Tribal organization for faster learning and progress - a proposal

Dagar · 2018-03-18 14:09:11

I have been going on in topics about how important I find it to communicate in game to bring the whole player base forward. The reason why we might want to do that is that by teaching a sufficient amount of players something this thing will become canon, and everyone will know and do that (think how everyone knows to type F as a baby to indicate hunger, and no one apart from griefers dries out ponds anymore), which in turn will make our virtual lives easier and more efficient. This is directly opposed to doing advanced stuff like metal working on your own, because in the long term, having a steel chisel does not help a village as much as a reasonable amount of players knowing how to make a steel chisel and when it is appropriate to do so.
In the posts I have answered with that train of thought I proposed to educate while doing. Let's take the example of a farmer. As a farmer, you would tend to the fields, but also tell everyone you see that that row of carrots needs to stay untouched and why (gaining seeds with maximum efficiency). If enough farmers do so over the next couple of days, I think the "global" understanding that it is bad to just rush into the fields when you are hungry and pick a carrot from the fields should rise to a point where this is basically canon as well. That is not to say that no one will ever take your seeding carrots again; there are new players and griefers after all. But just as we hardly see empty ponds today, we should reach a point where people will just commonly know.
But thinking about this some more time, I think we as the externally (ie through this forum, discord, reddit) communicating players can do more to speed up that global advancement. For any idea to be permanently successful, enough players have to do it, and it has to be simple. So what about us players starting to establish a simple hierarchy in every town we get to or are born into?
It could be like this:

There is at least (and ideally exactly) one woman tending to kids at the fireplace (if there is no fireplace, at least in the center of the camp). This is already a thing for many players, so we should use it and make her the matriarch; the leader of the tribe. For short ingame description, let's call her the queen. Her role is to stay there, feed the kids, communicate and organize. That also encompasses to decide which kids live and which die for population control. It would be ideal if she could tell people apart (naming the kids would help), but I realize that cannot consistently be done due to age changes.
Depending on how well off the tribe is there are people in the second layer under her. At least there is a chief farmer who organizes everything related to the farm. He watches the food count the settlement has stocked, oversees which rows are for food and which for seeds, how many berry bushes need to be planted, the amount of fertile soil and so on. He also tells the queen how many of the newborns or immigrants he needs as workers, if he needs tools like clay bowls, and tells her the status about the farm from time to time, so she can make informed decisions and inform other 'chiefs' about what's needed.
The bottom of the hierarchy are workers. They just carry out the tasks they get from the queen (e.g. message carrier, tending the fire, getting her food) or from the chiefs (water carrier, farm and seed, make new soil). The nice thing is that every player here either has the knowledge about how to do his job already or can learn it quickly from the chief (or another worker if instructed), so it will not be a life of water carrying necessarily. You can just go to your chief and ask him to find a new person to carry water, because you want to go work for the smith instead now. So he in turn can ask for a new worker from the queen, who then takes over your water carrying duty for a while so you are free to do other stuff.

Queen and chiefs would elect their successors from their workers (or kids for the queen) and instruct them accordingly. Of course, these should be players already adept at the task.
You could tell them apart by clothing convention, depending on what you have at hand when starting. E.g. the queen could be the only one allowed to wear a reed skirt, as fur loincloths or similar for workers should be quite abundant soon and she will be by the fire most of the time anyway. I have no experience with that yet, but you could also use specifically dyed clothes for the chiefs. I invite you to work out something good and quickly achievable.
Of course the queen would have the most difficult job, probably even needing something to write down all important stuff nearby.

What do you think? Remind yourself in your proposals that the cornerstones for such a hierarchical system should be that it is easily conveyed with a small amount of words and adaptable and scalable to the situation.

Last edited by Dagar (2018-03-18 19:20:12)

InSpace · 2018-03-18 17:10:05

anarchy > monarchy bruh

Naeght · 2018-03-18 18:39:13

Been thinking about exactly the same stuff. I dont think we should worry about distinguishing the matriarch, she'll be the one bothering to organize the tribe. Also, age will be a concern when succeeding since the matriarch work is teaching and you need long sentences to be clear. Full knowlage of the tech-tree shouldn't be needed if she keeps counsel with the more veteran workers.If possible, the princess should follow the matriarch a few years before she retires to learn the ropes. (worry about compost, wheat, clothes, etc).

