Upadate: Only Friends

jasonrohrer · 2026-05-10 17:15:23

Several big changes in the face of griefing and bot accounts.

First, human-caused wounds (from knives and arrows) can no longer be healed. There are several vestigial systems in the game around killing, left over from previous solution attempts. The original idea was that killing would always be necessary in this game, because how else are you going to deal with people who are bothering you and just won't stop? The hope was that the good guys would outnumber the bad guys. But the insta-killing in very early versions of the game was still too abrupt, so healing was added, which further helped the good majority overcome the bad minority---there was safety in numbers, and the good guys could heal each other, while lone griefers would go unhealed. Eventually a posse system was added, and then a leadership and exile system, to make sure any killing that took place involved group consensus. These days, it's mostly griefers getting killed, which is good, but that means healing only helps griefers, who often work together in teams, healing each other as the larger group of good guys tries to get rid of them. So, that kind of healing has been removed.

The leadership system---which allows a bad actor to be exiled so that they can be killed---generally works, because it's hard for bad actors to become leaders, since who would pick them? However, when a bad actor is using a bunch of extra dummy accounts, they've been able to essentially stuff the ballot box and force themselves into power, after which they engage in indiscriminate exiling and killing. Griefers buy new accounts constantly to serve this purpose, which means that these dummy accounts can be thwarted by restriction leader picking to older, more established accounts. Legitimate new players aren't engaging with the leadership system at first anyway.

And the same problem occurs when griefers use a bunch of dummy accounts for cursing, so cursing has been limited to older, more established accounts.

And finally, for as long as this game has existed, people have tried to play alone or with small groups of friends. Historically, the higher-numbered servers---the so-called low-pop servers---have been used for this purpose. More recently, people have figured out that they can use the (very rare and precious) ghost ability, left over from several Halloweens back, for this purpose. Ghosts, being immortal, can walk very far away from mainline civilization and set up hidden private villages. Of course, all these methods of playing privately aren't really private, which means they can be targeted by griefers. Most recently, griefers have been acting like self-styled ghost hunters. Some people just want to be left alone.

Over the years, I've thought about various possible affordances to help these people play privately. I have considered paid private servers, and even spin-off games like One Hour One Hermit and One Hour One Tribe, but in polling players, there was never enough interest to make setting these things up worthwhile.

Meanwhile, the higher-numbered servers aren't free to operate, and I've burned thousands of dollars of the past 10 years on servers that are almost always empty.

Enter the new Friends-Only server, which allows you to play privately, either by yourself or with a group of friends. This sever leverages twin codes, which are used on the other servers to get born together as twins, triplets, or quadruplets, but the Friends-Only server now uses those same twin codes as Friend Codes to do two special things:

1. If you are the first person currently connecting to the server with a given code, it maps your code to one of a trillion unique locations in the server world map, and spawns you as Even in that specific, special-to-you location.

2. If other players are already alive on the server with that code, you get born into their family.

So there you have it, private villages, as long as you keep your friend code a secret. In fact, you can have as many private villages as you want, just by changing your friend code. There are a trillion locations available, so we're never going to run out. Each player can have a million private villages if they want.

But wait, you might ask, won't griefers find these private villages anyway, if they're all on the same server? Yes, that's possible, but it's also extremely unlikely. Remember, the server map is huge---more than 50,000 times bigger than earth. It is 4 billion tiles wide by 4 billion tiles tall. The chances of two private villages being within a million tiles of each other is 1 in 5 million, and we expect to be able to place 2500 private villages before any pair of villages is within a million tiles of each other. It takes something like 20 hours to travel a million tiles at the fastest travel speeds, and also remember that we're not just talking about straight-line distance. If a village is within a million tiles of you, you are searching a circle with a radius of one million, which actually has 3 trillion tiles in it.

And yes, ghosts tried to do this on the main server by walking far away from civilization, but they could only walk so far themselves, and the main server also has public map logs available, so their hidden activities could be observed over time. The friends server has no public logs.

Okay, so how do you join this friends-only server? First, you need to look in your SETTINGS screen and set a custom server address for friends.onehouronelife.com like this:

After that, go to the FRIENDS screen (the same one you'd use for twinning), type or generate a unique code (there's no limit on length, type whatever you want as a code), and then use the brand new SAME FAMILY option, like this:

LOGIN from the FRIENDS screen, and you're off to the races.

