As I first played the story, not only were there so many things to consider, THE AMOUNT OF DETAILCheifs Kiss. I appreciate the background being easily described because I felt a little blind. My parents are lovely(Homo-Saipan), and I love the attention to detail on things I know and don’t know yet. The inventory access though is awesome, i understand to hold more things I need a backpack or something like that. I would appreciate it if you set a personality to go with this. Homo-Saipan’s and Neanderthals have different mind sets so having more thinking should give us a type of reaction to anything like. DISCOVERED TRACKING METHOD: You feel more confident in hunting.You feel more aware of your surroundings. You can see how many animals/people you are tracking. Would be so cool(A lot of work though so In advance I apologize). I’m loving it so far, maybe even alchemy like dr.Stone to make a lightbulb
Backpacks will become available later (I was thinking of including the haversacks or backframes from the Earths Children series, but I’m not yet sure how advanced people are at the time of my game) but until then you have the stone and herb bags.
I have been thinking about how you react to the world, but because the beginning is just focused on your immediate survival those won’t be more known until later on (seriously, kids are kids, regardless of species. I’ve literally watched my sons kitten respond to things in a manner similar to my son and he’s human!)
As I rework the items and inventory, some things will change to go with them (like the bags).
There are now 2 languages (technically 3) in the game.
lang1 is Vocal Langauge, spoken words. Higher levels of Vocal Language let you learn facial signs and minor body language signs from vocal speakers, and at the highest level the only spoken words not known to you are the spirit-words.
lang2 is Sign Language, words made by hand gestures and body language. t higher levels you can understand body language to a greater affect, and at the highest level you can even understand most of the body language that vocal-only users have.
The third language is the Spirit-words, the words known only by the best and most honored shamans and the spirits themselves.
On one hand, I like the idea of some serious Clan of the Cave Bear action. On the other hand, I’m going to be sad when I’m not battling a T-Rex with my triceratops buddy like every Ray Harryhausen film.
So this month in school is huge for me, the teacher has allowed us to work on our own worlds and stories IN WHATEVER FORM WE WANT!
I literally squealed and woke my partner to tell him XD
I am using my game as my homework, partially because I want to but also it will force me to focus on it heavily for the next 4 weeks.
I just formally added in the Mixed species start yesterday (I had it written down, but had not officially had it in the files yet since I was making some larger changes) but over the next four weeks I’m going to have not only every new change so far implemented and included, I’m going to have the new/updated link up for testing!
So give me five minutes for a happy dance that scares my cats then I’m getting to work!
A few changes to the tools list (a complete list of changes will be posted eventually):
Crude, Flint, Bone, and Shell Knives
Hand Axe, Stone Axe w/ Handle, and Shell Axe w/ Handle
A new bag, Flint Bag, has been added
New weapons
Crude Spear, Simple Spear, Stone Spear, Flint Spear
Spear Thrower
Simple Bow, Fire-Hardened Bow
Stone Arrow, Flint Arrow, Bone Arrow
Sling (stones in your bag count as ammo)
Cross-Throw (a wooden tool from the Earths Children series, is used primarily on the plains for hunting birds, I really doubt the name is correct but that’s what my game calls it)
Flint and Stone Blades are now made as needed, but if using a larger Unworked Flint Chunk or Large Stone, excess flint and stone are stored with the smaller flakes and pieces
Wow, that’s crazy to think the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people came to Australia in dates that predate the setting of the game. For those who are unaware the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people who are the First Nation people of Australia came to Australia around 50,000 to 65,000 years ago, where as the Mesolithic Period (setting of hex’s game) started around 9000 years ago.
I’m sure the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders would have came up in your research hex, if not maybe have a look into, very interesting way of life, view of the land, plus the Dreamtime is so cool.
I am not an Aboriginal or a Torres Strait Islander, studied them a lot in school due to doing Australian History and Outdoor Ed in high school.
Besides what I have said above, I think the take on the game is a refreshing breath to the text based novel games, not saying that the other games on this site are bad in anyway, I just feel sometimes the genres get a bit over played. Plus I think this Stone Age Survival if done right (which it seems like it well) could possibly open more ideas of what a text based game could be.
Great job Hex for real. It’s been many years since I logged into my account on this site, but you made me do it haha
So I don’t need to search for the entire crafting menu later on, I’ve been writing out the entire crafting menu on a different file for easy searching. This also lets me figure out which items I still need to add, or which need to be changed. I’m about halfway done already, and I’ve got some more items I’m adding in after I finish what’s already up.
