Vintage Story: Adventure Mode

[Enjen]

Anego choosing to take this next step for their Studio after all these years is fantastic! The game we bought is advertised as unfinished/Early in Development. I've gotten my money's worth playing the hours I have in the world I've created. I don't think an expansion like this is inherently bad. Is change scary? Sure! The future is unpredictable the majority of the time and can be viewed differently based on everybody's individual personal experience. 

Hiring on coders who lost their whole project (who Tyron may know personally and knows their skill and/or simply wants to give his colleagues an opportunity) to work on an added Game Mode for an already amazing game just sounds great! New Coders for a new branch team to work on a new Game Mode. I don't know where the idea of resources being allocated incorrectly is coming from. These are people, with a passion and have decided to expand. That's not to say well-sound criticism (or otherwise...) won't come. Change is scary. I don't doubt Anego Studios can create a plan that only benefits the future of Vintage Story and all old and new players alike. You cannot please everyone. The loud ones aren't necessarily the majority... they are just the loud ones.

I Support Tyron, Anego Studios and their vision.

[qbit]

EDIT: After reading Tyron's follow up to the original post and his replies in this thread, my concerns are addressed.  I'm confident that the vision and gameplay mechanics for VS will not change from what I love about them.  While I'm not personally interested in what I think this Adventure mode will entail, I think it will be an overall positive for the game and the community.

 

On 7/5/2025 at 6:12 AM, Tyron said:

There will also be some areas where the goals of both teams will intersect and both projects will benefit, such as combat, improved enemy AI or better NPCs in general.

This is where I see the issue.  That statement has a positive spin, but I read it as Hytale mechanics rapidly bleeding into Vintage Story and altering the gameplay.  I have no doubt there will be internal struggles about these decisions that will also bog down development and slow the release cycle.

I'd never heard of Hytale until I read about it on these forums with the last news announcement about the game's failure.  I then watched some trailers and some youtube videos detailing the history of Hytale's development and the mistakes along the way.  It looks like it endeavoured to be the kind of community-driven, monetized content market that Roblox is (which I don't think aligns with VS's philosophies).  Maybe I'm wrong, but that's not really my point in this post.  I don't like the game, and I don't like the mechanics I saw.

Tyron specifically mentioned combat and enemy AI in what I quoted.  And I'm sure that's just the tip of the iceberg.  I feel this will too drastically alter too many mechanics in VS.  I also agree with others that have said that VS's story and lore development will suffer as it is blurred into whatever vision Hytale has.  Maybe even stopping further development of VS story/lore and putting it in this "adventure mode" while making the existing modes simple sandbox survival.

The progression in VS and the discovery of the lore and unfolding of the story is already the "adventure" to me.  It does not need a seperate mode.

I think the solution to this is to make Hytale an independent project from the beginning.  A separate codebase.  A fork that VS will not pull changes from, but the Hytale developers can sync and merge engine changes down, as they see fit, from upstream VS.

But the wording in this announcement seems to want this adventure mode to be deeply integrated into VS from the beginning, and then possibly release it in the future as a stand-alone game.  How does that work?  What happens to this adventure mode in VS after that?  Does it just stop getting updates, get deprecated, and replaced with a splash screen directing users to buy the new adventure mode standalone game?  I doubt that would happen.  So there again, there is reason for me to assume that a large number of Hytale-inspired changes to game mechanics, lore, etc. will be merged into the core experience of VS and remain there.

They should be totally separate projects from the start, with collaboration.  This will minimize Hytale design philosophies creeping into VS and alienating existing players.  I'm not happy about this announcement as it is written.  I'm new to VS, but have about 215 hours playtime according to my AMD control panel (which tracks playtime independent of platforms like Steam).

I like the game as it is.  And I like the direction it's going.  I've seen the Hytale trailers and various footage as I learned about it recently, and I don't like it at all.  I'll never buy it, and I don't want it in my VS.

It's a good investment for Anego Studios, as a seperate game with a totally different release cycle and forked codebase.  The part that rubs me the wrong way (which I feel is embodied in what I quoted from Tyron) is this idea of integrating all these changes as a new mode in the Vintage Story base game.

