Stralgaez

I know, and I appreciate the notion to possibly work on something to make it more accessible at some point. Ideally, you shouldn't need to, alas ...

Maybe they should fill those gaps first and future proof them before working on other systems. And leave the mods for adding other amazing things rather than plugging holes that have been left behind.

At the risk of sounding like a vanilla-hardliner : This honestly should be balanced without the implementation of mods and/or any changes in the Standard settings to side-step the current problems with the encounter itself.

It's possible to select 'keep inventory' enabled, but we need to balance such things based on the most average setting that gives you the fastest entry to a new game - Standard, without customization, without mods. I am aware that its generally dangerous out there, but if you can manage the Archives up until the boss .. then the boss itself shouldn't be a massive jump in difficulty. You are already trapped in the room with it until either is dead so no need to to make it extra hard, suddenly requiring Tier 3+ and honey sulfur poultices when you managed to clear the place before the boss with Tier 2 stuff easily.

It's also because it's a room you are dropping in without escape unless you defeat the Eidolon. Or die. And the latter is not ideal due to the potential loss of all the loot you might have gathered so far, along with your equipment. And if you didn't set your respawn point right at the entrance of the Archive, you are guaranteed to lose it all. And even you did set a point, you need several seconds to reorganize your equipment you picked up from your last death (which is in itself a weird game feature that you pop open like a piñata upon your death), all the while you are trapped in the room again and fighting the boss - And that can cause a death spiral like the above being mentioned, dying to it 20+ times and more. It does sound frustrating and tedious as hell. Of course, you could put up a camp in front of the Archive and get back to it before dropping the first time into the room, so you got nothing to lose outside what you bought to the trip. But I think not many might be that savvy to see the potential danger if you do that, since you also drop into the underwater lake a little earlier and you came out of it unharmed (if maybe wet and with a extinguished torch). The loot itself might not be valuable to make something out of it, but you bring something else from the Archive - A souvenir. Something that shows you have been there. And has quite the personal value after you have trekked for so long to reach it for those who go for it for the first time. However, if the Eidolon claps it all out of your inventory, and can you cannot reliably recover it, or have the needed skill to defeat it .... I wouldn't bother anymore. Or cheat. And that would make it a bad design when those solutions are the ones considered the most.

It does say a lot when people tell their tale about the boss and mostly have opted into a battle of attrition either by throwing themselves repeatedly onto it until you wear the boss down, come back with gear far above what is needed for the place, or resort to cheese tactics. They praise the Archives for its atmosphere and fair levels of danger and rewards, but the Eidolon encounter is a sour point for many because it is far above what you would expect from a Chapter 1 Story location - Something what you SHOULD consider making it accessible as possible within a reasonable/"relaxed" level of challenge, instead of making them the most difficult.

Possibly so. I did issue a refund because, along with the current situation regarding this and how its handled, there are certain directions of development I do not find agreeable.

Which is interesting - I thought we have the forums specifically to not directly need other social platforms for communication if you don't feel for dealing with their issues. Yet everywhere else but the forums get official statements posted. This all feels backwards.

I'd say that's fine because they'll wander either way until they find their perfect spot to settle down (if the Temporal Stability isn't ruining it for them), or take a gamble and zap themselves thousands of blocks away by the use of a teleporter for a change of scenery. If they are determined to reach the Resonance Archive because it interests them, they will make the trek regardless and prepare accordingly. For everyone else, they just want to build their little world of their own wherever want to and get lost in the chiseling.

I don't offer a lore reasoning to it, I just say what I would rather have, gameplay-wise. Just as it is acceptable to have stacks of solid rocks in your inventory and not get weighted down by it, or your bags suffering from carrying so much - People don't question it, either. It just works. Basic vanilla gameplay functions don't need much of a lore reason to exist, nor should be gated behind a item that is based on RNG where you have a chance you never would get your hands on it.

Because temporal gears are not a guarantee. Just like finding specific resources, you either hit the jackpot on day one, or you slog through for months or perhaps even years to find even a single piece of it. Or you don't.

Which is interesting since usually you would make the Main Story as accessible/approachable as possible, adding a small measure of difficulty so the most would go through it. And making the optional content for those who want a extra challenge. Here it feels like the other way around.

Fell down a partially covered hole. A deep, 25+ blocks drop. And survived without a scratch, apart my near-heart attack feeling of vertigo when I fell into the darkness.

