LadyWYT

I'm pretty sure that was 1.22 content that was teased. 1.21 is primarily fixing a lot of issues and improving already existing content. Funny thing about the animal kingdom...just because it eats plants doesn't mean it won't snack on some protein from time to time. For hippos specifically...given how aggressive they are and how many people and other creatures they manage to kill per year, I would say they count as honorary predators, at least.

I'd say it's less a test of your tech level and more a test of creative thinking. If you can figure out how to acquire a tin bronze pick before actually acquiring bronze gear, you'll probably do okay in the Archive despite being undergeared.

Just make it strong enough to float a horseshoe and then it's done.

Darn. There goes that plan! Then again the treasure hunters are probably very confused given that my latest method of completing the quest, for testing purposes, has been just summoning a tin bronze pickaxe out of thin air, right before their very eyes. This...this might be why there are so many wild rumors about the abilities of seraphs, now that I think about it.

What I want to do one of these days, since I'm pretty sure that treasure hunters sell pickaxes, is buy a tin bronze pickaxe from a treasure hunter...and then give it right back to him to complete the quest. What purpose would this serve? Does it logically make sense? Couldn't I just find my own minerals to make a pickaxe, or buy one from a different trader? Well I suppose I could do those things, but then it wouldn't be funny. As for the logic behind it...I assume it's just the trader's odd way of shaking down the player for a few extra gears.

Welcome to the forums! As others here have already noted, there is a limit to how long temporal storms can last(4.8 game hours) and how strong they can be(light, medium, or heavy). Heavy is the strongest a storm can be, and generally means that more monsters will spawn in addition to having the most distorted visuals and audio. How long the storm lasts is random, but it's never going to last longer than 4.8 in-game hours, unless you either changed something via mods, or encountered a bug. As for the interval between temporal storms...it also varies. By default, the interval is 10-20 days, which means that on default settings you can expect to encounter a temporal storm every 1-2 months in-game. It depends...keep in mind that Vintage Story is very early in development; of a planned eight story chapters(the game being considered "finished" when all eight are fully implemented) there are currently only two implemented. Things could change. The developers take old worlds into consideration when they release updates(only the stable versions--never play a cherished world on an unstable testing candidate!), so as a general rule old worlds will remain playable in new versions of the game without issue. Sometimes the game needs to do some remapping, but it only takes a few minutes and you will be prompted to do so the first time you load that world in the new version. The game also adds story locations to old worlds, so you don't need to worry about missing story content as it releases. All that being said...it's also possible that a future update could potentially require creation of a new world, for some reason. If you are playing with mods, creating a new world for a new version is almost a given, although not always. It depends a lot on what is added in the new version, and whether or not the mods update/still function if old.

Can also kill you if said liver came from a polar bear.

It was, as well as recording messages. I mean...I totally didn't write all just because... But I did figure it would be a cool little piece of tech that would be very useful, while reusing some pre-existing assets rather than needing to create more.

Archives, as in previous worlds/mods/other files, or "archives" as in the Resonance Archive story location? In any case, your worlds, mods, and things will still be present when you update to the latest stable version, as will anything you've discovered in the world. Some story locations may need to be regenerated when you update, since new content has been added to them in 1.21, but this shouldn't take long and the game will probably prompt you to let it update those locations when you first load an old world in the updated version.

The crude door is what you use when playing with your buddies, so you can have fun blaming each other for letting the drifters in when the door inevitably breaks as you're running for the safety of the base.

