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a multiplayer game of parenting and civilization building

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#76 2019-10-15 16:52:20

MultiLife
Member
Registered: 2018-07-24
Posts: 851

Re: Myths and facts about why player numbers are dropping over time

Please don't make it so that we have specific skills or perks that are tied to a profession. That'd just make us feel like we HAVE to do the thing we got skills in. I want to decide for myself what I'll be doing and my real life knowledge of the game will determine how efficiently I will be doing it. I think the best long term goal in OHOL is learning everything and becoming a master of everything (crafting and survival). That mastery of the game carries over to every life and we have something we can conquer and keep forever. Taking that away from me, even for a moment, is just annoying.

I don't want to be appointed with a gift nor do I want to choose my gift. I do whatever my town needs and want to be as good as anything as I am regarding the mastery of recipes and quick mouse hand.

I like the puzzle idea but it'd lose its charm reeeeal quick.

Rarely, people do get benefit from asking for someone to teach them how to smith or such. But usually the smiths and oil drillers are busy saving the town. And I'd rather go to Onetech than bother people in-game. It's horrid when you sit and wait for speech bubbles, trying to explain what the "bit" part is in a rig to someone and how to make it. Or why the bellows can't be placed on empty kilns before charcoal. Or why there are no watering cans and why you need a bucket for a cistern. Inconsistencies and oddities and no patience for explaining.

Also you can't just make chatting/socializing/talking give you boosts or perks, or people will be going like "LALALALALALALALALALA" around the place to get the boosts.

Last edited by MultiLife (2019-10-15 16:53:50)


Notable lives (Male): Happy, Erwin Callister, Knight Peace, Roman Rodocker, Bon Doolittle, Terry Plant, Danger Winter, Crayton Ide, Tim Quint, Jebediah (Tarr), Awesome (Elliff), Rocky, Tim West
Notable lives (Female): Elisa Mango, Aaban Qin, Whitaker August, Lucrecia August, Poppy Worth, Kitana Spoon, Linda II, Eagan Hawk III, Darcy North, Rosealie (Quint), Jess Lucky, Lilith (Unkle)

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#77 2019-10-15 17:26:42

WalrusesConquer
Member
Registered: 2018-07-11
Posts: 492

Re: Myths and facts about why player numbers are dropping over time

I really am glad that we are all able to do jobs and are not born with a profession. Can you imagine being the only baker with no idea how to do it? Or havong a smith but no rabbit hunter?

Also the whole socialisingl aspect for babies (such as them not being able to understand adults -like other families, or having to teach them how to work feels like it would get old quick)
Maybe occasionally you could get a gigantic baby or a dwarf depending on the amount you talked to them - but again- could get dull

Last edited by WalrusesConquer (2019-10-15 17:29:07)


Recent favorite lives:
Favio Pheonix,Les Nana,Cloud Charles, Rosa Colo [fed my little bro] Lucas Dawn [husband of magnolia] Jasmine Yu,Chogiwa, Tae (Jazz meister)Gillian Yellow (adoptive husband),Jason Dua, Arya Stark, Sophie Cucci, Cerenity Ergo ,Owner of Boris The Goose,Being Maria's mom, Santa's helper.

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#78 2019-10-15 19:52:44

StrongForce
Member
Registered: 2018-03-09
Posts: 474

Re: Myths and facts about why player numbers are dropping over time

Yes professions should be chosen not fixed at birth.
I'm not talking about splitting  all crafting into professions. Just the really hight level
Snaring a rabbit is an easy thing every one can do that.
But making fancy clothes should be something valuable and tradable, but right now it's not

These things could be professions:
loom
Newcomen tools
Belltower(stoneblocks)
Gold smithing
Mabye some of the fancy foods
New Hightech items later.

Last edited by StrongForce (2019-10-15 19:57:08)


Baby dance!!

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#79 2019-10-15 20:03:42

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

Re: Myths and facts about why player numbers are dropping over time

jasonrorher wrote:

Spoonwood, I've made 19 games, and had the first solo show in a museum ever dedicated to a single game designer, and a book was written about that show.

Your game count is irrelevant to how OHOL is faring.

Second, your solo show you think buys you credibility?  Nope, it doesn't.  It was at a private woman's college, which isn't exactly a group known for playing games.

