LadyWYT

Just for the record, it's not possible to turn off monster spawns without disabling the lore content entirely. The best one can do, without installing mods or otherwise tampering with the game files, is to just set creatures to "passive" so they'll never fight back, and disable rifts/temporal storms if you don't want to deal with those.

One thing I will point out, that doesn't seem to have been touched upon yet...prior to 1.20, drifters were the only monster you'd encounter on the surface(outside of some crazy locust nest spawn location). A lot of people complained that the combat was boring because the drifters were too easy to fight(if you had the skill, you could tackle the heaviest temporal storms nude with nothing but flint spears), and wanted something more challenging. Well...we got more challenge in 1.20, with the addition of bowtorn and shivers. Now there are three types of monster to encounter on the surface(and elsewhere), with very different styles of attack, meaning that now you'll need to be much more careful and properly prepare yourself for adventuring and combat. Of course, with the addition of the new monsters, the complaints have now swung the opposite direction, with some players complaining about how difficult the combat now is since you can't just charge in guns blazing and expect to live every time. I'm not saying that 1.20 didn't have issues with the spawn ratios for the new monsters and stuff, because it did, however @Thorfinn hit the nail on the head earlier: the more complex you make a system, the more work you have to do to make sure that it's balanced, especially if it's a system that intertwines with others. And Vintage Story is very much a game that enjoys system overlaps. I wouldn't say they're intended to be avoided entirely. There's a few rare goodies you can get from the really dangerous ones, specifically. However, from a lore standpoint, monsters aren't something you want to mess with unless you HAVE to, and from a gameplay standpoint it's just more economical to avoid fights that you don't really need to engage in. Fighting wears down your gear, depletes your resources, and taking damage leaves you more vulnerable to accidental death.

I'm pretty sure it's to keep the antlers rare. I think antlers were bugged in a previous version, in that they weren't dropping from hunted deer at all, however that's been fixed. Whether your elk will drop his magnificent antlers if you(or something else) kills him though...that I don't know. If he does drop them, I'm not sure why you would want to go that route, given the elk's utility and how expensive they are.

I'd give it a bit more time and see if she produces any bacon bits. If you start pushing into late December/January and there's still no piglets, then I'd start to suspect that something's bugged. The easiest fix is probably killing the sow and spawning a new pig...I'm fairly certain you can change a creature's generation with console commands as well, but I'm not sure what command it is.

Welcome to the forums! I like these ideas too. Seems to be well-balanced and something that would remain useful through all stages of the game, for many different playstyles.

Better yet, instead of just making them disappear, add a death animation so they can fly apart into pieces when you hit them. No need for collision on the pieces, since they can just disappear when the animation is over.

As in a limit to carry weight and not just inventory slots, or something else entirely? I always chalked up some of the stack sizes to be a sort of "mass limit" to what you can carry, without making building stuff too tedious. In contrast, most things in the other block game stack to 64 max, with a few exceptions stacking to something that divides into 64 or not stacking at all. I'm not even sure that building right next to your stone deposit would help that much. If the stone bricks still stack like normal, then it's more economical to just quarry your stone and turn it into bricks on the spot, probably, instead of lugging the solid blocks back to your base. I suppose it would also incentivize building with more mundane materials as well, but overall I think it still ends up being a more frustrating building experience. Of course, it could just be an optional challenge that you can toggle on at world creation(default on for Wilderness Survival). Or something like Valheim, though in that case the weights of items still end up being a bit arbitrary for gameplay reasons. You can still carry around a lot more stuff like logs, ore, and rocks than you could realistically handle, but it somehow manages to avoid being too frustrating when it comes to building and getting things done. I agree with Thorfinn, a lot of the large stacks are just for convenience, with the smaller, more arbitrary stacks likely intended for balance. Smaller stack sizes for things like logs help push the player to focus their attention on a narrower selection of tasks at any given time; for example, instead of being able to go chop the whole forest and still have enough space for a mining trip or all those foraged goods, you'll need to focus on just one of those tasks and possibly make more than one trip to get it done. It does slow down gameplay a bit, especially in the early game, but it doesn't feel too forced, at least in my opinion. Overall player inventory in videogames is just weird in general, when it comes to realistic logic.

Or brigandine. It's got worse stats than chain, sure, but it's also cheaper to make. Not that iron is a problem, mind you, but if there are multiple players to outfit with arms and armor, resources might be a concern. Brigandine will still hold up well against tougher monsters too, so it shouldn't feel like too much of a downgrade, unless one is sticking to ranged combat.