Hmmmm...if you copied the textures into your mod's folder, have you tried setting the file pathing for you custom expressions to reference what's in the mod folder, instead of the vanilla texture path? I'm thinking it's a pathing issue somewhere, or a mislabeled asset, but it's hard to say for sure without having the mod file to dig through and compare. As @Diff says, do you have a .zip file to share, or a draft uploaded to the database that you could share a link to? The only other thing I can think of is that the white is due to the modded eye model for the expression is slightly too big for what the vanilla texture is, leading to the lighter color around the pupil. On you comparison image, the seraph on the left matches the colors found in the seraph-naked-hairless.png file, and the "white" is the same light turquoise color of the skin. Incidently, seraph.png and seraph-naked.png are found in the same place that seraph-naked-hairless.png is found; Vintagestory > assets > game > textures > entity > humanoid

I've also been wondering if some of the issue is due to recent adjustments to the game's lighting--that is, brightening everything up a tad. So things might look too bright for monsters to spawn compared to before, but in reality it's just dark enough for them to appear. That being said, there have been issues with the odd monster spawn or two in broad daylight, but those seem to have been cleared up in 1.21, as far as I can tell.

I think it's due to the vanilla expressions being shapes, rather than plain textures. Vintagestory > assets > game > entities > humanoid will take you to player.json, which contains the code bits for texturing the player model, as well as pulling the correct shape needed for expressions and such. You can find the shape data for expressions by going to Vintagestory > assets > game > shapes > entity > humanoid > seraphskinparts > face Do note that in the case of shapes, you'll need to be using the VS Model Creator in order to create new parts, or otherwise alter existing ones. You can find the download in the client area, and tutorials on the wiki to help you get started on learning how to use it. https://wiki.vintagestory.at/Modding:Model_Creator_Portal

Welcome to the forums! Unless you have a friend or two to play the game with, singleplayer. In singleplayer, you have the luxury of pausing the game to look things up in the handbook, as well as changing the settings to be however you wish them. Likewise, you also won't be competing with anyone else for resources, which is a concern when it comes to multiplayer. Multiplayer also alters gameplay significantly via mods, although this depends on which server you join. In any case, I would learn the basics at your own pace in singleplayer first, and then jump in to multiplayer whenever you feel ready. The exception to that is if you have some friends to start a server with, in which case you can all have fun learning the game together. The other piece of advice I have is that you may want to play the Exploration difficulty for your first world, for an easier time learning the basics. Vintage Story has a very steep learning curve, and while Standard is quite manageable, it can also be a lot to handle for a brand new player. One specific setting you might adjust, regardless of difficulty, is setting a grace period for monster spawns so that you have a few days to figure things out before they start showing up.

Or I mean, just plop a hay bed down wherever and sleep under the stars. It's mostly safe...mostly...

Have to hard disagree here. Hunter is strong in the early game, but will struggle underground and against the first boss, since the first boss is a better fight for melee than ranged due to the location and the attack patterns. Hunter is the strongest pick against the second boss though, and overall Hunter is at its strongest above ground in the wide open spaces, where there is room to maneuver and little place for targets to hide. Blackguard will struggle in the early game, but the extra health can allow you to survive things that might kill other classes. Blackguards are also going to be the strongest pick for the underground, as the health, melee, and mining speed boosts make it much easier to deal with a variety of situations you'll find. Likewise, Blackguard is perhaps the strongest pick for the first boss fight due to the health and melee boost, but ends up being the weakest pick for the second boss fight due to those circumstances favoring ranged over melee. It's also not wise to discount the Blackguard's bonus to moving around in armor--more mobility is a very good thing, and it helps make heavier armors a more viable pick should one choose a heavier armor option. Honestly I think Malefactor is fine. They're the strongest class in the early game, perhaps, but the tradeoff is that they fall off quite hard when it comes to the late game. The foraging boost makes it rather easy for them to acquire gambeson, which is quite strong in terms of armor, quite early in the game. The looting bonus means they'll have plenty of extra rusty gears to purchase various goodies from traders as well. The stealth bonus means they'll have an easier time exploring and foraging without getting jumped by the local wildlife. The main weakness of Malefactor is they're really going to struggle in combat due to the ranged penalty(can't shoot as far), health penalty, and melee penalty. And like I was trying to say before, this hinges on one's preferred playstyle, and the situation in question. Some circumstances Blackguards will struggle, and others they will absolutely dominate. Their strengths scale well into the late game, while their weaknesses become almost a non-issue once you've set up your base and secured your food supply chain. Not really. It's meant to be somewhat of a challenge class compared to the others. One could say that tailors are tailor-made for the nuances and finery of civilized life in cities, not roughing it in the wilds. And there's really not much of civilization left anymore, so the odds are stacked against. Ironically, they happen to be one of the stronger picks when it comes to combat, since the only downside they have is a penalty to health. This one I definitely agree on. Clockmaker has some very cool themes going for it, but is currently underwhelming on the execution. I'd wager that once we see more added to late game tech options, Clockmaker will probably get some love as well and be a more exciting pick as a result.

