LadyWYT

Sorry, it probably doesn't help that I got into a heated debate with a friend over some similar lore stuff yesterday, and it was very frustrating. So I do apologize if I got overly aggressive. I absolutely agree with this premise, however, I will also note that harnessing temporal energy is a lost art that, essentially, died with the Old World. There are only three characters left(that we know of) that understand what the tech is(mostly) and how to utilize it. One of those characters is the player, hence why we can craft gizmos and gadgets in the late game. To the average survivor though, it might as well be magic, and given that Jonas tech is at least partially responsible for the end of the Old World and the mechanical horrors skittering around the depths of the new, I don't think it's entirely unreasonable to assume that survivors might be a little suspicious of those using such wondrous devices. A ritual isn't the same thing as building a machine though. A ritual would imply some sort of spiritual power being invoked, whereas a machine implies using what one knows about natural law and order to get something done. I will also note that what you've described here regarding the trial and error to figure things out, is the scientific method, which isn't really used for rituals. As already noted by @Teh Pizza Lady though, the solution to rifts already exists with the rift ward. Build the machine, and keep it powered, and it will stop rifts from opening within the protected area. It's basically a lightning rod, but for temporal anomalies instead of electrical charges. The only thing that's for sure sensitive to instability, is seraphs, since they're sort of...displaced...from the time stream itself. That's not to say the physical world can't be affected by temporal instability, given that NPCs experience temporal storms and there are strange anomalies in certain locations, but it does seem to take a much greater concentration of instability in order to affect anything that isn't a seraph. The hitches and glitches a player experiences during low stability, or temporal storms, are essentially the result of the veil between two realities becoming so thin that they bleed into each other. Drifters and other rotbeasts are weird, in that they aren't exactly zombies since they do seem to possess a level of intelligence rather than act on instinct, but they don't think like humans either. They don't like bright light, hence why they tend to stick to the underground and night and don't really wander around in daylight. They don't have faces, so they presumably don't have the same senses that living creatures do, but they do clearly have some uncanny way to sense and target nearby humanoids. They do seem capable of feeling pain(though it may be a dulled sense), and though they can be set on fire they don't seem to really react. As to what they're made of, it seems to be some sort of an amalgam of flesh and metal, which I wouldn't really expect to react to poison or other chemicals like a living creature's body would(I mean, it's also hard to take a horrific monster seriously if you can just turn it into a puddle with a chemical concoction). It's not really clear exactly how such creatures came to be either, though it's heavily implied that most of them, at least, were once human, and perhaps turned as a result of the Rot, or the Great Machine(Salvation Engine) being activated, or a combination of both. I will admit, this made me laugh. Unfortunately I'm fresh out of pitchforks, and lost my torches in a boating accident. Probably the better way to summarize my thoughts on why adding functional rituals and charms shifts the tone to "generic magical fantasy", is as follows: Let's say that something like a dreamcatcher is added to the game. The player can craft it from sticks, twine, and feathers, and while it has a very low chance of warding away monsters, that chance is still high enough that the player can easily figure out that it works, which is the most important part. Since it's a method that works, and is very cheap, the player will end up choosing to use those for efficiency, and ignore late game tech options. Likewise, since it's a charm that works, the player will logically assume that there must be similar magical charms or rituals to accomplish other things within the game, at which point they're going to start questioning why they have to wait on seasons and growing times for crops, or go to effort of refining metal to make tools and weapons instead of just using magic to summon fireballs or transmute material. There's a few players that would enjoy that kind of gameplay, to be sure, since there's been a suggestion or two requesting as much, but that kind of gameplay is going to be incredibly jarring when juxtaposed against the realism that Vintage Story is built upon. Two mod examples from the other block game that implement such charms and rituals to interact with the world, are Thaumcraft and Witchery. Basically what I've been harping on, is that if something like those mods were added to Vintage Story, it shifts the tone of the entire game quite dramatically(as well as begs the question, why were machines and things necessary to save the world, if magic is clearly an answer to problems?)

