One Hour One Life Forums

would be interesting to wall off an area after moving out resources, just to force respawns on it. but I guess it has to be outside visibility range too and if I remember right, they are in chunks of like 13x13? or smaller? so the wall should be outside the biome and the chunk

doesn't worth the shovel use. Yah has a bunch of things on old system, but some before the good changes. They changed rubber cart when I asked tho, it was still 4 items. They said a fence blocks the goose until opened and won't decay. I always forget to try.

I tried the bear cave deleting but it doesn't work, it just goes back to the cave. Also it's 3 wide wall for all animals but bears. it blocks you like Newcomen did but the bear can cross on top diagonals. I got another blocking method, if it still counts as an item, then
A000A
0CCC0
0A0SA
0AAA0
0-empty A-half adobe wall B-bear cave S-stakes/marker
so basically 7 stakes 7 adobe to trap it and move around (you can use explosives on caves in YAH so clearing better than blocking it)

one of my favorite YAH item is a torch that lasts an hour. you can light up things with it, costs 2 shears, so a hat worth. You use palm oil on it or stick it in a tarry spot then light it up. It also needs a chisel and make a stone block, drill it (similar to the apoc one but it's on top). Since it allows walking, it's ideal pen corner, people got to use an axe on it, put a medium fleece ball in it to move it, so by griefing it they make torches for you and if you see in time you replace the shaft. Leaving axes out is always a bad idea anyway. The torch replaces the 20 firewood and you only do fire for babies maybe. Also burns mosquitoes in 3 attacks.

Sad OHOL doesn't have items like that, complex but good quality of life change. Also I have to make stone blocks before recycling chisels.

no one did that in rift. ponds 20+ tile away were usually untouched. in comparison, all the iron was collected. one time, for fun I collected all broken tools and knives, from 7-8 cities, made an engine and got 200 iron when it was nothing left (some was locked away) but wouldn't do it multiple times. had to kill some entitled idiots in the process, was faster than convincing them that the whole map lacks resources and their fancy knife won't save the server if it sits in their pack. without the rift there is no hard cap but it's seriously boring to go far away. but also no map knowledge. I hated losing good maps and do bad runs over and over.

too much changed, and nothing for the better. last update was undoing something that never should of been done.
I play You are Hope on emulator. People are mostly bad, but not so toxic, and it's the old school working mechanics. They split before the bugs were repaired and they didn't take over all things, some good things like tables and wall storage, but they got their own set of things which are quite fun like big plates, new foods, water moats and torches, watering can, bunch of cool stuff.

oh, give it some time
it's like writing a book that has 10 pages and the rest is random lorem ipsum
or more like klingon and you need a dictionary to translate but after a few more pages it doesn't make sense anymore but he hopes that you run out of patience by then and blame it on yourself

are you sure you like the game or you like what it could be, it's really two different things

because what i see is that people are excited about the premise and need like 50-100 hours until they get used to the wonky controls then 100 more to realize what is actually the order of progression and then it's just repeating itself and you either burn out or do the things for others with no point
Jason is dead set on some dumb things, like 'everything runs  out' so the core of the game is that everything goes to shit, gets ruined, and you should find some meaning it that. He was also dead set on not adding magic mechanics and keep it real, but then he changed that policy and added the worst updates ever.
He was also adding a bunch of things not to do, and players could accidentally ruin stuff for others. Even better he embraced the players who did those things intentionally, and made their job easier.
Do you actually think you are helping a civilization by doing things? actually everything has a cost and upkeep and all you do is getting closer to it, so in the grand scheme of things you probably make a bunch of mistakes and the ones who see the bigger picture won't complain until it keeps you busy, but there is an order of things to be done and if you not doing that, you just put a strain on the other players and you aren't actually useful. all these because the mechanics were changed so many times to artificially increase the difficulty that it makes no sense. Like the progression of the civilization isn't actually needed, you would be better of skipping most of the steps and just focus on a few things that are needed. A bunch of dead content that isn't fun isn't useful, isn't needed.  And a lot of restrictions because you need restrictions, which I don't disagree, but there should be ways to overcome them, but your reasons why you can't is the skin tone of the character you got or that others used up too much of the stuff already. So your existence in this universe isn't needed, and the actual gameplay is dead set if you actually want to progress, your intention, activity and work doesn't add things, it just might slow down the process of detriment.

he got a bunch of feedback and he doesn't decide based on logic, he decides based on his sentiments towards the person, this isn't a game, more like a social experiment and he needs a constant influx of new prisoners to torture, he doesn't care about the long term players.

