LadyWYT

Right, however, the majority of skills, as I recall, don't rely on mastery. Of the ones that do, it tended to be the very last "level" for a particular talent that required the mastery perk, but having 2/3 levels on a talent was still rather strong.

No. While these kinds of systems can be quite fun, I don't think they fit the tone of Vintage Story very well, since such systems rely on a "one-size-fits-all" generic backstory for the player character. In the case of Vintage Story though, the player character isn't some generic nobody--they have specific ties to specific plot-relevant characters, and what those ties are depend heavily on class choice. Now the player could, I suppose, select a backstory from a predetermined list at character creation, but that spoils quite a lot of the main story, which is meant to be a mystery for the player to solve. The main problem here is that while this works in multiplayer, where there are other players to rely on...it doesn't work so well for single player. Currently, there are class-exclusive items, but none of them are so critical that the game can't be played without them. Many of them can be obtained via ruins loot or purchased from traders, but the player can also turn off class-exclusive recipes and craft whatever they want as well. I don't see that happening with a skill-based system, and I really doubt players will be thrilled about needing to either turn off the skills entirely to access everything, or lock themselves out of fun gameplay(like climbing) or incredibly useful items(like snowshoes or mechanical bits). I will also note there is a mod that implements something similar--XSkills. While it's a fun mod to play with, it's also very easy for players to fall behind the power curve in multiplayer, or characters to end up feeling very much the same in singleplayer since it's possible to earn almost every skill if one plays long enough, barring a few mutually exclusive skills. It's been a while since I've played with the mod, but to my knowledge there's no cap on how many skills one can earn. What I would rather see is classes remain as they are--specific characters with specific strengths and weaknesses--with the ability to earn new semi-permanent traits over time, good or bad, depending on what the player does in the game. Likewise, the player could also lose those acquired traits if certain conditions are met. For example, practicing archery consistently could yield bonuses to ranged damage and accuracy, while frequently neglecting ranged weapons after acquiring that trait might cause it to be lost. In this fashion, the player can have a character with specific history and ties to the world, while still having control over how the character evolves over the course of the game in a natural way.

Just my two cents' worth of thought, but I think this is a step that many forget when it comes to AI usage. Personally, I'm not a fan of AI content, but I'm also not against using AI as a tool, since like any other tool it can be very useful when appropriately applied. While most AI use is fairly obvious, sometimes it can be hard to tell, so proper labeling helps players determine if AI was used, and how, allowing them to make an informed decision. Some will be okay with it and use the mod, some won't want to use the mod at all, and some might be okay with AI thumbnails but not with AI coding. I think what probably trips many players up is when the mod's description isn't clear about AI use, so they download it expecting one thing and get frustrated when the mod isn't exactly "as seen on TV", so to speak. This is also very fair, and I'm glad to hear you aren't giving up on modding! Hopefully some of the dust will settle, enough to feel comfortable sharing with the community again, but if not that's okay too.

Welcome to the forums! I think development has been progressing quite well, but I don't expect 1.22 stable to be ready by the first of April. There are still several bugs to swat and some of the content still needs to be polished, like procedural dungeons and berry bushes, if those features are going to be fully added in the stable release.

I do like XSkills, but it struggles in multiplayer if not everyone is playing at the same general frequency. I also feel it could have benefited from having a stricter implementation, in that the player has a limited number of total skill points they earn, and can either choose to invest them broadly for several small bonuses or choose to focus on a couple of specific areas to be really strong at specific tasks(like farming or combat). As it stands(at least last time I played), there's not really any limit on how far the player can advance themselves, other than the handful of skills that are mutually exclusive. In regards to earnable traits, some of them could be permanent, but I think a lot of them could just require "light maintenance" in order to actually keep, similar to how the player needs to eat different food occasionally to keep nutrition. Practicing archery for a long time could grant a bonus to ranged damage and accuracy, but proceeding to go for a while without really using that skill at all should also cause the player to lose that acquired trait.

Welcome to the forums! You will need a free backpack slot in order to carry a basket containing a creature.

