Grass drops/ raft or boat

[kyle szymanski]

When I play the game, I wonder if there going to some kind of raft so you go on the open water and not swim throw it and if there tall grass we could get more than  one piece out of it my starting building mainly use hay because it takes time getting metal for stuff and i just build building for different stuff

[Ender Riens]

Boats are currently on the agenda for future updates. As for building materials, most fancier blocks (wood, cobblestone, etc.) are locked behind your first copper tools. If you have your surface copper on default rarity, try looking around--you can find the 40 nuggets you need for a pick and hammer pretty quickly with a bit of luck, and from there you can mine the full surface deposits and make tools like scythes, picks, and saws to get you fast grass, cobblestone blocks, and wood blocks respectively.

The official wiki mentions using hay blocks, cob, or soil as early building materials, and I find it somewhat unlikely they'd add a bunch more since a bit of effort can get you the aforementioned tools in a reasonably short amount of time. I may be wrong, though--I'd personally support some basic thatch blocks or other simple solutions.

[Robert Johnson]

On 12/8/2020 at 2:43 PM, kyle szymanski said:

When I play the game, I wonder if there going to some kind of raft so you go on the open water and not swim throw it and if there tall grass we could get more than  one piece out of it my starting building mainly use hay because it takes time getting metal for stuff and i just build building for different stuff

You can also always take up residence in one of the stadium/arena/coliseum type ruins (the large rectangular ones you can easily see on the map). They work great if you happen to find one while gathering starting materials, or even at a later time. Lots of room for expansion and usually little to no repair needed if you dig out all the soil or gravel that is usually found in the center area (depending on what biome you find it in) down to the cobblestone floor.

 

4 hours ago, Ender Riens said:

As for building materials, most fancier blocks (wood, cobblestone, etc.) are locked behind your first copper tools. If you have your surface copper on default rarity, try looking around--you can find the 40 nuggets you need for a pick and hammer pretty quickly with a bit of luck, and from there you can mine the full surface deposits and make tools like scythes, picks, and saws to get you fast grass, cobblestone blocks, and wood blocks respectively.

Cobblestone can actually be both pulled up by hand and created by hand (though not in super large quantities, which requires being able to mine stone) using many different stones found on the surface and a bit of clay. Gathering or making it doesn't require copper anything, unless you want more of it than you can make with loose stones. 

Also, don't forget that you can easily get copper nuggets from panning sand or gravel, as well as more stones to make cobblestone or stone paths with.

 

4 hours ago, Ender Riens said:

The official wiki mentions using hay blocks, cob, or soil as early building materials, and I find it somewhat unlikely they'd add a bunch more since a bit of effort can get you the aforementioned tools in a reasonably short amount of time. I may be wrong, though--I'd personally support some basic thatch blocks or other simple solutions.

Besides hay, cob, and soil (though soil only works if you have sideways instability off), there is also packed dirt, light and dark mud brick, and stone path blocks (which can be made with all kinds of stones and still be used to build structures, in addition to paths). All those only require materials that can be gathered by hand, or with stone or flint tools.  

https://wiki.vintagestory.at/index.php?title=Soil_Blocks

Edited December 10, 2020 by Robert Johnson

[Ender Riens]

10 hours ago, Robert Johnson said:

Cobblestone can actually be both pulled up by hand and created by hand (though not in super large quantities, which requires being able to mine stone) using many different stones found on the surface and a bit of clay. Gathering or making it doesn't require copper anything, unless you want more of it than you can make with loose stones. 

True, which I ignored because this method is about as tedious as the original dry grass complaint. You could still collect the cobble from ruins, though, for a slightly faster method.

10 hours ago, Robert Johnson said:

there is also packed dirt, light and dark mud brick

^