LadyWYT

StepUp I don't really care about as a feature, however, it would be a nice accessibility addition for those who can't/don't want to just hit the spacebar every time. I'm guessing it would also be easier to add code for something like StepUp, than it would be to try to change worldgen to use half-slab dirt or the like. If there's a zoom option added, I'd prefer it be something like this, and not just a key press. A key press might be handy, but it's not very immersive. A spyglass could be made reasonably cheap and fairly early in the game if you know what you're doing(copper/brass and glass), and is a very immersive way of handling such a feature. You could also upgrade it later, perhaps, by building special Jonas goggles or some other Jonas tech gadget. Not only could that have a stronger zoom feature than the spyglass, but such an item could also be equipped in a cosmetic slot, so you never have to worry about leaving it at home by accident.

In all fairness, this isn't just force of habit. The hitboxes on bears are a bit broken; they can sit right on top of you, so that you're clipped into the hitbox. When that happens, you can't hit them(because you're clipped inside the bear's model), but the bear can still hit you. It's why bears are so frustrating to fight, even when you have really good armor, and also why it's a good idea to kite them around in a tight circle. It's a lot harder for them to sit on top of you when you maneuver that way.

It kind of depends on how much hunting and foraging one wants to do. I ended up playing with 30-day months when I started out, since I wanted a lot of extra time before the big scary winter arrived to learn the other gameplay and explore. To compensate, I planted a lot of farmland as well. Of course, turns out winter wasn't as bad as I thought, so I ended up going back to the standard month length in later worlds.

I think there was a proper chimney block that was recently added, that is considered airtight but will let smoke escape. So I'm not sure that bit is an issue. Logical questions that follow if smoke damage is added for realism. Personally, I'm not a fan of mechanics like this. I didn't enjoy it in Valheim, and I doubt I'd enjoy such things here. While it's maybe not the most realistic thing ever, it's nice to be able to build the fireplace however I'd like, in a way that looks functional, but not actually have to worry about engineering it to make sure the room won't get smoky.

By the end of the first day I have my pit kilns firing cookware, a storage vessel, and the molds I'll need for metalworking. I'll have a reed chest or two for other storage as well. From there, I go exploring and mark anything useful that I find, returning to collect the copper bits I've found in order to get my first pick and hammer. After that, I'll go mine the deposits so that I can cast an anvil and a few ingots for a chisel, saw, and shears. However, if I get lucky and find a surface tin deposit that's big enough, I'll skip copper and go straight for a bronze anvil and tools. If I'm getting really unlucky with my ore deposits, I'll pan for what copper I need. While working on copper and bronze, I'll also start my farms and leatherworking, provided there's a source of lime or borax to work with. If there are animals nearby that can be domesticated, I'll try to herd them into a pen and start that process too. Otherwise, after getting bronze I focus on getting to iron and steel as quickly as possible, as it's much easier to focus on building and decorating if I have good equipment. As for the story...I usually don't worry about it until I have iron, at least. I like to take my time doing stuff, for the most part, and iron is easy enough to get that I don't really see a point in relying on bronze unless I really want that challenge.

Hmmm...in that case, what about organizing events like harvesting the crops, or crafting medical supplies, or cooking the community meals, etc? After all, while the scouts are out exploring the wilderness and the warriors are dealing with threats, someone's got to be at home keeping them supplied and patching them back up if they return injured. That gives the more passive players a way to be involved with the storyline in a way they'll enjoy, without needing to risk their characters. Plus it lets the more aggressive players focus more on the combat and risk-taking, instead of needing to do chores they may find dull. Just a suggestion, I dunno how feasible it is for what you have going.

