1) This is a **cooperative** event! Either everyone wins or everyone loses. Work together, communicate, and share what you learn using the in-game chat, the event chat channel here on Discord (which will be opened before the event), or whatever other communication methods you have arranged with your friends.

2) Be respectful to other players! Harassment, bullying, hate speech, trolling, or griefing of any kind will not be tolerated. This includes working against the other players during this event and/or trying to make the event fail. Offenders will be banned from this and all future events!

3) The event will last for four hours. You may join at any time. Please note that the server can only accept 30 clients, so if the server is full, you may need to try again later.

4) The event will be run again tomorrow: Sunday, March 5, 2023 at 12:00 EET. (This timestamp automatically adjusts to your time zone.) You may participate in both runs of the event if you wish

The Sun Ritual event has begun and the server is open! You now have four hours to complete your task before the sun is banished forever and the world doomed to eternal darkness. Good luck, everyone!

Server Address: event.vintagestory.at:55538

The event will only be four hours long and will occur twice, once on Saturday and once on Sunday. The map will be reset in between these days. The exact start times are:

Saturday, March 4, 2023 at 17:00 EET

Sunday, March 5, 2023 at 12:00 EET

You can still join if you aren’t there at the very start! The longer you can play, the better, but you do not have to be there the whole time. You may also play on both days if you want.

The goal of this event is to complete the challenge together before time runs out. All players are in this together, and PVP will be disabled! Either everyone wins, or everyone loses, so be sure to help each other.

Communication is critical for this event. You will need to talk to the other players to share information in order to succeed before time runs out. There will be a dedicated text channel here on the Discord for those who want to use it, as well as the in-game chat. We are not planning a voice chat channel because there may be too many players talking at once, but if you’re playing with friends, it’s a good idea to set up a voice chat for yourselves before the event begins to make communication easier.

The world map for this event is more than 4500 blocks tall and wide. All of the structures and landmarks you will need for the event are located above-ground, so you don’t need to dig underneath anything or explore naturally-generated caves for clues. There are plenty of large structures around the map with useful items, equipment, and food in them, so you needn’t spend too much time worrying about basic supplies. You will keep your inventory when you die, but you might respawn anywhere on the map. The in-game map/minimap and coordinates are disabled, so you will have to find another way to navigate. There is a system for finding your way around if you can decipher it!

More details will be posted tomorrow, so keep your eyes open and get ready!

Please note that the story of this event is stand-alone and not a canon part of the lore of Vintage Story.
 

Most Original


First Place: Nyagi
Second Place: Yada
Third Place: Ellinus
Fourth Place: GameSox
Fifth Place: AmyDestroyer

Most Detailed


First Place: Yada
Second Place: Credones
Third Place: Ellinus
Fourth Place: Rainazel
Fifth Place: Umbrellaman

Most Beautiful


First Place: Yada
Second Place: Credones + Ellinus (tied)
Third Place: Umbrellaman
Fourth Place: AmyDestroyer + Rainazel (tied)
Fifth Place: Greedman + Skoliro (tied)

Best Lighting


First Place: Ellinus
Second Place: Yada
Third Place: Rainazel
Fourth Place: AmyDestroyer
Fifth Place: VSkeleton

Overall Winners
These builds got the most votes overall and are the final winners of the event!

First Place: Yada
Second Place: Ellinus
Third Place: Credones
Fourth Place: Rainazel
Fifth Place: Nyagi and AmyDestroyer (tied)

The top three builds in each category will receive one free game key (limit one total per player) and fourth and fifth place in each category will receive 50% off coupons for a copy of Vintage Story.

We were truly blown away by the outpouring of creativity, originality, and sheer building skill on display in this event. We’re so impressed that every finalist (that is, every player whose build was on the voting form) will receive a 25% off coupon.

If you’d like to explore all these lovely builds yourself, you can download a copy of the world from our Google Drive. If the teleporters turn out to be too laggy, you can still teleport via /tp

Congratulations to the winners. Thank you all so much for taking part in the event. Happy holiday season to all those who are celebrating, and we’ll see you at the next event!

