PineReseen

The aesthetic is kinda utilitarian, but it looks sort of unfinished despite that. I'd personally have done a little bit more work on patching up the exposed dirt with either cobblestone or planks, but repurposing a ruin (at least from what I can gather in the picture) is a welcome touch. 4.3125/10

I mean, I gotta agree with @Teh Pizza Lady here, it already is kinda uncompromising. Certainly more than it is in like, Minecraft, I guess. I mean, yeah, I'm advocating for the storms to be changed right now because they're not working out. Although, the more ingrained a feature is, the less you can change it before the changes have to spill over into surrounding areas. Sort of like a game of Jenga, the more you keep adding the more dependent the newer features are on the core assumptions. At some point the risk-versus-reward may start getting a bit too high (when that point is reached is up for debate, though). My changes shouldn't be too intrusive as far as I am aware.

Fair enough. Drifters/other creatures killed while a temporal storm is ongoing would take more time to despawn and have increased drop rates of valuable items like temporal/rusty gears and maybe would have some additional drops. Would mesh well with what I want for storms too, as in the player needing to fight somewhat during storms. Okay, I have never had anything spawn on top of me when a storm was ongoing, so I can't really speak on this. However, reducing drifter spawns in houses wouldn't necessarily conflict with what I am trying to do, as I'd prefer the player to initiate fights, rather than the drifters. Having creatures spawn in a house is a rather artificial way to force a fight, and I'd rather have the player need to restore stability to more naturally make the player do something. I'm afraid that encouraging the player to interact with a storm via any kind of reward alone will make the storm more of an optional challenge that the player can either wait out or kill some creatures for better loot. That's why I think the player should be forced to fight lest they suffer some sort of stability-related consequence if we are to add increased loot chances. I haven't really ran into issues with scaling yet, since I haven't actually be forced to fight anything during the storm, but I think that improved scaling with intensity should definitely be considered if fighting is to be a part of temporal storms. I'll be honest, I don't really know what 7 Days to Die is. I can't really say anything about that. But what I talk about is what I think the storms should be; foremost a complication instead of a largely optional benefit. I don't exactly agree that players should be able to engage with the mechanic as they see fit, that's more reserved for the world customization system, I instead believe that players should work around the mechanic as they see fit. So the player is forced to fight the storm, instead of choosing to do so willingly, and perhaps then we increase drop rates, so the storm must be interacted with, and there's a tangible benefit.

I think you're conflating storms with the game here. I am generally referring to storms when talking about the "danger arriving to the player": I don't really understand what you're saying with the "Storms are not required for the game to be uncompromising" stuff, all I'm saying (or what I intend on saying, at least) is that a feature that's supposed to challenge the player doesn't do that effectively, and that it should be changed to do it effectively. I don't think that is a particluarly bad idea, when something's broken, you fix it. So like, world creation options? Y'know, turning off storms, creature aggresion, etc. I think I've already mentioned it in another thread, but temporal mechanics should also be more customizable. You should be able to customize existing and future storm mechanics via some options that the developers give us.

Hell yeah! How long do you have to wait for that though? I swear the first ones don't really give too much hope for getting to that point anytime soon...

That's the problem. The storms aren't uncompromising enough. They don't make the player feel in danger, since the player can just hide in a hole practically forever if they have enough food stockpiled. That's why I think they should be difficult to anticipate and require the player to actually fight/do something in response to the world being torn apart (doing something more with temporal stability during storms would definitely mesh well with the mechanics already in place).

I think this is the opinion I agree with. I don't know if it's just me, but very many people that post on threads like these seem to think that the player's agency is sacrosanct and that it can't be in any way challenged via in-game mechanics. I find that to be rather ridiculous, as creative mode isn't what this game's design philosophy is about. Hell, the game describes itself as uncompromising, why should the player be able to hunker down and ignore all the horrid creatures outside their flimsy door every single night? If the player doesn't arrive to the fight, the fight should arrive to the player. I've already mentioned this, but in my opinion the game doesn't do this enough. I think the model of largely unexpected flash storms that are a bit shorter but force the player to actually do something instead of stare into a wall would be better.

