LadyWYT

I'd say toxicity just boils down to the mix of individuals that play on a server, and how that server is moderated. A good server will have rules in place to cater to the preferred playstyle of its community, and will have moderators in place to help maintain the desired order. A bad server happens when the rules aren't being applied fairly, whether that be moderators viewing themselves as above the law, playing favorites, not doing their job at all, etc. Even with good rules and moderators, there's still the occasional "bad apple" player from time to time. I don't think those arise from the game/server content as much as it is problems specific to that individual(which said problems usually stem from maturity issues). Humans battling other humans has happened in the game's lore, in the Old World prior to the calamity. It probably still happens among the survivors now, although I'd wager that anyone who makes themselves that kind of problem is dealt with rather swiftly. Plus in the face of potential extinction from eldritch monsters, most people have bigger problems to worry about than fighting each other, presumably. You are right though, in that when the subject does come up in lore, it's always presented as a bad thing. And I do agree--I don't expect the devs to change that, given that the core theme of the game seems to be humans banding together to overcome adversity.

Well...that answers my question as to whether anyone's tried to find it without using the map. Though I'm curious where the original world spawn is. I'm guessing somewhere to the northwest? The RA tends to want to generate a few thousand blocks to the southeast of spawn in my experience.

Yep. They get under the trees, kill any animals that wander too close, then get trapped by the carcasses. Or they get trapped by snow. Or rocks/sticks. Still gives you a jolt though when you first encounter them!

I'm pretty sure bauxite can be under other sedimentary layers, as I could swear that I've dug into bauxite layers before. It just tends to be much easier to spot when it's the top layer. I don't think it's coincidence, although I think the rusty gears tend to more point to a ruin being nearby, and not necessarily a translocator. Of course, it could just as easily be happenstance, in that some poor soul died there a long time ago.

Huh...can't say I've seen that issue before. I would backup any worlds you're attached to in a separate folder from Vintage Story, delete the game, and reinstall. It's probably the fastest way to fix anything that's gone wrong in the code.

Hmmm...have you tried deleting the HUD mod and reinstalling it? I'm not certain that's the cause at all, but it might be something to check out. The greenhouse might actually be working, but the mod may have glitched, which would explain why it's not showing the information on the HUD. Do you have any shots of the ceiling area from the inside? Since you've indicated that the roof portion is registering as a house, and the rest as a cellar, there could be some sort of detailing that's throwing the game for a loop and causing it to register the wrong space type. Especially since it's somehow registering nine different rooms. Another thing you might try regarding this, is to create a different world and test similar designs to see if you can get the issue to repeat itself.

For minerals you should be able to use the filters for the prospecting nodes in order to sort out all the nodes that have a reading of the mineral that you're looking for. For markers that you set yourself, however...you'll probably need a mod for that, though I'm not immediately aware of any that offer that kind of utility.

Some good news I found while reading through the patch notes--looks like aggressive wildlife at spawn shouldn't be as much of an issue in 1.20.

Now that you mention it, they do kinda sound like that, don't they. Otherwise, they sounded more like grasshoppers than crickets, but it could be a different variety than where I live.

Had something like this going on a friend's modded server for the other block game, a long time ago. There was a custom music playlist, complete with various triggers, which included combat music. In order to trigger that music though, you needed to drop below a certain health threshold. While it was cool and made for more epic fights...the main issue was that as soon as you healed above that threshold the music would fade back to normal, if I recall correctly. So it oftentimes had the opposite effect and ruined the moment, given how easy it was to recover health.

If you run across it again, mind DMing me? Because now I'm really curious! Also I noticed that the scrap bomb idea you mentioned there a while back as a potential gadget for malefactors made it into the game! Now that I think about it...if it's highly effective against Rust critters, I'm probably going to want to have a lot of those on hand.

Reading through the notes again--could be preparations for bigger/more detailed vehicles. Bigger boats, wagons, maybe even a Jonas contraption to ride/fly around in. Who knows.

Was it the "eldritch doggo" mob thing that's been teased in the concept arts? Because that's the thing that freaked me out when I saw someone showcase it in video. Just NOPE! Ranged enemy? Makes me think of the dwarven ballistas in Skyrim, although I'm guessing that's probably not the case here.

If it's the one I'm thinking of...I showed a video of it to a friend the other day. I'm not sure he will come back to Vintage Story after seeing that. I'm also debating whether I want to take a stab at tweaking the model and sticking big googly eyes or something on it, just so it's not so freaky-looking if it's going to be a common encounter. Then again...googly eyes might make it worse...

