Development direction poll

[Dilan Rona]

willing to live with a few bugs if it means improving existing stories and/or content

[DUCATISLO]

I'd say 2nd option is good since if they do polish the existing stuff we have currently they might find some bugs here n there but better to at least make the game fun.

[StCatharines]

Wow, talk about an overwhelmingly skewed poll result! I'll be fascinated to see if it gradually shifts to a different winner over the coming two weeks, as perhaps "early responders" are more likely to want dejank and polish as we likely play more frequently.

[PaleSoul]

New content always. this game has a lot of catching up to do with the "other" block game. 

[HalfAxd]

Some more focus on QoL, especially related to inventory and crafting...

"Open All" local inventory containers in set radius would be a huge help to me... removing frustration...

Thank you! 

[Drakker]

Crafting from inventory and open chests would be amazing. Open the hand book, select the recipe, click on a button and if all the required items are in your inventory or an opened container, it goes straight to the crafting grid (there's a mod for that already). Go one step farther and allow the same from nearby closed containers and it would be absolutely awesome. Finally, allow it to be done for all containers in your whole claim and it would be .

[Voldemort]

We need Wifu update

[TabebuiaChrysotricha]

Dejank really is necessary at this point. While new content is nice, most people can get new content by just loading up on mods.

There's many systems which could see some improvement atm.

Prospecting, Combat, NPC interaction, Animal Husbandry, Agriculture and Tailoring are some of the worst offenders. Deer have had semi-broken animations since they got added (specially when swimming/attacking), animals in general love to go for a swim for no reason, and will happily follow the player into water or jump off cliffs to their death, mob AI is overall remarkably stupid.

The rideable elk has extremely janky movement because it has to climb every single block with a half-a-second delay and the running noise gets interrupted every single time it leaves the ground even for single block descents. Mobs in general (including the elk) also get stuck trying to path in a diagonal line which goes along the edge of blocks, making them have to climb up the blocks then go down and up and down again (making them spin in circles sometimes), I know it's more realistic but entities should just climb blocks instantly or with minimal delay so they can path quicker instead of getting stupefied by anything other than flat terrain.

As many people have said, polish until the game could be shipped as is and then add new stuff. New stuff should be added when the foundation it lies on is rock solid.

Edited February 28, 2025 by Darlxx

[StCatharines]

1 hour ago, Drakker said:

Crafting from inventory and open chests would be amazing. Open the hand book, select the recipe, click on a button and if all the required items are in your inventory or an opened container, it goes straight to the crafting grid (there's a mod for that already). Go one step farther and allow the same from nearby closed containers and it would be absolutely awesome. Finally, allow it to be done for all containers in your whole claim and it would be .

That all seems to be geared towards less immersion, where the development trend is towards more immersion.

[LadyWYT]

As much as I'd like to see lots of new content, I think 1.20 gave us quite a lot to chew on already. Likewise, as others have already noted, 1.20 had a lot of growing pains, so I think the best option is to finish polishing those features(and whichever others need a bit more love) and swat bugs, with a few new minor additions similar to things already implemented(like more ambience, critters, etc...things easy to add). That way, the game's foundation is a lot more stable for when more big features(like story chapters or new systems) get added; less jank in the old should mean fewer places for things to go wrong in the new...probably.

Plus with polishing what we already have, and fixing lingering bugs, the overall game performance ought to increase as well.

[Zane Mordien]

Everything has been said, but keep up the great work. Even when I'm frustrated with some things in the game, I still love it and appreciate the work that has gone into it.

[purple8cloud]

we need all of them!

[Master]

To me the game is still in beta so I'd say prioritize new game features. Especially ones that can be used by modders to make more content. This is mostly systems and not "blocks". If that makes sense.

But overall I've been very happy with the Vintage Story development progress so whatever you decide I'm sure I will be happy.