Regarding that, how about using Cairns as a 'spawn point' - Easy enough to make with rocks and some knapping, and more on-point with where you start off, eventually coming with 'updates' to touch it up more visually once you get your hands on more fancier materials. A quick sit down in front of it, with a few second of meditation, and you are done setting your spawn. One reason my group won't go there at Year 3 of our server adventure - They do not have the time and commitment for it, neither the necessary 'skills' and patience to traverse the place reliably without getting frustrated. And that's just with the parkour, not to mention what comes before and after that. Luckily they did the trip to the settlement after the Archives and enjoyed it, so I set a 'southern winter' vacation instead of tackling chapter 2 to keep them motivated.

That may be the case, but in there can lose also everything you painstakingly crafted by hand, especially the armor if you decided to get into brigandine/plate, from materials you perhaps had to go quite around with prospecting pickaxes to find the ore or the minerals to be able to make such pieces. And given that the Archives can be relatively far away from when you start your journey, this comes with the near-guarantee loss of your items if you are killed inside there. My group didn't wanted to bother with the boss anymore after the second attempt (and fail) on vanilla, so I switched the mode and have it beaten while it was inert, then brought them in via teleport and switched back to survival. They still lost a lot of items, but managed to scrounge up some stuff after giving the place another sweep before entering the library. Was it silly to resolve it like this? Maybe. But this didn't bring them any fun, and before it killed any form of motivation and drive to pursue the story (and maybe the whole game itself), I intervened and made sure they came back with something.

It would be interesting, though how would tie it in with the satiation meter? Currently we got the thing of being able to keep running while constantly eating pies in from hands, which is ... odd, to say at least. Would it be somewhat similar of 'fatigue', where your character actually needs to rest (or sleep) once in a while order to recover from it, while the level of satiation offers a 'cap' to your stamina you can use for combat and traveling. Be full but too tired would risk you maybe falling over due to fatigue while suffering from running/combat speed debuffs.. Be well-rested but hungry would have you be barely able to run or fight due to the low stamina. But if you got both covered, AND a good night's rest on top of it would give you small additional bonuses (slower satiation drain and a small stamina cost reduction) that will last perhaps half a day, rewarding you for preparing ahead.

Adding Thirst, Fatigue and how much you can carry in weight with you before being encumbered.

Seeing it often having 900°C isn't enough to hammer out Iron plates from Ingots, myself - So I just made my windmill with 2 helve hammers, skipping that painful work on them as they work it faster then I do, saving time, nerves and coal on this.

Pressing a number key while hovering your mouse on a item in your inventory will apply it onto the selected hotbar slot. Also, when having your mouse icon at the crafting grid, you can transfer items from your hotbar to the specific crafting grid slot by pressing the corresponding number on your keyboard (for example, when having the mouse icon on the top right corner, and pressing number 4 with the coal in it, the coal will be placed on the top right corner of the crafting grid).

Especially on metals you need to put in some effort in order to produce them, like Steel - Only to have them disappear into nothing on the first quench.

My group does it like that as well - After some curious experimentation and the one or two tools breaking on the first quenching, they decided to abandon it altogether. And for the lack of caring about it anymore, they just place the freshly worked metal piece on the floor until it naturally cooled enough to be used with a stick to make the tool.

Same. My group (of three) couldn't manage to beat the boss, despite being in tin bronze/iron chain and iron weapons. It drained the fun out of them and eventually they agreed I beat it up via gamemode switch and wailing on it until it dropped, then turned back to survival and let them gather their equipment.

I do not know. But I am with cjc813 here and the focus should be smoothing the rough edges of existing mechanics before adding new ones on the table. And that also means adding already present items to the player to create and place that somehow are still out of reach for them even though they are trivial to craft.

They are just pointy logs rammed into the ground. And such things should be available from the start, as merchants and treasure hunters use them to make their place safe. So why relying on mods in these cases when they are already in the vanilla game?

The hunger system being too annoying to deal with, even when performing simple tasks you have to eat the amount of a small family per day to stay topped off, even though a normal person can live for a long time without food. And when you are even slightly injured, it only gets worse. Also, the "There's a mod for that.", crowd. There are palisades already in the game, and somehow NPC buildings can have shapes in a way that is not possible for the player in a vanilla setting. I should not need mods to get access to these things that are already in the game and being used, just not by us.