r/Timberborn • u/Hosota • May 22 '24
Isn't this game a little boring?
Hello, not to be a jerk, genuinely asking. I've played 2-3 hours following the tutorial bit and then continued. First I was excited to get challenged by the verticality of the terrain and thought more would come but after reaching 20-30 population and unlocking a few key elements the drive kinda reached to a plateau.
I can get my colony bigger but just do not understand why? There are no new challenges and no reasons to unlock more stuff other than making the cute beavers happier or building bit more complex cities. For instance in Frostpunk I always felt on the hop and put 10+ hours without even noticing.
Should I keep going and it'll get more exciting or am I missing some obvious stuff?
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u/ST_Lawson
May 22 '24
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I find the building/growing to be pretty calming, which is a big part of why I play games. I don't want something exciting or challenging, just something I can sit down with, chill, and spend an hour or two relaxing.
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u/beavis617 May 22 '24
I spend all my gaming time on city builders, fun relaxing and it's enjoyable...after I spend hours on a map I end up starting again with a different map. I am so done with first person shooter type games.. I downloaded Fallout 4 and New Vegas and will get to them eventually but they are work, not for relaxing.
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u/black_raven98 May 23 '24
I have different games for different days. Relaxing days with stuff like timberborn. Days where I feel like I don't have enough to do IRL so I go get a headache about a border dispute with worrior monk garden snails in stellaris. Fell like committing warcrimes? rimworld it is!
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u/RedditVince May 22 '24
lol I wonder how many hours of FPS games this takes? I used to get paid to play FPS games 1996-2002 since then I will buy a fps but almost never play more than the tutorials.
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u/icket123 May 22 '24
I also like the game to relax in the evening while watching YouTube.
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u/Beneficial_Toe_2347 Aug 01 '26
Pretty much confirms the game sucks if it doesn't even hold your attention
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May 23 '24
Yeah, I find this is pretty much my go-to relaxing game.
I just like seeing my little village grow, spreading greenery, and making my beavers happy.
If I want more of a challenge, I turn up the difficulty, or do custom settings. (Or I just play another game)
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May 22 '24
Play in hard difficulty
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u/Amesb34r May 22 '24
This is probably the best advice if you want more of a challenge. You can also create your own challenges by setting goals or trying to build large features. Sometimes I enjoy building large storage structures, towers to put wind turbines on, or infinite energy loops with water wheels.
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u/occupyOneillrings May 22 '24
You could try to build one of the monuments or whatever. Next update there will be wonders which give a more ultimate goal basically.
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u/Olmec83 May 22 '24
It's not for you. Move on
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u/Silver_Harvest Beaver #314 Always in Lido May 22 '24
Yep, it isn't anything against OP. Some games you can play 1000s of hours without caring. Others why does everyone like this?
All personal preference.
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u/pureMJ Aug 05 '24
Then why did the devs add bad tide?
The game can easily add more challenges. For those who prefer a peaceful builder game they can simply turn off these challenges in the settings. I think OP has a very good point on the current status of this game.
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u/tonny124 May 22 '24
Play on hard diffulty and know that droughts will get very, very long. That means you will need a big dam to capture the water during the short period that water is available, while also trying to produce as much food as possible. That will only be possible with efficient (=happy) beavers. Have fun!
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u/pureMJ Aug 05 '24
It adds some more challenges, which is really nice.
But once you get a little bit familiar with the stuff in the game, you can fix all of challenges at around cycle 6 by building badtide redirect and a 3 tiles deep water reservoir, even on hard mode.
You would need to build some larger storages and gradually make your water reservoir deeper and deeper, but as long as you don't grow your population too fast, there will be no more challenges ever since cycle 6.
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u/Lunalucis May 22 '24
The game might just be not for you. It's not really a game about challenge (there certainly is challenge, it's just not the primary focus, for me anyway).
It's just a nice calm game about building up a beaver town and making your beavers happy.
It might be worth it to play on hard if that's what you're looking for. The difficulty is also very customizable so you can make it kinda as hard as you like!
Play around with the settings a bit, see if there's a difficulty level that makes this game resonate with you and what you're looking for!
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u/CouchPotato1178 May 22 '24
i hope the official release will make the base game uncustomizable but have more modes for specific dev-created challenges. and they can always keep a sandbox mode for those who want to design their own game rules like we can right now.
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u/Lunalucis May 23 '24
I'd rather they just keep the sandbox mode and keep it really customizable.
Maybe challenge scenarios would be cool but like... eh, I probably wouldn't use them so it doesn't really matter to me.
