What is the general gameplay loop?

[Ad Hominem]

I got this game on Humble Bundle and started it up last night. Seemed really interesting. The one thing I'm confused about is the gameplay loop though. Are there any objectives aside from "survive"? What are the things I should be doing when starting out? Eat, drink, sleep, explore is what I've been doing so far but I'm not sure if there is more objective based stuff to do.

[sir d wreck]

You want to unlock neurons to advance the game. Survive, discover things, use your senses and practice them.

The more things you unlock, the better it gets, the easier it is to understand your environment. This game starts off very basic, but there is so much stuff to unlock, like for example eating different types of foods will help to unlock evolution/neurons that will help your future children digest them. So eating weird things, and trying different interactions with the environment to make tools/weapons will also unlock neurons. Seriously, this game gets better the longer you play it, and discovering the world and learning from mistakes (really important here) is part of the fun.

The start of the early game does feel slow and you might feel clueless but that's okay. Learning the hard way is a good way though, because you retain more. You don't learn through easy gameplay, you learn through life and death mistakes. Did you just get attacked/killed out of nowhere while drinking?... did you use your senses to make sure you were safe? (even these will improve over generations!)

I give this game a 9.8/10 for animal simulators (my favorite type of game).

[Ad Hominem]

Yea I def feel clueless right now. I think I've been being maybe too conservative, I have barely scouted much area around base camp. I read that I need to have babies with me for them to learn the new stuff I find or something? Is there a way to pass knowledge of how to like sharpen a stick to the rest of my tribe? I tried handing them sharp sticks but I don't know if that's doing anything.

[sir d wreck]

Originally posted by Ad Hominem:

Yea I def feel clueless right now. I think I've been being maybe too conservative, I have barely scouted much area around base camp. I read that I need to have babies with me for them to learn the new stuff I find or something? Is there a way to pass knowledge of how to like sharpen a stick to the rest of my tribe? I tried handing them sharp sticks but I don't know if that's doing anything.

Yeah, always try to take two babies with you since it'll allow them to have mutations which ends up being free neurons!

Once you know how to sharpen a stick, you'll be able to always do it (once you do it, it'll activate the neurons). However, if you evolve/generation and the neuron isn't reinforced you'll have to discover it again.

Ideally.. the best time to evolve is when you have mutations in the adults and elders.. then you evolve! Because if you don't, and your elders die the next time you skip a generation their mutations will be lost. So you start a new generation... you should skip generations 2 times, and then evolve when there is mutations in the current adults and elders (your current babies might have mutations, but it doesn't matter because when you evolve those will be lost anyways).

Hopefully that makes sense!

[sir d wreck]

Thankfully though, no matter how much you understand you'll never 'miss out' on something that you won't be able to get later. So even if you're ineffecient with how you evolve/skip generations it won't matter in the end you'll still always be able to unlock everything - it just takes longer.

[Ad Hominem]

Originally posted by sir d wreck:

Thankfully though, no matter how much you understand you'll never 'miss out' on something that you won't be able to get later. So even if you're ineffecient with how you evolve/skip generations it won't matter in the end you'll still always be able to unlock everything - it just takes longer.

Yea I guess right now I'm just along for the ride, not worried about min/max or anything. Just a chill game where I can reflect on the life of our distant ancestors. Tonight, mean ol' Mr. Tiger almost got me and my baby while I was looking for a place to camp for the night. It's hard to imagine going without electricity for a week, much less worrying about apex predators while trying to find a place to sleep.

[sir d wreck]

Originally posted by Ad Hominem:

Originally posted by sir d wreck:

Thankfully though, no matter how much you understand you'll never 'miss out' on something that you won't be able to get later. So even if you're ineffecient with how you evolve/skip generations it won't matter in the end you'll still always be able to unlock everything - it just takes longer.

Yea I guess right now I'm just along for the ride, not worried about min/max or anything. Just a chill game where I can reflect on the life of our distant ancestors. Tonight, mean ol' Mr. Tiger almost got me and my baby while I was looking for a place to camp for the night. It's hard to imagine going without electricity for a week, much less worrying about apex predators while trying to find a place to sleep.

It's okay, one day you'll be the apex ;)

And seriously ... part of the fun is flying through the trees and just enjoying yourself!

Also, you can totally make a shelter in a tree.. just find a flat thicc branch and make your nest up there in safety :D

[spamyjoneswar]

this game is boring trash

[sir d wreck]

Originally posted by Sam logan war:

this game is boring trash

To each their own. Lots of people enjoy this game. Not every game has to hold your hand, I enjoy games that aren't easy.

The start/early game is slow, but it picks up. I started to play most of my longer hours sessions later in the game.

[Ad Hominem]

Originally posted by Sam logan war:

this game is boring trash

I think it's pretty good. It's pretty chill but still challenging and engaging. You can move forward as slow or fast as you like.

[sir d wreck]

Originally posted by Ad Hominem:

Originally posted by Sam logan war:

this game is boring trash

I think it's pretty good. It's pretty chill but still challenging and engaging. You can move forward as slow or fast as you like.

Honestly, everything aside, later in the game jumping and flying through the trees is realllly fun and immersive. Just.. careful not to fall to your death.. or eat something/make a potion that helps with taking fall damage.. but you can definitely still fall to your death even with a buff so always be careful! Don't get darwined. :P

[Ad Hominem]

Originally posted by sir d wreck:

Originally posted by Ad Hominem:

I think it's pretty good. It's pretty chill but still challenging and engaging. You can move forward as slow or fast as you like.

Honestly, everything aside, later in the game jumping and flying through the trees is realllly fun and immersive. Just.. careful not to fall to your death.. or eat something/make a potion that helps with taking fall damage.. but you can definitely still fall to your death even with a buff so always be careful! Don't get darwined. :P

Too late, already happened to me real early on.

[sir d wreck]

Originally posted by Ad Hominem:

Originally posted by sir d wreck:

Honestly, everything aside, later in the game jumping and flying through the trees is realllly fun and immersive. Just.. careful not to fall to your death.. or eat something/make a potion that helps with taking fall damage.. but you can definitely still fall to your death even with a buff so always be careful! Don't get darwined. :P

Too late, already happened to me real early on.

Same here...it can be quite a rush falling to your death for sure. :)

[Ad Hominem]

How often should I be going to the next generation or doing the other evolution thing?

[sir d wreck]

Originally posted by Ad Hominem:

How often should I be going to the next generation or doing the other evolution thing?

Every time you do a generation you get to reinforce as many neurons as you have children in the settlement. So you shouldn't spend tons of time unlocking neurons if you can only reinforce 6 (or as many kids/reinforcements you have).

Babies can get random mutations upon birth, but they don't become active until they become adults or elders (activating a generation leap). Even then, they aren't really 'active' until you use the evolution feature to lock them in. The game warns you that mutations on babies don't count when you evolve - it only cares about active mutations from the ADULTS and ELDERS.

In the mutations screen you can see the which ones are active or not by how bright they are (light orange)

:)

[v0y4g3r]

No one has simply explained what the gameplay loop is in a few words.