Combat is too shallow for it to be so integral to the game.

[MKMoose]

20 minutes ago, Teh Pizza Lady said:

Because if you have, then I think you might have missed something. Jonas tech is what it is simply because Jonas himself [redacted] and abused [redacted] to [spoil the whole story up to this point]. He had help, don't get me wrong, but that help came in the form of [redacted] and [redacted] one of whom [redacted] and the other [redacted]. Suffice it to say there's a very good reason that temporal stability can only ever be interacted with using machinery because [major plot spoiler].

Fair. I'm going off of common sense now and sincerely hope the story locations will be worth it, because I liked what I read in a bunch of lore books and scrolls from ruins. I cannot wait to find out what supernatural material or whatnot Jonas parts use, which cannot be extracted from them or obtained in any other way, and allows them and nothing else to interact with stability.

In the meantime, feel free to discard the ideas related to stability, and let's keep the focus on those which have nothing to do with neither stability (except by proxy through rotbeasts) nor any sort of magic, like the upper half of that rough list:

16 hours ago, MKMoose said:

• allow creating a larger variety of containers, stands, racks or just simple rope or cloth which can be used to keep temporal gears and other items, including things like lanterns or jugs, amulets, small things like bones or herbs, and most of the stuff that I'm listing out below, on display and/or ready to use, be it hung from the ceiling, in a decorative box (maybe with dedicated space for gears and a knife), on a display stand, or anything in that vein,
• add a single-use item which somehow overwhelms or otherwise briefly incapacitates rotbeasts (in a lore-accurate way - I'm thinking of how the shiver curls up occasionally, or how the drifter raises its arms and looks into the sky - it may be possible to somehow bring out the remaining scraps of cognition, emotion or whatever they may have left, at least for the weaker ones; this is also kind of related to the idea for throwing sand or quicklime to blind them, as the effect is similar),
• make rotbeasts more hesitant to stay near areas with certain symbols or trinkets, or to cross lines made from some sort of loose or powdery substance (basically just adjusted random pathing weight or cost; some items may also have the opposite effect of attracting rotbeasts),
• have one of the herbs weaken or scare away rotbeasts when it's burned (ideally, it would burn significantly longer when made into proper incense),
• add various improvised remedies, poisons, and herbal or more unusual decoctions with a variety of effects - courtesy of a status effect system and requiring a bunch of herbs to be added, so I won't delve into this too much here,
• add a way to coat a weapon with some sort of oil to apply an additional effect when attacking rotbeasts [or when attacking anything] (the exact same system could be used for maintenance of weapons and tools made of ferrous metals to protect against corrosion),
• make rotbeasts afraid of fire to some extent (as mentioned along with the bonfire suggestion),

 

[LadyWYT]

8 hours ago, MKMoose said:

My apologies if I'm getting annoyed or annoying, but how many times do I have to say that I'm not talking about magic?

Sorry, it probably doesn't help that I got into a heated debate with a friend over some similar lore stuff yesterday, and it was very frustrating. So I do apologize if I got overly aggressive.

 

8 hours ago, MKMoose said:

I'm thinking of it kind of like electricity - for a medieval setting it's practically magic, and you're not gonna replicate something like a computer (really, you can't even make a single modern electrical component without appropriate tools, so you'd have to improvise heavily in a lot of cases), but it works on simple physical principles that were discovered much earlier and originally used in very simple ways.

I absolutely agree with this premise, however, I will also note that harnessing temporal energy is a lost art that, essentially, died with the Old World. There are only three characters left(that we know of) that understand what the tech is(mostly) and how to utilize it. One of those characters is the player, hence why we can craft gizmos and gadgets in the late game. To the average survivor though, it might as well be magic, and given that Jonas tech is at least partially responsible for the end of the Old World and the mechanical horrors skittering around the depths of the new, I don't think it's entirely unreasonable to assume that survivors might be a little suspicious of those using such wondrous devices.

 

8 hours ago, MKMoose said:

As for the idea for the ritual to close a rift or reduce instability, the same thought process applies. Find something that seems capable of stabilizing things - a temporal seems like an easy fit - then walk up to a rift or find an unstable area and try do do whatever you can think of to it. Burn it, hit it, add chemicals to it, arrange it with metal scraps and Jonas parts, anything. Something happened? Write down how you did it, including the weird things that might not have actually been necessary necessary, but, well, they worked. Boom, you have a ritual.

