2 hours ago, Riamus said:I'm guessing you don't know this, but maybe you do... in A21, would you qualify as a typical player in terms of crafting? It sounds like you craft a lot. Do you know (or can you guess, if you don't know) how much the typical player actually crafts in A21, especially in early game? Are they in need of all that duct tape? I mean, yes, an archer will use a lot of glue for arrows, but for anyone else, are they really in need of anywhere near as much duct tape for crafting as you are using? Maybe that is the norm. I don't know. I do know that many people craft a lot but I'm also sure many do not for one reason or another. I'm just curious what would be considered normal for the typical player. The reason I bring it up is that, as I mentioned before, if you do craft a lot, you're of course going to struggle more with water. If you do not craft much, water isn't going to be a struggle at all. And I have a hard time believing most players are crafting all their armor or other things that need duct tape in the first week when water scarcity is supposedly intended even though you are doing so. So it makes me think that most people aren't going to have the difficulty with it that you describe. I could be wrong, though.
It was an exhaustive list of stuff you might want to craft in early game but also not far from what I craft usually. Naturally if I find a pipe machine gun I won't craft one. If not, I will. That list was what zztong asked for, i.e. what constitutes "all demands".
If a novice player is not going out at night (which would be sensible) he has all night for looking around the recipes he can craft and he will craft what seems useful. Also he surely isn't as efficient in looting as experienced players and won't have found as much stuff as zztong for example.
I don't think anyone would run around in plant fiber stuff after day 1 if he doesn't need to or didn't find any of the armor crafting recipes (at least I don't). Specifically because infection chance is much higher. An experienced player will find a few pieces of armor, but half will be of the wrong type. A novice will surely wear what he finds, but he won't find all armor pieces fast enough that he might not want to craft missing set pieces.
2 hours ago, Riamus said:As far as mid- or late-game, this was something I touched on earlier as well. At least according to Roland, the idea behind the water changes besides just removing jars was that you have water scarcity in the first week or so and then overcome it.
This is the short form. The long form has the word "gradually" included. What I mean by that is that while you have solved the problem in midgame you still have to get water on a regular bases (from the dew collectors and/or loot) to satisfy your needs. Which means water keeps to have a value, even though it diminishes. There is no simple switch.
Compare this to your food production and you will see the similarities: Food is gradually solved as a problem when you build up your farm and eventually you will only harvest when it suits you or when you want a new stack of gumbo stew, but your farm is still useful and food ingredients and food have some small value.
Another similarity: When you build up your farm you have to invest ingredients into the seed production to grow your farm and that delays how soon you can use those ingredients in actually producing food.
When you build up your dew collectors you also invest 5 water in every dew collector and this sets you back compared to a player who just uses the water for drinking. So everyone who just plays without ever building dew collectors might have an easier time in early game actually, but you are probably not the target group for which TFP balances the water scarcity. Maybe it actually is a balancing problem that as a single player you can currently get along so well in the first days when you don't craft dew collectors(?).
Since you mention it again: As soon as TFP posted about the new changes and the reasons for it I have been consistent in writing that water should only be a problem in the first days. But I write a lot in the forum so I am not surprised if you get confused about all the stuff I'm claiming 😉
2 hours ago, Riamus said:I'll certainly agree that if you are using bows and crafting arrows, you are going to have much more of a water challenge in the early game
Huh????? I don't think I ever crafted flaming or exploding arrows in early game and only those need duct tape AFAIK. Naturally I didn't include them in my list at all. You need to be able to get steel arrowheads from somewhere. Someone who can craft a useful amount of them in early game is certainly an expert player above my abilities. I couldn't (and in the case of flaming arrows wouldn't anyway). Where would I get all the gun powder from in early game when I don't have a chem station?