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a multiplayer game of parenting and civilization building

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#1 2020-09-21 13:17:04

Spoonwood
Member
Registered: 2019-02-06
Posts: 4,369

Review From Steam

1.6 hrs on record
Posted: September 19


"Great concept and good mechanics. But lacks a good comprehensive tutorial and is way too challenging. Prepare to get overwhelmed by newborns and struggle for having enough food....i died 4 times. First time as a baby, second by a "single" snake bite, third starvation after doing my utter best to take care of new players (babies...why is there not a dad to help you out??), and 4th time starvation again after learning the game slightly more from a player and yet the other players got too busy to help me figure things out. Why should I be punished for playing a game?"

[note the edit is for the quotation marks, which were not initially included]

Last edited by Spoonwood (2020-09-21 14:17:12)


Danish Clinch.
Longtime tutorial player.

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#2 2020-09-21 14:02:01

Spoonwood
Member
Registered: 2019-02-06
Posts: 4,369

Re: Review From Steam

Some reviewers have longer play time.  So, I'm not sure they are as relevant as this one.

If you're thinking "oh, but the person would have had a better experience if they had logged in and played another life", I'll remind you that the game is marketed as a one hour game.  If their first hour is starving as a baby, dying from something that shouldn't seem to kill you, starving because you can't feed your children (pip loss mechanic for breastfeeding isn't explained by tutorial), and other players not being able to help you or not feasibly able to help you, well, that's an accurate portrayal of how the game is for that person in terms of how it's marketed.


Danish Clinch.
Longtime tutorial player.

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#3 2020-09-21 14:44:59

Djauhne
Member
Registered: 2020-09-21
Posts: 4

Re: Review From Steam

I registered here just to say that (not that the review is mine):

I bought the game yesterday but coulnd't play (problem with the servers?) and because of that I browsed this forum and the steam one.
And god, yeah, it's overwhelming for new players like me.
I was playing as twins with a friend, and after two lifes (first: dead of hunger at 4, second: everyone in the village was too busy to explain to us stuff and we were expected to do things) we nearly gave up.
But, because I browsed the forums, I knew we could change servers and jumped into an empty one to test and learn different things.

The game lacks singleplayer (well, I understand it's not easily possible) or server browser included.
If I didn't knew we could go to empty servers I don't think I would have played this game much more.
New players shouldn't spawn as Eves (edit: I meant as girl) or not at places that are overcrowded with newborns (I had 2babies and my friend 3or4 in our second life).

Anyway, my friend and I will surely go back to an empty or lowpop server to learn differents things before joining other players.

The learning curve steep, certain things are not logical for new players (e.g.: why can't I have rabbit bones aside by cooking it right? Can't I let it rot? No? Can I eat burnt rabbit even for a lower hunger fill? No. WHY???), but it's kind of fun. Sadly the game wasn't prepared for the discount and the arrival of new players.

Last edited by Djauhne (2020-09-21 21:45:02)

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#4 2020-09-21 15:32:36

Arcurus
Member
Registered: 2020-04-23
Posts: 1,003

Re: Review From Steam

yea pip lose for feeding even if the baby is not hungry should be changed for sure...

"New players shouldn't spawn as Eves or not at places that are overcrowded with newborns (I had 2babies and my friend 3or4 in our second life)."

both is not possible. Either they spawn as Eve or in this time they will end up in places that are overcrowded with bb.

Yea eating burned rabbit for some food would be nice smile

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#5 2020-09-21 15:42:36

Djauhne
Member
Registered: 2020-09-21
Posts: 4

Re: Review From Steam

Maybe I misspoke, I guess now Eves means adult woman? I just meant "not as a girl" so you don't have to manage a child while you don't even know what you are doing.
Well, I think I've read that babies spawns on women only, never on males?
The main point is that currently, for new players, you don't have time to learn anything as babies appears every minutes and everyone is kind of busy.

Last edited by Djauhne (2020-09-21 15:46:45)

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#6 2020-09-21 15:42:54

DestinyCall
Member
Registered: 2018-12-08
Posts: 4,563

Re: Review From Steam

Here is a sampling of other negative reviews posted yesterday:

"This game's marketing is misleading. In order to prevent power accumulation, things do not last overlong. It's full of racism submechanics, racist submechanics, and an incredibly toxic player base. Griefers are not actively dealt with. In addition, the developer is genuinely hostile to constructive critique and seems to be using the anger and frustration bred by this game as a kind of... I know this sounds strange, but social experiment to show how awful humans are after cultivating this player base to begin with.