I like the idea, but I would prefer that the concept be handled via status effects or earnable traits rather than a prompt to pick a secondary class. This way, the player has a way to develop their character further, in a way that feels very natural to how the game progresses. Want an archery boost? Better start practicing, or pay an NPC trainer for help! Consistently surviving fights could make a character tougher. Forming a habit of eating poisonous things and managing to survive could build up a resistance to toxins, etc. One thing I do want to note--movement speed increase is a nice bonus, but not a very balanced one in the current state of the game. If you look at the classes as they are now, Blackguard stands out as the one that should be moving around faster in armor. However, if you actually compare the numbers between Blackguard and Hunter/Clockmaker, the latter will be faster in every single instance except plate, in which case the classes are tied. I don't think movement speed should be removed as a trait, however, I do think it should be reworked so that it only applies when the player is not wearing armor that imposes a movement penalty. That way it still remains useful for scouting or skirmishing, but won't be so useful that the class/trait starts to become an instant pick in every circumstance. Incidentally, the above is why I'm not a fan of this particular sub-class example, even though it's usually what I like to play. The idea is nice and all, but without a way to make the enemies target the Bulwark, it becomes underwhelming rather quickly. The extra attack damage and speed only applies if the Bulwark can actually catch the the target...which isn't going to happen in a PvP situation and isn't likely to happen in PvE either as that's usually enough of a movement speed drop to allow faster enemies to start outrunning the player. The extra protection on shields helps a little for survival, at least in a PvE situation, but for a PvP situation it's not going to help very much since a faster target can easily use hit-and-run tactics to whittle down the Bulwark. Now to be fair, I don't think the game needs to be balanced around PvP, and PvP servers will generally need additional rules/mods anyway to balance combat however the players think is appropriate. However, I do think it's a good idea to look at potential PvP balance to get a sense of how each class balances against the others. If there's a trait, like the current movement speed, that is a little too useful in most situations, then it's likely to prompt players to start picking that class/trait by default rather than miss out on that utility.

Usually it's best to submit this kinds of bugs/translation errors via Github ticket, as that is where issues are actively tracked. Too easy for them to slip through the cracks on the forums.

In addition to keeping an eye out for borax(which you will need later for working steel and meteoric iron), it's also worth keeping an eye out for Commodities/Survival Goods traders if you are playing with lore content enabled. These traders often have lime for sale, which can be a good short-term solution while you search out a better source. Seashells can also be ground into lime(yields two lime per shell), but this is probably the most tedious way to acquire lime.

It should be, yes, but if you just want to gross out your friends...

Don't worry, we've all been there! It's how I learned to play.

Not that you'd want to eat them or anything, but...y'know, if you can eat termites, you ought to be able to eat worms as well. They shouldn't be at all filling, of course, but they could offer a sliver of protein to keep desperate players from otherwise starving.

To my knowledge, heat sources don't affect clothing durability, unless perhaps the player is standing close enough to the heat source to set themselves on fire...which I'm also pretty sure isn't the case here. Clothing will slowly wear down over time; a new fur coat at the beginning of winter will begin to become worn and start losing its warmth bonuses by mid-late winter. Wading through water can degrade boots faster, while swimming can do the same for clothes as a whole. Breaking blocks with hands seems to wear out gloves faster as well. If the player is attacked and not wearing armor in the appropriate slots, clothing is also much more likely to be damaged--if that's the case there will be a ripping sound effect. What's more likely happening here, is that the forge isn't located in a valid room, and thus won't retain heat. When the fire goes out, the character's body temperature will start to drop, and since sleeping fast-forwards time the character wakes up cold. As for the main part of the post, I do think this is a neat idea, though it would be one better suited for the addition of a status effect system or rework of the current temperature system in the game. The main purpose of a smithing apron, I do believe, is to protect the blacksmith from sparks and flecks of hot metal. Leather tends to be somewhat fire-resistant, while other clothing isn't so much.

Ah I gotcha. Yeah that would be a nice section to have, though it seems like thumbnail image requests might already fall under the "Mod requests" category. Except instead of someone requesting a mod, it's the modder requesting help with assets. Probably wouldn't hurt to drop a request or two in there to see if anyone bites.

That too, though a decent workaround I've found is just settling in an area with good rainfall. Irrigation does help crop growth times, but it's not absolutely required.

I mean it seems fair to me. Speaking from the artist side of it though, art does take time(both to produce stuff and to acquire the skills necessary to produce said stuff), and artists are more likely to take up work that offers some kind of compensation rather than work for free. It's just business. Unfortunately, it's also not uncommon for some to expect artists to work entirely for free, offering only "But think of the EXPOSURE you'll get!" as compensation. I will note that this isn't most people, and there's not a problem with asking for free art either, but it depends heavily on how one does the asking. There's also the case of, some will catch wind of a generous artist doing free work, and try to take advantage of that generosity. I used to do free character art threads occasionally on a different game forum, and ended up quitting because some were getting rather pushy/rude/way too entitled about it. It's similar to asking a programmer to do code work for free; coding can be rather difficult and time-consuming. If it's not code they have any kind of personal investment in and they aren't otherwise feeling generous/have time to spare, they'll likely want to be compensated for the work. It also depends on the artist. The higher their skill or the more in-demand their work is, the more they're likely to charge for their work. Some undervalue their work and don't charge as much as they maybe should, while others want to charge top-tier prices for mid-low tier work. Ironically, I've heard that AI content has driven up the prices of the real stuff in some cases, in part because the real stuff is harder to produce and in many cases is produced by traditional methods that yield tangible results. Unfortunately, the popularity of AI content also means you need to be careful when looking for artists to commission, as there are some out there that might be advertising themselves as artists but relying entirely on AI production. To be fair though, shady deals are nothing new, nor exclusive to the art world either.

