Frustrated

[Brandybuck]

I've had the game for a week. I'm finding it very frustrating. It's kicking my butt. I'm not a twitchy gamer. I can handle Minecraft, even killed the Ender Dragon last week. But this game is repeatedly killing me. I'm not good enough, not l33t enough. I can't get established quick enough to get the armor or weapons I need to survive. Wolves literally two shot me. I don't hear them until it's too late, I can't outrun them, I can't fight them with obsidian. I just don't have the twitch skills. I don't like games that require twitch reflexes.

is the game supposed to be this way? I'm ready to ask for my money back, as it does not seem to be my kind of game at all. I know I can drop down to exploration mode, or cheat with the settings, but that feels like I'm missing the point of the game. I want to play the same game everyone else is, and if that's not the game suitable for me, then I should find another.

Just my thoughts.

[redram]

34 minutes ago, Brandybuck said:

 Wolves literally two shot me. I don't hear them until it's too late, I can't outrun them, I can't fight them with obsidian. I just don't have the twitch skills. I don't like games that require twitch reflexes.

Are wolves your main problem?  How many seeds have you tried?   Wolves only appear in certain areas, they're no present everywhere.   Mostly in forests, or wooded plains/swamps, I think.  So one of the best keys to dealing with wolves is to settle in a place where they are not.    That should give you a good amount of breathing room to get set up with some armor - note also there is 'improvised armor' for the torso, that can be built day 1.   But only for torso.   It helps.    As far as weapons, I'll just say that spears do about double the damage thrown, vs if you just poke with them.  So getting good with throwing spears also helps a lot.   When I'm starting out I usually travel with 2 or 3 spears in hotbar, for hunting and dealing with wolves.

[dakko]

If it helps... I've learned to associate branches on the ground, blueberries, mushrooms, and horsetail as indicators that I'm entering wolf country.

[cat]

This game is far from "twitchy" in regards to its combat. The best way to deal with wolves is to either outrun them (you're faster than they are while sprinting), or to lure them into a body of water and kill them there (they're incredibly slow swimmers relative to you). I typically ignore them as they're very lean (no fat/poor meat) and don't drop much in the line of hides.

You need to take your time when dealing with the other animals as well (such as sheep) and try to skirt around to avoid their attacks while getting a little damage in here and there. You can't just charge straight in and expect to win every encounter. Spears are very useful early on for taking down animals from a distance.

As for being two-shot, you can craft some improvised armor with firewood+grass, and if you eat a variety of things (meats, vegetables, grains, fruits), you'll increase your max health a bit.

[junawood]

2 hours ago, Brandybuck said:

I know I can drop down to exploration mode, or cheat with the settings, but that feels like I'm missing the point of the game.

The point of the game is to have fun. The settings are there for everyone to adjust the game to what each person enjoys the most.

 

2 hours ago, Brandybuck said:

I want to play the same game everyone else is

We all play this game the way we want, and that is not the same for everyone. I have one world in Creative and all other worlds are Exploration with some changed settings. Others play Standard or Wilderness Survival and maybe change some settings. Some people try all kinds of mods to see what's possible or find what they like the most, or choose just one or a couple they want for whatever reason. Some play just Single, others Single and Multi, and I guess there might also be people who just play Multi.

It's totally up to you. Find out what you like and change stuff accordingly if possible, and then just have fun.

[TeacupAngel]

Can't blame you for feeling frustrated - starting out the game is rough, and difficult. But the thing that helps one survive the best in this game isn't twitchy reflexes, but rather knowledge.

First and foremost, if you have trouble with wolves, do your best to stay out of forests. Just like they were for our ancestors, forests are a scary place in Vintage Story, and it helps to avoid them as much as you possibly can when you are new. Wolves lurk there, and it's the kind of difficult terrain they have an advantage in. If you spawn in a forest, run until you see nice clear plains, and never look back!

Life is much easier out of the forest. Open terrain lets you see far, and lets you run away much easier on the rare occassion a wolf may wander there. You can find everything you need to survive there, apart from wood for which you might need to go to the edge of a forest. If you do that, approach slowly and listen for howls. If you hear any, just move along and get your wood in a different place, it's not worth the danger.

I think I spent the first 20 or 30 hours in the game just running away from things, or avoiding them entirely. With time you learn to know the signs of danger, what to look for and what to listen for, and what to avoid.

[Rhyagelle]

The game is supposed to be challenging, a way different "challenge level" as opposed to Minecraft. When I first got it, wolves and boars were killing me like crazy. Now I now their range and pay attention to environments to avoid them. If I get in a tussle, you just have to run far and around objects. Eventually they stop pursuing you and turn back. Don't go out at night either, at least while you are just starting. It'll be tough the first 20 or so hours, but once you have a base (and used a gear there to set your spawn), you'll get the hang of it! Don't worry, just keep it up!  