Agreed. Drifters are scary the first few times you encounter them, but they're never truly terrifying...at least the low-level ones. They're enough of a threat to help teach new players about the world and what to expect from it, and how to think better on their feet, without being overwhelming(exception: apocalyptic rift activity). They're also decent at punishing complacency in experienced players. Same goes for wolves and bears. The skitter(I just feel that's more fitting than "shiver", really)...I expected that to be a rare encounter similar to sawblade locusts. A dangerous monster that is good at hunting you down. A fast mob that hits hard isn't a bad thing, but it shouldn't be a common encounter if it's going to be tanky on top of all of that. Lack of durability is generally what balances fast-moving, hard-hitting mobs. That being said...I'd rather see more "boring" designs like the low-tier drifters and mechanicals for the common enemies, and leave the really twisted stuff for rare encounters. That way it's a lot harder for the player to become completely desensitized to them.

I mean, it could be nothing, or I could be reading the math wrong. But it's quite the jump to go from 64 to 1000, and while it could just be making a more modder-friendly framework it seems a bit odd to make that big of leap. Another boss fight is what I would expect, since you mentioned the RA boss and I generally associate "entity" with mobs. However, if I'm not mistaken, "entity" could include set dressing like the RA machinery and whatnot, so it could indicate that there will be some more complex contraptions to explore as part of the story. Of course, it could just mean Dave's getting an upgrade...getting up close and personal to something his size would require a lot of extra details. In any case, all this is just pure speculation on my part.

Now I wonder if this has anything to do with the ambient crickets/frogs/other small creatures, or if there's something REALLY big in the works for an encounter...

Ah, that would make sense.

The specific one that I use is XSkills; it does a lot more than just water -> salt. You do have to earn the skills first though, which is done by just playing the game, so it's a nice little reward that pops up every so often that helps you do various things more effectively. The salt boiling is under the Cooking skill tree, and easy to unlock. I usually have around 4 cookpots boiling salt at the same time as soon as I unlock that perk, as it's a good use of time during the night. Speaking of cheese...XSkills also has a perk that allows you to get cheese from milking your animals. Granted, it's a very small chance to get cheese instead of milk.

Depending on how well-established/attached to that particular spot you are, you may also want to consider moving elsewhere if you don't want to deal with predators. Unless something has changed, they're tied to specific spawn points, which means that even if you kill them off, they'll eventually respawn. On the other hand, if you need a good source of meat, fat, hide, and bones, and are good at killing them...it could also be a prime spot to settle in.

I forgot about this! I used this setting a lot when I first started playing the game, and while it's certainly not a "hardcore" setting, it helped lower frustration immensely while I was learning the game. There's a lot to figure out, after all, even with the help of the handbook, and even if you know what you're doing it's still fairly easy to die or otherwise suffer unpleasant consequences should you get the execution wrong on some of the gameplay.

Welcome to the forums! Regarding hostile wildlife at spawn...it might be fine-tuned in the future, but that's just kinda what happens occasionally for the time being. Sometimes you just have to make a run for it after character creation. I would say though, that if you're not enjoying that particular world, to make a new one. You should get a better spawn point, and if you keep the old world you can always come back to it if you want a more challenging spawn point. In regards to copper nuggets, it is frustrating to lose them, however, they're also fairly common on the surface as well. You can also pan gravel and sand for them too, although this method is rather slow and tedious.

I disagree--it feels like the perfect blacksmithing/building music, especially if you're forging armor and weapons, or building fortifications. It's also pretty chill for just doing the more labor-intensive chores around the base, or exploring. For combat music, I'd expect intense, fast-paced music instead, in order to match a high stakes fight-or-flight situation. This is actually one thing I really appreciate about the stability meter trigger--when it gets too low, any music that's currently playing immediately cuts out and is replaced by the faint ambience of the Rust world. Super unsettling, especially since it doesn't go away until you recover enough stability.

Not that I am aware of. I've found two that were within about 25 blocks of each other, so either that was a freak occurrence, or it's rather random as to whether or not one will spawn in the chunk. I want to say that they're *supposed* to be. Whether or not they generate with an accessible entrance though(without digging required)--that I don't know. True. I've got the suspicion that an unstable chunk might be a strong indication that there's a translocator nearby, which would make sense given that Jonas tech seems to potentially be behind what caused the temporal catastrophe in the first place. You might also try checking near traders, as whenever I use a translocator it always seems to spit me out somewhere near a trader. No guarantees that you'll find anything with these methods, but there do seem to be trends.

Not that I've played the pre-release, mind you...I'm waiting for things to be a bit more polished first. But judging by the video I saw yesterday, yeah, that's the noise those things make while idling around...assuming they aren't having a fit, anyway. Good luck! I'm not sure that you can outrun these things, though I would happily be mistaken.