Broccoli Clock

Apropos to nothing, but since 1.21.1 release I've been experiencing quite a lot of crashes. I should say that before now, I've had maybe the odd one, but recently it's been at least one a session, sometimes two or three. The game in general is very stable for me, so well done devs. I decided to let it slide, thinking if there is an issue, I won't be the only person to suffer it so it should get patched. It was only after my 6th crash over two days (unheard of in the 100s of hours I've got in the game, up till then) that I decided to investigate. First thing was to remove the mods, I don't have a lot, mostly just chisel and better ruins, some extra icons and my own for making sticks. Problem remained, so the next step was to reinstall the game. I'd only updated it, so no harm doing a clean one. Got the client exe, uninstalled, reinstalled, and tried it (without mods enabled) and it crashed. Now, getting a little more concerned I decided to check what was the main trigger. That seemed to be opening chests/storage. Not always but about 80% of the time. I decided to go looking at the files, and in my (I'm on windows) AppData/Roaming/VintageStory folder, there was a ModConfig one. Inside that were several .json files, one of them called sortablestorage.json - I don't have sortable storage in my mod list, and the file dated back to Feb of this year, pretty much when I first installed the game. I don't even remember installing a mod for sortablestorage, especially that early on in my experience as for my first ~100 hours I used no mods, but I'll not lie and say it's something I'd like to see in vanilla. Either way, removing the sortablestorage.json file fixed my crashes. I could re-enable my mods and it was completely fine. So it seems that a file dated from February, had sat in my AppData for months, that I had no recollection putting there, acting benignly all through 1.20 and its revisions, and even into 1.21.0, not causing any (observable) issue. Then 1.21.1 drops and the game crashed repeatedly. Weird. Although I'm happy it's fixed, and I'm not suggesting anyone else is in a similar situation, but just goes to show you how these sorts of crashes manifest. Edit: I literally just suffered another crash, same style as before, although this was just after I used a "storage item" (it was the fire, which had a crucible on it). For me the game just freezes, there is no crash output, not popup, just windows saying it the program had stopped responding. Not sure exactly why this is happening, I thought I'd fixed it, but for some reason it remains. I should say, VS is pretty good in terms of saving your progress, so a crash is not a run ending event, and I have noticed it crashing less since I removed that superfluous .json file. Could it be something in my install? Perhaps, I'll just wait and see if any 1.21.x updates resolve it.

If I was going to name the creepiest mob, it'd be the shiver, or bizarrely the bell. The shiver's reason is easy: the way it looks, the way it sounds, and the way it moves. I don't have any issue with the locusts, and I don't have any particular arachnophobia (although I wouldn't pick up a spider - and I'm in a country that doesn't have any venomous ones). Other than their swarming mechanism, and the numbers that can appear in, they seem fairly easy to kill, especially with a decent spear. The bell is creepy for another reason, it's actually closer to Lovecraftian horror than other mobs, imo, his shtick was all about the horror of the mundane. A "possessed" bell, calling out your presence, coupled with that sound, it's more a surrealist fear than an actual phobia.

Perhaps this is just me, but I don't find them terrifying or am I discouraged from battling the hordes. It's just a bit dull, and quite easy, and for one of the core mechanisms for the game it seems a shame that people either don't engage or don't even enable them.

Ah, right, it's the first time I've seen it, and I've been playing since 1.20 release. You are right, it didn't last long, just a few in game hours. I realised after I posted it someone would say, "but they drop Jonas parts already", and yes they do. I was just thinking of a drop that differs from the "day to day" spawns. You say people will have no counter to mobs that are able to change the states of doors (either opening or breaking them), but they would, it's height. A technique used by new and veteran players from the first day to the last. I do take on board that people might not want that, but just like the ability to enable sleeping through storms (or even just turning them off completely) the aggressive nature should be a config check box option. I'm thinking of under utilised mechanics, not mechanics intended to punish the player when they want a peaceful life. As I say, not really sure with the portals. I think they are sort of underutilised as any experienced player tends to just ignore/avoid them. They become an annoyance, more than anything. Sure, you can make the rift ward, and one of these days I might, although I'm not sure just how good they will turn out to be. The crafting requirements do rely on the RNG drop of Jonas parts though.

There's some great ideas in this thread, heh.. also some not so great.. , but my comment is about an option not listed in the OP - the temporal storm and portals. The storms happen regularly and seem to fall into one of 2 categories. Early game, you just hide in a hole, with a torch. You don't have the armour or weapons to deal with it. Mid/Late game, you now hide in your fancy chiselled house, with lanterns giving you that light and although you are now equipped to 'have a go', nothing spawns near due to light level. I'm not sure what we could do with the storms, but they are ever present and at the moment they seem more a passing annoyance. Creatures can't break down doors, and if there is light and a smallish room you are safe. Sure you could try going out there and farming some but their AI doesn't really suit that (imo). I know that quite a lot of people turn the storms off. Demonstrating, in terms of risk/reward, it's not worth the gamble for them, and that seems a shame, I think that an "improved storm" or a "reason to engage with the storm" would possibly change that. Perhaps amend the AI to be more aggressive, perhaps allow them to either open or break down doors, or perhaps provide specific loot (jonas parts?) that is exclusive to mobs spawned during the storm. As for the portals, I quite like them, but they are pretty benign, you don't know when or if things will spawn from them. I have added them into this as I think there is something that can be done to make them more engaging, but I have to say I'm not sure what in particular. If we are talking "underutilised mechanics", then the storms and portals have to be in there, as they are a constant throughout any playthrough and have so much possibility, yet at present some people will turn them off because there is "no need" for them. Edited to add: In 1.21,I spotted a Rift Activity of Apocalyptic. Never seen that before, not sure if it's new or not. It did seem "quite busy" with the portals.

