LadyWYT

I would just make the really valuable tools and items very rare, and near the breaking point when you find them. An iron blade might be a super lucky find when you're still in the stone age, but if it breaks after 50 uses or so? Well, then it's good for a temporal storm or a couple of caving expeditions, maybe, but it's not something you'll be able to actually rely on. Same with armor--it might hold up for a fight or two, but it's not something you'll be able to rely on until you have the materials needed for repairs. In the case of armor, if the player found a good piece, it could save them some materials later as it's cheaper to repair than craft new, but that's a fairly big if.

Of the two, I would go the half block route. That way, nothing needs to be done to player movement. It also allows more variety in slopes; half-block slopes would be gentle hills that are easy for the player to navigate, while the standard one-block slope would be the equivalent of a steep hill and require the player to slow down in order to navigate it. As for slopes taller than that...well, at that point, it's too steep for the player to navigate on foot, so they'll need to either find a sure-footed mount or find a way around. Maybe at first. But it's something players would get used to. One other drawback I see though is that currently it's not possible to place items on a lower half-slab block. That might need some tweaking for half-slab dirt blocks, if they're going to actually look like a natural piece of terrain. Maybe you don't. I'd worry more about bears than wolves, really. In all seriousness though, you could probably tweak predator behavior to be more defensive than offensive if their space is invaded by the player. They should certainly attack players that bumble into their personal space, however, unless the predator is actually hungry, they probably shouldn't be spending all their energy trying to chase you down.

Not to get too sidetracked from the main thread, but that's not quite how the rankings work. I don't know exactly what goes on behind the scenes with it, but I do know there is a limit to how many rank points you can get from people reacting to your posts. The reactions don't need to be likes to count as a point, I don't believe--as long as it's a reaction, it counts. Once you hit Steel Worker, I think the reactions stop counting towards your rank somewhere in there, and only your posts will count towards ranking up. My rough guess on the Historian rank is that a member will need at least 1k posts to achieve it.

There's a contraption you can build that teleports you to the last point of death--the Terminus Teleporter. It costs one temporal gear per use. It's a late game tech item, but it makes retrieving your stuff much easier in the event of an accident. This is what I did when I first started playing. Personally, I think the gears being limited to 20 respawns per use is fine; temporal gears are meant to be somewhat limited in their power, and it's not terribly difficult to acquire a crate or two full of them by mid-game to late-game. As others have noted, the limitations also encourage players to be careful about when and where they set their spawn points. That being said, players have differing preferences on that mechanic, which is why we have a list of options to pick from.

I like this idea, and would add in seals and whatnot for a source of food and fat. Fat burns for quite a while, and arctic creatures tend to have lots of it, so that solves the issue of a fuel for cooking and to keep warm. Likewise, there's also driftwood that can serve for firewood, and that could probably be tweaked to offer sticks as well. The dogsled sounds really fun, and you could probably have tamed caribou as a larger mount or pulling a larger sled. One thing I forgot about earlier regarding whales--there are whale skeletons already in the game, though unimplemented to my knowledge. I think they were supposed to be part of the oceanic decor for 1.20, but got pushed back with coral reefs. Either that, or they do exist but no one's dived deep enough to find one. In any case, those could potentially drop huge bones that could be used for all kinds of things useful to arctic survival. Also, if you've not already tried this, I recommend installing the Wildcraft mods along with Ancient Tools and taking a stab at an arctic playthrough. Wildcraft: Fruits and Nuts will add berries to forage, while the Trees module adds thin canes to the trees that can be used to craft things like handbaskets and the like(a cattail substitute). Ancient Tools gives an alternate method of processing hides into leather, as well as allows the crafting of bark baskets, bark breads, and other various useful things. Survival is still tough, but more manageable since you won't be needing to rely on cracked vessel RNG nearly as much.

I second this, plus making potted plants stay green all year long if they are sitting in a legitimate room.

It wouldn't be so bad if there were another fiber crop that used a different nutrient, like cotton. Currently, the only way to get cloth in any useful quantity is flax. Yes, one can trade for linen, or kill monsters for fibers, but those methods aren't reliable for acquiring large amounts of cloth.

Actually that gives me an idea. What about tweaking the existing weeds for fallow farmland, and require the player to use a hoe to remove them? Planted farmland remains unchanged, so the player doesn't need to worry about running off to explore or devoting time to other things. If the tile remains unplanted for a decent period of time though, that gives weeds the opportunity to establish themselves, so the player will need to put a bit of effort into turning it back into usable farmland, but it's not a task they'll need to do very often at all. Of course, if the weather permits, the player could opt to keep the farmland tiles planted instead of letting them lie fallow, which gives more incentive to use fertilizers(or more careful crop rotation) to keep that kind of constant growth.

