LadyWYT

Yes please! This would be a great way to use all the animal fat I end up accumulating in my playthroughs. I really enjoy hunting, so there's always an excess supply for all my needs, hence one of the reasons I got the notion for soap to begin with. I like the idea that fragrant soap could be used to repel angry herbivores; moose are tasty but it gets annoying when there's several spawn points for them right outside your buildings. Plus herbs could also be used somehow in cooking, I'm sure. Speaking of classes, I've got an idea for one, but I need more time to finish hammering out the details. So far, I started with a concept of how to make alcohol more useful, and it's somehow turned into a whole tangent on combat that I'll probably end up doing a whole write-up on later. Soap was the one idea that didn't really connect with everything else I had cooking, lol.

Clothes washing has crossed my mind too, but I can't quite figure out how it could function as a gameplay loop without being annoying. Cleaning up the clothes found in ruins before wearing them sounds logical though! Initially, I thought maybe soap could function as a poor man's sewing kit, but it doesn't make sense to fix tattered by washing them(not to mention, it detracts from the Tailor's role). The other option I thought of is having some sort of attribute similar to the wear mechanic, but for dirt instead. Clean clothes could wear out more slowly than dirty ones, with there being a somewhat generous delay between stages of dirtiness(it taking a few days to become dirty enough to warrant a wash). It gives an option to preserve the longevity of clothes you can't just craft more of, while preserving the niche that Tailors have with the sewing kit. In theory, it encourages players to take care of clothing that they intend to wear regularly, without being too intrusive(players could safely ignore the mechanic without much punishment). I didn't even think of this! I love it! You could probably borrow from the leather tanning process and seal the raw fibers in a barrel with soap for a few hours, and thus utilize existing code rather than have to write something entirely new. Haha, true! Though now I wonder if Luxury traders might sell scented soaps, and what effects that could have...

Probably a somewhat goofy and rather situational idea, but here's how I could see it working: 1. Basic Soap Craftable in a cookpot with two slots animal fat and two slots wood ash. Wood ash could be obtained by cooking firewood in the firepit or as a potential by-product of charcoal production, and could also serve as a very basic fertilizer in addition to being a soap ingredient. What does basic soap do? It could let the player wash things like dirty cooking pots and oil lamps to turn them back into clean dishes, for one(although why you'd want to do this, I'm not really sure). While standing in water, a player could also use it to wash themselves, granting a temporary buff for a few hours that makes hostile creatures less likely to detect you(ie, shortens the detection radius, similar to the Malefactor trait "Furtive", but not as good). This could be useful in the early stages of the game, when bears and wolves tend to be more of a problem, without removing the hazard entirely. As for why it could also work on drifters--if they can't smell you, they can't find you as easily(and they don't seem to have eyes). Basic soap does not work on automatons(they can't smell), or on prey animals(they're going to either fight or flee a potential threat). 2. Stinky Soap Craftable in a cookpot with two slots fat, one slot wood ash, and one slot sulfur(potentially). This soap is applied the same way as basic soap, but makes you a rather stinky seraph for several hours. While stinky, all wild animals will prefer to avoid you--predators will be deterred by the scent and prey will be able to detect you from much further away. This could be an attractive option for those wishing to explore the wilds or otherwise get things done without dealing with predator ambushes. What are the drawbacks? Aside from making hunting much harder, being a stinky seraph makes it easier for drifters to notice you. Getting swamped with drifters generally is not ideal, though it could perhaps have its benefits in a multiplayer setting if someone is trying to be a tank. Another potential drawback is that traders(or other future NPCs) might refuse to deal with you until you wash the stink off. The stink effect could be washed off at any time simply by bathing with basic soap. ------------ And there you have it--two items that are a bit niche, but that could provide some potential early-mid game utility. The only other thing I can think of to add to the uses is that washing with either soap could provide a small boost to health regen for a short time. It's certainly not as good as bandages, but it could be useful in circumstances where horsetails and cattails(or other healing items) aren't readily available.

