Okay this is getting ridiculous.

katastic · 2018-03-01 23:08:52

I've played at least 5 hours now and 95% of that time was spent being a baby that died.

- Died from wolves glitching out of no where
- Died from starvation
- Died from starvation
- Died from starvation
- Died from starvation from lag induced glitching
- Died from starvation
- Died from starvation
- Died from starvation
- Died from starvation
- Died from starvation from lag induced glitching
- Died from starvation from lag induced glitching
- Died from starvation from lag induced glitching
- Died from starvation from lag induced glitching
- Died from starvation from lag induced glitching
- Died from starvation
- Died from starvation
- Died from starvation from lag induced glitching
- Died from starvation
- Died from starvation
- Died from starvation
- Died from starvation from lag induced glitching

The game's ecosystem is completely wrong. It cannot sustain life. It shouldn't take 15+ screens of walking to find a single piece of milkweed.

There's no way to find your mother, or her find you, if you simply walk off screen. There's a reason sound exists.

Any time anyone gets me to an age where I can become old enough to start? The entire city has run out of food and everyone panics and dies.

Over. And over. And over. And over.

I'm all for indie games. I'm all for experimental games. I'm all for Jason Rohrer games. I'm a big fan. But this... this is ridiculous.

There is simply not enough food to sustain a population. So babies constantly die, and then what happens? They get born to the SAME STARVING WOMAN over and over. Which drains even more supplies! The simplest glitch, or bad playing decision, brings the entire society down. It's too fragile!

And I literally cannot count (and I've got video) of how many times I'm standing next to a bush, and my person is repeatedly "half getting" from the bush, for 15+ seconds, and then I ...

DIE OF STARVATION.

And literally, that just happened, because the mother was trying to feed me, can't.

This is supposed to be a society simulation, but the insane amount of struggling has basically turned it into the single-mother ghetto simulator... but with less food and even worse, mass, uncontainable asexual reproduction. (I wonder if it'd be easier if a mother marked herself as "willing" to conceive?)

Mothers completely ignoring babies because they can't feed multiple, or, they're just so burnt out of doing nothing but feeding babies and dying that they want to actually craft something.

$20 is a huge price to pay for a "game" that basically doesn't simulate society, but absolutely tests your patience. I've literally had to refer to the game to friends, as "an onslaught" because of the frustration.

To be clear: I'm NOT saying. "This game sucks, you suck, go die in a fire." But for a brand new game, I keep finding myself wondering if I should open it up again and see if the next game will go as poorly as the last 80, or, I should just wait and hope the game gets better later. (And yes, I realize Jason is over-worked. I'm not saying "ADD FEATURES". I'm saying, the food levels are just mathematically unsustainable for gameplay.)

Best of luck in your endeavor, a sincere fan and developer.

Last edited by katastic (2018-03-01 23:14:48)

Uncle Gus · 2018-03-01 23:30:07

We are making progress. We are learning. There is going to be a HUGE amount of failure before we break through to the next stage. One thing that is ruining us is that we are destroying otherwise sustainable resources. We might be leaving behind stored of useful resources, tools, etc. but we're draining ponds, killing milk weeds and overhunting rabbits. This means we need to migrate.

If this sounds familiar, it's because the game is actually doing very well at simulating actual early human life.

Computer1633 · 2018-03-02 00:34:48

I disagree that it is wrong in any way. While I have died MANY MANY MANY times the last couple days, I have also learned a whole lot about how to survive. The game is not made to be easy or basic and I feel it accurately portrays exactly what it intends to. I for one, even through many deaths, am having a blast learning and slowly building up. How do you think the first humans on the planet lived.... just like this.

Dwhamz · 2018-03-02 00:44:54

Yeah I also have to disagree. Sure you did a lot but I've learned something pretty much every life. People are starting to get the hang of it and build better villages. I've seen villages rise and fall and honestly I love seeing both happen.

jasonrohrer · 2018-03-02 00:53:56

Yeah, I've heard that milkweed has become pretty darn scarce in some parts.

Don't pick it unless it's fruiting, people.

Maybe grab some food and head WAY OUT into greener pastures to start a new branch of civilization out there?

Zeromus · 2018-03-02 01:03:19

Having to migrate because we screwed up the land.... That is SO AWESOME.

yvanhooe · 2018-03-02 05:00:18

Yes, my go to strategy so far has been:

1. Have carrots farming work
2. Fill a backpack of carrots and go find milkweed seeds

The industrial strength of a civilization is its raw milkweed production!

I still feel that the cycle for a milkweed stump to grow back is too long, but that's just the way it is.

katastic · 2018-03-05 00:14:00

Gameplay has actually gone MUCH BETTER lately thanks to Jason popcapping servers at 60!

