Gathering around the fire - Sapiens Devlog 49

[@kevnar]

Grasslands require only thin shallow soil. Forests need deeper richer soil. Forests propagate themselves across the land by dropping branches and leaves and seeds/fruit and the tree themselves that compost down into soil over a few years. They increase the soil depth and quality as they go. Grasses and animal droppings also help this process. Eventually new trees grow on the edges of forests, and the forests spread. For the same reason, they're not going to be able to grow on steep slopes or cliff sides. The compost material just slides off. But the bottom of the slope is going to be that much more lush. But this also means that there will be more bushes and small plants in and around forests. You'll almost never see a copse of trees with no grass or bushes beneath it. The soil is rich, and any seeds that drop there will grow abundantly. Pine forests are the exception. They drop acidic needles that kill any competitive plants beneath them. Anyway, when you're tweaking your terrain algorithms, it's something to consider.

[@eliberkowitz7454]

God this game is gorgeous

[@topheye6318]

Something that could be cool is to have interactions even when they are doing activities. Imagine 2 people carrying things from one place to the other, they take the same route so they could be chatting while walking, or even if they are going on opposite sides they could stop for a moment to chat for a bit. Other scenarios could be 2 people doing construction close to one another or mining or picking things up. We are a fundamentally social species, we like to talk when doing things. This could depend on the personality of the sapiens (that depends on how far you want to push the systems)

[@pythooonuser2233]

I'm really digging that new terrain!

[@seize2581]

Nice one :p

[@diegodesouza5382]

Haha

[@ghostkeeper3007]

Wow

[@frostyflames7864]

Sapiens when they sit at campfire: 😔

[@mcrafterzz2447]

Weather would be really nice for ambience

[@tomweiland]

Seeing another solo dev work on a large scale project like this is super inspiring! It's looking really good so far-keep it up :)

[@tomasmartty9864]

On the selection menu, having all soil types be the same size and shape, although the same color, might be confusing for colorblind people. Just varying the shape a bit or adding some kind of pattern/texture would make a huge improvement in accesibility!

[@lydierayn]

Like how the best soil could have a lightly tilled pattern

[@rabidlorax1650]

It’s certain colors that colorblind people have so just have a unique color set for each of the most common types of colorblindness like it’s done in most games

[@GeneratedPerson]

rabidlorax I think that would be a lot of work for one man to do. I think changing textures to suit everyone is a good idea.

[@rabidlorax1650]

Dean P it’s literally 1000x easier you just replace all the colors that people can’t see and replace them with ones they can. I have no idea what your talking about. Your solution is the harder one instead of just swapping colors which is super easy he has to add something completely new which requires much more effort.

[@BeefJerkey]

@@rabidlorax1650 You are wrong, adding textures would be much easier because preparing different color sets for different types of colorblindness would take a lot of research (because Dave doesn't know what it looks like to colorblind people), and he would have to make more than one color set, meaning the user would have to choose the one that best suits them, thus making it more complicated for the user. Using basic, distinct textures is very simple and can work for anyone, without the need of an annoying "choose a color pallet" setting. Considering the complexity of what he's already done with this thing, adding a few more textures is child's play. It's not complicated.

[@orochi_08]

I can't believe i found the person who paved my childhood with 'The Blockheads'. And he's making a new game.

[@plaidpvcpipe3792]

11:31 You should allow players to set times when they want the campfire to be lit, and be able to edit that after the fact. You generally don't need it lit during the day in the middle of June. Maybe you could even let players designate different schedules for different seasons.

[@TrollinJoker]

this update was amazing. love seeing the interactions and i LOVE the idea of simple ecosystems

[@4rs0nn]

I can’t wait until all these base pipelines are in-place and we start to get even more actual “content” :) keep up the great work 👍

[@geoffp8366]

Re ambient light at night: does this planet have a moon? Cloudless nights with the moon near full are pretty important to pre-industrial cultures: they're the only time you can do much at night.

[@TylerF]

"Sitting is difficult" -Dave Haha, game keeps getting better and better

[@ethoatom668]

I thought up of a tiny behavior the sapiens can do. When they're sitting down at night and there's nothing for them to look at, they look up and stargaze. This is literally useless but I think it'd be cute.

