LadyWYT

Maybe, but I think it's more along the lines of, most every time someone brings this topic up, the suggested method they lay out is essentially equating realism to fun, which ends up requiring the player to spend the majority of their time just caring for their farmland if they want a good harvest. While that is realistic, it's not really fun, unless that's all the gameplay the player is interested in. For me personally, I do think farming could use a bit more depth, but while I do enjoy farming in the game I would quickly grow to absolutely hate it if I felt like I had to be constantly checking my farms or following very specific maintenance constraints to keep it going. With the current system, I can make my farms as big or as small as I like, without care requirements changing too drastically. Likewise, I don't have to be constantly battling weeds to ensure I get a harvest; I just need to deal with the weeds before I can plant new crops. I don't like dealing with fertilizer either, especially since I like to use compost and saltpeter for other things, so I sink more time into carefully rotating crop types. And though farming can sometimes be a bit of a time sink, it's not so much that I can't easily take breaks and go mess around with other gameplay when I wish to. Yeah pretty much. As noted above, I do like to putter, but I want to be the one choosing to putter, and what I putter around with and when. There are certain requirements for progression, and time limits to certain activities(like you can't grow crops in the cold), but as a general rule the game is still fairly lenient about giving the player plenty of freedom to pick a method that works for their playstyle. I think this is also a good chunk of the reason that some gameplay aspects, like fruit trees and animal husbandry, feel "worthless" at the moment: there's only two of a planned eight story chapters implemented. If the player is completing roughly one chapter per in-game year, that means the player will take about eight years to complete the story, which is a few hundred hours worth of gameplay and easily enough time to make things like animal husbandry worthwhile. Going back to this bit, I think a better way to smooth out farming progression, is instead of adding weeds or more "busywork" for the player to manage, perhaps just tweak how the player acquires seeds. Make wild crops a lot more scarce, so that the player can't just gather a couple stacks of the main seed types within a day's travel spawn. Instead, the player needs to either scavenge vessels for seeds, purchase seeds from the agriculture traders, or otherwise manage their crops carefully to acquire more seeds if they don't wish to spend days scouring the landscape. As for how to get seeds from crops, now the player needs to choose between harvesting their crops for edible food, or letting them go to seed in order to have seeds to plant for next harvest. The main exception to this rule is grain, since...well...grains are both the edible food part and the seed part. In any case, a change like that would slow down early farming a bit, and make it more of a process the player needs to actively build up, much like metalworking or livestock.

This is what I do--have two barrels going for the same liquid. One set of barrels is meant for fresh batches, where each barrel contains 50L of appropriate solution and I stuff as much hide as possible in. If there is any solution left over, it gets dumped into the secondary barrel and used to process smaller batches of hide(or dye cloth, in the case of strong tannin).

Welcome to the forums! I'm guessing you messed with the world generation settings in order to get this. I wouldn't trash the world, but I would start over on a new save file, with something closer to standard world generation, as that will make it easier to learn gameplay basics(you'll have an easier time actually finding resources you need to progress). Once you've got more of the basics down, then then you could come back to this world for a more challenging playthrough. That's not to say you can't play this one as your first world, but...an island that small is going to be incredibly restricting, and if the only land out there is tiny islands like this, it's going to be much more difficult to secure critical progression resources. Even more so if you don't even have cattails, as those are needed to make rope, which is used for the raft(the first water vehicle). You can use vines to make rope as well, but I'm guessing there likely aren't enough vines for that here(and vines don't regrow like cattails).

Like @Zane Mordien already mentioned, it's just set design. Albeit poor design, since this would have been a prime spot just add some iron bars instead of invisible walls. That way, it would look like a built-in safety feature to prevent falls, instead of obvious game mechanics to prevent the player from cheesing the fight.

Oh yeah, cosmetic definitely aren't a solution to combat, that's just me getting sidetracked from the main topic. That tends to happen easily.