I don't agree with everything in OP's post, but overall it's decent advice for players new to Vintage Story. The learning curve is rather steep, and the early game enemies like wolves are no exception. It may seem harsh that they can kill a player so quickly, however, the wolf has a rather important role in teaching players the game. By default, Vintage Story doesn't pull its punches, and wolves will quickly teach the player some important survival tips. First and foremost, players need to be prepared(whether it's through skill or better equipment) before they go trying to deal with threats; they can't go diving into a fight underequipped and expect to come out unscathed...at least not without a really good plan(such as trapping an enemy in a hole). Secondly, letting enemies be credible threats pushes players to be more aware of their surroundings, as getting ambushed can easily have lethal consequences. Wolves tend to howl a lot, which makes them easy for players to avoid until they're ready to deal with them, provided that the player is paying attention that is. I think I've seen as many as five in one spot, but that's a fairly rare occurrence. Typically it's one to three, as you said. I'd expect to see a spyglass added to the game sooner or later, as a more immersive option for this kind of feature. I would also add potentially setting creatures to neutral/passive, whichever option makes them ignore you until attacked(I forgot which is which). That way they're still dangerous, but it's entirely up to the player when they deal with opponents. Likewise, I also recommend potentially setting a grace period for monster spawns--that way the player is guaranteed a certain window of safety before they have to start dealing with monsters. Rifts will still spawn, of course, but they won't be producing monsters until that grace period is up. Personally, I wouldn't touch healing rate, hunger rate, or food spoilage, unless the player REALLY wants to. The default values are quite fair, and if player HP is set to max that gives quite a lot of room for mistakes to be made. I mean...I'm American as well, and the names make sense to me. I'm nitpicking this just a bit, but lamellar is a specific type of armor, same as chain, plate, brigandine, etc. So the armor piece is aptly named. I'd also wager it's named that due to being in the same general stat class as the other lamellar armors. As for looking up these armors to give an edge on early game survival...yes, absolutely! Once you have more experience in the game, it's easy to skip over them entirely, as the benefits you get aren't really worth what it takes to craft it. However, while early armor might not prevent that much damage or be very durable, it can be the difference between life and death. The player doesn't need to keep the shield equipped at all times--just when they think they might run into trouble. That saves a bit on the energy cost. As for the tutorial, it could be better, but the main purpose is to teach the player about the basic controls and how to acquire the tools they'll need to achieve everything else in the game. From there, it's up to the player to figure out the best way to proceed in the game(which will vary depending on map generation and playstyle preferences). A player should be able to survive a couple of hits on default settings, provided they're at full health. Nerd poles aren't required for survival, but they can be a useful way to deal with wolves and bears. If the player reacts fast enough, it is possible to outrun wolves and most bears(provided it's not a polar bear or brown bear)--the player is usually able to navigate the terrain much better and the predators will give up the chase if you get far enough away. Agreed--preparing yourself and going into a fight on your own terms is pretty much the key to surviving Vintage Story combat. Did you mean to say "Keep Items on Death" instead of "Drop Items on Death"? The latter is the default setting; I would recommend changing it to "Keep Items on Death" for new players. It's not hard to replace lost items in the early game, however, keeping your items in spite of death makes the game feel much more forgiving of your mistakes. I played with that setting when I first began Vintage Story, and later changed the death penalty to drop items, once I was confident enough in my own skills for it to not pose an issue. I will also note that you will never drop worn items on death, so you don't need to worry about losing your armor or that cool cosmetic thing you found, provided that you're wearing it. For monster spawns, they will only spawn on the surface if there is a rift nearby and the light level is dark enough, outside of a temporal storm that is. Rift activity is variable, so some nights might be entirely peaceful and others might be full of monsters(and that activity can change at any time). Lighting up an area will reduce spawn chances, if not make it impossible for monsters to spawn(outside of a temporal storm). However, the best lighting option--the lantern--typically isn't feasible until the mid game. Torches are probably the best early game lighting since they're cheap, but they will burn out after 48 hours unless placed in a torch holder(or you can break and replace them to reset the timer). Oil lamps don't burn out, but also don't offer much light--they offer just enough to see what you're doing, but won't really prevent monster spawns. I agree with this if a player wants to keep the surface threats more natural, and leave the monsters to the underground. However, if it's just a factor of the unpredictability of surface monster spawns being a bit overwhelming, I'd recommend setting a grace timer instead. That way, the rifts will function as intended, but the player has some time to get used to their presence and prepare before the rifts will actually be particularly dangerous. Eh, it's a personal preference. The default settings are fine, in my opinion. Early tools aren't durable, that is true, however they're very cheap and easy to craft. The low durability pushes the player to seek better materials and advance themselves, instead of becoming too comfortable with the easiest solution. For clearing brush, I'd recommend crafting a set of shears. They clear out a lot of brush at once, while greatly increasing the drop rate of sticks and tree seeds. Of course, they're a little more effort to craft than an axe, but they're much better at the job. It's not much of a spoiler hence why I'm not gating this behind a spoiler, but you don't NEED to trap wolves and bears in a pit to deal with them. Pit traps are incredibly useful, yes, but it's fairly easy to avoid hostile wildlife by paying attention to one's environment and taking a good look around every so often(and not charging blindly into dense brush when you can avoid it). As for the respawn rate...generally hostile wildlife won't respawn immediately, but it does happen sometimes. I don't think that's intended behavior though, and will likely be fixed in the future. Generally, the hostile wildlife will respawn after a few to several days, typically in the same general spots so it's easy to either avoid them, or build traps to help deal with them if you don't wish to confront them head-on. One piece of advice I don't see mentioned--if playing with temporal stability enabled, make sure that teal gear is spinning clockwise or motionless when picking a spot to build your base. If it's spinning clockwise, the area is stable, which is good! If it's motionless, the area is either neutral, or it's stable and the gear isn't spinning because you're already at 100% stability--still a good scenario. If the gear is spinning counter-clockwise though, the area is unstable and you don't want to settle down there, as spending long periods of time in such areas isn't good for your health. It's fine if part of your base is in an unstable area; you just don't want the entire base to be unstable, as you'll need a spot to recover stability lost from temporal storms and underground expeditions.

