a multiplayer game of parenting and civilization building
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It doesn't mean you have to play a new life. The game will quit to install the update; you can change it back to '1' then.
Sheared sheep don't produce lambs. So keep your sheep sheared, and then immediately shear them whenever you feed them. No lambsplosion!
It's only sixty seconds... also if you're picking the milkweed when it's not fruiting then you don't get any seeds.
Is there any particular reason for heading east? Why not North, South, West or in any random direction?
It's a biblical reference. Genesis 4:16: "And Cain went out from the presence of the LORD, and dwelt in the Land of Nod, on the east of Eden."
But there's a reason for it all being the same direction. If everyone always moves east, then we'll gradually move the possible spawn areas of the western dead lands, and the possible spawn areas will stay together.
This will be fascinating to dig into, thanks for making the post, OP.
Could one aspect of sustainable pie farming be that it is less time consuming than the normal carrot farm?
At the moment we have a growing(?) group of people who knows how to reliably kick-start a carrot-farming community from scratch (I must confess I am not at all in that group yet). Could we imagine a new player technology emerging? What would be needed for say two young, well equipped mothers to fill their carts with goods from a functioning carrot farm, and go on a hike to find the perfect spot (in the pristine wilderness, or in the relative wasteland) for them and their offspring to start and run a sustainable pie-farm? Could you fit the necessary materials into two carts?
I recommend doing that generally - it's the second tenet (IF THE LAND IS DEAD, LEAVE IT). In terms of what to take, I would recommend taking, in order of priority:
A hatchet
A firebow
A clay bowl or two
Any steel tools lying around
Also, your chances of survival go way up if you're clothed well.
As for whether it takes less time to make pies: no, I don't think so. Although in theory it would take less water.
Even without the choice, this would help the problem of not being able to tell who is who.
By the way, I was thinking about it and this problem can be stated even more simply. A bowl of domestic berries is worth 40 food, and a berry pie is worth 32. And you need two to make a pie sustainably!
I don't think murderous players will stick around. This isn't exactly a fun PVP game. I suggest we bore the griefers by repeating the sixth tenet at them: VIOLENCE BEGETS VIOLENCE.
Note: this math includes the upcoming berry tweak, where domestic bushes produce 10 berries worth 5 food each instead of 8 worth 4 each. However, I believe the conclusions are the same before and after the patch.
I set out with the goal of creating a hypothetical compact and sustainable farm oriented towards pie making; that is, one that draws only water (which is renewable) from the environment. It uses domestic berry bushes to create compost and make pies with. It would very much require a village obeying the fourth tenet (ONLY THE FARMER EATS FROM THE DIRT), but let's set that aside for now. How feasible is it, actually?
The farm looks like this:
6 Domestic Gooseberry Bushes (you can substitute for wild ones in the area, since you get a bowl of berries in around the same time either way)
1 Plot that cycles between wheat and compost
2 Carrot plots (that take turns going to seed, so effectively one is always growing carrots)
From my research, I determined that:
1. Berry bushes regenerate fully in an epoch. You need 8 berries on a domestic berry bush to make a bowl of berries, or 4 berries on a wild bush to make a bowl of berries (why? I don't know). Therefore it takes 48 minutes per domestic bowl and 40 minutes per wild bowl. In the math below, I've rounded this up to one epoch, because bowls are limited and the farmer will be busy.
You get two extra berries per bush if you're very efficient about your bowls, but in practice I believe this to be negligible.
2. The wheat cycle, from wet seed to stumps to soil, is 12 minutes. The compost cycle is 4 minutes. Therefore you can produce three wheat per epoch per plot, and still have time to water it and the compost. (This actually takes exactly the same amount of time as a domestic bush does to grow a full bowl.)
3. The carrot cycle, from wet seed to soil, is 4 minutes (longer if seeding, obviously). With two plots and stored seeds, you can always have one plot growing carrots and one growing seeds, and never run out.
Three of the berry bushes are used to create bowls for compost, along with a couple carrots and the straw output of the wheat farming. The other three bowls and the wheat go to pies, and the excess carrots are food for children and old people (pies are only efficient for adults).
This produces the materials for three pies an epoch: 3 wheat, 3 bowls of berries, and roughly 55 carrots.
Note that this requires lots and lots of clay bowls; bowls for carrying out the wheat and for making compost. In both cases the materials can't be dumped, so if there's a backup in pie-making it results in a backup farming. This can be mitigated if the wheat sheaths are carried away to a dumping area before being threshed, but then the straw needs to be transported back for compost.
Three pies is worth 180 food, or 270 if rabbits are added. The excess carrots, after you use three for pies and three for compost, are worth 250 food. So assuming pie production goes swimmingly, the production of the farm is around 520 food per epoch.
