LadyWYT

I mean...I would say the opposite. Vintage Story is pretty good at killing players, and while it does give players a fair chance it's pretty unforgiving of mistakes. The first boss fight is no exception, and will push the player to their limits. I would also say that higher difficulty for certain points of the story is also appropriate, since those particular plot points are meant to be unusual circumstances, and not something the player encounters regularly. On the contrary, I would say bears are a more appropriate initial test, since bells are an outlier from every other common enemy(at the time of this writing). Bells have a lot of hitpoints, yes, but have zero attack and instead summon monsters to attack for them. A player who has never dealt with a bell before may end up panicking and attacking the monsters who are hurting them first, instead of dealing with the bell first like they should.

But they are actual storms...time itself is affected, and time affects everything. The whole point of temporal storms is that they are supernatural disasters that the player must work around, and not natural storms that the player can simply avoid by a short jaunt to a neighboring region. The player needs to either fight their way through it, or otherwise build some kind of bunker and wait out the storm in safety. For players who really don't want to deal with the mechanic, there is also the option to disable temporal storms, or at the least sleep through them. Well it's a mechanic I enjoy, partly because it makes the world and story premise feel authentic, so... There is a reason though. Certain past events messed up the flow of time, essentially, and the player character is a lot more sensitive to temporal anomalies than other living creatures are. For those who don't enjoy the mechanic/don't want it to get in the way of building, there is the option to turn the mechanic off, and for those open to modding there are multiple different options for changing the gameplay. If temporal gears alone were powerful enough to fix instability, it would have been fixed a very long time ago. Fixing instability is something that will take a lot more effort, and is a concept better suited for Jonas tech, or perhaps a major story plot point(or both). As I said before, if one really doesn't want to deal with the mechanic, there's already the option to turn it off, or mods such as this one to otherwise season the game to one's personal taste: https://mods.vintagestory.at/chunkstaboverride

Probably also worth checking to make sure his graphics drivers are up to date, as well as just checking his hardware against his friends' hardware. Outside of drivers being out-of-date(or even potentially faulty), or his hardware being too weak for the game setup he's trying to run, it's possible that he might be using a different brand of hardware that isn't playing nicely for whatever reason. Reports like this aren't uncommon on the issue tracker, in my experience, but yeah, the first question they will always ask is "Does the issue happen without mods", since mods are really good at causing issues. Checking the mod pages themselves is a good idea as well, since if a mod is having issues there are usually a few comments reporting said issue. Also worth checking to make sure that everyone is using the same version of mods, and that all mods being used are up-to-date(or otherwise functioning properly on the latest game version). Older mods don't always play nicely with newer game versions(or newer mods), and old mod versions can have bugs that aren't present in the newer mod versions. Case in point--there's been an issue or two reported for the mod I helped develop, that turned out to be the user using an old version of the mod instead of the new(where the issue had been fixed). In any case, welcome to the forums! A couple of other things to check, in addition to what Professor Dragon already suggested: Server logs: Oftentimes, when there's an issue, the server will be spitting out errors. Such errors may or may not cause players to crash, but if the server is spitting out errors around the time that crashes happen, it can help narrow down a cause. My friend has used this method several times to troubleshoot issues with our server. Other clues: Is there some other consistency to these crashes aside from the rainstorms/lightning, and who the crashes happen to? If the crashes only happen in a certain area, it could be related to the weather(especially if it's an area that has a lot of rainfall on average), but there could also be something else there that's overloading the system in that area specifically and causing the crash.

Welcome to the forums! Smelting doesn't require a room; you just need to make sure that nothing can put out the fire under the crucible. And as @Vexxvididu already noted, the fuel you're using needs to burn hot enough, for long enough, in order to smelt the ore. It is possible to "coast" on coals, but if the temperature of the ore drops you'll lose your smelt progress and have to start over. Another thing to keep in mind that in regards to alloys, you need the proper ratio of ores in order to achieve a smeltable product; if there's no viable output the ore won't smelt. Also, the more ore you try to smelt at once, the longer it will take to smelt, so the ore can be hot enough to start smelting but you may not see any progress on the meter for several seconds, as it takes a fair amount of time to smelt large quantities of ore. In any case, charcoal is sufficient for smelting copper and zinc, so the first things to check are ore quantity and ore ratio. Given that you said the meter still reads as "cold" despite the fire burning at maximum charcoal temperature, I would suspect that you have the wrong ratio for the alloy you're attempting to smelt(brass).