Yes, totally. This was one I meant to add but forgot to. Especially useful if you have auto-pickup enabled. It's really come in clutch when deep mining and I keep picking up the stones rather than the ore.

Sure, I take the point you are making. Although it's odd to use a very deep lore biblical entity as the name for your player and then not expect people to draw conclusions.

Turn it on, TURN IT ON! I play with full cave-ins, and it's fun. Sure it's bloody annoying, but underground the mining instability is resolved by support beams. As for the surface instability, it's actually got its benefits as much as its pitfalls. For example, want to close up a cave that keeps spawning mobs? Fill that puppy full of earth, a couple of block removals it can be done in seconds. Annoyed by animals running away from you? Well you can trap them because they'll trigger land slips too. As for the performance, I've not noticed any serious drain or FPS drops. I'm on a mid PC and play with mid settings, so make of that what you will. I will say if you do decide to go with full cave ins, including dirt, then it pays to have some rammed/packed earth in your inventory (it will not be effected by gravity) or a set of ladders, both of these things are easily crafted even at spawn, and will save you a lot of effort should you get stuck down a hole.

Thanks for that, I might use it even though I don't suffer sensory issues with the flicker. Personally I just think it looks very amateurish. That's no shade at the dev(s), they've done a great job all over the board so it's harsh to damn them for this one thing, but I would really really like them to differentiate between levels based on something else.

Yeah, so it definitely stopped existing. Did I see the wolf cub eating it? No. However the wolf cub's weight was decreasing until I put meat in its enclosure and that weight started increasing. The pen that it was finally corralled into was right next to the house and I was spending a lot of time in that chunk, and as you would expect I was regularly checking to see if the meat was gone. I never timed it, but it seems to disappear fairly quickly. Not sure of the official despawn timer for something dropped on the ground when that chunk is always active, so can't give you an idea if it despawned or not. I should point out it was redmeat I was using. Not because I wasn't sure of a predator would eat bushmeat or not, just happened to be the meat I had at hand.

ngl, I had one of the biggest downers I've had playing this game when I used glue to "fix" an item and it remained broken but could now be picked up. Maybe it's just me but I expect a repair to actually repair it. Don't get me wrong, I love the ambience of ruins, especially the underground ones, I also really like the environmental story telling, and I can totally see why a few broken and dusty bookshelves would look cottage core when placed in your base, but I've yet to find an aged bookshelf that isn't f**ked. They may be out there, I've never seen them.

If you want to get all intellectual and theological, Seraphs simply cannot be hurt. When you say canon, it's not canon within the religious context. That said, as not just an atheist, but an anti-theist, I don't at all consider the "player" I play as, as having any religious affiliation in any way. That said, it was my fault for brining up the subject. My bad. I should keep clear of that mythological nonsense.

Yes. Couple of things about the straw bale. One is that they count as a full block which allows you to use them to seal a cellar. Most people, once they get a saw, will use a trapdoor/hatch to close off the cellar, but at early game you are some distance from that saw. The straw bale is ideal for this, for the reasons you mention. But wait, bales are more interesting than that. If you play with full cave-ins enabled, a straw bale is one of the blocks that are not effected by gravity. So like Rammed Earth, you can place them half way up walls should you want, and they won't fall to the ground.

Using numerology, vintage story converts to 4. How many horsemen of the apocalypse were there? I've said too much already.

The dirty deeds in the title refers to tips that are a bit cheesy, not an exploit, but close. I'll give you two to show you what I mean.. Seeing more of the map upon spawn: Upon spawn, you will be limited by the view distance (my default setting is 256 blocks) and this counts for the map too. So if you sit at spawn, set the view distance to max (1530 blocks in 1.21), and switch to the map and you'll see the fog of war disappear giving you a much better idea of where to go from spawn. Your machine may chug a bit, dependent on your specs, but if you are not moving and just viewing the map, it should be manageable. The cheesy bit? Well it doesn't "replace" the fog of war once you turn the view distance back again, so you've gained a large chunk of map while not moving an inch. example: Remove darkness: Ever fallen down into a cave with no light source, or dipped your head under water in a cave when you are using a torch, only to find yourself engulfed in an eternal blackness, unsure to move in case you make your situation worse? Well one cheesy solution to this is to use the debug rooms command. It will provide a red or green overlay depending on whether that area counts as a room (in a cave it'll be red), but that overlay also highlights the structure, giving you a way to see in the dark without a light source. I don't think I need to point out this is a bit cheesy to say the least. To activate the room check, type in "/debug rooms hi" into the chat box, doing "/debug rooms unhi" removes the effect. example: Anyone got any more not exploits or cheats, but slightly cheesy workaround for a problem? A dirty deed, done dirt cheap, you could say...