Griefers United · 2026-05-11 01:22:07

B-but.. Griefing... it's supposed to be dead
image.png?ex=6a0280a6&is=6a012f26&hm=9437515627ddb4aa4d5995c24cf8d4521e298bdacf3971973d38297d55d96622&=&format=webp&quality=lossless&width=624&height=394

I don't get why you don't allow for pvp, your solutions get worse every time. Just give the people what they want! Your game could pop off. Your update brought us 6 more griefers, you understand that right, THE PEOPLE ARE GETTING FED UP WITH YOUR EXCUSES JASON. All we want is for you to make this game better, stop listening to these people on your discord, they don't know what they're talking about. Your game tanked because of these people's suggestions.

A message from our leader:
"We wiped the server in "One Hour, And One Life" Jason, you're going to have to try harder than this." - Sincerely, Ronaldo

Last edited by Griefers United (2026-05-11 01:43:31)

Marquis · 2026-05-11 02:10:32

Will the friends server decay? I imagine that should be turned off, right?
edit: I'm talking about how nature takes things back that haven't been loaded in a week.

Last edited by Marquis (2026-05-11 22:05:02)

Griefers United · 2026-05-11 02:27:26

Marquis wrote:

Will the friends server decay? I imagine that should be turned off, right?

Eh but yk griefers and ghosts, might as well make one big server yk! Darn those griefers am I right? Might as well just remove weapons all together!

Last edited by Griefers United (2026-05-11 03:03:07)

Marquis · 2026-05-11 22:05:32

Will there be a friends server for AHAP?

prier · 2026-05-14 10:55:34

Great update thanks Jason

For some reason on when I logged back into my friends village I ended somewhere else where I was locked in a room, this happened twice. Have these degenerates figured out a way to grief single player?

Griefers United · 2026-05-14 22:39:55

prier wrote:

Great update thanks Jason
For some reason on when I logged back into my friends village I ended somewhere else where I was locked in a room, this happened twice. Have these degenerates figured out a way to grief single player?

well, griefing is supposed to be dead, isn't it..

Last edited by Griefers United (2026-05-14 22:40:17)

Griefers United · 2026-05-14 22:41:07

JASON! you need to stop listening to these people, accept griefing as a part of this wonderful dying game. Accept it as a product of your neglect.

prier · Yesterday 00:56:34

you're too much of a pussy to play rust so you fuck with a game full of softies, good work loser

Griefers United · Yesterday 02:22:14

prier wrote:

you're too much of a pussy to play rust so you fuck with a game full of softies, good work loser

You must have forgetten your history. This game was once full of griefers, you did this to us, you did this to yourselves.

You were too weak to beat us at every turn so you kept calling Jason for help. Every little update you made kept backfiring until the game was left strict and unplayable for the average player. Each update just brought more people to our side, and our methods just kept expanding and expanding. People like our leader Ronaldo, common players who were fed up rose to power. People like Ian and Bobo who were here from the start, People like Shady and Greven fueled by hate for the ones who trapped them in a prison for a mistakes they had made years ago, grew into impossible to kill players.

You did this. You couldn't kill the griefers before and you won't be killing them now.

No matter how many updates.

Last edited by Griefers United (Yesterday 02:32:13)

prier · Yesterday 02:55:39

just because you're too scared to play rust doesn't mean you should take it out on one hour players loser

Griefers United · Yesterday 07:36:21

prier wrote:

just because you're too scared to play rust doesn't mean you should take it out on one hour players loser

You can't be talking about looser, we've been killing the entire server and you've been crying about it like a bitch to Jason.

P.S - Most of us griefers play rust.

prier · Yesterday 07:45:39

sure ya do mate, you wouldn't be wasting ya time on ohol if you were playing rust.
you're just a scared child, grow up, go outside, interact with some humans other than your mum.

Griefers United · Yesterday 11:14:07

prier wrote:

sure ya do mate, you wouldn't be wasting ya time on ohol if you were playing rust.
you're just a scared child, grow up, go outside, interact with some humans other than your mum.

Yeah, stop projecting buddy, we're going to wipe the server again today too.

prier · Yesterday 12:09:40

Either you are a child or you have the emotional and intellectual maturity of one. Go play rust. Go play a Russian PvP don't starve server, play something with your play style. It's just sad what you're doing.

