Bruno Willis

I'd love to see the way moisture and farmland works get a re-balance, so that crops can be over-watered, and you don't need irrigation right up against every block of farmland. In reality, too much water is as much of a problem as too little for crops, especially gardens which take a long time to dry out after a soaking. That could be part of the challenge for tropical life, trying to keep your crops from getting sodden and rotten during the rainy season (obviously things like rice would love being soaked though).

This trope always annoys me. In real life recurve bows and such are just straight up better than longbows. Especially composite bows, (which is what the recurve bow is in VS) they are just better in all ways, except that they're harder to make. They're also better than basic crossbows (able to pack a bigger punch with a significantly longer range), they just require more skill to use. The reason crossbows got popular was that you could chuck them at just about anyone and make an archer. A good longbow or recurve archer had to train for most of their childhood to get good. This seems like a really good way to simulate bow skill, because you can actually get better at using them as you get used to them. Crossbows really should give you a penalty for aiming for an extended time though: they're heavy and kind of awkward.

I've found deep deposits, and they're barely larger than surface deposits. If you're good with a pro-pick, they're a decent thing to look for. They seem to generate kind of high up. I've only bothered when I've got a Galena note while prospecting for something else, and it's usually been kind of difficult to actually hit the deposit, because they're so small. Persistence and having plenty of pro-pick durability is key.

I'd prefer hot air balloons. They're more renaissance age, and they'd offer a great use for distilled spirits as fuel for the burner. I think you'd have to add kites as well, so you could check the wind direction in the upper sky (or the clouds could tell you). The devs would have to be willing to add wind direction variability to the game. You'd ascend, drift along in the direction of the wind, and then descend if you arrived near your destination, or if the wind changed to the wrong direction. It'd require distilling, weaving, a lot of rope, and probably a complex smiting recipe for the burner, so it would be late game but not Jonas parts based.

I'm fine with the bears at the moment, I've learned how to avoid them consistently and without much trouble, but I can think of ways to improve them. The best case scenario, to me, would be if bears somehow chose cave entrances to build lairs in, then dragged their larger kills back to the lair to to eat them, breaking bushes on their way back. The skeletons would build up in and around their lair, and the bear would be constantly returning to the lair (so it would have a predictable location). The bear would also scratch trees to mark its territory, check those trees regularly like a perimeter guard, and in spring male and female bears would get together and make cubs, and all hang out in the same lair. If you didn't deal with the bear family early, you'd see the bear population double. That'd turn areas of forest into recognizable (but subtle) danger zones, and make it easier to go after a bear deliberately, and less likely to get hit by a surprise bear in territory you know well. I think those sorts of environmental changes would make them feel more like the surface bosses they are. Also, imagine caving, and you're tired, weighed down by your best armor, and you've found an alternative exit. As you come up into the light you see the skeletons of 20 goats and pigs, and a couple of bear cubs growling in a courner. D-:}

I think this is already the case: pretty much every safe mushroom seems like it has a look alike which is poisonous and grows in the same sort of area. I also love the bitter bolete mushroom - poisonous, but not bad enough to deter me from its succulent flavor in a stew. I'd love to be able to make decorative blocks out of bones, like the stacked bones which line the catacombs under Paris.

Yeah, I really wish arrows could stick in game animals and work their way deeper if you got a good shot, and I would love blood trails so much. It would be interesting if animals could get tired, which historically was our big advantage. It'd be pretty cool to drive deer across country and they do shorter and shorter bursts of sprinting. This mod might be useful to you in the meantime: https://mods.vintagestory.at/bloodtrail

Thank you for this suggestion by the way. It is horrifying. I can't go back.

Yes! What a horrible idea. This is great, and it'd add so much interest to travel. I love finding those big trees and using them as travel markers. I wonder if these world wonders could be tied into world generation in more than just being placed in afterwards - like if a giant tree gets placed down, the area all around it would automatically generate as forest. If an Uluru-like generated, it would guarantee big flat desert all around it. If a mountain pass generated, it'd guarantee a mountain chain to either side? I was thinking even broader, something right at world generation which says "there's a bulge on this part of the planet, and there's a deep bowl here," and then it does the usual generation over top of that. If you wanted two large land masses, you'd scale it low, and the world would generate with two huge bulges which become the high points of two different continents, and two deep bowls which would be guaranteed big oceans. If you wanted something like the current world gen, you'd scale it high and there'd be more bulges and bowls squashing up together and they'd sort of average out a bit. I don't know how flexible that part of the code is now though, probably not very.

Yeah, this is really true. Vintage story successfully makes me feel like I'm alone in the wilderness, only occasionally coming across other people. It's just that the landscape generation, while really strong on a small scale, doesn't offer that larger 'narrative' or geological logic quite as well. That means you end up seeing combinations of forest, hills, gullies, deserts and mountains - all really good - over and over again without a sense that there's a bigger 'geological story' behind them. Yeah, I really like this idea. I'd also love to see hulks still floating, all rotted and overgrown, and crawling with drifters. There's something incredibly spooky about ghost ships. You'd want them to have a way to sink if they were holed too much by the player, and they'd creak and moan all the time, and maybe have pumps which could be powered to drain lower decks. It'd also be nice if some of the traders were ocean going, pulled up on the side of an island in their houseboats (I'm pleased to hear that traders will get re-worked). I feel like the oceans will get a lot more love now that we've got a way to explore them.

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.