Maelstrom

I'd settle for boats and massive lakes (aka oceans?) first.

I like the idea of a mundane critter converting into monsters in temporal unstable areas or during temporal storms. Increases the emphasis on survival.

I had a false start on a full sized world where I had enough reeds to craft 1 or 2 baskets for inventory expansion before nightfall. Quit that world and rerolled a new one.

Wondering what's the worst start you've seen? I just started my second play through and got a seemingly pretty lousy start. Full disclosure: my first world was customized to nerf more challenging aspects of the game (passive mobs, no temporal issues) as a primer in learning the necessary survival skills so this is my first "legit" play through. So this apparent lousy start - Spawned in a warm climate and there was almost no flint (3 pieces and tons of shale, granite, andesite). By the time I founded my dirt shack close to sunset on day 2 I had a whopping 25 flint to my name. Made knives and an axe which was broken chopping brush for sticks (which wasn't plentiful) and chopping a modest tree for 4 or 5 logs (couldn't even chop firewood due to broken axe). Nothing but low fertility soil for hundreds of blocks radius, almost no food the first day (only found 3 berry bushes with 1 yielding berries to eat); thankfully I harvested a handful of reed roots and cooked them that night when I was starving. By the time I found medium fertility soil, I had seen a couple of chickens and rabbits, no pigs and no sheep/goats. Found plenty of flax, rice and other grains, but only two spots of turnips yielding 5 edible tubers. Want to hear how good I have it by how hard you've had it.

Or crafting a block and powering it with an easily obtained object.

While we're on the topic of astronomy, I would like to see unusual events occur, such as comets appearing for a week or two at time rarely or meteor showers on an annual schedule. But those are fluff items that can be added after devs have mostly finished the major content (oceans and boats please?)

Astronomical navigation isn't a bad idea when you consider the no map game option. Orienteering and astronomy play very important roles in finding one's way back home from a long overland journey.

Or that the 1.5 coders working on the game haven't gotten to that one on the to-do list yet. That sounds like a more advanced feature than some of the basics they're still working on (boats?)

Maybe make a jam recipe that overrides the base game recipe? Or make a crafting recipe using same amount of honey and berries that yields a jam item? I'm sure you thought of that already?

How about temporal storms? *ducking for cover*

How about something like this...

Alternately, you can build a goat pen leave one end unfenced, an open gate on the opposite end and if possible a feed trough w/ food. Pitch a rock at local nearby male goat and run like the dickens. Male and nearby ewes will chase you down quiet a long distance. Run through the open end, through the gate and close the gate. Wait for the goats to calm down and then finish their pen. The open end needs to be at least 2 fence sections wide, but I've had goats get hung up trying to navigate through the opening. I'd recommend four section wide gap. This might work for pigs (I haven't tried it yet, lack of local pigs) but watching utubers pigs may run away when struck.

I suspect horses or other beasts of burden would come with an update that includes taming wolves (probably pups).

Well, if you build a drifter proof wall around you and a block of water you can sift gravel/sand all night long without fear of drifter interference (other than their raucous chorus serenading you).

If all else fails you can pan for copper. Stand in a block of water, place a sand or gravel block next to you and right click on the sand/gravel while holding your wooden pan. It will take a while (good night time activity) to get the copper you need and you'll get a bunch of other stuff, so you may want a storage vessel nearby.

Hopefully the alchemy/apothecary mechanic will introduce poison (from those not so edible mushrooms) to apply to arrows.

Maybe play some single player worlds with a variety of customized settings to find something you think your friends would enjoy and restart?

That's what I was referring to. I'll be sure to specify the coding bottleneck in future calls for player patience. It would be wonderful if more coders would step up and help. If my C++ education wasn't 20+ years old I'd offer my assistance with more basic aspects to writing code. But the point is that we players need to exercise patience while the game continues to include features yet to be implemented.

Patience. The dev team consists of 2 people (to my understanding). The next update will introduce 6 new tree types, two of which are rare and require extensive exploring and 5 new crops. It's a lot of work for just 2 people.

I concur with goaliemagics. Make the game enjoyable for you. It's not cheating if you select the customization options that make the game fun. I have keep inventory on, passive monsters (wolves and drifters), higher rates of surface copper and tin and no temporal storms and loving the game (even the grind). It's my first play through while I get accustomed to the grind and intend on turning on some of those options (namely temporal storms and monster agro). The point is customize the game to suit your enjoyment level and disregard what other's might say about it.

Gotta troubleshoot. Unload all mods and add them back in no more than a few at a time to find the problem child.

I think you're including more than I intended. I meant only the visual warping effect of the temporal storm, not drifter spawning. Describing it a different way: I was thinking of a localized temporally unstable area centered on the centipede which over time introduces the visual warping effect from temporal storms which becomes more advanced as the length of time spent with the centipede increases. To my knowledge the only effect of low temporal stability is a poison effect that causes damage. I love the idea of random loss of temporal stability (both in interval length and quantity of stability loss).

Didn't say it would be useful. Provided my thoughts on how the story could be told a bit through use of existing game mechanics. They're suggestions and the devs can do with this as they wish. I'd be surprised if centipedes in any form discussed hear would make it into the final release. I don't like game design where something provides a huge benefit without some kind of drawback to balance out the benefits gained.

More info needed to help. Did barrels disappear from your inventory, during placement in world, or after being placed in world?

Taming wolves has been mentioned elsewhere. Currently one of the traders will buy a wolf pup (which cannot be obtained currently) indicated devs intend on making animals tamable. Sheep/goats can be domesticated which is better than taming. I believe that chickens and pigs will also become domesticated. Check the handbook for more on domestication. I look forward to dogs and beasts of burden that can be ridden and increase inventory capacity for travelling. Patience, I'm sure it'll come as the devs continue to flesh out their game. Remember this is early release (not even feature complete yet).