Kolyenka

Lot of good advice here, just wanted to share what I do, playing with no map (and thus no way to make waypoints, follow markers, etc) and lose inventory on death. Here's what I do: Early game exploration: First, store all valuables (usually including my bags !) at home. Pick a direction I want to head in, and start digging a 1 wide 1 deep path. Replenish shovels and food by foraging sticks, stones, berries. Make outposts along the path using rammed earth (made of dirt but pretty visible) and 2 hay blocks for the doors. That way I don't need to bring anything with me, and if I die, it's optional to go find my corpse since I had nothing good anyway. I do outposts as often as I feel I need them--very often in a forest, maybe 1 each night in plains. When my inventory fills up with dirt I turn around and head home to drop it off (optional--this is for easily making stone paths later. If you prefer wood paths it's not necessary--just place the wood paths directly in the indent and it'll keep you on track). I will usually not do much exploring outside of summer--the nights are short enough that you can sleep through them with a bed roll. Mid-late game refinement: refine all of the existing paths that went past or directly to somewhere I plan to visit regularly. All the other paths can stay, but won't be upgraded. I bring as many stones as I can along with some of the dirt I dug up earlier and make 2 wide paths as they are easier to run on than 1 wide. I often rip out a few outposts at this point because with the added speed boost from running on a stone path, I can outrun danger pretty easily. I bring a saw to upgrade the outposts I do keep, using wood that I gather along the way. I also bring charcoal so I can make signposts, and usually also a bunch of candles (or fat lamps if I don't have honey, but that does get expensive). Then I set up each outpost with a fireplace, a bedroll, a candle right next to a trapdoor window for automatic light (and next to the window so that you can more easily tell you're approaching the outpost at night), a firestarter, a bunch of fuel, fireplace, door, and a sign pointing which way is home. If I have them to spare, I'll bring some berry bushes as well and plant some outside the outpost, so that there's a decent chance there's food when I visit the next time. If it's along a path I plan to travel often, I'll even bring linen beds so that I can sleep longer--this makes it more convenient to travel even when its not summer. That said, once a stone path is in it's really not too hard to run it with a torch at night. Mid-late game exploration: most of this involves branching off of existing paths. Usually by late game I don't have a lot of resources I need to explore for, so it's more to satisfy curiosity, see some sights, and stretch my legs. I explore the same way as in early game, digging 1 wide paths, except it goes faster because I have enough metal for disposable metal tools. I will bring a saw and sometimes some candles to make nicer outposts right off the batt, but like with early game exploration, I dig a lot of paths that I won't walk down a second time, so typically it's just a faster version of early game exploration. If the path ends up leading somewhere useful or beautiful, I will go back and refine it later. Now, if you do use the in game map, then the roads don't really help prevent getting lost since it's pretty hard to get lost with the map, but they do still provide the speed boost, which makes it easier to outrun enemies, and, if you fail to outrun them, to get back to your corpse. They also save time that you would otherwise spend pathfinding (even if you've run the same way a dozen times, unless there is a clear path you will likely take a slightly different route each time, and that may cause slowdowns), and serve as a very clear way to get from outpost 1 to outpost 2. That's just how I do it--I'm sure there's many things you'd want to change if you decided to emulate it--and it works pretty well for me. I really like building roads so I find it fun. If you aren't a huge fan of roadbuilding, then I would stick to only putting roads on routes you OFTEN travel, such as from spawn to your main base, or from your main base to a good mining area. The wooden paths are very good for this because you don't need to dig at all, although they're not quite as good of a speed bonus IIRC and do chew through wood. It's all a trade off. I think it's also important to remember that in real life, exploring the wilderness is very dangerous, and everything you do to make it safer will also make it slower (for example, want to not starve in case the hunting dries up ? Either carry food on your person or on pack animals ! Now you're going slow af, but you'll live longer). You can blaze through the wilderness at top speed, but as you've noted it does shorten your lifespan. If you want to explore without dying you need good gear, which at late copper age you simply don't have. It might work better for this stage of the game to take nothing (including your bags), forage for food, and mark points of interest on your map but leave them otherwise untouched. That way you can go there later, more deliberately, with good gear on you. Or maybe you build a skypath everywhere to keep you out of reach of predators. Maybe you just don't explore until you've got some armor, or at least a lot of healing poultices. There's infinite ways to play the game, but being strategic and deliberate will help you out no matter what !

I never would have guessed that Thank you so much ! Now to find some different gravel....

So I'm trying to craft some fanned cobble and it's not working. I don't understand why not... I've got andesite sand on the left, slate gravel on the right, and peridotite stones everywhere else. I checked the handbook and both andesite sand and slate gravel can be used to craft this stuff, and as you can see in the screenshot none of it needs to be a particular kind of sand or gravel. Does anyone know what the problem is ? I am doing a modded playthrough but no mods that affect sand, gravel, stones, or this kind of craftable block. I can post the modlist if needed.

This is so cool ! Looks like a beautiful world to live in. Great job

That's a nice design !! I especially like the red of the chiseled furnace. Can I ask what block you used for the red ?

Thank you ! Vintage story worlds start on year 0 (i think march, specifically), so year 1 February means ive played almost 1 full in game year. Im now at 29 hours although since I have very little to show for it (tore down the old rectolinear storage shed, moved some materials, built a tiny round greenhouse and am partway through another small roundhouse) i dont want to update just yet. I also have another world im playing concurrently so I switched off whenever I feel stuck. Mods are: hanging oil lamps, arctic survival, food shelves, butchering table, and one sky mod that I cannot for the life of me remember the name of. Its what gives me the round sun and moon as well as beautiful night time skies.

