Nootman

Trading is an incredibly interesting mechanic from a conceptual level, being able to put some amount of your resources towards bartering with traders in order to be able to obtain goods which you otherwise would never be able to obtain or are currently unable to find such as halite, tin, or any other sort of good that a trader sells of that sort. The issue with the system as it is actually implemented is that very rarely can you reliably barter with one trader let alone multiple. Trading stocks will change often and not in a predictable manner, meaning that the trader that you journeyed 1000 blocks to sell you stacks of fire clay to may not even be buying it. And the aforementioned 1000 blocks is the other major issue with traders, their spacing and distance from each other makes it a massive journey just to interact with a few merchants and possibly sell some of your items. As such, I propose a few ways to go about fixing this issue of lack of accessibility while also simultaneously providing players with a variety of fulfilling ways to expend resources which they may have in excess in the later game. Innkeeping Many people have suggested the idea of a system of villages and employment before, saying that the idea would cut down on menial labor and make for an interesting gameplay loop. As to that, I say that being able to collect so many people together in one spot permanently and assign them to tasks takes away from the primary gameplay of VS too much, turning it from a game wherein you build yourself up from nothing by your own might and ingenuity to a colony sim. In addition to that, the coding of a system that allows for NPCs to dynamically go out into the world and harvest resources would require basically as many resources as producing an entirely new game on top of the VS engine, so such a complex feature shouldn't be considered in its whole state. So, instead of being able to have a town of permanent residents, I suggest instead being able to simply act as the host for wandering traders who come, rest, trade with you, and then leave without engaging in any sort of labor. This accomplishes two goals. Players have more direct and numerous access to traders Providing accommodations for the traders takes significant amounts of resources, meaning that large amounts of trading can only be done if the player has large amounts of resources to spare in following this path. Traders would only come to your inn to trade if you met certain conditions which would even out the massive buff that being able to trade with a large and varied quantity of traders from the convenience of your homestead provides. Additionally, you would be able to control if a house is considered viable for a trader and thus be able to simply close up shop if you ever go on a long adventure or are running low on supplies, meaning that participation in this system is wholly voluntary. And as a bonus for the labor of constructing these lodgings, traders would pay you a small sum of gears for their stay depending on the conditions. Conditions of Your Inn The quality of your accommodations would be an important factor in the willingness of traders to stop by your inn and their agreeableness in giving you good, low price deals. The three primary components that would go into the trader's perceived quality of the room would be: Quality of the room structurally Decor/furnishings of the room Quality of the food provided Other local conditions Structural Quality Primarily based on things such as if the room is heated when in a cold region, if the room has windows, how large the room is, if the room has a bed, etc. Accounts for basic physiological needs of shelter and warmth. Decor/Furniture Quality Primarily based on things like the quality of the bed provided, the decorative objects placed around the room (flower pots, paintings), etc. Accounts for general quality of life/comfort outside of pure physiological needs. Food Quality Primarily based on things like the warmth of the food when served, the variety in the ingredients, the regularity of meals, etc. Accounts for the basic physiological need of food but also accounts for taste and personal preference in food outside of whatever is the most nutritious and filling, a component which is not necessary for the meals that the player eats. Local Conditions Primarily based on things like proximity to other traders (packing traders together like sardines makes them angry), nearby rift activity, nearby player activity (helve hammers are loud and unpleasant), etc. Accounts for a variety of things that mostly fall under the umbrella of comfort and mental health such as avoiding noisy or crowded environments. All of these together would necessitate that the player dedicate a significant amount of resources towards constructing lodgings, constructs them away from noisy work such as smithing, and gathers the ingredients for and prepares meals which exceed in taste the current meta of red meat stew and onion pie that is used by most players. With this, it would be advantageous for players to pursue more artisan food goals such as cheesemaking, spirit distillation, and breadmaking and it would mean that there is also use for a large surplus of food in the later game once a single harvest of an onion crop yields enough food to last multiple years. Garbage accommodations. Traders may sometimes show up but they will not be in the mood to do much business with you after sleeping on a dirty hay mat and eating cold boiled turnips. Decent accommodations. A nice bed, a well constructed room, and some porridge with honey will give a boring but very acceptable stay and traders will willing to sell their wares to you in such conditions. Good accommodations. A spacious room, some decor, a jug of ale, and a nice table to sit down for a meal at provide for a very comfortable and pleasant stay in which traders will gladly trade and barter with you. Amazing accommodations. A lavishly decorated room, a jug of wine, a meal of roasted carrots with cheddar cheese and rye bread, and a comfortable bed all lead to an amazing stay in which traders will be much more willing to cut their prices and give you some good deals in trading negotiations. Additional Notes This idea of innkeeping very closely ties with previous ideas that I have posted about in regards to providing good accommodations for traders. Cold environments would require heating of the room the traders are staying in, likely through some distributed heating system composed of a large firebox and flues to transfer heat to rooms. Cooking enough food for a large inns worth of traders would require more advanced cooking devices such as cast iron pots and stoves. Guild Trading Now, a system that I have seen few people suggest is the idea of trading on a larger scale than the small inventory size quantities between larger trade organizations. Given the lore implications of large trading leagues in the world of Vintage Story, there already exists precedent for larger scale trading between large parties which is exactly what this feature would entail. Connections would be made with large trading guilds by way of conversation with wandering traders, contracts would be signed promising to produce and package a certain quantity of goods by a specified date, and large sums of gears would be paid out for the fulfillment of the contract. This system would solve the same sort of issue presented in the beginning of this post of overabundance of resources in the late game. Many people will find iron, make a full set of plate and tools, and then simply have no more reason to create more iron because it provides them with no benefits. In this proposed system, it would be worthwhile to pursue this goal even further because of the fact that large profits can be made through selling this excess of iron off to a large guild which can then be used for other, smaller trades between individual traders. The most important aspect of this trading system is that unlike trading between individuals, this system would be slow and methodical where you sign a contract on one day, prepare the goods on another, ship them it off on another, and then finally receive payment for them once the guild receives their end of the bargain. This level of predictability allows for a much more consistent schedule of trading as compared to the rapidly cycling trades of typical cart traders and the volume allows for players to specialize in producing certain goods for large profits in a way that at least somewhat emulates a multiplayer trading experience. Additionally, this system would tie in closely with the previous system of innkeeping as signing these contracts would require that you contact a trader who is a part of one of these leagues in order to have them act as a representative and messenger for your deal, thereby requiring that the player engages in at least moderate innkeeping and gather good will if they wish to trade in such large quantities. Conclusion Trading is an incredibly promising part of this game but is something that I believe is sorely lacking in its current implementation. I was first exposed to the degree to which the existing system feels lacking when I first played with the Useful Stuff mod and decided to test out the welcome mat feature which allowed for you to construct a room for traders and have them come in every few days to trade. Keeping track of prices, shuffling through my storage for good items to trade, and buying all sorts of fancy things with the great quantity of gears I got from it was a deeply engaging process but it felt a bit flat in that the traders could simply be packed into small boxes and fed raw onions without much bickering. I made them small fancy rooms but it still felt like it would be much better if I were to act as a true innkeeper instead of the slum lord that I felt I was. So, as such, I developed this idea and I hope it catches the eyes of others as much as it has done to me. (Oh yea and about the guild trading part, that was an unrelated but similar idea I had separate from innkeeping)

