This Timberborn gameplay video chronicles a beaver colony's efforts to survive increasingly severe droughts. The player focuses on several key infrastructure projects, including expanding a crucial reservoir, making a remote outpost self-sufficient, and revamping the main industrial area to produce paper and books for beaver well-being. A major challenge arises with the onset of a harsh 24-day drought, forcing the player to confront flaws in their water management system, leading to a critical realization about the effective use of floodgates and dams. While struggling with the immediate water crisis, the player upgrades their science production with a new Observatory and lays the ambitious groundwork for a future mega-project: roofing the entire central canyon to create a massive, evaporation-proof reservoir to secure the colony's long-term survival.
Timberborn: Engineering a Future Amidst Droughts
0:00 Initial Situation: The colony is in the middle of a long drought with 13.5 days remaining. The player assesses their food and water, identifying the need to expand storage and continue work on zip lines for efficiency.
02:42 Reservoir Expansion: Recognizing the current reservoir plan is insufficient for future droughts, the player decides to make it significantly larger and more efficient.
05:04 Outpost Self-Sufficiency: The player re-engineers the remote "Incident Prevention Team" outpost by demolishing and correctly rebuilding a forester's hut, allowing the outpost to start replanting its own trees and become self-sufficient.
09:11 Industrial Overhaul: To address resource shortages and improve beaver well-being, the player demolishes existing windmills to make room for a paper mill and printing press, aiming to produce books.
11:30 Population Boom: To staff the new industrial buildings, the player unpauses housing construction, leading to a wave of baby beavers and a significant population increase.
14:17 Power Management: The player realizes a large water pump has been running unnecessarily and pauses it, saving 400 horsepower and making the power grid more efficient.
17:26 Water Management Crisis: As the wet season returns, the existing sluice gate system proves ineffective, causing flooding in the main colony and revealing a critical design flaw.
23:42 A 24-Day Drought Begins: A new, far more severe 24-day drought starts, immediately putting the colony's water supply under immense pressure.
24:33 The Floodgate Epiphany: The player has a major breakthrough, realizing that a system of floodgates and dams, rather than just sluices, is the key to properly controlling water levels and preparing for bad tides.
26:41 Upgrading to the Observatory: To accelerate research for more advanced structures, the player builds a Tapper's Shack to gather pine resin and then constructs the large Observatory, replacing the less effective inventor huts.
30:37 Emergency Water Storage: Facing a critical water shortage halfway through the 24-day drought, the player begins a frantic building effort to add numerous new water storage tanks.
33:14 Planning a Mega-Project: To solve the drought problem permanently, the player begins planning an ambitious mega-project to build a massive roof over the main canyon, turning it into a gigantic, evaporation-proof reservoir.