ifoz

This is a super fun idea, I really like it! I imagine it could maybe be made from thatched grass and scrap metal, and could let you get within 3-5 blocks of surface drifters without drawing their aggro. There could also be a disguise made from cloth and scrap metal, which would let you get within 1 block of surface drifters before drawing their aggro, and 3-5 blocks of deep drifters. Just some ideas I had regarding the disguises idea! The grass one would be for the early game and the cloth for the midgame. They would also probably take up your chest armour slot, making the player have a trade-off between stealth and protection.

That's actually a super good idea, I never thought of that! I think that players should really be discouraged from making fully automatic farms of really any kind in this game. I can often find stacks of 6-10 scrap metal in the basements of vanilla surface ruins, and more underground. I think you are right, the Malefactor's early game is pretty strong as it currently stands. Maybe spikes or extra metal plating could be added to any armour with metal scraps, though they would only last a few hits and then break, leaving the base armour still equipped. This way, the Malefactor could improvise some quick armour modifications. One for self-defence (spikes), one for some more protection (plates) and maybe one for extra stealth, though I don't know what it would be. This could still be slightly useful late-game, though would be more suited to the mid-game, where you could have something like bronze armour with spikes, or leather armour with some extra metal plating, even if it's just for a few hits. Imagine being stuck in an underground ruin, drifters howling at the door, and being able to quickly cobble together some extra protection for your armour with some metal scraps you've found inside, giving you that little bit of temporary extra defence needed to break through the door and make a run for it.

This would actually be super cool and definitely open up some creative trap designs! Though, I don't know how effective traps would be in singleplayer against drifters, and that may end up encouraging automatic drifter grinders, which is a little counter-intuitive to this game's message of working hard to achieve things. I do now realise this and kind of agree. I think the solution would be to make the scrap armour not made for tanking and combat by giving it protection tier 0 and maybe around only 200 durability, therefore having it instead a way to make up for Malefactor's physical combat weaknesses in the early game. The reason I suggested giving it spikes was because originally it was just going to be a bland piece of early-game gear, but this would give it a super niche use beyond the early game. I think the sling would offer a Malefactor alternative to bows and arrows, at least until the stage in the game where bronze and iron arrows become available. I think that the Hunter should always have the ranged advantage, though I think a higher durability sling would be a nice addition for the Malefactor. 300 max durability just seems a little bit harsh to me if you intend to be using the sling into the later game. Also, the sling has a significantly higher charge time than bows, meaning that bows will always be superior, though the sling can fire stones instead of arrows. I would like to see an improved sling, though I would hate to see Hunter's main draw become obsolete because of it. Also being able to fire beenades and perhaps smoke bombs sounds super cool! That could definitely open up some interesting combat scenarios! (Also being able to sling snowballs would be cool. Gives the Malefactor a sneaky advantage in snowball fights. )

I've been playing Malefactor recently, and I have to say it's one of my favourite classes purely because of the cool outfit and the sling. I do have some suggestions though. Despite having the "Improviser" trait, the only improvised weapon you can make is the sling. I think that scrap weapons should be relegated to this trait, or a slightly more sturdy version of them. It suits the Malefactor perfectly with their whole "making the best of the situation you're in" thing. I also think that maybe you could get more bandages per tattered piece of clothing, as a bit of an incentive to cut them up if you're really in a bind. I also had the idea of a scrap bow or crossbow, though I don't know if this would be relegated to a novelty due to the existence of the sling. Perhaps a new set of Malefactor-exclusive armour could also be added, the scrap armour. It would have the unique ability of dealing damage to things that directly melee attack you, due to it having protruding spikes. It would have pretty low durability and take a lot of scrap metal to create, but I think it could help to spice up the Malefactor's playstyle. I imagine it made from about 14 scrap metal, a pelt (1 huge / 1 large / 2 medium / 4 small) and some rope. I really like classes with unique craftable things, it's part of why I love Tailor so much. I like it when the class goes deeper than just stat buffs and nerfs. Mock-up for what the crafting recipe could look like. I also think the Malefactor's late game is quite weak, and while I get that that's the trade-off for a more profitable early game, I think this could be somewhat remedied with a higher-durability sling being crafted from leather and flax twine. Rename the original rope-and-hide sling to the "crude sling" and the new one to the "strengthened sling" or something of the sort. It would have tripled durability (900), 0.5 more damage and maybe 15% increased accuracy, but other than that would function the exact same. Just some ideas I had, what does everyone else think of these?

I think this is an interesting theory, but I doubt this is the case. The 'little metal men' that Foreman Eustace mentions aren't a real thing. He says that he wishes Falx would make them so that they could shovel the coal for him. Jonas has made locusts, bells and the big Eidolons, but has never made a human-sized robot. Drifters also make grunting and groaning sounds, and have idle animations for both worshipping and curling up and crying, which are things that I doubt robots would do. The old alchemist on the library resonator also mentions people "turning" which indicates to me that there is a process in which the rot or the rust turns rot-infected people into drifters.