Depends a lot on what character I decide to play. The one I play most often is typically set to medium/low tuba. If I'm going for more of a classy roguish sort I'll opt for the oboe or clarinet. Here lately though I've been playing a tailor character and I've got him set to the high-pitched sax. As funny as the sounds are, I'm starting to miss that tuba

This is me sometimes I had forgotten about this mod as well: https://mods.vintagestory.at/show/mod/3846 Basically what it does is introduce a bleedout mechanic, so that instead of dying immediately in combat, you'll enter a bleedout state instead and have a short window of time to try to escape and either patch yourself up, or be in a more convenient spot to retrieve your stuff. On a whim I just gave it a whirl in a test world; what I found: 1. It does not mitigate damage from poisonous mushrooms--that's still instant. 2. Damage from smaller, weaker creatures(like foxes) becomes negligible, for the most part. 3. Fighting wolves unprepared is still ill-advised, but getting ambushed by a wolf isn't a death sentence. You should be able to either fend it off, or escape to a safe place and patch yourself up. 4. Bears are still deadly without the proper equipment. If you're at full health, you can suffer a couple of attacks and still have time to potentially escape and stop the bleeding. Any more hits than that and you're basically just going to be looking for a more convenient spot to die. 5. Fall damage still kills you instantly, if the fall is big enough. Anyway, it may be what you're looking for on the sweet spot between keeping or losing inventory on death. The main drawback I found was that when using the mod, you'll miss out on some of the funny death messages the game has to offer, as the general one you'll end up seeing will be "Player bled to death while fighting ____."

I like player death to have some penalty, but I also like not losing all my stuff! I think this idea could work decently as a compromise between the two. If I'm recalling correctly, I think the player retains their clothing on death, so maybe the hotbar could work in a similar fashion--the items kept there could be kept on death and the bags lost instead. It could be a setting chosen at startup as the middle ground between the all-or-nothing of the other two options. In the meantime, the mod XSkills already does something like this in its Survival talent tree. You do have to take the requisite perks though(which are somewhat of a mid-late game unlock), but it does allow for at least three inventory slots that can be kept on death.

Thanks! I went ahead and threw some rough color on his face in Photoshop, but it's nowhere near a finished product. My digital lines aren't anywhere near as good as the physical drawing, lol.

This is true, to an extent. You do get used to the hazards after a while, which makes them less scary, but I'm not sure it makes them any less dangerous. Too much complacency can kill just as effectively as a lack of experience. For example, an experienced player may not need to bring healing items or the best armor while caving, but getting trapped in a ruin with higher tier drifter moaning at the door might make the same player wish they'd come better prepared. One thing Vintage Story has done exceptionally well so far is give an underlying creepiness to the story that unsettles the player and makes the monsters feel more dangerous, without feeling unfair or stepping into outright horror territory(which, as others in the thread have pointed out, would absolutely be a turn off for some players). The two driving factors behind the creepiness, in my opinion, are as follows: 1. Atmosphere Light is a valuable resource, whether it be daylight or some other light source, and not just for keeping monsters from spawning. Nights are actually dark, even with a full moon, and if you don't have a light source you're not going to be able to see the pitfall that might be right in front of you, or that bear that may be lurking nearby. Likewise, to properly explore most caves, you will need to bring a light source with you. Light sources, however, have a limited range, so unless you really sink resources into lighting everything up in your exploration, there's always going to be darkness looming. Sometimes there's a light source that isn't yours, further down the depths where you may least expect one(and it's not always clear whether it's a ruin, locusts, or glowworms). In any case, the limited vision means that your mind now has to fill in the blanks on what could be lurking out there, and what one's imagination comes up with is often worse than what's actually there. A new player won't know what to expect, and thus may have wilder anticipations and be more easily frightened. An experienced player will have an idea of what to expect, and thus be harder to frighten, but still won't know exactly where the baddies are lurking or when they'll show up. On a similar note, the lore of the world and "set designs" give you enough information to figure out that something horrible happened in the past, but leaves a lot of the details up to your own imagination. 2. Animation and Sound Design What I consider to be the proverbial cherry on top of the cake, in many ways. I don't find drifters terribly scary, at least judging purely by looks. They look interesting, for sure, but they strike me as being derpy cave sloths, which is a little adorable. What creeps me out about them is the animations, and they currently have two types available--the standard hunched over look and the crawlers. The hunched over ones are bad enough, as they end up being a vaguely humanoid shape that comes running at you from out of the dark, often in packs. The crawlers are the ones that tend to actually scare me though, because not only do they typically end up being a blur of movement in the corner of my vision, but they can fit through one block holes. And I just never really know where or when they'll turn up in those underground tunnels. The other creepy thing about drifters that I found--they don't just sit there doing nothing, waiting for a target to show up. They have actual idle animations they will play, provided they don't notice your presence. I encountered one in a cave once, on its hands and knees seemingly crying its eyes out on the ground. I've heard they worship the Jonas machines as well, though I have yet to encounter this. Why they do any of this, I don't know. There are some implications in a few of the lore books, but currently it's mostly left up to the imagination. The fact that they seem to have a "life" outside of "I need to kill the player" is incredibly creepy though, because it's not something I've really seen in other games(at least in this fashion). The game's sound design deserves a mention as well. The drifters sounds menacing enough, without being over the top. The bells don't actually attack you, but nothing makes your heart race like hearing one go off, without actually being able to see where it is. Likewise, the machine-like ambience that comes with temporal instability(as well as the machines located in the Archive) is both cool and unnerving at the same time. --------- Anyway, I've rambled enough. I'm not sure how much of it makes sense, as it's hard to put the thoughts and feelings into words. The closest example I can think, that's easier to explain, is how Subnautica manages to pull off the scare factor. It's not the creatures you can see that are terrifying, for the most part. If you can see it, you can identify it and therefore deal with it. It's what you can't see that is terrifying.

