One Hour One Life Forums

I was just in a thriving town of gingers, so many girls 18 related girl kids, tons of fertile women, lots of guys and not a chaos agent in sight. It was about generation 6 or so, and the tech was humming along nicely. People seemed to know what to do, the only issue was a slight clothing shortage.

But, looking at all the happy people buzzing around the town it hit me that NONE of them would be back for almost 100 years of in-game time, and that's if they are hard-core players racking up long hours on this game.  As towns get older their pool of eligible players shrinks and shrinks. Baby booms are followed by baby busts. I've seen towns go from 10 down to zero in a life time, and that didn't involve any swordsmen showing up to kill everyone. It's the area ban.

Further, in the other game I played today I was a woman and whenever I walked out of town I had a child, right at the same point each time. Clearly, I was moving out of the ban radius and my high yum score made kids possible.

So, let's look at the issue... why do we have area ban? My understanding is so that you can't just keep being born in the same town over and over. If you could do that, just pick up right where your last life ended the significance of death is decreased. It becomes like a lot of other games where getting killed is annoying (lost all my stuff) but *you* are really basically immortal. It would make your lives run together and it would become apparent to others playing that JOE SMITH = HIS NIECE DIANA SMITH = DAVY SMITH HIS GRANDSON... those people become less distinct and some of the *realness* is lost. So, I agree that you should not be able to just hop right back in to the same town as if not much happened when you die.

HOWEVER I do think that area/lineage ban is a stealth killer of towns and leads to the kind of repetitive ending we've all experiences "oh well no more girls" even when you have tons of food and water and supplies. That ending needs to be a lot more rare IMO.

So what if you got a limited number of shots at each lineage? This would be a rather radical change but here is what I'm thinking:

When you are born in to one family and live to 30, rather than getting banned for living and coming to care about that family, you would be *set* to return to the family when one of the follow conditions was met:

1. at least 1 hour of real-time has passed
2. at least 30 min of in-game time for you in another family has passed.

At that point, if possible, you would be sent back for your 2nd life with the SMITHS. Here is the catch: you only get 3 lives with each family maximum! And of course you could still die if you didn't want to go back. I think this would make people more attached to families but also force us to spend time away and let the village take its own course. Lastly, on that 3rd life it'd be goodbye forever!

The times, space between them and number of returns could be adjusted, but I think this would make people plan for the future more. You KNOW you'll see that town again. I think it could curb some griefing and use of /die as well.

Question for other players:

If I don't have clothes, or if I'm doing any project that involves moving items or going out of town I'm MUCH less effective without a backpack and clothing. At least some fur underwear and a hat or shoes. Running around naked makes you a black hole for food and you can't get much done.

So, if I'm not dressed as a baby or if I don't have a BP my first action is laser focused on correcting that.

This has always seemed a little "selfish" in some ways, especially because I make the pack outside of town to avoid getting my rabbits taken. I also notice that most players don't seem to do this? Is it that "selfish" ? Where do you draw the line?

Maybe it's ironic. I'm always on this forum talking about how we need more people in towns, bigger cities, higher population density... but honestly if there are more than 4 people on screen I get a little overwhelmed. It's part of why I like gathering resources so much. I find one or two people enjoyable, but a big gaggle makes me run off to find something more lonesome to do.

I kinda thought most people were like this, but I had a kid and as we got closer to the nursery/bakery (horrible combo... why???) filled with people I asked "I don't like hanging out in there, too crowded. So you can stay with me  or I can drop you off?"

He wanted to be dropped off in that pit of chaos! So, of course I left him there, (be happy my son!) said goodbye and went back to trying to getting the smith tidy enough for someone to do something.

But, I'm curious about all of you... do you like being where all the people are when you play or do you prefer to be on your own or do you like working with only one or two other people?

How do those of you who like it by the fire keep up with all the conversations?