LadyWYT

Welcome to the forums! 20 days is 20 days, regardless of how long the months are set to. I would assume it's balanced the way it is in order to prevent players from just unlocking and using the best farmland in the game en masse before the first winter. By default, months are 9 days long, which means that the player won't really be acquiring loads of terra preta until spring of year 1, but otherwise have a decent passage of time/change of seasons and will be using lower quality soil for their first growing season. If days per month is made longer though, such as setting it to 30, then the player can likely mass and use terra preta before the first winter. However, it's still a lot of work, and in that case each season will be much, much longer, so the player will have to make even more winter preparations, wait even longer for crops, wait even longer for establishing fruit orchards, etc. So it's similar to how the hunger system is set up, in that while it's grounded in realism, it's there more to pose a challenge to the player than it is to be 100% realistic. It's not realistic to die if mealtime is missed for a day, but securing a food supply is one of the major basics of playing the game. Thus death by starvation might not be 100% realistic, but it pushes the player to secure a food supply in order to avoid the consequences.

They're supposed to have elk? I suppose I'll have to pay more attention next time I see one. I've not seen them spawn with elk and not seen any elk wandering around nearby. The second location that contains the boss has seen quite a few changes since it was added to the game. Most notably: All in all, this section of the story plays a lot more smoothly than it did at launch, but players will still need to prepare themselves very well, as it is still quite a difficult section to complete.

That's only if the cause is a monster in a nearby cave, and only if you want to stop the monsters from spawning there.

Or I mean...ghost ship could have a very different meaning in Vintage Story, assuming some past genius thought it was a good idea to make a large seafaring automaton for transport. Imagine seeing a rusted out hunk of junk floating around the ocean and assuming it's just an old abandoned vessel...and then figuring out that it's actively hunting you! In this case, I wonder if it's feasible to designate a special selection of "natural wonders" for landscape generation, and have them generate very rarely. Stuff like Grand Canyon, Great Plains, Uluru/Ayer's Rock, petrified forest, etc. Doesn't need to look like the real world thing, just needs to be something that stands out. We kinda have some things like this in the game, like those epic overhangs, glow worm caves, and special big trees that only occur at world generation, but this is just taking it a bit further, it sounds like.

Honestly, I think this is the better route than having them mock the player for missing--have the drifters get frustrated when you manage to evade the rocks! They already have an animation where they appear to throw their...hands?...up in frustration, so it wouldn't necessarily require a new animation either. As for giving them food...I don't think rotbeasts actually eat anything, if they're even capable. The short story Ghosts suggests that they brutally maul specific targets and leave the mangled body behind. A temporal gear seems more like something that might distract them, or even start a fight between them, while also being a fair cost for providing such an advantage(because food is super cheap in comparison). From a game balance standpoint, I think it's fair to have animals make occasional noise to alert players to their presence, with some animals being noisier than others. However, I think a fair counter to that is to have most animals actively try to keep their distance from the player, if possible. That way, the player has to actually hunt the animal in question, not just walk up to it and provoke a fight(this is how I get most of my meat as a Blackguard--walking up to pigs and rams and starting a fight). As for large predators like bears and wolves...according to the lore, predators are more aggressive for unknown reasons(presumably, a reaction to the catastrophic events of the past), but it would be a little more ideal to have them try to avoid or actively warn players away from their territory, and only attack if that space is disrespected. That behavior is already somewhat present in wolves, it seems, as I've had them give warning growls without attacking, or even sometimes growl and run away.

Ah okay. Interesting... I'm not sure I've seen the idea quite laid out like that. I think the mountain ranges would be a little easier to implement than the ruins. It'd almost certainly have mixed reactions, given some of the initial complaints about terrain navigation when 1.20 launched, but needing to find a pass through the mountains or else go around seems like it would be interesting, especially if the passes have the potential to be snowed under during certain times of year. Aside from travel, it could also be something that affects the local climate, in that you could have one type of biome on one side of the range, and something else entirely on the other side. I'm also assuming that mountain ranges would be easier to place seamlessly into the landscape, since man-made structures tend to stick out. Though on the ruins note...shipwrecks. There's plenty to see and do while traveling over land, but sailing over the water can be tedious. However, imagine just bumming along in your sailboat, wondering when you'll ever find the opposite shore, and suddenly noticing that the funny-looking lump of coral in the reef you're sailing over isn't a rock. If I'm recalling correctly, the lore suggests that some of the Hanseatic League used ships to avoid the Rot, so maybe some of those ships sank and are just loaded with all sorts of valuable trading goods. Of course, the player has to figure out how to retrieve such treasure, before it can be of any use. It's also a good excuse to add potentially dangerous aquatic life such as sharks or squid(Humboldt squid are particularly nasty, as I understand it), or an aquatic monster like a diving bell that may or may not actually be hanging around points of interest like this.

