LadyWYT

Thankfully we're still friends! And it's a scenario that I'm very glad Tyron added the ability to scrape your friends off the floor too. Honestly, I just saw a big dark shape come around the corner and swung. I didn't realize until mid-swing that it wasn't a drifter.

Never Spook the Blackguard This happened just yesterday. I was playing on my friend's server, attempting to locate iron while he worked on trapping chickens. The area we settled in is predominantly andesite, which means magnetite is really the only option when it comes to iron...and there are no good readings to work with at all. Thankfully, I did find a deposit, but it was in the middle of a cave system, which was going to pose a problem when it came to underground spooks. Neither one of us really have great armor--just a couple pieces of bear hide--and the rift activity just didn't want to calm down, so it's pretty much a guarantee there are going to be spooks interrupting any mining attempts. To mitigate this, I asked my hunter friend to tag along and watch my back, so the spooks didn't sneak up on either one of us. It was a very good idea, at least at first. The rift activity wasn't terribly high or anything, but it was just enough for a spook or two to spawn. Given that the iron ore was pretty deep down, this meant a couple of tier 2 drifters--not really a problem for the hunter to snipe with spears while I work doggedly at digging out all that rich ore. All was going very well...and then the bowtorn showed up. Hunter friend tried to snipe it, and ended up having to chase it into one of the dark passages to dispatch it. That turned out to be a mistake, since he got jumped by a couple of drifters and ended up losing most of his health. I didn't see it happen, since I was busy mining out more ore in a little nook I'd dug out for myself. All I heard was the screams about drifters, coupled with the moan of a drifter around the corner from my little hidey hole. Not to be taken by surprise, I readied my bronze falx and swung for the monster as soon as it rounded the corner! Except there was just one little problem. It uh... It wasn't a monster...

I'm thinking you probably just got unlucky. Monster spawns are better than they were, but I've still seen the occasional one pop out of a rift in broad daylight. The second pic looks to be just an unfortunate spawn of the bowtorn inside, since there seems to be enough space for one to spawn in the room. The first pic though, I'm not so sure; I would suspect maybe it spawned in the puddle of water, or perhaps some climbed up the ladder and glitched through the trapdoor(assuming that leads to a cellar space, anyway). In any case, I would say that sleeping through a temporal storm should keep you safe, for the most part, assuming that you go to sleep once you get the imminent warning. That should give you enough time to actually go to sleep and start fast-forwarding time, meaning that the storm itself only lasts for a few seconds. Very little time for anything to spawn, unless you get very unlucky. Worst case scenario, could always build a closet to sleep in for storms you don't want to deal with. Nothing should be able to spawn in a closet that's just big enough for you and a bed.

Not gonna lie, this might be the strangest death I've read about in the game.

Boy do I have some good news for you! https://mods.vintagestory.at/shivertweaks That's not all that mod does, by the way...

Welcome to the forums! Just to make sure all the bases are covered, are you playing vanilla, or do you have mods? It sounds like a bug to me, but if you're using mods they can interfere with gameplay from time to time.

Would they though? They are fast, but having spasms on the track is a big setback. Or boxing. Or maybe even be like the Turkish guy at the shooting range...show all those bowtorn you don't need to be a fancy monster to hit your mark.

I'm pretty sure it's just a case of a monster spawning in that room and pushing the armor stand around. This happened quite frequently on the server I play on; friend and I had a proper armory and while it was lit fairly well, there was still a corner or two dark enough for the occasional monster. That, and temporal storms would spawn them inside too. I really doubt the armor stands themselves move, but the easiest way to test would be to simply play with lore disabled for a while, or otherwise use a mod that prevents monsters from spawning entirely. If no monsters can spawn and the armor stands still move, then they're definitely bugged.

Welcome to the forums! This is probably why you haven't seen anyone mention it--getting your progress wiped due to circumstances you couldn't prevent isn't fun for most. Flooding also poses the issue of...how do you simulate that level of water physics, while still having a game that runs well on older hardware? Droughts I would say are already in the game, somewhat. Areas have their own chances of rainfall; some get more than others. And sometimes you can go for quite a while without any rain at all, even in an area with high rainfall. It's not really a problem though, since it's rather easy to irrigate your farms so they always have water. I am definitely in favor of adding puddles though. It would be really fun to go splash in them after a big storm.

YES! Wolves too? Though perhaps instead of integrating the bear armor into other armor, maybe we could have bear/wolf pelts as cloaks? Maybe some fox fur too as a shoulder piece. That way there's more options for the cloak slot and we can wear them without armor as well.

Welcome to the forums! You might try out this mod, in that case: https://mods.vintagestory.at/radialcrafting

Slate is a great choice; the dark color will contrast nicely with the light color of the sandstone, and it has a warm undertone to it so it won't look out of place. Chert and bauxite rocks are also good picks since they are variations of red-orange that will mix well with the light orange of the sandstone too. Basalt is a great material for adding detail, as are "white" rocks like limestone and chalk--they'll contrast with the above colors. For a good complementary color to sandstone, try andesite, especially for your floor. If you live in a hot climate, this will help make the interior look cool and inviting instead of uncomfortably warm. For wood, pine, acacia, and ebony all have warm reddish colors that will match nicely. Oak, maple, and kapok are also solid choices if you'd rather have less bright colors. Birch and cypress are probably the weakest choices by themselves, since the light color will blend with the sandstone and look washed out.

The minute you exit character creation. The crude shield only requires reeds and sticks, and while it may not last very long it's quite handy against projectiles. Shields won't prevent damage if the enemy flanks you. They do offer good protection, but you need to be facing the threat for them to be effective.