Well like Maelstrom said: Unless the boss is optional, it's generally not possible to actually run away from said boss. The most running will do is buy the player a bit of time to heal and/or think up a new plan. The current boss design allows this; to further illustrate my point from my previous post, I was in dire straits when doing the fight with my friend a couple of days ago, but with some careful maneuvering was able to step back and buy myself enough time to heal before jumping back into battle(Blackguard, steel brigandine, alcohol bandages). It took a minute for me to catch my second wind, and the situation was dicey, but it was certainly doable. Likewise, I will note that the set design for this boss makes it quite clear that once you jump down that hole, there's no getting back out unless you either kill the boss, or he kills you. Of course, I will also note that generally, trying to run away mid-combat generally leaves one open to attack. This is why in TTRPGs, enemies will oftentimes get opportunities of attack if you are moving within their zone of control and they have the means to attack you. It's a similar case with the first boss in VS--his zone of control covers the entire room, so as long as you're within his space and he's still alive, he'll be able to attack you. If he were only limited to melee attacks, he wouldn't be a threat at all, since the player could just stand at a distance and shoot him to death. Likewise, if the player could just run out of the room, heal back to full, and jump back in to keep fighting(without the boss resetting), he wouldn't be a threat either.

You can, it's just tough. The best way to get a respite is: For this boss, you don't actually need mobility. The arena is small, and most of his attacks are easily blocked or dodged. However, plate armor is a poor choice unless you're playing with friends, since the bandage timer penalty for that armor is rather steep. With the recent changes to healing, it's important to make sure that incoming healing is worth the time it takes to bandage.

I would say that if you still have no success after further trials, try disabling your mods and testing on a vanilla world to see if you still have the same issues. If you do, then you've likely found a bug with the base game, and should go report it on the Github bug tracker. If not though, then it's probably a mod interfering with the gameplay somehow. In that case, you'll want to double-check your mods carefully, making sure they're up-to-date(or otherwise still working properly on the recent game version), as well as double-checking mod descriptions to make sure there's not one altering animal behavior(that you might not have noticed when installing it--hey it happens). Worst case scenario is that you can reinstall mods one by one, testing as you go, to see exactly when the issue crops back up. It's a tedious process, to be sure, but the most effective way for figuring out what's causing the problem, when there's no obvious suspect otherwise.

Maybe, but I think just the variety alone might be enough. One of the most popular mods of all time is Expanded Foods, and many of the foods that mod offers don't offer any extra benefit than vanilla--just more variety.

The first question I have is, are you using mods? Those are a prime suspect when it comes to performance issues, especially if you're trying to run a lot of mods at once, mods that are outdated, or mods that add a lot of items/entities to the game.

Well...it is a boss fight...a boss fight where the boss is: Unfortunately I'm not aware of any mods that reduce boss HP, though there does seem to be at least one that gives bosses more health. So for the modded route, you'd probably have to create your own mod to tweak the value, which should be fairly easy since it's not a big change. Alternatively, you could also just crank up your damage for the fight, then turn damage back to normal when you're done(although this will require a couple of world reloads). I will note though, that the boss fight itself(at least, the first one), doesn't actually take that long--a couple of minutes or so. It does, however, feel like quite a long time, since there's quite a lot happening, and standard fights are significantly shorter in comparison. Of course, you could always play Blackguard, assuming you're not already. However, while that might give you an easier time on the first boss, you're probably in for a rough time later...

Ironically, despite their name and appearance, musk ox aren't bovines. They're more closely related to goats. That being said, I would like to see bison and bovines added to VS someday. It would be cool, however... Not really. In theory it would, yes, but the issue is that to build something like a cart, or chisel, or even to trap elk efficiently, you're going to need an anvil and forge, as well as a LOT of other materials(like logs and planks). So the nomad part isn't really something the player could do until much later in the game, given they'll need to set up at least a small base of operations to build/acquire the things needed for a nomad lifestyle. To me, that really defeats the purpose of a nomad playthrough, since the idea is to stay on the move from the very beginning. I think perhaps a better option for a nomad playthrough, is once wolf taming is implemented, have a craftable travois for your canine friend(s). It won't have much inventory, but it would be relatively easy to craft, and possible to craft with just stone age tools. In that case, paired with the pelt tents/shelter the OP proposed, a player could opt for a nomad lifestyle and slowly work their way up the tech tree, although that does mean staying in the stone age for an extended period of time.