We will hand out the game keys and coupons to your game account email today or tomorrow

Voting Form: https://forms.gle/jrm9YKSN9vcSKT6a7
Server Address: event.vintagestory.at:55538

Voting ends December 22 at 18:00 EET.

Build by AmyDestroyer

Dear Players,
we cordially invite you to another special event - create a winter-themed build in creative mode within 2 weeks! At the end of the event, the builds will be judged, and the best builders may win free game keys, %-off coupons, or have their build featured on the game’s main menu!
The map for this event is 5120 x 5120 blocks and contains a variety of biomes. To the north you will find mostly glaciers and mountains. To the south are snow-covered forests and other temperate biomes, and even some warmer snow-free areas in the very south of the map. This world is locked in perpetual winter, so the coldest areas in the north will stay dark! Keep that in mind as you select your build location.

Judging will happen across multiple categories. You can focus on one category, or try to win them all! The categories for eventual judging will be:
• Most original
• Most detailed
• Most beautiful
• Best lighting

Regarding Rewards
We're still figuring out how to best set up the event rewards so this is intentionally vague, but we'll be sure to hand out rewards where rewards are due. As for the screenshot inclusion in the game’s main menu:
• We are looking for festive and winter themed screenshots that will be active over the winter holidays.
• We will create the screenshot of your build ourselves, so we recommend making it look good using the vanilla textures. If you wish, you can provide us with an exact viewing position from which the screenshot should be made using .cam p an then .cam save - this will copy the position coordinates to the clipboard. Paste this text in a file and save it until judging begins.

Event Instructions
1) Connect to the server (event.vintagestory.at:55538) with game version 1.17.9.
2) Choose and claim your location using the /land command before you start building. (See the wiki page on land claiming for instructions)
3) Place a visible outline around your claim (fences or another block) and place a sign with your username on it so everyone knows it’s yours.
4) Submit the coordinates of your claim via Google forms page that we have set up for this. Note that you should submit your coordinates before you start building!
5) Start building and chiseling! You have until the end of the event to complete your build.

Rules
• One build per player.
• Your build must be claimed using the /land command.
• Your build must be marked with a sign with your username on it.
• You have to submit the coordinates of your build using the Google forms link or it won’t be included in the judging.

Judging
• The first round of judging will be done by the Vintage Story team, who will select the finalists.
• Once the finalists have been selected, the server will re-open in spectator mode and players may vote for the winners.
• All Vintage Story players may vote for one build per category, even if they didn’t create a build, but each player may only vote once (you must provide your username to vote).
• You may vote for the same build in more than one category.
• Players may not vote for their own builds.
• Winners may win free game keys or discount coupons, or even have a screenshot of their build featured in the game’s menu background! The winners of each category will be announced here. (Prizes will go to the builds with the most total votes across all categories - not necessarily to the winner of each category.)

Server Info
• The map is 5120 x 5120 blocks, very cold, with realistic biomes. The north half of the map will be frozen and mostly dark, south will be more varied and have more sunlight. Soil gravity is off. Months have been set to 300 days so it will remain winter for the entire event.
• The server will automatically restart once per day at 8 AM EET. This should only take a minute or two.
• The server will also automatically generate a backup once per day at 8:30 AM EET. This may take a few minutes and the server will lag during this time.
• The server address is: event.vintagestory.at:55538

This event will run from Sunday, 4th December at 20:00 EET - Saturday until 17th December at 20:00 EET
Good luck and have fun!

The Winter Wonderland Build Event will last for two weeks. The event will begin on Sunday, 4 December at 20:00 EET - Saturday and end on 17 December at 20:00 EET. At the end of the event, the builds will be judged by staff and players, and the best builders may win free game keys, %-off coupons, or even have their build featured on the game’s menu!

Details about the map and rules will be posted when the event begins. Start thinking wintery thoughts!