It's not a fun community to be anything other than a gamer, able-bodied cishet white dude, that's for damn sure. The playtime on steam here is misleading- I've probably played about 400 hours in all. So I can tell you that I turned my back on this game and won't be returning to it. It had promise, and feel free to like it if you do, but know that there's a high chance you're not gonna have a fun time even after mastering recipes and subsystems if you're interested in a co op experience."

...

"oh i played this. it was a mess and full of not nice people. i refunded it."

...

"this game ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ sucks. it's plain boring. getting better at the game consists purely of knowing a million items and their needlessly difficult crafting recipies."

...

"Requires you read an etiquette guide on a wiki in order to not get griefed as a baby every time. Awful, overly complicated tech tree that changes every week. Racism is literally a feature in the game. Rust if you dont want even little breaks of fun in between the frustrating hours of trolls and gathering."

...

"Even though it CAN be very fun, I can't recommend this game. I remember being very excited for the game as i saw Youtube videos and it had a really weird concept. Sadly, those fun situations only come up so often. Most of the time, all it becomes is a work simulator. You farm, you dig grave, you bake sometimes, and sometimes you hunt. Here's the thing, even though this game is realistic, realistic doesn't always mean fun. Games are supposed to be either art, where you walk away from it with something learned or something you will remember, or just pure fun. This game is only sometimes fun. Half the time you die at the start from terrible parents! Like I said, realistic isn't always fun. Games that are in WW2 usually aren't entirely realistic. This game may have a tutorial, but it doesn't teach you anything besides controls and making a fire. All in all, only buy this game if you have extra money on you and/or it's on sale. Oh ya, Im editing this review because I remembered one thing. THERE IS BARELY ANY WATER. Im sorry, but realistic water doesn't mean it's fun for your players to have to scavenge to find one puddle, and then figure out that they can't get water from that puddle they just dried out. Man, if only there was a thing that could teach new players basic mechanics. Basically what I'm saying is UPDATE YOUR TUTORIAL. Why can you starve in the tutorial?! I'm sorry to say this, but a tutorial should teach them more than just, "This game is about clicking and making fire."

...

"This game looked like a lot of fun, and the basic premise is such a great idea! Building on the work of previous generations, forming a community, etc. There's definitely elements of a good game here (reminiscent of Don't Starve (with Don't Starve being a much better game) gameplay-wise with a few other features), and I really wanted to like it but...

There's a lot of problems.

1. Racism. It's... really bad. I'm not just talking about some of the players (more on that in a moment), but I'm talking about like actual in-game designed in racism. In the game, you get born into a family or an Eve who is either "black" "brown" "ginger" or "white." Nothing wrong with this - in fact, initially, I thought it was a nice feature to keep things diverse! But then I found out that each of these different families have "specialties." Black families' specialty is the desert and its resources. Brown families are the jungle and its resources. Ginger families are the arctic and its resources. And white families? They have no specialty in that regard except that they're the only family that can understand all the other families and bring them together.

You... uh... you see where the problem is, right? It's bad.

2. The player base. There's... a lot of griefers/trolls and very little that can be done about them (there is a cursing element in the game, but it doesn't really seem to do much to stop them). They do things like lead bears to your camp or town on horseback which tends to slaughter the population, moving tons of resources (food, water, wood, etc, anything that is important) out into the wilderness, destroying things you've built, killing all the sheep, stabbing people, standing around and insulting people or saying insulting and/or racist things etc. Tons of progress over a number of lifetimes is capable of being undone in one lifetime.

3. The build upon the previous generations progress concept is a bit misleading. Apparently, it once was like that? Before I got the game, I guess. But now, apparently, the server gets reset or something every now and then which leads to towns and families being wiped away, so everybody has to start over again. I thought the aim of the game was to build up civilization?

4. If you're looking to build something for the "future generations" to enjoy, don't bother. Due to the wipe away thing, griefers, and very limited resources, most towns get stuck at a certain stage, and nothing new or interesting gets built."

Last edited by DestinyCall (2020-09-21 15:43:40)

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#7 2020-09-21 15:50:29

Spoonwood
Member
Registered: 2019-02-06
Posts: 4,369

Re: Review From Steam

Arcurus wrote:

yea pip lose for feeding even if the baby is not hungry should be changed for sure...

"New players shouldn't spawn as Eves or not at places that are overcrowded with newborns (I had 2babies and my friend 3or4 in our second life)."

both is not possible. Either they spawn as Eve or in this time they will end up in places that are overcrowded with bb.

