Shoom

Agreed, creative mode is really useful for things like this, I used it to decorate my local lake with some of the new aquatic plants we got along with 1.20 as the lake was generated before we had anything but seaweed. You just have to resist the urge of "accidentally" spawning 64 iron doors into your backpack while you're scrolling through the creative menu. they look so cool but take so long to craft

Without a backup save, sadly there's not much that can be done, once you load into the world the data is already overwritten and there's nothing to revert back to. True, by no means do I wish to stifle progress of the game for the sake of.. backwards combability.. or uh forwards combability? Not sure what the term is, but you get what I mean. I don't expect my world to be compatible with updates forever. I do really appreciate the effort from the devs though. Yeah, the riverlets/streams is what I meant, I could be wrong though and the changes to the world-gen aren't that extensive and it's just some small oversight in the migration code or something like that and it all gets resolved soon.

My guess is the new river system, terrain might not be much different from 1.21 to 1.22 visually, but the world generation math under the hood is likely quite different to accompany it. I've tried a few things, like setting /wgen autogen to 0 and then updating but it results in the same checkered terrain, I'm sure there's some workaround but it's likely best to wait for further patches or until the stable release if you want to play in a old world. I should add that my terrain was generated back in 1.19, world generation has changed a lot since then, if your world is from 1.20 or 1.21 it might migrate better, make a back-up first though.

Make a back-up before loading into an older world! Just a little extra heads up for people out there. As I loaded in, everything in render-distance sort of.. exploded, for lack of a better term. (I made a back-up so it's all fine)

He made it to the copper age!

True, there would definitely be some technical difficulty to implementing them and getting them to act naturally, I think they would require their own unique code separate from other animals, easiest would likely be small backyard birds like sparrows and woodpeckers, they could function similar to how butterflies and bees work, as in a nest spawns in a tree during chunk generation and they just stay in the vicinity of that nest, flying out and returning to the nest - the birds themselves aren't really interactable but the nests could contain some lootable eggs, sticks and feathers. Predatory birds such as eagles and hawks could work in a similar vain but their nest could spawn on higher altitudes, on cliffs and such. I wouldn't expect them to actually go out and actively hunt or have any complex behavior, just a visual treat to add some extra life. Aquatic birds and ground-dwelling birds would be a bit tricky like you mentioned, I think chickens should remain like they currently are since they are tamable, maybe other similar birds could just have the added ability to fly away in a straight line if startled.. But yea, at this point we're at 4 different "bird systems" and I think I'm starting to see why we don't have birds. But perhaps one day!

Now that you mention it, sometimes I light a charcoal pit and return just to find the pit completely empty, I've always chalked this up to me placing the firewood incorrectly but gnomes makes a lot more sense. They're clever, they seal the pit back up after stealing all the coal to make you feel stupid, then they'll wait 3-4 charcoal pits before stealing another batch. How does one gnome-proof their house? Are they affected by light level like the drifters? Do I have to leave pie and milk on my door step?

I wouldn't be opposed to having some folklore inspired things in the game, something neutral and non-intrusive like wisps or gnomes, but I get that such things might not align with the vision of the game.

I agree, the game lacks birds, having small birds flying around and landing on tree tops/houses, hawks and eagles circling around in the sky would be awesome. I'm sure the devs have considered it. Remember we only used to have one type of fish and soon we'll have 40+.

I suspect thunder strikes, do you have the setting on that makes fire spread? You can turn it off by copy-pasting /worldconfig lightningFires false into the chat window and restarting.

I'm fairly certain I know what it is and why it exists. 3D models consist of vertices, a cube has 8 points/vertices, these points are essentially coordinates and what your graphics card uses to render a 3D object, the more vertices a 3D model has, the more work it is for your graphics card to render on screen. The 3D model for the vertex eater is a large set of small cubes so functionally it's intended to be the equivalent of a highly detailed Vintage Story block/item/entity. It's intended to "eat up" as much memory on your graphics card as possible, hence the name, the use for this is to stress test the game/engine, maybe in various graphical settings. So, It's likely just a little leftover developer tool, not really of any use to anyone beside people working on the game.