A ritual isn't the same thing as building a machine though. A ritual would imply some sort of spiritual power being invoked, whereas a machine implies using what one knows about natural law and order to get something done. I will also note that what you've described here regarding the trial and error to figure things out, is the scientific method, which isn't really used for rituals.

As already noted by @Teh Pizza Lady though, the solution to rifts already exists with the rift ward. Build the machine, and keep it powered, and it will stop rifts from opening within the protected area. It's basically a lightning rod, but for temporal anomalies instead of electrical charges.

9 hours ago, MKMoose said:

Are all items equally affected by instability? Could there be something which gets "glitched" for lack of a better word, where it gets dangerously unstable, more so than the surroundings. It may just be a trinket, or it may have an actual purpose. Or maybe something could promote stability in some way (right about the same semi-scientific idea as for the rift ward, just simpler and less controlled), creating a pocket that could offer some protection in a temporal storm.

The only thing that's for sure sensitive to instability, is seraphs, since they're sort of...displaced...from the time stream itself. That's not to say the physical world can't be affected by temporal instability, given that NPCs experience temporal storms and there are strange anomalies in certain locations, but it does seem to take a much greater concentration of instability in order to affect anything that isn't a seraph.

The hitches and glitches a player experiences during low stability, or temporal storms, are essentially the result of the veil between two realities becoming so thin that they bleed into each other.

9 hours ago, MKMoose said:

Observe how drifters behave. Do they react to light? Do they react to any symbols? Can they be blinded, stunned, shocked? Do they react to strong aroma? Are they attracted to something or do they prefer to stay away from something? Does their body react with anything, starting from simple chemicals and poisons? Be it something that creates a physical reaction in their bodies, or something that reminds them of something from the past, if they are capable of that. Or are they just completely mindless, boring, "zombies" with no distinguishing features?

Drifters and other rotbeasts are weird, in that they aren't exactly zombies since they do seem to possess a level of intelligence rather than act on instinct, but they don't think like humans either. They don't like bright light, hence why they tend to stick to the underground and night and don't really wander around in daylight. They don't have faces, so they presumably don't have the same senses that living creatures do, but they do clearly have some uncanny way to sense and target nearby humanoids. They do seem capable of feeling pain(though it may be a dulled sense), and though they can be set on fire they don't seem to really react. As to what they're made of, it seems to be some sort of an amalgam of flesh and metal, which I wouldn't really expect to react to poison or other chemicals like a living creature's body would(I mean, it's also hard to take a horrific monster seriously if you can just turn it into a puddle with a chemical concoction).

It's not really clear exactly how such creatures came to be either, though it's heavily implied that most of them, at least, were once human, and perhaps turned as a result of the Rot, or the Great Machine(Salvation Engine) being activated, or a combination of both.

7 hours ago, Jochanaan Fair-Schulz said:

This has some real *scientist about to be burned at the stake for "witchcraft"* energy 

I will admit, this made me laugh.  Unfortunately I'm fresh out of pitchforks, and lost my torches in a boating accident.

Probably the better way to summarize my thoughts on why adding functional rituals and charms shifts the tone to "generic magical fantasy", is as follows:

Let's say that something like a dreamcatcher is added to the game. The player can craft it from sticks, twine, and feathers, and while it has a very low chance of warding away monsters, that chance is still high enough that the player can easily figure out that it works, which is the most important part. Since it's a method that works, and is very cheap, the player will end up choosing to use those for efficiency, and ignore late game tech options. Likewise, since it's a charm that works, the player will logically assume that there must be similar magical charms or rituals to accomplish other things within the game, at which point they're going to start questioning why they have to wait on seasons and growing times for crops, or go to effort of refining metal to make tools and weapons instead of just using magic to summon fireballs or transmute material. There's a few players that would enjoy that kind of gameplay, to be sure, since there's been a suggestion or two requesting as much, but that kind of gameplay is going to be incredibly jarring when juxtaposed against the realism that Vintage Story is built upon.

