LadyWYT

This tracks with how certain NPCs describe temporal storms. However, I'm not sure how feasible it is to actually implement in gameplay. Sure, monsters could be allowed to bash down doors or break through windows, but then the players is just discouraged from making windows and encouraged to plunk down solid blocks in front of the door to prevent entry. There's not really a way to mitigate the latter either, as if monsters are allowed to dig through softer blocks like dirt then the player is just going to plunk down stone. On top of it all, the chiseling system would also need to be accounted for, as it's not ideal to have hundreds of hours of chiselwork destroyed in an instant. Making chiseled blocks indestructible via monsters also isn't really a solution, as then all the player has to do is smack the fortifying blocks with a chisel to make them impervious. And regarding monster break-ins...the other block game attempted this, but zombies breaking down the door in that game depends entirely on how the door is mounted. I've always mounted mine "backwards", since that looks nicer to me, which also means that since it's the "wrong" way then the zombies can never break it. Maybe some sort of rift ward upgrade(or different machine entirely) would be more ideal for this situation, like an upgrade to prevent certain monster spawns during the storm. That way, the player could prevent bowtorn spawns, for example, so they only get shivers and drifters. Or perhaps they simply limit enemy spawns to only the nightmare level, so there are fewer enemies to deal with, but the ones that spawn are more lucrative. A machine like this I would also limit to one per X block radius, in order to keep the player from having too much control over what spawns(essentially, the player could limit monsters by type, or by quality, but not both at the same time).

I've never played Thief but heard good things about the stealth, so I can definitely get on board with adding stealth options to the game. Can also agree here, though I'd keep the surface hordes. If the underground were tuned to favor fewer enemies, but stronger ones when they occur, I think that would make the spelunking more enjoyable. Can't say I've heard of Darkwood, but honestly the temporal mosh pit outside the front door is part of the horror of temporal storms. I somewhat agree with @Echo Weaver on this, however, I think you've hit the nail on the head, perhaps, with the metagaming bit. I've seen several complaints about various things on the forums, and while that's not to say they all lacked substance, the root of many complaints seems to be...players opting for what they perceive as the meta, rather than what they find fun. Min-maxing isn't bad, and that is how some players have fun, but a player that chooses to play that way each time every time locks themselves into a very narrow experience. Honestly, I'm not sure that player metagaming can ever be truly fixed. There will always be ways to exploit the creature AI, and there will always be the "best" way to do specific game tasks if one does the math. Ironically, I do enjoy the game's combat, but also am avoiding it most of the time. Which does sound like a paradox, however, I think that's also partly why I enjoy it. The game pushes me to pick my battles very carefully, lest disaster strike, rather than constantly push me to do nothing but fight! For as much as I enjoy me some Skyrim, that's one complaint I have about that game as well--there really are no good options for dealing with enemies aside from "kill", unless you mod. Which is also why I don't want Vintage Story to become focused entirely on the combat. If I want lots of combat and action in general, I will go play one of the games that supports that. Vintage Story is more like a nice stroll in the woods, or a long-term project that I can relax and chip away at to unwind at the day's end.

