LadyWYT

I wonder if that's a bug with rifts. I can't say that I've seen one spawn underground, though it's not like I've gone looking for one underground either. In any case, it seems like rifts should either spawn above ground only, or avoid spawning monsters above ground if they happen to spawn underground. A real shame, but I have to agree with Maelstrom on this note: Once you get used to it and develop better strategies to handle what the monsters throw at you, it's not so bad. Plus it makes that early game gear even more satisfying to acquire.

I do NOT recommend making an ocean world to experience the story, unless you really really want to lean in to nautical themes and are intending to add mods to spice up nautical gameplay. While 1.20 added a sailboat, the sailboat's speed is the same as the player's walking speed, so it will take you much much longer to travel between locations than it would if you are traveling over land. By land, it should take you 1-2 days worth of travel to get to each new location, generally speaking. By sea, it will most likely take you 3-4 days worth of travel to get to each new location, generally speaking. Travel times will vary a bit, of course, but that's what I would generally expect from the vanilla game with default settings. Choosing the sailboat as your primary method of travel and changing world generation to support that will most likely double the expected travel time.

You need to bake flint into calcined flint chunks, then grind that into powder with a quern. Mix the calcined flint powder with blue or red clay to produce fire clay.

Looking at the screenshot, I'm thinking that what may have potentially happened is that the rift next to your house helped spawn in a bunch of bowtorn during the temporal storm. The ones that spawn from rifts can still be stronger than normal due to the storm, I'm pretty sure, but they won't instantly vanish when the temporal storm ends. You'll need to either kill them, or go somewhere else a good distance away for a while and come back later. In any case, I'm not 100% sure that's what happened here, but it has happened to me a time or two. I wouldn't say it's a common occurrence, but it tends to be an unpleasant scenario to find oneself in. Once you get into the late-game content, you may want to consider setting up a rift ward near your house to curb the active rifts in that area.

You'll probably want to make sure that underground farming is turned on, depending on how much stuff you're wanting to put underground, as well as making sure to avoid disabling the creation of water sources via bucket. You may also consider turning off the temporal stability mechanic as well, so that you can build wherever you wish(rifts, storms, and monsters should still be present though) without needing to worry about death from stability loss. Otherwise, the main thing to remember is to keep your base well-lit. Monsters will start spawning if the light levels are too low, especially underground. The only other thing I can think of is that you may also want to make sure that the cave-in mechanic is turned off as well, if you'd rather just build and not have to worry about the structural integrity of natural blocks.

To my knowledge there are eight chapters planned for the story, and the game is considered "complete" when all eight have been finished. How much content actually ends up in the game, and whether the total number of chapters changes, only the developers know. But I would be surprised if the expected total changed from eight.

I like floating islands and digging holes without regard for structural stability, so I play with the mechanic turned off. Also ensures I don't fall down holes quite as easily.

Having played with a mod that adds a disease mechanic...I've got to say no to that idea. It's annoying at best, and doesn't add much to gameplay. Most diseases a player should never, ever encounter unless they deliberately sabotage their gameplay to encounter them. Diseases like the common cold typically occur too often, so that they're a constant hindrance rather than the occasional challenge. And if it's a disease that can just happen by chance, rather than by specific actions, it's irritating to deal with because there was no chance to avoid it. There's also not much sense of accomplishment for beating a disease; it's essentially just a debuff to pull the player's attention from the stuff they'd rather be doing. The herbalism mechanic I do like though, and I think it would probably fit better into an alchemy portion of gameplay. Collect herbs and other various ingredients, and refine them into elixirs that can give different benefits...perhaps not all beneficial. The early-game poultices could be changed to require processing the horsetails with a basic mortar/pestle before they can be used as a healing item. Poisons could be crafted from certain minerals or mushrooms/plants, and applied to weapons or even mixed into food. The only real ailments I could see potentially working for the game, are perhaps more sophisticated combat injuries. Broken bones that require splints, deep wounds or serious bruises that require medical treatment to fully recover from. At that point, the injury could serve as a temporary debuff(health, movement speed, damage output, etc) that will heal on its own over time, but can heal much faster and be much less of a setback with medical treatment. Likewise, injuries are more easily prevented in several ways--avoiding big falls or wearing appropriate battle gear for the enemies you're fighting could curb most of the risk.

