LadyWYT

Welcome to the game and forums! Is there an actual block, or does the map just indicate there's a block? It's possible that the map could have just bugged out. In any case, my initial suspicion is that there may be mod installed that alter the world generation and produce strange behavior such as this. If you're not using mods though, then it's a bug that should be reported on the Github bug tracker.

Welcome to the forums! It's been a while since I messed around with a tropics map, but as I recall, flax should spawn. Perhaps not as often as it does in temperate climates, but it should exist. I think it tends to show up more often in the grassland regions, or cooler chunks when they appear, but it can be difficult to spot in the tall grass, and tall grass there will be aplenty since it's the tropics.

Ropes are better than they were, I think, but still far from being bug-free. I'd recommend just trapping some piglets, herding the adults into a pen, or otherwise spawning in a breeding pair or using mods to make catching animals easier.

Not to my knowledge. It's just a funny piece of junk to fish up.

I think the main reason for this with VS updates is simply that...the devs like to push the limits and try to outdo themselves every update when it comes to content. There's also the fact that Vintage Story is still very much a game in the alpha development cycle, maybe beta, which is rather easy to forget since many parts are quite polished compared to what a game's alpha/beta phase usually offers. That's not to say there weren't some things that could have been handled a little better, but a lot of it I just chalk up to general growing pains of a game very early in development. In my experience, the VS devs are pretty fast about fixing the major issues while still getting new content out, so I'm not particularly worried about it.

Homing pigeons are a great idea, but I would also suggest a bell and resonator, or at least a similar receiving device. I think only the luxury traders have resonators now, but it would be an interesting late-game option to build some sort of receiver device to gift to a trader in order to allow a player to check their stocks remotely. In order to check stock though, the player needs to have crafted a bell. The bell can also serve as a handy warning device, as well as a way to communicate with other players and certain plot-relevant NPCs.

Welcome to the forums! It's an interesting idea, and would make a fun mod for sure, but I wouldn't want to see this in the base game. Chiefly for this reason. The player character isn't exactly a blank slate for the player to do with as they will. Rather, the player character is a specific individual, with a specific history and set of skills/reputation to go with that history. Malefactors are sneaky, Blackguards are good at fighting, Hunters are good at hunting, etc. With what's been proposed, picking a class at the start preserves some of the flavor, but ultimately leads to the class choice meaning very little in terms of identity. If you see a Malefactor, you're going to be expecting them to be a sneaky type good at foraging and salvaging, not the type to actively seek out the fiercest melee combat(that's what the Blackguard is for). Likewise, picking Blackguard doesn't really mean much if you're going to build it like a Hunter or Malefactor. I will note that this kind of gameplay is already handled pretty well by the XSkills mod, for those that wish to play this way. It's a fun mod, but one that I've stopped using so much over time simply because it eventually leads to characters feeling very much the same over time.

Welcome to the forums! If I'm not mistaken, the reason that old bushes were left untouched is to ensure that worlds generated prior to 1.22 wouldn't break, especially since some of the old bush behavior, like stacking, no longer exists. I'm sure the devs could have forced a block update, but it's probably easier to just let old bushes remain as legacy blocks and prevent the player from obtaining any more. That also allows players to keep playing their older worlds without massive issues. As for adding the old bush behavior to the game as a world config option? No, that's something that should be handled by mods. The game is still very much in development, things will change before the final release, and trying to keep old gameplay systems as "legacy" options leads to bloating the file size as well as creates some pretty big problems on making sure all the settings generally play nicely together. There's also the aspect of the devs are trying to fulfill their own vision for the game, and while they do make some concessions as needed to give players plenty of options to season the game to taste(like removing lore content or setting all creatures to be entirely passive), there are also some aspects they're not going to change, because there still needs to be something there to challenge the player and retain the game's general intended vision.

Welcome to the forums! Echoing what others here have already said, but...windmills only work when the wind is actually blowing, and even then it needs to be a wind strong enough to run the machines at a decent speed. Windmills will also interfere with each other via turbulence if placed too close to each other, and they will also break if the sails collide with another block. Watermills, on the other hand, provide a consistent source of power, and don't take nearly as much space. The tradeoff to such benefits though is that they're a bit more expensive to build than a basic windmill, and you need to build them at very specific spots.