Not exactly a seraph, but the main character I generally play as in a lot of games, Vintage Story included. Though I suppose it still counts given that a seraph is more of a color swap than anything else, assuming no other characters included for context. I may throw this into Photoshop for a rough color job and see what he looks like as a proper seraph. Would absolutely love a pelt like that to wear in-game though! May end up figuring out how to mod one myself, assuming barbarian fashion isn't added in later. I also doodled a picture of Thunderlord Dave for a thread the other day, which you can find here: I like those colors too! Blue happens to be my favorite color! Although I generally pick one of the other options when it comes to skin tone; it's hard to pick a good eye color that contrasts well. I like the extra detail on the hairpin as well. Makes me wonder what the character's backstory is. A scout with a taste for the finer things, perhaps?

Another thought that crossed my mind--instead of atmospheric changes, what about some sort of temporal clock you could craft to check when the next temporal storm is coming? It could be crafted from temporal gears, a Jonas part or two(like the intricately wound spring), and maybe an electrum plate or some electrum widgets. While it would be one of the late-game tech items, it would give better, more immersive options for planning around temporal storms, while still leaving the early storms as something of a sneaky hazard. It would be especially useful in those save files that haven't been played in a while too. In regards to the clockmaker class, I'm not sure if they would have any special detail related to the temporal clock or not. It seems like they should, given they specialize in clockwork mechanisms, but making it a craftable exclusive to them seems like it might make them too strong a pick compared to the other classes. If it was an exclusive recipe, other classes could acquire the clock via trading, I suppose, or perhaps rare dungeon loot. Rather than an exclusive recipe though, clockmakers could just be able to craft temporal clocks using fewer temporal gears, or perhaps without needing the blueprint if it's a recipe requiring one. As a side note, having an item like the temporal clock would give more use to the temporal gears outside of setting spawn points, restoring stability, or the tuning spear and translocators. While they're somewhat of a rare item, it's not too hard to acquire a couple of trunks full by the time you're acquiring steel, and I really hate just throwing them away.

I've been poking around looking at the options as well, though more of out curiosity as I've not yet decided to really jump into the multiplayer aspect of the game. Though I have seen a few roleplaying servers advertised, they didn't quite hit the right note of what I would be looking for. Speaking from RP experience in other games--the easiest RP to find is generally walk-ups, which tends to be pretty casual and never really delves deep into character connections or stories. It can lead to deeper story arcs though, depending on the players involved. The main drawback I've found to walk-ups is that the quality tends to be rather random, and it's often easier to find RP opportunities if you're the one initiating interactions rather than waiting for someone to interact with your character(which is great for extroverted players/characters, but can be a little daunting to the introverts). When it comes to more serious RP content, I think the main ingredient for success is to find a group that can play at the same time on a regular basis and has shared tastes and goals when it comes to overall storyline and characters. It can be more difficult to find the right group, of course, but the results are generally better. Anyway, I wish you luck on your quest! The game seems ripe with roleplaying potential, it may just take some time to find the right group.