Edited July 6, 2025 by qbit
Updated sentiment

[Vratislav]

I do understand concerns about losing focus on core VS gameplay due to doing also something else, but I consider it excessive. The 1.20 version was successful, many new players bought the game, so the studio would probably have enough resources to try to develop the Adventure mod without losing much if it will not succeed, both in finances and focus. And as I understand Tyron's development style, these additional money wouldn't help to progress core VS much faster. So why not to invest into aim that is designed to return some effort back into main VS engine whether it succeeds in creating separate game, distinct game mode, or nothing much?

Also, after 500 hours of gameplay, my payment for the game (bought family pack) was fully returned in terms of well spent time. I'd be happy to see all eight story chapters finished in next two years, but hey, this is not a way that Tyron would follow anyway.

[DudeBroManGuy]

How about... oh, I dunno... finishing the game that I purchased first before using the money I gave you on creating a different game? Why, oh why, would you think that it's acceptable to take the funds from sales of an unfinished game and use them to create a spin-off game or implement features that wildly differ from the game you promised? How do I get a refund?

[Enjen]

28 minutes ago, qbit said:

But the wording in this announcement seems to want this adventure mode to be deeply integrated into VS from the beginning, and then possibly release it in the future as a stand-alone game.  How does that work?  What happens to this adventure mode in VS after that?  Does it just stop getting updates, get deprecated, and replaced with a splash screen directing users to buy the new adventure mode standalone game?  I doubt that would happen.  So there again, there is reason for me to assume that a large number of Hytale-inspired changes to game mechanics, lore, etc. will be merged into the core experience of VS and remain there.

28 minutes ago, qbit said:

It's a good investment for Anego Studios, as a seperate game with a totally different release cycle and forked codebase.

You make some really good points and sound concerns. I'm in agreement! The most chance of success would be a complete new fork from the beginning. However I do understand them wanting to integrate it into VS as a game mode to see if a playerbase is even wanting it in the first place. I suppose that's what Early Access for a game is all about right? Early Access VS Adventure (Hytale Essentially) and Early Access Vintage Story. Two separate entities. Two separate games. Perhaps using the same engine so they don't have to start all the way from scratch.

[Michaloid]

21 minutes ago, DudeBroManGuy said:

How about... oh, I dunno... finishing the game that I purchased first before using the money I gave you on creating a different game? Why, oh why, would you think that it's acceptable to take the funds from sales of an unfinished game and use them to create a spin-off game or implement features that wildly differ from the game you promised? How do I get a refund?

Write a support ticket for a refund. But i think you're going to extremes. When the main team is exclusively working on the game you payed for while the side team is working on a little project at first. It's not like the game will cease development to cater to this version. Personally, i trust Tyron and his team, because they never did us wrong. I think it's a case of wait and see.

Edited July 5, 2025 by Michaloid

[falco_lombardi]

1 hour ago, Thorfinn said:

Same as many, maybe most startups. Perfectionism. Not saying, "That's good enough for now. Let's get this other part of the roadmap implemented." Look at the placeholders in VS. If they listened to everyone who wanted, say, combat "fixed" (which everyone defines differently), VS would be in the same boat as Hytale.

The 80/20 rule is essential. Work on the 20% that gets you 80% of the benefits, not the 80% that gets you 20%. 

How badly do you need to feel your 20 bucks was worth it?

[DudeBroManGuy]

14 minutes ago, Michaloid said:

Write a support ticket for a refund. But i think you're going to extremes. When the main team is exclusively working on the game you payed for while the side team is working on a little project at first. It's not like the game will cease development to cater to this version. Personally, i trust Tyron and his team, because they never did us wrong. I think it's a case of wait and see.

That's not the point. I didn't pay money for VS plus a side project. I only wanted VS. I only paid for VS. If the funds I provided to Anego Studios goes to fund the creation of anything other than VS then the resources that I provided are, in some way, being siphoned from the project I gave my money to support; the resources that we all provided are being diverted to fund something that, honestly, I don't think most VS players want. I know I don't. Adventure mode? Really? I I have never played adventure mode on Minecraft and I know I'm not alone in that. Anecdotes aside, 100% of people who pay for VS want VS; less than 100% of people who pay for VS want VS + some other bullshit that isn't VS being funded with our money.

