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New player experience/barriers/suggestions


Trowzers

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Hi, I started playing a month ago, and while Kurazarrh's series got me smoothly through most of the early game, I did write a few notes as I went a long that I thought would be worth putting down here. Note, I was using the last stable release (1.16.5). A lot of this is just stuff I couldn't find in the handbook that would be a good addition to save people getting stuck/having to google or wasting resources trying to work it out.

  • login email case sensitive (got stuck logging in until I figured this out, as my browser was adding a capital) Maybe it shouldn't be case sensitive if people are using an email to log in?
  • Game mode configuration settings very confusing if you've never played before but some settings that increase the difficulty/cut out aspects of the game (such as prospecting pick and exclusive recipes) it's debatable whether they should be turned off by default as I see that being confusing.
  • A way to save new game configuration settings so we don't have to tick everything every time we start a new world
  • how to get food from crock?
  • how much do crocks hold? (ie how much do I need to cook to fill one)
  • how many copper nuggets do I need? How many in an ingot/tool/anvil?
  • Conversion table for alloys? (this would be okay even on a wiki if not in the handbook, it'd just be great to have it all on one page)
  • How do I go down ladders? (this wasn't in keyboard configuration, IIRC, as it's the same as crouch, so I had to google it)
  • Map colour picker (I see that's in the new update - yay!)
  • How to change modes for the prospecting pick? (Eventually figured is was F just like clay and anvil, but still got stuck at first)
  • Animals won't eat parsnip but I can still put it in a trough? (fussy pigs!)
  • If I place a single flint from my inventory on the ground to knap it, it bugs out and I can't knap it, but if I place one flint from a pile of flint (two or more), it doesn't bug. This is the only real bug I experienced, and I couldn't find it in the bug tracker, but I haven't tested disabling all my mods to see if they contributed to this. But maybe worth testing for anybody using the new test release to see if that still happens? It's probably only something you'll ever do in the very early game.
 
Anyway, I hope that's some helpful feedback that will help make the game more intuitive and self-contained. There was actually a lot more I didn't note down that I probably should have that would be useful additions to the handbook (eg when I was mining borax, it was not until I was standing at the block with my copper pickaxe that I realised I couldn't  mine it as the handbook did not say what tier tool was required, just some missing steps like that). I'll try to keep taking more notes! I'm only up to tin-bronze so a way to go yet.
 
Cheers,
Trowzers.
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Re flints:

It is simple and I have seen mention of this in wiki. And it is as in RL.

You knock out parts of the stone laying on the ground with another stone in your hand - all to form the required stone tool.

  • To start knapping, you need at least 2 of the same knappable material (flint, granite, andesite, chert, basalt, peridotite or obsidian) and, while holding them, Sneak + Right-Click on the ground. If you’re using flint, you will begin knapping right away. With other stones, you have to place one stone one the ground first and press Right-Click on it with the second one in your hand.

 

Further it is ProTips:

* The stone used to remove voxels doesn't need to be of the same or even a knappable material (e.g. sandstone, conglomerate, etc.).

 

It is here:

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

 

What is bothering me is the non-intuitive interface for some sorts of actions: like picking up the inhabited skep and putting it back (it doesn't work with customized sprint - I have Sprint button assigned to Tab, but choosing the proper inventory expansion slot still works with Cntrl only).

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Right, now that you say that, that makes sense. But if you don't know that, or read the wiki, or connect it in your head with real life knapping (which most people have never done or seen done), it looks like a bug. There needs to be some sort of prompt when you try to knap without another stone that you need to hold another stone in your hand to knap (having one in your inventory space isn't enough).

Yes, there seems to be a few things that only work with certain keyboard shortcuts where instructions on what key to use don't appear anywhere in game (like the ladders!) where people might get stuck. I've yet to find any bees so haven't found that one.

Anyway, thanks for pointing that out. All the things on the list I did work out by reading the wiki, just didn't connect the dots there. I used to play Dwarf Fortress quite a lot so I'm used to learning curves and wiki dives, but this game seems straightforward enough that most information could end up in prompts or in the handbook to keep things streamlined for new players, so that's why I thought I'd list my sticking points at the start.

Edited by Trowzers
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Having spent days and weeks in MC - I cannot say that the interface is intuitive even with this previous experience.

OK, the functionality is waaaay wider.

Yet I would like to have the keyboard shortcuts ALL being in the Settings list so even if I don't want to remap it - at least see it...

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"Game mode configuration settings very confusing if you've never played before but some settings that increase the difficulty/cut out aspects of the game (such as prospecting pick and exclusive recipes) it's debatable whether they should be turned off by default as I see that being confusing."

The node search mode for the prospecting pick is off by default, because the devs don't really like it; it was added because a lot of people wanted it, but the devs really intend you to use the density search mode and the geography (depth, rock type, etc.).

"how many copper nuggets do I need? How many in an ingot/tool/anvil?"

The handbook guide on smelting explains that "most molds require 100 units of metal to be complete", and the guide on smithing states that an anvil mold requires 900 units of metal. You can also see the metal capacity on a specific mold just by looking at it, as long as you have block info view enabled. (You do have to convert from units of metal to nuggets, but "divide by 5" is not very difficult math.)

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On 8/22/2022 at 8:21 AM, BenLi said:

Yet I would like to have the keyboard shortcuts ALL being in the Settings list so even if I don't want to remap it - at least see it...

Most of the time, this would mainly helpful if you have remapped the controls, because the default controls for most interactions are displayed when you look at the relevant object, so long as you have block info view on (personally I recommend keeping it on at all times).

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2 hours ago, Philtre said:

the default controls for most interactions are displayed when you look at the relevant object, so long as you have block info view on

That's not quite correct. There is another setting that displays interaction help.

Personally, I keep block info on all the time, but interaction help causes motion sickness in some situations (and It isn't noticeable until it is, and by then it is too late, haha).

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On 8/24/2022 at 2:39 AM, dakko said:

That's not quite correct. There is another setting that displays interaction help.

Personally, I keep block info on all the time, but interaction help causes motion sickness in some situations (and It isn't noticeable until it is, and by then it is too late, haha).

it's definitely too late 😃

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