LadyWYT

That's a palace compared to my first house in this game. I went with the standard newbie dirt box when I wasn't just camping under a tree.

You don't need a mod to remove temporal stability. /worldconfig temporalStability false will turn off the temporal stability mechanic entirely, so that all you have to worry about are rifts and storms, if those are enabled(there are separate commands to turn these off). Simply reload the world after running the command in order to apply the change. If you're looking to disable temporal stability on the surface specifically, then you will need a mod for that as there is no vanilla option for that currently.

I would say just make the elevator broken but repairable in the present. The main issue I see though is, how does such an option get balanced so that the intended method of climbing the tower doesn't just get bypassed every time? The immediate solution would be to just make the repair option very expensive, so that it's there for players who really don't want to do the parkour for whatever reason, but won't see the majority of players sinking the resources into it over figuring out the jumping puzzle. The problem though, is that making it an expensive repair is likely to result in several complaints about the expense; a cheap repair though will just mean most players end up skipping the puzzle, which isn't ideal. One thing I'm not really partial to with this idea, is setting the precedent for an easy-out every time the story presents the player with a tough challenge. Tweaking some of the surface and underground ruins to include some basic parkour would probably help, though the timeswitch mechanic should be left to the tower and later story points given that that ability is a pretty significant development. Overall though...I think the tower basement does a decent job of allowing the player a safe spot to figure out the mindbending weirdness of the time-switching puzzles before they unlock the door on the ground floor and begin the real challenge. One thing I will note in the design, is that the key is paying attention to the details of the set pieces on whatever floor the player is currently on--there's always something there that stands out to indicate to the player where they should go(like a lamp or a prominent window). As for the pressures, I think the pressure at the tower is fine, for the most part. It's a risky adventure, yes, but that's rather fitting for the location in question and by this time the player should really have learned to reset their spawn points via temporal gears when doing dangerous things like this. A couple of tweaks that I'd be more inclined to make are preventing monsters from spawning/entering a certain radius of the tower, and allowing Tobias to give the player some more useful advice/items should the player have visited him prior to retrieving the Lens. The former tweak would mean players don't have to worry about getting picked off by bowtorn and could be easily passed off as the Crow not allowing anything or anyone to get close to the tower. The latter would give players a little more option in how they approach the story, as well as some help for that challenge should they think to ask for it.

It's possible, though somewhat improbable due to the distance from spawn. I'm pretty sure this is partly why the Chapter Two locations are so far away; at least two of them are easily spotted from a distance, especially with the map enabled. It's also possible, but not ideal, to skip Chapter One entirely as well as skip most of Chapter Two, though this is improbable as well unless one really knows what to look for. It does make for a pretty fun challenge for a world you really want to take your time on. That being said, it may be necessary to "cheat" a bit to get some pointers due to what you already mentioned about the RA entrance being buried. This is what happened to my friend and I the one time we attempted this kind of challenge, lol.

To be clear, plate armor isn't bad, but it's not the best armor for adventuring. It's better suited to base defense(plenty of food and healing material at home) or delving deep into caves(mobility isn't a big concern here). When it comes to jumping around in general, I think as long as your movement speed is above 75% you should be fine for most jumps, but in my experience that's the approximate threshold for beginning to miss jumps instead of succeed.

Welcome to the forums! As @Vexxvididu already noted, baby animals don't need their parents in order to grow up, at least they don't as of the time of this writing. That may or may not change in a future update. Personally, I prefer to leave the adults alive until the babies have grown up, so I can cull the ones I don't need and ensure I still have enough breeding stock in the event of a tragedy. Breeding them or fattening them for slaughter.

First off, welcome to the forums! It's unknown how many more story locations will be added to the game. All we really know is that of an eight planned chapters, only two have been implemented. If each chapter introduces a new location, that's six new locations minimum, though it could easily be more than that if a later chapter follows a similar design as chapter two's locations. Maybe, but I think that there will be plenty to do at the end of each chapter. Chapter One can be completed with bronze equipment, while Chapter Two generally requires iron. Different armor sets may be ideal for different chapters depending on what each requires(for example, higher mobility armor like chain versus more protective, low mobility armor like plate). Overall, there are things like livestock, fruit trees, and just general base improvements that players can focus on when not working on the story. Likewise, players usually get some nifty gizmo to build as a reward for completing a chapter(so far), that will probably take a bit of time to acquire. Most players will probably also want to take a small break and relax and restock before heading out on their next adventure. I think how long a story chapter ends up being depends heavily on world generation settings and player skill. Some players might struggle with Chapter Two while others breeze through it; same goes for Chapter One. As for world generation, some seeds are harder than others in certain areas, and if the player changed the distance scaling for story locations then the story will take longer or shorter depending on how they scaled that setting. I do agree with the last statement though--it's really too early to make many solid guesses.

Steel plate armor is very protective, but also bad for mobility, especially for non-Blackguards. Steel chain is a better option here, in more ways than one. The jumps, though tough, can still be done with armor equipped, but plate will likely slow most players down too much. In the event that one is wearing plate armor, it doesn't hurt to remove a piece or two briefly to get some mobility back, and then put the armor back on once done.

I suspect maybe a brief venture into a "pocket dimension", perhaps--a very small sliver of the Rust World. Or perhaps travel to a different settlement to find some allies, perhaps. The most likely option though, I think, is probably another sort of location similar to the Resonance Archive. Some monsters to fight, some puzzles to solve, and some lore to find, but otherwise fairly straightforward. It's hard to say for sure though. What I do expect though, is a focus on whatever new mechanics are being added for that update. Chapter 2 had some story-specific additions, yes, but it also served to showcase one of the main features of the update: travel options like the elk and sailboat. The sailboat, of course, being a bit underwhelming since coral reefs and ocean life were delayed, and aquatic features still being something relatively underdeveloped as a whole.