The first game is good, but avoid the second. The first has a couple of rough spots, but you can interact with most of the environment, and the choices you make regarding most things may help you or haunt you later. The characters are very likeable, and while the story is fairly serious, the game isn't afraid to poke fun at itself. I will also note that while it's recommended to be an appropriate level to enter some areas, the game doesn't stop you from doing things if you're underleveled, and if you have the skills you can actually get some great rewards early on if you're willing to take risks like that. The sequel to Divinity: Original Sin? Uh...well some people praise it. It has flashier graphics and a few more playable races and cosmetics, I suppose. I made it through the first couple of story chapters before I quit. The best way I can describe the experience is that it feels like playing with a DM that's only interested in killing the player, or otherwise punishing them for playing well. If you're the least bit underleveled for an area, you'll die. Your character builds don't matter, because the enemy will have a teleport, or a damage resistance, or some other way to deal with whatever you throw at them. Pretty much every NPC treats you like absolute dirt, and there's no playing the hero because benevolent actions are punished. As for the ending...I looked up what the story's conclusion was supposed to be, and it's...underwhelming, at best. From what I saw, it breaks the lore of the first game entirely. As for other Divinity titles, I can't really speak for them, as I've not played them or watched someone else play them.

Oh, I really like this idea! Not every ruin needs a puzzlebox or some equivalent, but having small puzzles to solve in order to get some better loot is a lot more interesting than just running in, grabbing what you see, and leaving. I think as it stands now, some ruins have hidden areas that you need to dig around to find. So I suppose the mechanic exists after a fashion, but this would be a great expansion to the concept.

My main sticking point when it comes to quests in videogames, is that most of the time, there's only a couple of ways to complete the quest, and the outcome is the same regardless of what option you pick. Sometimes NPCs might offer different reactions depending on the option you pick, but the quest's outcome still remains the same. Which, in all fairness, it's difficult to weave open-ended quests together into a story, since there are many more variables to deal with than there are with linear quests. The main example I would cite of such linear quest design is Skyrim. Love the game, but your actions don't really have any impact on the world, and when presented with a quest your only real option is to either complete it, or just leave it sitting there in your quest log for eternity. Divinity: Original Sin also has a rather linear storyline and quest system, however, most of the quests have a few different ways that you can choose to complete them, with appropriate outcomes for each option. Granted, the outcomes are usually something to the effect of good vs bad, but it's still a choice that actually means something to player. Picking the bad option might mean missing some loot, or missing some information important to a later challenge, or even kill a party member. Likewise, picking the good option might yield some extra loot, or some information useful to figuring out a puzzle, or let the player even bypass certain challenges entirely. I was going to cite World of Warcraft as an example of linear questing, but this is also why I decided against it. MMOs are a different beast than singleplayer games. In any case, what I'd like to see from a quest-heavy spin-off of Vintage Story, is something more similar to Divinity than to Skyrim. Let the player make choices and suffer the consequences! It's okay if they aren't able to do everything in one playthrough. If player choice has a noticeable impact on the world, it's a lot easier to get immersed in the story and take it seriously.

I think this sentiment is spot-on. Quite a bit of Chapter 2 wasn't able to be finished before it launched; that is, all the important story details were there, but some of the extras were missing. I will also note that one of the locations of Chapter 2 was a little underwhelming at first, and the main challenge of Chapter 2 was significantly overtuned. Most of the changes since launch have been adding more details to flesh out the locations and associated NPCs better, as well as a few quality of life tweaks to help make the challenges a little more manageable for a wider range of player skill levels. The feel of the story is still the same.

Well...https://mods.vintagestory.at/scatatastrophe

I know you're joking, but it's actually part of the VS lore...mostly. Without spoiling too much, there are several books and scrolls that are very old, that shed light on things that happened in the past. Some do seek them out for the information they may(or may not) contain, however, most human survivors can no longer read such literature either.

Now there's an idea. This sounds better as an intermediate option that just a larger raft, in my option. Plus since it's a rowboat, you can use it regardless of wind speed. Not that wind speed affects the sailboat currently(to my knowledge), but that's something that may be subject to change in the future.