Huh! I've never seen one before, and I was super confused when I encountered this one and asked my friend who runs our server if he had secretly installed Better Ruins! That's interesting though, I'll keep an eye out! I found it by spotting the ever-classic 'ruin-shaped bulge' in a cave wall.

I love playing Tailor and always seem to find clutter washboards in ruins, so I always build little areas to "wash" clothes in. I think it could be really cool if soap allowed you to actually wash clothes, which would not do anything to most clothes, but could be used to visually clean up things like the rotwalker set and dirty linen trousers. Just a fun idea that could give soap an extra use!

I do want to start doing this, but I love accordion way too much because sometimes when I get hit it sounds like my character starts to angrily sing a sea shanty.

I personally like accordion, medium-pitched for all of my characters. Does anyone else have a personal voice instrument preference?

I might just have to try that bleedout mod for my little modded scenarios - though I do prefer the "vanilla" punishment for any proper, more serious worlds, bleedout seems like it would really help with my problems! To people talking about calculated risk, I get it. This is normally how I play in vanilla too, though with Better Ruins on sometimes I will find myself oneshot by something like a sawblade locust or nightmare drifter that I did not see until it was too late due to such creatures spawning in and around the new surface ruins, and bleedout seems like it could help to remove the unfairness of such situations while still providing a hefty penalty. I am quite the hoarder and treasure hunter though, so sometimes it is my fault and my usual attitude of caution goes out the window in favour of shiny, shiny trinkets. In my serious world, I play with normal death punishment and no cheating using creative. Though, I rarely ever die since I have full Forlorn Hope gear and steel tools.

I know that more interesting travel will most likely be a part of the next major update, but this is a more specific suggestion. I have trouble not using creative (if it's a single player world) to retrieve my stuff if I die more than 1000 blocks from my spawn. I never used to, it's just that I've become busier in real life lately so I don't really want to waste ten+ minutes just walking to where I last died. I don't want to turn keepinventory on as I still want some punishment for death, but I don't think a needless time waste is the answer. I know that terminus teleporters exist, and I have one in my main multiplayer world, but I've been starting a few short modded playthroughs for fun and this has become a very pronounced issue in the early game. ------------------------------------------ What I'm getting to is that I think that if you die more than 1000 blocks from your spawn, you should get to choose three items from your inventory to keep with you when you respawn. This way you could save your most precious items, but you would still be encouraged to backtrack if you wanted the rest of your stuff and your backpacks back. This way, you could keep those one or two precious items that you found on your journey, and sacrifice everything else for not having to walk back for half an hour. This could be turned off or increased in world creation if you desired, though I think a default of three would be nice. I understand this may be a bit of a controversial solution to the current death penalty fans, but what does everyone think?

For anyone curious, I've played around with the Lore Weapons mod which adds repaired versions of all of the ruined weapons, but they all have the same stats as their respective tier falxes. It's super cool to see but I definitely think if a combat overhaul is in order then it would be much better if each type had it's ups and downs.

Sure! I honestly don't know if I'll ever rebuild the hall, it would be a huge project. Right now I'm focusing on the reconstruction of this little homestead that I found - a much more manageable project for the copper age.

I literally just began a cool start playthrough a few days ago! I'm playing with Better Ruins on and my first ruin was this big Nordic-styled hall, so I thought that was quite fitting! I'm nearly in the copper age now, got very lucky with copper deposits and the Nordic hall being filled with clay and cattails. (And nightmare drifters. Can't forget those).

This is so cool!! Genuinely the most unique take on Dave I've seen, I really like how mechanical he looks. The drifter too. I'm inspired to draw some VS-related stuff, I might end up posting it eventually if I get around to it. I'd like to draw a locust, they're such little dudes. I drew some robots a while back that I based loosely off of locusts by giving them long, spider-like limbs and protruding gears, but I think at some point I'd like to do my take on the classic little spider guys who inspired them.

This is perfect, Vintage Story / Skyrim crossover when? I can even hear the way he says it. That 'tief over there.

Thanks for the kind words! Also using the assembler for gem cutting sounds really cool, it would be cool to see this thing get more than just a use making Jonas parts. Have it useful for creating all sorts of finicky things, making it tie in to even more gameplay aspects.

One thing I just found out about just now that possibly points to a time period of the "old world": The Hanseatic League mentioned in the merchant set descriptions was a real-life merchant guild in the 1300's-1500's. They operated near Russia, fitting with the Great Steppe being in Eurasia. This likely points to the "old world" location that Falx and the Seraphs are from being somewhere in or near Russia in the 1500's or earlier.