To get even more philosophical, I think Minecraft being the most popular game in the world hints at something: that we as human beings have a inherit desire to create and to leave a mark on our surroundings. Minecraft went the path of total player freedom, turning Steve into a demi-God type figure, but creativity blooms within constraints and limitations, in adversity and scarcity, seldom does creativity bloom in perfect freedom, I think the truth is, we do not actually desire complete control, not in game and not in life in general. As humans we want to come together and partake in something, contribute to something pre-existing, something we quite don't understand, we do not truly wish to be God ourselves. Being all-knowing and having complete control of everything may sound like heaven at first but on a infinite time-scale even the most perfect of heavens turn into purgatory, eventually your only desire becomes to surrender all control and return to a more primitive, more imperfect state of just being apart of something, ignorance is bliss as they say and I think there's truth to that. By not being able to fly around freely, to tank any hit with enchanted diamond armor, to farm an infinite amount of every resource using some redstone contraption or mob grinder and instead imposing strict limitations and hardship, our inherit creativity kicks back into gear, suddenly just building a small cottage becomes engaging again and once finished you think to yourself, what if I were to build a castle? In the journey, in the moment, is where we thrive, not at the peak, once we reach the peak all we can think of is how to get back down. TLDR: If Sisyphus were to one day reach the summit, at some point I'm certain he would push the boulder down just to start over again.

I started around 1.16. Around the time when fruit trees had just been added, from what I can remember the game wasn't all that different from today, it was a bit slower-paced, there was no elk, no sailboat, no shivers/bowtorns, no story locations, naturally the game felt a bit more mysterious. I think all games feel more mysterious in earlier version, because the vision of the game is more vague and undefined, like a fog. I remember trying Minecraft in the early days, around 2010 and asking, what's the deal with the zombies? Who are they and where did they come from? Now we take them for granted, like of course there are zombies in Minecraft, it's part of the brand, but back then things weren't as clear. Same thing with the music discs, what was that? I suspect Notch juggled with the idea of having lore but it never quite materialized and as more people joined working on the project the focus shifted towards total player freedom instead, it was the easier path to walk, but by doing that Minecraft lost something. That's why I think people are drawn to the earlier builds of Minecraft still to this day, they miss the time when the game stood at that foggy crossroad, a time when there was "something more" to the game. Minecraft clearly left a void then and there and I think Vintage Story fills that void neatly. I definitely felt the potential back then when I first tried Vintage Story, the game just felt and still feels alive in a way that present day Minecraft quite doesn't, I think the direction and development the game has taken since then is brilliant and I love that there are still mysteries in the game without answers. A game, just like real life, needs unresolved mysteries, because life itself is a unresolved mystery, knowing everything is boring.

Lovely!

I want to build a underground sea underneath my town, I'm picturing something like 500 blocks in diameter, maybe 30-40 blocks from ceiling to bottom. I'm picturing dimly lit islands, in a ghostly, forever dark sea that you can sail in-between, inspired by the game Sunless Sea. I've started mining, it's something I do on and off, but the sheer amount of rock that needs to be quarried is ridiculous, it will likely take me years of on and off mining just to get the cave done, then it needs to be filled with water and smaller builds as well, an overwhelming amount of work for a build that's hidden underground. I don't know if it's something I'll ever be able to finish, but I think it would make for an amazing build if actually completed, cave-diving and sailing are two of my most favorite things in Vintage Story, combining the two would be awesome.

Aside from ones already mentioned, TimmyTwoNipples is great, his uploads are a bit inconsistent but his playthroughs are hilarious.

Yes, I'd say picking a direction and just going is the best way, if you come across sandstone, limestone, conglomerate rock (sedimentary rock types) your search is getting 'warmer'. Marking down rock types on the map is something I wish I started doing early on, it can be frustrating knowing you've seen that one rock you need somewhere but can't remember where and having to find it all over again.

