What is, in your opinion, the least utilized mechanic in the game? And your most favorite?

[LadyWYT]

3 hours ago, Dilan Rona said:

The drunken effect though wasnt as long as I expected though in some cases. Or maybe thats just me.

You should give the SlowTox mod a whirl. It's all fun and games until you're six liters in and only starting to feel the effects of the first catching up with you.  

Edit: I just now noticed that someone voted panning as their favorite game mechanic. 

Edited October 15, 2025 by LadyWYT

[Professor Dragon]

1 hour ago, LadyWYT said:

Edit: I just now noticed that someone voted panning as their favorite game mechanic. 

That wasn't me!

But I understand the sentiment. 
 

Pros:

• Early game useful
• Source of your first copper when can't find any (Prospecting failures <grumble, grumble etc>)
• Get Lore Books without tangling with monsters
• Something to do at night/off periods/temporal storms
• Relaxing, always available, something to do when you can't decide what to do
• Kills an hour or so before bed/kilns cooking/whatever

Cons:

• Repetitive
• Time consuming

I'm in the Steel Age, and I still go back to it.

Now, getting back to the original post, if the question had been "What is your favourite activity in the game?" Then I would without hesitation answer "Building."

Edited October 15, 2025 by Professor Dragon

[Teh Pizza Lady]

I shamefully admit to editing the post title... it is now grammatically correct.

[Professor Dragon]

2 hours ago, Teh Pizza Lady said:

I shamefully admit to editing the post title... it is now grammatically correct.

No, no - its fine.

As I've seen you bring pizza.

[DatDot1337]

I picked Mining Decorative blocks for both categories, as I love traveling the world and fixing up ruins and such, like I am some kind of great rebuilder of society, and I love how many decorative blocks there are, from scientific instruments to several types of bookcases, ruined and rugged furniture for the aged look, religious items, even simple things like globes and pipes are great! I just wish I could do more with them. Let me hide a secret book I wrote in a damaged bookshelf, or look through a telescope or spin a globe, or hang rags off of hooks, at the very least let me put moss on the brick walls so it looks more normal when i repair a bridge or build a ruined watermill for a village. Or maybe I'm just weird. Who knows.

[ifoz]

5 hours ago, DatDot1337 said:

I just wish I could do more with them.

I have seen at least two separate clips where people burnt down their houses trying to light a pristine brazier (non-functional clutter item that definitely should be made functional) 

[Teh Pizza Lady]

2 hours ago, ifoz said:

I have seen at least two separate clips where people burnt down their houses trying to light a pristine brazier (non-functional clutter item that definitely should be made functional) 

Why does this make me giggle?

[Maelstrom]

3 hours ago, Teh Pizza Lady said:

Why does this make me giggle?

Coz it's funny! 

[ifoz]

On that topic, I think it'd be fun if you could craft a ruined lantern (the intact ones, not the fully broken ones) with a candle to get a rusty-looking functional lantern.
That'd be fun for builders, and also seems pretty balanced since it still requires the candle and these things are decently uncommon.

[Teh Pizza Lady]

Are you kidding? I'd carry that thing around constantly and forever because it would be so in keeping with my VS character to carry an old rusty lantern from the stone age.

[Echo Weaver]

2 hours ago, ifoz said:

On that topic, I think it'd be fun if you could craft a ruined lantern (the intact ones, not the fully broken ones) with a candle to get a rusty-looking functional lantern.

I want this for SO MUCH CLUTTER. I did revive the abandoned Scraps mod, which has some repair recipes. I have more clutter repair in my head that I'll get to at some point. I find it silly that we have the glue mechanic (which I turn off in settings) to be able to take home things that don't work, especially when so many things would be obviously repairable.

[ifoz]

18 minutes ago, Echo Weaver said:

I find it silly that we have the glue mechanic (which I turn off in settings) to be able to take home things that don't work, especially when so many things would be obviously repairable.

I think most of the "pristine" clutter should be moved out of the clutter category and into being actual real items.
There are fully pristine versions of braziers, lecterns, glass tanks and metal tanks that can all be obtained in survival. There are some other pristine things, though those are only found within story locations and so are unobtainable.

