Balancing 30 Day Months (In Depth)

[Rudometkin]

I am too early for this topic, but I am eager to atleast get it started. I haven't even experienced a winter yet. I'm still learning new things every time I play, and I enjoy all of the surprises the game has to offer. I just found grain the other day, and I'm loving the idea of having to rotate crops when farming due to nutrients in the soil.

So, this topic is focused mainly on how the hunger system changes when months are stretched to 30 days. But if there are other important factors to consider, then please write about them here. Anyway, here are quick thoughts I wrote down:

When choosing how many days there are per month in world creation settings, developers wrote this:

>Amount of days each in-game month should have. This determines the length of a year and the length of seasons. One year is always 12 months. We recommend adjusting hunger rate, health regeneration rate and food spoilage to match any changes to days per month.

What exactly does it mean to adjust hunger rate and food spoilage rate accordingly? If I start a world with 30 days per month, am I recommended to have hunger and food spoilage rates at 25%?

I am considering eventually starting a world with 30 day months. Longer seasons - longer winters.

I have seen people say the game is really not tuned for this 30 day setting. That's fine with me, I would actually prefer a harder game (in general - I mean I haven't even encountered winter yet). But I'm exploring this idea of months being stretched out.

I understand crop growth is attached to days per month, or DPM. This is great. But what of hunger? I suppose it should be slowed down to account for slower crop growth. But do you think one can make it on just, say 50% hunger rate with 30 dpm? What might an ideal food spoilage rate be? If spoilage rate remains 100%, is it still possible to comfortably survive a winter to the experienced player?

Of course, lower hunger rate means easier game start. Since, the possibility of starving on the first night is practically removed.

There are enough factors in play here to make this a complex subject. What are your takes on this?

[ifoz]

Basically what this means is that food is going to spoil way 'faster' the more days you have.
This is a case of something like a piece of food lasting for 1 year in default settings only lasting 1 month in these time settings.
Since crops do not grow in winter (default temperate climate), this means winters would be very unfun, with constant starvation if hunger was left at default values.

Winter lasts for around 5 months in the default settings. Extending months to 30 days could potentially mean that all of your food would expire while winter is still in effect, forcing you to starve. I don't know how likely this is, because food spoilage depends on a number of factors, but yeah.

If you were playing 30 day months, I'd highly recommend you have a vacation home you visit in the winter located in the South where you can actually grow crops to sustain yourself.

Edited November 19, 2024 by ifoz

[Rudometkin]

26 minutes ago, ifoz said:

Basically what this means is that food is going to spoil way 'faster' the more days you have.
This is a case of something like a piece of food lasting for 1 year in default settings only lasting 1 month in these time settings.
Since crops do not grow in winter (default temperate climate), this means winters would be very unfun, with constant starvation if hunger was left at default values.

Winter lasts for around 5 months in the default settings. Extending months to 30 days could potentially mean that all of your food would expire while winter is still in effect, forcing you to starve. I don't know how likely this is, because food spoilage depends on a number of factors, but yeah.

If you were playing 30 day months, I'd highly recommend you have a vacation home you visit in the winter located in the South where you can actually grow crops to sustain yourself.

So I wonder how exactly the ratio would be affected (if at all) ((relative to the standard balance)) if you slow down spoilage to 25%

Also, I have heard of hunger rate working at 50% on 30dpm.

This is something I will probably ultimately have to test for myself to get my ideal balance. I'm just hoping I can get a bunch of feedback from you pros if you have already figured some of it out Thanks for chiming in.

Edited November 19, 2024 by Rudometkin

[Nymue]

I prefer playing with 30 day months, always have. Make seasons more realistic. That said, I do not have an issue with food spoiling faster, unless there's a bug. If the sealed crock on the shelf says it's good for a year, it's good for a year.

[Thorfinn]

IMO, 30-day months make the game way easier. Particularly if you slow down hunger and spoilage. It's a matter of playing the game on its terms, rather than yours.

