Lugh Crow-Slave

If you make it cheap enough to be that useful you're going to make pit kilns largely useless. The bigger issue is Clay just stops being all that needed in single player. A better option would be to make molds or at least some molds one time use. So that by the time you're at the beehive you still have use for it.

To be fair a good deal about this game is built with multilayer in mind. Like class based recipes. And with just a server of 4 people I have 3 pots, two ovens and most of my day is still entirely taken up by farming and cooking. As to op I kinda like the one and done of the pots. It also let's them generate as loot while being less valuable.

This is definitely a result of how you're playing rather than how it's balanced. For instance I tend to hit iron extremely fast normally a two or three daysafter my first copper cast. Honestly the beehive feels more like something geared towards a server than a solo run. Even with how fast I hit iron I never use it on solo worlds. However on servers it's a mainstay for crocks and storage alone.

And this is just one reason why most servers don't use them as the default to facilitate trade. But as I added in my last comment. We don't need a currency to begin with. Definitely not one that requires such a shift to the base game as your suggestion imposes.

I'm not sure the rod mechanics need to be changed and the lightning and fire definitely shouldn't. Yes, it can be punishing but only ever in ways you can prevent. Personally I find crafting games especially survival crafting games, that have builds influenced by mechanics to be far more interesting to play and produce far more creative and pleasing builds. For instance the vast majority of bases in vintage story are built around a windmill. This isn't just because most people are drawn to that ascetic but because the mechanics drive that. Both because you need that structure for progression and because you need it for defense. You are pushed to have a tall one both for mechanical power and for defense with the lightning rod. However it's also not overly restrictive in vintage story. Plenty of builds find other creative ways to solve these issues and maintain a more unique or (to them) pleasing look. Either by having the wind power further away connected by a tunnel of gears of by having more lower windmills scattered around the base. With lightning rods you can maintain protection by also just spreading them out intelligently. The shape of the coverage as well as its base size could be adjusted but I think it's underlying mechanics are solid.

More things should be able to, like metal knives but not everything. Though I would like to see things like crafting wooden handles, metal handles, and leather wrapped versions of both. I know a woodworking system is planned so with luck we'll at least see wooden handles.

I'd agree if getting your first set of copper tools like the saw axe and hammer wasn't something you could achieve within the first couple dozen minutes. You're not supposed to be sticking to the stone age all that long and the restrictions not only add a unique feel to the early game and grant a real feeling of progress as you use stone less and less as metal becomes less expensive to you but is also the main push that gets new players to leave the stone age and enter copper.

One of the issues I have with this game is that food is trivial to manage without imposing some sort of extra challenge like starting far north. Past the first few days it becomes something you think about for a few minutes every couple of hours.

The way they currently work is the only real reason to work towards better lights. It's one thing iv like about this game. In MC I never really think about light beyond one torch per room and I don't think I have ever used anything other than torches. In vintage lanterns are always an early goal for me and a satisfying part of progression. I think the bigger issue is one that hits on a lot of aspects of the game for new players. And that is until you really know what you're looking for it can be a pain to even find bees and once you do you need to then work out an the mechanics involved in transport and maintaining them. This causes a lot of people to put them off for dozens if not hundreds of hours and causes frustrating bottlenecks. Problem is I don't really know how to alleviate this without also having an negative effect on the experience for those who have figured it out. Beyond adding a radius beyond when you can normally hear them that you could see the small bee particals flying around to find hives easier.

My issue with this is getting a rod is something that a lot of people prioritize before building much of anything. Especially if they have already lost hours to an unlucky strike in the past. So the materials need to be as simple as they can to aquire.

Honestly.... I would settle for just more dura and no other increase. However in the late game spears are one of the few things that force you to not just gather iron and keep other resources viable rather than fully obsolete and i don't think this is a bad dynamic.

Not really, this mechanic is was sold me on vailhiem. There aren't a whole lot of instances in vintage I can think of where you really, really need a fire in a tight space. The bigger issue I see with both haze and suffocating is how the games room system works. I don't know how you'd have it check that a room is closed and have it vented without dedicated chimney or vent blocks and that feels like it would be too restrictive. Otherwise you're going to have a hard time heating rooms in winter.

I'd settle for just letting you place doors horizontal.

This feels more like something for a mod than base game. For one I reject your premise that any sort of currency is even needed on most servers. Let alone when its arbitrarily assigned. I have been on so many servers both public and private where very, very few people are interested in doing anything that generates gears. A system that all but enforces players to engage with content they have no interest in is just a bad design, especially in a sandbox. And again most servers by choice are often either bartering based, shared pool, or somewhere between the two and this works just fine.

This is the main way I farm horsetail and dry grass. It's all very easy to clear with a scythe. It also adds a little bit of maintenance to the loop beyond watering to get a small speed bump