https://github.com/anegostudios/vssurvivalmod/tree/fecc4d6c50c74e08a5dc7869eff7f967bc2577ac/BlockEntity/Unfinished Blast furnace and bellows in the code for the game, but in an unfinished state. : ^ ]

Yea. It worked out for TerraFirmaCraft, it'll work out here. The tuyere which transfers air to the blast furnace necessarily needs to be made out of iron due to the fact that it is in nearly direct contact with the molten metal, and the blast furnace simply will not operate without a bellows and a tuyere. So yes, there is a requirement for players to interact with the bloomery for at least as long as it is needed to make these necessary components. Additionally, the tuyere could be a smithing only item and not castable, making it so that players that wish to make one would not be able to get the necessary wrought iron to get one from a blast furnace without first making a puddling furnace which requires iron at multiple points anyways. Also, most iron items in game are only workable on an iron anvil and since the tuyere, a necessary component for the blast furnace, is only workable on an iron anvil, the player would have to use bloomeries to get the necessary wrought iron to forge an iron anvil in addition to the tuyere. As for this, I was considering the idea of making the bloom hammering process yield only disconnected hunks of iron that would have to be forge welded together but I thought that for the high iron cost of an anvil this would be quite excessive.

Ferrous metallurgy is a poorly represented mechanic in a lot of games (looking at you, other inferior block game), primarily just making iron ore act as all others are and smelt into perfect bars when put into a furnace/forge. In actuality, the smelting process of iron is incredibly complex and there are a wide variety of methods by which it can be done, only one of which (bloomery) is represented currently in vintage story. As such, I think it would be good for this game overall to implement an even more involved system of ferrous metallurgy. This change would be particularly important for an eventual implementation of industrialization where iron would be needed in significant quantities. General Additions Coal Deposits In order to match with an increased demand of coal coke and coal for heating work pieces, coal deposits should be increased in size (especially if heavy industrialization is ever planned for this game) Bellows A block made of precisely cut wood and leather, fastened together by nails and with a tuyere to direct airflow. Can be used to bring a forge to a higher temperature than it normally could reach but in trade for a faster rate of fuel consumption. Normally this isn't very useful for heating up low melting point materials but it can be used to make working on materials that have a high work temp with even cheap cold burning materials like wood. The bellows can further be automated by way of a mechanically powered toggle, allowing for a constant airflow to be produced. This isn't particularly useful in the case of a forge but it can provide great value for mechanics that will later be discussed. Forge Welding In the same way that any ferrous anvil in this game requires the use of borax to to weld the two parts of it together, so too should every case of ferrous welding require some amount of flux. This flux does not only need to be in the form of borax with the primary other form of flux being that of limestone. Each addition of a piece of iron to a work piece should require the sprinkling of a small amount of flux on the welding point and then the pounding of the two pieces together so that they form one. This process of forge welding can also be done by the helve hammer. Bloomeries At the moment, bloomeries are a bit excessive in terms of how much they can produce. A full six large iron ingots would require a huge amount of ore and charcoal and a very, very large bloomery. Additionally, as the first method of producing iron ingots, it should not be so easy to simply place a bunch of bloomeries next to each other and run them at the same time in order to get an endgame supply of iron. As such, bloomeries should be nerfed so that they will become the player's first option but not one that is continually returned to throughout the game for large scale iron production. Obviously with such a large nerf to the only way to produce iron, there should be another option. And to that end, I present Industrialized Ferrous Metallurgy Pig Iron The product of most industrial methods of producing iron, for all intents and purposes practically equivalent to cast iron. Coke Ovens Obviously these are already a feature, but in their current state they do not provide nearly enough coke for the annoyance of individually lighting each furnace which only produces a small amount of coke. As such, coke ovens should be able to be increased in size at the cost of taking longer to cook but not in direct proportion to the amount of extra coke which they produce. Around 2 days time for a large coke oven would be reasonable. A real life example of an early coke battery, coal is shoveled into the top and is left to cook before being pulled from the front after it is fully cooked. Sandcasting Sandcasting would be an alternative to clay tool casting that allows for multiple molds to be filled at one time. Additionally, it would allow for complex concave shapes (such as anvils which simply should not work with clay molds or at least should break them after every use) and large multiblock casts if such castings are ever needed. This system would be particularly important for large scale casting from a stationary block as clay molds simply would not be feasible in such a situation. The way to go about this sort of system would be through a network of channels that lead to molds where molten metal flows from where it is poured out into the various molds connected to it. As to not make casting be able to propagate through infinite channels, each channel would individually be a "cast" of exactly 5 units of metal, meaning that a setup with 5 channels connected to 10 ingot molds would take 225 units of metal, 200 for the ingots and 25 for the runners. Runners can be harvested and will return one nugget of metal. Blast Furnace The pinnacle of high volume iron production, capable of melting down iron and casting it directly without having to beat slag off of a bloom. Consists of refractory brick that can be lined with iron or steel to increase efficiency. Charges of coke/charcoal, crushed limestone, and iron ore are added into the furnace through the chimney in equal parts. The furnace is then ignited and supplied with fresh air throughout the smelting process by way of a manually operated or mechanically operated bellows. The small patch of discolored material at the bottom of the blast furnace is a chunk of refractory clay known as the tap cover. Once the iron is molten and ready to be cast, the tap cover can be broken and the iron can flow outwards into whatever cast is in front of it. After the tap cover is removed, it can be replaced with a hunk of refractory clay when the furnace is completely emptied of molten iron. Blast furnaces can also be scaled up in size from 1x2x1 to 3x6x3 allowing for a vastly greater volume of ore to be smelted at one time but in turn necessitates mechanized air input. Additionally, blast furnaces can be surrounded with iron or steel sheets in order to more effectively contain heat and therefore consume less fuel and require less airflow to process ore. Puddling Furnace/Finery Furnace A final step in the production of wrought iron when using a blast furnace. Pig iron has an incredibly high carbon content compared to wrought iron or even steel and cannot be shaped as easily as wrought iron, so conversion into wrought iron is a necessity for applications such as armor and tools. One of the most effective ways to do this is with a puddling furnace, a large furnace which takes in pig iron, burns off the impurities, and then spits out a large chunk of relatively pure wrought iron. A puddling furnace consists of multiple parts. 1: The basin where pig iron is melted. 2: The chimney out which hot gasses exit. 3: The barrier between the burning fuel and the basin of pig iron. 4: The burning fuel over an ash grate. 5: The hole for removing pure wrought iron and inserting pig iron. 6: The hole for inserting fuel. The process involves placing hunks of pig iron inside of the basin and then lighting a fire with a high temperature burning fuel over the grate, separated by a wall such that none of the contaminants of the fuel are incorporated into the partially molten iron. The fumes of this gas then flow over the iron, heating it to an extreme temperature while removing impurities through a chemical reaction and pulling them out through the chimney. Once the metal has reached a sufficiently pure state, the work hatch is opened and a large set of metal tongs is used to grab the partially molten hunk of iron so it can be hammered into a uniform and usable state. Final Thoughts So, in conclusion, a blast furnace and puddling combo would produce a system of ferrous metalworking that allows for the large scale production of iron that would greatly surpass even the existing bloomeries that are currently in the game, especially in regards to cast iron which is an essential component in any reasonable industrial setting. The addition of cast iron also makes cast iron cookware and a large cast iron cookstove possible : ^ ] Also please make it so when you tap a blast furnace there's sparks and flames flying fucking everywhere, it'd be cool as hell and would be realistic to how tapping looks in real life.

