Incredibly Frustrated...

[Ghoul Arte]

I want to like this game, i really do... but i can't understand, for the life of me, why the Devs decided to make an essential progression item, not only incredibly difficult to see for those with visual issues, but not behave at all like it's real world counterpart. I'm talking CLAY. Why, oh WHY!!!!??? I can't find it anywhere, no tutorial is helpful, and no suggestions have helped me... might just refund and continue searching for similar games... it's not just me either, i see this same topic everywhere.

[Echo Weaver]

3 hours ago, Ghoul Arte said:

I want to like this game, i really do... but i can't understand, for the life of me, why the Devs decided to make an essential progression item, not only incredibly difficult to see for those with visual issues, but not behave at all like it's real world counterpart. I'm talking CLAY. Why, oh WHY!!!!??? I can't find it anywhere, no tutorial is helpful, and no suggestions have helped me... might just refund and continue searching for similar games... it's not just me either, i see this same topic everywhere.

I'm playing on a world upgraded from 1.19 with a ton of clay deposits already generated, but the forum is filled with threads like this since 1.20. I do hope the devs have noticed and plan to tweak something.

Until such a time, this is probably the mod you want: https://mods.vintagestory.at/particlesplus

[Thorfinn]

Once you learn to see the differences, it's very obvious. Consider also going into creative (/gm 2; when you are ready to go back to your game, /gm 1) and fly around a little (double-space, I think. Been a while. Yes, I think it's double-space. That's what muscle memory is telling me anyway.) From about 25-50 blocks in the air, things like that (and crops) are a lot easier to spot. I'm pretty good at seeing them at ground level, but I find building enough ladder sections to do it gives me a more relaxed playthrough.

Welcome to the forums, @Ghoul Arte!

Edited August 18, 2025 by Thorfinn

[LadyWYT]

Welcome to the forums! As others here have noted, clay is one of those things that's difficult to spot, until you learn what the block looks like. It gets easy to spot consistently after that.

Red clay will spawn at higher altitudes in areas that get enough rainfall, and doesn't need to be next to water in order to spawn. Red clay is the most common clay type you'll find. Blue clay spawns around sea level, in areas that have enough rainfall, and also seems to consistently spawn next to water, so looking around bodies of water at low altitudes is a good strategy for finding this clay type. Fire clay only spawns naturally in bauxite biomes(regardless of rainfall) or under black coal/anthracite deposits; it's not likely you'll be finding this one nearby.

Aside from the naturally spawning deposits, you can also acquire clay from panning, from certain cracked vessels, or for sale from some of the traders.

[Ryilo]

You just have to know what to look for, as said above. Red clay is quite easy to find, and as I always say to new players: use the colored map to spot different terrain.

This game doesn't give you everything you need in a single world chunk, it has a more plausible distribution of resources.

Don't get discouraged, make different worlds and learn the basic, I 'wasted' I don't know how many hours in different worlds before figuring out some things.

 

[Krougal]

I'm sure it isn't easy to see for those with red green colorblindness.

There are at least 2 mods that make it easy to find, even if you were colorblind did you try either of them?

We've had so many recent discussions about it, I can't be bothered reposting them.

I also make all kinds of mod recommendations in this guide (although it may be considered full of spoilers by some, read at your own risk):

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ub-kQ-oJZM1N4sDTBcyRP_KBJH6A3EGLjktOudwae-Q/edit?usp=sharing

 

[Echo Weaver]

18 minutes ago, Krougal said:

I also make all kinds of mod recommendations in this guide (although it may be considered full of spoilers by some, read at your own risk):

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ub-kQ-oJZM1N4sDTBcyRP_KBJH6A3EGLjktOudwae-Q/edit?usp=sharing

This is pretty comprehensive! When you say spoilers, do you mean story spoilers? Is there a way to avoid them. I'm still stubbornly trying to break into Chapter 1 on my primary world, and I'll take any advice on preparedness, but I'm trying to go into the lore as cold as possible.

