LadyWYT

Finally sitting my butt down and doing a write-up on my thoughts. In case it wasn't obvious from the title, there will be spoilers ahead, so if you haven't yet played the main story and wish the content to remain unspoiled, stop reading now and come back later once you've played through it. You have been warned! And with that being said, let's dive into it... The Resonance Archive While it's the location central to chapter 1, the library message has been altered to include other location names. Likewise, the old alchemist who left the message is confirmed to be Tobias and not Jonas, though that will become obvious later on. In any case, only two of the mentioned locations you'll actually visit in chapter 2--the Lazaret, and Nadiya. The Spoils could be a reference to the Devastation, since the trader mentions it being a horrible place when asked about it, however, I think the Spoils may be something else given that the Devastation doesn't seem to have had its name changed over the years. The Cardinals likely refers to a proper fortified town, quite possibly a religious hub. The Quiet doesn't really hold much hint of what it might be, but I suspect it may possibly be where Jonas might be hiding. The Lazaret The first of the locations that the player will visit, it's not very big but gets the job down, and the atmosphere here is well done. It was a quarantine zone for those infected with Rot, as well as a place for alchemists to study the victims in the hopes of finding a solution. Judging by the loot that you can find in the cells, no one was spared--commoners, children, even nobles and royalty were imprisoned here and used for research. In regards to the scribbling on the walls, some of the marks seem to just be a tally of days, while some of the "writing" outside the cells could just be research notes...though that doesn't really make as much sense. A lot of the writing seems to be nonsense scribbled by infected, given that the scribbles are somewhat esoteric and seem to depict Rot monsters or other strange images. Which also leads to wonder that given several of the prisoners were likely commoners who didn't know how to write...does being infected somehow give them that capacity? I'm not sure, but it's very unsettling, and given a lot of scribbles are outside the cells, I suspect either the researchers themselves were eventually infected, or there was some sort of jailbreak towards the end. In any case, the location design is solid, though I think it should've been a little bigger, with the clue you need to find hidden better so that players need to actually do some thorough searching to find. The other thing I found worthy of note is that one of the images scribbled on the wall resembles a certain old friend, at least somewhat, though I'm not sure if that's intentional or just a coincidence. Nadiya The name of the village, and the second place you will visit. A quaint little medieval village, though it quickly becomes apparent that the villagers don't really know what happened to the Old World, or what's really going on now as a result. Tobias is a legendary figure that's long dead, in their minds, and the few that know of the Devastation seem to be aware that something horrible once happened there long ago, but are otherwise unaware of what happened and why. To further illustrate that much time has passed since the end of the Old World, all of the villagers have different accents, and none of them can read Old World writing(though they express surprise when you can). The Devastation The main core of the challenge, and likely the third place you'll visit, assuming you didn't seek out Tobias first. I believe the Tower at the center houses the Jonas machine depicted in the Salvation tapestry(which I've dubbed the Salvation Engine), since the Tower machine features a prominent clock-thing towards the top, and several outlying bits of auxiliary buildings that seem to match what's depicted in the tapestry. Additionally, it's made fairly clear that this device is what allowed the player to return as a seraph, as well as what likely wiped out the Rot and started the temporal mess in the present...especially since the entire place seems to be one giant rift and part of it is frozen in a temporal anomaly. In regards to the machine itself, it seems to have been powered by some sort of energy core at the center, which seems to have been overloaded somehow and exploded. The clock-thing at the top is also interesting, since the hands are aligned in the present near the 11 o'clock position, but are in entirely different positions in the past. Though in all fairness, that particular piece might be a device for tracked planets or dimensional alignment, and not an actual clock. Either way, it's interesting to see the differences between the past and the present, and the overall mess suggests that things perhaps didn't quite go as planned when the machine was fired up. As a side note on the Mad Crow--really enjoyed this boss design. I suspect we might see the Crow turn up again at some point, since it's only chased off by the player and not killed. Tobias Tobias's cave is probably the last place you will visit on the journey, although it's possible to visit him prior to going to the Devastation. If you talk to him prior to the Devastation, you can get a little insight into his relation to the player in the Old World, since he apologizes for playing the taskmaster once more. That remark suggests that while the player may not be a close friend, they were at least a close ally in order to be receiving orders directly from Tobias(and perhaps Jonas himself) with relative frequency. In any case, the cave was my favorite of the locations, and the design for Tobias is very smart, since it offers a solid reason for why the player needs to be the one retrieving the macguffins and otherwise doing things. As for why no one seems to recognize Tobias as being the same guy that founded Nadiya...he doesn't get out much, and despite his unique appearance I daresay those that do see him only see what