At the moment, caves are a bit boring and oftentimes even annoying, drifters spawn in mass amounts and huck hundreds of rocks at you. Even in these mass amounts, if you have ample room to fight them or can simply pile up a few blocks, you can cheese them completely and avoid having to risk anything in killing them. Temporal stability is another risk factor when doing very deep caving but it's not a particularly fun feature due to the fact that the only way to mitigate it is to use gears to restore your stability, a resource which is incredibly rare already. As such, I think that a redo of the whole threat of caves in general is in order, specifically one to make the threats more environmental in origin as to make caves less annoying and provide players fewer chances to cheese them. General Ambience Changes At the moment, caves are a bit underwhelming to explore. There's no ambience to exploring a cave that differs from the above ground world and the sheer brightness of light that you can get from a single small candle in a copper lantern is so great that it makes caves feel far too open and inviting. Instead, caves should have a light, cold ambience to them that distinguishes them from the natural sounds of the surface and should, likely by way of a combination of testing light levels and y level, have strong reverberation to simulate the cramped, narrow space that they should be. As well as this, the pure raw stone construction of caves is mostly inaccurate as the majority of real caves floors are composed of dirt, loose stones, and occasional patches of raw stone. A better appearance would be for all cave floors to be gravel with loose stones strewn about and areas of stone being the exception to the rule, not the norm. Additionally, though not required, more variety in stone texture and more large scale detail would contribute greatly towards making caves less uniform. A more grim shift in aesthetics could be the inclusion of more common "ruins" which consist less of a full encampment and more of tools and skeletal remains of lost miners or creatures that have perished in the depths. Threats Cave-Ins The fallen rocks strewn about the cave should be an indication of something, that being that the material above you is not perfectly solid. When breaking stone blocks, there is a chance that nearby unsupported stone will fall, greatly damaging the player and breaking objects in their path. Cave ins could be prevented by a few methods, with the primary one being to not disturb the natural stone structure of a cave. The stone surrounding a cave would be fully immune to caving in due to it settling into a stable configuration over many millions of years of geological time, but once removed, all bets are off and you must rely upon artificial means to prevent cave-ins. The main artificial method for preventing cave-ins is that of support beams, large wooden beams (sometimes reinforced with metals) that hold up large areas of rock. Beams could be placed gradually, with single vertical posts providing enough support to mine out an area to place down a more complete support structure. Support beams are not perfect, though. Falling rocks that tumble from nearby cave ins could destroy them and cause a cascading collapse if the beams are not properly spaced. Unstable Flooring With the rocky and uneven flooring of caves as described above, there is a chance that some patches of ground will be unstable enough such that simply stepping on them can result in a cascading rockfall, just as one would see currently in game when scaling a steep hill with soil gravity turned on. This wouldn't extend to pit traps that drop you into a giant fall when you walk over an unstable patch, but standing on loose rocks near to the edge of a pit may result in you slipping in and falling, forcing you to be cautious when near the edges of pits. Deep Darkness Lighting in caves as it currently exists is far too simple. You obtain a lantern and you never run out of light in a cave ever again and that light source provides and incredibly large amount of light for how inexpensive it is and how little it requires to maintain (nothing). Instead, weak light sources such as candles, oil lanterns, and torches should work far less effectively as you descend deeper into a cave, eventually getting to the point where these common above ground light sources go out completely and a more powerful light source is required. This powerful light source would come in the form of an oil lantern. Unlike the oil lap, this lantern will actively consume fuel to produce light and will stop producing light if it runs out. This adds an element of time and preparation to the caving experience as well as through the less powerful light making caves seem smaller and more claustrophobic. The brightness of the lantern can be changed to either be brighter, thus burning more fuel, or be dimmer, thus burning less fuel. The further down in the world one goes, the more lighting power would be required to illuminate the surrounding area. Given the nature of combustion, this lantern would go out when the upper body is exposed to water unlike the current lantern. As well as this, the lantern will have a chance to break if a piece of rubble falls on it during a cave in, either when placed on the ground or held in the hand. Enemies (Or More Accurately, The Lack Thereof) Cave enemies aren't in a great spot right now. They throw rocks at you, spawn in droves, and actively respawn in already explored areas that you may be backtracking through. As they exist, they are annoying threat that either exists to pester you as you mine or to one shot you if you don't have the proper armor class. So, instead of enemies being the primary underground threat, they should be just one part of the whole array of threats that are underground. Enemies would be a much rarer spawn underground and would spawn far from the player, only really being noticed on the first expedition into a cave and not the trip back. To balance this, the enemies that do spawn would be stronger as to encourage treating them less as combat encounters and more as threats to be avoided by hiding in the darkness or running deeper into a cave. Conclusion Overall, I think caves have immense potential for being a slightly frightening and more deliberate experience than they are right now in trade for the riches that they can provide. Primarily, the issues present right now are that the threats in caves are reliant too much on AI and thus can be easily cheesed or become annoying as there is no way to stop them short of covering the cave in light sources. So with a general trend towards a more natural set of threats to caving, I think that these annoyances could be easily negated while at the same making caves much more pleasant to look at.

