MagpieOAO

I think so! A lot of people thought it was a bug they have so little windup and clip into you. If I see a wolf before it sees me, it's going to get pelted with rocks until it keels over

I'm seeing this system pop up now and again more frequently but I think it does because it's a good one. Examples are; Abiotic factor, Elden ring, Project zomboid, fallout, and many more. You still start by picking a class, then you have points to spend based on that class. By default, class specific perks are tied to the class, but there are a number of generic perks you can use to further customize your character. I would further suggest the ability to purchase starting gear with points as well or even to start at a region of choice at the cost of points. Some people don't care about perks, but maybe they'll enjoy skipping right to having a full set of cloth bags and a bronze pick in a desert region if they so choose. So it looks something like; Pick commoner (20 points) Get a set of clothing and no special traits Select Protector (higher chance to passively block with a shield, more damage blocked) 10 points Athlete (sprint faster but drains satiety faster) 5 points Woodsman (collect double sap, sticks and seeds) 5 points Take nervous get 5 points back Start with hunters pack backpacks (3 points) Start with one temporal gear (2 points) So you have a commoner with the traits :Protector, Athletic, Woodsman, Nervous You start with common clothes, 4 hunters backpacks, and a temporal gear. ------------- Pick hunter (5 points) Take ravenous get 10 points (now 15 points) Select good soup (allowing you to craft more nutritive soups) 3 points Mushroom Epicurean (cooked poison mushrooms lose their damage) 3 points Good eyes (better vison in darkness on surface, caves are still pitch black) 5 points Start with a temporal gear (2 points) Start with baskets (2 points) You start with hunters clothes and perks, along with ravenous, good soup, mushroom epicurean and good eyes. You have a temporal gear and 4 baskets.

I think the best system is an origin/perks and points system we see in several games from elden ring ( which gives you additional points by being lower level) to Project zomboid to old fallout and tabletop games. EX: Commoner starts with no special gear, gets 20 points. They can spend 5 points on athleticism which gives them higher jumping, faster sprinting 5 points on woodsman giving them a bonus for picking up sticks and drops from trees while doing extra damage to trees Protector for 10 points giving them a bonus to passively block with shields and increased damage blocked But they really want "Good soup" which is a 2 point trait that makes soups extra nutritive from a fine sprinkling of herbs, so they take nervous, a negative trait and get 5 points back, then to round out the build they choose to start with a temporal gear for 2 points and baskets for 1 point. So: Commoner, starts with standard clothes and no special equipment, crafting ability or traits; -5 for Athlete -5 for Woodsman -10 for protector + 5 for nervous -2 for good soup -2 for starting with a temporal gear -1 for starting with baskets

Good point, and I hadn't thought of that!

As someone who hasn't made it to the bronze age. Clockmaker; Can actually make clockwork things + An early game pendant that reduces the rate at which you lose temporal stability and which you gain it back (A neck watch?) + Mechanized clockpunk tools; EX buzzsaw with a crank, the crank tensions a series of gears pressing a long spring into the shaft of the saw. When activated the spring turns the gears, spinning a rotary sawblade. Also a jackhammer, and shovel. Though not designed AS weapons, it's hard to deny their brief bursts of effectiveness before needing to be re-wound. Can also be found rarely in ruins or traders. (For Tinkerer trait) + Midgame can make a temporal gear powered clock that reduces the duration of temporal storms + Moves faster during temporal storms Blackguard; By A N Y means + Sometimes things got dire. Very dire. Addon to Merciless, Blackguards can make a special club akin to many wood-age warriors with bits of bone, stone or metal (Arrowheads) driven into the surface of the club to act as a very crude hacking weapon. Not very durable but exceptionally damaging as the weapon tended to break apart and leave jagged bits in its foes. + Can eat rot or uncooked food at a reduced nutritional value + Can make bone broth soup from bones and water - Clumsy, due to the noise you make, animals can spot you from further away All of these traits are effective and make the class different almost immediately and in most circumstances. Also provide some means (with flavor) to counteract the hunger debuff and make it more interesting as you may be forced into some unsavory choices....(I do hope those piles of bones were animals...) Hunter, the sneak archer you have been since skyrim + Poison: Hunters can make poison from damaging mushrooms by stewing them in a pot with water. This will render the pot residue covered. Poison can then be applied to weapons including projectiles which slows and damages the poisoned victim. This makes it easier to actually hunt things and should be useful throughout the playthrough, also good for friends. - The storms are so different than the forest, its rhythm, its calmness, you can't stop shaking during these confounded unnatural events (accuracy decreased in temporal storms) - You lose temporal stability faster than others when below ground (Addon to claustrophobic) Some downsides to hunters in line with their role. Malefactor sneaky plucky survivor + Snare: A simple rope trap that once stepped in, tightens around the limb and roots its victim to a spot. This is useful on tiny to medium sized animals. A bear or shiver isn't going to get caught in this. + Caltrop: A jagged bit of sharpened metal made to point a sharp side upwards no matter how it falls, this tiny spike brings the pain and slow to anything that treads on it and will be embedded in them, but can usually be recovered afterwards. + Stake trap: Sharpening a log down to stake, which can be placed in the ground, walls or combined to make a wall that will hurt and repel whatever hits it. Can be used for some nasty traps, just don't fall in it yourself. + Climbing rope: ladder made of knotted rope. It takes more effort to climb but less to make. -Heavy conscience: Witnessing the monsters reminds you of what was done. You're not so different, are you? Temporal stability drains around monsters (not animals). You could run, or you could repeat the mistakes of the past.... More around mobility, sneaking and avoiding fights with a bit of flavor in the form of a downside to their upside. Tailor + Cloaks. Taking the pendant slot and giving both warmth and protection over the torso, head and legs. Cloaks can come in many colors and designs, can be found or purchased from traders. + Hammock: Made with linen, string and a couple of logs this cozy bed doesn't require much to make but lets you sleep in better than a straw bed and can be easily picked back up. + Padded inserts; Tailors can create an assortment of padding or plates to add to clothing to create armored versions of those clothes. Effectively you're taking an item and making it X armor and now follows all the rules of X armor, but gives the appearance of the clothing. Why the heck would we have someone who makes all kinds of beautiful clothes...only for them to be covered up by armor!? Probably some restrictions on how far you can go though, maybe chain at best.

