LadyWYT

5 hours ago, Rudometkin said:

I get the problem of needing 12 kinds of healing salves. Overcomplication to the point you can't go on an adventure without filling up the inventory to account for one feature is not necessarily a great idea. It would be terrible in this case.

But if done right, you could have different types of damage that are more 'afterthoughts' and not so integral to life. Special damages like burn might do minor occasional damage until treated. So you're not going to die from your burn wound, but it is taking up some minor damage here and there until you get home to treat it.

Definitely not necessary, but would add to the healthcare side of the game without ruining the game in my opinion.

I like the idea, but yeah, it probably wouldn't do to overcomplicate the base game. Variety in damage types would give combat a bit more depth though, as it would let players pick weapons suited to killing specific things. So like, if you really hate mechanical things, you might opt for carrying a club instead of an axe, sword, or spear, but it might also mean you'll have a harder time dealing with wolves, bears, and some other things that go bump in the night.

I do think some sort of herbalism mechanic could be cool, though I'm not really sure how it would best apply without resorting to the basic "brew potion, get basic buff". Maybe it could tie in to the brewing/fermenting mechanic that alcohol has? So it's not just a matter of mashing some plants into a bottle and calling it a day; maybe you need to grind them in a mortar/pestle, combine that with a specific oil/liquid, and then let it sit for a while to be of any use. The benefit to going through such a long process is a bandage that heals for a hefty amount(more than the stuff we have already), and that stays fresh for a while(making it useful for trips). Or it could simply ignore part of the healing penalty that armor applies.

18 hours ago, Rudometkin said:

How are you managing without it? (im still new to VS and not at all concerned about my ability to eventually progress, but I am shocked that you have never used improvised armor )

I mostly manage by keeping a sharp eye on my surroundings and avoiding unnecessary risks when possible. If I hear a wolf, I'll either attempt to spot it so I know exactly which location to avoid, or steer clear of that general area if not. For bears, catching sight of them is more critical, since they don't currently have any noise to telegraph their whereabouts until they've already spotted you and decided they're hungry. In regards to monsters...I try to make sure that I'm indoors when it's dark out or there's a temporal storm. Caves I generally don't bother going in until I have better gear(tier 2 armor/weapons), as there's not much that's really worth the risk that early.

As for the armor itself...I usually forget that it's there. By the time I remember it, I've usually hunted enough animals to have a fair amount of hide, and acquired the means to turn said hides into leather. So I'll usually opt for leather equipment as a basic starter set. The crude shield is also rather useful for soaking some damage in a fight, provided you're actively blocking with it. The drawback though is it will increase the rate you get hungry when equipped in your off-hand slot, and you don't move quickly at all when actively blocking.

1 hour ago, Streetwind said:

From past experiences, new story locations will not generate in older worlds. It was that way with 1.18 and the Resonance Archive.

Isn't there a command though to generate those structures? Specifically with older worlds in mind? By structures I mean the new story-related set pieces, not the more minor things added by the update. Those will still require new chunks.

53 minutes ago, RetroTekGuy said:

Bugger. I was kinda hoping it worked like "that other game" Go to new chunks, Get new stuff etc.

The general impression I get is that the devs try to preserve the integrity of older worlds when possible...but the integrity of the game itself will take priority. I'd wager that if an update overhauls enough that a new world is absolutely required, there will likely be plenty of prior warning.

14 minutes ago, Thorfinn said:

Don't think of it as wasted. Think of it as learning how to design your base to deal with 1.20, maybe particularly, the new missile foe.

Sage advice. I started tinkering with the experimental version, since I really want to play around with the new stuff, and would also like to get used to the new...um..."friends" that have been added. A new world also means a fresh slate to play with and new things to see.

I'm thinking it's probably just set decoration, though it would be cool if there were hidden marks like that to indicate secrets. It probably also ties into the lore, somehow, though it's probably left up to the players themselves to determine what the marks are and what they could mean.

9 minutes ago, Echo Weaver said:

I haven't used improvised armor, but I've heard that it's good for about one hit. 