If you’ve spent any time in the Vintage Story Discord or perusing the forums, the word “Neolithic” may have popped up in conversation. This is a modding project headed up by TonyLiberatto and I had the pleasure of chatting with him and picking his brain about the mod as well as his other projects with the DarkAgeCraft servers and the man behind the code. Vintage Story has many amazing community members and today I’d like to share a portion of TonyLiberatto’s story with you.

Make sure to check out the Neolithic mod and the DarkAgeCraft servers on the forums and say hello in the Discord next time you’re there.

Robin: I assume you have experience with coding. Have you used C# before? How intuitive did you find the mod-making process in Vintage Story?

Tony: I work for a small Network company. We create, develop and manage small Windows Server Networks. Basically we create secure Networks to give employee access to sensitive information. Like small medical offices, Law offices and even some charter schools. As far as coding, my only experience is with short Windows scripts.
I think the real story here is how easy Tyron made it for people like me, with almost no coding skills, to be able to mod the game. Once I got my hands on a few of the existing mods and was able to see how easy it was to modify a few files and create my own, I got hooked on it.

Robin: Obviously, you have invested a lot of time into Vintage Story. Other than that, what sort of games do you enjoy playing?

Tony: I actually do not have that much free time. I work full time, have a wife and 4 kids. I have a few hours at night after work, so I usually only play one game at a time. I played Minecraft until the day I found Terrafirmacraft and stuck with that until they stop developing it. I played a lot of Ark Survival Evolved and even had a server going on for a while. Once I started with Vintage Story, the only other game I played was Subnautica.

Robin: What elements of Vintage Story drew you to it? What do enjoy most about the game?

Tony: First I read a post about how the game was based on TFC. That made me click on the link and watch the promotional video. I loved the knapping and clayforming. Pouring molten metal into the molds was also something that I really liked. My dream is to have the game as realistic as possible within the constraints of still being able to build big and have fun. 

One of the many plants added by Neolithic, the Sisal bush.

Robin: What inspired you to create the Neolithic mod?

Tony: The Neolithic mod is actually a collection of several small and not so small mods. Some are my ideas, others are from abandoned projects. I enjoyed playing those mods and wanted to update them. After getting permission from the original creators I just incorporated them into one mod because it made it easy to use blocks and items for recipes. It’s like a modpack made into a mod.

Robin: Your Neolithic mod adds hundreds of new items, blocks & recipes to the game. What's your personal favourite addition it makes?

Tony: I think the main defining feature for The Neolithic mod is how it changes animal drops. That is one thing that’s bothered me forever in Minecraft. The way that animals just explode when killed. To be able to skin an animal and actually get the pelt of the same color of the dead animal adds immersion.



Robin: Did you work with anyone on the Neolithic mod? Were there other creators that you enjoyed getting to know through the creation of the mod?

Tony: So many people. Since I am not really a coder, and not an artist, I depended heavily on others help to make this mod. The main authors of the mod are me, Balduranne and Novocain. But there are whole sections of the mods that were made by Stroam too. Copygirl made it possible to carry animal carcasses over the player’s shoulder. Milo made some code that really helped and Tyron even created a few class files that made the mod possible. Another person that contributed is Elwood. Some of the ideas and concepts of hunting and butchering are part of his original mod.

A selection of Tools and Decorative blocks from Neolithic.

Robin: A large number of mods and modders have begun to integrate their creations into either Neolithic or DarkAgeCraft. How did that come about?

Tony: People like to work on new things. Once a mod is done, many modders just do not have the will or time to keep updating. Updating is boring. I was very excited with the prospect of creating the server with a modpack that included as many mods as possible and I felt like they were actually needed. I contacted the authors to get permission to update their mods and after a while, it just got easier to include them in one mod so the recipes would be interchangeable, using items from one mod to create blocks from another. Some mods were also overwriting the same files, so it was easier to incorporate them into one mod and avoid conflicts.

Robin: The creators of Vintage Story were inspired by Minecraft and the lack of modding in a way they wanted. Have you ever dabbled in modding Minecraft?