I could at least see something like a spline (think of it like a little faucet in the tree to drain sap) that'll fill buckets placed under it over time, but a very long time. Maybe you get enough to reduce down by cooking it to get a few units of sap. This way it can be reliably, passively collected but still limited by time and refinement.

I agree not in that they should be more dangerous per-say but it would be better if nights and temporal storms had reasons to actually go out in them aside from desperation. One thing I have noticed is at night, some trader Caravans are lit up which is a good way to organically give direction to players to find something new at night. Maybe another could be meteorites with ore that drop at night. Not only beautiful to watch, but most visible at night while in the day they only smolder slightly. Glowbugs of course, but maybe something else too like nocturnal animals or creatures that otherwise hide in caves and in trees or rifts come out at night with drops that aren't progression tied, but are very useful.

The most robust but 'simple' combat systems I've seen are in Chivalry, Mordhau, Mount and blade where you have 4 axis of attack (left/right overhead and stab) but are fighting enemies with the same 4 directions. A huge part of it is the strikes are "ray-traced" which means the game is actually calculating where your weapon is as it swings to determine whether it hits as the swing is still going. This means by spinning your character left, right or even leaning forward, back while swinging, you can speed up or slow down swings. Due to this, there are restrictions placed on how quickly you can swing and how much you can turn while swinging. Weapons will bounce off terrain or blocked attacks, leaving you open. The result though is a combat system with a lot of depth to master even if it's relatively simplistic. I have no idea if the game can do something even approaching that =/ Where should my expectation be on any kind of melee improvements?

Fishing, as mentioned above for sure. I would like to see some polishing on combat. The ranged system I feel is pretty good, the blocking is a good mechanic but melee attacking feels extremely basic and there's no nuance, hold the button and walk towards/away from enemy. I would like to see combat polished but don't know what the engine is capable of doing. If the game had mordhau/Chivalry/Mount and blade raytraced 4 directional swings and parrying with enemies having telegraphed attacks and ways to parry/counter them, that'd be bonkers and I'd be fighting all the time.

You could even just do a lot with water and herbs; Clean water heals a bit over a long time. You can get clean water by boiling it, from a well or by purifying it with a filter. A basic filter is a barrel with gravel, sand and charcoal, producing clean water over time from dirty water. By combining herbs with water you get tea! Good for a while until it becomes lukewarm tea which is less effective. (Whatever properties of the herbs) Herbs with alcohol can produce wines and ales with their properties (preserved for longer) or essences which produce a smaller but far more potent product that can then be added to clean water to produce the tea. ----------- Example: You get a bunch of Mint and produce tea for immediate consumption which provides some healing and warmth. You start a batch of mint alcohol in your cellar and using some existing leftover alcohol, through a distiller you create mint essence. Now as you wait for your mint alcohol to finish (ingame months) you can create mint tea by adding essence to clean water, making it a lot more convenient to enjoy while you have the mint alcohol for long trips or trading.

