Some ideas for improving cooperation (inside towns and between them)

Blue tinker · 2020-03-31 11:30:18

Recently I can't help but notice that there is little to no cooperation in towns. Cooperation between towns is essential due to new updates but people from the same town don't ask each other for help unless they really need something that they, themselves can't or don't want to get (like when they want a shovel but they don't want to waste their tool slots).

And I am not talking about nerfs to existing mechanics (there were quite a few of them recently) that would require two or more players to perform certain activities, I think it would be interesting to introduce a way to make cooperation even more fruitful than usually. For example, you could still forge a shovel by yourself and use it, and it will eventually break, just as always. But if you had asked your uncle to help you with forging, the shovel would be stronger than usual, gaining additional uses (it will still break but will last longer).

Many people didn't like the race specializations update. By introducing ways to make certain items (mainly tools) stronger it would be possible to get rid of the current specialization mechanic by making it simply easier for specialists to enter specific biomes in comparison to other races instead of making them the only ones physically able to do so. Maybe non-gingers would have to wear warm clothes to enter snow biomes? Or desert would make non-dark people lose health extra fast? It would still encourage trade between towns (simply because it doesn't need much preparations). This way, if you don't have rubber, you can only blame yourself for not being prepared (or skilled enough to avoid mosquitos while being slowed down in a jungle).

I am interested in other people's opinions (especially of those who didn't quite like the last few updates.)

Legs · 2020-03-31 12:04:23

Huge gaps in skill make cooperation very difficult sometimes. For the most part, you either know something or you don't. It's hard to teach people in-game. If someone doesn't know how to make a shovel do you really want to spend the next 15 minutes telling them? Do you want to waste precious resources as teaching material? The opportunity cost alone is huge. That time spent teaching could have made a dozen pies, compost piles and sheep.

Recently I had a son and the only shirt left was a medical vest. I asked, son do you know how to doctor? He said no, so I gave him my shirt and took the vest. Asking that question made him want to learn so while he was young I explained the process. Use a pad from your pouch on a wound, then stitch it with needle and thread. If it's an arrow wound you need a hot knife to do surgery first. Like a lot of ohol it's fairly simple when you know how, but as a new player hearing it explained can sound complicated. He was intimidated and decided he'd rather not risk it, too much pressure.

When you meet a player that does know how though, it's always a blessing. A brother that's building in our small town, and I just hit 40. So babytime is over and I march in naked wearing my straw hat after giving everything away and offer to help. Together, we finish a 7x7 building with hardwood floors and plastered adobe walls. He hauls adobe while I build walls, I make boards while he makes plaster. It's always great to have a partner on a project- but you can't count on it.

pein · 2020-03-31 12:21:06

if you can cheese it, you would cheese it
he either abandons the whole thing or not, won't be like you can cut trees in the edge of jungle but not 2 tiles inside, defeats tte purpose

the races are for the increasing tech difficulty and trade, the slots were for teamwork.

I actually would understand that we would have stamina bar and doing a job together would be better than alone or certain upgrades that people can only contribute one item,, that would make sense, current form slots are just a limiting factor for veterans who don't care about the whole meme score

Gogo · 2020-03-31 12:53:10

IMO very good idea! Teaching is most important thing in this game, if you need 2 people to do something better, the one with simpler task will observe you and learn the whole process, like an apprentice.

Coconut Fruit · 2020-03-31 13:07:30

I love working together on the same projects with people. Making a real sheep pen or making a kitchen, gathering branches for kindling, clay or pretty much anything... Making things together is much more enjoyable. But running through the whole town and asking people who wants to join me is awkward, so I usually end up doing things alone.

"Order," thing doesn't help either since only your kids follow you and also nobody follows males, so they can't use it at all.

Cogito · 2020-04-01 02:50:01

Last few times (pre iron nerf) I smithed I always got people to help me.

