Bruno Willis

I am also perfectly fine with surface instability, but I do thing it would be cool if lower stability areas were more likely to spawn ruins, and also if there were larger, non-story ruins which caused their chunks to be lower stability to make exploring them more satisfying. Like @LadyWYT though, I think it would break immersion for me if we could just simply remove or dull surface instability with basic tools. Ways to deal with instability, yes! but ways to just shut it down sound boring.

Necromancy is the best. Multi-ores would be really interesting and sell the idea that mining is dirty and ores are mixed. We have to remember that the world of V.S. is not our world, and some changes must have been made to simplify early game so that new players can get an easier introduction into the complex world of mining, prospecting, smelting and alloying.

I think the map thing is a compromise really. I used the colour version when I was starting, but it quickly made gameplay too easy for me so I switched to sepia. I'm now considering figuring out how to get rid of the map entirely, and I do know some people play without the map. The sepia version is still a serious aid to navigation, but it doesn't show you where clay and peat and ruins and traders are - so they're still a challenge and a nice surprise, but not as much as if there was no map at all.

It depends almost entirely on the local stone. I've found myself using maple more than I expected to, for doors and windows often, and I like how mildewy and worn it looks. I love oak for interiors, and it matches the colour of tables so that's helpful. I like walnut too, but I think that's mainly because the trees are so good looking, and they're the first sort of special tree I've found in game. The planks work really well with some stone, and not so much with others, but I love them.

I spent several in game months hunting for clay in my current world, and it was, of course, 4 blocks away from my already partly cut peat bog. I've found the best way to deal with these things is to put the goal on the mental back-burner while you look for other things. In my case I just started looking for mature wild flax instead, because I also spawned on a massive island with a total of 10 cat-tails and I needed more gear slots pronto. I now know the location of every surface ore deposit, have a whole lot of caves marked to explore, and found the best base location I've ever had, all because I spent so much time looking for clay.

Would a deep drum roll or the creaking of some sort of mechanism work for you, tone and lore wise?

I think this would be a cool way to implement it, if it were to be added: very occasionally, a sapling would 'grow up' into a two tall sapling model, which would then take 100 years to mature and couldn't be uprooted without destroying it. It'd be a satisfying way to mark the age of your world even if you realistically never see one mature. Might also help people appreciate the old growth forests more.

Yeah, that gets me very stressed, quite often. It does get me running for my food bowl, but more because I can't stand the sound than because I need to eat. I imagine a sound designer might be able to make a stomach growl like sound with each of the instruments they're currently using, although I'm not sure if the musical vocalization is the long-term vision?

Isn't it wonderful that we can customize the instrument which our seraph uses to scream their pain? The problem is that it's always the same few sounds, regardless of what caused the pain, and the repeated hooting that you get for starvation doesn't sound like hunger pangs, it sounds like you are stubbing your toe a lot. Would you prefer it if starvation cause more of a steady, melancholy tune, which slowly got louder and more frantic the closer to death you got? Or would sad music make you more tolerant of starvation? I would like it if the sounds lined up with the source of pain more, personally. Freezing to death could produce some interesting frozen instrument sounds too.

I'd love the mechanic to encourage players to build masonry workshops: Maybe you could draw a plan of the original chiseled block by right clicking on each face with a piece of parchment in one hand and charcoal in the other to produce a chiseling plan. Then you could place that plan down (in your workshop maybe), right-click it with your hammer and chisel to "memorize" the plan, and then click each face of the new block to copy the original onto it. To make the plans more immersive, they could roll up as scrolls if stored in a scroll holding shelf, or lie flat and open if placed on the top of a block (ready for the mason to read). That'd encourage players to build a library of chiseling plans which they can re-use.

I think new plants could be a way to let players choose 'hard mode': You have common plants available which are pretty easy to farm, have little depth (as now). Then you add in interesting plants, - plants that use 2 types of nutrients, plants which need trellises and get blown over in high wind, plants which die if they get too wet, plants which get diseases and need to be pruned and maintained regularly, plants which only give seeds if treated just right. The more complex plants would need to be worthwhile in some way, but the main purpose would be to let people who like to garden give themselves extra challenges, and then let them show off when they manage to grow a really difficult crop. It'd be really interesting if players could go down a gardening rabbit hole and forget they ever promised a bronze pickaxe to that guy in the valley over.

Violins. It's clear that chapter 3 will be primarily a violin concerto arch, and we'll need a lot of rosin for our bow strings.

Okay, crafting a coracle without a crafting grid: Right-click on dirt with a stick and get options like with clay shaping. one of the options would be a pile of sticks, one would be a wicker basket, and another would be the coracle! Picking the coracle would stick your stick upright in the ground and direct you with green lines to stick other sticks in the ground to make a circle. Once you'd done that you would be directed to 'weave' sticks around the circle to make a giant basket. When you'd reach the top of the upright sticks, you'd be directed to add more upright sticks into those, and repeat the weaving until you produce a big dome shaped basket. At this point, ideally, the unfinished coracle would have a collision box unlike the current sailing boats You'd then be directed to cover it with a number of oiled pelts or leather (or copper sheets?). Once done, you'd be directed to stitch them on with twine or linen thread, oil it all with a couple of lumps of fat or bee's wax, and you'd be done. The coracle would have a "climb under" option, which would let you sleep under it like a slightly less comfortable hay bed, a "store" option, which would allow you to access a limited number of gear slots on it: at least twice as much as can be carried by a raft, and it would have a "drag" option, which would let you flip it over and slowly drag it, to get it into and out of the water. In the water, you'd have a "climb in" option to row the thing, the same "store" option, and the same "drag" option.

