Bruno Willis

These are really not what I'm thinking about - those are ruins which are a reward for the same reason that vanilla ruins are a reward, just amped up. I think ruins which facilitate or complicate long distance travel would really aid the game. They don't have to be grandiose or complex at all, just intended to impact long travel. Imagine running into a long wall - just that - and you'll either need to cut through it, ramp over it, or find the gatehouse. It gives your travel a little more meaning. Same with bridges, tunnels, etc. This'd go even harder if it were long, serious mountain ranges with passes through them. Finding the pass would feel amazing, you'd note it on your map, and it would end up being a key travel feature.

Welcome! Yeah, this is a side of the topic that gets not enough thought - not what the raw numbers of damage say or don't say, but what combat feels like. I'd love it if drifters mocked me when I missed. I'd guess that the animation thing is probably something the devs work on as they go. If the way things looked and sounded was more intuitive and evocative, that would actually go a long way to improving combat, without needing to touch the "too hard" vs. "too easy" debate. I'd love it if drifters started "arguing" with each other while hitting each other, if you manage to get them fighting amongst themselves. It'd give them so much more character. I'd also love it if you could give drifters cooked food to give them a 1 min passive phase while they chomp it down. Just a bit more variation for escaping them - also for predator animals, I'd love it if they paused over their kills and had a good chomping session before moving on. It looks really odd when a bear is just charging from chicken to chicken, killing them all as if they'd just murdered his trauma recovery dog. I don't know about this one. I feel like hunting animals are trying to be quiet, and I really dislike all the animals in the environment just making random noises at noting - it makes it really obvious that they're just chunks of code. It'd be cool if when one wolf howled, all the others in the local area would howl back, things like that, but I'd hate it if animals just made sounds so you could tell where they were. That'd feel like they're trying to jump in your cooking pot. Whether they're scared of you or stalking you, they don't want to be heard.

I sort of feel this one, but not because it feels like the distances are too far between things. Distances are not meaningful yet. summary: we could do with NPCs and Ruins which try to distract or lead astray, and the world generation could do with some thought on a larger scale: long distances traveled = big geology needed. Also, I love the game as is. I don't need these changes, I just want them cause I think they'd improve travel. At the moment you need to prepare for a long journey, you need an elk, sailing ship, or both, and plenty of travel food. You need gear, spare cooking pots, etc, and you need to lock up your home during the most productive growing times: this is great. It feels like I'm going on a trip. Then I travel, and travel, and travel in a relatively straight line, avoiding obstacles. The generation is gorgeous, but it is procedurally generated so it does get old. I'll eventually get to my goal, somewhat depleted, and then probably go one step further and squeeze my resources. That part also feels great. But think about travel in stories: the walking walking walking is almost entirely skipped (except in LOTR), and what shows through are the moments when you interact with challenges/characters along the way. I think ruins do a good job of offering a minor distraction, traders too, but nothing bar story events feels like the sort of distraction to really derail or alter your journey. I am sure that as the game nears completion this is something which will become easier to fix by adding lying traders who send you to death-trap ruins or tell you you are going the wrong way, by adding tempting offers from other traders to significant but not story location ruins - distracting you, tempting you away from your goal. That sort of thing feels like something they will do when the core gameplay and story is closer to finished, and I think it would help make the travel story feel more meaningful. The other thing to do would be to give world generation more broad-strokes intention. The nitty gritty land feels good to me, and on the medium scale I really like the sorts of hills and valleys, and swamp-land and the way they blend into each other: traveling on a medium scale lets me make/learn a story about how the land was shaped. But on a continents scale, not so much. I think it would be good to use something during world gen that essentially gouges great chasms in long (continent long) lines, and does the same with mountains - draws these long lines across the map. The lines would be able to intersect, and would become the raised center of larger land-masses or the deepest points in larger oceans. Making the grand scale generation more intentional would mean there is more story to uncover as you travel long distance. It's a geological story, but it's one that actually feels really meaningful: Imagine traveling for two days, and you've noticed you're going up, gradually, the whole time. That moment when you hit the other side and look out over new land would feel so much more significant. It'd also help us generate more maps with real continents and oceans. Rivers would be part of this, I think, and I think they would need to be integrated into the world gen far better than the mods do. (river tunnels? Blurg!) Rivers seem like something that will give much more story to long-distance travel. Following the river most of the way? Very cool. Trying to cross the river, but you're in mountainous terrain and it's a steep gorge? Very challenging. When rivers come it'll make these long travel times feel more interesting. I also think that with grander scale generation tools the devs could add some grander scale ruins generation: fortified passes through mountains which are now ruined, old bridges over rivers, collapsed or not, Tunnels into (and maybe through) mountain ranges. Ruined roads crossing plains, maybe going in a helpful direction. That's what would make long-distance travel really shine for me. I would love to be approaching a mountain range (still half a day away) and see a tunnel into the earth, which looks like it goes straight. What a choice! If the tunnel is intact, I save so much time... The same with a bridge or a pass. These'd also be small tips which any trader could offer freely or for a small cost, which would make me genuinely grateful to the trader. I'd feel like they'd traveled the land, and were actively helping me on my long journey. So essentially, ruins which are a treasure just because they make long-distance travel easier, and large scale generation which makes large scale challenges.