I'd say overall that it's better than wearing nothing--it might buy you enough time to flee an enemy, or win a fight against a lesser foe. It's probably a more attractive option to more cautious players, or newer players(although they need to be aware that it's an option). More experienced players probably won't get a lot of use from it, since their experience both allows them to advance more quickly and deal with threats more efficiently. That being said...with the new enemies that have been added, improvised armor might prove to be a more attractive choice when it comes to survival, given that there are more things to worry about than rocks to the face.

Something that crossed my mind while watching someone play the Wilderness Survival setting--instead of adding heat exhaustion, what about just changing the temperature tolerance setting that's already there? I'm not sure that it would change much in the tropical regions, but it would make being soaking wet a bigger hazard in that you could still potentially die of exposure outside of wintertime, and would press you a little harder to keep your clothing in good condition.

Of course, it still runs into the same problem of, well, being a rather easy problem to solve. I'm not sure there's any way to get around that without having a mechanic that becomes super annoying to deal with.

6 hours ago, Thorfinn said:

Or should warmer climes just be left as an easy mode? Similar to the way arctic starts are hard mode.

Personally I think tropical and warm climates should be "easy mode" compared to the other choices. The main benefit of living there is that you'll never have to deal with winter. The main drawback, of course, is that the higher temperatures means food spoils pretty fast, but it's also not hard to get food given that crops will grow year-round. And since crops won't freeze, you can just wait and harvest/cook them when you're ready.

Now that being said, I also think the warmer areas could use some kind of "unique" hazard, similar to how winter gives the colder regions their own special challenges. Maybe just more types of dangerous wildlife, like cape buffalo and rhinos to ruin your day, or elephants to stomp through wooden fencing to get to your tasty crops. You could also go with the standard "piranhas in water" trick. And of course, said animals would also provide more incentive for players to visit the tropics Overheating doesn't really do that.

https://mods.vintagestory.at/show/mod/14656

https://mods.vintagestory.at/show/mod/14220

I seem to recall reading that the concept was on the development to-do list, but as for when or if it will make it into the game--that I'm not sure. I'm guessing it probably will once other parts of the game are more fleshed out.

1.20 will be adding the first mount; I believe there are more planned for the future, but until then there are mods for cats/dogs, and will probably be mods to add more mount choices as well.

There's actually a proper boat coming in 1.20. Plus a storage upgrade for the raft, I do believe.

On 10/20/2024 at 7:39 AM, idiomcritter said:

the work around is to put the bloom as it is (missing voxel) onto a helve hammer.

Huh, TIL. The rare times I've encountered the problem I've just chucked the thing and continued working on the other blooms. It's definitely annoying when it happens, but I usually have a bunch of iron, so missing one ingot every once in a while really isn't that bad. That being said...I would prefer if it didn't happen.

Have you searched the area thoroughly? The X marks the general area that the entrance is in, but not where it is exactly. I think it can deviate by about 20 blocks or so. The first time I went looking for the Archive, the entrance was offset a little from the actual marker. It was also nestled into the mountain down in a little valley, and not at the very summit, so it was very hard to see(especially since the weather was foggy!).

However, if you have conducted a thorough search and found nothing, and suspect it to be bugged, I would recommend popping into spectator mode and checking to make sure that the entrance is actually accessible. If for some reason it's not, then simply popping into creative mode and removing whatever is blocking the door should grant access. Once you've fixed it, it's as simple as popping back to survival mode and continuing on as though nothing happened.

47 minutes ago, Thorfinn said:

OK, my bad. I guess I misunderstood. I thought combat was one of those things that was planned to be reworked in the future.

I mean I certainly hope it is, as I do believe there is room for improvement. Plus it would be more interesting to have a bit more choice in weapons, particularly weapons specialized to kill certain types of enemies. For example, if you really hate dealing with bells and other small mechanicals, you might want to use a hammer instead of the falx. A falx might be great against drifters but be less effective against animals(and people?), whereas a "normal" sword might be the opposite.

52 minutes ago, Thorfinn said:

I'm certainly in agreement that hunting is not difficult. Definitely wasn't in 1.19, when you could stand outside their awareness range and fire away at them, and they would just stand there. This changed a little in 1.20. At least they don't just stand there anymore.

Yeah, if the creatures don't just stand there anymore I could see hunting perhaps needing a small buff to compensate, otherwise it would get fairly frustrating in the early stages of the game. Time will tell though.