Yea eating burned rabbit for some food would be nice smile

New players spawning as Eves in a low pop server or even empty server is not a problem, if the game contains enough wild food, and spawning places player far enough in the wilderness.  There is plenty that one can learn about even using just the in-game, non-visual (ugh... it's bad), crafting hints.  What one can do isn't known, but them spawning as Eve per se isn't a difficulty problem.  Everyone has to learn how things work from scratch sooner or later, if they become an expert of the game, so everyone needs a new Eve experience at some point in time, and no reason to hold that back, in terms of starting as Eve.  It's more other things like "is there food?" or "will they be overwhelmed by the number of children that they have?".


Danish Clinch.
Longtime tutorial player.

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#8 2020-09-21 15:54:25

DestinyCall
Member
Registered: 2018-12-08
Posts: 4,563

Re: Review From Steam

And for comparison, here are some positive reviews:

"Very fun game but the experience is always dependent on the players around you smile I enjoy the nonsense"

...

"You will shed a tear playing this game."

...

"Be the victim of infanticide multiple times, then eventually commit it yourself because babies are random and annoying.

Every once and a while your starving village is attacked by a bear. Several of your family members are mauled by the beast and they tell you their last words as they bleed out in front of you.

You are born to the Eve mother of your tribe. She is attacked by a bear once you reach the age where you can carry a basket and suddenly you are totally alone. You make a friend, who dies by a bear, and another. You build a life from your broken backgrounds but due to both of your infertile conditions (no one new joins the server) you both die of old age surrounded by your wasted life's work.

You are born to a mother who was kicked out of her village just before you were born. She actually doesn't kill you (despite most players just leaving you in the forest for dead as a helpless child) and once you can talk you insist on starting your own village together. Things go well and more players are born through both of you. One day you get back from foraging and your mom is old and grey. She says there isn't much time left and that she is proud of the progress of the village. You say that you wish they had more time and she agrees before she dies in front of you.


These are a few of the things that happened in the first few hours. This game has a pretty steep learning curve. The best thing to do is to play the tutorial and then read a steam user guide on starting out. Then find a village which doesn't kill you from the outright and depending on their progression either start out as a pie maker or forage and for goodness' sake cover up your nakedness (I really wish there was an option to censor it). Eventually, like a foreign language, you find helpful players and you pick up knowledge about how to survive. If you really have no option subsist off of wild food until you can join someone or your tribe is more stable, it's not that hard, just time consuming relative to gaining food in a more developed society.
I would recommend this game, the guy who built it obviously put a lot of work in and it is a great concept. it would be better with a larger player base."

...

"This game motivated me to do chores around my irl house. Surviving is easier when everyone pitches in."

...

"The following relates to 20th September 2020 - I like to call it Salepocalypse

First: !!! PLAY TUTORIAL !!! it will explain a lot of your initial questions.

Current events:
A lot of new new players joined all at once.
This caused a total collapse of food production, since new players eat food but they do not yet know how to produce it. This in turn, made it impossible for experienced players to teach new players, as they otherwise would, since they themselves can barely survive.

If you have bad experience, such as not being fed by mom because you are new, understand that, since it costs your mom food reserves to breastfeed you, she herself would die if she fed everyone and then everyone else would die without her.
It is not easy for veretans who are, for most part, very nice people, to abandon bbs. They simply have no choice. Believe me.

If you are tired of what is currently happening, try coming a couple days later once this has been sorted out, and some villages stabilized.
And above all:

!!!PLAY TUTORIAL!!!"

...

"This game is making me think deeply about life and giving me existential crisis."

...

"If you are new don't be afraid to ask for help.

A lot of new player die due to starvation because they don't know what yum chaining is but I'm going to explain it just in case you decide to buy them game. Every food once per life gives you a "Yum" bonus. You can see if a food is "Yum" by holding it and looking in the bottom left of your screen. If the food says "Meh it means you already ate it this life which means it isn't going to give you a good amount of food.

There is also a "Craving" system which is passed down by your mother. If you eat the craving it gives you a big bonus to your food and changes the craving to something else. All in all this is a great game with a steep luring curve.

An excellent resource if you are new is onetech.info it is a website that tells you all the different things to craft and how to craft them step by step. I usually keep onetech open on my second monitor."

...

"i love how he updates the game weekley the game run so good you should get this game"

...