I've only just discovered this and have been pleasantly surprised to find a few, but some especially partially submerged ones, I'm not sure. Also is there any point to digging around altars? The big 6x6 rock tables with arches around them. I tried but didn't find anything =/

Ultimately I think it'd be sweet to have a class customization system of the older RPG types; Perks cost points, negatives give points. Better/worse perks cost/give more points. Sure it may be a pain to balance, but it's not an inherently competitive game so I wouldn't expect that to be too big of an issue. Though if the vision is to be more in line with the story and maybe even have ties to it, that's fine by me too. I do like the class specific equipment, lore and some special crafting/perks.

I jump at practically every creeping thing in the dark so I'm utterly filled with dread as I try to 'access control' a cave by blocking off portions I've explored so only small areas easily lit with torches are all I gotta deal with. I've just come from a room that went from sandstone (fairly bright) to basalt with a waterfall tumbling down I don't know how far. It was beautiful but also incredibly eerie and being in the middle of winter I'm ready to run home and cautiously making my way back up. When a tangle of limbs and tattered rags lands on top of me. I wildly swipe with a makeshift club, knocking it away and sending it skittering away a few feet where it curls up in a corner and begins shivering. Having been chased by them on a few occasions, I have absolutely no desire to try to run past it and the rest of the way up. So I press on after it, bashing the shivering, whimpering creature that has curled itself into a ball wildly with a rusty scrap studded club until it lets out a tortured groan and curls into itself. I'm not the monster. I just wanted to be left alone...

I mistook "brass" for "bronze" when melting all my present copper with some zinc I've found, only to discover it's a bit useless One thing I had seen before was brass lamellae can be forged, but if I go to the ingame wiki it doesn't show me any armor that can be made of it. Is brass only good for torches, lanterns, plaques and such? Failing that, can it be used as intermediate purposes like the rod needed in a juice press? Is it possible to melt back down the lamellae I've made? Or can they be used to at least repair lamellae armor of a useful metal? Thanks!

Given the Seraph have voices of instruments clearly we have multiple voices in hour head that break into spontaneous music on the occasion that can only be muffled with sleep or sealing ourselves in a tomb (I noticed music stops if you enter a cave or build one).

I dare to dream but maybe there would be multiple slings and projectiles. If a bow is a 'rifle" a sling is a "pistol" and the malefactor gets access to a very easy to make sling the same way the hunter gets a makeshift bow. Progression of slings would be materials to a point (probably leather strap + quilted linin being the top for accuracy, range and a wee bit of damage though slower for a longer, stronger sling) but mostly be projectiles, from raw stones to smoothed stones to baked clay projectiles or even lead projectiles, which is historically some of the options they had.

Now I don't know much about bear traps, but I expect they're staked into the ground and/or weighted, given the idea isn't just to maim the animal but keep it there so all you have to do is return to where you've placed traps. I'd think maybe weaker monsters might get stuck or slowed but yeah a nightmare would barely notice it.

Given the team is working on a crocodile model already, it came to mind (being a masochist, apparently) to use something between that and a shiver to make an aquatic monster mob that is something like a legged tentacle with a gaping maw. Fast in the water than out, but you're not safe if you just get out of the water either. 1X3 or so, it can also fit into/through small gaps and have a higher tendency to spawn in dark water. Meaning that little cave waterfall/stream might soon be spewing out writhing horrors.

I do agree on the idea of progression but imo it should take the form of traps. Starting with something like sharpening stakes to make a pit trap, to springmetal bear traps and things inbetween. Not only could they be used for hunting, but defense as well. Drop a few traps behind you and be sure not to forget them. A shiver with its foot stuck in a beartrap won't be quite as fast.

I think the whimsical, peaceful soundtracks on the surface provide a nice contrast to the creeping sounds and tracks of the deep or the time storms.

The game continues to unfold and naturally open up without any NPC's, questlines or prompting. Just needs, tools and the way the enviroment works. I've just gotten to where I can bake my own bread and yet because of the nutrition system, meals are not obsolete. Even if I can make pies, once I have a source for wax I can put meals into crocks and seal them for the winter or long journeys. Every inch of advancement has taken me time and effort but also feels rewarding. All the tools you have to build a house and shape the appearance of things, I've created a much nicer home than I ever did in minecraft where I never felt much inclination towards it. Yet here in the beautiful setting of things I'm always inspired to try new materials and build in new ways. Basically between this game and helldivers, I think I'm set haha.