Now I'm hoping for a whole short film about the various monsters competing in the Rusty Olympics.

Not quite. Tier 3 and 4 drifters have significant knockback on their melee attacks, which makes them even more dangerous in comparison to their lower tier counterparts. I'd also note that most drifters encountered will probably be Tier 3 or below, which means they will have 30 HP or less at default settings. The Nightmare tier, meanwhile, really lives up to its name...you really don't want to be encountering those on the regular. Temporal storms are unnatural disasters, so you really shouldn't have any control over when they show up or where they spawn monsters, outside of the world settings and maybe a gadget that protects a certain area from spawns(tech update idea?) You can fight through the storm if you wish and get some rare items for the effort, or you can play it safer and hide in a bunker. I say "safer" in regards to hiding, because it's still quite possible for a monster to surprise you indoors on occasion(this happened to a friend and I recently and it really got that adrenaline going). Overall, I think the combat system does its job well. It's simple enough that new players can understand it right away and get things done, but complex enough to offer several options for a variety of situations(ie, which gear is "best" depends on circumstances). With the monsters I do agree there is some room for improvement, but I think instead of changing the monsters we have now, the better solution is to add more monsters to the mix somewhere down the road. Of course, I would keep following the current template for future monsters as well, in that they're relatively simple, and the more challenging mechanics saved for boss fights. I'll also note that while the monsters are individually simple, the true challenge usually comes from mixing them together. Drifters are simple, until you have a couple of bowtorn shooting at you, and a shiver playing hit-and-run with your heels. As for environment variety...it really depends on your circumstances. Monsters are commonly found underground, as are ore-laden caves and the more lucrative ruins, so it's a common place for players to have to deal with them as a result. Monsters can be found on the surface as well, but that tends to be during nighttime rift activity or during a temporal storm...both scenarios that the player likely avoids unless they really want/need to deal with that situation. Outside of story locations(which are special cases), I'm not really sure how you really add more "environment" to monster encounters, aside from adding very rare special ruins or aquatic monsters(you'd need reason to be underwater though/have a good way to deal with them).

If only it were that simple. Temporal stability varies; generally the deeper you go the more unstable it gets. However, there are occasionally stable chunks deep near the mantle, but it's very rare. For a tunnel, your best bet is to just tunnel through the mountain at the surface. Now that is entirely up to you. A tunnel will be quite a lot of effort, but will save you time once complete(though make sure you light it well to keep the spooks out). Running overland through the wilds is comparatively less effort up front, but isn't as short of a trip.

I've never seen higher than Decent for Chromite. I would say dig a little deeper on the current shaft(like, close to the mantle deep), dig a few branches around just to make sure you didn't miss anything, and then look for another prospecting point if you still find no chromite vein in that shaft. Chances are that if you went through all the above and found nothing, then the ore didn't actually spawn. Chromite is also one of those minerals that's rare enough, that I'd say it's worth checking the Poor/Very Poor readings too, if you've got no other Decent reading spots to search.

Not to mention you also need metal for the pounder caps and a windmill to power it.

Typically what I do is try to make sure that each crock is completely full before sealing(each crock holds 4 servings) in order to get the most efficient use of crocks and storage space. When filling the crocks, I usually make meaty stew with a couple of vegetable options(two slots), or some berries(just one slot). Doing so allows me to make the most of a single crock by filling it with a meal of different nutrients rather than a single nutrient meal. Now exactly what you choose to put in your stews is entirely up to you, on whether you want specific ingredients(such as leaving out parsnips if you don't like parsnips) or whether you just use whatever is available. Likewise, you might also opt to seal a crock with fewer than 4 servings, if you have multiple crocks and just need to store the food before it goes to waste.

From what I can tell, bowtorn are very good at aiming where you are currently, whereas drifters are very good at aiming where you will be. Both types of shots can be dodged if you time your movements correctly, there's just more wiggle-room in the timing when it's a bowtorn shooting at you. Not to really beat a dead horse in the conversation, but I would say that...it really depends on how their target moves. They can do a decent job of aiming, but they have trouble accounting for fast targets or split-second changes of direction.

Welcome to the forums! Armor should cover most all clothing options, though there may be some clipping on occasion depending on the clothing item and armor in question. If you find a combination that looks particularly odd, best to head over to the bug tracker on Github and report it.

Nope! It's a floating disk! There are some slightly larger hills about 50+ blocks behind it, but for the disk itself it's just a very odd piece of world generation.

Elk stops before it falls in, but the player(and passenger, if applicable) keep going. Would be mildly frustrating, but also rather fitting if your elk throws you because you deliberately tried to ride it off a cliff.

It's also fairly realistic, as not every plant will grow in every climate. The game is fairly lenient in that regard; it tends to be more of a problem for propagating fruit trees since the normal trees seem to survive just fine even when planted outside their ideal climates. Fruit trees and other crops you can still grow outside their ideal climates, but it takes some extra effort(greenhouses), and some might only have stunted harvests if they're able to survive at all. The general idea in Vintage Story is that you work with the resources available near where you choose to settle; if you want the more exotic stuff then it takes extra effort.

They are not, though they weren't 100% accurate before. It's fairly easy to just move out of the way, step behind an obstacle, or otherwise just raise a shield in defense once you hear the warning screech. If you stand still, they will hit you 100% of the time, provided something isn't blocking line of fire...but that's really not saying much since a target that stands still is quite easy to hit compared to a moving one.