Eh, I have a similar outlook on farming, but I chalk the sentiment up to just having what's probably several hundred hours worth of gameplay under my belt at this point. Not everyone enjoys ultra hardcore, and given my time lurking the forums, it seems several players(usually newer players, but not always) tend to struggle with managing their food supply, which suggests to me that the standard difficulty is working as intended. The main reasoning I had for opting for an animal-powered plow, is that ties into the husbandry gameplay loop, as well as likely being more fun to use than trying to pull the plow yourself. It's also a little easier to steer it if you're behind the device rather than in front of it. Yeah, that's the main way I see a weed mechanic working, without it getting incredibly annoying. Weeds have to be removed before you can use the farmland again, but otherwise can be left alone to turn farmland back into standard grassy dirt. As for the hoe requirement...maybe the hoe can instead remove weeds in a 3x3 area, giving the player incentive to use a hoe over doing the work by hand. That is pretty much it, however, you do need to be careful about what crops you plant where, and when you plant them. Otherwise, you can screw up a harvest by planting too early/too late, or end up having no consistency between what nutrients are where(which makes management a pain). Mostly just because not every player wants that much farmland. Of course, the other problem is that the player doesn't need to expand their farms to get around crop rotation and fertilizer; they can simply go dig up dirt elsewhere in the world and replace the farmland dirt to restore nutrients entirely. Right, but the thing is, it's not uncommon for players to lean into the most efficient routes of doing things, or strive to get the best possible yields from things like farming. If the player isn't at the base to pull the weeds(or check to make sure there's no weeds to pull), that's something likely to pester at the back of their mind while they're away. I will note though, that this doesn't really dissuade players from just...ignoring the mechanic entirely, putting up with the weeds, and just making absolutely massive farms to counteract the crop loss from neglect. What the mechanic does do though, is make it more frustrating to maintain farms at a large scale, which isn't really ideal given that it cuts down on player choice(now they're going to feel forced into small gardens). Yeah pretty much. I still recall you telling the tale of your adventures with modded weeds. I do enjoy farming in this game, and while I do think it could be complex, I don't know that most other players would enjoy the same level of challenge that I do.

Yes and no...those "miracle elixirs" and useless trinkets could serve as interesting cosmetics or decorative items. Not exactly useful for practical gameplay, but for players who like roleplaying or collecting things, there would be a reason to frequent those traders. That's fair, and in fairness it's possible there are settlements out there, that aren't yet implemented, that lean heavily into that aesthetic. I forgot these were a thing as well. Typically I end up crafting one early, as it just seems a fitting knick-knack to carry around. For brevity's sake I'm just quoting this part, but yeah I don't disagree with what you said. I'm not against stuff like that getting added to the game, as those are fun cosmetic items to collect and decorate with, but it's also the kind of thing I'd want to be strictly cosmetic. Kind of...but as I understand it(spoilers just in case):

The recipes, yes, you'd have to write those down. But as to the basic properties of the spices involved, the idea is to have a "quick reference" for the player to figure out the recipes, just in case they couldn't write them down, haven't played in a while, or it otherwise slipped their mind.

Tagging on to this, if spices have inherent hidden properties, perhaps they could have an implementation similar to Elder Scrolls alchemy ingredients. That is, once you've successfully cooked with the ingredient in question, or sampled it to determine overall flavor profile, then the item tooltip will always list the basic properties discovered. That way, the player can easily track the basic ingredient properties and figure out better recipes, which is especially useful in the event the player hasn't played in a while.

Honestly, I could picture this too, although the implementation I see is the standard snake oil salesman . The charms don't actually do anything, and maybe the "miracle elixirs" being sold actually turn out to be poison, or perhaps the player gets "instant riches" only to find out that the shady merchant stole the goods from the local village and now the player gets the blame for it. Whatever the case may be, the player ultimately ends up several gears poorer, with nothing to show for it.

Welcome to the forums! The good news is that fishing is already on the roadmap. The bad news is that we don't know when the devs will implement it. However, the good news is that if you're open to modding, the Primitive Survival mod offers a few ways to fish along with other neat gameplay bits(although you may want to tweak the configuration files if you don't want Cthulu in your game).

