a multiplayer game of parenting and civilization building
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The reason I would be against a front sling is because I don't want baby feeding to be automatic, feeding babies should be an active task and not just something you start and forget about.
I couldn't agree more! A reminder to everyone making suggestions for holding babies: It's not supposed to be easy to care for a child. It doesn't hurt to give us a way to travel with the baby and whatever tools/supplies we're working with, but feeding the baby should still be something that you have to actively do.
1. When an elderly person is working on a project, the berry on the ground is not 'fair game' for you to pick up and eat; it's to prevent them having to run back to the farm so often.
This can apply to anyone working on a project away from food. While it's much more important for elders, it's still really annoying to have someone run past your work-space and eat the last of the stew you were keeping with you. If someone was waiting until the most opportune moment to eat it, you could actually end up starving them by doing this.
I know, sometimes it's an emergency, but try not to let things get to that point. It happens far too often to me for it to always be an emergency. I've had my stew/popcorn/green beans gobbled by young people who have pies in their backpack, and that is not okay.
We were goners.
At least I thought we were. There I was, Twila Yi, a young baby clutched in her hungry mother's arms. My sister was trying to get the forge ready, since we desperately needed tools. We had nothing. Just five empty berry bushes, a small stack of iron, and a barely crackling fire.
My mother died next to a wild bush. There was one berry left on it, but she didn't get there in time. I ran back to my sister, crying for help. I was too little to feed myself, but she had no food. "We're screwed," she said. Or something along those lines. I don't remember. I was just a baby.
I led her to the same bush our mother had died next to, with the one berry on it. But just like mom, she was too slow.
There I was, a hungry baby standing next to two corpses and a single berry I could not eat. I was alone. I cried.
No, I thought. I will not die. I fumbled at the bush, my clumsy fingers grasping uselessly at the single berry that had been taunting me since my mother's death. At first it evaded me, but soon my chubby fingers pulled it off of the branch. I shoved it in my mouth, crushing that awful berry in my barely big enough teeth. If my mother and sister couldn't live, then neither could it.
I ran back home. There was still no food, and no tools. The fire was embers, but there were plates and eggs by it, so I threw on a flat rock and made some omelettes. Maybe a little too hearty for my little stomach, but it was all I had. After a far too enormous meal, I grabbed a bowl, and gathered the few berries I could find away from camp. Single berries, the last on the bush, just like the one I had decimated earlier. I left the rest of the omelettes for food emergencies, and boy did I have some while I got the farm set up.
I watered the berries, and planted some carrots in the one plot that was still waiting for seeds. But I had nothing left to till more soil, and I knew I needed to forge soon. My sister had almost set everything up. There was a clay nozzle alongside other pottery, waiting to go in the kiln. A rabbit sat next to me, skinned and ready to be turned into a pouch. Two pairs of tongs. Almost everything I needed for the bellows. I threw the snare on another hole. More food is better, I figured. I probably should have cooked that rabbit before the omelettes. Oh well. It was too late for that.
Out I went for milkweed. It wasn't far from camp, which was a good thing, since my stomach was still much too little for me to last long out there. I cooked the rabbit, made a pouch, gathered kindling, started a new fire, and lit up the kiln. In went the nozzle and other pottery, and on went the adobe. Soon I would have charcoal, and more kindling sat waiting so that I could make even more.
The berries grew. Good, because I didn't want to make another trip into the wild to fill my bowl, and the omelettes still looked a little big for me. I made the bellows, made tools, and was finally able to start expanding the farm.
My first child didn't make it. He died in my arms, going suddenly limp. It was sad, but sometimes there was nothing you could do, and I still had lots of work. I needed firewood, and more carrots, more berries and stew crops, and... well, I needed more hands to really get this place kicking. Right now, all I had was just enough food to feel comfortable, and a dead baby. If I wanted to keep my future kids alive, that wasn't going to be enough. I took one last look at the body of my son, and I forged on.
My second son was a trouper. Cadence stayed by the fire when I told him to, and was all excited to gather iron for me when he was old enough. He farmed at first, and when I eventually gave birth to his sister, he seemed more or less ready to venture into the wastelands.
Cadence and Tamara were good kids, and the only ones I had who lived. Not through any fault of my own, I hope. Just like my first boy, the others would die in my arms. My last son even spoke to me before he died, though I'm not sure what he was trying to say.