Players can already achieve this by disabling the temporal stability mechanic under the Temporal Stability tab in the world settings. Rifts and temporal storms will still occur and monsters will still spawn, however, you won't have to worry about building in unstable areas at all. In regards to some sort of machine that stabilizes an area when powered--I could see that being a thing. However, I would expect it to be very late-game Jonas tech, and there are other options I'd rather see than just a device to stabilize an area. Something like a forcefield generator or steampower generator/locomotive would be more interesting. As for tampering with chunk stability otherwise, there is this mod: https://mods.vintagestory.at/show/mod/8582

Pretty much any nightmare-level monster can kill a player in 1-2 hits, if the player is unarmored/has low-level armor and assuming default settings. Bronze armor enhances survival chances by quite a lot when facing most threats, but it's not until you reach iron equipment that nightmare-level monsters start being a little less of a threat. Steel is preferable, as it will soak up a major chunk of the damage, but I wouldn't say nightmare monsters ever stop being dangerous, especially when there is more than one. If the shivers aren't that fun to fight, I'd recommend looking for a mod that disables them, or otherwise tuning your game settings to make combat a little easier. Increasing the player's health will need to be done at the start of the game, as I don't think you change this setting after creating a world, but more health will help you survive attacks. Likewise, turning down the amount of damage that enemies are able to do(by default I think it's 100%) will make them a little easier to deal with should you be caught off guard. What I do in the early game is typically go hide in my cellar. The space is small and cluttered enough that nothing should spawn in there at all, but not so small that I can't make a little spot for panning/clayforming. Of course, sometimes I just lock myself in a dirt coffin and go AFK for a few minutes while the storm passes. Shivers need a 2x2 opening to fit through, and cannot climb fences. Poking at them through a doorway/small hole or from a fenced off area are options. However, keep in mind that more than shivers can spawn in storms--bowtorn are nastier when it comes to damage, especially when there are multiple. It wouldn't surprise me if the spawn ratios still need some tweaking--I think there have been multiple tweaks over the course of 1.20. From what I've experienced with the last couple of versions, the ratios have felt mostly fine to me; it's just a matter of getting used to how the new mobs operate and developing strategies to deal with them.

To place items such as tools on the ground, you'll need to hit Ctrl+Shift+rightclick. For items like bowls, crocks, and cookpots, it's Shift+rightclick. For blocks, it's just rightclick. A bit convoluted, but I presume those controls are wired that way in order to help keep players from accidentally placing items that they mean to be using, onto the ground.

Hmmmm...I downloaded all the mods and tested on the latest stable version, didn't run into any issues. So yeah, I think you're right in that it's probably not a mod(unless I missed something). I would make a copy of your world and try @traugdor's suggestion to see if that fixes the issue. I'd also go report the issue over on the Github bug tracker, in case it's a lurking bug with updating older worlds to 1.20.

Glancing at the mods listed above, they're not all up-to-date with the current version(1.20.1), but as to which one would be causing the problem I'm not sure. Sometimes older mods will still function on a newer update, depending on what the update included, but it's not always a guarantee. Best to either wait for the mods to update to the current version before continuing to play that world file, and stick to vanilla and mods that are up-to-date with the current stable version. If you have a lot of builds on the old world that you want to keep playing with on a fresh file, you should be able to turn them into blueprints with the World Edit tool, and use World Edit to place them wherever you'd like in a new world. I'm not too familiar with World Edit so I can't offer much for pointers here, but the Vintage Story team recently released a tutorial video on the tool, which you can find using this link: One other note on starting a new world--if you'd like to use the same seed, you should be able to copy the seed of your old world using the Edit button on the right side of the world selection screen.

The prospecting pick still works, however, when used it doesn't automatically pull up the text box with the information like it did before. You'll have to hit Tab and manually switch to the correct window. Unfortunately, the issue isn't just limited to the pick--it also applies to the temporal storm warnings. A buddy and I got caught off-guard yesterday and while it did make the storm much more exciting...I'd much rather have a warning so I have time to prepare!