Yeah, if you just press and hold shift(or whichever key you have sneak/crouch bound to), your character should climb down the ladder without issue. If you're falling off the ladder while trying to do so, it's likely because you are pressing the backward movement key while descending(or perhaps pressing one of the side movement keys by accident) which will cause your character to move off the ladder and thus fall.

This is the main reason I'm not in favor of intense overhauls like this. While Vintage Story farming is highly simplified compared to what real farming is, it's still more complex than what a lot of other games offer(stick seeds in ground, come back later to harvest, rinse and repeat). The more time the player has to spend farming, the less time they're spending doing other things the game has to offer, that they may enjoy more. As it stands, the current system is complex enough that the player does have to think a bit in order to get the most from their farms, but it's not so complex that they have to spend a lot of time micromanaging it, or pick between farming and other gameplay. I do think they would be great as mods, and a few mods that implement some of the concepts do exist. However, I will also note that those mods aren't very popular. Depending on which one you look at, in some cases the farming complexity mods are less popular than the mod that...uh...makes bathroom functions a thing. Honestly, I don't think it's necessarily bad to have more challenge up front for new players, given that Vintage Story is already a very challenging game and that's part of the appeal. It's a tough mountain to conquer, but very satisfying when one manages to do so. However, you do have a point, in that you don't want to make the early so difficult that new players get too discouraged by the default difficulty and quit. I do agree that there ought to be more use for the hoe, but I think the better way to go about it, without upsetting the current balance, is to simply require the hoe if one wishes to remove the weeds from fallow farmland. Likewise, if farmland sits fallow for too long, it should revert back to dirt, at which point it can either be dug up safely, or tilled again in order to keep farming. The plow would be great for large scale farming, but should probably be a tool that's available later in the game, once the player has access to bronze and a creature strong enough to pull it. That way, it's something for the player to work their way up to, but also something that could be safely skipped if the player really doesn't enjoy farming or livestock that much. As for the current farming balance, here are the main advantages I see: 1. There are two different options when it comes to planting crops. The player can either put in the effort to rotate their crops carefully and avoid the need for fertilizer, or they can use fertilizer to focus on specific crops and thus avoid needing to bother with crop rotation or massive farms. 2. If the player designed their farms with good irrigation and were careful about what crops they planted and when, they can safely plant their fields and leave on an extended expedition(exploration, story content, etc), and have fields ready to harvest(or nearly ready) upon their return. They don't have to choose between having flax/a full cellar for the winter, and doing the story or exploring. 3. The player can build farms however big or small they wish. However, adding a mechanic like needing to weed crops to ensure a good harvest is going to limit farm scale severely since larger farms are going to require a lot more time and effort to maintain. If month length is set to longer than default, larger farms will be required in order to produce enough food to sustain the player through the winter, and some players just really enjoy building massive farms. However, it's not really going to be fun for the player if they have to end up spending all day doing nothing but take care of weeds. Likewise, it's also not really going to be fun for the player if they have to choose between progressing the story or exploring, or taking care of a farm to make sure they can actually stay fed over the winter or have flax for windmills and bandages.

Yeah, but my main point is that if you going to refer to the things in question specifically as "rituals" and "charms", then you're going to end up painting a picture of witches in the woods or druids circling a bonfire or other associated things, and not steampunk tech or realistic natural process. Well, either that, or you get something like the Imperium of Man from Warhammer 40k, with the tech priests and whatnot, but that kind of setting just doesn't quite fit with what's been presented in Vintage Story so far. For the player to accomplish things, it's better to rely on natural process, or steampunk gizmos, like what's implemented in the game already. In the event of natural processes, the player can draw upon real world knowledge to make things happen, such as building a charcoal pit, or refining various metals. For Jonas tech, the premise is building machinery and powering it to accomplish a goal, except the machinery in question is more heavily stylized to fit a medieval steampunk aesthetic. As for rituals and charms though, that's why I laid out my dreamcatcher example the way that I did, as well as cited Witchery and Thaumcraft as examples of what I would expect from actual rituals and charms. Tying a bunch of sticks and feathers together with string to create something that magically wards away monsters, or sprinkling a bunch of powders on the ground in geometric designs to summon entities, transmute material, or control natural processes, just isn't the same thing as building machines or using conventional work(farming, smelting, smithing, etc) to get things done.