Tony: At the time when I had the Terrafirmacraft server, I try to learn Java. I watched a few videos and was able to create a few blocks, items and recipes, but they were never published. The most I did was heavy scripting to create specific recipes and incorporate them into the modpack. The idea was to create a more realistic way to survive.
Nowadays I have completely abandoned Minecraft. To be honest I can’t think of anything that would get me to play Minecraft again. Well, at least for as long as I have Vintage Story, I see no reason to go back there.

Robin: I've seen you talk about not wanting advanced elements in the game. Things like Electricity. How far do you think the technology should go and what would you like to see as a "mechanical" aspect for Vintage Story?

Tony: I do not like the idea of Electrical power. I think it removes something from the game instead of adding. Mechanical power has the potential to add very complex creations that need imagination and creativity. I really like the idea for the game to add a necessity and a solution in increments. Some examples:
To make bread the player need to grind grains. We now have a manual grinder, the next step should be to add mechanical power for that. Each option has pros and cons. A water wheel needs to be on a river with moving water. (I dislike the concept of creating  a water wheel with just a bucket.) So the Water wheel has a fixed location, but it produces power at a constant rate.
The Windmill should require some elevation and unobstructed terrain around it, but it has the major con of inconsistency. Wind does not blow all the time. Animal power has the advantage of power on demand and choice of location, but it depends on animal domestication and is not at a constant rate. Also the animal should need to be fed and rested.
The main reason to build Steam powered devices is because it combines all the advantages of the others with few cons. It should however consume water and fuel. Also it is a high tech device, and it should only be available for very late game. 

Animal hunting, butchering and gathering is a huge part of the Neolithic additions.

Robin: In the same vein, is there anything you'd like to see added to Vintage Story in general? (Aside from the Mechanical aspects)

Tony: The list is big and even in some senses unfair to Tyron. Me and many other players expect to have the game in the same level as we had with TFC, but TFC was just one of the mods that most players found as essential to play Minecraft. There are a few mods for Minecraft that were common place to all players of TFC.  The mini-map, NEI and Towny, are some that come to mind. Unfortunately it falls to Tyron to make the game and also create basic tools that Minecraft never had to worry about.
A persistent and player friendly mini-map with easy in-game use is necessary. Most players have no idea how to use commands, so GUI is the way to go. ReiMinimap and JourneyMap are some examples of well developed mini-maps in Minecraft.
Dyn-map is an example of a web server map display that allows for easy player collaboration. It also helps server admins to see all the players and what they are doing on the server. Towny helps to create online communities of players working together for bigger projects, knowing that their creations are protected. When you combine those tools, players can easily see what parts of the map are protected and who has access to each.

Robin: Moving to DarkAgeCraft, you've created a server with different play-style options for the community and it's looking very successful. What made you want to spearhead that project?

Tony: The DarkAgeCraft server is older than my participation in Vintage Story, the idea was always to create a server with as much realism as possible as far as survival goes.

Robin: And finally, for someone looking at modding Vintage Story with perhaps zero experience, where would you suggest starting?

Tony: For anyone trying to learn, I suggest downloading the existing mods and looking at what others have done. I created my first mods using just Notepad++. Even the coding can be done that way. After a while it was needed to compile some code and use Visual Studio. But there is a lot that can be done by just copy, paste and editing.

A selection of decorative blocks and new animal textures added by Neolithic.

From myself and the VS team, thank you chatting with me, I hope that the community takes something away from our discussion and that you had a good time participating and telling your story. I personally look forward to seeing Neolithic and DarkAgeCraft continue to grow with time!

(Interview written by @99 Blocks and @tony Liberatto, thank you both!)

Vintage Story has an amazing community following and within that community, there are creative stars that we aim to promote and share with everyone.
One of those stars is Balduranne. You may have seen her suggestions and projects in the VS forums, chatted with her in the Discord or followed her work on DeviantArt. Even if you’ve never heard of her before, have no fear! This is a quick chat where I had the unique opportunity to catch up with the creative mind behind the work and get some answers to the questions I had.

Show your support of this talented creator by checking out the links at the end of the interview and check out her topics on the VS forums to keep up to date with current and future projects.

