Outside my front door

[TJ Pepler]

<rant>...

I see so many posts, I can't find X, why is this game so hard I just want some X and there's none outside my house!  I need X to make something and I can't find any!!!

OK - Stop for a moment and ask yourself this, if you walked out your front door, would all of those things be available from your house?  or even within a reasonable distance?

I am very familiar with my city and I would have to travel 5 kilometers from my house to find a single cattail...

If I want a banana I could look around for a hundred kilometers in every direction and not find one, does that mean that the world is broken?  Should I send the Government a letter protesting the lack of banana plantations in British Columbia??? LMAO, of course not, this is a WORLD and not everything is available everywhere, not everything can even EXIST everywhere.                         

We accept that because that is simply the way the world works.

Your game is a world, sometimes if you want something and it's not locally available you need to accept that and be willing to travel to get what you need or, just like real life, do without it.

</rant>

[Vexxvididu]

Nice touch on the image, lol.

But yes, agreed.  I think seeds have maybe a little too much variance, but it's not a huge problem.  It's GOOD game design that you often have to travel a ways to get a few things.

[LadyWYT]

1 hour ago, TJ Pepler said:

<rant>...

I see so many posts, I can't find X, why is this game so hard I just want some X and there's none outside my house!  I need X to make something and I can't find any!!!

Honestly, while complaints like these feel like a modern thing, I daresay they've been around since the beginning of time. I get the frustration about them though.

 

1 hour ago, Vexxvididu said:

I think seeds have maybe a little too much variance, but it's not a huge problem.  It's GOOD game design that you often have to travel a ways to get a few things.

Pretty much. The other block game allows the player to pretty much find most resources in every chunk, and I think some players come here with the same expectation and then are understandably shocked when Vintage Story turns out to be different. However, I don't think it's just the other block game though; a lot of modern games in general tend to hold the player's hand and make sure they always have what they need, when they need it, and don't really allow the player the opportunity to get themselves in over their head.

I'm just speaking generally, of course, but I do think those are two big reasons why Vintage Story tends to catch many players off-guard. I know in my case, I had to rethink a lot of my own approaches to various game loops, as logic that works in most other games just doesn't work here. 

1 hour ago, TJ Pepler said:

this is a WORLD and not everything is available everywhere, not everything can even EXIST everywhere. 

If I'm recalling correctly, the devs themselves at one time said that it was a deliberate design that not every resource can be easily obtained everywhere. For exotic woods like ebony and purpleheart, the player needs to make at least one trip to the tropics. Some tropical fruit, like pineapples, can be grown in greenhouses in colder climates, but it's quite difficult to do so. Most tropical fruits require warm climates to actually grow. Granted, this kind of design does limit creativity a bit, but sometimes less is more, and seeing what one can do with local resources makes for a pretty fun challenge.

I do think though, that this would be a prime time for traders to shine, when it comes to rare resources. Agriculture traders could sell exotic fruits like pineapples and mangos, while building traders could sell stuff like ebony logs or purpleheart planks. Of course, such resources would also be rather expensive, but that would give players more reason to visit traders and do something with their rusty gears. As it stands now, most of what you can purchase from traders you can either find or craft yourself easily enough.

[Sleeves]

I think the problem is moreso how randomness factors in. Sometimes you find everything you need immediately, but in other worlds you go upwards of fifty hours without finding that one resource you need to progress. I don't think there's any great solution to be had, although bad luck has become much more tolerable with the addition of elks.