OHOL has become so boring & it makes me sad

Saaphia · 2019-10-06 16:12:13

I have been a silent lurker all this time, but now I finally signed up, because I really have to share how sad I am about losing my favorite game:

I have played the game since its Steam release for so many hours. I felt it was really THE game for me: you could cooperate and play actively with others, but you don’t have to, you can also be a “silent” member of the society and just help things develop. I sometimes role played, sometimes did stuff with others, but most of the time, I really enjoyed baking and/or farming. I have a stressful job IRL and I just want to rewind when I come home.

My favorite play mode of all was to be in a fairly young town, sometimes even an eve town, and help set things up. A sheep pen, a bakery, a berries field, the first compost, all the necessary stuff. I liked the feeling of having a substantial contribution in the future well-being of my family. I would play in older towns, too; When the life count was introduced, I started to actively decide if was up for a game in a more developed town or if I invested some lives until I found a younger town which I felt needed me more.
And here is where today’s situation comes in: The arc system has taken my chance of deciding which type of town I want to play in. When I come home from work, I cross my fingers that the current arc is fairly young – most often it isn’t and I end up disappointed in a huge, super-developed town with so much food and everything they would ever need. And I am bored.

I have grown so bored, that now, when an arc has only 3 families left, I try to grief to make the arc end. I am bad at it and really feel horrible for spoiling other peoples’ game to get back to the game I personally enjoy.
This all makes me really sad. I love this games and I am not ready to let go. But it is so horribly boring and frustrating for me at the moment that I play it less and less. I start a life, wander around aimlessly, until I die.

I really don’t mind the rift and I am all for game development, but he way it is, I will soon stop playing OHOL even though it has so much potential.

So please, Jason, I am sure I am not the only one who feels like this. Consider setting up a second big server without the arc system in the hopes that there will be enough players to fill it with life.

WalrusesConquer · 2019-10-06 16:27:32

Well griefing probably isn't the best way, why don't you start a back-up camp? It'd be pretty basice early on and be useful!

InSpace · 2019-10-06 16:41:19

Agree on the bored part, developed town are so bleh. Nothing to do except afk. Bring in some latestage gameplay, instead of now the game is boring, it should be now the game is in part b, fun time!

arkajalka · 2019-10-06 16:46:48

One thing i do to counter this boredom is to grab a shovel and go few wells south/north. Start up a whole new setlement there with some little twist.

Dodge · 2019-10-06 16:56:53

Yes right now progression in the tech tree is too fast and you can do everything by yourself which means you dont really need to interact with anybody, which is a shame for a game that has so much potential in terms of cooperative interactions.

But something tells me that this might change in some not so distant future

Tizzy · 2019-10-06 17:17:24

I never catch the beginning of arcs either, it always seems to be when I’m asleep or at work, and it’s only an 8 hour window to be an Eve which I enjoy the most. I just feel useless in developed towns. They have everything or have run out of everything. Then they steal from another camp. Then in your next life you’re in the one you stole from because there are very few families, so you’re in the same situation, but wait, you know where that thing you need is! So you have to backstab your old life family. Urrrggghhh!

Thaulos · 2019-10-06 17:44:06

More than forced cooperation I would rather have more than a few seconds of food in my belly.

It's crazy how often you need to top up on food in this game. I would very much appreciate a tripling of our food pips just so we have time to talk and interact instead of having to run towards food after exchanging a couple sentences.

So:
1. Keep hunger depletion rate but Increase pip capacity (3x? 5x?)
2. Each step on the water tech tree should last you a couple generations at least. It's crazy that we have to start planning tools for buckets during eve runs. Give us time to breathe! No time to talk if everything needs to be rushed.

Last edited by Thaulos (2019-10-06 17:45:11)

Don Holm · 2019-10-06 20:37:59

Jason focused so much on war issues he forgot the game still needs a lot more content, maybe it's time to start looking at suggestions and adding content.

Guppy · 2019-10-07 05:14:01

Thaulos wrote:

More than forced cooperation I would rather have more than a few seconds of food in my belly.
It's crazy how often you need to top up on food in this game. I would very much appreciate a tripling of our food pips just so we have time to talk and interact instead of having to run towards food after exchanging a couple sentences.
So:
1. Keep hunger depletion rate but Increase pip capacity (3x? 5x?)
2. Each step on the water tech tree should last you a couple generations at least. It's crazy that we have to start planning tools for buckets during eve runs. Give us time to breathe! No time to talk if everything needs to be rushed.