To be fair, that is how most people "store" their bears! I once let loose a wolf cub I had bought from a trader, the intention was to sell it to another trader for minor profit but I accidentally released it. I was worried it'd die from lack of food, as it was in a fairly small fenced in area. I tried using a trough, but it didn't eat from it, and in the end I resulted in throwing meat into it's enclosure. That worked as it showed it's weight increasing and the meat had vanished. I am guessing that is the same for bears, that they won't eat from a trough, but may eat meat off the ground. It'd probably take an in game year to "starve a bear to death" (if it's possible) so I wouldn't be worrying too much about it. The caveat is that the above happened in 1.20, I am unsure if anything has changed for 1.21.

One time I put down a (large) animal feeder, in an area that only had a chicken spawn and a sheep then a pig spawned into the area and started feeding form it. I've also cleared a spawn area of wolves by constantly killing their cubs. I am sure there are more subtle reasons as to why and where animals spawn, but those two things seemed to "alter" that.

My guilty pleasure is watching people play the game blind. It's fun watching them trying to figure shit out. Not sure if that's me stroking my ego going, "yes, yes, you've learnt something I knew already", or if I just enjoy watching the penny drop - especially on a live stream.

Definitely this, in 1.20 I was frustrated as hell with them, as they were damned accurate and could hit you hard. They also spawned quite a lot (shown in spoiler). In 1.21, they feel far less accurate, hit much less and tend to signal far more clearly when they are about to let fly. They are annoying, of course, as the second you close in on them, they stop their ranged attacks and start running away from you. They also drop arrows now, bad arrows but arrows none the less, so there is some payoff to killing them.

I have had situations where a dirt block has been placed right in front of a door, rather than opening the door. Could it be that I wasn't directly aligned at the door and I was just placing a block normally? Possibly, it happened so often that I just assumed that it took precedence. So when replying, I wasn't being disingenuous, I honestly that was what they were referring to. I asked for opinions and it seems that most are happy with doors taking priority. I would argue that goes against game logic, but that makes no difference if those who play the game are happy enough for it to happen. Especially if this is "how it's always happened" and it's now ingrained in their our playstyle. Obviously I disagree, hence the thread, but I'm happy to acquiesce.. I think this is the key element, context. I would wager, heals are more important that any other (non-weapon) you can have in your hands, which is why I feel there is merit to the question. Admittedly, you do not bleed in this game so it's less time sensitive. If bleeding ever gets introduced I think that shifts the debate somewhat. That said, whatever a serpah is intended to actually be in the game it's not the mythology based one as it can't die... and we all die quite a lot!

If you have specifically swapped to a healing item, then the game interacts with something 5 metres away, I'm not sure that's a "logical result". I understand the point being made, but the game already works that way. As @Shoom pointed out you can place a block while looking at a door. Do you think that mechanism should be changed as placing a block (and thus blocking the door you want to open) will get your Seraph attacked, instead of opening the door? IMO, I do think that should be changed, if the game is going to give the door a higher priority over things (that you selected) in your hand then it needs to be consistent.

OMG, so many times! Which is weird right? Placing a block, fine, that takes priority, while healing yourself doesn't.

Some of you, just due to the title, may have picked up where this is going. For others, using items in your hand requires you to right click while that item is highlighted on your toolbar. However, right click is also the button you use to interact with items, for example doors. Now, in the current setup, the door takes priority. Doesn't matter what you have in your hand, if you are facing the door, it will open. So again, the question I have is opening a door more important than applying meds or eating? In my mind, the user has specifically switched to that item, wants to use it, so let that be the priority. The door can be 5 blocks away from you and it'll still be interacted with. There is, I am sure, some counter argument about how if the user looks at a door, then their intent is to open that door, which I feel doesn't really add up, because at worse if you have a heal in your hand it'll just start with the animation which is slow enough for you to cancel whereas opening a door is pretty instant (and can have immediate effect dependent on what's the other side of it). Now you could say, BC, this is just a skill issue you need to 'git gud' and to be fair you are not necessarily wrong, doesn't stop me feeling the priority is wrong though. What's the thoughts here, it's not a big deal, and can be worked around but thought I'd find out how others see it.

It's cool, just funny that the blue/green seems to be a regular thing, like "multiple times over decades" regular.

Thank you, that's what I had initially thought. Edit: btw, I'd say the colour of the gear is green, not blue, although I have to say I've had this sort of discussion several times in the past, for example one of my friends was certain that the Independence Day poster was blue. It's green. Image in spoiler below..