LadyWYT

Charcoal/chalk/limestone can be used to doodle on the walls; I usually forget to bring some with me, so I don't use this strategy as often as I'd like. And like @Zippy Wonderdust noted, leaving ladders behind is a good way to mark where you've been, so you can leave the same way more easily. For the most part, I stay out of caves unless I'm looking for ruins, translocators, or high-tier monsters. Ores are better found simply by prospecting and digging a ladder-filled tunnel straight down until reaching whatever you're after. As for dealing with the enemies, I play Blackguard generally, so fighting in the tunnels comes a bit more naturally for them than it does for other classes. That being said, I'm also not keen on venturing underground until I have at least tier 2 weapons/armor. Iron is preferable though, as it's tough enough to withstand most of the nasties underground. Some bandages are a must as well; it's easy for a fight to go the wrong way, and not so easy to simply run away due to the tight spaces. One other thing worth noting is that it's better to wait for lower rift activity before venturing underground, as there will generally be fewer enemies to deal with. While you're underground, keep an eye on the rift activity levels, and if it switches to higher activity you may consider leaving and coming back later when it's more calm.

Did you try removing the Lens? The Lens should be removable at that point, and you should be able to take it back to Tobias to finish that quest. The Mad Crow isn't meant to die; you just need to beat it up enough to get to fly off so you can retrieve the Lens. Now if the Crow flew away and the Lens still isn't retrievable, or Tobias still won't accept it when you try to give it to him, then yeah, it's bugged.

Or just use the same pot for both. (I may or may not be missing a joke here--wouldn't be the first time!)

Personally, I think it's fine if bowtorns are capable of quickly killing underequipped players; they're a good reason to avoid running around outside in the dark. But they shouldn't be spawning en-masse like in those screenshots--that's just a bit much. Nor should they be hanging around in the daylight. So I'd say something's gone haywire with the spawning again and will need to be fixed.

You love to see it! I'll have to fiddle around with this later to see how it compares against other travel methods after the change, but it should definitely make for some smoother sailing.

I believe it's an intentional feature, at least for now. The clay types were changed for a couple of the recipes; I think it was the lighter colors that need blue/fire clay instead of red, presumably because red clay would realistically produce darker colors.

Hmmmm...is your mount at the marker and just not responding to the flute? If the mount is there, I would try removing the ownership medallion, and then placing it back on the mount and see if that fixes the issue. Hopefully that should fix it, but I'd still recommend making a bug report over on the Github bug tracker, as it doesn't sound like intended behavior.

Not a server command, but I found something else that might help you guys out: https://mods.vintagestory.at/show/mod/11661 It's also updated for 1.20.1, and appears to be configurable. Now I'm not sure that this applies to all mob spawns--it may only be for temporal storms in particular. But it should, at least, help keep the critters out of your house if you need somewhere to hide during a storm.

Or if nothing else, allow the agriculture traders to sell baby livestock occasionally...for a "small fee" of course. The animals could be base gen(or even gen 1) to avoid players bypassing too much of the animal husbandry game loop, and of course there's always the risk that you won't get what you need for a breeding pair without a few tries. Catching animals yourself still holds some advantage in that case because it's not only free, but you're also guaranteed a breeding pair most of the time.

So what happens if you drop a bomb into the pond? Just curious...you know...for science and all that...

I'll also note that while it has the highest attack value of the three main monsters, it's also the slowest of the three. So you don't need to worry about it chasing you down if you decide to make a run for safety, nor it being able to escape easily if you decide to go after it.

The symbol has something to do with the "mode" that the rope is in. I forget what the modes are, but it seems the player is intended to be able to adjust the length of the rope when leading a creature, or something to that effect. I've not toyed with the rope very much, as the last time I tried had some...interesting...results when trying to retrieve my lost ram. The ropes definitely need a bit more work before they're fully functional, haha.

I'm not sure it was intentional; friend of mine reported it as a bug and it's still listed on the bug tracker with the "new" tag. Definitely gonna try your suggestion to see if it's a workaround for now though. I got caught off-guard by a temporal storm the other day, and while it was certainly a thrill, I'm not keen on repeating the experience anytime soon!

This, but also: You don't need to wait for ingots to fully cool before removing them from the molds. You should be able to remove them just fine once they've cooled enough to register as "hardened", and there's also no need for tongs to remove them. But before you can do anything with them, you will need to heat them back up to a workable temperature. As to why it's coded that way? Not really sure. Maybe to give more incentive towards using iron and steel, rather than earlier metals, since you'll need to be working them into ingots anyway? Or possibly to prevent players from popping other things out of molds and turning them into tools/armor while they're still hot, instead of waiting for them to cool down, since the temperature of an item doesn't matter when crafting. Definitely one of those weird "videogame logic" things.

