What pace do people go for?

[Thorfinn]

You've done yeoman's work in making that happen, @Vinter Nacht. But there is so much else in the game that needs to be changed to get a balanced slower pace. Crops taking realistic growth times is all well and good, but something needs to fill the gap for food. At a guess, you would have to strip everything in about a 4k radius to get by. Which is tiny IRL, but in game, seems to many to be a daunting distance. Animal respawns are too slow, animal domestication way too fast. Building is insanely fast. Orchards start bearing fruit after a single vernal cycle; IRL they take several years.

Any thoughts on making an internally-consistent, slower paced game? But which won't drive people away for the tedium?

[cosmobeau]

Both vanilla & modded I don't have too much trouble having enough food. Especially in modded the food & preservation options are plentiful. Some mods even go so far as allowing you to make berry mash into a edible dehydrated berry via drying.

In both, I typically b-line for reeds, oak, clay, lime, and copper. But I'm not looking for food variation early game, just quantity. I want to spend all winter long crafting, so it's straight to full copper tools and anvil, leather backpacks, vessels and barrels. I make do with leather armor, a spear, and pit traps.

I've gotten used to parkouring vast distances away from my place and circle back a different route to collect lots of food to seal off for later. Then I typically go for farming flax if possible, obviously planting any other seed I find. I really love building a nice home and cellar, so that and stocking it takes a lot of time.

By first winter I personally enjoy having enough food to f off and do all the cool stuff you can with copper, and making windmills. when I get bored of crafting for hours, I travel out for other ores and quartz, for making glass. 

Yes, my first instinct to make a bloomery is usually by first fall or winter so I can make windows, panes, bottles, and other decor. Being able to smelt iron is usually secondary because during the winter I'm still collecting other metals to have enough to set up a proper helve hammer. By this point I may have everything except for the metal parts to set up a helve hammer, I'll have a pulverizer that's barely in use, and obviously a quern. 

All the side stuff happens through fall & winter, chasing in stray animals into fenced enclosures when the chance arrives, making tin bronze tools, making a distillery (which I typical prioritize way too soon for fun) and building in-between bases. All the whole marking resin spots and cultivate honey for salves, picking horsetails and that.

For a more like creative or immersive experience that's not completely focused on linear progression, on top of how variable the game is, there's lots of influences. One time I focused a whole oak tree home build because of the pure honey and cattail resources around it and it took almost all damn year to complete.

[Vinter Nacht]

6 hours ago, Thorfinn said:

You've done yeoman's work in making that happen, @Vinter Nacht. But there is so much else in the game that needs to be changed to get a balanced slower pace. Crops taking realistic growth times is all well and good, but something needs to fill the gap for food. At a guess, you would have to strip everything in about a 4k radius to get by. Which is tiny IRL, but in game, seems to many to be a daunting distance. Animal respawns are too slow, animal domestication way too fast. Building is insanely fast. Orchards start bearing fruit after a single vernal cycle; IRL they take several years.

Any thoughts on making an internally-consistent, slower paced game? But which won't drive people away for the tedium?

Here's the problem... One man's tedium is another man's gameplay. The problem with food, in my experience, is that it is *wildly* abundant, and it's far too easy to stock up a winter's amount of food in no time flat. Now, the spawn area does have a role to play in this, but not nearly so much as to make a significant difference.  Berries, fish, the occasional chicken, and wild crops go a long way to filling my larder before winter.  There's just *too much food.* Don't forget that tule and cattail roots don't rot until you cook them.  Building a supply of those is a breeze; they're the perfect emergency food.

Animal respawns are frankly broken, but, IMO, in the opposite way you suggest. Far too many of them exist, and no mechanic makes it possible to hunt out an area. This means, for good or ill, there's an infinite amount of animal respawns, and I never have to worry about running short of them. 

