About new updates

[Branislav Kostic]

So last few updates are encouraging travel, and a lot of it.

So let's say I get on boat and travel 15k blocks to new lands and accidentally fall into a hole and die (I'm sure it happened to everyone). I don't have another boat to get to my body and I don't have time to get there before it despawns even if I have another boat. So I lost all of my best gear that I grinded for hours to get

So my question is: Why are you forcing us to travel vast distances without any means to quickly return?

There is a technology already in the game for fast travel, just make it available earlier and not dependable on random loot drops of Jonas parts (Valheim portals would be perfect for this type of gameplay)

 

And another one about beehive kilns: Great idea, not really usefull. You get everything from clay long before you get to pulverizer and ability to make the beehive kiln. The only use for it would be creating bricks if you want some massive building out of them, but I'm not sure it would be faster or easier than with regular pit kilns. Again I suggest that you make it available earlier in the progression

[Echo Weaver]

This is something that bothers me too. I'm admittedly a cautious player, but dying in the middle of a cave two days march from my spawn point isn't terribly appealing. I'm not sure what folks do.

[Streetwind]

Up until one or two years back, I followed a credo that was drilled into me way back in the days of playing Eve Online: "Don't bring what you cannot afford to lose." If I died 15k from home, and the loss of my stuff was game-breaking, that was my fault. I should have prepared better. I should have worn armor and clothing that I could replace, carried tools and weapons that I already had multiples of.

Since then, though, I've faced the realization that I'm not getting any younger, and my days aren't getting any less congested with many different competing priorities. Fulltime job, family, different games, youtube, reading, friends... there's only so much time I can devote to Vintage Story. And that has changed the threshold for what's "game breaking" quite a lot. Now, even a recoverable loss might be non-negotiable for me. I might have the resources, sure - but I simply don't have the time to re-craft that armor set every time I die. I don't have the time to travel back to my death point and argue with a drifter over returning my stuff, even if it doesn't despawn. I could be doing more interesting things in the one or two hours I have on this weekend to play the game.

And so I've started playing with Keep Inventory On Death turned on. Haven't looked back.

 

Edited December 4, 2024 by Streetwind

[Echo Weaver]

1 hour ago, Streetwind said:

Up until one or two years back, I followed a credo that was drilled into me way back in the days of playing Eve Online: "Don't bring what you cannot afford to lose." If I died 15k from home, and the loss of my stuff was game-breaking, that was my fault. I should have prepared better. I should have worn armor and clothing that I could replace, carried tools and weapons that I already had multiples of.

...

And so I've started playing with Keep Inventory On Death turned on. Haven't looked back.

 

I use Player Corpse, which prevents your stuff from despawning, but you still have to go get it. But I'm now wearing gambeson armor. It took about a season and half of flax crop to make it. It doesn't lend itself very well to creating a backup. That's somewhat unique to gambeson -- if I wear chain, for example, it's not such a big deal to get enough metal to make a backup. I can probably keep around a spare set of leather armor and a spare set of weapons. But depending on how deep in the hypothetical cave I died and what the rift activity is, I could very well find myself on a two-day forced march to descend into the cave and get killed again, and then what spares do I have?

That's not even getting into the hassle of dealing with the fact that I almost certainly now have more stuff in my inventory and my corpse's inventory than I can hold, and I have to sort through that either at the corpse's location or very near by so I can be sure I don't lose anything important.

Minecraft's bed spawn is very useful, and I know I can mod VS to bed spawn if I want to, but I've been really torn about it. I really like the IDEA of having to work to establish my spawn point. But it might end up making me so cautious than I miss out on exploring the world.

In theory, I could build an auxiliary base and move my spawn point there in order to access new terrain within a day's walk from that base, but I don't have so many temporal gears that I can plan to do that very often.

It is a conundrum.

Edited December 4, 2024 by Echo Weaver

[tibbers]

47 minutes ago, Echo Weaver said:

I use Player Corpse, which prevents your stuff from despawning, but you still have to go get it. But I'm now wearing gambeson armor. It took about a season and half of flax crop to make it. It doesn't lend itself very well to creating a backup. That's somewhat unique to gambeson -- if I wear chain, for example, it's not such a big deal to get enough metal to make a backup. I can probably keep around a spare set of leather armor and a spare set of weapons. But depending on how deep in the hypothetical cave I died and what the rift activity is, I could very well find myself on a two-day forced march to descend into the cave and get killed again, and then what spares do I have?

That's not even getting into the hassle of dealing with the fact that I almost certainly now have more stuff in my inventory and my corpse's inventory than I can hold, and I have to sort through that either at the corpse's location or very near by so I can be sure I don't lose anything important.