In my opinion, temporal storms are rather boring because they're too expected. They should occur somewhat more often and more randomly, maybe be a bit shorter, and have more subtle warnings right before it happens to make them fit better with the game. I think the whole idea of temporal storms is to throw a spanner into the player's plans and to make the player adapt to a surprise situation, and I think leaning harder into that would benefit the mechanic. A sort of flash flood but it's unnatural creatures instead. If the player is at home baking their 5th pie of the day, then it's all fine and dandy, if the player is out and about, then they need to either come back to shelter very quickly, improvise something, or try to hold their ground. Currently you have ample time to prepare, but if you didn't, then it'd definitely increase the stress and fear of a storm happening while you're not prepared. A more out there idea would be to make no place truly safe, so the player has to fight for their life instead of hiding in a corner, but I'm not sure how to execute this effectively. Maybe make temporal stability more punishing during temporal storms, so you have to kill some creatures to regain it? Could be very punishing for new players though.

I don't really know what that is, I usually just adjust the slider of quality on my GIMP export screen if I want to have a different quality JPEG. I also have a bigger monitor so I resize the image too, for me my usual resized and compressed size is around 250 Kb. That's rather unfortunate. I guess I could try to increase the thumbnail quality so it is more visible for people who don't have access to the external website. I'm not really familiar with postimages.org, some reviews on trustpilot seem to be rather negative, so I've just decided to settle for Imgur as it is a more well-known site, but I guess that does have it's bad sides...

Wait, so like, people actually don't place their base near spawn? I always build my packed dirt hut in a nice location almost immediately when I spawn in, then I expand on it as I progress. Any problems with resources I deal with via exploitation of unconquered lands and wilderness, I never thought about exploring for resources first and settling later.

YOU CAN PET CHICKENS!?

Yeah, the attachment limit is quite annoying. I've gone back and edited all my posts with an image to change it to a 1440x810 JPEG, I think it might be a tad too big for maximum efficiency, but I reduced my usage from almost 100% to around 25% initially. The issue is probably that the game saves the screenshots in the PNG format which is lossless (and thus has a way lower storage efficiency than lossy formats, which lose some data during compression). Broccoli Clock's solution seems very very interesting though, I may try it going forward! This thumbnail image (Made it even smaller, 810x456 with 50% quality) links to a high-res one on Imgur instead. I think it'd be better if the attachment limit increased with an account's age and total posts, so that members who stay with the game and post get more attachment size to not worry about running out when they post their base screenshots. Although I have no idea if that is even possible given that the code for this website seems to be mostly developed by Invision Community.

I'm not necessarily talking about an arctic playthrough, more like a subarctic/hemiboreal one. Think middle Quebec, Saguenay, even. Those temperatures don't really freeze you and give you ample time to set up. Hell, the Sámi and Greenlandic Inuit people live in those sort of climates and colder since like, the Bronze Age. And besides, if the way to play a cold start is to not play a cold start and get the hell out of there, then... Why do this? Why have a cold start? Set your respawn range to 5000 blocks on a temperate start and you'll get the same result of having to walk back to your southern base every time you die. I mean, at least we could get a reed for basic early-game stuff.

I think it's okay if extreme climate playthroughs remain very difficult, but somewhat warmer climates definitely do need fleshing out in terms of basic survival. At least have a reed type in negative temperature places, maybe some sorta fibre crafting recipe from hides, or even one or two flower types and an alternative healing source if we're feeling fancy. I've not yet dabbled in worldgen mods yet, I think I need a more vanilla experience for now. But please, we need to have a cold biome reed in the game. Please. I don't want to gather 128 dry grass anymore for a modded grass bundle.

Yeah, many articles have the distribution information either unclear or in many places, I had to experience that first with rushes and now when I was looking for cold flowers. I don't think having rushes and cattails in one area is a horrible idea, only issue that would cause would be slightly worse inventory management. We could make cattails more ground-level and rushes more montane if that's really a problem. I don't think goats and muskox are a bad idea as a source of fabric, would definitely be more realistic, but I personally haven't found them in my vicinity. I don't know if that's a big problem or I just need to explore a bit (Muskox apparently spawn in arctic climates, which I am not in, and goats are supposed to spawn in mountains, which I do not have in my immediate vicinity). Are wolves supposed to be a danger that you should avoid? Maybe, but bears have their own armour set, so maybe it's more of a risk versus reward kind of thing. Bushmeat isn't really a good source of satiety, but the fat and hide do provide real value. I should try to hunt a wolf next time another deer sails off into the ocean...