Two mod examples from the other block game that implement such charms and rituals to interact with the world, are Thaumcraft and Witchery. Basically what I've been harping on, is that if something like those mods were added to Vintage Story, it shifts the tone of the entire game quite dramatically(as well as begs the question, why were machines and things necessary to save the world, if magic is clearly an answer to problems?)

[LadyWYT]

And now to stop beating that horse and move on to something more productive:

1 hour ago, MKMoose said:

allow creating a larger variety of containers, stands, racks or just simple rope or cloth which can be used to keep temporal gears and other items, including things like lanterns or jugs, amulets, small things like bones or herbs, and most of the stuff that I'm listing out below, on display and/or ready to use, be it hung from the ceiling, in a decorative box (maybe with dedicated space for gears and a knife), on a display stand, or anything in that vein,

This makes a lot of sense, really, especially for when herbalism is added. More variety is always nice, and glass containers would be great for spices, herbs, alcohol, and various other things stored in smaller quantities, or that you might want to sort based on sight alone.

 

1 hour ago, MKMoose said:

add a single-use item which somehow overwhelms or otherwise briefly incapacitates rotbeasts (in a lore-accurate way - I'm thinking of how the shiver curls up occasionally, or how the drifter raises its arms and looks into the sky - it may be possible to somehow bring out the remaining scraps of cognition, emotion or whatever they may have left, at least for the weaker ones; this is also kind of related to the idea for throwing sand or quicklime to blind them, as the effect is similar),

Given how resilient rotbeasts are, this is a tough one. But I think this is a prime spot to add caltrops to slow them down, or a smoke bomb to confuse them(although this likely won't work since they navigate fine without having any eyes, and in the dark). Given what unfolds in the "Ghosts" short story, it seems that they're attracted to sound, so having small firecrackers or other noisemakers would probably offer a good distraction.

 

1 hour ago, MKMoose said:

make rotbeasts more hesitant to stay near areas with certain symbols or trinkets, or to cross lines made from some sort of loose or powdery substance (basically just adjusted random pathing weight or cost; some items may also have the opposite effect of attracting rotbeasts),

Currently, rotbeasts don't seem to react at all to symbols, trinkets, or substances, so unless their behavior is changed dramatically or there's some macguffin we just don't know about, I don't think this is a good solution. I will also note that one reason rotbeasts are such a fearsome foe, is that they don't have any known weakness and must be countered with force.

 

1 hour ago, MKMoose said:

have one of the herbs weaken or scare away rotbeasts when it's burned (ideally, it would burn significantly longer when made into proper incense),

Ties into the above--they don't react to much of anything, save for displaying murderous intent around humans and seraphs. Fire doesn't seem to stop them, though it does seem to hurt them, and given that the monsters do seem to have a bit of self-preservation instinct(they do have a chance to flee if damaged enough), I don't think it's out of the question that a really big fire might act as a deterrent. But if keeping them away were as easy as just burning a few herbs or a bit of incense, then they wouldn't be monsters as much as they would be just neighborhood pests.

 

1 hour ago, MKMoose said:

add various improvised remedies, poisons, and herbal or more unusual decoctions with a variety of effects - courtesy of a status effect system and requiring a bunch of herbs to be added, so I won't delve into this too much here,

Should be covered by the herbalism system, whenever it's added, though I wouldn't really expect any concoctions to have much effect on rotbeasts. Living creatures, certainly, and mechanicals a "maybe".

 

1 hour ago, MKMoose said:

add a way to coat a weapon with some sort of oil to apply an additional effect when attacking rotbeasts [or when attacking anything] (the exact same system could be used for maintenance of weapons and tools made of ferrous metals to protect against corrosion),

I would expect this to be more effective against living creatures rather than rotbeasts. Rather, I'd be more inclined to say that the reason you coat your weapon in oil when fighting rotbeasts, is to prevent extra wear and tear that might occur when spilling their filthy, sludgey blood.

 

1 hour ago, MKMoose said:

make rotbeasts afraid of fire to some extent (as mentioned along with the bonfire suggestion),

This one I can sort of agree on, since fire does seem to hurt them and a bonfire is a common way to keep dangerous things away from camp. At least, it seems plausible for the weaker surface monsters, and it seems plausible that this is how traders and other travelers manage to survive in the wilderness(although it's likely that not all of them do). However, I would argue that the fire has to be pretty big in order to keep the monsters at bay--a simple torch or cheap little campfire just isn't going to cut it.