It was incredibly easy to find helpers (shout in the kitchen "I need help in the smithy") and then I was very clear about the tasks I needed help with.

The players who helped me were in general not smiths; they had no idea how to do very much at all.

We started with refining ore. We had three people total, one on the tongs, one hitting, one removing iron. You can easily get 8-12 ore refined like this if you set up the space nicely before hand. The best bit is that people feel really productive, and you do get more done than you would by yourself. (keyboard controls really help too, for picking up and using things quickly)

They picked up charcoal and steel production quickly as well, and in the end was a really fun time.

Blue tinker · 2020-04-01 07:49:55

I got another idea: now that we can expand our homeland with the new iron update (I don't have a strong opinion about this one) we could freely enter biomes we are not experts of as long as they are in our homeland. It would encourage expanding and planning carefully where to place your family well (we will need oil eventually, maybe let's settle near snow biome?)
Of course biome specialists would be able to enter their respective biomes freely wherever it happens to be placed. It's less of a cooperation idea and more of a thought of how to use the new mechanics (didn't want to make a new thread).

jasonrohrer · 2020-04-01 15:00:39

For certain things, you already get a "bonus" for co-op, because you can smith more stuff on the same batch of charcoal, or bake more pies before the over burns out. That's a natural, emergent thing, of course. But you do see people co-oping that way in-game.

The problem with making the large-scale (between village) co-op optional is that the cost of that kind of co-op is SO high. You have to find the person, talk to them, etc. In order to balance it, the trade-off would have to be huge. So huge, in fact, that why not make it impossible without co-op?

Karrots · 2020-04-01 16:05:36

Legs wrote:

Huge gaps in skill make cooperation very difficult sometimes. For the most part, you either know something or you don't. It's hard to teach people in-game. If someone doesn't know how to make a shovel do you really want to spend the next 15 minutes telling them? Do you want to waste precious resources as teaching material? The opportunity cost alone is huge. That time spent teaching could have made a dozen pies, compost piles and sheep.

I've often seen that when people want to learn something, they'll watch you. Sometimes they ask you if they can, most of the time they won't. But I stress Onetech. Onetech is a great resource and anything is possible with it. I used to think cameras and engines were impossible. A simple search and a tech tree made me see how easy they really were. It's really changed my game experience by allowing me to do more complicated jobs that I didn't know how to do before.

DestinyCall · 2020-04-01 16:27:54

jasonrohrer wrote:

For certain things, you already get a "bonus" for co-op, because you can smith more stuff on the same batch of charcoal, or bake more pies before the over burns out. That's a natural, emergent thing, of course. But you do see people co-oping that way in-game.

Not as much as you once did. You have to use an entire tool slot to help someone bake pies. It's not worth it.

Last edited by DestinyCall (2020-04-01 16:28:43)

Tipy · 2020-04-01 17:11:43

I had an idea of something like a culture tree
All families (or hierachies if hierarchies ever get stable) start with basic skills

As time progresses they can unlock ''branches'' in that tree.
This way you can have families that specialize in different things animal husbandry, cloth making, metallurgy, etc. and at different depths ( like all families start with the abbility to proccess iron, later on they can unlock things like copper and zinc proccessing, new ores that make better tools and new technology, mines that are more productive etc.)

The idea is that a family/ hierarchy would choose where to specialize, not being pre determent and that the way you unlock new brances will be fun as well. Also they could know different nodes at a different depth.

The way you unlock new branches could be that by doing related activities enough times. Like if your people fish a lot you will unlock more things related to fishing (like renwable bait, better bait, more places to catch fish from, other fish types to catch, better chances to catch fish, eskimo clothes, other ways to cultivate and exploit the see's resources, ships, more things to do with fish, etc.)

Higher branches would be harder to unlock, just one man fishing could unlock some of the lower levels but you would need a lot of people fishing to unlock some of the hiegher tier branches. Encouraging team work and creating a scenrio where a family can't just blast through all of the nodes. This way players can shape how towns develope and bring something long needed, variety. Different families could have different tech tree directions and they could trade for tech that they can't get with other families.