No, you're right. The generation of the male animal doesn't matter--the offspring will be whatever the mother's generation was, plus one. However, it's still a good idea to cull the males every once in a while, in favor of a higher generation animal, so that your animals aren't as aggressive/scaredy.

It doesn't exist for every game, but it's essentially a hub for players to upload mods and blueprints for various games. Like, if one wanted to mod Skyrim, they can go to the workshop page and subscribe to the mods they like, and Steam installs those mods for them. Planet Zoo utilizes the workshop to let players upload their build blueprints, so that other players can download them and use the schematic in their own worlds. Essentially, it's Steam's version of an official mod database, I think, but it covers more than just mods.

Looking at the picture provided...it's an aged crate there, and they have the fewest storage slots of the crate family. Maybe that's why? Otherwise I don't know, that does seem rather strange. I know for a standard crate(maple, oak, pine, etc), I can store 20 temporal gears, which is a more efficient use of space than a chest(16 slots).

If they're refusing business to certain clientele due to past bad behavior or something, that's one thing. But if they're refusing business and strongarming patrons in order to monopolize the industry for their own gain? Well...sounds like the royal tax collector or the grand vizier or whoever's in charge might be very interested in paying them a visit. Obviously if someone's willing to play dirty like that, the business is probably cooking the books somehow to cheat the local authorities too. Or if the books are clean, I doubt the king's going to appreciate having a monopoly that he didn't sanction running off other merchants and shrinking the incoming tax revenue as a result. The immersive excuses for needing to use the admin stick, in other words. I think a lot of "tavern RP" happens on RP servers, just because that's the easiest place for walk-up RP to happen. And of course some players prefer "slice-of-life" RP, but I think otherwise the other reason it tends to be popular is that it doesn't have high stakes and doesn't require a lot of commitment. Your character can go to the bar, have some fun, and it doesn't matter if they never see those other faces again. Likewise, they're not in danger of getting mauled by monsters or triggering a trap in an ancient dungeon, or some other peril--the worst they'll really have to deal with is a rude patron or two, and a potential hangover the next day. I'm inclined to agree on this point. If the server doesn't run 24/7, it's easier to keep the RP threads condensed into one overarching story, much like a TTRPG campaign.

