Having completed the story of Chapter 2, I can confidently say that the distance between locations is honestly probably not long enough...

[Teh Pizza Lady]

we were able to make the trek on foot, even through a temporal storm without using the elks. Bodies of water were crossed with a raft, which felt faster than swimming.

I don't understand the posts saying that story locations are too far away, just make sure you take your weapons, armor, and a plenty of food. I made the trek with only 3 redmeat pies and gathering what berries I could find along the way. I'm playing Hunter for anyone curious with XSkills mod and honestly the hardest part was just getting the MacGuffin from the place without dying. Thank the Unconscious mod for stopping death to fall damage numerous times. It's a godsend for multiplayer servers where you might have someone around to bail you out in case of death.

In any case, the adventure was more fun than the story that requested us to go the distance to reach the places. Looking forward to chapter 3!

[Teh Pizza Lady]

Update:

ran out of food on the way home, but an encounter with 3 pigs gave me enough redmeat to last the rest of the trip home. Made it back just before a temporal storm was going to hit.

Honestly, the best thing was just having enough bandages and alcohol to heal back up from any major injuries so that I didn't waste satiety trying to regen health.

[LadyWYT]

3 hours ago, traugdor said:

ran out of food on the way home, but an encounter with 3 pigs gave me enough redmeat to last the rest of the trip home

Also helps when you can outrun the Blackguard that's trying to make you share your food.

[Never Jhonsen]

I made the trek with an elk, and I can tell you that you’d save a lot of money by not even bothering with it. I think it took more time trying to avoid forests and lakes than was saved in traversing with the elk. Sure, the elk can cover a lot of ground through the deserts and plains, and it has more storage, but multiple times I’d have to trek about 2k blocks South just to avoid something the elk can’t handle. Next time I play through this game I’ll be making that trek on foot, I’ve come to hate that elk

[Teh Pizza Lady]

1 hour ago, Never Jhonsen said:

I made the trek with an elk, and I can tell you that you’d save a lot of money by not even bothering with it. I think it took more time trying to avoid forests and lakes than was saved in traversing with the elk. Sure, the elk can cover a lot of ground through the deserts and plains, and it has more storage, but multiple times I’d have to trek about 2k blocks South just to avoid something the elk can’t handle. Next time I play through this game I’ll be making that trek on foot, I’ve come to hate that elk

that's about what we experienced. yeah the elk would have been faster where it could have traversed, but unless you're playing with world-gen settings that make it easy for the elk, you're not going to get very far. The elk is only useful when the trails have already been blazed and paths have been cleared and marked. Even then bodies of water mean you have to break out the boats or go around.

[Thorfinn]

Can't you just periodically whistle your elk through the rough spots?

[Vratislav]

I think the elk adds to efficiency of traveling, even in rough terrain due its ability to jump over pretty wide ravines. The default terrain generation with many small terrain waves is actually quite fun when you learn to jump wit the elk well. When I made my journey, the detours were not so big and except densest forests, it was still better. 

Actually, I feel riding elk less comfy in my modded world (plains and valleys), with smooth uphills that are not so easy for the elk. But still, it is much faster.

Fot me, the elk is surely big help to make errands, even in medium distances around 1-2k blocks.

[LadyWYT]

6 hours ago, Thorfinn said:

Can't you just periodically whistle your elk through the rough spots?

Possibly, but in my experience, it's easier to ride around swaths of impassable/nearly-impassable terrain than it is to try to blaze a trail through it. However, I think if you were to employ this strategy, it'd be most efficient to do this in a forest. Use some shears to clear a better path and mark out the path so you can use it later on the return trip.

5 hours ago, Vratislav said:

I think the elk adds to efficiency of traveling, even in rough terrain due its ability to jump over pretty wide ravines. The default terrain generation with many small terrain waves is actually quite fun when you learn to jump wit the elk well. When I made my journey, the detours were not so big and except densest forests, it was still better. 

Actually, I feel riding elk less comfy in my modded world (plains and valleys), with smooth uphills that are not so easy for the elk. But still, it is much faster.

Fot me, the elk is surely big help to make errands, even in medium distances around 1-2k blocks.

Pretty much my general experience and thoughts. Smoothing out the uphill riding for one-block slopes would be a significant improvement, as currently it's rather jank. I might also change the elk's walking speed to be a bit faster than the player's walk speed, in order to make it feel better to ride in those rougher spots where you need to slow down.

Otherwise, the elk tends to be a bit faster than travel by foot, and will also save you a lot of food cost since you won't be burning through your stamina while riding. It also allows you to wear your armor while retaining movement speed, as the movement speed penalty from armor doesn't apply when riding.

6 hours ago, traugdor said:

The elk is only useful when the trails have already been blazed and paths have been cleared and marked. Even then bodies of water mean you have to break out the boats or go around.

Not necessarily. The elk's swim speed is slow, sure, but it doesn't tire and you don't get wet from the swim while riding. So it's simple enough to just find the narrowest point of crossing and swim the elk across. If it's wintertime and cold enough for the water to freeze, you can also leapfrog the elk over the ice patches.