For my first build, which is my main house, I started out following a starter house build tutorial on YouTube for Minecraft but since these are two fundamentally different games the house quickly started mutating to facilitate my needs, you need a lot more space in Vintage Story, and the blocks available to you look completely different from the other game. Over time as I found new blocks I redid parts of the house, I built several extensions, when I was bored in winter just trying to pass the time I started chiseling corners and stuff. When I started out I felt your frustration too, 100% I never really played Minecraft, I had no prior experience, I followed more tutorials, looked at images for inspiration, both real-world and other Vintage Story/Minecraft builds, I built a small folder for inspiration. Trial and error, I've basically torn down and rebuilt my entire house 3 times at this point, using different wood types, different stone, dirt, daub, anything I could find as I progressed and "unlocked" new blocks, as well when new things were released. I've attached a shoddy picture of a overly crammed together evolution of said house, the result of 2 real-world years of on and off gameplay, trial and error, hopefully it can inspire and encourage you and anyone else that feel like they might be struggling with build motivation. (once 1.22 releases I will have to rebuild it again because of the changes to windmill behavior) So in summation, just play the game and try to survive and explore, build a basic starter house, with time as you progress in the game and find new blocks, make changes to the house, try out new blocks, expand the house when the need arises, look for inspiration online and have fun!

I thought I'd share some of my most noteworthy world-generation landmarks from my ~600 hour world. This is all vanilla survival, except for the texture pack (Conquest VS Edition, with some slight modifications, I forgot to turn it off and these places are tens of thousands of blocks apart so forgive me) The world was initially created back in 1.19.8. I suspect some these areas are the result of chunks having been generated in different game versions and then having been stitched together (mainly suspect the jump from 1.20 to 1.21) 1. Giant Mountain Cove View from underneath the mountain, a hole illuminating the "undersea". 2. Arid Cave The cavern is guarded by a lone, rather ominous looking, pine tree. A small eco-system hidden inside. (Sun and moon decided to just pose perfectly for this picture, I'm not complaining) 3. Giant Oak Tree hosting 6 different mushrooms! Chicken of the Woods, Dryad Saddle, Deer Ear, White Oyster, Pink Bonnet, Tapir's Liver, all growing on one oak tree. What are the odds?

Builds aside, on my todo list: tame wild elk, catch butterflies, find all flowers, farm all crops/fruit, make cheese, beehive klin, Jonas devices, journey to the arctic/equator. Now that I think of it, I've never made black bronze either, I'm practically swimming in silver but found very little gold overall.

Underground I think the stability mechanic works great, it makes deep mining creepy and dangerous, something you really want to prepare for properly before doing, it keeps you on edge, panicking and getting lost is a real threat, it's a tense and memorable experience. I agree with others in this thread though that the surface instability mechanic in comparison, could use some work. It's not a very engaging mechanic and mainly seems to confuse and frustrate a lot of new players. I think a surface instability overhaul would be good for the game eventually. Maybe unstable surface regions could have some unique large surface and underground ruins? Maybe trees and vegetation growing in peculiar ways or somehow visually affected by the instability, maybe these areas could be a reliable place to find gears, otherwise uncommon items and stronger drifter variants? As of now unstable regions practically just act as "no-build zones". I think players should have some reason to wander into and explore these places, making them engage with the temporal stability mechanic above ground. As of now, once you've settled in a stable region you don't really have to interact with the mechanic again as the gear depletion is insignificant, you don't have to take a detour just because an area is unstable, you really have to go out of your way to get your temporal stability dangerously low above ground. In summation, I think unstable regions need some challenge and reward to them, and more explicit signs that indicate that "it's likely not the best idea to settle here".

5-10 player HP with 150% creature strength on permadeath? You'd have to wear full plate armor 24/7 just in case something sneezes in your general vicinity.

Omg now I imagine bushes with unrestricted pumpkin code, holy cow this could make for a hilarious mod.

Ah, that likely explains why I haven't seen any, my house is about 15k blocks south of the world center in a area with higher than average ambient temperature. I'm aware that you can buy them from traders but I spent all my gears on wallpaper and I'm saving the storyline for when a friend of mine can join me so it's either 100 gears or taming a wild one for me. I will try exploring a bit up north, if I have any luck I'll drop back in with an update. Thanks a lot!

I'm 530 hours into my world and I still haven't seen any wild elk, plenty of moose, deer, goats of all kinds but no elk. Are elk spawns tied to world generation or how do they work? Is there a specific climate they prefer? The chunks around my house were generated in 1.19.8, I've explored a bit in newer chunks as well but with no luck.