What features do you believe have the greatest potential and should be worked on first?

[Novocain]

Personally, I believe the focus at this point in time should be things like seasons, nutrition, and skills which are a fundamental foundation to being anything like TFC.

[Stroam]

I feel that the foundation needs to be laid before nutrition and skills. Skills need something to tie to have meaning. If I gave you a traveler skill that when up for each block traveled it would just be an odometer. Again nutrition doesn't work very well unless you have a cooking system to make use of it. Seasons and transportation mechanics are foundational. Transportation needs to be implemented sooner rather than later. Right now Players can carry 34 stacks of ore, rocks, and logs. When you limit that there will be a backlash and the longer you put it off the more bigger it'll be. It's going to set up a precedence for the rest of the game. Seasons again is a step toward dynamic environments that'll set up things like latitude, crop and animal cycles, temperature, weather, possibly day/night length, etc. Again river, oceans, and boats are going to drastically change how things are done in-game. The sooner foundational systems that will interact with all other systems is introduced the more successful the introduction will be.

[heptagonrus]

I want craftable colored lights, drums and rock'n'roll mob-repelling fires! 

Other from that I think any content update will be fun.
There are too much possibilities, so probably it is better to let devs work on things they really like and want atm than let community decide.
This will give highest quality content, because devs would enjoy adding it.

Take those beautiful bombs with all the smoke and smoking particles. Or smithing with sparks and sounds.

[redram]

I think it'd be best to work on basic crafting mechanics first.  I agree with Stroam that skills aren't a lot of use without something to tie them to, plus they don't really provide any 'wow' factor as far as advertising goes.  The one exception I could see is smithing - a simple smithing skill with simple durability bonus for tools and weapons would be addable right now.  I don't know that I'd recommend climate right now, as I do think it's probably helpful to playtesting to be able to see a variety of biomes quickly.  On the other hand, if detailed climate tie-ins are planned for animals and crops, it may need to come in sooner rather than later.

I would suggest the following general strategies for updates.  Phase 1 generally tries to get parity with TFC, phase 2 goes beyond:

LEATHER UPDATE

Phase 1 - leather making process, basic (grid) leather crafting, animal domestication, bones as handles, basic leather products (armor, quiver, saddle, bellows).  horses and cows.

Phase 2 - Non-grid crafting method for leather (and maybe cloth and metal as well depending on how it works exactly), involved butchering system to get leather and other animal goods, more leather products (clothing, containers, etc)

MATERIALS - try and incorporate anything that may be needed in the future, so that we don't constantly be having to regen worlds or travel to gen new chunks. Also some misc.

see stone & ore suggestion post

Also hot springs, natural sapling growth, and chisel for making smooth stone at least.

Inventory limiting system (either summed or class based), basic transport (carts, boats)

FOOD SYSTEM

Phase 1 - quern, food decay, food preservation, wild crop growth, fruit trees, alcohol, strawberries

Phase 2 - stove, baking oven, other more complicated cooking tools and methods, nut trees, nutrition and food benefit system

METAL SYSTEM

Phase 1 - iron anvil, metal sheets, steel making process, anvil, tools, & weapons, armor making, crucible system, more weapons

Phase 2 - whatever materials are beyond steel.  Special smithing processes such as case hardening and pattern welding, possibly more advanced transport

MACHINERY

Phase 1 - basic machinery - windmill, water wheel, horsepower, treadmill.   Basic powered machinery (knock hammer, stamp mill, quern is already made, potting wheel)

Phase 2 - mid game machinery - steam and combusiton (alcohol) engines.  various smithing machinery, steam powered mining machinery

 

That's my suggestion for a general update strategy.  Complete the basic systems that will get parity with TFC, and also go beyond where appropriate.  Would also be great to get at least one new mob per major update.  Leather and food are so basic I think they deserve to be finished before the 'flashy' stuff, though the phase 2 stuff could be put off in most cases.  Getting world-genned stuff in game early is better imo, just to avoid re-genning as much as possible.  Machinery is flashy and a good advertising though, so that too needs to come in, and I could see it coming in earlier perhaps, in the basic forms.

 

 

 

[Stroam]

@redram

• Leather totally agree with
• world gen I think needs to be saved for a major update because it is potentially world resetting and has that huge update feel because of that. I think if Tyron got a modder to work on that and test things out before he then polished it and put it in game, the transition would be a lot smoother. Inventory limiting I've already mentioned my thoughts on that.
• Basic food system is like leather, seems pretty essential and like it could be easily added within a two week update.
• metal system - I just feel like the rest of VS needs to get caught up before getting into advanced metals. I mean I could add more metal ages with the same tools we have and are essentially repeats but is that really what you want right now? Or do you want to feel a sense of progressing and metal tiers seems an easy way to pick at that scratch? Again what tasks do you feel the tools at hand do not adequately cover? What would you fight and kill with stronger weapons and armor?
• Machinery - What tasks do you want machinery to do? Make the current smithing system obsolete with automation? Grind flour that isn't currently in the game in large quantities? Actually, I would like to see a new thread exploring this very question.

[redram]

1 hour ago, Stroam said:

• metal system - I just feel like the rest of VS needs to get caught up before getting into advanced metals. I mean I could add more metal ages with the same tools we have and are essentially repeats but is that really what you want right now? Or do you want to feel a sense of progressing and metal tiers seems an easy way to pick at that scratch? Again what tasks do you feel the tools at hand do not adequately cover? What would you fight and kill with stronger weapons and armor?
• Machinery - What tasks do you want machinery to do? Make the current smithing system obsolete with automation? Grind flour that isn't currently in the game in large quantities? Actually, I would like to see a new thread exploring this very question.

That's why I have metals and machinery last on my list.  It's not clear to me what the end game is, and how far the devs want to take things outside reality.  In a broad sense, I see the big draw of the game as probably being machinery and automation.   I felt like automation was one of the big draws of minecraft, and probably will be here too.  I've always been all for fantasy.  To me real life metals and threats just don't offer enough of interest, and are also inherently limiting.   I'd suggest metals like mithril and adamantium, enemies such as demons and dragons.  But I don't think that's what the game is going for.  I think they're going for more than rl, but I don't want to talk too much about that, that's for them to reveal.   Without knowing the endgame I can only work toward topping out tech.  I have some suggestions to make regarding machinery, but it's a post all it's own.  In the interim, I think it's safe to say machinery to automate tasks, or do them better.  Smith things, grind flour, form clay, saw wood.  Also, if the quality system suggestion came in, to make better stuff.  But again, that's all just a journey to an as yet unknown endgame.

At the same time, as mentioned, machinery is also a good advertising thing.  So I can understand incorporating some of it earlier on, if the devs feel they need more flash.

P.S. - I forgot fishing - I suppose part of the food system?

[tony Liberatto]

I think this post should be merged with: Vintage Story: March Wishlist.

 It makes no sense to keep it in two places.