Tagging on to this, because it's probably the best general summary of my thoughts on the matter. I do agree that there is room for improvement on the combat; most notably, the hitboxes are the worst offender, especially for ranged, as hits don't always connect when they really should. In melee it's not so bad, as the crosshair will turn red when the target is close enough to be hit, however, melee also bears one of the best examples of hitbox problems, in the form of bears. It's possible for the player to clip into a bear's model and thus be unable to actually hit the bear, while the bear can still hit the player. I also suspect that the hitbox issues are why several players jump to brand combat bad as a whole. However, when this particular topic comes up, I don't tend to be in favor of a combat rework, as most of the time what seems to be asked for is a complete rework of the system to put more focus on combat and action, and not so much just smoothing out the system already in place(like adjusting hitboxes). That is, flashy moves, hit combos, etc, is what comes to mind. There's nothing wrong with those, but generally such things are better suited for fantasy or over-the-top action games, and not so much a game that's trying to stay grounded in realism. I'll cite Skyrim's kill cams as an example here--they've aged...not so gracefully, perhaps, but the main idea behind them was to give the player a flashy finishing move so their character could look really cool while ending an opponent. Monster Hunter also has a lot of flashy moves and combos with absolutely ridiculous weapons, armor, and moves. However, while moves like the listed examples might look really cool, an analysis of their actual practicality often reveals they're absolutely horrible for any kind of real combat situation(too easily countered, leaving too many parts of the body unguarded, etc). Part of Vintage Story's atmosphere is that there are otherworldly monstrosities that will have to be dealt with occasionally in order to survive and progress the story, and those monstrosities are a hazard rather than bags of loot for the taking once defeated. Fighting them is sometimes necessary, but it can also just as easily get you killed(even with good equipment) should you pick a fight at the wrong time. NPCs themselves will inform the player of how dangerous the world is(most NPCs hide in fortified bunkers during temporal storms, when possible); to have the player be able to just slaughter their way through any foe with impunity makes that kind of set building laughable. That's not to say the player shouldn't have an easier time in combat as they acquire better gear, because they should; my main point is that changes to the combat system need to be done carefully, lest the entire setting be changed as well.

This. Once you find a quartz vein with gold or silver, then you can decide whether or not to use bombs or the pick to dig it out.

It's something that's probably more useful in multiplayer than it is in singleplayer. I do like to feed mash to my animals in singleplayer, just because it's something different, and useful, and I don't always need the compost. However, when playing with my friend, the food reserves can get a bit thin sometimes, so feeding mash to the critters becomes a much more attractive option. That being said, I'm also pretty sure that we're able to feed fruit mash to the chickens in our game. However, it could be a modded feature and not vanilla, as we are playing with a handful of mods. In any case, if one is to try it in vanilla, the fruit mash needs to be put into a small trough for chickens, as they won't be able to eat from a large trough.

I actually have to disagree, at least partially. Yes, combat is required to complete the story chapters, at least so far. However, aside from boss battles, the main focus of the story chapters is solving puzzles and discovering places. In some locations, it's possible to skip fighting some of the monsters, though it depends heavily on certain conditions being met(such as rift activity in a very specific area of chapter 2). As for the storms, fighting through is only one option of how to handle them--the player can also choose to work indoors, hide in a bunker, or even sleep through it if they have that rule set to "true". While Vintage Story does have combat, it's not an action game, nor is it really trying to be. The game's main focus is homesteading, exploration, and solving creepy mysteries. The combat system that is there is pretty solid, and simple enough for newcomers to jump right in and start having fun, while also having enough nuance for players to hone their skills over time(timing movement to dodge attacks, for example). The monsters, which are the main threat to the player, aren't so much enemies to actively hunt, as much as they are environmental hazards that the player will need to figure out how to deal with. Sometimes that's killing them, sometimes that's avoiding them. Likewise, temporal storms act as an unnatural disaster that the player will have to plan around, and help illustrate the point that something horrible happened to the world.

I mean if we want to be ultra-realistic about it...the chickens should have a chance to eat each other, as well as a chance to eat their own eggs. In general, chickens aren't terribly picky about what they eat--food is food, and when opportunity presents they'll happily take it.

Such is the price of convenience.

Eh, all you'd have to do, most likely, is just make unpruned sections look rather shaggy, and have the players use the shears on those sections. The shears can already be used to prune berry bushes, though that currently does nothing aside from making the bush a neat cube. That could also be subject to change, as it seems berry bushes may potentially get a rework sometime in the (near?) future.

Welcome to the forums! I don't really have any good advice here, other than submit the crash report over on the github bug tracker: https://github.com/anegostudios/VintageStory-Issues/issues If it's an issue with the TOPS server or the game code, the devs will certainly want to know, and if it's not they should be able to help potentially pinpoint the problem.

