Maelstrom

I wonder what the definition of "completing" the story is in those studies. I can see a whole bunch of other factors playing into that don't finish the story, like player pretty quickly decided it wasn't the game that was advertised or didn't like some mechanic of the game. Then there's the whole lower attention span of the younger generations to consider. I appreciate that Tyron and Co. have made the game have non-story options. And even in the story option, the story is still optional. Enjoying the vibe of survival? Don't bother giving that one trader that one item and keep on cruisin'.

I don't have a problem with a single ending regardless of the path taken. I just don't want to feel like It's a case of walking down a hallway with no doors to get to the destination. Especially if I get instances of windows in the hallway such as the speaking to the treasure hunter after the first story location.

If the devs do intend for the player to figure out what went wrong, I hope that as more story locations are created the treasure hunter will provide maps to them so you can potentionally go out of order, get some information from the "wrong" site but in the end figure out you done gone the wrong way to circle back to the treasure hunter to pick a different location to go to. As it stands the quests to advance the story are pretty much a go hither to do stuff. I wants some meat to chew on and figure out what my next move should be.

Just find one (maybe two) deposit(s) of tin ore and you should be swimming in tin.

I've never had an issue with the mouse wheel causing selection of hotbar places to skip. I have an issue of scrolling to fast, but that's a skill issue not an equipment issue.

I haven't actually quenched any iron or steel yet. I haven't gotten to that level on 1.22 yet. I was giving the most beneficiary numbers by using base steel durability vs. bone handled flint knives. But quenching a steel knife for durability only makes the differences even greater and using a stick for the flint knife also increases the disparity

So you want to wast 15 bones and flint for one steel ingot? Not to mention wasting all the knapping time compared to the time to forge one steel knife. Just sayin'

You're elkxiety isn't misplaced. Here's an example for it Yep. That happened! Look for Elks like to go Spelunking? at the bottom of the page

Also be sure that bone flute is NOT in the saddle bags. don't ask me why I know this.

Yes, chickens can be baited into a pit trap using either a small trough or a basket trap surrounded by a two block deep pit.

Go ol' RNbeGeezus!

Maybe it's easiest? or best?

Traders have a pretty large inventory of possible items to trade. From what I can tell it is basically a loot table with some items being more rarely offered than others. The offers for purchase and sale seem like they haven't changed at all since I started playing in 1.14 and they feel they were a bit of a "I'll fix this later" by Tyron, but he (and the expanded dev team) haven't yet circled back to it.

While that is very punny, it lacks a certain... sardonic joie de vivre.

So many stories belong in that Humorous Stories thread. Come on people! Put your creative writing skills to use in the name of fun and frivolity!

It got even worse than that. Just find a village and set up camp. 1. Kidnap three villages 2. Enslave one as a farmer 3. Traffic the other two into producing more villagers 4. PROFIT!!! Within a few short hours one could equipped in diamond everything, enchanted to the max without so much as mining more than wood and stone. Completely and totally skip any time or danger from mining. Every enchanted book can be obtained from the librarians initial trade offers. But we digress.

That is hilarious how well your comments (or maybe my interpretation of your comments?) aligned with TOBG trading mechanics. It wasn't your suggestion so much as your comments (or how I interpreted your comments) indicated you wanted VS to be more like TOBG. Then again, there's a lot of people that post a "wah VS isn't like TOBG and I want it to be like TOBG" type comment that I may have assumed you were posting such a comment. Please accept my apologies for proving, once again, that my assumptions are wrong 9 times out of 8.

You are correct. We don't hate minecraft as without it VS likely wouldn't exist, but TOBG is our term of endearment for minecraft. I assumed you played TOBG based on how closely they aligned with villager trading in TOBG. To show appreciation for minecraft there's three homages to it I know of; one of the music tracks, sometimes Vintage Beef can be found in ruins and very, exceedingly rarely an Ethoslab will spawn when digging clay.

The smart player brings bronze ingots, forge, anvil, etc to craft said items at the trader's site. They also would leave the forge w/ wooden tongs and various other low cost items at said trader location to reduce the stuff one has to lug there. Maybe even leave a copper anvil and a hammer so nothing has to be brought unless restocking charcoal or ingots. The big money is in buying selected items from one trader and selling to a different trader. The only thing I'd really change right now is to make sure that there are things to be both bought and sold at similar prices; some expensive items and some cheap ones based on how easy it is for the player to obtain said items. Items that the player cannot obtain in bulk would be more expensive, like cracked vessels and wolf pups. I tend to end up with a treasure hunter that has obscene amounts of gears because I buy their cracked vessels but don't have anything worth selling them (except the occassional wolf pup when that one pops up). Meanwhile the commodities trader is constantly broke because there is little I find worth buying from him, and what I do buy from him is the lower price things which doesn't help him with purchasing more of my cracked vessels. VS traders are not there to help with progression unlike TOBG where villagers can be used to completely skip progression altogether. They are flavor to the game to be an indication of the post-apocalypse world we find when we join the game.

I've travelled about 1,500 blocks round trip to hopefully buy cracked vessels from a treasure hunter to hopefully sell them to a commodities trader. So yeh, I don't have a problem with the current design. I'll also add the traders in VS beat the holy snot out the villager trading in TOBG. THAT is truly broken.

Not a clothing trader. But an artisan trader? yes, especially if I have a good supply of cinnabar. Heck I've hiked over 3,000 blocks for bees, bauxite and translocator that took me to a perfect winter farmland. Some of those in the same world and the items in almost opposite directions.

One thing the devs like to "encourage" is getting out and seeing the world, aka exploring.

What's really fun is climbing that rope ladder out of a mosh pit of death drifters spelunking down around the mantle and getting dropped back into said mosh pit of death drifters.

This! Absolutely THIS! Don't believe what anyone else says

Can't say that I can vote as my "best or funniest" ways of dying are typically a 1-2 combo punch from out of nowhere. Getting headbutted off my mountaintop forge by a ram is the best one. I believe I posted a story about that in another thread. Then there's the friendly neighborhood drifter enclave I discovered after a sandy cornice gave way under me, also posted in previously mentioned thread. I just love Tyron's sarcastic messages, primarily the death screen that congratulates you for dying.