Before the engine removal the location and the infrastructure sustaining it were linked. You couldn't have a well engine without a good town, and you couldn't have a good town that can sustain life without an engine. But even Newcomen was a tech that was hard to reach without the proper skill and activity. Some players do care about locations and don't just randomly make things, they try to optimize every element of the town so the new tech can be made faster and more efficiently.

The engine removal allowed shitcamps to own technology they would normally couldn't make and with their setup would be almost impossible to reach even if they get some good players. So it made the nomad lifestyle and the scavengers even more powerful. Back before, you could restart a good town if you carried resources there, but since it was so easy to steal the most expensive item in  the whole town, after it was gone, it made everything else devaluate. So people stole everything else made of metal and even the doors.
All those good looking ghost towns and all the shitcamps with engines and stolen stuff made strategic play and planning useless.

There were many situations where Jason couldn't balance properly the effort and reward and the reward vs punishment. But this was the biggest blow to it. Players skipping steps to get the tech isn't a good gameplay and ruining good towns isn't good either. Combined with the 'everything runs out' bullshit is just super bad. When you already do things for others out of your generosity and all it takes one bad intended player to ruin it. If you look at the big picture, everything is pointless in OHOL. Nothing will last, nothing will stand, nothing you do matters. Jason thinks that everyone works the same and worth the same but it's just not true, some people carried several others and in return he made them harder to do so, this won't make others work harder, it just makes them give up faster. Because in the end there is no goal or personal pressure and if people don't know the time and effort going into making things they don't even appreciate it.

And that's where this communist utopia fails, when everyone gets 'paid' the same way, some people work less and leech on the others. He made theft the most optimal way of progress. I personally don't enjoy dealing with social issues when the game doesn't even have a framework for it. The drama of somebody stealing the towns engine? They don't even see it, there is no drama, half of the people don't even realize it's gone or if they had it in the first place. Most of people didn't even care that the town is ruined as long as they can chat and eat and name their babies they don't care. Why would you lock things up and guard it? it just creates more problems than solutions. If it's not a well  balanced automatic system then it's so pointless spending 'years' of your life deciding leaders and limiting access to things.

removing or moving things is fine but it really should be similar effort to undo things, or it makes zero sense. If you spend 90 minutes to make an engine, it should really require a tool that is not so easy to make and it's only one use to remove that engine. SO like make a fire, make a tool, get some resources first, so you don't just walk in a town and steal with a single click then run away with it.

for a conflict you need two people. one of them will die. one of them will have his murder counter higher. you can't assume which one is which. if you play the game for fun, to create, you don't bother with others. if they still insist on their grudge it forces you to deal with them. if you can't than that is demotivating. if people don't care about the game and what they do that life, they got all time time in the world to frame you and collect allies.  I'm not pissed, I'm the most calm person ever, I kill you with a smile and you are forgotten. some people want to kill you and spend a whole life doing it and days talking about it.

that's the thing, people die all the time. graveyard simulator. how can people care more for the dead than the living? some people ask for 10 minutes straight to be buried. Same efforts could be spent to feed the living ones. of course, if you cant kill others then there are less people killed. but putting noobs in charge and removing the ability to do justice isn't the same as reducing conflicts. something fun was removed and replaced with nothing. the game is less ever since.

I would be fine with no killing at all but reduce the ways people can interact with your items. less killing but way more grifiefers who annoy you.

I agree on this, you can add together items, but it won't be sustainable. It has to be a combination of smaller parts. Even if you got 1000 items that are combined in a well balanced manner, can be more content than 10000 items total.
The characters are good example. If the hairs and eyes could be mixed it could be easily many more unique looking ones.

The dead content is a problem, if something has no logical reason to exist, or provides any fun element, then it's not needed. But also people need some content, something new, something fun. There was an NFT game that was super successful last year, until it wasn't. It ran on placebo, was in a bubble, as long as it was hyped, it was going up, and people hyped it even more. It was running on hopium. When things went south the game went south and they tried to make people be more patient, but no news, no results and the community became more and more toxic.  It can still be good, it might be, but everyone who experienced the downfall will be wary of investing time or money in it.