"After a few games where people refused to feed me because I was new, I met my Mom. The first thing she did was say "Hi bb" and give me a tour of the current village. She showed me where the food was grown, where the food was made, and all that jazz. After that, she clothed me, and gave me a backpack. She wished me good luck, and asked if I needed help learning. I said yes, and she taught me how to make pies. When I couldn't figure out a step, she would show me how to do it. This was such a great bonding experience with another player. I felt so close. When she died, I honestly felt a sense of loss. I was typing things like "No Mom! I'm not ready for you to go." Other players saw this and said things to make me feel better. I went back to the only thing I knew how to do, baking pies. I baked pies until I got old. Right before I died, a cousin offered to bury me. I asked if she could please also bury my mom. She said of course, and asked where I would like us to be buried. She said I will gladly take care of the burial, and I died of starvation. I honestly shed a tear. It was so beautiful knowing that I would be respected after I had already left the game. And that this random gamer would follow my request to bury me with my mother really touched my soul. This game shows me that humans are wonderfully compatible. This game is truly unique.

Just keep playing until you find nice people."

...

"Amazing game with an interesting concept and good mechanics, but it's not for everyone. The early game can be quite tricky and convoluted for a beginner, if you want to play this game then be ready to watch youtube tutorials, study the game's wiki and get a lot of trial and error until you start having good lives in the game.

Having said that, if you can endure the slight confusion and "unfriendliness" of this game, you'll be in for a good journey. Each life will feel unique and interesting, you'll be able to create your family who'll go for generations and you'll never meet them, but they'll always carry your name. You'll be part of diverse civilizations who all play together to ensure a safe life for everyone, it's an amazing experience that you can't really get anywhere else. The community is one of the best I've ever seen in a multiplayer game, and I haven't found any toxic behaviour from players so far.

Overall 8/10 game, the crafting system could be tweaked to be more beginner friendly and the hunger system should be a little bit more balanced, but these are the only complaints I have for an otherwise incredible game."

...

"Great game for people who like a low stress, low competition, generally peaceful game. You get to interact with other players and learn all kinds of skills. One of my all time favorite games!"

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#9 2020-09-21 15:54:28

Djauhne
Member
Registered: 2020-09-21
Posts: 4

Re: Review From Steam

DestinyCall wrote:

Here is a sampling of other negative reviews posted yesterday:
3. The build upon the previous generations progress concept is a bit misleading. Apparently, it once was like that? Before I got the game, I guess. But now, apparently, the server gets reset or something every now and then which leads to towns and families being wiped away, so everybody has to start over again. I thought the aim of the game was to build up civilization?

4. If you're looking to build something for the "future generations" to enjoy, don't bother. Due to the wipe away thing, griefers, and very limited resources, most towns get stuck at a certain stage, and nothing new or interesting gets built."

That was the opposite of a complain we had with my friend: we jumped in an empty server and the world was emptied of its ressources only to find them in different cities. The most recent corpse we've found was ~772 years ago, which I suppose is 12hours or so?

But we had to go very far to find full clay deposits or bushes (the ones that allow you to make threads and ropes).

It was nice to see developped cities but it's not really fun to find a city with a ton of everything and nothing in the wilderness. We could have lived in the city without doing anything and not lacking of food/tools/ressources.

I don't know if food rot or if clay deposit and others respawn after a certain time but it was kind of annoying.

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#10 2020-09-21 15:55:24

Spoonwood
Member
Registered: 2019-02-06
Posts: 4,369

Re: Review From Steam

DestinyCall wrote:

Here is a sampling of other negative reviews posted yesterday:

"This game's marketing is misleading. In order to prevent power accumulation, things do not last overlong. It's full of racism submechanics, racist submechanics, and an incredibly toxic player base. Griefers are not actively dealt with. In addition, the developer is genuinely hostile to constructive critique and seems to be using the anger and frustration bred by this game as a kind of... I know this sounds strange, but social experiment to show how awful humans are after cultivating this player base to begin with.

It's not a fun community to be anything other than a gamer, able-bodied cishet white dude, that's for damn sure. The playtime on steam here is misleading- I've probably played about 400 hours in all. So I can tell you that I turned my back on this game and won't be returning to it. It had promise, and feel free to like it if you do, but know that there's a high chance you're not gonna have a fun time even after mastering recipes and subsystems if you're interested in a co op experience."

...

"oh i played this. it was a mess and full of not nice people. i refunded it."

...

"this game ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ sucks. it's plain boring. getting better at the game consists purely of knowing a million items and their needlessly difficult crafting recipies."

...

"Requires you read an etiquette guide on a wiki in order to not get griefed as a baby every time. Awful, overly complicated tech tree that changes every week. Racism is literally a feature in the game. Rust if you dont want even little breaks of fun in between the frustrating hours of trolls and gathering."