55 minutes ago, Thorfinn said:

I was playing in a game once where the 9th level ranger was one-shotted by an open-ended crit roll, and ruined several books when he flipped the table and dumped books and soda all in a pile, then threw his chair through a window.

Hopefully he paid for the damages? Windows aren't cheap, and neither are those kinds of books either.

I would agree, looks like an oversight. Shovel should be faster, even if it is just the most basic of shovels.

5 hours ago, Rudometkin said:

What do you think of Thorfinn's take?

Do you alter hunger and food spoilage rates?

I actually agree with @Thorfinn--it makes the game easier overall, unless you really mess with the settings. When I did a 30 day per month world, I didn't change the food or hunger rates; I think the only things I changed where the respawns per gear, keep inventory, and making the interval between storms longer(30 days). The reason I changed the days to begin with was mainly due to wanting more time to fiddle around and figure things out before winter arrived; it was a temperate start as well, I will note.

In any case, I didn't find it any tougher than normal settings. I will note that I did not play through an entire year before moving on to a different save file, but I did play fairly far into the wintertime without any issues. Food wasn't a problem, as I made sure to grow plenty of crops and preserve the harvests in crocks. Meat was either cooked and sealed in crocks, or salted. Lots of pickled vegetables too. I also really enjoy hunting in this game, so fresh meat was supplementing whatever I had stored. Two or three cellars worth of food...yeah, I wasn't going hungry anytime soon.

If you're looking for harder, I would actually shorten the months from 9 days. Shorter months means a shorter winter to survive, but you'll also have much less time to prepare. If you're shortening the months, I'd wager this is probably when you'll want to really adjust things like hunger and food spoilage to make sure you can't just wait out the winter with ease.

16 minutes ago, Yehomere said:

Really good point. You know what, that just changed my whole argument. I've only ever cast zinc, where some things would need to be forged.

I forgot to mention last night when I wrote my initial post, but if zinc can be cast like copper and has a comparable(or slightly better) hardness, I could see it being utilized in the game to cast arrowheads, at least. They could do a more damage than copper arrows, but could also have a higher chance to break in return. So it could still be an option in the event you have a lot of zinc that you're not going to use for anything else(and if you don't really care about reusing arrows), but overall copper still remains the more versatile metal.

Plus I mean...arrowhead mold for copper and bronze arrowheads would be nice.

53 minutes ago, Thorfinn said:

Pretty sure weapons and combat are going to go through a lot of tweaks. Some of those are serious changes to balance.

Ironically, I got the opposite impression from what Tyron said in a recent interview--the one with Oscillascape, I think? That being said, I do agree, that even if combat is balanced okay now, that doesn't mean that it won't be tweaked in the future. Personally, I would expect it to be, as new creatures and potentially new weapons get added.

2 hours ago, cautious_asparagus said:

1. Bleeding

A bleed mechanic would be an easier way to make up for the low power of bows. After taking damage from an arrow of a sufficient tier, an animal would begin to bleed. After a certain amount of time, if the animal does not die, the bleeding would stop. Say, after a period of 5-10 seconds.

A bleed mechanic would be interesting, if only for tracking purposes. Otherwise, I would say it should maybe be only a chance to cause bleed damage, in order to keep things somewhat balanced between the classes. If the creatures can easily bleed out, it somewhat ruins the balancing between Blackguard and the other classes, since part of the reason Blackguards have the penalty to ranged damage is to make it harder for them to hunt for food. They're tough, hardy fighters and probably the strongest class late-game, but will struggle a bit in the early game due to the increased hunger rate and difficulties securing food sources.

2 hours ago, cautious_asparagus said:

2. Animals receive damage based on arrow tier

Instead of arrows just adding a flat damage increase, animals should be affected by the tier of the arrow itself. Small animals, such as rabbits, racoons, and chickens, might be instantly killed by a copper arrow, whereas that same copper arrow will just confer the original flat damage boost to a large animal, and it would take an arrow of a much higher tier to kill a large animal like a deer or moose.

I want to say this is already somewhat true, though I could be wrong. My understanding of damage tiers is that the higher the tier, the easier it is to do the specified amount of damage to a target with lower tier armor.