I have no interest in your book, it's not relevant to OHOL.  That you bring it up shows that you don't understand relevance.

You don't even have someone you work with.  The myth of the lone programming genius is just that, a myth.  In reality, a lone programmer is someone out of touch with solid development.


Danish Clinch.
Longtime tutorial player.

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#80 2019-10-15 20:08:39

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

Re: Myths and facts about why player numbers are dropping over time

jasonrohrer wrote:

This game already has more unique, fully-interactive content than almost any other game.  Any game that has more content than OHOL just has a bunch of reskinned stuff that isn't actually unique.

Oxygen Not Included has more content than OHOL.  I would think more of that content unique also, but I could be wrong.  And it's also very creative.


Danish Clinch.
Longtime tutorial player.

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#81 2019-10-15 20:26:16

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

Re: Myths and facts about why player numbers are dropping over time

JonySky had many interesting things to say, especially that part about the progression of inventions not making sense.

jasonrohrer wrote:

Regarding those who say "Who has time to talk in the game?"  Or if you think talk is unnecessary....  I agree that it is NOT necessary or optimal currently to communicate with others.  My goal is to change that.  My goal is to make group survival a real thing, and cooperation necessary to achieve that.

The inefficiencies that come along with lack of communication, lack of leadership, and lack of organization should be sub-optimal to the point of killing your village.

This isn't a good idea.  Honestly, if you set up a system where it came as necessary for a village to have good communication to survive, then either all villages will fail or most of them, and it won't be because of a lack of good players.  It would be because of griefers intentionally giving out misinformation.  Ferreting out lies and liars in the real world takes time.  And there's simply not enough time in OHOL to ferret out lies and liars.  A game set up for failure in the long run isn't one that people will find attractive.


Danish Clinch.
Longtime tutorial player.

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#82 2019-10-15 22:48:15

pein
Member
Registered: 2018-03-31
Posts: 4,335

Re: Myths and facts about why player numbers are dropping over time

jasonrohrer wrote:

What I saw, back when I was heaping on the content (both before and after Steam), is that player numbers were declining anyway.  Heaping on the content didn't help all that much.  Players chewed through the new content in a few hours and then were "bored" for the rest of the week.  If new content is the main dish, it goes cold very quickly.

Still, the upgrade hoppers are important old players, i guess you realized that some old players keep new ones in the game, we got a discord community and there are a lot of people who don't even play or play that often, but still brainstorm about the game
changing meta a bit changes how the game is played. When we talk about content we mean deep and meaningful content, a new line of play.
Adding one food is interesting for one life. Adding clothing was quite good i reckon, people liked it and still like it, i think some people are willing to kill others for a dress.

Instead, I had to spend some time solving the fundamental problems with the game.  WHY do people bounce off of it?  Why is it boring long-term?  Why is the full potential not realized?  Why is being a baby so one-dimensional?  Is it the most boring 3 minutes in the history of video games?  I often go grab a snack in the other room.  "GL Sweety" at age 3?  Why does village life stagnate after about 5 hours?  Why does nothing that players create really last?  Why is there no trade, no laws, no police, no hotels, no restaurants?

The lack of mini games is one issue, people want to do meaningful things, things that matter, things that advance the town, or at least things that are interesting and help others.
composting is a nice mini game, provides soil for the town which then can be used to plant stuff
sheep is nice mini game, provides with meat for pies and poop for compost
i could mention smithing, well upgrades and engine making, loom clothes. the rest of the tech tree is quite an optional fun route which can be done once or twice but isn't too meaningful
there are things that could be but aren't: pigs (isn't really optimal, isn't really needed), dogs (no function just form, no bonuses), road making (way too slow to build and has no extra effects), mining carts (easy to grief or ruin by accident, no actual usage, would need extra storage, automatic load/unload maybe).
Yeah, the 3 min gets boring, not really much to see, can't really say all the plans for babies, so we skip that, we just feed them and kinda that's it. It's more meaningful in the low tech cities, the early game, the first game, gets boring over time. I don't see much potential to change that, maybe baby bottles or baby pushchairs, baby clothes (weird that they can wear any dress or high tech stuff, creates inequality)

