LadyWYT

I haven't touched 1.21 content yet, but based on what Maelstrom said, I would assume that yes, you could acquire an elk before starting the main story. However, I would wager that's unlikely, unless you were fortunate enough to have elk spawn within a reasonable distance of your base. For climate, I would expect to see them in colder regions that aren't densely forested. The rare times I've encountered them in the game, they've always been at higher altitudes or the taiga climates that are north of the temperate zone but south of the arctic, and usually in grassland areas or sparse forest rather than dense forest. However, I would say that the easiest way to acquire an elk is still going to be via the treasure hunter trader. It will cost some gears, but gears are easily acquired and treasure hunters are a bit easier to find than wild elk, unless something's changed. The taming and saddle-breaking process, I'd wager, is probably more to offer Homo Sapiens players a way to acquire a mount, since traders don't spawn in that game mode. Of course, for players who really don't want to spend the gears, or prefer more of a challenge, it's also nice to have the taming option too.

@Fistandantilus pretty much this, in a nutshell. Vintage Story does have some fantastical elements to it with the eldritch horrors and temporal mechanics, however, those aren't the focus of the game. They're in the background. The main focus of the game is the late Middle Ages and associated technology; while it does take some creative liberties here and there, the game itself leans heavily into realism and not fantasy. Hence why I say necromancy stuff would be fine as a mod, or great for the proposed Adventure Mode, but would otherwise be incompatible with the lore and setting that's been presented.

I would try checking in colder regions, either high altitude plateaus or somewhere between the temperate zone and the arctic. The few times I've seen wild elk in the game, they've always been in one of those colder taiga regions.

It takes a couple of days on average to process tickets, and depending on how many tickets they have to take care of, and the complexity of said tickets, response times could be shorter or longer. I'd wager Anego staff is fairly busy right now getting ready for the 1.21 launch and making sure it's smoother than the growing pains that came with 1.20(big influx of new players, which created a lot of issues).

Yeah I have to agree with Thorfinn here. I didn't enjoy this mechanic at all in Valheim, and I doubt I'd enjoy it here. To be clear, it's not the health drain that bugs me about it...it's the constraints it places on building. There are already building constraints in Vintage Story, but those are also easy to work around--just make the enclosed space a certain size, or build from glass for a greenhouse, and you're done. You can place chimneys, ventilation, and other decorations however you wish to spruce up the space, without worrying about whether your decorations actually have to function. They just have to look good, and that's it! Plenty of room for variety, while also leaving the "basic firepit in a dirt box" available as an option for those who really need/want it. With a ventilation mechanic though, I don't see it being as easy as punching a hole in the roof/wall and calling it a day. I'm guessing players would need to build chimneys and ventilation shafts to pretty specific specifications, which limits the creative freedom when it comes to designing structures. I suppose you could just make the mechanic a difficulty toggle, however, I'm not a fan of a just making everything a toggle. Modded territory is the best place for this idea, in my opinion, so that those who really want that kind of challenge can have it, while leaving the base game unaffected. As for smoking meats...Primitive Survival handles that concept very well. Have a smoker block to smoke the meat in; easy to make and use, and won't crater performance to lower-end hardware, as @Facethief mentioned.

I keep an eye out for the really dark dirt...that's about it. I've also noticed that it tends to occur more frequently in areas with frequent rainfall.

Typically, you'd have your armor stowed in the baggage train, when possible, and only equip it when expecting a fight. It's not only more comfortable and less stress for you that way, but it's also more comfortable and less stress for your mount as well. And of course, realistically...if you could afford good armor like plate, you'd be able to afford a horse and a servant or two to help with your luggage as well. Of course, from the videogame standpoint, armor is approached a little bit differently, since the player needs to be able to handle the workload themselves.

Fishing is coming sooner or later. Now that more aquatic content has been added, I would expect sooner, since you really ought to have fish in the sea to catch, before you have a way to catch them. As mod, sure. For the base game? No, absolutely not, since it doesn't fit the lore. For the proposed Adventure Mode? Sure. Now if you mean just an aesthetic choice, and not magic and the like that you find in fantasy titles, then sure, it's plausible. There are already a few skulls and bones that you can collect and use as decoration, and there is also the Rotwalker clothing set that looks...rather creepy. I could also see making drifter-esque attire from rusty metal and whatnot; perhaps as a disguise, or perhaps salvaging the creatures themselves for macabre trophies. However, I would also want NPCs to react to attire like that...and probably not in the most favorable way either. Edit: Forget to mention it, but there is also a sheepskull mask that fits the necromancy aesthetic, although it is a rare find.

Welcome to the forums! Are you using any mods? I don't recall seeing this in the vanilla game at all. I'm guessing though that the statue is located in an unstable chunk, and that's what's draining your stability. There's no way currently to change the stability of a chunk in the game, so if you happened to build in one I'd recommend relocating to a more stable area. If you settled on the border between a stable area and an unstable ara, that might be as simple as just keeping most of your activities to the stable side of your base. You can also restore some stability by sacrificing a temporal gear and a bit of your health, or by killing monsters, but the former is expensive and the latter is dangerous. Outside of that, you could try using this mod, or searching for one that does similar: https://mods.vintagestory.at/chunkstaboverride

I don't know exactly how it works in the code, but the readouts that Density Search provides are different from what actually spawned. I'm not entirely sure why that is. I do know that I've dug for plenty of stuff that a Density Search said was there, and wasn't...and also found plenty of stuff that was there that wasn't listed on Density Search. I'd also wager that this is probably why many players have trouble finding salt domes--it's a mineral that shows up frequently on Density Search, but hasn't necessarily spawned. Magnetite is another frequent offender.