[Streetwind]

The very first time I installed and ran Vintage Story, the very first world I generated - I spawned on a 2x5 block sand island off of the coast of a major lake, which had exactly one tree, two cattails, and one wolf. Needless to say, I was dead before I even got to properly take notice of those four objects.

I did not, however, generate a different world afterwards. I just pressed respawn, and tried agin. Died. Respawned, tried again - and got away. I went on to play over 80 hours in that world. 80 very successful hours, during which I explored almost all the content currently in the game, perhaps with the exception of translocators, of which I somehow could not find a single one. Unlucky, I guess.

The point is: that is the kind of playstyle this game expects out of you. It throws adversity at you, and expects you to try again, and learn from it. Fighting or escaping wolves is actually pretty doable, once you figure it out - and that's without cheap tricks like dirt-pillaring yourself up. I have mediocre hand-eye coordination at best, and play with reduced player movement speed and dirt blocks affected by gravity, and I don't even remember the last time a wolf got me.

But perhaps this playstyle simply isn't for you. I've seen you post repeatedly around the forums, and every single one has been openly negative. It sounds like there is nothing at all that you find engaging about Vintage Story. In that case, the team is very generous with refunds. There's no time limit like there is on Steam or anything. If you don't like it, you can have your money back, no questions asked.

Edited October 12, 2020 by Streetwind

[Brandybuck]

I'm going to take a short break then come back later. Sounds like I need to find an area without trees, or are trees okay? What constitutes a forest?

[redram]

I don't really know exactly how the game determines this.  I've seen wolves spawning in fairly sparse forest - like 1-3 trees per chunk.   I've also wandered through many a forest too dense for me to see much more than a dozen blocks in a line, and met no wolves.  Trees aren't necessarily bad, but they're more likely to harbor wolves than open plains.  But wolves spawn in a specific spot, so if you see some wolves in chunk, there's a good chance that even if you kill them, more will appear there.   On the other hand, if you spend a few days in an area and see no wolves, you'll never see any.   They don't just spawn randomly, they have specific spawn locations.  I once settled in a tower ruin only to discover that the interior of that tower was a wolf spawning location. 

[David Taylor]

I have wolves spawning where I've settled and the only trees are the ones I planted. It's low lying land covered in pools of water. So it looks like they don't need forests.

But I have animal aggression turned down to only if I attack them so it's not a  problem.

[Magitex]

On 10/13/2020 at 12:34 PM, Brandybuck said:

I'm going to take a short break then come back later. Sounds like I need to find an area without trees, or are trees okay? What constitutes a forest?

Basically any wooded area where you don't have good visibility can be a dangerous area to wander into, if you are not prepared to run immediately or you will get turned into dog food

When you approach an area difficult to see in, try circling around it for a little bit before you enter and peek into any areas wolves might be hiding; going into a heavy forest area with trees and vegetation blindly is very dangerous regardless of your equipment. Regardless you should be prepared to sprint.. and normally that works so long as you don't get stuck on something!

 

[Patrich]

On 10/11/2020 at 4:45 PM, junawood said:

The point of the game is to have fun. The settings are there for everyone to adjust the game to what each person enjoys the most.

 

We all play this game the way we want, and that is not the same for everyone. I have one world in Creative and all other worlds are Exploration with some changed settings. Others play Standard or Wilderness Survival and maybe change some settings. Some people try all kinds of mods to see what's possible or find what they like the most, or choose just one or a couple they want for whatever reason. Some play just Single, others Single and Multi, and I guess there might also be people who just play Multi.

It's totally up to you. Find out what you like and change stuff accordingly if possible, and then just have fun.

I always play games that I've never played before on peaceful (if it's possible) this game was no different, I simply set the setting to enemies are always passive, even if I attack them they won't attack back.  In this way I can get my bearings in a new game to see what it's all about and alleviate much of the frustration by having played and know what I need to work for.

[Scott Kimberly]

I have been playing for about 28 hours in like the 3rd seed I have tried. I managed to find a large ruin with high walls that I could patch and fortify. I have access to tin, zinc, iron, etc.

I have a tin bronze sword. I got ganked by 2 wolves today. It happens. I marked my spot on the map and went back. 

Wolves really need to be fought in water unless you have higher tier weapons. Other than that its just solving one problem after another. 

I will say that if you know where you died (you can mark your location on the map when you are already dead) and get back to your stuff, there really doenst seem to be a penalty for death. And if you are starving or below 50% food, it can be boon.

