[GUIDE] How to: Set up a village as Eve [OHOL v.73]

Joriom · 2018-04-08 06:40:26

After telling people on Discord that you can make all steel tools in single Eve life time starting from nothing (luck and a lot of experience required) they didn't believe me so I made step by step guide on how to. I decided to modify this a bit and assume the end goal to be setting up a village instead of tools (which I used presonally for speedrunning Apocalypse).

Goal

Clearly defined goal makes it easier to realize the way you need to take to reach the goal.
Out goal: Set up camp with food suply that can sustain at least 3 people indefinetly.
IMHO thats the highest safe ammount of people that can be sustained without exhausting ANY resources as of version 73.
Higher ammounts are possible but not from the get go and this tutorial is not focusing on later stages.
Time is of the essence. Following all the steps will take a lot of time so no side tracking! Any time you waste on anything beside the points listed below might bring you to the point where you're to old to bear children at the optimal time. Also - havig kids is random. The more time you'll spend fertile but ready - the better.

Itemization

Before you start you need to know most basic recepies. Without that don't even try to start village on your own. List of "complex" items you need to know how to craft with closed eyes:

Basket
Rope
Stone Hatchet
Fire Bow Drill
Snare
Fire
Cooked Rabbit
Backpack
Water Pouch

This is bare minimum and I'm not listing all the ingredients - only important milestones. If you don't know ANY of those - check wiki or crafting reference.

Basic Rules

At first you CAN pick milkweed when it is not fruiting. Chances are you wont find good spot right away and migrate to another green biome before you settle. Waiting for milkweed to change its state would be waste of time. If possible - still pick fruiting ones, but its not the highest priority. Also, after securing first two ropes you can stop doing that and revers back to standard rule: fruiting only.
Pick as many berries as you need at once or even one more. Try not to pick berries every minute or two. This restarts the spawn timer and screws you up more than you think. If possible - pick from different bushes each time too. The more of them are regrowing at the same time - the better.
If you see cactus with fruit - pick it up immidietly. Even if you're not hungry - just leave it on ground. It will restart growing timer and produce more food over time for you and your kids.
Walking time is where you save most of the time. If you get lost a lot - get home marker. If you start carrots - start it in place where you can see both water and wild carrots at once (or where they are right off screen at least). Moving soil is one time expense. Bringing water and seeds is repeated.
Seeding carrots take to long and they consume soil now. Don't let that happen. Use wild carrot seeds as long as possible. Preferably - forever.
I suggest at least 4 berry bushes per person you want to sustain (so 8-12 minimum), 4 water ponds, 15 rabbit holes and over 12 wild carrots. This is what I call optimal starting point. You need only 2 water ponds and 3 wild carrots right next to camp. Rest needs to be just in general vicinity.
Try to remember everythig you see aroud your camp. Knowing the land is the key to victory over the time.
Don't waste time collecting stuff that won't be usefull during your lifetime. You don't have time for that. It will be up to your kids to pick up iron, farm berries, tame horses or sheep, make bows... You're on the clock!

THE GUIDE

Finaly. There. Enjoy.

Sharp stone if your first priority. Make basket ASAP.
Fill your basket with 3 berries or cacti fruits.
RUN! Explore asap. Most likely in one direction.
On the way replace food in basket with milkweed/string/ropes you make on the way.
Run untill you find spot with: water, berries, wild carrots, milkweed and rabbits. Good spot is worth quater of your life. Perfect one is in border of three biomes: green, savanna, swamp.
After you find the spot - make sure you have enough milkweed (12) or string (6) or rope (3) to make all the needed tools: hatchet, bowdrill, snare. Thats not all you need but bare minimum to start.
Any excess milkweed around should be used for thread. You will this very soon. At least 4 more milkweed / 2 strings. NOT 4th ROPE
Hunt rabits untill you have at least 6. Cook them. You get your first "food backup" and bone needle (so you need to eat eat least one)
Make backpack and water pouch or two. (if you're very slow and already short on time, or have just a single thread - you can skip backpack but I find it extremely usefull with raising kid)
Cooked rabbits you hunted take care of food for a long time but don't eat them yet. Preserve them. Meanwhile you can start farming some carrots for your future kid while still eating berries.
After placing first two fertile soils between water and wild carrots you can start raising child. ONE. FEMALE. You don't have much time to do so but thats the only valid time. Little earlier and kid would prevent you from carrying basket. Little later and you'll get to old.
Make sure you plant and water first 2-4 carrot rows while tending to kid before going to the next step.
Its waiting game now. You can try to save food by feeding kid only when it gets very hungry but you risk its death. It is ill advised to do that at this point. I prefer to carry kid and show him around where berries are, where water is, where wild carrots are, where rabbits are. Four pilars of life. Thats also where backpack comes in - you can stuff it with cooked rabbit for the road - you'll get hungry at double the speed with kid in your hands.
Carrots should be growing already - almost at the speed of kid.
You made sure water and wild carrots seeds are VERY close while settling down, right? Kid should not have problems with those. Let him farm right away. Just teach him NEVER TO LET CARROTS SEED. That would be suicide.
If you're still young enough - you can have 2nd child now. FEMALE. ONE. You're reaching the food limit already but 2nd daughter will make it more likely for them to survive without you later.
Watch out though - even if you pop 2nd kid, you might get to old while raising it. You will no longer have milk in your breasts. You will need to force feed the kid with carrots or berries. You can do that.
After raising 2nd kid you have kids farming carrots and hunting rabbits. Possibly surplus of cooked rabbit and carrots. Try to still eat berries whenever possible though. This will reduce the need for carrots for all of you and wild carrots seeds take 60 minutes to regrow.