Stoves. Everyone loves em, they do a lot, they keep you from dying throughout most of the year, real nice stuff. Sadly, VS doesn't have much in the way of stoves, only really giving us the fire clay oven for baking pies and bread and not much else. As well as this, greenhouses are in a bit of a sorry state as they only give a +5C bonus which in the face of -10 temps won't do much to help all but the hardiest of your crops grow. So, to fix all of these issues and more, I propose a new system for stove construction that neatly slots in with previous posts I've made about changes to insulation and room mechanics. Modular Stoves A moderate set of stove related blocks which can all be connected together to form a singular stove system which can perform a variety of duties in a variety of scenarios. One of the most important and central parts of the stove is that it provides radiant heating while active, that is to say that any air blocks located next to it will heat up the room that they are contained within, meaning that a stove part exposed to more air will radiate heat faster as compared to a stove part with blocks all around it. As well as this, radiant air blocks will transfer their heat to entities that are in these air blocks. (the area surrounding a stove which will radiate heat into its environment) Stove Parts Combustion Chamber The heart of the stove, burns fuel to produce heat which flows out from the front when uncovered and through any flues which it is attached to. Provides the greatest amount of heat transfer to objects nearby it or directly above it, gradually falling off in terms of efficiency as objects move further away. Flue A shaft that directs hot exhaust to and fro. Much more effective at moving heat from one place to another than it moving around through solid earthen mass. Must be vented out into a chimney or it will begin to build up, eventually developing a back draft and pouring exhaust out of the front of the stove which will lead to a rapid and untimely demise by asphyxiation by its inhabitants. Stove A stove part with an open top that is designed to have pots and other cookware placed upon it. Works best when directly over a combustion chamber but can also be placed over a flue to work reasonably effectively. Rapidly radiates heat if it is not covered with a piece of cookware or a cover of some sort. Oven A stove part with an open front that is designed for use in baking. Needs only to be placed next to something hot such that it has heat transferred to itself without the use of a flue directly. Can also be covered after items are placed inside of it and will radiate out heat rapidly otherwise. Other Uses Since the stove blocks will radiate heat to all nearby air blocks, this means that a sleeping mat placed upon the stove would make for a great deep winter sleeping spot as a small amount of fuel could be used to keep a light fire going all night, transferring most of the heat to you instead of heating a whole room. The modular nature of the stove allows for any and all combinations of stove to be created, meaning that the stove is an effective and scalable option for mass cooking or heating. The behavior of flues and their heat radiating properties allows for the creation of primitive forced draft systems. To add to the idea of forced draft system, the radiant properties of flues would allow for the construction of a Roman hypocaust, Korean ondol, and any other sort of underfloor heating solution as players would benefit both from the radiant heat areas themselves as well as the heating it provides for the whole room. The behavior of every block with radiance allows for shared wall heating to be possible as well Can be used to heat greenhouses past their base +5C level. Overall, modular stoves would solve a large amount of issues (greenhouse heating, lack of mid game cooking upgrades, sleeping in cold environments) and would present a very interesting and engaging way for the player to customize their homestead to their own liking. Additional Nice Features Stove Materials Upgrades to stove materials available later in the game that allow for better heat retention and thermal mass, like stone and brick and for better components like a cast iron oven plate. Stove Painting Even less important but the stove is an incredibly important part of any homestead, and the ability to carefully decorate it with paint and decals would allow for a vastly greater degree of personalization.