[Kirona]

I would personally vote for a split between polishing/finishing existing content, and bug fixing (which to me is another aspect of polishing/finishing anyway). I'd love to see current systems a bit more fleshed out and fine-tuned... but I'd also love to see fixes for issues like dropped items sinking into the ground, or collapsing blocks disappearing, or all of my game configs somehow disappearing every other time the game crashes.

[ToastyDerek]

I think it would also be a great idea for the team to focus a lot more on QA/testing. I love this game dearly, but updates, even stable ones, feel like they have features that were only tested in best case scenarios and often fail or have unintentional side effects during any other situation. Or, it feels like oftentimes "minor" changes are made that don't get tested properly and they end up being wrong or having side effects with other game systems.

I would also highly recommend some form of automated testing. Unit tests and integration tests will help massively when done properly as you can make changes and add features with more confidence that old systems aren't breaking or changing in unintended ways

[Vari_Ares]

Yes more polish !  

 

And please more crops / vegetables to cultivate ! Tomatos, Potatoes, Corn etc...  

[Wolfsfeld]

I'm gonna echo the existing sentiments of either working on known bugs or polishing what vintage story already has before moving on to new content. 

[l33tmaan]

The dejanking never ends...

[Afroman726]

Existing systems need a polish.  Combat feels super clunky.  The difficulty is perfect i just mean that there is a small delay when trying to strike moving targets. Believe me im chomping at the bit for more content like minecarts, steampunk tech, ect but the foundation needs refining i think.  

[brndd]

10 hours ago, CreativeRealms said:

I don't mean making it so it is easier to create JSON patches. I mean making them a more powerful tool for modding. Right now there are some pretty significant limitations to JSON patching which I think can be solved with some tweaks to the base game.

I kind of wish I made a list of suggestions when I encountered a lot of them.

Allowing JSON patches to match and modify specific entries in arrays would be really good.

[chuck]

Why does a dejank update have to be labeled as a major release, most companies fix their bugs in patch versions, not major versions.
There was a "dejank" update 1 update ago and the only content that got put in between that is 2 raft reskins. I can't recall any of the major bugs like ghost players being fixed in that one either.
 

Posts like these are just beating around the bush. Don't force yourself to adhere to a content update cycle if you can't handle it, or hire some real developers that can fix things and add content at the same time.

Edited February 28, 2025 by chuck

[ifoz]

36 minutes ago, chuck said:

Why does a dejank update have to be labeled as a major release, most companies fix their bugs in patch versions, not major versions.

1.21 will still be adding new content, they've teased some stuff in a news post.
Also, there were four new story locations added in 1.20, 3/4 having unique systems and mechanics. Some of these mechanics are quite underbaked at the moment, and so a dejank update is really needed so that the technical debt doesn't keep building.

[chuck]

34 minutes ago, ifoz said:

1.21 will still be adding new content, they've teased some stuff in a news post.
Also, there were four new story locations added in 1.20, 3/4 having unique systems and mechanics. Some of these mechanics are quite underbaked at the moment, and so a dejank update is really needed so that the technical debt doesn't keep building.

These are just structures and use of features added a few updates ago. They could entirely be a mod and shouldn't create any technical debt.

The real technical debt and the reason they have trouble adding new content has been there for 10 years. A lot of the internals are still manic digger, or loosely based off manic digger, and they're afraid to make any changes to it. The first 2 dejank updates didn't put a dent in it and neither will the 3rd one.

[ifoz]

18 minutes ago, chuck said:

These are just structures and use of features added a few updates ago. They could entirely be a mod and shouldn't create any technical debt.

The reworked NPC system is still underbaked and needs refining. The parkour gauntlet can sometimes bug out and the boss is pretty notoriously janky.
I haven't really seen them struggle to add content though.. personally, I thought that 1.20 was a massive update, considering all the blocks, mechanics and story locations it added.

What are you suggesting that the devs focus on to cut down technical debt? It seems like they are going in the direction of a dejank/bugfix update.

[Jorrit Tyberghein]

8 hours ago, PaleSoul said:

New content always. this game has a lot of catching up to do with the "other" block game. 

How so? Vintage Story already has a ton more content compared to that other game?