Were you efficient enough? If so, you might be getting old but can still be usefull. You probably traveled here from far away. You might have seen clay, reeds, iron, more milkweed... Go hunt for resources! Backpack helps A LOT now. Hope you made it anyway.

Check if you missed any milkweed around. The demad for thread will increase with population. Clothers ain't cheap.
Hunt for clay to make adobe. Two kilns is a good starting setup.
Find more clay. Cook some bowls, plates and nozzle for bellows. Use one waterpouch for bellows. Just remember not to steal THE LAST waterpouch. It might kill your kids.
Get iron, kindling from branches. Prepare everything for smelting so you kids can start with tool making.

Extended Rules

Make sure you remember every detail about the land you are passing during exploration. It WILL be of use later. Especially locations of reeds, berry bushes, milkweed, fertile soil, rabbits.
When you spot fresh food - eat berries from basket frist and then refill it with new ones. They decay so FIFO (First In First Out) is in place. No such problems with cactus fruit and it restores more food.
Cactus fuit is better but harder to get. Newly generated map starts with full berry bushes but empty cacti. Fruits need to grow. If you see any though - replace berries with fruits at once.
If you manage to carry some leftover cactus fruit to your perfect camp location - don't eat it! Eat berries from bushes around. Those fruits might be used as "safety food storage" just like cooked rabbits are. Berries can't be used like that.
If you're raising your kid with backpack on you - that double the profit. You can carry food with you but also explore around more. Maybe you missed some milkweed? Would be great to make more water pouches, backpacks, clothes.
Time is your enemy. Try not to waste ANY second. The best of us can manage to forge all the iron tools before death of old age if we skip raising kids.

Final Notes

If you see any problems with my guide, please point them out. I'll try to explain why I do things this or other way or update guide if you have valid points.

Last edited by Joriom (2018-04-08 06:52:47)

Joriom · 2018-04-08 06:56:01

Reserved for future update informations.

Lily · 2018-04-08 07:55:37

This really has a lot of useful tips, though sadly it will result in you leaving behind probably 4 or 5 dead children.

Joriom · 2018-04-08 08:07:09

Lily wrote:

This really has a lot of useful tips, though sadly it will result in you leaving behind probably 4 or 5 dead children.

Sadly - the other way is to cling to berry bush and try to feed every child that pops up while being unproductive for a long time. Finding the good spot is the most important part - you can't do that with child in your hands because you need basket with food or you risk starvation in most cases.

Lily · 2018-04-08 08:10:28

We should be able to balance the basket on our head, while we carry the babies.

powa · 2018-04-08 08:12:19

Joriom wrote:

Lily wrote:
This really has a lot of useful tips, though sadly it will result in you leaving behind probably 4 or 5 dead children.
Sadly - the other way is to cling to berry bush and try to feed every child that pops up while being unproductive for a long time. Finding the good spot is the most important part - you can't do that with child in your hands because you need basket with food or you risk starvation in most cases.

Yeah spending half of your life just feeding all of your kids can be really frustrating when they all split off and die. While it's the most interesting part of the game, the randomness in who will be in your life makes or breaks your whole experience. In the worst case, you then get to play half a solo game with picked bushes and milkweeds...

Nikko71 · 2018-04-08 08:37:15

Lily wrote:

We should be able to balance the basket on our head, while we carry the babies.

Use the force!!!

Thanks Joriom though, very thorough

EQRA · 2018-04-08 09:10:53

Really nice guide mate!

