Maelstrom

Nothing wrong with the pit itself. I assume you close the two block entrance with dirt, glass or cobble (yes, I have glass blocks on my charcoal pit and it works just fine). I wish doors (probably iron only) could be used, but current using any kind of door (wood, iron or trapdoor) will not enclose a charcoal pit sufficiently. I'm concerned about that one block above the entrance. Apart from that if you aren't getting charcoal, be exceedingly careful that you have a full stack for each column of firewood.

It depends on how Tyron coded things. Is it possible to do what you've suggested? yes. Anything is possible, the challenge is in coding it and sometimes something is more difficult to code than it's worth.

Basically, yes. When rift activity is high rifts are likely going to appear and drifter begin spawning in the area. Lighting can eliminate rift generation. Before I had lanterns some rifts formed really close to my enclosed home. I had torches lighting up the inside, but still saw drifters spawning within a few blocks of me (and appear before my eyes even!)

Basically, find a place where the gear does not consistently spin counter-clockwise. That will be a temporally stable area. I haven't noticed my temporal gear alternate like you've shown; but I haven't looked at it too closely either. As for the rift activity in the character screen? That is something altogether different. The rift activity is a global change and only indicates the likelihood of rifts spawning to then spit out drifters.

That is probably hard coded into the game and likely affect other things like picking up drops from items (harvest crops, felled trees, etc). Best to just drop the inventory stack and back away so you don't pick it up, or have recipient stand right next to you when you drop the items.

I believe the 10 minutes is hard coded. Entities (such as dropped items) create a larger burden on the game engine than placed blocks or items in inventories.

Getting the Tinker's Construct, VS style vibe here (not a bad thing). I would say that the wrapping should affect speed not durability.

Items that are dropped (not placed like stones can be) will despawn after 10 minutes of loaded chunk time.

Some of the primary updates were performance based. Your better performance is expected.

Sometimes the game generates an iron bloom with insufficient iron to make a full ingot. If you have a helve hammer put the incomplete ingot in the helve hammer to complete. Otherwise, take a chisel to it and create some iron bits to reforge.

There's a mod that does exactly this.

I suspect that will be happening in the upcoming 1.18 update.

There are arctic foxes in the colder climes.

Go here (https://github.com/anegostudios/VintageStory-Issues/issues_ to report the bug in the issue tracker.

You reference two different things. The character sheet will show rift activity which WILL change. The other thing you mention is the temporal stability (the green spinning gear) of a geographical location. To date that shouldn't change unless you change altitude, typically stability decreases as you descend into the depths of the world.

Sounds like it could be a bug. You can always manually enter a seed.

Typically wolves spawn in forests, not in caves. I suspect they are spawning nearby and pathfinding into the cave.

I would point people to Lovecraft's fiction. While there is technology and science, it isn't of the sci-fi variety. It is more along the lines of him incorporating the science of his day (turn of the 20th century) into stories in which extra-dimensional beings and events happen. Vintage Story, to date, is very faithful to that idiom where the characters use science and technology to solve problems created by the extra-dimensional being or event.

You will likely find out with the rest of us when Tyron posts it in the patch notes.

This will probably be the domain of mods. Consider that the end game tech in the road map is steam power, implying trains or windmill alternate power source.

You may want to go here to request what can be done: https://mods.vintagestory.at/accessibilitytweaks

I believe it is 40 blocks (corrections welcome if this is wrong), but it could be only 30. I generally go about 25 to be safe.

Once you get accustomed to looking for crops they start popping up all over the place! =D

Thank you to all those who discover these problems so those of us with little time for gaming can have a better experience when we finally update.

Grains are easy to mistake for grass. Best indicator is that grass is rendered in a cross where grain grows in a square. Grass block next to chick example of immature grain