a multiplayer game of parenting and civilization building
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Did your grandson manage to put your pants on?
I don't know! I said it and immediately died. I hope so--they were probably still warm.
Which is more confusing: Never pick the last berry on a bush, or never pick the last berry on a *domestic* bush, which, by all accounts, looks identical to a wild bush? I think an easy-to-follow axiom makes sense if it saves domestic bushes. As players gain experience, they'll come to know the difference.
I've been playing in Norggland for awhile, developing my skills. Since it became The Planet of the Bears, I thought I'd try out the main server for a bit to see how I'd do.
After dying a half dozen times as an infant, I spawned as an Eve and immediately gave birth to a boy. I picked him up and made a mad dash for food. We found a berry bush, which tided us over for a minute, but there wasn't much else there. I fueled up, picked up my son, and ran northeast. We discovered a wrecked civilization with at least a dozen uprooted berry bushes--obviously the victim of griefing. Still, there was a small farm plot, a few baskets of carrots, and a healthy assortment of tools, including some steel. My son impressed me with his farming skills and I soon had another son and a daughter, both of whom I kept. In all, I believe there were about eight of us when I died, and my sons, daughter, and grandchildren were very productive, producing compost and expanding the carrot farm, building carts and hauling full water skins from far away ponds, hunting scores of rabbits and piling their pelts in tidy rows. As I neared death, my eldest asked me how to make fire. Time did not permit a demonstration, but I hope he understood my succinct instructions. That was such a good life. I hope you all found milkweed.
My only regret is that my last words were "Grandson, put on my pants."
This server is so much fun. Two stories:
- My first time on it, the griefer wasted me in the big city after I grabbed some clothes and asked him if he needed help. There didn't seem to be anyone else around. I immediately respawned where I had previously, to an Eve who ran in the opposite direction of the city. I ran back into town and sure enough, he killed me again. This time I respawned as an Eve at the same spawn point, ran into town saying, "you'll have to just keep killing me" or something to that effect. Repeat. My fifth(!) time in, as an Eve, another Eve saw me and told me to follow her. We each grabbed a cart full of tools and ran super far northeast, the griefer chasing us the whole time. Pretty sure he got lost. The other Eve and I created a secret handshake and eventually made our way back to the big city, where the griefer was nowhere to be seen. It was so fun to use that handshake when one of us would respawn to the other.
- Later, I spawned as a baby boy in a smaller settlement north (?) of the big city. I grew up gathering branches so my mom could build fires for pies, but we didn't have an axe, so we could only do small fires. As my mother died, I swore to her that I would learn to use a forge and would dedicate my first axe to her. It took me much of the rest of my life (and the help of a skilled passerby dressed in royal robes) just to learn how to make charcoal. I fired up the forge, tossed the ore inside, put it on a flat rock, and died shortly after I realized I didn't have a stone to hammer it while hot. Sorry, mom.
With the big caveat (again) that I have not actually played since the update (busy with work) from everything I have heard and what I've been thinking, this just seems like experienced players have essentially been reduced to (somewhat of) a newbie status. And it's going to take a while for people to figure out how to build a suitably robust safety network again. But we WILL reach a point where we have sustainable farms and other settlements, and people can get back to raising babies.
I'm not sure the "balance" we need is to tweak the game.. we may just need to tweak our playing style, and rebuild that safety net.
Yeah, you're probably right. The biggest frustration I've had with the update is that it effectively removed the most enjoyable and thought-provoking aspects, such as teaching and crafting for future generations, knowing you were toast in 60 minutes, at best. But those things were only possible when food was (relatively) reliable. I suppose we'll get there again--I just need patience.
Thanks for your perspective and for not making assumptions.
Well if he truly feels it was tweaked incorrectly with the update then I fully support him changing it. My only hope is that he does not change it because people whined about it being too hard or whatnot. I understand more players means more money however those players are just toxic and really need not be part of our blossoming civilization. We need people not afraid to really dig in and advance as a whole. I guarantee most of the people whining about it being too hard are the same people that spawn in, rip out and eat all the carrots for fun and troll people as they starve because they think it is funny.
"Whiner" here. I appreciate your grandstanding and your labeling earnest players as "toxic," but I digress.
I think there are some good things about the update--carrots depleting the soil, especially, which adds an interesting (and realistic) complication to farming. But it's pretty tough to "dig in and advance as a whole" when you play for 2 hours and barely have a chance to support yourself, much less a family or a small village, because you die as a starved infant 90% of the time. I look forward to a few tweaks to bring a little more balance.
This is a good idea and you are a good person for having it.
But also because with the new harsh farming mechanics it just forces you to abandon more babies then ever because there is not food. You don't have the time to explain anything because you need to farm! you can't do anything beside Farm!!! Food just became 99% of the game again instead of the 80% it used to be.
I signed up for the forums to post exactly this. One of the best and most compelling parts of the game pre-update was the oral tradition--mothers teaching youngsters as they huddled around a fire, elders blessing their children and passing on their furs before dying, etc. I played for about 2 hours last night, and even when I spawned into an established settlement, Eves could barely feed the babies, let alone teach them. No one was old enough to be considered an elder, and very few people were clothed. I get that the game isn't intended to be "fun," but the update seriously killed any enjoyment for me.