Griefers United · Yesterday 17:12:39

prier wrote:

Either you are a child or you have the emotional and intellectual maturity of one. Go play rust. Go play a Russian PvP don't starve server, play something with your play style. It's just sad what you're doing.

Stop coping, my entire group thinks you're a soar looser.

pein · Yesterday 20:26:50

please don't use imgur. used to be great but now the Uk government (and some other eu countries) bans it, also they had a lot of issues with regional linking and redirection and ads.
there are good services like imagebam or imgbb or others.

removing features usually makes the game less than before
removing the dodging ability was also a hit, one could have a slight chance defending themselves. the majority is not always right and defending yourself should always be possible
when all else equal there are no good and bad, just sides and two people killing each other resolves an argument. generally the more petty ones would never stop harassing you anyway. I generally ask for reasons and listen both sides but most players just pile on the first person to be accused by something. and rarely even gameplay related. words can't hurt you.
kills are necessary because some players would never apologize or never communicate and wouldn't admit their fault in a situation

but if healing and dodging is removed might as well remove kills too, what remains? blocking others and trapping them

curses being a flat number is bad, curses supposed to justify kills and create a consensus, total curses are a bad metric of griefers. some people are disagreable and competitive that's not always an issue, people having zero curses incoming but hundreds outgoing are pretty shady to me. a bunch of new accounts have crazy 50 to 200% of their lives being cursed and still only 20-30 curses, which does almost nothing, meanwhile over 1000 lives the 40-60 range is barely 6%. especially that leadership score is quite random and intangible. the only direct control you have over it is feeding new players and afk players. which is currently mostly smurfs. leadership should be based on more skill and account age/apm limits. not something crazy high but like 500 actions per life or 100+ hours and knowing like half the recipes should be bare minimum.

curses should work both ways, I believe in segregation, punishment still depends on who joins a life first if all else equal and they would block each other. same goes for duels, who clicks first or who frames the others first, who complains harder. the system should reward forgiveness and redemption too, make people who cursed each other work together on a task and reevaluate their relationship. some cases wouldn't work out, but right now you reward people who are being petty and relentless with their views. you are trying to force an outcome. griefers and anti griefers are both extremes, and sometimes they swap roles. you can find bad and good in everyone.

removing the heals just makes people go kamikaze chain kills and end up piling up bodies.

most griefing happens because players are bored, lack of loyalty, lack of goals and rewards. maybe you can't fix griefing but you could redirect the aggression, personally I'm mostly annoyed by guerilla warefare from the inside.

Last edited by pein (Yesterday 20:27:57)

Griefers United · Yesterday 20:49:02

pein wrote:

please don't use imgur. used to be great but now the Uk government (and some other eu countries) bans it, also they had a lot of issues with regional linking and redirection and ads.
there are good services like imagebam or imgbb or others.
removing features usually makes the game less than before
removing the dodging ability was also a hit, one could have a slight chance defending themselves. the majority is not always right and defending yourself should always be possible
when all else equal there are no good and bad, just sides and two people killing each other resolves an argument. generally the more petty ones would never stop harassing you anyway. I generally ask for reasons and listen both sides but most players just pile on the first person to be accused by something. and rarely even gameplay related. words can't hurt you.
kills are necessary because some players would never apologize or never communicate and wouldn't admit their fault in a situation
but if healing and dodging is removed might as well remove kills too, what remains? blocking others and trapping them
curses being a flat number is bad, curses supposed to justify kills and create a consensus, total curses are a bad metric of griefers. some people are disagreable and competitive that's not always an issue, people having zero curses incoming but hundreds outgoing are pretty shady to me. a bunch of new accounts have crazy 50 to 200% of their lives being cursed and still only 20-30 curses, which does almost nothing, meanwhile over 1000 lives the 40-60 range is barely 6%. especially that leadership score is quite random and intangible. the only direct control you have over it is feeding new players and afk players. which is currently mostly smurfs. leadership should be based on more skill and account age/apm limits. not something crazy high but like 500 actions per life or 100+ hours and knowing like half the recipes should be bare minimum.
curses should work both ways, I believe in segregation, punishment still depends on who joins a life first if all else equal and they would block each other. same goes for duels, who clicks first or who frames the others first, who complains harder. the system should reward forgiveness and redemption too, make people who cursed each other work together on a task and reevaluate their relationship. some cases wouldn't work out, but right now you reward people who are being petty and relentless with their views. you are trying to force an outcome. griefers and anti griefers are both extremes, and sometimes they swap roles. you can find bad and good in everyone.
removing the heals just makes people go kamikaze chain kills and end up piling up bodies.
most griefing happens because players are bored, lack of loyalty, lack of goals and rewards. maybe you can't fix griefing but you could redirect the aggression, personally I'm mostly annoyed by guerilla warefare from the inside.