Most people who create stuff, actually like to go back and continue making the town nicer, the fast resets we don't like
trade won't happen without personal property, and not personal space with fences.
It's just an agreement that you won't steal. Stealing is easy, making stuff is harder, but there is no penalty of taking things others made. There is no restriction what you can have, probably just personal storage. Other than that, why should anyone make things where they can just take?
Where is the goal? So if i would make a knife, that would be mine, no one can take it unless i say so. That would mean that people would do things for me so i give them my knife.
I think the other reason is no things to buy. You need a system, where some products are limited to have, in order to have them, people need currency or tokens. The other issue is, why should anyone work on food when there is plenty of food? Food should decay or at least have 3 states: fresh food (higher pip and yum bonus) and older food, rotten food. Rotten food could be still turned back to compost or fed to animals, but wouldn't have that appeal to players. This would make timing and optimization more of a key. But in order to not make this annoying, there should be countermeasures and a way to make excess useful, which could be achieved with an AI shop. Sell the extra food, get back the plates and bowls.

This would create currency which then would need a way to be spent. I think the best way would be real estate. Towns would start with a minimum requirement of taxes/upkeep cost. Players then would be required to pay off this cost in order to maintain their place in the town.  This would mean that some amount of work would be required to live in a civilized place. Prices would depend on the number of items, each time people sell the price would go down and each time they buy it would go up, this would make the saturated markets worse and the unique production better.

There is no way to make laws as there is no way to ensure people keeping them in place. Part of the issue is the low player view distance. Laws would need to be automatic. Some choices that no stealing inside the city or no killing. But people could be banished.

There is no way of telling now what is the city, the game doesn't recognize a camp or a city, there are just things in a group. There is no power over others, no way to telling them what to do so no leadership.  For example if people couldn't scavenge clothes, those clothes would go automatically back to a storage area and people should do minimal work to get them back, that would already motivate people to work.

I think there should be more focus on owning a place and less focus on defending it. If i own a place of 4x4 tiles, i can extend it and the walls go around it automatically, that would be easier. Buildings got no bonus really, the only heat bonus i would consider is perfect heat, anything lower than that is not worth it. A central heating could take care of that, raising the upkeep of kindling/firewood/charcoal. So if i want 10 min of perfect heat on 16 tiles, i would need 8 baskets of charcoal, but that would last double on 8 tiles and half on 32 tiles.
Of course, it would help if walls are between the tiles, not on them, or they would have shelves for storage.

We need a currency, personal ownership, a way of safe trading (player A puts an item in box, player B gives the item in exchange, the exchange is safe and automatic), a last will maybe (if you die, your close family gets your things if they claim within 10 min, or it's shared or it goes to city shared products, so the income goes in the treasury). And a sink for the money which is the only way to spend it, and the only way or the easier way to get those items or services, upgrades, blueprints. Some could go on taxes and some could go to personal wealth.

The game is short, it's maximum 60 minutes but you can starve or die easily so it would be ways to abuse a system. So buildings shouldn't be hard to make. Right now it's a lot of focus on gathering resources. Personally i can make a 7x7 building under one hour but really i do that and i don't have time to interact with others. Starting players can maybe make a 3x3 or a 5x5 building under a life. Should be more focus on processing and less on gathering, the rest of the game is easy, you can make a fence, you can make 60 pies easy, but to make a building you need a cart, lot of time, go far away, and then there is a possibility that others steal it and ruin your building. Most people live a life inside a 50x50 box, never go outside it, so towns tend to have 2-3 buildings, a pen, and kinda that's it, the distance is a limiting factor. Trees could grow faster, have 2 butt logs at least, boards could make wall tiles. A shop front for safe exchange, personal property for a few items so others have to respect ownership. Right now ownership is just a meme, if you make a second pack, people willing to kill you for it cause they think that they should own it as you already got one. Everyting is shared so there is no value for things. Also lot of people like this way of play, the communistic utopia, and that is faster, dump what you don't need so others can make themselves clothes, buildings. There is no tracking on how much work you done, or xp or skill points for it so there is no motivation to do things instead of leeching on others and scavenging the dead, stealing things you didn't make. People think that the things they pick up or get by birth is theirs, and they don't care who originally made them, like  i was cursed for taking back lcothing that i originally made, and was chased for 10 minutes for taking clothing while we had plenty of it, cause some people are just way to butthurt over having best clothes, 4 knives, decoration sword, crowns. It might be better to make them easily but would cost upkeep or the original resources need to be made/gathered and then tailored to size.

