First Expedition, Disaster Strikes...

[Silver Fox]

Am I going too fast in the game?

I stayed around the first area, in between the waterfall and the swamp for almost 20 years...had a few babies, skipped 1 generation only... made a lot of progress with the neurons... then decided to move everybody "forward", down the river...
And on the way down, we got attacked by every single creature in the game!!! Clan members screaming, some bleeding, some with broken bones, babies crying, just total chaos!!!....

AN ABSOLUTE DISASTER!
I spent more time running around "fixing" every single one of them, than "enjoying the view"...or "enjoying the nature"!!! lol
One of the most stressful and agonizing trips ever, and we didn't even go that far!... we lost a few on the way down, and by the time I reached what I think is the Savana, the Clan was halved with many injured, poisoned or just dead.

Am I going too fast in the game or it is extremely difficult to move only 1 biome forward???

[Sargon The Grape]

If you're losing that many apes, I'd say you definitely need to slow down.

There are six biomes that mostly progress from west (the jungle) to east (the coast), with the two exceptions being the great lake (north of jungle) and the caves that run under the map. Technically speaking, the only reason you ever need to move is for evolution feats, like discovering landmarks and performing certain interactions with the other wildlife.

If you're going to take the clan with you, at the very minimum you need the neurons for NPC self-defense and then give them all some kind of weapon. Make sure they carry their weapon in their left hand so that they'll still eat and drink. I personally don't like to leave the jungle until I have full bipedal walking, full omnivore diet, and have at least advanced to Ardipithecus.

In your position, I'd retreat back to the jungle and spend some time recruiting outsiders. Once you're back to being able to have six babies at once, start grinding out some mutations. Anytime you have at least one elder and at least one adult with a mutation, do an evolution jump. You only need one evolution feat to initiate a jump, so you can grind out quite a few mutations this way if you plan a little bit ahead.

[Expectorate]

You waited for 20 years? Uh, yeah...my clan had a couple babies, learned some things, wandered out a bit and came running back short a tribe member or two, then I did that evolution thing wondering what would happen...did the same thing with the next lot and now I'm only a couple years into that second stage and I've got one baby monkey left. She's scrappy. A survivor. I still think I need to restart though. Too many deaths from tigers, snakes and...I'm gonna call them death bacon for now, cause they sound like pigs but charge and attack like wild ones, and the bastards killed my elder survivor who was carrying two babies back to camp.

Baby hominids are smart - you DO NOT leave camp by yourself. Ever.

[Anthracite]

Are you using your senses to detect danger? You can avoid almost all predators simply doing that.

And yes, you went way too far if you ended up in the savannah after just one generation jump.

[Silver Fox]

Thanks for the insight guys!

Sargon, after reading your comment and doing some research, now I understand that they will not defend themselves until I unlock that from the tech-tree! And this is something that I still don't understand very well... like, if I take one of them out and scan everything around me, smell everything around me... conquer my fear of the swamp, for example... do I have to do all over again for every single one of them??? I even tried to call the whole clan around me, to watch me doing simple things, like making a tool or grinding some leaves to eat, also thinking that it would make the rest "understand" what they'd have to do... this was before that disastrous run.

But I get it, I totally missed the point of the game, for not understanding the core mechanics, which is evolution of the species and not the "let's go running and exploring around the map" sort of thing... lol Totally unprepared!
I'm still very new to the game and its mechanics...I'm more "primate" than those poor monkeys I'm controlling in the game! haha

Anthracite, I'm using the senses yes... and during that run, I was the only one holding a weapon!
I started a new run anyway... I'm gonna take it slowly this time, while learning more about the tech tree and mutations... this game is way more complex than I thought!

[Anthracite]

Only one ape needs to conquer fear and it "unlocks" that area for the entire tribe. Some people use elders to explore as they don't have the fear issue, but they're also much lower health so imo it's better to just take an adult and conquer fear while having much more leeway if things go wrong (you also get evolution points for the amount of fear conquering you do).