At least the last time I tried it, berries, cattails and skeps did not adjust. Neither did animal birth rates or critter spawns. You have much more time to get slaughterable critters going, or you could live off honey the entire winter. What else are you going to do with all those barrels of honey? You will have at least 30 to do something with, and probably chests of un-squeezed honeycomb .  And you will have to kill off wolves anyway, and probably just let the meat rot, because you certainly don't need any more. And if you time stuff right, berries on the bush and veggies in the ground don't go bad if you get them before spring, though you will have reduced harvest. Big deal, right? 

You are going to have to do a lot of modding if you want to even have a game experience as difficult as standard. Check out @Vinter Nacht's crops mod. Golden Fields or something like that to get an idea of what adjustments need still be made, though I don't believe the mod is current. Someone had an animal husbandry mod you should look at too. I don't believe it automatically adjusted fertility cycles, you set the days per month in a config file.

 

 

Edited November 19, 2024 by Thorfinn

[Thorfinn]

7 hours ago, ifoz said:

This is a case of something like a piece of food lasting for 1 year in default settings only lasting 1 month in these time settings.

If switching from 9 days to30 days, it's only a tad under 1/3, not 1/12. You see a year on normal, it's good for over a season, i.e., all winter.

[Rudometkin]

1 hour ago, Nymue said:

I prefer playing with 30 day months, always have. Make seasons more realistic. That said, I do not have an issue with food spoiling faster, unless there's a bug. If the sealed crock on the shelf says it's good for a year, it's good for a year.

What do you think of Thorfinn's take?

Do you alter hunger and food spoilage rates?

[LadyWYT]

5 hours ago, Rudometkin said:

What do you think of Thorfinn's take?

Do you alter hunger and food spoilage rates?

I actually agree with @Thorfinn--it makes the game easier overall, unless you really mess with the settings. When I did a 30 day per month world, I didn't change the food or hunger rates; I think the only things I changed where the respawns per gear, keep inventory, and making the interval between storms longer(30 days). The reason I changed the days to begin with was mainly due to wanting more time to fiddle around and figure things out before winter arrived; it was a temperate start as well, I will note.

In any case, I didn't find it any tougher than normal settings. I will note that I did not play through an entire year before moving on to a different save file, but I did play fairly far into the wintertime without any issues. Food wasn't a problem, as I made sure to grow plenty of crops and preserve the harvests in crocks. Meat was either cooked and sealed in crocks, or salted. Lots of pickled vegetables too. I also really enjoy hunting in this game, so fresh meat was supplementing whatever I had stored. Two or three cellars worth of food...yeah, I wasn't going hungry anytime soon.

If you're looking for harder, I would actually shorten the months from 9 days. Shorter months means a shorter winter to survive, but you'll also have much less time to prepare. If you're shortening the months, I'd wager this is probably when you'll want to really adjust things like hunger and food spoilage to make sure you can't just wait out the winter with ease.

[Nymue]

On 11/19/2024 at 12:00 PM, Rudometkin said:

What do you think of Thorfinn's take?

Do you alter hunger and food spoilage rates?

I only alter them slightly lower, but compared to the 9 and 12 day games I've run, I saw no appreciable difference. I was still drowning in food XD

[Rudometkin]

On 11/19/2024 at 4:21 PM, LadyWYT said:

If you're looking for harder, I would actually shorten the months from 9 days. Shorter months means a shorter winter to survive, but you'll also have much less time to prepare. If you're shortening the months, I'd wager this is probably when you'll want to really adjust things like hunger and food spoilage to make sure you can't just wait out the winter with ease.

I want difficult, but not difficult in every sense. I appreciate long months. It would be great if we could choose when our world starts. Choose to start the world a month before winter, for example.

[Maelstrom]

On 11/24/2024 at 12:37 AM, Rudometkin said:

It would be great if we could choose when our world starts. Choose to start the world a month before winter, for example.

That can be done.  Just enter the right timeset command (unfortunately I do not know it off the top of my head) to advance the clock to a different month.  Utoober Rhadamant did that in his most recent playthrough which is a 1.20 world.