2 hours ago, cautious_asparagus said:

 3. Wounding

Lastly, a wounding mechanic could be implemented. Similarly to bleed, it would activate based on the tier of arrow being used. But instead of inflicting a damage over time effect, it would impair or incapacitate the animal, adding a slow-down effect or similar to the damaged animal.

This wound might last from anywhere from a few days, to weeks, giving a long-term debuff to the affected animal. This also allows predators to maintain a healthy weight, as it would be easier for them to catch and eat wounded animals over healthy ones, letting players contribute to the local ecosystem in a roundabout way.

I mean, realistically, if you wound the animal, you should try to find it and finish the job so it doesn't suffer more than necessary. From the gameplay standpoint though, I think it would make hunting too easy, especially if it was paired with the bleeding mechanic mentioned earlier(which, in my opinion, conflicts with this mechanic). As for the predators, I think it makes more sense for them to scavenge carcasses that you don't harvest, or any meat that you throw away. Otherwise, I haven't noticed predators having any difficulties getting themselves a meal when they're hungry.

2 hours ago, cautious_asparagus said:

4. Locational damage

The last big feature that could revolutionize hunting would be locational damage. Shot placement for arrows would introduce a much bigger skill ceiling, and encourage more clever hunting to get a good shot. A shot to the head or to the center of the chest would do much more damage than a shot to the legs, for example.

I want to say this was going to be a thing for the elk mount in 1.20, but was scrapped or otherwise sidelined until a good implementation method could be found. That being said, while it would an interesting way to sharpen and reward player skill...I would say that if it's implemented, it should apply to most all entities, player included. Perhaps as one of the world settings, so that those who want a less punishing experience can turn it off. Because it would certainly be punishing.

Overall, they're not bad ideas by themselves, but I don't think hunting in the game needs to be 100% realistic. Realistic does not always translate to "fun". I would probably be more inclined to opt for something like this to increase the realism a bit, without making things too easy or less fun. https://mods.vintagestory.at/show/mod/7966

1 hour ago, Thorfinn said:

Shot placement and other effects also tend not to be fun. Getting one-shotted by a bear or a 2-H drifter is one thing, but if it were possible from any foe using arrows or similar who get in a lucky head-shot? You do a lot less hunting than being hunted.

Agreed--it's pretty much only fun if you're in the mood for that level of challenge. I daresay that's probably also why you don't see those systems adopted by a lot of games. From my own experience, I installed a mod for Skyrim that did similar to locational damage, in that there was a chance to receive various types of injuries when taking damage in combat(it was random which injury you received). Some of the injuries could be applied to enemies as well. In any case, it made combat much more volatile overall--if things were going your way it could be awesome, but one lucky hit from an enemy could leave you exceedingly frustrated.

10 hours ago, Rudometkin said:

I'm surprised I was able to outrun it.

I'm thinking wolves are too slow.

I'm thinking you just have good reflexes. To me, wolf speed and damage is fine as-is. While players can outrun them fairly easily, that does hinge on the player in question being able to react in time and navigate the terrain whilst trying to escape. If you're wearing armor that slows you down, then running isn't really an option and you'll have to fight the wolf off...and hope there's not more than one or two lurking around.

39 minutes ago, Rudometkin said:

You can hear the chomp it takes, but I took no damage. I think it just barely missed me.

I'm wondering if it might have gone after a rabbit instead of you, given that the "chomp bark" sounded a bit too quiet. Could just be my settings, but the chomp-chomp noise is practically right in my ear when the wolves are biting(or nearly biting) me.

7 hours ago, StCatharines said:

I can never get it to stop shattering, where my copper chisels and hammers work very well once I've degassed the molten mix via CuP grains and done the usual work hardening.

I'm guessing the ease of smelting and working copper into something usable without shattering it is probably why copper is a prevalent material in early tools and weapons. If zinc shatters that easily, it's not going to make a good weapon or tool.

On 11/5/2024 at 3:48 AM, Wick said:

Whats the point of gold/silver tools then? Both as equally useless in real world.

If you made the functional bits out of gold/silver, then yeah, it's going to be useless aside from being a glorified paperweight. Though if I'm recalling correctly, the gold/silver utensils that we have in-game are steel-based and use the precious metal for decoration. In essence, they're fancy weapons to show that you're rich. I don't recall if they get any damage boost over the standard steel--I think they might have a small boost, which I would chalk up to the weapon being of rather fine quality prior to decorating. After all, if you're going to sink that much expensive material into a status symbol, you're certainly not going to waste it on shoddy work.