The mapping system in this game leaves a lot to be desired, at least from my personal perspective. It's a perfectly detailed perfectly rendered full color exact representation of the outside world that is discovered in large swaths while walking around at no cost. This doesn't really track with the history of cartography, which is one defined by poorly scaled and drawn maps that included only the most important and relevant details. As such, I think it would be a good idea to completely revamp this mapping system and instead move over to a system that works based on a cartographic style of map that has a more physical in world presence as opposed to a disconnected menu. In addition to this, advanced surveying tools would have the benefits of creating a robust in world system of land claiming, making later game ore prospecting much easier through a long range prospecting mechanic, make building much easier with precise measurement and marking of long distances, and even an ability to use the tools of the trade for scouting. Cartography The Cartographic Map, Broadly A representation of the world which delineates only the elevation, forest cover, and a few important elements of a landscape. A very common type of map for undeveloped woodland areas as it imparts large amounts of information about which paths through terrain to take and what challenges may be present. In this game, it'd restrict the player's ability to know exactly where every visible structure is in world once they get somewhat close to it in addition to requiring a lot greater of a presence of mind to navigate an area. To compensate for this lower detail map, features would be added that would allow the player to draw lines, text, and markers on the map in charcoal, ink, or any other pigment to signify certain ideas. Lines could be drawn to mark where a path is carved through a mountain, a small rectangle can be drawn to represent a mining outpost, text could be drawn on the page to tell about any other specific properties, and many more. This system would gradually build up from a very basic rudimentary early game map to a much more advanced system later on as the player's tech improves. This greater amount of functionality would be offset by the player's icon and direction no longer appearing on the map and the map not automatically recentering to the player unless such a feature is enabled. Instead, the player would need to orient themselves through landmarks and markings on the map which would be facilitated by the ability to right click on a wooden pole to mark its exact position on the map, allowing for a much simpler experience in landmark navigation. Additionally, the map would require that the player supply it with some small amount of paper (which would have new recipes) for a certain amount of land traveled as to not make describing vast swaths of land a completely free matter. When available, the map could be set to either automatically mark down new terrain as it is visited or to only mark down terrain when the player explicitly does so. As well as this, the range of map documentation would be reduced or increased depending on many factors, with darkness, storms, and mist reducing range drastically and high elevation, clear skies, and bright sun increasing the range drastically. The Tools of Cartography Cartography is a highly precise skill, but early game methods still exist that can be used for a more primitive form of it to engage in basic property marking and measurement. One of the first methods to this end is the marked twine. A long pole of wood, pressed into the ground with a twine tied to it that has knots at every half meter. Can be used to mark off property by tying it off to another pole to form a connection or can be pulled along behind the player to determine the block distance between two points, reading out both axis of distance for convenience's sake as it is pulled along. Also can be used to mark off the boundaries of a land claim. Can only extend out to a measurement of 32 blocks per roll of twine. The next step after a suitable surface for mapping is obtained would be a ruler and charcoal stylus. The charcoal stylus allows the map to be drawn upon in a dark gray color and the ruler allows for straight lines to be drawn on the map in addition to acting as a primitive method of distance measurement if a certain distance is known. Once metal is obtained, more precise instruments can be produced along with more precise surfaces to use such upon. The plane table is a portable piece of furniture that can have a map laid down on it and drawn upon with aforementioned tools but also together with some new tools such as the protractor and compass. The protractor would allow for angles to be very precisely marked on the map and straight lines allowed to be drawn along those angles. This feature may not currently seem useful but its use will later become obvious. The use of the compass is obvious, providing the direction of north at all times as well as being able to determine the angle at which a player is looking relative to north. As a further extension of measurement and land marking, higher tier measuring links and poles would be available later in game when metal is available. The marked pole is taller and can handle being used with surveyor's chain, which is a long set of chain links that can be used to precisely measure distances just as the marked twine previously could, but out to 128 blocks instead of 32. Can also be used to delineate property and stake land claims. Finally, the culmination of every component of this system into one incredibly powerful device that requires precision crafting to achieve. The transit. A far range telescope mounted on a tripod, able to measure angles to the hundredth and see at incredibly long ranges. The primary use of the transit would be in large scale map detailing through trigonometric means. The chart below demonstrates how from a fixed point, two angle measurements, and a single known distance the exact distance of the point away from the observer can be known, allowing for incredibly precise mapping potential. In game, this would work by marking a specific block with the transit in one position and measuring the angle, measuring the distance to a new horizontal position with a chain or line of twine, and then measuring the angle again at the new position, yielding a valid survey measurement and marking the entire triangle as searched terrain, allowing the player to search vast quantities of land in only minutes. Care must be taken in this process though as small errors or a horizontal distance which is too small relative to the distance of the measurement may result in failure. As well as this, the transit would allow for very easy wide scale claim marking by performing these same calculations while building a claim to take huge amounts of land in one fell swoop. Smaller land claims could be done with twine and chains. As a supplementary boost to efficiency, a compendium of trigonometric lookup tables can be found lying in the dusty bookshelves of ancient ruins occasionally. Having these items in your possession will reduce the necessary horizontal distance of transit triangulation, improve the accuracy of any measurements taken with the transit, and simplify other complicated mathematical processes. Surveying Long Range Prospecting Currently, prospecting is mostly a matter of going to as many places as possible and using the density search mode of the prospecting pick until you get a reading. This is fine in the early game where resources can be easily found on the surface and are reasonably plentiful, but into the iron age and beyond, ore deposits become sparse and rare with some resources such as olivine and bauxite being completely undetectable as far as density search goes. To alleviate this, the transit would provide a late game system of long range prospecting which would work via a method similar to the triangulation above. The first step of the process would be taking a large ore sample and carefully processing in a long, expensive process to eventually yield an incredibly accurate reading of the nearest ore deposits of certain types within many thousands of blocks of the transit, including areas containing olivine and bauxite. These deposits would not be given as direct coordinates but instead as a series of points that will be revealed to the player if they interact with the transit at a given point. Once these points are, well, pointed at with the transit and their angle is measured, the distance between the two measurement points can then be used to calculate the distance that this deposit of ore is away from one of the transits, allowing for an exact path to be drawn on the map between the starting point and the ore deposit using the ruler and protractor.

