LadyWYT

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Forgot to link this earlier, but you'll probably find this clip interesting:

I don't disagree that it would be somewhat interesting, however, I agree with @Rainbow Fresh--that kind of feature is very niche, and a massive headache to actually implement. It's also worth noting that one of the distinct hazards of playing an early access game version is that lots of things are likely to change and require players to create new worlds from time to time to deal with those changes. Likewise, the general point of starting a new world in a game like VS is to have a change of scenery as well as play with different settings or approach the main story in a different way than the last playthrough.

It's mostly just casual observation of various media as well as real life, my own personal worldbuilding, and various bits of sound design that I have seen explained over the years. No actual experience in the industry. I like to pick things apart and figure out what makes them work, as that helps me write my own stories or critique other works more constructively. One bit I recall in particular that I recall listening to, that perhaps served to stimulate that kind of curiosity, was a brief explanation of what went into creating Aslan's roar for some Narnia audiobooks, and it's not what you'd first expect. A lion's roar was part of the sound, for obvious reasons, but a lion's roar alone lacks the power that a supernatural lion's roar should have, so they mixed in a tiger's roar for raw power and some whale noises to give the roar more rumbling depth. An example of "bad" audio design is the Wilhelm scream--it's not exactly a bad effect itself, but it's very...unique...and it's been overused to the point that it can immediately break the audience's immersion as soon as it appears.

Not exactly a developer or sound designer, but I do toy with stuff like this from time to time, though it tends to be more for visual designs. But I would say that sound design employs the same general principles as visual design--you need things to sound like they belong in the setting that's been crafted, just as they need to look like they belong there. Sounds also need to be appealing enough for the audience to tolerate for extended periods(if not enjoy); intolerable sound effects or music can turn players off a game entirely. Warning sounds need to be sharp enough to grab the player's attention so they can react quickly; monster sounds generally need to be unsettling, loud, or sometimes a little obnoxious depending on what reaction the player is intended to have towards the monster. Sound effects and music play a pretty big part in environmental storytelling as well. Soft footsteps on grass or a soft crunch of gravel underfoot can make just walking around doing nothing a very relaxing, pleasant experience. Adding some sharper sounds into the mix for player footsteps could indicate that the character isn't very skilled in stealth, or is wearing heavy equipment that makes movements more noticeable. Softening the sounds from the default can suggest that the character is skilled in stealth or wearing equipment that allows them to move quietly. Environmental noise like birds chirping or wind rustling grass can make the surroundings feel alive, even if there's not actually a simulated ecosystem to be found. Music can greatly enhance the environment, if done well, and provide a sense of the area's history and culture. Compare Oblivion's music to Skyrim's--both have the same composer, but one feels like a jolly adventure through a civilized medieval countryside, while the other feels more fitting for a land filled with snow, ice, ancient ruins and wild magic.

It's a weird overlap between an idle animation and death animation--I've seen it happen a few times. It's also why you occasionally see drifters flailing around angrily while chasing you. Are you sure? Pulling from the description: https://mods.vintagestory.at/darcesdriftersredone That's not to say that the mod is responsible, because as I said above, I've seen it happen several times in vanilla. But I wouldn't rule out the mod having some influence either.

This right here is why I prefer iron or steel over stone, when it comes to knives. Copper and bronze I tend to skip, because stone is cheap and more convenient.

I can do you one better: Video with timestamp of when the NPC mechanics are discussed. Basically, the devs want to flesh the system out a little more, but also made it pretty clear that they don't want to go the Minecraft route of setting up permanent trading halls at the player's base. Which makes sense, given that the world is supposed to feel wild and sparsely populated, with the goal of players using their wits and doing the work themselves to survive in such a world. It's a quality that Minecraft used to have, but doesn't anymore, since there's a village over every hill and NPCs can be exploited/manipulated easily with no drawbacks.

If the player dies to drifters, should the death message be "Player drifted off to sleep"?

It depends on what kind of enemies the storm produces, and one's skill level. For new players, hiding is still probably the better option, since it's relatively safe and dying multiple times in a row can easily prove frustrating. For more confident or experienced players though, it's not a bad idea to make a plan and tackle the early storms, especially since rusty gears are more valuable early in the game since they can be used to buy all sorts of useful things. The general kit I've been using is bronze lamellar armor with some kind of falx. Copper lamellar isn't as good, but would probably still be decent if bronze is proving to be a bit of a struggle to acquire. The falx is a must due to the auto-loot feature; you may not have time to manually loot the corpses. Aside from that, the key is to be good at kiting monsters, practice good situational awareness, and retreat to safety as needed to heal.

