LadyWYT

Welcome to the forums! I'm guessing they aren't actually falling when this happens, so it's strange they would be taking fall damage. There should be a damage window though that gives a report of exactly what kind of damage they are taking--I recommend checking this to make sure that it's actually fall damage and not something else. If mods are involved, it could easily be a mod requirement/mechanic isn't being properly accounted for. In any case, it would help to have a better idea of what mods you have, as well as what the players were doing at the time of the deaths.

Bear hides should be usable for leather, with or without the head portion still attached. Just shove them into a barrel of limewater or borax to start the process.

I do agree that crossbows would be a nice late-game ranged option, mainly due to the fact you can carry them pre-loaded. However... There's already an early game option that drops small prey like rabbits and chickens in a single hit--the spear. A flint spear will do the job, unless you're playing Blackguard, in which case that ranged penalty is really gonna be felt. As for killing pigs in one hit--that is what the butcher knife is for and why it's a good idea to invest in livestock. In regards to killing larger creatures like wolves and deer in one hit...yes, that's realistic, but I don't think that's great for gameplay balance. It's a bit nice to have natural threats like wolves and bears retain some threat status in the late game, even if one is well-equipped, as it helps keep players from getting too complacent. As for deer...if prey animals can be killed that easily, that removes a lot of incentive for livestock and homesteading in general, which isn't ideal. To keep it fair, wild game would probably need to be made much harder to find(instead of easier, as it has been), and I'm not sure that most players would find it fun to need to spend several days hunting just to acquire their next meal. A better option in that case would be to keep hunting as-is, but add a temporary blood trail that the player can follow to track down their prey. They'll still need to spend a decent amount of effort in that case, but they won't need to devote entire days to the hunt.

Welcome to the forums! You might also try using this mod: https://mods.vintagestory.at/floralzonescosmopolitanregion It adds a nice collection of plants that blend nicely with vanilla, and one of the trees is green alder. The green alder doesn't produce any logs, but rather grows in large bushy clumps that drop plenty of sticks(one stick for normal leaves, two sticks for branchy), especially when sheared. It's also rather common to find, so that might be a good alternative instead of modding the recipe. You could also try using this mod, for a basic crafting recipe that doesn't seem overpowered: https://mods.vintagestory.at/rawstick The main idea here seems to be that while sticks themselves are easy to craft, you have to let them dry out first before they're usable. As for making a mod without prior experience, Vintage Story is relatively easy to learn to mod in that regard, although it does depend on what kind of mod you're wanting to make. You can find an extensive explanation of it by using the following link, though I will note that mods like just modifying existing recipes tend to be some of the easier ones to create: https://wiki.vintagestory.at/Modding:Getting_Started

Given that the lore behind them states they were originally a safety/communication device that were especially beloved by miners, since bells could sound an alarm in the event of a cave-in and help rescue crews find the trapped miners faster, just makes bells that much creepier. According to the wiki, they're also attracted to bright lights like lanterns, so while they do move slow, it's not really possible to go entirely unnoticed by the things. In any case, sure, they've been corrupted by the same force that corrupted the other automatons, but a lot of what they do is just...their original job, in a very twisted fashion.

I help my friend with making/maintaining a mod, and I end up handling the testing while he handles the coding. Can confirm this is accurate! There were several I managed to find in the early versions of the mod, that were caused by the tiniest little goofs in the code, or occasionally by sheer oversight.

