LadyWYT

Very true, but still, given where you tend to find the aged beds, lol...

I had to stare at it for a few minutes to figure out what was going on--it trips up my tired brain, lol. It certainly appears that way! I think it could be even harder to tell which game it is if the trees were rebuilt and the bed model tweaked.

I mean, when there's chisels and enough glass, all you'd have to do is wait until he goes AFK somewhere and then build a display case around him.

I think that structure should be safe, provided there are no openings chiseled(natural or otherwise) into those blocks. Part of the creature model might clip through at the corners but it shouldn't be able to actually attack you. It can be nerve-wracking to witness though, especially if you've already been hugged by a bear! There's a command you can run to change your character, but I'm not sure which one it is. I didn't know you could skip character creation though and do it later--TIL!

I could've sworn I saw a bear eating berries from a bush in-game once, though I could also be mistaken. The suggestions sound really cool though and would help polish the animal AI a bit more. As it currently stands, they don't really do a whole lot, although some of them have some neat idle animations(like the roosters crowing).

Welcome to Vintage Story, although I'm sorry that you're having trouble. If you spawned in for the first time and it was night, it sounds like you jumped right into a multiplayer setting, which will be tougher for a brand new player in some ways. As @Streetwind mentioned, it's best to ask other players for help in that case, or learn some of the basics in a singleplayer world first before venturing back in to multiplayer. However, if I misunderstood and it was something that happened in a singleplayer world once the sun went down(the player always spawns during daylight in a brand new world)...that can happen, unfortunately, especially on the Wilderness setting(it's more challenging by default than the others). Hostile wildlife can currently spawn at the world spawn, which means that you may have to make a run for it as soon as you're done with character creation if you want to survive. As for the supernatural monsters--those only spawn in darkness underground, during periods of rift activity(provided it's dark enough), or during temporal storms/other cases of extreme instability. The temporal storms always come with plenty of advance warning, and temporal instability isn't really a problem until most of the gear icon is gray instead of teal colored. As for rift activity...the activity level is random and currently can't be predicted. One thing I did when I first started playing the game was go into the world settings and turn on the grace timer for when supernatural monsters start to appear(the rifts will still appear but nothing will come out of them). That gave me time to prepare myself a bit before having to deal with them. There's also other settings you can adjust as desired, and you can also change most of them later in an existing world with certain commands. As for the enemies attacking through walls--some things are still a bit rough around the edges. One feature of Vintage Story though is that holes in blocks oftentimes count as actual holes, and if they're big enough for a projectile or an enemy to reach through to attack, the enemies will try to take advantage of those openings. Of course, it's also a mechanic that you can leverage to your advantage as well!

That may change next update considering that we're supposed to be getting proper boats to sail around in. In the meantime, I recall seeing somewhere that more food options are planned for the game, but not a priority at the moment due to the variety we have already and other mechanics needing more attention. Until some uses are officially implemented, I think there's a mod or two that adds some functionality to seaweed.

I'd actually been thinking on this. I know that in real life, the reason that alcohol warms you up is that it's wicking more of your internal heat away from your core, hence why it makes you freeze faster if you don't remove yourself from the cold. I'm not entirely sure how to translate that particular mechanic to in-game though, or if it would even be very fun. As it stands, the game's freezing mechanic is a nuisance if you're prepared for it, given that you'll need to stop what you're doing outdoors every so often and go warm up. It can be downright deadly if you're unprepared. The best solution I've thought of there in regards to alcohol is let alcohol(and potentially other hot beverages) provide a small immediate boost to warmth. Drinking more in one sitting could mitigate more cold. It would be useful in regards to getting things done around base in wintertime, or short hunting trips, as now you can just take a drink and keep going rather than having to stop and light a fire. The drawback though is that you'll need to use at least one inventory slot to carry a beverage with you(and the current jug only holds three servings of a drink), and if it's alcohol you're drinking it's going to make you drunk in the process(thus it's going to be harder to navigate). Adding on to that--it was mentioned earlier in the thread and I've been toying with the same idea: let alcohol serve as "liquid courage" for combat. It could give a sort of damage absorption when consumed, similar to what golden apples do in the other block game, and allow the player to take an extra hit or two. The bar can be replenished by taking another drink, and otherwise disappears when you sober up. It would be quite obtainable in the early game and offer an appealing option for defense until the player is able to build sturdier armor, as well as still being viable in the later game outside of roleplaying. The drawback is that to keep the absorption meter full, you'd need to carry alcohol with you and take time to drink it, and it's going to be harder to run around and hit your target when you're very drunk. The other effect I might give alcohol--a hidden drunkeness meter similar to the freezing meter(which, that kind of meter may already exist, I'm not sure how the drunk effects are coded). In any case, if that meter becomes mostly full(80% or more), I'd say the player begins blacking out(the edges of the screen start to darken), with the player passing out completely if the meter is filled completely. After sleeping off the stupor(a couple of in-game hours/enough for the meter to decrease to mostly empty), the player then wakes back up(assuming they didn't die while passed out). Having a mechanic like that would not only give alcohol some more practical uses in the game, but would also give players a reason not to overindulge.