Thanks! I don't draw mechanical things very often at all, but I do draw dragons. So many dragons. My strategy here was drawing a dragonish shape and then sticking bits of machine all over.

@ifoz Pics when it's done?

It may not be exactly what was requested, but I hope it delivers! Dave, and one of his minions. I've not been able to see Dave in game yet due to hardware limitations.

The artist in me loves this idea! For bigger sculptures, you could have to mold each piece individually, fire it, and then glue them together with pitch glue. At the very least, it'd be nice to have some terra cotta tiles that you could use for easy flooring/wall coverings, if you wanted to spruce up your buildings without spending a lot of time and material chiseling. Alternatively--glazes. Keep the basic pottery we already have, but add a way to mix glazes in a barrel. Then dip already fired pottery in the glaze and fire again to get pottery that's a different color. That could be a way to get some of the fancy pottery without needing to rely solely on trader RNG, with the tradeoff of requiring more resources and time. For some really interesting pottery--fire in a pit packed full of pine cones or something similar to get a raku look(texturing could be similar to bismuth). Or have a paint system where dyes can be used to color designs on certain materials, like pottery or wood. Then we could not only have prettier pots, but could decorate other stuff as well.

Hah, maybe I should run with the mini-series idea and dump my Nord warrior into a temporal storm. Whiterun has good insurance, but I don't think it covers acts of Akatosh, haha! I do like the Nordic aesthetic and have been wanting to do a playthrough on a Cool start. One thing that crossed my mind earlier though--if drifters are eldritch abominations created by messing with the flow of time, would seraphs qualify as eldritch entities on the opposite side of the spectrum? I'm not sure there is such a thing as a "good" eldritch being, though if it does end up being the case the seraphs do seem to be regarded in a neutral or positive light by remaining humans. That being said, I'm still waiting to stumble across some NPCs later who may be something less than friendly towards seraphs(although not outright hostile either).

This seems to be the best solution to my problems. If I'm more diligent about using what I already have, then I'll have more space to store what I actually need for big projects. I should probably also plan my projects a little better so that I know what I'm going to need/want in advance, and make sure there's an appropriate spot to hold all the materials while I'm working. I've been trying that in the current world I'm playing with, and it seems to be working...as long as don't get distracted running around looking for treasures, that is! Ah, the drawbacks of wanting to collect everything...

The most I've figured out so far: 1. Only full blocks can be chiseled. With default settings, the base block must also be a solid block that is unaffected by gravity(that is, not gravel or sand). 2. Right-click a block with a chisel in your main hand and hammer in your off-hand to turn it into a chiseled block. Left-click to remove pixels, right-click to add them back. Pressing "F" when targeting the block will open up a set of options to help chisel designs more efficiently. 3. To add material to the base chiseled block, press "F" to open the chisel menu, then drop blocks of the material you wish to add into the "+" icon. On default settings, added materials must be in full block form, and must qualify as stable enough to chisel. So blocks like sand and gravel can't be added, while others such as cracked stone can be added only under certain conditions. What these conditions are, I'm not certain, but what I've generally found is that materials like cracked stone can't really be used for really fine, delicate details unless it's a case where there is solid material behind it as a support(such as inlay on floor tiles, for example). 4. Blocks can be moved after chiseling, but I've not messed with it enough to see whether this can always be done without destroying the chiseled block. Generally, when I start chiseling something, I don't want to mess with it once I finish the work.

I do like the text warnings, as they generally get my attention immediately and give me time to either prepare for battle or get to a safe spot. At the same time, it would be nice to have a more immersive transition. Maybe instead of the thunder and lightning, those weird metallic clanking noises that come with temporal storms/rifts? I think those noises also start creeping in when your stability meter starts getting low. For a really dastardly approach--put small flickers of movement in the distance, toward the corners of the screen. Faint puffs of rusty particles or ghost drifters; something to provide enough movement to catch the player's attention but not enough to actually identify.

Hundreds of hours later and I still get paddled by hazards if I'm not careful. What a great game, heh heh. One of my favorite things has been learning the chisel system. It's time consuming, but allows so much customization that's not really possible in other games.