Personally I just take a single ape and single baby (you get more neuronal energy with two but you also have to deal with running all the way back as a baby if the adult dies, plus I'm a take it slow player), fashion a weapon, and go out exploring alone. Taking the whole tribe just ends up a bit of a nightmare as they all need to eat, drink, sleep, end up losing items if they get attacked etc. I only move everyone when we're moving home bases. Downside to this of course is if a predator gets you you're guaranteed to die, so make sure you know how to dodge and fight (even punching a predator will give you a chance, although you will get an injury of some sort). I'd advise practicing these skills on something like the warthog, something that won't kill you if you fail (though it will give you a good kick up the arse).

Going slow is very important in this game, plus it also means you have more time to explore everything. I was still discovering new stuff after 200 hours.

[Silver Fox]

Thanks for the reply Anthracite!

I read your comment and followed your suggestions/tips very carefully, and YES! It does make the difference... after many hours of gameplay, I think I finally understood all the mechanics. I started 2 or 3 runs in the mean time, trying to "test" things...like in one I'd be very careful and go slowly and on the other I'd just go reckless, fighting everything, losing monkeys, pushing everything to the limit...

But on my main run, the one I'm playing properly, lol ... I've got only a few things that I still don't understand very well.

One of them, was that, while exploring the other day, my primate suddenly experienced thirst, out of nowhere... his health went down, almost 40% and I got that red square with a circle, showing "Thirst" as the problem... I have no idea how that happened, given that he had just eaten and drunk water, after sleeping...I was about to start going back to my settlement when this happened.
And the other thing is, how to know when to stop sleeping? I always eat and drink before going to sleep, and do the same when I wake up... but sometimes during sleep, it takes FOREVER for the green circle to start "flashing" yellow... then it flashes a few times, stop...then flashes green. But if I carry on sleeping, it goes back to flashing yellow, indicating that I haven't done sleeping!?!?
With food and water, I know that when I see the green "flash" coming on, is time to stop. But with sleeping, is really weird how this mechanics work.

[Anthracite]

Honestly, I think sleeping is a bit bugged. I've had issues before where one or more of my apes are exhausted despite sleeping and the only way to fix it is to take over that ape and sleep manually. The flashing when sleeping is also not consistent in my experience, so I just work round it by sleeping the same times each day and it seems to work most of the time, usually from around 8pm to 3am, where I then have plenty of time to feed and water everyone else in time for the sunrise.

With the thirst, the only thing I can think is that you didn't fully rehydrate your ape and so you went out already low. Water isn't usually an issue in my experience unlike the sleeping. Sometimes however it's a good idea just to save the game, exit, then go back in to reset everything; playing any game for a while can cause a build up of tasks that lead to buggy behaviour.

I'm glad you're getting the hang of the game!

[Cougarific]

Originally posted by Anthracite:

Honestly, I think sleeping is a bit bugged. I've had issues before where one or more of my apes are exhausted despite sleeping

Are they sleeping in beds?

Clan members will sleep 2-to-3 to a bed so as you grow the clan you need to make sure there are enough beds (at least 4 for a full-sized clan) so everybody can get a good night's sleep.

Sleeping on the ground (or in a tree) doesn't provide as much benefit as sleeping on a sleep spot.

[Anthracite]

Originally posted by Cougarific:

Are they sleeping in beds?

Clan members will sleep 2-to-3 to a bed so as you grow the clan you need to make sure there are enough beds (at least 4 for a full-sized clan) so everybody can get a good night's sleep.

Sleeping on the ground (or in a tree) doesn't provide as much benefit as sleeping on a sleep spot.

Yeah, I always count how many beds I need for everyone. It's not common, but it seems like sometimes there may be a pathing issue or delay in an ape going to sleep which builds and builds and results in exhausted monke.

