LadyWYT

I would more expect survival goods traders to be clad in rawhide and pelts, like a medieval Daniel Boone. Reason being is that most people like to wear nice clothes and look presentable, and clothing is also a critical part of protecting oneself from the elements. So their fashion choices might be a bit more "rustic" than what other traders have access to or prefer, but that doesn't necessarily mean they're going to look shabby.

Welcome to the forums! I'm guessing it's due to berries qualifying as a crop, in which case the growth is going to scale with month length as the growth times of other crops do. Outside of mods, there's no way to change it that I'm aware of, and most mods that make that kind of adjustment seem to be out of date. It's not been confirmed or denied, but it's not a feature I would expect to see given that the game trends toward more realistic behavior and the devs have indicated they'd like plants to be properly seasonal.

As far as fertilizer goes, what about allowing the player to use a hoe to work it into the soil? Sprinkling fertilizer on top could be useful for boosting growing crops, but taking the time and effort to mix fertilizer into a farmland tile with the hoe could restore nutrients instantly, as well as perhaps be a more immersive way to upgrade the quality of farmland tiles. For obvious reasons, the farmland can only be worked like this while crops aren't growing on it.

Welcome to the forums! I can't say that I've had this issue, but then again I've not been to the second chapter locations in a hot minute. Without more information though, it's hard to say what could be causing the crash. Any mods in use? Game version? OS? Exact location you were trying to visit? I'm not the best at reading crash reports/logs, but someone else may be able to decipher them if you post them.

Performance would be my primary concern, since lots of complex chisel blocks can bog down a system. Though I'd also be concerned about players getting frustrated with building. Not everyone wants to go to the effort of chiseling, and not everyone is a great builder; if the landscape itself becomes chiseled then more basic builds are going to look out of place.

To my knowledge all it requires is a Github account. From there you can just attach a copy of the crash log into the report, as well the other log files as those will generally show what was going on in your game. For multiplayer, you may need to get copies of the server logs from the server owner. Fair warning that in the event you're using mods, the first question that typically gets asked is "Does the issue happen without any mods?" It's best to verify that the issue can be reproduced in vanilla, but that's not always possible when the issue happens in multiplayer, so describing what was going on at the time the issue occurred and what mods were used can help. You could also try posting the crash report and logs on the forums to see if anyone can decipher them.

You already are, if you're playing the game and reporting bugs as you find them. As for how/when bugs get addressed, hard to say for certain. The devs do work on it, but I think how fast a bug gets fixed depends on what kind of bug it is and what the devs know about said bug. I'm just speculating here, but the elk bugs seem to be more of an issue with multiplayer, and those kinds of issues can be harder to pin down and develop a fix for, at least I think.

I think it's one of the Gothic series, but I'm not entirely sure.

I somewhat disagree. It does go a little against the core themes of humanity's remnants banding together and struggling to survive, however, given what human nature is, there's going to be at least a handful of ruffians that decide to prey on their fellow man in order to survive. I don't think killing such should necessarily be the first, or only option, for the player(Skyrim really failed on this count), but sometimes the fight can't really be avoided. It could also be an interesting juxtaposition against the typical NPC friendliness if the player occasionally has to deal with more bloodthirsty sorts. That being said, in regards to a reputation system, if the player immediately resorts to violence every time they encounter bandits, that could also rack up a reputation that might not be the best. Honest NPCs might hold a dim view of bandits, but they're probably also going to be at least a little uneasy around someone who's known to be hot-tempered to a ruthless extent. In any case, when it comes to bandits and overall story themes, it might also be just as well to leave them out, if the devs want to focus entirely on the remnants of humanity cooperating with each other and leave the more unpleasant bits to the imagination. Same goes for player interaction with NPCs; I'd like to see a reputation system as I think that would make interacting with NPCs more interesting, but if the player character is supposed to be a helpful hero-type then it doesn't really make sense to allow the player to ruin their reputation as a benevolent force.

