a multiplayer game of parenting and civilization building
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The problem I have with this is that a brand new person to the game, will go through the tutorial(where you start as an Eve so no tool limit), then join a game and suddenly be limited and not know what is going on. Also a limit of 8 tools seems a bit brutal for a brand new person, because they are very likely to waste a bunch of tool slots just picking up and playing with random objects and then they will get stuck unable to do anything.
Also more experienced players who know what they are doing get more slots but they don't actually need those extra slots, since they know what they are doing. It is like the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer. The more capable you are of planning ahead the less restrictions you have, and the worse you are at the game the more in punishes for making mistakes. I understand the reasoning, you want to reward those who do well, but it just doesn't feel right in this case. Perhaps because the gap is so large. Does the pro person really need 16 slots while a newbie is punished with only 8? A newbie is definitely going to feel the limit and constantly worry of it, but a pro person can probably entirely ignore the new mechanic because it wont effect them as they will never hit the limit.
If you really want tools limited, I feel like an 8-12 range might be a bit better. It still rewards people but doesn't make the limit irrelevant at the max level. I just feel like if you make the gap too large between newbies and pros, rather than having people rely on each other, it kind of sends the message to the pros to just carry everyone on their backs and do it all themselves.
I think this is kind of interesting. One one hand it might make some people care a little more, as they want the higher score and more hunger bar. On the other hand, it is probably going to annoy people, because no matter what some losses are going to happen completely outside their control.
My gut feeling is that overall the impact isn't going to be very major. Though it is a nice reward for people who are already trying and successful at extending people's lives.
I am an old player but I mostly stopped playing. I come back fairly often to check out the forums though and then play every once in a while. The game is the sort where it is kind of difficult to constantly keep playing every day or weekly over a long period but it is more ideal to play every once in a while when the mood strikes you.
Lily wrote:The one concern I have with this, is that it is fairly normal to die a bunch of times in a row through no fault of your own. Often times you start playing and die a few times to bad parents before you have a good start. I do think the number is high enough that it isn't going to be an issue for most people, though I could see a newbie who plays a lot possibly reaching it.
Personally I never had to retry more than 4 times before I find a decent family to live with. If you run into shitty families ten times in a row it's probably not your day to play OHOL. Perhaps it's time to go outside lol
Well I was talking about with a newbie who dies fairly often. So you might die a bunch of times entirely because it is your fault and you are new and also get a bunch of bad families that has nothing to do with you. The combo of the two, and then playing for like 3-4 hours in a row.
I wonder if we should make it so that people are always born into the same family if possible, or have recently family lines have a higher priority of being born into it. That means that you have reason to help your family, because you will be reborn into it. There is a much stronger attachment. Also if someone dies they will just come back but as a useless baby rather than a useful adult. So you want to avoid having people die. Also it motives you to work hard, because you also can improve your own location, then reap the rewards when you are reborn to the family later on.
Actually when I think about it, being immediately reborn might be too quick. However, if there is like an hour delay, then you get reborn into the same family, that would work I think. If you are reborn in the same family after an hour then no person who was alive when you died would still be living. So you get a fresh start with all new people but you can still see the after effects of your life and their life. I think this is even more impactful when you log on like maybe a few days later and the same family is still alive.
Also if there is an hour limit, before they can be reborn into the family again, that makes the death more impactful as well. Because your friend you made won't be back until after you have died. However, you might meet them again later down the line if the family goes well. So that is motivation to do good.
I know this idea kind of runs counter to the basic game premise but I don't think we need to be so strict. People can already be reborn into the same area, and it wasn't really a problem, in fact people like it when it happens most of the time. If we tweaked it so it happened a little more often and was related to families, I think that would solve some of those issues. And if everyone who was with you died already and it is all new people, it is a fresh life still. Also when you get reborn into the same area, there is a sense of progression. Since each time you log into the same family, it should be further along than it was last time.
Actually, it would be kind of neat if you had to be reborn to the same family all the time and if you don't have a current family you are an Eve or born to an Eve. That way you have to play an Eve or early family and that family has to survive an hour after you leave otherwise you will never escape early life. Only if the family succeeds can you then be reborn into a more advanced family. However, that isn't practical as one family wouldn't be enough...Unless there was like marriages and when characters got married their families join together.
In that case you would have to marry people outside the family to bring them into the clan, so it grows bigger and there are more population and more players who can play in that family. Early on it would be rough but if you expand and get many new families to join it would soon work out. That would require people to spawn fairly close to each other though, so they can find each other and join up. That might be getting really complicated but I kind of like those ideas.