On 11/5/2024 at 9:31 AM, Maelstrom said:

Should be easy to mod these kinds of changes.

Agreed. I'm no coder, but I'm guessing all you'd have to do in this case is pretty much copy/paste the code for the copper stuff, and then tweak the values as desired. Well, that, and making new textures for the zinc items.

Typically I'll either find something indoors to do, such as cooking or grinding away at the quern, or I'll be out pummeling drifters assuming that I have adequate equipment. For the times I don't feel geared enough to go out and fight, and don't have anything else to really do...I'll just hide in a safe spot and wait it out. In those cases, it's usually early game, and I'm usually either reading news on my phone or doodling in a sketchbook until I get the "temporal storm seems to be waning" message. At that point it's just a matter of cleaning up whatever drifters are left, or sleeping what's left of the night away waiting for them to leave and getting back to business in the morning.

(As the title suggests, this is all pure speculation that I wrote up for fun)

Perhaps one of the more intriguing physical differences of seraphs from humans is the existence of two hearts, and though the second heart has been dubbed by scholars as the tempus cardia("temporal heart", in layman's terms) the exact functions of this additional organ are still unknown. Nevertheless, some key qualities have been deduced through focused study on mostly willing participants, and the organ's general functions seem to be remarkably similar to a normal heart.

First and foremost, a short description of the organ is in order: much like the standard heart, it is located in the center of a seraph's chest, nestled just behind the normal heart. It is slightly smaller than the normal heart, though the fibers that make it seem much stronger than normal heart tissue. Even stranger are the tiny flecks of glowing teal substance that seem to be present in the bloodstreams of all seraphs; these flecks seem to be at the highest concentrations in the temporal heart, but their function is yet unknown. Much like a standard heart, this organ is composed of four different chambers, and seems to serve a similar purpose in that it helps pump blood throughout the body. Or in this case, perhaps infuses said blood with those strange glowing particles.

As stated previously, the temporal heart seems to beat in a similar fashion to the normal heart, though given the greater strength of its muscle tissue it seems able to operate at a slower pace, perhaps 50-75% of a standard heart rate. Unlike the normal heart though, the temporal heart is entirely unaffected by physical exertion(at least, according to the results of extensive testing), instead beating at the exact same pace regardless of whether the individual is fast asleep or running like the wind. If anything, the operation is very similar to that of those strange temporal gears that turn up every now and then, though whether the two are directly linked and how remains to be seen. Nevertheless, the temporal heart is not entirely impervious to environmental conditions, and seems instead to exhibit some rather extraordinary behaviors when exposed to the horrific creatures of the dark and their strange rifts in reality, and shall be described as follows:

1. In places those horrible creatures seem most absent, the temporal heart(and therefore the seraph) seem to be at ease, pumping with the same slow regularity as appears to be normal for this organ. Should the seraph be suffering ill effects from one of the situations listed below, spending time in one of these areas seems to help them recover most of their faculties.

2. When exposed to one of the nightmarish creatures, the temporal heart appears to temporarily increase the number of beats it outputs, particularly if the seraph in question sustains injury. It will, however, still be somewhat slower than the standard heart rate, assuming that there are no further affecting factors. Should the monster disappear, the temporal heart should return to a normal rhythm in short order, and outside of any physical injuries sustained no significant harm seems to be inflicted upon the seraph.

3. Exposure to a nightmare rift seems to have the most drastic effect upon the temporal heart, causing said heart rate to rapidly rise until it exceeds even the anxious beating of the normal heart. As you might have guessed, dear reader, such levels of stress are unsustainable, even for such a strong organ, and continued exposure to such hostile conditions seem to quickly result in temporal heart failure. As you may have also guessed, this results in the death of the seraph(or at least, as close to a proper death as they seem to experience).

4. To a lesser extent, being underground seems to carry similar effects on the organ as rift exposure, although to a much lesser extent. The deeper underground the seraph ventures, the faster the temporal heart seems to beat. Although perhaps not as frenzied as the case outlined in #3, enough sustained stress from such high rates will eventually kill the seraph, if not remedied.

