LadyWYT

Gotcha. This would make sense, given that it is summer time and the times I recall seeing them in the past it's been in warm weather. That being said, it is a bit strange that the particles are only present in certain areas, despite the areas being pretty much the same temperature. I'd really hope not, as that's way too obvious and removes all the thought from figuring out where to settle and paying attention to one's stability in general. It also makes the world as a whole look explicitly unnatural. The hotbar cog is noticeable enough to watch easily from the corner of one's eye, but also limited to a specific area of the screen's border, so it's relatively easy to forget as well. As a mod though, sure, why not. It'd be interesting to play that way a time or two, but it's definitely not something I'd want to play with all the time. I like that the world feels natural as a whole on the surface, and it's not until you encounter specific things or specific places that you get reminded that some things are amiss.

Has been fixed in pre2, though it was a rather funny bug. Apparently it's possible to use a bucket to retrieve it, but yeah...not the most intuitive way to get it based on the handbook. I'm not sure if the change is intended or not, but given that the food is boiling hot when it finishes cooking, it does make sense to let it cool down first before trying to eat it. I've chalked it up as a similar situation to seraphs being able to hold blazing hot crucibles in their bare hands once upon a time.

So I'm not 100% sure yet, but I think I may have just stumbled upon a legitimate visual difference between stable and unstable surface areas. When messing around in 1.22, I noticed faint particles floating about in the air near my base. They aren't insects, and I don't think it's a new effect as I seem to recall seeing such particles in previous game versions but never really paid them any mind as I thought maybe it was just some sort of dust or other ambience. When I stopped to really think about it though, the particles seemed remarkably similar to the temporal ambience in certain story locations, and thus I started to wonder. I visited the nearest unstable area to see if the particles were there, and they were not. The stable areas nearby, however, did have the particles, save for the stable chunk that was rather windy. I suspect the wind and related particles might overwrite the strange ambience, so on a calmer day those particles might be present. Here is a shot of the sky in an unstable area. There are no particles to be seen. And here is a shot of the sky in a stable area. Notice the faint particles floating around. As I said before, I'm not completely sure that these particles are temporal ambience, but it would seem that may be the case. I'll have to start paying more attention between the stable and unstable areas.

Right, but from what I've heard the first quench is basically no risk. The player can continue working the item indefinitely to keep increasing the stats, but the returns diminish and the breakage chance increases for each additional quenching attempt. Basically, there's a sweet spot in there somewhere, but the breakage risk is there, I think, to keep players from just pushing every tool to the absolute maximum with little effort.

Try sticking it into a barrel of water, or toss it into a water source to cool it off. I think that's how the quenching is supposed to work, though I've not messed around with that mechanic yet.

I mostly agree, however, it would be a prime spot for an adze. The adze could be used to strip logs and craft support beams instead of relying exclusively on the hammer and axe, with probably other uses as well. I think it could probably be a more time-consuming way to create boards, with the tool itself still being locked to metalworking so the player needs to reach copper in order to make and use an adze. That being said, the adze head could be cast via mold rather than requiring the anvil to forge it, in turn allowing the player to have earlier access to things like troughs for livestock and planks for building, while keeping some things(like pies and leatherworking) locked until the player acquires the anvil(need a chisel to make the quern).

@MKMoose One thing I haven't seen mentioned yet in the spear discussion--spearpoints can be tempered and quenched to boost durability and damage. Obviously there's some risk involved for players who push the limits, but it looks like the first quench is risk-free while offering the biggest boost. How big that boost is, I'm not sure, but I'm guessing that it might boost a steel spear's damage up to 6.5-7 for ranged damage, with the potential to go higher with further quenching(8 maybe, or perhaps even higher than that). Arrows, on the other hand, can't be tempered or quenched, giving spears quite an advantage when it comes to ranged damage potential, especially if spearpoints can be sharpened at the grindstone for crit bonuses as well. The bow would still take fewer inventory slots and be faster to fire, but I'm not sure that the faster fire rate would make up for the lack of quenching and sharpening.

I did. It feels fine, and I've said as much. Takes maybe an extra ranged shot to kill some targets. Thanks to the health pool adjustments on small creatures, chickens will die in one stab now, and foxes in two. Previously it took two stabs for chickens and three or four for foxes. Steel is the highest tier material in the game, so it should be the strongest pick out of available materials when it comes to both durability and damage potential. I can't recall having ever died to starvation damage. Hunting is as simple as chucking enough spears at a target for it to die, and then reaping the rewards. For targets like boar, it's as easy as walking right up, provoking a fight, and then nailing them with a spear when they try to run.