But then again, life is too short to do things properly and give meaning to it, when it's so easy to scavenge and steal and nobody appreciates work you do.

This game already has more unique, fully-interactive content than almost any other game.  Any game that has more content than OHOL just has a bunch of reskinned stuff that isn't actually unique.

So if the above problems were solved, and the game was DEEPLY interesting long term, and it had as much content as it has, it would be an amazing game.

it's true that it has a retro feeling to it, and there is a focus on gameplay more than graphics or killing. It just lacks some deeper goals, end goals, winning conditions. That's why people kill others cause no way of non deadly combat, sports or group fights, sieges or territory control. Some sort of point based ownership and power system. If it would be an rpg, then people would feel the persistent ownership of things, and they could finish some projects, get back to it. But it's too random to build upon things so everything gets lost eventually, lifes are cheap, things are cheap.

But heaping more content on top of a broken core isn't going to make the game great.

we still would need some new paths to play the game, dirt roads to make planning easier, rebalance some things like cows, mine carts, dogs, some new clothes wouldn't hurt, some decoration items. New bars to characters like décor bonus or hp bar to have a decent fight system. If there is a fight and a winer, makes no sense to me to have no skill linked to it. Cause some people spend 30-40 minutes butthurt over small things, it's just too easy to frame others for small things and the sheep mentality wins. I cant be really butthurt over clothes or small things, but others can manage to complain on you after stealing the fruit of your work and they think they are right cause they deserve everything for free.

There are 70,000 people playing Rust right now, and that's not because it has more content than OHOL (because it doesn't).  It's because it's a more compelling game.

i mean, rust has an extensive tech tree where you need to work for getting things, there are more building elements, more décor, more plants, a good 3d fight system, traps, automation, etc.

So if you look for some game changing things:
-Dirt roads, the way fences work, just a placeholder road which cost nothing, blocks planting and building, just a blueprint to make nicer towns, and plan ahead.
-A way to have ownership of a cave or a part of a biome, a small island. Acces would be limited and owning it would be interesting.
-Some sort of sport, like a ball fly randomly within kick/throw direction (+-45 degree +-1 tile), bounce off wlls. This would allow us to make stadiums like hockey or football or handball syle.
-No deadly combat to fight each other, show our skills, decide disputes.
-Nerf berry bushes a bit, buff soemthing else, like tomato or onions, maybe add some fruit trees like Apple or Pear.
-Personal ownership of physical or virtual items/buffs/special items. A currency and a way of safe trade, like a box which would block the two sides once the item is in, would swap sides after both players put something in it.
-Auto loading/unloading of mining carts from a platform, levers to stop carts at a position without building endings to a path, curves to turn it 90 degree or 360 backward on a cycle. Maybe transporting players (just hide players, teleport them to other locations showing an animation of the route)
-Cash crops like coffee, tobacco or sugar to be sold for credits, higher upkeep and harder maitenance, a way to spend those credits on limited content.
-Some unique items that can be owned only by a few players which do specific limited tasks like a titanium shovel which never breaks but has limited time amount.
-Ai market to sell pies and other food or exchange for building materials.
-Building elements like code lock doors, tables (store item and auto select yum food), tents, fountains.
-Auto blueprints for buildings, selecting a size and then upgrading it over time. Ideal for fast shop making.
-Longer fence walls, like 20 tiles at once for an item that can be placed straight only.
-Road making machine that makes long fast roads effectievely.
-Upgrade fences with adobe or stone.
-More usage to building elements, like one adobe could make 3 walls instead of half, but only can be used in a straight line.
-Bucket of plaster or paint to used on multiple walls.
-More colored clothes and walls, colored floors.

If you want to shake up the game, we need things with function which allow activities to be useful/fun.


https://onehouronelife.com/forums/viewtopic.php?id=7986 livestock pens 4.0
https://onehouronelife.com/forums/viewtopic.php?id=4411 maxi guide

Playing OHOL optimally is like cosplaying a cactus: stand still and don't waste the water.

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#83 2019-10-16 17:07:26

enti0
Member
Registered: 2019-10-16
Posts: 5

Re: Myths and facts about why player numbers are dropping over time

jasonrohrer wrote:

A given week of playing OHOL needs to be a unique experience that simply can't be missed, and different than playing any previous or subsequent week of OHOL.  "Holy crap, what happened everyone?"