You've built so much ! It looks like it would be really fun to explore, and the interiors are very nice.

This is incredibly cool ! I have never gotten so far in the game; I have a bad habit of starting new worlds whenever I return to VS. But now I see what I'm missing. Your decorations are very nice and the architecture is great. I also really love the staircase room, especially the ceiling. Well done !

Thank you ! I love arctic worlds, and it's nice that you can actually progress in them now with some mods. Resources are extremely sparse though, so it's slow going. Nice to hear you also tried roundhouses ! They are challenging indeed. This is like attempt 3 or 4 with them, I've been trying every few worlds for while now

I'm playing lightly modded and with 3 day months; it's currently February 2, Year 1 (about 17 hours in). I settled very close to spawn as travel is extremely dangerous due to the weather and short days except for in the mid summer. It got to -41C in the worst part of winter, although it's been too dry to snow. I'm also playing with no map, no coordinates, and drop inventory on death, so getting lost is a very big problem and I have not explored yet because of it. Roads to everywhere are underway, but progress is very slow, I think my slowest game I've ever played. Very fun though ! Right now when it's daytime it's always with the sun low and a red sky. It's very beautiful here. I have a small hut, a large storage shed, and am partway through a new, much larger building...not sure what I'll use it for, honestly. Maybe more storage. My buildings are an attempt at prehistoric stone roundhouse (found in many parts of the real world over a pretty large span of time). It's difficult and I haven't done any chiseling to it but I like how it looks; it's basically just a dome that is about 3 blocks thick at the base and 1 block (stairs) at the top of the curve, with thatch roof. I'm very happy with them even though they don't look very polished. I'm in the middle of switching my doors to all face where the winter sun traverses the sky--previously they were all facing east toward the rising sun (now they will be facing south). That's why the door to the small roundhouse is in a different spot in the first picture. I want to rebuild the shed as it doesn't fit with my huts very well, but for now it does the job. Here's my hut. I have a ton of oiled pelts because I did not think I would ever get to leather, so I was planning on making lots of hunters backpacks and fur clothes. But I found an oak tree thanks to the Arctic Survival mod (I owe a lot of my progress to that). They make a nice floor; I'm going to have to keep making the pelts I guess. The storage area. I am well into the copper age although I'm not sure I'll go further (and haven't found the necessary ores yet anyway despite a lot of looking), but I do want to build a bit of a village here with lots of roundhouses and perhaps a wheelhouse if I get enough decorative/furniture stuff. It's a lot harder in homo sapiens, as there are no ruins and no traders, so most items cannot be gotten. I lived in this cave before I made the roundhouse. It was a lot colder, and eventually extremely cramped. Caves are nice and safe due to the lack of drifters and other subterranean denizens, but living above ground is much nicer. There are however a lot of bears and moose. I've died and lost all my stuff at least a dozen times now, but it's probably my favorite playthrough yet !

I have been doing most of my recent exploring in creative so i can zoom around, with color accurate map to help find things...not much around unless i keep the worldgen totally standard. I do accept that changing things can make ruins and seeds harder to visually find, but it feels like they are literally not there. I did just run 10 new worlds with the worldgen totally standard and was able to find seeds and ruins immediately, although it was always pretty sparse ruins compared to what i expected. and then tweaked the settings just a tiny bit and was back to finding nothing. it's kind of frustrating.

Ive been playing for several years but have started having problems generating worlds with seeds and ruins. My last long-ish term world had almost no seeds with few tweaks (little bit arid and more upheaval but that was it), and since then ive tried generating lots of worlds looking for one i like, and I keep having this problem of no seeds and no surface ruins. Even on flat terrain I can't find anything. I have realized that unfortunately turning up forestation seems to remove almost all possibility of surface ruins and seeds, but even when I turned it back to normal, im having problems. The only world i got both in was a hot world where I spawned in a savanna. Tons of seeds there and a respectable amount of ruins...but that's like 1 out of 20. I guess my main question is: what do each of the world settings affect ? Not what do they DO, but what do they affect--does upheaval make it hard to find surface ruins if turned up but easy if turned down ? That sort of thing. Just looking for some insight into the current worldgen system which I can't understand. This has been a source of confusion for me for the last 2 updates, and the current one as well.

Im coming back to the game after a long break so I can't really say much about hot weather, although im fairly sure that is accurate. That said, someone just recommended the mod hydrate or diedrate which i imagine would make it a great deal hotter. If you can find an area hot enough then there are challenges getting the crops to grow (similar to crops not growing in winter). But overall, if youre looking for a very difficult experience, ice world is the way to go. That is much harder ime. Much much harder just to stay alive, not to mention thrive/build/accomplish goals. Hopefully others have more info. I'm curious about this too. I like playing extreme environments and I'm getting a little bit sick of the iceballs after a long time playing like that.

yep, frozen reeds, and it seems to work for 1.20. im running relatively few mods (some are just for a SMP), primitive survival, better shelves, and from golden combs. no conflicts so far. Totally agree about vanilla reeds further north. There needs to be something. IRL, the Inuit people, who live in the arctic circle, use grasses to make baskets. Here's some examples I don't think you should be able to use ANY grass to make baskets, but I think arctic grass should be a separate thing, and you could use that to make hand baskets. I think that would add realism and would make ice worlds a lot more playable. Of course, I do enjoy them as is. I just think there could be improvements, lol.

ok, mind kind of blown. you can put anything in there or just stuff that is cookable ? either way that is a game changer in rly early game. One of my goals is usually to try and make things look nice so im not sure that would be viable for me long term, but short term, absolutely. Thanks for the idea !!