Like the Steam Workshop, or even Vintage Story's own mod database? That's usually the easiest way to handle user-generated content, I think. Very mild spoilers here, but the original Subnautica had community content in the game itself, in the form of time capsules. If you beat the game, you got to create a capsule with your own custom message, a screenshot/picture, and whatever items you chose to put in it(within a certain limit). Before it could be added to the time capsule loot tables though, it'd be put to a community vote. Granted, I think they've stopped adding capsules, but it was a cool idea. Welcome to the forums! It's an interesting idea, but I think an Adventure Mode is better suited for a fantasy setting, and not the one we currently have. Vintage Story has a great setting, but it takes place in the real world, around the late Middle Ages(sometime between 1200 and 1400, to be more precise). Of course, due to certain cataclysmic events, the world as we know it has been scrambled and there are now eldritch abominations running rampant everywhere...but anyway... A new fantasy setting is going to give a lot more creative freedom than just setting the new mode in VS's past. That's not to say that VS's past couldn't be a more fantastical version of ours, with wizards and dragons and whatnot, but that's not really the vibe that VS goes for. Aside from the backdrop of eldritch horror and steampunk motifs, most things in the game are heavily rooted in realism.

The quern was definitely available in 1.19 and 1.18. I think the issue is he was after pies specifically, which require a table to make. But since he skipped the anvil, no saw for planks.

I'm pretty sure I've done this a few times, just because I wanted a few pieces of dough and was too lazy to bother with a bucket.

Just an idea I threw out there Doesn't actually exist in the game without mods.

Or I mean...just make iron/steel tier spears into pikes instead. They can't be thrown, so they're no longer competing with bows for the ranged slot. They offer much better melee range than the falx or similar melee weapons, however, you could balance that by giving them a minimum effective range too. That way, if an enemy manages to get too close, the spear is no longer effective; swords and other short-range melee weapons are still useful as a sidearm, or in tight spaces like caves where a pike's minimum range is going to be a setback.

If it's branching off Vintage Story though, it shouldn't be an issue, least I wouldn't think it would be. Vintage Story already supports opening your worlds to your friends, without the need for a dedicated server or needing to be on a LAN. I don't know how things work on the backend in that regard, but it seems like the concept could be applied to a Hytale-style game.

Or just add a pack saddle for rideable creatures. That way they can be ridden by the player, or used to transport even more stuff, giving players both a choice of how to use the creature in question, as well as a reason to have more than one rideable creature. Currently there isn't really a reason to have more than one elk. The main hurdle I see though is how to manage claimed animals. Pack animals seem like they should be similar to claimed mounts, in that they should respond to the bone flute. However, the player can only claim one mount at a time, so the rules would definitely need some tweaking.

You can kind of quarry in tunnels, but keep in mind that you have to break all blocks touching the stone block in question in order to get the full stone block. If you dig out a strip of stone(2 tall, 1 wide), you can make a checkerboard pattern for the most efficient quarry pattern(I think). I say that because to get rid of the necessary blocks in the ceiling/floor, you only have to dig one block out to get to three of the supporting blocks at a time. Also, welcome to the forums! In regards to just collecting loose stones, what I generally do is just hoard whatever I dig up on my mining and quarry trips. That generally provides plenty of building materials. If I need a specific color though...that usually means a dedicated mining trip to an area with that stone type. If there's a desert of that type with lots of boulders, that's even better, but that may or may not be an option. If mining for the stone, then I'll usually quarry some blocks too, just to have some available should I ever want them.

Oh it is? Could have sworn that was a mod thing. You learn something new every day!

It is splitting hairs a bit...mostly it was just what I found with a quick Google. From a gameplay logic standpoint, crafting a limited use oven from lower quality clay seems like a fair compromise, at least on paper. Ah, yeah, didn't think of that. Makes a lot of sense!

