In feng shui and in general in China, water is considered the primary element, the basis of all life...
Recently, the final version of the Tree of Life survival sandbox game has been released, which boasts colorful graphics, as well as a well-developed system for creating and developing your own tribe. Of course, as in many other similar games, in it you will have to spend a lot of time extracting various resources and taming animals. You can find them in various regions. If you do not want to waste your time searching, then we advise you to take a look at the maps we have posted below.
Map with the location of rare resources
- 1 - Pure mineral water (to create ordinary mineral water)
- 2 - Mulberry tree (for the extraction of silkworm cocoons)
- 3 - Lots of mussels
- 4 - Granite vein (granite bricks)
- 5 - Carbonated water and sulfuric vein (sulfur)
- 6 - Iron deposit (iron) and saltpeter deposit (sand and nitrate)
- 7 - Mithril vein (mithril)
- 8 - Ebony (ebony firewood) and mushrooms (mushroom spores)
- 9 - White foxes (leather of white foxes)
- 10 - Glacial water, reindeer (antlers and tendons) and mountain moss
- 11 - Black bears (skin of black bears)
Map with the name of all regions
Sometimes you will only know what region it is in about your target, without any hint of where the region itself is located. This map will help you determine at least the approximate location of the object you need.
Map with tameable animal habitats
This map shows zones where animals live, available for taming, that is, they can be placed in a pen for further use. Cows, sheep and pigs now bring the greatest benefit.
How tired of it we have been over the past few years. And before, before everything was different. Once upon a time, we rejoiced to the point of madness with a new such game, jumped for happiness and played them day and night. In those relatively recent times, this was something new for us.
Alas, as a rule for developers, if something new in the game "people devoured", then you need to grab this vein and squeeze the last juices out of it. And even when there is nothing left: no new ideas, no innovations in the gameplay (even the banal transfer of us to another planet). Although some tried to surprise us, in general, the developers still continue to carelessly rivet and rivet such games.
Fortunately, there are still a couple of drops of juice left in this very vein. The innovation is that the players should not immediately run away and kill others, they should be friends, and it's not just useless to run around the map together, but to do something in common. The first game that comes to mind is the one I recently reviewed, where the developers are somehow pushing us to create their own settlement, and not just three yurts standing side by side, but something on a larger scale. And so, I recently came across a game tree of life where, in fact, this topic is addressed.
Like everyone else, you do not appear in a ready-made town, where you would simply put up your house and start making friends with your neighbors. Everything is much worse. Those players who have played such games more than once react calmly to such a beginning. When there are only fists in your hands, you are wrapped in some kind of rags, there is nothing and no one around, and empty pockets.
You have to survive, build your first hut and think that it's time to become the king of your state. Alas, it doesn’t exist yet, there is just an empty clearing, which, allegedly, you appropriated for yourself, but it’s difficult to fight it off alone if strangers come. And this will happen sooner or later: if non-living players covet you, then local monsters will do it, always ready to attack your future settlement and rob it.
At this time and time to go in search of friends, trying not to accept strangers into your flock. The game is more about collective survival, with those you know. It will be difficult to build a city from scratch with strangers. You will start to order them, they will rebel, and maybe even without orders they will begin to suffer nonsense. And that's it, you are the king only in your soul. And with close people it’s somehow easier, there is a chance that they won’t obey you either, but at least there will be one common goal, even if it will be a city of only kings.
Having built their own house, where there is another house, and next to it is another house, in other words, a village, having starved for a day, because no one wants to do anything, they are all kings, and it’s not good for them to get food and forge armor, everyone will start to think, who will manage what. Someone will become an ordinary gatherer, will hunt, fish, another will sharpen weapons, and the third will pick up a hammer and begin to build, and not just anything, but a wall with towers. After all, you will be attacked, and more than once, so the defense must be done first.
After looking at the launch of another survival MMO in early access on Steam - Tree of Life - about a year ago, I turned my nose and did not write anything about it. Firstly, calling people into an early access game without some crazy new mechanics and with no guarantees that the project will ever get out of this state at all, still seems wrong to me. Secondly, I seem to be gradually surrendering either to prejudices or to accumulated personal negative experience, but when I saw a Korean company as a game developer, I felt an attack of serious aesthetic concerns. The developers, for their part, successfully played along with my phobias, subtly adding a pinch of insane kitsch to everything. For example, in cutting down a tree with a trunk in two girths by violently beating it with bare fists.
