Hello again and welcome to the next Tribe: Primitive Builder devlog!
This time we’ll be talking about resources, their importance, ways you can collect them in our game, and how it’ll impact the island environment.
We’ve got over a dozen different kinds of resources sprinkled all over the island, and many ways you can acquire them. Our approach was to try to balance out realism but also to not make the process of gathering them tedious. Because of that, some of them you can pick by hand, whilst others will require a specific tool. Some of the collected resources will require further processing before you can use them. There are also resources later in the game that can only be manufactured by a specific craftsman in your tribe.
It’s a lot to take in, so let's unpack it one by one!
At the beginning of the game there will be a short period when you’ll only be able to pick up loose resources such as small rocks, branches, etc. After that you’ll start to craft your first primitive tools. Each of them will allow you to collect at least one new resource. A pickaxe is needed to mine and collect stones, a hatchet is needed to collect bamboo, an axe to cut down trees, a shovel to collect mud and clay, you get the gist. The importance of each tool will change with the game’s progression; your first huts will be mostly constructed from branches, grass, vines and bamboo. Later in the game this will shift more towards wood and stone, or even bricks! After going through a few iterations to make the game more realistic, we decided that bamboo, wood, stone and clay will be resources that require additional refinement before they can be used in construction.
To encourage exploration of the island, we decided that resources would despawn after collecting them. So if you cut down a tree, its trunk will fall to the ground and only the stump will remain. Fallen trunks can be further split into smaller pieces and collected, but after this the tree will be gone, so if you want more you need to explore further into the island. This also has the additional benefit of letting you see your impact on the island. After all, who doesn’t like seeing physical progress and impact? But don’t worry, for players that want to play endlessly, we’ve implemented a system that after a long period of time will respawn some of these resources if there is no building blocking them. It’s the best of both worlds!
As we mentioned in the previous devlog, the player isn’t alone in their resource gathering endeavours. Each workhouse you construct will provide additional resources based on its surroundings and will transport them to the main village stockpile each day. But you need to keep in mind: your tribesmen aren’t as efficient at this task as you, so they’ll gather resources significantly slower. It’s still possible to construct enough workhouses so you’ll never need to collect resources by hand, but we didn’t want to make it too easy to achieve. Your workhouses will require additional tools and upgrades to achieve full automation. There are also two resources that can’t be found in the wild: bricks and tiles can only be crafted by your fellow tribesmen later in the game.
There’s also one more way to collect, or rather trade, new resources. It’s connected with the fact that you’ll be constructing a big ship. But we don't want to spoil everything and ruin the surprise, right?
So to sum it up: there are a few ways to collect resources which will allow you to tailor this experience to your liking. You can complete most of the work by hand to immerse yourself, or skip the tedious parts and let your tribesmen help you. There will be many ways to play Tribe, and we want you all to find in this game what you enjoy the most.
Until next time!
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1059900/Tribe_Primitive_Builder/