How about returning curses to 3 months.
That's where all this started. If they cry about it so what.

Last edited by Griefers United (Yesterday 20:49:30)

prier · Yesterday 22:56:00

I think Jason should just ban children from playing. Sure there's a few stunted adults but they're a minority. Children and teenagers don't have the emotional maturity to behave well, that's why we don't allow them to drink alcohol, drive or in my country use social media. Ban children and the griefing will go away.

Griefers United · Today 02:15:11

prier wrote:

I think Jason should just ban children from playing. Sure there's a few stunted adults but they're a minority. Children and teenagers don't have the emotional maturity to behave well, that's why we don't allow them to drink alcohol, drive or in my country use social media. Ban children and the griefing will go away.

Why do you keep talking about children? I'm starting to think you're a pedophile.

pein · Today 21:58:45

Griefers United wrote:

How about returning curses to 3 months.
That's where all this started. If they cry about it so what.

wasn't here, won't always read updates, sometimes I check onetech but it's missing some stuff

it isn't even about the length or the values. the whole framework is flawed long ago.

5 years is overkill, I mean if he really wants to he should ban people. jason embraced the communist 5 year plan.

he is making bandaid fixes. this healing block is for the group vs group fights where coordination and skill matters. I'm not a griefer, got some curses, adding up on an old account, I could show some stats and replays on just how dumb it looks like, I have 2 instances of having 5-6 curses for literally no reason. if those players who cursed me would see the replay would have zero clue what thye cursed me for. but it's permanent and irrevocable.

I play mostly solo and obviously got disadvantage against groups. most people don't understand leadership, curses, posses, none of these magical intangible features. yet you expect to replace actual moderation by subjective opinions. the majority is not always right, the majority is just the majority, if you listen to their whims and feelings you end up miserable. right or wrong doesn't depend on someones sensitivity and people with no standards or principles can yapp all they want, it's just sheep mentality and peer pressure.

and the issue is that these features became way too important and it's not based on something real and tangible. leaders don't always are the most bright or competent ones yet they get a lot of power over others. and curses are just the revenge of the cowards who can't really handle a situation otherwise, you need two people for a conflict, at least, so neither side is good or evil sometimes and it's not like one side just gonna admit his fault so I don't see why it should apply one way, if anything you should always curse people who cursed you, even if you are wrong. and so many of these anti griefers got so much interactions, so many outgoing curses and none received I don't even know what they do all their lives other than yapping. if anything all the slander, framing and pointless curses are the issue.

I'm not a hero either, and don't want to be the saviour all the time, or sacrifice myself for others. ofc you could choose to save yourself and that drags you into drama. I was defending towns and you need 2-3 veterans not 25 newbies who got no clue about whats happening. cities will be killed just the same.

if you look at some perspetives it's already obvious how flawed the system is. if you curse someone for any reason they are evil. but if you are cursed by the evil then what are you? you can pick up curses for trying to stop bad intended people too. tolerance is not a virtue. if anything everyone just gonna end up with more curses, especially solos who get in the way of groups. it's all about power, not morality or logic.

so this system can't replace real moderation and it's not even promoting any sort of communication or forgiveness or cooperation. I'm all for segregation, if anything they will be worse off without me. also kind of dumb that if curses are equal the first person to join blocks out the other, and then when he takes a break the other might join and it's reversed.

basically around 50-60 curses you will be blocked out of the main area for a single player who cursed you. if that curse is invalid the whole punishment is unfair. ofc you can still get trough anyway at different times or situations. the other day there were like 9 people in donkey town and people choose to die and come back as it was actually looking better. Some people are so ready to be offended they curse at the first tiny opportunity, everyone would do the same then everyone would be blocked out randomly. And new players or new accounts can easily abuse this. And then some other bandaid fix comes. jason seems to teach a lesson or provew a point but this makes no sense this way. he really tries to force an outcome and it's not happening. if you need a virtual hr meeting in the game to do anything and there is a 'right way to play' it's not really a game.

One Hour One Life Forums

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Upadate: Only Friends

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