I get what you are saying but I disagree on one point. Jason pretty much does all the major things players want, eventually. If you want to be nice you would say he is a very deliberate designer, if you want to be less nice you could say he is a bit hard headed. Kind of like the recent update with the baskets and boxes. It was obvious a year ago we needed better containers and stuff and making baskets decay was a huge pain in a butt. Eventually though, he changed the baskets back and now we even got a new slot box, which no one even asked for but it a very nice bonus.
Pretty much any of the major problems I have seen, eventually got dealt with in some way or another. As for just adding content in general, he does that all the time. It is just no one update is going to be that massive, since he does them every week. If you could up all the changes added in say a 3 month period though, there is a ton of stuff.
Reading that makes me think it would be nice if you could just follow people, like clicking on them without or something then you automatically follow them. Then could also use the same system to make tamed animals follow you.
The one concern I have with this, is that it is fairly normal to die a bunch of times in a row through no fault of your own. Often times you start playing and die a few times to bad parents before you have a good start. I do think the number is high enough that it isn't going to be an issue for most people, though I could see a newbie who plays a lot possibly reaching it.
I wonder where there is going to be a cook job, where a person just spends their entire time making and organizing different foods. It isn't so efficient if you are just doing it for yourself but if you are doing everything in batches, and you set out all the food in area, organized so everyone can quickly find many different food types, then the entire village can benefit.
I think because animals don't stop on tiles with stuff on them, any wild animal will have a tendency to not roam towards people because people leave stuff all over the ground. That said, I don't think there is any problem with this idea assuming you get the number of sheep up high enough. It seems like it would be a pain to get the first sheep from the mouflon but once you get the first sheep you can mass produce them. If you got eight sheep and let them all wander, I am sure you wouldn't have trouble finding a couple whenever you need them.
Though one thing to note, is that they do eat rows of carrots if they wander in that direction. There was a time where people basically only farmed carrots, so at that time the idea of wandering sheep wasn't so great. It wouldn't be as bad these days.
It is possible, though a bit rough since it makes composting more difficult. Food sources that last forever are wild berries and cactus fruit. If you have enough of those theoretically you don't have to farm at all. Also cheap foods include eggs and rabbits, which you need fire to cook. Fire does require string, so you may need to eventually farm milkweed, though if you are not farming anything else, then you can probably go a very long time before you run out of soil if all you grow is milkweed.
A city like this would actually be extremely efficient. The problem is that you have to find a location with all the resources you need, and that is up to random luck.
The only building anyone needs is a pen. A pen which can be an actual fenced in area, or a room, or just an area trapped by random things. It actually is kind of faster to build a building to create a pen than it is to build a fence.
There really isn't an ideal layout for town. I remember a long time ago, a group made a huge town that at one point had what seemed like 20+ people in it and they made what they thought was a perfect layout but random people kept messing everything up so they all went insane and started killing everyone.
The lesson is that people are going to mess up the layout no matter what you do. They will grow bushes all over place, start farming all over the place, build extra forges and ovens because they didn't notice the other one already there like two screens away. Have a pen for sheep and you might end up with pigs in it, a pen for cows might end up being used for wheat. You are growing carrots one minute, then the next you are growing squash.
So I wouldn't worry about having it look pretty or messing it up. Just consider where you want to go. If people run back and forth between area's often, then a road is a good idea. Roads between water sources and the farm is a great start. Then expand as is needed. Having some roads early seem to help, because otherwise everyone will build stuff all cramped together.
Honestly I wouldn't stress over this. Sheep food isn't that expensive and it doesn't take very long for a new baby sheep to show up. You got to pick your battles. If the worst thing happening in your village is people are a bit too eager to shear the sheep, you are doing just fine.
It would be totally worth it if there was more food options with pig meat. You got big fat pigs but you can't use the meat for anything.
There are a lot of open source games on steam, though finding the license rules for them is kind of a pain, since there are so many different kinds. Most seem to be some version of creative commons, or some version of GPL.
On a side note, The Castle Doctrine is on steam and no one has tried ripping it off yet as far as I can tell. Since it isn't currently being updated and a lot of people complain about how it should have a sale, it seems like it would be an ideal game to copy and sell for $2 to try and make quick cash, yet no one has done it yet.
I personally like the roads, though I do get what you mean. I think the key is to not crowd the roads. It is easy to stop where you want if you just walk off the road when you get where you are going, but if there is objects lining the road you can't do that. Also if people are actually placing stuff on the road, that isn't good either.
I doubt they would make that much, since they would be selling it at a much cheaper price and the newer game wouldn't likely show up very high in any search results, so it is unlikely many people would even find it right away. Also I don't know how good steam's review process is but since they are supposed to review games, there is a chance the game would get caught before it ever went up.
