Lush Foliage & Tech Trees - Sapiens Devlog 52

[@Jabrils]

Majic Dave, you never fail to inspire

[@reviewcrisis805]

indeed

[@iphoeniximarco5488]

*magic dave the gamedev wizard

[@davidt01]

Wow, I didn't expect to see you here :)

[@marcustinkler]

The snow looks cool, the markers over the sapiens looks a bit too colourful. I think they should be more of a stoneage feel to them

[@trafficface]

The markers are breaking emersion honestly, maybe they could be floor halos

[@joshmason179]

Yeah, I agree, I had a thought that they could have the same style as they used to, but the different colours were only in the outline of the marker and the rest was black/showed a symbol for the current task of the individual

[@ole6969]

In my opinion they are fine you just should be able to toggle them on and off.

[@Astra2]

I think if they were more rounded and maybe slightly transparent they would be fine but right now they don’t really fit the style of the game.

[@allenkennedy99]

@@trafficface Floor halos would be a lot more noticeable from above too.

[@zingzingzingbahh]

holy shit dude, that grass / tree foliage change blew my mind. Huggggge improvement. Didn't even know it needed it

[@zetrical6264]

This game is looking stunning! The animations, scope, design, it's all coming together beautifully.

[@lanapagnier8998]

Maybe say "learn" or "discover" or something rather than "research"? Can't really imagine a caveman researching 😅. The game's looking awesome though, keep it up!

[@riccardoorlando2262]

Experiment?

[@lanapagnier8998]

@@riccardoorlando2262 ooh I like that more than mine

[@zachnerdydude6605]

Ooga booga we must use the scientific method to find out the interactions between sticks and other things unga bunga

[@hiddenhistoriesofamerica]

@@zachnerdydude6605 oo. oo. me research what hapen when hit rock with bigger rock ooga unga

[@jgoglescu]

yep

[@huntertheunit4260]

I got unreasonably hype when you showed that new grass & leaves!

[@riccardoorlando2262]

Dave: So the grass was looking rather bland Me: Nah, I mean it's not fancy but it's fine Dave: *massively revamped, amazing grass and trees* me: what Dave: Also it runs faster me: W H A T

[@BWDev]

Wow, the new foliage changes look so good! The game's really come a long way in the last few weeks 😄

[@corwindkmetz2757]

Perhaps when an event/discovery is made the game pauses and the camera zooms to the Sapien who made the discovery (possibly rotating around them cinematically), just to make sure the player knows that its been done. If the village is somewhat self sustaining or there's tasks that I just need carried out, I may start a small task irl (restroom/put tea on/start noodles), while leaving it running, quite possibly missing out on realizing the Sapien has advanced us. Not sure if other people do as I do/if its worth the time to program, but it would be nice.

[@corwindkmetz2757]

Or perhaps just a pause and notif, if i'm planning building layout I may not enjoy being pulled away from it. A toggle in options maybe?

[@brmarko3]

This is growing REALLY well. Hre are some suggestions: - Options to lock camera Z (or height) and angle. - The one who learned a tech, needs to teach other people (and this is made organically, not by command) by talking to the other teownsfolk on occasional conversations and the research option only really goes away when more than x% (x=20, maybe?) of the tribe knows how to do so. In the start that's not really a problem cuz there is only a few people in the tribe, but this is another way to require some village size management from the player, cuz if a character learns something and leave the tribe right away, that research is gonne and the player will need to research that all over again. >On the other hand, if it's like so, THAT character is profficient in doing a firecamp, as example, and he is the 1st in line to do a firecamp (if x% of village doesn't know how to do fire yet) when asked by the player. So, if he is doing anything else and a campfire is required to be built somewhere, he will stop whatever he's doing and go to the firecamp place ASAP. >This will also allow to have travellers with proficiencies in stuff the player's villagers doesn't know yet to come in and teach them, as well as the other way around, which may have an impact in neighbour villages. I mean... If you're thinking about working on neighbouring tribes in future...? Think about that. >Also, this allows to separate people in knowledge groups in large villages. if you manage to get your village to 200 ppl, 40 ppl are needs to learn something so it becomes common knowledge. >In the future, a "cave painting" tech could remove this x% given someone with knowledge in whatever needs to be kept and "cave painting" writes it down - again, not by command... Someone needs to be interested enough to go in a cave and mark how to do the firecamp, how to hunt bulls, how to whatever... xD >or even: the older the tech is, the less is x.