No, I'm afraid I really don't get what you mean. Regarding the story, Tyron has a very clear vision of how things are meant to unfold, but of a planned eight story chapters only two have been implemented. While it is fair to point out things one dislikes in the storytelling, or suggest improvements, it's also pretty rude to demand the entire work of art change to something it's not meant to be. Spoilers ahead: In short, the theme of the story so far has been persevering in the face of adversity and winning, so if the ultimate conclusion after several many hours of gameplay is just "Rocks fall, everyone dies, the end", that's not going to be satisfying for anyone, nor does it fit the tone and style of writing that's been presented thus far. The ideas you've been proposing are better suited for mods(in which case, some already exist to do what you want, such as the one I linked earlier), which allows players who actually want that kind of gameplay to have it, without changing the game entirely for everyone else.

It actually was possible at one time, as I recall it happening to me in my earlier days of VS(1.18). However, that's also why the devs ended up adding an invisible wall there. If the player got rocketed up onto one of those ledges, they could either skip the boss and go straight to the library, or cheese the boss by shooting at it until it died.

THIS. Plus I think that realistically, if the player had the option to be evil, then logically they should only get the worst ending possible, and have a horrible time getting there(in which case, they're probably also going to complain about getting such a bad ending, despite the fact that they did so much evil). Even with just committing petty crimes regularly, the only ending that should be possible there is a mediocre one--not bad, but nothing satisfying either(which again, will probably generate several complaints when players inevitably play a tamer murderhobo, and don't receive a hero's reward). In order to actually get a good ending befitting a heroic character, one needs to actually act like one. And as I mentioned before, the player isn't exactly a nobody in the story...spoilers: Overall, the devs have a specific story to tell, and it doesn't seem to be one that encourages, or otherwise supports, evil actions on the player's part. The NPCs will respawn if killed, partly to avoid the player breaking things(because it's inevitable that most players will try killing an NPC at least once, to see what happens), and also likely to avoid the player being unable to complete the story in the event an NPC dies accidentally(like falling from the sky...and yes that's actually been an issue). Not to be rude, but I do have to ask now...did you actually play through the story of Vintage Story and read the associated dialogue and lore text? Because there's a lot of this that just does not fit at all with what's laid out in the lore.

It's not the fire, as much as it is just the light level that cuts down on spawns. Torches are the earliest source of bright light the player can obtain en masse, and while they aren't as effective as lanterns, they're a lot more effective than oil lamps. Realistically, I wouldn't expect fire to affect rifts at all, but a large enough fire might be enough to keep small numbers of monsters at bay.

In that case, if you're really wanting to just murder all the NPCs so you can take their stuff without repercussion, then realistically, the story ought to get the Morrowind treatment. The NPCs don't respawn, and the player gets notified that the world is now doomed, since the story can't be completed due to missing characters, and now needs to start over. Of course, if the NPC was a seraph, then they should respawn, and hold an eternal grudge, which once again prevents the player from completing the main story.

Welcome to the forums! *looks at username with suspicion* You're not a bear trying to figure out how to keep those pesky players from escaping, are you? Jokes aside, the best way to survive bear attacks, is to avoid getting attacked in the first place. If you see the bear first, you can avoid getting close enough to provoke an attack. If, however, the bear has already noticed, the best thing to do is run, usually cutting across rougher terrain where bears may have a hard time following. That is, of course, assuming that you're decent at navigating terrain yourself, and the bear isn't something like a polar bear(which can outrun the player). If you're not great at navigating rough terrain, you can also try diving into deep water and stabbing at the bear from below. Oftentimes, it's possible to kill the bear this way. And of course, if the bear hasn't spotted you yet, you could try digging a deep pit and trapping there--said pit should probably be around 4-5 blocks deep, as bears can climb 3 block heights I believe. If you are the brave type and a good shot, you can always try throwing spears at the bear and killing it at range, or softening it up before killing it in melee. In the early game though, do keep in mind that the strongest weapon you have available is often going to be a thrown spear. If it's later in the game though and you have bronze gear or better, you should be able to confront bears head-on and survive with relative ease. Last but not least, if you are playing with friends, there's always the tried-and-true strategy of simply making sure that you are faster than your friends. Of course, you may not have friends for long if you keep sacrificing them to bears, so you don't really want to utilize this strategy too often.

