New player looking for tips regarding: Early-game Food

[Telios]

Hello! I'm a new player to Vintage Story. So far, I've gotten to the late copper stage with an anvil and saws, but I'm still struggling on food needs. I have a farm going with a large variety of grains and vegetables, including a lot of flax, bit I still need to figure something out while the plants take their sweet time growing.

 

I've captured a boar in a pit by sheer luck, but I've yet to lure a sow to the same pit. I dug out a pit with a trough with some flax grain in it plus moat around my farm and a reed basket trap a bit away from my home. However, I've yet to passively catch any animals those ways. Playing on the 1.22 rc versions means I can fish, but I'm wondering if I'm doing something wrong? Am I supposed to just forage and hunt a lot before my first winter?

Edited March 25 by Telios
Fixing typos

[Nathan Flaminio]

Yes, you are supposed to forage and hunt/fish a lot early game. Mushrooms and berries are (generally) an abundant food source. 

[Telios]

I've foraged most of the berries and mushroom near my home, which usually means I'll now have to go far out to have luck finding them. But thank you, I'll keep that in mind.

 

Are there recommended ways to trap animals? I kept seeing videos about pit traps to capture rabbits and such but I haven't been able to capture anymore than one.

Edited March 25 by Telios
Fixing typos

[LadyWYT]

2 hours ago, Telios said:

Arethere recommended ways to trap animals?

Welcome to the forums! Pit trapping is a way to catch animals, and usually involves a moat around farms or a farmland tile they can't reach, since crops will lure certain wildlife(was bugged but fixed in 1.22). That being said, I would recommend hunting while you get your farms and livestock up to speed. Chickens and rabbits are easy prey, but boar and deer tend to be better since they yield more meat per kill along with larger hides and fat. Don't forget to cook the raw ingredients into proper meals as well, either via the cookpot or pies. Meals are much better at solving the hunger problem than basic raw/cooked food.

[PoisonedPawn777]

Sounds like you're doing a lot right, food tends to one of the early game hurdles new players have to overcome, becomes much easier with a bit of experience. Biggest tip is to make sure you're making meals of all your food, either in the cook pot or using the fireclay oven to make pies. As stated above, this significantly increases the satiety provided by the ingredients and meals will provide you with a pause to you hunger drain. If this is something you are already doing and you are still short on food, may be time to grab a few spears and go on a hunting trip or travel a bit further for foraging purposes. With the fishing update bush meat can now easily be converted into fish which allows you to make meals and is a better bang for your buck food option. Personally, I have a forested area near my base that is always full of wolves. Every 10 days or so I go kill a few and use the bush meat as bait, can easily bring in 30-40 fish meat in a day. Raccoons and foxes are relatively easy kills for bush meat, bears are great if you're a bit more adventurous.

[Telios]

48 minutes ago, LadyWYT said:

Welcome to the forums!

Thank you!

50 minutes ago, LadyWYT said:

crops will lure certain wildlife(was bugged but fixed in 1.22).

I'm wondering if that's been actually fixed because I haven't seen a singular animal in the moat I dug around my farm and I was on rc4...

51 minutes ago, LadyWYT said:

Don't forget to cook the raw ingredients into proper meals as well, either via the cookpot or pies. Meals are much better at solving the hunger problem than basic raw/cooked food.

7 minutes ago, PoisonedPawn777 said:

Biggest tip is to make sure you're making meals of all your food, either in the cook pot or using the fireclay oven to make pies.

I've gotten myself a clay oven so I've been making pies whenever possible and stews/soups for other times. Hunting for meat wouldn't be so bad now that I can make copper arrows for my bow (hopefully I can get to bronze soon!) but it's the grain for flour that I've been struggling with the most, since I am still stuck to foraged grain.

(Maybe rc5 fixed why my crops has been taking forever to grow lol)
 

10 minutes ago, PoisonedPawn777 said:

If this is something you are already doing and you are still short on food, may be time to grab a few spears and go on a hunting trip or travel a bit further for foraging purposes.

It does sound like it might be time for me to do this since I need to venture out and find some other ore to make bronze!

[PoisonedPawn777]

5 minutes ago, Telios said:

It does sound like it might be time for me to do this since I need to venture out and find some other ore to make bronze!

How far out have you ventured before? Also, make sure you have a spear on you as well if you are hunting, many of the animals worth hunting can become aggressive towards the player, spears are the best early game melee option for keeping wildlife at a distance due to its reach. Even though I player as the hunter class, I find spears to be a better overall weapon, bows very situational.

Edited March 25 by PoisonedPawn777

[LadyWYT]

8 minutes ago, Telios said:

I'm wondering if that's been actually fixed because I haven't seen a singular animal in the moat I dug around my farm and I was on rc4...

Maybe, but as I understand it the moat/pit method is quite slow, since you're relying on the animal to get close enough to the bait to be attracted. Hunting might take more effort, but you can cover more ground quickly and thus make more kills within a shorter time.

