LadyWYT

Blue, rue, glue, rubaboo...

Welcome to the forums! Like @Metalton already noted, what's probably happened is that you built your base on the edge of an unstable area. And like he already noted, checking your base carefully to figure out what's stable and what isn't will allow you to figure out if you can just move a few things around, or if you need to potentially relocate the entire thing. Do keep in mind though, that instability doesn't mean the area is completely off-limits; it just means you don't want to spend a lot of time in that area on a regular basis. If the unstable area encompasses something like storage barns or cellars, it's not really a big deal, but if it covers something like a smithy(where you'll need to do a lot of work, with relative frequency) then you'll want to move that stuff to a more stable area. Aside from that, or turning the mechanic off entirely, you can also use mods to solve/otherwise mitigate the problem. I linked a few here, but bear in mind that it's always best to test mods on a throwaway world before adding them to worlds you actually care about, as well as make backups of cherished worlds in case something does go wrong. Temporal Amulets: https://mods.vintagestory.at/temporalamulets Temporal StabiliTea: https://mods.vintagestory.at/show/mod/27496 Chunk Stability Override: https://mods.vintagestory.at/chunkstaboverride

Finally getting around to giving an answer here, but... The reason I say it's the opposite of what you initially suggested, is that in my opinion berry bushes are currently too strong in relation to other aspects of VS agriculture. The player can't propagate them, but there's no penalty for hoovering up all the ones found in the wild and relocating them to one's base. Berry bushes also produce more than one yield of berries a year, which isn't particularly accurate to real life(not that everything has to be), but it's one reason that a lot of players skip fruit trees in favor of berries. Berries are just a ridiculously easy source of food, or compost if one just leaves the harvest to rot. Thus I think it's a better change to have a propagation system, so the player will actually need to put in a bit more effort if they want their own berry patch at home. Likewise, reducing yields to one or two harvests per year(depends on climate and berry species) would help push the player to vary which berries they target for foraging/cultivating, due to different berries maturing at different times of year. Berry bushes would still be less work than fruit trees, to be sure, but overall they'd require a bit more management(that isn't too frustrating) in order to get the most out of them.

Yeah, I'm kinda in @Thorfinn's camp on this one. The old growth trees aren't something you're going to get without a couple hundred years of growth cycles, hence why they only spawn at world gen and don't grow from the tree seeds that the player plants. Of course, I wouldn't necessarily mind if the player could grow them either, however, it'd be the kind of thing that should take in-game years to achieve. Otherwise, it's going to be too lucrative given how short the growing cycle is for trees(which while not realistic, is needed for gameplay balance). My guess is that this would work. I don't see why it wouldn't.

Sounds like sometime needs to go find Jonas and have a little chat before everyone turns into tall blue people.

First off, welcome to the forums! My experiences starting out were similar, yes. However, I think the standard difficulty is just fine as is. The game overall is uncompromising, in that the player absolutely will get punished for making mistakes. However, if the player prepares themselves well for the challenges, then the player is likely to have a fairly easy time as a result. That's just the reward for playing the game well. Honestly, if the default setting wasn't challenging enough, I'd recommend trying Wilderness Survival, tinkering with the settings to make portions of the game even harder, or install some mods to change the game to your specific liking. That's why those different options exist. I'm assuming that you picked Standard difficulty, which is fine, but do keep in mind that option is the one balanced for the widest range of players. It's tougher than players who want easy mode will really enjoy, but it's also too easy for those looking for a game that shatters their kneecaps on the regular. For winter challenges specifically, you might try starting in the Cool climate zone, or even the Icy climate, and see if you can eek out a living with shorter summers and longer winters. There's also mods like Brain Freeze, which increases penalties for freezing, among other things: https://mods.vintagestory.at/brainfreeze

Hmmm...

Oh for sure. Despite the bright teal on the bindings marking them as lore books, they're still quite tough to pick out from the hundreds of other books there, unless one searches very carefully.