Minecraft's bed spawn is very useful, and I know I can mod VS to bed spawn if I want to, but I've been really torn about it. I really like the IDEA of having to work to establish my spawn point. But it might end up making me so cautious than I miss out on exploring the world.

In theory, I could build an auxiliary base and move my spawn point there in order to access new terrain within a day's walk from that base, but I don't have so many temporal gears that I can plan to do that very often.

It is a conundrum.

Player Corpse is the answer to the developers desire to push players to travel.

[Thorfinn]

2 hours ago, Streetwind said:

And so I've started playing with Keep Inventory On Death turned on. Haven't looked back.

I took the opposite approach, permadeath, and I've never looked back.

It's the first few months that I find the most enjoyable anyway.

[Echo Weaver]

9 minutes ago, Thorfinn said:

I took the opposite approach, permadeath, and I've never looked back.

It's the first few months that I find the most enjoyable anyway.

Yeah, I'm never going to do permadeath. Too much pressure. And I want to explore the world and find the lore bits. Once I've done that, then broad exploration won't matter so much.

But yeah, if you're playing permadeath, you don't care where your spawn point is.

[Thorfinn]

49 minutes ago, Echo Weaver said:

But yeah, if you're playing permadeath, you don't care where your spawn point is.

And just like that, the pressure is gone. You just give it your best, and that's all you can do.

I'm almost positive there will be new lore in the new chapters, but what I've seen is that it's often very hit or miss. Some of it is placed, some of it is random loot. So I think I've seen a pretty good percentage of it, but anymore, only a few new pieces in any one game.

[LadyWYT]

5 hours ago, Branislav Kostic said:

So my question is: Why are you forcing us to travel vast distances without any means to quickly return?

Terminus teleporter. Late game tech, but it will teleport you to the last place you died, I do believe.

4 hours ago, Streetwind said:

"Don't bring what you cannot afford to lose."

Exactly. That's part of the thrill of the adventure. You don't know what you'll find, so you'll need to both be careful, and make sure you're prepared. The higher the stakes, the higher the thrills and (hopefully) higher rewards.

4 hours ago, Streetwind said:

Since then, though, I've faced the realization that I'm not getting any younger, and my days aren't getting any less congested with many different competing priorities. Fulltime job, family, different games, youtube, reading, friends... there's only so much time I can devote to Vintage Story. And that has changed the threshold for what's "game breaking" quite a lot. Now, even a recoverable loss might be non-negotiable for me. I might have the resources, sure - but I simply don't have the time to re-craft that armor set every time I die. I don't have the time to travel back to my death point and argue with a drifter over returning my stuff, even if it doesn't despawn. I could be doing more interesting things in the one or two hours I have on this weekend to play the game.

And so I've started playing with Keep Inventory On Death turned on. Haven't looked back.

 

1 hour ago, Thorfinn said:

I took the opposite approach, permadeath, and I've never looked back.

It's the first few months that I find the most enjoyable anyway.

Well said on both. The slew of world options is there for a reason, after all. There's no shame in tuning the settings for an easier game, same as it's perfectly fine to crank up the difficulty if it's too easy. As a bonus, a lot of the settings(like "Keep Inventory") can be toggled on/off by running simple commands and reloading the world.

[Thorfinn]

Oh, hey, there's another good answer, @Branislav Kostic. I just forgot about it because permadeath.

Bring a temporal gear with you and set a spawn where you left your boat. Or wherever.

[Michael Gates]

You respawn WITH your armor when you die. It'll be damaged, but not gone unless it actually broke. Since armor is most of the value of what you carry, that's most of the problem fixed right there. Since the second largest value item is backpacks, you might consider downgrading to linen bags or even handbaskets in some situations.

The timer for your stuff despawning doesn't start until you reload the ground it's sitting on. If it's a zillion squares away it's okay. You have the time to put together another loadout, wait out winter if you need to, and travel back to Cathay to get it. Once you get close, THEN you have to be quick.

More than once I've found myself at the end of a huge search path, totally bored with the prospect of spending ANOTHER four or five days staring at Yet More Generated Terrain that I know won't have any (*#$@ bauxite, and chosen to go home by wolf. Nothing lost but some hand tools and a few loaves of bread, maybe a pot or something. Wise to remember to put up a second death marker in that case-- maybe I'll be back, who knows.

[Echo Weaver]

3 minutes ago, Michael Gates said:

You respawn WITH your armor when you die. It'll be damaged, but not gone unless it actually broke. Since armor is most of the value of what you carry, that's most of the problem fixed right there. Since the second largest value item is backpacks, you might consider downgrading to linen bags or even handbaskets in some situations.

