The state of VS, May 2024

[Retsof90]

4 hours ago, BTubbs200 said:

The grasshoppers sound a lot like rattlesnakes to me instead of harmless insects...

Having lived in their areas, to do IRL too.

[Not_Crown]

really exited about the new mob, i die a lot to drifters so im basically screwed if they're common

[Stroam]

Insects! Let's go!

[Luzurper]

That new drifter variant looks amazing and horrifying, I hope it sprints at you on all 4s like a rabid dog.

[Maelstrom]

I'm hoping for an even more horrifying stalking like a cat.  Black panther kind of stalking in the dead of night, silent until you get a nice little nudge announcing it's presence. 

[Oscilation]

8 hours ago, Maelstrom said:

I'm hoping for an even more horrifying stalking like a cat.  Black panther kind of stalking in the dead of night, silent until you get a nice little nudge announcing it's presence. 

Especially if it stays outside the radius of your torch/lantern light until it decides to strike.

[ifoz]

9 hours ago, Maelstrom said:

I'm hoping for an even more horrifying stalking like a cat.  Black panther kind of stalking in the dead of night, silent until you get a nice little nudge announcing it's presence. 

As cool as this would be, I would rather such behaviour reserved for an extremely uncommon enemy. Having to deal with a common enemy type stalking you at night would be scary at first, but could quickly become annoying and repetitive. Reserving this behaviour for a very rare enemy would add to the tension of being out at night - it probably isn't there, but can you really be sure?

Perhaps if you stability is low enough you could start seeing glimpses of it around you too, even if it isn't there.

Edited May 31 by ifoz

[Thorfinn]

13 hours ago, ifoz said:

Having to deal with a common enemy type stalking you at night would be scary at first, but could quickly become annoying and repetitive.

Or it might be bad/scary enough that doing stuff outside at night is no longer an option unless the whole area out to the ignore distance is well-lit. Granted, it's not all that hard to light up a resource area, like clay or peat or forest for a charcoal pit, but it would make traveling after dark inadvisable.

[Maelstrom]

16 hours ago, ifoz said:

As cool as this would be, I would rather such behaviour reserved for an extremely uncommon enemy. Having to deal with a common enemy type stalking you at night would be scary at first, but could quickly become annoying and repetitive. Reserving this behaviour for a very rare enemy would add to the tension of being out at night - it probably isn't there, but can you really be sure?

Perhaps if you stability is low enough you could start seeing glimpses of it around you too, even if it isn't there.

I recall an official comment stating the new baddie is intended to be an uncommon encounter.

[LadyWYT]

22 hours ago, ifoz said:

As cool as this would be, I would rather such behaviour reserved for an extremely uncommon enemy. Having to deal with a common enemy type stalking you at night would be scary at first, but could quickly become annoying and repetitive.

 

5 hours ago, Maelstrom said:

I recall an official comment stating the new baddie is intended to be an uncommon encounter.

Agreed!

8 hours ago, Thorfinn said:

Or it might be bad/scary enough that doing stuff outside at night is no longer an option unless the whole area out to the ignore distance is well-lit. Granted, it's not all that hard to light up a resource area, like clay or peat or forest for a charcoal pit, but it would make traveling after dark inadvisable.

Traveling at night is already inadvisable, really. It's too dark to see much of your surroundings, so the likelihood of encountering a predator or falling down a hole is much greater. Having a light source helps, of course, but the light range is still too limited to give you much idea of what could be lurking in the bushes. It also hinges upon rift activity as well--I've seen calm nights turn to apocalyptic levels in a split second, and drifters will almost always spawn in force at night if there is rift activity. So it's still risky, even for experienced players(Vintage Story is very good at punishing those who get too complacent!)

One way to get around it is to save your travels for daylight hours when possible, and do other chores around the base in the meantime. You can also just sleep the night away(or part of it, at least), but the main drawback to that is it will deplete your stamina. Given that there's currently no drawback to not sleeping though, it can be an unnecessary waste of resources, depending on your mindset. Not that I really want to see significant penalties for lack of sleep, mind you. A different game already tried that and the mechanic turned out to be much more annoying than it was fun.

[ifoz]

19 minutes ago, LadyWYT said:

A different game already tried that and the mechanic turned out to be much more annoying than it was fun.

Imagine sitting in a design meeting and someone goes "Hey! Let's punish the players for playing the game and instead force them to right click a bed every so often!"
It's kind of how hunger works in that certain other block game too. "Let's punish the player for not stopping and holding right click every two minutes!"
I really don't like whatever this type of game design is called..

 

21 minutes ago, LadyWYT said:

Not that I really want to see significant penalties for lack of sleep, mind you.

Agreed. Also, isn't it canon that Seraphs don't need to sleep?

[Thorfinn]

I'm not talking about exploring. Just point A to point B travels over relatively familiar terrain, like to where you can get more quartz or olivine, or to a translocator or trader. Or even the early game trek back to pick up a skep that should now be populated. Those are all easily accomplished at night, and at some point, you have enough sticks or charcoal pits or clay or peat or crocks or storage vessels.

[LadyWYT]

4 minutes ago, ifoz said:

Imagine sitting in a design meeting and someone goes "Hey! Let's punish the players for playing the game and instead force them to right click a bed every so often!"

I think some corporations missed the memo on this!

 

5 minutes ago, ifoz said:

It's kind of how hunger works in that certain other block game too. "Let's punish the player for not stopping and holding right click every two minutes!"
I really don't like whatever this type of game design is called..

I mean, if it's done well, it can be engaging gameplay to certain types of players...key words being "done well". It's a really easy thing to screw up when you're designing it too. And while a mediocre result isn't the worst thing in the world, you really don't want your game mechanics to be forgettable either. But that's also where all the options in the settings come in handy!

8 minutes ago, ifoz said:

Agreed. Also, isn't it canon that Seraphs don't need to sleep?

I'm actually not sure It would make sense, given they seem to be at least somewhat immune to the passage of time. Maybe the tradeoff for not needing sleep is all the temporal shenanigans, ha! At the same time though I could see being well-rested/lacking rest being some sort of mechanic sometime in the future, most likely with a toggle in the world settings. I can't really think of a good way to implement it though, or a good reason to have such a mechanic either other than for the sake of realism/another challenge. I think what we have currently is fine--sleep to pass time more quickly at the expense of hunger, but no significant penalty to hinder you if you choose not to sleep.

[ifoz]

30 minutes ago, LadyWYT said:

I mean, if it's done well, it can be engaging gameplay to certain types of players...key words being "done well". It's a really easy thing to screw up when you're designing it too. And while a mediocre result isn't the worst thing in the world, you really don't want your game mechanics to be forgettable either. But that's also where all the options in the settings come in handy!

I think this game probably handles hunger the best out of any survival game that I have played, aside from maybe Rain World, though hunger is a main gameplay loop in that game so that's different since it is a core aspect of that game. Having the health bonus for a varied diet is a really nice way to add variety to a hunger system, and is something that I really like in this game. The fact you may only have to eat maybe two or three times per in-game day is also SO much better than Minecraft, wherein you need to eat every time you sprint for ten seconds. It makes cooking meals feel interesting and immersive, rather than an irritating and meaningless slowdown to gameplay.