One game that has a feature like that is Mount & Blade: Warband. If you manage to get a headshot on your opponent, it's almost guaranteed to be an instant kill(same applies if they land one on you!). While headshots are very satisfying to land, they're also incredibly difficult to do in the chaos of battle, even if your character is built specifically for ranged combat. Most of the time, headshots end up being left to lucky shots, rather than actual skill. I could see specific "vulnerable areas" being a mechanic for a boss fight, but boss fights are a different beast than standard combat. As for hunting...the main problem I see applying it to hunting is that it ends up giving Blackguards more power with less drawback. One of the big drawbacks to the Blackguard class is the ranged combat penalty, as it makes them ineffective hunters in the early game(it takes two spears to kill a rabbit). That paired with the increased hunger rate means they have a harder time keeping themselves fed. I suppose you could simply switch the ranged penalty for something else(though I'm not sure what, maybe increased range of detection by creatures?) if a mechanic like that were added. Definitely something to consider when adding new mechanics though.

Have you tried 90% landcover with 200% landmark scale? It means a tad more water, and the water that is there ends up being large lakes or seas. You can still see the other shoreline, in several cases, but the lake/sea is large enough that a sailboat becomes more practical than a raft if you expect to be hauling much cargo around. Likewise, the lakes and seas are also big enough that you can sail for quite a ways without needing to disembark. My friend and I used that setting on our server and so far it's been a pleasant experience.

Both fair points I hadn't considered. Regarding boulders, we kinda have that, I suppose, in the form of the cave-in mechanic, and the first boss fight. I don't know that I would make boulders much of a mechanic outside of specific story locations though, outside of the pure decoration that we already have, that is. Of course, in the instance of a boulder hurtling at you, it's not the speed that's the problem as much as it is the mass. The boulder will be moving slowly enough for you to be able to dodge, and attempting to block it makes no sense given that it has enough mass to easily crush you underneath. As for the acid, I would also chalk that up to a boss ability or other rare location-specific enemy. I'd also note that if the stuff eats through armor, you definitely do not want it touching your skin either, so wearing armor is still likely better than going nude. Maybe you could have some sort of counterplay with an alchemy system, and simply drink a potion to render yourself immune to the effects for a short time, but I'm not sure that really fits the style of the game. The other drawback to burning through a player's gear durability like that is that it limits how much they can really accomplish on that outing. For a one-time boss fight it's fine, since they'll be having a relatively uneventful trip back to base to rest and plan their next moves, but for more mundane enemies it likely ends up being a frustrating slog with more than one trip to repair and resupply, unless they sacrificed inventory space to bring repair materials with them. In contrast, with the current system, armor has enough durability to last a comfortable time for an adventure, provided that you equipped the right tier for the enemy tier that you expect to be facing. Lower tier armors can defend against higher tier attacks, of course--it's better than nothing. But they won't protect you as much and won't last nearly as long as you might need them to. I think you'll have fun with the story content. And I'd wager the combat will be a bit more interesting in the story locations, even if you're just facing "basic" monsters. Environment makes a pretty big impact on how easy or difficult a fight is, and if the setting is not in your favor even the most basic of enemies can be dangerous.

I seem to recall something being mentioned quite a while back about it potentially getting added to the game at a much later date--closer to the game's completion. I think the reasoning was due to all the possible inventory tweaks that may take place between now and then, that probably break a system like carry-on. So it makes more sense to add that system later, once inventory is really set in stone proper, and not slated for any further changes. Otherwise, I would guess it could be that the mod no longer fits the intended direction of the game. I can't say that I've played with it, but inventory space is at a premium in the early game, and one of the major challenges you'll need to deal with. Sticking a chest or storage vessel onto your back gives you a looooooot of extra slots to work with, which is a time-saver, yes, but takes a lot of that early challenge away.