Welcome to the forums! If you don't want the legacy bushes anymore, or want new bushes without starting a new world, the easiest way to get them is probably by switching to creative mode, retrieving the appropriate cuttings/bushes, and then placing them where you'd like before deleting the bushes from your inventory and switching back to survival. You can switch to creative via /gm 2 and to survival via /gm 1.

Maybe, but as I understand it the moat/pit method is quite slow, since you're relying on the animal to get close enough to the bait to be attracted. Hunting might take more effort, but you can cover more ground quickly and thus make more kills within a shorter time. So much this. Bows are better in regards to inventory space and can be fired faster, but in the early game spears pack a harder punch. I tend to carry 3-5 spears on me when hunting in the early game as a Blackguard.

Why wait when you can have it now with mods? https://mods.vintagestory.at/vsairshipmod

Welcome to the forums! Pit trapping is a way to catch animals, and usually involves a moat around farms or a farmland tile they can't reach, since crops will lure certain wildlife(was bugged but fixed in 1.22). That being said, I would recommend hunting while you get your farms and livestock up to speed. Chickens and rabbits are easy prey, but boar and deer tend to be better since they yield more meat per kill along with larger hides and fat. Don't forget to cook the raw ingredients into proper meals as well, either via the cookpot or pies. Meals are much better at solving the hunger problem than basic raw/cooked food.

Spring is typically when I start cleaning out whatever stuff in the cellar is getting old/starting to go bad in order to make room for fresh stuff. It's also a good time to start getting the fields ready for planting or heading out on short adventures since cold weather is no longer an issue. I'll often start to build new stuff around this time as the snow melts off, since it's a little easier to visualize things when snow isn't covering everything. Summer is prime time for exploring, though I often find myself hunting quite a lot during this time as well. Also a good time for hauling lots of ore back to base, or building stuff given there's lots of daylight to work with. Autumn is when I focus on bringing in the full harvest of grain, vegetables, and fruit, as well as preserving foodstuffs for the winter, if I haven't started already. Sometimes I'll go on mining trips during this time as well, but it's not unusual to be chopping woodpiles and refining charcoal during this time either while trees are still sort of growing. Winter is when I spend most of my time at the forge and refractories, processing ore and refining steel. The wind is ideal for powering machinery and the heat makes dealing with the cold rather easy. Late winter is when I'll plant fruit tree cuttings, if I have cuttings to plant. Ironically, despite winter not being an ideal time for adventuring, I seem to end up going on more adventures during this time than in better weather. It's not unusual to be doing story content--chapter 2 especially--during the dead of winter.

Welcome to the game and forums! Conserving energy is generally ideal, but it shouldn't become such a focus for the player that that becomes all that they do. If food stores are running a little thin in winter, they can be supplemented with hunting or foraging up what mushrooms and edibles there are to find. It'll be rough, but doable. One of my primary wintertime tasks, aside from just sprucing up my base, is working the forge and refining steel. Winter usually brings lots of wind, which is great for powering a helve hammer via windmill. The forge will keep you toasty warm, and the refractory will also provide a great spot to warm up while it's being fired. Same holds true for the beehive kiln. Mining and underground exploration are also good activities if you've got the gear for it, since the underground tends to hold a relatively stable temperature year-round. The way I tend to look at it is that while the player might have infinite lives by default and death isn't too terribly punishing, it's also not really great to be dying multiple times in a row either, nor is it typically very fun. Generally, when player death occurs, it tends to mean that there is room for improvement regarding strategy. That might mean storing more food for winter, or acquiring better equipment to go fight monsters, or just not poking the bears when all the player has is improvised armor and a stone spear. Really depends on the situation. Another way to put it is that surviving is a little more than just not dying. In order to survive and thrive, the player needs to figure how to stay alive and acquire the resources and equipment needed to accomplish what they wish. I think this might change with a status effect system, if some of those effects persist through death. Death itself, or multiple deaths within a short time, might have negative effects of their own as well to help encourage players to actually try to stay alive rather than just take the dirt nap and respawn like nothing happened. World of Warcraft had a similar idea, in that typically when the player died they could run back to their body as a ghost and respawn at that spot with a fraction of their health. If they couldn't reach their body or just wanted an easy out though, they could respawn at full health with the spirit healer in the graveyard, though they would be severely weakened for one hour as a result.

Same. Happiness in VS is a Blackguard in a strawberry patch. My grandma had a patch of strawberries in her garden. It never seemed to produce many strawberries though. She didn't figure out why until she caught the dog eating the ripe strawberries one day.

Someday I want to take a crack at making a strawberry bed in real life. Except I think I'm going to try to put them in a stack of terra cotta pots as a stylized raised bed. Dunno how well it will work, but it will be a fun project to try. Might even help keep some of the critters out of the plants too.

You can! I think it's slightly less efficient than other coal types, but not to the point it's a waste to use it. You will need charcoal or coke for the coffins though, as no other fuel type is appropriately carbonated.