[LadyWYT]

@Bruno Willis keeping my comment over here since this is the more appropriate thread for the topic:

Quote

I'm not so keen on the idea that you can only do story locations in plate armor.

Plate armor is actually one of the worst choices for doing the story, if you're playing singleplayer that is. I think currently chain armor is the strongest, since it's very protective without sacrificing too much ranged accuracy or speed.

[Bruno Willis]

33 minutes ago, LadyWYT said:

keeping my comment over here since this is the more appropriate thread for the topic:

Sure. I'm still getting familiar with forum etiquette.

12 hours ago, LadyWYT said:

21 hours ago, MKMoose said:

As for the idea for the ritual to close a rift or reduce instability, the same thought process applies. Find something that seems capable of stabilizing things - a temporal seems like an easy fit - then walk up to a rift or find an unstable area and try do do whatever you can think of to it. Burn it, hit it, add chemicals to it, arrange it with metal scraps and Jonas parts, anything. Something happened? Write down how you did it, including the weird things that might not have actually been necessary necessary, but, well, they worked. Boom, you have a ritual.

A ritual isn't the same thing as building a machine though. A ritual would imply some sort of spiritual power being invoked, whereas a machine implies using what one knows about natural law and order to get something done. I will also note that what you've described here regarding the trial and error to figure things out, is the scientific method, which isn't really used for rituals.

As already noted by @Teh Pizza Lady though, the solution to rifts already exists with the rift ward. Build the machine, and keep it powered, and it will stop rifts from opening within the protected area. It's basically a lightning rod, but for temporal anomalies instead of electrical charges.

I'm not sure if this is right, but I was under the impression that torches discourage rift spawning. I don't know if that means rifts are less likely to spawn, or if creatures are less likely to emerge from them if a torch is nearby, but either way that implies fire might be a simple technology for shutting down rifts. I could imagine building a bonfire on the ground under a rift (dangerous, nauseating work) and then lighting it up and hoping to "burn out" the rift with the light and heat. Pouring those logs onto the fire, because you really don't want a rift in the middle of your courtyard. This idea only works if torches do actually have an effect on rift forming though. 

If torches have an effect on rift spawns, burning incense and candles might have a minute effect. Even if it were too small to be noticed or gamified, people might start associating all sorts of fire with stability and ritualize that. 

[LadyWYT]

6 minutes ago, Bruno Willis said:

I'm not sure if this is right, but I was under the impression that torches discourage rift spawning. I don't know if that means rifts are less likely to spawn, or if creatures are less likely to emerge from them if a torch is nearby, but either way that implies fire might be a simple technology for shutting down rifts.

It's not the fire, as much as it is just the light level that cuts down on spawns. Torches are the earliest source of bright light the player can obtain en masse, and while they aren't as effective as lanterns, they're a lot more effective than oil lamps. Realistically, I wouldn't expect fire to affect rifts at all, but a large enough fire might be enough to keep small numbers of monsters at bay.

[Steel General]

23 hours ago, LadyWYT said:

A ritual isn't the same thing as building a machine though. A ritual would imply some sort of spiritual power being invoked, whereas a machine implies using what one knows about natural law and order to get something done. I will also note that what you've described here regarding the trial and error to figure things out, is the scientific method, which isn't really used for rituals.

The Scientific Method is a ritual.

Rituals are for getting results, not for understanding. The Scientific Method is a careful ritual that gets results from which one can attempt to understand.

Understanding is not relevant to application - modern example we all use: "Turn it off and on." Maybe spiritual power is involved, maybe it's spark gremlins - the point is it's what we turn to when we don't understand.

Meaning arises from context, and rituals that have no discernible effect are often efforts to manufacture meaning from associated context, for the feels. This is not the only kind of ritual.

[LadyWYT]

1 minute ago, Steel General said:

The Scientific Method is a ritual.

Rituals are for getting results, not for understanding. The Scientific Method is a careful ritual that gets results from which one can attempt to understand.

