LadyWYT

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.

Until then, there's a mod for that, and welcome to the forums! Don't know how well the mod works, as I've never used it, but judging from the comments it seems to be working for 1.20. https://mods.vintagestory.at/expressyourself

One way to help encourage walking instead of running, is to up your hunger rate a bit. Once you figure out just how much energy you burn by running everywhere, slowing to a walk on your travels is suddenly a lot more appealing. Especially if you're not bringing a ton of food with you.

I generally remove the withered vines. I don't know that it actually does anything, but I presume that by removing them, it frees up space for new vines to grow, and thus increases the chances of getting more pumpkins.

If more than two roosters are in the same space, they will kill each other. However, you mentioned this was the only rooster you had, so I'm guessing that there was probably a predator/other rooster nearby outside the barn, that managed to kill your rooster through the walls. It's not a common occurrence, but I've lost sheep to bears swatting at them through a fence, so it's possible that's what happened here as well.

Most of those you can already find easily just by looking, since the blocks look different than standard grass. In regards to finding more fertile soil, you also judge the fertility simply by looking at the color. Of course, if you can't see the sides of the block, then it's difficult to spot unless you mouse over it and happen to read the tool tip. However, the best fertility soil is terra preta, which you get exclusively from crafting or as a rare find in surface ruins. High fertility soil is the best that spawns naturally otherwise, and it tends to spawn in decent-sized patches so it's not hard to acquire a lot if you keep an eye out for it.

Isn't there a board game mod that does exactly that? Plus the omok pieces from the vanilla game, though I'm not sure that you craft those as much as buy them or find them. As for designating a chiseled block a figurine and allowing the player to pick it up with a simple right-click...it sounds great to me, but I'm not sure how much code it would involve to work without issue. Plus any small statue that one chisels is still going to be fairly big, provided you want the statue to have any kind of intricate detail. I think for figurines small enough to be game pieces, the better option is probably to roll that kind of thing into a proper lapidary system. Cut your rough gemstones into something pretty, wire together more delicate pieces of tech, or just carve a fancy game piece/figurine with the system. Lots more you can do with a system like that, and the products can all be small enough to pick up/place like other small objects in the game.

Oh snap, I didn't even think of that, that's a great idea! Good luck, and hope the drawing turns out well for you!

I think they were added in 1.16, and given how different they are from "regular" trees I wouldn't say they're a precursor to a tree overhaul. It's always possible, I suppose, but not likely.

Tagging on to this--if you're the ambitious sort, look into the terminus teleporter. It's a late game piece of tech that once built, will allow you to teleport to last place you died, at the cost of one temporal gear per use. Ideally, it's not something you'll ever need, but if you want to acquire a "legit" method of teleporting to your death point, it is an option. Nothing against using console commands to fix mistakes either--that's what they're there for!

You don't even have to do that--use spectator mode inside. It'll let you fly right through the blocks, so there's no need to move anything.

If they decide to rework all the trees, maybe. But I'm guessing probably not. The tree models we have now work well enough, and I would also say they stand out a bit from Minecraft trees due to the more detailed textures and variety of tree shapes. The fruit trees, however, do have branches, and their appearance changes a little more dramatically with the seasons. As to why other trees don't work like this--I presume it's mostly due to the processing power it would require to simulate the loss/regrowth of all those leaves.

I would say three regular meals, so that you can eat the entire meal in one sitting and get the satiety benefits. If you only eat part of the meal, I don't think you get any satiety bonus. That being said, if you're after variety or wanting to make a fruit/protein dish, then the hearty meals are the way to go on that.