I don't think addressing the lack of reeds would be particularly difficult, I've already given a pretty nice alternative for reeds that could spawn in cold biomes, the Juncus genus of plants, which can apparently also be used for baskets. As for flax, that does require a bit more tinkering, but what about animal fibre? It was just glossed over, and I think it'd be a great alternative that would involve the hunter playstyle of cold-climate survival very well. Maybe wolf wool would be a good substitute for linen that'd be easier to obtain but perhaps lack the efficiency and scalability of flax. I agree that it is for the better for jam to remain a honey-exclusive feature (but sugarcane and other alternatives wouldn't be a bad idea). Spoilage is greatly reduced in cold climates anyway. Although, sulphur and honey poultices are not available which just compounds the healing issue. I hope that there will be more healing options, maybe more herbal poultices, or some sort of tea that could improve regeneration when sleeping? Although I don't know much about whether that is realistic at all. I agree that it is probably the most intentional, but also that it has the most potential improvements. Hunting in particular could use many improvements. I've shot so many animals already that ran away into either the ocean or a bunch of bushes and I couldn't find them afterwards. Really, I think the best band-aid for now would be to add a bleeding effect that persists on the ground or water after an animal is hit so I can find those rabbits that disappeared into the bushes or the deer that fled into the ocean. Fishing will most certainly make survival more bearable. I got lucky with berries since I spawned in a rather temperate-adjacent area and have a bunch of them to the south, but it would be cool to see some sort of climate-exclusive berries.

I've been fascinated with different world generation, especially after I found out that biomes are a property that results from basic variables rather than being pre-defined. One thing I always wanted to do was do a cold-world playthrough, but I soon found out that achieving this is way more difficult than expected, or necessary. Now that I've actually begun a serious attempt (although modded, you'll know why if you've ever tried this at all) at this, I'm gonna outline the big problems that I've encountered in the early game, and how I think they can/should be fixed. This is going to be split into minor (don't need to be fixed to allow progression/don't affect gameplay in a major way) and major (game-breaking issues/big roadblocks) issues. Major Issues No Reeds: There are no reeds anywhere in cold environments. None. This just makes it so much more annoying to do anything since both hunter backpacks and reed baskets are off-limits which make inventory space very annoying to manage, especially since reed chests are also unobtainable unless you travel south first thing after you spawn. I had to install a mod for this to make a cold world bearable. To solve this, a reed should be added to cold environments, like papyrus is for warm ones. I've already proposed one plant that could work, the rush, which can survive in colder environments and is a big grass-like plant that grows near water. No Flax: Also a plant issue, flax just doesn't spawn in cold environments. I honestly am surprised that windmills, good beds, bows, buckets, bandages, etc. are all locked behind this one plant (Drifters do exist, but I am not going to kill drifters for like, hours just to get a single linen sheet). This is a more complex issue, it would either require making a whole new flax-like item line from a new plant, or revamping this chokepoint to not be focused around a single plant. Perhaps reed or rope could make a linen-like material that would be used in many things, or hairs from animal hide could be used to make some sort of fibre that would be a substitute for linen or flax fibres. Minor Issues Scarce Horsetail: I'm running an archipelago-like world, so I have found around 10 horsetail growing on small islands off the coast of my starter island, but I doubt that is going to sustain me long-term. Looking at the spawning code, the minimum temperature for small horsetail spawns in 1 degree centigrade, and my island averages around -2 degrees a year, so it doesn't spawn. This could be chalked up to "You've chosen a cold area so it should be more difficult!" but since bandages are a no-go then there is literally no healing except for sleeping. This is more of a poultice issue rather than a horsetail issue, as no horsetail would be less of an issue if poultices could be crafted from other plants that spawn in cold areas. Maybe adding an alternative source of healing would fix this too? No Honey/Beeswax: The code says that bees can only spawn above 5 degrees centigrade, so there's no chance I'll be getting any bees near my island, and in turn no honey or beeswax. This means that jams or candles are off-limits and very tedious to get respectively. I guess lanterns are pretty useless anyway, and juice exists anyway so this isn't such an issue, but it is a bummer. Maybe a new alternative item like tallow could be used for candles? Food Issues: Food is way harder to get in my world at least (I have died due to starvation once, and damage due to hunger is gotta be up there in the list of top damage sources), and perhaps that's because berries are scarce in cold areas, which is fair, or maybe it's the fault of me not spawning near a forest with many mushrooms (although after testing it appears that edible mushrooms are rare in cold areas?), but I still think there's room to improve. I can't help but notice that the only crop spawning near me is rye, which I'm gonna need an oven and quern to actually use effectively. Fishing will certainly make my world easier to survive, but improving hunting so that I can track where that deer went, or maybe making animals not want to go into water as much/drown easier would make me able to hunt something more than rabbits, foxes and wolves reliably. Adding a new food source like tea would also make the situation less difficult (seriously, we need tea, so many flowers and only bees to use them). Side note: There also appear to be no flowers spawning in cold areas at all. Seems like the hardiest flower can only spawn in -2 degrees centigrade, which isn't enough for most cold places. That's a shame, since many flowers can survive cold areas, like for example the mountain avens, some species of the Dactylorhiza genus, or the arctic bell-heather. --- That's all for this post, no doubt I will encounter more issues on my world very soon, but these are a good starting point in terms of fixing cold worlds/starts, as these issues will plague the player into the copper age and bronze age, no doubt. Especially if traders are turned off. Thanks for reading!

