Trying do do all the quest with out getting any maps

[mox3]

I've been trying to figure out a consistent way to find all the story locations without talking to traders and getting the maps. Has anyone noticed a pattern in where story locations spawn, or found any other way to make them easier to find without using the normal methods? 

[Streetwind]

The wiki has information on each structure's typical spawn distances.

However, most of them follow a pattern of "within x thousand blocks around Y", where Y can be the world spawn or another story structure, depending on the case. That might help, but probably not that much.

[mox3]

the first structure is quite easy to find since it spanws in mouteins, but the i dont know usualy the dirction the other ones spawn since they go in diferent direction 

[Vratislav]

For this kind of gameplay, I'd first recommend to decrease the distance of the lore structures in worldgen.

For the first structure, I have experienced locations South, Southeast (moreles) and North to the spawn, about 5-6 000 blocks in distance, in a distinct, quite round mountain, as you mentioned. 
The second chapter buildings were in all my cases either east or west. The first location of this chapter ("L") is about 7000 blocks away, but it is underground and well hidden. I am not sure if there is possible to make progression further without finding it. The second location ("V") is about 14 000 blocks away from spawn, and it is quite distinct, so it can be found - if you choose right direction. Then, the third location ("D") is usually about 4000 blocks north (in my runs it was always north, but may probably be also south), and it is visible from thousands of blocks due to large dome of dark sky, so no problem to find it. The last location is about 1000-2000 blocks from V, in the quadrant away from directions to the spawn and to the D. 

If you minimize the distance of the lore structures in worldgen to absolute minimum, you may even see the "D" almost from the spawn. 

But someone else shall confirm if it is possible to skip particular locations, especially the "L" one that is almost invisible. Maybe, only last two are truly necessary, as only there you get different items than maps to the nex locations.
 

[LadyWYT]

4 hours ago, mox3 said:

Has anyone noticed a pattern in where story locations spawn, or found any other way to make them easier to find without using the normal methods?

As @Vratislav already noted, you may want to decrease the story location distances in the world settings at world creation in order to make this kind of challenge easier. Some of the locations aren't difficult to find without a map, but some of them can be incredibly difficult to spot since the entrances are well hidden.

Chapter One

Location One: It will always be somewhere to the north or south of the world spawn, between 4-6k block distance by default. The entrance is always hidden on top of a mountain/plateau, however, the entrance can be located in a cleft of rock instead of being an obvious little hill on the surface, so finding it without a map can sometimes be very difficult. It can occasionally spawn buried under dirt and rock as well, so if this happens pretty much the only way to find it is switch to spectator mode and take a peek underneath the surface to see if you're somewhere near the entrance.

Chapter Two

Note: I'm not sure the wiki numbers are accurate for Chapter Two locations, since they still seem to be the same as they were at the chapter's launch, and I know some of the numbers have been changed since. So I'm using my own estimates.

Location One: It will always be somewhere to the east or west of the world spawn, around 10k blocks by default. It always spawns in a flat area, but can be difficult to spot since not much is visible from the surface and it can spawn in a forested area/shrubland, making it difficult to spot via minimap.

Location Two: Always spawns further in the same cardinal direction as location one spawned in, and is roughly 7-10k blocks from location one. Always spawns in a clear plain, and is very easy to spot from a distance.

Location Three: Always spawns somewhere to the north or south of location two, roughly 7k blocks away. This location is perhaps the easiest to find without a map, since it is easily visible from around 2k blocks away.

Location Four: Always spawns somewhere near location two, usually to the NW/SW/NE/SE, and is roughly 2.5k blocks away. This location can be difficult to spot since it looks remarkably like a natural land feature--a small mountain. However, it is smaller than the natural mountains and peakier than most natural hills, and also contains a few pieces of visible structure(although somewhat hidden).

1 hour ago, Vratislav said:

But someone else shall confirm if it is possible to skip particular locations, especially the "L" one that is almost invisible. Maybe, only last two are truly necessary, as only there you get different items than maps to the nex locations.

It is possible to skip locations. The only two that can't be skipped are locations three and four in Chapter Two, since three is where the macguffin is and four is where the macguffin needs to go.

Incidentally, I do think it would be cool to have some Morrowind-style directions and navigate via landmarks rather than NPCs just handing you a map and deadheading to a map waypoint. Paper isn't exactly cheap, and having to keep an eye out for minor landmarks would make traveling a bit more interesting as well as challenging, especially if you aren't playing with the minimap enabled.

[MKMoose]

1 hour ago, Vratislav said:

But someone else shall confirm if it is possible to skip particular locations, especially the "L" one that is almost invisible.

To add on to what @LadyWYT has mentioned: aside from the special lore item related to Chapter 2, progression is only gated by information. You can skip all but two of the current locations, but then you won't even know of the existence of the other locations let alone how to find them, unless you know something from prior playthroughs or external sources.

 

13 minutes ago, LadyWYT said:

Note: I'm not sure the wiki numbers are accurate for Chapter Two locations, since they still seem to be the same as they were at the chapter's launch, and I know some of the numbers have been changed since. So I'm using my own estimates.

Your estimates are close enough for most practical purposes, so I don't even feel like I need to give the exact numbers. If one wants to know the exact numbers, though, also in the future when new locations are added, they can be found in the game's assets:

%AppData%\Vintagestory\assets\survival\worldgen\storystructures.json

The distance is defined for each structure as the minimum and maximum distance in the X and Z axes (e.g. minSpawnDistX).

The direction in the Z axis (North-South) is purely random for each structure, whereas the direction in the X axis (East-West) is the same for dependent structures - if the first location of Chapter 2 is to the East, all of the other ones in that chapter will also be to the east relative to the structure they depend on, and vice versa. This also means that if the first and second location of Chapter 2 are to the East, then the third and fourth should also be on the East half of the world relative to the second Chapter 2 location, and the same goes in the West direction.

 

53 minutes ago, LadyWYT said:

Incidentally, I do think it would be cool to have some Morrowind-style directions and navigate via landmarks rather than NPCs just handing you a map and deadheading to a map waypoint. Paper isn't exactly cheap, and having to keep an eye out for minor landmarks would make traveling a bit more interesting as well as challenging, especially if you aren't playing with the minimap enabled.

Overreliance on maps and waypoints is a quite particular pet peeve I have with games in general, and is a large part of the reason why I kind of hate many maps and virtually all minimaps. They are too reliable and they remove a huge part of the need to actually look at the game world. Minimaps are fine for some games, but I believe they are actually largely harmful to most RPGs.

Navigation with directions and landmarks in a procedurally-generated world could be quite tricky, though, especially in a world like that of VS. It would likely need to be added only as part of a significant world generation overhaul, and may create issues with the more advanced worldgen mods - it's certainly not impossible and I generally would love to see it, but it would need a lot of fine-tuning and would almost inevitably produce some confusion or frustration. Alongside this or alternatively, I'd be interested to see simplified maps generated based on terrain but visually reminiscent of a hand-scribbled map.