Just my general observation, but the ones that tend to push the hardest with "combat too easy/boring, it needs to be a lot harder and more complex!" seem to be after a game where combat is the main focus. Something along the lines of Monster Hunter, Dark Souls, etc. Generally speaking, games that have challenging combat with a lot of nuance tend to place most of their focus on the combat, with everything else as side tasks. Combat is a different beast than the other chores the game has for the player to do. Farming, building, leatherworking, forging, etc. are all easily done according to whatever pace the player decides to tackle them at. Time, however, is not a luxury one has in combat. Your health pool is finite, as are your healing items. If there's something hostile after you, you need to either fight and kill it, or run away. If you don't manage either, you die and respawn(assuming you weren't playing hardcore), potentially without some of your stuff. Ideally, you're avoiding unnecessary fights in the first place since burning through your resources isn't a great idea...which is fairly realistic, really. In any case, the more complex you make the combat, the more pressure you're going to put on the player in order for them to successfully fight, which ends up shifting gameplay focus to combat rather than other gameplay loops. Not really ideal for what Vintage Story seems to want to be. As I've said before(or at least tried to, anyway), there's some room for improvement--hitboxes and mob AI need some dejanking, and a few more weapon choices couldn't hurt. However, I also think what we have already is solid, so if only the dejanking happens and the other is left to mods, I'm fine with that too. Tagging this from earlier...if it's fast enough that it can't be blocked, it shouldn't be able to be dodged either. Ranged attacks that can't be blocked or dodged are exceptionally frustrating to deal with, so I wouldn't call them good design in most cases. The ranged attacks that we face currently can be dodged, though it's easier to block them with a shield. Dodging them, however, requires a lot of practice in order to nail the timing on your movement. I'll also note that you will need to be holding the sprint key, in most cases, if you're going to attempt it. Ironically, there actually is a pretty cool "dodge mechanic" that comes in chapter two, which is tied to the unique qualities of seraphs. That's something we could certainly see utilized more in the future, though it requires extremely specific conditions to achieve that kind of mechanic. So I wouldn't expect to see that kind of thing outside of select story locations, unless it were to be gated behind a wearable Jonas device.

It probably is just an experience factor, which I think would be true of any system. Though it is why I agree with some of @Thorfinn's earlier points regarding the influx of new players complaining about dying to wolves and the like too easily. Just because a combat system is relatively simple doesn't mean it can't kick one's behind...especially if one gets complacent. I daresay there's more than a few that come to Vintage Story from the other block game, expecting a similar experience, that end up getting a rude awakening rather quickly.

It's one thing to say it; it's another thing entirely to execute those movements smoothly without getting smacked, while still being able to land your own hits. Are they terribly complex concepts? No, but timing is the key, and something that only comes via practice. Hence why I say the system is "easy to pick up, difficult to master". The concepts themselves are simple enough for anyone to pick up and start having fun with the game. But players will need to put in the effort to figuring out the timing of when to step back, when to move in for attack, and when to release a projectile for maximum range and damage.

Given the huge uproar when sailing was first implemented...I will never look at the topic the same way again. Overall I'm satisfied. The sailboat speed received a much needed boost, and the raft's new storage option is nice. I'm not really sure what could be done to improve sailing, aside from implementing the coral reefs and adding some more aquatic wildlife. There really isn't much to see out on the water except...water...so I never expect sailing to be much more than a method to transport a large quantity of things from point A to point B, assuming there's a viable water route. Valheim has this. While interesting, it's rather immersion-breaking if you build on the beach, since the waves will flood your buildings but not actually do anything. Not that I'd want them to break stuff, but it's incredibly annoying to witness. Also a thing in Valheim, and it was pretty fun, at least in small doses. Over long distances I found it tedious, but that's just me. I'm not sure how difficult it would be to code variable wind direction in Vintage Story, or how much processing power it would take either. Windmills and certain other things would probably need to be reworked to account for the new mechanic, most likely, to keep it fully immersive.

Er...I would say that what we have currently is roughly equivalent to Skyrim combat...perhaps a bit more in-depth, even, given how the armor/weapon tiers work. Skyrim is fun as a casual action game, but the combat is pretty mediocre. No, I think a dodge-roll is better left to mods. It's a cool move, yes, and it can obviously help you dodge an incoming attack. But realistically, you want to sidestep or block/parry an incoming attack, since you maintain a lot better footing, vision, and reaction time that way. As for how it works in first-person, it really doesn't work that well. I've tried such a mod in Skyrim and it was very disorienting. In order for it to work well, you have to fudge the first-person animation quite a lot, so it doesn't look very realistic from the first person perspective. Given what Tyron said in a somewhat recent interview, I don't get the impression that there's a combat rework planned. Combat seems to be working as intended for now. I'm somewhat inclined to agree. The system we have right now might be basic, but it's pretty solid--easy to pick up and start playing, difficult to master. There's a bit of jank to smooth out with hit boxes and spawn ratios, certainly. I would like to see a few more weapon options, of course(I'm not a fan of the falx design), but those are easily modded in and thus not really a big deal. I pretty much already answered this above. However, I did a write-up a while back on what a more nuanced combat system could look like. You can find that thread here: Improving the pathfinding of creatures would be a big improvement, I think. Not that I really mind "dumb" monsters getting easily confused by obstacles, but tougher/smarter enemies(wolves, bears, higher level monsters) ought to be able to navigate around most basic obstacles. That being said, AI is always going to be exploitable, once you learn its patterns. Agreed. If I'm recalling correctly, the main advantage to dual-wielding is that you can throw attacks from two different angles at roughly the same time, making it harder for an opponent to parry/block both entirely. However, that requires a lot of practice and skill to pull off, and most of the time one of your weapons is just going to be playing the part of a shield anyway(but offering much less coverage). Hence why a shield + weapon is a more reliable combo. Given the kind of enemies the game throws at you, dual-wielding would be a great way to turn into a pincushion rather quickly. I think this is one of the strong points of having a robust modding scene. The vanilla combat gets the job done, but if it's not enough(or too much) for some players, it's easy enough to tweak to one's liking via mods.