ETA: You talk a lot about tin bronze for the step into the bronze age. I've literally never found surface tin, though I didn't change the default settings for these, and I've only played in a handful of fresh worlds because I'm stubborn. I've had great luck with bismuth bronze, though. Bismuth seems to be fairly common and zinc quite findable on default settings. I'm pretty sure bismuth bronze is weaker than tin bronze, but afaik all bronzes can break the same blocks, so I assume the strength difference shows up in durability. If you have plenty of bismuth bronze, that doesn't really matter. It gets you to iron just fine.

Edited August 18, 2025 by Echo Weaver

[LadyWYT]

35 minutes ago, Krougal said:

I'm sure it isn't easy to see for those with red green colorblindness.

I didn't even consider this. I'm not sure there's that much in the game that would be causing issues with colorblindess, but a color blind option might be a good idea. In the case of clay though, since there seem to be many players having issues spotting it...I'm inclined to partially agree with @Echo Weaver--the block texture might need a bit of tweaking. Or instead of tweaking the texture, maybe just a setting that makes certain resources easier to spot(clay, resin)? That way it can be toggled on to give a boost to those who need, but left off by default to preserve the overall challenge.

 

24 minutes ago, Echo Weaver said:

ETA: You talk a lot about tin bronze for the step into the bronze age. I've literally never found surface tin, though I didn't change the default settings for these, and I've only played in a handful of fresh worlds because I'm stubborn. I've had great luck with bismuth bronze, though. Bismuth seems to be fairly common and zinc quite findable on default settings. I'm pretty sure bismuth bronze is weaker than tin bronze, but afaik all bronzes can break the same blocks, so I assume the strength difference shows up in durability. If you have plenty of bismuth bronze, that doesn't really matter. It gets you to iron just fine.

Surface tin is incredibly rare by default, and not worth looking for. If you happen to stumble across a deposit, it can give you a big boost for progression, but otherwise it's much better to use the prospecting pick to find the minerals you need for a bronze alloy, or even just trade for the minerals needed.

In terms of stats, bismuth bronze seems to be a tiny bit weaker in terms of attack power, but is a bit more durable to compensate.

[Krougal]

1 hour ago, Echo Weaver said:

This is pretty comprehensive! When you say spoilers, do you mean story spoilers? Is there a way to avoid them. I'm still stubbornly trying to break into Chapter 1 on my primary world, and I'll take any advice on preparedness, but I'm trying to go into the lore as cold as possible.

ETA: You talk a lot about tin bronze for the step into the bronze age. I've literally never found surface tin, though I didn't change the default settings for these, and I've only played in a handful of fresh worlds because I'm stubborn. I've had great luck with bismuth bronze, though. Bismuth seems to be fairly common and zinc quite findable on default settings. I'm pretty sure bismuth bronze is weaker than tin bronze, but afaik all bronzes can break the same blocks, so I assume the strength difference shows up in durability. If you have plenty of bismuth bronze, that doesn't really matter. It gets you to iron just fine.

Well, it's a living document and I am constantly editing it as I play.

I don't talk about the story parts until the last chapter, (yeah, I need to make a ToC) and I don't really give away much.

How to get started. What you will need. The wiki has a pretty good walk through so I didn't feel the need to re-iterate it.

That is a good point, I should talk more about bismuth and black bronze. Tin is easiest to find in granite, but yes, surface deposits are hard to find.

The guide isn't really geared so much for first play-through as more beginner-intermediate. I tend towards speed running, but I am making assumptions that RNG has been kind, and we all know what a cruel mistress RNG typically is.

33 minutes ago, LadyWYT said:

I didn't even consider this. I'm not sure there's that much in the game that would be causing issues with colorblindess, but a color blind option might be a good idea. In the case of clay though, since there seem to be many players having issues spotting it...I'm inclined to partially agree with @Echo Weaver--the block texture might need a bit of tweaking. Or instead of tweaking the texture, maybe just a setting that makes certain resources easier to spot(clay, resin)? That way it can be toggled on to give a boost to those who need, but left off by default to preserve the overall challenge.