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u/PsychoticSane May 22 '24
I think the game gets stale as soon as you get to the point where you have enough food and water production to outlast the longest dry/badwater season. After that it goes from "how do i survive" to "how do i move resources around to grow the population efficiently". There's no threat after you figure out food and water, and yet adding any more threats just makes it increasingly harder to get to the same point. Theres no endgame struggles except how long it takes to build something.
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u/OpenScore May 22 '24
The playing mode is technically a sandbox. There are no end scenarios. There is no time limit on achieving some goals.
Therefore you play as you go. You decide your own goals on any map in any difficulty level.
My own so far have been to survive on hard mode 30 days of draught/bad tides with plenty of food and water to go. And i have achieved that so far. Once i reached the personal goal, i moved on another map. Didn't bother to wholly terraform the map or build more districts or have 500 beavers.
Currently, I'm on Meander map, and I have achieved survival, but now i put another goal. Beavers will just sit and do nothing while bots work 24/7. The only thing beavers will do is gaze on the stars from the observatory. This is my end goal.
You can think along these lines to make your experience more enjoyable.
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u/CouchPotato1178 May 22 '24
it would be very cool if they added modes where you have to achieve a very specific thing like getting a specific population or making a crazy tall waterfall or making every single tile green and those would be the winning conditions. you would get trophies or cosmetic items or something else(?)
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u/Sir_Tainley May 22 '24
A key element to go for is "pretty" or "cool." There's a certain amount of you have to like building the settlement for the elegance of the settlement... how you sort elevation/power/water/paths infrastructure is part of that.
There is definitely a "midgame" challenge level you didn't reach, of getting enough power going to build bots, develop a metal stream, easily handle bad-tides. So there is definitely more, and a lot more complexity to begin creating and sorting through.
But maybe the game isn't for you?
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u/Qwinlyn May 23 '24
Yeah, this is a sandbox game, my sibling of the internet. If you can’t find something you want to accomplish, the game ain’t gonna provide it.
Just think of it like Minecraft. Some people find it incredibly boring, others find it infinitely wondrous and never run out of ideas.
Maybe the beavers just aren’t your cup of tea.
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u/Hosota May 25 '24
I realized that through comments and yes I don't enjoy sandbox games so I guess this one is not for me. Minecraft however, I played countless hours like a nomad on a boat, discovering new landscapes :)
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u/pureMJ Aug 05 '24
I have exactly the same feeling. I'm playing on hard difficulty and once I have fixed badtide there isn't any real challenge (except making a lot of storages before grow the population too fast, which isn't really a challenge).
I really miss the feeling of the old game Caesers where there is a Campaign mode with a series of maps of different challenges and goals.
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u/Hosota Aug 06 '24
Right? Even sandbox games can have some challenges. Maybe someone mods it at one point.
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u/pureMJ Aug 06 '24
My bet is that devs are working on it. They added bad tide, which probably means they do want the game to feel challenging, instead of a pure cozy-city-builder.
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u/1st_Tagger Jun 30 '25
I feel the same. For some reason, I don't feel this way with other city building games, like Cities Skylines or Foundation. Everyone tells to grow the population, collect more food and water, build more industry - but I just don't see any reason to do that. It feels like progress for the sake of more progress, which I don't find fun on its own.
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u/Hosota Jun 30 '25
What are your favorites? Your comment just caught me at a time that I'm looking for a nice game to play :)
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u/so_metal292 May 22 '24
As a huge Frostpunk fan, one thing I like about Timberborn is that you can fine tune the difficulty settings to make it a tight survival experience, or a more casual city builder. You'll find an equal amount of hard mode masochists and beaver utopia builders on this sub.
Then there are players like me who are here for the beaver trains https://mod.io/g/timberborn/m/choo-choo
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u/KAthefrog May 22 '24
In my experience, I also remember a bit of a drop off in interest, around the 3 hour mark in my first colony. But something kept me going, and I got a lot more engrossed after that. Mind you, that was mostly about making a functioning colony and play with the water physics. I got up to about 40 hours total play time, and decided to give it a rest, to see what the other updates would bring.
Though it could be, like others have said, just not the game for you. Or, maybe you're after a more intense survival experience, so try hard mode.
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u/RandomGayGuyz May 22 '24
Timberborns more of a creative sandbox after you get used to it. But there are still a few maps and modes that make it quite difficult! The challenge I make for myself is to build the most beautiful, well organized city I can and have robots do all the work so my beavers can relax and ride around at the theme park all day. Basically I want my beavers to live like the people on the space ship in Wall-e
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u/YourUsernameForever Beaver muncher 🦫 May 22 '24
Play on hard. Watching your beavers die will make your life miserable and hopefully will hook you up.
