Disorientation: Time and Navigation Overhaul

With Vintage Story's accurate sky and seasons giving a way to tell time in-world, even allowing working sundials, I looked to see if I could find a mod that hides the date and time information from the game's UI, in order to give a greater sense of uncertainty and immersion. To my surprise, I found no mods that do such a thing. This might be the first and only! Hopefully it won't stay that way, because this is my first attempt at modding and it's pretty cobbled together. I actually had to block out the entire Environment panel from the UI, which also includes information like rift activity, temperature, rainfall, etc. But I think all of this information being obscured fits with the vision for this mod as well. Someone else could probably execute this idea better, but for now, I've tested this mod quite a bit and it works.

As I worked on the mod though, its scope grew to cover more; I decided to expand on it to tweak the game's map and navigation system to my liking. Because of that, this mod also requires Craftable Cartography AND Mapper to work. It takes Mappers system of craftable, consumable maps and adds Craftable Cartography's feature of obscuring coordinates while hovering over the map, decenters its focus away from the player's current position, and makes use of its sextant item as a requirement for using Mapper's precise map item. And for some added convenience, Mapper's map items no longer require compasses to craft. Instead, you craft the maps with just their required paper and writing materials, and then the game simply checks if you have the required compass/sextant in your inventory before allowing you to consume the item. This is more realistic to how it might actually work in the field, and allows you to retain your compass.

And you'll notice that if you use the sextant, the game no longer gives you x, y coordinates based on spawn - that system has been replaced. Instead, you will get the true latitude and longitude coordinates of your current location. This means that instead of default spawn being 0, 0 it is listed as 47° N, 0° longitude (the prime meridian). If you use a mod to change your spawn latitude, your coordinates will reflect this.

Lastly, I have hidden the coordinate overlay from the F3 menu and suppressed some console commands that would allow the player to see what their current position. Just to make sure players didn't fall to the temptation. Anything I could do to adhere to the philosophy of having as little gamey information as possible.

Optional Mods to Complete the Overhaul

I recommend also using Pelagus Winds, WeatherStory, or another similar mod with changing or randomized wind direction. Wind always blows in the same direction in the vanilla game, and so this would allow you an unrealistic way to always know your direction. And if you'd like a more convenient way to tell the time than just looking at the sun, the DecoClocks mod has buildable clocks. Lastly, LogicalNerfsDirection makes it so certain items/actions like knapping don't reveal your absolute direction, but are instead based on the direction the player is facing. With all of these mods together, orienting yourself in time and space is not just magically given to you by the game's UI, but has its very own progression system that requires using believable, in-world methods to attain.