You can probably use it to heat your home if you build so that the hotspring is contained inside, but...it's also not necessary if the rooms qualify as insulated rooms, since body temperature will stop dropping and slowly increase in these spaces, even without a fire. Greenhouses, I'm pretty sure, go purely off outside temperature plus an extra 5 C warmth, so no use in trying to build a hot spring into one, at least to my knowledge. You can warm up by standing next to a hotspring, but that's also the key...you have to pretty much stand next to it. As stated above, it's better to make sure your interior rooms count as rooms, and otherwise use a firepit to warm up as needed since a firepit can fit into a much smaller space. I don't think hotspring heat applies to crops at all, currently. I'm pretty sure that sludgy gravel is the same as muddy gravel, in that it cannot be panned.

I voted "death by bears/wolves" since that is one of the better ways to go--it happens very quickly and can happen on any of the default survival modes, plus there is a reason that the Wolfbait reaction exists. That being said...death by starvation has one of the funniest messages: "Player thought food was optional." Also worth noting that there are some species-specific death messages when it comes to goats.

You mean like this one? https://mods.vintagestory.at/show/mod/42818

I think most every player has been here at one point or another. Playing with the keep inventory option turned on can alleviate the frustration, either as a permanent solution or until you're skilled enough at combat to tackle that kind of situation without a high risk of death. There's also the option to set creatures to passive, so that they'll wait until you attack them before they actually try to fight you. Increasing player health and decreasing creature strength are also options, though it should be noted that to my knowledge, the former cannot be changed after world creation. It's also not a bad idea to keep extra bandages and weapons at your base as a sort of emergency kit, as that can help make the task of retrieving lost items a little easier. You might also consider trying to trap some of the wolves in a hole, as that can make them much easier to deal with as well. /worldconfig deathPunishment keep is the command to turn on keep inventory after world creation. /worldconfig deathPunishment drop if you want to switch back to dropping items on death.

This is quite normal and nothing to be particularly concerned about. As @dakko already noted, blueberry bushes turn a gorgeous red color in the fall, and they're also one of the first plants to start the shift in foliage color. All it really means is that summer is starting to wane and the days are beginning to get shorter and cooler as fall approaches.

Not necessarily. I can't say that I'm all that familiar with butterfly spawns, but some areas just aren't as likely to have them as others, even if the conditions are otherwise right.

Sure, but for a videogame, there should be some stakes, some level of suspense, that keeps pressure on the player to make logical choices and not play recklessly, lest they suffer the consequences. In real life, encountering large wild animals isn't going to always be an instant death sentence, but if the animal in question decides you need to be dealt with, you're not going to get to just hit a respawn button or otherwise recover from any injuries sustained within a few minutes. From a videogame context though, if the animal never hurts the player unless the player essentially does the equivalent of walking right up and poking the animal with a stick...then what the player learns is that they can basically ignore the animal entirely and continue doing whatever they want. As for my own experience with mechanics like you've suggested, I modded my Skyrim files to make wild animals behave in that fashion. Rather than immediately start attacking as soon as I come into range, they'll stand there defensively and just watch, only attacking if I decide to go stand right next to them or otherwise attack them first, and sometimes not even then. While this does make traveling less of a slog, it also makes for a world that is ultimately not much better than the one with super aggressive wildlife, since the wildlife in question basically stops being any kind of real threat. Right, and that's kind of what I was trying to say earlier when I said that wildlife behavior should be relatively unpredictable. The average encounter should have the aggressive animal in question displaying defensive warning behaviors first, so the player has time to notice and react in an appropriate timely manner if they wish to avoid a fight. However, there should still be a small chance for the animal to choose violence first, giving players a good incentive to pay attention to their surroundings and avoid dangerous animals first when possible, since there's no guarantee that they'll get plenty of warning before they get attacked. As for why creatures might immediately resort to violence, there could be several plausible excuses, as you've already noted. Mating season, disease, nearby offspring, particular species of animal known for aggression(like polar bears), or even just an unusually aggressive individual for that particular species. If one wanted to punish overhunting an area, perhaps killing too many prey animals but not dealing with the local large predators might make those predators desperate enough to start hunting the player.

Copper and other bits of ore can also sometimes be purchased from Commodities traders as well. Though trade is only an option with lore content enabled, it's definitely worth keeping an eye on the local traders and building up a small supply of rusty gears to spend, since you never quite know when they'll have something you need/want.

