New player - having a lot of trouble with the game. Any suggestions?

[thatnub0541]

Hi, new player here.

I'm having a lot of trouble with the game because it doesn't feel like anything is worth it to do. Since death means losing everything in my inventory unless I can get back to it and clear the area of threats within ten minutes, and pretty much every advancement requires a LOT of random exploration and busywork (clay, copper, tin, food, most resources), it's been common for me to lose hours of progress due to random, unprovoked bear or wolf attacks that happen in less than a second, even with armor and a shield. I just lost a huge inventory full of stuff after a random bear attack followed by several consecutive wolf attacks moved the location of the grave marker to where I could no longer find my original inventory. After an hour of making the same run-back over and over, I'm left with a few flint tools and none of the things that took me a long time to get. It's kind of exhausting. Playing the game sort of feels like throwing my time and effort down a giant hole. 

Does it ever get any better? Perhaps I should modify some settings?

Thanks.

[Emhyr var Emreis]

In the settings, before creating a new world, set the passive behavior of creatures (animals, walkers)
This will help you a lot at the very beginning of the game. 
On various YT channels you can also see what modifications you will need to make the game more enjoyable. 
Also check out mechanic guides on how to start and so on. 
But first, set it as I wrote above and you can completely disable the appearance of drifters in the crevasses that appear near you. 
You can turn off temporal storms. 

And if you want, somewhere on the website you will find a whole list of commands that will make it easier for you,
 for example, to move around the map. I.e. setting waypoints or teleports. 

Don't be discouraged, before I built a working camp I started it 100 times 

Edited July 6 by Emhyr var Emreis

[Lilith Perez]

Perhaps this ones a bit obvious, but it's something that didn't occur to me immediately, while instantaneously helping me with my progress and the learning curve of the game: the realization that i can craft Reed Chests. You can look up in the crafting guide how to make them (they only require ~16 cut reeds each.) and they retain 6 slots of placeable chest glory. the implementation of these means that you will be able to store away any valuables and walk the earth with just your tools or X or Y and be able to explore with much, much lower risk.

[Lilith Perez]

I should note that, for what it's worth, for all of the time that i've played the game, hostile encounters with bears or wolves can be made significantly less dangerous just by hauling a** to a body of water and jumping in. they will be far less mobile and you can get tons of hits in on them with a flint spear, which also means you can get leather and meat a little easier. That being said, I don't... actually have encounters with bears and wolves all that much? So I'm wondering if you're just exploring a LOT of different forests, or..?

[LadyWYT]

31 minutes ago, thatnub0541 said:

Perhaps I should modify some settings?

I'd recommend starting a new world and turning Keep Inventory on, as well as setting a 10 day grace period for monster spawning and a longer interval for temporal storm frequency. This ensures that you'll have some time to poke around and get your bearings before the nasty stuff starts to spawn, while still maintaining some danger in the form of aggressive wildlife. Should you die, you won't have to worry about losing your stuff either. I will note that with these settings you'll still see rifts appear if there is rift activity, but nothing should spawn from them until the grace timer is up and the conditions are right.

On the other hand, if you're feeling confident and would rather keep playing in your current world, then I'd recommend just using the command /worldconfig deathPunishment keep to allow you to keep your stuff when you die.

40 minutes ago, thatnub0541 said:

Does it ever get any better?

It does get better! Vintage Story is a game that has a steep learning curve and doesn't pull its punches; every veteran player has been through the same struggles you're dealing with currently. Once you start figuring out how to progress and get some experience just surviving the challenges the game throws at you, things become a lot easier. The handbook is also your best friend--if you find yourself holed up waiting for night to pass, it's a good idea to crack it open and start reading(make sure the game is unpaused while reading).

It's also not a bad idea to keep a stack of healing items(4 horsetail + 2 cattails = 4 basic healing poultice) on your person; they can potentially keep you alive in the event that you encounter trouble. Wolves and black bears you can run away from, especially if you can run diagonally and cut across difficult terrain. They also don't handle deep water very well, so if you lure them into a deep body of water you should be able to dive under and stab with a spear. If you're feeling really confident and have several spears, you can also try throwing spears at the aggressive animal to either kill it or scare it away(they'll run away from you when at low health). In general though it's best to take careful stock of your surroundings and avoid the hazards if you can.