I think the best way to transmit knowledge deeper than "dont touch the planted carrots" is to use an apprentice/master relationship. The matriarch assigns each child to a job, and someone who has to teach him. That way she doesn't micromanage each child development, the child has a higher chance of survival since an adult is with him, and the adult may eventually start other jobs since they trained their replacement.

I would advice teaching many jobs to new players, like composting and rabbit hunting, not just farming and watercarrying. First of all, child watercarriers mean abandoned waterskins when they die, and i doubt there are many secrets to that craft that can be teached. Community knowdlege wont ever advance if they are stuck with those jobs.
Composting feels like a good job since they learn the importance of full berrybushes (but also when u can eat a berry), helps deal with mistakes with carrot seeding and allows to plant wheat, milkweed and berries. Rabbit hunting is also easy (althought slow when done by newbs), and the new player gets to explore and live of the land, easing the burden on the tribe.

EDIT: I think the tittle of the thread should be clearer. "Cultural Development- Proposal and Discussion"

Last edited by Naeght (2018-03-18 19:18:11)

Dagar · 2018-03-18 19:46:29

Thanks for your thoughts, I changed the title to be hopefully more informative.

Naeght wrote:

Been thinking about exactly the same stuff. I dont think we should worry about distinguishing the matriarch, she'll be the one bothering to organize the tribe.

Yes, but she will change with age, and it is easier for immigrants if she is distinguishable.

Naeght wrote:

Also, age will be a concern when succeeding since the matriarch work is teaching and you need long sentences to be clear.

Yes, which is directly contrary to the "only mother" role. Maybe a second person is queen? How exactly does the character count rise?

Naeght wrote:

I think the best way to transmit knowledge deeper than "dont touch the planted carrots" is to use an apprentice/master relationship.

Which pretty much would be the second and third tiers of hierarchy, just that one chief has multiple apprentices. The workers could easily swap jobs under one chief, learning all aspects of the craft.

Naeght wrote:

I would advice teaching many jobs to new players, like composting and rabbit hunting, not just farming and watercarrying.

I took that as a given that a reader would understand that this was only the example I gave. Of course there are dozens of jobs to do.

Naeght wrote:

First of all, child watercarriers mean abandoned waterskins when they die, and i doubt there are many secrets to that craft that can be teached. Community knowledge wont ever advance if they are stuck with those jobs.

Water carriers don't have to be children, and learning to look out for your hunger meter is pretty much the first thing players learn in the game. As of death by other sources, there children are no different from adults. And yes, you cannot learn much from carrying water, but you can learn the basic interactions with the game, containers as well as a feeling for when and how much water is needed and what for. Also, there sometimes just is a job that has to be done, without any educational benefit. And, as I also said, I would never expect a worker to do one specific job for the rest of his virtual life, that would just be dull.

Agree on everything else.

Joriom · 2018-03-19 00:20:58

InSpace wrote:

anarchy > monarchy bruh

Said by knuckles who protects the queen. You lost de wey bruh.

Commodore · 2018-03-19 03:15:00

Water carrying should never done by children. It's the most common mistake, people ask kids to do that because they don't want themselves. But children must stay near food sources, they can't afford to travel long distance.

I think the best way is to have a cistern with adults replenishing it, and then kids can take care of watering the crops and harvesting.

Last edited by Commodore (2018-03-19 03:15:26)

Dagar · 2018-03-19 09:57:10

This is a bit off topic now, but I'd just throw in that at the two occasions where I grew old enough in a camp where the water ponds were far away, they were not very prosperous and I soon left. Children starving while fetching water should not occur because camps should be founded near ponds (amongst other vital resources, of course).

One Hour One Life Forums

#1 2018-03-18 14:09:11

Tribal organization for faster learning and progress - a proposal

#2 2018-03-18 17:10:05

Re: Tribal organization for faster learning and progress - a proposal

#3 2018-03-18 18:39:13

Re: Tribal organization for faster learning and progress - a proposal

#4 2018-03-18 19:46:29

Re: Tribal organization for faster learning and progress - a proposal

#5 2018-03-19 00:20:58

Re: Tribal organization for faster learning and progress - a proposal

#6 2018-03-19 03:15:00

Re: Tribal organization for faster learning and progress - a proposal

#7 2018-03-19 09:57:10

Re: Tribal organization for faster learning and progress - a proposal

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