However, just eating the berries and carrots and not bothering with pies, compost or wheat nets over 700 food per epoch - significantly more. *And* it requires roughly half as much water, saving the water needed both for the wheat/compost and for the dough.
To be clear, pies have soft benefits. They take up significantly less space, for example. A pie with 90 food is worth 18 carrots and only takes up one spot. They're particularly useful with backpacks. But they also require a whole person just to spend all of their time making them. As such, I'm not sure I can recommend pie making at all right now.
If I can venture a balance suggestion: since domestic bushes have over twice the caloric value as wild ones, why can't you make two bowls from a full bush? Having the requirement be four berries on the bush, the same as the wild bush requirement, would also make that aspect much less confusing to players.
The bottom line, though, is that compost is hugely expensive, both in terms of time and resources. IRL, compost piles are generally made from food and agricultural waste, not food itself, and are renewable.
Made three tweaks:
- Added some more signs to LIVE LIGHT UPON THE LAND (trees, soil)
- Got rid of THE CHILD MUST KNOW THE TENETS (because we really want to be teaching them)
- Added VIOLENCE BEGETS VIOLENCE
Is that six seconds with or without a full set of clothing? You need 4x as much food if you're naked vs perfect temperature.
It could literally save your life. In villages where everything is strewn over the ground, everyone spends half their precious time running around looking for the thing they need. This gets exacerbated because someone will be looking for e.g. a flint chip, not find it, and go get another one, adding to the clutter. The fifth tenet is A TOOL, LIKE A CHILD, NEEDS A HOME.
Make lots of baskets! They are easy to make and renewable. Nothing should just be on the ground without a basket unless you're actively working with it (a rabbit you're about to skin, for example).
Put your farm in a big empty space!
Put tools all together! Put food together! And bring stuff back when you're done with it.
Regarding wheat: Don't you lose fertility after harvesting? Unless I'm mistaken, even if you remember to gather all the wheat seeds before harvesting, one reap = one basket of fertile soil gone forever. I hope I'm missing something, but this seems to make wheat farming frighteningly expensive on the land.
Yeah, I wouldn't recommend farming wheat unless you also have compost going.
It would be way better if there were one per village, since space is always at a premium. That can even define the center of a village, next to the fire. So anyone can build one and then anyone can claim it.
Inspired by brianj's post, I drafted SEVEN TENETS for survival in One Hour One Life. Feedback welcome.
THE SEVEN TENETS:
LIVE LIGHT UPON THE LAND
IF THE LAND IS DEAD, LEAVE IT
CLOTHE YOURSELF AND YOUR KIN
ONLY THE FARMER EATS FROM THE DIRT
A TOOL, LIKE A CHILD, NEEDS A HOME
VIOLENCE BEGETS VIOLENCE
ONE MOTHER, ONE DAUGHTER
The land is sacred. Our footsteps must be light upon it; take no action that has permanent consequences, even if it means your death.
Know the signs:
Do not drink the last drop from a pond, or it will lay dry for eternity.
Do not cut wild wheat or carrots, so that their seeds are always at hand.
Cut only cypress trees, and do not ravage the forest.
Kill only animals with children, or you will drive them from the earth.
Pick only fruiting milkweed, or it will grow no more.
Manage soil and clay carefully, or you will have to create it yourself.
Do not linger like an infection on the wound you have created. Go east, to greener pastures. Always east of eden.
Cold, you are hungry. Hungry, you are a burden to your village. Live with modesty, and when you die, give your clothing to your child to wear.
The farmer knows which carrots must seed and which may be eaten. He will carry them, like his children, to the baskets. Only eat then from the baskets.
This too is true of the baker, who will deliver her pies to the common food stores. Do not invade her workspace.
Keep the tools in their homes, in the center, where people live around the fire. Always bring them back to their home, even if your hands cannot carry so much in one trip. Then you will not have to search when you need one.
Teach the tenets to children, not violence. Your carrot patch is precious, but less precious than the peace. Like milkweed, once broken, it is gone.
Too many children will eat all the food. In times of hunger, keep one daughter and cherish her. Keep sons, and hate them, as you like.
- The app isn't signed - clicking on it gives an error about an unknown developer. You can work around this by right click -> open and then ignoring the warning.
- Clicking on the app itself immediately crashes. Starting OneLife.app/Contents/MacOS/OneLife in terminal works.
- (Minor) the text in the menu isn't high DPI on retina screens (and neither is it in the game itself, obviously).
It doesn't seem to happen 100% of the time, but nearly.
Once the game is in a broken state, it's possible to click on specific objects to move on them, but many interactions don't work (for example, feeding oneself or feeding a baby).
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