Traders and ruins can already distract, however, usually when the player goes on an expedition, they'll be focused on achieving a particular goal and thus trying to save space for particular loot. Traders are already slated for an overhaul, but as they stand now...they're common enough that it's not really worth going out of your way to check a trader that is miles from anywhere you'd expect to venture regularly. If traders were a lot more rare, then it might be more worthwhile to check them out when you do find them. Ruins are the better distraction here overall, in my opinion. Obviously, ruins can't be too grandiose(performance) or lucrative(game balance), but having the occasional large ruin with a simple puzzle the player can solve for some more interesting loot than normal(noble attire, decorated storage vessels, valuable gems to trade, etc) would definitely entice players to allow themselves to get distracted. Of course, the player can always mark the location and make another trip later to check it out. Yes and no--it depends on the medium. For movies, most of the boring bits like walking are condensed to montages, or cut entirely. With books, there's also a lot of boring content cut(like potty breaks), because it adds nothing to the story and the reader can just reasonably assume that certain things happened to advance the adventure, without actually having to read about it. Otherwise, there is plenty of "boring" content like travel, that ends up being interesting because the story focuses on the character interactions that take place during that time, and not just the travel itself. For the videogame context, longer travel times can help the world feel authentically large. To use Skyrim as an example: Skyrim is supposed to be a vast, untamed wilderness in lore, but in actual implementation it ends up feeling small given that the player can easily get from one settlement to another with a few minutes' jog. In contrast, Vintage Story sets up a world that is mostly wilderness with very few surviving human settlements, and the premise feels believable given that the player has to actually sink time and effort into getting from point A to point B. That is so mean...but I like the idea. Ironically, this was a feature of Morrowind--some NPCs would lie to the player. While it's certainly an immersive quality, it can also be fairly frustrating at times, so it's a tricky mechanic to implement well. The main issue I see with generation on a scale like this, is that it's hard to properly appreciate without a very high render distance. Honestly, if one wanted to be ultra-realistic with rivers, they should require a raft or boat to cross, or else one must find a spot that can be forded. I don't know how you'd simulate such a thing properly though. Better Ruins already adds ruins on a grandiose scale--it's also a mod that's notorious for being hard on performance as a result. It's not that grander landscapes and ruins wouldn't be interesting, but the bigger and more detailed things get the more the hardware requirements go up. The game needs to provide the same general gameplay experience for players across a variety of hardware; that's not to say one should expect it to run on a potato, but players on lower-end hardware shouldn't be left holding the bag, so to speak.

Weird. It could be a drifter or shiver, as @Echo Weaver noted. Shivers are high pitched and raspy, but drifters have deep moans that can sound like a heavy breath, especially if it's the idle sound and not the aggressive noise. Bowtorn have some harsh idle sounds as well. If it's a monster making the noise, chances are that you have a cave system somewhere nearby, that's close enough to the surface for you to hear the monsters. As for it being the character's voice, that's not likely, outside of a mod affecting such(to my knowledge, no mods add idle noise to the player). The player character only makes noise if hurt, starving, or emoting, and those scenarios don't fit what you're describing.

/gm 1 to switch to creative, /gm 2 to switch to survival. Variations like /gamemode creative and /gamemode survival should also work. Toggling gamemode like that shouldn't hurt anything--the worst that can happen is you break a block by accident in creative, or otherwise switch back to survival in an awkward spot(such as while hovering above the ground).

It should be fine to disable the mod, yeah. Doesn't hurt to make a backup of the world beforehand, but the worst I would expect to happen is perhaps an odd ? item or two that needs to be deleted(easiest way to do this is via creative mode). The sabercats are what's likely making the noise, as many big cats make grunts or chuffing sounds. While it might not be realistic for them to be that noisy without a proper cause, the sound serves to telegraph their general presence in the nearby area so that the player isn't caught completely off guard.