Animal domestication is *glacial*; a second-generation animal shouldn't still carry wild traits. Wildness isn't genetic (exclusively); it is largely the result of interaction and comfort with humans. (Edit: However, getting a penned combination of non-domesticated animals from which to generate food is entirely possible. The problem is that pregnancy and birth rates and growth to adult rates make it super easy to produce as much food as you need. Especially with so many animals feeding on dry grass.)

The process of creating an internally consistent game focused on a slower pace would, by its very nature, automatically drive out those who aren't fans of what many would call tedium.  There's a drive in this group for fast progression that constantly hits the dopamine button in the same way that "chips go brrrr" in Balatro does. Is there a possible balancing point? Sure.  But that balancing point is likely to be unsatisfying for both sides in multiple ways. ("Both sides" is a false dichotomy, but fiddling over degrees isn't going to get us anywhere.)

I will say this: So long as 4k is a "long way to go", the pacing of progression will forever be locked behind the "but I had to go so far to get it"  mentality.  It's not an unfair or a wrong one, but it is an enemy of slow-paced progression. If everything you need is within 4km of home... It's going to be hard to pace progression.

 

Edited February 27, 2025 by Vinter Nacht

[LadyWYT]

4 hours ago, Vinter Nacht said:

The problem with food, in my experience, is that it is *wildly* abundant, and it's far too easy to stock up a winter's amount of food in no time flat.

I mean, I play Blackguard, and even the times I've cranked up the hunger rate, I've never been in danger of starving.

4 hours ago, Vinter Nacht said:

The process of creating an internally consistent game focused on a slower pace would, by its very nature, automatically drive out those who aren't fans of what many would call tedium.  There's a drive in this group for fast progression that constantly hits the dopamine button in the same way that "chips go brrrr" in Balatro does. Is there a possible balancing point? Sure.  But that balancing point is likely to be unsatisfying for both sides in multiple ways. ("Both sides" is a false dichotomy, but fiddling over degrees isn't going to get us anywhere.)

I will say this: So long as 4k is a "long way to go", the pacing of progression will forever be locked behind the "but I had to go so far to get it"  mentality.  It's not an unfair or a wrong one, but it is an enemy of slow-paced progression. If everything you need is within 4km of home... It's going to be hard to pace progression.

Generally I prefer settings that let me play quickly when I want, so I can get stuff done and not be waiting around through too much of what I find boring. However, I've also placed the slow-paced game a time or two, and that was also fun. So I do agree, it really does depend on how one wants to have fun with their game. Overall, I think Vintage Story has done a good job of balancing when it comes to its pacing.

The one reservation I have towards making everything super realistic regarding details and time, is that if I were going to do that, I might as well not bother with the game and go learn to do the thing in real life instead. Granted, that's not always an option either.

[Tinkirus]

On 2/26/2025 at 11:19 PM, Cetasaya said:

Linen gambeson or copper chain is usually enough.  So are the lowest tier of poultices.  Just dont lose focus in the boss fight and kite the mobs in the mines with a bow.  The difference between wood and linen armor is massive.  The difference from then on is much smaller.  Dont forget to take it off in the RA's safer areas, cause it murders your food satiety.  Anywhere that isnt the commons, mine, or boss room im flapping my dogs and dong down the halls stark naked and using my body's clothing spaces as extra loot storage!

ROFL Anything for extra storage space! Linen gambeson will probably be fine given that I am playing on Explorer Difficulty, the Drifters are passive towards me (I feel they need to be hostile if attacked; just like bears, wolves, boars, moose, and bighorns). The Boss itself will be aggressive, as I am playing as a Malefactor, I will be using my Sling mostly as stones are fairly easy to come by. If I can mass produce copper arrowheads and consistently source feathers, becoming an archer is probably in my future! I also changed the food depletion rate, so the penalty for wearing armor won't be as dire, but I will choose to wear armor in the one dangerous spot in the RA! 

When I get used to Vintage Story, I will probably make adjustments to difficulty for my next save; I won't play on Explorer forever...It is nice not becoming a wolf snack on a regular basis, as my spawn is very wolfy and bearish too!