Don't carry armor. Shields are great! They don't slow you down, and they make rust-monsters pretty risk-free. Armor is for the depths and bosses (in my opinion). I've been in steel for a while and I'm still knapping flint axes and the occasional shovel. I don't know, I feel like there's something satisfying about taking things slow. This for sure. I seriously haven't noticed any trouble with foes in my home space (except that time two bears got stuck in my walled garden - delicious), but I think it would be more fun if perimeter walls and palisades were more encouraged by game-rules than just for the aesthetics and lore.

I would love it if bears scratched trees to mark their territory, then spent their days going from scratch-mark to scratch-mark, hunting when something gets near. They'd still be quiet and terrifying, but it would be more of a "Oh shit, is that a scratch mark on that tree behind me? What have I done!" than a straight up "is the bear chasing me yet?" More of a slow building fear you know? I also think that would be a good way to generate new resin logs (I've said this before, it is my dearest wish). On the other hand, I think you get used to bears. They really aren't that bad once your eye is trained in to spot them, and you're ready run at any instant (I never wear armor above ground for this reason. What's the point of being able to take 2 hits from a bear when it's faster than you? I'd rather be able to run away).

Oof. That sucks. You've got to be very careful with those (as in real life). Double and triple check there's no air holes or part-full wood stacks before you light it, and make sure to cover it up after lighting. I'd do a really small load next time, just in case. Once you get it right on a small scale, make bigger and bigger pits.

Now that I'm geared up enough to take them on, finding some locust nests feels almost as good as finding ruins.

I've had the same journey - thank you for your tip for regenerating Nadiya, it worked for me too. I've run into a beautiful and horrifying devastation which was also totally devoid of rust-life except some wings in the sky, and I seemed to have a bit of a bug in the tower, being unable to fall through a floor which didn't exist in the modern day, but did in the past (I could see through the floor in the modern day while walking around on it, but the room below appeared to be still in the past). Do any of you know what command would work to reset the devastation? I'd love to experience the horror properly. And if it worked for you in the past, what version were you playing? I'll re-load it in that version and just play it though in that version.

That's a cool base by the way. You are going to have a blast modding VS. Try and play the base game with as few expectations as possible, at least until you've done a bit of the story, but then do look at mods. Things that are clunky and complex in Minecraft just work with VS.

That's how to make biomes smaller. Create new world > (standard) customize > World Generation > Landform scale. Change landfall scale to less than 100% You will be able to find giant red-woods in this game, as well as huge oaks and walnut trees occasionally. The natural tree generation is far better than Minecraft, but in VS you can't silk-touch leaves and place them where you like: they're part of a living tree: Your tree-house dreams are possible, but they'll have to be humbler than in Minecraft. I would really, really suggest just trying to survive a basic game first - no base plans, no big dreams, just get through winter. I promise you, that'll be a fun and challenging challenge. Once you've proven to yourself that you can master the early game, try and find your dream location: by then you'll have a better idea of what is actually good.

