We missed Timberborn for nothing - a city-building simulator with beavers
In Timberborn, the player is given a plot of fertile land and a group of beavers - jacks-of-all-trades. You need to help your toothy charges create a utopia and survive all natural whims. This is a challenging task that requires a creative approach to construction.
Life After Humans
According to the story, humanity died out, and all that remained of human civilization were rusting remnants. The next intelligent creatures were beavers, who stood on their hind legs and learned to work with tools. They developed an architecture that would not yield to human architecture.
Beavers divided into two communities:
- Living in harmony with nature, the 'Folktails'. It's easier to cultivate the land with them.
- Following the path of progress, the 'Iron Teeth'. They excelled in scientific development.
The unique bonuses and structures of the communities help with role-playing but do not cut off certain development paths: you can turn 'Iron Teeth' into rustics or build robots for 'Folktails'.
Simple Beaver Happiness
Initially, you have to work with a district center, a small supply of resources, and a group of beavers with kits. Beavers can build, carry loads, grow plants, and work in buildings like pumps — they don't need to be trained for professions. Kits can eat, drink, and sleep — they will start being useful when they grow up. Fortunately, this happens quickly.
To survive, beavers only need to pump water from sources and gather food. With the construction of houses, the Folktails will begin to reproduce — kits will be born as long as there are free spaces. Iron Teeth produce offspring using incubators — you have to turn them on and off so that there aren't too many beavers. But advanced incubators produce ready-made workers.
Beavers enjoy a variety of food — raw and cooked. You need to build them scratching posts, massage stations, places for bathing, and nature observation spots. The happier the beavers, the faster they walk and build, and the longer they live.
Peaceful life is disrupted by periodic droughts and badtides. During a drought, natural water sources dry up. If dams are not built and water is not stored in time, plants will die. And with them, the beavers themselves.
With badtides, bad water starts flowing from clean water sources. Bad water contaminates clean water, kills plants, and negatively affects beaver health. But it can be used to produce explosives or lubricant.
Build Smart
To survive and develop, you need to build many different buildings, but the construction space is limited. Fortunately, individual buildings are strong enough to build directly on roofs. And they have no weight limit – experienced players build high-rises with all amenities.
Resource production requires energy. After setting up water wheels, windmills, or making beavers turn a wheel, you will have to draw up a plan to connect the district to the grid. Most buildings conduct energy, and they need to be built so that they are in contact with each other.
Having achieved prosperity in one district, you can proceed to develop the next. Districts can be allocated for timber harvesting, food production, industrial and scientific development. And so that beavers don't have to walk far, a fast travel system should be built.
The final stage of development is the production of robot beavers (beaverbots). Beaverbots transport goods faster, and they can be further accelerated with the help of towers. For science points, mechanical beavers learn to work in buildings and even produce their own kind. Instead of food, water, and sleep, machines need recharging and lubrication.
Beavers and Dams
The game features excellent fluid physics. Water flows forward according to all rules, bypasses obstacles, and overflows them. The more water there is, the slower it dries up. And if it is placed in special reservoirs, it will never dry up.
You can build dams and levees, separate bad water from good, and make remote lands suitable for cultivation. With impermeable floors, you can create aqueducts. The entire beaver civilization is built around water. And through trial and error, it is very engaging to use it in the most unusual ways.
Verdict
In Timberborn, you can relax after stuffy city-building simulators. The game doesn't force you to decide the fate of the world, get bogged down in political squabbles, be a tyrant or a benefactor, and listen to constant complaints.
It's simply a high-quality constructor that encourages creativity. Even caring for beavers is a matter of pleasant bonuses. Not all game mechanics are clear from the start, but that's the price for not being handheld.
The only thing I missed was vertical ladders and elevators to go down. On the 'Heights' map, they would have been very useful. And a clearer interface so as not to strain my eyes when studying available resources.
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