Yeah, when you design interfaces for the government, you have to be aware of things like the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). There are actually like 4 or 5 more types of colorblindness and all in all, it is a lot more common than most of us realize. There are WCAG guidelines, which I always need to remind the creative types of, because they like to do stupid things like font & background colors that have very little contrast from each other because it "looks cool".

Edited August 18, 2025 by Krougal

[Echo Weaver]

35 minutes ago, Krougal said:

Well, it's a living document and I am constantly editing it as I play.

I don't talk about the story parts until the last chapter, (yeah, I need to make a ToC) and I don't really give away much.

How to get started. What you will need. The wiki has a pretty good walk through so I didn't feel the need to re-iterate it.

That is a good point, I should talk more about bismuth and black bronze. Tin is easiest to find in granite, but yes, surface deposits are hard to find.

The guide isn't really geared so much for first play-through as more beginner-intermediate. I tend towards speed running, but I am making assumptions that RNG has been kind, and we all know what a cruel mistress RNG typically is.

Heh, apparently granite is dominant in a LOT of world seeds. My primary game spawned in an area that is sandstone/basalt dominant. It may well be that my success with bismuth/zinc and my lack of luck with tin is related to that. 

Yeah, I'm really enjoying your insights, but I have almost the opposite play style. The stuff early in the tech chain really interests me. I'm pondering starting a new game where I am not permitted to advance to the Copper Age until after the first year. (I'm not thrilled at the idea of having no solid doors during winter, though, so I'll probably add something like Obsidiancraft to give myself access to a low-grade saw. But anyway.)

[Krougal]

On 8/18/2025 at 12:49 PM, Echo Weaver said:

Heh, apparently granite is dominant in a LOT of world seeds. My primary game spawned in an area that is sandstone/basalt dominant. It may well be that my success with bismuth/zinc and my lack of luck with tin is related to that. 

Yeah, I'm really enjoying your insights, but I have almost the opposite play style. The stuff early in the tech chain really interests me. I'm pondering starting a new game where I am not permitted to advance to the Copper Age until after the first year. (I'm not thrilled at the idea of having no solid doors during winter, though, so I'll probably add something like Obsidiancraft to give myself access to a low-grade saw. But anyway.)

Yeah, I think @LadyWYT was saying granite is the default in another thread.

Basalt is the most common IRL overall, but at the crust granite probably is.

I spawned in limestone and sandstone in current game, and I didn't follow my own advice and make tin more common, but I still somehow found some surface tin nearby.

Thanks for the feedback by the way. I would think you'd be using primitive survival if you like to extend the early game, it probably has some solution for the lack of a real door. I've been skipping the improvised and just taking 2 dirt blocks out and putting them back, you can make your whole shithole hobbithole a cellar like that. You could even build a little foyer with the improvised door I guess, so you could be protected while you dig the blocks out. Could also use hay bales for speed.

[LadyWYT]

28 minutes ago, Krougal said:

Yeah, I think @LadyWYT was saying granite is the default in another thread.

I recall it was @Maelstrom who first mentioned it though.

[Echo Weaver]

33 minutes ago, Krougal said:

I spawned in limestone and sandstone in current game, and I didn't follow my own advice and make tin more common, but I still somehow found some surface tin nearby.

Sheesh. I guess it's just RNG. I've found it with the propick in other worlds, but on my primary I never bothered to try because there was plenty of bismuth and zinc. But I'm quite sure I'd notice if I saw any surface tin.

33 minutes ago, Krougal said:

Thanks for the feedback by the way. I would think you'd be using primitive survival if you like to extend the early game, it probably has some solution for the lack of a real door. I've been skipping the improvised and just taking 2 dirt blocks out and putting them back, you can make your whole shithole hobbithole a cellar like that. You could even build a little foyer with the improvised door I guess, so you could be protected while you dig the blocks out. Could also use hay bales for speed.

Yeah, I'm putting together the modpack for the low tech run. That's half the fun of setting up a new challenge for me.  Primitive Survival adds a LOT, and I tend to be a bit twitchy about mods that add a lot of stuff I don't want to use. But then I found Primitive Survival: Redux and Primitive Survival Stairs Remover. That's great help. I'm really interested in trying out the traps.