The animals don't necessarily need to become entirely defensive either, since that can easily lead to the player becoming too complacent around legitimately dangerous creatures and doing things that they really shouldn't. I think having unpredictability is good in order to keep players on their toes; for example, bears and wolves might generally prefer to avoid the player or give some prior warning before they attack, but there's always the chance that they could decide to skip the formalities and start attacking. However, this doesn't mean that the animal needs to chase the player to the ends of the earth, or even kill the player. The animal could give up pursuit after a short distance, or perhaps give the player a good mauling before deciding the threat has been dealt with and moving on. The latter case can make things interesting since the player is still alive, and thus hasn't lost items or progress, but the injuries will mean that the player needs to pivot their attention to dealing with that lest their situation get worse, rather than continue with whatever they were doing at the time.

Fat is protein--the tooltip on the item as well as the handbook entry will both list what kind of nutrition a food item provides, if any. Food items that contain a saturation value but no nutrition value will fill your hunger bar, but contribute nothing to your nutrition bars. Clay is not required for skins. I presume you're referring to preserving skins by turning them into pelts? You will need rendered fat for that, which requires cooking raw fat in a cookpot. Finding a source of clay is a priority, yes, since clay is required for making cookware, certain storage containers, and items required for basic metalworking. When you hold something in your off-hand slot(that's the slot furthest to the left on the hotbar), it adds an extra 20% to your hunger rate as long as that slot is filled.

Interesting idea, but that's something that should be reserved for the very end of the game. Flight is an incredibly powerful ability, and even if the capacity for such is limited by stamina, it still allows the player to escape most fights and ignore most obstacles, not to mention that it renders other methods of transport mostly pointless. There's a reason that Minecraft's elytra still reigns supreme with no contest, even though it's technically limited and there are other mods of transport in that game.

Except if players are already complaining about needing to follow an animal for a couple of in-game hours in order to kill it, I don't think they're going to be thrilled about following an animal for even longer just to try to kill it via exhaustion. Which is pretty much how it would have to be balanced, otherwise it's opening the door to players just following animals and getting free food rather than actually learning how to aim ranged weapons properly. From a coding standpoint, you'd have to figure out a way to determine whether a player is actively following an animal and for how long, versus whether an animal is being hunted by another animal. It's also going to pose a problem for livestock domestication, since wild animals spook easily and it's not really ideal to have players killing their animals via exhaustion simply because they built the pen too close to their house. This I wouldn't mind, though I would say it's something that should really only apply to the baby animals since they can't really fight back. An adult is going to be much tougher to handle. Though depending on what kind of animal it is, the parent animal might take offense and get very aggressive toward the player(like a momma bear with her cubs). Except stone spears are a stone age weapon, and are a pretty good one for hunting at that, so...why would the player be sinking a lot of time into trying to kill an animal via exhaustion when they can just use a weapon and do the job faster, leaving time for other activities? Or just...add more traps to the game and use those instead, rather than have to put in the effort. I agree with Rainbow here--I'm not entirely against adding features for specific types of players, but features should also be something that makes sense for a general audience. This kind of feature I really don't see a point, except for players who for some reason don't want to use any kind of trap or weapon to hunt. Which, I think it's also worth noting that if the player were intended to get food for "free" like that, then there probably wouldn't be a penalty for harvesting crushed corpses.

Welcome to the forums! I think some areas are more likely to contain them than others, though it could be that the area you're in doesn't quite meet the criteria for butterfly spawns either.

Welcome to the forums and the game! Be prepared to die. A lot. This is perfectly normal, since Vintage Story is a fairly challenging game that doesn't pull its punches and makes players think a bit in order to succeed. The good news is that there are plenty of customization settings to allow the player control over exactly how hard the game is allowed to punch, and lots of mods on top of that if the vanilla settings aren't quite enough. That being said, I would recommend playing the default Standard settings for a little while first, since this is the general intended balance of the game, before you go messing around with the options too much or decide to install mods. This will give you a good sense of what to expect from the game, and which areas you want to adjust. Forgoing mods until you have a good grasp of vanilla is also useful in the event you need to ask for further help, since mods can often cause issues and one of the first questions asked when issues occur with modded clients is "does the issue happen without any mods". The handbook has pretty much all the information you'll need to figure out the game, but just in case you want a more detailed explanation of what to do during your first few days, someone already wrote up a guide here: