Zaph42nd

Pies are pretty good overall, as far as meal transit, elks can carry cooking pots so transporting meals can be done (sort of), albeit pies are usually a bit more convenient than making meals (meals are, however, good for longer storage in theory with crock sealing and cellars). Specifically for crocks, I prepare meals and seal them away for winter or just as a forget-it and return food source since meals can cover all the food-groups easily (and cellars + sealing can mean food that lasts greater than an in-game year) which is nice for winter if you don't plan to migrate south (or prefer more northern areas for bases)

Fair far as hit-boxes and detection goes, I've noticed that too and it's especially an issue with swarming-type enemies (locusts), feels like something where sweeping-type hits may be better although I'm not sure how that'd get implemented. Damage increases more so would be supplemental, although I'm more favorable to damage-increases/scaling with tool-grade (metal age) and quality (tempering, durability, etc..), therefore incentivizing blacksmithing, upgrading your weapons, and quenching/tempering (which itself feels like it doesn't really contribute much to combat) since the current system doesn't have substantial jump ups (1-2 difference doesn't feel like it incentivizes making weapons in every metal-age). Definitely agree on sound design as a major needed addition, I think adding in an extra sound cue either from enemy response to being hit or an actual swinging sound would go miles to improve combat feel, while enemies already react somewhat to being hit (slight recoil and muted hurt-sounds) it's not really much. Good points, I think active hit/block could be interesting but maybe not really suit for Vintage Story given that ranged weaponry would suffer (as in, you'd be missing out on a game system, kind of an issue with Skyrim too since "stealth-archer" is quite broken and not fun). Morrowind-style progression would be interesting but maybe a bit clunky since it'd require adding in more RPG-like systems that could feel a little out of place in the sandbox setting.... Conflicted on it but do think hit-box changes are a good start as is increasing weapon damages.

Regarding combat, one of the biggest gripes I have always had was the "weight" behind attacks, feels like animation timing and damage could be increased or adjusted to make hits feel more significant, it'd also help if enemies equally hit harder (but slower) to incentivize balancing your attack timings and blocking (you'd also need to learn how enemies attack and respond accordingly). If combat is more "weighty", I suspect it'll be a lot more satisfying to fight albeit I've always thought fighting is not the primary-solution to most of the encounters you'd have in VS (actually often times getting some distance works just as well, although some enemies and animals still chase endlessly which I feel like somewhat hurts that side of combat) so would also need some reworks to AI behaviors (e.g. losing pursuit of a fleeing player, set territorial behaviors, etc...)

Love the idea, it also reminds me that quite a few existing in-game plants and trees already have the potential to be used for alchemy or medicinal purposes, birch bark for example is known for its anti-inflammatory properties and sometimes is used for topical poultices, poppies acting as natural sedatives, etc... All of these would expand the use of trees, flowers, and non-crop plants which at the moment aside from beekeeping (and on occasion dye-making or poultices) and, for trees, a way of getting wood, serve more aesthetic purposes or very niche-use situations

While mentioned a few times, I'd like to refresh/rehash the idea of introducing and expanding simple machines to the game to assist in creating more complex contraptions, namely screws, pulleys, levers (already sort of in game), and wheel and axel systems. These could supplement the already existing rotation-based automation solutions (querns, mills, etc...) by allowing players to build rudimentary storage-transfer devices (e.g. basic elevators capable of transferring chests up/down large shafts), move water in more unique-ways (e.g. archimedes screw systems, wells, etc..), and have more options to mid to late game bases while still largely fitting in universe. While some mods exist for this purpose, I think more simple machines would also do nicely for vanilla as a way to expand and encourage automation as players advance to the Iron Age and beyond

Always thought ambient music or no music at all fits very nicely with VS, namely think dynamic soundtrack would be very nice since the more cheery default music sometimes feels a little out of place when you are being chased by bears... That said, for vocal-forward tracks, I really like more folk/neofolk music since it feels more thematically appropriate given the setting and all

Somewhat doable already by tweaking landform scale, landcover, etc... I think Rivers mod (and Watersheds) helps a lot too for giving more scope/scale to the world and justifying longer trips or building more infrastructure projects. I'd also suggest looking into reducing surface deposits in settings since it makes locating resources a bit more tedious/involved (at least till you get a prospector's pick). Otherwise agree on the need for more world-gen spacing/depth, but I suspect that will come when rivers become a vanilla feature

Def worth trying, one suggestion though is play with configs a little since by default can't grab/climb soil which is a little annoying for vanilla world-gen (very few sheer cliff-faces) (easy to fix though)

On the whole not too many plugins, mainly world-gen changes or movement changes or content that expands or enhances vanilla systems, specifically... World-gen: Rivers (classic but gives a lot more life to the world), Watersheds (gives Rivers a bit more presence/prevalence by adding sources), Continental Worlds (more realistic and fits well with Rivers), and Vistas (testing this one still, usually I play with Terra Prety but doesn't work perfectly with Rivers) Movement: Salty's Climb (more mountainous world-gen makes this a must), Salty's Catch (good for cave-ins and other accidents you may be able to save yourself from), Salty's Immersive Mining (fits nicely with a more slow and difficult early game), Salty's Manual series (reducing crafting grid is nice) Content: big fan of Shipwright (fits well with Rivers and justifies building canals and other similar infrastructure), Ancient Tools (resin and mortar/pestle allow more early-game/stone-age processing), Infantryman's Dolabra (nice multi-tool that doesn't feel too off from vanilla), Walking Sticks Lite (cuts down to just the basic walking sticks, use the og mod for more options), Slowtox (alcohol now has more utility), Cup Mod Revival (plays nicely with Slowtox's buffing mechanics), Frontier's Map (an option for mapping w/o map features, plus it's easy to pick up and use) I've tried bigger mod lists but on the whole I think the game is more than content rich for my playstyle (Homo Sapiens/Wilderness Survival) so not much to add or change....

Perhaps a parlor-room or den would be a good fit? Historically these rooms would be just past the foyer of an estate and were mainly guest-entertaining spaces or hobby-rooms, could deco with fireplace and mantle, shelves of odds and ends, etc... Optionally could omit the sitting room/parlor in favor of a more spacious foyer...

Like all these, for temporal storms would be interesting if the day before clocks were just ever so slightly off time-wise. You'd still be able to see the time via the setting/rising of the sun, but clockwork devices would be off by x number of minutes based on the intensity of the storm.

Mixed on this, on one hand I think that mods are a good "what-if" tool for exploring how vanilla mechanics could be expanded or tweaked but alone don't provide enough understanding of where gameplay/system improvements are. I'd argue you still need to play some vanilla before coming to a conclusion on the current-state of game systems. Vintage Story I think is good about this as is Minecraft, both games whose modding communities have, in some ways, shaped what vanilla is and the scope/scale of vanilla/unmodded content over the years (content changes more than vision changes), though both of which have modded gameplay varies either drastically or slightly from vanilla in fundamental ways (ways which would go against the vision/goal of the game).

Definitely like the idea, while charred breads and salted/preserved foods aren't bad as last-resort/long storage options, would be nice to have something like hardtack or pemmican fill the niche of travel-rations or foods that you produce starting mid-game for long-term storage. Perhaps these could come with a trade off of low-saturation/satiation in exchange for longevity and mass-production potential? Regarding fruits and nuts for travel foods, I think it'd be interesting if fruit-leathers were also added since pulp/mash is already a byproduct of fruit-pressing and a key ingredient to making fruit-leathers...

Feels more fit for a mod given the setting of the game, I suppose electricity could work within the game though it'd need to be restricted to 1700s technologies (early-steam age) to remain cohesive with early steam-based machinery (though, with Jonas devices, early electrical devices would also feel a bit out of place?). Closest devices in this case would be lightning rods, Leyden jars, etc... devices like motors and other similar electric devices wouldn't really fit the setting imo

Like the idea, but I think it could be somewhat messy to implement especially if dependencies have to be considered too... Far as compatibility goes, usually major versions 1.22.x, 1.21.x are not compatible with each other, service-updates and smaller updates (e.g. 1.22.1, 1.22.3, etc...) are cross-compatible unless there's some major fix that happened or a mod relies on a specific exploit or feature (that is pretty rare, however and have yet to see any mods play into game-bugs). Echoing others too, I think the issue too is reports would be either very detailed or lacking detail, plus with Github already being used for some mods (and its subsequent features being as they are), it's one extra place to keep track of bug-reports and compatibility notes, might be difficult to keep tabs on for mod-makers. As for abandoned mods, that's its own issue, I'd not be against project-management allowing you to list a mod as abandoned/no-longer receiving updates, but that'd be one extra thing for mod-makers to include so not sure if it's worthwhile (though, I've never developed plugins or mods so can't speak for that experience, user experience filtering by major versions already gives a fair indication of compatibility in my opinion)

Will say for me it's been fleshing out my infrastructure (decorate roads, change my dirt-paths to stone-paths, expand main-roads, etc...) and adding more details to my builds (chiseling is addictive), though I know some people prefer grand-builds for late-game

Good to see native Apple Silicon support now on the table, seems to slightly improve stability on my system but still encountering issues with code-signing on the app itself. To other Mac users, if you get the "damaged app" warning, you'll need to recursively codesign/notarize via terminal, details on that are in the MacOS section of troubleshooting https://wiki.vintagestory.at/Installing_the_game_on_MacOS. Wondering though if the app-related issues mostly stem from macOS Tahoe or just limitations on how MacOS handles app packages....