I'd love if metal tanks could function sort of like barrels, just for the fun of it. You'd put in liquid, get to see it inside the tank (would be cool with the glass tanks), and then get to dispense it into buckets/jugs/bowls. You could have a wine dispensing station at a tavern, or a tank of aqua vitae you pour some from when you need healing. Would also be fun for alchemist lab builds, having tanks of various liquids or dyes.

Lecterns would be an easier implementation I'd imagine, just being able to place a book on the lectern and read it by right clicking.

Braziers could possibly function something like torch holders, though maybe providing some warmth. Not as fast as a firepit so they remain balanced, but a passive warmth gain useful for houses. That or having it so fire pits can and will start fires like pit kilns do, and braziers being the non-fire spreading version of them.

Edited October 17, 2025 by ifoz

[Echo Weaver]

11 minutes ago, ifoz said:

I think most of the "pristine" clutter should be moved out of the clutter category and into being actual real items.

Everything you suggested makes my little heart go pitter pat. 

[ifoz]

I'm actually surprised so many people voted that they utilised trading the least, I normally trade quite a bit in the average playthrough!
Playing Malefactor allows you to sell cracked vessels for some really good early cash, which you can then use to buy your way to bronze through commodities traders.

The least useful trader for me personally is probably either building or furniture since their stocklists aren't all that special, though now that sleek doors can insulate I have actually started buying them. 
I guess the honour goes to building materials then, since I don't usually use wallpaper (not having it drop when you break the block it is placed on annoys me considering the price, even if it is realistic lol). I think they're alright for selling lanterns to, but I always use all of my lanterns to light up parts of my base and there's always a better way to make gears (cracked vessels) as a Malefactor player.

[EDIT]: I am sure I have said it before here or somewhere else, but I really hope the team consider having furniture traders actually sell the new trader furniture in 1.22. Come on Tyron, just give us a 2-wide table that we don't have to chisel ourselves. Kek.

There's a couple 2-wide tables you can't obtain since they're supposed to be exclusive to a story location, and I think that design choice wouldn't sting so bad if players also had an alternative 2-wide table they actually could obtain. 

Edited October 17, 2025 by ifoz

[LadyWYT]

1 hour ago, ifoz said:

I'm actually surprised so many people voted that they utilised trading the least, I normally trade quite a bit in the average playthrough!

I'm a little surprised as well, but then I think of how often I actually use traders...which isn't very. They never really sell anything I want, aside from salt and the fancy pots and tapestries...except I rarely get an artisan trader anywhere within decent travel distance. In any case, the under-utilization is probably part of the reason that traders are getting a rework.

 

1 hour ago, ifoz said:

The least useful trader for me personally is probably either building or furniture since their stocklists aren't all that special, though now that sleek doors can insulate I have actually started buying them. 

Maybe, but the builders sell polished stone, which is handy if you don't have certain stone types nearby or don't want to sink time into a quarry. I think both traders will also buy glass, which is a great way to turn quartz into gears over time.

 

1 hour ago, ifoz said:

[EDIT]: I am sure I have said it before here or somewhere else, but I really hope the team consider having furniture traders actually sell the new trader furniture in 1.22. Come on Tyron, just give us a 2-wide table that we don't have to chisel ourselves. Kek.

There's a couple 2-wide tables you can't obtain since they're supposed to be exclusive to a story location, and I think that design choice wouldn't sting so bad if players also had an alternative 2-wide table they actually could obtain. 

Honestly, a few premade furniture pieces would be great, and also fit the theme of some of the other decorative pre-made blocks(like the cabin logs and the different roofs). Chiseling does allow more creative freedom, but not everyone wants to go to the trouble, or has that kind of expertise, so it's nice to have some pretty pre-made options to use as well. 

[Echo Weaver]

I love trading. That was basically my style in that other game -- find a village, install myself as its protector, then trade. It was a great way to put mini-goals into my game, and it brought the illusion of being social.

The thing about VS trading is that the traders are very spread out, and I don't know what they're trading until I get there. Only maybe 3 traders are available conveniently to my base in my primary game, with another 2 at about 24-hour round-trip. The treasure hunter trader is about 2.5 days travel from my base. I'm not going to do that on a regular bases.