[Kyle Rick]

12 hours ago, LadyWYT said:

I mean, I play Blackguard, and even the times I've cranked up the hunger rate, I've never been in danger of starving.

Generally I prefer settings that let me play quickly when I want, so I can get stuff done and not be waiting around through too much of what I find boring. However, I've also placed the slow-paced game a time or two, and that was also fun. So I do agree, it really does depend on how one wants to have fun with their game. Overall, I think Vintage Story has done a good job of balancing when it comes to its pacing.

The one reservation I have towards making everything super realistic regarding details and time, is that if I were going to do that, I might as well not bother with the game and go learn to do the thing in real life instead. Granted, that's not always an option either.

On my first wilderness survival run playing as a Blackguard I actually was a bit concerned about food and because there was not that many animals near my spawn. However it does not really become much of a problem once I find berries and leave some bushes alone to harvest later due to the faster spoiling. Managing that and farming and exploring I still had enough food to last me though winter, mostly with tons of grain. That stuff lasts a long time and once water is added it gives lots of sat.

I never had to use the 2 stacks of emergency cattail roots. My first day playing I always make sure to harvest enough for 2 stacks to make baskets and storage early on. I uh enjoy having lots of storage and holding anything and everything.

[Teh Pizza Lady]

1 hour ago, Tinkirus said:

If I can mass produce copper arrowheads and consistently source feathers, becoming an archer is probably in my future!

Chickens drop a LOT of feathers and are easy to trap and breed. I think I have probably 70+ feathers on one MP server I'm on and well over 150 on another. I need a mod that lets me do something with all of these feathers!!! Copper arrow heads are as easy as heating an ingot or two and pounding out the template on an anvil or just letting a helve hammer make a metal plate and then cutting the heads out of the plate.

[Thorfinn]

Once you have a little play time under your belt, food is never an issue in single player, even with hunger rates cranked. Food in multiplayer can be, if many of the players believe their foraging range is wherever they can still see home base. I've lost count of how many servers I've joined where everything was stripped bare for the first 1000 blocks, but after about 2k, I think it was probably virgin territory. Fields were what I would consider pathetic considering this was mostly vanilla -- though flax is essential, between them all, they had fewer than a stack of flax planted, many at only 50% watered, and this was already in the second year.

But even cranking surface ore to never, and ore generation rates down to minimum levels (60%) metal is so commonplace that unless you are dragging your feet for the purpose of dragging your feet, it's still easy to steel in under a year. And then? Start another game and do the parts that are fun.

[Tinkirus]

2 hours ago, traugdor said:

Chickens drop a LOT of feathers and are easy to trap and breed. I think I have probably 70+ feathers on one MP server I'm on and well over 150 on another. I need a mod that lets me do something with all of these feathers!!! Copper arrow heads are as easy as heating an ingot or two and pounding out the template on an anvil or just letting a helve hammer make a metal plate and then cutting the heads out of the plate.

I've trapped chickens, sadly they've ended up savaged before I can get a successful breeding program going. This is why I feel a bit doubtful at the moment; once I can wrangle and save chickens from predation, I will begin a chicken breeding program in earnest. As I would love some fresh eggs and feathers, learning how to get them to move in the direction I wish will be critical to meeting this goal.

Copper, thankfully, is a non-issue for me, so doing the manual blacksmithing work required to produce a bunch of arrowheads is actually within reach. Given that time is not an issue for me, I've prioritized different projects first. Like a farm so that my Seraph's PPE, like a Linen gambeson is within reach, making combat against wild animals and bosses safer. Building up the Villa to a great state is of utmost importance for me, as it can be made to accommodate all the things I need: Chicken Yard, Farming, Smithy, Food Storage and Cooking, Living Quarters, and Storage.

I thank you for your advice, as it will shape make my Vintage Story experience a better one!

[Thorfinn]

Just set out basket traps. What else are you doing with all that flax grain?