I think there's four different stories unique to the Archive: The Patronage of Tibalt Amaro(5 parts) The Spy and the Sparrow(10 parts) The Weight of Stone(9 parts) Admirer of the Miller(10 parts) The library should contain the full versions of each story, however, it's also easy to miss a book or two, and if you're playing with friends it's also possible to end up missing parts of the stories if you don't have a dedicated book reader(that is, have a specific player read all the books first, so you don't get duplicates). In your case, I'm guessing there's likely just a couple of books that you've overlooked somewhere, but if you want to know the stories without bothering to search for them, you can find the complete stories here: https://wiki.vintagestory.at/Lore_book

I'm not aware of a mod that does this, but there's one that comes close: https://mods.vintagestory.at/butterflydisplays Sounds like something that @xXx_Ape_xXx might be open to consider?

You don't have to kill any of the enemies at all, aside from the eidolon. However, most newer players(and many veterans) will opt for killing the enemies, since a dead enemy is no longer a threat. I think it's also worth noting that newer players tend to be a lot more prone to panicking, which makes it difficult to actually escape from an enemy efficiently. They might stumble over rubble piles, or run into the walls, or run into more enemies instead of toward safety...you get the idea. This too. A player experiencing the location for the first time isn't going to know where to go or what to do, unless they either have help from an experienced player, or looked up a guide to the location. Likewise, players like to explore and collect loot, and a player's first time in a location often equates to exploring every nook and cranny they can possibly reach, as well as potentially carting off most anything that's not nailed down. If I'm recalling correctly, that's the one in the mines. And there are definitely worse things than sawblades in the mines.

Just as the title says. We really ought to be able to turn feathers into proper fletching before being able to use them to craft arrows, with the ability to dye said fletching in order to made resulting arrows much easier to find. That is all.

I dunno, I feel like Mr. Bean might be a more appropriate descriptor. Or Monty Python. Maybe even Jack Sparrow. I don't even know how I get myself into some of the situations that I do. Things just kinda...happen...and somehow I manage to stumble my way through them.

I wouldn't mind this, provided that it's something the player unlocks the use of only after having completed at least a portion of the Archive's puzzles. Perhaps the player could find the required key and/or parts within the Bell Workshop, which is both a reasonable place to find such, as well as early enough in the puzzles that it would feel useful. I will note though, that the winch in question seems designed to be operated by a surface crew, and not the workers deeper within. I could be wrong, but I've always presumed that's the reason it's non-functional.

Personally, I'd rather have a coracle than a canoe, given that canoes tend to be more related to the Americas, certain parts of the Pacific islands, or certain regions of Africa, and not so much Europe(which is the general main setting of Vintage Story).

Right, but I think it's highly unlikely that a newer player is going to get anywhere near the Archive and associated boss fight without figuring out some combat basics first. I mean, unless they just set all the hostiles to passive/neutral, that is. In regards to loot, I'd wager that a good chunk of players, at least, like to bring home some mementos of their adventures to decorate with.

Ah. So I read it backwards then. Still though, I don't see how you disable the story, but manage to keep the lore and still have a setting that makes sense. I suppose it's as simple as modding out story locations entirely, but in that case, the traders aren't really going to make much sense, given that they refer to settlements of survivors but there's no settlements to find. The lore books kind of would, I suppose, since most of them are just various records of the past. Tapestries would pose an issue, since at least some of them seem to point towards future plot points.

I'd actually argue the opposite--the player should have mastered enough basic gameplay concepts by the time they reach this location, that they can figure out how to complete it. A few deaths are to be expected if the player has never done the location before, however, stiff penalties for mistakes and rewarding careful planning ahead/thinking on one's feet are integral to most every aspect of VS gameplay. The tin-bronze pickaxe requirement for starting the quest ensures the player can meet the minimum safe equipment level to complete the Resonance Archive. Likewise, the high tier common enemies placed in certain parts of the location serve to test the player's capabilities long before they reach the boss room itself. If the player is getting chewed up too much by those enemies, they'll probably take a hint and get better equipment, or more healing supplies, before they venture much further. On the flip side, if the player is handling those enemies with relative ease, then they'll probably be able to handle the boss just fine with their current equipment. I would also say that the boss fight itself is what gives the player an idea of what to expect out of boss fights going forward. That is, bosses are going to be very tough enemies, that have options unavailable to common enemies, and said bosses are located in areas that will be difficult to escape from should the fight turn against the player. They aren't something to take lightly at all.