Fair. Come back at it fresh another day. I got very frustrated being murdered by very fast wolves over and over again when I first started, but if it suits you, it really is worth persevering. It is by far my favorite game now. Give LadyWYT's post a read and Teh Pizza Lady's: they know what they're talking about.

You're defiantly missing something, but good on you for sticking with it for a good while. What settings did you use to generate your world? I don't know how you've generated a world with only grassland, the generation at the moment is very diverse. I would suggest creating a new world and really customizing it: Use the "standard" gameplay, then click customize. This is what I'd recommend for you: Set death timer for items dropped to 1 hour Tick colour accurate map on (it is off by default because it makes the game much easier). You might also want to give yourself a bit of extra health, walk speed or tool durability, if this is your first play through and you're getting frustrated. Set your landform scale lower than 100%. That'll shrink the size of plains, forested and mountainous regions (although I personally prefer a higher landform scale for realism). Reduce the story structure distance scaling. Increase the surface copper and tin frequencies a little. You'll be playing more of an easy mode, which might be a nice way to find the fun and get a better grip of the mechanics. You can also check your character screen (press c I think), and see what the likelihood of rain is in the area you are in, then choose somewhere with less rain to set up a base. I would also really really recommend spending the nights by reading the guide (press H). It'll help you find things to do during the day, and prepare you to get them done properly. The most important thing though is to remember, this isn't the other block game, it is it's own thing. Take your time, try and figure things out, listen to the sound design, especially rain on the leaves and the sound of molten metal hitting molds, and get into that stone-age mindset. Good luck!

Just updating the existing translocators is a good call. I also think fixing/adapting abandoned tech is maybe a more interesting way of using Jonas parts than crafting entirely new things. I imagine there would be maybe 6 levels of damage which could be repaired, starting cheap and getting progressively more complex, but becoming more and more reliable. If you've repaired 5 levels of damage, it would be 100% reliable, and if you repaired the 6th, perhaps you would be able to pick up and move that end of the translocator?

Damascus Steel Lots of flattening, adding flux, folding, and re-heating. I think steel bits mixed with iron bits would make raindrop damascus. You'd pack them into a crucible, layers of steel bits and flux, heat it to a crazy temperature, and then put the whole thing, crucible and all, onto the anvil and start hammering. The ceramic would shatter off, and you'd lose a lot of steel, and end up with a "flawed steel bar" which you would re-heat, re-flux, and fold, repeat, fold, until you'd worked the flaws out.

I get this, but I think being able to use the same world for a long time is something VS should aim for, so you don't get bored of reading the fantastic lore over and over again. This is a very different idea to the OP's, but might help you keep a world going: Far-reaching Transponders. Big, bulky, overcomplicated versions of the flimsy everyday ones. They'd crop up very rarely and clearly state "Core parts are unreliable, this may be a one-way ticket," and they'd throw you halfway across the world, re-set your spawn to there, and then break (maybe a 90% chance of breaking each use). It'd give people a way to re-start the challenge with whatever they can carry, but keep their story going.

I had a sort of similar experience, riding home on an elk after dark. I didn't have a light source on me, but once I got through the forest it was plains all the way home. It got too dark to really see, so I was using the mini-map to navigate, I thought I'd gotten through the forest, and suddenly I wasn't moving properly. I couldn't understand, the map said I was out of trouble, on the plains. I got off my elk and 'felt around' at the blocks around me. "aged firewood." "chains." I keep sticks on me at all times, and I had a bit of straw, so I made a torch, placed it and lit it by feel with a fire starter, (after a lot of sweat and fear and trouble) and found out I'd ridden down a steep hole into a ruined quarry. I don't know how my elk fit through some of the passages. I left my elk in the ruins, and carefully made my way up, fought drifters, and then found some bismuth. Great, I thought. I'll grab that while I'm here. I'd recently turned cave ins on, and was crushed to death by the ensuing rockfall. I found the mouth of the cave again later, found my gear and got my elk out. I'd ridden into the cave almost as soon as I'd ridden into the forest, but it had been too dark to notice.