Also in a case like this, if a game sneaks through and later got removed, I would suspect that steam would withhold payment and offer a refund to all the customers. So if that happens, they wouldn't make any profit off it. Also it might be a breach of some rules or what not, so maybe steam would sue the person too. I have no idea, would have to ask a lawyer, though I suspect it might not be something they would just let slide.
There are a bunch of open source games on steam, but as far as I know, I never heard of anyone making quick fakes to try to get money. I am skeptical of how easy it would really be.
If someone says soup they probably mean stew but if you went and made sauerkraut instead I don't think they would be overly upset. As for determining your level of skill by knowing if you can make soup or not, well being able to make any of the three probably puts you at roughly the same level. The same is true that if you know how to plant rosebushes, you can probably figure out how to take care of a bush as well.
I doubt steam would allow it though. Even if it is technically legal, that doesn't mean it might not turn into a massive headache. There are still possible legal issues and it isn't worth stepping into that mine field, plus they wouldn't want to alienate their customers or the game publishers that they work along side. Failing all that, the knock off would probably get review bombed for copying you. Not to mention a brand new game would have very few players and people don't want to play on an empty server.
Also, if someone tries to undercut you with a direct clone, they will know that someone else can do the same thing to them. So the long term outlook on the clone probably isn't going to look good from a profit perspective. Someone may think they could make a quick buck but a fly by night clone that tries to make a quick buck then bails on the players is going to be seen even more negatively.
So I don't really think you need to worry too much about a direct clone on PC.
On a side note, circling back around to the review bombs. You seen steam lately? It has gotten pretty vicious with a lot of games. It seems like half or more of the games, even front page games in the spotlight get hit by them. Recent views for most games are often negative or mix, even when the all over scores are very good. People will definitely notice a copy and review bomb the hell out of it.
you arent that pro if you dump clothes on a static kid, you still can see who is working, who not, who is already teenager and left out of any clothes
That isn't necessarily true. If I am a pro then I know I am going to survive regardless of what I do, so I don't have to take the most efficient possible course of action. I can waste time and do other stuff that I consider fun. If I can feed ten other people but I choose to feed only eight instead because I want to go play some cards in game, who is to judge? Playing cards doesn't increase survival of anyone but I put in my work.
In this case, people have attachments to their children. It is entirely plausible someone may take a liking to their in game newbie kid and give them a backpack to help them survive. An elderly grandma should be able to spoil her grandchild too. You put in your work, you should get to decide.
You shouldn't forget that this isn't entirely a survival game, it is a game about building up society too. It is easy to put little thought in your children when you start pumping them out like crazy, or when they are all useless, or when you are running around just trying to survive on your own. Though you don't want to miss out on those little connections you can make with family here and there.
Which is why even if it isn't fair or isn't ideal, I don't think you should be killing a person over it.
To be honest you basically already got a monopoly. You got beat in the mobile market because you never showed up. There is no mobile alternative so that is why those mobile companies are doing well selling your game. PC and mobile are not direct competitors, so it isn't like a person is buying their mobile version over yours, it is an entirely different market.
If you made one big mistake, it was probably not hiring someone to sell a mobile port yourself. Honestly, I would of just take their money and let them make their game the official version. If you have no plans on going into the mobile market yourself, might as well let them service those customers for you. As long as they put out a good product, it will beat out anyone putting out a shady, lesser quality one, so you don't got to worry.
It is definitely an opening question that requires further followup questions. I wouldn't say it is a useless question but if you don't follow it up for more information, then you may have issues. Typically if they answer yes or no will change on how closely I watch them, then I still follow up with stuff such as "Can you do X".
If someone says they are new and I teach them to take care of a bush, I will show them all the steps, including where to get water and soil and if they seem to have trouble even walk with them to get soil and water and do the first bush. If someone says they are not new and I teach them how to take care of a bush, I may skip some steps. Such as where to get water from. Since a new person should be able to get water. Though a lot of this depends on how much time I have and what else is going on. If there is five children running off, the ones who seem newer will get more attention.
I also don't really trust someone who says they are not new, unless they know how to do at least three things. I usually ask about the three things that are most important to do at that time. Commonly it is do you know how to farm(or take care of bushes), do you know how to smith stuff and can you compost, and maybe occasionally can you cook pies. Regardless of how they answer the are you new question, if they can do the first things I mention, I usually assume they are good enough and either have them do one of those tasks if it is needed, or just let them go off and do their own thing.
Assuming you have the time and food to do it, then there isn't anything wrong with it. Most people wouldn't bother though.
Well if you are the pro that feeds 10 others, who are they to judge who you give a backpack too?