...

"Even though it CAN be very fun, I can't recommend this game. I remember being very excited for the game as i saw Youtube videos and it had a really weird concept. Sadly, those fun situations only come up so often. Most of the time, all it becomes is a work simulator. You farm, you dig grave, you bake sometimes, and sometimes you hunt. Here's the thing, even though this game is realistic, realistic doesn't always mean fun. Games are supposed to be either art, where you walk away from it with something learned or something you will remember, or just pure fun. This game is only sometimes fun. Half the time you die at the start from terrible parents! Like I said, realistic isn't always fun. Games that are in WW2 usually aren't entirely realistic. This game may have a tutorial, but it doesn't teach you anything besides controls and making a fire. All in all, only buy this game if you have extra money on you and/or it's on sale. Oh ya, Im editing this review because I remembered one thing. THERE IS BARELY ANY WATER. Im sorry, but realistic water doesn't mean it's fun for your players to have to scavenge to find one puddle, and then figure out that they can't get water from that puddle they just dried out. Man, if only there was a thing that could teach new players basic mechanics. Basically what I'm saying is UPDATE YOUR TUTORIAL. Why can you starve in the tutorial?! I'm sorry to say this, but a tutorial should teach them more than just, "This game is about clicking and making fire."

...

"This game looked like a lot of fun, and the basic premise is such a great idea! Building on the work of previous generations, forming a community, etc. There's definitely elements of a good game here (reminiscent of Don't Starve (with Don't Starve being a much better game) gameplay-wise with a few other features), and I really wanted to like it but...

There's a lot of problems.

1. Racism. It's... really bad. I'm not just talking about some of the players (more on that in a moment), but I'm talking about like actual in-game designed in racism. In the game, you get born into a family or an Eve who is either "black" "brown" "ginger" or "white." Nothing wrong with this - in fact, initially, I thought it was a nice feature to keep things diverse! But then I found out that each of these different families have "specialties." Black families' specialty is the desert and its resources. Brown families are the jungle and its resources. Ginger families are the arctic and its resources. And white families? They have no specialty in that regard except that they're the only family that can understand all the other families and bring them together.

You... uh... you see where the problem is, right? It's bad.

2. The player base. There's... a lot of griefers/trolls and very little that can be done about them (there is a cursing element in the game, but it doesn't really seem to do much to stop them). They do things like lead bears to your camp or town on horseback which tends to slaughter the population, moving tons of resources (food, water, wood, etc, anything that is important) out into the wilderness, destroying things you've built, killing all the sheep, stabbing people, standing around and insulting people or saying insulting and/or racist things etc. Tons of progress over a number of lifetimes is capable of being undone in one lifetime.

3. The build upon the previous generations progress concept is a bit misleading. Apparently, it once was like that? Before I got the game, I guess. But now, apparently, the server gets reset or something every now and then which leads to towns and families being wiped away, so everybody has to start over again. I thought the aim of the game was to build up civilization?

4. If you're looking to build something for the "future generations" to enjoy, don't bother. Due to the wipe away thing, griefers, and very limited resources, most towns get stuck at a certain stage, and nothing new or interesting gets built."

It's interesting to see how many of these reviews mention racism.


Danish Clinch.
Longtime tutorial player.

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#11 2020-09-21 15:55:48

Arcurus
Member
Registered: 2020-04-23
Posts: 1,003

Re: Review From Steam

DestinyCall wrote:

Here is a sampling of other negative reviews posted yesterday:

"This game's marketing is misleading. In order to prevent power accumulation, things do not last overlong. It's full of racism submechanics, racist submechanics, and an incredibly toxic player base. Griefers are not actively dealt with. In addition, the developer is genuinely hostile to constructive critique and seems to be using the anger and frustration bred by this game as a kind of... I know this sounds strange, but social experiment to show how awful humans are after cultivating this player base to begin with.

It's not a fun community to be anything other than a gamer, able-bodied cishet white dude, that's for damn sure. The playtime on steam here is misleading- I've probably played about 400 hours in all. So I can tell you that I turned my back on this game and won't be returning to it. It had promise, and feel free to like it if you do, but know that there's a high chance you're not gonna have a fun time even after mastering recipes and subsystems if you're interested in a co op experience."

do i understand it right? He said the marketing is misleading and the game is shit, but still he played it 400 hours even if it is advertised for one hour?