I found a steel scale chestpiece once. Granted, it was very beat up, but it was still an exciting find, because that cut out a lot of work later when crafting steel armor since repair is cheaper than crafting new. That being said, I can understand why there isn't really loot like that, as it would enable players to skip too much progression. Otherwise...I dunno, I hadn't really considered the question that much. I like finding little trinkets and other curious pieces of decor, though it would be nice to have soap or something to clean them up. Bits of resources are nice too, but I'd rather be finding bits of halite or borax, or even copper nuggets, instead of dry grass and sticks. Not in every ruin, of course, but perhaps slightly more often than what the current loot tables are.

It took me entirely too long to figure out you're talking about terra preta here, and not toilet paper. Doh! I was so confused!

Currently, the main story from VS gets quite a bit of replay value just from the different classes available. NPCs are still in the early stages of development, but they will offer different reactions depending on the player's class. Malefactor and Blackguard are the two with the starkest reactions currently, I believe. What I'm hoping to see is that concept developed more in future updates. The story might always arrive at the same conclusion(it is linear, after all), however, there might be different paths the player can take to get there. Maybe a player does everything as intended, befriends the NPCs, and saves the world from another catastrophe. Or maybe the player decides to be an absolute jerk and gets themselves banned from the village...in which case, now they need to figure out how they're going to find the macguffin at the bad place. Good luck doing that without directions! The player pushed far enough to enstrange a certain old friend? Well now they have to figure out how to complete the next story chapter on their own, instead of having much-needed help. Of course, in the event something like that happened, maybe the player also has the option to redeem themselves to offended NPCs with a lot of hard work. How feasible such a system is, I'm not sure. But I think it would offer a lot for replay value if the player has some choices about how they interact with NPCs, and the NPCs respond accordingly.

Welcome to the forums(and the game)! The biggest piece of advice I have to offer is that the handbook is going to be your best friend, and the best place to start is reading through the Guides section in order to get a general idea of what you need to pursue in order to progress. A good time to read through the handbook is while waiting for the night to pass--just make sure that you hit the Unpause option in the handbook so that time will actually pass while reading. Vintage Story is a very meaty game, with most gameplay loops overlapping with one another in some way. The learning curve, as a result is very steep, and the game isn't very forgiving of mistakes, so it's best to take things slow and cautious, even if you have prior experience in similar games. There are three basic difficulties: Standard, Exploration, and Wilderness Survival. Standard offers a good balance of everything the game has to offer, but if it feels a bit too harsh you might play Exploration until you have a better grasp of how the game works. I don't recommend Wilderness Survival for new players given that mode has increased difficulty and is incredibly unforgiving of mistakes, but that being said, some players enjoy that kind of challenge right out of the gate. There is also Homo Sapiens mode, however, this mode removes all lore from the game and reduces the experience to pure survival, which I will note removes a lot of content from the game. There are also several individual settings that tweak various aspects of the game world and difficulty, so you can also customize the world and experience to your liking. Most of those settings can be changed at any time after the world's creation, though you will need to familiarize yourself with console commands to do so and may need to reload the world for the changes to take effect. There is also a plethora of mods that can further customize your experience, however, I recommend picking one of the premade gamemodes and learning the game basics first, so that you have a better idea of how things work and what you would like to change. It's a good idea to stop every once in a while and take a good look at your surroundings. Doing so allows you to spot potential threats, or resources that you may have otherwise overlooked. Regarding the main story content, be on the lookout for a treasure hunter. They offer a special quest to start you on the game's story. Last but not least, if you have questions or need additional help figuring out something, don't be afraid to ask about it on the forums. There's a variety of players here who've all been through the same trials at one time or another, who are happy to help newcomers learn the ropes.

https://github.com/anegostudios/VintageStory-Issues/issues

This is becoming somewhat of a thing in 1.21. Fish and other small animals, I believe, are getting changed to drop tiny bones, which can't be used to craft tools given they are way too small. Unless you're hunting something like whales or elephants, I doubt it. The largest animals currently in the game are bears, and while they might have big bones, the bones still aren't long enough to really make things like spears or tentpoles or similar things. At a glance, bones are also heavier than wood, so when it comes to things like tents you'd want materials that are both strong and light for easier transport. I think the arctic is still somewhat unfinished, and will probably see some love later on. However, the arctic is also an extremely unforgiving environment, and not a place meant to be very feasible for survival. A player can choose to live there as a challenge, but it's going to be a lot of extra work and hold challenges that aren't present in other climates. I'd add falxes/swords to that list too. The handles are short enough that making one out of bone as a vanity option is feasible.