/edit - Ultimately, fiddle with the settings to find what fits your fancy.  I spent about 18 months of irl playing a half dozen games to tweak the settings to my liking.  Don't worry about keeping a world around if you don't like playing it.  Abandon and adjust the settings on the next one until you find your goldilocks settings.

Edited November 27, 2024 by Maelstrom

[Dilan Rona]

Prefer playing with 30 days. Come winter, I have a well stocked cellar, and lots of crocks with sealed food. So I can survive winter relatively comfortably, and not worry about food. Higher temperatures tend to catch me with food spoiljng outside winter though.

[Rudometkin]

Hey, everyone. I wanted to bring this thread back up for 1.20. I heard maybe berries adjust to 30 day months properly now? I haven't tested it, as I'm still finishing up a 1.19 world before I update to 1.20.

Do any of you guys have any new information on how this 30dpm has changed in 1.20?

[Maelstrom]

I believe berry settings are now dynamic so that there's a harvest about once a month regardless of the length of the month instead of the hardcoded days.  This means you will get fewer berry harvests per year.

Edited June 30, 2025 by Maelstrom

[Veronica Hohenheim]

I am a new player,I opened a new save to try to game out and refund it if I didnt liked it and I found myself hooked.I should have 25 hours on the game rn.I havent seen the winter yet,its start of the fall but even with 25 hrs it feels like it came too early and winter will came in a blink away.I think 30 day would feel more grounded rather then feeling fast paced as is rn.

Some people said it would be easier rather then harder considering having more time to prepare for winter. I still havent experienced it but I do not see it as it should be a challange.Idk,it might be me personally but I do not like combat in games like this.Unles its dark souls,sekiro and a like, a game where sole purpose is combat then I enjoy it.When a game allows me to build and prosper I do not care for the rest and I see the winter in that way.As in irl winter comes and goes and it shouldnt be that different in the game too,unless u r unprepared for some reason. I do not know how much time I will sink in this save but I am guessing in my next or sort of perma world I would be intending to have 30 day months.Or idk if I can change the current saves settings I might even change my current game to 30 day cycle in the future.

[Professor Dragon]

2 hours ago, Veronica Hohenheim said:

I haven't seen the winter yet,its start of the fall but even with 25 hrs it feels like it came too early and winter will came in a blink away.I think 30 day would feel more grounded rather then feeling fast paced as is rn.

If you're playing with the default days in the month of nine days, then I agree, it does feel like the seasons whip by a little fast.

So I'd recommend if you were thinking of extending it, to consider two things:

• Play through a few in-game years first
• Extend the number of days in a month, but not to 30. Try 12 or 15.

This will give you a better idea of what is required to survive winter, grow crops, raise animals etc. 
You are still a new player, and you're currently luxuriating in the "good times" weather. But the converse of longer months is that the winters do seem to go on, and they do slow down a lot of things such as travel, building and exploration.

And I'm with you on preferring the "build and prosper" side of the game, over "combat."

Professor Dragon.

[Veronica Hohenheim]

17 minutes ago, Professor Dragon said:

• Play through a few in-game years first
• Extend the number of days in a month, but not to 30. Try 12 or 15.

Yeah it seems I can change it on a running save,as in 12 20 and 30.I am not planning on changing it for the first year but I may do it 20 in close future.Tho idk,as in other voxel based game people seems to rather not name it at some point there is little left for game to give u purpose so I dont know what would I do if I feel too accomplished and just doing same tasks over and over again.

World was feeling empty so I installed the village mod.Maybe that will give me purpose to keep going on and on for ingame years.To develop a nice town.Roads to connect far away villages too maybe idk.Online playing seems to fair better in this sense since it would feel ever developing, but I am not sure about it.My connection isnt particularly good either.

[Professor Dragon]

Play how you 

12 minutes ago, Veronica Hohenheim said:

. . . there is little left for game to give u purpose so I dont know what would I do if I feel too accomplished and just doing same tasks over and over again.

