LadyWYT

And here I was expecting something involving hobbits...

Welcome to the forums! Finding elk in the wild is possible, as I've done it a few times, but they aren't a creature I would really consider a common find. The best place to start searching is the Cool climate zone, given they prefer taiga as habitat. For a temperate start location though, you'll be wanting to search high altitude plateaus, as these are the only places that are cool enough to their liking. It's also better to stick to open grasslands, shrubland, or sparse forest, as I don't believe they will spawn in deserts or dense forests(in this case though, if they do spawn, they'll be difficult to spot). Basically, if the climate is cool enough to qualify as a taiga, and it's a grassy area or sparse forest, it's a prime elk hunting location. However, it's easier to find a climate they could spawn in, than it is to find the actual elk themselves. Also keep in mind that you need a baby elk specifically to capture and raise in order to tame your mount, and since I don't think it's possible to breed deer like you can with livestock(I could be wrong), that means you'll be relying on a baby elk spawn specifically. Honestly, unless you're playing Homo Sapiens or just incredibly intent on taming your own elk, it's much less hassle to just fork over some gears to your friendly local treasure hunter for a trusty mount instead. If you do try to tame your own, the best strategy once you've found them, is probably to try breeding them first(I'm pretty sure this doesn't work, but just in case!), or otherwise barbecue them and wait for them to respawn(rinse and repeat if there are no baby elk when they respawn).

I mean...medieval Europe knew what pineapples were, and had access to them. Same for pumpkins, although what they considered a pumpkin back then versus what's considered a pumpkin isn't necessarily the same thing. For real though, pineapples were THE thing to have at a party, if you were anyone of status. Not for eating, just to have, because it was so difficult to actually acquire one(to the point pineapple rentals were apparently a business). Although in fairness, I didn't go dig through all the sources on this, but it does seem to be legit. In any case, welcome to the forums! While tomatoes and potatoes are a New World crop, I don't think they'd be particularly out of place in the game, especially since things kind of got...scrambled...thanks to certain events. We already have some other fauna native to the Americas, such as raccoons and bighorn sheep, so it's not that much of a stretch.

Five, actually. Barren, Low Fertility, Medium Fertility, High Fertility, and Terra Preta. Although I suppose it's technically six if you count Bony Soil. I wouldn't mind a way to improve poor dirt over time as an option, however...I do think you've overcomplicated it here, and that's my general complaint about most farming overhaul suggestions. To me, the current system is balanced just fine in relation to other parts of gameplay. I can't recall having seen many complaints about it, most players seem to enjoy it, so it seems to be working as intended, for the most part. The only thing I can really pick out as feeling off, is how berry bushes work. Currently, they're quite prolific in regards to crop production, and while they can't be propagated, there is no penalty for relocating bushes back to one's base. As a result, berry bushes heavily overshadow fruit trees, and are a cheap means of mass producing compost as well. Curbing the yields to once per year for specific seasons, and requiring the player to actually propagate new bushes at their base if they want to have a berry patch, would be a much better farming change, in my opinion. Likewise, when it comes to modded territory, I've seen at least a handful of mods that tried to make farming more in-depth by adding weeds or mulch or similar complications. However, I can't really recall any of those mods being popular, and many seem to have fallen to the wayside. The farming mods that I do recall actually being popular, are the ones that add more crops(like Wildcraft). And I think that would also be a great way to improve farming, without overcomplicating gameplay that's already solid. Players like variety, but having more options available means they'll need to either be pickier about what they plant, or else put in the effort to make much bigger farms in order to accommodate the variety. Some crops, such as grapevines, may even need specialized care with trellis.

Honestly the rare time or two it happens to me, and I don't have a helve hammer to fix it...I just smite it with the console and go on with the rest of my day.

On the contrary...if the soil is barren, why on earth would you even try to start farming there to begin with? The only exception I can think of is if you're playing in an extreme environment and that's literally your only option, but still... Likewise, lowering the nutrients of the soil after it's been tilled doesn't make logical sense, unless it's a case like the Oklahoma Dust Bowl where the dirt is getting blown away, or the land is otherwise being poisoned somehow to inhibit plant growth. Tilling doesn't cause dirt to lose nutrients; growing certain crops over and over again without fertilizing, changing crop type, or otherwise giving the land a break will drain the land of nutrients. Incidentally, I'm not sure that artificially lowering nutrients of fresh farmland discourages players from just ditching old dirt in favor of new either. If anything, it's going to aggravate the average reasonable farmer player, since now they're being punished for even trying to farm, and needing to overall work harder to get the same results as before. Ideally, you want to be planting seeds right after you till the ground, given that's the whole reason to even till the ground to begin with. As for replacing old dirt with new...sure, the whole process is more tedious if the nutrients are artificially lowered for fresh farmland, but all the player has to do in this case is just...make bigger farms and wait for nutrients to replenish. Apologies for the overly pedantic farmland rant, but now that that's out of the way... I think the main underlying issue here is that it's a very aggressive solution to a pretty minor problem. I do agree that "dirt ditching" isn't ideal gameplay, but replacing farmland in that fashion wrecks the countryside(who really cares when it's a singleplayer world though) and takes a fair amount of effort in itself, especially for larger farms. Overall, I think dirt ditching is a fairly rare occurrence, and not something to worry about given that most players seem to enjoy farming as intended. I will note there's already mechanics in place for abused soil. If the player doesn't vary their crops, and doesn't otherwise use fertilizer or give the land a rest, the nutrients will end up plummeting and the plants just stop growing. Now this I do like, though there ought to be a way to account for the recipe that doesn't involve high fertility soil as well. Not that high fertility soil is incredibly rare or anything, but unless you happen to see the sides of the block, or otherwise mouseover the block and notice it has a different name, or install a mod that makes the blocks emit particles, they can be hard to find.

