This game seems like a test of Patience

The Person In Yellow · 2018-03-13 10:42:21

First off, I haven't played this game for too long, but I understand the concept of the game as a game where you are part of a whole; which tries to broadly imitate the challenges that could have been experienced by people in the neolithic era. However, does this theme clash too much with the individual player's sense of importance within the game? From the start there is normally no reason to take care of random babies that show up if you don't already have a farm up and running, which would have already taken 1/4 or more of your life from scratch, so the wait time to actually get into the game and start playing is increased by the burden of being a liability to your mother. Even after they are grown why would anyone sacrifice food for a child that probably has no idea what they are doing and possible no interest in learning what their role would be to help the mother and other tribes people? They are still most likely going to be a liability and potentially ruin some processes or eat food without contributing anything useful. Usually the way people play video games is to wing it and learn as they go usually not listening to other people and possibly trolling and destroying any of the work other people have put into their tribe. There is no obligation or incentive in the game for players to push civilization forward.
One of the main issues I see with the game is that it takes a long list of recipes to actually get started and potentially have a multi generational family going. Even if a few people do this by trail and error while working off a list of recipes, there still is no real assertion or direction for players to remember 100 different recipes to continue and build upon what a previous experienced player has done. While players who are just trying to wing it will eventually get bored of failing over and over until they just give up and abandon the game. Either way this game seems like it is frustrating and as if you are nearly worthless to the overall meta of the game. Is it really necessary to have about 30+ steps to start a fire and make a clay bowl? How much time does that take out of your short 60 minute lifespan? Also, the nagging of hunger every 30 seconds bogs down time you could actually be trying to figure stuff out and crafting. I get that life is suppose to be short most of the time but is that really fun? That also encourages new players to eat all the gooseberries and not make compost to refuel the nutrition in soil for carrots.
I bought this game because I loved the concept but it seems a bit harsh on the individual player experience as many other games do not require players to learn convoluted processes that they can only interact with and improve for 60 minutes until they, most likely, must start over from the beginning. I get that it is the point of the game but it feels like they meta won't really move anywhere until the only people left are the people who invest some time into looking up the basics of the game and learning from people in game while constantly dying, and hopefully re spawning with a village with a similar amount of process as they had in their previous life.
These are some initial thoughts I had on the game, what do you think?

Inoox · 2018-03-13 10:56:34

The way I see it, hunger is far too ridiculous and stupid as it is right now to keep enough people interested.

Every time me and my friend play together we manage to get a civilization going only for some ignorant morons to come along and eat all the carrots from the farm not letting any seed and breed like its the apocalypse and allow the population to surge to unmanageable heights.

There is a funny moment we had where our farm was becoming overrun with idiots who were just eating all the carrots (there was around 10 people) and not doing anything to add to the tribe. We told them short of 50 times to stop eating from the farm, bring some soil back, bring some water back, make a fire, find some milkweed e.t.c. but all they did was take from the farm and do nothing. So we saw the impending doom and took a cart of some carrots (before they were immediately eaten) and camped by some berry bushes for 2minutes. Came back to the village to see all the morons dead (I call them morons because they would not listen or help) we got the farm running again.

Then a woman and her child stumble upon us and start eating all the carrots from the farm and breeding like crazy... so we gave up.

The problem here is that it is just a video game. People will start thinking its so 'hardcore' without even trying and just taking and then they will stop playing and the game will die.

It is like you say, there needs to be a strong and CLEAR incentive for people to actually help and stop being ignorant idiots.

Something needs to change and I hope Jason finds a solution because the story I just told happens to 95% of the camps me and my friend find.

EDIT: Hunger is far too much at the moment, at least for a naked person.

The amount of steps to do something dont matter if people actually keep a tidy and organised base but right now the mentalilty of most players means this will never happen.