I mean...not to be snarky, but that's how Homo Sapiens mode works. Lore content turned off means just a pure survival experience, and whatever story you want to make up to go along with it.

That's the story I was thinking of, yeah. I think on average my farms are probably around 100-200 blocks, though on my friend's server the farm size is probably pushing more around 400-600 blocks given that we're playing with longer months and increased hunger rate. For my typical solo playthroughs though, 100-200 blocks of farmland is more than enough for standard settings, and it usually takes me around 100 hours worth of gameplay to finish the current implemented story and achieve steel by the start/middle of the second game year. I don't really rush things either, and do take my time, but I also don't lollygag that much. For a speedrun though and achieving most things by the first fall, that takes a monumental level of effort and focus, and I don't get the impression that most players really find that enjoyable. Hence why I also consider "speedrunning" strategies outliers, and not really something that's detrimental to the game. What I typically find more issue with, is placing enough hurdles to player progress that they simply must sink several many hours into gameplay before they can do something like, say, leave the stone age, or have a productive farm, etc. Currently, the gameplay is balanced so that while taking your time to get things done is generally more ideal, it's also possible for a player to significantly speed up progress...provided they have the knowledge and focus required to do so. Pretty much. Making a farm that's a couple of thousand blocks is just as much a nightmare to me, as it is being forced to stick to a small backyard vegetable patch because game mechanics make large farms a monumental amount of effort(and thus not worth it, unless that's all one wants to do). I'd also note that one reason I prefer making bigger farms, is that it makes it much easier to manage crops via rotation. I don't necessarily have to plant every tile, I can just plant a portion of it with crops I actually need/want, and leave the rest to lie fallow and rebuild nutrients. But even then, fallow land isn't going entirely unused, as that's prime farmland for planting pumpkins, which require a lot of space but don't require many nutrients to grow(nor do they require critical nutrients like K or N).

That's where I got the idea from.

I would go the opposite route--trim the bushes to get cuttings, that you can then plant to get more bushes(similar to how fruit trees are propagated). No more breaking bushes to relocate them to one's base, as attempting to do so will just destroy the bush.

The good news is that there's really no time limit for completing the main story, so you can take it as fast or as slow as you like. If you want the ultra-immersive challenge route, don't use the maps from the treasure hunter at all, and instead try to find the locations yourself. I tried this once with a friend, and it was quite fun...except the Archive did glitch a bit and the entrance was completely buried so it would have been impossible to find without cheating...but anyway! Honestly, the best way to get around this, is mods. Otherwise, it's not really possible to separate lore content from the story, as there really is no story without lore content. While I do think the boss health is fine...I can also agree that this is probably a good idea.

It kind of is, but tin occurs in smaller deposits. Keep in mind too that surface deposits are a different beast than the deep deposits you prospect for. Figuring out which ores are common and which aren't is something that just comes with experience, and is part of the fun(or frustration) of prospecting. As a general rule though, if it's an ore required for core progression(like copper, tin, iron, etc), it'll usually be pretty easy to find. I do this too, although half the time I forget to actually prospect while I'm out on my adventures. It's useful data to have though, because even if you don't yet need those ores, it's handy to know where to start looking once you do need them.