The answer shouldn't be, "Same as last week. You missed nothing."

Nor should it be, "Jason added beekeeping!"

Heyo, I've been a player since first few months or so (before steam release) and sort of just ambled about without saying anything.

I agree with the point on not just adding new things, as, speaking as a longer term player who comes in every now-and then, I don't actually do most of it anyway, or understand it (although i am not against updates at all, and do expect them to continue, having seen the trailer).

I do, however, think that something needs to be added for the current goal, which is to stop declining numbers. This should rightly be the top priority!

As a person who has DM'd in a lot of tabletop RPGs for new players, the thing that keeps new players interested is when they are valued. It also helps if they don't die instantly! My observations are thus, that players often leave for two major reasons;
1: They make their character and are all ready, just to die in the first session or so,
and 2: they believe that there is nothing for them to do, and this makes them bored and leave early (even if they haven't tried themselves to interact; as it is their first time, it is difficult to know how to do such things).

I have two suggestions. I don't know about the feasibility of these, but they work in tabletop games:


1. (if this already exists, my bad) When new players 'starve', they don't die; either, it resets their food once, or they don't starve until they are 5. Then, a notice could appear on-screen saying something like, "As a new player, you have been saved from starvation this time. Try to find some food!"

2. Some big list of non-combat buffs, where one is assigned randomly to a new player. Perhaps they have +1 food pip? Maybe they get an added bonus from yum? Maybe certain tools don't get used up when they use them?

Of course, the best 'buffs' are ones that aren't straight stat-increases- a Jesus-like character that could turn water into wine would be quite amusing, or perhaps a turkey-headed player that could throw down feathers and fly for short periods of time- but that sort of stuff would probably take a lot more work.

(And as well, buffs like these should probably be instantly taken away if they murder someone, as PKing is rightly taboo)
(These could also potentially be used for low-fitness level players, so that high-death players can get back into the game a bit easier)

Assuming that other players would know about which buffs the new player has, making new or short-living players 'special' in some way to other players could increase their retention, as they find themselves more highly valued among groups of players!

I hope this has helped the discussion! 頑張りましょう!

Last edited by enti0 (2019-10-16 17:08:48)

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#84 2019-10-16 21:05:32

Saolin
Member
Registered: 2019-05-22
Posts: 393

Re: Myths and facts about why player numbers are dropping over time

I think it would be a good idea to have more opportunities for new players to learn in some fashion. Whether that be a solo world they can play around in, or an expanded tutorial. For example a tutorial zone that teaches the basket/bowl/soil interaction and the bucket/bowl/water interaction, since it is fairly non-intuitive and frustrating until you learn how it works.

Also connectedness of a town would likely improve if the field of view was expanded. Without a zoom mod you don't see a lot of what's going on. It allows issues such as the confessed domestic boar breeder to go unnoticed by the village. I tend to move around pretty much constantly to "extend" my field of view, but it's still pretty limited and can get frustrating when time is wasting away.

Last edited by Saolin (2019-10-16 21:14:58)

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#85 2019-10-16 21:14:03

jasonrohrer
Administrator
Registered: 2017-02-13
Posts: 4,802

Re: Myths and facts about why player numbers are dropping over time

Oxygen Not Included has more content?  Surely you're joking, Mr. Spoonman.

https://oni-db.com/

I count:

125 Elements
228 Building pieces
28 Critters
28 Eggs
21 Plants
21 Seeds
31 Foods
21 Planets
28 Artifacts
5 Comets
21 Geysers
6 Medicine
7 Diseases
4 Pathogens
20 Misc

TOTAL:  594

OHOL Total:  2763

Yes, a lot of those in OHOL are objects in various states.  But it's clear that OHOL is on par or beyond ONI in terms of content size.  And it was just made by one guy.  And I've still got thousands of things to add.

ONI was made by a team of 15 people---that's my guess.  Anyone want to take a look at the ONI in-game credits to get a better estimate?


Heck, OHOL has 2090 separate, hand-drawn sprites (but some objects use more than one sprite).

Even if you just look at foods alone, there are 50 edible things in OHOL compared to 31 in ONI.

You can easily brows through all the ONI content in a few minutes.

Try to browse through the OHOL content:

https://onetech.info/

You'll be scrolling until your finger falls off.


