iotid

That would be a real cool way to pull off a 'step out of time' kind of effect, too...

Pretty much everything from the frequently suggested pin, My particular love, in-game companion taming for wolves, bunnies, etc. The mods are great, but having it fully implemented baseline and adjustable from there would be better. Been hoping over that ever since the 2020 trailer with the critters sitting around the campfire! Similarly, greater creature variety and simple interactions between creatures in the wild beyond chase-to-kill does so, so much for giving the world a sense of life and making biomes/temperature zones feel different from one another. Environmental damage to creatures often seems to default to them thinking a player did it and going after whoever's closest, which feels very awkward at times. Seen a drifter thump a sheep with a rock, and the sheep immediately turns to the closest player--having the wildlife be as willing to go after the occasional drifter as they are the player might feel a bit more immersive. Monster variety, and leaning into the time-twisting Lovecraftian horror and fantasy inspiration of the game. Temporal stability down in the deep and storms, plus the drifter management that goes with them, can be interesting. It's also repetitive, and sometimes 'hide in safe spot' is boring enough that people just alt tab out during storms - therefore not as engaging as it should be. Alien flora, and corrupt creatures both passive and aggressive, in unstable overworld zones is a possibility. There are so many settings/ttrpgs/games/books/movies/etc out there with temporal dissonance and fantasy/horror elements where inspiration could be drawn that specific suggestions probably aren't necessary. A variety of ways to make use of temporal powers as in-game lore implies former organizations once did, for more than clockworkers, albeit at a price. Things that give buffs like movement or gathering speed specifically for going into unstable areas, or setting up a hasted ranch for quicker generations, or holding an area 'out of time' for a summer greenhouse effect or a little pocket of eternal winter for glacial ice production. Gadgets or artifacts that allow such should remain rare, but taking advantage of rifts or storms to charge temporal items, or carrying them down into the deep to recharge them with the ambient instability at risk of their loss? That has potential. World generation, structural variety, flora, and continued terrain improvements. It's gotten a bit better every major patch. Existing ruins are nice to come across, but having them more often match the stone of the terrain they're immediately found on would be a touch more immersive. Abandoned structures, trader camps, holdout villages, spots where drifters have gathered for some reason, hermit hideaways or a lone hunter camp out in the woods, a few more techy lairs beyond the rare translocator ruin, so on and so forth would be welcome; mods add a lot, and there's a potential for so much more that could expand the lore and sense that there's a living world when not playing on a populous server. For terrain generation, the game can generate absolutely gorgeous vistas, especially after tweaking map height, but there's the potential for so much more. Cold start maps and chilly temperate-to-frozen zones in particular start to feel very samey, but boreal biomes, high altitude areas, and tundra honestly have a lot of variety to them that could go on the roadmap. Mesas, canyons, rivers and oceans(a popular suggestion), volcanic tuff if not volcanic area features (geysers? colorful hot springs? flow rocks?) might also be interesting to see. Underground generation similarly needs some love, though I've come across a few seriously impressive multi-level caves. Temporal instability could also have an effect on generation here, with 'weird' things showing up in heavily unstable pockets, like dying underground forests, or a chunk of jungle, ice caves, generally out of place stuff, what have you. While I feel like linear story progression would hurt this game more than help it, given the open world sandbox and survival is such a key element to play, the ability to find more organic story beats and nods to the real-life influences mentioned in the game would be wonderful. Quests and NPCs or world gen structures are a possibility. I'd love to see a few more takes on the mad scientist's lab buried a mile underground, where they attempted to figure out what, exactly, went wrong with time before the drifters or their own madness got to them. Finding exposed stone or caves with carvings, arrowheads, and hints that others tried to pass through. Maybe a few traders have a word or two to say about religion and the Hamsa, or about their own journey, or why they've stopped where they have. Maybe there's Sami nomads still out there somewhere with some tips about cold weather gear, reindeer husbandry, and warding away drifters from camps.

My personal solution was to replace rift.ogg (in Vintagestory\assets\survival\sounds\effect\ ) with a long, quiet music-box type track that wasn't infuriating if played over itself due to multiple rifts. Also did this with tempstab-low and tempstab-verylow, which potentially can end up playing for long spans of time through storms or depending on how you play. At least with my system specs, there was no noticeable lag with loading the larger sound files. There are web-based tools for .ogg encoding and volume adjustment out there, and they can be kind of lifesaving with this game. Game version updates will put the original files back into place however, so if you do this, make sure to keep a backup of adjusted files elsewhere. Another option, if you're not adverse to mod use, might be Accessibility Tweaks. It lets you adjust most visual and audio effects. Edit: Though I agree, with how common rifts are? They really need a longer and more variable sound tied to them natively. Playing for too long in one go, especially with a headset on--I was hearing that sonar ping in my dreams.

Thoroughly lighting up and walling off/fencing the area you're using is about all you can do. Lowered or raised half-block slabs or chiselled blocks for walkways, they won't spawn on them except in storms. If you're alright with modding though, the nightwatcher or a couple of tamed cats in the area might suit your needs.

Ohh, wow, this is super cute. What a good idea!

Starting out in chillier temperate or cold zones is a huge challenge because, yes, cattails/Cooper's Reed are very hard to find, if they spawn at all. New start at temperate or warmer makes it easier, or beginning your game out with the challenge of a nomadic trek straight south for supplies! It is possible to rove enough to find lucky flax and get started that way, though the inventory management is rough. If you're not adverse to mods, a couple of them give you alternate storage options useful for colder starts, too, like the crafted bark baskets from Ancient Tools, or found and cut down tree hollows from Primitive Survival.

Normal time, day length hasn't been sped up, don't generally sleep through nights. Also found rocks sufficient to deter termites from taking a space back, which is a good enough stopgap in the mean while. Fern spread rate also feels a bit quick, have come back to check on animals after a trader trip or mining venture only to find a lot of medium fertility soil converted back to forest floor and my wide animal pens full of ferns. Have lost a few not-tilled high fertility soils to that while in the middle of laying out new farm plots too, if I had to pause and walk away for an in-game day. Not sure if it's wildfarming doing that, though?

The termite mound spawns (in a warm climate, in this case) are a little out of control, especially for trees planted and left alone for aesthetic groves. After removing them, they pop back up in about 5-60 seconds, and keep returning even after the trees have been removed. Thus far the only solution I've found is to ring trees with things that they can't destroy in those spaces, like ferns or berry bushes.

Astral and ethereal gears are both from primitive survival. As to what they do... there is the vaguest hint or two in the handbook, are you brave enough to toy with that which shall not be named and find out what the consequences are?

Specifically looking at a greenspire cypress at rank 1 was causing this on my server, too, and crashing the client of the player who looked, if that helps narrow it down. Bald cypress didn't seem to cause it, but we didn't check them for a while after planting.

Seconding this. More audio control would be invaluable. I've resorted to manually tweaking the .ogg assets to adjust relative volume of various sound sets, like everything related to temporal stability and rifts, passive creatures, traders, etc.

@JarielEledanThis is a bit belated so hopefully you already found the info, but G-portal gives full FTP access to your server. You can drop in files manually, including specific server versions and whatever mods or tweaks you see fit. FTP connect info is directly on your game/cloud dashboard, their wiki has a basic how to use it article somewhere, though it requires snagging an FTP program on your own as they don't have a web interface.