they expect to. That is, a random old man, and not a legendary figure that should be long dead. Tobias's explanation of the player's class background confirms one of my earlier theories, in that the player was indeed part of the Falxian forces and not some random individual pulled from the Old World. Additionally, Tobias also sets the record somewhat straight on how much time has passed since the Old World's end. According to his calculations, it's been about 500 years. The Rot Perhaps the biggest revelation Tobias has to offer...Jonas's experiment failed. At least, mostly. I daresay what happened was an event similar to what happened with the Elder Scroll and Alduin in Skyrim's main story--instead of actually defeating the Rot, the machine simply scrambled time and threw the Rot forward to some point in the future, hence why the Rot is returning now. I daresay it did similar with the seraphs--they're either Falxian forces that died in the Old World and have been pulled back to the land of the living, or they were Falxian forces that were near the machine when it was activated and got flung forward through time as a result. In any case, Tobias makes it clear that such a plan should not be repeated under any circumstances. How he knows that the Rot is returning, I'm not sure. It might have something to do with his time at the Lazaret(poor guy!), though I suspect he either saw evidence of it in his travels, or has heard suspicious rumors. It could also be a result of his alchemy work. Jonas Falx While I don't know where Jonas is, I do believe he's still very much alive given how Tobias talks about him. The two were close friends, practically brothers, and Tobias seems to have crossed paths with him at least once post-cataclysm, since he mentions Jonas being no help when it came to figuring out a solution to the current problems. If Jonas were dead, I don't believe Tobias would be speaking about him in that fashion. I also think it's unlikely that Jonas is corrupted or a seraph, since the player is the first seraph that Tobias has encountered and Tobias doesn't note anything odd about Jonas otherwise. Most likely, Jonas is in a similar state to Tobias--something close to human but immortal--and went into hiding post-cataclysm, refusing to return to society or otherwise have anything to do with his former scientific endeavors. The poor man suffered a mental breakdown from watching his dreams crumble, the stress of the expectations placed on him, and having most of those around him start worshiping him as a god, so it's no wonder he would have that kind of reaction. While I believe he's just in hiding as a result of the mental breakdown, I also won't rule out the possibility that he's died or otherwise been corrupted by something since crossing paths with Tobias. I would think if something like that had happened, Tobias would probably know, since it seems like the two might try to stay in contact with each other given their prior friendship, but it's also possible that Jonas cut contact entirely or that Tobias has been otherwise too busy trying to figure out what to do on his own. Where the story is likely headed For chapter 3, I daresay we'll be returning to Tobias and using the Lens to travel to another dimension in the hopes of gaining some new technology/secrets or otherwise learning more about the Rust, the Rot, or seraphs in general(probably some combination of these). Whether it's the Rust world itself, or whatever lies beyond, I'm not sure, but I expect most of the chapter 3 locations to be those pocket dimensions, though there may be another small location or two added to the normal world as well. There were, after all, three other locations mentioned in the Archive message, that I would assume we would be visiting at some point. I also expect to be crossing paths with Jonas at some point, though I daresay that won't happen until much later in the main story, likely towards the end. I'm guessing we'll end up needing his help to defeat the Rot and set things right, and will probably need to find and navigate whatever trap-fortified bunker he's hidden himself in...and then convince him to help us. Or we could simply be stumbling across his bones and need to piece together whatever fragments of information we can find in his journals. Worst case scenario, we'll need to battle a corrupted Jonas, though I find this unlikely at this time. Another important thing to note, is that if time itself is to be fixed and the temporal storms stopped, doing so may mean that the player character needs to sacrifice themselves to achieve that goal. Now granted, if that ends up being the case, I still expect the player to be able to keep playing their world after the credits roll, as if nothing had happened, since losing a world with a lot of progress tends to make for an unhappy player. But from a narrative standpoint, if you heal whatever "time wound" keeps causing the temporal storms, I daresay you also close whatever rift in time keeps allowing the seraphs to respawn(and by extension, keeps characters like Tobias alive). Of course, such a thing might not be necessary, or the player could be selfish and refuse to go that far...but in that case, the alternative is either having the world potentially fall apart via temporal storm, or being locked away by humanity's remnants if/when they stop trusting seraphs. Those who can't die, after all, would eventually become very powerful, and would therefore pose a significant threat to mortals, so despite the remnants of humanity being friendly now, it's only logical that they will eventually turn hostile. Therefore, the best case scenario, in my opinion, is for seraphs to sacrifice themselves to save the world, either losing their immortality and living out the rest of their now-mortal lives, or simply ceasing to exist in the present and returning from whence they came. ----- Thus concludes my initial thoughts on chapter 2. I think I covered pretty much everything, but in the event I forgot something, I suppose I'll be writing more posts later.