Isnt that what yum is for?

MultiLife · 2019-10-07 05:34:06

I feel really disheartened to hear that people resort to griefing to make the game enjoyable for themselves. I feel like the arc is not truly serving any player type. Eve fans can’t Eve, so they may just actively try to end arcs to get their chance at it. Early game fans can’t do early game, because the early game is so shortlived and there are no more valid spots left in the arc, so they may just try to end the arc too. Peaceful players can’t play in peace because someone always wants to end the arc. And the End times of an arc is just man hunt and the sides of that wanting different things: to play in peace vs starting new arc. With some random ”I just want to kill” players sprinkled in there.

I played two lives during the weekend. Just as I grew hair I got shot with a bow. Great waste of 3,5mins for me.
Next life I wanted to provide springs for the town doors. It took all my life to create another smithy with an oven for hardening the springs, and at 40, I was finally about to make a bunch of springs. Uhh nope, another family starts killing everyone and chases me to the end of the rift.

Grrreat. I also have enough stress irl that if I can’t escape to play my session in peace, then I won’t play.

Last edited by MultiLife (2019-10-07 07:38:02)

Dodge · 2019-10-07 07:38:06

MultiLife wrote:

I played two lives during the weekend. Just as I grew hair I got shot with a bow. Great waste of 3,5mins for me.

Didn't you get a notice before someone tried killing you?

Is the shock face not evident enough or is the time to run not enough or both?

Maybe 3 seconds is not enough to run and also the shock face should be replaced by a terror scream or at least a face that looks really affraid.

StrongForce · 2019-10-07 10:51:05

@saaphia
Once in the advanced stage of the arc I switch from survival mode to creative mode
Try building a nice house
Or plant a nice garden

If it has to be useful go make new oil rigs can never have enought of those. Or more medic aprons with pads, needle and knife.
Those are the reasons why advanced civs dies.

Last edited by StrongForce (2019-10-07 10:51:53)

WalrusesConquer · 2019-10-07 15:24:48

The shame is that trolls and pso please who value their fun above others just hide behind the "I want to be an eve" as an excuse.

MultiLife · 2019-10-07 15:27:46

Dodge wrote:

MultiLife wrote:
I played two lives during the weekend. Just as I grew hair I got shot with a bow. Great waste of 3,5mins for me.

Didn't you get a notice before someone tried killing you?
Is the shock face not evident enough or is the time to run not enough or both?
Maybe 3 seconds is not enough to run and also the shock face should be replaced by a terror scream or at least a face that looks really affraid.

Didn’t see my toddler make any faces, or got any notifications. I was changing a shirt when a guy next to me shot me. Could be just me focusing on the shirt and missing any indications but I don’t remember hearing anything or seeing any facial expressions change, on me or the murderer.
Toddlers are slow, aren’t they?
The next life I got plenty of notifications from the three people trying to kill me.

Last edited by MultiLife (2019-10-07 15:29:32)

Saaphia · 2019-10-07 18:10:39

Tizzy wrote:

I never catch the beginning of arcs either, it always seems to be when I’m asleep or at work, and it’s only an 8 hour window to be an Eve which I enjoy the most. I just feel useless in developed towns. They have everything or have run out of everything. Then they steal from another camp. Then in your next life you’re in the one you stole from because there are very few families, so you’re in the same situation, but wait, you know where that thing you need is! So you have to backstab your old life family. Urrrggghhh!

This is such an accurate description of my experience.
I do like the ideas of what to do in the late stage of the arc (built back-up camp, dig wells). It is not the same as the game I am missing from the old times, but I will give it a try.

I just want to emphasize: I don't like griefing. Never have, never will. I tried it, killed all sheep, stole carrot seeds etc. But I cannot value my personal yearning for a more enjoyable game over the one of others. However, I wonder how many people really do have genuine fun with the arc play.

