Where is the fun in Big Civilizations ?

Keks · 2018-09-02 20:28:33

Whenever I get born into a big civilization,I wonder what job I will be assigned but most of the time I never had to do anything.
Food is abundant, resources are everywhere and so are people.
Most of the time I find myself tending to the huge neglected berry farms or getting resources. It's no fun.

I always want myself to be the child of an Eve. It's way more fun to be able to create.

What is your opinion on being born into a big civilization ?
Do you prefer being an Eve child ?

LaughAtlantis · 2018-09-02 20:48:37

Most of the time, big civilizations that think they're fine and running smoothly ARE NOT.

Berry patches are a great example. Berry farming (well, farming of any sort, but berries most of all) needs a constant influx of soil - so you need a working compost farm. Which means you need a berry farm, a carrot farm (that people don't eat all the carrots from), a wheat farm (that people don't just thresh without replanting first since the seeds dissipate), and a sheep pen. And all of that needs to be healthy and in working order - you can't try to make compost when things are already dying; it takes too many berries.

Big civilizations tend to run out of water. So there needs to be further exploration to find more. I'm not sure what the long-term plans are for pipes, but right now, wells run dry and then people have to rely on the hope of well regeneration or bringing in water from far away to fill cisterns.

Big civilizations start to get excited about roads and railroads - but don't seem to know where they're building them TO. Another food area? Another water area? Or are they just building for the sake of building??

See what the civilization is lacking. See where the edges of the town are and what biomes are not well represented. What resources are missing? What can help? Yes, berries... but a toddler can tend berries. Go harness a horse or build more carts so the civilization can expand. Stockpile medic supplies ready for the next bear or griefer attack. Think about ways to advance the city, rather than ways the city can just... subside.

Kinrany · 2018-09-02 21:46:49

LaughAtlantis wrote:

Most of the time, big civilizations that think they're fine and running smoothly ARE NOT.
Berry patches are a great example. Berry farming (well, farming of any sort, but berries most of all) needs a constant influx of soil - so you need a working compost farm. Which means you need a berry farm, a carrot farm (that people don't eat all the carrots from), a wheat farm (that people don't just thresh without replanting first since the seeds dissipate), and a sheep pen. And all of that needs to be healthy and in working order - you can't try to make compost when things are already dying; it takes too many berries.
Big civilizations tend to run out of water. So there needs to be further exploration to find more. I'm not sure what the long-term plans are for pipes, but right now, wells run dry and then people have to rely on the hope of well regeneration or bringing in water from far away to fill cisterns.
Big civilizations start to get excited about roads and railroads - but don't seem to know where they're building them TO. Another food area? Another water area? Or are they just building for the sake of building??
See what the civilization is lacking. See where the edges of the town are and what biomes are not well represented. What resources are missing? What can help? Yes, berries... but a toddler can tend berries. Go harness a horse or build more carts so the civilization can expand. Stockpile medic supplies ready for the next bear or griefer attack. Think about ways to advance the city, rather than ways the city can just... subside.

If the civilization is dying, one individual won't be able to save it like this. Organizing the road builders to find water and build a road there would help, but in three generations no one will remember that the road exists for that reason, and the civilization will die anyway. Solving a problem once is not enough.

If you don't have a role, there are other people who also don't have one. Make sure they do, and then make yourself replaceable, so that it won't all fall apart when you're dead.

SomeRandomPerson · 2018-09-02 23:10:46

They can be fun at times but alot of the time they suffer from lots of violance and laziness. For a somewhat new player like me to have everything made so I cab learn other jobs. The berry farms are very time and resources heavy, Always need to be people on farms. Ideally all kids would do it until they grow up and get replaced but I've watched some of kids and they rarely do it.
Alot will die within 10 minutes or so, I still die alot but usually to animals or murders rather then starvation these days. I had a similar experiences, Mums tell me "GL" and then throw me out.

I've seen lots of murder in the past day or two. Several people going on killing sprees, Taking out a handful of the population each time. Then off course someone eventually gets them but gets killed by someone else. You hear a murder offscreen and your not sure if it's retribution or a random killing. People had told me that alot of griefers had been online at that time. Most of the time they do get killed, Just causes alot of chaos.