Understanding is not relevant to application - modern example we all use: "Turn it off and on." Maybe spiritual power is involved, maybe it's spark gremlins - the point is it's what we turn to when we don't understand.

Meaning arises from context, and rituals that have no discernible effect are often efforts to manufacture meaning from associated context, for the feels. This is not the only kind of ritual.

Yeah, but my main point is that if you going to refer to the things in question specifically as "rituals" and "charms", then you're going to end up painting a picture of witches in the woods or druids circling a bonfire or other associated things, and not steampunk tech or realistic natural process. Well, either that, or you get something like the Imperium of Man from Warhammer 40k, with the tech priests and whatnot, but that kind of setting just doesn't quite fit with what's been presented in Vintage Story so far.

For the player to accomplish things, it's better to rely on natural process, or steampunk gizmos, like what's implemented in the game already. In the event of natural processes, the player can draw upon real world knowledge to make things happen, such as building a charcoal pit, or refining various metals. For Jonas tech, the premise is building machinery and powering it to accomplish a goal, except the machinery in question is more heavily stylized to fit a medieval steampunk aesthetic. As for rituals and charms though, that's why I laid out my dreamcatcher example the way that I did, as well as cited Witchery and Thaumcraft as examples of what I would expect from actual rituals and charms. Tying a bunch of sticks and feathers together with string to create something that magically wards away monsters, or sprinkling a bunch of powders on the ground in geometric designs to summon entities, transmute material, or control natural processes, just isn't the same thing as building machines or using conventional work(farming, smelting, smithing, etc) to get things done.

[Bruno Willis]

4 hours ago, LadyWYT said:

For the player to accomplish things, it's better to rely on natural process, or steampunk gizmos, like what's implemented in the game already. In the event of natural processes, the player can draw upon real world knowledge to make things happen, such as building a charcoal pit, or refining various metals. For Jonas tech, the premise is building machinery and powering it to accomplish a goal, except the machinery in question is more heavily stylized to fit a medieval steampunk aesthetic. As for rituals and charms though, that's why I laid out my dreamcatcher example the way that I did, as well as cited Witchery and Thaumcraft as examples of what I would expect from actual rituals and charms. Tying a bunch of sticks and feathers together with string to create something that magically wards away monsters, or sprinkling a bunch of powders on the ground in geometric designs to summon entities, transmute material, or control natural processes, just isn't the same thing as building machines or using conventional work(farming, smelting, smithing, etc) to get things done.

Yeah, the more I think about it, the more I agree. We don't want ritual and superstition feeling like a viable method for players. I could imagine meeting an NPC who swears their cool looking charms and amulets keep the monsters away and make their crops grow bigger and more bountifully. They could even sell a few charms to the player...

But I agree, you wouldn't want the charms to actually work. It would shift the tone in an unhelpful way for the base game. 

[LadyWYT]

46 minutes ago, Bruno Willis said:

I could imagine meeting an NPC who swears their cool looking charms and amulets keep the monsters away and make their crops grow bigger and more bountifully. They could even sell a few charms to the player...

Honestly, I could picture this too, although the implementation I see is the standard snake oil salesman . The charms don't actually do anything, and maybe the "miracle elixirs" being sold actually turn out to be poison, or perhaps the player gets "instant riches" only to find out that the shady merchant stole the goods from the local village and now the player gets the blame for it. Whatever the case may be, the player ultimately ends up several gears poorer, with nothing to show for it.

[Thorfinn]

1 hour ago, LadyWYT said:

The charms don't actually do anything, and maybe the "miracle elixirs" being sold actually turn out to be poison, or perhaps the player gets "instant riches" only to find out that the shady merchant stole the goods from the local village and now the player gets the blame for it. Whatever the case may be, the player ultimately ends up several gears poorer, with nothing to show for it.

Dunno. That's a trap for n00bs, and a pointless, ignored game loop by people who have been bitten once or who read the Wiki. If the only point is to sting n00bs, that coding time could be better spent.

[MKMoose]

On 11/14/2025 at 5:38 PM, LadyWYT said:

Sorry, it probably doesn't help that I got into a heated debate with a friend over some similar lore stuff yesterday, and it was very frustrating. So I do apologize if I got overly aggressive.