I think you've hit the core of it here. Yes, absolutely. I think stone-age gameplay works so well because making flint tools never feels like a waisted resource, and making things like gardens and pottery just sets you up for later. The bronze age equivalent is barrels and leather and boats, which are all good, but it would be nice to see more. Thanks for the in-depth response

Do you think the bronze age and bronze armor needs more love? In reality, bronze is very resistant to corrosion especially compared to iron and steel. Iron and steel armor and tools and could be nerfed by having the rust-world and low stability damage them (rusting them), while bronze tools and armor would be resistant. Maybe that would make bronze feel like a more legitimate choice, until players are well into the iron age?

I really like this idea. There was a big gold rush around where I come from, and you can bike around the area now and find rusted out pounder machines and sluice pipes everywhere. It makes a really attractive industrial picture, and I really want to be able to crush stones into gravel using my pounder anyway (the problem I see is that you shouldn't then be able to pan it for copper arrowheads etc.) Possibly: Use a pounder to break up stones into 'jagged gravel' which can be used in all the same recipes as normal gravel, but jagged gravel of different stone types have different and very limited panning tables which get you ores occasionally, and muddy gravel occasionally, and maybe sand occasionally? (but sand would have the same issue with panning for man-made things, so probably not). The yield would be low enough that you'd want to make an industrial sluice system, which would need mechanics to make it look good - simulating a good water flow and making the sluice longer and longer to increase the yield.

I think in perma-frost areas there are pine-trees which have specially freeze-resistant sap, and if they don't, they explode in winter. It could be an opportunity to put a variation of larch tree in which almost always grows with leaking sap logs, if the temperature is low enough.

Hey, to get back to the original post, I think there is something to the idea of upping the challenge after a certain amount of time has passed. I've used this technique in a survival board game and it was really helpful for balance. The way I see it is, in the same way you enter the world in spring not winter, you would also enter the world during a good year or two. After two years have passed, random interesting environmental effects get unlocked (although I agree, the listed effects are mostly too extreme). They would be weighted so you'd never get more than one each year, and might go two years without seeing any (hence the relative calm of the first two years). As well as offering a challenge, I'd use these natural disasters to 'fix' odd terrain created by the player - flooding could be more like single dirt-block borders of bodies of water collapse and the water floods over, filling the void with gravel and muddy gravel, covered by a layer of water (obviously you wouldn't want this to fill massive cave systems so IDK). Sandstorms could flush new sand blocks across deserts, ideally gradually building dunes against the sides of walls and structures for that classic sand submerged city vibe. Earthquakes could cause un-supported tunneling to cave in, as if you had cave-ins turned on (or cause unstable blocks to cave in more easily if you do have cave-ins turned on). A weeklong rain could cause forest floor blocks to spawn tree saplings if they've been deforested and new reeds to grow if they've been cut out (essentially a renewal of the growing elements of the land). Maybe it could also cause a sort of flooding, using the mechanics of the flood fill command in world edit, which would limit the sorts of spaces which could be flooded to enclosed bowls in the landscape. When the rains end the flooding would go too. I think this sort of thing would add a whole lot to the game, including adding a whole lot of extra work for the devs, and it's pretty far down on my wish-list, but I do think the idea suits VS.

I don't use prospecting mods, and think it's great. No complaints about vanilla prospecting. And most people who use mods seem to use them not to fix prospecting, but to add some quality of life features on the side. By the way, every time you find ore, that's a success, not proof that prospecting doesn't work. The pro pick is a tool to help you find ores, not a "gold now" button.

I haven't found any which were harmless, to be fair, but they weren't doing too much to me. I did use a hotspring to save myself from hypothermia at one point (although I didn't jump in), and that felt good.

I think different pools have different temperatures, so you can find some which are safe to relax in, and some which will fry the animals you chase into them, and most are somewhere in between.

You're dead right, (not just dead) inconsistency is bad. I think you'd probably die almost instantly if you jumped into a pool of literally boiling water, but I also think you'd die instantly if you stepped inside a kiln. It would be nice to see a heat haze or some signal about how hot the hot-pool is, but I also think the furnaces and kilns could be much more punishing. Also, welcome to the forums! I wish you many near misses instead of deaths in future.