The game is actually easy, but other people make it immensely difficult

Last edited by Inoox (2018-03-13 10:59:23)

Fliq · 2018-03-13 11:03:06

If one minute is one year, being hungry every 30 seconds wouldn't actually be frequent enough.
Get clothes, get less hungry less frequent. I hope this helps, imagine our ancesters saying life is too hard. We have to farm and eat all day, let's just die out as a species.

Fin

The Person In Yellow · 2018-03-13 11:07:11

Fliq wrote:

If one minute is one year, being hungry every 30 seconds wouldn't actually be frequent enough.
Get clothes, get less hungry less frequent. I hope this helps, imagine our ancesters saying life is too hard. We have to farm and eat all day, let's just die out as a species.
Fin

I know that is the point of the theme but the question i'm posing is that is that actually fun for most players as individuals?
Was too much of the player experience sacrificed for the meta and theme of the game?

would you like to have to eat every 5 seconds or die to make the game even more thematic?

Last edited by The Person In Yellow (2018-03-13 11:08:57)

Commoners · 2018-03-13 11:34:11

Being naked is absolutely a huge crutch. You need to get at least a loincloth, which alone will cut your hunger by a huge amount. Naked population explosions are where you see the food vanish within minutes and then everyone dies.

Hiker170 · 2018-03-13 11:43:07

As people have said clothing will help with the food problem, you should always look to clothe yourself even if it means less watering supplies. Supporting mutiple people in a village can only occur when they can be clothed and food shouldn't so much be a limit as the amount of clothing in your village is I feel. The fact clothing also disappears when you die on some plots is also annoying and would reduce the need for it if it just stayed around. doesn't help this either. Maybe it would just help if you were able to undo a lot of actions as well, eg make rope back in to thread again.

As far as dealing with people who just want to eat carrots and do nothing, killing them seems to be the best answer, like back then if people were dumb and mistakes meant the death of the whole village banishment, it's a great way to enforce rules right? If they get frustrated and bored because they keep being killed maybe they will put in a little effort to figure out how to start their own farms and learn why they were being killed in the first place.

Last edited by Hiker170 (2018-03-13 11:43:39)

ned · 2018-03-13 12:00:37

Newbies are in every game. It's a pandemic, but it just happens to be exceptionally bad on a game that privileges communication, game knowledge, prioritization, and multitasking. Keep in mind how useless you felt when you started (it happens to literally everyone). You might have picked it up quickly, but the game is objectively challenging. It can take a while for a lot of people to catch on to important concepts.

As the game develops and matures, so too will its player base. The newbies will either learn or stop playing, separating the wheat from the chaff, so to speak, and mitigating this 'problem.'

Does this mean the game won't be fun until then? No. A brand new player wont know how to get water, or soil, or even what a seed is. Patience, as said in the title, is indeed something you need to survive. The real fun, though, comes in teaching players and feeling that you've enhanced their gameplay experience. You wont always get through, either because they don't listen or you're not teaching well, but when it happens it's a great feeling.

boxy · 2018-03-13 12:25:15

The Person In Yellow wrote:

I know that is the point of the theme but the question i'm posing is that is that actually fun for most players as individuals?
Was too much of the player experience sacrificed for the meta and theme of the game?

If you've looked into the Dev's previous work you'd realize he's probably the kind of guy who has no problem doing this.

The real issue I believe is that there is no real end game for any player so far. There is no civilization or anything for players to progress to. The trailer released for this game proposes that the game could get to a point with automobiles, roads, and futuristic technology. But the dev isn't even 1/10th finished with the content so much as ironing out the bugs since launch. I'm sure one day there will be huge automated domestic areas full of renewable resources decreasing the infant mortality rate. (At least I sure hope this game makes it that far)

So for now you can make up to steel tools and maybe some walls and a house if you're well enough off.
But also realize this game is entirely opensource with customizable servers so anything is really possible.

