Jacsmac

Trading for exclusive items also sounds like a good idea; after all, the traders definitely have their own skills if they can create the other goods that they sell. Unlockable recipes do seem like a handful to implement, too. Maybe classes can have their own crafting tool like the sewing kit, required for their recipes, but the crafting tool is the only exclusive part, and you can trade for it or find it in ruins like the sewing kit.

This said, I think the commoner class could just be a setting that disables classes. Since most aspects of the game like building and exploration should be equally fun and challenging for each class, a class whose purpose is to have no effect on these things feels a bit unnecessary; with the obtainable class-exclusive recipes approach, starting with zero recipes from any of the other classes as a commoner would offer pretty much no overhead on the collectathon that the large number of recipes would be. I would imagine that the "commoners" in Vintage Story lore were just people with common jobs rather than no job, like farmers, cooks, etc. Therefore, commoners could be replaced with one or two classes that have exclusive recipes related to those jobs but not much of a change in combat mechanics.

Currently, classes are a nice way to mix up the gameplay at different points of progression, but it feels like the current implementation can't decide how far it wants to push class-specific traits and crafting recipes. Clear examples of classes that lean heavily into their niches would be Blackguard and Tailor, with obvious stat differences and very helpful exclusive recipes (best shield in the game, arguably best travel armor in the game). However, as discussed in this thread, there are issues with multiplayer interaction between classes and the singleplayer experience of being "locked out" of parts of the experience when being stuck with one class. This suggestion might sound counter-intuitive at first, but I recommend that each class should lean more into specific crafting recipes and gameplay styles. If the hunter is better at using bows and the blackguard better at using swords, maybe the way combat works/looks for them should change a bit to reflect the difference; if the malefactor is so good at foraging and scavenging, why is the only thing left to show this a sling and not better traps? If every class gets a large set of specific crafting recipes (like how many clothes the Tailor can make), then there is more incentive for trading to be between players rather than just having the tailor do all the trading with their exclusive recipes and such. If each class has their own fighting style, the choice of class holds more weight than a few stat changes. Obviously, making the classes this different and unique pushes the FOMO problem to its extreme limits. So, what can be done? Well, the game is full of ruins that contain lore and unique treasures, and there are plenty of ways to get old books. Perhaps some of these lore books could contain recipes for other classes' unique crafting items, which would allow people on singleplayer worlds to expand outside of their class's niche, or the unique items could be found in chests (like the clothes that can only be crafted by the tailor being found in ruins). Even still, the option to disable class-exclusive recipes is an option in the world settings, and perhaps the combat changes should be too if they were implemented. Going the other way around, if classes aren't supposed to fill their exclusive niches and just offer some stat differences for a slightly different gameplay experience, then the number of class-exclusive recipes should be close to zero and the focus should just be on stats instead. I hold an all-or-nothing opinion on things like this.

Realistic heat-treating sounds fun. I'm currently taking material science classes in college, and being able to apply my new knowledge of things like austenitization in a video game of all things would be very engaging! From a gameplay standpoint, leaning more towards realism (without being too esoteric) makes processes like this feel more intuitive; being able to rely on real-world experiences really builds that sweet sense of immersion. I haven't played the new preview release yet, but the way you describe the tediousness of the current heat-treating system makes it sound somewhat like Minecraft's tedious enchantment system, which is not uncontrollably random itself but still rather arbitrary and hyper-optimization prone just the same. P.S. Your 'Steel Worker' rank is rather fitting for this post.

Off the top of my head, sticks and metal rods seem like items a lathe would make. As for more items, perhaps a lathe would be the perfect way to introduce wooden items like bowls, plates, and maybe even fancy things like chess pieces or instruments.

I've been thinking about a solution similar to this, too. Maybe there should be a chain of crafting recipes that cycles between each part, frame, etc. by using cupronickel bits, giving a use to any spare cupronickel lying around and increasing the demand for nickel.

About 150 hours of gameplay ago, I finally gathered all of the components for a Terminus teleporter, except for the temporal alignment node. No problem, I thought, I'll just grab that one by exploring caves just like the other parts. Given enough time, I then had enough parts for a rift ward, a resonator, even the night vision mask. Except the temporal alignment nodes. I've been so close to having this cool tech that adds something unique to my exploration experience; if I could just get this one part, I would have this in my hands soon enough. The temporal alignment node is a (presumably) very rare drop from locust nests, specifically the cages and large stalactites (aptly misnamed stalagmites by the game). Tell me why, after breaking more of these than I could ever expect even happening upon in the first place, I somehow get every other part more than 2 times? This feels ridiculous, and there has to be something I'm missing that's keeping me from getting the drop. Dozens of these locust nests are not dropping ONE of this specific part and I haven't found it myself in any ruins or story structures so far. TL;DR Temporal alignment node is chasing me, but I run faster

Should clarify: 50 blocks was the distance I was away from the pulverizer before doing trial tests (when I first noticed odd behavior), and I ran trials at distances from 2 to 100 blocks away in the Creative mode world. Survival mode singleplayer and multiplayer tests were both from 2 to 5 blocks away.

My game version is v.1.21.4 and View Distance is set to 256; I was not more than 50 blocks away while the stones were processing. In a creative test world, 100% of the pulverizer product made it into the chest in multiple trials, even if some of the items stuck around for about half a second or so before the hopper decided to pick them up. When going back to the original world on singleplayer, the results closely mirror that of the test world trials (while standing 2-5 blocks away from the hopper and pulverizer and watching closely). What I had failed to consider previously was that I was losing materials while another player was connected to my world via LAN connection; trials ran with multiplayer enabled and other players connected proved that an amount of items less than 10% was lost because the items despawned before being hoppered into the chest (they lingered on top of it for much longer than tests in singleplayer). Furthermore, if the power to the pulverizer is cut while an item is hanging out on top of the hopper, it is likely that the item will despawn because the output of the pulverizer will not 'motivate' the hopper to pick it up by pushing it. I will update to v1.21.5 and run more trials to make sure what the definitive cause of this issue is.

I appreciate the fast response! The solid block next to the hopper did reduce the problem. However, there is still a loss of material if I am not standing next to the output to pick up loose items. I did some searching, and found this on GitHub from a few years ago: The amount of material lost decreased significantly, but about 5-10 per stack is still lost (more or less than the 10% mentioned in the bug report). Is this behavior still intentional? It's frustrating to see items floating in the center of the hopper and not getting into the chest.

I'm working on unlocking steel and have begun the process of making refractory bricks. To make things easier, I have set up an automatic pulverizer that takes rocks out of one reed chest and should deposit all of the products into another. However, when I am not at the windmill or my house next to it, more than half of the crushed rocks disappear! (I know of crushed titanium requiring multiple ores, but not Quartz or Bauxite.) As it turns out, I have to keep my eye on the system as the hopper refuses to pick up some of the items: Is there something I can do to make sure all of the items make it into the hopper without my intervention? If it helps, I've noticed that when more items come out and push the crushed rocks around the hopper decides to pick all of them up.