CABLES

A proper combat rework, in my mind, would require a few prerequisites to fit properly within Vintage Story. The one-dimensional combat feels like a symptom of placeholder systems that haven't been fleshed out enough, especially given that VS is intended to be more on the realistic side of things. Personally, I want combat to be more dangerous, more difficult, and more granular. Here're my thoughts on what could change with that bias in mind: Movement is too arcadey. Given that the player character lacks any momentum while moving, movement is generally low-commitment and doesn't require planning or care to execute. On top of that, being able to sprint omnidirectionally is definitely overpowered -- the player should not be able to moonwalk at Mach 1 while stabbing bears to death. Since movement is like this, combat feels too precise and not punishing enough. Adding in momentum to the player's movement would make combat more challenging and punish mistakes more greatly -- something that's definitely needed. Healing and injuries aren't granular enough. Pressing right click on a bandage to heal is... fine, and the healing effectiveness system does help add an element of risk/reward to armor, but I would love to see a detailed system of wounds come to VS a la Project Zomboid. This would likely have to include an expansion of the locational damage/body part system to work right; i.e. leg injuries reduce movement speed, head injuries make you woozy, arm injuries make it harder to swing weapons and tools, etc. Having to deal with semi-random injuries on the fly during a combat situation would add yet another layer of complexity atop a movement rework to flesh out the combat experience. Armor needs a polishing pass. In vanilla, plate and brigandine are noob traps. Brigandine feels like it's supposed to be a worse, less expensive alternative to plate, but iron and meteoric iron are so easy to come by compared to how tedious it is to make leather in bulk that the expense idea sort of goes out the window. Plate offers great protection, but the movement speed and hunger debuffs are severe enough to the point that plate ends up doing worse for me than scale or chainmail. It's generally better to retain movement speed via medium armor and defend yourself with a shield. The only times I break out the plate are during story quests and when I want to spend temporal storms outdoors. I'm not entirely certain how one would fix this, though. It's just a shame because both brig and plate are easily the prettiest armor currently available. Enemies in general ought to be reworked. Not only do none of the mobs in ths game make footstep noises -- lack of audio feedback is my biggest pet peeve with VS -- but having only three common enemy types with minor variation is not especially engaging after a hundred hours or so. (That said, I love shivers. Even the surface ones creep me out. It rules!) I would love to see more enemy types and variants, more threatening surface mobs, and more opportunistic enemy AI that avoids a player with armor in good condition/high health and vice versa instead of fleeing randomly.

Maybe with the updated weaving system there'd be a way to "chisel" clothing items? Fully customizable clothing would give Tailor more of an identity, especially in multiplayer where other players could pay handsomely for exquistite drip.

I see what you mean. I just wish there was something else there for Tailor in general. Its existing utility is questionable given that the temperature system isn't as fleshed out as it could be (i.e. no penalties for hyperthermia yet), so clothing repair isn't something that's as useful as it really ought to be. Sure, tailored gambeson is amazing, but if the class is relegated to The Tailored Gambeson Class, I struggle to think why one would pick Tailor over Blackguard or Hunter for any reason except not having to specialize into melee/ranged. Having to repair armor less frequently is nice but not a need-to-have perk. I also disagree with the idea that Tailor already has utility as a trade class by making and selling clothing -- flax is so game-warpingly necessary for long-term progression that spending a limited supply in the early game for minimal ROI on gears makes less sense than picking Malefactor for the bonus gear drop rate and/or panning a ton of bony soil for gems to sell to artisan traders. As far as buffs to the class in the current state of the game, without totally axing it and replacing it with a new one, here are some thoughts: Bonus to healing effectiveness (Tailor is good with a needle and thread, should translate well to stitching up wounds) Bonus to trade value (To augment Tailor's utility re: making expensive clothing) Exclusive way to upgrade existing clothing and/or armor (Gamboised reinforcement, sewing-in of additional metal scales for an armor bonus, temp resist bonus for clothing, etc) Exclusive cheaper recipes for armor which include textiles or leather (Has the extra effect of potentially making brigandine more useful by making it less expensive) Double disagree -- the real challenge class is Commoner.

THANK YOU!! See, this is something that really rubs me the wrong way when people talk about class rebalances: Nobody seems to understand that each class ought to be good at more than one thing! Blackguard is my favorite example of this, especially when people throw out the idea of "the mining class": Blackguard is the mining class. It just happens to also be the melee combat class, because what's the most likely environment in which you'll engage in melee combat? Mining deep underground, where you can't leverage a ranged advantage like you can on the surface! In this same vein, Hunter isn't just "the hunting class," it's the ranged combat class, because ranged attacks are often the best way to hunt efficiently. This is the same reason why there isn't a dedicated "farming class" or "smithing class," because every player is expected to have to engage with smithing and farming to progress throughout the game. It makes more sense from an engagement perspective to give classes a wide range of areas in which they can be useful instead of pigeonholing them into very specific activities. Does it sound fun to pick the Wood Chopping Class and spend your entire save file chopping wood?