Yep, in the early-game it's more foraging than growing but still distinct from berry-bushes in that berry-bushes are semi-renewable without replanting. Early-game while you can spend the first few nights getting wild-crops and such, seeds and, by extension farming, become more viable after settling in somewhere

I can sum it up into one word: decorating. More specifically with my food-sources secured in winter and not much to do, I spend the time adding some finer detailing to my base using a chisel, perhaps working on a few flourishes to infrastructure too if it's not too long of a trip. While migrating south is an option and some would argue the better use of time, late-game once you've gotten food supplies stable, have winter clothes, and made armor/tools, decorating isn't a bad use of time either

Possibly repeating others but wish I had known starting out and especially in mid-game a couple of things: - Windmills are more effective and efficient at higher altitudes above sea-level and with some distance between windmills ensures they run smoothly. That took me some time to get used to, especially with how 1.22 changes windmill behaviors a little bit - Hunger rates are reduced by sitting and not having items in your off-hand, that took me way too long to notice. Relatedly, you need to balance your diet to maximize your health, an unbalanced diet while preventing starvation, does make fighting a lot less fun (plus diverse diets encourage playing with more game-systems) - You can tame an elk even in Homo Sapiens (no lore content) which makes traversing a lot less annoying (or more now that you've got one) and you should try to get some saddle-bags to make it even more worthwhile

Funny you'd mention sketchbook, actually it inspired my post lol. Aside from the sketchbook, I've found that the cave-drawing mechanics (charcoal drawings) provide some opportunity for mapping until you get the gear to produce leather, paper, etc... Reminds me a lot of desire-paths, my main-save uses desire-paths (shortcuts and trails off the original roads) since I find that they save on tool-durability and work nicely if I find ore-veins later in a specific region. One limitation of that though is I find that it produces somewhat messy-roads so usually need to go and re-pave as I begin to settle into an area or build into a fork in the road

As I've been playing a lot of Wilderness Survival and Homo Sapiens, noticed a trend in my building habits - without a map landmarks and other features matter way more and I'm far more driven to develop infrastructure than in other difficulties and build smaller structures closer together (if possible). Does the restriction of having no map change your approach to builds and settlement spacing/design? If so, do you find yourself building more markers, bridges, and roads in absence of a quick-access map?

Perhaps mentioned previously and more fitting with overhauls to pastoral/livestock systems, I'd really love to see light-automation in the form of livestock-driven tools/machines such as ploughs, carriages, and other similar systems as this would encourage more engagement with livestock breeding aside from obtaining a sustainable protein source... Aside from utilizing livestock for agricultural tasks (tilling land, carrying goods, etc..), these systems could also work quite nicely for early-game integrations with machinery such as querns (horse-mills) providing a stop-gap between a full-automation system (windmills and waterwheels) and early-game automation.

With the changes to berry-bushes and introduction of fishing mechanics, I've wondered how y'all have changed your early-game food sourcing? Personally I've become more inclined towards fishing/hunting to establish a basic food-supply whereas pre-1.22 I'd usually spend my first few days collecting berries and setting up berry-bushes near my base, slowly transitioning into agriculture within the first in-game season.

A lot of these depend on your playstyle but my unpopular opinions are: Cave ins and soil instability are fun and enhance mining: I prefer playing with this setting on despite how janky it can be sometimes, though admittedly I still find the sudden sinkholes a little annoying unless resolved with mods to change sideways instability. Map and minimap are best disabled to encourage a deeper exploration and mapping of the landscape: If kept in game, I'd make these require a map item to be visible since as it stands currently the minimap and map somewhat diminish learning your surroundings and planning accordingly (where to build, pathways/roads and routes, etc...). I think the system is relatively well done in Wilderness Survival and Homo Sapiens where landmarks help you navigate the world and (at least for Wilderness Survival) maps only tell you block-distance. Tool durability and mining speeds: I'd lower tool durability somewhat especially for stone tools and decrease mining speeds for lower-tiered tools. As it stands currently, there is little incentive to upgrade some of your tools beyond basic metals (such as sheers, cleavers, etc... which I typically never make into their steel equivalents and leave at copper or bronze)