Broccoli Clock

Less that, rather the large chunk that Steam takes. Don't get me wrong, I feel Steam provides a lot, from user support to promotion to centralised updating and version management but it's expensive. I don't want to piss on your parade here, but your initial argument was MSFS got a boost from being on Steam. The charts show a different story. I mean I think you are right, btw, flight sims are a fairly niche genre, and one that is gatekept behind a paywall. The game, the controllers, the DLC, it all racks up. MSFS is not a game for the masses, it's the select few that can afford all that stuff. I suppose that's the same for many sim genres. Things like iRacing require a considerable investment in both hardware and software just to get onto a competitive grid. The interesting thing, and it's probably just unfortunate that you chose them as examples, but each of those titles; PZ, MSFS, and ETS, have all had quite difficult development cycles (all for differing reasons too!) and I just don't think they should be the benchmark to judge <insert game here> introduction onto Steam. That said, I don't think we disagree on this, I think we all accept that if Tyron, et al, decided to throw this up onto steam then it would gain a lot of traction just from the mere fact of being on Steam. I wouldn't say this for GoG, and I'd certainly not say that for Epic which is where software goes to die. Yeah, even though it has a terrible name (..yes, fight me on that!) and an even more terrible logo (..my fists are still raised, come at me!) there is no doubt it has cemented its legacy, for now at least. I do think some traction will come from things like Hytale, and perhaps Project Glint if it's attracting the same Hytale audience, but it's the old "you can lead a horse to water" adage. In a sort of related situation, I've played DayZ since the mod days (I'm terrible despite having 10k+ hours in it), but I prefer a specific type of DayZ experience. 1PP (as opposed to 3PP), a vanilla or lightly modded community server, and the classic maps. With DayZ being an online game you need others on that server to make it feel alive and competitive, but fewer players enjoy that stripped down realism vibe, the servers with lots of modded OP guns all over the place, no nerfs for carry weight or sprinting, lots of map additions adding more loot locations, those are the servers that are full. To continue my previous analogy, I've led people to my particular type of water and they just don't want to drink. That's why, imo, things like Hytale will get all the attention, because it's flashy and sparkly and immediately rewarding, rather than a struggle from the start fighting against hunger, climate and disease as you do in VS (or the sort of DayZ server I prefer).

Just bear in mind this is a game that has panning. Purely anecdotally, I'd find it fun, but then I'm one of those that enjoy similar things in real life!

The problem is streaming/promotion has changed drastically over the decade(+), nowadays you need something to catch the eye. Now, for me I think that things like the amazing chiselled builds would be enough to temp the Minecraft creative lot, but when there a low attention span and a high bar for engagement I just feel that niche games as you refer to them suffer in that system. Now, if money was thrown at promotion, that would probably move the dial. As for it being "THE" reason, it's not the sole contributor, but it certainly has a big factor. That's purely subjective though. For example, I knew nothing about Hytale, yet found out about VS from YouTube. To be honest, I could easily forget Hytale straight away as (imo) it looks awful, but here's the thing I accept I am an outlier, the inconvenient fact is a YT short of a kwai deer will bring more eyes on to Hytale than just about any other content from VS. That's just the way the Internet works, frustratingly. I absolutely wouldn't! Ooft, that's a whole dissertation of an answer. There is a multitude of reasons why those particular games gained traction. MSFS is effectively a AAA title, that is supported by the massive marketing budget Microsoft has, it's on Steam but it's numbers are terrible.. https://steamcharts.com/app/2537590 meanwhile ETS is so niche they literally had to create their own competition in ATS! As for PZ, it's been cemented into the psyche of the survival genre almost more for their development hell than the gameplay. It's a meme in itself. There are solid reasons not to push to Steam, some are control based, some are financial, but one of them counter intuitively that it may damage development. I would presume VS has been incrementally increasing its playerbase over the years, although I don't have the stats to back that up, however a sudden influx of players can offset the current balance within the community. Putting it on Steam would likely open a bit of the flood gates, and that's not always the best option in a development cycle. What I will say, is that I agree with your premise that financing streamers/promotion and shifting to Steam would greatly increase the uptake of the game. Don't get me wrong, I'd love for VS to get more coverage, and I do my best to support streamers with likes and comments (when they deserve it, of course!), but I also know that in terms of mainstream it's never going to vibe in the way the other block games do. I think just now, it's good for VS to be included in the pantheon of enjoyable voxel based survival games. I think the audience will come, it'll just be organic rather than forced.