I recall it was @Maelstrom who first mentioned it though.

There's already precedent for bells being able to record messages, and resonators being able to receive them...so why not let players craft a bell companion as a late game tech item and be able to send and receive messages as a sort of mail system? The bell, aside from being a cute pet to have around your base, can record a message for another player to read, assuming they own a resonator in order to receive the message. This not only gives a handy way to leave your friends messages while they're offline, but also gives another use to resonators aside from just being a music box. Likewise, the messaging function isn't limited to players alone. This function could also be used to interact with certain NPCs that own the required tech for this kind of operation, giving an immersive way for the player to refresh themselves on certain pieces of lore, or be summoned for new pieces of the story as they are added to the game(or if there is a delay between completion of one story bit and the beginning of the next), instead of needing to physically travel to the NPC's location. Additionally, the bell could also act as an alarm device should you decide to take it with you. Simply set it to alarm mode, and if a hostile entity gets within a certain radius, it will sound an alarm until the threat either leaves or is otherwise dealt with. For multiplayer, there could also be a "guard" mode, in which the bell will remain in the specified location and sound an alarm should uninvited guests get too close(ie, players that haven't been added to the bell's list of permitted visitors).

Crates would still have uses, since they can be stacked on top of each other/have things stacked on them, and can hold pretty much anything. Burlap sacks would be limited in regards to what you can put in them(certain foodstuffs and mineral powders), and couldn't stack on top of each other or have things stacked on them. Likewise, storage vessels would still have the niche of keeping food fresh for an extended period(especially in a cellar), as well as being able to hold other items as needed, be stackable, or otherwise come in a variety of patterns. In contrast, burlap sacks could hold a lot of specific foodstuffs, but can't hold everything, don't have a bonus to freshness(they just hold a lot, that's it), and don't come in a variety of colors.

I think having some iron bars, or even glass, to block the way is a great idea. Glass is fancier and more befitting of a library, but on the other hand...it's not very durable, and this is a maintenance room we're talking about. Iron bars would do just fine, and likely be better for structure integrity anyway.

Yeah, that sounds right.

Instead of making it like the bundles, I would instead let burlap sacks operate similar to crates, but for specific item types. Store your grains, flour, root vegetables, and mineral powders in sacks, rather than crates. And to make sure it's not just an aesthetic look, perhaps each sack can hold 8 stacks of a single item, and four sacks can be stored to a tile. That makes 32 slots of inventory space per tile, as opposed to a crate's 25 or a chest's 16. Not only that, but being able to store some edibles in sacks means that you'll be able to use cellar space much more efficiently, so you can cram even more stuff into a single cellar. I'd also add that sacks could just be labeled with their contents automatically, similar to how crocks work, rather than needing a parchment label like crates do.

Welcome to the forums! Have you tried Maximized Borderless + Always On Top? That setting should hide the taskbar, but let you click off to a second monitor without minimizing the game.

I would also assume it's just as it says on the tin--stronger focus on realistic survival. If a pure real world survival experience is what one is looking for, Homo Sapiens mode is the closest it comes without mods.

Welcome to the forums! I highly doubt this is an intended feature. You should report it over on the bug tracker: https://github.com/anegostudios/VintageStory-Issues/issues