It's not just the dead content, it's the lack of balance, OHOL was always a weird game. I remember how stressful it was learning it, it lost more than half of the people there. Then there were changes. And some parts of the game became super easy while other parts are annoyingly complex. It lacks a proper balancing. Even basic philosophy. what is the base minimum players should do? who is a good player? what is the end goal? I mean the punishment and rewarding part is important. it's a survival game so people should survive on their own or with some help but they should want to survive at any cost. they shouldn't question their own existence or other players. more players should be considered good at any time (okay maybe in some really extreme cases not). One thing I really don't like is when people just rely on others completely. The game should somewhat force people to do something. It shouldn't be hard or impossible, left foot right foot, do something, get something. That's why I don't like the resource system. Some people want to do things but they can't. No water, no soil, no food, then you will die. How can you help? by doing the most complicated recipe. Can they? they can't. Then who will teach them? Nobody because others become stressed to keep them alive so they can't check what they are doing.

The game should be easy if players show the minimum willingness to try. Get water and soil, produce food. Easy enough. It should be possible to hang on forever, but not to thrive. Players would need to want to become better, to do other things, to risk for something. SO your dead content starts with the water system. When you made the most basic resource the most important at the same time. It affects each other. Why has to be so depressing? Why everything needs to run out? How will someone understand that the town has no water because the town has no oil, because the people can't find somebody in 1000 tile radius that has the ability to help? they will just think you are rude or you make up these stories. 'Wat do?' they ask, you should always be able to answer that. The game should have goals.
So what if people just farm and talk? nothing, it's fine. If they don't change, nothing changes.

The punishment is instant. So they won't learn. Initially you starved right away. You didn't know what happened, because you starved, if you remember to check your food bar you don't starve. I really liked that changed that it wasn't instant. It's dramatic, you understand you got time but you got to get your shit together, and do something. Or someone help you. If you don't know what killed you, is it really a punishment? if you don't know that the town has no water, is it really your fault? I had so many moments seeing barely any food and people having tons of babies, and I was thinking 'whatever you do we can't support that' but if you tell them you are rude. So this situation should not occur, there should be a way out. There was a football game that over time reacted to your style, the more you did something the higher was the chance to adapt and counter it, so you had to invent new ways of doing things, do a variety of things, and don't be easily readable. It should be the players that control the system, the system should give enough information that players understand what to do and if they are wiling to do it it's rewarding, if not they know it's their fault they didn't succeed. So in a way the world should adapt to players too. I don't know, for example each player has a separate view on the food they can get. It should be enough wild food for them to survive if they do the right pathing. Others can't interfere, or not with everything, some wild food could be shared, and all player made food if the people who make it, decide it so. People would already feel more motivated to do things instead of blaming others, the game or give up.

You need to make them want to survive, to advance, to do things. Destruction should never be the goal, 'everything runs out' is a plain bad concept. people play games to get away from reality, to experience a different world, have fun. it should be a positive message, 'everything can be fixed' or 'most things can be fixed if you try hard enough'. The new should be better than the old. Sure it could be ruined, hard to fix, so they could decide to move further and further. for example if they farm the same spot, it could become dry. Then there would be limited spots to use, and too much work to fix it. So the players would know it is not sustainable. communication is very basic, the tribe should be able to talk with a chat. unrealistic? well it's a game. there are plenty of things that were more unrealistic, posses, leadership, curses.

When you had the question 'why people don't make higher level wells?'. My answer was that the game doesn't force them to, it doesn't reward them enough for doing so. There should be enough difference to upgrade. There should be a limit where and how many they can do (I called water deposit, so you moved wells into ponds). It also should have a requirement to upgrade, but a reward that allows new things (bucket). The whole bucket and description of a well wasn't my idea, but the concept was. It worked, it made the game more fun. The bucket allowed the cows, the painting, the faster transport of water. It's a change that makes new things possible. Probably painting wasn't that popular, but cows were. Also the watering can still would be And probably the sprinkling system could be easier.