[Domkrats]

As many other mention, just run as soon you hear wolf roaring. And better around some pond, so you wait for wolf on other side of it.  He will be slow and with few flint spears thrown, you will be able to finish him quite easily. But if you don't want to fight him, just run. He will back up eventually. Other than wolfs, there is no much dangers in this game during day. I mostly suffer from storage capacity and hunger at first. Now my food cellar is in progress, and it has become much more pleasant  experience since.

Game is grindy mostly because of often breaking tools, but that's only problem if you are expecting fast progression in your head. Maybe i am too easy on progression myself and it will make me regret my words once winter come.  But as for now, Game is really beatiful and nice. Just make bunker from soil, better on some small pond, so you could PAN gravel and sand indoor, thus getting copper and other nice things.) Burn some torches (remember you can have one in left hand all the time) so drifters wont spawn.

P.S. Getting some friend along, would probably add more fun to game, but thats another belly to feed .  

Edited November 2, 2020 by Juris

[AngryRob]

On 10/11/2020 at 5:25 PM, Brandybuck said:

I've had the game for a week. I'm finding it very frustrating. It's kicking my butt. I'm not a twitchy gamer. I can handle Minecraft, even killed the Ender Dragon last week. But this game is repeatedly killing me. I'm not good enough, not l33t enough. I can't get established quick enough to get the armor or weapons I need to survive. Wolves literally two shot me. I don't hear them until it's too late, I can't outrun them, I can't fight them with obsidian. I just don't have the twitch skills. I don't like games that require twitch reflexes.

is the game supposed to be this way? I'm ready to ask for my money back, as it does not seem to be my kind of game at all. I know I can drop down to exploration mode, or cheat with the settings, but that feels like I'm missing the point of the game. I want to play the same game everyone else is, and if that's not the game suitable for me, then I should find another.

Just my thoughts.

My first real play through, i have turned off the "death penalty" and set hunger to be a tad bit lower. Now, here is the thing about the death penalty that i think a lot of players are missing:losing your stuff is not the problem, it's the health debuff that is. you get a debuff because you health is based on nutrition, and your nutrition is affected from death. I am not sure if this is a bug or a feature. 7 days to die had a similar debuff for a bit, and its quite sinister from a balance standpoint, because what it means is that if you die, you will have to wait several in game days before you get your health back to pre death levels. So if you are starting out, be prepared for a massive death loop, because it is not a small debuff, it can be anywhere from 1 to 2 points of hp knocked off completely. that's a huge amount of hp. dying really cripples you, it breaks any progress you may make. it's not recommended. Keep in mind that this is NOT factoring returning to spawn either, so you are in a loooooooooooot of game breaking trouble if you have not found a blue gear. 

So current game progress is: stone age, farm age, panning for copper age, flax gambison armor to get animals age, then mining for copper and bronze age. mining is dangerous, so going into a mine unprepared is not advised.  

essentially, a new player is forced to pan, not just for copper but also a temporal gear. if you want to do anything else, forget about it. i hate to say it, but i think that maybe beds SHOULD be what sets the spawn point, or maybe start the player off with a temporal gear? you also need to put off cave exploring for a week in game. 

[Omega Haxors]

This game is amazing but it does have a few design flaws that make it very hard to enjoy at times.

[Sukotto82]

On 11/2/2020 at 8:51 PM, AngryRob said:

essentially, a new player is forced to pan, not just for copper but also a temporal gear. if you want to do anything else, forget about it. i hate to say it, but i think that maybe beds SHOULD be what sets the spawn point, or maybe start the player off with a temporal gear? you also need to put off cave exploring for a week in game. 

I've done a lot of panning and not once have I found a Temporal gear while doing so. I didn't even know you could. I thought the only way to get one was killing the drifters. I finally got mine after killing about 20-30 drifters. most of the time I get nothing ocasionally I got a single flax fiber and that one thankful kill I got a gear.

I don't know about bed setting your spawn but I do think it would be Ideal for everyone to start with 1 Temporal gear to set their spawn. it's a 1 time use thing so not like it would be breaking anything especially if you end up setting base 2,000 - 3,000 blocks from spawn Like I often find my self doing.

be careful not to die with it in your inventory though unless your not too far from spawn and you know how to get to exactly where you died. 