@Bruno Willis keeping my comment over here since this is the more appropriate thread for the topic: Plate armor is actually one of the worst choices for doing the story, if you're playing singleplayer that is. I think currently chain armor is the strongest, since it's very protective without sacrificing too much ranged accuracy or speed.

I can see where this would be frustrating for hardcore players, however...I'll also point out that the story isn't designed around hardcore-style gameplay. It is actually canon that the player respawns after dying. How many times the player is actually supposed to die over the course of completing the story, I'm not sure, but it's almost certainly at least once prior to arriving in location 2 of Chapter 2. That being said, I don't think that the goal of boss fight design is to ensure that the player dies multiple times, but rather to ensure that the player has a tough challenge to overcome before progressing the story. Typically, that means the player will end up dying a few times if they've not done the fight before, but not always.

Right, but the world isn't at the mercy of the player, but rather the player is at the mercy of the world. The game has a clear story to tell, and while the player has a lot of freedom to do whatever, there are still some definite limits in place. Not to mention that if the player can just tear apart the story location after it stops being relevant, then it's really hard to take the world seriously at all, instead of treating it like a theme park. Which would also require a monumental amount of physics coding to implement properly, as well as generate a plethora of player complaints when they die to the inevitable structural failure. Or players on servers complaining about story locations getting thoroughly gutted, or fighting over who gets to live in the Resonance Archive, etc. Not to mention that some places are literally frozen time anomalies... Yeah, but I will point out that the player character is supposed to be one of the good guys. That is, there's already an established history of the player playing nicely with certain other important characters. At best, to stay within a realistic style of the punishment, the player should get an instant "game over, man" when they steal, murder, or otherwise prove they have ill intent. Obviously, that's not going to be fun, but if the NPCs act like nothing happened and the plot continues as normal after the player does the time/pays a fine, then it's obvious the world doesn't actually react to player actions and continues on for the sake of "plot". Likewise, I will note that if the player is allowed to steal or get away with murder, then they're going to expect those to be viable gameplay options and complain if that ends up not the case. Additionally, it's a whole lot easier to just stop the player from tampering with things they shouldn't to begin with, than it is to try to program NPC line-of-sight, or track who owns what in the event the player accidentally sets an item down. Finally, if the player is allowed to steal, then multiplayer is going to have to deal with certain NPC locations getting picked clean by greedy players who were somehow able to game the system. The short of it is, if the player isn't intended to do certain things, maybe they shouldn't have the option of doing those things to begin with. Except land claiming is a game mechanic put in place to stop unintended player behavior in those locations. The actual reason those locations fell apart, is due to certain catastrophic events that happened in the world's past. The instability that exists there now is a lingering result of said catastrophic events. Honestly, the suggestion just comes across as asking for a Minecraft-style sandbox rules, but with Vintage Story's aesthetics. And that's not at all what Vintage Story is. That being said, for players that really want to tamper with the story locations outside of needing to use creative mode, that should already be possible via mods. All that would really have to be done, is just removing the protections entirely from story locations. It seems there's at least one mod that does just that, although it was made for an older game version so it may or may not work anymore: https://mods.vintagestory.at/show/mod/23236

Ah yeah, that'll do it!

It's also worth noting that you can get a 50% discount on your first elk, assuming you bring the trader the correct item. Elks can also carry two seraphs at a time, so unless you both want your own mounts, you only need to buy one.