Imagine if, somehow, Microsoft went bankrupt and Anego hired some of their dev team and then announced they were adding some features of Call of Duty to VS. That's not what we paid money for, is it? That's an extreme example, sure, but I made the analogy extreme so that you can see the principle of the issue. I don't want elves and dwarves and whatever the hell Hytale was going to be in VS.

Edited July 5, 2025 by DudeBroManGuy
spelling

[Thorfinn]

3 minutes ago, Gabe Heasley said:

How badly do you need to feel your 20 bucks was worth it?

I don't have any firm number because permadeath deletes worlds when you die, so any game I died rather than quit does not get totted up, but I probably have 3500 hours in the game. I know, get a life, but still. Being retired gives you a lot of spare time. Anyway, that's, what, about a half cent per hour? I'd be willing to call it even.  

[Voldemort]

1 minute ago, Thorfinn said:

I don't have any firm number because permadeath deletes worlds when you die, so any game I died rather than quit does not get totted up, but I probably have 3500 hours in the game. I know, get a life, but still. Being retired gives you a lot of spare time. Anyway, that's, what, about a half cent per hour? I'd be willing to call it even.  

Now imagine use this 3500 hours in gym  

[Thorfinn]

1 minute ago, Adnyeus said:

Now imagine use this 3500 hours in gym  

And still die.  

Just die sore and exhausted.

Edited July 5, 2025 by Thorfinn

[Thorfinn]

9 minutes ago, Oto Nokyo said:

worst case scenario VS gets abandoned completely since Tyron did work on Hytale. Who is to say he did or does not enjoy it more as a project over Vintage Story?

Highly doubtful. If that's what he wanted to do, why did he start on VS? Non-compete? If there were such, it would have lapsed years ago, assuming it would have held up in the first place. So why didn't he switch over then?

Do you really feel screwed over? Look at $20 titles (regular price) on Steam. Can any of them hold a candle to what you already have in VS?

[EDIT]

It is, of course, possible that expenses without revenue could sink Anego. I have no idea what their cash flow situation is, but, evidently it is good enough that hiring them on to work on VS is an option. You do kind of have to trust that he would cut the side project loose if that situation changed.

Edited July 5, 2025 by Thorfinn

[dakko]

1 minute ago, Oto Nokyo said:

If they can't manage to improve upon enemy AI and Combat in Vintage Story they won't be able to do it with the nu-Adventure Mode Hytale-esque game they have in mind as a side project.

Why ever would you jump to the conclusion that they cannot manage to improve enemy AI? That seems needlessly negative and pessimistic (and is without merit), and does not help to persuade me to your position.

 

[Michaloid]

28 minutes ago, DudeBroManGuy said:

That's not the point. I didn't pay money for VS plus a side project. I only wanted VS. I only paid for VS. If the funds I provided to Anego Studios goes to fund the creation of anything other than VS then the resources that I provided are, in some way, being siphoned from the project I gave my money to support; the resources that we all provided are being diverted to fund something that, honestly, I don't think most VS players want. I know I don't. Adventure mode? Really? I I have never played adventure mode on Minecraft and I know I'm not alone in that. Anecdotes aside, 100% of people who pay for VS want VS; less than 100% of people who pay for VS want VS + some other bullshit that isn't VS being funded with our money.

Imagine if, somehow, Microsoft went bankrupt and Anego hired some of their dev team and then announced they were adding some features of Call of Duty to VS. That's not what we paid money for, is it? That's an extreme example, sure, but I made the analogy extreme so that you can see the principle of the issue. I don't want elves and dwarves and whatever the hell Hytale was going to be in VS.

But you're paying for what's already here right? Not for what's to come in the future. You're not an investor. Sure the updates are great and the game is in early access, but it's going to be finished eventually. You could've perfectly waited for the game to be finished and then buy it. But you didn't. And the new modes seem to be free. And not forced on you. Not to mention that Tyron promissed that the rate of the usual updates are not going to slow down. I genuinely cannot understand your point.

[Michaloid]

7 minutes ago, Oto Nokyo said:

When Tyron started VS, Hytale was already in development? There is this thing called copyright infringement and making a hytale like clone doesn't do so well for an independent start up studio.