I've mentioned this in previous forum posts before, but I believe that the current state of rooms is quite boring (as may be expected given how recently they've been added). They currently are perfectly warming in any climate and require very little setup to create, just a sealed box made of any kind of block meaning that the absolute peak of thermal insulation can be achieved in game once you obtain a saw. As such, I think there should be a more rigorous system in place that requires actual preparation for cold and hot temperatures. General Adjustments Insulation values Sealing a room shouldn't be changed particularly much as earthen materials are actually quite effective at maintaining temperature, but ideally there would be changes to the ways in which insulation is calculated for certain blocks. The system of "insulating block faces" for chiselling would be changed such that any thickness of a plane of voxels separating the outside world and a room is considered insulating, but depending on the thickness of it it will insulate either fully or not at all which allows for thinner more decorative windows to be created which still provide reasonable levels of insulation. Temperature Calculation Changes At the moment, rooms exist as a sort of perfectly warm space that will heat the player up to the ideal body temperature even in the most bone chilling of climates. Instead of this system, rooms would have a defined temperature value which is ticked to change every second or so depending on current conditions. The colder it is outside and the less well insulated the room is, the faster the room will lose temperature and move towards the temperature of the outside. Heat sources inside of the room would no longer provide a defined area of heating but instead would gradually contribute to the heat of the room at a fixed rate. These fluctuations in the temperature of a room would be slower or faster depending on the size of the room as well, with larger rooms taking longer to cool and heat and smaller rooms taking less time to cool and heat. Variable Door and Window Insulation Certain types of doors would have better or worse insulation values than others, rough hewn doors would have terrible insulation, doors with windows in them would have alright insulation, and thick solid doors would be fully insulating. As well as this, there would be shutters that could provide significantly greater insulation to a window when closed but allow it to readily vent out when opened. The system would work by having shutters provide a large amount of insulation to the block behind where they are placed when closed as well as on the block where they are placed such that they could be easily placed over interior windows and closed and opened depending on the current temperature. Doors would operate in the same way, with heavier doors providing insulation for lighter doors that they are placed next to when closed. Various doors from a recent devlog post, featured heavy doors and doors with windows. Shutters, closed and open Winter Changes Heating and Ventilation An essential component of keeping a room warm is a source of heat, often in the form of something being burnt. As burning things tends to produce smoke, there must be some sort of system to vent out this smoke so that you do not die. This was a system outlined in a previous post of mine where any fire in a room would slowly fill the room with smoke until it reached a lethal level at which the player would start rapidly dying from asphyxiation. Smoke levels will passively decay over time from dissipation through slight cracks in the walls, but this step could be completely circumvented by providing proper ventilation for the source of the smoke. Cast iron stoves would have their output vents fed into stone chimneys which have access to open sky. Hearths would have stone chimneys directly above them, once again with access to open sky. Heat sources such as fire pits and forges could also be ventilated with a chimney but would be less efficient at doing so compared to other more refined heating methods. Good Roofing A good, solid roof on a house is a necessary component of dealing with snowy conditions. A roof will distribute snow over a larger area and divert any melt away from the house and prevent it from leaking in and chilling the interior. As such, when there is a roof some amount of blocks over your head while in a room, there should be a benefit towards overall heat as well as a resistance to wetness that would normally be incurred if there was no roof and it was snowing or raining. Summer Changes Cooling and Ventilation Summers can get incredibly hot, and one of the best ways to maintain a decent temperature throughout the day without the assistance of external cooling technology is to store cool air within the house during the night and allow rooms to cool off, and then during the day to close off circulation from the outside and stop sunlight from entering into the home through shutters or curtains. This process could also be aided through external cooling through something like ice, but such a solution cannot be fully relied upon and should be saved for more important things like cooling a cellar. As well as this, it may even be a good idea to open up a sunless side of the house in order to vent out excess heat that may be produced by cooking at a hearth or stove (or cooking can simply be done outside on a grill over a fire pit). Cellar Ice Hay and ice frozen into large blocks which can be placed and used as very effective passive cooling devices. Can either be used in well sealed homes to keep them cool during the summer or kept in cellars to keep food preserved for longer.

Irrigation currently is not particularly interesting as you have basically only 3 methods which you can use. Manually water every single crop to 100%, horribly time intensive but yields fast growth. Place source blocks of water next to farmland, most effective long term solution but can't moisturize land to 100%. Not very interesting mechanically either. Wait for it to rain None of these systems are particularly interesting to me, and there isn't any correlation between effort/skill to benefit with the undefeated best option just being to place down water source blocks in a certain predefined grid pattern and leave farmland as it is with no additional work outside of harvesting and replanting. So, instead, I'd like to see a more difficult but overall more rewarding system of irrigation implemented along with a few other changes that make it possible. Water Source Blocks Water source blocks should not be allowed to be moved by a piece of tech gated only by obtaining a saw. If water is needed constantly for some operation, it should have to be diverted from some natural source instead of being taken and made into a new source. This would make farming less trivial and also pave way for a reasonable implementation of a waterwheel that isn't just a free power source wherever necessary by restricting it only to be nearby rivers or diverted rivers. Crop Hydration Plants in the real world don't take kindly to excessive watering, often wilting and dying when exposed to excessive quantities of water. As such, crops in game should behave the same way and have their growth stunted or even be killed outright if they are given too much water for too long (such as would occur if they were constantly exposed to a cubic meter of water at all times). Instead, crops should be given a moderated intake of water within a very broad range of values or, in the case of rice, could have an entirely different method of growing. Cover Crops Primarily used for animal feed, cover crops would be used to more quickly replenish certain nutrients in a soil and once harvested is useful for composting and as animal feed. These crops would also be useful in maintaining soil integrity during dry periods because the roots of the plant would anchor the dry soil in place so it isn't quickly dried out by the heat and wind if left exposed. Irrigation Techniques To replace the aforementioned forms of crop hydration and to balance them around a system that includes over hydration, multiple possible systems would be introduced all of which have some set of drawbacks and benefits to them. These techniques would include: Furrow Irrigation A kind of irrigation which consists of periodically flooding a network of ditches with water to hydrate crops. A very simplistic and early game form of irrigation that would be available upon getting a hoe of any kind but would come with the downside of being costly in terms of water and needing to be carefully managed as an overfilled furrow can overflow and destroy crops, and a furrow left full of water for too long can overhydrate crops as well. Can be made more efficient later through the use of stone irrigation ditches that allow water to transport much faster with less waste but can't be used to hydrate crops, only to transport water to valid dirt furrows. Irrigation Vessel Something you may have seen from primitive survival already, also called an olla. An unglazed earthen pot that is buried in the earth with a neck that sticks out of the ground for refilling. Water slowly seeps out of the unglazed surface and saturates nearby farmland. Needs to occasionally be replaced after breaking but is generally a low cost low maintenance but highly efficient solution for watering plants. Less easy to scale up to huge amounts though given the need to have individually filled fired pots often in a field. Drip Irrigation Also to be implemented in Primitive Survival, composed of cut half circle bamboo segments that water flows through and eventually drips out of onto crops. A very intensive method of irrigation that requires that a bamboo segment be placed above every row of crops but provides near perfect hydration constantly if properly split. Can also overhydrate crops if given too much water. Chinampas Raised beds on lakes and wetlands made from mud and reeds mixed together and lashed reeds and posts to hold it into a formation. Provides incredible plant nutrition that exceeds any other form of agriculture but requires a shallow, large lake as well as an intensive construction process. Must be made at medium sizes for ideal hydration and plant nutrition. . Other Farming Changes One thing I've never really enjoyed in vanilla farming is the hunt for terra preta to construct a farm. It's strange to make ideal agriculture a process of harvesting faraway materials to exploit in your farmland and make it such a simple process where the farmland stays rich forever without maintenance outside of proper crop rotation and watering. Instead, I'd like to see a system where the quality of a soil is dependent primarily upon how it is treated, with good hydration, temps, fertilization, and crop rotation producing healthy nutrient rich soil and excessive or minuscule hydration, no fertilization, monoculture, and dry barren fields exposed to wind producing poor soil. Fertilizer Changes Fertilizer should be a core component of farming not just an additional nicety that can boost certain nutrients. As such, a few things should be added with the first being the ability to fill a bucket with fertilizer and cast it out over a wide but irregular area (up to 5x5 blocks centered at one block in front of the player). This would make fertilizing fields much more manageable at a large scale which in addition to a requirement for fertilization for some kinds of agriculture make it an interesting task. Fertilizer would also come in many new different forms with the addition of this tool, such as compost from a more in depth composting system (described later), wood ash fertilizer (obtained from burning wood anywhere), and feather meal (obtained from boiling chickens feathers and then drying and grinding them). Compost Compost already exists in game but in a pretty inaccurate and boring state where rot of any type is sealed in a barrel, producing compost that only satisfies one type of nutrient. Real compost involves primarily plant material decomposing in a high moisture high oxygen environment and yields material which is useful for a wide variety of plants. It also serves as a way to reuse the nutrients a plant spent on leaves and flowering parts by using the compost in growing other plants. As such, I think it would be a good idea to give all crops two parts: a food part and a greens part. The food part stays as is, but the greens part can be used for animal feed and composting. Composting would be a primarily passive process but one that needs to be carefully set up with proper ratios and ingredients. Fat, meat, and any other animal parts would not compost well so generic rot should be excluded from composting. Instead, composting primarily consists of mixing water with brown and green materials at ideal ratios, with brown materials being things such as hay, sawdust, dry grasses, and dry leaves and green materials being vegetable trimmings, fresh plants, and any other living green material. Green is mixed with brown at an ideal ratio of 2:1, but most ratios work reasonable well for creating compost.