Depends on the modded creatures. If it's Fauna of the Stone Age types, the same rules should apply, as I have used those mods and done that with success.

The other thing about respawning sticks and rocks is...they're probably gonna respawn in one's base too, which means a lot of cleanup that's going to get a bit tedious if you want a tidy base. Also, letting sticks and rocks respawn still doesn't prevent players from picking the area clean. Rather, I'd say it probably makes the behavior worse, as now they don't need to leave spawn to find that stuff anymore. So if it's a slow respawn rate, the area is still going to be picked clean. If it's a high respawn rate, there may be a better chance to craft basic tools without needing to walk miles to find the materials, but now base cleanup is going to be a real chore.

Sounds about right, really. Also welcome to the forums! It seems like the rarer items you always find when you're never actually looking for them. And then of course if you don't take it with you, you won't find it again later, heh heh.

It kinda depends. Sometimes you can play for hours without seeing more creatures spawn(at least, where you would expect them to spawn). Sometimes you can kill a couple and there's four more to replace them a few minutes later. I'm of the same general mindset as @TamTroll, in that I tend to forgo hunting certain animals that are near my base, and instead go hunting abroad where I don't really care if the local population gets temporarily wiped out. One trick you can also try, at least in a singleplayer world, is exiting the world and re-entering. That should reset all the spawns and give you more animals to find.

This too. I also forgot to mention that sticks already respawn, sort of. Or rather than respawn, players are meant to use shears to cut the leaves off trees before chopping them down(which will yield a lot more sticks and seeds than normal!) Now of course, all that is useless if there are no trees to harvest for resources, which again ties back to the hazards of playing with other people instead of by yourself. The only thing I could really think of that could be potentially added to help deal with the issues is perhaps a few more configuration options or other tools for server admins to use to help curate a fun experience for large servers. But server tools only do so much when the root of the matter lies with player population and personalities. Edit: Also, while I'm thinking out loud--this is also why I wouldn't recommend brand new players dive right into multiplayer without learning some of the basics in singleplayer first. Or at least avoiding heavily populated, highly active servers until they have a better grasp on game mechanics. A smaller server is probably fine, especially with a friend or two, but a large server full of strangers may be a bit too much to handle at first, depending on the individual.

Springboarding off what Thorfinn pointed out--I don't think it's an issue with Vintage Story as much as it is a hazard of multiplayer in general, given that the same problems exist in other games as well. A lot of it hinges on the server admins and what rules they have to help maintain it, and whether or not they enforce those rules. It also hinges on how many players frequent the server and what their general mindsets are. There's not really a way to stop resource drain entirely, as over time regions will eventually be depleted of certain resources(mostly ores and stone--the non-renewable types). I think a lot of times servers will offer teleports to new players, so that they can be dropped into fresh chunks miles away from settled chunks, and thus have a bounty of resources to work with. Having a basic starting survival kit(some food, and a couple basic stone tools) can help as well, if the new player is going to remain closer to settled chunks. It's also really easy to just take what you need at the time without worrying about whether it grows back for someone else(like breaking cattails without a knife, chopping trees but not replanting). Doing it in singleplayer isn't a big deal, as you're the only player to worry about in that world. On small servers with only a handful of people, it's also not too much of an issue, as there is plenty of room and resources to work with. On large servers it becomes a bigger problem much more quickly(especially if it's a server that's been around a while!), as there are now more players trying to share the same amount of space and resources. I'd also say that Vintage Story inherently encourages players to work as a team in multiplayer settings; split the work into different player roles and build a small thriving village community first to keep everyone alive and healthy before splitting off to work individual bases. That way there's also infrastructure to help new players settle in when they join. The issue here is that whether or not that happens depends a lot on what kind of server it is to begin with. If it's a free-for-all or PvP-oriented setting, it's likely going to be a whole lot rougher starting out than it would be on other types of servers.

I mean, I've been wondering why the old muddy bed you find in a ruin is somehow more comfortable to let you sleep longer than the brand new bed you can craft. Especially given that...it's been there a really long time, and there's no telling who or what has been wallowing in it. At least let us change the sheets! Agreed. But even for players who aren't inclined to the roleplaying aspects--they still want to make their base look nice! Not that the beds we have look bad; it's just nice to have variety. Granted, you can just chisel a bed out of other materials, but you can't actually sleep in it in that case.

Maybe the forums are a little on the fritz? It happens sometimes. I've not had any issues with it today but if it just has the hiccups it should sort itself out soon.

And here we have a drifter flash mob--who knew they were such pranksters! I was playing with a friend and he had stepped away for a few minutes. During that time, the rift activity went from calm to apocalyptic. I think there must have been about a hundred of the potato sloths stacked up at the door by the time friend got back to his computer! In any case, neither one of us were in the mood for signing autographs, so we dug a tunnel out the back of the base and made a run for it as soon as the sun came up.