It worked, people upgraded wells, instead of making more, and used the new item, it was clearly an upgrade, a higher tech, a more valuable item. It doesn't have to be complex to make it. It's not the point. They can't get to a content without it, so they have to make it. They don't feel like it's forced, it's natural that you want easier life and more things so the things you do for it don't feel forced.

That time wells were the most advanced thing and made longer towns possible. The iron system upgrade came after and it was also a good one. But the next upgrades were not that much.
Making engines is super complex, dealing with tiny items, too long to do it, it's rewarding, yes, but it's also not the most fun thing. Limiting resources is also not fun. It created paradoxes that were hard to fix. You need iron to make iron, you don't have iron so you can't get iron. Same goes for the dependency of water. You need water to make food, but without food nobody has time to make food. it is frustrating and unsolvable problem. Or it requires heavy dedication. People might do it a few times but it's not fun. Nobody will thank it because they don't understand how to do it or why is important. Simple change would be to be able to upgrade, slowly, you would know what you need where you need from just gotta do the grind. They invented tin cans before can openers. Really all it needs to build upon each other, making one or the other more common or less common, so it's not always the same problem, you would have excess of something and need something else.

Same goes for my idea of 'family soup'. My idea was a complex and work intensive food that requires a combination of items but in exchange it rewards with more calories than it would normally. My 'static' part of the idea was just so it can't be moved as a portable food, so it's troublesome, but since people spend a lot of time with it, they don't have a reason to take it far, so there is some downside. The idea of static foods was born and we then got a bunch of new foods as there was a place for them. Small static, big static, medium static, etc. I don't care whose idea, people had similar ideas. It's just extracting the essence. Stew was a good update and people liked it. Why you underestimate simple things? Do you think new players want to feel useless? Other than the clutter, I was happy if people made stew, they weren't griefing, they provided food for themselves (not for others because they placed all in same spot) and they were occupied. same deal, if a toddler could make a tea out of water that is free, and leafs, and it provides 1 pip of food, he is not entirely useless. There could be more optimal ways to spend his time, but we need things that don't depend on resources, depend on time and activity and have a reward that is worth it.

Instead of a system where something relies on the same category, should be interchanging systems. To upgrade water you need iron, to upgrade iron you need clay for example, to upgrade clay you need water. That wouldn't be enough, but already a step forward. even mobile games got 4-6 resources. They don't ask you to not eat to save food. Wood upgrades farms, food upgrades army, etc.
The very base resources could be free. Water and soil, you should always be able to get them, players should always be an asset. They should always be able to make a profit. Others should always be happy that more people joined so they can help. Make a fire, make some tea, some leaf panties? something very basic. New players still would see it as an accomplishment, old players would see as a basic necessity (and also could pretend they are happy if they get one).

A basic income of resources would be better than a fixed resource system. If you get 10 water an hour, you would still be able to collect some. If you would get 1 iron per hour, still can make a tool. Upgrading them with other resources would create a system where the value of things is not absolute. When you got fixed water and oil, and iron, each of them can be calculated in water, in time, so more or less how long it gonna last. It's not a bad thing to optimize resources, people lie when they say they enjoy having a lot of things. They might enjoy getting it, but it kills the joy of play when it's easy to do so. SO that's why it would be better to have resource sinks. If you get tons of excess iron, you would upgrade the water system. iron gone, resources gone, you are not rich anymore, but you got better future. if ponds are level 0, and wells level 1, advanced wells lvl 2, Newcomen 3, then charcoal 4, oil 5 then there is a tech tree.
But that's the thing, if all runs out, it's not limited, it's impossible. it could be a basic income per player, so people would want their friends to join so the city gets some resources. Sure, it was too much with the ponds, although I would argue that anyone ever walked more than 30 tiles to collect water. Before the rift we had some income so cities could be fixed. After that, they were meant to die, with the engine stealing and the full removals.

That's what you don't get. By content, people mean higher level items. It doesn't have to be complex like a car or engine. It has to have more value and limit doing other things, and have a reward that it's worth it. If you could make a table and put together with another table to make a bigger table, then 2 more for an ever bigger one, holding more items, that would be worth it, rewarding. The small table can allow putting a small machine on it, the medium a medium one, a big a big one. Each of them has it's purpose, it's a limit, it's a reward, it's interconnected. If you want to do x then you need y. It's a puzzle. x and y changes, the puzzle is the same. upgrade a flat rock into a cooking pan. can cook 2 eggs same time. redundant? maybe, it's parallel content but it's an upgrade. if it can be placed on a stove which is the same as fire and flat rock but lasts longer, it makes 2 redundant things become both useful. new function, new accessories, new content. there was a game, similar to ohol, only single player, Crashlands. it was like 12 times the same things with a slight change, different skins for items, made out of different materials. It was still fun making them over and over as you needed them for further things and you killed other animals for them.