(As per usual, models aren't final and mostly just exist to demonstrate ideas. I will be using axes to demonstrate my points throughout this post but this applies to all tools.) Tools are in a bit of an odd place right now, I usually find myself turning the durability up x2-x4 because the basic in game tools just seem so weak. A well forged iron axe will break after felling 40 soft pine trees whereas in real life the same axe would keep on working for generations with good maintenance, sharpening, and replacement of the shaft it is mounted on. Because of this, I think the best way forward for the VS tools system would be to implement a modular tool construction system, nothing complex as you'd see in Tinker's Construct or Tetra in Minecraft with many possible materials and modifiers, just a very simple system with simple improvements. Each individual part of the tool can break on its own and has its own durability, with the binding and handle being much weaker than the head which itself can outlast many handles. The tool will also lose sharpness over time but can be restored by grinding it back to an edge. In line with a more in world approach to tool construction as is planned in the future, this system should primarily be expressed in world through a new block called the workbench which acts as a one stop shop for all tool creation and modification functions. It would be upgraded throughout the game to reflect the player's current level of tech and would be used for a variety of other specialized functions. Handles Currently, the only type of tool handle available in game is made out of a stick you find on the ground in a forest that has been lying there for many, many years which somehow manages to form a stable, solid, straight, and very usable wooden handle. I think it would be a lot more accurate to have a more complex system of handles, sticks would still exist for sure but would exist as a flint-tier handle that you quickly toss into the fire pit upon first creating a saw and becoming capable of producing quality handles. These handles would be separated into 3 categories: Softwood Hardwood Dense Hardwood Softwood includes woods such as pine and redwood, they are the softest of handle types and are most likely to break. Also included in this durability tier would be forest floor sticks to reflect the ease with which they can be obtained. Hardwood includes woods such as oak, walnut, and birch, they are reasonably dense and hard handle materials and are relatively common within temperate areas. Dense Hardwoods include woods such as ebony purpleheart, they are the most dense possible woods and are rare in the typical regions that players spawn in, making their use more restricted. Additionally, handles can be wrapped for an extra durability and efficiency bonus Bindings In a way, bindings already exist in this game in the form of lashings around copper tools and the bolts in an iron axe, but this binding system would extend these options to all tools. Bindings would primarily consist of: Lashings Wedges Metal Pins Lashings would consist of flexible rope materials like reeds, linen, and leather. They are not particularly effective at holding a head on the handle and are primarily used to bind flint to sticks for early game tools, but they can work in a pinch if your tool breaks in the field and you need a quick repair to get you through a mining session. Wedges would consist of wood or metal wedges that can be hammered into the tops of tools such as pickaxes, axes, and prospecting picks. They are quite durable and cheap but require the workbench to replace. Metal pins would consist of sturdy metal pins that can be inserted into the tool head to bind them to the handle. They are incredibly durable but require a more advanced workbench to use. Heads These would mostly stay the same but with one primary difference in that most tools require sharpening after being cast or forged. Early game sharpening can be done on raw exposed rock and later game sharpening can be done on whetstones or mechanically driven grindstones. A sharp tool will be effective for a reasonably long period of time before rapidly declining in effectiveness as it loses its edge with field sharpening being easily accomplished with a portable whetstone. Examples A few fully constructed tools. Left to right: Forest floor stick handle, reed lashings, iron axe head. Pine handle, pine wedge, iron axe head. Oak handle with linen wrapping, iron pins, iron axe head. Ebony handle with leather wrapping, iron pins, heavy iron axe head.