[@oscarvanhemert6094]

great idea, imagine them laying on their backs and pointing at the stars in groups :D

[@grahamsnyder762]

YES

[@oelx0]

I’m not a developer by any means but in regards to the water would there be a way to designate lakes, rivers and the ocean as a ”natural placement” and have the water flow (with a distance limit) into dug out terrain filling up by certain amounts in a layer way like how you dig and have the water flow build up layer by layer to a certain height before filling up the next hexagon simultaneously till it’s reached the limit similar to Minecraft? As for water that is placed by the player maybe be distinguished as “artificial placement” and spread out evenly decreasing layer by layer to fill an area and if it cannot fill the area the water is “absorbed” into the terrain? Dunno what you have considered already so couldn’t help but make this suggestion just in case.

[@KikiMouse176]

I'm pretty sure the water currently works just by altitude. There is a global sea level, anything below is underwater, anything above cannot have water. With this type of world generation (and these impressive results), there is obviously a lot of potential for intricate, complex, and flexible water systems, but we must keep in mind that this is a solo project. At this point, reworking the water would be a massive undertaking, probably disproportional to the value added. I do wonder, however, if modders would potentially be able to redesign the water system.

[@brettgoldsmith8584]

He's planning on adding extensive modding support, so I wouldn't be surprised if this were possible

[@Omaricon]

You could make a temperature system? So they'll freeze at night if not in a bed or not near a campfire? same if it rains and they don't have cover, even in a bed. Therefore forcing you to make a house and a campfire without making it feel unnecessary

[@Ch-ew9tm]

Omricon Ilnesses would also be special. For example u can get food poisoning from eating poisonous fruits or eating spoiled food. And if a human gets a wound and doesn’t do anything about it he can get infections.

[@catman8770]

love the new additions, you should make the different kinds of soil and rock have sort of a fade between them rather than just hard lines, I think it'll make the terrain look a lot better

[@seize2581]

I'm so impatient to see how the AI will improve next :) Keep up the good work !

[@jamesporter628]

Hi Dave, don't be afraid to discuss the technical details like some of the other videos! Looks great as usual, keep going!

[@trailsammarco8805]

7:42 Jan: go away Linja, I'm not interested Linja: aw, come on... I know you want some of this Jan: no really, I'm going to the other side of the fire. please leave me alone

[@thomaswalls4188]

I know this probably isn't as important, but I think adding aquatic plants could make the environment much more immersive.

[@OsimonB]

Awesome stuff Dave! Love that multi-tasking logic, the sapiens look so alive! I feel like you have taken a massive leap forward since the last devlog, I can't wait for a beta release. The soil layers are a really cool idea. Are you considering the different biomes that they are being found in? Look into Soil Horizons, even just on Google Images. There are some cool diagrams of the different soil layers per biome and the minerals found in them. Also interested in the mineral structure of the soil that you would be using. A NPK based system would work well and encourage smarter farming through rotating crops. You didn't show how it would render with other firewood on top, but you should consider having only the tips of the logs in the fire and requiring a sapien to tender to it to keep it going. When ever the tip had almost burnt off, the remaining wood would be pushed further into the fire. Pine cones and sticks would use the same mechanics and only differ based on length and density. It would make the fire burn look a lot more realistic, with the added bonus that the fire would go out when the sapiens were sleeping.

[@literate-aside]

Been subbed and watching these forever. Can't wait mate, love the updates.

[@RandomStudios1000]

It would be really cool if the soil fertility was also influenced by large herds of animals and their roaming patterns like how the Great Plains of the us have 30 ft deep rich top soil from all the bison and extinct megafauna who fertilized the land with their dung

[@Passiday]

Great to see things shaping up! Wathcing this video I thought about the skill system - there could be different speeds of acquiring skills, depending on whether the person is learning by doing or they have an experienced tribesmate who can teach things faster. That could be an interesting roles for your people to take, a master and apprentice, and perhaps one can get profficient in that teaching skill as well, and be able to teach groups of apprentices.

[@Byebett]

man, i love seeing this game progress. keep up the awesome work!

[@hunter4hire]

OMG the timing!!! Keep up the excellent work! Can't wait for open beta. Idea: What do you think of natural path creation. If the Sapiens take the same path, over and over then maybe the terrain should change. Grass turning to dirt, for example. So when u build your village, they develop their own path/road system.

[@brettgoldsmith8584]

I for one am a big fan of that idea

[@polishdestroyer6019]

Good idea

[@oscarvanhemert6094]

hunter4hire love that idea, would really make the game even more organic. Also if sapiens would follow more comfortable materials like stones then the player could make there own roads which would be used which would be cool

[@addyy8151]

Over a 1000 views and not a single dislike is a rare thing ideed on youtube. You deserve it though, the game is looking amazing. Keep it going!