Multilife wrote:

I feel really disheartened to hear that people resort to griefing to make the game enjoyable for themselves. I feel like the arc is not truly serving any player type. Eve fans can’t Eve, so they may just actively try to end arcs to get their chance at it. Early game fans can’t do early game, because the early game is so shortlived and there are no more valid spots left in the arc, so they may just try to end the arc too. Peaceful players can’t play in peace because someone always wants to end the arc. And the End times of an arc is just man hunt and the sides of that wanting different things: to play in peace vs starting new arc. With some random ”I just want to kill” players sprinkled in there.

This is what I feel like, too, but of course there are no reliable statistics to back it up.

jasonrohrer · 2019-10-08 16:16:53

I'm still working on this (the end of the arc IS boring, I know), but a few thoughts:

1. If you don't like the town you're born into, and you're a woman, just leave and start a new town. There's plenty of empty space around, right? That is essentially the "Eve game."

2. Beyond (1), what your'e asking for (lots of Eve camps or young towns 24-7) is not long-term sustainable, unless all towns die out in short order. That is in fact what used to happen, for the most part, which is why the game was more exciting before. In order to "make room" for a viable Eve camp in the player population, an established town has to die out. There are only so many babies to go around, and if babies are going to an Eve camp, that means they're not going to an established town.

(2) means that everything you build is lost in about a day. I'm guessing that most people don't like that too much. People are currently complaining that everything is lost in 5 days at the end of the arc. "EVERYTHING WE BUILD IS POINTLESS!" But, you know, before the arc, everything you built was usually lost in less than 24 hours.

Unless I'm missing something, I'm pretty sure it's impossible to have it both ways. Permanence and Novelty fight each other. If it's permanent, you're going to encounter the same thing over and over. If it's novel, well, then it's new, and it must not be permanent.

(Note that if you exercise (1) and are successful at starting a new town, you will suck babies away from an existing town and cause it to die out...)

(I also realize that (1) is not a pure Eve game because even the wild areas of the rift are somewhat settled and explored.)

The_Anabaptist · 2019-10-08 17:49:54

jasonrohrer wrote:

I'm still working on this (the end of the arc IS boring, I know), but a few thoughts:
1. If you don't like the town you're born into, and you're a woman, just leave and start a new town. There's plenty of empty space around, right? That is essentially the "Eve game."
2. Beyond (1), what your'e asking for (lots of Eve camps or young towns 24-7) is not long-term sustainable, unless all towns die out in short order. That is in fact what used to happen, for the most part, which is why the game was more exciting before. In order to "make room" for a viable Eve camp in the player population, an established town has to die out. There are only so many babies to go around, and if babies are going to an Eve camp, that means they're not going to an established town.
(2) means that everything you build is lost in about a day. I'm guessing that most people don't like that too much. People are currently complaining that everything is lost in 5 days at the end of the arc. "EVERYTHING WE BUILD IS POINTLESS!" But, you know, before the arc, everything you built was usually lost in less than 24 hours.
Unless I'm missing something, I'm pretty sure it's impossible to have it both ways. Permanence and Novelty fight each other. If it's permanent, you're going to encounter the same thing over and over. If it's novel, well, then it's new, and it must not be permanent.

(Note that if you exercise (1) and are successful at starting a new town, you will suck babies away from an existing town and cause it to die out...)
(I also realize that (1) is not a pure Eve game because even the wild areas of the rift are somewhat settled and explored.)

Wandering out of an established town is not the same experience as being a fresh eve. Unless I missed the update where you started random spawning of basic resources (surface iron, milkweed, rocks, etc.) as the game progresses. A player will never be able to travel far enough to escape the collection radius of the existing town and then successfully start a new town by only utilizing the natural resources around you as a Neo-eve within the confines of the rift.

If you are worried about lost towns, then add more tech to put up simple signposts. Google "Wall Drug Signs Around The World" to get where I'm going here.

I'm all for non-permanence. All clothes should decay to nothing. Food should rot. Domesticated animals should need to be fed and watered. Wooden structures should catch fire and burn. Etc.

The_Anabaptist

fug · 2019-10-08 18:05:42

jasonrohrer wrote:

(2) means that everything you build is lost in about a day. I'm guessing that most people don't like that too much. People are currently complaining that everything is lost in 5 days at the end of the arc. "EVERYTHING WE BUILD IS POINTLESS!" But, you know, before the arc, everything you built was usually lost in less than 24 hours.
Unless I'm missing something, I'm pretty sure it's impossible to have it both ways. Permanence and Novelty fight each other. If it's permanent, you're going to encounter the same thing over and over. If it's novel, well, then it's new, and it must not be permanent.