But they're not gonna call it literally "Hytale"?? I know the tittle is a wip right now, but Tyron is intelligent enough to not call it literally "Hytale". Not sure what you're talking about.

Edited July 5, 2025 by Michaloid

[Rhyagelle]

8 hours ago, Doctorgeo7 said:

Hello Feature Creep... No matter how good the intentions here, I don't see this benefiting the game. There's already plenty to do and add within the scope of the existing game. Those resources spent on a different team should be used to further existing development. Not for chasing some vague ideas and concepts that may not add anything of value to the game.

How can it be feature creep when it's not Vintage Story? It's going to be two completely different games. It's not going to impact the game we are playing at all. They wouldn't fund a new game if they didn't have security for the first game. Do you think he made this decision just blindly or what?

[Wilbur Demitel]

5 minutes ago, Rhyagelle said:

How can it be feature creep when it's not Vintage Story? It's going to be two completely different games. It's not going to impact the game we are playing at all. They wouldn't fund a new game if they didn't have security for the first game. Do you think he made this decision just blindly or what?

lol "its not gonna impact the game at all"

[LadyWYT]

12 hours ago, Tyron said:

Team, Budget and Risks
We are now looking through the job applications and contacting promising candidates. So much potential. It feels like picking your favorite candy from a candy store. Thank you everyone for applying! We've carefully thought about our options, budget and potential risks. We'll be starting small (3 to 4 people) and expand once the project shows merit and gathers interest. A small team might be slower, but is also much more manageable, more effective and can pivot quicker. Slow growth allows us to fund this truly for the long term. And thankfully, we can re-use a lot of the Vintage Story ecosystem.

If I'm understanding correctly here, it sounds like a small team of former Hytale devs being assigned to develop an Adventure mode for Vintage Story, while the rest of the Vintage Story team continues developing the rest of Vintage Story proper. Which sounds pretty solid and fair to me. Here's to hoping it goes well!

12 hours ago, Tyron said:

The Goal
The new mode would be departing significantly in aesthetics, setting and game mechanics compared to Vintage Story. More focused towards fantasy and adventure/rpg-y compared to the gritty, realism based nature of the current experience. Personally, I would love to see some Elves and Dwarves in there
For the time being it would ship alongside Vintage Story at no additional cost but in the purely hypothetical scenario where it really takes off we could spin it off into a fully separate game. We'll be very open about it, release early and the sub-team will be given significant agency over development direction and communication style with players. There will also be some areas where the goals of both teams will intersect and both projects will benefit, such as combat, improved enemy AI or better NPCs in general. For existing players - rest assured, the aesthetics and game mechanics of Vintage Story will remain true to its original vision.

I've said it in another thread or two of late, but I would assume a game mode like this would result in the more populated world that some players desire, more than the lonelier setting we have now(which I do love). A mode with more fantasy sounds awesome as well, and I've a hunch that the code governing player class could be recycled to cover playable races like elves, dwarves, and whatever else gets added.

What I'm curious about, is that if it starts as a spin-off game/gamemode, but later becomes its own separate game from Vintage Story, do current Vs players have to go purchase it when it becomes a separate game, or do we get a free copy? Or maybe a compromise with just a generous discount on the new game? Personally I would hope for a free copy, since if it began as a free extra for Vintage Story, I wouldn't want to end up playing a lot of that mode as a free extra and then have to pay full-price later in order to keep playing(it's the principle of the matter rather than the dollar amount).

[Rhyagelle]

22 minutes ago, Wilbur Demitel said:

lol "its not gonna impact the game at all"

It isn't. 3-4 devs will be making a side game that'll take it [development] slow. This team will not take away time, nor devs, from VS because it will be seperate. Do you care to explain how you have come to that conclusion?

[Jortercito]

It seems that many did not understand Tyron's publication, or simply do not have reading comprehension, come on man, if Tyron himself clarifies it "For existing players, rest assured that the aesthetics and mechanics of the Vintage Story game will remain true to its original vision" meaning that the game we know will continue to be updated with the same themes we have seen so far, the separate mode that I like to call "Fantasy Story" will be a separate mode developed by his own team, and if you are worried about running out of money to finance this new project, I ask you, do you really think that Tyron would do things blindly without thinking about such important issues? Do not underestimate the intelligence of the person who started the great game Vintage Story! 