Also adding HulkSmash for a way to make flour for bread. 

And ffs something to stop the crude door from popping off after every 2nd time you open it. Why is that a good idea??

Once I have a bit of inventory space, I could imagine walking around with a shovel, door, and hay bed and being a nomad for a while, digging out hobbit-holes wherever I go. 

ETA: Crude Building Elements solves the door problem and adds a few more early-game niceties that seem well-balanced. Maybe I could avoid needing a saw.

Edited August 19, 2025 by Echo Weaver

[Maelstrom]

17 minutes ago, Echo Weaver said:

And ffs something to stop the crude door from popping off after every 2nd time you open it. Why is that a good idea??

Incentive to progress?  This *ahem* feature is why I just use a primitive (wattle) fence gate to keep nasty beasties out of my primitive cave dwelling.

[Echo Weaver]

Just now, Maelstrom said:

Incentive to progress?  This *ahem* feature is why I just use a primitive (wattle) fence gate to keep nasty beasties out of my primitive cave dwelling.

Why do you need incentive to progress? That's silly. It's a sandbox game. Folks will progress if they want to.

Fence gate is a good idea.

[LadyWYT]

52 minutes ago, Krougal said:

I've been skipping the improvised and just taking 2 dirt blocks out and putting them back, you can make your whole shithole hobbithole a cellar like that.

 

20 minutes ago, Echo Weaver said:

I could imagine walking around with a shovel, door, and hay bed and being a nomad for a while, digging out hobbit-holes wherever I go. 

 

1 minute ago, Maelstrom said:

This *ahem* feature is why I just use a primitive (wattle) fence gate to keep nasty beasties out of my primitive cave dwelling.

Or I mean, just plop a hay bed down wherever and sleep under the stars. It's mostly safe...mostly...

[Echo Weaver]

Just now, LadyWYT said:

Or I mean, just plop a hay bed down wherever and sleep under the stars. It's mostly safe...mostly...

Ha. I want to add a selection of FotSA. I'm pretty sure it won't be safe.

[Krougal]

13 minutes ago, LadyWYT said:

Or I mean, just plop a hay bed down wherever and sleep under the stars. It's mostly safe...mostly...

Sleep? No sleep! You work more! Sleep in winter! 

 

Seriously though, I have gotten killed like that. This isn't...that other game.

22 minutes ago, Maelstrom said:

Incentive to progress?  This *ahem* feature is why I just use a primitive (wattle) fence gate to keep nasty beasties out of my primitive cave dwelling.

Yeah, the door popping off sounds good in theory, but it's annoying AF. Also the fact that it isn't a solid door is enough to incentivize me. That single 7x7 room that is my early base being a cellar is just too useful.

[Maelstrom]

5 hours ago, Krougal said:

Sleep? No sleep! You work more! Sleep in winter! 

Sleep?  What is this thing you speak of?    Is it some form of activity to waste time?  If so, I have much too much to do to waste time on wasting time!  

 

 

5 hours ago, Echo Weaver said:

Why do you need incentive to progress? That's silly. It's a sandbox game. Folks will progress if they want to.

5 hours ago, Krougal said:

That single 7x7 room that is my early base being a cellar is just too useful.

That's why.

Edited August 20, 2025 by Maelstrom

[Echo Weaver]

5 hours ago, Krougal said:

Yeah, the door popping off sounds good in theory, but it's annoying AF. Also the fact that it isn't a solid door is enough to incentivize me. That single 7x7 room that is my early base being a cellar is just too useful.

Seriously. It's already a door that's going to be useless in winter. I don't see why one needs more incentive to upgrade.

OTOH, it's the only door I know of that I can see through. I had reason to put up a door where I could see through to what was on the other side, so I went back to the crude door (which I hadn't used since 1.19). Holy crap. A gate will have to do. 

[LadyWYT]

The crude door is what you use when playing with your buddies, so you can have fun blaming each other for letting the drifters in when the door inevitably breaks as you're running for the safety of the base.

[Krougal]

As we seem to have completely hijacked his thread, hey @Ghoul Arte did anything we shared help or did you throw in the towel?