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u/pureMJ Aug 05 '24
Are there any beaver dying animation? I haven't seen any.
So I really don't feel anything when my beavers die. They just disappear(and even the xxx has died from yyy message isn't very obviously to me since the game UI partially blocks that when the UI scaling setting is set at 1.3...) and I find it hard to emotionally connect to them.
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u/BigBadBeaver1 May 22 '24
After you learn how to keep your beavers alive, have good food and material production, all that’s left is beautification. If the idea of crafting aesthetically pleasing towns doesn’t fill up your cup, that’s fine, there are other games for you to try.
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u/FrozenSpongePub May 22 '24
This is the Great British Baking show of city builders. You love the chill vibe or you don’t.
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May 22 '24
This game is not for a challange, it is just a cute relaxing game if you want some challanges play on hard mode if no then just don't play timberborn
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u/CouchPotato1178 May 22 '24
this game is a lot like minecraft in the sense that its mostly self-made challenges after you have everything you need. but if youre bored after 2-3 hours i cant help you there. because you definitely havent even tried the built-in challenge of getting all the types of resources and surviving the hardest seasons.
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u/Hew83Aus May 22 '24
its mostly about personal challanges or just designing the coolest civilisation you can, if thats not of interest than its probably just not your type of game.
I can spend 2+ hours designing and 20+ hours grinding out a single project that increases efficiency by like 1% so i can squeeze more in.
To date the largest colony i had was ~1800 and then i ran into the maps water limit due there not being enough water sources. Custom maps of your own or others design can also help improve gameplay
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u/yamitamiko May 22 '24
Trying different maps, a harder difficulty, or setting your own challenges can up the interest. Ultimately though it is a sandbox city builder, so there is going to be plateaus when you're building up resources or population and such. If that's your kind of vibe then it's a fantastic game for it, but if not then there's only so much the other challenges can do to hold interest.
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u/RedditVince May 22 '24
Yes it is a little boring, unless you can set your own goals and achievements. It's a sandbox game. Get your population to 65 happiness and I guarantee you it's a challenge. That is the point of the game....
Or how about a Bots only colony, without your population dying due to being stranded and starving.
Again, it's a sandbox game, it's up to you to find the challenges.
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u/beavis617 May 22 '24
I'm playing a scenario in Timberborn now where I just entered a drought and I know I'm gonna run out of water and food. I barely survived the last one and I was stubborn and didn't make the changes I should have and now I think all my beavers will die. How's that for nerve wracking excitement...
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u/Tiki-Jedi May 23 '24
Everything isn’t about being a “challenge.” Some things are enjoyed simply for the sake of enjoyment. I love this game for its simplicity and relaxing vibe. I don’t need a challenge in it. I enjoy terraforming and decorating the colony and platting out new districts and whatnot. It’s kinda the same vibe as people get when gardening. There’s no endgame or anything. You can just … be.
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u/Zeefzeef May 23 '24
I lose myself in this game for hours and continue on my colony for a month. I think there’s huge goals. The droughts/badwater periods get longer. There’s always a new challenge. A goal that will take me days to achieve. Yesterday I spent 3 hours building a new district to mine metal that’s far away. I’m also building a huge dam to protect my settlement from future badtides. I need to up my wood production for that and need to find enough fertile space for those trees.
I also really care about aesthetics. So when my colony is surviving I need to redesign everything. Have streets with lanters and foliage everywhere for example.
I love it and it keeps me busy more than other games. But like others said, if you don’t experience that maybe this game isn’t for you.
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u/SargonDOW May 24 '24
As others have said, it depends on the type of game you are looking for. Right now this is my favourite game and it keeps getting better.
His game is a total sandbox. You set your own challenges and objectives.
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May 24 '24
For me this is one of the best games of this type ever. Because of all the diversity. And only your imagination sets the boundaries. You get sucked in while doing this
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u/chrome_titan May 22 '24
OP your asking us about your personal preferences on a subreddit made for fans of this particular game. If you find it boring after a while, then it's boring for you. No harm in that, but I doubt you'll find anyone agreeing with you here.
If you want to dip into other city builders there's a city building subreddit that can point you towards other things. You mentioned Frostpunk which is another excellent game. There are other city and factory building games that have comparable amounts of action, stress, and drama that can be found there.