Blaiyze

There's a tea mod that I use specifically to be able to make use of the large amounts of flowers. It's super simple and cozy. The original mod creator I think is on hiatus and someone else has picked it up with a forked version.

Honestly, it also helps to study architecture that you actually like IRL. Once you have a good understanding of what things are characteristic of say, Tudor, then it makes it a lot easier to free-flow build. I like to scale things in 5's or 7's for balance and ofsetting but play around with it as well. Look up styles you have a preference for and get to know what features set that style apart from others, then flip through images of that style so you can get a feel for what others have done with it. When it comes to colours and such, really basic colour theory applies here. A good rule is contrasts. If you are using a couple blocks that have say a greyish-blue undertone, then you're going to want to work in some orange or reds to really pop. Too much of the same or similar colours will wash the entire build out. And yes, loooooooads of Minecraft tutorials can easily be adapted for VS and with VS you can have a lot of fun adding extra intricate details that TOBG can't inherently do without extra mods. Happy building!

There's a live fish and aquarium mod if you want to try it out. Otherwise base game just build an aquarium out of glass and fill it, but it will likely be larger than what you're wanting.

Yeah the actual pit kilns themselves have to be surrounded by solid blocks. Most of us with our permanent designs, are building above the actual pit kiln and around. You can place and chisel any blocks you want in the 4 blocks on either side of the pit, but the block immediately above the pit kiln must remain empty to vent the smoke and flames. But the rest of the spaces, except for the ground blocks that form the outer walls of the kilns themselves, are all fair game to build around and have fun with.

I nearly ragequit my first venture into this game too - and it's precisely because I approached Vintage Story with the mindset that I was playing Minecraft. Once I realized my error and settled into the mechanics, and many many deaths (and many more to come) - I find this game is my cottagecore cozy comfort play. It isn't for everyone. If you're looking for something more fast paced, there's other games out there

Yup, I used to chisel little brick chimneys to go over top and around, have two pit kilns side by side with a block in between. Looks really neat when they're both going, esp since I usually do a full blacksmith build in the same area.

Was out for a stroll around my new homestead, saw a mushroom, knew it was a gamble - picked it and ate it anyways. Gotta try 'em all. Immediately began tripping balls. Fabulous. Take two steps forward, and a big ol brown bear stands up, right in front of me. Le shit. Thankfully, I was behind it. It didn't see me. I lived to tell the tale and finish my trip. Wild times in Vintage Story.

I would love to see more in depth ruins and references to the past: VS Archeology anyone? This game is ripe for it. Pan/dig up pieces of broken pottery, etc, which leads to discovering information/landmarks that hint at places to visit/the past/etc. As well as dig up some fun trinkets to wear/decorate with. A few more small villages would be lovely - I know there's already the one story village (yet to discover it so maybe take this with a grain of salt), but a liiiiittle bit more life that give a logical reason for the traders to live out in the middle of nowhere would be nice - perhaps they live along trade routes or something. As is, if there's only one true city left in the world, what money are the traders actually earning by living so isolated from... their customers?

There's several mods that have already balanced it really well IMO. I personally use Sleep Need. To put it into the vanilla game, there would obviously be some balancing and fine tuning done, but it makes sense - especially for animals. Silent and aggressively angry aggro missles aka Bears, can run endlessly without growing tired. Eventually they'll just de-aggro, or if you're lucky and run past a rabbit or fox or something else, the bear may aggro onto them, giving you the time to skedaddle. Refining the hunting system I think would resolve the issue with bears. I play a heavily modded game that addresses a lot of these frustrations, so I don't notice them as much unless someone posts about it.

A lot of these issues would be easily cleared up with a basic stamina mechanic for players and animals. Nothing can run forever and certainly not at a full out sprint, forcing them to eventually slow down to recover. This would feed nicely into updating hunting which is mediocre vanilla without mods as well.

