Broccoli Clock

As someone who watches quite a lot of "playing blind" videos for VS, I recognise there is definitely some confusion with clay, and I think the issue manifests due to a very specific influence. Because people have played Minecraft they just assume this is the same. Its clay appears as light grey blocks in water, and just about every first time player has gone to grey blocks underwater expecting clay. It's going to be sand, of course, but the problem is their meta is so driven by another game that when they find that clay is not the same, it is somehow a slight on VS. Should VS bend to the will of Microsoft and change clay? Obviously not. However, as it does seem to be a bit of a problem for people starting their playthrough, and you obviously want to onboard people as quickly as possible as early game frustration can kill any positive vibes a player starts with, then perhaps the spawning mechanic could be altered so that there are a few blocks (not much, but enough for the player to recognise for future use) of clay are spawned near your initial spawn point. It seems that almost every playthrough I've had there has been a trader near my spawn point, and I've always assumed (I could be wrong) that this is done for onboarding as the traders are a source for the initial lore. Could the same be done for clay? I wouldn't want a spawn point to have all the riches laid out for you, but having some clay nearby your start wouldn't (imo) alter the balance of the early game. In fact, due to beds not setting a spawn point, and presumably the player dying a few times in their first attempt, it would mean more traffic around the area of your spawn and in turn increase the chance your player has of finding it. One other thing I'd do, although this is adjacent rather than specific, but I'd try and find a way for players to be aware if the info box at the top of the screen. Countless times new players look at something, it'll display what it is at the top of the screen, it'll be something the player will need, yet they will be unaware of that despite the game clearly telling them so. The amount of first time players that do not read that text is as surprising as it is frustrating to watch!

Maybe I'm picking it up wrongly here, but a lot of people seem to equate the player's ability to the strength of the Rust World. In my mind, which will be subjective, the whole point is you are rag-dolled by the storms, they are not meant to be fun, they are not meant to be background noise you work around, they should (and do, regularly) place a wrench into whatever you are doing, and altering your day's itinerary. The surface portals add to that. "Why is it half inside my house, that's stupid", is a common claim, but that's the point, the Rust World does not care for your comfort, the normalities of your day-to-day life are both irrelevant and inconsequential when faced with an entire dimension of malign intent. The whole point of the world being empty and full of ruins, apart from the traders, is that people could not contend with what they had manifested and that the horrors were so great they took to living underground.

Wait until you pick up a chisel...

If you want a genuine answer, then it's because "you are tasty", or that they have cubs. Honestly, finding a location that seems to have lots of spawning bears or wolves can be totally beneficial. You have access to meat (not great meat, but meat none the less), pelts, bones and fat. All constituent parts of the survival game. However, early game, it can be a curse, and while you can hunt animals to clear them from a specific area, sometimes it's just easier to relocate to a better (and safer) location. I find digging tons of big pits about the place to be a bit of a "sledgehammer to crack a nut" solution. I mean... it works, but it's hardly elegant.

I've been following Neurotic Goose's playthrough. They have a 10 minute discussion on the most efficient way to get stone (episode 4). NG's VS YT playlist: (currently at 6th episode)

My 2¢... If you don't like Temporal Storms turn them off. Don't, however, demand the game completely changes its meta/lore simply to suit your very specific play style. The game is advertised as having them, so to complain that they exist is like complaining that there are peanuts in a Snickers bar despite there being a picture of peanuts on the wrapper. Are temporal storms good, I mean that's a question for the ages, and has been discussed to death in multiple threads, so I don't think I need to add to that. Are temporal storms literally part of the meta/lore? Yes, a core part.

Not a bug report as such just now, but may end up being one depending on what people suggest in this thread. Phantom lighting. I was building a base, you can see the start of it in the background. The only light source near was a single torch inside a rammed earth building. This patch of ground was maybe 20 blocks (direct line) from that torch. Lighting is always difficult to code, it has a real habit of bleeding into the geometry, but this is clearly a rendering error as placing a dirt block "redraws" the area, killing most of the light (although a small amount is still left). Interestingly, relogging didn't resolve the issue. Temporal "glitch" .. This is the first time I've ever seen this happen, the temporal storm glitch effect is normally pretty solid. This just looks like a failure of the shaders in some form, but relogging did solve it, so not the compiled shaders if it was those that caused this. (edit: something that may or may not factor into this, is that I woke up into the storm, rather than being conscious and it arriving. Maybe nothing, but thought I'd mention it) Neither of these are game stoppers and the only one that could cause an issue is resolved by relogging. For reference, my setup is a 3050RTX*/Ryzen 5500 with my graphics setting being the "high" default values, with the rendering distance turned up a little (to 512). (* oh, I know, literally one of the worst cards in history!)

