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Actually, I don't mind typical vanilla redstone system, despite all nice things you could do with it, to be unavailable in default TFC. The thing is, most of what redstone is used for beside some 'artistic pieces' is automation and help with grinding of natural resources, mob farms and so on. I understand that some may enjoy such things in vanilla Minecraft but I sincerely believe it would be horrible for TFC and make lot of team effort regarding in-game exploration, work and survival go to waste.

I don't particularly feel there's a need for such change and in fact, I believe the way bars work right now is more intuitive and informative than if we'd have several different states indicated by bipolar meters. In regards to believability, cliches and so on - I also think that current bars offer no less here than what is suggested would. The thing with the body is that usually it starts to fail not when there's completely no water/nutrients/whatever stored, but when there's insufficient amount. So, in example above, having just some water and getting slow is quite fitting - you still have some water, you're not at the level where your body starts drying up, but it's not enough water to sustain normal biological processes of your body without additional stress you start to have issues with compensating for. Thus, lack of strength and sluggish movements. Unipolar bars I don't find overly simplified, just easily readable and so far, even outside of TFC, I never had or met a person who had issues with describing their state based on such indicators. There is simply a matter of interpretation - instead of say, assuming hunger bar indicates 'fullness' if that creates a problem for you, consider thinking of it as optimal level of nutrition. Thus, starting character at 50% is simply somewhat lacking food but not to the level that would impair his actions,, while full character isn't as much gorged with food as simply absorbing eough food to be as far from the risk of starvation as his body is able to handle. Same with health, you may as well start as somewhat weakened person, able to maintain active lifestyle but not at their best condition, brisk with vitality.

Some of it to my knowledge is already in - temperature, if I remember correctly, changes somewhat over seasons. However, I would like to agree/point out that more land with temperate climate would do us well. Currently, too many places are either frozen whole/most of the year or evergreen and finding a part of the world, especially while staying all the time in regular survival mode, which would have hot summers and winters with some snowing is very hard. I wouldn't want to put too big of an emphasis on temperature's effect on player character. Sure, some effect would be nice but I'd rather avoid having to juggle sets of equipment every time I go to different part of the world, underground and so on. Possibly I'd set bigger variation of temperature outside, for air blocks, but leave indoors one mostly static, with far smaller variation, thus allowing a decent hut to retain a bit of warmth during winter and offer a cooling shade in summer. It would also prevent player from being forced to keep fire on in their place at all times in colder climate - a thing which may be fun once or twice but would become boring, unplayable chore at some point for most players. Some slowness status could be possibly provided for very cold areas as would increased consumption of water be for very hot ones but I wouldn't want to go further than that either for the reasons mentioned above. Crops being affected by temperature, and thus stereotypical winter are already in and I don't need any changes here including outright dying. Them not growing more is realistic enough simulation of hardy crops surviving winter before flourishing again. Different day lengths would be possibly quite nice. Currently, with gameplay of TFC day in general seems a bit too short, but I guess I wouldn't mind it it's length like that during winter and slightly longer day during summer - provided that player will be in aforementioned temperate region (which brings us to possible issue with discrepancy when different players are in different regions, some perpetually snowy and some tropical). I think it also wouldn't ba a bad idea to make winter darker by 1, 2 points of light level to simulate the gloom, while keeping summer days at maximum brightness for longer - just till short evening. In regards to trees - aren't forests spawning some saplings from time to time? If not, I guess I wouldn't mind them to do so if there's big swath of deforested land. They should do it rarely, though so decently-sized forest regeneration actually will take years encouraging ecology-oriented attitude and manual replanting of tress, a thing which at least one of the devs is fond of according to FAQ.

If I recall correctly, some time ago dirt and cobblestone was modified so they're now a far more poor building resource (correct me if I am wrong). I am not sure how much of those changes are intentional given that, for example, cobblestone is one of the more realistic and intuitive materials for building early constructions (yes, even without mortar).

There's certainly both pros and cons of staying with 1.6.4, though I may be looking at current devteam's choice somewhat more favorably than it's alternative. On one hand, TFC will probably have to catch up with newer clients, especially since with time they will offer plenty of features it will be a big loss to not take advantage of. However, on the other, stability and performance are some of the biggest problems when it comes to this mod. Already, many players experience issues as TFC is somewhat demanding and I strongly believe that any decisions that will exacerbate the problem should be reconsidered. If anything, attempts at optimization should be of some priority, rather than taking risks that the whole thing will be choking even more. Thus, I'd say that staying with 1.6.4 is lesser of two evils, for now at least.

I am willing to claim it wouldn't be much conductive to the overall theme of survival. Not to mention overall pre-medieval level of technological thought that the game is to adhere to may not be taken seriously if stuff like gliders would be added.

And that, in turn still doesn't make it salt flat.

Wood type generally isn't being retained when the object 'changes state' at times. Same with boats a bit ago when I played - whenever I crashed one, no matter what planks I've used, leftovers from the crashed vessel defaulted to a few sticks and blocks of oak wood planks.