To use this as an example to answer your question, the temporal amulet(Forlorn Hope Amulet) is very obviously some sort of charm, however, it has no functional gameplay purpose aside from being a cool little lore cosmetic. The most it actually does is emit light, which isn't particularly magical since that seems to be an inherent property of whatever temporal stuff is. Likewise, there are also glowing alchemical symbols, and other amulets and things that could be taken as artifacts of superstition. However, like the Forlorn Hope Amulet, they're just decoration, or neat cosmetics. As for what the player uses to actually solve problems and interact with the world around them, those are almost entirely real world processes, barring temporal tech and abilities. The player doesn't make potions or complete rituals to heal themselves--they use bandages and alcohol. There is no charm for warding off hostile wildlife; the player must be careful and either not disturb the animals, or otherwise hunt them. Likewise, when dealing with monsters, the player must either avoid them or kill them, since they aren't things that can be reasoned with. Temporal tech and abilities, while obviously somewhat esoteric, still fall into the realm of science fiction more than fantasy. Temporal abilities are inherent to seraph biology. The temporal tech uses machines and a set science that it follows in order to function; that is, it's not charms, mystical powers, and magic rituals but rather transformers, power pylons, gearboxes, and the like. Charms and the like tend to be rather arbitrary and require a lot more handwaving, like rabbit's feet being considered lucky, or smashing some barnacles and salmon roe into a bottle with a raw chicken egg to get a concoction that allows the imbiber to breathe underwater. So it's not that charms don't have a place aesthetically in Vintage Story, it's just that by giving them a legitimate gameplay function outside of aesthetics, the door is opened to introducing what's essentially an entire magic system, which is standard for fantasy settings. If a charm made from sticks, bones, and mineral/plant powder wards off monsters, then one has to start asking what effects other types of charms could have, or whether certain rituals could be used to speed up farming, or what inherent magical properties are present in different materials, etc. The focus is no longer the natural world and realistic processes, but rather bypassing natural law via the use of magic; at that point, it's no longer Vintage Story, but the Thaumcraft mod turned into a full game. Just quoting this to serve as a convenient break from the above section, but it's worth noting that in regards to the lore behind the Forlorn Hope...while they did seem to be a faction steeped heavily in charms, rituals, and mysticism, they were also a faction that has been(presumably) wiped out entirely. Whatever they were using for their practices doesn't seem to have helped them survive. I suppose it's also worth noting that the "Old World" in the lore is our world in the late Middle Ages, with the general setting in central/eastern Europe. While there wasn't a shortage of superstition and related practice, it's worth noting that Christianity was the dominant religion of the region at the time, so magic charms, rituals, and other things typically associated with witchcraft would have been frowned upon. That's not to say that the denizens of the present time still practice Old World religions, or that new superstitious practice didn't arise, but there does at least seem to be lingering influence of past tradition, given how NPCs speak and refer to certain things. Overall, I'm not saying it's a terrible idea, just that magic items and rituals aren't the way to do it in Vintage Story. It's better to focus more on the natural process already established, by doing things(which you have mentioned) like adding bonfires to help keep hostile creatures at bay, or adding more Jonas tech gadgets the player can craft to do various things(like the night vision mask we have already), or allowing the player to distill poison in addition to medicine in order to combat foes that are vulnerable to being poisoned.

Vintage Story is not Minecraft though. There is a specific reason that the choices are what they are regarding character customization. However, that also doesn't mean that the player can't choose something else if they don't like vanilla options--this is where mods come in handy. There are a plethora of various mods already on the database that alter character skin tones, eyes, expressions, and in some cases change the character model entirely. If you can't find what you're looking for, you can always take a stab at modding yourself. Vintage Story is very user-friendly when it comes to jumping into modding, and the wiki can help you get started. Making new textures for an existing model is usually fairly simple, but changing the model itself requires a lot more work. https://wiki.vintagestory.at/Modding:Getting_Started

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They can with this mod(though the pie still needs to be cut first): https://mods.vintagestory.at/expandedstomach I'd be more in favor of throwing a temporal gear into their midst and starting a brawl over which one of them gets it. But that's assuming they would have a fascination for such things that trumps their desire to murder and mutilate humanoids. It could, BUT...such options still need to support the overall flavor and atmosphere the game is supposed to have. Vintage Story has a rather realistic approach to its world, with some steampunk and eldritch horror sprinkled into the background for interest. The focus, however, is still realism and natural processes. It's not out of the question that the denizens of said world might make charms or draw symbols out of superstition, but if such things have an actual gameplay function outside of pure aesthetics then the focus of the game shifts from realism and solving things with real world processes or steampunk science, to more of a fantasy land where things such as magic symbols and mysterious rituals grant esoteric power. So I have to disagree that adding something like functional charms and rituals wouldn't hurt the game. I think a better place for that kind of idea is perhaps Project Glint--the secret adventure game that Anego has been tinkering with. From the sounds of it, it's supposed to be much more of an adventure RPG chock full of fantasy, so things like charms and magic won't feel out of place.

