Bruno Willis

I'm glad the forums help. This is such an interesting game, with a really good following. I find it is always worth sticking with you goal just a bit longer, and if that doesn't work, switching tasks instead of quitting the game. VS. doesn't give you guaranteed dopamine hits, but it slowly rewards all the struggles as long as you keep struggling and keep noting things down. Take nothing for granted and good luck!

I feel like increasing the number of fish in pools would require the pools to feel more like viable habitats. I'd like the devs to add tangles of deadwood in the edges of pools, and overhangs (even if only visual) to the shore blocks, basically adding places where fish might hide. Personally I'm not keen on rod fishing of any sort being added to VS. It feels like a modern fishing system, when VS feels more in line with pre-industrial tech. Spear fishing, noodling, fish traps, crayfish pots, and nets over the sides of fishing boats, are my preferred fishing mechanics. I see rod fishing as just chasing what other games do instead of following VS's unique flavor.

I'd love to see conflict with humans which doesn't result in their death, for once. What if you 'killed' a bandit, and the rest sue for peace and heal their downed companion. You'd be able to run them off that way, without killing them. Have a re-occurring group of enemies that you can get to know and learn how to fight. Imagine making a deal to go one v one with them, and if you win they've got to leave, and then wondering which of the bandits they'll choose. The big armored lady, or the punk with the recurve bow and daggers... You could also use them for quest moments. If the villagers heard of an approaching threat, they might ask you to find the bandits and offer them a deal to get them to help defend the village. The bandits could remain an issue after that, but a human issue. The cool thing about human foes is that you can fight them, defeat them, and not involve killing them. Even if they 'kill' you, they could have a unique mechanic where they just rob you blind and heal you up, then tell you to run off into the wild... that's almost a death sentence, but it's also a really fun situation. You'd hate them so much.

This is something which I think would fit right into vintage story. I personally would love to see pulley systems implemented and utilized. Imagine unloading your sailing boat using a crane to haul crates of stone off it and into your workshop area! Or building a pully system to raise a platform from the ocean up to the top of your cliffside hideaway. I don't know exactly how it could be implemented, but it seems like no other game does pullies and ropes, and they're such an powerful tool with really interesting visuals. Perhaps you'd construct pully blocks, attach them to blocks you want to move (chests, crates, etc.) and to support beams. The number of pullies would determine the weight it could pull (2 pullies to lift a crate, 4 pullies doubled up to lift a crate stuffed with stones or a trunck, etc.) but would slow the lifting time down. The distance between pullies would determine the amount of rope you'd need, and the distance you'd need to walk while hauling on the rope. Alternatively, you might make a winch to roll the rope up tidily and easily. Unfortunately, the way weight and inventory works right now sort of negates the purpose of a pully system. If you can haul a house-worth of logs in your linen sacks without breaking a sweat, why use a crane? I'd prefer it if cranes and pullies were necessary, and were in the game.

I found winter boring, until I decided to chisel and make some slight improvements to the house. Then winter just flew by. I think it's a good time to get bored and then find something you wouldn't usually do, and do that.

Yes, in my case all the map data is intact. I love how straightforward this game is (as well as beautiful). On second checking, the waypoints are still there, but not the exploration - sounds like it is the same issue you had. Bummer. Luckily I hadn't done much long distance travel yet on that world.

Update: The tin-bronze scythe I was in the process of forging has transformed into a silver scythe on my new laptop. Weird. Can't complain though.

Welcome to the forums. I have also got a favorite world saved on a less than ideal computer. I'm going to have a go at moving the save file from one computer to the other, and I'll update you with how I go. Update: Yes, it's really easy. I just grabbed the file in my game saves and copied it onto a memory stick, then moved it over onto my new laptop, jumped on, and immediately died in a temporal storm. Beautiful. I haven't found any odd issues with the world so far. Maybe you'd want to back up a world before doing this... I don't know. Caution is always an option I guess. Best of luck

This mod looks like it is getting at some of these suggestions, https://mods.vintagestory.at/novelty as with this one: https://mods.vintagestory.at/show/mod/10769, I think there are plenty of people who would really like a more complex and rewarding nutrition system implemented, and I don't think it'd be that troubling for people who don't care about it either.

I like the idea of a slowed down, some what musical grumbling stomach sound, which gets more and more obvious as time goes on.

In modern stone masonry a wooden mallet would still be a preferable option to a metal hammer. We have rubber nowadays, but it used to be wooden or rawhide mallets. Give the wooden club a new use! Make mallets out of rawhide and sticks! Don't damage hammers as much when chiseling! Honor the stonemason's tradition! (sorry, off topic. I just got passionate)

Welcome to the forums. That cog is your temporal stability. If it's rolling towards the right, you are stable. If it's rolling to the left, you are getting less temporally stable. Be careful when it turns to the left, it means either you are in an unstable surface block, you've gone too deep, or you're in the middle of a nasty temporal storm. Either way, as the teal glow gets lower on the cog you will start hearing strange sounds, getting visual glitches, and eventually spawning rust foes all around you. To increase your stability, either hold a temporal gear in your off hand and use a knife (I think implanting the new gear inside yourself...) or kill some rust foes, or get out of there. The last option is usually the best one, when possible. Good luck out there in that broken world!

