DarkGold

Stockfish is another well preserved food item that would be an alternative to salting fish. It takes a long time to produce (3 months), is made outdoors over winter, and would require a drying rack to be added to the game. It probably acts as an ingredient more so than food, so would require rehydration or would be added to a cooking pot meal. A lot of time invested for not a significant benefit to the player when compared to salting or fishing fresh perhaps, but nice if you want to take meat on long inland journeys and haven't found salt yet. You spend more time and production is limited to a certain time of year (opposite to that of farming) rather than use salt to preserve the food.

Other historical travel rations like hard tack and pemmican are also things I'm interested in. Both are often rehydrated before eating, so I think there is an interesting mechanical opportunity for them to be more or less satisfying, depending on if they are eaten before or after rehydration (more effort, more reward, less convenient for uninterrupted travel). I suppose the inconvenience of rehydration might still be less than that of camping with a firepit (at which point porridge is relatively convenient, as grain is relatively long lasting), as it may not involve heat, but simply combining water and a dehydrated ration in a bowl. Either way, it requires the player to carry more things to get a greater benefit (water, a bowl). Hard tack, presumably having a very similar recipe to the existing in game recipe for bread, I think might require some effort in introducing new preparation methods to distinguish it. Adding a low and slow mode to the oven, as suggested for pumpernickel bread, would help. It seems like it would be a pre-iron age technology, so I'm not sure how effective such an accessible long lasting food should be. Will it be worth a player's time to make it if it isn't very satisfying? Pemmican seems like something that would be prepared in stages. The first step would involve drying meat by adding a low and slow mode to the oven or some sort of drying rack that sits over a firepit to the game, rather than curing with salt. Then rendered fat would be added in a recipe. If berries could be dried, dried berries could also be added through this recipe. This also is a pre-iron age technology, so quite accessible to the player. I worry that the intermediate ingredients (dried meat, dried berries) might not be strong additions to the game in and of themselves. I think pumpernickel exists within a unique niche if it is gated behind the iron age, as it can be a more rewarding food since it is further down the tech tree. This lines up with some of the qualities the food itself has; unlike hard tack or pemmican, it doesn't require rehydration before it is more satisfying to eat. It can truly shine in its specific purpose without strongly competing with other food options due to being a later game food.

I recently learnt about the impressive shelf life of pumpernickel bread from this YouTube video. One of the things I wanted while exploring in Vintage Story, after advancing to the iron age, while making my way through Chapter 1, were some more long lasting travel ration options. Pumpernickel bread seems like it could be one of these options; it has a strong historical precedent, and would utilise existing materials in game well with a little extention. What does it use that's already in the game? Rye grain (not flour), water, the oven. What would be added to the game to support it further? An iron baking tin (making it an iron age technology) made of sheet metal. A sourdough starter (that has a small time investment to get going, and can be fed to make more and keep it alive). Maybe a way for the oven to burn more low and slow. What is the benefit of making this advanced bread? It has a much longer shelf life than normal bread (6 months in medieval times), making it a great travel ration. It's convenient to carry.

I took a break from Vintage Story for about 3 weeks, and came back today to see version 1.22 stable was out. Very exciting! I followed this tutorial on YouTube to copy my base, a couple of outposts, and dock. Then I backed up my save data, updated to 1.22 and created a new world with the same settings and seed as my 1.21 world. I added the content I had copied from the old world to the new world. It went very smoothly. I was pleased to see the contents of all containers, my animals, crops, and my ship carried over. I also used the creative tools to replant my fruit tree orchard. There were just 2 minor issues with the lantern change on the ship and mount that required swapping from the large lanterns to the small ones to fix. I also noticed any rawhide shirts had vanished from chests they were in, which I assumed was because their recipe changed. No great loss. A sapling that had been copied over also needed to be picked up and placed down again to fix the amount of time it would take to mature due to the time difference between my old and new world. The new world, using the same seed, is very similar to the old world. Terrain seems mostly the same, but some traders have moved and the distribution of mushrooms is different. This makes sense, as both mushrooms and traders were updated in 1.22. Overall, I found the experience smooth and straightforward (following the tutorial), and am so glad Vintage Story includes these tools.