A prefab door is the only way I can think of for getting it to work. It might look nice, but it's a very situational use, unlike the other door options we have in the game already. I do like the idea, but I'm not sure it's worth it if it only has that niche use. Unless I'm mistaken, there are solid trapdoors that you could achieve similar effects with in the game already, with a bit of chiselwork surrounding them.

Too bad I can't borrow some. Hunted an elephant on my friend's server and now there's around 4-5 whole stacks of redmeat needing to be used. I might play a Blackguard and eat a lot, but even I can't eat that much!

As long as it takes the devs to stabilize the update. Generally, there's a stable release with a few weeks of the unstable pre-release(s), but not always. Really just depends on how much content is packed into the update, what kind of content it is, and what kind of bugs there are to sort out before it can be considered stable.

https://mods.vintagestory.at/show/mod/23655 The biggest issue I see with this suggestion, is that it might be fun for those who really like to micromanage their farms, but quickly become an aggravating chore for other player types. The more time a player has to spend managing their farms, the less time they have to devote to other gameplay. Gameplay loops generally have quite a bit of downtime, so that players have plenty of opportunity to explore other gameplay options as well, or otherwise complete necessary tasks. The variety of opportunity helps keep the gameplay as a whole interesting, given that the player has plenty of options to pick from instead of getting bored with one specifically repetitive task. Keeping in mind too that the game requires the player to spend a lot of time away from home in order to complete the main story; with the current state of farming it's possible to plant a harvest, leave, and return to a nice full harvest when you're finished with your expedition...which is very nice if one wants to get an extra planting of flax or other crop before winter arrives. Likewise, the player also has the option to not plant--they aren't penalized either way. By adding things like weeds and pests that will hurt the crop if the player isn't actively checking their farms, players have less choice about when they deal with their farms and how, and are discouraged from exploration and other travel if they want to farm successfully. In any case, this particular feature I think is best left to mods; that way those that want that specific challenge can have it. Even if the weeds and diseases aren't able to actually kill the plants, I don't think many players will be content to just let their farms suffer if they want to go exploring or focus on other gameplay that they may prefer more. Again, see above. It might be fun for players who really enjoy farming, but what about the rest of the players? The more attention you demand from a player regarding a specific portion of gameplay, the less attention they're able to devote to other gameplay. Another thing I'll mention is that adding mechanics like these also reduce the freedom players have in how they build their farms. It might be fine for a small vegetable patch out back, but what about a massive field of flax? I was discussing similar ideas with another forum member here recently, and he described his experience with this type of mechanic in the mod I linked above. Essentially, as one to build absolutely massive farms, he ran into the issue of starting to weed the farmland early in the morning with the hoe, and not even being able to finish the weeding before he had to start all over again the next day. This feature has already been implemented. If the weather gets too hot or too cold, crops will be stressed and yield a lower harvest, and will eventually die if stressed too long. I don't know if going without water too long will kill them, but it will pretty much stop all growth. Rain varies depending on the region; players that settled in regions of low rainfall/planted in greenhouses will either want to irrigate their crops, or spend time watering them manually. In any case, I will note that if a player plants a crop tile and takes care of it to the best of their abilities, they're going to expect a full harvest from that tile. If they do everything by the book and still lose the crop, then it's going to feel like arbitrary punishment for trying to play the game well, and end up more frustrating than fun. Likewise, as I've said before...the more micromanaging you require players to do with their farms, the less time and options they'll have for other gameplay loops. This is why I've harped so much on how much attention tasks demand from the player--the more often one has to do something, the more likely it is that the task becomes a tedious chore instead of fun gameplay. In any case, I think current seed drop rate is fine in terms of balancing. If one needs more seeds quickly, they can search for cracked vessels, wild crops, or purchase seeds from an agricultural trader. As for getting the soil to stay wet longer, I think this a great place to implement your mulch suggestion. That way, players aren't going to be punished if they keep playing the farming loop as-is, but if they want to spend a bit of extra time mulching their farmland then they get the benefit of needing to water less often. Of course, if one's irrigated their farmland, they don't really need to water at all...75% moisture is just fine for growing crops, and keeping it at 100% moisture doesn't really save you much in terms of growing time, to my knowledge. Overall, I think most of the suggestions are better suited to the modded realm, rather than an addition to the vanilla game. It's a more niche style of gameplay(the mod I linked that implements similar concepts isn't very popular, and there's not many mods otherwise that deal with the concepts), and not the kind of thing that I think most players would enjoy.