Sports cars? I mean, in one hand you want all cities to die, on other you want something that can't be made in 2-3 hours by average players? People get bored of doing things over and over. Cities had no variety, the same things over and over.

One game that I play currently did an update where the cultures got 'ethos' and 'pillars'. Basically the main focus of advancement then 2-3-4-5-6-7 different focuses that change the game with small bonuses. In the perfect combination they can be really interesting edge cases. It's still not many things, 7 then like 162, but probably millions of combinations to do with all those. The replay ability and unique combos are off the charts.

Basically the way you split the content with races was bad. Instead of each race/tribe/family having it's cut of things, there should be a base way to do things. The races could be better or worse at some things, then the families could choose bonuses. For example one could melt snow to get water, the other could get water from a bottle tree in the desert. But they could both get it from a pond just slower. The issue with cutting content is that it makes limitations that can't be overcome. You born with a white skin? how is it your fault? there shouldn't be punishments that can't be overcome. it's like a puzzle that can't be solved. It doesn't incentivize trade or teamwork, it is hard capped by it. It's a really frustrating mechanic. While having additional ways to do things would provide variety. Sure it's parallel content, but people wouldn't complain about not being able to melt the snow if they can get it from a pond, sure it sucks, but it's not the same as not being to step into a tile to grab a leaf that is the only way to make yellow paint which is part of the base upgrades toward the infrastructure.

There could be another way to increase content without actually doing crazy amounts of hand crafted items.
This could be a new game mode since it's different. Mainly for veterans.
random recipes: each x time there would be a server wipe. like 2 months or so. each new wipe the recipes would be randomized. there would be need for some graphics that can be randomized. a tree with random leafs, branches, size, and item on it. each tool randomized too. a veteran with 1000 hours still should learn again that he needs a hatcherator with a flare stone and a branch of bazinga tree to make a fire. you could use the language system to encode names. it would be funny. it could use the same setup, lvl 0 items that can be found in nature 2-4 put together to make a random tool. the randomizer could put them on each other in a way that makes some sense. then the lvl 1 items that are processed would look different too and different names, different paths to make them. and the animals could be random too, the cute hamster would bite you and the crazy looking hellefino would be peaceful. part of the charm was learning the game and explaining to others. if some of the wild plants would be poisonous and some would be edible, people would have to learn each of them again and again.
if that doesn't work, then people could submit random looking things and their function would be custom and the build order custom so we create puzzles for each other.

Ofc there are other factors. many ideas don't work because the game engine has limitations.

Game engine problems:
-no communication
-no stamina or health bad limits possibilities of food effects, combat or interactions
-no team jobs
-no way to convert big units to small units like directly watering fields from a can or feeding potted plants
-no transport methods
-no layers possible like caves, hills, or even piping or electricity lines

If you still think that new people will come, they won't. It's an MMO then you need returning customers. And even if you don't want to provide content that can last forever, some people will want to play forever. And those people can convince others better than you could. If the main players are happy, the newbies will get a positive message, the competition heats up then others will come. Veterans still stick around because they still see the potential. it just needs some flexibility on your part to question some design/balance choices. Who cares you were wrong or right? the game should change and be fun, change it until it's better, until it clicks.

btw I agree people don't know what they want. because they don't think in terms of balance. or they know what they want but they shouldn't get it the way they want it. but there were 2 examples above that a simple realization of a problem can be simply fixed, by talking about it, working on it until is perfect or close to perfect. baby slings? okay but you will move super slow. has an upside, has a downside, has a function, makes everyone happy, in that case it's really just to shut them up. other things would need an item required by it, a reward, so it fits into a puzzle and activates a branch of content. dead content is dead ends, nothing needs it, nothing needed for  it, no reason to have it other than making it.