Because the setting is primarily focused on late medieval Europe, and the areas neighboring it(North Africa, the Middle East, the Far East). In the case of the game's setting, there's essentially been an early industrial revolution, that connected much of the known world better...and also kinda messed everything up. But anyway, my point is that tech and culture from the early Americas is going to feel out of place, since there's not been any indication that direct contact with the Americas was actually made and maintained. Thus I think it's better to focus on tech from the regions relevant to the story, and leave the Americas to the modded realm. Handling it via mods also ensures that more tech from both sides can be explored more in-depth, instead of trying to cover everything in the base game and getting a more shallow experience as a result. In short, I'd rather explore the European tech tree in-depth for the vanilla game, since that's the region most relevant to the story, and go super in-depth with other cultural tech via mods, so I can tailor the experience to more exact settings. Maybe. Of course this is also where I'll somewhat contradict myself and point out that adding a canoe alongside the other watercraft options we already have certainly isn't going to be the end of the world. I just wouldn't want that to be the precedent for getting carried away with adding too many similar options, and having the game overall suffer as a result.

First off, welcome to the forums! If the cog was spinning clockwise(that is, it's charging), it will eventually stop once the gauge is full. However, it won't start spinning counterclockwise(draining) unless you enter an unstable area, or otherwise deal with something that lowers stability(a temporal storm or close proximity to a rift). Did you stay completely still while the cog was spinning clockwise, or did you keep moving? We can rule out a temporal storm being the culprit, as that would be obvious, and it doesn't sound like you stood too close to a rift, as that would also be noticeable(and not result in smooth, slow cog changes as described). I'm guessing what happened is that you walked into the edge of a stable area, kept walking around albeit in a smaller area, and ended up walking out of the stable area and into an unstable one as a result. Outside of starting a new save, I would try to fill in more of the current map, instead of just wandering in a single direction. Snakey paths as pictured on your map are a great way to get from point A to point B, but leave you in the dark on much of the surrounding terrain. Food, or lack thereof, does not affect the player's temporal stability, unless there is a mod involved(or some weird bug).

Blue, rue, glue, rubaboo...

Welcome to the forums! Like @Metalton already noted, what's probably happened is that you built your base on the edge of an unstable area. And like he already noted, checking your base carefully to figure out what's stable and what isn't will allow you to figure out if you can just move a few things around, or if you need to potentially relocate the entire thing. Do keep in mind though, that instability doesn't mean the area is completely off-limits; it just means you don't want to spend a lot of time in that area on a regular basis. If the unstable area encompasses something like storage barns or cellars, it's not really a big deal, but if it covers something like a smithy(where you'll need to do a lot of work, with relative frequency) then you'll want to move that stuff to a more stable area. Aside from that, or turning the mechanic off entirely, you can also use mods to solve/otherwise mitigate the problem. I linked a few here, but bear in mind that it's always best to test mods on a throwaway world before adding them to worlds you actually care about, as well as make backups of cherished worlds in case something does go wrong. Temporal Amulets: https://mods.vintagestory.at/temporalamulets Temporal StabiliTea: https://mods.vintagestory.at/show/mod/27496 Chunk Stability Override: https://mods.vintagestory.at/chunkstaboverride

Finally getting around to giving an answer here, but... The reason I say it's the opposite of what you initially suggested, is that in my opinion berry bushes are currently too strong in relation to other aspects of VS agriculture. The player can't propagate them, but there's no penalty for hoovering up all the ones found in the wild and relocating them to one's base. Berry bushes also produce more than one yield of berries a year, which isn't particularly accurate to real life(not that everything has to be), but it's one reason that a lot of players skip fruit trees in favor of berries. Berries are just a ridiculously easy source of food, or compost if one just leaves the harvest to rot. Thus I think it's a better change to have a propagation system, so the player will actually need to put in a bit more effort if they want their own berry patch at home. Likewise, reducing yields to one or two harvests per year(depends on climate and berry species) would help push the player to vary which berries they target for foraging/cultivating, due to different berries maturing at different times of year. Berry bushes would still be less work than fruit trees, to be sure, but overall they'd require a bit more management(that isn't too frustrating) in order to get the most out of them.