I think in this case, an easy enough fix is to just...let monsters(the ones that can climb) climb over fences, no matter how high, but not palisades. Fences can continue to keep out wildlife. In this fashion, fences are still useful for protecting farms and general aesthetics, but if the player actually intends to protect an area from serious threats then they'll need to invest in actual fortifications to keep the bad stuff out.

Welcome to the game and forums! You'll need a bellows first, since that will allow you to heat the iron up enough to allow you to work it for a decent time. Technically you can work it without bellows if you have a really good fuel source(like coke), but it can be difficult. After you've brought the bloom up to a workable temperature, it's just a matter of splitting off the slag(that's the black bits) and shaping the ingot from the actual iron before splitting off any remaining extra voxels.

Welcome to the game and forums! If I recall correctly, you should receive an email with your game key and instructions to set up and log in to your account after you purchase the game. Also keep in mind that the login information for your game and forum accounts are two separate things, despite the two being linked to each other, so you'll want to make sure that you're using the correct credentials. Also make sure that you're typing the password correctly, as typos(especially with caps/num lock) aren't uncommon. Aside from that, if you've done the standard troubleshooting and still can't log in, you'll want to submit a support ticket. The support team will have the resources to take care of account-related issues. They're usually pretty fast about handling these things, but it does depend on exactly what the problem is and how busy they are at the time. You can submit a ticket here: https://www.vintagestory.at/support/

The general rule of thumb that I've figured out, is that splitting off a voxel or two earlier in the process rather than waiting until the very last step is the key. I think a lot of players wait to split voxels until the very end, which is understandable since that makes it much easier to fix mistakes, but that doesn't work very well for things like the 4-way hub since it leads to more material getting used instead of less. I've also found this strategy handy for smithing other items more efficiently as well, not just the hub.

I don't know that it's other labor jobs the other classes weren't willing to do, since I don't think that most people really had a choice when it comes to what was going on the in underground. They did whatever was necessary to survive, and if that meant digging tunnels or hauling garbage then that's what you did. As I understand it though, the Commoner is the "catch-all" class for any sort of professional background that would have been common in the medieval times and brings no special skills to the table, or at least, nothing special enough to make the class stand out from everyone else. So farmers, bakers, tanners, laborers, candlestick makers, common merchants, messengers, etc. all fit into this category. The other classes could pull from these backgrounds as well, but the difference is they have more specialized skills that are harder to learn, or have specific history(the Malefactor in particular) that make them what they are.

Welcome to the game and forums! Ctrl + right-click should open the basket inventory while placed on the ground. However, if you've changed your keybinds, then the combination could be different. If you're using mods, it's possible that one of them could be causing the issue as well. If you're not using mods, then you may have found a bug in the vanilla game, in which case you should report it on the Github bug tracker: https://github.com/anegostudios/VintageStory-Issues/issues

Not without a mod, and I'm not sure if there's any mod that adds such a feature currently.

Sure, but I'm looking at it from the standpoint of...it only takes 2-3 hits with a decent weapon to kill a surface monster on default settings, and that's what the rifts produce. Early in the game it would be more of a problem, since the player doesn't have access to the better weapons and armor yet, and a rift ward certainly won't be an option here. However, late in the game, when the rift ward can actually be acquired, it's no longer very useful because iron and steel will make short work of anything that pops out of a rift. Unless the rift activity is high, and it usually isn't, the rifts and monsters both should be easily manageable. And as a general rule, the player should have their base lit up well enough to see what's coming, as well as pay attention to their surroundings. While AFKing to wait on a task isn't an uncommon practice in the other block game, I don't think it's a strategy that should be at all encouraged in Vintage Story, since one of the main points of the general game design seems to be getting the player to pay more attention to what they're doing and account for the potential consequences their choices could have.