The only base classes that really need work imo are Tailor and Clockmaker, imo. I personally dislike Malefactor, but I understand why it exists as it does. Tailor is bad at everything in exchange for being able to craft DripTM and the best light armor in the game (not a good trade). Clockmaker needs fleshing out, I think, but that's a problem for a different post. To amend this, I propose the following: Remove Tailor and replace it with a new class, tentatively called the Diplomat. Diplomat Words were all you had. Order didn't require violence. Only lies. Diplomats are experienced traders, roving far in search of a deal. Their affinity for finery leaves them ill-prepared for some harships of nature. Wanderer (+10% walk speed, +15% faster while mounted or sailing) Well-vested (Exclusive craftable sewing kit and tailored gambeson armor) Haggler (20% better prices) Civil (-10% loot from foraging) Weak (-2 health points, -10% mining speed) Kind (-10% animal loot, -25% harvesting speed) The point of this is to allow a class an angle of resource gathering that other classes don't really focus on: Trade. Sure, Malefactor gets bonus rusty gear drops, but as a dedicated exploration class, its utility falls off quickly once you're into the bronze age or further. Diplomat would allow for long-distance trading as an activity to be more useful to a group of players in multiplayer, and its utility remains constant throughout the ages thanks to bonus movement speed and being able to traverse long distances faster without relying on the randomness of translocators. Additionally, Diplomat would still get access to sewing kits and tailored gambeson armor -- someone who spends most of their time on the road would likely retain the know-how of maintaining clothing and flexible, lightweight armor. (Also, the rest of Tailor's class-exclusive clothing would simply be made not class-exclusive. Now everyone can have reindeer herder coats!)

Surface instability should change gradually and randomly between regions. No place should be safe forever.

Oh, I have several. The player's very limited inventory space is a fine choice from a realism perspective, but clashes badly with the incredible amount of item bloat that this game has, and the hoops the player needs to jump through in order to get a slightly larger inventory are tedious at best and annoying at worst. Plus, the realism idea is out the window anyway -- the player can comfortably carry 640 cubic meters of soil without any inventory upgrades (around 700,000 - 800,000 metric tons). Combat Overhaul is a good mod that's held back by limp animation, and that problem is exacerbated by locking each class into a specific weapon type with the proficiency trait system. Flax is a terrible crop that warps the entire farming experience around itself. Mob loot shouldn't be reduced if the mob is hit by lightning or falls to death. Mobs should make footstep sounds. All of them. Every mob. Brigandine and plate are pointless. Cracked tool vessels are too common and too generous with their drops.

having decided to start my current save in a warm climate as opposed to the usual temperate, i surprisingly found myself missing winter. my home doesn't get snow at all except at high elevation, and the cold ended up being no big deal - the coldest it got was, like, -9 C. losing out on winter meant i fell a little too far into the usual routine instead of being forced to spend more time indoors decorating, building, and mining.

Ooh, one more: "TOBG" - Attempt to craft a diamond pickaxe.

"Become the Beast" - Kill a bear while wearing a full set of bear-hide armor. "Moderation is For Suckers" - Experience -40 degree and +40 degree temperatures. "1 in 9 million" - Be killed by lightning twice. "Flaxmaxxing" - Create a full set of windmill sails, a full set of gamboised/tailored gambeson armor, and a boat. "Extreme Tedium Challenge" - Craft 40 chains from ingots without the aid of a helve hammer. "Part of a Complete Breakfast" - Plant one of every type of crop. "It Has Been [0] Days" - Cause a large fire via irresponsible pit kiln usage. "Nothing Lasts Forever" - Shatter a Tier 3 refractory brick block during a firing. "By Our Powers Combined" - Craft a full stack of Terra Preta. "Fasting Slowly" - Survive for 5 days at 20% satiety or less.

"Maximum Overdrive" - Build a windmill at the build height limit. "Mass Production" - Forge 20 iron blooms into ingots within 5 minutes. "Rock Enjoyer" - Visit every kind of rock stratum at least once. "Beam Me Up" - Travel 50,000 blocks, cumulatively, via translocator. "Audiophile" - Obtain every tuning cylinder. "Motion Sickness is Merely a Construct" - Reach maximum drunkenness during a heavy temporal storm. "Rust World Safari" - Spend an entire temporal storm outdoors. "Practical Historiography" - Fully restore a set of Forlorn Hope or Blackguard armor. "Jump Scare" - Be killed by a drifter or animal that spawned within 5 blocks of you. "Yarr" - Kill a drifter while seated in a boat. "Have You Tried Being Productive Instead?" - Spend 5 hours chiseling blocks. "Fancy Lad" - In each applicable clothing slot, wear clothing that's sold/bought by Luxury Traders. "ABC" - Make 100 gears by selling items to traders. "Great Khan" - Kill a drifter with a bow while riding an elk. "Nothing Beats Rock" - Kill 20 animals and/or drifters by pelting them with stones. "1,000 Cuts" - Be killed by bees. "Icarus Has Nothing On Me" - Die of fall damage while wearing a glider. "The Forbidden Snack" - Eat a meal that deals 50 or more damage to you.

fully agreed on that. i do think that CO's implementation of damage types is a little clunky -- i especially dislike how class-based weapon proficiencies lock you in to one or two damage types -- but having different weapons be suitable for different situations is a good idea. like, you probably shouldn't try to kill a bear with a shortsword, and using a crappy spear to fight eldritch monsters from beyond the pale seems like a bad idea.

aphex and brian eno are great picks, but listening to the caretaker while playing this game is absolutely diabolical. who hurt you?

don't sleep on the fruit bread! it lasts for over a year in a cellar and can very easily be made so that one piece gives over 1000 satiety. also, tree saps and syrup add healing to fruit breads and muffins in addition to being a good source of long-term fruit satiety. in particular birch and maple syrup add +4 hp healing, which is quite significant. you can also create candied fruits and berries with their syrups (i.e. cranberries with cranberry syrup) to get a sat boost, a small hp bonus, and a massive buff to shelf life.

a contrasting argument to wearing armor and/or fighting from a distance: without armor, at 100% movement speed, a player (any class) can outmaneuver a bear. always be holding CTRL! all you really need to do at that point is lead the bear to an open area and circle strafe while sprinting and stab it to death with a spear. this is obviously way riskier than fighting it in water or the pillar/ranged method, but it's my go-to. that aside, if you want to be totally safe, a bronze/iron shield works wonders.