A few additional related pieces of content I've been recently working on Frying Pan Another piece of cast iron cookware which is required to cook meat by stovetop, meat can be cooked in the oven but requires more time to do so, leaving the pan as the most convenient option. Also allows for frying eggs and the future possibility of things like reducing liquids down to syrups and sauces. Potbelly Stove A stove designed primarily for heating purposes, burns wood at an even slower rate than the cast iron stove but only has a single cooking surface capable of fitting small cooking implements. Behaves like the standard stove in that heat drains from it rapidly when the door is open and the ash tray below can be pulled out and emptied with a shovel.

You shouldn't be able to chop down a massive old growth redwood with flimsy knapped flint tools, have you ever seen what a tree actually looks like and how much you'd have to cut through to fell it? This game is being immensely generous compared to what you'd have to do in a realistic scenario to fell a meter wide tree. You don't need that much wood at the start of the game anyways since all of it goes to firewood. Anyways, knapping should stay and should be abandoned entirely upon reaching even just starting out in making metal tools, but I will agree that clayforming should have more methods for automation, such as a potters wheel that requires mechanical power for radially symmetrical items such as vessels and crocks and clay forms that are easy to fill up and get unfired items from like ingot molds and the like. The reason that forming and knapping exist is to make it harder to mass produce these products early on in the game, making a vessel is a large time investment and if it wasn't then people would make far more. These systems also allow for the personal skill of the player to make the crafting process faster by employing certain techniques, something that just cannot be present in a grid crafting scenario.

Cast iron could be used for a variety of different items, particularly steam engine constructions when that is eventually implemented, the "something beyond 'clay pots'" you mentioned (a large cast iron pot or pan), and decorative metal blocks so iron fencing isn't restricted behind traders.

It will be made from multiple pieces of cast iron which will likely total to around 15 total bars worth of iron. Melting the iron down to a liquid form for casting will require a specialized furnace setup to heat it up to the necessary temperature. Additionally, it will require specialized cast iron cookware in order to perform actions such as cooking meat and making pot-based food.

(All models are not final, just proof of concept) The current system of food cooking leaves much to be desired in specifically the heating realm. The first station for cooking you ever get is a fire pit which you can construct within minutes of starting a game, which continues to be used for the entire game despite having access to advanced technology and refined metals. As such, I think it would be reasonable to add in structures which serve the same fundamental purpose as a fire pit but are more efficient for a greater level of progression along the technology tree, such as being able to cook more items at once, using fuel more efficiently, and heating rooms more efficiently. Before getting into examples, I would like to detail a few systems that would work well with these changes and additions Ventilation Currently, any enclosed 7x7x7 maximum room in VS benefits from a +1C body temp bonus as well as an increase for the heating range of fire pits, this system could be adapted so that if there is an active flame in the room (torch, fire pit, pit kiln, forge, etc) the smoke level of this room will gradually increase, damaging the player more as it becomes closer to 100%. Smoke will passively decay from a room over time at a slow rate, but this can be accelerated by placing a chimney in the room with unobstructed access to the sky. Smoke can be reduced further by placing the valid chimney over the source of the smoke, which will greatly decrease the rate at which the source produces smoke, and certain types of ovens have integrated chimneys they can be directly funneled into. Wood Ash A product created from the burning of wood in any form, widely used as a fertilizer, ceramic glaze, and the primary ingredient in making potash. Could provide moderate amounts of K nutrient when used on soils, but could be further refined into potash by leaching the solution with water to produce lye and then boiling the solution in a pot to produce a small amount of potash which acts as it currently does in game. Wood ash would also prevent ovens or fire pits from working if too much of it builds up, requiring removal by use of a shovel. Stock Pot A large metal pot which can be used for cooking large portions of meals (4 slots, 24 in each slot) and boiling liquids (producing potash, boiling bones in water to make stock). Can be made either of tin-lined copper or cast iron, which is able to cook its materials faster than the tin-copper pot for balancing sake. Cast Iron Iron that is cast, simple as that. Produced by heating a crucible inside of a bloomery furnace (or in a new kind of fire brick furnace) and pouring the molten iron into a variety of new casts, such as railings, decorative metal plates, cookware, and most importantly a cast iron stove. And now onto the ovens. Brick Oven (Copper Age) A large two block oven which requires a significant amount of bricks and a small amount of relieved stone to construct. Composed of a lower half for burning wood and an upper half that is heated by the lower half in which bread and pot cooking can be performed. Capable of holding 4 loaves of bread and 2 cooking pots. Burns fuel at 50% the rate that it would burn in a fire pit, but releases heat slower compared to the fire pit in proportion to its 50% rate of consumption. Has a high heat capacity, meaning the top oven half will take a significant amount of time to heat up fully. Heat will leak from the upper baking area faster if the cover is removed. Grill (Bronze Age and Beyond) A simple metal grate made of bronze or iron which can be stood up over top of a fire pit or a pile of smoldering charcoal to cook food in a highly portable and efficient manner. Operated by placing the grill over a fire pit. Does not consume fuel faster but is capable of cooking two pots or four pieces of meat simultaneously, with grilled meats providing a protein nutrition and saturation bonus over typical spit roasted meat. Can hold one clay pot or one stock pot. Cast Iron Stove A large and expensive stove which is capable of cooking huge amounts of food at once and has great fuel efficiency. Operated by placing wood in the fuel hatch (marked in red) which transfers heat to the cooking surface and oven (marked in green). Ash is removed by right clicking the ash tray (marked in blue) with a shovel to obtain wood ash. Can cook 4 clay pots or one stock pot in addition to 8 loaves of bread in its oven. Each hatch must be opened and closed to interact with, open hatches rapidly sap heat from the oven. Burns fuel at 25% the rate that it would burn in a fire pit, but releases heat at only 25% the rate. Greatly more efficient at heating an enclosed room, providing an even larger body temperature bonus for anyone within the enclosed space. Approximately 1.5 blocks long and 1 block tall at its countertop. Exhaust vent can bend to fit various positions and configurations, such as feeding into covered pipe or a stone chimney.