It for sure feels like more of a mod than base game, although it is quite Lovecraftian to have 'horrors' which are neutral to humans, if only because they are so much bigger and more powerful than us - Dave's a perfect example. As I've said many times, the storms are present both to present a gameplay challenge/obstacle to survival unique to Vintage Story, as well as serve as an aid to storytelling and otherwise getting immersed in the setting. If the NPCs are describing the temporal storms as supernatural disasters, and battening down the hatches, then temporal storms are something I would reasonably expect to be highly dangerous as well. There's even a tapestry that can be purchased, that depicts a seraph(or humanoid figure, at least) hiding in a bunker of some sort during a temporal storm. I think there is a middle ground here. I like the storms, but I don't think their mechanics at the moment sell the story as well as they could. I want to be able to 'batten down the hatches' literally, rather than just coat myself in dirt. Having to bar the door and use heavy shutters on the windows to keep the rust foes out would make temporal storms so much more exciting without adding combat. Imagine hearing some odd sounds upstairs. "Are they on the roof?" "Did you leave the bedroom shutters open?!" and so the drifters get in. I like the idea of taking the temporal storms as unnatural disasters that are mostly bad, and giving the experience of keeping them out more love by: Allowing 10% of drifters to be able to open doors and gates, but adding bars and locks which let you keep them out. Allowing drifters to break windows (placing the block on the ground nearby to avoid griefing), but adding storm shutters which can be closed to keep them out (and would look good). Making fires prevent nearby spawns, even in storms, and adding bonfires with a wider range. (Normal fires would have a very small range, bonfires might have a larger range than a rift ward, but require fueling with lots of logs). Give players other things they should do during a storm which feel urgent and storm related, but aren't combat (unless things go wrong). I think the issue with the storms isn't that they are out of place or too hard, or not interesting, just that they are unfinished.

I've had an idea for a neutral rot-beast, a big-cat oxen type creature, that occasionally travels during temporal storms and could be tamed if approached during a storm and given something delicious, like temporal gears? They'd be used to move wagons around, essentially giving you a mechanic where you can sleep in a wagon if it's attached to one of these beasts, and the beast will move it to a new location while you sleep (how to work this in multi-player, I don't know). What's most exciting to me though is the idea of going out in a temporal storm and trying to spot a herd of these big, strange, rust creatures. And if you didn't know about them, they could be a terrifying and awe inspiring sight if encountered unexpectedly. It'd add something to witness during the storms which would sit somewhere between the normal rust foes and Dave on the epic-ness scale. It'd also add a game loop to the storms which wasn't just about killing, it'd be about exploring and surviving, which seems more interesting to me.

You know how grass has a bit of colour variation? imagine if stone became slightly more rust-red the closer to iron it was, in the same way forest floor gets more and more intense. You might not notice it if you were surrounded by it, but it could also show up as rust-stains on cave walls. Maybe you'd do other colours for other metals, but I don't know what colour stones go when tin ores are present (for example). It could look very nice to have odd discolourations in cave walls though. That'd have to come with making prospecting harder though. I think with this sort of thing you wouldn't even need a pro pick, just attentive eyes.

Yes. Sorry, I'm being ironic but keyboards don't express that the best. What I mean is, this game thrives on the little systems which you don't Need to interact with, but offer lots to those who interact with them. The whole "If it's a niche system, it should just be a mod" thing seems to be kind of against the VS ethos. But yes, those good details will only come if the devs are doing it for fun and on their own timeline. This kind of gets to what the op is talking about. I would like to see the devs focus on systems similar to animal husbandry and pumpkins, systems which fill out holes in the early and mid game, rather than have them race to make more story. I feel like doing more story before establishing how textiles will work (for instance) is maybe not the best idea. I wonder how certain story locations might have been designed if they'd been designed after sailing ships were added?

Yeah. I would have it so you can still just use sticks, or you can get into splitting and carving down oak logs into handles, if you want. I'm not wedded to the idea of tool handles though, just an example of how filling out early/mid game would give late game extra depth.

Why have animal domestication and cheese in the main game? so few people bother. Why put pumpkins in, they're so niche? As far as I can see, Mods are really good at moving the base game in a different direction to the dev. team's vision, and good for filling out holes which could do with plugging (sticky dirt mod). Textile working is a gap that needs filling, and while there are some really good looking mods that address it, spinning wheels and looms feel like they need to be added to the base game at some point. It's pretty debatable whether tool handles fit into that same category, but I think it's defiantly worth adding sideways complexity to the early and mid game, not through mods. Otherwise, the game tells you "Get to tin bronze! Get to iron" and misses opportunities for interesting gameplay in the early game (where newcomers spend plenty of time).