I really like this idea! I've been thinking on ways to acquire more Jonas parts here lately, and while I don't mind them being difficult to acquire, it's a little frustrating sometimes to be entirely at the mercy of RNG(especially if I want to build multiple of a specific thing for some reason). The initial idea I had was that maybe we could later meet Jonas Falx(or some other important NPC), and complete quests in return for parts, if not buy them outright. However, I like your idea much better since it doesn't turn a potentially important NPC into a glorified vending machine. I think you could also use the machine for more than just the creation of Jonas parts. If I recall correctly, gem cutting was on the development roadmap. The assembler could also be used to cut gemstones and create jewelry. Maybe even socket gemstones into pieces of equipment?

*Scene: a trader's wagon in the middle of nowhere* *Trader: "Hey you! You're finally awake! You were trying to escape the rifts, right? Same as me, and that thief over there." *Camera pans to a Malefactor, tied up in the corner* That really tempts me to take one of my characters(or write a new one), plunk them into Vintage Story, and then chronicle whatever ensues via a series of short stories. Though that also requires a lot of focus that I'm not sure I have currently, to achieve the quality I'd want. Some of the armor sets also support this--the full plate and brigandine that we have in the game was more common toward the late Middle Ages, if I recall correctly. Central Europe would be a great setting for the Old World too; you could easily have multiple cultures mixing in one area via trade routes. As a side note, I also learned last night that apparently Anego Studios is based in Latvia, which fits that description perfectly.

Ooooo, yes! It could be a rare type of ruins that has special blueprints that unlocks new recipes for your class, and/or have loot related to a particular class. For example, a tailor shop could have recipes for new clothing, or existing clothing that doesn't currently have a recipe, in addition to having things like sewing kits, linen scraps, or the occasional article of clothing to find. Blackguard barracks could have pieces of their gear to find. There could also be lore books to add some extra exposition on what role each class played during the crisis. Having ruins like this would also offer an option to acquire class-exclusive items in singleplayer without needing to disable the class-exclusive crafting or relying on trader RNG. The main issue would be balancing the loot. If there's too much loot then a lot of the early game could be skipped outright, and loot that is too high-tier can dampen the feeling of accomplishment that comes with achieving new tiers of equipment. On the other hand, it can be refreshing to stumble across a really nice tool earlier in the game, as it can save you a lot of time and effort that can then be devoted to other things(like building). I found a pair of glasses in the Archive! Although given all the drifters that inhabit the world, and what happens during temporal storms...maybe it's for the best that traders can't see very well, haha. I like the goofiness of the seraphs as well, especially the expressions. The main character I play as can actually have a proper resting battle face via the angry expression(although when I draw him, he's usually smiling. Go figure!), which I also find adorably hilarious. The instruments as the voices adds to the effect; it illustrates the character's general personality while skirting the issue of everyone having the exact same voice(like how most Nords in Skyrim sound).

This is what I try to do, as well as having a centralized general storage area. That being said, I tend to accumulate a lot of stuff too because I may need it for building later. Depending on the items involved, it may not be stuff I can easily go gather more of on a whim either. I didn't even think of this; I'll have to try this in one of my worlds! Until now, I've been keeping the raw ore chunks and just smashing them up as I need to.

I agree--there's more than a few references that match the real world, so that's probably what the old world in Vintage Story was. The world we actually play in, however...I'm not really sure. Given that the Resonance Archive seems to have been constructed prior to the events of whatever Jonas accomplished with his master plan, I'd say we're still in the real world, or what's left of it after the calamity. With all the time shenanigans going on, it could also be an alternate timeline altogether. On the subject of character classes though, I wonder if there will be some unique dialogue options and NPC reactions for each one. It would help further integrate the player into the story, rather than just serving to change play style a bit. The traders already have a few different greeting options to pick from, although each one results in the same general conclusion. The other thing I really want to know regarding traders...why on earth are seraph eyes so huge in comparison?! Is it just a difference that will be resolved later with model/texture updates, or is that a legitimate difference between seraphs and humans? I know seraphs tend to be taller on average, with pale bluish skin tones, but if the eyes are canonically that big in comparison to a human's it is a little goofy.