In all fairness, pies were gated behind the anvil anyway prior to the quern change. Unless I'm forgetting something, pies require a table in their crafting--ordinary blocks won't do. Tables require boards, which requires a saw, which needs to be smithed on the anvil. Given that they're a food source on par with cookpot meals, but stackable, I'm not sure that I would make them easier to obtain. Having a food type that strong is a good reason to invest the resources into acquiring them. Maybe, although at a glance, it looks like fire clay is required due to the oven needing to withstand high heat without cracking. Though the weirdest part about the oven to me isn't the fire clay requirement...it's the lack of firing. Every other piece of pottery you need to fire in order to have it be usable, yet the oven is usable as soon as you're done molding it.

Pretty much. Plus a mortar and pestle can serve other purposes too. It could be used for an herbalism gameplay loop--perhaps it's even the only tool that can grind plants into a fine-enough powder to use in potions and salves. A mortar and pestle also makes a great decoration, or a useful gadget in the event your friend has occupied the quern with other tasks. Of course, I could also see removing the oven requirement for bread too, after a fashion. Expanded Foods(I believe it was this mod, anyway) implemented such a concept--you can bake bread in a firepit, but the result will always be the charred variety. A change like that, in addition to adding a mortar and pestle, gives the player another early food option without needing to worry about fire clay at all, while still giving them a good incentive to invest the resources into an oven later.

I didn't do the best job explaining it in my initial post, but it's not so much about gating pie-making, as it is a change to smooth out the progression for getting to iron from the stone age. Prior to 1.20, red clay didn't exist at all, and fire clay and blue clay spawned in large deposits like red clay does now(there was also no converting one clay type to another). Once you found a fire clay deposit(which was fairly easy to do), you were pretty much set for the rest of the game. 1.20 changed how clay works--red clay was introduced as a different common clay type, and the natural spawn rules of fire clay were made a lot more strict. The general way to acquire fire clay en masse is to cook flint in a firepit to calcinate it, then grind the result into powder and mix it with blue/red clay. I assume the quern recipe was changed as well in order to help smooth out the early game a bit with the change to clay, since the previous recipe only required an ingot's worth of copper minimum(100 units for a pick, if you consider the quern and nothing else). With the change, the copper cost is increased to 1200(100 for pick, 100 for hammer, 100 for chisel, and 900 for anvil...man I am bad at math sometimes), which feels like a more fair price for what you unlock from it, and helps the early game feel a bit more meaningful. It's not a change I would revert, personally, but I do think this is perhaps a great situation to add something like a mortar and pestle(I like the way the Ancient Tools mod handles this concept. The mortar and pestle can't grind much at a time and can't be automated, so it's more tedious than a quern. However, the benefit is that it's very easy to craft--a stick and a few hard rocks, no fancy tools or materials required. Adding an item like this would give the player the choice to either spend more resources up front in exchange for more efficiency(the quern), or spend a bit of extra time to achieve the same result in return for not needing to sink as many resources into the grinding tool.

Welcome to the forums! The good news is that someone else already had similar feelings and made a mod to do just that. https://mods.vintagestory.at/oldquern Personally, I wouldn't revert the quern change, as it was a good one in terms of early game balance. Before the change, the cost to get to better foods like pies and better materials like bronze and iron was a whopping...two ingots of copper, essentially. You didn't actually need to craft an anvil until you had the materials for bronze. With the change though, it costs the player at least eleven ingots of copper to gain access to things like pies and barrels. A player can still skip the copper anvil and go straight for bronze, of course, but they do so at the cost of unlocking certain useful things much later as well. Not quite. Grinding calcined flint into powder and combining that with clay is the easiest way to get fire clay, but not the only way. Fire clay spawns naturally under black coal and anthracite deposits, as well as in bauxite biomes. It can also be found in certain cracked vessels, or purchased from some traders.