DarkGold

While it's clear to me that Vintage Story is a game that is currently easier to play if you hunt animals (leather is currently important, who knows if there will be alternative fabric/material options in the future), and I personally enjoy skillful archery hunting challenges in games, I do also see a common thread of alternative options being added to the game (resin and oil instead of fat in recipes, soybeans). I think adding a spyglass type item that could ID animals would not only be mechanically useful to players engaging in a standard way, but also interesting if people want to do no hunt type runs, but enjoy the joys of collection through photography rather than taxidermy. Just a thought. No need to add a photography system to the game, just one of those things some players might enjoy in their own way.

I only recently started doing some more decorative (rather than primarily practical) building around my base. I built a gallery to house some of the clutter I'd collected on my journey so far, display my seashell and gem collections, hang paintings and display armor stands. I'm very excited for the cabinets coming in version 1.22 that will increase my options here. Now that I had a nice little gallery, I decided it was a good time to make a bug net. I had seen the butterflies on my island and looked forward to collecting them when I had somewhere nice to display them. Now that I am collecting butterflies, I notice that I can't tell which butterfly I am looking at via tooltip before I catch it, I must skillfully visually ID it if I want to know. I kind of like the challenge of visual ID, but with some butterflies looking quite similar (male vs female), it would be nice to tell which butterfly I am looking at via text before catching it. I can't help but feel bad for video game creatures when their death is in vain; if I already have one type of butterfly in my collection, I don't need a second of the same type, so catching a second only to discard it is a shame. This again brings me to desire a spyglass type item that will allow me to ID creatures from a distance. I had previously said that I would like to avoid walking up to a predator to confirm if it is indeed a predator, and be able to better ID deer variants from a distance. I would also like this tool to be able to tell me what butterfly I am looking at without having to net it.

Great suggestions! Dropping/raising the anchor to add/remove a boat marker would definitely be something I use. I agree; an update to the current ruins marker would be appreciated. I use it, but I initially used the cracked vessel marker for ruins before I noticed that's what the pillars icon was for. Cool to hear the trader icon might be getting an update in line with the changes.

I find the map system really useful. I'm sure there are mods out there that extend map icon options, but the default options we have cover most of my needs nicely. There are just a few things I mark on my map that I use the generic round or star icons for that it would be nice to have specific icons for: Flowers. Sometimes I want to know where that field of cornflowers or lupins I found was. Plants that aren't trees or grains or vegetables, like cattails (or brown sedge when I first ran into it). In my mind I see these using a generic leaf or fern shape. Reefs. I picture a coral or fish shaped icon for this. If these extra icons were in the game, that would cover every scenario for me.

Now that I'm making steel... I see I'm not the first person to wonder if it is possible to make charcoal in a coke oven... Would be nice if it was possible!

When I used a temporal gear in the story location I was concerned that I did not get a message saying that it had worked. It looked like it had worked, but I was very worried that with no confirmation message it had not worked and my other spawn point was very far from there. Some message, in the typical location, confirming it worked and how many charges it has would be very reassuring.

Expecting some fighting, I did read a walkthrough before I proceeded very far through the story area. This was very helpful in uncovering secret areas and in knowing what gear I would need to bring to undertake the larger challenge. I think, if I had gone in blind, I may have found the 1 way drop that likely results in more than 1 death to be frustrating, if I was under equipped. As it was, death was not a problem, as I could immediately respawn, take the 1 way drop, grab my items, repeat this loop comfortably. If I found that I did not have what I required after the drop to go further, it would have been frustrating to be unable to escape with what I was carrying and retreat.

I completed chapter 1 recently. The story area was very engaging and I found it well balanced for solo play. I really appreciated some of the repairable loot; I absolutely took it back to base and made use of it later in the area. I am now working on getting steel (mostly to get sturdy leather) before I proceed with chapter 2. My only 2 pain points were: I found it quite tedious to travel back and forth many times to take what I looted from the story location back to my base (with 4 leather backpacks). I can only imagine this would be so much more tedious on a world where more than half my journey wasn't by ship. When I arrived at the marked location and did not immediately see what my next steps were (dig? explore? how far?), after some fruitless exploration, I googled what I should be looking for. Once I knew what to look for, and in what range, it was straightforward, but without further information, I was quite lost.

If you are doing a lot of travel by water, the sailboat is a very worthwhile upgrade from your raft, for the sheer amount of storage you can put on it and the increased speed. It took me a couple years of harvests to save enough linen, so you might still be waiting a while, but it was well worth the investment for the world that I spawned on (in the middle of a large sea).

I just finished chapter 1 for the first time recently. I would add that if you would like to loot the area, it's a great idea to bring 1 or more trunks to leave just outside the claim protections so you can dump loot you find there. Something I found challenging when I arrived at the destination marker was figuring out where to go from there (it was not immediately obvious). I googled what it was I should be looking for in order to narrow my search. If you also need guidance, I'm sure someone on this thread will provide it.

It took me a very long time to find a reasonable source of lime, so a long time to get more than a tiny bit of leather. So I would guess that you don't have access to leather yet (though you might be luckier than I was!). If you happen to have access to lime though, leather armor has none of the downsides of some of the heavier armor, while making a big difference to how many hits you can take. Some of the other armors, available to you before you find leather, aren't going to be as durable, or protective, and they might come with downsides, but still can also do a lot for your survivability if you want to pick some fights earlier in the game.

Something else it took me a long time to notice, because I didn't make my first falx until I reached the bronze tier, is that falx have a unique weapon property when fighting the enemies mentioned in their flavor text. It can come in handy when you are dealing with more than 1 enemy and want to make a quick getaway, so don't have time to loot all the corpses.

I think, at this time in the game, when you have nothing to really lose from dying, it is a great time to take some "risks" that won't really hurt you in the long term. Fighting some creatures that spawn from rifts where you will be able to quickly respawn and grab your dropped weapons is a good way to get some resources that it took me a very long time to get playing more conservatively.

Welcome! I understand what you mean! It becomes relevant later in the game, as you start exploring further from spawn and changing your spawn point. Up until then, it's really not too much of a problem to die if you are near world spawn. As LadyWYT has said... This could change in the future, but I like how the inevitable deaths that you suffer as a new player aren't too punishing at the moment. Another game I enjoy playing is Valheim, and they have a food system that buffs your stats, but you don't have to worry about starving. This means you eat before doing something risky, but you don't have to worry about eating while just pottering around your base. While the early game in Vintage Story is training you for later, and rewarding longer term investment in your nutrition, that mentality of "if I'm just at my starting base, food isn't so important compared to if I am out and about" reminds me of Valheim's design.

I've spent some time prioritizing trading, to save up enough gears for something I have seen becomes available to buy as you progress the story, and some fancy armor I'd like to buy. I haven't spent a lot of time fighting during storms, or delving underground yet (besides in well lit, mostly vertical mining tunnels after prospecting). I've just made it to my northern destination though, so my fortunes might be about to change...