I really like this idea. Say when you first turn the block into farmland, all its nutrients start at half full. It's got some, but it's also got somewhere to go. I think the goal of rewarding dedication to farm plots is really interesting. What if soil types were treated more like levels that can be 'leveled up' with good farming practice: If you leave barren farmland under mulch for a single winter, it would become low fertility soil -> Low fertility soil under mulch for 2 winters becomes medium fertility soil -> Medium fertility soil under mulch for 4 winters becomes high fertility soil. By the same token there could be a mechanic for making abused soil revert down a level - perhaps overuse of chemical fertilizers, or growing the same crop repeatedly on the same soil (build-up of specific pests and diseases in the soil). Terra Preta would still be something special you need to make, but maybe it would be by placing charcoal and bonemeal and compost on high fertility soil and then tilling it, instead of using a crafting grid.

and more stylish.

But I don't want to sit in the lake, spinning in circles cause I'm not a good rower... Actually, coracles would be amazing. I think you can tip them over to make them into temporary tents. They'd be pretty much perfect for nomadic lifestyle, and could be stone age, using oiled pelts and sticks and twine.

This is key. You can learn to avoid all the fights you don't think you can win, but when you come to the boss, it's all over. Your strategy fails. If they kept the ability to get thrown into those upper chambers though, that'd give the combat adverse playstyle options in the boss combat.

Be warned. They have mouths in many places.

I think the point with the weeds is not to completely shut down a crop, but to make it less efficient. I would balance it so that a garden which is hoed and planted might get weeds growing all through it if un-tended, and have a %80 yield. Yes, that's going to slow down a speed run which relies on mass farming, but it won't shut that playstyle down (and also the yield reduction could easily be altered until the balance is right). Say weeds have 4 growth stages. 1 Little = do no harm but give visual interest. 2 Medium = host crop gives %80 yield, and the weed is visually obvious. 3 Grown = host crop gives %60 yield, harvesting the crop leaves the weeds at growth stage 1. 4 Overgrown = the farmland reverts to a soil block, crop is treated like a wild growing crop, and the weeds are tall and impressive. The growth stages would be slow, so that after a year's growing without weeding, there would be weeds all through your garden at growth stage 2. In your second year, if you didn't bother A. weeding, or B. tilling out a new big field, you'd get into the weeds seriously and end up at harvest time with reverted farmland and wild crops. The weeds would be extensions of what already grows on fallow farmland: overgrown grass, abundant horsetail and flowers, so it wouldn't be all bad. If you were implementing weeds like this, you'd want to add mulch too, which would maintain moisture and prevent weed growth until it broke down. You'd also get the materials to make mulch by harvesting a weedy garden, so you could do one massive field to get your sails up, and use the weeds to make mulch for a more condensed and easily managed garden in your second year. It adds long term complexity, but I don't think it'd make that first crop push much more challenging.

No need to be mean! But this is a sticking point for me about the first story location in general - it feels like you're asked to play by different rules than the ones you've prepared for in the rest of the game, but it isn't to train you for how it's going to be going forward. Still, there are ways to deal with that horrible metal frog, and while that fight is not the most enjoyable, it is scary.

This is an excellent early game nomadic technique. If we had viable nomadic style transport at each of the tech levels, it would make travel much more fun. When rivers are added a travois would pair with a canoe which would have a similar carry capacity, but would require leather working for the canoe skin.

The other thing is, the longer you can remain mobile, the more likely you are to find a truly excellent place to settle down. Even if I plan on making it a temporary shelter, I often find myself investing more and more, and before long I'm dug in and the idea of moving is just too much. I think a system of tiered mobile homes would be fantastic: Yurts and maybe a storage option which allows you to haul a lot, but slows you to a crawl. -> Elk-drawn caravans which can be built and chiseled, and made to count as a room when not traveling and can carry a fair bit of your life with you -> houseboats working with the same rules, but larger and ocean-bound. That's allow you to set up an orchard in a high fruit tree spot, a mine and furnace where the iron ore is, and legitimately move between them depending on the season. In the mean time, you might explore for that perfect base spot. It'd also give travel much more viability, being able to take a mini-base with you where you can sleep in comfort and see your progress visually on your caravan.

I like croptweaks a lot, but it comes with increased crop spoilage speed, and seeds can spoil too, which I found stress inducing and made me unwilling to leave my base. I've just realized that the mod is configurable though, so I'll be going back to it, but giving crops and seeds a far lower spoilage rate. Apart from he spoilage rate issue, it feels like base game, fully fits into the difficulty and complexity level of the game. It's not too much or too little, and I think it would be a good adition to the base game, alongside a restrained addition of weeds, a good way for garden beds to revert to grassy dirt, and a subtle way to improve your seed stock.

It would be really nice if there was still a reason to collect mushrooms in your second year. There is a good mod to make crops go to seed you might be aware of: https://mods.vintagestory.at/zippyscroptweaks . I found it rewarding. Choosing to re-plant all your grain to get a proper grain harvest instead of eating any is a really fun cost-benefit choice, as is letting things go to seed rather than harvesting them for crops.

I'd prefer it if you had to write down your recipes in a recipe book in world. What a treasure that'd be to steal from another player.