You're good, I was more getting annoyed at the conversation seemingly getting derailed onto the topic of magic despite me never mentioning it personally (though admittedly some things could be quite readily interpreted this way). I appreciate you being so thorough and patient with this, though.

And since I don't wanna blabber too much about things you've provided reasonable counterpoints to or agreed with, I want to primarily say that the core of my annoyance with some of the stability and Rot-related content is that for something so alien, unnatural and dangerous, it kind of breaks my immersion that the remaining survivors use no distinct symbols, charms, amulets to ward it off, even if completely ineffectively.

The new treasure hunter hut and most if not all of the current trader wagons (and also a camp with three wagons by a small ruin, though just one trader, I didn't even know until a few minutes ago that there was a thing like that) don't have a single item that could without a stretch be considered symbolic or protective. Some don't even have a single item that could be considered decorative. I can't speak with confidence on the village that I've learned about without spoiling myself right now, as I'll soon be on the way there, though they at least have some interesting necklaces and belts that can be found in the handbook (those are still just wearables though).

There is a category of items and other stuff which are often referred to as apotropaic - intended to ward off evil, whatever that evil might be. It could be demons, disease, witchcraft, or just general bad luck which may or may not be attributed to something supernatural. It's of course easy to argue that most had no practical effect, but they still carried symbolic meaning or sometimes had practical uses unrelated to the apotropaic purposes.

There is, perhaps, a point to be made that the situation was so dire that the more superstitious people inevitably were less prepared, and the ones who remained were the ones who didn't believe in the efficacy of anything other than physical force against rotbeasts, but I find it extremely unlikely that this selection process would be quite this drastic.

Although, a small thing: I feel kinda dumb for not noticing other amulets that can be crafted with a rope and usually a tree seed. Frankly I kinda blame the handbook, because it makes finding some more obscure items really difficult sometimes. They're still only amulets, not placeable decorations, but at least that's something.

 

On 11/14/2025 at 12:20 AM, LadyWYT said:

I suppose it's also worth noting that the "Old World" in the lore is our world in the late Middle Ages, with the general setting in central/eastern Europe. While there wasn't a shortage of superstition and related practice, it's worth noting that Christianity was the dominant religion of the region at the time, so magic charms, rituals, and other things typically associated with witchcraft would have been frowned upon. That's not to say that the denizens of the present time still practice Old World religions, or that new superstitious practice didn't arise, but there does at least seem to be lingering influence of past tradition, given how NPCs speak and refer to certain things.

I looked into it a bit, and it seems that this isn't really the case. From what I've read, though of course always take it with a grain of salt, non-Christian apotropaic or symbolic items were also normal or even expected. While there were plenty of practices frowned upon due to being easily seen as superstitious or associated with witchcraft, there was still a lot of socially acceptable items, especially those which had medicinal or decorative functions as well, and some more "magical" charms or amulets could be simply concealed.

Apparently, the majority of households typically had at least one or two items with symbolic, apotropaic or decorative purpose (often all three, because they are not in any way exclusive), deliberately placed on display, for example above the hearth, above the door, generally at thresholds and in the main rooms of a building.

The most common of those were simple scratched markings and symbols as well as herbs and  flowers, the latter of which tended to have practical purposes as well, to repel insects or pests, mask unpleasant smells, and had plenty of use in medicine or in cooking as well. Needless to say I have a lot of hopes for the herbalism system.

Plenty of people also had a personal charm, pendant or amulet, or more than one, many of which were deliberately carried visibly on person to signal piety or social status, as well as to ward off evil - that's our temporal gear amulet, basically. They could also be used to carry coins, identity markers and for some other purposes.

 

And here is the probably most important part: there is well-documented correlation between the frequency of apotropaic items and various crises - plagues, wars, witchcraft panics and the like. This is, I believe, the strongest argument for at least a bunch of decorations with distinct theming, if nothing else, to be added to any villages, outposts or wagons. This is also largely why the Order of the Forlorn Hope was formed, would I imagine - people tend to flock to where they feel safer and more in control, especially in times of turmoil. Religion offers this like almost nothing else.

I don't want to dwell on this topic too much, but I hope this serves as sufficient explanation for why the lack of almost any charms or anything of the sort kind of bothers me.