You're using Density Search, not Node Search. Density Search will only tell you what could have spawned in the chunk, not what actually did. Node Search has a very limited radius, but will tell you what ore, if any, is actually present. If you do a Node Search, it should list quartz and silver both, as well as how much of each there is present. Incidentally, the bit on Density Search is also why you can sometimes dig at a high reading spot for certain ores, and find nothing.

Welcome to the forums! Depending on what you want to define as "day monster"...there's currently an ongoing issue of monsters spawning from rifts in daylight, outside of temporal storm conditions. As a general rule though, monsters are averse to bright light, and daytime is meant to be a relatively safe period for the player to work in. Wolves, bears, and other wildlife serve as daytime hazards. While this is true, this also doesn't quite fit the lore. The setting is the late Middle Ages, some time after a cataclysmic event that wiped out most of humanity. The remnants that are left are collected into small settlements that are very few and far between(currently only one exists in the game), and the various traders you can find scattered around the landscape. It's not out of the question that there could be bandits, however, bandits are more likely to camp somewhere around one of the settlements so they have victims to prey upon and profit from, instead of risking themselves in the wilds.

It's a bug: https://github.com/anegostudios/VintageStory-Issues/issues/6533

Correct! And yes, it is possible to reverse course and lose weight if needed. I will note though that it takes time for effects to become noticeable...both good and bad. You won't dig yourself a hole overnight, but if you find that your habits have had undesirable effects then it will also take you some dedicated time and effort to fix it.

Both mods play nicely together, but you will probably need to tweak some config values for the best experience. Each mod has its own way of tracking fat and the effects, though both mods have the player gain fat in roughly the same way. So if you're building fat reserves in one, you're likely building fat in the other as well. Tasshroom's BodyFat, in my experience, allows a fat reserve that will keep you from starving to death, as long as you still have fat reserves that is. Fat reserves take several days to build up, but will only stave off starvation for a couple of days if you eat absolutely nothing. There is no drawback to having such fat reserves, currently. With our mod(Expanded Stomach), fat won't keep you from starving to death, but it will insulate you from the cold. Your body will acclimate to your eating habits over time, and you'll experience the benefits or drawbacks that come with said habits. So you can potentially eat more in one sitting and go longer before needing to eat again, withstand cold better, build/replenish nutrition faster, or lose some of your agility/mobility depending on the habits you chose for yourself. The general idea is that you need to figure out what habits to stick to in order to accomplish the results that you want, as it's not really possible to have all the benefits with no drawbacks on the preset difficulties.

Love those moose animations--the babies are even cuter now!

As I said, it draws your core heat to your extremities, which means if you don't have access to a heat source(like a fire) then the cold will bleed that warmth from you faster. If you're indoors though, you're out of the weather and in a more stable environment, and typically have access to a heat source or thick blankets to help trap your body heat.

Welcome to the forums! In addition to what @Krougal said, you might try this mod as well to help you find resin: https://mods.vintagestory.at/barkbeetle Seems to be working on recent version, and it's a rather nice, immersive way to find the resin spots instead of relying purely on particles or other less immersive methods.

Alcohol really isn't something you want to drink to warm up, unless you don't intend to go back out in the cold for a while. The reason for that is alcohol will draw your core heat to your extremities, which can warm you up quickly indoors, but means you'll end up freezing faster out in the cold.

I think you can put it on the database as a draft, and then post the link to the page. If it's posted as a draft, it won't appear in the list of mods for download, but anyone that has the direct link to the draft's page can download it for testing.

Chocolate and coffee both would be good reasons to venture to the tropics, visit agriculture traders, or just play on a tropical/warm map to begin with. As far as hot drinks to warm you up...yes, absolutely. I think the code may already be there in the game too. I've been helping develop a mod with @traugdor, and if I'm recalling correctly, there's already a bit in Vintage Story's code where eating hot food will already warm up your character. I don't recall if it was active code, or commented out, but it was there.

Sounds like the world I've been mod-testing on. Plenty of goodies, but no clay at all for seemingly miles around, despite spawn being a grassland with almost constant rain. Finally found a couple of deposits about a day's jog over the hill, dug some up and brought back home. What do I find the next day, right next to my base though? Clay! So I do agree, Clay's a shifty dude.

That flamethrower candle still cracks me up every time I see it.

https://mods.vintagestory.at/expandedstomach There you go, got it launched! Have fun! It doesn't cover exactly what you asked for, but it comes pretty close in that you can eat more and go longer before needing to eat again. You may need to adjust some of the settings in the config file to get the exact results you want, depending on how much challenge you'd like to play with.

Sleeping through nights is probably your best bet, from the sounds of it. That way you can set the month/year lengths to be quite long and have meaningful seasons, but still have time pass relatively quickly since you aren't squeezing every last bit of usable time out of a day. Not really, aside from what @traugdor said. He handles the code, while I test and help refine details/make assets. As far as I'm aware, all the pieces are there regarding what the mod does, and I'm pretty sure that we've swatted all the bugs...at least all the ones we could find, so there shouldn't be any major issues on launch. I just need to finish the thumbnail art and it should be ready for a proper release...so, maybe sometime in the next couple of days, I'd guess? As for getting notified, I can just make a mental note to drop a link here when it's ready. That way you don't have to go hunt for it.