When the gear is turning clockwise, that indicates a stable area. If the gear isn't turning at all, then it's either a neutral area(you won't gain or lose stability) or you're at 100% stability already, in which case the gear will cease to turn. If the gear is turning counter-clockwise, then it's an unstable area and not the best place to remain long term. Rifts cause temporary instability in an area, though it's quite easy to tell if you're near a rift since you will likely hear and see it. However, sometimes rifts can spawn in a place that's difficult to see; in this case, it's still easy to tell if you're close since the gear will start rapidly spinning and the screen will start the rusty contortions once you get within the rift's threshold. And yes, welcome to the forums!

Welcome to the forums! To my knowledge, it's only black coal and anthracite. But it never hurts to check brown coal. Worst case scenario, you'll find no fire clay, but have a lot of brown coal at your disposal for all your smithing needs.

Suspicious Stew Now I've seen plenty of poisonous mushrooms in Vintage Story, though I've never really been inclined to eat them or otherwise utilize them in the culinary arts. However, after finding a large patch of bitter boletes in the woods one day while traveling to the iron mine, I got an idea! The mushrooms would make a fantastic garnish for a meaty stew, adding that bit of kick that Blackguards love. And maybe, just maybe, my clockmaker friend might enjoy it as well. He fancies himself a chef, you see, always puttering around the kitchen while muttering something about a "Gordon Ramsey". Normally, I pay it no mind, as him taking over the kitchen leaves me free to go do other work around the base. However, there was one particular incident involving a fresh pot of meaty stew that he had just finished sealing into a crock. It was an honest mistake--I was hungry and wasn't paying attention to which crock I was eating out of, and it unfortunately happened to be his latest culinary masterpiece(though it did need more salt, in my opinion). Needless to say, he wasn't terribly impressed, so I decided to make myself scarce and go do something useful while he calmed down. It was then that I found the mushrooms... Having hatched my brilliant plan, as stated earlier, I quickly gathered up the mushrooms before finishing my trip to the mines and heading for home. By this time, the clockmaker was nowhere to be found; I can only assume that he had gone for a long walk, likely looking for more of the "finest ingredients" for his cooking adventures. Or perhaps he was simply trying to avoid becoming wolfbait. In any case, it meant the kitchen was free for me to enact my scheme by cooking up the special stew and then placing it into a crock on the table, all the while making sure that it was the most tantalizing meal option available. It wasn't long before the clockmaker returned home. At this point, I had busied myself out in the garden, watering the crops and tending the bees while keeping a watchful eye on the house. Several minutes passed, before the doors flew open and the clockmaker came running outside in a panic, heading for the bushes at top speed. I won't say what happened after that, however...the other day I did notice that some funeral bells fell out of the clockmaker's pocket while he was tinkering at the forge. I asked him about it and he said they were just for his collection. Do clockmakers usually collect mushrooms? He's only collected junk metal up 'til now(stores it all under his bed). Maybe I should be concerned...

At a glance, my guess is that it's something to do with Expanded Foods. It's not been updated for 1.20 either, and the comments section seems to have posts from players experiencing similar issues with the handbook. I'd try disabling that mod(and related mods) and see if things run more smoothly.

Hmmm, now this I am not sure. My best guess is that the location would generate on the land that is closest to the general spawn parameters of the location. However, I could also see it generating in the middle of the ocean, though at the surface and not the ocean floor. I think the new locations are supposed to spawn automatically now, and spawning via command should only be needed if something playermade is blocking the spot, so the best way to test whether or not the world is still playable is probably to make a backup and then visit the first location. If you can visit the first location without issue, then the other locations will probably be fine as well. I would expect any problems to arise rather quickly. The one thing I'd be more concerned about is the travel time via boat. The sailboat is the same as the player's walking speed, so it will easily double what the travel times would otherwise be if you were traveling over land. As a side note on the map bounds...I think all the locations should fit within a 40k radius of spawn, approximately.

Just imagine the fun you could have cooking some special 'shrooms into your friend's food, and making them think they went to the Rust world!

I don't think this would be a good addition to the vanilla game, as it would make things way too easy. Sure, the system we have now isn't 100% realistic, but the idea is to maintain a sense of realism while still providing a challenge to the player. If the player could simply go days or weeks without eating, then there's suddenly no need to worry about maintaining a food supply for the winter, or managing supplies for a long adventure. However, should a player want to have that kind of gameplay option...the good news is that there's already a mod for it! https://mods.vintagestory.at/show/mod/10343 Though whether or not the mod works with 1.20, I'm not sure. Probably not intended, and will most likely be fixed in the future as code for creature pathfinding improves.

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.