Rift wards - worth it or not?

[Lookstothestars]

I don‘t know if this has been discussed already, probably has been but whatever. I wanted to inquire if you think rift wardens are worth building at all. I‘ve never actually built one in survival and haven‘t quite gotten around to testing one. 30 block radius so 60 block diameter sounds large enough to fit a base inside it neatly and if one has a bigger base, building a few more shouldn‘t be a problem. But what about the refuelling. 14 days for one temporal gear sounds rough and that‘s just one rift ward. But i might not be too well versed in the inquiry of temporal gears, so perhaps it isn‘t that high of a price to pay. I‘m spitballing here as you can see, so like, repeating the question again. Are they worth it or no?

[Irulana]

Not worth it, it's better to use lantern and light up terrain. You don't need to refuel them. Better use Jonas parts to build other devices like terminus teleporter.

[Thorfinn]

It's not like surface spawns are at all an issue by the time you could make a rift ward. They are either a risk-free source of occasional drops, or they are a nuisance that you just design your home around.

[Lookstothestars]

I see. That is kind of what i had thought initially. I liked the idea when i first saw them in the creative menu, but when i learned about the material cost, the relatively low radius in comparison to big bases and the fuel cost i immeditaly had the feeling that they wouldn't be worth it.

I do wonder though, could there be a way to make them better in such a way that they would be worth the effort while not turning the game into easy mode? I feel like to achieve that, monster spawns and difficulty would have to be reworked as a whole, especially considering that a rift ward will probably not protect you from a dark spot within your base where monsters can spawn anyways. 

I mean, coming from a purely RP perspective now, you'd probably want some eventually since having monsters within your house/keep/city isn't that great, especially for civilians that can't defend themselves. But that is only in RP. Maybe they'll have a later game use. Possibly, as you progress in the story rifts could spawn mobs that actively invest the area around them? Obviously, the developers would need to feel comfortable enough in basically taking over/destroying player bases and parts of the world, which seems far fetched to me, but it would make them more useful as you wouldn't want an infestation to happen within the dark cellar the blacksmith in your village keeps refusing to light up. Or maybe tie them around temporal storms where they are currently basically useless besides stopping rifts (i dislike monsters just being able to spawn during them. I don't care if it makes sense within the lore. Why build the great wall if your enemies can just spawn behind it every now and then?)

[Maelstrom]

Do rift wards work vertically?

[Thorfinn]

1 hour ago, Lookstothestars said:

especially considering that a rift ward will probably not protect you from a dark spot within your base where monsters can spawn anyways. 

If it's in range of the rift ward, yes, it protects.

 

1 hour ago, Lookstothestars said:

I do wonder though, could there be a way to make them better in such a way that they would be worth the effort while not turning the game into easy mode?

Oh, yes, its all a matter of balancing the parameters. For whatever reason, the default is pretty weak, very like the glider. My sneaking suspicion is that it is always easier to offer a later blueprint to upgrade those devices than it is to nerf them if they prove too powerful.

Or it may be that in a few chapters, the rust world starts spitting out nastier dudes, ones that would make it worth having a ward protect at least part of your homestead.

It's just too early to know where things like that are headed.

[LadyWYT]

Refueling rift wards probably isn't an issue at this stage of the game--temporal gears are rather easy to acquire as long as you have temporal storms enabled and otherwise engage monsters on a semi-regular basis. Fourteen days is a generous amount of time for power as well, and you probably only need to power the wards during periods of high rift activity/before a temporal storm hits. If/when temporal gears are given more uses, then it might get a lot more expensive to keep multiple rift wards powered.

16 minutes ago, Thorfinn said:

Oh, yes, its all a matter of balancing the parameters. For whatever reason, the default is pretty weak, very like the glider. My sneaking suspicion is that it is always easier to offer a later blueprint to upgrade those devices than it is to nerf them if they prove too powerful.

Or it may be that in a few chapters, the rust world starts spitting out nastier dudes, ones that would make it worth having a ward protect at least part of your homestead.

It's just too early to know where things like that are headed.