(Note that if you exercise (1) and are successful at starting a new town, you will suck babies away from an existing town and cause it to die out...)
(I also realize that (1) is not a pure Eve game because even the wild areas of the rift are somewhat settled and explored.)

The only time things were being constantly lost in 24 hours was when you introduced the eight hour cull time instead of the weekly cull. This is what made things feel constantly meaningless as we had towns that could last upwards of a month of play with the old culling system. Sure. you still lost smaller towns at a quicker rate but you could have your lives actually cycle between early game (since there was almost always an early own or two) followed by a mid game level town, and then sometimes either someone would accidentally find a mega town or would spawn there on server reset.

When you lowered the timing we stopped having any sort of San Cals, Goose towns, or Casino towns what so ever. Did people play in these exact places 24/7? No, and that's why they're tolerable long term vs what we have right now. You might be in Goose Town for a day before trolls or bad rng killed it off then in a few days or upwards to a week someone would find it again and restart the rebuilding process. You can have meaningful building and resting without the balance being all funky. We traded history and interesting things for a system that left a bunch of random ass walls and flooring on the map.

The problem isn't "Can we have late and early game coexist in game at the same time" but more so how do we allow early game to exist without spreading the families so thin. The biggest issue with early game is the amount of Eves that pop up (hence why a closed eve window can be good) which spreads the players too thin.

Overall, I'm not sure why you keep trying to push we have more permanence now when classically places lasted longer. We traded sporadically living in the same place over a long period of time for constantly living in the same place for a much shorter length of time.

Twisted · 2019-10-08 19:14:29

jasonrohrer wrote:

1. If you don't like the town you're born into, and you're a woman, just leave and start a new town. There's plenty of empty space around, right? That is essentially the "Eve game."

First of all, it's not the same thing. Second of all, it's literally impossible as the Rift is extremely tiny. It takes under two minutes to cross on a horse, which is early game tech. There's no empty space, there's no untouched land. Third of all, even if it were possible, it would feel like you're making the game artificially harder to make it more enjoyable. Saying to 'just start a new town if you don't like your town' is kind of like saying 'play the with your controls inverted'. Sure, it would be harder and maybe more enjoyable once or twice, but other than that it's just kinda dumb.

jasonrohrer wrote:

2. Beyond (1), what your'e asking for (lots of Eve camps or young towns 24-7) is not long-term sustainable, unless all towns die out in short order. That is in fact what used to happen, for the most part, which is why the game was more exciting before. In order to "make room" for a viable Eve camp in the player population, an established town has to die out. There are only so many babies to go around, and if babies are going to an Eve camp, that means they're not going to an established town.

This is just plain not true. Most towns would die out, sure, but some would last days or weeks. You had both the excitement of something new and the familiarity of something old. You never knew where you were going to spawn and what your life would be. Every life you were thrown into a unique situation.

jasonrohrer wrote:

(2) means that everything you build is lost in about a day. I'm guessing that most people don't like that too much. People are currently complaining that everything is lost in 5 days at the end of the arc. "EVERYTHING WE BUILD IS POINTLESS!" But, you know, before the arc, everything you built was usually lost in less than 24 hours.
Unless I'm missing something, I'm pretty sure it's impossible to have it both ways. Permanence and Novelty fight each other. If it's permanent, you're going to encounter the same thing over and over. If it's novel, well, then it's new, and it must not be permanent.

Again, this is just completely untrue, and honestly just reading it is kind of frustrating. Most towns were lost in about a day, but every now and then a town would last for weeks. It would be something exciting and interesting and different. Pre-Arc you never knew if the town you were in would die out in six hours or last for three weeks. Anything could happen! It was INTERESTING!

These days we know that the worst town in the world will last for exactly the same amount of time as the best town in the world, with that time being somewhere between 3-8 days. If you play on day 6 of the Arc you know everything is going to be destroyed soon. You no longer play as one small part of a greater story, you just do whatever and the story ends when the timer is up. Your life is completely irrelevant.