7 hours ago, Never Jhonsen said:

I made the trek with an elk, and I can tell you that you’d save a lot of money by not even bothering with it. I think it took more time trying to avoid forests and lakes than was saved in traversing with the elk. Sure, the elk can cover a lot of ground through the deserts and plains, and it has more storage, but multiple times I’d have to trek about 2k blocks South just to avoid something the elk can’t handle. Next time I play through this game I’ll be making that trek on foot, I’ve come to hate that elk

I still prefer the elk overall, I think, but traveling by foot definitely wasn't bad. It did mean that there were more options when it came to cutting through very rough terrain, but the drawback was more limited inventory space to work with.

[cjc813]

On 2/7/2025 at 10:52 AM, Never Jhonsen said:

I made the trek with an elk, and I can tell you that you’d save a lot of money by not even bothering with it. I think it took more time trying to avoid forests and lakes than was saved in traversing with the elk. Sure, the elk can cover a lot of ground through the deserts and plains, and it has more storage, but multiple times I’d have to trek about 2k blocks South just to avoid something the elk can’t handle. Next time I play through this game I’ll be making that trek on foot, I’ve come to hate that elk

Haven't gotten far enough for my first elk yet, but this is super disappointing to hear. Sounds like elk have the same problem as horses do in that other game. I ended up never using them because once you hit a forest, river, or ravine the mount is practically useless.

Here's hoping VS can eventually make mounts viable unlike that other game.  

[LadyWYT]

9 hours ago, cjc813 said:

Haven't gotten far enough for my first elk yet, but this is super disappointing to hear. Sounds like elk have the same problem as horses do in that other game. I ended up never using them because once you hit a forest, river, or ravine the mount is practically useless.

Here's hoping VS can eventually make mounts viable unlike that other game.  

Mountains and forests posing a major obstacle to travel is fine, in my opinion. Realistically, rough terrain like that should slow down travel or be impassable. On default settings, going around doesn't really take that long, typically, so I wouldn't say that the elk is at much of a disadvantage when compared to travel on foot. I do expect the elk to improve in the future, however, as it stands right now it still offers a major advantage in that it can carry a lot of stuff for you(and there's probably quite a bit of loot you'll want to pick up along the way) and reduce the amount of food you need to eat on said travels.

[Gapplepie1985]

On 2/8/2025 at 6:59 AM, traugdor said:

that's about what we experienced. yeah the elk would have been faster where it could have traversed, but unless you're playing with world-gen settings that make it easy for the elk, you're not going to get very far. The elk is only useful when the trails have already been blazed and paths have been cleared and marked. Even then bodies of water mean you have to break out the boats or go around.

Need to port the lead + boat method over from mc!

[Lanceleoghauni]

34 minutes ago, Gapplepie1985 said:

Need to port the lead + boat method over from mc!

Unless it's currently bugged, sailboats are explicitly designed to allow the transport of animals.

[Vratislav]

19 hours ago, cjc813 said:

 I ended up never using them because once you hit a forest, river, or ravine the mount is practically useless.

Here's hoping VS can eventually make mounts viable unlike that other game.  

I think that it is not as bad. In comparison with TOBG, the mount does not kick you off in the water, it can jump like 10-12 blocks hole and in many forests it is possible to turn around the trees combining gallop and walk.And in the densest forests, you are free to dismount and whistle to the elk after overcoming the obstacle, it will teleport to you. Also when fully equipped, it has 22 inventory slots. So it is very viable in my opinion.

[Gapplepie1985]

11 hours ago, Lanceleoghauni said:

Unless it's currently bugged, sailboats are explicitly designed to allow the transport of animals.

Oh good to know thanks!!

[Zane Mordien]

I always keep my shears and axe in my hotbar when travelling with the elk. It's annoying but I just cut down whatever is in my way, unless of course it is a mountain then you have to go around. I made it to the story locations much faster than if I had to run there on foot. 

[TFT]

At least you can tweak it if you feel it's too small or short. Default setting in the World generation tab says "Default distance is an estimated 2.5 hours estimated of full travel an Elk to all the locations." So next time you make a world you would want to bump it up to 200% or 300%.

On 2/7/2025 at 1:53 PM, Vratislav said:

The default terrain generation with many small terrain waves is actually quite fun when you learn to jump wit the elk well.

It is, but it also means by the time you get to having an elk you've spent a good chunk of the game traversing that terrain by foot, and that's not a fun time.
 

1 hour ago, Zane Mordien said:

I always keep my shears and axe in my hotbar when travelling with the elk. It's annoying but I just cut down whatever is in my way, unless of course it is a mountain then you have to go around. I made it to the story locations much faster than if I had to run there on foot. 

If there's one benefit from carving a path through forests is that you can set up charcoal pits along the way to dig up on your way back. Gets rid of all that wood and gets you an important resource.

[Kyle Rick]

Traveled to the equator for fun on my 2ed world I made. It took about 11 days to reach the 50k blocks south then back home.

On average using the elk I can travel 10-12k blocks a day assuming night travel as well. I imagine it can be a lot more with perfect travel by having no obstacles. I actually enjoy the traveling of rough terrain but can be a bit too common at times. If it's too extreme I just go around and that does not take much time at all.

For the first story quest I feel like the distance is alright without Elk. However now trying wilderness survival settings am curious how far away it will be from my base.

[Ryan Thomas]

Haven't even started chapter one yet this round; having far too much fun building, farming, hunting chiseling. I'll get there, I just want to finish this little villa while i still have the image in my head.