[cosmobeau]

On 2/27/2025 at 5:43 PM, Vinter Nacht said:

"The problem with food, in my experience, is that it is *wildly* abundant, and it's far too easy to stock up a winter's amount of food in no time flat... There's just *too much food.*"

"Animal respawns are frankly broken, but, IMO, in the opposite way you suggest... there's an infinite amount of animal respawns, and I never have to worry about running short of them."

Animal domestication is *glacial*; a second-generation animal shouldn't still carry wild traits. Wildness isn't genetic (exclusively); it is largely the result of interaction and comfort with humans. (Edit: However, getting a penned combination of non-domesticated animals from which to generate food is entirely possible. The problem is that pregnancy and birth rates and growth to adult rates make it super easy to produce as much food as you need. Especially with so many animals feeding on dry grass.)

"The process of creating an internally consistent game focused on a slower pace would, by its very nature, automatically drive out those who aren't fans of what many would call tedium."

"I will say this: So long as 4k is a "long way to go", the pacing of progression will forever be locked behind the "but I had to go so far to get it"  mentality.  It's not an unfair or a wrong one, but it is an enemy of slow-paced progression. If everything you need is within 4km of home... It's going to be hard to pace progression."
 

I see these sentiments a lot over in the news and game development/poll area, with dev posts filled with people asking to make the Domestication system more enjoyable, balance food, & fix spawns. As the VS team readies themself to add more wild mobs, the polls are requesting fixing existing content.

I think domestication should still be gradual to at least emulate domesticating animals for the first time, but the generations improving way more per generation then they currently do. It should also be way more possible to interact with wild animals the longer you have them feed from a trough, for example. Or, be more successful the more you try to interact with the animal (milking, perhaps adding hand feeding or petting), as even wild animals can be domesticated over time, at least to an  extent far beyond what is possible in VS.

I think the game pace is incredibly varied when it comes to metal progression but food typically isn't an issue and adding mods makes storing and producing food trivial, not that most players enjoy freezing and starving over the wintertime. I almost find myself feeling like I'm playing a cooking and storing simulator at times there's so much food to process. And although I like the idea of hunting out an area, I find myself being okay with the food surplus because I find myself so hungry for leather. 
I do recall a time I was able to chase like 5 turkeys into a ditch and then do it again once they spawned within 2 hours. (albeit mobs from More animals mod, but I've done similar with large, ever-spawning groups of chickens.) I just wish that at least the mobs would respawn more randomly or occasionally span in a different spot. 

I do love the Golden Combs mod, I do bum-rush it and I seem to be overflowing with honey at all times. Which, is way better than Vanilla, however again I have barrels full of honey long before late fall. 

The hardest sell I have for my friends to play is the distance between unique items, ores, and biome specific resources, and the detail of the game that people consider tedium. The game is like a deep simulation and it feels that way because it makes you work to survive and have luxuries. It feels rewarding because of the depth of the process to achieve progress. But the traveling is overwhelming, mounts help, but you can't even domesticate them yourself, because there is no system to domesticate wild (first caught) animals where there should be. I'm hoping they're working on such a feature someday. Mods that add more to teleporters, spawn teleporters help vastly, tinkering with world gen settings like polar equator distance, and admins adding trader posts creatively seem to be enjoyed by many.

Edited March 1, 2025 by cosmobeau

[Zero_]

I'm pretty slow. During the first year's Spring/Summer I am fairly nomadic, and live like a primitive. I explore all the territory within a few kilometers, learning where all the nice spots are, as well as mushrooms, and hunting grounds. I set up a very primitive shelter/camp for protection from wolves and bears, gather what I need each day, and try not to gather much else, as I don't want to do too many trips carrying all my stuff when I do finally decide to settle down somewhere, and have to move. I usually will set up a very small plot for food sometime during the first year - less than twenty squares, and usually this isn't until mid to late Summer, and so I have to be careful about what I plant. Come late Summer I force myself to settle on a place that I will stay at least until the next Spring comes around, I quickly build a medium-sized shed-like structure as well as a ground-fridge. I fill the shed with containers, and begin to amass resources, especially food. I become a super-predator hunting everything near and far - excepting chickens which I catch and bring home. I usually try to gather up a bunch of clay as well, before it snows. Winter rolls around and I spend my time mining, making tools, and thinking about what I will build come spring - my shed fills to the brim with resources. Come Spring I plant all the seeds I obtained the previous year, and begin setting the foundations for a more permanent house.