Yeah, I'm kinda in @Thorfinn's camp on this one. The old growth trees aren't something you're going to get without a couple hundred years of growth cycles, hence why they only spawn at world gen and don't grow from the tree seeds that the player plants. Of course, I wouldn't necessarily mind if the player could grow them either, however, it'd be the kind of thing that should take in-game years to achieve. Otherwise, it's going to be too lucrative given how short the growing cycle is for trees(which while not realistic, is needed for gameplay balance). My guess is that this would work. I don't see why it wouldn't.

Sounds like sometime needs to go find Jonas and have a little chat before everyone turns into tall blue people.

First off, welcome to the forums! My experiences starting out were similar, yes. However, I think the standard difficulty is just fine as is. The game overall is uncompromising, in that the player absolutely will get punished for making mistakes. However, if the player prepares themselves well for the challenges, then the player is likely to have a fairly easy time as a result. That's just the reward for playing the game well. Honestly, if the default setting wasn't challenging enough, I'd recommend trying Wilderness Survival, tinkering with the settings to make portions of the game even harder, or install some mods to change the game to your specific liking. That's why those different options exist. I'm assuming that you picked Standard difficulty, which is fine, but do keep in mind that option is the one balanced for the widest range of players. It's tougher than players who want easy mode will really enjoy, but it's also too easy for those looking for a game that shatters their kneecaps on the regular. For winter challenges specifically, you might try starting in the Cool climate zone, or even the Icy climate, and see if you can eek out a living with shorter summers and longer winters. There's also mods like Brain Freeze, which increases penalties for freezing, among other things: https://mods.vintagestory.at/brainfreeze

Hmmm...

Oh for sure. Despite the bright teal on the bindings marking them as lore books, they're still quite tough to pick out from the hundreds of other books there, unless one searches very carefully.

I think there's four different stories unique to the Archive: The Patronage of Tibalt Amaro(5 parts) The Spy and the Sparrow(10 parts) The Weight of Stone(9 parts) Admirer of the Miller(10 parts) The library should contain the full versions of each story, however, it's also easy to miss a book or two, and if you're playing with friends it's also possible to end up missing parts of the stories if you don't have a dedicated book reader(that is, have a specific player read all the books first, so you don't get duplicates). In your case, I'm guessing there's likely just a couple of books that you've overlooked somewhere, but if you want to know the stories without bothering to search for them, you can find the complete stories here: https://wiki.vintagestory.at/Lore_book

I'm not aware of a mod that does this, but there's one that comes close: https://mods.vintagestory.at/butterflydisplays Sounds like something that @xXx_Ape_xXx might be open to consider?

You don't have to kill any of the enemies at all, aside from the eidolon. However, most newer players(and many veterans) will opt for killing the enemies, since a dead enemy is no longer a threat. I think it's also worth noting that newer players tend to be a lot more prone to panicking, which makes it difficult to actually escape from an enemy efficiently. They might stumble over rubble piles, or run into the walls, or run into more enemies instead of toward safety...you get the idea. This too. A player experiencing the location for the first time isn't going to know where to go or what to do, unless they either have help from an experienced player, or looked up a guide to the location. Likewise, players like to explore and collect loot, and a player's first time in a location often equates to exploring every nook and cranny they can possibly reach, as well as potentially carting off most anything that's not nailed down. If I'm recalling correctly, that's the one in the mines. And there are definitely worse things than sawblades in the mines.

Just as the title says. We really ought to be able to turn feathers into proper fletching before being able to use them to craft arrows, with the ability to dye said fletching in order to made resulting arrows much easier to find. That is all.

I dunno, I feel like Mr. Bean might be a more appropriate descriptor. Or Monty Python. Maybe even Jack Sparrow. I don't even know how I get myself into some of the situations that I do. Things just kinda...happen...and somehow I manage to stumble my way through them.

I wouldn't mind this, provided that it's something the player unlocks the use of only after having completed at least a portion of the Archive's puzzles. Perhaps the player could find the required key and/or parts within the Bell Workshop, which is both a reasonable place to find such, as well as early enough in the puzzles that it would feel useful. I will note though, that the winch in question seems designed to be operated by a surface crew, and not the workers deeper within. I could be wrong, but I've always presumed that's the reason it's non-functional.

Personally, I'd rather have a coracle than a canoe, given that canoes tend to be more related to the Americas, certain parts of the Pacific islands, or certain regions of Africa, and not so much Europe(which is the general main setting of Vintage Story).

Right, but I think it's highly unlikely that a newer player is going to get anywhere near the Archive and associated boss fight without figuring out some combat basics first. I mean, unless they just set all the hostiles to passive/neutral, that is. In regards to loot, I'd wager that a good chunk of players, at least, like to bring home some mementos of their adventures to decorate with.

Ah. So I read it backwards then. Still though, I don't see how you disable the story, but manage to keep the lore and still have a setting that makes sense. I suppose it's as simple as modding out story locations entirely, but in that case, the traders aren't really going to make much sense, given that they refer to settlements of survivors but there's no settlements to find. The lore books kind of would, I suppose, since most of them are just various records of the past. Tapestries would pose an issue, since at least some of them seem to point towards future plot points.