Welcome to the forums! Sounds like you've likely found a bug, in which case you'll want to report it over on the github bug tracker: https://github.com/anegostudios/VintageStory-Issues/issues

I think the crux of the issue here might be less where bears spawn(save in the case where they respawn immediately after being killed) and how they can be encountered sometimes, and more a case of...they don't make noise to announce themselves. If the player happens to spot the bear in advance, it's safe to assume that the bear is a massive threat, given what wolves do to the player. However, bears can be difficult to spot due to surrounding foliage or just taking a nap in a secluded spot, and they don't otherwise announce their presence like wolves do with howling. Oftentimes, the only warning the player has is the roar as the bear rips into them. If some sort of noise were implemented to alert the player to the bear's general presence, I think bears would feel a lot more balanced as a threat, even if they remain incredibly strong. As for bears being faster than the player, I think it depends on the bear, really. Most are almost as fast as the player, with the sun bear, panda bear, and black bears being the slowest. Brown bears are faster, and polar bears are the fastest, to my knowledge.

I mean, given what certain NPCs say about the storms...yeah. Most just hide in a safe room, while the bravest of them stand guard keeping the most persistent monsters out. As a general rule, most characters that are actually fighters in the game also express a grim displeasure in the action. It's not something they want to do, but rather have to in order to prevent more deaths. Which I mean...is accurate to warfare in general, regardless of what one goes up against. Overall, the storms themselves are meant to be an unnatural disaster that players need to plan around, rather than a quick-time loot event the player actively chases. It's nothing new--it's been there ever since I started playing at least, which was 1.18. Apocalyptic levels of activity are very rare though, and generally don't last terribly long when they do occur. The AI is already aggressive, and I will note that if you allow the monsters to break down doors, then players are left with absolutely no counters to the storms early in the game/if they don't wish to fight through it, aside from just turning off the mechanic entirely/sleeping through it. Likewise, monsters already drop Jonas parts--special monsters that spawn during the storms aren't the only way to acquire said parts, but hunting them is perhaps one of the more sustainable, reliable ways of farming parts. I'd actually disagree a bit here--recently, rifts were adjusted to spawn monsters in the daylight as well as the night, but it's a more rare occurrence in the daylight. I think this applies to light levels in general, so lighting up one's base is no longer as reliable for spawnproofing, which makes the rift ward(which was recently buffed) a more valuable goal to work towards. In any case, the player knows that things will spawn from rifts, but still doesn't know when. It's not to the extent that the player needs to wear armor 24/7, but they will need to be vigilant on days with rift activity, and consider investing in rift wards to stop rifts from spawning nearby.

Welcome to the forums! To my knowledge, the game should prompt him and download/install the mods he needs automatically with the simple click of a button when he first tries to join the modded world. The only potential issue I could see is performance, depending on which mods you install, since you're running a server and playing on the same PC, essentially.

Yeah I could see it, especially when they have an idle animation that bends them over backwards. So maybe it's not actually bending over backwards, as much as it is trying to return to a sense of normal, much like the shiver attempting to stand up from time to time(I'm pretty sure these both utilize the same animation as well).

I think hunger rate might increase as much as 25% when out in the cold, not 20%. But otherwise I think what you've written here is fairly accurate. As far as interior spaces, it does need to be an insulated room in order for the cold to quit affecting the player; otherwise, a fire will need to be lit in order to warm up. To my knowledge, torches don't count as heat sources currently. As for the idea itself...it's not a terrible idea, but I don't think it's really necessary for the base game. If it's warm outside you're not going to get cold. If it's cold outside, you'll probably get cold if you go out and will need to take breaks to warm up if you're going to avoid freezing to death. I don't think a "perceived temperature" reading really adds anything to that, aside from maybe helping the player decide if they want to go outside that day or not. However, it's not really feasible for the player to stay indoors all winter as they'll most likely get bored/have things they need to do outside, and such decisions can already be made with the current temperature system for reasons stated above.

I actually disagree that the early game should be made easier--one of the points of the difficulty is to push the player to make progress. As the player progresses, new equipment and whatnot feels properly rewarding, because it makes tasks so much easier to do. How the player chooses to go about progressing in the game is entirely up to them, and the game has pretty high expectations of new players and veterans alike. New players will struggle, because they don't yet have the experience require to utilize the best strategies. Veteran players will struggle if they get complacent about their own abilities. I think this is fine, and likely one of the qualities that makes Vintage Story attractive. The game might be tough, but it doesn't assume the player is dumb/inept and lead them around by the hand for everything. There's a tutorial to teach new players basic controls so they aren't completely lost, yes, and there is a handbook full of information, but ultimately it's up to the player themselves to decide whether they succeed or fail.