[@andershusmo5235]

I agree, having a mechanic where knowledge is shared by the people talking to, or otherwise communicating with, each other is both extremely cool as a mechanic and makes the interactions between the townspeople feel meaningful. For larger villages, it creates an incentive to ensure people have natural places to meet and talk to each other - like temples or other religious sites or general social events with music.

[@joseph_alonzo]

I am fairly new to the series so I might be saying things that you have already addressed... But, I would suggest, on the topic of skills with the Discoveries, is Teaching. This could be a Skill of its own, or like an advanced tier or Mastery of a Skill, where a Sapien with say Fire Lighting could teach the Skill to a child when that Sapien really understands how it works, or has mastered it This also adds a casual challenge to keeping certain skills alive, because if all of your fire starters die, than nobody can cook food, so it isn't hard to maintain, but it is something that has to be managed in tandem with the rest

[@albinbjorklund4619]

Crazy how much diffrence the grass and leaves makes to the scene. Looks stunning!

[@ArkhBaegor]

One thing that would take advantage of your massive worlds is horse riding, especially since it was a core part of some civilizations from the Neolithic onwards (imo horses shouldn't be found everywhere though, since many civilizations didn't have access to them)

[@FreeRadicalX]

My jaw hit the floor when when you unveiled the new foliage. It's looks absolutely stunning. Love that every tribesperson has their own tech tree, that is cool because it allows personal growth of skills without magically granting those skills to everyone. A suggestion: Perhaps only one tribesperson need to unlock the entire tech tree for a given skill. Then at that point *any* tribesperson can learn the skill with practice without doing it's prerequisites since the entire tribe at least *knows* the skill exists. This would also allow for 1) Certain skills to be marked by the player as "general education" in the society, ie skills that young tribespeople will prioritize learning on their own and 2) Privileged tribe members who learn advanced skills, but rely on their fellows tribespeople for basic skills.

[@Forcemaster2000]

I love the improved graphics, and the discoveries sounds like a great addition to the game! When you get to it, I’d love to see you add it so that sapiens with a skill can teach that skill to another sapien, and if you don’t and the original sapien dies or leaves the tribe, your tribe loses that skill (ie fire or flint napping).

[@emilsitell5484]

Awsome progress Dave, the lush grass is really incredible. The new tech tree is way more intuitive, love it!

[@plaidpvcpipe3792]

I think that there should be an "experiment" task where you can make sapiens experiment with objects. By giving them allowance on certain things to experiment with, you can influence what they discover, but it will still be a surprise.

[@DerFinder]

yo, I thought about the grass in the first part of the video and then surprose surprise you somehow delivered in the same video xD It looks reaaally nice, good job!

[@silverseergriclav]

Hey, quick idea for you: what about teaching the other sapiens of your tribe the skills? It might not work balance-wise, since it means two sapiens are tied up with the learning of a new skill, but it means there are more chances for interactivity between sapiens and stuff. What if there's a sapien who hates the guy who knows how to light fires? Or your fire guy gets injured, or old, so now they have to teach someone their secrets quickly before they have to find out everything on their own all over again. Maybe you could have some writing technology that can help teach people skills without a tutor, which is likely what allowed human knowledge to continue growing and growing. That's some emergent storytelling/gameplay stuff that seems cool to me.