[Clan Bruce-Stewart]

lol Pal don't listen to anything anyone here is saying. It doesn't matter how FAST or SLOW you go. I've literally gone from the "cave" to the beach at the other end of the map in one generation-the FIRST generation and was able to survive no problem-the survival aspect of this game is NOT HARD AT ALL, its the constant attacks and stupidity the developers put in. And getting attacked by EVERYTHING CONSTANTLY "IS" part of the game-wait until you get out into the plains and have multiple cats attack you-I'm talking you KILL one and another IMMEDIATELY pops up behind you prompting you to defend yourself-NON-STOP. Sometimes you'll have two cats attack and you WILL have to restart because it will be devastating. Don't even TRY to set up *LMAO* "defenses* because EVERY animal will either slither over or simply walk through and absolutely wreck your world and every "site" they suggest you visit and seems like a good place to set up a base-it's not. Keep moving, because the animals will spawn near you and attack you. Find the highest ground you can-oh wait, you can't the birds will attack you.
Found a cave to make a base in? LOL A CAT will ALWAYS spawn outside and scorpions or spiders will poison you from inside.
Out in the badlands with the cliffs? Watch out for anything and everything including the heat of the sun to kill you.
Made it to the marsh? Watch out for gators/cats/hogs/rotten water/etc.

If you THINK you are going to be able to build ANYTHING worthy of being called a "base" lol you picked the WRONG game man. This is essentially a "sabertooth Tiger attack simulator" I would seriously suggest finding another game. You will NOT be able to research fire/clothing/basic structures/basic speech and communication as we know it/nothing-you are an ape, you WILL enjoy it. You WILL die repeatedly over and over and over and over and over until you figure one aspect of this game and if you don't well-you paid for this.

[Anthracite]

... You only get random attacks a. if you start in survival mode and b. when you skip a generation. When you kill the cat it stops randomly attacking. All other animals spawn in predictable locations and can easily be detected if you use your senses. Very rarely do animals attack you when you're in a base, the only base I can think that has regular issues is the tiny oasis with the hippos.

Also no one ever said this was a base builder, you're playing as apes up to early hominins, so of course there's no fire, structures or clothing. This game is an animal survival game, I have no idea why you expected anything remotely base builder.

And for saying the game is easy, you sure do seem to have had a difficult time surviving.

[Expectorate]

What do you mean you kill one and the other one attacks? Maybe I've been more fortunate with my evolution, because I bag a cat, the other one runs. Still have to be on the look out for a pack of hyenas - I think they smell kills. Four hyenas at once is a bloody nuisance.

A bit of 'base building' would be nice. Like taking the time to build slightly better nests for better rest. Or food storage spots where food spoils slower.

[Anthracite]

Originally posted by Expectorate:

What do you mean you kill one and the other one attacks? Maybe I've been more fortunate with my evolution, because I bag a cat, the other one runs. Still have to be on the look out for a pack of hyenas - I think they smell kills. Four hyenas at once is a bloody nuisance.

A bit of 'base building' would be nice. Like taking the time to build slightly better nests for better rest. Or food storage spots where food spoils slower.

I'm talking about what's known as the stalker cat, which spawns after a generation leap (or maybe evolution, it's been a while), and repeatedly attacks you until either your clan all dies or it dies. This is different to the cats who are spawned out in the world in predictable places within their homesite radius. The stalker cat cannot be detected by senses until it's literally on top of you, the others can, hence why I'm assuming the guy above me was talking about that one because if you're paying attention you can avoid the non-stalker cats entirely.

That's not really how apes live though, or even early hominins. They were constantly on the move so there was no pressing need to learn how to build bases; they came, they saw, they ate, they left. There were supposed to be a couple of other games progressing into human evolution further which would have included base building, but it doesn't look like that's gonna happen now.

[Expectorate]

They're not making more? That's really unfortunate, because I've really enjoyed this game and how it works. Going from early on, with one ape experimenting with hitting one rock against another, to further on in evolution where you can have half the tribe grab a stick off a tree, put it in their offhand, and strip it of twigs in just a few steps. Observation and learning is what changes - it's not about settling and building.

I've been looking for a early stone age to early metallurgy game for ages, as most games that include stone tool usage barely scratch the surface.

[Anthracite]

They said they had the next game down on paper several years ago but then moved onto somet different and there's been no news about a sequel since, so I assume they're not going to bother. This is a niche game within a niche genre so I would guess the finances are stopping them.