Last edited by SomeRandomPerson (2018-09-02 23:48:13)

Lotus · 2018-09-03 00:07:33

I like Eve runs. Always fun and new experience. Unless I am in the mood for RP, I will likely suicide if born into a big town.

happynova · 2018-09-03 00:21:21

Waiting to be assigned to a job is not necessarily the best way to go, especially as your mother may not have any actual idea what the town really needs. Better to look around (once you're old enough -- berry farming is still a good and important task for little kids, which is why people tell little kids to do it) and see what needs doing. Is there a big pile of unbaked pies and no one working on them? Is anyone tending the vegetable farm? Is someone making compost? Are there empty stew pots that could be filled with stew? Is the town a big disorganized mess with dead bodies everywhere and tools scattered randomly about where no one can find them? Does the town's only fire keep going out because no one is bringing firewood? Does everyone who needs it have clothing and a backpack? Is it hard to find am empty plate or a bowl when you need one? Is there a milkweed farm? Odds are high there will be an issue with at least one of these things, and you can be the one to fix it.

If absolutely everything seems to be taken care of, you can always go out exploring (especially if you're a male and don't have to worry about babies popping out when you're far from home). You can almost always find things like clothing, backpacks, and carts that got left in the countryside when someone died, which you can bring back into town, along with any useful resources you come across.

Or, if you're really bored of towns and are a female (or can persuade one to join you), you can even leave and start your own new town. This doesn't always work -- I've been born to people trying to do that only to leave them to go back to the main town, I will admit -- but if it does, it gives you an extra chance to carry on the lineage if the town is killed off by griefers or famine.

happynova · 2018-09-03 00:33:46

Oh, and for my own part, I like a mixture of different kids of lives. I can get bored of either big towns or early Eve camps if that's all I'm doing for a while. And both have their own rewards and frustrations. It's easier to feel like you're contributing something in a big way in a very early settlement, but it's also easier to be brought low by bad luck (especially bad luck with kids) or small mistakes. And it can be annoyingly hard to find something to do in big towns, or to actually manage to do it, with people in the way all the time and the tendency for tools you need to walk off to parts unknown. But if you do find a niche, there is a certain satisfying feeling of contributing to something larger. And there can be a little more interesting variety; Eve camps are essentially all the same. Plus, you have a little more free time to interact with people, and your kids are more likely to live. Well, if they're not murdered, that is. I've been griefed in Eve camps, but not nearly as often as in cities. So it's all pluses and minuses, really.

Anshin · 2018-09-03 01:12:26

Big towns are great! If the town already has a herder and a composter, make straw hats - they don't decay. When older grab a horse and cart and build iron mines. Retrieve iron, and straight branches. Make reed skirts and bring them home by the cart load, they don't decay either. Build flat roads to water, and set up wells. If the new water sources are plentiful enough start a new satellite town. Get cows. There's no such thing as too many cows...

Turnipseed · 2018-09-03 02:35:39

Personally 3rd gen is my favorite to play. There is plenty to do and plenty to acomplish, plus its usually small enough you know everyone.

SomeRandomPerson · 2018-09-03 02:48:51

Lotus wrote:

I like Eve runs. Always fun and new experience. Unless I am in the mood for RP, I will likely suicide if born into a big town.

That explains why so many of my babies run off at birth. It's so sad to see you all running off to die everytime.

LaughAtlantis · 2018-09-03 03:59:39

Kinrany wrote:

If the civilization is dying, one individual won't be able to save it like this. Organizing the road builders to find water and build a road there would help, but in three generations no one will remember that the road exists for that reason, and the civilization will die anyway. Solving a problem once is not enough.
If you don't have a role, there are other people who also don't have one. Make sure they do, and then make yourself replaceable, so that it won't all fall apart when you're dead.

Oh, I'm not talking about DYING civilizations; I'm talking about thriving ones. People tend to think you can coast because the civilization exists; you can't. There's always trouble coming. You need to prep for it, and keep it at bay. If all else fails, KEEP MAKING COMPOST.

Jk Howling · 2018-09-03 06:45:06

Personally I agree that thriving civilizations are pretty dull.

There's usually not enough tasks to be worked on, and with so much of the game done already and piles of food building by the minute, there's just not much to stay interested in.. People end up stepping on each other's toes trying to do things.

Also, with more people comes more drama, it seems. I have yet to live a city life in the past two weeks that hasn't dealt with a bunch of drama. Usually ends up being griefers or murderers of some kind. Or the berry field dies and everyone panics. Or some roleplayer takes their games too far. Gets tiring.

A full live in a bustling city usually accounts for only one of my daily lives, though its sometimes cut short- whether from getting mixed up in drama or just suiciding out of it early. After that, I try to spread my runs between eves and early camps, or sometimes play mini-eve if I'm a girl and run off from the city to start my own outpost town. I put my best into the small camps I'm born in, and take eve runs wherever they put me [such as two eve runs in a row yesterday in an already-established city. Tarr was eve'ing there too, very fun lives!]

Gotta do the best we can to enjoy ourselves in the game.