To make the most positive change short term, some things should be changed, I think most effect would be the resource system. instead of finite resources, should be more of a renewable limited system, where the focus shifts on other categories from time to time. the upgrades could be real simple going from natural to processed resources then just moving them around and upgrading other systems to have a variety of problems and puzzles, even to infinity with small steps in the reward and big steps in requirements. base resources for free but limited rewards so people can talk and do basic stuff but never advance, but keep them busy. and some individual pressure per player so they can't 100% rely on others if they don't do anything, like a system for ownership of items. things could be still shared if wanted but whoever makes it gains the option to choose. each player could have a small spot at age 3 to choose a private spot around the inner shared area, and upgrade later. maybe some social credit currency, each time you share things you gain points. natural resources would have a time limit to be placed in private zones, crafted items could be private or shared. shared items couldn't go into private locations unless both parties agree on pay. this would still allow the current communistic setups but if those dirty veterans could be filthy rich and still not letting other to take their items that they gathered and crafted so others learn their value and change their attitude. these points could be spent for upgrading their own land size or other stuff,  make shops or whatever. it could be also time based to use it or lose it. on death it would become shared after a while. there could be another token that persists after lives but that would need other players to mark you as a positive player or enthusiastic mom or teacher or something (no cost to give, can't go negative, mark a player than finalize vote after you or him dies).
buildings should have functions, bonuses. I thinks that's the main direction that could work.

All in all I'm grateful that you made this game, and I got my money worth so I won't complain and nobody should. You could charge for DLCs or whatever, if the game is fun, so don't think of people like they are burnt out, they would pay again to be entertained.

I think Jason shares too much and allows for a direct talk, but then this can be abused, and he can also just become grumpy and irritable, which is not the usual game dev- players dynamics. The reactions are often legit but over exaggerated if you consider that he is trying his best. There are pro gamers too, don't underestimate the 1% of the players that can easily judge how good a game it is, it might be just as hard as making one. Both sides should just chill out and be more flexible. Funny that Jason in game gives no proper rewards so IRL he receives no compliments

I meant the game engine

I dunno, it's too complex to do engines in  a single life and the 'help' is not good. often you gotta rebuild the whole smithy to be able to make an engine. the parts are tiny and the process is frustrating. it could be just higher tier items that need the same thing put together over and over and meaningfully increase the resources it takes. like tie those systems together. like more iron would be needed to produce more water, more  clay to produce more iron, more water to produce more clay. and there could be electricity or some form of early power generation like windmills and shiz. then upgrading each system and managing the storage. the farms could also be upgraded and use a per hour input output and storage system instead of manually moving it so much. pipes and baths could be fun.

it just feels like some techs are super advanced and you still cook your stuff with kindling fire. you still struggle with your machines working for 30 sec while babies cover the screen.

This is because there are no cities, just connected garbage on the floor. The game doesn't know what a city is and can't manage it as a whole. There could be fun features with cultural or religious systems and decision making. Humankind did it, Crusader Kings did it, there are strategic elements that would work well with a 2d game. This sharing everything mentality only works if everyone does something, but the more people play the more they don't want to share or do anything meaningful. And why would they if everything runs out? It's like Jason trying to prove that communist nomads are the future of humanity There could be a combination of choices that create different cultures and cities, with different buffs and debuffs. The goal should be staying there and fixing the issues, different issues, not basic level food and water forever and ever.

I don't disagree with removing the well engine, but it should be way harder than that. Not just putting it in your apron Quite a few high tech items can be griefed with a sharp stone. There should be like a single use master wrench that takes resources and 10-15 minutes to make to force people spending some time removing the most valuable thing in the city. But oh well, Jason thought that somebody would fence himself up to distribute water to other people When the engine is gone, then the doors and tools and even the floors are taken. People cry more about destroying graves than destroying cities. I remember that we played for weeks to make a few cities nice, and connect them manually, and later we moved when it was boring and barelands around.

All I say that it would be a better gameplay and a better message to be loyal, to fix things, to learn from mistakes and to trive to a goal, even if you can't yet reach it. There is a game where you produce cement, but there is a side product of rocks, which is the main part of the game, just dumping it to the side until the late game. But then you discover a new tech and suddenly you can get rid of that, and even gain building materials quickly and efficiently. Same deal with water, first you mine it and build extensive pipelines but late game when the research is advanced, you can gain it from the atmosphere cheaper.