But comparing these games is pretty pointless, b/c ONI is a single-player colony management game.

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#86 2019-10-16 21:21:28

jasonrohrer
Administrator
Registered: 2017-02-13
Posts: 4,802

Re: Myths and facts about why player numbers are dropping over time

Kinrany, your solution would help to make the puzzle different for each arc.

It wouldn't mitigate the "prodigy baby" thing from life to life, nor help to make family abilities unique, nor encourage trade.

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#87 2019-10-16 22:02:36

Twisted
Member
Registered: 2018-10-12
Posts: 663

Re: Myths and facts about why player numbers are dropping over time

jasonrohrer wrote:

Oxygen Not Included has more content?  Surely you're joking, Mr. Spoonman.

https://oni-db.com/

TOTAL:  594

OHOL Total:  2763

Yes, a lot of those in OHOL are objects in various states.  But it's clear that OHOL is on par or beyond ONI in terms of content size.  And it was just made by one guy.  And I've still got thousands of things to add.


What? Most objects in ONI also have several stages, it's just that those are not displayed on the DB. If they were, the number of 'objects' in ONI would greatly overshadow the number of 'objects' in OHOL.

You can't really say that stuff like this counts as twelve different objects.

I love OHOL very much, and I prefer it to ONI and I think it's a better game, but saying that OHOL has more content is just bizarre.

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#88 2019-10-16 22:23:21

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

Re: Myths and facts about why player numbers are dropping over time

jasonrohrer wrote:

Oxygen Not Included has more content?  Surely you're joking, Mr. Spoonman.

You didn't include interactions between objects.  Content isn't merely the objects in the game.  Duplicants are not included in what you counted.  Nor the temperature of objects.  Nor the specific heat capacity, nor thermal conductivity, nor molar mass of objects.  Nor that objects have state transition points.  Nor anything about what critters do in that game, such as excrete coal or make natural gas.  And no, I'm not joking.

There exists plenty of point in comparing the complexity of your game when you drone on and on about how it has more content than every other game.  It doesn't.


Danish Clinch.
Longtime tutorial player.

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#89 2019-10-17 00:05:04

Kinrany
Member
Registered: 2018-01-22
Posts: 712

Re: Myths and facts about why player numbers are dropping over time

jasonrohrer wrote:

Kinrany, your solution would help to make the puzzle different for each arc.

It wouldn't mitigate the "prodigy baby" thing from life to life, nor help to make family abilities unique, nor encourage trade.

I believe it would solve the "prodigy baby" problem.

Item names and sprites would be randomized per baby, not per arc. Alice would say "I need a Surgical Resistor", but Bob would hear "I need a Space Inhalator".

The best way to record the recipe would be just laying the required items in a row behind a fence. Though there could be pictograms for drawing the items on paper in a consistent way.

This would certainly have the consequence of different families having different knowledge. It would also encourage trade, but only because knowledge is easier to hide or destroy.

Last edited by Kinrany (2019-10-17 00:06:15)

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#90 2019-10-17 00:30:55

Potjeh
Member
Registered: 2018-03-08
Posts: 469

Re: Myths and facts about why player numbers are dropping over time

Different states of same object aren't different objects. By that logic Rust's armored wall is 2000 different objects, one for each hitpoint.

Last edited by Potjeh (2019-10-17 00:34:10)

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#91 2019-10-17 00:40:21

Dantox
Member
Registered: 2019-04-28
Posts: 213

Re: Myths and facts about why player numbers are dropping over time

jasonrohrer wrote:

Oxygen Not Included has more content?  Surely you're joking
Yes, a lot of those in OHOL are objects in various states.  But it's clear that OHOL is on par or beyond ONI in terms of content size.  And it was just made by one guy.  And I've still got thousands of things to add.

OHOL might have a greater raw content size but Oxygen Not Included simpliy offers more to its players while OHOL you just have one option to move forward to and only one way to do it so.

I feel with this statement that you are trying to measure the content a game can offer via the amount of MBs it has to bring or justify with shock value when thats simply not true, no matter how much items can you add to OHOL that doesnt mean it will make it more lasting or more interesting if said content has no purpose or real use inside of the game (Hello, Pine panels!) when in games like ONI all items have some kind of use or purpose to appease various playstyles or to bring more opportunity to experimenting. When with OHOL that is simply not true.