Last edited by Jk Howling (2018-09-03 06:49:35)

Turnipseed · 2018-09-03 06:54:04

Jk Howling wrote:

Personally I agree that thriving civilizations are pretty dull.
There's usually not enough tasks to be worked on, and with so much of the game done already and piles of food building by the minute, there's just not much to stay interested in.. People end up stepping on each other's toes trying to do things.

Theres always plenty to do in a city, just noone wants to do it, and everyone is in everyones way

gabal · 2018-09-03 10:18:48

Playing in cities is the best time to learn a new skill in my experience. Your basic needs are usually covered and you commit yourself to a project of your desire.

MultiLife · 2018-09-03 12:39:11

I like all lives more or less!

If the city tires me out I craft a cart and go get rabbits and iron somewhere far so I don't have to deal with people or city troubles (murderers, people ruining your stuff, being stuck in a job you are fed up with etc.). It's sometimes quite refreshing to visit the wilderness and dodge the animals while you explore.

I tend to have a good balance of different lives so I am not exhausted by certain kind of lives yet; camps, towns and cities are all a-ok but big populations get overwhelming - big population for a camp is a bit different than a big population for a city but you know the deal, too many players running around to keep track of things.

I haven't suicided as a baby yet just because I don't want to be in the place I am born in (not gonna count the time I ran from a cursed mom). I just tend to find entertaining things to do even in city lives: sometimes I go off to make an outpost to satisfy the need for creating (just need to find a good location so the resources are not exhausted by the city people).

People tend to be social in a good way in mid-sized towns where it is easier to keep track on familiar faces and collaborate. In cities, it quickly evolves to "whats-his-face stabbed the bakerylady and now the guy-I-saw-with-a-bow is running towards him... oh I have a little sister? Wait did the carrot farmer just die? Uh oh".

Last edited by MultiLife (2018-09-03 12:47:23)

Roblor · 2018-09-03 12:59:57

I'm kinda disappointed that people always cluster together just like that. Unless I'm planning to leave the city completely, then I always make my own workstation on the outskirts of town where there is plenty of space. Usually in the swamp area.

The swamp area always gets cleared for firewood, so a lot water accessible areas become available for business. Just as long as you got one basket and one pie you are a free man who can thrive wherever he chooses.
Most of my city lives, as long as compost is being taken care of by somebody else, I make an omelette station complete with it's own kiln and dishware produced from the remaining clay lying around.

Other expansions to an already complete city, such as extra sheep-pens, pie kitchens, hunting stations, smithies and compostoriums can only further a city's prosperity as well as make a little piece of it your own to pass on to your children/whatever child walks by when you're dying.

Different subject, but also relevant; OHOL-currency can only be a thing if it happens automatically for performing boring, but vital task such as revitalizing berry bushes, moving corpses and other trash a certain distance away from tiles containing domestic berry bushes and certain other player placed constructs, contributing at one or several steps of compost making and whatever other tasks are that detectable by an computer algorithm. Managing a coin-like currency with in-game "physical" "coins", manually, is too time consuming to even work efficiently, because time is the most valuable resource of them all and clutter is the biggest city-killer of them all. Players who dedicate themselves to such tasks as smithing, baking, hunting and other tasks with tangible produce and products, should depend on other players to donate to them their earned currency. There are of course other vital task, such as town-organizing and griefer-stabbing which will be overlooked a lot, so OHOL-currency is no fix all solution (griefer-stabbing is even highly underappreciated at times, but that's a discussion for an other post).

The only practical usage for an OHOL-currency system is for a beneficial distribution of the goods to the town community, when time is such a valuable asset in this game as it is, and you want a dedicated player you can give your knife and backback to, but don't have the time to follow people around and observe their actions.

If implemented, you could then just hypothetically say to someone; "gimme 100 OHOLs and it's yours" and the only way for the other player to prove he was good for it was to complete the transaction.
"Give player Xzoblurg 100 OHOLs" and the nearest player of the most similar name gets it. Badabimbadabom

I'm not saying it's a good idea to put currency in the game, but it could at least give some incentive to be a bit helpful in bigger towns. Even though said currency should be naturally wiped out upon death.

PeaGirl · 2018-09-03 17:44:29

I personally hate those mothers who don't assign you any job. For me, having no particular duty marked on makes me feel vulnerable for overwhelming situation, where you need to waste time looking for what to do.
I really often try to suicide from big cities, because in my opinion making the game too easy for others is what makes it harder to keep interest in, hence I am more often seen in smaller villages either helping eve in making new camp or rebuilding abandoned one, or "before compost era", where people still need to establish their culture. It's quite doublesided blade in that matter. As long as Rohrer makes decisive updates that make game more interesting as well as bring in more challenges, maybe "pve" version where you are taught more advanced skills in bit like tutorial session, except it is a challenge instead.