[@V_2077]

WTH DUDE YOU JINXED IT 😡😡😡

[@addyy8151]

@@V_2077 what? I didn't dislike it lol

[@BeefJerkey]

@@addyy8151 I think someone read your comment and then hit dislike just to be annoying.

[@addyy8151]

@@BeefJerkey ah. That might actually be true, given how stupid people tend to be sometimes... thank you

[@dongo6988]

I never knew you coded The Blockheads, my brother and I would play that all the time as kids lol.. Glad i came across your channel, we're looking forward to the release of Sapiens.

[@canidaeSynapse]

Man, I'm loving the attention to detail!

[@thing4826]

This video is old so I doubt he will read this, and I will probably ask this question another time when he is doing a Q&A or something, but I think horizontal mining would be very interesting in the game. Since how the terrain is setup, it isn't really possible but I was thinking that it could be a mineshaft structure that can be placed on a steep terrain slope so you can dig down into the ground and set up a mineshaft entrance or to do it on the side of a large hill or mountain. How I imagine it would work is that the mineshaft entrance would be an entrance for you to be able to get under the terrain and then you would have to "build" tunnels by basically using a line tool that you drag or something like that. You could also probably have levels to the mineshafts by having a ladder room or a staircase room that would allow your sapiens to go up or down a level. I also think with the way how terrain already creates layers to the terrain it would be possible to mine a new exit on a different layer allowing you to have multiple entrances and exits. (Example of this would be like digging a mine high on a mountain and going a few layers down to have an exit lower on the mountain near a mining village or something.) That system I described would also be a cool way make tunnels for trains if those are ever added far in the future. That would require more settings for the tool than just a simple line-based tunnel system as you would have to change width to allow for minecarts or trains or whatever.

[@thing4826]

To add to what I said yesterday I think this would feel really nice with how things like paths, fences, and mines all share a similar building system and so you won't have to remember multiple systems only two really with building houses and then line based building.

[@bolicob]

I play a lot of city builder games, and one thing that really annoys me about most of them is that Every player's city ends up looking pretty much the same. The combination of One asset per building and an Optimal placement for said building leads to city that looks virtually Identical to everyone else's. So i'd suggest that since you have a modular building system, make sure there is freedom in the design for building placement and decorations, that way everyone's cities will turn out unique

[@trailsammarco8805]

maybe there could be a system like spore where you create your own buildings out of basic shapes to create "prefabs" that you can then place with a single click

[@knowledgedh7700]

Clouds would completely enhance the look of this game I'm excited for the day I see volumetric clouds

[@mateuszjokiel2813]

Some good character behaviour is always welcome, makes the immersion better, as if they were in fact living beings. Love the development so far, good luck for the rest of the road!

[@jdd_yt]

didnt even knew he was still working on this game, sweet!

[@alexanderosinubi5154]

another animation you could implement is nodding while carrying objects, like to other people. Anyways I love your devlogs, keep up the good work! :)

[@kevnar]

The opposite of fertile is barren. Infertile works too, but it sounds pretty technical.

[@andreaaristokrates9516]

I think poor was a good choise, as it works for the soil in the ground and in the menu and it's simpler.

[@Jazzafritsch]

Ooooo love when I'm bored need something to watch an a devlog comes out

[@Balkanboibg]

and* ye same

[@GrzegorzStyczen]

Awesome! Love the sitting interactions

[@midget0DE4THgaming]

Been watching the development of this game for quite some time now. Very excited to see it still progressing well! Good luck and God speed.

[@exosproudmamabear558]

Your programming is so neat. Probably because you move steadily and get rid of bugs before adding a new feature. The finished product probably needs less polishing time which can easily get out of the alpha or beta version. I love it.

[@grahams5871]

What about having people have a certain preference for temperature, light and company? Perhaps fires are more attractive if someone is cooking at one. Making night slightly awkward is an obvious game mechanic. You could add a subtle 'camera spotlight' Making the terrain less flat might be an improvement. Linking hilliness and soil quality might be interesting.

[@iamlandman]

Dave, the development on this has come such a long way since day one. It's nice to see that you're doing things in your own time and not rushing to ensure you're getting the quality that you want. Regarding the UI, don't you feel that the popup UI is somewhat immersion breaking because it blocks a large portion of the center of the screen? You could layout the UI in a similar manner that RTS games do it. Keep functional and regular elements at the bottom of the screen. That way you've got the game in view all the time.

[@oscarvanhemert6094]

Iam Landman this is what he did in the blockheads, and although I think it might work better dave might not want to do it as with the blockheads I imagine it caused a lot of behind the scenes mess in the code...

