A Few Suggestions

After completing most of the content currently available for Vintage Story (aside form cheese making), I found myself considering a couple of interesting directions the game could go in.  Cosmetically, the addition of heat mirages in hot desert environments would help convey the feeling of high temperatures (much the same way frost does in extreme cold).  On the audio front, maybe owls or crickets at night and cicadas or frogs in summer would be a nice touch.  In terms of gameplay I have a number of thoughts I'd like to share in detail.  Of course,  lots of other people have already made numerous suggestions (with regards to game mechanics) on the official forums.  Most of the ideas I've seen there though tend to fall into one of two categories: the why-can't-this-cat-be-more-like-a-dog variety or unworkable pie-in-the-sky wish lists.  That's not to say my suggestions are better than all the rest...I just like to think these particular ideas are being presented with an eye on how they can complement systems already present in the game.  So, without further ado - here they are.

Fish are conspicuously absent from Vintage Story.  Unlike Minecraft, my hope is we never see a line and rod.  Instead, I'd prefer something less passive like spear fishing.  Plus, the panning in Vintage Story is mechanically pretty similar in that it involves a simple and repetitive action for a semi-random reward.  Having said all that, I don't think fish should be in every pond.  Rather, they should only spawn in lakes that meet a certain minimum breadth and depth.  This brings me to my next suggestion - rivers.  Actually, rivers are hardly my idea - they've been on the developer's to-do list for awhile now.  However, I do have a specific suggestion I'd like to make.  By themselves, rivers aren't terribly interesting, but what about things that utilize them such as watermills?  They could provide mechanical power more consistently than windmills; only stopping in winter when the water freezes over.  Also, what about river-borne traders?  Instead of being found exclusively in wagons, how about having a few found in barges parked on riverbanks?  I like the idea of them being multi-block designs with some cargo capacity and maybe even a sail.  Vintage Story is in need of forms of fast travel beyond what translocators can offer.  Speedy boats combined with long rivers could certainly fit the bill.  Why stop at rivers though when there could be oceans too?  In the case of seas, adding aquatic predators (such as the one in the shark mod) would be a good way to discourage swimming and incentivizing boat building for safe passage over these large bodies of water.  Underground lakes and river could be a neat feature as well.  While rivers would have a current, I like the idea of oceans having small waves along their coasts.  Perhaps they could be generated by a system similar to what is used to make cloud formations in the current version of the game (albeit with some tweaks).

Anyway...those are just a few ideas I had.  Most likely, the developers of Vintage Story have already though about everything I have mentioned and more.  In the off-chance they haven't though, I hope they will consider implementing some of my suggestions in future updates.