Robin: You have a real passion for 3d modelling and artistic design with an emphasis on Pixel based artwork. Where did your love for that style begin and what draws you to it specifically?

Balduranne: I guess that depends on how far you want to go; I've always loved video games. Back when I was a kid, I used to have a bootleg NES, so I guess that's my first contact with pixel art, although I don't think anyone called it that back then.
I've always had a fondness for the graphics in Tibia, an ancient FTP game akin to Runescape, but in 2D. It's still up, so you can check out their wiki for the lovely pixel art it uses.
Other than that... I've always been an artistic person really – Playing with plasticine, LEGOs, and of course drawing. Inspired by games like Baldur's Gate, or what have you, I'd draw little pictures of swords, armors, monsters etc in all of my notepads. All throughout my school years, I always had a separate one just for drawings.

Before I got to pixel art, I've dabbled in other media.
My earliest mod attempts were changing texture graphics in MS Paint with games that allowed that. Later on I tried 3D modelling and texturing for Mount&Blade mods, but never really got any good at it. I tried to transfer some of that skills into Garry's Mod, with little success. I only have a few things to show from this period, as most of my files are at a computer in Europe. Later on I got a graphics tablet to try digital painting, but again, not much success with it.

I've always seemed to have a knack for minimalism and small forms instead, so pixel art came much easier to me, especially after all my previous artistic endeavours. My pixel art career starts in 2010, when I started playing Minecraft. I could never find a texture pack that suited my taste perfectly, so I ended up customizing it with other elements and, eventually, trying to make my own sprites.

At some point, Terraria came out with its charming artstyle, so after playing countless hour of it, I started making 'fan art' for it. Terraria was my most active stage, and I've made hundreds of sprites, though next to none ended up being used in mods.
Unfortunately, some very unhappy things were going on IRL, so I've moved away from any and all communities. Since then I've only been making commissions, until I got into VS at least.

So to reiterate, minimalism is my jam.

Robin: Moving into Vintage Story, you've been extremely active in the community with suggestions, mods and other creative submissions in the forums and on the Discord. What is it about Vintage Story and its community that appeals to you?

Balduranne: I'm generally quick to dismiss Minecraft clones, so when Tyron originally contacted me to do artwork for it I declined, which I regret now; I promptly forgot about it, and about a year later Tatsu showed the game to me and I wanted to try it out.

It felt fresh. It's trying to do something different than other Minecraft-like games, instead of just trying to copy it. It's very nice to be able to directly suggest additions and changes to a game in progress, and actually talk to the team directly to offer feedback.

It's also much easier to mod than most other games I've played. For basics like just adding new blocks and items with recipes, even I can do that with my non existent coding skills.

Robin: Your tutorial for the 3d Model Creator on the forums is extremely useful. If you could expand your tutorials and help more people with the creation of assets for the game, where would you start?

Balduranne: I should write a basic pixel art tutorial and maybe rewrite the model one (as Saraty wants all the items to be 3D).

Still, it's easier to make a reasonably good-looking model than a good texture for it.

Robin: Your ideas include clothing systems with a loom and herbology for player healing, as well as a bunch of other stuff. You must enjoy immersive systems. What sort of games have you played that have had really immersive systems that inspire you to want more from Vintage Story?

Balduranne: It's funny that you say that, because I generally value convenience over what most people consider immersive! Immersion, for me, lies more in how the world engages you, be it with lore, design or otherwise. It's little things like being able to shape and decorate the world around you, gathering ingredients and materials with the knowledge that you will be able to use them to make something cool or pretty later.

For specific examples, it's a bit hard for me to recall, as immersion is more about atmosphere for me, but let's see...

Crafting in Final Fantasy 14, while a morbidly complex affair, had a really cool element to it – Everything you could create, from potions, through armor, to furniture, used elementally- aspected crystals. You get said crystals from killing monsters, gathering (you can pick a resource or a crystal), and some quests. Crystals are a really big deal in the lore, so it's really cool to see them reflected in crafting.