World was feeling empty so I installed the village mod.Maybe that will give me purpose to keep going on and on for ingame years.To develop a nice town.Roads to connect far away villages too maybe idk.Online playing seems to fair better in this sense since it would feel ever developing, but I am not sure about it.My connection isnt particularly good either.

The progression is actually a strong point of this game. Moving up to Copper, Bronze and better tools gives you things to do at each point. Then you'll look at the Dairy meter and think about Dairy, or dying clothes, or building a better roof for your house, or getting windows . . . which means, glass, masses of straw, cloth etc etc. Each thing leads to new things. I'm ten years into this current world and still trying new things.  Give yourself a goal such as "I want a red roof" and you'll unlock a lot of play just doing that.

And yes, you will be doing a lot of the same things, such as making crocks or storage vessels, over again. But usually with a point eg "I want to travel a few thousand blocks over to a new type of forest and will need a small base over there." 

I agree that the world is a bit empty. Some people like it that way (Ask a Trader). But for other people, you know what? Fine - install a mod. That's okay. Play how you want to play. There's not a single person here who would argue against that. I believe that better villages/traders are on the roadmap as well, but that could be a while.

I think that multi-player is a different beast. I haven't done much of it myself, but if I did I would want to be on a small server where there is a group of people bent on a similar purpose, such as "Build a village. I'll be  resource provider, you be a base builder, you two go and check the tunnels." Progression is so hard in this game that you don't really want to have a "Preserve the trees!" person living next to a "Burn the world!" type.

Professor Dragon.

Edited September 24, 2025 by Professor Dragon

[Veronica Hohenheim]

17 minutes ago, Professor Dragon said:

The progression is actually a strong point of this game. Moving up to Copper, Bronze and better tools gives you things to do at each point. Then you'll look at the Dairy meter and think about Dairy, or dying clothes, or building a better roof for your house, or getting windows . . . which means, glass, masses of straw, cloth etc etc. Each thing leads to new things. I'm ten years into this current world and still trying new things.  Give yourself a goal such as "I want a red roof" and you'll unlock a lot of play just doing that.

At first,before even installing the game I had an idea.I would make a village,a settlement.With all the native elements of the biome I am in and slowly build a culture.Make churces,statues etc.. But the moment I got into the game I forgot all of it.I was focused on surviving and leaving my miserable only hunter gatherer life with no proper base of operations.

Currently my eyes are at the iron,steel is fine and all but it looks like a luxury and far far away.I already am in bronze age,I started to prepare leather too so I want to build a full plate armor and kill every bear ever has wronged me,fighting face to face.After all that probably I would,as you say become more focused on rather novelties.Probably I will erect a statue of me standing on a bear corpse because it is the main enemy of the biome I am in,after I start slaughtering them with confidence of course.

[Veronica Hohenheim]

On 9/25/2025 at 1:15 AM, Professor Dragon said:

Professor Dragon.

Are yall laughing the first part ?

[Kyassady]

4 hours ago, Veronica Hohenheim said:

Are yall laughing the first part ?

yep!! 

i had the same experience.....

expectation: i will build a big city with a lot of houses for each profession i can think of....

reality: dirt house for a long time and experiencing a long life of hunter-gatherer, more hunted then hunter! actualy!

 

edit: grammar..... 

Edited September 26, 2025 by Kyassady

[Professor Dragon]

1 hour ago, Veronica Hohenheim said:

Are yall laughing the first part ?

Oh yeah!  But also the bear statue part - really, it's all gold.  

We've all had that experience! 

I feel that Vintage Story is almost the opposite of Minecraft.

• In Minecraft, you launch into building, and get your uber-tools much later.
• In Vintage Story, you need your uber-tools before you can get into building.

I'm simplifying, of course.

But take chiselling as an example. It is one of the standout features of Vintage Story, and yet in effect it is gated behind iron/steel tools.
Yes, you can do some chiselling with a copper chisel - but it will wear out before you can do much. 
In a way, it would be good to separate out the chisel feature so that you can use it earlier (in practice). Maybe purchasable from Traders, or increase the copper durability massively.