This is why I say that such a change would reduce the value of rift wards. The main reason to build them is to keep an area rift-free. However, rift wards are somewhat expensive, so if the player can just...kill everything that comes out of the rift and thus close the rift almost as soon as it opens, then why bother building rift wards at all? Honestly, the lighting rules probably need some adjustment. I don't love the idea of preventing monsters from spawning in spaces that qualify as insulated rooms, however, that's probably a decent tradeoff for removing the spawn protections from artificial lighting. That way the player doesn't have monsters spawning indoors, for the most part, but they can't expect to skip making rift wards by placing lanterns everywhere. Placing lanterns could still cut down on the number of monster spawns somewhat, but it's not going to be nearly as effective as daylight or a rift ward. Bring back the rift bug. It made rifts invisible and removed the sound. The stability drain still happened, but at a much slower rate, and I think the gear turned the wrong direction while it was draining. In any case, the only way to notice there was a problem was the appearance of monsters in the area, unless you happened to look at the gear and actually notice what was going on. In fairness I'm not sure most players would go for this, but it was a pretty fun bug while it existed. If we look at the NPCs for an example of what kind of bases are expected for the world, pretty much all of them have palisades or other defensive structures like bunkers, walls, towers, or actual forts. So yeah, I agree here--not everyone likes fencing, and it's not a hard requirement to succeed at the game, but it's not an unrealistic design choice at all. In which case, it's a good idea to give the player some palisades and stakes to build with. They don't necessarily need to be functional, but it would be nice to have a perimeter fence that looks like a proper defense rather than something you'd find in a suburban backyard.

Tagging on to what @Maelstrom already noted, you might consider making a creative world and placing some blocks of blue clay and red clay so you can get a better idea of what to look for. Clay is definitely easier to spot from the side, but not every deposit will have the sides of the clay visible, so it's important to pay attention to the ground nearby in order to notice changes(clay and peat will both have patchy grass on top rather than a full layer of grass). And that goes for more than just clay--paying attention to the ground can help you notice changes in rock types, deposits of ore near the surface, and other resources that may not be immediately noticeable. Looking in grassy fields is generally the best method of searching, since there won't be much to obstruct your vision. I will also note that colorblindness could make the clay more difficult to spot. If that is a factor here, you may want to search for a mod that makes clay stand out more, or politely make a request for such a mod here: https://www.vintagestory.at/forums/forum/34-mod-requestsideas/

I wouldn't recommend TOPS for new players. It's not that it's a bad server or anything--to my knowledge it's a great one. However, it is very popular, so it's not unusual for there to be wait times to get in, and the wait times can be rather long. Additionally, servers that have a lot of active players also tend to pass time quickly and pick the areas near spawn clean of resources. TOPS is also the official public server for testing the game, so server wipes aren't uncommon. Personally, I would say singleplayer is better since that allows one to tailor the game to their exact liking, as well as pause the game or otherwise log out without needing to worry about time passing. For jumping straight into multiplayer though, it's probably better to look through the listings on the Multiplayer section of the forums or ask around on the Discord.

Weird, because I've had days where I've opened and closed the game multiple times. I never had to relog unless I was switching installations, and never had problems otherwise. I'm not saying it could never happen, of course, just that it would be a very strange problem if that were the case. Especially since mod testing/troubleshooting often requires opening and closing the game multiple times, and having separate installations for unstable/stable releases isn't that uncommon(at least, I don't think it is).

Right, and I'm not saying combat is entirely to blame. But when it comes to complaints, I think many people can easily point out the effects of something, but don't necessarily stop to fully consider what's actually producing the results they're encountering. It's easy to point at temporal storms/monsters and say it's a system that needs some work, and that's not entirely untrue. But I do think several of the complaints ultimately lead back to combat, because if the combat were smoother, dealing with the monsters would be less hassle.