There was a scary moment when we ran out of food, and I was too grey to have more kids. I scrambled to bring Tamara a bowl of wild berries and nearly had a heart attack when Cadence led her north, to the exact place my mother and sister had died. This time there were berries. I sighed in relief, and gave her the bowl while she clutched a fresh berry in her hands. My daughter would live.
I puttered around as an old woman, doing whatever job seemed to need doing at the time. Pop popcorn, plant more beans, water the berries, etc. I helped the kids get more tools going, being an expert at the forge after having been rushed into it at a young age. I tasked my son with gathering stones for a well when I was too old to travel far from the bushes. He had it built before I died, and it was the most beautiful well I had ever seen. I told him so.
I would have liked to see my grandkids, but I think my two beautiful children were enough for me. Thank you, to both of you. You made what could have been a terribly sad life into something wonderful.
You can make people stay, babies stay, but what if they then get a grudge and decide to kill you/grief the camp? I would rather that a baby ran away/suicide on the spot than that it ran away with tools when its big enough to run!
I agree completely here. Yes, baby suicides can be a major problem, but forcing your players to stay against their will, I think, is more likely to cause problems then be a solution. You could end up caring for a baby that will let all the bears loose as soon as it's out of mom's arms, or simply run off anyway when you wasted resources feeding it during a resource crisis but desperately needed a girl.
On top of that, consider the people who want a specific scenario and are bored with others. Forcing them to stay in a situation they aren't interested in isn't going to magically make them not bored with it. Forcing them into a situation they aren't interested in is an overall negative experience that removes a huge amount of fun from their gameplay and could drive people away. I'm saying this as someone who very rarely suicides as a baby, so please don't see this as me ranting because I want that option for myself. Yes, you may find that the newer players aren't trained to suicide when they aren't happy with the life they were born into, but on the flip side, you may find those exact players getting bored with the game and dropping it a lot sooner then the ones who have the option to suicide.
I think when in come to solving a problem like this, you need to look towards positive reinforcement to encourage people to stay. Make it their decision instead of forcing it on them. Some of the ideas here about living longer if you have consistently long lives are leaning in the right direction I think, though I also think a game called "One Hour One Life" should stick to its one hour lifespan. But, you could change the way hunger works for people who consistently live longer lives, so they don't need as much food when they're cold, or they get some invisible hunger bars over the course of their lives. Maybe give them some sort of currency reward that allows them to customize their character a little bit right before it's born. You don't pick your skin tone or hair colour, but maybe you can add crazy eyes or funky birthmarks. On top of this, while the player is adding a little customization to their baby self, the mother can show up as pregnant and get herself into a more ideal location because she knows what's coming. If the player invests in that life before they are even born, they are probably more likely to stay.
Just some crazy ideas. Not all will work, but I still think it's better to reward players for playing true to the game rather than force them into it.
Yeah, if my baby starts its life saying the n word, or fu, or kill, that's a no on me feeding the kid.
Oh my god, I think that was me! Did your uncle come back to camp carrying a cart full of a bunch of iron? I use the OLPlus mod by Awbz, so I knew someone was out there, and I was just happy that you made it back to camp and kept the family going.
I don't think it was you, but it is a good feeling, isn't it? This happened a while ago, I think around the Big Farm update. I was trying to make my mom's noobcamp work, like an idiot, when I spotted someone running past the very edge of the screen. Followed him and showed up on my uncle's doorstep with my first baby in arm.
I'm gonna miss temp running. I'll never forget the time my mother died in the tundra when I was a baby, but I managed to find a nearby desert tile and temp run in circles until I was old enough to feed myself. I was the last surviving female and there was a heartwarming reunion with my uncle later on, who had been building a camp in the hopes someone survived.
How do you turn off the recording feature? I'd like to try it at least once to see if it fixes my issue with OBS crashing when I try to stream this game. I'm assuming you can turn it back on again after.
I can't believe I spend so much time writing on a thread that everybody is totally fed up with. Who the hell is gonna read all this???
Yeah, I have to agree that it's a pretty exhausting thread at this point.
