LadyWYT

To try to elaborate on this: the "ultra high/high/decent" and other descriptors refer to the quality of ore; that is, how many nuggets each chunk will yield. You want "Decent" or better, typically. The numeric percentage is important too though--that gives you an idea of how much ore is actually down there. A high percentage even with a "poor" quality ore can still be worth digging for, as it probably means there are multiple ore blocks to find. Likewise, a low percentage with an "ultra high" reading is also worth digging for, as it means that the few blocks that are there are going to be high-yield. It's also worth noting that some kinds of ore are found in small deposits only, typically without exceptional yields, so you may not ever see any reading higher than "decent" or high percentage numbers. One example of this that I would cite is cinnabar. In these cases, you'll want to find the highest reading in that area that you can, and then dig to see if there's anything there. Last but not least...it's not a common occurrence, but just because there is a reading doesn't mean that the ore is actually there. The prospecting numbers are pretty much just the chances of what you can find in that particular chunk, unless something has changed. So it's possible you could have a really high reading, dig all the way to mantle, and find absolutely nothing. This is also why you want to use the node search mode every so often when digging--it'll tell you what, if anything, is nearby.

The hunger bar. I typically wind up calling it stamina, and not hunger. Granted, you can still keep doing whatever even when it's empty, but at that point it stops pulling from your stamina(since you have none) and starts using your health pool as a resource instead. And of course, when that runs out, you die. In regards to being a class thing...it kind of is that as well. Blackguards have that 30% penalty to hunger, which means they're going to burn through their stamina a lot faster than the other classes. Edit: I will also note that I made it back to my base after just over two full days of non-stop travel, barring a few quick stops to warm up. I will also note that I did not make it home before the next temporal storm hit...and it was the first medium one too. Riding through all that mess was a definite trip. Arrived at home half-dead from freezing, proceeded to nearly get stomped to death by my elk for some reason. Made it inside just in time though, so crisis averted! Overall, the entire trip took just over one in-game month, though I would still say the average trip will probably take about two months. It hinges a lot on world generation, player's navigation skills, and whether or not the player chooses to pursue the story exclusively or complete other tasks along the way. For those concerned about needing to make multiple trips though:

I disagree, for two main reasons: 1. Traders already have a spawn pattern that's fairly easy to learn once you've found several. There tends to be one every several chunks or so, and you'll be needing to do quite a bit of exploring anyway for various resources and whatnot. If you play with true map colors turned on, they're also a lot easier to spot. In any case, it's pretty simple to run around until you find the type you're looking for. 2. STORY/LORE CONTENT SPOILERS! This too. Keeping in mind that traders don't always have what you want for sale, and don't always buy what you're looking to sell. If there aren't any deals that you want to strike with them at that moment, you'll need to leave and come back later, most likely after a few days. In that time, you could easily go visit another trader who might have better offers, and with the new travel options that have been added it's also easier to travel around too.

Nah. I think I'm approaching 40 hours, and it's just barely ticked over into December. I generally sleep through the nights, as I don't like operating in the dark if I don't have to. I also generally take my sweet time doing things in the game, it's just this time I was really pushing my progress in order to see the new stuff so some things happened faster. Of course, the main thing I have to figure out now is how I'm going to get home; I started the journey the first of November, right after a temporal storm...so there's probably another storm bearing down for the return trip. *highfives* Pretty much. Once you know what you're doing it's not terribly hard, but the game is very good about lulling you into complacency and then punishing you for it. It depends on how big the gap is. They're big mobs, and need at least a two-wide gap in order to get through. I think they might need a space two blocks tall in order to navigate as well. The one thing you can't do with them is rely on a wall made from solid blocks, as my understanding is that they can climb at least two block heights. As for why they can't climb fences...I can only assume that's an oversight due to something in the code that prevents creatures from climbing over fences, in order to keep your animals in their pens. I don't believe they can. They have similar space requirements to the shivers as well, I do believe.

Finished the story...man, I'm going to need some time to unpack my thoughts on everything, because there's just so much... Overall, very well done, and I enjoyed it greatly! Now I just have to return to base and perhaps tinker around with upgrading a few things, before likely setting this particular world aside as the testing ground for future updates and starting the process anew. One important thing I will note, is that while you can pretty much grind out the entire story arc in a single session, it's probably best to tackle it in smaller chunks to avoid some burnout. My best guess is that the entire round trip will probably take a couple of standard in-game months to complete(that includes your trip home).