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#12 2020-09-21 15:57:04

DestinyCall
Member
Registered: 2018-12-08
Posts: 4,563

Re: Review From Steam

I really wish that we could remove some of the barriers that prevent new players from having a positive experience while playing OHOL.    It is such a unique concept with the ability to connect with people on an emotional level and we do have an amazing community.   

But the game has some major flaws.

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#13 2020-09-21 16:02:03

DestinyCall
Member
Registered: 2018-12-08
Posts: 4,563

Re: Review From Steam

Djauhne wrote:

I don't know if food rot or if clay deposit and others respawn after a certain time but it was kind of annoying.

Food does not decay, with a few rare exceptions where stuff left too long will disappear.    Clay deposits, soil deposits, iron deposits and all other natural resources do not respawn.   

The only exception I can think of is that the ponds will start to refill if you leave them alone for several real-life days, so something like thousands of years in-game.   Everything else will remain "used" and gone.  So if you use all the nearby clay, you will need to travel further away to find more fresh clay.

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#14 2020-09-21 16:09:06

Djauhne
Member
Registered: 2020-09-21
Posts: 4

Re: Review From Steam

Ok, thanks for the answer!

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#15 2020-09-21 16:13:06

DestinyCall
Member
Registered: 2018-12-08
Posts: 4,563

Re: Review From Steam

Arcurus wrote:
DestinyCall wrote:

Here is a sampling of other negative reviews posted yesterday:

"This game's marketing is misleading. In order to prevent power accumulation, things do not last overlong. It's full of racism submechanics, racist submechanics, and an incredibly toxic player base. Griefers are not actively dealt with. In addition, the developer is genuinely hostile to constructive critique and seems to be using the anger and frustration bred by this game as a kind of... I know this sounds strange, but social experiment to show how awful humans are after cultivating this player base to begin with.

It's not a fun community to be anything other than a gamer, able-bodied cishet white dude, that's for damn sure. The playtime on steam here is misleading- I've probably played about 400 hours in all. So I can tell you that I turned my back on this game and won't be returning to it. It had promise, and feel free to like it if you do, but know that there's a high chance you're not gonna have a fun time even after mastering recipes and subsystems if you're interested in a co op experience."

do i understand it right? He said the marketing is misleading and the game is shit, but still he played it 400 hours even if it is advertised for one hour?


He didn't say the game was shit, actually.  He said that it is full of racism submechanics, has a toxic player base with too many griefers, the developer is hostile to critique, and the community is not fun unless you are a certain type of person.  The fact that he has played the game a lot while forming that opinion doesn't invalidate it.   If anything, it shows that he gave the game a solid chance to change his mind.

I'm guessing that he fell in love with the promise of the game and kept hoping for it to be something more than what it was.    A sentiment that I understand deeply.

Go watch the introductory video on Steam to see how this game is advertised to new players.  Then seriously compare what you see with what we have in game right now.    It might explain why we recently got a race car we don't need and can't use.

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#16 2020-09-21 16:24:58

bpskotch
Member
Registered: 2020-01-18
Posts: 63

Re: Review From Steam

Djauhne wrote:

I registered here just to say that (not that the review is mine):

I bought the game yesterday but coulnd't play (problem with the servers?) and because of that I browsed this forum and the steam one.
And god, yeah, it's overwhelming for new players like me.
I was playing as twins with a friend, and after two lifes (first: dead of hunger at 4, second: everyone in the village was too busy to explain to us stuff and we were expected to do things) we nearly gave up.
But, because I browsed the forums, I knew we could change servers and jumped into an empty one to test and learn different things.

The game lacks singleplayer (well, I understand it's not easily possible) or server browser included.
If I didn't knew we could go to empty servers I don't think I would have played this game much more.
New players shouldn't spawn as Eves or not at places that are overcrowded with newborns (I had 2babies and my friend 3or4 in our second life).

Anyway, my friend and I will surely go back to an empty or lowpop server to learn differents things before joining other players.

The learning curve steep, certain things are not logical for new players (e.g.: why can't I have rabbit bones aside by cooking it right? Can't I let it rot? No? Can I eat burnt rabbit even for a lower hunger fill? No. WHY???), but it's kind of fun. Sadly the game wasn't prepared for the discount and the arrival of new players.