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...

Nice! I'll have to check them out when I finish my vanilla run and start adding mods. Same, I like to sell longbows and feathers, so keep some on my boat to sell. It's the kind of thing I imagine the player might have to invest in to gain a benefit from. Make one fancy piece of tech you leave at your house, and another fancy piece of tech to give to individual traders who you'd like to keep tabs on. Or potentially do some quests for them to help them fix up/install something.

Now that I have explored a large body of water with traders all along the edge, I am again feeling something I felt earlier in the game, that might make more sense as a mod than a change to vanilla... Early in the game, before you have a lot of rusty gears, you need to be careful with the trades you make if you want to stay liquid and make a profit. What this might look like is: Go to Commodities trader, find out what they want, when this might change, and how much money they have. Go to a Treasure Hunter trader, find out what they are selling. Travel back to the Commodities trader and deliver what they wanted if the Treasure Hunter had it and the costs lined up with what both you and the Commodities trader could afford. Do this before their next delivery date. Wait for the Commodities trader to save up some money again before repeating this pattern. There are variations on this for the Survival trader and Agricultural and Treasure Hunter traders too. While I really like having to go and purchase goods, then deliver them within a deadline, doing steps 1 and 2 without finding a match is time consuming, and doing step 1 before proceeding to 2, to remain liquid, increases the amount of sailing you do. This can add up to a lot of time. Fair; your efforts are making you money, tedium is the price you pay. It would be interesting if there was some way to remotely check the trader's info. A board that one could add them to somehow once discovered (and maybe some other condition/s met). Or a telephone like device one could contact them through to receive this info remotely, if certain investments were made (maybe late game tech). I am aware there are certain technologies that might replace sailing in certain circumstance in the late game. I see this being a similar convenience. Perhaps this mod already exists? I'm doing a vanilla run of the game at the moment, but would consider a mod like this in the future if the base game does not go in this direction.

The good: trading by ship. I have a lot of traders around the perimeter of the sea and it's fun (and profitable!) to sail between them. I was also able to travel maybe 3,500 blocks north by sea. That's more than half the distance of the journey north I'm on! The bad: as noted, there is less land around you with crops, soil and clay at the start of the game. If I were to play the seed again, knowing what I know now, I would make a raft before backpacks, so I could travel to more cattails early. I think I could overcome a lot of my year 0 troubles if I played the same seed again now, no longer being a first time player. My starting island has a nice little lake on it right near spawn, some ruins, and there was a larger island within swimming distance (important when I was killed by a bear on that island and didn't have enough cattails to make a second raft yet). The larger island also had a couple of very useful traders on it. For anyone interested, my seed was: 158219089. Version 1.21.6 and my settings were default standard game world.

That is very useful to know! And it sounds like, based on the following thread, that items persist in unloaded chunks indefinitely between closing and opening the game. That eases a lot of my worries, and should make future game choices a lot less stressful/risk adverse.

I have considered carrying raw grain and flour, since it wouldn't be hard to bring a clay oven in storage on my boat, or carry a cooking pot for porridge. Since I'm exploring in winter, I have to intermittently camp with a fire to warm up again anyway. After Bruno Willis's reminder about pickled vegetables, I've decided I'm going to try harvesting soybeans in the next growing season. I don't have many seeds at the moment (only found a handful in a ruin after the last growing season), so it'll be a slow start, but pickled soybeans should be a good option for long travels in the future. I just finished mapping the perimeter of the large sea (maybe roughly 5,500x7,000 blocks) I happened to spawn in the middle of. I'm going to have to establish an outpost at the northern tip of the sea, then head inland and see how far I can get as the next step of my journey. Maybe that will mean a second sailboat, carving a channel, or doing the rest of the journey on foot. Either way, I'll have to build some more land based storage.

I only relatively recently found salt, so this would be something worth trying now! I have been mostly using bread for exploration (in seasons without wild berries) up until this point. I also have only domesticated chickens so far, though I do have goats near my base. I know pickled vegetables are a step in making cheese, so exciting to maybe one day start down the dairy farming path! It's not something I have on my to do list at the moment though; I only just decided it was time to pursue the story after making it to the iron tier.