Once cleared, I wouldn't expect them to respawn if you have a mod that stops their spawning. They're fairly easy to kill as well, requiring only a couple of hits, or just one hit if you're a Blackguard. Their numbers can make them difficult to deal with though, so you may wish to switch to creative temporarily to wipe them out safely, and then switch back to survival. Is it a bit cheaty? Possibly, but it's an easy way to fix things in a pinch. That will definitely stop them from appearing, however, I don't recommend outright deleting things like that unless you really know what you're doing, as it's a good way to break something. And in the event something does break, it will probably require a reinstall to fix.

Fauna of the Stone Age is the most likely culprit here, assuming you are using a module that adds cats. They can be fairly noisy and the sound carries quite a distance, but once you get used to the noises it gets a little less spooky. Just to make sure all the bases are covered--is there a lot of high winds when this happens, and is your temporal stability gauge full? High wind conditions can be quite noisy, but shouldn't be noticeable inside unless you have some opening to the outside(open door, holes in the wall, etc). If your temporal stability is low, then you could be starting to hear the ambience of the Rust World as your foothold on reality starts to slip. I believe this ambience starts to occur when the gauge(that's the teal gear in the center of your hotbar, if you have the mechanic enabled) drops to around 70%. To make the ambience go away, simply return to a more stable area for a while to recover your stability. Also, if you are using creature mods, it could be a modded creature that you are hearing, as modded creatures tend to make more noise than vanilla creatures.

They only roar when attacking. Otherwise, they can make a low grunt-growl sound, but it's not often, and not easy to notice at all. Granted, I don't think bears roar or snarl a lot IRL unless they're agitated, but from a gameplay standpoint having the occasional loud growl to telegraph their presence would help the player notice and avoid them. There is a game rule that governs how long tools last and I think it's one that can be changed at any time(you will need to reload the world if you do), though I'm not sure of the command. The main reason they break so fast though is to help push the player to progress to metal tools. Stone tools are absurdly cheap, which makes them very easy/convenient to acquire. If they had durability that was more on par with metal tools, the player wouldn't have as much reason to move away from stone tools for most tasks, and metal tools themselves wouldn't really feel like as much of an upgrade when the player does get them. As it stands, metal tools improve greatly on work speed and durability, so even low-tier copper tools feel like a big improvement over stone.

Not particularly--the drifters, shivers, and bowtorn are more disturbing to me. The locusts themselves are actually pretty cute, in my opinion, especially with the blinky light and little buzzing noise they make. That being said, I don't appreciate them trying to remove my face, so I do my Blackguard duty and squash them when I find them.

Welcome to the forums! I'm not sure that you can edit the save file in this manner, or that there's a mod to fix the issue. I know that my friend and I had similar issues recently on our server, and we were able to use the teleport command to perform a rescue--you do need to be fast with the command though, as there isn't much delay between the player hitting connect and actually joining the server. However, I think the more serious issue is the fact that the game is crashing. Speaking of mods, this would be my prime suspicion, assuming you are using them. Mods are what caused the issue on our server--specifically, Fauna of the Stone Age had issues with certain creatures spawns, that would crash the game if one ventured into an area with those creatures. Removing FotSA mods fixed the issue, however, to my knowledge FotSA mods have since been updated properly and are no longer causing problems. If you are using mods, make sure that they are up to date and/or otherwise working correctly. Otherwise, it doesn't matter if you manage to rescue your players and move elsewhere on the map to play--the issue will still be there and likely occur again. If not using mods, best to submit the crash reports over on the github bug tracker, as that's an issue with the game itself that will need fixing.

Pretty much

And here I was going to be cheeky and post a suggestion for a crafting table. I don't know about requiring schematics for all the tinkering, but I do think having a general purpose workbench would be a good way to reduce reliance on the player's crafting grid(for example, the player can craft simple things like tools in the grid, but need a workbench to make things like sailboat figureheads and fruitpresses). Such a bench could be used for woodworking, lapidary, technical work with Jonas parts, etc.