I knew it was a thing, however, I think the complaints about healing weren't quite tied to it. Initially, falling for one second or longer would interrupt the bandaging process and reset the timer, which meant that jumping would interrupt healing. The only exceptions were jumping up a block level, or stepping down a block level without jumping; in both cases, the fall timer was less than one second, and thus did not interrupt bandaging. Likewise, if the bandaging process was nearly complete, it would not be interrupted either. In any case, the healing was tweaked again and falling no longer resets the bandage timer at all, most likely due to this fight and others becoming more difficult than intended.

Yeah that happens. Though if the rickety translocator refuses to work properly, I would definitely submit a bug report on it. I thought it had been fixed in a recent patch, but I could be mistaken.

Okay, after taking a quick gander, you should be able to work your way out of this without using the console. First, make sure you're at full health, then go stand on the ledge outside the doorway. Facing the doorway, step backwards off the ledge and immediately press the forward movement key to hug the wall directly in front of you. It's a decent drop, but you should survive. Heal back up, then work your way down to the bottom of the structure carefully--the drops should be much less drastic from here. Once at the bottom, take a look around and be on your guard for monsters, as there's probably a few lurking around here. Somewhere at the bottom, there should be a ladder to climb, that will lead you to the path out. Once you find the ladder, simply climb it and work your way back to the upper levels. Of course, the easier, safer option is to just switch to creative(/gm 2), fly back up to wooden platform, and then switch back to survival(/gm 1).

Love it! I think a lot of players don't fully realize just how dangerous the VS world really is. Aside from the monsters wreaking havoc, there's still the standard threats to survival, such as injuries, disease, and age, even though a lot of that is handwaved due to it being a videogame. Additionally, even if we assume that medical science had some massive improvements over what it was for the Middle Ages, it's not like it's really feasible to go running to the nearest medical clinic for treatment of injury or illness, since...well, there really are no clinics outside of the rare settlement. The doctors that do exist realistically wouldn't be leaving their settlements, given they offer a valuable service and are almost unreplaceable should something happen to them. I've generally chalked it up to them not escaping the ravages of time, and that's why we find nothing left but stone for surface ruins. Underground conditions tend to be more stable and protected from the elements, hence why a lot of artifacts and creature mummies tend to be found hidden in caves. Thus underground ruins tend to be more intact. I do think though, that in the event of procedural dungeons, it would be interesting to have the rare ruined outpost on the surface, as it's not out of the question that some survivors tried to start new settlements and succeeded for a time, only to be later overrun. Perhaps it was monsters, but perhaps it was bandits, or potentially even some tyrannical faction trying to re-establish Old World nobility(depending on which way the devs want to take the story).

That is how you preserve juice though--it ferments into wine. The reason wine satiety was nerfed, is that its shelf life was extended significantly. Before the change, wine had more satiety, but didn't last long at all. If you're after long-term fruit preservation, I'd recommend turning fruit into jams and jellies. They keep a very long time in unsealed crocks, and in sealed crocks they can stay tasty for several years. Now if only jam could be used in meals...

The command should be /tpstoryloc tobiascave

True, but in that case, it should be theming only. Otherwise, if the counter to the monsters is magic charms and rituals, then it's no longer realistic survival and steampunk sci-fi, but generic fantasy. Really not ideal to have that kind of abrupt tone shift. Really, I figure a status effect system would solve a lot of the complaints...as well as produce several more(though hopefully not). And with a proper herbalism system, it's possible that some effects might require certain treatments in order to heal efficiently.

The main issue I see with this, is that it requires a lot of code tinkering in order to even make it work, and that's not something you just toggle on and off. There is an option already there to allow underground farming, which doesn't require code tinkering other than just removing the requirement for natural light and allowing artificial light to be sufficient instead. Otherwise, the idea works as a mod, but not for the base game, due to the amount of tinkering likely required to implement it, and the fact that the core game design just doesn't support this kind of farming. What's being proposed here, is essentially just allowing most any crops to be farmed anywhere, at any time of year, which is way too easy. Honestly, even for the modded route, it's likely easier to just remove temperature requirements from crops entirely, or otherwise give them a wide enough range that anything goes, instead of trying to modify the entire world itself.