Raw content doesnt measure the amount of playability it can give to its players


make bread, no war

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#92 2019-10-17 01:16:09

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

Re: Myths and facts about why player numbers are dropping over time

Oxygen Not Included also allows for temperature based state changes, so each of its one hundred and twenty five unique elements can change between gas, liquid, and solid, depending on the ambient temperature.    And the geysers can transition between either active or dormant states. 

I think that deserves to be counted if a pond with or without goose counts as two objects in OHOL.

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#93 2019-10-17 03:27:02

Redram
Member
Registered: 2018-08-16
Posts: 113

Re: Myths and facts about why player numbers are dropping over time

Wow, you're really talking through your hat here Jason.   ONI is 50x the game OHOL is.  Yes it has many times the number of people working on it, and it shows!  Way more and better sounds, incredibly more and better animation, art is obviously far superior. 

As many people have pointed out, every situational variant of a dog or pig doesn't get to count as a separate thing, nor every slight graphical variation of a rift.  Nobody cares about a tied skewer as an object.  It's only use is to make an arrow.  You only get to count a string, a skewer, a flint, a feather, and an arrow as separate objects.  Not all the combinations on the way to an arrow.  you don't get to count a bear, and each of the 3 bears with arrows as separate bears.  They're just 1 bear.  Be real.  And, as someone else pointed out, everything in ONI fits and works.  There's no useless dogs or pine walls in oni.  No top tier tech that serves just to waste resources. 

They also didn't take shortcuts in their artwork.  Everything has unique art.  A normal storage compactor looks entirely different from a smart one.  The smart one isn't just the normal sprite with alight on top.  The small transformer is completely separate art from the larger one.  Contrast this with OHOL where a box sprite is used to make a box, a box with lid, a slot box, a wheelbarrow, a sledge, a CAR, and an *AIRPLANE*.  You *really* phoned it in on the slot box, car and airplane Jason.  ESPECIALLY the car and airplane.   

And they will rework stuff when they make a mistake.  They reworked the disease system 3 times at least, and the job system I don't know how many times.  I guess that's a perk of having more than 1 person on staff.  Compare this to OHOL which is saddled with a poorly chosen tile system that cannot interact with neighboring tiles, and a character system that relies on pre-made faces, rather than randomizing a variety of features to allow people to look more different. 

And most of all Klei is not flailing about trying to make a great game, and not really looking like they're going to succeed.  They've made it, they succeeded, it's out.  Klei is an incredible studio the works really well with their community, and puts a high polish on their stuff.   You're really trying to punch far above your weight pursuing this comparison.

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#94 2019-10-17 08:11:49

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

Re: Myths and facts about why player numbers are dropping over time

You cannot compare 2 games with 2 such different visions ...
ONI is a great game, but OHOL is also a great game with its big differences ..

The problem is that OHOL has been stuck for weeks in a "patch solution" (the rift) and although we have more content the game is still the same as the first day, so the players end up leaving, because they have already seen it everything, or because they have been frustrated ... and even if we add millions of objects, it will remain the same ...

The "patch solution" (rift) is not liking many people and has not made any change in the base game ... the game remains the same as when we did not have the rift ... there is no trade, no collaborative work There are no relationships between families or relatives, the only difference is the weekly reboots and the small box in which we have been forced to play.

I already told you in my previous post that everything is repeated in excess ...
For example if you want to make fire ... you are doomed to always repeat the same steps ..
There is no alternative option (for example 2 stones and a spark), nor a more modern option (for example a lighter)
From here comes my previous comment that we have a meaningless technological tree ... because we are making fire with a stick but we can fly a plane

Another problem ... The game engine ... is very limited
I think you should work harder and give the game more mechanics
(climatology and temperatures, natural disasters, character modifiers, rivers and oceans, multi-player transport, diseases, etc ...)
All this has already been commented on this forum on multiple occasions

Here you have been told that the mosaic system is also a big problem ... and I totally agree
using a piece of the mosaic to place an arrowhead or a needle is messy and poorly optimized

I believe that the limitations of this engine have generated these weeks of retouching of the rift ... manual touch-ups that only serve for the current player base, and that if this base increases or decreases, it should be retouched again.