[@RaneKaiser16]

Looks good and I'm learning a bit.

[@maybecoffee7386]

Ive been checking out these Devblogs for a year now, and it's awesome to see all the progress

[@andreaaristokrates9516]

I like the soil-tree density coupling, it naturally adds challenge and progression. Also the darker nights look much better, but you really need a quick way to turn on night vision for a good balance between looks and gameplay.

[@betterthanboss7029]

I would love to see seasons + storms to give the sapiens a reason to go inside!

[@Forcemaster2000]

One of the main uses of campfires for early man was to help keep predators at bay!

[@skyteomalley8034]

This game is coming along so well, i love it!

[@idontwanttopickone]

They should need to learn to swim and should avoid the water until they can swim or have built boats. This would be a good way to limit how far the player can expand their tribe. Even when they build boats you could have them possibly fall in the water if they over fill the boat or aren't very good at using the boat or don't build a very good boat. Then you could limit the player to how easy it is get across bodies of water. Like rivers are easier to get across than seas are. We had to build better boats before we could go the distance needed.

[@Evandroworks]

Great ideas! This also implies that some sort of reward or objetive is needed in far lands, areas that the player didnt choose at first to build his settlement there for some reason, but then decided that resource that is only present far away is now needed, instigating planning, development, preparation and adventure. The reward could be at the center of large bodies of water, as the player cant start bases inside water. Maybe after some dozen hours in the gameplay net fishing could be the easiest way of meat gathering in great quantity for a large tribe, or the fish meat quality could be better for the tribe knowledge gaining at that point because of omega3 etc. This would force the player at that point to invest in boat building etc. If the reward is in land it should be a scarce resource that only happens for example in barren lands... starting a base there would be suicide because of the lack of initial resources, but at a more late game stage the player who settled elsewhere could then prepare some tribemen for the journey and adventure into these dead lands to collect the precious scarce resource.

[@fliminpinata6896]

Dave I love your work, but I have a good idea for you, Blockheads 2.

[@RamHomier]

I love the idea of fertile areas having more trees, hopefully removing trees is hard and serves as the investment cost for having access to more fertile areas.

[@rasmustagu]

glad to see these coming out regularly again - great video!

[@gurkis.]

That one addition of them interacting (waving, looking, etc.) while doing other stuff made them feel much more alive! Great job

[@AFlyingBanana10]

Great job!

[@TheZebrAlpha]

I am loving watching this game solidify! While you are watching these tribes develop and evolve we get to watch the environment they exist within develop and evolve, which I greatly appreciate One question though... How are you limiting your scope? It seems this idea could go on and on forever without a specific end goal in mind.

[@majicDave]

It definitely could go on forever, yep! I have a general set of features in mind for the initial release, and am making good progress at ticking them off. As long as I don't add anything else to that list (and I'm generally pretty disciplined at that), I will get to the end eventually.

[@HamidQasem1]

The blockheads ...

[@oscarvanhemert6094]

... was a great game

[@thfstbkkyetr2266]

... is an inspiration to when I make games.

[@willhepon1895]

... is awesome!

[@taylorgrech5601]

Never been this early before. This game looks great

[@__BB__]

Same and agreed

[@galacticsurvivor3265]

Do you plan to add large rock / boulders so mountains look more rocky, The game is looking great can't wait to play this game.

[@XcpRevolution]

how deep can you dig?

[@brettgoldsmith8584]

Thoughts: 1. The interpersonal interactions are a great start. It really feels like thus could be one of those things that really sets this game apart. Making sapiens as smart as, well, sapiens will undoubtably be a major undertaking, but it's so cool to see. 2. I like the way you are designing the terain, but FYI parts of it feel very minecraft-y (flint found in gravel, terrain goes grass>dirt>gravel>stone are the two big ones) not necessarily a bad thing, but something but I was reminded of immediately. 3. What if I want to build a settlement in the Inca fassion? With farms built into the side of mountains. Am I just guaranteed to have bad soil to farm on? Importing soil would probably be a pain. 4. The game looks SO GOOD! The reflections, lighting, fire, 3d models and animations are really becoming a style unique to your game, and its cool to get to see it develop. 5. Congrats on living in New Zealand. It seems to be the one place in the world that isn't being crushed by the pandemic. Even so, stay safe out there.

[@antonylyon1655]

The reason it feels minecrafty is because both games are based on how actual terrain is in terms of materials

[@brettgoldsmith8584]

Good point. I just wanted to point out the resemblance.

[@TheAwesomeDragonYT]

I like this

[@Jova]

Are you going to add a swimming skill, where lower level swimmers have a higher chance of drowning if they try to swim in water that's too deep?