That's a bit of a shame. You can't account for internet randoms though, irrespective of the platform. In general (not specific to the VS community) I've found Discord to be infinitely less toxic than somewhere like Reddit. To be fair, the VS reddit has been pretty wholesome in general, but jinkies, that's not the same for most game subreddits. Yeah, I do think this is a valid point to make. It falls down in the middle between official and unofficial fandoms, though. Take this forum, for example, it's official and I would presume fairly well moderated, whereas they would have no control over a 3rd party fan website. Discord is both official fandom (I guess the channel is considered "the official channel of Vintage Story") but unofficial in regard to the community.

While enemies cannot break down doors, walls, or dirt/stone, then no temporal storm is difficult. A 2x2 room with a torch and you are safe, I would wager 100% safe but there may be a strikingly small percentage chance of something spawning on the one block you are not on, but it's got to be bloody low. You can turn storms off, and honestly at this point I think that's the best option for people who live at either end of the scale ("too easy, just an interruption" < == > "too hard, don't like them") because in reality I feel they will remain a "blunt object" for some time. The particular enemy type may change, the rate/ratio they spawn may change but ultimately I don't see storms changing in meta any time soon (although I could be wrong). I, however, like to farm the storms, for Jonas parts or gears for translocators, and in that sense I tend to have a small horde base for that task. Is it "easy" yes. I'd say the only real challenge is up and out in the open surface during a storm, and that can be mitigated quite a bit if you have the right armour/weapons/heals combined with enough space to run around in. Will we ever get truly difficult storms? I doubt it, not with the meta like it is now.

It's literally 50 blocks the other direction you went. Honestly, it is.

So just to clarify, you "think" you filed a bug report and apparently your bug reports are "different" for some reason, and that despite this being a very important issue for you, you can't actually point to this bug report, or link it, but you can assure us that definitely nothing has been done but we have to take your word for that because "trust me bro", yeah? Oh, and don't forget you don't have time to report bugs, yet you have over a dozen bug reports. The final cherry on the cake is that you refuse to properly document these bugs because "you have a lot of mods and you can't be f*cked to reproduce them". Deary me, you are all over the place, contradictions and assumptions and no little arrogance. What a mess of a post. Given my attitude? Give me a break. You are complaining about a problem you refuse to document properly and refuse to provide links to show the "many" bug reports you have made. Do you think you live in a vacuum? Do you think the people you watch aren't watched by others? I'm quite an avid streamer watched, which means I can categorically tell you what you have written there is lies. However your response will be nothing more but "Motte-and-Bailey", I guarantee it. We are talking two different things here, this is a core element of the game, not a missing text item or a out of scope request. This is a person who has a skill issue, nothing more. They are making a big song and dance about it, while at the same time claiming they are too busy to document the problem and are too lazy to replicate it because they run too many mods. This person does not deserve to have their position defended.

I am a bit of a generic loot goblin and will collect stacks of all sorts of resources around my base, by the time I need fire clay there's normally a fair bit of flint lying around. To be fair to the OP, @fxizy, that can seem quite a complicated process for newer players but as most will probably guess I don't mind leaning into it. One other thing, I very rarely make copper only tools that can be made out of flint (or obsidian, granite.. etc). For me the trade off in terms of time finding copper, smithing it and then using that tool and because that tool is fairly low durability (~300 from memory but could be wrong) the investment doesn't pay off in comparison to just knapping some flint tools (imo of course). That means I tend to keep an eye out for flint on the ground for longer into my playthrough than most probably do.