This is kind of the direction the game is headed in, but I think it's important to note that the game world is designed to be dangerous, with very few places that are truly safe. Just because you can't see the dangers doesn't mean they aren't there, and the drawback to making the world mostly predictable/controllable is that you get Minecraft. Not that Minecraft is bad, but that's one reason Minecraft isn't as satisfying to play in some ways--the game never really pushes the player to get better and there's very little that's a real threat. It's not the worst idea, but this makes rifts much less of a threat and opens to the door to players ignoring the rift ward entirely. I think a better solution would be to take this idea, but make it so that rifts change their locations frequently rather than opening in one place and then sitting there for several in-game hours(as long as the player is in the area). That way they're still dangerous and the rift ward remains valuable for dealing with them, but they aren't locking the player out of certain areas for entire days. The random nighttime spawns aren't really random though. Monsters are more likely to appear from rifts during the night, since they like darkness. A calm night won't have monsters, aside from the rare one that strays from a nearby cave. However, a calm night could easily turn into a nightmare if the rift activity goes from calm to high. And that's one of the things that really helped set Vintage Story apart from Minecraft, at least in my experience. Some dungeons should definitely have more monsters, as well as traps and puzzles, but I don't think every dungeon needs to be swamped with monsters. Sometimes it's enough to just have a creepy atmosphere to keep the player on edge, but not actually throw anything particularly dangerous at them. As for the "loot run" respawns...in general, loot runs happen rather quickly, so unless the location is extremely far away the player should be able to carry off all the loot they want before anything respawns. If they can't do that because the monsters are respawning too fast, then they tend to end up frustrated more often than not. There's also the fact that dungeons that have set spawns and allow respawning aren't places that the player will be able to really clear out and turn into a base. That's not necessarily bad, but I think the purpose of some of the dungeons is that they're locations the player could choose to clean up and call home if they so wished. There's also the potential issue of dungeons getting turned into mob farms, if the monsters respawn fairly often and the locations can be altered without affecting the spawns. In fairness, I don't think mob farms can ever truly be stopped, since games will always have a few exploits or "cheaty" strategies, but it is something to consider. The only other thing I really want to note is that I don't think monsters themselves are the problem. I think the issue is more that combat currently has some issues, like hitboxes and animation timing, that make combat a little clunky and frustrating to deal with sometimes.

You should be able to play without internet access, but I think you'll need to have logged in at least once on that device while connected to the internet, so the game can store the login information in the files. After that, you should be able to play anytime, with or without internet, as long as you use that login information. I will also note that if you switch game installations, you will also be prompted for your credentials every time you switch between them, but you should still be able to enter that information offline and continue playing.

It heavily depends on your gameplay settings. If you play with increased hunger rates or longer months, you'll need more food. On lower hunger rates or shorter months, you don't need as much. On default settings, having a few shelves full of stews sealed into crocks, a couple of storage vessels full of grain and vegetables, and several pies/a couple barrels of wine should be plenty to keep your nutrition up on standard game settings. Dairy is usually best handled by cheese, since cheese keeps very well, but cheese also takes a while to make. Milk will keep for several days during the colder months, and if your sheep/goats bred in the fall they'll usually give birth during winter and provide more milk. Protein can be easily had from hunting, butchering livestock, collecting eggs, or eating soybeans or fat. Honey qualifies as fruit, and never goes bad. That being said, wine is a much easier way to preserve fruit nutrition for a long time, as is turning the fruit into jam or pies. Jam keeps for a very long time even in an unsealed crock. Wine is probably the least nutritious option, but it keeps for a very long time as well, and the mashed fruit can be fed to most livestock. This is mostly personal preference, although it also depends on what livestock you have to work with. Pigs reproduce quickly and will eat a wide variety of food. Chickens only eat grain, which keeps a while, but you do need to keep them fed in order to keep them producing eggs(one portion per chicken per day is my general rule of thumb). Sheep and goats can eat hay, which is easy to acquire and store, but they must give birth in order to give milk, and only give 10 L per day for 20 days. It takes 25 L of milk to make one wheel of cheese. Also keep in mind that you only need to feed livestock if you intend to breed them. You'll also need to feed them before butchering if they're at a lower rate, but this usually isn't a problem since it's easy enough to cull older livestock(which will be the fat ones) as needed before breeding. Cheese making will use up the pickled veggies. However, it only takes 2 pickled vegetables per full barrel of milk, and each full barrel will yield 2 cheeses. The more expensive part of cheese production is the amount of extra salt required to process the curdled milk into proper cheese. I think it's around 20 salt for every 2 cheeses. This goes back to what your game settings are, and your personal preference. More filling meals like meaty stews tend to be better choices, since each serving provides more energy than say, a portion of soup or vegetable stew. A good handful of shelves filled with sealed crocks of meaty stew should be enough to last most of a winter on standard settings, especially if you're supplementing it with fresh meat from hunting or livestock.