The Arc is a failed experiment. It was supposed to create more meaningful and more interesting stories, but it's done the exact opposite of that for me and for a lot of other people. Please, free us from this hell cell.

CatX · 2019-10-08 20:59:24

Twisted wrote:

Please, free us from this hell cell.

Soundtrack:

If You Love Somebody Set Them Free

https://youtu.be/Ql2RcwNY5Eo

jasonrohrer · 2019-10-08 21:02:02

Twisted, if a town lasted for weeks, where was it?

(A) During the ever-growing Eve spiral, the new towns would get farther and farther away. Eventually, it would be too far away to reach in a lifetime.

(B) During the resetting Eve spiral, where we watched for the center to not be seen for 8+ hours and then reset the center back to nature so that the spiral could get small again, the stuff in the center was culled constantly.

My guess is that the long-term towns happened during (A) and were the result of pure luck, because the Eve spiral would start over with zero radius on the "rim" of the old spiral each week, after the update.

Thus, sometimes, the new Eve spiral would eventually "grow back through" an old town. I suppose that given enough time, the Eve spiral would always grow back through any old town.

However, the general tendency was still for us to get farther and farther away from the old towns over time. A few "bad" rim choices on the subsequent Eve spiral restarts, and everything is lost.

Besides that, counting on what happens during a weekly update (reset Eve spiral to rim of old spiral) isn't something that we should count on long term. The game won't be updated weekly forever, and needs to run "normally" when I'm on extended vacation, etc.

FURTHERMORE, discovering and re-settling old towns is not what I'm talking about here, but instead interactions between thriving towns. For towns on the rim of the old spiral, toward the end of the week, this was all but impossible.

There's definitely way more of that happening now.

MultiLife · 2019-10-08 21:04:59

jasonrohrer wrote:

I'm still working on this (the end of the arc IS boring, I know), but a few thoughts:
1. If you don't like the town you're born into, and you're a woman, just leave and start a new town. There's plenty of empty space around, right? That is essentially the "Eve game."
2. Beyond (1), what your'e asking for (lots of Eve camps or young towns 24-7) is not long-term sustainable, unless all towns die out in short order. That is in fact what used to happen, for the most part, which is why the game was more exciting before. In order to "make room" for a viable Eve camp in the player population, an established town has to die out. There are only so many babies to go around, and if babies are going to an Eve camp, that means they're not going to an established town.
(2) means that everything you build is lost in about a day. I'm guessing that most people don't like that too much. People are currently complaining that everything is lost in 5 days at the end of the arc. "EVERYTHING WE BUILD IS POINTLESS!" But, you know, before the arc, everything you built was usually lost in less than 24 hours.
Unless I'm missing something, I'm pretty sure it's impossible to have it both ways. Permanence and Novelty fight each other. If it's permanent, you're going to encounter the same thing over and over. If it's novel, well, then it's new, and it must not be permanent.

(Note that if you exercise (1) and are successful at starting a new town, you will suck babies away from an existing town and cause it to die out...)
(I also realize that (1) is not a pure Eve game because even the wild areas of the rift are somewhat settled and explored.)

1. I think the point is to have your surname on a family and find your corner in the world, being proud of the spot you seeked out from the vast wilderness. Pseudo-Eves just aren’t Eves for Eve fans. You’re not the gen 1 who sets the family off to the future. You’re not the beginning, but some random gen 53 lady.
And what Twisted said; it just doesn’t work in the Rift. Nothing is untouched. Valid spots run out. Nearby towns can drain the lands and steal your stuff. All banana trees are empty. Milkweed is nowhere to be seen - and not for natural reasons.

2. I never had an issue with the ’spread thin’ stuff and families running out of babies. Families with low babies should, though, get chances to birth a girl (the baby weighting is FINALLY in the game now) and if enough girls SID, tough luck. If you are annoyed that your Eve spot got cut short, then you should be given a chance to return to try again later, if you’re that attached to that specific spot. It took ages to find some of the most amazing spots on the mega map so no wonder Eves whined about babies.
Eveing could also be gained when you live to old age in other lives, to pace it a little. Anyone could be Eve if they play enough. Now it’s just some lucky few, the few who are waiting to dive in when arc starts.
(2) The culling time changes were random, and the change where walls were left behind. But people worked towards saving some towns even as group efforts. San-Cal and Casino Town were revived, killed, revived, griefed, revived etc., until totally wiped.
Mods were made to find coordinates of these places to keep them from being culled. As long as even one person wants it to be there, they’d run for it. 8h was too fast. It should be so that if you play every day, you can go to the place to keep it from being culled, so 24h should’ve been better.