Very true, but I also think it might be one of those things that's a bit situational in its use, or otherwise geared toward more passive players. If you live further north in the world, to the point that winter nights are very long, you might find having a rift ward or two invaluable. Same applies to those who do a lot of work at night and don't want to deal with monsters. If you sleep through nights, or otherwise have rifts turned off, then rift wards probably won't be as useful.

For what it is right now though, yeah, it's a bit underwhelming for the resources it takes to build. I do think you're right though, in that when more monsters are added, it'll be more valuable to invest in one.

[Thorfinn]

2 minutes ago, LadyWYT said:

you might find having a rift ward or two invaluable.

True enough, but like @Irulana says, lanterns are your friend.

[LadyWYT]

Just now, Thorfinn said:

True enough, but like @Irulana says, lanterns are your friend.

Fair, but I will note that while lantern light can stop rifts and monsters from spawning in that area, it doesn't stop monsters from spawning on the fringes and running into the light. Well...I mean, right now it probably does, since monsters seem inclined to avoid bright lights to some extent, but I suppose that's something that could be potentially tweaked in the code in order to give rift wards a bit more value. Let monsters run from daylight(which would also keep them in caves a little better) outside of a temporal storm, but artificial light won't deter them(save for preventing spawns).

Or just make a monster that, while a rare spawn, isn't stopped by artificial light at all, while having a larger spawning range from rifts. At that point you really NEED a rift ward to keep it out of your base, unless you really want to invest the resources into lighting up everything for miles around.

Although while I'm spitballing ideas, I suppose you could just leave things as-is, but let the rift ward turn its affected area into a temporally stable area...provided that the rift ward is powered, of course. At that point, it's not just preventing rifts--it's a handy way to build in that scenic spot you found that isn't the most stable place in the world.

[Lookstothestars]

9 hours ago, LadyWYT said:

Although while I'm spitballing ideas, I suppose you could just leave things as-is, but let the rift ward turn its affected area into a temporally stable area...provided that the rift ward is powered, of course. At that point, it's not just preventing rifts--it's a handy way to build in that scenic spot you found that isn't the most stable place in the world.

Honestly, having the rift ward turn a temporally unstable piece of land into a temporally stable piece of land is a great idea. I hadn‘t even thought about it. Besides scenery though it would still be rather useless, unless, hear me out, they add some kind of resource or perhaps specific kinds of dungeons that take long to traverse that are temporally unstable from the get go. These would basically require a rift ward or a massive amount of temporal gears to keep your temporal stability up so you don‘t just die constantly as you try to delve through the dungeon or are in the process of harvesting this resource that can only be found here. Maybe the stuff that Jonas used to power his devices in the first place (I‘m like half in the lore so i don‘t know if it has been explained what the greenish blue stuff is) so you can power even greater Jonas devices for personal and story use.

10 hours ago, Thorfinn said:

My sneaking suspicion is that it is always easier to offer a later blueprint to upgrade those devices than it is to nerf them if they prove too powerful.

That makes sense honestly. Buffs are often more appreciated by the player base than nerfs, so i can totally see this kind of progression in development.

10 hours ago, Thorfinn said:

Or it may be that in a few chapters, the rust world starts spitting out nastier dudes, ones that would make it worth having a ward protect at least part of your homestead.

I would very much like that. Honestly, having the rifts become more dangerous with story progression makes a whole lot of sense and builds tension. Them spitting out nastier dudes is probably better than my idea of rust world monsters infesting areas around rifts, though perhaps a mod could add that eventually. Sort of like an advanced hardcore version of Vintage story where as the story progresses (considering we have no idea where it‘s headed we are making big assumptions here) the rust world seeps further into the main world/Earth (again, assuming that that‘s where the story is headed). Or, you know, just stronger dudes. Maybe the could tie the slowly increasing strength of temporal storms to the story progression too? Currently, if i remember correctly, it increases with every temporal storm that appears to a max number, right?

