Hello everyone,
I would like to share with you my experience after playing Vintage Story for about a month. I am going to write down short, straight forward points. My experience comes form playing on private multiplayer server with small, but dedicated playerbase.
Before I get in to the negatives I would like to say what I find great about this game. I love the aesthetics, art style, realistic (more less) weather, built in shaders, smithing and metal working, ore generation, geology aspect of this game, easy to mod.
Now to the negatives:
-issues with food spoilage on multiplayer servers
this so far was and still is the most frustrating thing to deal with that needs to get fixed. The sooner the better. Going on a journey with food in your inventory, needing to log off quickly and after a while coming back on the server I find all my food rotten while in the middle of nowhere. Working on a base is less annoying since your are near your food source, but still nearly 30-40% of my tasks on the server were revolved around solving food situation. Meanwhile your crops are dying, foods in vessels spoiling with winter just around the corner. This mechanic is very punishing and it almost feels like this game disrupts your daily routine, as stupid as it sounds. This was the main thing that drove me away from playing.
-tools, weapons, armor durability too low
Pretty self explanatory. The amount of time and resources I spend making a pickaxe does not quite return the investment. I have to invest so much time in to finding ores, smelting, casting and smiting. Before I get new pickaxe my old ones is almost broken and the circle repeats. This in turn drives me away from doing something else in the game. Not being able to repair my tools is also a handicap.
I stumbled up on this thread where user by the name of PhotriusPyrelus describes it well. https://www.vintagestory.at/forums/topic/5534-tool-durability/
-inventory issues
With amount of items this game has the inventory is too small. 4-5 slots are taken by tools/weapons, about 2 slots for food, and with backpacks you still need to make frequent trips back and forth from your base to empty stuff. You can't spend much time doing something far away from base foraging or exploring.
-terrain generation, exploration and travel
These three are closely interconnected. Terrain generation does not offer much. You have small lakes, some mountains, deserts, plains, forest and something between. Other thank that it feels barren. I wish there were seas and rivers. Rivers would be nice addition since you could travel on them once boats and ships get added. Slow running speed, difficult terrain, no mounts makes it hard to get to places and trying to explore further away from spawn. I am aware of translocators, but I am speaking about the near area where you spawn. And even if you get thru a translocator you are still limited to near area. Speaking of translocators, I went thru one and on the other side I spawned inside blocks with no translocator to get back.
-trees hard to farm and low seed drops from plants
low sapling drop makes it almost impossible to reforest areas previously cut down. Seeds drops from crops is laughable. Don't understand these aspects when plants normally try to produce as much seeds as possible to ensure their survival. The grains I harvest from flax and other similar crops can not be planted. Don't know why so. Really does not make sense.
-steel making painfully difficult
Having to sit near my furnace worrying about fuel and time it takes to convert is just too much considering how little durability tools, armor and weapons have. And I am not talking how much time it took me to get to this stage where I can finally produce steel. Did not feel rewarding at the end.
-other annoyances
I was once exiting a cave and while looking at the exit I see a ram just charging at me. You might think I punched this ram, but that was not the case. I might have just passed by him and while exiting the cave he was above me but still within the detection range to make him angry? I really did not why, but this happened tom me twice and twice died to this. Once smithing I accidentally clicked on longblade instead of pickaxe. The game did not let me undo this mistake despite not removing or moving a single bit on the steel ingot. Drifters do not make footstep noises so it's always a jump scare for me when I get hit. They make growling noises, but sometimes the ai decides to be silent for a while when it is charging at you.
These all combined and other minor aspects makes this game less enjoyable in later stages of gameplay. early game is fun till iron age. My friend got already tired, some other individuals too, some still playing. We both don't spend much time playing due to work and real life stuff. Feels like you have to invest a lot of time in to this game to get some meaningful satisfaction from playing, and a lot of time is something I don't have. I am patient and dedicated, but this game tries my patience a lot. Don't get me wrong. Some aspects of this game are great and if this game gets more content added, bugs fixed, overhauled I can see it compete with other titles like MInecraft or upcoming Hytale, but for that development needs kick to higher gears.
Cheers.