The Stick Quest So I was digging about in the game files earlier and bumbled across something rather interesting in the portion that contains character dialogue. Apparently, there is(or was) a potential scenario intended with a trader, in which they could give you a quest to fetch them a stick. Judging by the text, the scenario would play out something like this: *Player annoys trader constantly, then asks for a quest* Trader: "Yea, get me a stick so I can smack you off my property!" *Player leaves, returns later with a stick* Trader: "Wow thanks so much, now get off my lawn!!" *Trader proceeds to smack player with the stick* Now I'm not sure why that code is there, or if it will ever be used...but I really hope it's added someday just for the comedy! There was also a scenario where the player could ask for free stuff, and receive a single piece of garbage(rot) for their insolence.

Hmmmm, if it's not a mod issue, then it's probably a bug with the story structure, unfortunately. Those are supposed to be iron bar gratings covering the openings, which are primarily cosmetic. You should hopefully still be able to enter the structure and complete the mission there. Edit: In case you need a hint on how to get inside...

Judging from the patch notes, it seems that players were able to do that in previous versions, with that exploit now being fixed.

Part of me really hopes the nickname sticks now, so it can go right up there with Dave the Time Giraffe.

It's probably due to the color of red clay--a deep red color would realistically taint those particular light shades of daub. Blue/fire clay have lighter tones, and trend toward the blue/tan side of the color palette, so they make more sense for those particular colors.

This feature already exists--just toss the crock/other dish into some water to wash it out(does not work on dirty cookpots). I think this is also in the game, though limited to Halloween time IRL. Not entirely sure.

Happens more often than you'd think. Always neat when it does happen, but I do prefer a little more space between trees. When they generate like this they can't grow all their branches, so you get lower yields of fruit from both.

Welcome to the forums! This mod covers pemmican, as well as a variety of other foods: https://mods.vintagestory.at/show/mod/28 For smoked meats, I believe Primitive Survival adds a way to accomplish that, and for more crops the Wildcraft mods cover a lot of ground. As for preserving meat otherwise, some decent methods already exist in the game. Salt curing greatly extends the shelf life, though it requires either locating a salt dome or purchasing salt from a trader. Fresh meat can otherwise be cooked into stews and sealed in crocks--when stored in a cellar it should last a little over a year. Otherwise, I daresay more food and preservation techniques will probably be added later on. I don't think it's a priority right now, given that we already have a decent variety available and there are other gameplay loops that need fleshing out first.

Hmmmm...the boss is supposed to fly away when you win the fight, and you should have been able to remove the Lens and turn it in to complete the quest. You could try replacing the Lens via creative mode and removing it again to see if that can trigger quest completion, and I'd also test that quest on a fresh world(using creative to get through the steps faster) to make sure everything is working. The only other thing I can think to check is your modlist, if you're using mods. Testing on a fresh world with all mods disabled should tell you whether or not a mod might be the cause of the problems. Otherwise, it sounds like you've encountered a bug that's managed to escape being fixed, so I'd go report it on the Github bug tracker.

I forget which bridle is which, but you need to hold Ctrl with one to gallop, and simply tap Ctrl to start galloping with the other. Though I do recommend slowing down for very rough or forested terrain, if you're riding through those areas rather than skirting around.

Shivers are a different beast entirely from the drifters we had before. They do tend to be on the quiet side, making nothing more than a soft clicking sound unless they are spazzing out or have caught a whiff of your presence(in which case they'll emit a raspy growl). High level shivers will take the idle behavior a step further by occasionally ramming their head against the floor or a nearby wall. As for fighting prowess, shivers are currently the fastest monsters and have a bit more health than the standard drifters. They're able to climb over obstacles up to two blocks high, though they can't climb over fences(currently). Their general tactic is to rush up to the player and get a bite or two in before scuttling away for a short time. Their main drawbacks are self-sabotage(when they spaz out, you can get some free hits in on them) and their size; they need a 2x2 space to move through, if I'm not mistaken. Generally, you shouldn't be encountering them as often as drifters. They tend to be most common in temporal storms, although that depends on the enemy spawning pattern of the particular storm. The higher tier shivers seem to be more tenacious about attacking the player as well, compared to the lower tiers. In any case, caving is a lot more dangerous now if you're under-equipped. Those who venture in will probably wish to bring extra healing items and, as @Thorfinn suggested, stick to periods of lower rift activity.