But you make some interesting points about the idea of ownership in One Life. I'd like to add that real life is quite similar. Unless you ran out into the woods and built everything you own like one of those primitive survival youtubers (who are actually wearing clothing and therefore are still befitting from someone else's work), even in the real world your belongings are built upon the work of others. But they are, in fact, still yours.
In One Life ownership is a more difficult thing to define, since you have such a limited time to observe and lay claim to things. Clothing is basically the only item in game that you can easily identify who it belongs to, because that clothing is literally on somebody's body. Past that, items in backpacks or aprons can be seen as belonging to someone, though those items get swapped out often, like putting your empty plate back and getting a different pie. If somebody is following another person around, waiting for them to remove an item from their backpack so that they can snatch it, that could easily be seen as stealing.
Tools are tricky, because you can't keep them on you, and probably shouldn't since other people will need them and the supplies to make them are limited. But some tools are best left where they are, and taking them could certainly been seen as stealing. Like moving the smithing hammer to literally any location other than the forge. Sometimes tools are in a logical place, like an ax next to a large pile of logs and kindling, or a hoe near the stew farm. Taking those tools and not putting them back where your found them could be viewed at stealing as well, though you are getting into pretty grey territory here.
Pein's point about taking wool from sheep you didn't feed, or taking supplies like the flat rock someone's using to make tortillas, could also be viewed as stealing. But usually in these cases it's less malicious and more a lack of awareness or understanding of the job those item are being used for. Does it count as stealing if it's an accident? I get accused of stealing all the time when I'm tending the sheep pen, even when I'm the one feeding the lambs and butchering/removing the bodies. People can get pretty aggressive about the job they are trying to work, because the lack of ownership in game makes it so easy to step on each other's toes.
And this is just how I view things. In the end, what counts as theft in game comes down to what your community views as stealing. And I would hazard a guess that this changes from game to game, so it can't be defined easily.
I tried naming a baby Herman once, but I spelled it wrong and he ended up as Hermione.
Wow, I take it back. I thought my original comment was petty, but I think pein's got me beat.
To both JK and pein, I am going to reiterate what I said before. We are not going to agree on when it is or isn't okay to gear babies, and going into long rants about specific situations isn't going to get us anywhere. I will continue to treat them like real people and future members of my in game society, and I will continue to defend them when they are taken advantage of.
Also, Pein, in my experience most babies aren't cold. They are in deserts, where it's probably a bad idea to give them fur clothing.
I think a majority of the people who responded on the topic of baby clothes swapping, were solely talking about that- which nobody is going to get upset over. In the original case of "he took my apron, I was a baby, reeeee cursed" then they'll probably take the side of the person who took the apron. Because they were older and could use the gear better. The fact that they took your apron isn't justification to waste not just one but multiple curse tokens on.
Yes, I agree. This is why I said my original comment was petty. It's what came after that I'm concerned about. This "babies are wardrobes and I deserve their stuff" attitude. I'm just asking you to respect the people you are playing with. You may find that you have a friendlier experience with the game that way.
As for curse tokens. We are given the tools to police ourselves as a society in game, whether that be from berry sponges, murderers, racists, etc. If people in game choose to curse someone who steals from babies, they aren't wasting their token just because you disagree with them. It may just be that these people don't approve of that behavior.
I like to bond with my babies while I'm raising them, and if I choose to do that by telling them about something that happened to me as a kid, then so be it. If I chose to do that by passing on my snakeskin boots to one, and my apron to another, then that's my choice too. It is not, however, an invitation for you to take their stuff. I'm more useful as a toddler than half of the adults in game, and find it kind of weird you guys think I don't work just because I found the time to tell my children about the kid who stole my apron as a baby.
Babies don't need backpacks or aprons. They're babies, and a lot of them end up dying young anyways, whether to poor hunger management, suicide, or just underestimating quite how small their food bar is. The way I and many other players see it, is that an adult that has proven to be able to survive and has been working in the town for 20+ minutes get priority on the more useful clothing articles than the babies that've been there for less than 5 minutes.
Whether this particular case involved such, maybe it wasn't. Your original post was mostly just "but muh apron! they said rude word! me and my fam cursed him haha" and you continue to stress the point that your issue with them was the fact that they took your apron, not that they were indecent.