[Thorfinn]

The other thing you might want to do is turn your view distance way down. This is more of a technical detail, but time does not pass (in terms of your stuff despawning) unless the chunk your items are in happens to be loaded, which depends on your view distance.

But yeah, lots of great suggestions here. Another might be that if you create firepits, you can take back the firewood, and have 2 slots to store stuff. So at the cost of 4 dry grass, you have the same storage capacity as 24 reeds. And if some of the stuff you are storing is meat or grain or veggies or even ore, and if you made a cooking pot or a crucible,place it on the firepit, and you can store up to 5 stacks of stuff.

I'm amazed you managed to pick up both copper and tin. That's awesome. I get that it's lucky RNG, but noticing that the tin nugget was something different is not typical in a new player.

Running is your friend. If you are on the flat and level, yeah, brown bears can outrun you, so you need to know what you are doing to get away from them, but everything else in the game can be outrun.

Equip improvised armor. You will likely survive a couple of wolf attacks if you are wearing it, and probably a black bear. And it's only firewood and dry grass.

Welcome, BTW.

Edited July 8 by Thorfinn

[LadyWYT]

8 minutes ago, Thorfinn said:

Equip improvised armor. You will likely survive a couple of wolf attacks if you are wearing it, and probably a black bear. And it's only firewood and dry grass.

Don't forget the crude shield as well. It can help keep you alive if you need to fight your way out of a situation.

[Thorfinn]

On 7/6/2024 at 3:36 PM, LadyWYT said:

every veteran player has been through the same struggles you're dealing with

Yeah, definitely this. I posted in several topics about nerfing wolves before I realized how easy they are to more or less ignore. See the following.

 

On 7/6/2024 at 3:36 PM, LadyWYT said:

It's also not a bad idea to keep a stack of healing items(4 horsetail + 2 cattails = 4 basic healing poultice) on your person

This, for sure. If starting in forest, I generally shoot for 4 poultices before the second basket. Then, it depends. If I have several slots left, I'll fully fill the poultices before making the rest of the baskets.

Not that it matters in the OP's case. He evidently already has all the hand baskets he needs.

[ifoz]

Playing as the Malefactor class will make the aggro range for animals significantly less and increase drop rates from cracked vessels and foraging, making for an easier early game.
Try running into a lake when animals are chasing you - you swim much faster than them. You could also just pillar up and attack with spears or by throwing rocks.
Avoid forests unless absolutely necessary early game. They're nothing but trouble!

I promise that the game will get better.
All new players get put through the wringer of the learning curve, but if you stick with it and use the handbook, eventually it'll be a breeze!

Edited July 8 by ifoz

[Thorfinn]

When running into a lake, make sure it's at least 2 blocks deep. So far as I know, you are the only dangerous thing that is slowed by 1-deep water. Learn to time your jumps to land in deep water.

[Thorfinn]

28 minutes ago, LadyWYT said:

Don't forget the crude shield as well. It can help keep you alive if you need to fight your way out of a situation.

I vacillate on the shield. Yeah, its nice to have the chance to avoid damage, but the shield doesn't increase hunger rate, does it?

[ifoz]

15 minutes ago, Thorfinn said:

I vacillate on the shield. Yeah, its nice to have the chance to avoid damage, but the shield doesn't increase hunger rate, does it?

Me too. Generally I don't use the crude shield, though it is really nice if you are actively seeking out combat and trying to tank blows. Otherwise it's just an additional 20% hunger increase. I'd recommend using it specifically in combat situations (crouch to block!) but otherwise don't have it in your offhand.

Edited July 8 by ifoz

[LadyWYT]

1 hour ago, Thorfinn said:

I vacillate on the shield. Yeah, its nice to have the chance to avoid damage, but the shield doesn't increase hunger rate, does it?