First off, welcome to the forums! Only partial quoting in some cases to save on space--bears are fine as-is, for the most part, though I do agree they could use some footsteps or louder noise to announce themselves from time to time. There was a mod I used a while back that changed the models and added more bear noises, which the added noise really helped make them easy to notice. As it stands though...yes, bears are incredibly strong, but that is realistically what bears are, and the player does have ways to deal with them. It just takes some extra care in the planning instead of bum-rushing the bears with stone age gear and expecting to come out on top every time. Essentially, the bears are the boss of the surface world. I will also note that it is possible to outrun most bears as long as the player isn't weighed down too much by armor and decent at navigating terrain--the one exception to this rule might be polar bears. The only other thing I'd really change here is adjusting the bear's hitbox; the hitbox itself is big enough, but it's possible for the player to clip inside the hitbox and thus be unable to actually hit the bear. This particular detail means that bears can just sit on the player and not get hit, while still being able to maul the player themselves. I agree that it would be nice to have as an accessibility option, but it shouldn't be something baked in by default. I remember when this feature was introduced to Minecraft, and it was one of the first things I disabled in the options as I absolutely positively hate it! While pressing spacebar each time to climb up a steep hill or mountain can get tedious, I much prefer the greater control I have over my movement, than the accidental missteps that tend to occur when the game is just assuming that I wanted to step up certain heights. In any case, for those that wish this kind of function in their game, there is a mod for that: https://mods.vintagestory.at/stepupcontinued This was me too when I started, except I opted for panning because it was a very safe method to get what I wanted. Getting from stone age to copper also gets much easier as one becomes more experienced at the game; otherwise, that initial grind is part of what makes the first set of copper tools so satisfying to acquire. It was a lot of hard work, and they're significantly better than stone! I will also note that the quern requires a hammer and chisel to craft in order to give the player more reason to cast a copper anvil, so grinding ores in the quern isn't going to be an option. I think what I would opt for instead, is to increase the ore drops from panning sand/gravel just a bit--ie, give copper ore a chance to drop two nuggets instead of just one. Still a tedious process if one relies on panning(which is fair, given how safe panning is), but it also makes it a bit more attractive if you want just a bit of ore without needing to find a deposit. Technically, there already is such--you can find it as a story location. Otherwise...I think rifts are fine as they are, and as annoying as the bug is that causes the occasional monster to spawn in broad daylight...I honestly think that could remain as a feature. The spawns only happen near rifts, and aren't frequent at all when the bug does occur, so the end result is that days with high rift activity end up a bit more interesting since you end up needing to watch your back more carefully. The main issue I see with changing rifts like this though, is it ends up encouraging players to seek out the rifts, instead of avoiding them or building rift wards to stop them from opening. Rifts should be a hazard that players want to avoid, not interact with. Fighting anything in a cave can be dodgy--the best way to handle caving, aside from lighting everything up, is to equip good weapons and armor, and only venture in during periods of lower rift activity. It's also a good idea to have both melee and ranged weapon options available, regardless of your class, as it can help make situations like this more manageable. As for situations where the enemies are simply too much handle...I think this is also fair. Player skill and equipment does affect how much can be managed at a time, but it's not out of the question that sometimes, the odds just aren't in your favor and it's best to avoid the fight and come back later during better conditions. Granted, those situations shouldn't happen too often(which they don't, in my opinion), but otherwise a decent chunk of the game's combat is just figuring out which fights are worth handling and which aren't. I was thinking about this the other day, especially after watching a short video on YouTube where someone mentioned this about games as a whole: the more you opt for efficiency, the less fun the game ends up being. That's not to say that there isn't a subsection of players who get their kicks from optimizing for peak efficiency, or that doing so is the wrong way to have fun. However, if it's fun...doesn't that mean the player should want to spend more time playing the game, and not less? Granted, the answer there isn't to add so much grind that the player is forced to spend time playing(a lot of MMOs are guilty of this), but at the same time...playing the most efficient way means that the player finishes the game in the fastest possible time. It's kinda like going for a walk in the woods versus driving the same route; driving will let you make the trip faster and is certainly more efficient in terms of time, but you're not going to be able to enjoy all the sights, sounds, and smells that you would be able to by walking. I think it's a similar case when it comes to Vintage Story pacing. Nothing wrong with wanting to take it slow, or really push to certain tech, but the faster one reaches the end game the more likely they are to be left scratching their heads wondering "well, now what?". The current setup of Vintage Story allows the player the freedom to advance as quickly or as slowly in the game as they'd like(assuming they have the necessary skill), though there are some limits. Outside of the preset difficulties, the player can adjust many settings themselves to make specific things easier or harder, and add mods on top of that for what the vanilla game doesn't cover. For myself, I can easily achieve a full set of copper tools within the first few in-game days, and bronze a couple of days after that. I like to rush iron and usually have it by the middle/end of summer, at which point I start slowing down my pace. The main reason I rush iron is I like the durability and effectiveness of the tools; it's not as good as steel, but it lets me get a lot of my more creative works done without burning through a ton of lower quality tools. I will still use flint tools on occasion though, as flint knives are handy in a pinch and flint axes are handy for spiltting firewood. In other words, I would say that Vintage Story is definitely a slower-paced game, and meant to be completed over the course of several game sessions rather than just a game you complete over the weekend. As you've already noted, players can adjust themselves in the world settings simply by either enabling patchwork biomes, or shortening the polar-equator distance in the event they want to keep realistic climate distribution. Now as to what makes a world "sub-optimal"...that depends heavily on individual preference. Players who want to get everything with only a day's travel will probably find the default generation lacking. Players who prefer a world that feels properly expansive probably won't be satisfied with generation that allows them to get anything with only a day's travel. Personally, I prefer the current default, and don't like worlds where it's possible to go from temperate to the tropics in only a couple days travel--the world feels way too small at that point.