You have to look at the type of game it is, and that probably explains the lack of hype (compared to other titles). Hytale's protracted launch to alpha is a perfect example. It has flashy cutsie graphics, it's not realistic and leans heavily into magic. The mining/construction (at this point) is very simple. Yet, the hype is considerable. Sure, you have to factor in that people thought the game was dead, and it's resurrection brought eyes on, but it is a far more approachable game than VS. Now to be fair, that's why I like VS. I am not someone who spent a lot of time in Minecraft, I find it too simple. That said without things like Create or TFCraft it's unlikely VS would exist in the first place. I think VS appeals to a very specific type of player, and while mods expand that user base it's just not as "friendly" as its peers. You could onboard new players a little better, but you don't want to water down the obvious survival aspect of the game, which I believe (although I could be wrong) is the primary focus for Tyron, et al. Now the flip side is that while the user base for a "more awkward game" is less broad than its competitors, it will result in it being quite deep and the modding/community demonstrates that. In short, VS isn't flashy, or cute, or fast paced enough for the general streamer ecosystem to vibe with it mainstream.

As you know, that interests me. I think I've collected about 30-40 different variants, but as we both know that's a drop in the ocean.

Thanks, I'll amend the list as all the other stuff is vanilla specific. As you can probably tell from its inclusion, I have used BR before but find them too unbalanced compared to vanilla, albeit some of the builds are fucking lovely. Yeah, I had thought about compiling a list and when I did it was like Smashmouth (...they don't stop comin'), but you are right that quite a lot of those things are incidental to most people's playthrough. I should probably produce some steel if only to get chromium so I can get the best backpack, and steel itself is obviously more durable so it would make sense for my tools. They aren't really needed though, and as for the more advanced alcohol brewing until they balance out the intake versus the negative effect I just see no benefit (or at least minimal benefit).

So I play the game for the vibes. I'm not someone who collects tons of resources or makes mega builds. I want to create somewhere cute and cozy, with cuthie interior design, some nice paintings and some chisel work and plant pots. Chickens in the garden, crops in my field, and a bubbling pot making a hearty stew. I'll sit on my balcony and watch the seasons pass. Lovely, just fucking lovely. However, considering the amount of time I've had in the game (I bought it about a year ago, 1.20) there are some major milestone things I've simply not got round to, and to keep the suspense I'm going to put it into a spoiler... Jinkies, that's quite the list, and it makes you wonder just what the f*ck I am actually doing all this time I've spent in game. Vibing in the answer, but equally I'm not goal oriented, I'm too scatter brained and absent minded to do that, but there's some notables on that list that even I'm surprised with. Over to you. You don't need to provide a list like I did, or even mention the hours played (I did so not for the glaze, but just to demonstrate I've had more than enough time to do all of these things, several times over!). What is on your "to-do" list?

Thanks, I have actually seen that before. If it was just for the weaving action itself, yeah that would probably scratch that itch. It's quite surface level though, and that isn't a single drop of shade being thrown, well done to the mod maker, but I'd really love the ability to make, for example, tapestries or apparel with a fully implemented weaving mechanic.

Thanks to all that have replied, there definitely seems to be a pattern of people making bad choices in their first playthrough, which is totally understandable. Stability, climate and aggressive mobs are not something first time players are going to be aware of (or if they are, perhaps not to the extent that it'll affect their playthrough).

This is just a guess, but I don't see the devs going down the weaving route. While it fits with the cottage core vibes, you feel it would involve an entire revamp of all the clothing in the game. We have tons of variants out there, admittedly most of them gatekept behind ruins/Resonance, and have a way of repairing them. It's a head/heart thing, my heart wishes for it to be included, by head looks at the amount of work involved and accepts that a full weaving mechanic would be akin to asking for the Moon on a stick. Now, just as fauna alone, I still welcome them. I've followed games that have developed over decades, like this one, and you can look back in their develop to times when the norm was not questioned because it was the norm, whereas the modern implementation makes those versions look positively lacking in content. The lack of birds, for example, is a glaring omission imo. No shade being thrown, and we obviously have chickens, but anyone who spent even a short time "out in the wild" will know that birds are not only a constant but add so much to the visual and aural impact. In that sense, I'm all for as many new animals as possible being added. I get that there are mods that do that already, but other than QoL mods I'm less keen to add extra content because it is rarely balanced in the way the vanilla game is.

I'm absolutely here for all the extra flora and fauna. The fish, the new boars, the new flowers and now some sheep, superb! It would be lovely if the sheep introduced wool, requiring a whole set of cottage core loveliness, such as a spinning wheel and loom. OMG, a loom with the same level of detail you can get from the chisel. Damn.. it won't happen but custom made clothes would be amazing.

I think it's great that there are those accessibility options, but they do seem a little limited. Perhaps they are specifically tailored to common colourblind conditions, but even without me suffering such a thing I find I have to change the wireframe colour/width based on what shape, colour and light level I am clay forming or iron smelting in.

Walking before you can run. The game is still in active development with changes and additions and bug fixes being made regularly. Such an all encompassing tool would end up having to reflect that. I definitely do not believe this should be a focus for the devs, but I don't speak for them, far better option would be a community created editor, that way the devs can concentrate on the game first and foremost.

It's about time to be honest, I've always felt there was more content to be had from mushrooms. I like the idea of poison tip arrows, created from mushrooms, and really should get round to writing a mod that would add them. They would slow down, and ultimately kill, the animal that was shot. As just now all the arrows do is blunt damage rather than a passive bleed.