The timer for your stuff despawning doesn't start until you reload the ground it's sitting on. If it's a zillion squares away it's okay. You have the time to put together another loadout, wait out winter if you need to, and travel back to Cathay to get it. Once you get close, THEN you have to be quick.

More than once I've found myself at the end of a huge search path, totally bored with the prospect of spending ANOTHER four or five days staring at Yet More Generated Terrain that I know won't have any (*#$@ bauxite, and chosen to go home by wolf. Nothing lost but some hand tools and a few loaves of bread, maybe a pot or something. Wise to remember to put up a second death marker in that case-- maybe I'll be back, who knows.

I did not know any of that. Respawning with armor is a new situation entirely.

Thanks for the head's up.

[Khornet]

The game really needs a way for us to build or otherwise place our own translocators (outside of creative mode "cheating", that is). 

It took me roughly 30 minutes of raw sailing to reach the Resonance Archives again. That's an entire real life hour of doing nothing but holding W and going forward. Still, it's MILES better than doing the Archives before 1.20 - because at least I now have portable 8 chests to carry all my extra loot with me home.

However, I got the map for one of the new 1.20 locations. And it's approximately 3x the distance away from my home than the Archives are.

REALLY not looking forward to sailing for 1,5 hours. And that's just one way. AND the optimistic scenario where the oceans/continents align to let me sail in what's roughly a straight line.
If I have to read a book or browse memes on my phone to pass the time while 'playing' the game, that's bad game design. Sorry, but there's just no sugarcoating it.

Now, I COULD use the existing, generated translocators to make this easier - but now that gimps me out of the extra storage option from the elk and/or sailboat. So the choice is not clear anymore - do spare myself like 30 minutes by translocating a certain distance west, or do I use the sailboat for 128 extra inventory slots...?

Edited December 5, 2024 by Khornet

[Echo Weaver]

1 hour ago, Thorfinn said:

I'm almost positive there will be new lore in the new chapters, but what I've seen is that it's often very hit or miss. Some of it is placed, some of it is random loot. So I think I've seen a pretty good percentage of it, but anymore, only a few new pieces in any one game.

Well, lore comes in specific locations, right? Not just any old ruin. The last chapter was the Resonance Archives. This one will have four new locations. Apparently you can get information on where the Resonance Archives are by interacting with the Treasure Trader. I haven't found any of these locations yet, nor have I found the Treasure Trader.

There are also the books you can gain from panning bony soil. I got one panning my first block but haven't gotten any more. I know they are rare drops. I have been collecting bony soil with the intent of getting some serious panning done during winter.

Good point that it all doesn't have to be found in one game, but I want to give it a serious try. My friend who got me into this game is planning to set up a server for 1.20. We'll have a lot more protection with three of us.

[Thorfinn]

2 hours ago, Khornet said:

The game really needs a way for us to build or otherwise place our own translocators (outside of creative mode "cheating", that is). 

There are not going to be a lot of locations, but each should have a translocator. Probably one that gets activated after you finish the chapter. These tie in to a craftable (several TGs and a few Jonas parts, maybe, with several recipes so you aren't screwed trying to get THAT ONE FLIPPIN' PART!) base translocator that lets you select your destination from the activated chapter portals. Guess it doesn't help you get your ship back, but what would?

2 hours ago, Echo Weaver said:

Well, lore comes in specific locations, right?

Lore is all over the place. Tapestries on walls in random ruins, books and scrolls, um, somewhere other than just the RA, I don't recall, I've even purchased something from a trader that donged. Or at least I dreamt all these things.   

 

2 hours ago, Echo Weaver said:

My friend who got me into this game is planning to set up a server for 1.20. We'll have a lot more protection with three of us.

I thought it scaled difficulty by number of players. No matter. Concentration of fire is massive.

[Krougal]

8 hours ago, Streetwind said:

Up until one or two years back, I followed a credo that was drilled into me way back in the days of playing Eve Online: "Don't bring what you cannot afford to lose." If I died 15k from home, and the loss of my stuff was game-breaking, that was my fault. I should have prepared better. I should have worn armor and clothing that I could replace, carried tools and weapons that I already had multiples of.

Since then, though, I've faced the realization that I'm not getting any younger, and my days aren't getting any less congested with many different competing priorities. Fulltime job, family, different games, youtube, reading, friends... there's only so much time I can devote to Vintage Story. And that has changed the threshold for what's "game breaking" quite a lot. Now, even a recoverable loss might be non-negotiable for me. I might have the resources, sure - but I simply don't have the time to re-craft that armor set every time I die. I don't have the time to travel back to my death point and argue with a drifter over returning my stuff, even if it doesn't despawn. I could be doing more interesting things in the one or two hours I have on this weekend to play the game.

