I understand the problem with the combinatorial explosion. I wonder if at one point you should not turn the pot into a container and have a different logic for recipes that can contain several elements. If you add more cooking recipes this will soon become hell. But I guess you know where you are going :-)
I tried to make a bow to hunt geese. It works but I was annoyed that neither the feather nor the fletching accepts to go inside a basket.
Also, there seems to be a bug with the food stats: it says that one rabbit pie was eaten (which may be correct, I have eaten 4 slices of pie) but only for a total of 12 calories where it should be 48.
So... I tried the new pies. It is awesome the autonomy a pie gives you! Even a modest rabbit pie. Takes only one room in the backpack, feeds more than a backpack full of carrots. It may not be the best use of water (as one part water will give you 25 food in carrots) especially if you grow the wheat (which removes the soil after harvest) but even so I feel it is really worth not having to go back at the carrot spot for a long time.
I noticed something, not sure if it is a bug or a feature: it is not possible anymore to put a basket in a backpack. I tried it with an empty basket and empty backpack, non empty basket, non empty backpack, no way anymore.
Also, a passing note: I minced rabbit meat first in my first pie and later noticed I have to put meat, then carrot, and only then mince. It could make sense to be able to add the carrot after the rabbit meat has been minced. Or not, after all a recipe is a recipe.
I did not try to hunt geese or to make a shovel.
I too think that having a baby in the game really is a handicap for the player who then has to waste a few minutes doing nothing but feed and eat and that this alone gives males an edge.
I am curious of what will emerge. I think an all-female strategy, even with the food cost, would give a demographic advantage.
If you want a way to have males have a role in reproduction, just make it more likely for females who often are close to males to have a baby.
I am wondering when is the next tech tree update scheduled?
Also, I would love to see some stats about how many people are logged at which time. Playing alone and grinding as a single Eve is just boring.
Neh, no civilization left for us to destroy then :-) jcwilk: yes, I am in Japan. The way to manage the babysplosion would be to let the boys die and take care of 1-2 girls until they can have babies too. In this game, males are dispensable!
3 AM for me :-(
Hey jcwilk, you are in Asia too? How about we synchronize on the next day to burn down whatever civilization they will have started?
It works fine here. A strange bug in the editor though: I can't move more than 3 units up or more than 6 units left. I can move down and right correctly.