Without simply repeating everything I said in the other thread, I'll just drop this here: https://mods.vintagestory.at/show/mod/11954 While you've got a nice outline here, I'd highly suggest playing with a disease mechanic installed(assuming you haven't already) before getting too excited about how fun it might be. I would argue that it would be annoyance or irritation rather than tension, if it's a random occurrence. If one strikes while you're safe at home doing chores, then it's just a nuisance that's going to slow down your gameplay, that you couldn't really prevent because it's a random chance. If it happens while you're dungeon-delving or getting otherwise mauled by nasties, then yeah, it might heighten tension that's already there, but it's certainly going to feel awful if it proves to be what turns the situation from survivable to dead, again due to circumstances outside your control. Which the player should already be doing, really, and brings me to my next point: the game already encourages players to take decent care of their characters, and prepare for adventures. If you don't vary your diet, you miss out on health points, which you will need when fighting off enemies. If you don't take care of your clothes, you'll freeze to death faster. If you don't bring medical supplies with you on your dungeon runs, you're much more likely to die. So if taking good care of your character prevents contracting most illnesses, players aren't likely to encounter disease at all. Or on the flip side, you could do everything in your power to prevent illness, and still end up catching a disease anyway despite your efforts, due to the random illness mechanic suggested above. Not really fun. Honestly, if a mechanic like this were to be added...I would simplify it by dropping the disease mechanic entirely. Add something else like broken bones instead; while those are rather easy to avoid, it could serve as a deterrent to running around recklessly and diving off high places on a whim. Essentially, if the player takes too much fall damage, they can have a chance to break a leg, incurring a movement speed penalty until it heals. Splinting the limb could lessen this penalty, while getting a good night's rest regularly could help the injury heal faster. Broken arms could be sustained rarely in combat, probably from the higher tier monsters and have a higher chance of occurring if you're not wearing good armor. In that case, they could simply apply a penalty to damage until the injury heals. I will also point out that some of these effects are already in the game. If your stability runs too low, your vision will start getting a bit wonky, though the monsters you see are certainly not illusions. Movement penalties are already applied with armor. Health penalties are applied(or rather, health bonuses are lost) if you don't eat a varied diet. So I wouldn't say these are necessarily unique gameplay challenges. In any case, I still think disease mechanics are best left to the modded realm. I don't see it being very fun for most players to deal with, in the same way that I'm skeptical a thirst mechanic would be fun for most players. But with mods, the option is still there for those who are looking for that kind of experience in their games.

A very good point as well. Although if any disease got added, I'd expect it to be a future plot point of getting some sort of nasty Rust infection or something, that you have to go find a cure for before you turn into some horrible creature.

HOLY SMOKES I LOVE THE STORY SO FAR! In regards to the elk, it's a little janky, but rather fun to ride around on. It can outrun most anything and is rather durable, but perhaps the best feature is the fact that it can easily climb up to two blocks heights. So it can handle most mountains with relative ease, though you will need to slow to a walk in order to do this safely. Probably its weakest point is that it's ill-suited for traversing thick forest--you'll save much more time skirting these areas.

You know it! Though my face is my shield half the time. And just when I thought I was good at the game. Build the ugliest house possible, maybe? Just to see how ugly you can possibly make it. To elaborate on what @Thorfinn said--it is the new process for fire clay, since fire clay now only spawns under coal deposits, specifically black coal I think. You have to bake flint to get calcined flint, then grind that into powder and add it to red or blue clay to get fire clay.

Same, plus I'm pretty sure we can already pet some other animals. Stands to reason that dogs would be pettable too. I'd wager they could also offer some utility to the player as well, aside from just attacking enemies. A small pack could let them carry some stuff, and you could probably have a whistle or something that lets them go retrieve certain things. Perhaps they could chase down rabbits and other small creatures, and bring the carcass back for you?