[@silverseergriclav]

Since it wasn't clear, I meant the sapien who has the skill either can help or has to help teach

[@mnattew]

I can tell that it can be very stressful and overwhelming for you since you have so many game changing decisions to make. Just know I’m cool with whatever decisions you make and don’t over do it the game is gonna be super good 10/10

[@Perfectbeing1045]

Add a auto assign feature which is available on orders where you can automatically assign someone with that skill who is not doing another task or if no one has that skill check for a random one and start to teach them the skill and start the work

[@UnintendedSheep]

Auto assign is a thing already, I believe he did that like 3 dev blogs ago

[@Mathieu-OBrien]

Saw your tweets showing the new grass and leaves before this video, but seeing the before after in this is just such an impact! Great work

[@rowanp8740]

Just a couple of suggestions: Colorblind people like myself will have trouble seeing red. Maybe make it customizable later on. Maybe have the arrows merge together when sapiens are close enough together/far enough away from the camera

[@hhfamily7528]

This is going to be like discovering MineCraft for the first time. Wow, and to know a fellow Kiwi has created it from scratch on his own, including his own animations and music, well done!

[@solarchaser166]

This devlog is great! I love the progress you made. I know everyone is freaking out about the tech tree and grass (Which are amazing) but I wanted to comment on the new triangle indicator for the sapiens. Especially after the grass update, I feel like the harsh yellows and reds are simply too jarring on the eyes. Maybe put a black outline (same color as the menus) around the triangles to try and break up the background vs indicator transition? also maybe reducing the brightness of the colors might look nicer (ie a 20 yr old speed limit sign yellow instead of a highlighter yellow)

[@plaidpvcpipe3792]

This game is turning out so cool. I cannot wait to see the later discoveries you can make. I think that stone walls, clothing, wheat farms, weapons like iron spears and bows, iron tools, bigger houses (like multiple floors,) and wooden buildings would be pretty cool.

[@ztrglider]

The discovery idea sounds excellent. It's great to hear your thought process on each step of this development.

[@urOpinionIsWrong]

Wow, the new grass and trees completely transform the look 😮. Triple A now 👌

[@janikcodes]

finally a new devlog. I just love these. Keep them going! Edit: After seeing the video I gotta say good progress! The new grass/trees look amazing and is definitly an improvement. I also love the tech tree, such a great addition and adding content will be great. For the Thatch buildings, Why don't you look at ARK's thatch walls a bit, I think they've done a good job with it. Your thatch walls look abit to "polished" ? like they are to good for thatch, to clean.

[@Noone-dg8io]

I agree with the thatch walls though I think Ark‘s walls are a abut too detailed nevertheless a good template

[@SanctumCreative]

Awesome stuff mate

[@cannahacker9637]

roadmap? don't worry to much about graphics and textures, this game needs more attention to mechanics! great work!!!!

[@Skeffles]

Brilliant update! It's nice to hear some details behind your grass and tree rendering. I hope you can get those thatched roofs complete soon!

[@norm1180]

your progress is amazing. i started watching around devlog 7 or so and you've come so far. keep it up!

[@Mirata87]

Phenomenal work on the graphical improvements, the environments are starting to look very polished - excited to see what’s coming! :)

[@emmettpeck3853]

Just an idea, but to maybe make it even more clear that your tribe has learned the knowledge and not just that specific Sapien, you could also add "Their knowledge has been passed on to the tribe." after the current UI notification message. (Shown at 22:30) I don't usually take the time to write out these long comments, but your series has been engaging and inspiring to me. I just wanted to thank you for the role these little videos play in my day.

[@houstonhampton2418]

Great work Dave. The trees and grass especially is my favorite. Grass waves are the most beautiful things in the world. And you nailed it

[@houstonhampton2418]

Perhaps a bit of variation in the grass waves. Like change the wavelength and frequency

[@chrysalis-sbnbpcj17]

Wow the grass is sick!! Amazing job man

[@carl-johanhorberg1399]

Amazing! What a step up from the previous look. Beautiful!