Yeah it results in leaving some kids behind, but if you start feeding babies before you established atleast some sort of home those kids will run around and die sooner or later without contributing anyways and you yourself maybe starve too. Yesterday i started 2 civs basically with the same kind of strategy and it worked out pretty good.

breezeknight · 2018-04-08 09:15:39

@Lily

Lily wrote:

We should be able to balance the basket on our head, while we carry the babies.

this is indeed a great idea !

you should post it to vote on on reddit OneLifeSuggestions

pein · 2018-04-08 09:19:31

depends on map too, seen some with two packs of 16 tiles of soil im pretty sure its not a big waste to let some carrots seed. with 2-3 soil pit of course it is.
reed,clay and water is important, some bugged mini desert tiles dont have a rattlesnake and help with raising kids. a full gear needs 12.5 rabbit fur. long term the poaches then the backpack best, then loincloth(as sheeps dont make pants). seals are kinda better than wasting 3-4 fur for upperbody and killign them isnt dangerous.

the numbers you provide are interesting and makes me feel even worse about having sons beiing male and i will hold those stupid babies until they understand not to keep all the kids

pein · 2018-04-08 09:21:13

Lily wrote:

We should be able to balance the basket on our head, while we carry the babies.

or put in backpack or cart, they would use 3 slots out of 4

maybe another item to tie them on your side

Joriom · 2018-04-08 09:24:23

pein wrote:

maybe another item to tie them on your side

Who not tie them to the horse? Using their leg... 4 meters behind the horse...

breezeknight · 2018-04-08 09:28:55

in general, for a starter settlement three biomes are basic :

prairie (rabbits, carrot seeds)
swamp (water, reed)
grasslands (berry bushes, milkweed)

if only one is missing or too far away, it's simply too hard to go on

to settle among those 3 would be ideal, but ...

from all the Eves i lived i spawned most of times more than unfortunate, then babies popp out & the Eve can be sure, her life & the lives of the kids will be over soon

- - -

Last edited by breezeknight (2018-04-08 09:39:43)

Avalikia · 2018-04-08 09:33:48

You can always have the kid chase after you while you carry the basket. Also a good survival test to see if the kid is worth raising.

breezeknight · 2018-04-08 09:39:16

Avalikia wrote:

You can always have the kid chase after you while you carry the basket. Also a good survival test to see if the kid is worth raising.

didn't really pan out in my experience

you never know what a player is attached to the kid, it can run, it seems to be fit enough but then wastes its own life & your bothering with its survival on some fancy stuff like an oven, lol

& indeed, as it looks right now, male babies are useless to an Eve, so why even spawn them ?
it's equal, if i survive alone as Eve or with a male kid, the family tree will die anyway

i am heavily in the process to establish for me a viable strategy to not only survive but to prosper as well as family, i manage a life as Eve meantime but have still to see the success of me bothering with offsprings & the problem is, cause of MP, it's out of my hands completely

- - -

Last edited by breezeknight (2018-04-08 09:41:10)

Joriom · 2018-04-08 09:41:52

Avalikia wrote:

You can always have the kid chase after you while you carry the basket. Also a good survival test to see if the kid is worth raising.

Kids run slower than adults. This makes it almost impossible to pass snow biomes or deserts without risk of starvation. They actually run at around half the speed of adult which makes you loose half of your time which might be even quater of your life if you're lone. With kid it makes it half (if you raise more than one and they constantly slow you down)

breezeknight · 2018-04-08 09:47:04

@Joriom

i have some important questions :

when is the most ideal time along the points you wrote to have the first kid ?

is it more important to have a female or male kid first ?

how young/old is it allowed for Eve to be with her first kid ?

breezeknight · 2018-04-08 09:51:00

Joriom wrote:

...
[*]Cactus fuit is better but harder to get. Newly generated map starts with full berry bushes but empty cacti. Fruits need to grow. If you see any though - replace berries with fruits at once.[/*]...

this is in need to change, worth of a suggestion for a gameplay change

some more food ready to eat would make a huge difference, especially for an Eve

Joriom · 2018-04-08 10:19:12

breezeknight wrote:

@Joriom
i have some important questions :
when is the most ideal time along the points you wrote to have the first kid ?
is it more important to have a female or male kid first ?
how young/old is it allowed for Eve to be with her first kid ?