Note: I play in the homo-sapiens version, so no drifters or temporal storms to deal with. I don't care for any of the lore content, and so I essentially just progress from primitive man-of-the-land, to homesteader and that is where I stay.

[Tinkirus]

11 hours ago, Thorfinn said:

Just set out basket traps. What else are you doing with all that flax grain?

I will have a lot of flax grain eventually, once those crops have grown....There's a lot I don't know about Vintage Story, thanks for the Basket Trap tip. I've got spare Reed Chests after upgrading to crates and proper chests, I could make traps and bait them. Naturally, after making a Chicken Area to contain those cluckers!

[Maelstrom]

On 2/24/2025 at 12:17 PM, Kyle Rick said:

Makes me wonder if i'm going too fast and I should slow down but unsure.

Nah mate.  It's a sandbox game.  Play the way that is most fun for you.

As for me?  Sometimes I'm in steel before the middle of the first winter.  Sometimes It's not until close to the the start of the second winter.  I try to get to bronze asap which can be anywhere from the end of May (I play 12 day months) to during the first winter, depending on how quickly I get copper (for prospecting) and the prevalence of bronze alloy ores.  My current world I was in bronze pretty quickly but iron took FOREVER!  I had everthing (olivine, bauxite and quartz) for steel, but not even a hint of iron until early December.  It's now June 1 and I have finally pulled my first steel out of the coffins.

[Cetasaya]

Lol all this talk about how food is plentiful and how people never even gotten close to starving.

Fam I need a fairly large farm and some damn good soil or terra prita to even have a chance of not starving at least once each winter.  Im taking between zero and three hunting trips each year.  AND IM A HUNTER THIS TIME  Im too busy chiselling

My local large prey animal spawns (duur, shep, and pigs) are straight up ASS.  And so is my vision when hunting down these expensive iron arrows I just made.  My skinny arse island of a base.  Scattered out four large troughs full of dry grass 2 years ago and theyre all still full!

Ive used up almost all my copper and bronze tools in favor for the iron im blooming but I still got copper knives and four recurve bows.  Three of them are either brand new or very close to it.  I can only hunt in treeless plains or staright up deserets I lose so many arrows.

Why cant head shots be a thing in this game?  Arrow to the head, puts em down.  Body, they run off.  Leg, they hobble or fall and cant run anymore.  I need three (i think) shots to down one adult duur.  I pick every berry I can and half of them have to be juiced cause they spoil so fast.

Jokes on you Vintage Story, i got a vinyard, TWO serperate plots of extremely fertile farmland AND a small chicken ranch now!  Pies, eggs, bread, jam, and meat/cabbage meals for days.

Edited March 4, 2025 by Cetasaya

[Cetasaya]

On 2/28/2025 at 10:25 AM, Tinkirus said:

ROFL Anything for extra storage space!

Bro   Im always having to dejunk my bursting inventory and making loot runs back home.  I step 3 blocks outside my front door and my pockets are full.  Im out looting ruins, im loaded with everything from aslar blocks to coal to sconces in less than 10 minutes.  I go on a translocator scouting expedition, im loaded up with trader buys, cattails, sticks, and freaking "good dirt" almost as fast.

I cant wait to find some chromium for the sturdy leather backbacks.  I got everything else, even sulphur, and sulphur's hell to track down most of the time.

[LadyWYT]

1 hour ago, Cetasaya said:

Lol all this talk about how food is plentiful and how people never even gotten close to starving.

It probably depends rather heavily on preferred playstyle. My general rule of thumb as a Blackguard is that if the critter isn't fast enough to escape me, it's food.