[@nn6404]

Can't wait to see you go into architecture! It would be cool if the different biomes that you start in could influence the types of buildings you create... i.e. you're encouraged to build with sod in a northern climate.

[@Siminfrance]

The game really looks nice, but the new trees and grass really takes it to the next level. Really makes a big difference.

[@OnceSecond]

I have to tell you, you're just so inspiring and motivated it's amazing, I have no interest in your game in particular, it looks amazing of course and the technical side even more but it is so far from the type of game I play haha. But I will buy it multiple times if I can just so we can keep following you onto your adventures. Thanks for all your hard work.

[@999Souls]

Hi Dave, The new grass looks amazing, however i find it a bit hard to see it at some camera angles, maybe they need a bit more color to distinguish it from the ground ? I have light color blindness so that is probably why, but still.. Been watching the series since episode 1, love it, keep it up :)

[@skulliam4]

I think the prioritization toggle would make more sense as a three-setting slider. Also, the shape of the lowered HUD feels very visor-like even though I know it's not. Maybe if it were more rectangular then it would feel more like a clipboard kind of thing.

[@krat5576]

I like the research and discovery idea. The sapiens actually discovering things that the player found instead of hitting a skill button fits really well. The wavy grass is beautiful, but I don't feel like the trees need leaf textures/more textures since they are so nice and clean. If you start working on water physics I'd love the sapiens to be able to dig canals :) (If they cant already)

[@fahlgorithm]

Wow, that grass looks so good!! Love the trees too!

[@aurered6387]

Looks amazing I like a tech tree and oh wow what a difference grass can give to the game looks really lovely

[@luca_fiorini]

Just a suggestion, maybe you could make it so sapiens can teach skills to each other instead of having them discover things by themselves, I think it would be more logical... maybe you could even have it so they can still learn that by themselves, it'd just take a lot longer. Other then that your game is looking great and I can't wait to see how it ends up!

[@diegodesouza5382]

Can’t wait to play this game!

[@DeDean16]

The new grass and trees look so great!

[@G1g4ntvltLP]

I think it would be nice to enable the sapiens to spred their knowledge. If one sapien knows a skill, than he can teach another one (while the second is researching) to speed up the progress alot, with the cost of 2 sapiens being occupied with learning. It would be more realistic this ways, although I#m not sure if it would fit into the game, thats for you to decide :) But really nice work again, I love to watch you develop this game!

[@siacomsuporteweb2421]

You could add some kind of teaching, where a person who knows something can teach others on the tribe and pass that knowledge

[@BlenderhilfeDe]

super nice progress! cant wait to check your game out

[@brettgoldsmith8584]

Comments: 1. The grass looks better, but is also very reflective. The wind effect, while cool, is distracting at all but the closest of camera angles. I also think that by adding more depth to your grass, locations outside the grass render distance look cartoonishly flat by comparison, and I kept glancing at how different it looked. 2. I really like the rts style indicators. I like that you can switch between watching the game at a high level and editing individual's actions. As you add more and more people, things like education will have to become more automated ( how much time do I really want to spend teaching 10 people how to cook?) which will I think create unique game challenges for players if done right. 3. Is there any way you could make the mountains look a little less like giant hexagons of different sizes? I know you have to render The Whole World ahead of time, but the mountains look a bit low poly by comparison to the ground in the immediate vicinity. As alawys, I'm impressed with this update, and I think the game is nearing a point of winning game Aesthetics Awards. Looking forward to all of the gameplay elements you will add to this quality canvas!

[@Hotseewt]

i think it isnt that the grass is too reflective. its just that other materials arent, models specially... maybe?

[@arnienz1962]

He's getting ready for the RTX ON version

[@jessekamps8146]

Gees man, this game simply looks stunning. All those sapiens walking around really makes the game feel alive. One suggestion though. Don’t you think the game would benefit more from a more classic city/tycoon ui with statistics like population number etc. instead of the round stone at the bottom of the screen? I understand you want the game to look cinematic but just wanted to put it out there. Keep up the hard work! Can’t wait to play the game when it’s finished!