[LadyWYT]

5 hours ago, Lookstothestars said:

Besides scenery though it would still be rather useless, unless, hear me out, they add some kind of resource or perhaps specific kinds of dungeons that take long to traverse that are temporally unstable from the get go. These would basically require a rift ward or a massive amount of temporal gears to keep your temporal stability up so you don‘t just die constantly as you try to delve through the dungeon or are in the process of harvesting this resource that can only be found here. Maybe the stuff that Jonas used to power his devices in the first place (I‘m like half in the lore so i don‘t know if it has been explained what the greenish blue stuff is) so you can power even greater Jonas devices for personal and story use.

It's not yet been explained what the teal colored stuff is, and I'm not sure it ever will be fully explained. That might be a detail that's left up to the player's imagination.

As for needing a rift ward to go dungeon delving...maybe if they implemented procedural generation for more complex ruins or something, like the other block game. For story locations and playing the game in general though, I see it being a bit frustrating. You're not really meant to spend a lot of time underground, save for certain instances for the story. In those cases, the locations seem tailored to allow the player to stay in them for a long time despite being deep underground and unstable. I suspect it's due to story locations having different rules for stability to ensure that players can complete them in one go, without a constant back-and-forth.

5 hours ago, Lookstothestars said:

Maybe the could tie the slowly increasing strength of temporal storms to the story progression too? Currently, if i remember correctly, it increases with every temporal storm that appears to a max number, right?

Interestingly enough, the storms getting stronger is more of a gameplay mechanic than it is true to lore. As we learn from a certain NPC, temporal storms used to be a lot nastier than they are right now, to the point they were potentially strong enough to shift parts of the physical realm out of place. For actual gameplay though, it doesn't make sense to make the storms stronger at first and weaken as time goes on; it'd be frustrating to deal with early game, and make the late game more underwhelming since there's not as much value for the late game tech. Hence why the lore is broken here in favor of gameplay, so that the difficulty can ramp up in a manner more fair and fun to the player.

Now of course, that lore could change as well. It could be that past temporal storms were a lot worse than what we have now, but maybe something has shifted again to make the storms start getting worse without certain characters catching on to it. I don't expect that kind of change to happen though, as the storm difficulty is mostly the way it is for gameplay reasons, and not the actual lore.

[Thorfinn]

47 minutes ago, LadyWYT said:

It could be that past temporal storms were a lot worse than what we have now, but maybe something has shifted again to make the storms start getting worse without certain characters catching on to it.

That kind of reminds me of how when we were in school in the '70s, we were told that within 50 years, an ice sheet would cover New York because of global cooling. That's like next year. That would be a Mickey Spillane twist there, I tell you. No one would expect it.

[Lookstothestars]

On 5/23/2025 at 3:56 PM, LadyWYT said:

It's not yet been explained what the teal colored stuff is, and I'm not sure it ever will be fully explained. That might be a detail that's left up to the player's imagination.

You know, this kept me thinking a bit. I don‘t know if the teal coloured stuff has a name yet, neither do i know if we (sort of) know how it‘s produced, I’m not yet that well versed in VS lore, but i noticed one thing while listening to the resonator within the Resonance Archives. There was a bit of dialogue where someone talks about Alchemy and Rubedo and stuff and this person mentions a theory where they believe that „Flux“ could be used within the production of something instead of being it‘s end point.

Flux, as commonly used in Sci-Fi and Fantasy, has to do with time stuff, like time travel. I believe that the teal coloured stuff that powers Falx constructions is called Flux and taken from the recording within the archive i believe that it is formed out of the alchemical substance Rubedo.

One point that adds onto my believe is that there is a Jonas part, mainly used for teleportation devices, that is called a Flux gap connector. This Flux gap connector looks either like a light bulb or like a tube that could possibly hold a certain teal coloured liquid.

I also have a weak theory about the glow worms that you can find in the depths being related to or actual part of the creation of what i for now am calling Flux. It‘s weak because i looked at their colour and thought „Kind of looks similar.“ … That‘s it, i can‘t support it further. :3

Anyways, this had nothing to do with the original topic but whatever.