This is true, and I do expect creature behaviors to get more complex as time goes on. However, I'm not sure that changing behaviors from "always aggressive" to "sometimes aggressive" really makes that much of an impact on the gameplay in terms of natural creatures(monsters should really always be aggressive, as they don't feel like the creepy threats they're meant to be otherwise). On the one hand, it could give players a better chance of survival should they accidentally stumble across predators like bears and wolves. On the other hand, that could also lead new players to assume that dangerous animals aren't actually that dangerous and more similar to the other block game, if the first encounters they have with them aren't aggressive. Overall though, I expect the average player to avoid dangerous creatures to begin with, or otherwise kill them, to ensure their own safety. "Might not attack" isn't the same as "won't attack", so better to be safe than sorry.

I don't remember who it was, but I recall reading a post of some poor soul building their pit kilns underneath their tool racks.

One other thing I would check is different parts of the structure in question. It's possible you built right on a border area, so part of the house might be stable and part might be...not so much.

That's the one where you have to circle a tree three times, eat a bowl of turnip stew(ONLY turnips--any other ingredients will cause this to fail), squawk like a chicken, stand on your head, and then dig a hole exactly 50 blocks to the north of your location to find the duplicated peat, right?

It seems to favor claystone, although I think it can spawn in most any sediment rock.

There was one, but it was long out of date. It's nice to see an up-to-date option though! I like the color code idea for highlighting particular noises as well.

Honestly, I think it's okay to let alcohol bandages be stronger as a post-fight healing option, instead of what you choose for combat healing or long travels. Reason being, is that aqua vitae and linen bandages are very cheap. Honey-sulfur bandages never dry out and heal for the same amount, but I would actually call them more expensive since sulfur deposits aren't always available, and the traders aren't always selling sulfur either. Plus if the player is one to use bombs, that will cut into any sulfur supply as well.

Well technically, charcoal is renewable too since it's made from firewood. And there are other combustible organics that technically count as renewable fuel(like grass), but they aren't exactly useful as fuel, most of the time.

Welcome to the forums! I'm thinking we don't, mainly because it doesn't really seem to fit with Vintage Story's style. However, I also think there's a better system already being fleshed out, that covers more spectacular things that the player has done. I'm not going to spoil too much, but essentially, the player can tell stories of their adventures to certain NPCs. I think it would be interesting to have more interactions like that unlocked with appropriate characters, as the player does various things in the game.

I like it, though I wonder if perhaps the burn time could be improved a bit to compensate. That way instead of being an unrenewable fuel that burns slightly hotter and slightly shorter than firewood, it could be just a little bit better than firewood overall. Firewood still retains value as it's a fuel that can be available instantly, in pretty much every climate.

Possibly, but I was thinking something more along the lines of the dwarven ballista from Skyrim, in that it's a sentient mechanical contraption rather than a rotbeast. In that case, I would expect it to be lurking in a larger ruin underground, or perhaps a bunker carved into a mountainside. That would make mountains a little more exciting for players to run across.

I'd actually prefer just a simple boost to sailing speed in proportion to current wind speed. What you've proposed here works on paper, but I think in actual practice it would be very frustrating, as it only ends up encouraging water travel in one direction. If wind direction is going to factor in, it really ought to be like Valheim's system, which...honestly, I'm not really a fan of. Valheim does sailing very well, but I do find it rather tedious, if not outright frustrating, since oftentimes the wind just isn't blowing in a useful direction and the game requires a LOT of sailing. There is a special ability to unlock that will make the wind always blow in a useful direction for a short time, but taking that ability does mean you're forgoing abilities that are far more useful on average.

She can attack at any time in the Devastation, though as @Maelstrom says the true fight is supposed to happen at the top of the Tower. If you're not near the Tower, or not yet at the top, she will just do the occasional divebomb. I will note though that there have been issues with this boss actually showing up to the arena, however, I think those have been fixed. If the boss got stuck on blocks though, I would screenshot the exact portion and go report it on the github bug tracker, as I doubt that's intended. I'm posting the rest under spoilers:

Oh wow. I knew that monsters could climb up ladders, but not down. Didn't know the same logic applied to bears as well.

I was thinking you could probably toss some basic wiring/tubing onto that pile in order to allow players to build basic door control switches and whatnot. Some handy little gizmos and gadgets, or perhaps some grander contraptions, but nothing fully automatic or overly complex like what can be done with redstone. By that I mean the player will always need to be providing some sort of input to the machines in question, much like they do already with the helve hammer.