Finally cleared the Archive, and just in time for the next temporal storm as soon as I got home! It's now November, winter is here, I have my elk(there may have been shenanigans to help expedite this), and the next destination is 15k blocks to the east. Should be a fun trip! I'll probably pack light this time, at least regarding food, as I overdid it on the Archive and most of those supplies have gone to waste. It's maybe not the best idea to go in winter either, but I still need to locate a source of borax and bauxite if I'm going to get steel, and east is one direction I haven't really explored so here's to hoping I find those along the way. Speaking of the Archive...I get the distinct impression that some serious knockback has been added to drifter attacks. The death message from fall damage is pretty funny though, and the shields make a much more satisfying sound when blocking.

It sounds like something in the world files got corrupted; that's one of the hazards of uninstalling mods mid-playthrough, even if you re-enable them later. The easiest solution is to start over with a new world with however many mods you want, and then stick to those settings for that playthrough. It does suck to start over from scratch, but sixteen hours isn't a lot of playtime either, so it should be relatively easy to catch back up on the progress you made in the old world.

I believe it means that you won't be able to fill a bucket and create another water block somewhere else should you empty it, although that only applies if you enable that option in your world. It's just there to add an optional challenge. They probably do. I know in the modded version of the other block game, waterwheels can be an incredibly convenient power source for exactly that reason. Not necessarily. One idea I've heard floated is having a different water source block that is capable of powering waterwheels--one that moves(unlike the still water we have now) and that specifically cannot be moved by the player. So you'd need to find one of those spots and build your stuff there in order to take advantage of it, which may or may not be a very good option depending on how one's world generates. As for why you might want to deliberately search for one of those spots anyway, despite having other power sources like windmills? Water flows at a steady rate and doesn't stop, whereas wind is quite variable.

If you don't mind a bit of "cheating"--change gamemode to creative and spawn in a bronze anvil, at the cost of deleting materials that you have to fashion one(so a few copper ingots + bits of stuff that would turn it to bronze). Then switch back to survival and proceed as normal. It's a lot faster and less frustrating than locating more ore and processing it into an anvil. For future reference though, I would wait until you have a bronze anvil before breaking down the copper one, or make two chisels ahead of time. That way you'll still have the old one to work with, should you need it.

I'm just lazy and focused my attention elsewhere. There are actually bees somewhat close to my base, but I've been pushing hard to get to the Archive and was banking on panning a candle or two out of bony soil. I usually have good luck with that, but then again I usually get better map generation as well. If you have issues with the shivers you might want to build a perimeter fence. Shivers don't seem to be able to climb over those.

One change I've been enjoying is the fact that animals now run away when you shoot them. It makes hunting a little more challenging, but it's also a little more engaging since you now have to potentially track your prey. It's also very useful for dealing with hazardous wildlife as well--throw a rock at bears or wolves to get them to leave certain areas. Of course, it's not a foolproof method, since they will sometimes come after you instead of running away. Maybe. I would guess that there probably won't be any changes between now and release that would warrant creation of brand new worlds, but there's also no guarantee that that will be the case. Trial versions, even release candidates, are marked unstable for a reason. If it's a world that you intend to get attached to and keep for multiple versions, it's best to wait until a stable release.

Indeed! I'm not sure if it's a new thing or not--they may have spawned in lake bottoms before, but there was no real reason to go diving either given that there was nothing to see underwater. I even found some ruins I wouldn't have spotted otherwise, which netted me a bunch of bony soil(but unfortunately no candles, so I'll probably be going to the Archive without a great light source). I mean hey, if it keeps you alive! One thing I've learned since increasing the hunger rate--in many cases it's better to slow down and walk unless you really need the extra speed for some reason. It could just be from picking Blackguard, in part, but I've found myself rethinking how I manage my stamina after making that change. Not that food is a huge issue for me currently, but the last thing I want to do is burn through too much of my stores before winter. I lived out of my cellar for quite a while before building anything that qualifies as a house. I'm not sure that it's lazy as much as it is efficient. Personally, I don't really like building temporary structures if I can avoid it, so I'll usually live under a tree until I build a small house, and hide in the cellar when it's too dangerous outside. As far as storage...uh...I tend to scatter everything around outside where I can see it all at once, and wait until I have a really nice storage shed before worrying about anything resembling organization.