5. Much like being underground, some areas on the surface seem to have the same effect on the temporal heart, though again, to a lesser extent. It is unknown why this happens, as humans don't seem to be affected by these areas, but something about these regions seems to induce anxiety in seraphs. Much like too much rift exposure, or spending too much time underground, spending too much time in these areas is hazardous to a seraph, inducing anxiety, followed by stress from an unsustainable temporal heart rate and eventual death if not remedied. The current theory on these regions is that these areas may be more prone to the appearance of rifts, as seraphs seem to exhibit similar anxiety when around rifts and the monsters they spawn.

6. As mentioned previously, temporal gears seem to share a potential link with the temporal heart; one of the reasons lending great credence to this theory is the fact that temporal gears, or rather the energy contained within them, seem to be able to be directly harnessed by seraphs. When exposed to a seraph's blood, the energy seems to be sucked out of the gear and infused right into the bloodstream, calming the temporal heart somewhat should it be agitated. The more conventional use by seraphs, however, seems to be utilizing the energy contained within the gear to create a sort of "returning point" that, should they suffer fatal, allows them to reappear at a specific spot rather than actually die.

7. Much like the standard heart, sustaining direct trauma to the temporal heart seems to result in the seraph's immediate death.

Thus concludes the study on this particular portion of seraph anatomy. In short, the temporal heart seems to act as an additional regulator for the mysterious energies contained in a seraph's bloodstream, similar to what the normal heart does for the rest of the body. Significant damage to either will result in the seraph's death(at least temporarily), though the temporal heart seems to be a bit more resilient on average. It is not recommended to attempt recreating the effects of a temporal heart in a human, as all attempts to do so have resulted in spectacular failure, and have been subsequently banned by the institute.

--an anonymous researcher

To my knowledge, pickled vegetables can't be used in recipes like fresh ones can, at least in the vanilla game as of the time of this writing. I'm not sure if there is a mod that changes that, but I'd wager there probably is.

As to why you'd want to pickle vegetables anyway, despite not being able to use them like fresh vegetables--they keep for much, much longer than fresh, and are used in the cheese-making process.

3 hours ago, Bumber said:

Did Jonas invent a mechanical intelligence, or did he shove an existing ghost into a machine? "Eidolon" means "spirit", which may imply they're just possessed, like a golem. Frankenstein created life, but he used Abby Normal's an existing brain.

I think it's likely he kinda did both, in that he started with basic mechanical intelligence, and then ended up shoving(perhaps unintentionally) entities from the "other world" into his devices to achieve the higher functionality. What he probably didn't count on was the machines turning on him, and potentially multiplying themselves.

3 hours ago, Bumber said:

It seems to be the world addressing the player (who is basically analogous to the seraph, so yeah).

I get similar impressions. It's like a more polished form of the wall of ending text from the other block game.

30 minutes ago, DirtyLeftBoot said:

I went through and deactivated them all (I think. I just unchecked all of them except for the three core codes.) and it won't even generate any landmass still. It should be vanilla since they are all deactivated.

Assuming you started a new game after deactivating all mods: if it still won't generate a world, backup any previous save files you care about(ie, move them to a folder outside Vintage Story), and reinstall the game. Then move any world files back into the proper folder. Before loading any mods, try starting a new game and see if the problem persists--you should be able to generate worlds. Assuming the problem is fixed, then you can see about reinstalling mods, but if not then you'll want to open a support ticket, most likely.

If I recall correctly, someone else had similar issues before, and reinstalling the game worked. The reason I recommend a complete reinstall is that if a mod happened to corrupt a critical part of the code, a reinstall will refresh everything. In regards to installing mods, while you can install a bunch at once(admittedly this is what I tend to do), it's better to install one at a time and test to make sure each works correctly before installing another--makes it much easier to weed out problem mods. Additionally, while mods for older versions can work on newer versions, it's usually best to try to stick to mods that are updated for whichever version of the game you are playing. As for how to determine whether an older mod will work or not, aside from testing...if the part of the game it modifies hasn't really changed since that version, it probably will work.

https://mods.vintagestory.at/show/mod/6703

It's for the 1.18 game version, but it may still work on the newer releases.