Wobbly Python

Come check out some of the NEW Trailmakers update with me!

https://production.api.playtrailmakers.com/invites/5d84f428a355fa00071922df Also the game is on sale and I have a promo link of sorts.

Spent 8 hours going in blind and I have some disappointing results. There's good and bad, but boy howdy do they need to address the bad.

The game has a lot of very cool ideas. The stonework and clay crafting are very interesting. Metallurgy will probably also be just as interesting when I get to it. The world is beautiful, and there's just enough weird stuff happening in the game world that I really want to learn more about the setting. The urge to explore what's going on around you is great, and the space you're navigating is compelling.

The in-game handbook does a very solid job of giving you a comprehensive guide to most of the more eccentric mechanics, and teaches you how to create most things without taking you out of the game too far. Hyperlinked articles reference one another in a way that's easy enough to navigate. The guide makes overcoming most early challenges an exercise in execution rather than bumbling trial and error.

My system is a pretty contemporary machine and it experienced no slowdowns, even after doubling the draw distance. Dynamic lighting abounds and includes some cool things like fireflies and weird portals that you shouldn't stick your head into lest you become awakened to the true horrors of being. Water is beautiful, and loving, subtle animations will delight you as pot lids dance over boiling stews, and embers crackle from torch tips.

The bad comes in the form of what the game seems to consider difficulty, which in reality is distilled tedium. By the default settings, tools break incredibly quickly. You'll spend more time making shovel heads than digging. To sate your hunger you're going to be measuring calories in goats per hour. Resource and process chains to create even basic, slightly sustainable tools, are arcane and lengthy. Worst of all any food item that you've gathered is on a hard timer where it will expire. Several of the above mechanics can be mitigated somewhat at world gen with custom options, but the default values are unhinged. Unfortunately not all of the problems with the game are a slider away from becoming tolerable.

I think the inaugural session's pinnacle of "Why would you make it like this?" came in the form of generating charcoal. Charcoal making involves cutting an egregious amount of wood; stacking it in a 2x2x2 to 11x11x11 underground tomb; setting your underground wood cache off with a campfire on top; and quickly sealing it for several minutes. After you've burned all your logs underground, you then have to hand-dig each of the charcoal cubes eight (8) times. Each dig gives you a random amount of charcoal per dig. The digging isn't fast either. It takes a second or two to find out after all this if you've gotten any charcoal at all.

Don't even think about trying to engage any of your natural predators in combat either. Spooky monsters are the least of your worries when seemingly immortal bears can trundle into your home and just set up shop. Until you enter the metal age you're going to need to simply consider yourself a prey animal. Even with a stone spear and wood armor, hunting anything larger than a rabbit is going to put you into mortal peril.

The long and short of it is that Vintage Story is a very interesting title that needs to touch a little grass and remember that it's not my dad, and it's okay to have a little fun here and there. Just know that you are going to spend a tremendous amount of time doing chores rather than building, exploring, or having unabashed fun.