First and foremost welcome to the game and the community, I hope you stick around for a while and have some good experiences smile

That being said, I am thinking you might have found my thread addressing new players, and if that's the case I'm glad it helped you discover low pop. It may not seem it at first but you can actually have a genuinely great experience playing single player on low pop servers, or even with a few friends if you decide to go that route. Here's some unwritten rules you may not know about low pop (which constitutes as a server with 15 or less players online):

1. There are no racial based restrictions. This means any race can access resources in any biome.
2. No tool slots. This means no matter your gene score, you can use as many tools as you like over the course of a lifetime, meaning you can be quite the jack of all trades.
3. If you die of old age at 60 years old as an Eve (for the record, Eve is when you spawn as a just barely fertile girl, not as a baby), your next eve spawn on that server will be in the same general location. This allows you to replay the same location over and over again to continue development in a singular location. Beware though, if you die of any other cause (starvation, animal, etc), you will lose your Eve spawn and may struggle to find your home again.

Otherwise, considering the state of the game as it stands, you're on the right track IMO. I also learned on low pop even to the point of making diesel engines, pumping oil for kerosene, etc. (you will discover later how important these things are).

I 100% agree though, the game was not prepared for the influx of players (well rather, new players in general), and I do hope Jason makes tweaks in the future to be more newbie friendly (ESPECIALLY re-vamping the tutorial)

Last edited by bpskotch (2020-09-21 16:26:22)

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#17 2020-09-21 16:26:39

JonySky
Member
From: Catalunya
Registered: 2018-05-13
Posts: 686
Website

Re: Review From Steam

DestinyCall wrote:
Arcurus wrote:
DestinyCall wrote:

Here is a sampling of other negative reviews posted yesterday:

"This game's marketing is misleading. In order to prevent power accumulation, things do not last overlong. It's full of racism submechanics, racist submechanics, and an incredibly toxic player base. Griefers are not actively dealt with. In addition, the developer is genuinely hostile to constructive critique and seems to be using the anger and frustration bred by this game as a kind of... I know this sounds strange, but social experiment to show how awful humans are after cultivating this player base to begin with.

It's not a fun community to be anything other than a gamer, able-bodied cishet white dude, that's for damn sure. The playtime on steam here is misleading- I've probably played about 400 hours in all. So I can tell you that I turned my back on this game and won't be returning to it. It had promise, and feel free to like it if you do, but know that there's a high chance you're not gonna have a fun time even after mastering recipes and subsystems if you're interested in a co op experience."

do i understand it right? He said the marketing is misleading and the game is shit, but still he played it 400 hours even if it is advertised for one hour?


He didn't say the game was shit, actually.  He said that it is full of racism submechanics, has a toxic player base with too many griefers, the developer is hostile to critique, and the community is not fun unless you are a certain type of person.  The fact that he has played the game a lot while forming that opinion doesn't invalidate it.   If anything, it shows that he gave the game a solid chance to change his mind.

I'm guessing that he fell in love with the promise of the game and kept hoping for it to be something more than what it was.    A sentiment that I understand deeply.

Go watch the introductory video on Steam to see how this game is advertised to new players.  Then seriously compare what you see with what we have in game right now.    It might explain why we recently got a race car we don't need and can't use.


The game has changed radically ... having 400 hours doesn't mean much when the main mechanics have completely changed
For example, a long time ago we could have babies everywhere and there were no racist skill

Last edited by JonySky (2020-09-21 16:27:11)

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#18 2020-09-21 17:03:15

Arcurus
Member
Registered: 2020-04-23
Posts: 1,003

Re: Review From Steam

JonySky wrote:

The game has changed radically ... having 400 hours doesn't mean much when the main mechanics have completely changed
For example, a long time ago we could have babies everywhere and there were no racist skill

what i wonder is, why people dont then play 2hol more? I think it does not have all the limitations or? Or do they simply advertise it not enough?

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#19 2020-09-21 17:05:53

Spoonwood
Member
Registered: 2019-02-06
Posts: 4,369

Re: Review From Steam

bpskotch wrote:

3. If you die of old age at 60 years old as an Eve (for the record, Eve is when you spawn as a just barely fertile girl, not as a baby), your next eve spawn on that server will be in the same general location.

If I recall correctly, this actually depends on the number of fertile females currently on the server.  I think it's less than 4 fertile females on the server, and your next Eve spawn will be in the same general location.  There's an exception in that if there's a baby without a living mother around, then you'll start as an Eve near that child instead of your Eve spawn, though that situation is rather rare in my experience.

Otherwise though, nice comments and what you said seems correct.


Danish Clinch.
Longtime tutorial player.

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#20 2020-09-21 17:14:03

Spoonwood
Member
Registered: 2019-02-06
Posts: 4,369

Re: Review From Steam

Arcurus wrote:
JonySky wrote:

The game has changed radically ... having 400 hours doesn't mean much when the main mechanics have completely changed
For example, a long time ago we could have babies everywhere and there were no racist skill

what i wonder is, why people dont then play 2hol more? I think it does not have all the limitations or? Or do they simply advertise it not enough?