Oh...oh no...it took me entirely too long to realize what was going on here. Welcome to Vintage Story! We've all been there a time or two. On the bright side, absolutely nothing can sneak up on you now!

Welcome to the forums! The teleporter is the end reward for completing chapter 2, much like the glider was for completing chapter 1. Regarding the rest of the story, it's not finished yet. There's at least 6 more chapters to go, and in regards to chapter 3, Tobias himself said he would need a lot of time to work and figure out a solution using the Lens that you brought him. Which is also why the reward for chapter 2 is a teleporter--you'll need to return to him for chapter 3, presumably, so having a teleporter will save you the walk. I'll also note that his cave is located near the village, so the teleporter is still useful prior to chapter 3 assuming you wish to revisit the village for trade and whatnot. The Devastation is definitely going to be hit or miss for a lot of players. Those who don't enjoy parkour at all probably won't enjoy this segment as much as those who do. The Mad Crow feels about on par with the Eidolon in terms of difficulty, however, I would say the Crow fight is a lot more unforgiving if you make a mistake. It might, but then again it might not. Chapter 2 has had some definite growing pains, though after recent tweaks it does feel a lot more manageable than it did on the initial release candidate. I think a lot of it will still boil down to whether or not one enjoys parkour, and there's also no shame in just using creative to skip the parts you really don't like/get stuck on. I've done this a time or two myself. Some of the locations did get tweaked, with some unique curios added to the Lazaret and other unique trade goods added to the village. The village itself isn't quite finished yet, as there are still services that are obviously offered there but not yet implemented. I'll also note that at least part of the reward for chapter 2 is just meeting Tobias and getting the scoop on what's happened since the cataclysm, what's going on now, and what's coming down the pike later. Basically, just a lot of lore that you really only find by talking to NPCs, closely examining the story structures, and piecing the clues together. It's not everyone's cup of tea, to be certain, but those who enjoy really digging into the lore will probably enjoy it. I'd say it's both, really. It probably started out as a just a game, that Tyron decided to build his own engine for. And I mean, if you have your own game engine, why not harness it for other games while you're at it?

Really depends. You don't usually have all the makings for bronze in the same grocery aisle, so to speak...but it's obviously not out of the question as you've demonstrated here. In the current world I've been playing with a friend, bronze was a struggle to get too, or so I thought until I tried to find iron. Oh boy, finding the iron made the bronze look trivial. So many Decent+ readings of magnetite, and all of them(the ones I dug for anyway) completely useless. Gave up on those and tried a Poor hematite reading...found ore first try. Go figure.

Welcome to the forums! I agree with @Cattastrafy too, play the vanilla game first and learn the basics, and then decide what mods, if any, you'd like to add. That also gives you time to tune the game settings to your liking first. One thing I will note though when it comes to mods and VS, is that it's better(in my experience) to keep a shorter mod list, instead of trying to run everything and the kitchen sink--especially if you have more moderate hardware. Big mods that add lots of things also tend to be more demanding on hardware than smaller mods.