[Zane Mordien]

13 hours ago, Cetasaya said:

 

I cant wait to find some chromium for the sturdy leather backbacks.  I got everything else, even sulphur, and sulphur's hell to track down most of the time.

Chromium is my bane. Sulfur is a lot easier to find than you would expect or at least that is my experience.  I usually find it pretty easy at a poor reading. Chromium eludes me. 

Edited March 4, 2025 by Zane Mordien

[Kyle Rick]

13 hours ago, Cetasaya said:

Lol all this talk about how food is plentiful and how people never even gotten close to starving.

I never really had problems running out of food myself but am much more likely to starve because I forgot to bring food or not bring enough.

Hunger is so weird in this game. From what I understand eating one piece of food then waiting a bit before eating again is optimal, and meals have a effect on making you not lose hunger for a while but honestly I feel like it's never consistent. Also sometimes I get the "hunger bug" every now and then where my hunger does not go down for long periods of time even without eating meals, then it suddenly drops a ton even to 0 as if the game remembered I was supposed to lose hunger.

Edited March 4, 2025 by Kyle Rick

[Cetasaya]

17 hours ago, LadyWYT said:

It probably depends rather heavily on preferred playstyle. My general rule of thumb as a Blackguard is that if the critter isn't fast enough to escape me, it's food.

Yuh im a loot goblin so inventory space is at an absolute premium.  My only essentials are a falx, ancient bed, lantern, ladders, crock pot, and bowl.  I usually carry a bow and arrows only on specific hunting trips and sometimes on caving/prospecting/teleporter trips.  There's always a full set of tools on my sailboat though.

 

6 hours ago, Zane Mordien said:

Chromium is my bane. Sulfur is a lot easier to find than you would expect or at least that is my experience.  I usually find it pretty easy at a poor reading. Chromium eludes me. 

Really?  Poor sulphur readings are good enough?  Alright, noted.  I never chase poor readings if I can help it.  Sulphur's one of those minerals that are nice-to-haves but not essential for me.  Got my stack of sulphur this playthorugh from a trade.  16 for 4 gears and i'm am absolute trading fiend so I am usually loaded up.

5 hours ago, Kyle Rick said:

I never really had problems running out of food myself but am much more likely to starve because I forgot to bring food or not bring enough.

Hunger is so weird in this game. From what I understand eating one piece of food then waiting a bit before eating again is optimal, and meals have a effect on making you not lose hunger for a while but honestly I feel like it's never consistent. Also sometimes I get the "hunger bug" every now and then where my hunger does not go down for long periods of time even without eating meals, then it suddenly drops a ton even to 0 as if the game remembered I was supposed to lose hunger.

That hunger bug usually happens when im starting a new world and kinda dissapears soon after.  Or maybe i'm paying less attention to hunger once I establish a farm or something.  I dont really notice until im preparing to leave the farm or the hunger bar starts flashing at me so im far from a reliable source on that.  

Yeah I think the extra saeity from meals maxes out after one meal.  A meat and cabbage bowl usually fills hunger and gives max hunger suspension at the same time.  Extra good value.  But the hunting's sparse.

Oh shit.  I think I just realised why my hunting is bad.  Im too far up north.  Im right on the edge of moose country.  About 500 blocks north I got a rocky plain that moose love.  But I get one adult and maybe two calves a year...  I thought I chose a temperate latitude but I guess im so used to tropical climates I expected too much...  Crops start to frost sometime in October and this year I didnt feel totally safe planting my flax (average temp robustness) in my new greenhouse until April.  There was snow still everywhere all throughout March.

God this game's good.

Edited March 4, 2025 by Cetasaya

[Zane Mordien]

25 minutes ago, Cetasaya said:

 

 

Really?  Poor sulphur readings are good enough?  Alright, noted.  I never chase poor readings if I can help it.  Sulphur's one of those minerals that are nice-to-haves but not essential for me.  Got my stack of sulphur this playthorugh from a trade.  16 for 4 gears and i'm am absolute trading fiend so I am usually loaded up.