I did think about this, however, we can already do this to some extent with the current chisel system. The drawback is that the furniture isn't always usable(you can sit on anything, but can't lie down on anything, or use anything as a container, etc), and has a blocky appearance instead of the polished look that premade furniture has. The other big drawback I see is...how do you determine what's a chair versus a bed versus a table, etc? I once watched a "let's play" of some MySims game, and though I don't recall the title, I do recall that one of the features of the game was building custom furniture--not just choosing textures, actually building the model. Which was pretty cool, however, it did mean that throwing a bunch of parts together into what was essentially a junkpile, still made functional furniture...albeit furniture that looked horrendous and had broken animations due to the design. I think perhaps a better way to handle custom furniture like that, is perhaps to include something like a "seat cushion", that can either function as a decorative(but usable) pillow, or be added to chiseled chairs and other furniture to allow them to easily function like their namesakes. For wardrobes, it's possible to build an aesthetic shell around trunks and store clothing within. Beds are pretty much the one thing you can't really chisel, but I think in that case the bed system itself could be tweaked a bit so that the player has to build the frame separate from the mattress. In that case, the mattress quality is what determines how long the player can sleep. For extra decoration, the player can place different styles of blankets, or perhaps some extra pillows.

Typically, the map will have a sort of hand-drawn appearance by default. Water will be marked as a light blue, with the landscape being various shades and blotches of light tans and browns. Enabling the Color-Accurate World Map switches the hand-drawn look for actual block colors, which makes it easier to pick out things like ruins, trader wagons, peat and clay deposits, rock types, etc. One drawback of the color accurate map though is that it will only update the colors when you actually visit the chunks in question, so it often ends up a weird hodge-podge of color. The default map appearance has a more consistent appearance, and is somewhat more immersive thanks to the hand-drawn style.

Welcome to the forums(and the game)! Ultimately, the choice is up to you, but since you've not even played the game yet, I highly recommend playing just vanilla for a while and just focus on figuring out the basics first. Doing this will give you a much better grasp of the game overall, as well as allow you time to figure out which parts of the base game you'd most like to change. Regarding vanilla options, I would recommend picking Standard or Exploration as the starting difficulty. Standard is tough, but fair, and also the intended developer experience. Exploration is less challenging, but may be the more attractive option if you find yourself struggling too much while trying to learn. Wilderness Survival and Homo Sapiens are both the hardest difficulties, and while it is possible to start learning the game on these difficulties, it's definitely not something I'd recommend for brand new players unless they really really want that kind of challenge. One important thing to note about vanilla options, is that most of them can be changed via console commands after creating the world(though you may need to reload the world for the changes to take effect). A couple of options you might consider tweaking, are enabling the Color-Accurate World Map under the Survival Challenges tab, as well as setting a brief grace period for monster spawns under the Player Spawn/Death tab(in this case, rifts will still appear if enabled, but won't spawn monsters until the grace timer is up). You may also wish to enable the "keep inventory" option for Death Punishment, if you find yourself dying a little too often.

So it occurred to me earlier that, instead of trying to always loot decorative furniture from ruins, or buy it from traders, or stare in wistfulness at all the fancy stuff NPCs have and you don't...why not add something like a woodworking workbench to allow the player to craft a selection of nice furniture themselves? The workbench can act similar to the anvil and sailboat roller logs. The player simply interacts with the workbench to bring up the interface and a list of options, picks the option they wish to make, and then supplies the appropriate tools and materials as needed(planks, saw, cloth, nails and strips, etc). Doing it this way offers a more immersive way to craft decor, without the need for a lot of clicking or memorizing grid recipes(or otherwise needing to look them up in the handbook). As a bonus, the player also gets to see the item in question take shape before them, similar to watching progress made on sailboat construction. But I changed my mind and want to craft something else! Not a problem! If the player changes their mind before the project is complete, they can scrap the project and get the raw materials back, before picking something else to make. Further customization: Use colored cloth on chairs/upholstered seats in order to change the upholstery to that color. The bolt of cloth will be consumed in the process. Some pieces of furniture could probably have special "slots" that the player can use to place additional pieces to further customize the look, such as re-purposing sailboat figurehead carvings to decorate fancy chairs, or socketing gemstones into fancy furniture for that extra bling.

Now that I'm not sure. It's worth trying, given that the worst that happens is it doesn't work. Bear in mind though that grafting has an even lower chance of success than standard cuttings.

Welcome to the forums! Unfortunately, I'm not sure that there's currently a way to adjust the stability aside from turning off the mechanic entirely. The best fix is to just move your smithing setup to a more stable area, or else be prepared to burn a lot of temporal gears and healing items to keep your stability topped off. If you're willing to mod, you could try one of these, though bear in mind that mods aren't guaranteed to be maintained, and may have unintended consequences. Older mods will sometimes work on a newer version, but best to make a backup of your world just in case something goes 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

Given it's possible to fistfight a wolf and win...I'm not even sure one needs to have gear, or even be a Blackguard. Both qualities do, however, greatly increase survival chances.

Oh there is--how else are you going to make delicious redmeat-mushroom stew? Or "stew surprise" to feed to your friends? You can also stick shrooms into flowerpots and use them as decoration. They're also handy to have around when you're out on an expedition; bring a cookpot and just forage some ingredients to cook with instead of bringing your larder with you. Yep, that's the one I was thinking of. Ironically, I don't play with it myself, but the way it implements the mechanic seems like it would be a good way to add more depth in a way that isn't frustrating.