Any mother that gives their newborn baby an apron or backpack when there are adults that lack them, is easily worse in my eyes than the older players who swap for those off the children. Those clothing articles are much better off being passed to a working adult when you no longer have use for them- which is what I tend to do with my gear when I get old. Either I pass them to one of my grown children, or pass them to a younger adult that I've noticed has been working hard.
In another sense, you can see it as being rewarded. Gearing a player you've noticed has been working hard rewards them for just that. Gearing a baby that was born 2 minutes ago.. what, rewards them for existing? For being born to you? I don't get it.
In the end, the argument is between sentimental feelings and efficiency. I choose efficiency. I'll always give my gear to the hardest workers, and will happily swap off a stacked baby if I have better use for their gear. I'll also willingly kill the angry mother/child if they refuse to understand why, and if I feel they're a threat. But not curse, because I believe donkey town should be a place for griefers and particularly nasty folk. The worst of criminals, not the petty arguers.
Edits: Clarifying a point, a few grammar edits.
My original post was angry and petty, but I like to think I've explained myself in a calm and reasonable manner since then. I totally get why you're being so aggressive giving my original attitude, and I apologize for that.
But I just can't agree with any point you're making now. You and many other players may have that opinion, but you aren't all of the players in game. I and many other players have a differing opinion and would prefer it if you were kinder to the newly joined, vulnerable members of your in game family.
When it comes to efficiency vs. sentimentality, I find that I enjoy the game so much more when it's balanced out. Obviously if everyone else in town is naked, I'm not going to hand the only backpack we have to my newborn baby. But if I have enough gear on me to give one piece to each of my kids, then the town is probably doing well enough to be able to afford it. We could go into great detail about specific situations where it's appropriate to gear or not to gear up babies, and the conversation could get very long and I doubt we'll agree on all points if any.
I've had plenty of success in game just talking to someone who grabbed an item that I was trying to hand to someone else. Often times it's a misunderstanding and when talked out, results in them returning the item. Communication is a wonderful tool that this game provides us and then gets ignored by people who think they know better than everyone else, but if your response to my confrontation is "stfu" then yeah, I'm going to retaliate, no apologies.
We have different ways of playing and that's fine. Just please don't force your methods on other people. Swapping gear with babies and stabbing their angry mothers (I really hope you were just making a point and don't actually do that in game) is just not something I can agree with.
Because first off, they're a fucking baby. They just joined the game less than 5 minutes ago, and have yet to prove themselves to be capable, let alone a productive player. If there's an adult that's been working in the town for the last 20 minutes and could actually use the apron/backpack, then they should get priority over some 2 year old entitled brat that mommy decided to stack with the best clothes in town.
Second, if it's the 'only piece a toddler is wearing' then they don't lose anything. It's swapping, not undressing. The adult has been working and could really use an extra pocket- they can use it better than the 5 year old in the berry field, so they swap their seal skin coat for it. No loss or gain on the child's end.
Manners and communication is a given, but I think people here are more bothered by the fact that you literally tried to get someone exiled to Donkey Town solely because they took an apron from a 5 year old, that mommy thought would be better on a child than a working adult.
Tough luck. You're 5, and adults get the priority for backpacks and aprons. As you said, there's plenty of other clothing around. You have plenty more time than the adults to go make your own apron, or you can put on whatever's around camp. Nobody here cares much about the poor princess who got their apron swapped with a rabbit shawl. They shouldn't have cursed at you, I agree, but that's little reason to send them to Donkey Town.
It's like you skipped over basically everything I said. She was not an adult. She was not working hard. She was incredibly rude and told me to "stfu" when I asked for my apron back. I didn't do anything underhand in cursing her, just spread the word about her behavior and allowed other people to make up their minds about whether or not they wanted to curse her. It's not like I lied and told everyone she was a murderer. The community got to make their own informed decision about her, and they chose to curse her.
My comment about the issue that needs addressing, however, is less geared towards this particular situation and more towards the fact that so many people are responding to it by saying that they can and always will taking clothing from babies. Please, remember those babies are real players who were given their clothing by other real players. As a mother I like to pass off pieces of clothing to my kids if I can, and if I spot someone swapping it off of them I will absolutely be angry about it. I'm fully aware that there are situations where a baby shouldn't have what that baby has. I'm glad that you agree communication is key in these situations.