Not only that, but it's quite good. It's probably one of the reasons I got the game and first made a malefactor. Everyone's familiar with David and Goliath, but less have probably heard of the Balearic slingers. Basically you had some IRL vintage story as people crashed onto a (relatively) small island with minimal resources and eventually developed a very low tech culture mostly using sticks, stones, cloth from flax and sheep that had been on the ship. Unfortunately for them, there were also (somehow) wolves on the Island. If I recall it's in the middle of the Mediterranean sea, and the Island was large enough for this little civilization to go generations shepherding their flocks but fighting off wolves with slings, to the point that children were being taught how to use slings alongside learning how to walk. One day a ship happened across the Island and re-opened their connection to the world, where over time people would recognize their amazing skill at slings. Even to the point of hiring them as mercenaries. If I recall, a Roman general was so impressed that he decided all soldiers should always have a sling, being that it's made of practically nothing, weighs practically nothing and ammo can be picked up off the ground, but is capable of harassing and injuring the enemy force from far distances. We've recovered projectiles they would use, many of these "bullets" where simple stone projectiles but could even be clay, lead or carefully worn and chiseled stones, sometimes with things carved into them like a lightning bolt or even what translates into "Ouch!" the same way people in WW2 would paint on bombs Would be cool to see slings expanded on, but I'm happy we even have em.

Parrying and countering- Rather than crouching to block, blocking receives a separate keybind and blocking right before an attack hits gives bonus damage reduction. And if possible, attacking before an enemy strike lands does bonus damage. How to- Parry Shields have a maximum and minimum reduction value based on how long the bock button has been held. A buckler might have a damage reduction of 5 that drops to 2 after 1 second, while a normal shield might have a damage reduction value of 4 that drops to 3 after .5 seconds. While a tower shield has a value of 5.5 that drops to 5 after .3 seconds. A successful parry should have some kind of distinct sound to let you know you've parried the strike, you shouldn't have to check your HP bar. With the separate button being used for blocking, you should be able to block using any tool or weapon but usually at rates inferior to shields. Weapon type traits/attacks- Breaking down weapons into a set of categories with certain traits, a special attack, and then using this as the basis to break down into subcategories. 3 types; Blunt, Slashing, Stabbing. Each has a special attack which has a cooldown and drains satiety to represent required effort and specific traits. We already have some traits related to harvesting, this extends those traits into combat. Type- Blunt Examples - Clubs, Maces, Hammers, Staves Special attack - Hammerblow: This is your typical stun attack, enemies are either stunned on the spot or at least slowed and attack less frequently after receiving a hammerblow. Traits- Blunt weapons usually require less metal, have higher durability and higher attack magnitude (armor penatration) but with lower damage. Usually they have a lower range but with some exceptions such as staves. Usually their attack speed is slower and a longer cooldown on hammerblow. Hammerblow CAN be used for harvesting. Type -Thrust Examples - Spears, pikes, daggers, gladius Special attack - Riposte: Ideally, this attack does more damage to enemies in the middle of an attack animation and cancels their attack. But more simply, it could just shove them far enough away they should have a hard time connecting and have a low cooldown and cost. Traits- Usually better range on average, lower durability, moderate attack magnitude and fastest attacks. Very defensive or counter-attack based IF that function can be implemented Type - Slash Examples - Machete, saber, cleaver, longsword Special attack - Cleave: Hits in an arc in front of you with extended range and damage, can hit multiple enemies. Can be used on either a very low cooldown, or if possible a few times before triggering a cooldown. This can also be used to hack through leaves, brush, grass in a wider area. Traits- Middle of the road in durability and magnitude, but higher base damage and most materials required to make. Coatings Using the brewing/herbalism system that's planned and hoped for, one can use various concoctions of otherwise noxious herbs and mushrooms to create coatings for weapons and projectiles. Like with glue, any vessel made for coatings can no longer be used for food or glue. Weapons will have multiple uses per application before it wears off, based on the quality and volume of the coating. Projectiles that can be recovered only get one use each, but you can stew multiple arrows or throwing spears in coatings to bulk coat them. Coating effects might include; Poison (damage over time, slows) Fire (Chance to burn enemies and emits light) Tranquilizer (causes beasts to go into a sleep animation) Rust (A supernatural effect from the rust world distortion, deals additional damage to players and monsters)

What is the pit trap people are reccomending? Do they fall into 4x4 pits and can't get out? I'm surprised we have a snare, but no spikes or punji pits we could make for agressive wildlife. Might be a mod for it, but I'm loath to start heading down the same path I have in the past of trying to install numerous mods, ensure compatibility and spend more time tweaking the experience than just enjoying what's in the game.

Do ruins largely only spawn on flat terrain? Seems to be my experience. And so far it seems to me that if a ruin doesn't have a basement (digging a level or 2 down to see if there's more there) then aside from maybe a pot or bony soil, there's not much else to them but a handful of cobblestone blocks. Is that about right? Thanks!