Author: Everyday
Maybe I have less contact with survival-related games, when I mention this type of game, I often think of simply learning the system at the beginning, and then following the guidance of the system can live a safe and stable life... A recent game called Clanfolk has given me a different look at survival games, and although it has the same simple and cute graphics as similar works, the system that requires deep player involvement also makes the game very difficult, repeatedly "destroying" the player's will before the characters can gain a foothold. But even if you fail, you may regroup and learn the lessons to put them to life next time. What's more, Clansman is a long-term management game where you can witness the reproduction and development of clans.
*Clan Is still in the EA stage, the game version is 0.256 at the end of the draft, and the text translation and optimization are slightly flawed
Colonial life from scratch
Clans allows players to set the initial family, but no matter how you choreograph, they all have the premise of "Scottish Colonists". If you use the recommended clan, then you will work with three generations of grandchildren to start from scratch, gradually establish your own territory, attract passers-by, and let your own blood and spirit be passed on.
The "self-made" mentioned here is not an exaggerated metaphor, the clan has no materials and tools at the beginning of the game except for a small amount of food resources and livestock, and all the industrial achievements we know must be developed and built step by step. Want to mine iron ore? Then please collect branches and stones to make a stone pickaxe. Want to wear new clothes? That workbench that makes linen or leather is essential. Logical progression keeps progress slow at the beginning of the game, but when you actually build a house and the family no longer has to be exposed to the wind and the sun, the player is very rewarded.
Depending on the environment of the map, the materials that support the lives of the clans are not the same at the beginning. If animal resources are abundant, then the tribesmen usually eat more red meat, and they can also quickly develop leather-related technologies. If you live by the water's edge, the people will not worry about the water, and the meat will be mainly the eels that can be caught in the lake. Although the game screen does not look very different, different environments can indeed allow players to get different gaming experiences.
Gameplay that requires logical orchestration
Everyone in the game has their own AI guidelines, and the core gameplay of the game is to involve the player in the orchestration of AI logic.
Clansmen doesn't allow players to directly control everyone's actions like they do with RTS, but needs to prioritize everyone's actions in the sidebar. You can put everyone's good at doing things to a higher level, which makes the work more efficient. You can also prioritize what they like to do the most, and then lower the priority of the things they don't like to do, so that the clan can maintain a good attitude when working, and the related skills can grow faster.
Those who like to do it aren't necessarily the best at it
The opposite of work priority is "event priority". Almost everything in the game has its own priorities. For example, by increasing the priority of hunting and cooking, we can prioritize the supply of food every day. When a certain type of resource is in short supply, you can also increase the priority of collection and let the clan concentrate on specific projects.
Each clan has their own likes and dislikes, and the detailed environment interaction further enhances the game's realism.
Everything in the game, as long as it exists, will be affected by the environment, or affect the environment. Ingredients and leather that are wet by rain will reduce quality and eventually spoil; Dung and spoilage will affect the mood of the clan, but it can lead to fertile soil and can also be specially made into fertilizer; Stoves, forges and other facilities have a chance to ignite nearby items... From the recent updates, it can also be seen that the production team wants to work hard in this regard and make these logics the selling point of "Clan". Therefore, how to create a spiraling development structure is something that players have to think about.
There will even be blood stains on the processed raw meat and skin
"Clan" is not the kind of game that brings down natural disasters at once to destroy the family, and most of the difficulties faced by players in the game come from unreasonable arrangements. Illness and bad mood can lead to lack of motivation among the clansmen, and unreasonable layout may lead to fires or waste of resources, all of which are preventable. From my current experience, I have come to the conclusion that "ask for pleasure and not for good", do not pursue the construction of more advanced houses, do whatever materials you have, whether it is people or livestock, it is the most important thing to have a place to live first.
The winter of "Clan" is the game's assessment of the development of the clan, and the difficulties of the game are concentrated here. Winter food resources are scarce, the weather is bad, and if there is not enough food and resource reserves before, these people may not be able to survive.
That said, if the player does not notice some problems in the early stages, then when the corresponding consequences appear, it often takes a long time to recover. For example, the dung pit I built earlier was too close to the place of labor, and many clans were infected with the Buff of "seeing feces", and their mood plummeted. Characters in Clans are hard to beat to death, but the feeling of powerlessness is even more devastating when the player watches everything around them deteriorate and they return to their own lack of skills.
Write at the end
Words and a few pictures alone can't fully show the charm of "Clan", and watching other people's gameplay videos may not help. But if you're a brain-stirrer and a long-term player, you might love Clan. The game turns the reproduction and development of the race into a sense of accomplishment feedback to the player. When you see the clan members thriving and the houses gathered into villages, thinking back to the desolation when the clans first set foot on this land, the player, as a witness to all this, must have a lot of emotions in his heart.
Merit:
- Combined with the system to create a variety of interactions, so that the layout logic of the gameplay more in-depth
- True self-made, there are many large and small facilities that can be built
- Play long-term and witness the rise (or fall) of the clan
Shortcoming:
- The UI needs to be optimized, and the character state (normal, overtime, rest) can be changed to select after clicking, otherwise the role will often reduce the mood value due to the instantaneous entry into the overtime state when switching