I'm just arguing for a little more decency in this community. It sucks being vulnerable and having the people around take advantage of you. It's up to us as a community to decide what we will and won't tolerate in game.
Seeing the comments here, I think this is an issue that seriously needs addressing. How can so many people think it's okay to just take things from another player just because you think you need it more than them? Especially with no explanation. You can take things from toddlers in real life fairly easily, and you can probably use those items better than them, at least for the time being. But does that make it right?
There's a difference between taking the only piece of clothing a toddler is wearing, and swapping away her backpack full of knives. I get it, this is situational, but please be polite to your fellow players and communicate with them instead of just taking what you think you deserve.
If you were a toddler or such and got traded with important gear with someone who was in adult age... maybe it is also for a reason that you spend little bit more time near food sources than adults. In adulthood you do lot more without taking a break, so handing over important items to adults is more wiser than children. Also in other thought if adults have already proven their loyalty and work. You just need to get used to it. Besides I believe that backbags are more valuable now than aprons, considering that you can swap items now nowadays.
Yeah, she wasn't an adult, and she hadn't proved anything. And even if she had, just straight up taking clothing off of another person is rude and shouldn't be tolerated. If you legitimately think you need that apron more than the baby, explain why you are taking it. Don't swap it and cuss at them.
The town was well off and there was more clothing around, and I've been playing the game long enough to tell when someone is doing something because it's necessary. This was really just a person being rude for the sake of being rude.
wow you made apron as a toddler?
rp noobs like you should wear fur, why apron for you when you talk all game?
You're kidding right? I work all the time. It's possible to talk and work believe it or not.
And no, I didn't do all that just because she swapped clothes with me. Stealing from babies is wrong, especially when they only have one piece of clothing on. And I clearly wasn't the only one to think so, because Quint stabbed her for it and my kids cursed her as well.
I cursed her because she swapped clothes with me, then when I confronted her about it and asked for it back, she got nasty with me and acted entitled to it because, I guess, she thought she was smart enough to swap clothing with a baby? I don't know. It wasn't hers to take, and to assume you're going to use it better than the baby you've swapped it off of is ridiculous. It's not like I was all geared up in a town full of naked people.
She was rude, and she was a thief, and not the kind of person I wanted to play with, so I cursed her. And I made sure to explain why I was cursing her so that my kids could make their own informed decision about it. That's all.
I told every one of my kids about you. Cursed you the moment I was old enough and kept talking about you until I died of old age.
You got more than one curse for swapping clothes with my and taking my apron when I was a toddler. My daughter was telling her baby about you when I died. If you'd have been at least apologetic about it, maybe I would have let it slide, but nooo. Had to swear at me.
By the way, love the donkey town update. Been away for a while, but things seem a lot nicer now.
Look at this INFURIATINGLY STUPID IDIOT defend last nights' big griefer.
It gets worse. I watched a streamer pick up a note with this exact message on it.
Last night I was seconds away from stabbing a mother because she refused to put her cursed baby down. She said something about forgiveness, but luckily dropped the baby before I had to make that call.
Cursed children are serving their time people! The curse will go away, so there's no reason to give them the benefit of the doubt or forgiveness. They can prove they deserved forgiveness by not getting cursed again after the curse wears off. It's not a permanent thing.
We actually did think maybe it was a dead server, or an update or something, which is why we suicided. When I saw the family continuing elsewhere, I was confused.
And it's not the first time something like this has happened to me. I've tried to branch off from the family in the past to find a better spot, but only end up having one or two kids before I go grey. No girls. I'd love to be able to start little settlements, but I just don't think it's possible if the people who leave town don't pop out little ones.
By the way, WomanWizard, I watched your video on twitch, and, whaddaya know... I was your "supportive grandson" (actually nephew) Max in the Lim family! I really enjoyed that life (at least until I got eaten by the snake). Thought it was a great family, and you were the main reason why, especially since you saved my life when I was a baby.
Aw, little Max huh? You're the one I found and threw at my sister like, "This yours?" I remember watching you doing all kinds of productive things around town! Great minds think alike and all that.
Are there any jobs where that'd be more annoying to do than others?