I wouldn't mind having some pelt options for bedrolls or quick lean-to shelters; it would be great for hunting camps or traveling around. However... In my opinion, the stone age tier should remain rather basic, since this is just a brief stepping stone to the meatier portion of the game and not a tech tier at which the player is intended to linger. The stone age tier has just enough for the player to survive, and that's it. Also keep in mind that it takes time to actually process a hide into a pelt, and crafting something like a tent is going to require several large pelts--medium or smaller pelts just won't do here. In the time it takes the player to acquire all the suggested resources to make the tent, they could have built a small house from packed earth and thatch, and possibly even acquired their first pottery and metal tools as well.

Maybe, but I think it's more along the lines of, most every time someone brings this topic up, the suggested method they lay out is essentially equating realism to fun, which ends up requiring the player to spend the majority of their time just caring for their farmland if they want a good harvest. While that is realistic, it's not really fun, unless that's all the gameplay the player is interested in. For me personally, I do think farming could use a bit more depth, but while I do enjoy farming in the game I would quickly grow to absolutely hate it if I felt like I had to be constantly checking my farms or following very specific maintenance constraints to keep it going. With the current system, I can make my farms as big or as small as I like, without care requirements changing too drastically. Likewise, I don't have to be constantly battling weeds to ensure I get a harvest; I just need to deal with the weeds before I can plant new crops. I don't like dealing with fertilizer either, especially since I like to use compost and saltpeter for other things, so I sink more time into carefully rotating crop types. And though farming can sometimes be a bit of a time sink, it's not so much that I can't easily take breaks and go mess around with other gameplay when I wish to. Yeah pretty much. As noted above, I do like to putter, but I want to be the one choosing to putter, and what I putter around with and when. There are certain requirements for progression, and time limits to certain activities(like you can't grow crops in the cold), but as a general rule the game is still fairly lenient about giving the player plenty of freedom to pick a method that works for their playstyle. I think this is also a good chunk of the reason that some gameplay aspects, like fruit trees and animal husbandry, feel "worthless" at the moment: there's only two of a planned eight story chapters implemented. If the player is completing roughly one chapter per in-game year, that means the player will take about eight years to complete the story, which is a few hundred hours worth of gameplay and easily enough time to make things like animal husbandry worthwhile. Going back to this bit, I think a better way to smooth out farming progression, is instead of adding weeds or more "busywork" for the player to manage, perhaps just tweak how the player acquires seeds. Make wild crops a lot more scarce, so that the player can't just gather a couple stacks of the main seed types within a day's travel spawn. Instead, the player needs to either scavenge vessels for seeds, purchase seeds from the agriculture traders, or otherwise manage their crops carefully to acquire more seeds if they don't wish to spend days scouring the landscape. As for how to get seeds from crops, now the player needs to choose between harvesting their crops for edible food, or letting them go to seed in order to have seeds to plant for next harvest. The main exception to this rule is grain, since...well...grains are both the edible food part and the seed part. In any case, a change like that would slow down early farming a bit, and make it more of a process the player needs to actively build up, much like metalworking or livestock.

This is what I do--have two barrels going for the same liquid. One set of barrels is meant for fresh batches, where each barrel contains 50L of appropriate solution and I stuff as much hide as possible in. If there is any solution left over, it gets dumped into the secondary barrel and used to process smaller batches of hide(or dye cloth, in the case of strong tannin).

Welcome to the forums! I'm guessing you messed with the world generation settings in order to get this. I wouldn't trash the world, but I would start over on a new save file, with something closer to standard world generation, as that will make it easier to learn gameplay basics(you'll have an easier time actually finding resources you need to progress). Once you've got more of the basics down, then then you could come back to this world for a more challenging playthrough. That's not to say you can't play this one as your first world, but...an island that small is going to be incredibly restricting, and if the only land out there is tiny islands like this, it's going to be much more difficult to secure critical progression resources. Even more so if you don't even have cattails, as those are needed to make rope, which is used for the raft(the first water vehicle). You can use vines to make rope as well, but I'm guessing there likely aren't enough vines for that here(and vines don't regrow like cattails).

Like @Zane Mordien already mentioned, it's just set design. Albeit poor design, since this would have been a prime spot just add some iron bars instead of invisible walls. That way, it would look like a built-in safety feature to prevent falls, instead of obvious game mechanics to prevent the player from cheesing the fight.

Oh yeah, cosmetic definitely aren't a solution to combat, that's just me getting sidetracked from the main topic. That tends to happen easily.