[@waasar]

The goofy behaviour around the campfire was really funny. The progress is real though. I love the focus on making the sapiens something more than workers that build stuff for you.

[@trsports8123]

How about if the sapiens don't get entertainment and spend to together then they rebel against each other and the civilization falls.

[@brettgoldsmith8584]

How about adding pandemics to make that happen more often?

[@trsports8123]

Brett Goldsmith Ha, didn’t even think about that.

[@MarxyBasement]

Yay new devlog

[@Simtar123]

Looks really great 😊👍

[@RudolphGottesheim]

Are you planning on giving the Sapiens voices? It looks a bit awkward when they're silently sitting around the campfire.

[@rushmik]

Love seeing this come together bit by bit.

[@fakshen1973]

They are just sitting around looking down and doing nothing else. They already have the iPhone unlock?

[@Vickett20]

Two questions, firstly, will it be possible to make major structures underground, think dwarven cities or will it be more strictly be limited to normal mines. Secondly, will dirt be able to deplete? I think that could make for a more interesting mechanic of being more dynamic with where you farm

[@majicDave]

It won't be possible to make structures underground, as there aren't any caves or terrain overhangs, at least for version 1.0, sorry! I decided on that limitation to make this overly ambitious project a little less overly ambitious. For soil, my current plan is that rich soil will become poorer after you farm in it, I agree that would make things more interesting. But if so, there will also be ways to make soil richer by mulching or the like.

[@kalebbaum2572]

Will it be more likely to find rich soil around water? Or maybe near forest?

[@huntertheunit4260]

If you plant trees on infertile soil can it become fertile soil?

[@andreaaristokrates9516]

Terra preta would be the way to go imo. Cut down the forest, turn it into char coal and improve the soil. Trees could work, but I think they feel wrong.

[@brettgoldsmith8584]

Or planting fish with each seed

[@rimasomar7124]

Dave are you gonna update the blockheads

[@jjvago7613]

game looks great :)

[@pancreasman6920]

this awesome

[@louissherwood5221]

Have you considered adding clay as a terrain type? Or maybe soil that has a heavy clay content as opposed to soil that's very sandy?

[@trafficface]

How are you tracking your issues?

[@Harpreet274singh]

You should make beta on steam

[@Forcemaster2000]

I hate to compare this to the Sims, but I'm glad that it appears the Sapiens will have intelligence and a will of their own! Unlike the Sims who will stand in the living room and pee on themselves if not told to go to the restroom!

[@iangarth6174]

First of all I want to say I love what you've done. It's obviously a labour of love. I think you could use this (pmip2.lsce.ipsl.fr/synth/biome4.shtml) Swedish bio-geographical model to distribute biomes in your terrain generation. My coding experience is restricted to 'hello world', so maybe I'm suggesting something very implausible.

[@iangarth6174]

I've wish-listed your game on steam :)

[@grahamsnyder762]

This sounds interesting but I'm getting a 404

[@grahamsnyder762]

Oh it's just got a stray bracket on the end, never mind

[@eagle2735]

Hey random question how did you make your Sapiens website

[@majicDave]

I use Jekyll, and started with a simple template, modified it quite a bit to get what I wanted. I've used a number of different methods to make websites over the years, and they all have their pros and cons, but I like how Jekyll generates static sites. It means the server can be very simple.

[@quinnb9867]

A water system like Terraria might be a good option.

[@gernivisser593]

Hey Dave just interested how many lines of code is this project by now ?

[@puedoiralbanoporfavor854]

at least 9

[@marcustinkler]

more big rocks in the plains

[@ndw1991]

Hey Dave great updates! you still test in VR? Must be fun to play your own game through a HMD

[@iamlandman]

In his earlier devlogs he added VR support. :)

[@DetectiveFiasco]

9:18 Look at the child carrying something. That's probably a model glitch.

[@jpadamson]

Was that slash screen at the end new?? I really like it!

[@qwqeqrqtqz]

If you want to stick with toki pona as their language you could change the names to 'jan' + any other word (minus the grammatical words like: li, e, la, en, anu...). 'jan' means 'person' and people are usually adressed as jan 'name'. For example: jan kala, jan lape, jan seli...

[@tessaN64]

!!!!

[@xbuRni]

[@MarxyBasement]

Remember that time dani got Pwnd?

[@bogiesmigforl1]

Yes, but i think you should be reminding people about it on Dani's channel

[@tygzy9727]

I'm 2nd!

[@elvd1296]

hurry up