Judging by what we have already, I would say most of the horror element is going to be fairly subtle and in the background, aside from certain key scenarios. Temporal storms and the deep underground are two good examples of such scenarios, outside of the story locations themselves. That way players have plenty of time to unwind and enjoy the atmosphere, but still have the occasional reminder that not everything is sunshine and roses in the world.

Was it working normally prior to 1.20.7? There seems to have been some sort of duping fix related to falling blocks, so maybe that's what changed and why things feel different now?

Pretty much the main story in a nutshell, though we only have two out of a planned eight chapters right now. Though one issue I see about relying too much on "eldritch" and "horror" is that both of those have been done to death elsewhere, and aren't particularly interesting outside of a brief initial shock. Currently, the game keeps the more esoteric elements as a small constant in the background, and doesn't make them the focus outside of a handful of specific circumstances, which keeps them somewhat fresh and interesting over extended playtime.

Very nice art! I wouldn't mind seeing bandits in vanilla, although I don't think we will as I'm not sure the intent is for the player to be fighting humanoids instead of monsters. However, it would fit very well to have the occasional handful of bandits out roaming around as a rare encounter. If you've read the "Ghosts" short story on the forums, one of the characters references outlaws being a concern, and at least two of the player classes in game are given a side-eye by some NPCs, as they're assumed to be troublemakers. Plus it stands to reason that there's always a few individuals that would rather take the "easy" way of getting what they want, especially in a post-apocalyptic environment. It'd also be a great opportunity to rework the traders--perhaps make them less common as well, but occurring in proper caravans when you do find them. There is, after all, safety in numbers.

I'm suspicious that mob spawns at night may also be tied to whatever table governs the mob spawn ratios for temporal storms, hence why some nights there's practically nothing and other nights there's lots of drifters. Outside of temporal storms, I think there's rules governing how many shivers/bowtorn can spawn in an area, so if it's a section of the table that wants to spawn one of those as the main mob, and little to no drifters, that may be why no drifters show up some nights. I'm not sure though--something's definitely off. They feel pretty balanced now, though bowtorn spawn rates in temporal storms could use a little fine-tuning. Bowtorn storms aren't fun to deal with, so if you happen to get one of those, best to just wait it out inside and clear them out with an admin blade after if you need to(had to do this a time or two because there were so many outside that didn't despawn). I'd say you can tackle them head-on or build traps for them just fine, whichever you prefer. "Traps" is probably going to end up more of an obstacle course than anything, I'm guessing, but then again I've not experimented with trapping them. Be warned that shivers can climb two block heights with ease; however, they can't climb over fences and need a 2x2 space to fit through in order to enter an area. Bowtorn are slow, but hit hard at a decent range. They'll run if you get too close, so it's easy to bully them, provided there aren't too many that is. They require a minimum of 1x3 to navigate, if I'm not mistaken(1 block wide, 3 blocks tall).

Horses. Because I like horses and it doesn't quite feel right without them.

I'd say that a cookpot might be the better option, in that case. A sealed crock is fine, but it'll unseal the moment you eat from it, and there's not much point in resealing it. Crocks don't stack either, so the more crocks you bring, the more inventory you sacrifice. With a cookpot though, you can do some hunting/foraging once your crock is empty, cook a meal, and use the empty crock to carry part of it around. Refill as needed, no sealing required.

Welcome to the forums! I don't believe lighting up the area speeds up crop growth in Vintage Story(though if you have underground farming enabled, you'll need to light up the area to ensure crops actually grow); I'm fairly certain that the soil fertility and available nutrients are the biggest factors in crop growth speed, along with temperature. If the ambient temperature is below freezing, crops won't grow at all, even if they can tolerate temperatures below freezing. In regards to soil fertility, higher fertility soils will grow crops faster, as long as they also have the nutrients that said crop requires. If that nutrient has been depleted, you'll need to either use fertilizer, or plant a different nutrient crop/let it lie fallow for a while to recover.