It’s one thing to design a feature to do a thing, and another to confirm if it actually does it.
Twisted also had good points, so, those.

Last edited by MultiLife (2019-10-08 21:11:10)

jasonrohrer · 2019-10-08 21:18:04

Yeah, I know that like 50% of the players would love to be Real Eve every time and start thriving towns. Everyone wants to be the matriarch of vibrant family tree.

But you can clearly see why that is impossible and not sustainable, right?

If everyone wants to be a root, who's going to be the leaves and branches?

Coconut Fruit · 2019-10-09 00:14:40

I prefer to play in early towns simply because there are things to do. I like survival part of the game. There is no more survival and no more things to do in advanced towns and that's the issue for me.
Give us something to do in more advanced towns and I will like playing them as well.

MultiLife · 2019-10-09 11:08:53

jasonrohrer wrote:

Yeah, I know that like 50% of the players would love to be Real Eve every time and start thriving towns. Everyone wants to be the matriarch of vibrant family tree.
But you can clearly see why that is impossible and not sustainable, right?
If everyone wants to be a root, who's going to be the leaves and branches?

That’s why I said you’d need to pace it. Figure out how often and why, then see what you could design around that. Maybe pseudo-Eves start working if they can have their own surname or special split in the family tree.
Personally I don’t need to Eve to enjoy the game but I would like a chance to Eve once in a while. Others might want to Eve more and are ready to fulfill requirements for it. Such as ’playing to old age adds to your Eve probability’ and you playing in many families is beneficial to you, always, because it always plays into your Eve bank or something. Just an idea. I know you don’t want answers so I’m stopping here. Think what players you want to support and how you could accommodate them and make them useful for everyone. Not everything is possible, yeah. Shrug.

One Hour One Life Forums

#1 2019-10-06 16:12:13

OHOL has become so boring & it makes me sad

#2 2019-10-06 16:27:32

Re: OHOL has become so boring & it makes me sad

#3 2019-10-06 16:41:19

Re: OHOL has become so boring & it makes me sad

#4 2019-10-06 16:46:48

Re: OHOL has become so boring & it makes me sad

#5 2019-10-06 16:56:53

Re: OHOL has become so boring & it makes me sad

#6 2019-10-06 17:17:24

Re: OHOL has become so boring & it makes me sad

#7 2019-10-06 17:44:06

Re: OHOL has become so boring & it makes me sad

#8 2019-10-06 20:37:59

Re: OHOL has become so boring & it makes me sad

#9 2019-10-07 05:14:01

Re: OHOL has become so boring & it makes me sad

#10 2019-10-07 05:34:06

Re: OHOL has become so boring & it makes me sad

#11 2019-10-07 07:38:06

Re: OHOL has become so boring & it makes me sad

#12 2019-10-07 10:51:05

Re: OHOL has become so boring & it makes me sad

#13 2019-10-07 15:24:48

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#14 2019-10-07 15:27:46

Re: OHOL has become so boring & it makes me sad

#15 2019-10-07 18:10:39

Re: OHOL has become so boring & it makes me sad

#16 2019-10-08 16:16:53

Re: OHOL has become so boring & it makes me sad

#17 2019-10-08 17:49:54

Re: OHOL has become so boring & it makes me sad

#18 2019-10-08 18:05:42

Re: OHOL has become so boring & it makes me sad

#19 2019-10-08 19:14:29

Re: OHOL has become so boring & it makes me sad

#20 2019-10-08 20:59:24

Re: OHOL has become so boring & it makes me sad

#21 2019-10-08 21:02:02

Re: OHOL has become so boring & it makes me sad

#22 2019-10-08 21:04:59

Re: OHOL has become so boring & it makes me sad

#23 2019-10-08 21:18:04

Re: OHOL has become so boring & it makes me sad

#24 2019-10-09 00:14:40

Re: OHOL has become so boring & it makes me sad

#25 2019-10-09 11:08:53

Re: OHOL has become so boring & it makes me sad

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