Possibly, though my reasoning behind it being realistically more like 100-200 people, or perhaps even just 50, is that's enough of an adult population to support 10-15 guards, as well as keep family trees...well...looking like trees, and not telephone poles. In any case, it's easier to have extra people to cover the workload in the event that there's a casualty(the victim doesn't have to die, but they will need someone to fill in for them while recovering from serious injuries). If Nadiya were actually as small as it is in game, they're in big trouble if certain citizens die, or otherwise too injured to function. Pretty much. I use the Ghosts short story as a good benchmark for what they're capable of. The general reason for why the player knows everything they know isn't quite a complete handwave for gameplay reasons; the player character was once a part of Jonas's forces, and may have personally worked alongside him on occasion. Thus it stands to reason that the player learned several things about Jonas tech and other various useful things, and a certain NPC says as much when giving the player a certain schematic. I think the reason that rotbeasts drop things like temporal gears and Jonas parts, is that they were most likely also part of Jonas's forces once, before getting turned into monsters. Honestly do not see the logic here, as it's still just shifting focus from homesteading, survival, and exploration, to a dungeon crawler game. More complex, difficult dungeons is fine for some better ruins loot and side questing, but that shouldn't be a primary method of progression as much as it should be a nice little distraction. If anything, I'd be more inclined to advocate removing Jonas part drops from monsters entirely(save for the mechanicals), and instead having some sort of late game crafting loop where the player actually has to make their own parts.

I actually tried this in Minecraft with mods, although I don't remember which mods I used. While the mods did what they advertised and made the terrain a lot more realistic...it also made the game pretty boring, since there was no longer any real variety in the landscape. While the current terrain in VS might not be ultra realistic, it's still believable while offering enough variation as to not become dull. Though one feature I would like to see, is perhaps some proper plains regions. We do sort of have them now, but they do seem to get covered in brush frequently. Not that I would call Kansas-style grassland the most exciting landscape, but it does have a certain minimalist charm that I find fascinating, since I'm used to mountains, hills, and forests.

In fairness, I'm not sure that the village is accurately scaled either, as it's really more of an outpost than a proper village. Realistically, I would expect a village to be around a hundred or so inhabitants, but that's not really feasible to implement for a game like this and still keep the performance and level of detail we currently have. So things get scaled down as a result. As for traders, they're supposed to be getting reworked next update, and from what I've heard they're going to be living in fortified shelters similar to what the treasure hunters now have, rather than the wagons we're used to seeing everywhere. So I would expect to see proper fortifications, though I will note that most current traders seemed to be armed with at least one weapon. Yeah, that was basically my reasoning too--kills two birds with one stone. Or I mean...technically most of the landscape is combustible, if one is desperate enough. Maybe. At the very least, shivers should be able to clamber over fences with ease, since they're a large monster and seem built for mobility anyway. As for opening doors...I'm not entirely sold on that, although it is quite funny to read the occasional story about players who install mods that grant drifters that ability, without realizing the installed mods grant such. Overall, drifters don't really strike me as intelligent enough to figure out how doors work, so I wouldn't expect them to open doors as much as I would expect them to simply beat the door down. The obvious counter here, is to simply allow the player to install a bar over the door in order to reinforce it, since a standard lock mechanism won't be strong enough. Then it's just a matter of the player remembering to actually bar the door at night/during periods of high rift activity.

Oh that's just Dave playing the Sims in VS; I wouldn't worry about it too much.

I would actually argue the opposite, to an extent. In the context of temporal storms, it does make sense, given that a temporal storm is essentially one giant, particularly nasty rift that allows monsters to bleed through into reality with ease for a short period of time. I think the better solution for temporal rifts specifically, is to place more weight toward them spawning in unstable areas, rather than in a certain radius from the player. The only way to fully stop rift spawns within an area is still going to be the rift ward, but that way the player can at least deal with the rifts a little more easily by making sure they settle in a spot with good stability and then fortifying the perimeter of their base. Honestly, the game already does, at least somewhat. Building a perimeter and lighting it up will cut down on the spooks, and fortifying said perimeter with rift wards(once you obtain them) should stop all spawns outside of whatever temporal storms drag in. Ironically, given what some of the NPCs say about the monsters and the design of certain locations, the monsters absolutely are capable of climbing fences and smashing through doors and windows. Likewise, the monsters, according to the lore, are incredibly resilient to damage. The versions of the monsters implemented in the game are more nerfed versions balanced in favor of player fun, than how they realistically should be. The corrupt and nightmare tiers are more what I would consider what the toughness of the standard surface monsters actually should be. The bonfire idea I could see being a useful mid-game strategy to keep low tier monsters at bay, but not high tier ones(those should remain incredibly serious threats). I think the heat is also a reasonable excuse for why a bonfire would keep spooks away, but not lanterns, despite both providing lots of light. And of course, bonfires could also be used to keep hostile wildlife away from your camp as well, since that's much more intimidating than a measly little campfire. Though to keep it balanced in terms of resource cost, perhaps it requires the firewood equivalent of a small charcoal pit to actually get started, and then utilizes whole logs as fuel once established(but for a longer burn time in exchange for being unable to cook on said bonfire). Overall, I still think the best way to deal with rifts and monster spawns should be Jonas tech.