I just started a new world with colder generation, I think I'm gonna be fine just upgrading to 1.22. Also its like, 60% landmass? So the new chunks will probably blend well with the existing world, since there's so much sea.

I don't know if this would work, but setting your mod as Draft instead of Published could work? I think that makes only accessible to people who have the link if I remember correctly, but I haven't hosted a server myself, so if a ModDB mod needs to be set to published to autodownload then that idea would fall flat.

I did some reading on termites as food, and they should definitely be roastable. According to wikipedia, alates (winged termites that surface and fly during the nuptial flight to mate) are a suitable source of food that can be roasted and are high in nutrition. They can be collected via nets and lamps (they are attracted to light) beginning in the rainy season. Termites should definitely be expanded upon as a food source both via mushrooms and the termites themselves, to provide an early alternative food source to hunting and foraging, since as far as I am aware there aren't many berry bushes in a warm start, and this would certainly be better than recycling an already existing mechanic just with a warm coat of paint.

So, I've been thinking about how people often aim to make pretty builds, especially in creative. Often, many types of blocks get used when constructing them, chiseled, fanned cobblestone, non-fanned cobblestone, sandstone, chert, granite, andesite, bricks, logs, planks, lanterns, and on and on. So, what if, we didn't use those blocks? What if we tried making something pre-metal? That's why I decided to build this rather lavish hut made of mudbrick! Admittedly, it is built in creative, but maybe when I'm doing a new run, then I'll try to make something like this out of the materials I have on hand. That's the outside, the roof is made of thatch! This is the first floor, there's a hidden clay vessel under that dirt next to the firepit opposite the hole. This is the second floor! It has storage. This is looking up at the roof from the first floor. There's stick layers up there so there's ventilation and sunlight, I guess. I just thought it'd look cool. (Maybe practical for that realistic smoke mod?) Well, that's it! One thing about mudbrick though, kind of strange that dark mudbrick has a slab variant but light mudbrick doesn't. I think a light version might look better here, but no slabs kind of limits creativity a lot. (I wonder if mudbrick stairs could be a good idea?)

I think mushroom farming with termites could be pretty cool (I think I saw those mushroom on the bottom in a AntsCanada video about termites?). Would be a unique food source for southern climates to help differentiate them from temperate ones. Besides, mushrooms are pretty cool, and having a farmable variant would be very nice!

Well, that's a shame. Given my experience with installing windows programs on Linux, I don't think I'm gonna try installing Visual Studio, and besides the dotnet SDK doesn't seem to want to exist with 2 versions (or downgrade to 8.0) on my system for some reason, so I guess I'll have to wait for 1.22.x anyway...

I think that's the mechanism for spawning in at initial world generation, I think I've managed to figure that out as of now, but the issue I'm having is that I have no idea how to implement the reed root item which should, upon planting, create it's corresponding reed, but I don't think the code for that is anywhere in the JSON files. For reference, here's my code for the item: The reed block should be "rushes-rush-{habitat}-{state}-{cover}" due to the "tallplant" code already being taken. The texture attributes are working fine, I have my own textures on the tule model. I have a suspicion that the planting action is handled by that ItemCattailRoot class thing, including what roots plant what reeds (currently upon planting my root it becomes cattails), and I can't really make code mods yet...

I'm trying to add a new reed for cold environments, and I'm stuck at the part were the reed root is supposed to spawn the correct reed. I don't see anything in the base game files regarding planting that would choose which root is for which reed, and I honestly don't know where to start. Does the game employ something like regex on codes to see which root corresponds to which reed or is it just hardcoded like that? Version is 1.21.6. Thanks!