It would be so much better to upgrade the city at once, replace old things with newer and more convenient ones, also replace problems with new ones, you would have a midgame where you don't have to worry about food, but pollution would be an issue. Shift the damn focus. It could still be challenges based on tech and resource limitations, but a steady income of resources would make life possible with optimal choices. more combinations instead of more items. Like advancing to new eras for a ton of resources and having tasks all the time. And each focus would have some downside which would need to be managed later on.

Jason could just ignore everyone. Instead he goes into detail, telling personal things that get him compromised. I remember a few things, like when he said that anyone who criticizes him, can be roasted by him. Fair enough, you don't get to talk with most of the game devs, or they are distant. I liked some of the personal stuff that got into the game, made it original.

I also remember him saying that people who give negative feedback, criticism will be ignored and their ideas discarded. It was certainly true. When Tarr made his new forum alias, he actually got a pretty decent reply for his opinion, the comment itself was quite the usual, but since jason didn't recognize him, he answered properly. A lot of the players were quite negative and didn't like the new directions the game changed. And a lot of us didn't even go too far with the personal comments, like there was solid feedback and reasoning. But jason had this meth comments and superiority complex mixed with a 6 year olds stress reactions.

The game wasn't bad, there was an initial vison, back when we started, there were no help tools and we had to learn it by ourselves, now most of the stuff is already done and documented, so maybe 2-300 hours tops before you burn out. It's normal that it deviates from the original path. But that maybe should be based on the players preferences.

He spent a lot of work, creative designs and programming, so we can be thankful for that. It's just feels like it had more potential. Like even the players couldn't really agree on whats the game about. Some people just lived as potting plants and talking, others got themselves goals and ignore most interactions. And since there is no clear goal and a way to play it, it's just turns into a clown fiesta. It's way too easy to ruin things, harder to make them and kind of pointless when you can't continue developing. The whole premise is a depressing one, 'everything runs out'. I think games should be fun and not depressing. A getaway from the real life. Things should be able to be improved and fixed and people should grind toward achieving bigger goals.

Some of the updates were decent, but it didn't add too much replay ability. People did it once then never again. Some of the bugs were fun, abusing weird mechanics. it's still funny when people run around and starve randomly, the tragic comedy of the situation where the last girl of the family promises the stars and starves before you die of old age. But there were always issues and no fixes for them, and some of the griefer problems were turning worse and instead of fixing them they got even more tools and options to annoy others.

But then the community tried to get involved and give ideas, some of them were implemented, and some of them rejected over and over (no baby slings pls, maybe catapults). I had a few implemented, mainly how the wells should work, like people were building several tier 1 wells and never upgrading. Told him to make it worth upgrading, also would need items that lock and unlock features and possibilities (bucket) and lead people in the new age. That part of the game was decently advanced. I still think the water system is way better than the other things. Well, it was at least, until we got fixed springs regardless of the map and biome locks to artificially increase difficulty and lock it behind weird mechanics. I remember games where I spent way too much time trying to explain them how to help me and even if I had translators, the only ginger girl dropped his burning shaft in the ice biome and left, not knowing that she was the only one that could do the oil task. I mean it's just unintuitive, weird and pointless. If you can do it, you do it, if you don't know you don't know.
Limitations and restrictions can be fun, but only if there are ways you can get rid of them, overcome them, solve the puzzles. it's not fun when you are forbidden from tools or actions since the start. tool system was also horrible. you needed a task once and you had to commit a slot doing it. especially that some tasks were really pointless after that. drilling two holes and then nothing to do with it.
But the worst was the biome locks and race mechanics. It could of been okay to give them different paths by culture, but splitting the content was so bad. if it would of been parallel ways of doing the same thing, maybe some alterations then it could of been fun. Like getting water from melting snow or from plants. But it's so bad to stand 1 tile from a biome an a magical power stops you from interacting with it. Created bizarre situations where cow piss became required by a tech so it was a high level difficulty item so getting a leaf was higher up on difficulty list than all the rest of the game.