You also have to account for chiseled blocks, which is a nightmare in itself. And even then, it could still be cheesed easily enough by always making the base of the block stone, so that the chiseled block type always qualifies as stone. From that point, it's just a matter of chiseling every single block in the base to prevent spawns. I heavily disagree. The current balance of combat is fairly realistic, in that it's something the player does in order to stay alive, and not something that should actively be sought out. Combat means risking injury, even with good equipment, and injuries are detrimental to survival. By increasing monster loot, and making said loot more lucrative, what happens is the player starts being encouraged to hunt down the monsters for rewards, instead of focusing on survival and only dealing with the monsters when necessary. That kind of balance is great if the focus of the game is meant to be on combat, but not good if the main idea is to survival, homesteading, and exploration. Or instead of getting some esoteric unexplained loot droop from monsters, take the concept of "temporal fibers" and add it to a weaving gameplay loop as some sort of late game material. That way there's also some sort of reasonable explanation for how those fibers came to exist(the player utilized technology to make them), instead of the player being left to wonder how a horrible rot-infested creature can produce something so valuable. As for stopping spawns with dreamcatchers and candles...as a mod it works, but not for the base game. Stuff like that enters the "generic RPG fantasy" realm, and if it were really that easy to keep the monsters away, NPCs would be surrounding their homes with handicrafts instead of building strong fortifications. The feature is especially valuable in storms, where you may not have time to loot. Even if the falx didn't extract all the loot, it does make monsters killed via falx easier to loot since you no longer have to wait for the harvest animation to play before looting.

My strategy with fruit trees is to leave the ones within reasonable travel distance of base intact, and get my cuttings from the trees farther out. That way, I can pick the wild trees when year one rolls around. As for planting the cuttings...I'm easily planting 20-40 minimum at a time, so even if a lot of them don't survive there should still be several that actually do take root.

I like this approach. Throwable grenades would be useful against packs of enemies, or for achieving effects like smoke screens(perhaps this stops enemies caught within from targeting you for a brief time). Noisemakers could attract rotbeasts to specific areas, while flares could do the same for bells(apparently those are attracted to really bright light). Flares could also provide much more light than torches, at the expense of having a faster burnout time. Caltrops could slow down entities that step on them, or disappear after a short time if not stepped on. In any case, I think this kind of approach would allow the player more options, without needing to rework the locations already in the game.

I mean, it would definitely be a useful option to have for making custom maps. If it were something added, I'd expect it to be in a story update, or perhaps procedural dungeons, so that the feature can be showcased properly. It's still a feature I'd prefer to see more in procedural dungeons than story locations, I think, simply because those aren't really plot critical and more meant as entertaining side quests. Thus the more intricate details and tougher challenges can be left to main story locations, while procedural dungeons could be more relaxed and handle a greater variety of problem solving. As for keeping main locations "exciting"...I think a better option might be including secrets that have specific conditions to unlock. That is, perhaps the secret is only unlocked by a certain class(or certain class items), or perhaps the player needs to make certain choices in the story in order to have certain options available later. For example, instead of demanding more reward for your efforts at the end of chapter two, perhaps the player could forgo the immediate reward in exchange for something better later. Or perhaps there could be side quests for certain NPCs that increase your reputation with them, that eventually yields access to secrets later. Of course, these secrets wouldn't be critical to completing the main story, but rather just fun little side bits. Technically, this is already a thing, in that one location from chapter two. It works a bit differently, but it's the same general concept of working one's way through things...er...frozen in time. Of course, that's also the lore reason why the player can't just go tampering with things in that area too; without spoiling too much, the area is a giant anomaly, and it's either not possible to mess with things, or messing with things would have catastrophic consequences. I'm inclined to think it's the former, and not the latter, in that everything is literally frozen in time. Other locations, like the Resonance Archive, seem to have similar anomalies occurring, but not to the same extent.

