Ancestors: the human kind odyssey

So has anyone else heard of this game yet? 

I'd been watching it for a while, and this week it's only $20 so I'm giving it a shot.

The developers aren't kidding when they say "good luck we won't help you".

You start off in Africa 10 million years ago as a hominid. It is your goal to learn, adapt, and evolve over the next 8 million years. Interesting premise, yea?

Well it sure is different. You have to learn to do everything, sights, smells, sounds, all have different meanings and it's up to you to figure it out, while keeping yourself feed and watered, and trying to breed to either your clan. 

At the very outset, you can only use one hand, you must learn to use the other one, and how different things interact. Rock with stick? Sharpened stick. Rock with rock? Scraper or spear point. Is that plant poisonous or helpful? Eat it and find out. 

I'm really enjoying it so far. I've started over 3 or 4 times as I figure out better ways to do things, still technically in the "first hour" of the game.Just curious if anyone else is playing it, and maybe has any helpful tips.

RevRico said:

 It is your goal to learn, adapt, and evolve over the next 8 million years. Interesting premise, yea?

Just curious if anyone else is playing it, and maybe has any helpful tips.

I think you need to learn how to communicate before you're allowed to share information.

Sounds interesting, but I learned many years ago that I don't have the ability to be a grownup and put video games away when I need to be responsible so I'm not a gamer. A man's got to know his limitations...

Some suggestions for other players:

Rescue the baby first, then ALWAYS carry one on your back, they are the key to neuronal energy, which is how you develop your new skills.

When using "intelligence" or your other senses, always stand up first. Always. It makes your senses slightly stronger but also helps to evolve walking on 2 legs. 

Left/right

Granite/granite = granite grinder, only useful for grinding khat

Obsidian/granite = obsidian scraper, one of the best tools in the game

Basalt/granite = basalt chopper, equally useful as obsidian, just different

Dead branch/hand or rock = stick

Stick/rock chopper or scraper = sharpened stick. Always carry one, keep a stock pile at your base. Main defense weapon.

Horsetail/hand = horsetail paste, helps fix and prevent broken bones

Bed making reeds/hand = dipper, you get the stem and can dip it into beehives for honey collection, a long lasting food that's great for snake bites

Coconut/rock= drinking coconut

Drinking coconut/hand = stripped coconut

Stripped coconut/hand or rock = edible coconut

Sharpened sticks can be used to lift rocks just like regular sticks. Lifting rocks will get you mushrooms, snails, other rocks. 

So, I bought this. Pretty sure I've broken several bones falling out of trees. I was a baby monkey for a while and about got washed away. I've found food, water, an emerald! , A snake a boar, some other monkeys that dont seem to appreciate grooming? And a bunch of random crap. I've got a pile of rocks next to the place where I tend to sleep, but berkeley if I know how to actually make a sleeping space. I'm also very confused by the red scary eyes and weird visual effects that sometimes happen, but maybe I ate too many berries. 

In reply to Mndsm :

Horse tail and or khat to fix broken bones. 

When you have the ability to use both hands, you can strip the horse tail and rub it on your body for a little armor. 

To make a sleeping space, pile up 5 nytal brush branches. Start making a pile and you can add to the pile, when you get 4 you can begin construction. 

Sleeping spot is super important. It's where you sleep, it's how you setup new settlements, where you mate, and how you build out your evolution tree.

Grooming is like everything else, audio visual cues. Hold the button until you hear a ding or start to see the rainbow come around your vision then release. 

The red scary eyes and weird effects are "fear of the unknown". I haven't quite figured out how to prevent it entirely, but you can fix it, when NOT a baby looking for a hiding spot, by going into the bright white light. 

You're forgetting that the society you are playing was wiped out by the Golgafrinchans.

You're doomed. 

Fear of the unknown... I still haven't figured it out, but after moving my settlement in a direction I thought looked safe ish, most of a full day of walking, past the "little swamp" and "cliff cascade" to "overhang", something happened. 

First thing to note, you have to have everyone following you in order to actually move your settlement. Give them all sharpened sticks if you can, natal grass if you can't, and set off. 

As you go through areas that bring the fear, use your intelligence and all senses. Identify everything. This will "rationalize" the fear, and allow you to chase a white sphere to conquer them. It's annoying, and usually related to an enemy being in the area.

Eventually, and I don't know if it was location based, event based, having the whole clan with me, but something brought up a grey sphere. When I walked into it, the whole clan "conquered"their fear, with a special message saying they'll feel more confident in a broader area and something or other. I have found traveling with at least one partner in addition to the baby helps settle the fear faster. 

So no, I still haven't figured it out, but it will get better with time. 

This play is my first restart. I've lost some members to animals, but am doing ok. 4 kids in the camp, 2 more pregnancies on deck, once I have the cap of six I might chance up. My neuron map is very filled up, having found a meteor, I get extra reinforcements, and I'm almost ready to go up a generation, which is a 15 year skip. 

This game is definitely interesting. I'm curious what will happen when I go to the next generation, and I'm really intrigued by the evolution button but I'm not ready to press it yet. 

Oh, and news, when you kill stuff, it stays dead. Thankfully. Snakes, warthogs, crocodiles, Tiger, it stays dead. 

Still haven't made a bed, apparently the things I used were not mytal or whatever. Have gotten to being able to mash rocks together, all that seems to be doing is break rocks. Ate some mushrooms. Got a little high. Wandered off from camp. Not entirely sure that was a good plan.