"The creatures hide metal in their flesh and their blood flows like sludge. A simple sword will not do here." -- flavor text of falx blades. While the color isn't specified, I would agree, it's probably a dark rusty color or black like oil, given the semi-metallic nature of the monsters and their general color scheme. As for the initial suggestion, I like it. Could be a simple effect that applies for a short time after a creature takes enough damage to begin fleeing. Would also give more incentive to keep healing items on you in case of an accident, if falling below a certain health threshold could make you more noticeable to unfriendly things.

For a mod, sure. However I recall one of the devs mentioning in an old thread that there was no plan to add that level of gore to the game due to some being squeamish about creating that kind of content(for context, the discussion was about more realistic butchering for animal carcasses). Aside from that...a lot of players don't enjoy that kind of gore either, myself included. The animations we currently have are fine, and get the point across.

https://mods.vintagestory.at/verticality Friend installed this on his server and it's proven to be rather fun and balanced so far. However, I do expect that kind of vertical movement to completely break the story locations. If this kind of movement functionality were added to the game(outside of the rope ladders we have), the story locations would probably need a major rework in order to avoid resorting to immersion-breaking "invisible walls" that outright stop the player from climbing around.

Tier 3 for sure. You could probably manage it with tier 2 stuff, with enough skill, but it's risky. Though I think the difficulty of the story content really depends on individual preference and skill level, and isn't necessarily hard-locked to a particular tier of equipment. What I would do instead, is try to give the player more things to do per era, rather than just opting to make pre-existing things more of a time sink or gating every tech tier behind dungeons/enemies. The late game stuff, sure, gate that behind an enemy(which we already have this for some tech). Otherwise, I think it's nice to have the option to speed-run the basic tech tiers, if you want to sink in the time and effort and have the knowledge to do so. However, if you give players more choices to make in the earlier tiers, then they'll need to think harder about how they spend their time. And now to actually answer the question posed in the original post...yeah, steel really isn't that hard to acquire. It might seem daunting to a new player, but once you've been through the process you figure out it's not terribly difficult, just time-consuming. My work-around for the refining time is to simply make sure I have a lot of charcoal/coal stocked prior to starting the refining process, and then just running two refractories at once during winter(what else am I gonna do when it's cold and dark). The output is then 32 ingots per firing, rather than 16. If I had to guess, some players consider steel to be "hard", because you need to have found some very specific materials in order to get it. Bauxite and borax are chief of those, and you may need to travel a couple thousand blocks or so sometimes to acquire these materials. You'll also need to acquire a lot of fire clay, which probably means a lot of crafting due to the recent changes to clay and how the types spawn. It generally takes a lot of fuel as well, and while any coal can fuel the refractories only charcoal or coke will work for carbonizing the ingots. On top of that, it takes about a week in-game to refine the iron into steel, and some players probably don't want to babysit industry for that long. Steel tools are a little over twice the durability of iron, and are a tad bit faster. But unless you intend to be doing a lot of building, iron tools and gear will probably suffice for just beating the story, which is probably why non-builders might find it underwhelming compared to the effort it takes to acquire it.

I think a lot of tech mods for the other block game tend to go this route in order to have a more satisfying result than "the exact same thing as a furnace, but faster and more expensive". I do like the idea though, and think it would work. Also potentially make the crushed ore smelt a bit faster? Bigger bits take longer to heat all the way through, so logically they would take longer to smelt than smaller bits. Would give even more incentive to make an early pulverizer for processing your ores.

For a custom scenario, sure, but otherwise it doesn't fit the established themes and lore of Vintage Story.