In addition, the game outwardly looked like a less beautiful sister of Civilization Online, nevertheless brought up in the same acrobatic family of clowns, where it is normal to constantly jump in bright outfits, merrily beating each other and developing the world, it seems, solely for the sake of laughter. In general, I didn’t get along with Tree of Life, and the rest of the MMOs didn’t write anything either. But just yesterday, the game decided to announce a new stage in its life - a beta test. And I decided to put at least a small monument to this survivor in the form of a separate blog. Moreover, we have something to talk about.
In principle, the fact that MMOs appear today with such ease should not surprise anyone. Especially since, as you know, if several Koreans get together, they instinctively start making MMOs. And the power of Tree of Life, which is calmly able to show its tongue to many mastodons of the genre with consensus open PvP, a system of crimes, free, albeit simple construction and an interesting PvE component, is difficult to dispute.
Another issue is that, apparently, having survived and gained a foothold, players are faced with a well-known disease that is rapidly spreading in a tightly fenced-off space - boredom. And now people are raising their bloody fists to the sky, demanding a placebo in the form of a wipe. Which, in fact, came yesterday along with the announcement of the beta version.
But before we discuss all these cons, let's talk about the potential pros. Survival here, apparently, is much more active than in Haven and Hearth known to us. The night that falls every ten minutes is not only completely dark, but also teeming with monsters who love to gnaw at your buildings and, of course, you. Calm down - no permadeath. But still not very pleasant. Especially considering how quickly what was built becomes unusable from such raids.
That is, we have before us just the implementation of a constantly oppressive and snarling external environment that will not wait until you decide to go on an adventure. She will climb over walls, break fences, gnaw, spit, shoot, chop. And all this in pitch darkness, albeit with a twinkle. Because how else to perceive anthropomorphic sharks chasing after you in the dark? You can also add fire, not only by beating running fish in response or slicing them with your own weapons, but also by lighting torches, bonfires and, finally, arranging street lighting, nevertheless easily turning the city, five minutes ago similar to the scenery to animated series, in a medieval setting.
The second indisputable plus is the sky. Clouds. Sun. Opportunity to look at the horizon. How I missed this in the beautiful, but isometric Haven and Hearth. Do not transfer. But, unfortunately, I almost failed to find really beautiful screenshots outside of the official Tree of Life set. The game has very nice sketches, reminiscent of Wakfu in fun and the amount of yellow-green, but in the game itself, apparently, it is not as elegant as it turns out with French colleagues. However, the final opinion about the graphics can only be made inside the game. And here I hope for other MMOGers, who just couldn’t cope with the confusion, regularity and relative severity of Haven and Hearth.
Then we move on to the plus “for an amateur”. Yes, apparently, everything is simpler here and with less consequences for errors. How does this affect gameplay, human behavior and the overall duration of the game? It would be interesting to hear the opinion of eyewitnesses.
For example, in the freshly released beta version, they added the ability to set a reward for offenders. But what prevents his friends from “killing” the criminal and sharing the reward among themselves is not very clear from the outside. In general, on these and many other issues, the expert opinion of those who went on an expedition out of curiosity is needed.
In the meantime, let's talk about the impressions that people have accumulated over the year of "early access", judging by the reviews on Steam and on the project forum. Prior to the wipe that sparked a new wave of interest in Tree of Life, the game was criticized by many for turning into a dead desert with the skeletons of abandoned settlements. A familiar picture. Players also criticized the developers for the apparently unhurried development of the game. Although what players want by paying for an MMO one-time is not very clear. The game has a number of items that can be purchased separately: a couple of mounts, a couple of backpacks and a couple of pets. On the one hand, this is such a mediocre set of shy monetizers. On the other hand, how else to support a game that does not charge a monthly fee?
Also, when buying, you can spend a different amount of money on starter kits. The price affects the number of slots in your bag that hold your precious items when you die at the hands of another player, and the cosmetic variety.
Before us is almost a reference cast of all the achievements and shortcomings of the genre at the moment. Effortlessly implemented concept of an open virtual world with a high degree of freedom, the obligatory “sandbox” sticker, lack of ideas about what to do after “Beginning of a Jorney” is replaced by a settled or simply more relaxed life in such a world, shy monetization, which is unable to give any serious development to the project, and the revelry of players who, out of boredom, are ready to steal and destroy everything with a zeal that well-trained mobs clearly envy. And since the game is fun and easy, many can only respond to rampant robbery with a smile, bloody fists, or farewell to the world. It's sad of course. But, on the other hand, perhaps this is really just the beginning and growing pains?