For those who hate parkour, this is likely the best option.

I actually suggested something similar a while back. The general idea was to have some sort of receiver device, or expanded use for the resonator as a receiver. For transmitting messages, one would need a bell; bells could also serve as alarms for intruders. In any case, it would be a great immersive communication method for multiplayer and certain NPCs. In multiplayer, such a system could be used to leave offline players messages.

So that's why the world is still messed up. Someone's been microwaving metal to create tiny drifters and creating temporal storms in the process!

As in you couldn't get to that floor, or couldn't get past that floor? To get to the first floor from the ground floor, you need to go up the flight of steps in the past, timeswitch to the present as soon as you reach the top, and then carefully make your way across the floating debris to get through the hole in the wall where the door used to be. Once on the other side, you should remain in the present and should see a ruined chest before you. Jump on top of the chest, and then jump from it to the ruined table on your left and make your way up the stone blocks to the second floor. Like I said before, the parkour in this area is very tricky. Mistiming a jump can sometimes mean death, making it a good idea to bring a glider with you in the event of a miscalculation, though it will still be very brutal to complete on permadeath just due to the nature of permadeath rules. The wiki has a complete walkthrough of the puzzles, complete with some video clips for the Tower portion itself should you need a visual reference. https://wiki.vintagestory.at/Guide:Devastation_area#The_first_floor:_boiler

I was able to complete it just fine in a test world before making my earlier post. If you're not standing right next to the fence when timeswitching, the timeswitch will fail due to debris blocking the path. It's a tight space to work with but it is manageable. If you still believe it's a bug, you should report it on the bug tracker, where it's guaranteed to be seen by the devs. You can scroll over the timeswitch icon on your hotbar and right-click to activate the ability. There is no need to use two hands. As for the parkour puzzle, some of the jumps are tricky, but they are doable. If you fall, you should be able to call the elevator and use it to return to whichever floor you were on. It's worth noting that Vintage Story is a very easy game to die in. Permadeath is especially brutal, especially on Wilderness Survival. If it's not enjoyable, I would recommend either playing with unlimited lives, or otherwise adjusting the settings to something that is less frustrating.

It's not bugged. Once you reach the fence in the past, you need to switch to the present to pass it, then switch back to the past right after you've passed the fence in order to proceed through the door ahead. You won't be able to switch to the past if you go further than that, as the way is blocked by rubble.

I mean for what it's worth, Steam isn't the ultimate solution/protection for everything either. It's a popular service because of its convenience and decent quality at the moment, but that's also subject to change depending on who's running the business. The rules could easily change later, or the company fold entirely and that's the end of it. I'm not saying that Steam will do that, of course, just that it isn't immune to the standard hazards of business and digital products.

Welcome to the forums! The latitude looks just south enough to start getting into warmer climates, hence why you're seeing cacti and other warmer climate flora. A yearly average temperature of 25 C is more than warm enough to support those plants. I will also note that if you shrank the polar-equator distance, that will make it much easier to get to the warmer climates from the default temperate start. If you didn't change the polar-equator distance, the unusual behavior may also be an unintended side effect of one of these mods.

Outside of bugged notifications/notifications turned off somehow, temporal storms shouldn't be appearing out of nowhere. There's always a warning eight hours in advance, which is plenty of time to prep your battle gear or otherwise find some sort of cover. Where it gets tricky is making long expeditions, or forgetting when the last storm was. In the case of the latter, there is a command you can run to check the time until the next storm, at least, but in the case of the former that's just part of the challenge of planning a long trip. There's nothing wrong with making a game more accessible, but that's best handled by the multiple options in the settings and mods so that players can tailor the experience to their liking, without changing the standard experience for everyone else. The more you water down the standard experience to appeal to a wider audience, the more it loses what made it special to begin with.

I think the main reason that so many changes got applied after the initial launch, is that 1.20 had been cooking for a while and players were antsy, so it maybe launched a little sooner than it should have. That was also around the time that there were more new players than expected, to the extent the web services were struggling to keep up with them all. I'm guessing that might be why 1.22 is taking a while as well. It's usually better to take some extra time and get it right at launch, than it is to try to play catch-up afterwards.

What I want to know is what happens if you stick metal in it before turning it on.

It's not a vanilla mechanic, so my guess would be the Butchery mod, perhaps. It's definitely a mod of some sort though.

If it makes you feel any better, I was messing around with a fresh world in the tropics earlier today and nearly died at spawn thanks to a hailstorm. Game really has a way of surprising its players, no matter their skill level.

You might be interested in this mod: https://mods.vintagestory.at/stickydirt I don't know that it does exactly what you're asking, but it might make the ground instability mechanic a little more to your liking. I do recommend trying it out on a test world first though, both to make sure you like it and that it works properly, before adding it to a world you actually intend to play(you might make a backup anyway before modding just in case).

It was quite different. I'm not sure which changes happened when, but:

If it's a mod problem the easiest way to figure it out if there's no obvious culprit, is to disable all mods and verify that the vanilla game is working as intended(make sure you're testing on a world specifically for testing, and not your cherished world!). Once you've done that, then it's just a matter of turning mods back on one by one and testing as you do so until the problem reoccurs. At that point, you know which mod to disable, and which mod author to report the problem to so it can be fixed. As for removing mods from a world already being played, it's usually safe, but it depends heavily on what the mod does as well. Best to make a backup of the world before you load it, just in case something goes wrong.