Welcome to the forums, and the endless bear pain. I think I've learned how to deal with them without too much trouble, but I do wish they were more interesting. If they made dens in caves and stuck kinda close to their dens. If they marked their territory so you knew when you were making a travel mistake. I think they would be a lot more fun.

I think this is a really solid point. Giving the early game more side progressions would be valuable. Using the tool handles as an example, one player might spend a long time in the bronze age, and get really good at choosing the best wood to carve good tool handles out of, giving their bronze tools good durability. When they eventually get to steel, they'll have an advantage that other players who rush steel don't have. This'd shine in multi-player, where the player who masters early/mid game mechanics can then combine their skills with the player who rushes steel, to get them both excellent gear. The game already does this well with animal husbandry (I think). It's a rewarding, long investment, mid tech process which can reward a whole group if one person is interested enough in it. I feel like weaving and textiles will probably gain a bit of this depth, and it would be good if there were other parts of the mid-game like this. Gardening could do with a bit of added complexity to become something which could be interacted with lightly, or gone into obsessively. I feel like a lot of the ideas we toss around fit into this bucket: Sluice systems which need tweaking and figuring out, so the panning obsessed player can figure out how to do that extra well for everyone. Fletching, so someone can learn to make personalized arrows, add colour, maybe add weight (+ to damage, - to distance) or improve accuracy and supply everyone with their specific preferences. These are systems which can be skipped, or gone into in depth, depending on personal taste.

Ah. Yes.

I've definitely felt this, especially early on. As I've gotten better at handling the foes, it's gotten more and more fun, but it could for sure be better. I wonder if changing the way the different sorts of storms feel might help? I had to run al long way through a light temporal storm yesterday, and it was almost do-able. It made me wonder if light temporal storms could be made a little less dangerous, but last longer, medium storms could stay the same, and heavy storms might become even worse, but maybe shorter, with a monster type who can phase through blocks and challenge people in their fortresses. The idea would be to give people a storm type which they can actually experience mid-game without guaranteed death. The sort of storm which might tempt people to try and travel through, but which can still spawn a double headed drifter sometimes... And then also give people a storm which is always, always scary and requires active participation.

That'd add something really satisfying to sailing. The way I see net fishing working really relies on some sort of sea birds being implemented. I'd use sea-birds more like particles than creatures: they'd signal the presence of schools of fish and how big those schools were. Boats might also generate less impressive seabird animations, and maybe some sort of sea-monster or ghost ship might attract sea-birds, drawing the player in if they think it's just another school of fish. I'm not fussed about having different sizes of fish meat, but I think having more varieties of fresh-water fish of different sizes, giving different amounts of fish meat would be good (correct me if they already exist, VS is subtle and vast already). I feel like spear fishing is a very vintage story style of fishing, and it's a very legitimate way to fish, especially in shallow, swampy waters. I'd like to see small scale fishing go this route, giving us many pronged spears which are extra accurate but breakable/no good against land creatures, and adding eels and flounder to the game. Crayfish pots and eel traps and such would also be a very peasant way to get seafood.

Different sizes of fish would be fun, but I feel like that's more a concern for gentleman fishers and the nobility, where we are more common, and should use peasant styles of fish gathering. I really think fishing should be done with nets off the sides of our small sail boats. I'd be very different to other games, feel more connected with the setting, and be a huge tech improvement over stabbing them with a spear. You'd spot a school of fish in the ocean (maybe signaled by a flock of birds!?) sail out and throw the net over the side. Then when you pulled it in you would do a harvesting animation like with a single carcass to open up the bulging net and gain access to a tone of fish meat. Delicious.

I would really like it if berry bushes had a mechanic where they actively spread and try to fill their niche - but then we need some way to keep them in balance. I feel like the world as we enter it is supposed to be represent natural balance, so we can assume that by nature the berry bushes end up in small bunches with a bit of separation. So, say the bushes spread like pumpkins, but unrestricted and slowed well down. At the start of every spring, unpruned bushes get 'overgrown' which means they produce far fewer berries and damage you if you move through them (old black current canes turn into nasty, splinter-stakes, spikes grow, etc. ) Animals and players also have a chance to trample overgrown bushes into loose sticks when they move through them, implying that the bush has become brittle and less vigorous. Browsing animals like deer might also be able to, occasionally, destroy young berry bushes by eating them (this would have to be a very low chance). That way you'd get bushes spreading wildly, then getting broken up by animal movement and browsing, and hopefully end up producing dynamic versions of the current berry bush growth. - this gets me into a wider issue, where the world at the start of the game is not implied by the events of the game, especially when you've got cave-ins, soil instability, and lightening fires enabled. It would be amazing if the world could naturally re-establish a good looking equilibrium after disasters, if forest floor could recover and forests could spread/recover slowly over time, etc. It needs it's own thread. It'd also buff pruning, not by increasing berry drops, which are quite a lot already, but by letting you keep your bushes healthy.