I'm super hopeful for this game. I'm thinking about forking it and testing out a proof-of-concept for some of my suggestions...

(If no answer I'll just ask in another post but:) Jason, if you see this, while forking is allowed... how do you handle serial keys? Like, if I made a mod server, would I forward serial key requests to the central server? Or run keyless but strongly encourage people to buy the game from Jason? etc.

[edit] Yeah, I'm all for survival. Survival has nothing to do with lag. I have a video literal compilation of all the times I had more than 50% food (read: tons) and after a literal 15+ seconds of lagging on a tree I didn't mean to touch, or bush, or anything, my food drops... and drops... and drops... and then I die.

Last edited by katastic (2018-03-05 01:01:50)

Tebe · 2018-03-05 01:18:47

For anyone who can't make it to adulthood, there are ways you can learn to do this even in rough spots. Every time I sit down, I sit down to live one full life. I always get one going before long. I get a handful of infant deaths for sure, but the second you grow hair and can feed yourself, there's now a decent chance you can make it. Provided it's not in the middle of nowhere with absolutely no wildberries to eat.

If you're born into what looks like a massive, thriving village, you'd better scram quick. It can be just as dangerous here as it is in much of the wild. Famine is always around the corner when the population gets large. A beautiful thriving village can deteriorate REAL QUICK. Try to get clothed while you're young - it buys you a lot of time. Clothed elders especially should be willing to donate their furs to a fire-eyed youngun.

If you're in a tribe with lots of babies, and you can run around on your own - grab a sharp stone and make a basket, or take one if there's a surplus. Fill it with berries and maybe a harvested carrot, or a bowl if there's also a surplus. And get the hell out of there. It may look tempting with all the city bustle - the metalsmith hammering steel, the baker cooking pies, the trapper arranging furs, the farmer tending crops, the firekeepers and mothers tending the children. But the end is always nigh - Get out before you become another pile of bones among the bustle.

Once on the road, look for rabbit prairies and be very cautious here of wolves. Once you've eaten a berry from your basket, bring a wild carrot seed with you. [edits: and refill your basket with berries as you go. pick fruiting milkweed wherever you find it and spread a couple of its seeds - you can always come back to collect them.] You'll likely find a smaller more sustainable homestead somewhere on the path, with enough wildberries to sustain you to grow some carrots. Then the good work can begin. Maybe you can have a small family and make something of the place.

Last edited by Tebe (2018-03-05 01:23:39)

Norgg · 2018-03-05 01:27:08

Tebe wrote:

If you're in a tribe with lots of babies... get the hell out of there.

I've had pretty good success a couple times by just heading out of town for maybe 5 or 10 years as I see it start to fall apart from overpopulation, then coming back when the population is back down to a manageable level to help recover.

Matok · 2018-03-05 05:18:00

I do seem to have an easier time on my own, and this worries me. It means that the preferred method of play could eventually be to do just that, leave and live out on your own. Eves may eventually prefer to ignore kids just because they get more done if they do so.

What's the problem with this? A couple things. One is that living to the point where you can actually fend for yourself can get a bit annoying as you get the cold shoulder and starve at age 0 again and again. But more than that, there's little much out there in the wilds in the way of tech and you can't exactly take much with you in a basket. When you strike out on your own, you effectively start over with nothing unless you come across some abandoned village by chance. You're never going to build an advanced civilization in 60 minutes starting with sticks and rocks, and what you can accomplish in that time is limited by what is available around you. My last life, I pretty much spent the entire hour trying to make what I needed to build a fire and a snare, mostly because I had to travel for a few minutes at a time just to find milkweed.

The thing that is driving everyone to keep migrating is the lack of sustainability in a given area. Yes, if everyone knew what to do, you could make an area last longer. Don't touch the milkweed unless it is fruiting, leave some of the carrots until they seed, don't kill animals unless you see they have a baby, and all that. The problem is that not everyone knows these things, and that will always be the case because there's always someone new to the game that is just clicking on things to figure out what the heck they do, which you really can't blame them for. By the time they learn, damage is done, time to move on and start over.. again.

It's realistic, sure, but it's also supposed to be a game. Most people play games because they want the challenge and feeling of achieving something. If the 'next step' constantly stays just out of reach because you have to migrate and reset when the land inevitably goes dead, people will lose interest. And that would be a real shame if that happened, because I really want to see where this game goes.

jord1990 · 2018-03-05 05:31:43

someone has said it before and I'd like to say it again. We all need to realise that were still in the prehistoric era where large villages remaining in 1 place are not sustainable (Unless everyone knows what theyre doing) You can try to build something but because we cant make signs not everyone will know the rules. and atm we dont have the tech to repair some of the nature we need. I do however believe that we will slowly evolve past this hunter gatherer lifestyle because I can already see it somewhat happening. In the end it is up to us the community to make something that will last.