The pick up is not "inconsistent", it is actually very consistent. If you have an empty slot on your toolbar it will pick up and item from the floor, it will also pick it up if you have the same item selected in the toolbar as the item you are trying to pick up. This happens every time*. That is the very definition of consistency. (*Edit: Sorry I should say, that happens for me every time, this is purely anecdotal feedback) Once again, if you find inconsistency, document it and report it as a bug, that way it can be resolved for everyone, if it's an actual bug of course. So here's the thing, just because I have no issue with collecting items from the ground doesn't mean you don't, and if you do suffer issues with it then I see no problem for that mod, in essence it is trying to replicate the vanilla functionality (...picking one item at a time rather than, for example, picking up everything in a radius). However, you also included this line.. "Getting enough food for survival is trivial. Inventory restrictions are nothing more than a tedious waste of time." ..which would suggest a considerable dislike for vanilla functionality. I'm at pains to not gatekeep here, if you want to overhaul the game with mods to make it "less tedious" then you go ahead, but for me the very limitations of things like inventory are part of the game, it's those limitations that shape your gameplay. The game has been on the go for years, if the devs honestly felt it affected gameplay negatively, I feel they would have amended already.

I said I over engineer everything.. I never said I over engineer everything well..

If you think it's a bug then report it as a bug, https://github.com/anegostudios/VintageStory-Issues/issues I have to say I do not suffer the issues you are having regarding picking items up. Time is a fair concern, but just because you wish to streamline everything doesn't mean everyone else should dance to the beat of your drum. That's why there are mods, that's why you use mods. As for the "tedious waste of time" comment, you are entitled to your own view on this, of course, but equally I think that is a dogshit take, but you do you boo..

Not for me thanks, I don't find the process of creating fire clay to be all that restrictive. It can be a complex chain if you are working up to steel, but again I don't find it restrictive. Things like that mod, along with things that alter the stacks you can carry aren't QoL in my opinion. I'm not going to say don't use them, it's your game - play how you want to, but for me I'd prefer to lean into the designed limitations of the game, as intended by the dev, than circumvent them.

I said.. ..and I got... .. thanks guys! Also, @MKMoose/@LadyWYT very decent little deep dive discussion there. Liking it..

Just going to leave this here...

It's one of those resources that is very closely tied to character progression, it's understandable it requires some effort. Plus, the ratio of calcined flint chunks to fire clay is 8:1 so you do get a fair bit when you complete the process. This will come as little comfort but fire clay is more likely to spawn on the surface with 1.21 (the same is true for high fertility soil), so it's actually easier to find now.

As a dev that regularly over engineers their code, I am all too happy to fall into rabbit holes! Pedant alert! * some of us on Earth * The antipodeans would be looking for the Southern Cross.. Yeah, I mean it's always going to be a skybox, rather than a sky simulation; just a flat plane with geometry to make it look spacial. Overall though, I think I share your vibe of "whatever you give us, allow us to navigate with it", even if it processes somewhat over the sidereal year.

Sure, although the discussion has had people mention the star field and the orbits of other planets.

I've said this before, having a realistic representation of a the night's sky is not difficult, it's just a skybox. The real difficulty would come if you wanted to simulate the whole thing, for example calculating the retrograde orbits of the planets (and Pluto), or things like procession. There is literally a texture of the skybox now, so just make it a realistic one, and for brownie points you could do one for the mid 1300s to match the rough time period we are in.

Maybe it's just me, but I find fighting outside during a temporal storm to be fine. It's not risk free, of course, and a decent weapon, shield, and armour, along with a stack of heals should see you alright. That said, I don't do it all that often, I've normally built some sort of "horde base" within the first month. With that said, I wouldn't want to take on a temporal storm underground, that's where my problems lie (heh, well... game related problems at least!), I'm fine with surface stuff but the lack of movement beneath the surface would f*ck with me (and does, quite often). I believe there is some scaling in terms of the enemies, but I've not checked for myself. Something about higher tier enemies being spawned based on how low your sanity is, and as higher tier enemies drop better loot, you can sort of game the storm a little. Not that I've tried that, this is all sort of on the "trust me, bro.." level. I'm sure someone will correct me if I'm wrong..

Could I just say that I've only been on the Discord once, to ask a very specific question, and the community (at least while I was there) was absolutely lovely. Should you be surprised by that? No, but I do find it can be a coin-toss with discord in general, as there are a lot of spicy internet randos out there.

From the wiki: https://wiki.vintagestory.at/Fence That page also shows three images.. Stone Fence: https://wiki.vintagestory.at/File:Stone-enclosure.png Wooden Fence: https://wiki.vintagestory.at/File:Wooden-enclosure.png Rough Hewn Fence: https://wiki.vintagestory.at/File:Rough-hewn-enclosure.png Interestingly the demonstration for the hewn fence, despite being visually larger, is the one used to protect crops, the wooden and stone fences are shown for goats and chickens respectively.