Kolyenka

I only end up sticking with my saves if I can find somewhere pretty to settle down--my favorite is right at the base of snowy mountain ranges. I could look at those all day. Anyone else choose base locations for natural beauty as opposed to practicality? And if so, where's your favorite type of place to settle?

i felt frustrated by the grind as well (especially when doing a multiplayer game where we were always trying to improve our base and our gear and stockpile food and make charcoal and on and on and on), but i've changed my playstyle significantly and find it a lot more enjoyable now. i'm not always trying to improve or build or gather resources. i often just take a few days to pick a direction and start walking (which works best if your spawn point is near your house and you keep your gear after dying, because then there's no long trek back and you can just jump down a mine when you want to go home again). just like, enjoy the game and the scenery. the grind is a lot less daunting when you can go explore the coast for a week or two once you're halfway done with crafting 300 shingle blocks or whatever.

i suppose i can see how onsdag's suggestions might make blacksmithing so detailed as to be tedious, but 'extremely detailed possibly to the point of tedium' is already how a lot of the crafting mechanics work (pottery, flint knapping, leatherwork) and most of us are playing this game because we don't mind that. i think it'd be cool to have more detailed smithing mechanics (especially the heavy hitting and durabilities of different materials)

drifters specifically would be ideal. i've turned the sound all the way down to get rid of their groaning, but then wolves sneak up on me effortlessly.

in this vein an in-game journal or diary would be really great, to help remember what i'm up to. preferably it wouldn't be an item--just a menu you can pull up and type in.

playing on pc. i don't have the best computer in the world but even if i turn the graphics settings to the absolute lowest they can be, it still happens. everything else seems to work fine--there's no lagging, and i only get other glitches on multiplayer. this is the only glitch i've noticed in all of my single player games. not using any mods, and playing with the most recent game version. anyone else experience this? any clue what the problem might be or how to fix it? it's really disorienting.

had the same problem--this fixed it for me, but you gotta turn it back off AND restart the game before you come back down--just turning temporal instability off again is not enough, and the second you get within range of the temporal instability it'll start going back down again and will continue to do so until you restart the game.

I agree... I always found it strange that traders are just, everywhere, with their wares ready the second you spawn. It implies that they do trading with lots of people, which decimates the lonely feel that's been so carefully crafted. On the other hand, I really enjoy the lore. Perhaps two separate settings--one that turns off lore, and another that turns off NPCs.

limestone rock would also make a good floor/walls. but i think if you want to do the most accurate reconstruction possible, you might have to make some of your own blocks.

in that vein for early game there could be cordage (from grass, some taller flowers, or perhaps the inner bark of trees) which is made without tools and can be woven with a very rudimentary loom made from sticks (i don't know their actual name, but primitive technology has made one, and i've seen a few other ren faire videos with something pretty similar as well) which would make a very rough piece of cloth that could be sewn into early game clothes or bags/sacks. in the video linked he's stripping off the inner bark of trees, tearing it into thin strips, spinning it using a rudimentary spindle (a stick and a fired clay whorl, though that of course makes more of a twine and you could simply use your hands to make cordage with it instead), and then weaving it into some mats using a loom that he made with a few sticks stuck into the ground plus a little cordage to tie it all together. don't get me wrong, i'd love for the later game to have spinning wheels, multi-shaft looms (the patterns for which could be designed via voxel chiseling maybe?) and beautifully intricate tapestries and clothes. BUT. i don't see why the basic stuff should need to be gated behind any technology at all when it's not so hard to make it with stone age tools. another idea (though i confess that i have no idea how it could be implemented in this game) could be nålbinding, which of course would require only a wooden or bone needle, and if nothing else could be the most rudimentary and low tech way to get fabric of some kind.