One problem: sharing food, as in sharing a meal, tends to be a way to show that one is friendly to a fellow traveler, so it doesn't really make sense to expect anything in return. This is more what I would expect. The bandits should make demands of the player, and keep making those demands until the player has offered enough goods to satisfy them, as it's not ideal to fight if it can be avoided. If the player refuses to pay, then the bandits will try to take it by force. There could be a third option though--in the event the player is too poor to have anything worth taking, the bandits could simply let the player walk free since they obviously aren't worth the effort. Depending on how fancy you want to get with dialogue, the player could also have options to lie to the bandits and claim to have nothing, which may or may not work and definitely will not work if the player is wearing valuable stuff. If the player is armed to the teeth, they could also try to intimidate the bandits into backing down and avoid a fight that way, but that may or may not work either(it could depend on the quality of armor equipped). I do want to note though, that trying to buy something from an NPC and getting nothing in return doesn't work very well in terms of gameplay. It's the kind of thing that would only happen once and the player just doesn't bother with it again, or the player gets confused and submits a bug report on the bug tracker for "missing trade goods". I think it's better to make sure that the player is either clearly getting a bad trade(overpriced, inferior goods) or being forced to hand over stuff in order to avoid harsher consequences.

I like it, and it feels a little more realistic than what we have now. That being said, I would say that something like this relies quite heavily on establishing some sort of trade route system. This could be limited to traders that are part of the same trade route, as it doesn't otherwise make sense that Jim-bob the survival guy knows Morty the farming guy, who lives practically on the other side of the world. I'm not saying that it's entirely impossible that could happen, just that it makes more sense for traders to have a more localized network. I would also make the bribe something other than food. Currently, traders are quite happy to point you to the location of the nearest treasure hunter for a small fee, so it seems more likely that if the player is willing to fork over a few gears or has otherwise done a few trades with the trader in question, they would see that player as a valued customer and happily point them to their trading comrades in order to get more business. Food they already have, so unless it's something quite exotic(which the player probably isn't going to have) I don't know that they'd be very impressed. Actually, I disagree. Not that stone-age nomads don't exist in the world, but the world of VS is also a pretty brutal place. Given that the minimum equipment level of traders seems to be basic bronze weaponry, I would say that the average traveler ought to at least have copper/bronze equipment. It doesn't necessarily have to be armor, but they're gonna need some quality tools and weapons to survive very long in the wilderness, what with monsters and bandits sculking about. Most soldiers would probably be escorting other travelers, or defending settlements. There could be scouting parties that are searching for bandits or something, but I'm not sure that there's any settlements big enough to field troops like that. I would also expect them to be at least somewhat friendly to the player, especially in light of what @ifoz noted about general NPC sentiments about seraphs. I think it ought to be the other way around, for the most part. Bandits aren't good people, and a lone traveler is a prime target. Whether or not they decide to try their luck with a seraph, I'm not sure, but I think if the seraph wasn't well-equipped and/or there's several bandits, they're likely going to try to rob the player. At that point, the player can either offer them enough stuff to satisfy the bandits and make them back off, or they can find themselves fighting for their lives. One alternate scenario I could see though--the player could perhaps sell out traders or otherwise aid the bandits somehow in order to become friendly with bandits...at the cost of being despised by other NPCs. If the player already has a bad reputation(maybe they attacked and looted trader outposts themselves) then bandits might be inclined to be very friendly when dealing with said player, unless the player has crossed them as well. It's not wise, but no one ever said bandits were smart. Of course, they're not necessarily dumb either, or they wouldn't be surviving as bandits in the wilderness of Vintage Story. I could see them trying their luck with a seraph anyway if there was good loot to be had, with the idea being that they'll be long gone before the seraph can return to life and figure out where they went. Shady traders are something I'd definitely like to see. The first trader the player meets(or at least, is likely to meet) should probably be friendly, but otherwise having a shadier individual or two would definitely make them more interesting, especially since picking certain dialogue yields a "Ha! Bold of you to assume I'm friendly!" as a response. I think shady traders could also tie in with bandits, in that perhaps the "trader" isn't a trader at all, but a bandit in disguise running a front for his gang's operations. In that case, travelers who don't seem worth the trouble can simply be sent on their way and be none the wiser, while others could be ripped off, or set up for ambushes for easy loot.