Also there were misinterpreted or weirdly made mechanics. Fences could of been okay if it costs something to do them, like owning a piece of land and the things that you make. But it's so easy to steal others work and no defence against it. People following you, and harassing you and stealing anything you make and getting butthurt for not letting them do that. The whole sharing things was quite weird, this communistic ideology brought out the worst of some. Like not doing anything because you can enjoy the fruits of labor regardless. I mean a fully capitalistic community would be just as worse, but it's still a game, people need to know if they are doing okay, if they can score points or reach goals or get achievements. One of my other idea got so weirdly implemented, it perverted so far from the original intention, it hurts. The Yum system was supposed to get rid of monoculture. My original idea was to have bonuses for having multiple foods in cities. I guess it was only obvious to me that it should be limited and sustainable variety. The accent on the variety not the unique. People started to do the longest unique chains possible. Variety should mean that you can cover 5 groups of foods or 5 types at all times for all citizens, be that 5 berries and 5 carrots, and 5 of everything or combined 2 corn and 3 burdock. Instead people were spending half their lives to eat primitive food in advanced societies for themselves only, once, to build up a boost they never gonna use. So from eating to live, we got to a point where people were lived to eat. Quite a bit of jump from eating berries all your life to run around half the map to build up a pointless chain, that helps no one but you.

reminds me of the Purge episode of Rick and Morty. that no one has food, but they would only do jobs if they got food, but then no one does their other jobs, others would do their jobs but for food, so no one can agree if those jobs are good enough to get food for it.

I think the engine restrictions are quite bad too. The visibility and communication is artificially made harder when nobody likes those changes. it's certainly convenient that it's part of the 'vision' that you got no vision same for things like hp bar, stamina bar, and defining the city and giving it bonuses or defining a plot of land and giving a cost, restricting tool usage by the maker of the tool so others have to ask for it. These are the 'magical' things that the game needs, not that you argue half an hour who should be the queen, then to roleplay the rest and murder people left and right for a dumb crown. There is a reason why communism failed IRL, and I don't say it should be all capitalistic, it could be just options to set government types and rulesets within cities. The strategical part of the game could be extended, and made quicker to build an actual civilization, something with a future, with goals and the progress made visible, like eras and upgrades, instead of making the same thing over and over then going to a new place and looting all that stuff people made, instead of making your own. Small things like removing engines so easily made things so bad. It started off like a sandbox, where people are free, then it turned into a rat cage where the things are made to collapse and all you can do is watch the carnage.

I installed it on an emulator and had a few macros to do certain actions faster. the swiping there is really weird, never got used to it, never wanted to get used to it. would be hard to hold a phone for an hour and get shit done.

Sadly my laptop got broken and the settings lost, had to guess and test and manually set up coordinates that work for most items, like picking up a needle or a branch with a key, or doing work to the left or right, was quite a few keyboard shortcuts. Didn't had the mood to do it again.

It was actually nice with the old mechanics, and no racism and stupid maps, no biome lock, also you can go back to your base with a plant leaf found in jungles put on the home marker, you could even plant one of it each time but only water it when you use it, and hide it somewhat so people don't mess it up.

The community is less toxic, but there aren't too many players and it's way more laid back since it's hard to click a lot.

They are making their new game which is completely new graphics, new items, it's similar but you got some chance of fail when crafting so you have to repeat actions, but it gives better proficiency over time so you are more likely to succed next time, in things like hunting, matters a lot, on other things is just mildly helpful. it carries over lives. I tried the alpha but wasn't many players, but it looks quite good.

who dared to summon me?

I like it if it's unique, the gates are blocked from clicking so there is no way to open it manually. only it's not a final solution so it's not a good long term solution.
people like it easy and final.

anti griefing methods are just for you, and since you rarely get back is a lot of time for not much value
but maybe some smart people talking trough the modded chats can do something about it

but  normally you just hide the mouflon in a small biome and that does the job, or lock it up in a small non griefeable room

dunno what jason did but he changed something. it was an interesting concept that sheared sheep was stuck in biome and unsheared wasn't, I don't think it works anymore. I was building pens on biome borders because of it

I think the best pens aren't too big, but bigger than that. nothing wrong with multiple pens, it should be the norm. a smaller one further with all the berry, some berry for show, but mostly other foods on center of town. nobody plays for efficiency, so it's not happening. I like modular designs that allow extending over time, like 1-2 walls can be moved or removed and extended.