Welcome to the forums! That might be more possible than you might suspect: https://mods.vintagestory.at/chargedjump It's a little bit extra than just a basic jump while sneaking, but the function is there. If it were added to the base game, I'd probably opt for something like the charged jump to allow the player to jump up two blocks instead of one, and just allow the player to move up one block heights automatically while sneaking(but not down, so they can still use sneak to avoid falling).

Hmmm...have you checked your mouse to make sure that's not causing any issues? It's a bit of an odd thing to check, but sometimes high polling rates on gaming mice affect VS performance.

There's this mod you might keep an eye on as well: https://mods.vintagestory.at/crstoneage Not sure how nicely it plays with other mods, and it still seems to be a work in progress, but it does make the stone age significantly harder, it seems.

It's nothing crazy--whatever the default is(high, I think), with FPS limited to 80, VSync off, and View Distance set to 224. I also turned off the Bloom effect. That tends to get me a solid 60 FPS for most situations in the game.

I'm not sure but what part of the learning curve of VS is just learning to let go of things sometimes. Depending on settings, it's very possible for the player to end up dying and being unable to recover their stuff. Too high of rift activity might mean sleeping or working indoors at night, instead of running around outside. The temporal stability mechanic means that underground bases aren't that feasible in general, and that sometimes there will be a beautiful area that's unsuitable for a permanent residence due to being too unstable. Get complacent about food stores and suddenly everything's rotted and you're scrambling to find something edible. And the list goes on. That's not to say that any of those situations aren't frustrating, or that there's not room for improvement. But I do think a big portion of Vintage Story is knowing you will get punched, and learning to roll with those punches when they happen.

If you can't find what you're looking for, you could always try hosting your own. Yes, it's a bit more effort than just joining someone else's server, but it does give you complete control over what rules are in place.

Possibly, but they can still getcha if you aren't paying attention, especially if you're unarmored at the time. Not that players need to start wearing armor 24/7, but it does mean more vigilance will be required on days with high rift activity. Plus it's more incentive to build rift wards, rather than rely on lanterns.

For what it's worth, the ones that spawn in the daylight don't seem to hang around terribly long. They'll wander around for a bit before disappearing, unless they happen to notice you. In which case, they'll get aggressive until you either kill them or run outside of their aggro range.

If you're building a town, why not turn the unstable areas into storage? No need to hang around storage, just drop off materials or grab what you need and go elsewhere. Or build a jail or asylum as set pieces, because hey, decoration is cool, and those are two places no one wants to be anyway.

Are you running with VSync turned on? That can make a decent impact to performance in 1.21. Turning off VSync tends to boost the framerate. I have a Ryzen 5 1600 and Sapphire 580 for CPU and GPU respectively, and 16 GB of RAM, and had some performance issues when updating to 1.21, when VSync is enabled. Forested areas are more likely to impact performance regardless, given all the foliage that needs rendering. However, there were a few changes to rendering in 1.21, I believe, that were supposed to improve performance, though it also seems like AMD hardware and Macs are struggling with some of those changes.

I second the tropical map idea, though maybe nix the island part unless you just really love sailing. There is more water content so I would definitely increase the amount of water you have covering the map in order to have more ocean, but otherwise there's not yet enough water content to justify a proper islands map, in my opinion. I would say add dinosaurs as well, but it doesn't look like those mods are updated for 1.21 yet.

I want to say that shearing sheep or goats for wool is intended, but I can't recall having seen any particular official statement on it other than cloth weaving being on the roadmap. In any case, without a way to actually process the wool into something useful, there's not much benefit to a shearing mechanic.