Edited November 15, 2025 by MKMoose

[LadyWYT]

35 minutes ago, Thorfinn said:

Dunno. That's a trap for n00bs, and a pointless, ignored game loop by people who have been bitten once or who read the Wiki. If the only point is to sting n00bs, that coding time could be better spent.

Yes and no...those "miracle elixirs" and useless trinkets could serve as interesting cosmetics or decorative items. Not exactly useful for practical gameplay, but for players who like roleplaying or collecting things, there would be a reason to frequent those traders.

 

22 minutes ago, MKMoose said:

I want to primarily say that the core of my annoyance with some of the stability and Rot-related content is that for something so alien, unnatural and dangerous, it kind of breaks my immersion that the remaining survivors use no distinct symbols, charms, amulets to ward it off, even if completely ineffectively.

That's fair, and in fairness it's possible there are settlements out there, that aren't yet implemented, that lean heavily into that aesthetic. 

 

25 minutes ago, MKMoose said:

Although, a small thing: I feel kinda dumb for not noticing other amulets that can be crafted with a rope and usually a tree seed.

I forgot these were a thing as well. Typically I end up crafting one early, as it just seems a fitting knick-knack to carry around.

 

26 minutes ago, MKMoose said:

Plenty of people also had a personal charm, pendant or amulet, or more than one, many of which were deliberately carried visibly on person to signal piety or social status, as well as to ward off evil - that's our temporal gear amulet, basically. They could also be used to carry coins, identity markers and for some other purposes.

For brevity's sake I'm just quoting this part, but yeah I don't disagree with what you said.  I'm not against stuff like that getting added to the game, as those are fun cosmetic items to collect and decorate with, but it's also the kind of thing I'd want to be strictly cosmetic.

 

28 minutes ago, MKMoose said:

This is also largely why the Order of the Forlorn Hope was formed, would I imagine - people tend to flock to where they feel safer and more in control, especially in times of turmoil. Religion offers this like almost nothing else.

Kind of...but as I understand it(spoilers just in case):

Spoiler

The Forlorn Hope was more of a cult of nobles, alchemists, and other high-ranking members of society allied with Jonas, that also turned to worshiping Jonas as a god. They seemed to view themselves as noble heroes holding back the hoards of darkness, in the name of saving humanity, and seem to have sacrificed themselves to buy Jonas and his remaining workers enough time to finish the Great Machine. Presumably, all members of the Forlorn Hope perished in that last great battle, though we don't really know for certain.

 

[Thorfinn]

3 minutes ago, LadyWYT said:

Not exactly useful for practical gameplay, but for players who like roleplaying or collecting things, there would be a reason to frequent those traders.

So add them to the Luxuries trader, who has the other jewelry. I mean, if the thread is about how combat is too shallow, I don't see how the solution is to add items which have only a cosmetic use. At least a trinket which affects spawn rates has some applicability, albeit not very much.

[LadyWYT]

19 minutes ago, Thorfinn said:

I mean, if the thread is about how combat is too shallow, I don't see how the solution is to add items which have only a cosmetic use. At least a trinket which affects spawn rates has some applicability, albeit not very much.

Oh yeah, cosmetic definitely aren't a solution to combat, that's just me getting sidetracked from the main topic.  That tends to happen easily.

[ifoz]

2 hours ago, MKMoose said:

The new treasure hunter hut and most if not all of the current trader wagons (and also a camp with three wagons by a small ruin, though just one trader, I didn't even know until a few minutes ago that there was a thing like that) don't have a single item that could without a stretch be considered symbolic or protective. Some don't even have a single item that could be considered decorative.

The current traders are placeholders, their structures (and very likely their appearance) are getting updated in 1.22.
We'll have to wait and see what their lore-accurate culture is like!


(EDIT):
Oh also, in regards to symbolism - humanity has taken a liking to gears as a holy symbol. The traders mention this, and there is a certain statue in a certain location of a certain character who is depicted with a

Spoiler

large gold gear, like a saintly halo.

Both old world and new world - old world orders like the Forlorn Hope seem to have used gears as a symbol of Jonas/grand machine worship, while new world humans view them as a sign of a power greater than them.

Edited November 16, 2025 by ifoz