In this case, it's not so much bug fixes I'd be worried about--it's the major changes to certain systems like pottery. I think From Golden Combs had some issues with its ceramic hives while the mod author was updating the mod. Likewise, Fauna of the Stone Age had some issues with crashes, which seem to have been fixed. So...yeah, mileage will heavily vary when mods are involved. The more one has, the harder it is to update. As @Professor Dragon noted, it's a good idea to make backups regardless, and test your modlist on a separate world to see what works and what doesn't. If certain mods aren't working, you can either wait for them to update, or strip them out of the modlist if possible for the update.

You can also squeeze honeycomb in the fruitpress; just make sure you have a bucket underneath to catch the honey, and enough honeycomb for the press to actually squeeze. I'm not sure what the minimum level is, but if it's not enough to squeeze at the time you can save the unmashed block and throw it back into the press with more comb later.

Yes and no. The game will flag outdated mods, and you'll need to update them manually. However, just because a mod is flagged as outdated doesn't mean it won't still function normally. Whether or not it functions as it should depends on what changed in the base game code between versions; always test outdated mods before using them on a permanent world.

There is this mod: https://mods.vintagestory.at/show/mod/8785 If used in conjunction with Fauna of the Stone Age, Floral Zones, and other mods that add plants/creatures, it will limit them to spawning only in their appropriate region. The difference is still more subtle than what you might find in the other block game, but it can add quite a lot of diversity. It's probably a combination of luck and experience. Once you know what to look for, it's harder to find any world with "bad" generation, since the resources will be more noticeable. That's not to say it isn't possible to get dealt a bad hand--it's just easier to handle them when you do.

What @Mantisek said--it might be more realistic to require multiple heatings, but it adds extra tedium to a process that can already be tedious, without adding anything particularly interesting. I will also note that some projects already take multiple heatings in the forge, such as anvils. In any case, the current system is fun without being too tedious, and the player is able to get their projects done within a reasonable time.

Boy do I have a mod for you! https://mods.vintagestory.at/expandedstomach You can absolutely do this with that mod as well. Just, y'know, be careful about how often you do it. We built drawbacks to overeating into the mod, so you can't stuff yourself all the time and get away with no consequences. There are three different preset difficulties, and the wiki gives an in-depth rundown on pretty much everything you could want to know. And of course, for players that want the utility only and really don't want to deal with the challenge part at all...they can basically break the mod and make it utility-only by changing certain things within the config file. Edit: If you do use the mod, you'll likely want this one to go with it: https://mods.vintagestory.at/hungerpatcher All it does is fix the hunger glitch that can sometimes freeze your hunger bar--not the same thing as the pause with eating a meal! In any case, without the fix, the game can sometimes end up assuming that the player was overeating when they actually weren't, and unfairly penalize them.

I'm guessing because it was pretty OP before. Cattle are big, and drop a lot of meat, hide, fat, and bones, so to be able to just immobilize one cheaply and stab it to death... Will miss the easy steaks though.