As @ifoz said, it's a situational use since it will increase your hunger rate while you have it equipped in the offhand slot, and you'll need to be actively blocking with it for it to be of much use. The passive block chance isn't worth it.

[Thorfinn]

Oh, the increased hunger in early game is the goal. The nutrition bars drop much slower than satiety, so you want to increase hunger rate so you eat more and increase your HP faster. The shield is just irritating, getting in the the way of seeing anything. So I usually use a torch in off-hand.

That's also why its a good idea to take a little fall damage now and again to increase hunger rate. If there were other tricks to increasing hunger, I'd probably do that, too.  

Edited July 8 by Thorfinn

[Meohmy]

I have been having issues also!  Every time i get to a point where i have good items or found a good spot i die!  I made a bed cant respawn! how do i set a respawn point in this game.

[LadyWYT]

2 hours ago, Meohmy said:

how do i set a respawn point in this game.

You need a temporal gear, which is a rare item that drops from drifters, from panning, occasional dungeon loot, or as a sale item from certain traders(treasure hunter, I think). By default the reset spawn point will only last through 20 respawns, but you can always change this in the world configuration options.

The other option is finding a mod that changes the respawn mechanics to be tied to whichever bed you slept in last, instead of needing to use a temporal gear.

[Thorfinn]

A third option would be to go into creative and gift yourself a temporal gear.

Obviously, setting respawn was supposed to be more difficult than in that other game.

Before I'd cheat a gear into the game, I think I'd start a new game with easier settings. Turn you HP way up, the damage taken way down, disable early spawns, etc., until you get good enough at the game to get a gear for yourself.

[LadyWYT]

8 minutes ago, Thorfinn said:

A third option would be to go into creative and gift yourself a temporal gear.

I forgot about that. Whoops!

8 minutes ago, Thorfinn said:

Turn you HP way up, the damage taken way down, disable early spawns, etc., until you get good enough at the game to get a gear for yourself.

This is basically what I did on the first several worlds I had. The game was still challenging, but it was more fun because it was a little more forgiving of the mistakes I made while learning.

[Thorfinn]

Oh, BTW, @thatnub0541, welcome to the forums. Sorry to hear about your troubles, but as said above, I think we all went through that phase.

I forgot the other thing you can try until you get good enough at the game to survive those attacks -- set your death penalty to not drop anything.

[Maelstrom]

I think I had 4 "test" worlds I played in to understand the mechanics enough to play my first "real" attempt. 

The first world ended during the first pitch black night without a light source. lesson learned - 2 sticks, 2 flint and 2 grass are the most important day one objected (make a torch!)
World 2 ended during late spring having learned the initial basics but painted myself in a food production corner.
World 3 ended after I had a firm grip on getting to the late copper age without threat of starvation
World 4 ended after I had mastered use of the prospecting pick.

Worlds 5-7 were spent refining the world settings and mods I find pleasing and satisfying to play in.
I'm now playing in world 8 that was started because world seven was pre-1.18.

[Thorfinn]

I only play until I compete my goals (RA, kitted out in steel, which can happen by late summer, early fall if everything breaks right), and permadeath means the save gets deleted, but I've got 9 worlds on 1.19.7 alone, 8 complete, one in progress. Just 3 from 1.19.5, 2 and 1. Must have been slacking off. Or maybe those releases were close together.

[EDIT]

Oh, my bad. Five of the eight completed games were from some earlier version of the game. Whatever I copied that directory from. My guess is the last version of 1.17. Seemed weird I couldn't remember finishing that many games in 1.19.8. And that's why.

[/EDIT]

Edited July 10 by Thorfinn

[BTubbs200]

When it comes to bears and wolves: flight before fight. Don't try holding your own, just turn around and run. You can outrun wolves pretty easily, and you'll lose bears by climbing some terrain or jumping into a nearby body of water. If a pack of wolves are camping out in a place you need to go, craft a bunch of flint spears and pick them off from a safe distance.

Edited July 11 by BTubbs200