Thorfinn

Feel for you. We chose the state we moved to deliberately. My kids' engineering degrees (Purdue) were only about twice the cost of the engineering degrees my wife and I got from a no-name college. Adjusted for inflation, theirs' were cheaper.

I do have the time, but choose not to. Most of what you are talking about can be just ignored. Yes, fat goes rancid, but it is common enough by late summer that it is not a big deal. Yes building a berry patch is harder, but there's no reason you have to have one. Fruit (berries) are common enough in the wild that it's pretty easy to stick with gathering until .our fruit trees are bearing. Yes, mechanical power is different, but so long as you don't try to gear it up, it works. But by all means, follow @Zane Mordien's advice and make the game yours. Heck, if something is too tedious for your taste, no one is stopping you from typing /gm 2 and skipping the drudgery.

I'd add that you don't really need leather. The game at present can be completed with gambeson or less, and leather backpacks only add 4 inventory spaces over linen sacks.

You could make such a mod, but I doubt it would be very popular. I could be wrong, but I suspect most players already assume there is rock X, it's just a matter of finding it. What would this do for one? Even if you set it to check for rocks within, say 10,000, how does that help if you don't also have it tell you at least what direction it is?

Status effects. At least I hope so. How they choose to address that affect everything from hunting to hypothermia to hypothermia to malnutrtion to injury to... you get the point.

Welcome to the forums, @Phistandantilus I usually just use dirt, sometimes placing stones to keep grass from growing on them.

I didn't express that very well. Or at all well. Real Life™. I am always excited to see the new changes. And adapting to them. Not quite a fully new game, no, but often enough difference that I have to adapt. Mostly because as an engineer, I enjoy thinking about economy of action. But intertwined in that is that many conversations are premature. The largest wildcard is likely status effects. That's probably going to affect everything from combat to cooking. Whether an idea works well in the current game says nothing about whether it would be a complete waste of developer time to work on now. Until we see how status effects work, anything that will be affected should be left to mods.

I'll be a bit more blunt. Am I permitted to enjoy a game as it existed a mere few months ago, or do I have to adjust my preferences for current sensitivities?

Yeah, as the forum has become more steamified I've been less inclined to interact. I think I've been pretty good about how to modify files to change the game for your own preferences. But as people increasingly insist that their preferences are the "truth", I'm getting tired. Maybe the game I've enjoyed is no longer politically correct? OK, do I need to find another game, or those who insist on getting their own way win?

Tule would probably be fine if you boosted the output, or drastically reduced the amount of tule needed for a thatch block. I would be hesitant to change dry grass too much since it's used as animal feed and tinder for the pit kiln.

Selective Keep on Death, I think it's called. Was working as recently as 1.21. Probably still works, but I have not checked.

Panning is not for everyone. Not me, for sure. I just take the lack of copper as a sign I'm not in the right place to settle down yet. There used to be a mod that added some flint tools -- pick, saw, chisel, maybe some other stuff. Better than Heresy, IIRC. No idea if it still works.

I would not pan for copper, ever, because it's pretty much death. You will not have found enough surface copper deposits to produce the anvil, so will have to pan another 1000 units (900+100) to progress. Meanwhile, you are not making headway on your homestead, delaying your food independence and automation and tools. I'd advise doing as @Shoom suggests. Don't settle down until you find a better spot. Either that or restart. Tough enough learning curve without putting yourself at a further disadvantage.

This is going to sound weird, but I didn't even know you could throw them quickly. I thought you had to wait for the reticle.

I think the stone (and flint and obsidian) need another half point at least, and I would leave copper alone, and boost bronze. At the moment, the Stone Age is weak, particularly for newer players, copper makes a huge difference, and bronze is a why bother. If you are swimming in tin, why not, but it's not worth the effort to go mine more.