I’m also changing how you eat, cook, and gather foods. Below are some possible items (inspired by Earths Children again) that may be added and possibly craftable:
Cooking Skin - a single piece of skin filled with water, used only for stews and certain drinks, this can be destroyed far easier than a Cooking Bowl but is easier to lug around and less likely needs to be replaced the same way the bowl might be
Cooking Bowl - made from sedge, use for making stews, drinks, gruels, mashes, or other more solid type foods; this is something that can sit on your pack-top or sledge, but may need to be left behind in certain situations as it is somewhat large (at least at first while you’re a kid)
Drinking cup - a cup made from either wood or sedge (it doesn’t matter overall), used for drinking from streams easier and required for drinking special drinks made from Cooking Skin or Bowl; has a slit where a vine is attached to let it hang from your side for easy reach
Personal Bowl - a bowl just for you made from wood or sedge, allows you to eat gruel, mash, or stews; a small slit for a vine lets it hang from your waist
Paint Pots have now been removed, as overall you won’t need them (but may be re-added later on once the paths are being written)
Yes, after the encampment scene you will choose a path in the next day or so. You can either travel alongside the western coast, southern plains, or eastern forest.
Each one has its own settlement and people, with a few nomads going between paths over the years.
When you reach about 10, you’ll see that paths settlement for the first time but you won’t choose to stay just yet, that won’t happen until a large/dangerous event happens when you’re around 12-14 (depending on the path). After that event, you will make the decision to keep traveling, living in a permanent home away from the settlement, or taking a home within the settlement itself.
Also, an update about food. I was planning on redoing food and deciding what/how to eat, and with the new items, so below I’m putting the possible new foods:
All individual fruits, berries, and similar foods have now been changed to Fruits, Vegetables, and individual herbs (this is because so many herbs do different things)
Grain is now an individual food due to being required for new recipes
Carcasses will be narrowed down to Small, Medium, and Large Carcasses instead of Deer, Tree-rat, etc. Giant Carcasses can be found occasionally on the plains, but they must be butchered then and there as they are too large to drag back to camp (even if you have a sledge)
New “Eat Something” choices:
Mash (made with 1 Grain, and water from a waterskin or being near water; Fruit, Vegetable, and Meat Mash)
Gruel (essentially porridge or oatmeal, requires 2-3 grains, water, and a personal bowl or Cooking Skin or Bowl; Fruit and Meat Gruel)
Stew (requires Cooking Skin or Bowl and water; Vegetable, Meat, and Meat & Veggie Stew)
Broth (requires Personal Bowl, Cooking Skin or Bowl; Bone Broth (requires either 3 bone shards or 1 larger bone) or Meat Broth (requires 1 Dried Meat))
Broth is meant for those who are sick or if you have nothing else to eat but fire and water, as well as bones or dried meat, fills you better than just eating a strip of meat
Roasted Meat (requires meat chunks or strips)
Spitted Meat (requires small carcass & 3 wood, will skin the carcass before spitting, earning you 1 skin but no bones)
I haven’t been able to make much progress the past week because my final came up, but I was able to get more details about the overall story. As well as this:
This is the overall view of where this is happening, but in a modern map. I plan on drawing out the next 3 maps, one for each area, by hand today or tomorrow (this is all due Sunday though, so they may be very crude).
Keep in mind that these locations are subject to change, but not drastically. The set location (west, south, and east) are permanent.
And for anyone interested, there is now a bigger but secondary storyline for each path.
Forest - an erratic shaman who singles you out after your “introduction to the forest settlement” event and causes some problems, making you out to be someone “special”, but in who knows what way
Plains - a grieving father blames you and for years becomes a problem after you show up, ending in an event that can leave even more people in tears (but whether they are grateful or sad is up to you and your interactions)
Coastline - fear is powerful even in the best times, but even worse when it’s unclear where it’s coming from, and when you do find out you have to be careful how you expose the one planting it or you could end up everyones enemy
The final map, for the forest path! This one will be added for sure though, I am very proud of this one especially. Made as if on a piece of bark. The symbols show locations found in-game.
It’s been a while but I’m finally back. I’m glad to see it wasn’t abandoned. (As far as I can tell.) I’ll read the update notes (and the full thing.) Later on.
Yep, not abandoned. Not really paused, though I haven’t worked on it in two weeks. But that’s mainly to catch up on schoolwork I missed a couple times and to work on my book series I started years ago.
