Habe so etwas befürchtet, aber die Hoffnung stirbt ja (bekanntlich) zuletzt
Dachte, mit irgend etwas will sich der Spieler in der Gruppe ja aufwerten (toller Jäger z.B.)
Wird also ähnlich wie Age of Empire, aber das war doch gestern…
“I was worried about something like that, but hope (as they say) dies last.
I thought, the player might want to improve something in the group (make a really good hunter eg)
It would be similar to Age of Empires, although that was a old game.”
That being said you couldn’t take control of people in AoE nor improve their performance with anything but universal upgrades via tech…
Not even us know that at this moment 
Citizens search for works that fit them well, so usually good hunters will pick hunting task. There is no need for you to improve that manually. You just can improve the conditions that lead people to focus in one aspect or another. But they improve and learn by themselves about what they are doing if the conditions for that learning or improvement are met.
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This was more related to the ego perspective.
In AoE you put 10 woodcutter off and the chop wood, until you send it somewhere else.
Elsewhere, it was said you’re playing Aeneas, a “hero”. He would have to do something better than say: you are a lumberjack …
Not quite true, you will never play the role of Aeneas. AlainTD was just using him as an example of a migration that happened in the Bronze Age to justify the Game mechanic of starting the player off as a migrating tribes in the Bronze Age.
Das ist nicht ganz richtig. Man wird nie als ein held wie Aeneas spielen. AlainTD hat ihn nur als beispiel von eine Voelkerwanderung in der Bronzezeit benutzt damit er die spielentscheidung den spieler als nomadischen volk in der bronzezeit zu begruenden kann.
Citizens have attributes useful for different things. People with good stats on some of these attributes should stand over the crowd for some unique tasks… not “heros” in the classic sense thought.
Probably a stupid question I know even before asking.
There will be a way to force tribesmen to do a certain task if it is a matter of life or death? For example after a long famine period if you are left with low food reserves, can you send out half of the tribe to hunt or fish or gather etc etc, even if it is not usually one task who fits them well?
Basic needs have preference in the decision making. If they can’t eat, they will search food by themselves. They will try to stay alive for any means.
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I said it was stupid. 
Not man, it was a good question
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In what form will they do that? Only the most necessary? By theft? Also with neighbors? Or will they organize and plunder in a post-bard village?
A question of the degree of ability of the player to play against the NPC’s routine, I think.
Just to add to the debate on seasons and years, etc. If I recall correctly, Children of the Nile had a system that simulated seasons as if they were one day (i.e. 1 full day/night cycle = 1 season) and each season cycle was a full year. Citizens aged and each scenario would require you to see a couple generations on average.
Children aged normally, although I do not recall the age they became adults in-game. I think once their parents died they assumed their job, or a better one if there was one available.
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I love Children of the Nile, and i like the idea of 1 day being one season.
They will do it with simple food gathering, but they will not start to farm by themselves, at least not in the first version. Theft should be the very last resource for an average character.
We always have this problem about where to put the line of what citizens do and what the player do. If citizens do too much player ends just watching a show. For instance, citizens could decide by themselves where to build their homes, but then the player can not plan and build their nice personal diorama. Where is the line?
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We started that way but it feel weird when after each night the season has changed.
Currently we have one day for month. So 3 days are one season. But even now we feel that 3 days make the years feel too generic. So we are thinking about setting from 4 to 6 days seasons, with each year meaning several years for aging. We still have to experiment a lot with this, but not before the game is in a more complete state, so we can find the best compromise here. It is all about the feeling.
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Could you have a balance between the two? If the player is not meeting the needs of the tribe the tribe members will act on their own but in a less efficient manner a bit like how shacks work in tropico
Trying to find a balance is what we are doing
Trópico people build shacks, but never actual buildings.There is a limit you can’t cross without moving from a game to a show.
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Perhaps you could tackle it another way, let the tribe build its own things if the player fails to meet demand but let it have a cost, firstly make it expensive to remove AI buildings and if you let the tribe do too much on their own they will challage your leadership because you are not leading them leading to a game over.
This would force the player to act. He would have to understand a situation faster than the game. (In this case a routine) If he does not react fast enough, the game would punish him. Not nice, something like that.