That's how it works out for me. Since it is in the sedimentary layers you don't have to go that deep when looking for it. So even if it takes you multiple bore holes to find it, you are only going down 20-30 blocks vs trying to find deep ores. Even the deep ores I often find on poor readings if they are close to base. Traveling 2000 blocks for a high reading wastes more time in the end to me.

[Cetasaya]

1 minute ago, Zane Mordien said:

That's how it works out for me. Since it is in the sedimentary layers you don't have to go that deep when looking for it. So even if it takes you multiple bore holes to find it, you are only going down 20-30 blocks vs trying to find deep ores. Even the deep ores I often find on poor readings if they are close to base. Traveling 2000 blocks for a high reading wastes more time in the end to me.

Oh.  I rarely bother with knowing rock layers, I usually just think "deeper gooder" for any prospective mine and start digging down while prospecting on the way.  I know thast sylvite is inside halite and it spawns as a massive cone.  I know that gold and silver are always inside of quartz.  Thats about it.  But excellent info I will keep that in mind.  Thanks!

[Tinkirus]

On 3/3/2025 at 6:48 PM, Cetasaya said:

Bro   Im always having to dejunk my bursting inventory and making loot runs back home.

I have a lot of storage at home, so my pockets tend to be pretty empty, so far I have two leather backpacks and two linen sacks. While I don't have a ton of inventory space, it's often enough to carry food, and necessary supplies while allowing myself some room for gubbins! Being selective on what one loots and leaves is useful, personally I mark locations that need to be stripped in the near future. Hopefully, I'll be able to eventually hunt down some materials for the new backpack with a bigger slot capacity.

 

On 3/3/2025 at 6:38 PM, Cetasaya said:

Lol all this talk about how food is plentiful and how people never even gotten close to starving.

Berries, small animals, and easier to slay mountain sheep are so readily available...I can't keep up with all the raw food in storage. As a Malefactor, access to the unique sling has made hunting easier because using rocks as ammo is so much easier than crafting arrows; due to animals have trouble detecting my character when crouched, taking animals down so easily makes food a non-issue!

I need to take a day to make a bunch of meat and vegetable stew. There are also many crocks in my storage with long preservation times, and there are a few more that could be filled (if only I'd stop exploring and cook). My starting area was filled with so many things that could become food that I never had a problem.

Edited March 5, 2025 by Tinkirus

[Vratislav]

21 hours ago, Zane Mordien said:

Chromium is my bane. Sulfur is a lot easier to find than you would expect or at least that is my experience.

It really depends on the world. I have bad area for sulfur far around the base in the actual gameplay (nothing to poor), have found one deposit, depleted it and now I am failing to find next one despite. The area is already full of holes (I was also looking for Iron there quite intensively), and despite quite systematic caving with propick checks on every corner in the assumed sulfur layer.

On the opposite side, chromium went easily twice (trying since 1.20 betas), just after finding an area with poor chromium, I just dug close to the mantle, if nothing, tried 25 blocks aside (chromium deposits are rather small). Like half of these attempts were succesfull, did not more than 2-3 attempts to find the chromite.

Edited March 5, 2025 by Vratislav

[Zane Mordien]

2 hours ago, Vratislav said:

 

On the opposite side, chromium went easily twice (trying since 1.20 betas), just after finding an area with poor chromium, I just dug close to the mantle, if nothing, tried 25 blocks aside (chromium deposits are rather small). Like half of these attempts were succesfull, did not more than 2-3 attempts to find the chromite.

I just haven't gotten the hang of finding it yet and maybe some bad RNG luck. I say that but in my current map I found both Cr and sulfur by accident while looking for tin in the same shaft plus the tin. In all my playthorughs I've never had an issue finding sulfur. That being said it may just be that I've never had a bad luck RNG map for it yet. I feel like I've done this so long but it's probably only been 10-12 worlds. That's small potatoes compared with a lot of players.