The thing is, it's handy to have a clear "end point" like that, as that makes it easier for a player to shift their focus in the game itself or otherwise take a break to go do something else without feeling like they're going to fall behind as a result. While it might be nice to get more rewards for investing more time, such systems can easily lead to "endless treadmills" which keep the player grinding past the point of real enjoyment, as well as lead to predatory practices to skip that grind(like level boosts or equipment kits, etc). Back when I played WoW, such a feature was implemented with the artifact weapon system in Legion, where there was no cap to the power the weapon could achieve, but the returns would be diminished for each bit of power the player earned as the weapon grew stronger. The idea was similar, in that it was supposed to present a better reward to players who played the game more without being too OP, but the reality was that the system ended up getting more heavily skewed in favor of whoever could spend the most time grinding, since gearscore is easier to see than skill and newer players literally have no way to catch up unless the more frequent players stop playing for some reason. It also wasn't exactly fun, because players would feel obligated to keep grinding just to stay competitive, despite the fact that they weren't having fun. Basically, it's a system that's fun if you're the one that's ahead of the power curve, but it's not so fun when you're the one getting left behind for adventures, overlooked for base jobs, or otherwise just struggling to feel useful in a group activity. It's one thing if you picked a class that wasn't good at a particular activity, because you'll have other ways to shine, but it's quite another to be the weak link due to time constraints.

While I wouldn't mind seeing more complexity in farming, ultimately it boils down to a couple of things for me: player preference, and how much work the average crop takes to produce. Playstyle plays a pretty big role, since not every player likes to farm and not every player cares about aesthetics. It's already possible to make small backyard vegetable patches, and I'm sure that some players do, same as it's easy enough to till a large field for grain. But I'm guessing that most players end up opting for the "eight farm tiles around a water block" style, since it's the most efficient way to farm and covers most crop types well enough. Likewise, orchards need a lot of space, but if players don't bother with fruit trees... This is my main concern on the second point: how much effort does it take to get the average crop. It's why I'm not a fan of pretty much any weeds suggestions that I see, since having to check crops daily or every other day for weeds isn't fun, especially for large scale farming. I want to be able to go explore and enjoy other aspects of the game too, without feeling like I have to forgo farming or otherwise take a penalty to harvest just because I didn't want to babysit crops. Likewise, I also appreciate that deer can't just jump over my fences and eat everything, despite the fact that realistically they should be able to. In any case, I applaud the effort of the write-up, but at a glance I think all of this is a bit much for a game not exclusively focused on farming. So I'll touch on the favorable standouts. I like this, though I would simplify it to crops just being more at-risk for disease/pests if planted in the same place for multiple plantings. I'm not sure it's necessary to distinguish between the two. In any case, this would lend more value to rotating crops, and push players to plant more options than exclusively turnips and flax. I like this idea too, though I don't think manure needs to replace bonemeal or other fertilizers, necessarily. As for livestock maintenance, I would add that the player should need to feed their animals once in a while to keep them in good condition, as well as get manure. If the animal doesn't eat, it doesn't poop, and not eating regular meals is going to mean less product from slaughter. I'm not sure that I would be mean enough to say that dirty bedding can make the animals sick, but if the animal is confined to what's basically a box stall and can't go outside/otherwise have plenty of room to roam then I'd say it might be a fair risk. Probably shouldn't kill the animal though, that's a bit much. To my knowledge, this is also why sheep and goats were popular--they're smaller animals and thus require less space/food. Sheep in particular yield wool in addition to dairy and meat, in addition to having multiple offspring and maturing faster.

As far as I'm aware, this already how claims work--the player can set permissions of who can interact with stuff in their claim, with admins ignoring all restrictions for obvious reasons. I'm not sure there's any getting around this kind of exploit, though I'm also not sure it's really necessary to fix either. Putting stuff in an offline player's chests as a cheap "cellar" doesn't really do much since the active player could just...grow more food and store it in their own cellar, as well as just store stuff in their own containers and not worry about it going bad when they log out. The only real way to exploit it, that I see, is creating a dummy account to make the claim and then sharing permissions with friends, but most people probably aren't going to do that.

This I like better, as it gives spears something interesting to help set them apart more from other weapon choices. I would also add that with a status effect system, the spear could potentially cause a different type of injury than other weapons, such as a nasty puncture wound. I don't think I would give it an anti-armor bonus though, as that seems better suited for a proper mace addition/change to the club. Part of my reasoning there is that clockwork constructs should probably count as armored targets, since they're made of metal, so stabbing one with a spear doesn't seem like it should be as effective as blunt force