 

when it comes to dealing with wolves I would have to agree with people who say lure it into large body of water like a lake or large pond. you can poke it with a spear without being close enough for it to hit you but you can hit it and you move faster in water as long as your not trying to constantly jump while swimming that slows you down and might be the death of you.

also watch out for hyenas when moving through desert regions they are the desert equivalent to wolves. sometimes I walk right by them and they ignore me but not often and besides ignoring you a little bit on occasion they are pretty much desert wolf.

don't harvest crops while wielding a knife. I did this and it just destroyed the crop completely. it was mature but didn't drop anything. break it with your empty hands or something like a rock or block in your hand or seed or something like that if need be but never break it with a knife. 

try to find clay and make clay bowl and clay pot for cooking as soon as you can. cooked food is better for you and typically last longer. note eating mushrooms count as a vegetable but they don't count as a vegetable when cooking so when you see a recipe that says "Meat+meat+vegetable+fruit" the mushrooms don't count also not sure if it's all recipes or just the one I tried as I never used them since but cranberries are a fruit but don't count as a fruit when crafting certain meal for some reason. not sure if these are bugs or intended.

[Allen]

2 hours ago, Sukotto82 said:

note eating mushrooms count as a vegetable but they don't count as a vegetable when cooking so when you see a recipe that says "Meat+meat+vegetable+fruit" the mushrooms don't count also not sure if it's all recipes or just the one I tried as I never used them since but cranberries are a fruit but don't count as a fruit when crafting certain meal for some reason. not sure if these are bugs or intended.

Sounds like a bug. I have 0 problems making meals out of mushrooms or cranberries. 

[junawood]

7 hours ago, Sukotto82 said:

I've done a lot of panning and not once have I found a Temporal gear while doing so. I didn't even know you could. I thought the only way to get one was killing the drifters.

You can get temporal gears from drifters, panning, ruins and traders.

[Sukotto82]

9 hours ago, junawood said:

You can get temporal gears from drifters, panning, ruins and traders.

I've only panned about 27 sand and 9 gravel so I haven't panned stacks because it takes so long but killing drifters I've gotten 3 so far. 1 I used for setting my spawn and the other two I'm saving to repair a teleporter.

in order to get a temp gear from panning do you need to pan stacks of sand and gravel? what's the drop rate? do certain types of sand or gravel give different drop rates of different items?

I think I have seen them in a shop before but not sure I know I've seen shops buying things you can't even get so not sure what the deal with that is. I see them asking for different loot urns and such and you can't pick those up only break them.   I heard you can buy them from traders too but if trading is anything like any other game that would be pointless for trade purposes unless it's like no mans sky where you buy certain trade goods from 1 system and sell them at a different system with higher demand but we are not traveling through galactic systems everything is local and if it's anything like trader in "most" games you sell the items for less than what you buy them for so kinda pointless if that's the case.

Edited November 4, 2020 by Sukotto82
breaking it up to be easier to read instead of all together.

[AngryRob]

3 hours ago, Sukotto82 said:

I've only panned about 27 sand and 9 gravel so I haven't panned stacks because it takes so long but killing drifters I've gotten 3 so far. 1 I used for setting my spawn and the other two I'm saving to repair a teleporter.

in order to get a temp gear from panning do you need to pan stacks of sand and gravel? what's the drop rate? do certain types of sand or gravel give different drop rates of different items?

I think I have seen them in a shop before but not sure I know I've seen shops buying things you can't even get so not sure what the deal with that is. I see them asking for different loot urns and such and you can't pick those up only break them.   I heard you can buy them from traders too but if trading is anything like any other game that would be pointless for trade purposes unless it's like no mans sky where you buy certain trade goods from 1 system and sell them at a different system with higher demand but we are not traveling through galactic systems everything is local and if it's anything like trader in "most" games you sell the items for less than what you buy them for so kinda pointless if that's the case.

i find a lake or a pool in a desert area, and just spend all night alone with my thoughts panning. a night of this is enough for two ingots of copper. you get zinc nuggets too, so one binzamathum deposit is enough for you to have bismouthbronze. i also get gold nuggets. So far it looks like the drops are the same, i have done shale, granite, the green one, andersite, and bassalt, and get consistently the same drops. What helped me the most early on was copper spear tips. those alone are an important game changer for surviving. if we could only melt them down.... 

[redram]

Ya sand and gravel of all types drop the same stuff, aside form the stones of course, which match they type they come from.

[Sukotto82]

On 11/4/2020 at 7:40 PM, AngryRob said:

What helped me the most early on was copper spear tips. those alone are an important game changer for surviving. if we could only melt them down.... 

It would be nice to be able to melt down metal objects you no longer want or need.

I'd even melt down my copper anvil once I have bronze anvil going.  it just waist space weather it be in storage or being placed down.

so far just use it for decoration for a village smith I'm working on because I have no other use for it.

[redram]

21 hours ago, Sukotto82 said:

I'd even melt down my copper anvil once I have bronze anvil going.

In the coming update, you'll be able to spend a chisel to break your anvil back down into ingots.  Eventually you'll be able to straight-re-melt things, when you get some higher tier tech.