I think you should value the idea of adding a partner in your development team that can offer you fresh ideas and other views of the game

Last edited by JonySky (2019-10-17 10:12:41)

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#95 2019-10-17 08:48:36

sigmen4020
Member
Registered: 2019-01-05
Posts: 850

Re: Myths and facts about why player numbers are dropping over time

JonySky wrote:

I think you should value the idea of adding a partner in your development team that can offer you fresh ideas and other views of the game

Adding another person to development could also make it so we can get some actual content amidst all this game fixing. I think the last actual content update we had was months ago (the camera). Would be nice to actually have something to be excited for again. Can't say I'm that thrilled about bug fix/game fix update number 15.


For the time being, I think we have enough content.

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#96 2019-10-17 12:45:09

pein
Member
Registered: 2018-03-31
Posts: 4,335

Re: Myths and facts about why player numbers are dropping over time

jasonrohrer wrote:

Oxygen Not Included has more content?  Surely you're joking, Mr. Spoonman.

https://oni-db.com/

I count:

125 Elements
228 Building pieces
28 Critters
28 Eggs
21 Plants
21 Seeds
31 Foods
21 Planets
28 Artifacts
5 Comets
21 Geysers
6 Medicine
7 Diseases
4 Pathogens
20 Misc

Other than food, OHOL has 2 building options, stone or adobe. The rest of the "walls" are not intended to be used as walls.
There are like 10 different blocking elements. At least ohol has different trees, but other than that ONI has different skins for each element, around 6-8 different skins for walls, same for metals. Has a way longer tech tree. 28 animals not 5-6. And the rest of content is quite a long list.
Obviously they got elements, now you cant say that you got more than that, just a toilet is made up from like 30 sprite parts and they don't count it separately. The 2700 items in OHOL are more like 500ish when you don't count the stages for an animation. And the gameplay mechanics for each are quite wide. Also a lot of decoration and minigames with all those elements. More needs for duplicants hp, décor, heat and morale, skills, etc.


https://onehouronelife.com/forums/viewtopic.php?id=7986 livestock pens 4.0
https://onehouronelife.com/forums/viewtopic.php?id=4411 maxi guide

Playing OHOL optimally is like cosplaying a cactus: stand still and don't waste the water.

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#97 2019-10-17 13:28:16

Gogo
Banned
Registered: 2019-10-11
Posts: 589

Re: Myths and facts about why player numbers are dropping over time

What annoys/bores me and sometimes forces to quit the game (especially when it's combined wink):

1. mess in towns!

Stuffs should be placed on piles in 1 square, like 6 rabbits on 1 pile instead 6 rabbits everywhere! Etc.

2. stealing / griefing

If I gather things for work, people just took what I put on ground. Property fences aren't used for properties (because of too much hourding). I'm not gonna spend half of my life on running for stuff, because they robbed me again and again.

3. slow tool tips

I don't like it from beginning, I don't learned much new things, the ones I do I just googled.

---

4. no social life for boys

Usually no further interaction with family after being a baby (if I don't care about them - what is my goal then?). I always skip being a boy, which is no good, because I could work to make them stronger by build more / craft more for them.

Last edited by Gogo (2019-10-17 13:30:13)

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#98 2019-10-17 15:38:44

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

Re: Myths and facts about why player numbers are dropping over time

a question? ... (I think it is related to this problem about releasing players)

Why has child suicide returned? what is the reason? rift ??
2019-10-17-17-43-34-One-Hour-One-Life.png




the babies who didn't die for / die, ran away

Last edited by JonySky (2019-10-17 15:41:33)

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#99 2019-10-17 15:43:29

wondible
Member
Registered: 2018-04-19
Posts: 855

Re: Myths and facts about why player numbers are dropping over time

JonySky wrote:

Why has child suicide returned? what is the reason? rift ??

Perhaps the situation with the arc age report has people thinking there is an eve window open, when there is not.


https://onemap.wondible.com/ -- https://wondible.com/ohol-family-trees/ -- https://wondible.com/ohol-name-picker/
Custom client with  autorun, name completion, emotion keys, interaction keys, location slips, object search, camera pan, and more

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#100 2019-10-17 15:50:16

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

Re: Myths and facts about why player numbers are dropping over time

wondible wrote:
JonySky wrote:

Why has child suicide returned? what is the reason? rift ??

Perhaps the situation with the arc age report has people thinking there is an eve window open, when there is not.

makes sense, ty

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