You have to join their discord.  It's 2 hours in length at a time, as recommended, and that's a pscyhological barrier for some people, and was for me for a while.  It's not as populated.  It's also not like it's going to end up advertised on the front page of Steam.  You also have to find the 2HOL website, and if you've found that, you've probably only seen it after seeing OHOL first.  2HOL isn't streamed as often on Twitch and has significantly fewer videos.  The videos that do exist also tend to be of one person playing, which I don't think is as appealing *to watch* as watching multiple people playing.

I have heard NO complaints whatsoever from 2HOL players about it not having race restrictions, tool restrictions, or not having hungry work.  Nor have I heard complaints about it having a different way to produce thread (from sheep... it's possible to get 8 thread from one sheep's wool), or that it's mechanics are overpowered.  Nor have I heard complaints about it being "too easy" to survive since it has more wild food in the form of wild grapes, apples, oranges, and lemons.  For OHOL though, I have heard complaints about things like race restrictions, tool restrictions, hungry work, and how thread works... one player streaming on Twitch even dubbing the game "rope finder" once a while back.


Danish Clinch.
Longtime tutorial player.

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#21 2020-09-21 17:20:45

bpskotch
Member
Registered: 2020-01-18
Posts: 63

Re: Review From Steam

Spoonwood wrote:
bpskotch wrote:

3. If you die of old age at 60 years old as an Eve (for the record, Eve is when you spawn as a just barely fertile girl, not as a baby), your next eve spawn on that server will be in the same general location.

If I recall correctly, this actually depends on the number of fertile females currently on the server.  I think it's less than 4 fertile females on the server, and your next Eve spawn will be in the same general location.  There's an exception in that if there's a baby without a living mother around, then you'll start as an Eve near that child instead of your Eve spawn, though that situation is rather rare in my experience.

Otherwise though, nice comments and what you said seems correct.

I've played a lot of low pop, at times with multiple friends, and have yet to encounter an eve spawn that didn't work the way I expected. I know if there's more than one fertile female online, you won't be able to force eve spawns, but otherwise it's always worked for me personally. Either way like you said, sounds like a rather rare exception that virtually never happens.

And thank you, I try to be accurate and concise in what I write, and hope it benefits other people.

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#22 2020-09-21 18:38:06

ahead
Member
Registered: 2019-08-18
Posts: 51

Re: Review From Steam

jason will not fix anything, he has proven time and time that no idea will get into the game and no flaw will get changed untill he feels like it


Sorry, nothing

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#23 2020-09-21 19:53:29

DestinyCall
Member
Registered: 2018-12-08
Posts: 4,563

Re: Review From Steam

the first step to recovery is admitting you have a problem.

Most of these issues will not get fixed, because Jason does not or cannot understand why they are a real problem for his playerbase.    Until that changes, he isn't going to invest any time or energy in fixing them.

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#24 2020-09-21 23:20:13

Spoonwood
Member
Registered: 2019-02-06
Posts: 4,369

Re: Review From Steam

DestinyCall wrote:

the first step to recovery is admitting you have a problem.

Most of these issues will not get fixed, because Jason does not or cannot understand why they are a real problem for his playerbase.    Until that changes, he isn't going to invest any time or energy in fixing them.

It truly boggles the mind in some cases.

For example, the tutorial literally says:

tutorial wrote:

"STARVATION MEANS CERTAIN DEATH. CLICK THE BUSH TO PICK A BERRY. CLICK YOURSELF TO EAT. PICK AND EAT MORE UNTIL YOU ARE FULL."

next to a gooseberry bush.

Jason closed this issue with apparently no sign of upcoming changes https://github.com/jasonrohrer/OneLife/issues/668, and made a comment as if the issue was about some conflict with easier mode settings for new players (there would exist such a conflict, but, of course, the issue existed BEFORE those were talked about the issue).

Don't hate the berry munchers.  Hate the tutorial game.


Danish Clinch.
Longtime tutorial player.

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#25 2020-09-22 02:22:00

The_Anabaptist
Member
Registered: 2018-11-14
Posts: 364

Re: Review From Steam

Gee...  I don't know what is more shocking:  1) That I posted a review 14 months ago about the hating and racist play and mechanics on Jason's website reviews. 2) Said review points out that I haven't played the game in 3 months already!

And yet here I am still fuming on the forums.  I really need to break up with this game for good...

The_Anabaptist

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