It still only takes one ingot. The shape did change though, so it will take more hammering and a little more care to actually forge the shears.

I'm pretty sure they only spawn when it's warm outside, though what that threshold is I'm not sure.

It would be nice to have a bit of warning that there's a moose there, but then again...if I were a moose and saw a potential threat, I'd probably want to go stomp it too. At least they do sometimes back off instead of stomping your face in. Generally I just run away, or if I'm engaging without armor or a bow, I'll throw a few spears and then engage with a crude shield/falx if I'm actually wanting the meat. I know you said you were joking, but there might actually be a lore reason for the aggression. The "Ambush" tapestry notes that wolves have become much more territorial and aggressive since whatever cataclysmic event unfolded in the past, so it stands to reason that other wildlife might also have reason to be extra wary or aggressive.

Having played with a mod that adds diseases...no, absolutely not. It wasn't really fun, it wasn't really challenging, and it was more annoying than anything else. Leave that concept to the realm of mods, where it belongs. Sounds like you may need to tune some settings to increase the challenge, or look into mods that add more challenge(such as thirst or disease). Though in all fairness, once one learns the ropes of most any game, and acquires decent gear...it's going to be relatively easy compared to how one first started out. Incidentally, this is the reason I said the disease mod(XDiseases, I think it was) wasn't fun. Most of the diseases you could avoid just by following these steps and otherwise not playing recklessly, which essentially killed any challenge the mod might have had. As for the stuff you could catch randomly, like colds(which were overtuned anyway)...the problem there is that if it just happens, it's going to be mildly annoying at best, because now you have to put up with something you didn't have any chance to avoid. At worst, you have to put up with having your gameplay knee-capped by something you had no control over. Now accidents do happen in normal gameplay, of course, but those tend to be pretty rare since the player usually has some way to actively mitigate bad things happening. Don't want to get chomped by bears/wolves? Pay careful attention to your surroundings, don't charge into places they might be lurking, and don't poke them unless you're ready for a fight. Likewise, watch your step when traveling to avoid falling into deep holes, and always bring some ladders to ensure you can climb out of a hole if you should happen to fall in(and survive). In contrast, diseases are like temporal storms; they just get dumped on you and you're left to deal with the effects...but the temporal storms actually warn you in advance and give you a shot at nice loot.

Rivers would be cool, even just small streams to find while out and about too. I think the main issue with them is figuring out how to get flowing water to generate like that. That being said, if rivers are added, I would probably also advocate for rapids as well, as a somewhat rare obstacle. I don't know that I would make rapids destroy boats necessarily, but they should be impassable spaces for watercraft at the very least. Small rapids would probably just be a nuisance, while big ones could limit which sections of river are really useful for water navigation. Hmmm, I like this idea. It lets the players move their boats around, so they don't need to sink resources into building multiple boats, but at the price of taking more time and effort to move the thing. I actually disagree here; not because it wouldn't be interesting, but because I don't think it would fit the lore of the game. The short course, as I understand it, is the world of Vintage Story is set in the late medieval period(with some steampunk influences) after an apocalypse-level event essentially reshaped the entire world. The remnants of humanity that are left are few and far between. As for the ruins, they're either leftovers from the old world(underground mainly), or survivor settlements that got overrun(most likely scenario for surface ruins, based on the events in the Ghosts short story). In short, the player has been dumped into a monster-infested wilderness, with practically nothing except what's left of their clothing, and very limited knowledge of how they even got there to begin with. Now I do expect ruins to potentially get another facelift or two as the game is further developed, but barring the specific story locations, I think they're primarily minor points of interest that may or may not hold anything of value to the player. In the meantime though, the Better Ruins mod upgrades the ruins to make them more detailed.

Is it a steady 25 FPS, or is it choppy/stuttery/laggy? I had some issues when I upgraded my hardware a while back, and it turned out to be some sort of weird issue with Corsair's iCUE software for mice. The easiest way to detect a mouse issue like that is to go into the settings and look at the lagometer(red graph thing), for lack of a better term. If you're getting big spikes whenever you wiggle your mouse around, it's probably a mouse problem.

Correct. Perhaps sometime in the future though, either via update or a mod.

Suddenly "doggy biscuit" has a very different meaning.