DeyCi · 2018-03-13 14:41:06

Yes you are right you need to be insanely patient. But I actually don’t think there is a problem with balancing (I am only about 25 hours in this game sofar)

My thought/hope is that it will be too boring for trolls to hang around in this game, I believe this game as it is right now it is about learning and teaching. It is not about murdering, stealing or gaining stuff or points or whatever, it is about contributing to a community. All the people I have met sofar has been pretty nice, or pretty clueless, but if they stay clueless I can’t see how it will be fun for them.

I think you can learn something about teaching and being a student from this game, (I also learn how to type faster! English is my second language and I am a slow writer so that is actually something I value)

I am still clueless - here is roughly my proces sofar:
- I used a couple of lifes to learn how to get water and to sow carrots.
- one person taught met to stand still. and fire warms you
- I found out the importance of spreading how to act sustainable in the world (water, hunting, milkweeding)
- one life I found out that you can deplete your sowing area.
- I used multiple lifes to learn how not to misclick
- At some point I didn’t care when I died, I just went away to die if I spawned a place where people wouldn’t or couldn’t have me..
- I got lucky in another life and was taught how to make compost from an old woman
- I used 6 or 7 lifes to learn how to make a fire! (but I was so crazy proud when i accompliced)

I HAD FUN doing it and there is soo much more to learn.

lesslucid · 2018-03-13 15:21:23

Well done on making fire! It's a big step!

dardenfall · 2018-03-14 00:09:16

I really liked the game when I first started but I hate being born. I hate waiting for someone to keep me alive. I don't want to feel like a freaking burden I just want to play. I get what the game is going for, but it's just not very fun as it is.

Portager · 2018-03-14 00:19:33

dardenfall wrote:

I really liked the game when I first started but I hate being born. I hate waiting for someone to keep me alive. I don't want to feel like a freaking burden I just want to play. I get what the game is going for, but it's just not very fun as it is.

I agree, being a newborn is the worse. 75% of the time you are left to die, or knifed, or shot by a bow and arrow for being a certain skin color.

The whole experience is liable to give a person PTSD . But that remaining 20% of the time where you are born into an average situation, or that last 5% where you have a truly special family atmosphere makes it all worth it. I don't mind dying 100 times if on the 101st I am born into a great situation. Those experiences really stick with a person.

Antarys · 2018-03-14 04:02:30

I went on a private server where everything was given to me and we had food for 10 generations. Sorry, but I didn't even feel like playing because my life was not at risk.

The Person In Yellow · 2018-03-14 04:13:27

Antarys wrote:

I went on a private server where everything was given to me and we had food for 10 generations. Sorry, but I didn't even feel like playing because my life was not at risk.

But after you have sustained yourselves the next step would be to create and advance forward
Historically once the domestication of animals and farms were widely used in an area, the people began to form complex societies. Including centralized governments (the various Mesopotamian empires such as Sumeria, Babylon, Assyria etc.), crafting, and religion became more prominent.
This seems like what the game is poking towards given the way it plays and theme.

One Hour One Life Forums

#1 2018-03-13 10:42:21

This game seems like a test of Patience

#2 2018-03-13 10:56:34

Re: This game seems like a test of Patience

#3 2018-03-13 11:03:06

Re: This game seems like a test of Patience

#4 2018-03-13 11:07:11

Re: This game seems like a test of Patience

#5 2018-03-13 11:34:11

Re: This game seems like a test of Patience

#6 2018-03-13 11:43:07

Re: This game seems like a test of Patience

#7 2018-03-13 12:00:37

Re: This game seems like a test of Patience

#8 2018-03-13 12:25:15

Re: This game seems like a test of Patience

#9 2018-03-13 14:41:06

Re: This game seems like a test of Patience

#10 2018-03-13 15:21:23

Re: This game seems like a test of Patience

#11 2018-03-14 00:09:16

Re: This game seems like a test of Patience

#12 2018-03-14 00:19:33

Re: This game seems like a test of Patience

#13 2018-03-14 04:02:30

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#14 2018-03-14 04:13:27

Re: This game seems like a test of Patience

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