It's patch time!
The patch being deployed right now will start the process of burning old oases and generating new ones. Also we will be seeing special nodes pop up with meteor strikes, containing iron for players to fight over, and unlocking access to the higher tech levels. We will also see a return of the Nurrs, giant desert-cats who got an unintended buff in the last patch, allowing them to 1-shot boats and prompting devs to disable them until a fix could be implemented.
And some of the new maps will feature caps to the number of clan members allowed at one time. This change is intended to give smaller clans a chance to play without getting zerged by giant mega-clans. The devs acknowledge that mega-clans will still find workarounds, but say this is only a first iteration of their plans and there is more to come.
After the dramatic events in my last post, our Clan leader made the call that we would be merging into another, particularly disreputable Clan. I've avoided using my Clan name in the past to discourage unwanted attention, but I don't mind saying now that this decision spelled the end of the Walker Reclamation Agency. A small group of his close friends merged along with our leader, but almost everyone else decided to seek new homes elsewhere.
Two of the subcommanders from WRA grabbed up most of the members of my team and one other team, along with some of their friends from past lives, and formed a new Clan, of which I am now a part. We're somewhat fewer in number, but honestly those who were picked are among the most talented and dependable contributors, taken from the sea of tourists and selfish soloists and spies that made up most of WRA. And our new leadership is much more dedicated towards forming alliances, carefully picking enemies, and ensuring that all of us work together as a cohesive and functional unit. I'm much more satisfied and enjoying my playtime more since the transition.
We managed to lay low for a few days, hiding in the shadow of a larger stronger ally, while we built our new fleet and gathered a surplus of supplies for when that fleet inevitably gets destroyed. But last night we learned that a neighbor sharing the tile with us was sitting on top of a particularly lucrative source of high-quality materials. We attempted to negotiate, offering fair trade for some of their quality materials. In exchange they demanded a large sum of fire arrows.
Now, fire arrows are only used for two things, and those are burning open enemy boats and bases. This offer was interpreted as an insult. So we decided to use a small fraction of the fire arrows they requested to instead burn down their base and simply take the resources. Our neighbors did their best to consume, destroy, or flee with as many of their resources as possible, but we still finished the fight with boxes full of enough plunder to build several new high-quality warboats.
Later that day our neighbors called in some of their allies, and together they chased us off the tile we were calling home. But that tile was days away from burning anyway, and we already had plans for where we would move next.
Regarding the Chinese threat, we've seen a few scouting parties, but no major movements yet. Our assumption is that they are waiting until after the burn begins, so that they can focus their resources on the newer and more valuable maps.
The American mega-clans have not come together in quite the way we might have hoped, but we have seen a noticeable increase in non-aggression pacts between the big clans and smaller clans, as everyone attempts to solidify their power as much as possible before the coming storm.
My own clan has certainly benefited from this, forming a pact with a mega-clan that once destroyed anyone not under their umbrella, and settling within their territory where few outside aggressors dare to invade. Our benefactors are however on the front lines with China, and so circumstances may be changing very quickly.
I think the game definitely shines best with friends, having a crewed walker or two just seems infinitely more fun and efficient than doing it all yourself.
Absolutely agree, and I feel this merits explaining a few things about resources.
First of all, there is a medium-sized boat called the Toboggan. Noteworthy features of the Toboggan are that the cargo hold can store up to 1000 items per slot, and the Toboggan does not slow down significantly when weighed down by heavy cargo. These aspects make the Toboggan ideal for gathering resources.
Secondly, the Forager and Lumberjack modules. When installed on a walker, these modules allow it to harvest trees and plants that it walks over, respectively. A single module will harvest one or two resources per node trampled, which is pretty bad. The modules can be stacked however, and with 10 of each a boat can easily accumulate thousands of resources per minute. There is another module which speeds up the processing of workstations built on deck; ten of this module allows for nigh instantaneous crafting, so you can rapidly convert the wood and fiber you are amassing into shafts, ropes, cloth, and other subcomponents.
However, boats can only equip a limited number of modules, preventing you from making one boat that does everything. The way to surpass this limit is with quality resources! A high quality boat can hold more modules, so install a rangefinder and start seeking out those quality materials!
And of course all of this is a lot of work for one person, so ideally you should find a crew who can split up the tasks, and then share the profits when it all comes together.
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Topic: Last Oasis Clan - The Dune Dwellers (Read 7315 times)