[@matheus-kirchesch]

Nice job with the new graphics, amazing

[@shirazoul]

More Feedback: at 23:32 you talk about the fire skill and those who don't have the skill will need to learn it, which takes times. Wouldn't the most human thing to do actually teach the skill-less how to lit a fire? Maybe this is hard to implement this late in the development or it's not you vision. But I think it would be cool and kind of wholesome if the old wise sapiens can lecture the children skills to make your tribe more efficient. So if you're are planning to do a bigger skill tree and everyone need to learn from zero, I think this system would be kind of nice. And anyone can teach anyone their specialized skills, and it's not like it will be instant, but they will learn alot faster. Everything will act more natural, you know🙂 And once again, you are an amazing game developer and a wonderful person, You'll succeed with this game! Best regards //the same random person on the internet😄

[@joseph_alonzo]

For the tag icons, I would suggest having them pop up when you look at them for the "decluttered" mode, and also be able to search and toggle different tags being displayed, say if you want to find sapiens, or campfires you can select only those to pop up. Another thing, is since you can rename everything, have that as a tool. You can have a search bar to look up things you named, and have only those pop ut as well

[@jakobsteinberg6402]

I have an idea for a nice little addition later in the game: It would be nice if you could dig for gold nuggets in the river bed. With this gold you could craft some jewellery for the sapiens, if you have discovered smelting of metals.

[@seize2581]

Wow the foliage is looking so good now :D

[@rwwkv6]

This is looking epic -- can't wait!!

[@mikewatson4729]

Looking great. Would it be possible to have a nonlinear advancement system? Could a player progress in the game and skip fire? That would be an interesting game play challenge where houses and blankets/clothes become way more important in a world without fire.. it would also mean that a vegetarian run would be needed for that example.. It would feel more like a sandbox, and less like a progression game

[@patjackmanesq]

Oh, that is looking lovely!

[@MrWertyQaz]

I have some notes/Suggestions regarding discovery. Right now it feels a bit static/linear not very much like a discovery. If the items didn't say what they unlocked the player would have consider what makes sense for a certain discorvery. Also multiple items could unlock the same discovery. For example If the player see that they can unlock fire lighting they might do so by researching either a stick or a rock but neither would say unlock fire lighting, just discover/experiment. Discovering fire lighting with a rock could set the nearest flammable object on fire (so could doing it with a stick :P)

[@Jova]

0:42 lmao at the guy running sideways

[@patafanmarti2913]

Rimworld has a good mix of systems that allow both micro-managment as well as setting broad targets and setting up pawn priorities to accomplish those.

[@rotarurazvan3064]

Ideas: - Bushes - Don't show in advance in the tech-tree what they can discover. Just show what they already discovered. I think it will make things more interesting.

[@iphoeniximarco5488]

Splitting the task tree up into tiers would be kind of nice, so the trees are not that overwhelming, less scrolling, clear focus, manageable and more rewarding finishing one. Yes looking at you, path of exile skill tree ^^

[@feffo9908]

I like the new research system in principle, but i believe it will not work well in a real game. A player who starts a new campaign will immediatly look around for the objects to research, and in a matter of minutes the basic stuff will be done. So you are building a system that works for like 10 minutes of gameplay. You could put some sort of "milestone" system, so that the players has to progress a little into the game before even be able to start researching. Or you could make the research linked to random events that happens in game (a lightining strikes, fire!). Or you can spread the reasearch action to more than one/different activities (e.g. each reasearched object will contribute for a % of the total reasearch, that will be unblocked when reached 100%), in this way the player has to actively do stuff in order to keep the research going, and this stuff will keep the sapiens busy so the player has to decide either if to progress or to survive. Or you could also do some sort of minigame in order to unblock it. This is of course valid only if the game can be played for a while without the basic research: if not, i dont think you should even be bothering building this system for the initial researches and give them the ability to learn since the beginning

[@riccardoorlando2262]

I think it's fine if the first one or two techs are trivial to obtain - they function as a tutorial for the tech tree mechanic. After those, the fact that the player has to actively search or work to obtain researchable items to unlock new tech will work to steer him towards an intended progression path. For example, fire and stoneknapping are easily obtainable, but maybe stone masonry requires using advanced tools on mountain stone tiles. Those tools have to be crafted, which means they have to be unlocked by discovering "toolmaking" which is done by using a knapped rock on a stick, or something like that. Also, the player has to find mountain stone tiles. This is not immediate.