And so I've started playing with Keep Inventory On Death turned on. Haven't looked back.

 

I was starting to feel like it was just me.

  

4 hours ago, Thorfinn said:

And just like that, the pressure is gone. You just give it your best, and that's all you can do.

Then there's that option too. 

  

3 hours ago, Thorfinn said:

Oh, hey, there's another good answer, @Branislav Kostic. I just forgot about it because permadeath.

Bring a temporal gear with you and set a spawn where you left your boat. Or wherever.

Or that.

Edited December 5, 2024 by Krougal

[Khornet]

11 hours ago, Khornet said:

The game really needs a way for us to build or otherwise place our own translocators (outside of creative mode "cheating", that is). 

WELL, WELL, WELL, YOU'LL NEVER GUESS WHAT I FOUND IN THE GOOD OL' SURVIVAL HANDBOOK TODAY. Serious spoilers below.
 

Spoiler

I really hope this isn't a "one-time only" use translocator and instead it has some kid of "fuel" system - I believe a single temporal gear per teleport is reasonable.

 

[Krougal]

2 hours ago, Khornet said:

WELL, WELL, WELL, YOU'LL NEVER GUESS WHAT I FOUND IN THE GOOD OL' SURVIVAL HANDBOOK TODAY. Serious spoilers below.
 

  Reveal hidden contents

I really hope this isn't a "one-time only" use translocator and instead it has some kid of "fuel" system - I believe a single temporal gear per teleport is reasonable.

 

VERY nice!

The obtained by breaking itself gives me hope that it is not single use, since it means we can move it around.

It looks like an appropriately expensive recipe.

Edited December 5, 2024 by Krougal

[Steel General]

Item timers only run while the chunk is loaded.  Your stuff will be waiting for you, even if it takes months to build a new boat.  If you expect it to be hard to find once you get there, turn your view distance down to minimize the time your items are loaded.

[Khornet]

32 minutes ago, Krougal said:

VERY nice!

The obtained by breaking itself gives me hope that it is not single use, since it means we can move it around.

It looks like an appropriately expensive recipe.

I disagree. No Jonas parts needed = not really that expensive. The only expensive investment is two electrum plates. Temporal gears are not a problem, I've got 8 crates stacked with them from drifter/storm hunting. The biggest blocker is the fact it needs the recipe/blueprint.
Compared to the terminus teleporter, it seems easy. Suspiciously TOO easy...

[Echo Weaver]

12 minutes ago, Khornet said:

I disagree. No Jonas parts needed = not really that expensive. The only expensive investment is two electrum plates. Temporal gears are not a problem, I've got 8 crates stacked with them from drifter/storm hunting. The biggest blocker is the fact it needs the recipe/blueprint.
Compared to the terminus teleporter, it seems easy. Suspiciously TOO easy...

It sounds like the challenge is going to be getting the blueprint.

[Krougal]

12 hours ago, Khornet said:

I disagree. No Jonas parts needed = not really that expensive. The only expensive investment is two electrum plates. Temporal gears are not a problem, I've got 8 crates stacked with them from drifter/storm hunting. The biggest blocker is the fact it needs the recipe/blueprint.
Compared to the terminus teleporter, it seems easy. Suspiciously TOO easy...

You know I admit I can't recognize all the components, but I was mostly looking at the BP and it seems like a lot of metal to me. No gears, I tend to run out of room for after a while too. 8 plates, 8 nails, 3 bars? That is 21 ingots, regardless of what it is, it's quite a bit of metal. I imagine you're going to need another for a return trip, if not more for a portal network. As you yourself have noticed in another thread; it is already getting to be a drag how many hours it takes to get around, and we're only up to 2 out of what 8 planned major story sites?

Edited December 6, 2024 by Krougal

[Bumber]

On 12/5/2024 at 5:29 AM, Khornet said:

WELL, WELL, WELL, YOU'LL NEVER GUESS WHAT I FOUND IN THE GOOD OL' SURVIVAL HANDBOOK TODAY. Serious spoilers below.

Looks like a chair.

Imagine if it turned out to be just a prototype ejector seat. You sit on it and pull the lever, only to be yeeted "translocated" into the air and fall to your death.

Misinterpreting the manual.

Edited December 9, 2024 by Bumber

[Maelstrom]

On 12/4/2024 at 7:08 PM, Michael Gates said:

You respawn WITH your armor when you die.

Unless you are carrying it at the time of death, such as falling down a death pit I didn't see while carrying my steel plate armor.  Like Streetwind, I play with keep inventory on because like him I don't have a lot of time to play.