It could be just meals in general, and not necessarily cookpot. I just tend to think "cookpot" when I think saturation, especially since pies stack more conveniently. Redmeat is the most critical ingredient, if you want the meal to be lasting a while before getting hungry again. It's the kind of thing I'd figure that would be noted in the handbook: spices add saturation value to cooked food. I definitely would not make a special meter just for tracking it, since that runs the risk of making the interface too cluttered.

Oh nice, I'm glad my rambling helps somebody. Picking apart the lore and trying to figure out how it all fits together is a favorite hobby in the game, although it's been a while since I've done any written delves.

Actually, the player should be able to kill small animals like chickens and rabbits on default settings, with only one flint spear, assuming that the player is throwing said spear and not stabbing. The only class that cannot do this, is Blackguard, as it takes two shots minimum to kill. I have to disagree here. First and foremost, nerfing the hitpoints of wildlife(especially to that extent) will make the predators essentially no threat, and make hunting way too easy. One benefit of investing in livestock is having an easy supply of meat, fat, hides, and dairy once you get the herds going. Likewise, picking the Hunter class offers an advantage early on by making it easier to kill things at range, and getting a bit more reward for one's butchering endeavors. Secondly, while it may seem a bit harsh for wolves and bears to be killing new players that easily, it is at least somewhat realistic(unless one has very good weapons/armor, the odds are absolutely stacked in the large predator's favor) and teaches the player a very important lesson early in the game about how the game's world operates. That is, the world is dangerous, and while the game will give the player a fair shot at success, it absolutely will not pull punches or otherwise stack the deck in the player's favor, as other games tend to do. Success or failure hinges heavily on the player's own ingenuity and efforts. As for predators not actually being that aggressive in real life...there are lore reasons for why wildlife is more aggressive in Vintage Story, although it has yet to really be explained. I did this too, however, I wouldn't say my immersion was broken. Rather, it was a rare shocking reminder that Vintage Story plays by a different set of rules than the other block game, or even titles like Skyrim. The puzzles themselves aren't terribly difficult, but they aren't so simple that the player won't have to actually search for clues or think about how to solve it for a little bit(puzzle doors in the draugr crypts, anyone?). Likewise, the player can't just break blocks to bypass the challenges within, or otherwise tear the entire place apart in order to cart it home. I would agree that it's restrictive, and that having a few more options would be nice. However, as you've already noted, it's difficult to pull that off without enabling the player to cheat and bypass the challenges. Likewise, it's also easier to design a dungeon location with a more linear route/challenges, and then spend more time detailing the set pieces or hiding little goodies around for the player to find. Currently, that also seems to be the design the VS devs are working with, given that the path through the location puzzles is fairly straightforward, but there's a lot of storytelling going on with the set design and lots of hidden goodies to discover. The Resonance Archive itself has at least three or four hidden locations to find; it's not unusual for those nooks and crannies in the walls to turn out to be more than just background detail. Like I said before, some of this is already part of the location design, as there are hidden bits that are easily missed, until the player figures out that not everything is just set dressing. As for placing blocks...I think that's a big "maybe". I think it's a concept better suited for procedural dungeons, while saving really special things(like the special bit from chapter two) for story locations. As for enemies interacting with placed blocks...rotbeasts don't seem intelligent enough to really do stuff like. Mechanicals like the locusts might, but creature AI needs more improvement to handle something like that, really. Overall, I think one of the present weak points of current location design, is that it's not always obvious what the player can interact with/is supposed to interact with. Obviously, extra goodies aren't that important, and there mostly as a fun little reward for a player's exploration efforts. Objects related to the main story recently got an improvement, in that they now emit particles if they are something the player can interact with(like lore books or the library resonator). Interesting. I'll have to go try to find the interview at some point. It makes sense that there would be some more nefarious humans out there, especially given that many NPCs suggest as much, however, I would also expect bandits to be a fairly rare occurrence out in the wild. The wilds are, after all, incredibly unsafe, and the idea behind being a bandit is making your living by stealing other people's livings. Can't really do that if there's no people to steal from.