[@feffo9908]

@@riccardoorlando2262 i see what you mean, but i still think that "the search" is not an interesting enough system to achieve new ideas, even if the researchable objects are scarce. As you suggested, working to obtain said objects would already be better, unless (again) the path to get them is not trivial as well (eg: look for a branch=> search the branch to unlock firelighting => create the first campfire=>search the campfire to unlock cooking), and since these "ideas" are primitive ones and therefore quite simple, i think it would be difficult to link them to any production/in-game goal that is difficult to achieve for the player (or even just satisfying to achieve).

[@MrMaltavius]

Instead of the triangle you could use the shape of the head/shoulders that you had as an icon in the circle before. Resources close to each other could clump up into one icon with a number on it

[@Hotseewt]

holy it look way better. nice job man

[@TheJishanator]

I always know it's going to be a good day when I get this notification.

[@DudeMichaelJackson]

Make it possible for skills to be learnt by word of mouth throughout the tribe along with discovering it through research. You could add a little speech bubble over them while one person tells the other about the skill, and it would gradually spread to everyone over time.

[@shirazoul]

You've done amazing work Dave! Everything looks more pleasing to the eye now and quite frankly, I would say that you've built a beautiful world. However there are alot of models now that need tweaking and refinement to fit in the world you've created as you said😅 Feedback: One thing I noticed were that the spruce trees didn't feel the same quality as the leaf trees, some of them did but I wouldn't say it was consistent (Look at 22:22) I think the eyes notice the triangle shape more than the round ones and thinks it's a bit unnatural. I don't really have a good suggestion on how to fix it, maybe make the triangles slimmer and have the new leaf renderer handle branches sticking out? IDK, just wanted to give you some input. You are an amazing game developer and a wonderful person, You'll succeed with this game! Best regards //a random person on the internet😊

[@pchris]

I can see the grass billboards are facing toward the camera. They might look better if they oriented themselves to face the same direction as the camera instead of just pointing at it's position.

[@rileyharris9097]

It’s exciting following along

[@iangarth6174]

It looks amazing! Omg dude well done.

[@jaakkokorhonen]

Gotta love that "spanking the monkey" -animation. :)

[@philippst.8543]

The environment looks amazings : ) I don't know if it would hurt the design, or if the engine can handle it, but if you are working on the environment now maybe adding more rocks, pebbles, shrubbery, etc. would make it look better (basically just scattering props). I also think that it might be useful to see the badge-icon in the 'Tasks' menu for all sapiens, so the player knows which skills are already learnt, no matter by what sapien.

[@trafficface]

My favorite devlog! I wish I could write precedural spherical worlds.

[@martinaakervik]

Super! You do incredible things whit this game of yours. I just heard though, that it is believed humans language evolved to completely new levels because of the campfire. That the moment we sat down together with spear time, suddenly got a need to communicate about plans and history of our day. That we invented a richer language that after a while even made us able to get our heads together. So that new ideas was cheered and discussed. So probably one of the biggest steps in human thinking was probably made around the campfire. I myself as an artist have also long before I heard this got a feeling that culture and entertainment with storytelling, acting and singing was made at the campfire. Don't know if it has anything to do with your game. But felt like good thing to comment.. eh.. communicat.. around this ..eh... relative new... campfire... oh... excuse me... computer network.