I think I may have accidentally confused you sorry, there isn't a "recipe book" you can craft. I meant the survival guide, which you can access via the pause screen. It'll tell you how to get any item in the game. In regards to remembering things and not getting side-tracked, try leaving a specific block or item near your base or front door. You will later think "why is there a block of _____ at my door?" and then realise it's there to remind you that you had something to do. The ol' string on the finger trick! I hope this helps and clears up any confusion I may have spread.

I think if the loot was limited to clothes, books/other lore items, decorative blocks and gear that you would need to repair yourself, the issue of progression skipping could be negated. This is my dream, I love some of the class-exclusive clothes but I can't get them all in singleplayer without cheats! Please devs, just let me have my tailor jacket and mask, malefactor leather tunic and clockmaker wristguard! ------------------------------ I really like the instruments as voices as well, it's very reminiscent of Don't Starve. The devs could pull a meta move and make a tuning cylinder that at first listen sounds like a jaunty ragtime tune, but then you realise all the sounds are player voice instruments and it's actually a recording of people shouting and scuffling trying to force their way into the underground. ------------------------------ Imagine every trader with the generic male Nord voice. "Jonas save us! It's an Eidolon!"

I think the world was kind of 'scrambled' by all the temporal craziness, and has ended up unrecognisable from the old world. I hope that if there is some grand story, classes play into it a bit more. It could be really cool to see some major character like Tobias react differently to meeting you based on your class. I also had an interesting idea of something they could do with the story relevant to class, though I don't know how well it fits the game. I thought it could be cool if you could find a unique ruin of wherever our playable character lived before the calamity. You would probably have to go there for part of a main story event. A burnt-out tailor shop, a decaying blackguard barracks, a rundown and rot-infested hunting lodge, the possibilities are near endless, and I think it would add a bit more depth to our characters, truly cementing them as people who truly lived before the calamity and didn't just appear in the world one day because we joined the game. In regards to traders, I don't know! There is no lore mention of it, so I just assumed it was a stylistic choice. I like the way the seraphs look, even if it is a little goofy. I think it's endearing. I think all the traders are meant to be really old guys, so maybe they are just constantly squinting. (They haven't realised they need glasses yet).

Looks like we're posting screenshots! Here's one of my favourites that I've taken.

I think Sparrow was the leader of the 'local' branch of the Flock, and she is specifically mentioned to be a woman, tying in with the unidentified "she" in the Malefactor backstory. Initially I thought that Sparrow could be the falconer and that they are one and the same, though I doubt it when I think about it. Sparrow is said to be a woman of stocky build, most likely a mason or other manual labourer. I don't see someone of this description being a master with a bow like the falconer is said to be. I doubt the Flock would have any qualms with allowing a criminal to join their ranks, if said criminal was under scrutiny for trying to rebel against the upper class, and especially if that criminal is a master at foraging and scrounging for resources. I do get that from a design standpoint making clothes from a base helps things mesh more, but I just thought it was an interesting similarity regarding my earlier theory of the malefactor tying into the Flock. Looking at it from a lore perspective though, if the malefactor and Sparrow are from the same culture/region, then it is probably safe to assume they are from somewhere in upper Eurasia, as the real life Great Steppe is a vast band of land on the upper-middle half of Eurasia. This brings to light the question of if the game is meant to be set in the real world. I am led to believe that it is, as the copper torc and bracelet mention the Celtic Isles.

I never thought of this before! That actually fits really well! Also the different endings you proposed sound really cool. I always love when a game gives more than one ending, though it'll be tough for the devs to have any 'bad' endings as you'd still likely want to play on your save after beating the story. In regards to The Spy and the Sparrow, I have noticed some potentially interesting things about it. The Great Steppe set mentions it being owned by a humble falconer who was adored by the common folk. I was wondering if this falconer has any connection to the Flock, as the name of the group as well as Sparrow's name are both related to birds and a rebel group of commoners. Another wildly unlikely but still fun thing to think about is how the Great Steppe shirt looks a lot like the Malefactor shirt. Same size, same colour, same collar style, etc. I almost guarantee it's a wild coincidence, though I still thought it was interesting. The malefactor's class description mentions how "she is gone but you remain" and if all of these connections are true, then the "she" could possibly be Sparrow, and the malefactor may have been a member of the Flock. Just a crazy theory I came up with! ---------------------------------------------------- Great Steppe Shirt (left) and Malefactor Shirt (right) look oddly similar, minus the staining.

Do you mean pinning them to a page in the recipe book or keeping the recipe book open when crafting? If it's about just keeping it open when crafting, that is possible. If it's about having a "pinned recipes" page, then no, that is not yet a feature.