Copy/pasting the math I did on a different thread: Assuming I did my math correctly(this time)...a black bronze spear for a Blackguard will do 6.8 damage when thrown, while the steel falx will do 6.89 damage per hit. The only other classes to get ranged penalties are Malefactor and Clockmaker; both have -25% to range, but since the spear is a shorter range weapon it's not much of a setback and no damage is lost so they will be doing 8 damage per spear throw. Hunter, however, will do a whopping 9.6 damage per spear throw thanks to their ranged damage bonus, in addition to being able to throw said spear farther and with greater accuracy than any other class. They also have faster movement to make chasing down or running away from targets easier, in addition to other bonuses that remain strong throughout the game, with mostly negligible drawbacks. With a steel falx, they'll still deal 4.5 damage per hit. Just to be clear, this isn't a call to nerf or buff particular classes. But those numbers are why I think 8 ranged damage even for a high tier spear is a bit much. Like I said before, I'd rather see the spear be a solid general purpose weapon but not the best pick, than have specific classes get nerfed or buffed. --- In other words, there's a balance problem when even the melee-focused class, that has a specific penalty to ranged damage, has a ranged weapon as their best combat option. The spear is also the only weapon that can serve as both a ranged and melee weapon. In my opinion, it really ought to be as I stated above: a jack-of-all-trades, but master of none. It shouldn't be the default best weapon in the game for every class in most scenarios.

1.21.6 is the version you'll want, as that's the most stable version. 1.22.0-pre2 is the latest unstable version and good for playing around, but not great for long term worlds as unstable versions contain lots of bugs and other issues, and the worlds created in them can't always be upgraded to the next game version, stable or otherwise.

Oh yeah for sure. I didn't really think the spears were that OP in previous versions, but after doing the math...well...it says quite a lot when the best weapon for the class that's supposed to be weak at ranged combat is a ranged weapon. I have noticed the spear's longer windup and I do agree that's a good change, as that will help balance the spear against the bow. I don't know that I expect the spear to get nerfed further, as that would definitely be too much and there have already been several complaints about the current change. While the current damage feels fine to me, I think it could be bumped up to 6.5-7 ranged damage for the steel spear. Melee damage...maybe 4.5? Maybe make some sort of minimum effective range for the spear? In that as a heavy projectile, it has to actually have the momentum behind it to be at its most effective. Kind of like how if you're going to get kicked by a horse, you want to be standing closer to the horse's butt and not be at the maximum range of the hoof. It's still going to hurt either way when you get kicked, but it'll hurt much less if the hoof hasn't had time to build momentum. Of course, maybe that isn't the best analogy, but it's the only one that comes to mind at the moment. This is pretty much already how they work, I think, save for the numbers being off. What I'm looking forward to with the new balanced, is playing around with the spear as a main weapon and using a spear or two to soften up tougher incoming enemies before finishing them off with a quick jab or two. Also--poking enemies to death in holes underground. There's been several times that I've encountered small drop-offs with enemies at the bottom, and lamented the lack of a good poking stick to poke at them from a safe perch.

Welcome to the forums and the game! In addition to what @MKMoose already said, I do want to note that unstable releases are very likely to contain bugs, as well as mechanics that are underpowered or overpowered. Likewise, there is no guarantee that worlds created in an unstable update will be usable in future updates, stable or unstable. For general longterm gameplay, it's better to stick to a stable version of the game.

/worldconfig temporalRifts off will stop rifts from spawning. You will need to reload the world after running the command for the change to take effect. Lanterns are much better for curbing rifts and monster spawns, once you've got the materials to make them or the gears to buy them. To stop rifts from spawning in an area entirely though, you'll want to invest in a rift ward or two.