I think of building paths out to far-flung areas as a fairly late-game thing, but I still don't think it's going to make the round-trip to the treasure hunter appealing to do on a regular bases.

I keep intending to install some mods (is it Day Trader that allows you to call up a trader to find out what they're trading before you leave?) to see if I can smooth out this process, but I got distracted by other stuff.

[Maelstrom]

5 hours ago, Echo Weaver said:

I love trading. That was basically my style in that other game -- find a village, install myself as its protector, then trade. It was a great way to put mini-goals into my game, and it brought the illusion of being social.

I digress...

Trading in that other game is broken.   Before coming across VS I set myself the challenge that the only thing I could mine in the overworld was wood, stone and soils, absolutely positively no ores, not coal, not redstone, lapis, etc.   All ores had to be bought or farmed (hello golem destruction chamber and terrified testificates).  Made the game a slight bit more challenging, but not nearly as enjoyably difficult as VS is.

Edited October 17, 2025 by Maelstrom

[LadyWYT]

16 minutes ago, Maelstrom said:

I digress...

Trading in that other game is broken.   Before coming across VS I set myself the challenge that the only thing I could mine in the overworld was wood, stone and soils, absolutely positively no ores, not coal, not redstone, lapis, etc.   All ores had to be bought or farmed (hello golem destruction chamber and terrified testificates).  Made the game a slight bit more challenging, but not nearly as enjoyably difficult as VS is.

I was just about to say this. Granted, it's fine for what the other game is, but still...it's very broken, and hard not to take advantage of.

 

5 hours ago, Echo Weaver said:

The thing about VS trading is that the traders are very spread out

I actually disagree here, at least somewhat. They are somewhat spread out, yes, but in the context of a post-apocalyptic survival setting, there are way too many traders scattered around! I'd rather have traders clustered into caravans at least, which would be a much rarer occurrence but more worth a trip since there are multiple traders in one spot.

[Maelstrom]

4 minutes ago, LadyWYT said:

I was just about to say this. Granted, it's fine for what the other game is, but still...it's very broken, and hard not to take advantage of.

It wouldn't be hard to nerf villager trading.   I get the feeling that Mojang has been playing to the hermits in their updates.

[ifoz]

2 hours ago, LadyWYT said:

I actually disagree here, at least somewhat. They are somewhat spread out, yes, but in the context of a post-apocalyptic survival setting, there are way too many traders scattered around! I'd rather have traders clustered into caravans at least, which would be a much rarer occurrence but more worth a trip since there are multiple traders in one spot.

From what I've heard Elvas say in his trader-building dev streams, it seems they might be doing away with the current trader grid spawning pattern in favour of a more interesting system. There's some who are planned to only spawn in forests, some in deserts, some who have homes built into ruins and only spawn in ruined village clusters, and some with stilt houses who would spawn above shallow water.

Hopefully once their spawning pattern becomes less predictable, you don't find so many at once, and they in turn seem rarer. 

[Echo Weaver]

4 hours ago, Maelstrom said:

I digress...

Trading in that other game is broken.   Before coming across VS I set myself the challenge that the only thing I could mine in the overworld was wood, stone and soils, absolutely positively no ores, not coal, not redstone, lapis, etc.   All ores had to be bought or farmed (hello golem destruction chamber and terrified testificates).  Made the game a slight bit more challenging, but not nearly as enjoyably difficult as VS is.

I don't know that it's broken. Getting most of that stuff by mining is no more difficult than trading for it. Having the trading village option just gives you a different path to take.

[Echo Weaver]

4 hours ago, LadyWYT said:

I actually disagree here, at least somewhat. They are somewhat spread out, yes, but in the context of a post-apocalyptic survival setting, there are way too many traders scattered around! I'd rather have traders clustered into caravans at least, which would be a much rarer occurrence but more worth a trip since there are multiple traders in one spot.

I think trader caravans would be exactly the right thing honestly. I believe Better Traders does that, but I keep forgetting to try it out.

But those are two different things -- I think they're too spread out to be an effective game mechanic. Lore-wise, there might well be too many of them.