Personally, I'd probably advocate keeping the effect of support beams on cobblestone. Historically, people were building houses out of cobblestone, including ones which - through careful combination of stones of different size which kept the whole wall in place - didn't require any mortar (dry stone building method).

I don't see how the fact that you can have overabundance or no salt means there are salt flats. Also, them being underground and in a rock form kinda disqualifies them as such.

In all honesty, the few native copper rocks I did see IRL often (though not always) looked very much like regular rocks, especially when covered in dirt and hidden among grass (and commonly even when not). Possibly because often they are imbued in rocks - rarely you can find just perfectly clean piece of relatively pure copper.

While meat is plentiful, I have to point out that without proper care the sources of it diminish quickly so I consider it more like early-game boost than anything. I am not much against ways of killing animals having an impact on the quality/amount of resources but I'd not want to exacerbate effect of random 'you have bad luck, stuff got spoiled' on player. Generally, idea is interesting but I'd rather have the devteam think twice before implementing such degree of complexity when I - personally - am actually quite fine with how the thing works currently. I agree however that animals should strive, when attacked, to increase distance between them and the player's character, rather than hop around a bit in distress as well as I think it'd be reasonable if for stuff like hunting, there'd be a chance of fatally injuring an animal (or enemy in general?) with a single blow, though there should be still some limitations here (stealthy assaults or equipment used?) to decrease importance of luck and avoid disturbing the balance too much.

I actually wouldn't mind massive expanses/reasonable amounts of salt acquired from the desert. Alternative to rock salt seems like a viable feature - as long as salt in general wouldn't be easily found everywhere in general I don't see why player shouldn't be allowed to derive it primarily from desert rather than from mining, hacing a viable choice. Many cultures IRL did exactly that if we consider believability and it wouldn't disturb much the gameplay itself.

I must say that OP raises a few good points, especially about pre-tool weaponry and leather processing. I, myself was surprised in the past that sturdy branch or a heavy rock in hand doesn't provide me with even neglible attack bonus in comparison with slapping monsters with, say, bare hands or handful of soft fleece. I am however not overly sure about making fire difficult. Not only is fire nearly completely necessary to survive even the very easrly game, ability to create it is used thorough the whole gameplay. Making it difficult, I am afraid, would only give raise to irritation rather than the challenge, as otherwise well-established, self-sufficient players would have to spend additional time whenever willing to lit one.

I am quite happy with the new food system and the fact that varied diet has some meaning, however I'd like to suggest some tweaking of it, for the sake of both undisturbed, pleasant gameplay and realism/believability which to my knowledge is one of the priorities here. Namely, I don't think that each food group should directly be responsible for equal percent of maximum HP. While nutrition is affecting health, often the effect of malnutrition is very long-term and even then any nehative effects can be easily staved off with a bit of lacked element found elsewhere. Additionaly, not all of the food groups are as important for maintaining health: For example, one can exclude breads from the diet (currently, after changes, the only grain-derived edibles) and still be very healthy provided he has a steady supply of products from other groups. Similarly, one can derive enough calcium from nuts, leafy vegetables or fish that in combination with easy access to meat and plants in general, there should be no problem with abstaining from dairy as all the necessary nutrition would be provided. In comparison, dropping meat, vegetables or fruits (though vegetables can temporarily maintain a person not fond of fruits and vice versa) would be far more disastreous for health. That combined with the fact that strongly encouraging players to play dietitian, I'd like to suggest two things: - Different percentage of max hp different food groups are responsible for (as mentioned above, living without bread [which in turn loses much nutritious value if it's not whole-grain] is easy, less so without vegetables). - Losing temporarily percentage of max hp if more than 1 food group bar is empty. Given the changes to seed availability and rotting mechanics, it may be good for balance in general as while variety is important and the system is step forward from letting players just gulp down all those porchops all the time, forcing player to constantly control level of half a dozen of different bars while keeping an eye on decaying stocks of food or be punished otherwise may not be the best way to tackle the problem, especially should players be unlucky to spawn in a world where certain foodstuffs from a certain group is harder to procure. Ultimately, of course, it's just a thought to consider.

I was lugging those thoughts for quite a bit of time but despite playing new version for a few days (and earlier ones for much longer time), I've decided to make an account to share my impression regarding few of the recent changes as I still cannot really get comfortable with them. And in case of stones, I do have agree with OP - their current look is very messy. They stand out horribly on the map now, making landscape of plains or forest polluted with little shapes which simply look bad, both in fancy and simple graphic style. I understand that it was made in preparation for possible future additions but till we get them, would it be possible to mod/activate the 3d stones? Few people I've played with seem to agree that they were, for all their flaws, far more aesthetic and meshing with the rest of the 3d environment far better and slight help here would be really appreciated. I have completely no issue with sacrificing the ability to cherry-pick ores from between the rocks either, especially since I find it more realistic and not a bother at all to pick up a stone before it can be identified as some ore piece (nor to be honest I recall seeing people in general having issue with this in my lurking time on the forum). To voice an opinion for the record - rocks current, 2D version is a step backward, as hard on my eyes as if we'd suddenly turn trees into sprites. Can we please have an alternative to this?