I think some corporations missed the memo on this! I mean, if it's done well, it can be engaging gameplay to certain types of players...key words being "done well". It's a really easy thing to screw up when you're designing it too. And while a mediocre result isn't the worst thing in the world, you really don't want your game mechanics to be forgettable either. But that's also where all the options in the settings come in handy! I'm actually not sure It would make sense, given they seem to be at least somewhat immune to the passage of time. Maybe the tradeoff for not needing sleep is all the temporal shenanigans, ha! At the same time though I could see being well-rested/lacking rest being some sort of mechanic sometime in the future, most likely with a toggle in the world settings. I can't really think of a good way to implement it though, or a good reason to have such a mechanic either other than for the sake of realism/another challenge. I think what we have currently is fine--sleep to pass time more quickly at the expense of hunger, but no significant penalty to hinder you if you choose not to sleep.

Agreed! Traveling at night is already inadvisable, really. It's too dark to see much of your surroundings, so the likelihood of encountering a predator or falling down a hole is much greater. Having a light source helps, of course, but the light range is still too limited to give you much idea of what could be lurking in the bushes. It also hinges upon rift activity as well--I've seen calm nights turn to apocalyptic levels in a split second, and drifters will almost always spawn in force at night if there is rift activity. So it's still risky, even for experienced players(Vintage Story is very good at punishing those who get too complacent!) One way to get around it is to save your travels for daylight hours when possible, and do other chores around the base in the meantime. You can also just sleep the night away(or part of it, at least), but the main drawback to that is it will deplete your stamina. Given that there's currently no drawback to not sleeping though, it can be an unnecessary waste of resources, depending on your mindset. Not that I really want to see significant penalties for lack of sleep, mind you. A different game already tried that and the mechanic turned out to be much more annoying than it was fun.

Personally, I really like the crates because they hold a lot of stuff without getting disorganized due to the one-item-type limit, and they can have handy pictures on the front to look at. I've even shoved my temporal gears into crates a time or two, just because it was a prettier way to store them. It's not that I can't just label my chests--it's just a lot easier and faster to find what I'm after by glancing at pictures. The couple of things I've found to be issues when working with them--there's not an easy way to stack crates on top of each other when empty, unless you have some sort of wall at the back. Attempting to stack them without a wall will result in shoving one crate into another, which is a little frustrating if you're just trying to pile them up for whatever reason. The other thing is that it's difficult to remove stuff that you've put in the crate, unless it's either a single item or a full stack(or however much is in the stack "on top"). It'd be much less frustrating removing specific amounts of stuff if there was a way to open a small dialogue box asking how many items you want to remove.

Very true. I prefer swords for the job. I agree, though I also think the usefulness of it hinges a lot on the experience of the player. Newer players would probably get more use out of it, since they tend to struggle more with advancing due to lack of experience. So potential access to a stronger stone age material could have a bigger impact. A veteran player should already be aware of the advantage obsidian offers, but due to their experience they'll also be advancing much faster than average, so stone age stuff quickly becomes outclassed by better options.

If I recall correctly, you mentioned that you play vanilla, right? I've seen that slab once before, though I had mods installed, so if you guys play vanilla that means it's definitely not a mod thing. I figure it's just an easter egg referencing EthosLab, one of the original big names in the Minecraft YouTube community. Although why it's a slab of clay and not something else, I don't know.

Not necessarily. Bare minimum give them the same stats as flint arrows, because it doesn't make sense to not have obsidian arrowheads, really, and that keeps them from potentially being overpowered. At the same time, I'm not sure that they would be too strong if they were at roughly the same level as copper, as copper is rather easy to find but obsidian I've only seen once or twice. Assuming the player settles near obsidian, there's usually plenty of it so they would probably forgo copper arrows in favor of obsidian then, in that case. Better balancing might be to give the obsidian arrows the same attack as copper ones, but make the break chance the same as flint. So they do a bit more damage but still break at the same rate, giving the player a reason to pick copper over obsidian if they favor the bow. Personally, if I'm going hunting with a bow, I don't bother with copper arrowheads at all save for the ones I get from panning; flint works just fine until I get to iron/steel. And since flint arrows are so cheap, I don't have to bother with trying to find them after I shoot them.

https://mods.vintagestory.at/show/mod/7003 I've not ever messed with this mod, so I don't know how it works, but it may help with tweaking wintertime to taste. I'm not aware of any greenhouse mods though. Another option might be this mod: https://mods.vintagestory.at/show/mod/247 It doesn't buff greenhouses, exactly, but it does at least have a farming skill that improve your harvests and whatnot. The only other suggestion I have currently is if winter is going to be that big of a hurdle for most of your players, you might want to consider a Warm start. The growing season will be almost year-round in that case, and the lowest temperatures should still be just above freezing. Where it gets a little different compared to a Temperate start, is that berry bushes don't really produce during the summer but will in the cooler months.

Possibly the rope ladders--they can be lowered as opposed to regular ladders. They can also be easily retrieved when you're done. I don't know if you can put them in water though.