Gothic 1 didn't really have a crafting system per say, but it had a very basic sword smithing mechanic. It was mostly meant as an animation for NPCs, but you first warmed up the steel in a furnace, then hammered it on an anvil, followed by quenching the blade in water and using a sharpening wheel for finishing. The result was... A very crappy sword that was only good for barter, but the mechanic felt very immersive. Gothic had a lot of little animations like that – NPCs using an alchemy lab and grinding herbs in a mortar, stirring a cauldron, hammering a wall, etc. Little things like that went a long way to make the world feel more alive.

I also really like the more... simplified crafting systems in Starbound and Terraria, where you pick what to craft with the resources you have available. It could be incorporated with a sort of blueprint system, where you pick your end goal, and then add the necessary materials and go through the steps to finish it, rather than just using the crafting grid and trying to figure out recipe variants.

Robin: If you could pick three things to add to Vintage Story, what would they be?

Balduranne: I assume stuff that's not already planned? I would generally like the world to be more original and have more fictional plants and such. I often make comparisons to Morrowind, which is technically a fantasy game, but it's one of the most unique settings ever.
Block animations and multiblocks    
Plants that only bloom at night    
A Starbound/Terraria crafting system where the same set of materials can create many different things

Robin: And finally, you have an active and interesting Deviantart account with a range of excellent work. Can we share it with the community as well as any social media profiles that could show off your work and energy for creation?

Balduranne: I only use deviantART because I don't like social media, but I'm actively working on a mobile app/game called PickCrafter. It's not the most ambitious project (It's a cookie clicker), but it seems very popular, and I'm proud of the work I've done for it. I think at this point, over half of the artwork has been done by me. And believe me when I say that seeing your own artwork in a popular game evokes a feeling of pure, childlike glee.

I used to be pretty active in an online self-help website called Habitica, but I unfortunately I pulled out of any and all communities when my depression was too crippling at the time. I keep meaning to return to it one day though..

But to end on a more positive note, it's nice to have a community again, where I can contribute and show off.

Balduranne’s DeviantArt Profile: https://www.deviantart.com/balduranne

PickCrafter Mobile Game: https://pickcrafter.com/

From myself and the VS team, thank you for taking the time to talk to me and answer all my annoying questions. We look forward to see more of your work as time goes on!

(Interview written  by @99 Blocks and @Balduranne, thank you both of you!)

Our first guest is an exceptionally dedicated player called UmbraCreations! He’s a builder that has taken full advantage of Creative Mode and the world height potential to create a massive medieval city (which is still growing). Our team is always excited to see more of his epic  work.

Luke: The scale and detail your creations have are incredible. Where does your interest in building these giant structures come from, and how do you maintain the dedication to keep working on them for so long?

UmbraCreations: I originated from the creative era of Minecraft before the survival "Let's Plays" became really popular on Youtube. Videos of build teams or community build-servers with epic music (no "Content ID" system yet, so all kinds of good copyrighted music) inspired me back then and it stuck with me. People back then just built whatever they wanted to build and it wasn't as competitive as it is now. A more creative and free time for Minecraft builders.

The reason I always build over-sized projects is my personal interest in "epicness". The feeling of looking at a huge castle with good graphics/shaders on, is just something I appreciate far more than the "average" person. Unfortunately I always spend far too long looking at my projects instead of continuing my work on it xD.

Big projects in general are usually very rewarding in the end. So a little bit of "tunnel vision" is always required. Unfortunately my mindset continuously drifts towards emptiness and a general feeling of an overwhelming situation. Back in the days I could work for months without have to take a break but nowadays I just need to stop every few days for a day and even several weeks or more, once I'm really fed up with it. The only good development is that whenever I come back from a big "break" I always come back bigger and more epic than before. Other than that I can only say for this project in particular is my dream project, so I will always come back to it.

Luke: Do you have a vision/blueprint for each project before it starts or is it more of an "experiment and see what I like" sort of approach?