Twinsen · 2018-03-05 05:51:48

Matok wrote:

I do seem to have an easier time on my own, and this worries me. It means that the preferred method of play could eventually be to do just that, leave and live out on your own. Eves may eventually prefer to ignore kids just because they get more done if they do so.

There will be times that you want to be alone, but sometimes, you might want to meet people and get mad about them once a while.

I once like established village so I can survive. But then...

there's once I really want to learn the intermediate like making fire and clay bowl so I need to be on my own; I don't want to make one extra klin, or other uni-taskers just to satisfy my own thirst for knowledge and curiosity on getting a feel about the game. Of course now...

I prefer living in a small family setting to get the feel about food income and, funny enough, the homey feeling.

Tebe · 2018-03-05 06:10:26

Being alone is never as good as being part of a small family of hard workers with a home base. Just having one dedicated farmer and one dedicated trapper can do wonders. It's so worth it to work in groups - small groups are of course easier to manage.

As for getting up to speed with making kilns, forges, and crafting tools, there are a ton of early settlements and hamlets that don't have these things. What you do with your life is up to you - If you come across a small abandoned settlement, stay and spend some time building up a kiln and a forge. Make plates and bowls, gather ore. It's a many-stepped process, but you can do a lot to help a settlement by building these things up there.

Matok · 2018-03-05 16:54:12

Oh I agree that a lot more can get done with a group. If you have to support yourself completely, you have little time to focus on actually making advancements over just surviving. The problem is that others can be destructive and can actually make the situation even worse for you by using up resources you need to survive without replenishing them. So you have to make a choice if you're going to chance it with a group, knowing that they may just cause a massive famine and cut your life short, or strike out on your own giving you a full hour to do things, but know that you'll be spending like 90% of that time trying to stay fed.

In one of my previous lives I managed to come across an area that already had quite a lot of tools, a cart, lots of snares, and some clothes to start with, but there wasn't much in the way of food. I spent the entire time alone and managed to fill up 5 baskets full of cooked rabbit and 5 baskets full of carrots, and like 4 stacks of furs. Would have made clothing if there had been any milkweed anywhere nearby but I didn't ever find any.

I felt like leaving that behind would give someone else the chance to focus on building instead of frantically running around looking to stuff their face, but there's just as much a chance that a group will descend upon the place like a cloud of locusts and just wipe the food out without much actual progress happening. Seems a lot of people are just standing around and eating still because they're not really sure what else to do. Hopefully that changes as people start wanting to accomplish more than just stand around and eat for an hour, but there's always going to need to be someone bringing in the food to allow others to build effectively.

Twinsen · 2018-03-06 01:54:58

Matok wrote:

Seems a lot of people are just standing around and eating still because they're not really sure what else to do. Hopefully that changes as people start wanting to accomplish more than just stand around and eat for an hour, but there's always going to need to be someone bringing in the food to allow others to build effectively.

If there's a fire going and those children have no clothes at all, it's actually very efficient for them to just sit there and reduce food consumption. Of course, when a kid reaches 12, I do want that kid start doing things because his/her moving speed is as fast as an adult.

One Hour One Life Forums

#1 2018-03-01 23:08:52

Okay this is getting ridiculous.

#2 2018-03-01 23:30:07

Re: Okay this is getting ridiculous.

#3 2018-03-02 00:34:48

Re: Okay this is getting ridiculous.

#4 2018-03-02 00:44:54

Re: Okay this is getting ridiculous.

#5 2018-03-02 00:53:56

Re: Okay this is getting ridiculous.

#6 2018-03-02 01:03:19

Re: Okay this is getting ridiculous.

#7 2018-03-02 05:00:18

Re: Okay this is getting ridiculous.

#8 2018-03-05 00:14:00

Re: Okay this is getting ridiculous.

#9 2018-03-05 01:18:47

Re: Okay this is getting ridiculous.

#10 2018-03-05 01:27:08

Re: Okay this is getting ridiculous.

#11 2018-03-05 05:18:00

Re: Okay this is getting ridiculous.

#12 2018-03-05 05:31:43

Re: Okay this is getting ridiculous.

#13 2018-03-05 05:51:48

Re: Okay this is getting ridiculous.

#14 2018-03-05 06:10:26

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#15 2018-03-05 16:54:12

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#16 2018-03-06 01:54:58

Re: Okay this is getting ridiculous.

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