Whenever these conversations come up, inevitably someone snarkily says "jUsT pLaY hOmO sApIeNs" - dude. Many of us WANT the lore content + the cottagecore vibes - stop telling us to turn off aspects of the game we haven't complained about when we're discussing a different aspect of the game that gives some annoyance. That completely shuts down the conversation and adds to the purist mentality bs that isn't conducive to constructive feedback. Bears being unrealistically aggressive would be manageable if, y'know, we were given some tutorial or basic explanation like literally every other game does. I understand it's sandbox mostly atm because, y'know, active development and all that. But bear in mind (pun intended) that there's plenty of people that may haven't interacted with much of the actual lore content, because when you play this game just out-of-the box, it's slow af to progress to the actual story, which is the developers intent. And if there's only one tapestry that you're not likely to come across within your first couple days in-game that gives a vague-ish explanation - then yeah, you missed the mark. The bears sure don't though XD lol My only gripe with bears is that they're too quiet. As mentioned elsewhere, I can hear prey animals from a good distance, wolves announce themselves too, given my personal real life experience with bears - they should be making some noise as well instead of making noise *after* they choose to engage you. I'm really tired of the attitude around here of "game hard on purpose, get gud har har har" because someone made the mistake of opening a discussion/feedback on a public forum... where we're supposed to give feedback.

As someone who lives in a country with bears (black, brown, Kodiak, Grizzly and Polar) - I concur. Bears in this game aren't in the slightest bit, realistic. Bears are more likely to get spooked and run away than they are to outright attack. I grew up hiking in the mountains, I'm fully bear educated. It's why we're taught to make noise when we hike, especially if you're hiking alone - make. noise. It alerts bears to your presence long before you ever become aware of them and it drives them off. The only bears you truly have to be on the lookout for, are mama bears. Literally. They're the most dangerous bears in the bush. And autumn is a dangerous season, as they're eating ravenously to prep for winter, but it's not typical for bears to just full send at you unless you've startled them (even then they'll typically run off), they have cubs, or they're legitimately hungry and they see you as a food source and even the last one isn't a common thing, they prefer their regular diet. If the goal of the game is to keep bears realistic, they've missed that mark. Just speak to anyone that lives where bears are. Bears also aren't quiet, they typically snort and make sounds as they walk along - point is, you should be able to hear them. Bears are a solid, legitimate threat when you decide to engage them in combat, they're fine in that department. It's the silent homing missile angry mach truck mode that can sense you from an obnoxious distance that is a bit much.

Majority of my favourite must have mods are already listed, so I'll add: Ancient Tools: https://mods.vintagestory.at/ancienttools - fantastic for early gameplay Art Of Growing: https://mods.vintagestory.at/show/mod/28845 - I don't like the breeding addon so I don't use it, linked to the unofficial version as the OG creator is MIA but unofficial version is being maintained by the person updating it. I can't play without this mod now. This one with Immersive Fibrecraft is just *chefs kiss* Algernons Watersheds: https://mods.vintagestory.at/algernonswatersheds - While I do wish the rivers it creates were longer for decent waterway travel, but even as is this mod makes the world absolutely stunning and makes navigating without a map a lot easier via landmarks, since you are able to visually see where water is just by the plantlife.

It's because of how irrigation and moisture work in game as it currently stands. Trying to handwater a massive grain field is obnoxious especially if you don't have a water source nearby to constantly refill the watering can and without any other reasonable irrigation beyond rain and the watering can, building near water, plopping a water source in the middle of the field, or with the mod I mentioned, dig irrigation canals.

To answer the question: yuuuuup. Big time. This is why I pause time and flip my game into creative and free build my homestead. I live for the cottagecore vibes and just want a cozy home to kick back in and pre-building it before I get going eases that anxiety. Yeah, some will call that cheating but whatever, it's how I want to play. I like having a dedicated place and structure for everything. Like others have suggested, I look up buildings that I want to replicate or take inspiration from and then exptrapolate a bit for what I'll be using it for in game. I do keep a save file for when I want to rough-it vanilla style - or, at least without pre-building everything. But the anxiety very quickly builds up because it just takes an obnoxious amount of time to manually gather all the resources just to build reasonably sized, and aesthetically cute (it's important, ok XD), home base. I've built large structures in MC and VS where I've manually collected and gathered all the pieces myself and I just... it's too much. I just want a cute homestead to tuck into and explore from.