 

5 minutes ago, PoisonedPawn777 said:

Also, make sure you have a spear on you as well if you are hunting, many of the animals worth hunting can become aggressive towards the player, spears are the best early game melee option for keeping wildlife at a distance due to its reach. Even though I player as the hunter class, I find spears to be a better overall weapon, bows very situational.

So much this. Bows are better in regards to inventory space and can be fired faster, but in the early game spears pack a harder punch. I tend to carry 3-5 spears on me when hunting in the early game as a Blackguard.

[Telios]

23 minutes ago, PoisonedPawn777 said:

How far out have you ventured before?

Some quick Pythagorean between my home and the bottom most prospecting node comes to about 950 blocks, if my math was correct. I didn't want to travel too far from home yet because my inventory space is still limited - 2 linen sacks and 2 hunter packs - and my food situation hasn't been quite solved yet.
 

25 minutes ago, PoisonedPawn777 said:

Even though I player as the hunter class, I find spears to be a better overall weapon, bows very situational.

19 minutes ago, LadyWYT said:

the early game spears pack a harder punch. I tend to carry 3-5 spears on me when hunting in the early game as a Blackguard.

I do have a copper falx and was planning to work out a shield for some bear hunting along with a bow. Would it be better for me to pivot into copper spears instead?

[PoisonedPawn777]

I go spear > falx every time for hunting. Falx hunting for bears is almost always a situation that happens to me, rather than one I choose. Not a problem if I have gambeson on, but I'd prefer a spear for the further reach. Keep in mind that brown bears are faster than you are unless you are playing as the hunter or clockmaker, even then you may not be able to escape him if you've gotten close enough to engage in melee. I assume you've harvested all the wild crops marked on your map?

[PoisonedPawn777]

The main benefit of the falx is the auto looting when fighting rust monsters, it's a close combat weapon when time may not be a luxury you have. Great for temporal storms.

[Telios]

3 minutes ago, PoisonedPawn777 said:

I assume you've harvested all the wild crops marked on your map?

Pretty much! I leave the markers for spots where there are still crops that aren't fully grown.

 

3 minutes ago, PoisonedPawn777 said:

The main benefit of the falx is the auto looting when fighting rust monsters, it's a close combat weapon when time may not be a luxury you have. Great for temporal storms.

So that's why I've been getting drops from the monsters despite not harvesting them. Good to know!

I'm also trying to get leather started so I could make a set of leather armor. I know they may not be the best in terms of protection seeing as copper lamellar is right there should I want to pursue it but the hunger increase seems to be unwise for me at this moment.

[williams_482]

9 minutes ago, Telios said:

Pretty much! I leave the markers for spots where there are still crops that aren't fully grown.

It's generally best to harvest the immature crops too. They won't drop gran/fibers/veggies and there's a chance to lose the seeds, but wild crops grow so slowly relative to planted crops (and drop so much less when they do mature) that you'll wind up with much more stuff if you just gather as many seeds as possible and plant them as quickly as possible. 

[Dilan Rona]

Pit traps, at locations mostly frequented by animals. Make sure to mark one specifically for wolves and bears (3x3, 4 blocks deep) in the event you are chased. Once trapped, dont kill them, feed them every once in a while, and they are a suitable source of fresh meat for the lean times during winter.

[Telios]

4 minutes ago, Dilan Rona said:

at locations mostly frequented by animals.

How can you tell those locations? Just keep an eye out and make a mental note whenever traveling by specific spots?

[Dilan Rona]

Waypoints. Every world I start has 3 pit traps dedicated for wolves exclusively, with the occational bear trapped as well. And I always have one pit trap at my base for emergency escapes.

[Zane Mordien]

7 hours ago, williams_482 said:

It's generally best to harvest the immature crops too. They won't drop gran/fibers/veggies and there's a chance to lose the seeds, but wild crops grow so slowly relative to planted crops (and drop so much less when they do mature) that you'll wind up with much more stuff if you just gather as many seeds as possible and plant them as quickly as possible. 

This is one of the biggest mistakes I think people are making. Waiting for wild crops to mature. Only reason I mark a wild crop is if my inventory is full.

Edited March 25 by Zane Mordien

[Thorfinn]

1 hour ago, Zane Mordien said:

Only reason I mark a wild crop is if my inventory is full.

Yeah, when playing with map, very much. I also mark them when I just don't want to fill the empty spaces. Particularly in 1.22, I'm running into a lot more times where I have 2 or even 3 stacks of flax seeds on the first day, so I will sometimes mark grains and parsnips and onions that I just don't want right now. Depends on how visible it is at a distance.

[dakko]

18 hours ago, Telios said:

I've captured a boar in a pit by sheer luck, but I've yet to lure a sow to the same pit.

Does this pit have a large trough? Try keeping it full of hay. I believe that hay will attract just about any animal with hooves (at least that is how it seems to me when I'm trying to lure pigs).