[@planetaxolotl4398]

This could have no actual gameplay and it'd still be amazing, it's so gorgeous too look at. I do want to say this though, have you thought about adding more skin color variety? I think it's a little strange that they all seem to be "white," especially since they're supposed to be ambiguously human.

[@gumballball938]

Wow I wish I could play that game now

[@TransHerring]

The game is looking really good!

[@Nerd2Ninja]

For the togglable UI, the way this is usually handled, I think, is the UI is up by default and a notification in the corner of the screen tells you what button to press to toggle the UI which you have to press at least one time in order for the notification to go away. The reason for this, is that often without the UI, the player has no idea what the controls or game mechanics are. I personally go to settings and controls (often the button mapping setting) to see what the controls are, but even that is only because I've learned its helpful, but it isn't intuitive.

[@zachnerdydude6605]

I feel like this is gonna turn out as an inbetween of the sims and civilization

[@benrex7775]

2:54 At first I thought, that's a lot of windmills.

[@gideonstrom4454]

The grass looks amazing

[@houstonhampton2418]

So cooking would be a discovery too? Like the tech tree merely keeps track of what you have already discovered? That’s a cool idea. Making the tech tree unfold in game rather than in the menu

[@pallascat6767]

That looks beautiful.

[@thriemboy1706]

You can use normal maps or bump maps for the thetch/hay buildings

[@ciberman]

New here! This game looks really interesting. Looking forward to learn more about it :)

[@plaidpvcpipe3792]

13:03 This reminds me of Rorikstead in skyrim

[@iphoeniximarco5488]

"it doesnt really scream hay, you have to say" a rhymer you are

[@benrex7775]

14:55 Funny thing is that rich soil has less diversity of plants and more dense grass.

[@georgegoddard1550]

u a good man i cant wait for this!

[@exosproudmamabear558]

One sapien should do more than one task or it would be impossible to play when late game event like desease kill a few people. That way it would be easier to manage without micromanaging

[@Obsiduction]

I really loooove all theses updates ! The new trees and grass lokk awesome (even if i liked a lot the old ones). I think the colored triangle as an incon for sapiens is a great idea, but i feel like they are a little bit "raw" and don't bleed too well with the other UI. Maybe you could try to make the black borders of the triangle thicker, to give it this "sapien" look ?

[@nemesmatyi]

As for the discovery system, i think it wouldn't be too enjoyable for the player to have to click on random objects in the world to find if they relate to any tech. Especially when you explained it with the flint, i thought it only made sense if you already knew that you can research flint. Which kind of defeats the point of discoveries.

[@riccardoorlando2262]

Well, maybe you'd see "Flint Knapping" locked in the tech tree menu, and guess you'd have to look for flint. For other techs it could be more of a puzzle - "Hunting" is visible but locked, I wonder what unlocks it? What about "Bowmaking" or "Archery"?

[@euschi3848]

I like that it challenges the player to think like the people who you’re playing as. However, it could become to challenging when it comes to more abstract discoveries. It’s not a system to remove, but maybe make it really clear that it’s something you should discover when you find it. For example, the sparkles Dave mentioned. I have faith in his ability as a problem solver when it comes to game development.

[@UnintendedSheep]

I think it would be cool if you can use rock napping as a means to achieve fire lighting. From experience I know that if you bang the right kind of rocks together it creates sparks, which can light things on fire. So I was thinking there should be regular fire lighting and then upgraded fire lighting after discovering flint knapping since flint creates a lot of sparks when banged onto other rocks. Maybe it can be a chance discovery for fire lighting at that point.

[@threadsnakegaming]

I think having a learning and mastery system for technology would be both realistic and add an element to the game. Skills and ideas being passed down through generations are what makes humanity human! Instead of having a master technology tree, try having the technologies live through the members of your tribe, and have kids learn technologies by watching their parents use them. This mechanic also allows for unused or older technologies to be forgotten over time. this is a more fluid model of technology than a civ style concrete tech tree and overall it provides more engaging gameplay.