From my experience:

If you're an expert you can have the first kid as soon as you find the "perfect" spot and have first 3 ropes ready BUT only if you have decent ammount of berry bushes and rabbits are nearby. You don't need to travel far anymore because you have THE spot and milkweed. Berries should help you survive with kid. You can do single rabbit trips between feeding kid. This gives you helping hands way earlier and might be usefull if kid knows what he is doing. Also - if its female it gives you (actually: her) more time to have more kids.
If you don't feel like you can handle the preasure - you could try raising first child as soon as you start cooking rabbits. You have at least some bank of food and berries should still be around. It will slow down farm but you might get help earlier as well.
The perfect sweet spot for popping kid out though would be at the moment you carry your 2nd basket of fertile soil to your camp. This way you can plant 2 wild seeds and grow 10 carrots while raising the kid. When he grows up you will have some additional food and you can start expanding farm further for kid to take care.
Female kid is the most important. I can't see reason to have boys anyway. Maybe if you're the type of "sensitive" (aka "WEAK") human being... Otherwise woman can do everything that man can with the ability to bear children if needed - otherwise she can just leave them to starve. I don't really care about that anymore as my hear has turned into stone over 20 years ago.
I don't really get your last question. Could you please reword it for me?
If you're asking how soon can you start raising children - technically, straight away. As eve you start 14 year old. But don't count on finding the perfect spot to start village. Kids run to slow and if you carry them in your hands you can't hold basket with food. In both cases travel equals to starvation.
If you're asking how soon its viable to start raising children - I think I've responded to that with first three points.
If you're asking for exact age at which woman can bear children: its 14 to 40 years old. Eve starts already as 14 years old woman so as Eve you have only 26 minutes to to all that stuff (26 years) including raising 2 kids. Last 20 years of your life can be dedicated to expanding what you started.
As kid you can start picking up items at age of 7 so you technically have 7 more productive years if you're born rather than spawned as Eve.

mikekchar · 2018-04-08 12:18:39

I understand the preference for female children, but I don't think males are useless. As soon as I'm able to feed myself, I can pretty much take care of myself (you need to get a little lucky striking off and finding a berry bush and then some way to make a basket). As a male, once you get that basket and a berry or two, then you've got the ability to start running around getting resources that the eve can't get too (because she's too busy starting the farm). The added advantage is that you never get kids to slow you down, so you can always go on a long romp to find far away berries/cactus fruits.

It's inherently risky, but raising a male to bare minimum age and saying: Go into the wild and fetch me things seems like a viable option. I think the key for a startup village is that you can't support anyone but the Eve. However, 10 years later, someone returning with a basket of threads is going to be massive. Not only that, but they will know the lay of the land. I think it's doable if you have a mind to risk it.

Joriom · 2018-04-08 12:29:43

mikekchar wrote:

I understand the preference for female children, but I don't think males are useless. As soon as I'm able to feed myself, I can pretty much take care of myself (you need to get a little lucky striking off and finding a berry bush and then some way to make a basket). As a male, once you get that basket and a berry or two, then you've got the ability to start running around getting resources that the eve can't get too (because she's too busy starting the farm). The added advantage is that you never get kids to slow you down, so you can always go on a long romp to find far away berries/cactus fruits.
It's inherently risky, but raising a male to bare minimum age and saying: Go into the wild and fetch me things seems like a viable option. I think the key for a startup village is that you can't support anyone but the Eve. However, 10 years later, someone returning with a basket of threads is going to be massive. Not only that, but they will know the lay of the land. I think it's doable if you have a mind to risk it.

And what is stopping female from doing exactly the same? Nothing. If she pops kid on the way she just abandons it so kids do not slow her down as well. On the other hand when she comes back and finds lack of babies - she can pick up where others failed and still has a chance for next kid.
Females can do exactly the same as Males with one additional feature which they can omit if they wish to.

breezeknight · 2018-04-08 13:05:01

@Joriom

you say that a female is as capable as male, but only if the female really manages to neglect the own kids, at least some, which will pop out, sometimes at an insane number
the benefit of males in OHOL is that they don't need to bother at all with children, nothing prevents them from working efficiently than their own inability, while a female though even capable, you never know if she would rather starve herself than not care for the babies & thus becomes a liability if work has to be done

it's a question from the point of view of an Eve, not one of the decendants
i am trying to learn to build a legacy, being a decendant is still easier than being an Eve trying to build up a family tree

you answered actually already my question "how young/old is it allowed for Eve to be with her first kid ?", because you said that you use starvation without remorse

anyway, in my experience females bring unrest to a settlement, it can easily mean mass starvation instead of continuation despite it running well before the babies appeared

breezeknight · 2018-04-08 13:07:35

Joriom wrote:

And what is stopping female from doing exactly the same? Nothing.

conscience does it

i think especially female players have a very hard time to let the kids starve, it's millions of years of training as female IRL
not every female is this way but most of females indeed are

Joriom · 2018-04-08 13:20:07

Well, "conscience" is kind of exotic thing for me. Thats what weak use. I tend to min/max stuff out of games but out of rl too. I optimized fun and feelings out of my equations old time ago. Both virtually and irl.

Jyke · 2018-04-08 13:30:08

Great Guide Joriom! Really learn alot from your tips!
Thanks alot for sharing

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#1 2018-04-08 06:40:26