a multiplayer game of parenting and civilization building
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I think the most useful element of this idea is the age-based caste system.
This reminds me of how bee colonies operate, with the youngest bees taking care of the newly hatched, the next oldest maintaining the hive, and then the oldest venture out into the dangerous world.
What about making stone henges?
What is best in life?
To crush your enemies, see them driven before you, and to hear the lamentations of their women!
One trouble is that the way the game data is structured at the moment is that putting 2 carrots together in a tile requires making a new "2 Carrot Stack" object which is added to the recipes of things that can be crafted from a Carrot.
This is already present for some objects like pieces of flint, but adding it for every object would be a chore.
I think the technology in the game currently makes it quite difficult to move past clothes / farms as the height of civilisation... but it's not stagnant. The proportion of games where I am entering a village or area with lots of "recoverable progress" is definitely rising. As the amount of clothes just "lying around" increases, the amount of time needed to be devoted to farming is going to get smaller and smaller; when you're fully dressed from the time you're a baby, the proportion of time devoted to survival needs drops sharply.
This.
Clothing represents one of the few things we can do to create lasting progress.
Hand Carts are also super useful.
The important thing is to think is not "what can I make?" but rather "What will give more freedom to future generations."
Make a sacrifice at the temple to be granted protection from reprisal before you go on your murder spree.
I think it's a good notion.
Not sure. Jason seems to believe that village cultures will form on their own just by talking despite the constant death.
Maybe a writing system be cheating the players out of an opportunity to be creative? Or maybe it will be the key to developing persistent location-based cultures that people can participate in.
It's basically a question of whether forum-taught people can create enough structure in the world to allow the noobs to function.
I foresee many naked carrot-farmers starving next to bone-dry wells.
So I'm sitting in the editor about to add tick-marks on the well stanchion or at least water in the bucket to show you when the well is about to go dry.
But that's simply too simple of a thing to teach. "Don't take from the well unless you see water in the bucket." Or "count the tick marks and stop taking when you see 13."
That leaves no room for player creativity.
...And that's culture!
And that's what I want to see emerge in the game.
"Our village had this really cool way of making sure the well never ran dry. In my next life, I tried to teach the method to my new village, but they wouldn't listen to me. They were doing it a different way."
I am continually impressed by the faith in humanity that you so regularly display. A real optimist at heart.
Maybe griefers are bears spawning in human bodies.
They don't get their satisfaction from being recognized for their prowess.
They think it's hilarious that you thought you were NOT going to be stabbed!
Or that you thought your legacy might endure.
They've caught a nasty case of nihilism and now think it's hilarious that anybody could see value in things that are so easily destroyed.
A friend of mine summed up a design theory for this game as "evolve or die.
From what I've observed, players value stability and certainty above all else, and only explore new things once they have a stable foundation. If the world is uncertain or dangerous, don't innovate, just double down on the things you already know: Naked Carrot Farming.
When confronted with "Evolve or Die", most will choose Die. It's a simple and effective plan that is easy to execute and protects you from uncertainty and doubt.
Trolls get their fun from subverting systems, whether these be game rules or codes of conduct.
I like Kazetsukai's site better, since it separates recipes that GIVE the item from those that USE it.
Good to know, I had wondered about this.
It's so simple an intuitive!
You just need 4 branches (2 straight, 1 curved),
6 stalks of milkweed (harvest only if fruiting!),
2 different sharp stones,
1 leaf from a tree (has an expiration date so you can't grab it in advance),
1 handful Juniper tinder (pine needles aren't flammable)
Combine them all in an easy 10 step process whose results you cannot foresee, and then you have fire!
...You did remember to chop the kindling didn't you?
Basket Graphics:
Basket contents should be more distinguishable. Carrot seeds and other such small items are nearly invisible in a basket.
Greater graphical separation of items in a basket would also make it easier to select the specific item you want.
(I heartily second adding some ability to restore wells)
If you die in certain object-crowded areas like on farm fields, then your body and everything you carry is lost. The best place to die is in an open field near a settlement.
Zoning regulations!
I didn't kill twelve rabbits just so you could have all your clothes disappear into the ether.
If you're not aware, dying on the farm will drop no grave, therefore dropping no clothes that you were wearing.
I died on a farm field and wasted your 12 rabbits! FORGIVE ME!!!!!!!
There's a pretty good farmstead there, I stayed a while and practiced crafts.
I didn't survive until 70 though in either of my two lives since the food bar gets so small and you lose all warnings. Living to 120 would be quite the achievement, it seems more like "Live as long as you want." Another player there said that s/he just chooses to respawn once they get too old.
Sadly on my first death when I was caught unawares by hunger while harvesting carrots, I died on the farm fields and all my backpack and rich fur clothing were all lost.
The homestead there has a sheep infestation, but nobody has yet figured out how to forge sheers, so that could be the next great step in civilization.
It was pretty hilarious but it's probably about time to stop with the bears.
Is it becoming...un-bearable?
Bearly playable?
Not bearing out as you had hoped?
People losing their bearings?
Is the whole thing just becoming embearassing?
Thanks for making the reddit topic.
Wells IRL don't run dry until the whole water table is depleted, and even then you just keep digging them deeper until that is no longer feasible. That's simulated to an extent in that if a shallow well runs dry you can deepen it, but it's not quite the same. (Especially since you can dig a new well nearby and have that work)