Umbra: This is a classic question of how it should be and how one does it  x)  

A general idea and even a little bit more detailed plan should always come first. It gives structure and a better overview and can limit the "overwhelming feeling". But I'm certainly too spontaneous right now. Many things were not built the way as planned or even completely improvised.

Real detailed "blueprints" are planned for the future especially for creating the epic landscapes of the map, but right now I plan everything in my head and not too detailed either.

Luke: What is it about Vintage Story that drew your interest and keeps you building here?

Umbra: Back in November 2016 I’d been contacted and asked to become a beta tester for this game by Tyron. I'm usually not interested in Minecraft-like games, but I looked into in a bit more and saw amazing potential as well as a lot of features or potential features that would make it far easier to create my dream-project. Funny enough, what really caught my attention was the amazing height limit for building. Minecraft always frustrated me. I always wanted to build something bigger than last time but the height was in the way over and over again. This was the main reason at first why I downloaded the game and gave it a try.

Once I was part of this community I started see how nice and respectful people were on the forum and in the chat. Coming from the pvp-server community of Minecraft and being quite literally being bullied out of the scene back then, I found it amazing how the atmosphere was in here. The staff, especially Tyron and Saraty, welcomed me with open arms and supported me all the way.

Particularly, I have to point out how much "support" I mean:  Buggy maps fixed, new blocks introduced just for creative mode, as well as some ideas like crates that have been implemented. Even world edit tools have been added on my suggestion like the mirror tool which I still use to this day and much more. And of course the positive feedback whenever I uploaded pictures or ideas.

Luke: What's your favorite creative tool to use in Vintage Story, and do you have any quick tips for others who might be interested in building their own massive cities?

Umbra: With a bit of shame I naturally have to say that the import tool and therefore everything that helps "copy-pasting" is my most used and beloved tool. Quite different than the Minecraft version but once you understand, easy to execute and very effective.

As for tips for other people that have no background in building big projects etc, I can only say what I already indicated. Plan it out first! A city is a difficult project. With my building style in particular it took sometimes more than an hour or even two for a single building. A gigantic city contains many buildings, so having a limit in number to count down or break down effectively as in "today I build 5 -7 buildings, that's my goal" will help in a huge project like this. Also you will likely have less expectations on quality and style. I didn't copy paste a single building in my city yet but for other styles as well as different levels of detail and quality I highly suggest exactly that. Of course do it clever and don’t just place the same buildings next to each other over and over. Look at real cities or how other games designed their cities to get a feeling on what looks nice. But always be ready to put in a lot of effort anyways.

Luke: What are some new features you would like to see someday in Vintage Story?

Umbra: It's really hard to say for me

Already a lot of features have been introduced to which I was saying "Great! It will save me so much time," but I've never actually thought of it before for some reasons. It's great to have a team that is so close to its community that you can even give them suggestions on what would be nice to have and to introduce at least a discussion about that, not to speak of even the probability that it will be included in the next update.

So for right now I can only think of graphic or ambiance additions. Like good water shaders with reflections or colored glass blocks that change the color of the light that shines through it. Ambient sounds that are more lively and realistic could enhance my future experience as well. Being able to tilt ("rotate") your view for cinematic camera paths would also affect me directly in a few months. Also I anticipate the mechanical power system greatly. I know it is not something I thought of personally (in a sense of enhancing my own game experience). But I do think it will greatly add to the overall survival experience. And that’s despite the fact that it doesn't actually affect me that much directly. I hope that it will be something that will bring more interest and popularity to the game. But everything in time!

Luke: Do you have a social media presence that you'd like to share for anyone interested in seeing more of your work?

Umbra: More than this on the forum and maybe the Vintage Story Discord server will probably not happen too soon. But in maybe 6 months or something I hope I can restart my Youtube channel and upload great videos of my map. I have great ideas for trailers and cinematics and my editing skills have increased as well. I will redesign everything and change it to VS.

UmbraCreations on Youtube and of course my Twitter where I will certainly announce everything and maybe even exclusively upload spoilers for my future video projects.
 

From all the VS Team, thank you Umbra for taking the time to do this interview and to show us your work! <3