Spiegel · 2018-09-03 21:23:25

For those who prefer eve runs, but were born into a city. . . Why not just leave when you're like ten or so? It'd be somewhat similar to an eve run, but earlier and probably with a backpack and connections to people in a nearby town incase you're struggling with a new settlement. That way, it would also make it more, like, possible to have a really long, spread out family line.

gabal · 2018-09-03 21:29:13

True, I just lived a life in which mom was Eve in every sense except the name. Well, she had more clothes then Eve usually does but apart from that it was an Eve run.

Booklat1 · 2018-09-03 22:54:09

LaughAtlantis wrote:

Big civilizations tend to run out of water. So there needs to be further exploration to find more. I'm not sure what the long-term plans are for pipes, but right now, wells run dry and then people have to rely on the hope of well regeneration or bringing in water from far away to fill cisterns.

Well this only happens because people haven't started to plan water suppying like actual engineers would. Few cisterns along a road to swamps and a cart full of buckets fixes water problems easily. Wells should always be fully emptied into cisterns so they can all regen while their water is being used, and once you have a system to bring water from somewhere else you're just stacking water regeneration. I've been to a few towns that had water problems and even respawned a few times in places like these, the only reason we run out of water is that there is always that one or two wells no one empties or only ever use when all the others run out.

EllynEve · 2018-09-11 04:18:00

I used to get excited at being born in large civilizations that were bustling with activity and people, and to a point, I still do! I love it. You can actually have a little bit more leniency towards talking with people, forming a mini-culture, and compiling a back story and history of the immediate area you can come across!

But I agree, It is a bit tedious when you come to realize that much of the time, even after being born to a productive clan, it seems to decompose into a muddling array of people who end up 'sitting by the watercooler' and not contributing much - not only that but they tend to pull others into it to. This tends to start as a result of a murder, and then it devolves into nonproduction as they lose focus.

People need a LOT of reminders of what is important...but at a certain point I come to wonder if it is worth it, how often am I heard by these players when they do this?

It is at this point in civilization that I come to reflect on my own actual real life civilization outside of the game. People take conveniences for granted. They treat their lives as a chatroom and forget how to survive and to contribute. They think only for themselves. They devour the berry bushes and pies. They drain the stews and leave nothing in the wake except for their debris and empty bowls.

It is at this point that I find a new sort of quest to try to manage, to maintain...

I'll start working on an already made satellite village or a road to more sources. It's interesting the help that picks up along the way. When there's too many cooks in the kitchen, you gotta spread them out and people need to find more abstract ways of contribution.

I find starting in Eve runs EXTREMELY challenging for me. I don't know what that means for me as a player. I both love and I hate it. I've been slowly getting better at it. I'm a slow learner, I've been playing since March, but I'm persistent. That's important for me to be.

I like the rare chance to be born into old civilizations that need renewal. That's challenging in its own way.

One Hour One Life Forums

#1 2018-09-02 20:28:33

Where is the fun in Big Civilizations ?

#2 2018-09-02 20:48:37

Re: Where is the fun in Big Civilizations ?

#3 2018-09-02 21:46:49

Re: Where is the fun in Big Civilizations ?

#4 2018-09-02 23:10:46

Re: Where is the fun in Big Civilizations ?

#5 2018-09-03 00:07:33

Re: Where is the fun in Big Civilizations ?

#6 2018-09-03 00:21:21

Re: Where is the fun in Big Civilizations ?

#7 2018-09-03 00:33:46

Re: Where is the fun in Big Civilizations ?

#8 2018-09-03 01:12:26

Re: Where is the fun in Big Civilizations ?

#9 2018-09-03 02:35:39

Re: Where is the fun in Big Civilizations ?

#10 2018-09-03 02:48:51

Re: Where is the fun in Big Civilizations ?

#11 2018-09-03 03:59:39

Re: Where is the fun in Big Civilizations ?

#12 2018-09-03 06:45:06

Re: Where is the fun in Big Civilizations ?

#13 2018-09-03 06:54:04

Re: Where is the fun in Big Civilizations ?

#14 2018-09-03 10:18:48

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#15 2018-09-03 12:39:11

Re: Where is the fun in Big Civilizations ?

#16 2018-09-03 12:59:57

Re: Where is the fun in Big Civilizations ?

#17 2018-09-03 17:44:29

Re: Where is the fun in Big Civilizations ?

#18 2018-09-03 21:23:25

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#19 2018-09-03 21:29:13

Re: Where is the fun in Big Civilizations ?

#20 2018-09-03 22:54:09

Re: Where is the fun in Big Civilizations ?

#21 2018-09-11 04:18:00

Re: Where is the fun in Big Civilizations ?

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