[Telios]

5 hours ago, Dilan Rona said:

Waypoints. Every world I start has 3 pit traps dedicated for wolves exclusively, with the occational bear trapped as well. And I always have one pit trap at my base for emergency escapes.

Okay, I shall start marking spots where I see specific animals and check if they reliably spawn there.

 

4 hours ago, Zane Mordien said:

This is one of the biggest mistakes I think people are making. Waiting for wild crops to mature. Only reason I mark a wild crop is if my inventory is full.

2 hours ago, Thorfinn said:

Yeah, when playing with map, very much. I also mark them when I just don't want to fill the empty spaces. Particularly in 1.22, I'm running into a lot more times where I have 2 or even 3 stacks of flax seeds on the first day, so I will sometimes mark grains and parsnips and onions that I just don't want right now. Depends on how visible it is at a distance.

I didn't realize this either but I sure will be breaking all the crops and plant them all down, especially since I have access to an abundance of medium fertility soil and a bucket at this point.

 

6 minutes ago, dakko said:

Does this pit have a large trough? Try keeping it full of hay. I believe that hay will attract just about any animal with hooves (at least that is how it seems to me when I'm trying to lure pigs).

I put flax seeds in the trough because I thought the grain would attract animals. I shall try filling it with hay! Would filling a small trough with grain work for chickens?

[Zane Mordien]

2 minutes ago, Telios said:

Okay, I shall start marking spots where I see specific animals and check if they reliably spawn there.

Bear spawns are like the Spanish Inquisition. 

 

3 minutes ago, Telios said:

I didn't realize this either but I sure will be breaking all the crops and plant them all down, especially since I have access to an abundance of medium fertility soil and a bucket at this point.

Yeah, it's one of those things you don't know until you see it yourself or someone tells you. You would think they would mature at a normal rate, but nope.

 

4 minutes ago, Telios said:

I put flax seeds in the trough because I thought the grain would attract animals. I shall try filling it with hay! Would filling a small trough with grain work for chickens?

Grain is a yes for chickens. I would suggest you go into a creative world and just mess around with what goes in each trough so you know. You can also watch it cycle through options but that is so slow and hard to read sometimes.

 

[dakko]

1 hour ago, Telios said:

I put flax seeds in the trough because I thought the grain would attract animals. I shall try filling it with hay! Would filling a small trough with grain work for chickens?

Yes, a small trough with grain is perfect for chickens! I think that some larger animals eat grain too, but I've not tried it. I tend to use hay.

[Telios]

5 hours ago, Zane Mordien said:

Bear spawns are like the Spanish Inquisition.

That they do, they've jumpscared me a few times at this point but with spears I managed to circle around two and take them down! I'm breaking the pelts I got from them into leather but I definitely will save some to make into warmer clothing...

I got a lot of bushmeat from those bears too. I cooked them all into meat to ease my food situation for a few days and it definitely helped. However, I'm wondering if it was wiser to venture out to the lake a fair distance away and turn all of that bushmeat into bait to try to fish? Fishing seemed a bit...inconsistent for me so far.

[williams_482]

14 hours ago, Telios said:

I put flax seeds in the trough because I thought the grain would attract animals. I shall try filling it with hay! Would filling a small trough with grain work for chickens?

Grain is better than hay if you have surplus (which you surely will if you're growing flax). Pigs will be attracted by grain but not grass, and you'll need less of it to fill the trough. Grain in a large trough will also work on deer, goats, and sheep, while in a small trough it will attract chickens.

The trick with luring animals is having animals near enough to notice and be attracted to your baited pits. I've had good luck gently herding whatever wild animals that spawn within a kilometer or so in the direction of my traps. Once they are within a couple hundred blocks they'll eventually notice and wander into the pit as long as nothing scares them away. 

This is my preferred way to when hunt near my base. It's often easier than sneak up -> throw spear -> carefully watch fleeing animal -> repeat, and the animals will fatten up eating whatever bait lured them into the pit in the first place so you'll get more stuff. 

14 hours ago, Telios said:

Okay, I shall start marking spots where I see specific animals and check if they reliably spawn there.

To clarify, wolves and bears don't have specific "spawn points", but a region which has spawned a bear or wolf will eventually spawn more if the original(s) are killed or relocated. The only way to permanently get rid of them is to trap them in a pit with a light source to prevent despawns and just leave them there. I usually build a fence around the pit after trapping a bear so I don't accidentally fall in myself.

If you lure a bear into a pit and plan to kill it, see if you can chase a fox or raccoon into the pit first. The bear will kill it and gain weight, and you'll get more stuff when you kill the bear. 

[Zane Mordien]

24 minutes ago, williams_482 said:

The only way to permanently get rid of them is to trap them in a pit with a light source to prevent despawns and just leave them there.

Is that confirmed in the code, because I thought I was told the code doesn't care. It's just a small chance to spawn and they will spawn if the RNG says yes. 

From my own observations, I rarely have bear respawns. Wolf respawns have been all over the place since 1.18 when I started  playing. Even if bears do respawn,  I usually have the armor to deal with them easily by then.