People have mentioned it, but I'm going to go into a little more detail here. Smithing is a time sensitive job, so talking to the smith while they are busy can irritate them. As a general rule, if the forge is lit, they only have so much time to get things done, so stand clear and let them do their thing. Otherwise, ask them if you can observe, and maybe even ask them where the best place for you to stand is so that you are not in their way. Even then, I find smiths tend to be the most irritable and might ignore or grumble at you. At this point, just let them be and try not to take it too personally. If you followed these rules, you very likely didn't do anything rude and it's just them being them.
Most other jobs aren't so time sensitive, so ask away! If someone ignores you, they are most likely busy, starving, or just not in the mood to teach. But it's never rude to ask for help!
My problem is more than not enough players in game. The line continued, but not from our little town. My sister and I weren't fantastically clothed, but that's never stopped me from having babies in the past. We had zero. None. Not one baby.
My guess is the babies were being given to the warmer members of our family. The ones we didn't know existed because we had no reason to believe we were so far advanced. The others were banned from our line.
We were likely the offspring of someone who decided to branch off, and we were doing great! We just didn't have any kids because we were a part of a bigger family that had better things elsewhere. This makes forming new settlements a little difficult, doesn't it?
SomeRandomPerson wrote:The place isn't what you had planned and yoi think to run. You notice the towns all men besides your mother and people are begging for you to stay. Let's also say that mums gone old just after your birth.
If you name me Hope, then yes. I will suicide.
I am otherwise a very nice player, but I will protest the name Hope.
Yeah, this has to be the stupidest reason to suicide. Even above not having a last name. But I guess if that's what you want, have at it.
I keep seeing this attitude with multiples and I just don't get it. I have seen maaaaybe one or two instances of twins who didn't contribute. That is, if I chose to take care of them. The fact is, the biggest issue with twins/triplets/quads is that they will suicide if one dies. If you can keep them, and you are nice to them, I have seen very few instances of them being bad people.
When it comes to more than two babies, I find that they are usually far more grateful that you managed to raise them that they tend to try their best. The thing is, if you assume they are going to be bad kids, and you treat them like they are going to be bad kids, and they somehow manage to grow up for whatever reason... yeah. They're going to be bad kids. They hate you, and rightfully so.
If you have the means to raise the triplets/quads, and you can afford to have them all quit should one of them die, it tends to be worth it to take care of them. I feel like twins are more likely to be griefers, because it's easier to get one other person to go along with it than two or three. But even then, I haven't seen it nearly as much as people in the forums like to claim.
Yeah, Eves are going to struggle with multiples. If you can't support them, don't.
Just a thought. I played a game today, looked like a relatively early camp since we didn't have sheep yet. My sister and I worked our butts off getting a sheep pen started, but we noticed that neither of us were having kids. Not even runners. We both peaced out (I asked her to stab me). Figured it just wasn't going to happen at that point.
When I looked at the family tree, we were actually fairly advanced in terms of generations, like 15 or so. But neither of us were having kids. Maybe if we'd stayed warmer we would have had some, but how were we supposed to know that there was family elsewhere competing for our babies?
So my question is, bad luck? Or was the lineage ban/birth mechanic working against us?
I rarely suicide, so my opinion on this probably isn't the most insightful (the answer is I wouldn't), but I just came out of a game where something similar happened. I was Sherlock Bear and little Hope Bear was born to her mother just before she went grey. I promised Hope the world, including a crown since I knew where the gold was. She stayed. She might have anyway, but we weren't taking chances. When hope is the last girl, she gets anything she wants.
I made her that crown. It was the first crown I ever made, and it looked great on her.
Well my babies yes im "barking" orders at them to stay put. I generally wait until after the say something so i know they are loaded in. Im their mother it is their only job to do what i say until they grow hair.
It's fine for you to not want to put in the effort to explain the situation to them. I have absolutely no problem that. My problem is your choice to actively kill the child instead of letting it starve or find a new parent. You made the decision that you didn't want to bother with that kid. But choosing to stab the baby will always be a toxic choice in my eyes unless it has proven to be completely unreasonable.
As for my temp running as a baby, I can and will continue to do it if the need arises. There are very few mothers who decide I need to die over it and I'm always back on the same tile she dropped me on well before she decides I need feeding again. Like I said before, I make it back to my tile before I even lose one hunger bar. I don't try to scout the entirety of massive cities or anything, just the immediate area.