For reference, butterflies when caught are dead, so it sort of tracks that fish when caught will also be dead.

Because it would be quite the investment, considering the varied spawning requirements, even just the hint it isn't possible is enough to put me off. The caveats being the journey to all the butterflies was the experience rather than the final tally, and that the game is still in development so I can't really complain at little hiccups on that roadmap. Edit: going to mark you as solution, as for 1.21.6, it seems the answer is probably "no".

I was worried about the body weight stat, I had assumed that as it dropped they could end up dying. That was the main reason for feeding the wolf cub. Not that I kept it around long enough to find out.

Ok, two things here. I'm not accusing you of doing anything wrong. That's far too emotive, I was merely providing a counter to your point. Any audience you tailor your answer to also has the right to know about any possible negative affects from taking that advice. I was very clear as to why that particular developer may have issues going forward. The fact that that issue has been raised is enough for me, I'm not here to police people's decisions, if you or anyone wishes to use that product or others is up to them, it's not "wrong". I hope you see that I wasn't throwing shade, but providing more context.

Aside from the above, my take on the other possible changes.. Mechanical changes, this will probably need to be done as they are expanding the game in that area. Spear changes, as @LadyWYT says, if you add in a new top tier, you will need to refactor those below it, or refactor the damage of all the mobs in the game. * that said, I almost never use spears (except for mopping up locusts, good reach for those tinny bástards!), I'm a falx/bow player.

Yes! It's always felt odd for a realistic game to allow ice blocks taken from the top of the mountain will remain frozen no matter the temperature of the area you place them. I understand why, but it's still odd. Especially so when you have ice blocks in the water freezing the thawing due to temperature. If anything, I'd just like the ice blocks to break and to give you snow, rather than the block itself. I'm all for debating possible changes, but maybe lay off the emotive language. I somehow doubt the developers do anything to "spite" the player base.

I feel that would be quite the pyrrhic victory! I'll prob mark your response as the solution, but I'll leave the question open for a few days just in case someone else wants to chime in.

People know it exists if it's explained to them, and I just did. It's one line, literally one line, it is far easier to open up PowerShell, put in one command, than have a user navigate to a 3rd party website, download, then install an app that you may never need again, and then allow it to scan your computer. If it was a far more complex task, then I'd perhaps defer to an app. However, here's the reason I mentioned it, and it's specifically related to Piriform. I've used CCleaner for years, but recently they have changed the way the app integrates into windows. It's not a red flag situation but it's in that direction. https://community.ccleaner.com/t/ccleaner-constantly-running-in-background/160270, it is now running as a service rather than an application, as confirmed by one of the support moderators. It is reasonable to suggest that the change from an on-demand app into a permanently-on one is for constant data collection. Something Piriform's privacy policy doesn't preclude. It is also symptomatic of the practices of the Gen Digital, who have bought the group Piriform is part of (includes things like Avast/AVG). Ultimately, and I say this as politely as possible, I do not believe it's best practice to suggest 3rd party applications for simple tasks that can be done natively. 10 years ago? Fine. Now? No, the whole financial ecosystem is all about data collection. I'm sorry if this comes across as being condescending. I am sure you are well aware of what I've just written and may have factored it all in when you made the recommendation.

My biggest worry is to invest hours in doing it, then to find out that it's not possible and that was down to a bug introduced many versions back, that has nothing to do with butterflies but had an unforeseen knock-on effect to their specific spawning, and that you would not know this bug existed unless you were targetting very specific variants. You can tell I've worked with large code bases if that's my main worry. Although that said, I have noticed far fewer butterflies spawning in my world since the move to 1.21 - that's probably just anecdotal though, I have no solid confirmation of that. As for the mods, yes, I would lean into the display cases - there is this one too https://mods.vintagestory.at/butterflycases, although my primary one would be the no butterfly deaths which I notice is now quite out of date.. https://mods.vintagestory.at/show/mod/592 .. although there are some comments suggesting how to get it to work.

Oh, I am so tempted to put that into my signature!

For those unaware of how many types of butterfly there are or the very specific spawning requirements they have, it sounds like a fairly straight forward question. However, dip your toes into the wiki article and you'll see it's far more complex than it would seem.. There are 169 variants, https://wiki.vintagestory.at/Butterfly#Variants, while spawning is a combination temp/rainfall/forest cover/elevation, https://wiki.vintagestory.at/Butterfly#Spawning (note: click the [Expand] link next to the "Butterfly spawning" text to see each separate spawn requirement). Even when you have location and conditions correct, you'll need to rely on RNG spawning the actual variant you are seeking. The added kicker is that there is no tooltip for butterflies, you have to identify them by their wings before you catch them. Catching kills them though, which is a shame, but there are mods that allow live capture and release so I'll likely lean into that. I'm tempted to do a "collect them all" thing, but I'd rather know that they are all possible to get before actually starting.