In my defense, this is not why I've utterly failed at securing a population of bees before winter moved in. There are several other beehives on our world, I just haven't gotten around to placing skeps near any of them(despite them being within walking distance), as I keep getting utterly distracted by various other things. One of those being... The Bear Incident I was walking around minding my own business, just foraging for food and materials in the local forest, when I intruded upon a black bear's nap. Dear reader, despite playing my usual Blackguard, I must note that this was still very earlier in the game, and I have naught but a copper falx and a single tailored gambeson chestpiece to protect myself. The ensuing battle was fierce, the bear was very angry, and as I stumbled backwards into the nearby lake shallows I swear I could hear the world spawn calling. However, death was not my fate that day, as one last desperate swing of the falx dispatched the beast. By some miracle I was still alive, at just under one hitpoint, with high rift activity and darkness approaching. Thankfully, home wasn't too far away, and so was my hunter friend with the first aid kit. Never underestimate the power of a few extra health points and a bit of armor! It could be the difference between life and death! Welcome to the forums! I forgot some of them did that...until I saw one do it in broad daylight during a temporal storm. I thought it was a bear at first...it wasn't...and it despawned once it finished standing up, which made the whole encounter even creepier.

Just to make sure, since you seem to be using mods--if one of the mods adds steel nuggets as a byproduct from your smithing, you're not going to be able to smelt those back into anything useful unless you have another mod that adds a fuel that burns hot enough to smelt them, or otherwise adds a way to process them. Otherwise, as others have noted, the way to get steel is via refractories.

Please do, it was a really funny post!

Welcome to the forums! And yeah, that block isn't supposed to be there, but you bumble across them every once in a while. It's a bug.

Just enough skeps to populate the apiaries that From Golden Combs adds. On vanilla settings? It varies. I usually have about a dozen, which is enough to produce a fair amount of honey, but not so much that I'm going to get annoyed just collecting the clay and reeds for mass skep production.

Well it's a lot of very hot substance paired with wooden tongs, so... I'm guessing it's probably coded that way to keep lava as a hazard, instead of an inconvenience that you can simply throw a dirt block in to rid yourself of the lava entirely.

For a hot climate you might try out the Hydrate or Diedrate mod, and change your world settings so there is very little water to be had. For a "standard" style of game, you can also crank up the hunger rate, turn down the healing rate significantly(set it to 25 or 50%), and change your cold hardiness value to something like 5/10 C. Food becomes more of a concern at that point, and bandages become much more valuable as just waiting to heal naturally probably isn't going to be very viable. Likewise, you'll get cold more easily, so keeping your clothing in good repair becomes more of a priority as well.

Welcome to the forums! I think the most important aspect of this kind of sound design, is the sounds really need to be tied to an actual creature/object, and not just ambience. It's pretty easy to get used to ambience and just tune it out over time. For example, the wolf howls still remain a bit concerning even after several many hours of playtime, because you know an actual animal is making that noise, and thus there is a threat. If it was just ambience, it'd still be nice, but it'd quickly lose the fear factor since there's nothing actually there that can get you. Now in regards to the noises that the monsters already make...I think those already do a decent job at spooking players. Door rattling and whatnot would be scary, yes, but if they can't actually break the door(and I don't think it would be wise to allow them to do such) it rapidly loses the shock value. So I'd leave out the scratching and whatnot, and just keep it to the general monster noises they make. Just knowing there's monsters nearby is plenty, especially if you can't pinpoint the monster's location. Let the player's own imagination fill in the details and spook them.

Oh what a fun idea!

I seem to recall that being mentioned, along with the 300% increase in game sales with the launch of 1.20. Or something to that effect. In any case, the server host was already having issues at the time, but the big influx of new players also helped melt the infrastructure that was there.

Agreed. Though you can pop the slabs back into the crafting grid to make them horizontal-only or vertical-only, in addition to setting them back to auto placement. A ghost template is still a good idea though.

I would also assume too that it's also because Vintage Story is still very early access and quite a ways from completion. Once the game is complete, or nearly so, then it may see a Steam release, or it may not. Personally I think the game is doing fine as it is. One hazard of growing too fast is the strain on infrastructure for things like multiplayer. It takes time to develop infrastructure, and if the current can't handle a huge influx of new players, the new players may get frustrated with the growing pains and leave before new infrastructure can be acquired.

That was a thing in Vintage Story? I know it's a thing in the other block game, but it's never crossed my mind to try it here.

We've all been there at some point, don't sweat it. Glad to hear you're having fun!