I'm still going to be stubbornly skeptical about any kind of weed mechanic requiring maintenance for a good harvest, as that just does not strike me at all as being fun long-term. Granted, if the devs fit such a thing into their vision, I trust them to do it well, but until then the mod database has the best data to work with. A few have tried to implement weeds in one fashion or another, and such a mechanic has been suggested before, but most of the time it boils down to the player needing to babysit their farm in order to ensure weeds don't damage crops. And that's not very fun. You do seem to have opted for a less intense route here, in that the weeds are a slow-growing detriment and thus the farms only need checking occasionally. However, I will note that the weeds still appear to actively interfere with crops, so ultimately I see the player getting pushed to babysit their farm and getting frustrated as a result. On the flipside, if weed growth is so slow that it practically never interferes with growing crops...then that kind of begs the question, why have it in the first place? Just my opinion, but I think the current vanilla system is just fine. There are weeds, yes, but they don't require the player to babysit the farm to ensure a harvest. The player just has to clear out the weeds before they can use the farmland for more crops. Farmland is already incredibly expensive to craft, given that 16 compost only makes a single piece of terra preta, or two if using high fertility soil in the crafting. It's easy enough to have a small farm full of terra preta at the end of a couple of years, if one puts a decent amount of effort into composting, but larger farms will take a lot more effort. If farmland is made more expensive though, that does discourage the player from opting for large farms...but it also doesn't discourage them from just making a large farm anyway and replacing all the dirt every harvest. Dirt is, well, dirt cheap, especially in singleplayer, and if maintaining farmland itself is more effort, throwing away old dirt and replacing with new is definitely going to be an even more attractive option for those who just don't want the hassle. As for reducing nutrient levels immediately after tilling, no. It doesn't make logical sense, and it punishes the player for doing something we want them to do, which is establish farms. I think these are a great idea, but as a cosmetic and not something functional. Greenhouses are much better suited to this kind of cultivation, since they extend the growing season. The limited size of a greenhouse though makes it more optimal to use a watering can, if the player really wants to maximize the use of the space. Overall, I like most of the ideas, and think they would potentially fit in the game nicely, in one form or another. But just for me personally, anything like a more intensive weed mechanic is going to be a very tough sell. As I've mentioned before(or tried to), I don't necessarily mind putting a little more work into farms, but I want to be doing it according to my own time, and not so much feel like I'm being forced to do it to get a decent result. The other thing that I will also note: while I'm not a "speedrunner" type myself, I do like that Vintage Story supports that style of gameplay for those who do enjoy it. So that's also why I'm not really keen on adding more mechanics to force players into specific styles of gameplay. Long trips aren't really an issue here, but multiplayer is, depending on the server. Agriculture traders would be very strong in this scenario, since they reliably sell seeds. The server type that will have the most issues here is large multiplayer servers where players do their own thing, instead of cooperative gameplay. On a cooperative server, players can help each other get set up, but in the "every man for himself" scenario it's likely the landscape is just picked clean for miles and new players will struggle significantly(which, to my knowledge, this issue is already present in multiplayer). Likewise, bigger servers are harder to manage due to the player count, and often require specialized setups to handle so many players. On smaller server, especially cooperative ones, it shouldn't really be an issue. I don't really see an issue here, to be honest. An experienced player will always be able to accomplish things more easily than a new player. I think if anything, reducing wild crops might make the first winter a bit more satisfying, since newer players will probably need to rely on their hunting and foraging skills to store enough food the first year or two. To be fair, it might be frustrating for a few new players, but I will also note that one observation I've seen some new players make, is that the first winter was...underwhelming. Granted, they didn't seem too disappointed by the experience either, but I did get the impression that they expected to need to do a bit more hunting, foraging, and preparation than they actually did. As for more experienced players, yes, they could just achieve roughly the same results as the current system simply by scouring the landscape and getting enough seeds to plant a large farm to supply them through the very first winter. However...with wild crops being made a lot more rare, they'll have to devote more time to that task, and that's time they aren't spending doing other things, like mining, or hunting, or charcoal-making, etc. There is some multi-tasking that can be done, yes, but do keep in mind that inventory space is limited. Most players I would expect to start with a small farm and rely on hunting/foraging to round out their food stores for at least their first winter, and work their way up to bigger farms that can easily satisfy all their food needs.