Just throwing my two cents' worth in here, but the spear readjustment hasn't really felt too bad to me as a Blackguard, for either ranged damage or melee damage. The reduction to small animals' health definitely makes the melee attack feel stronger, while the ranged attack feels about the same. Granted, bumping the ranged damage up a bit probably wouldn't hurt either, but personally, I'm not sure that steel spears should be as good as the black bronze spears of 1.21. Doing around 8 damage per hit at range(excluding buffs/debuffs) is quite strong. The spear does need to hit the target to do the damage, but...it's easy to hit targets at short range and 8 points of damage is a lot more than even a steel falx can dish out(and you have to put yourself at more risk by getting close to the target to do that damage). In my opinion, spears are the middle ground between ranged and melee, since they're the only weapon that can serve in both categories. Spears shouldn't be insufficient for either job, but they shouldn't outclass falxs for melee damage, especially since the spear has a longer reach. Likewise, the spear shouldn't easily outclass the bow when it comes to ranged damage, because the bow can't be effectively used in melee while the spear can. Basically, the spear strikes me as the jack of all trades, but master of none. It's a great choice for an all-around weapon for players who don't want to carry multiple weapon types, but it shouldn't be so strong that it becomes the choice every player picks for every scenario. Edit: Crunching a few more numbers, but... Assuming I did my math correctly(this time)...a black bronze spear for a Blackguard will do 6.8 damage when thrown, while the steel falx will do 6.89 damage per hit. The only other classes to get ranged penalties are Malefactor and Clockmaker; both have -25% to range, but since the spear is a shorter range weapon it's not much of a setback and no damage is lost so they will be doing 8 damage per spear throw. Hunter, however, will do a whopping 9.6 damage per spear throw thanks to their ranged damage bonus, in addition to being able to throw said spear farther and with greater accuracy than any other class. They also have faster movement to make chasing down or running away from targets easier, in addition to other bonuses that remain strong throughout the game, with mostly negligible drawbacks. With a steel falx, they'll still deal 4.5 damage per hit. Just to be clear, this isn't a call to nerf or buff particular classes. But those numbers are why I think 8 ranged damage even for a high tier spear is a bit much. Like I said before, I'd rather see the spear be a solid general purpose weapon but not the best pick, than have specific classes get nerfed or buffed.

To put the spear argument to bed, Saraty weighed in on the matter:

I dunno and I haven't been brave enough to go find out.

I don't think anyone has really gotten to test them, as trying to build/place them seems to crash the game.

Are you using any mods that could be affecting things? If it's vanilla I'd recommend reporting the problem over on the issue tracker.

Honestly I'd say this is fine. It's a little strong, sure, but I think it's a situation unique to you and not something the average player goes out and does day 1. Maybe by the end of May/start of June, after they've had some time to pick a spot and settle in and actually collect some seeds. Most players, I think, should be able to manage a standard windmill by the end of the first year. The really big windmills I expect to be more of a second year item. Brand new players I expect to struggle a big, but that's due to lack of experience and to be expected, and also part of the fun when one first starts to play the game. I'm mostly just thinking along the lines of not needing a bucket to start farming or dig holes for the irrigation. Or fall in said holes when trying to harvest crops. Plus the scythe will be a lot more fun to use on a big field of ripe grain, rather than a backyard garden that I can just...harvest with my hands. I do agree, but I may just simplify it a bit and plan for one harvest per field per year, and just make another grain field or two. It's more work up front, but I do like making farms in this game, and always wanted a big field of grain. It's not really felt worth it before since there's so much material that would go to waste in the process. I've not really paid that much attention. Linen sacks I typically skip, as I manage just fine with baskets until jumping to leather. The gambeson I prefer to just make my own, if I'm even using it, and I typically turn off class-exclusive recipes in singleplayer as I like having fancy colors for battle jammies. Wolf cubs I definitely take advantage of though, when I find a good deal on one. Buy low, sell high. Otherwise my go-to trades are the boots, backpacks, and candles for the treasure hunters. Bows as well sometimes. They're all easy to make items that sell for quite good prices.

Regarding flax fibers, it seems like I saw somebody say earlier that wild flax crops drop more fibers when harvested now. I'll have to remember to give that a test later when I next boot the game(Edit: it doesn't appear that this is the case. The drops overall are lower for wild grains, but the seed drops are higher and the grains spawn more frequently, it seems, in addition to spawning in larger groups). Most of my time in the game today was spent messing around with the temporal mechanics figuring out what got broken. For grain fields, I think I might also test skipping the irrigation completely, and just leaving the field to nature's mercy. I'm not sure crops can actually die from a lack of watering, though I don't really expect water to be an issue given the area I settled in has medium fertility soil and decent rainfall. The result I expect is perhaps a grain harvest that's a little slower than in previous versions, but still potentially fast enough to get a couple of harvests in before winter hits. The first in-game year will likely be the roughest though, given that it starts in May(so there's some growing time lost) and the player is scrambling to do everything else. Gotcha. The default for singleplayer is 9, but for servers it might be 12. Either way, the numbers are close enough that they'll have similar farm size requirements. Might be more worth it to actually purchase cloth from the traders then, at least for the first in-game year. I'll have to play around with that one as well. It's an option I've always ignored before, given that cloth is expensive and it was much easier to just build farms to take care of the supply.

To my knowledge, the rapids can't be moved around via bucket like normal water. The idea is that water power is a lot more consistent than wind power and lacks the linen requirement, but in order to utilize it the player needs to build in the area near the source.

Honestly I thought it was just a really nice patio area.

Adding some new monsters and more aggressive wildlife would be a good way to get more Player Kills...oh...wait...not that kind of P and K.