Glassius · 2020-04-02 00:28:10

I suggest you all to learn the theory of comparative advantage. It describes why trade occurs in real life. It is not because certain people cannot do certain things. They could always learn to. It is because certain people have advantage in producing certain stuff over others. Most often this advantage comes from specific location. Even distribution of resources in OHOL does not encourage specialization nor trade. The latest updates made it sure everyone has the same amount of resources. For trade to occur, certain settle points must be giving huge advantage over others. Current design needs 2 updates:
1. Iron must be exlcusive. Loose iron to make initial game start, but veins must be very rare to make them valuable.
2. There must be a reason to settle around the mine. This way a settlers will be mine dependent and will protect iron from other players. Those 2 combined would allow to trade.

Just compare smithing tech tree and mining. Smithing is complicated, there is a need for kiln, forge, different wood types, few flat rocks, pottery, tools and a lot of manual work. It is a pleasant, long work to create any item. Also, the process is better with cooperation. There is no need to make a smithery far from starting village location, as that would not benefit from anything. During ingame choices the smithing is always right next to food sources, never close to iron location. And there is a reason, as loose iron does not encourage settling far from village only for shorttime boost, while mines are the spots to come, gather an leave. The solution is to make a multistep, many items dependent mining which will require to gather multiple resources near mine and work there.

Proposition:
Allow players to enter mine, but only with light source and pickaxe in hands (like arrow and bow). This way, upon leaving the mine they will have to relase both items, needing 2 empty tiles around them, gather iron, put pickaxe and light again to the hands to enter mine. Upon light source end up force leaving mine. If iron would not stack at mine, it would be better to work i pairs. One inside mine to dig it, the other to collect it on the ground.
+ =

Also, it would be better if stanchion kit instead of a full set put on the mine would be a multistep proces done on the mine itself. This way, we do not make one trop to the mine with stanchion kit, but multiple trips with bramches, rope, bucket. It makes the mine stop a place which is worth to prepare even basic settling.

It would be also wise to make output of mine less worth. Put a random chance to gather any rock instead of iron. Or make purifing iron requiring more ore.

Upon depletion of basic mine a diesel engine would not be just enough. Provide rails, cards and build an elevator, put an engine at the end. First the player with light and pickaxe goes down, then cart. After few clicks the second player on the ground could bring cart full or iron back. That would be dangerous, as a miner cannot leave on their own even if lights go out. Just allow to drop food to the mine unless new oil is bringed to save the miner

One Hour One Life Forums

#1 2020-03-31 11:30:18

Some ideas for improving cooperation (inside towns and between them)

#2 2020-03-31 12:04:23

Re: Some ideas for improving cooperation (inside towns and between them)

#3 2020-03-31 12:21:06

Re: Some ideas for improving cooperation (inside towns and between them)

#4 2020-03-31 12:53:10

Re: Some ideas for improving cooperation (inside towns and between them)

#5 2020-03-31 13:07:30

Re: Some ideas for improving cooperation (inside towns and between them)

#6 2020-04-01 02:50:01

Re: Some ideas for improving cooperation (inside towns and between them)

#7 2020-04-01 07:49:55

Re: Some ideas for improving cooperation (inside towns and between them)

#8 2020-04-01 15:00:39

Re: Some ideas for improving cooperation (inside towns and between them)

#9 2020-04-01 16:05:36

Re: Some ideas for improving cooperation (inside towns and between them)

#10 2020-04-01 16:27:54

Re: Some ideas for improving cooperation (inside towns and between them)

#11 2020-04-01 17:11:43

Re: Some ideas for improving cooperation (inside towns and between them)

#12 2020-04-02 00:28:10

Re: Some ideas for improving cooperation (inside towns and between them)

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