Spoiler

Spoiler

 

 

 

[dakko]

56 minutes ago, Oto Nokyo said:

It's actually a valid argument against the whole charade of why it would benefit Vintage Story. If they plan on using a Hytale Adventure Mode to help improve the combat system and AI then would that mean overhauling Vintage Story combat and it's combat gameplay as a whole? Or will the new Hytale Adventure Mode be ran on the same engine Vintage Story is but just a reskinned modded version? If case one then the entire combat system is being changed to be as cartoonish as it looks in Hytale. If case two then in the time it takes for them to work up to combat in new Adventure Mode they could have sorted out the solution in Vintage Story itself without side-questing into a new project. You were never going to side with the opposition regardless of what arguments are made. 

Let's try starting over with a clean slate.

There is an existing team working on Vintage Story. There is a proposal that 3-4 of the developers from Hytale would be hired on to work on a separate mode that runs on the same engine as Vintage Story. It's going to be packaged with VS initially and may be a standalone in the future.

While these two separate teams are working on their separate things, some aspects of functionality will be common to both (like developing the enemy AI, or NPC interactions or whatever). In that case, the two teams can work in collaboration to solve problems that will benefit both projects.

As for VS becoming like Hytale, Tyron stated "For existing players - rest assured, the aesthetics and game mechanics of Vintage Story will remain true to its original vision."

I sincerely hope this is helpful in relieving some of your concerns. The existing team will continue working as they have been doing, and VS is going to retain the aesthetics and game mechanics that we all love so much.

Edited July 6, 2025 by dakko
typo

[Thorfinn]

I think it's high time people start accepting that there is a VS game and an Anego Engine. The Adventure Mode will have a different "aesthetic" -- it's not going to be the gritty survival palette of VS but something different. And I think people underappreciate Tyron's passing mention of improving the combat of both games. That means improving the engine, and that means he most likely hired a coding-level programmer in addition to the scripting and graphical coders he hired to put together Adventure Mode. That should be thought of as awesome news! If the Adventure team prioritizes combat, that means their guy is going to be doing engine-level work.

And don't underestimate what diverse results one can accomplish with an engine. Valheim is a modded reskinned Gwent is a modded reskinned 7 Days 2 Die is a modded reskinned Cities Skyline is a modded reskinned Subnautica is a modded reskinned Superhot is a modded reskinned My Time at Portia is a modded reskinned... you get the point.

[Thorfinn]

22 minutes ago, Oto Nokyo said:

There's no way to cross improve combat and AI between the two games that will allegedly be different.

That's not the level at which engines work. I don't know what your background is, but think of the engine as establishing a framework, and the game as implementing the specific instance.

[WiseLifelessCorpse]

I think it isn't that bad of an idea to explore new horizons as long as it is done moderately and modestely with a good grasp of what the community wants and the dev team wants; basically, good management and planning of time, money and goals.

Anyway, I would love if this Adventure mode was set during the time of Jonas and the plague. Something like playing as a Blackguard, defending a settlement or protecting a merchant caravan from drifters or beasts. Or even as a villager from an attacked village creating its own path and reaching an honorable position.

Would be very cool to play at the time the lore is set in 

However if we go along the idea of creating new lore content faster than the main game... I think that wouldn't be as great as it creates a bigger and bigger disparity on how the game modes are treated. One of the most enjoyable aspects of VS is, IMO, waiting for a new lore chapter; if the Adventure mode created the (for example) third chapter before the main game, it would disappointing - because each chapter is a massive wave of new content and story locations - and unfair - because of prioritizing the new mode instead of the main one.

Nonetheless, I think it was a great move to announce this new direction and I will be looking forward to it. 

[Mathathian]

I think the pushback comes from how this announcement came out of the blue and the expectations set by the last poll. In this case, polishing and fleshing out pre-existing content, which in my view contains combat and enemy AI.

I think it would be better if the new devs were integrated into the VS team for the moment.

Give them time to adjust, learn, and properly integrate into the team goals and ideals. Not to mention time to adjust to the community and its expectations.

Let them help develop the things mentioned by Tyron, such as combat, improved enemy AI, and better NPCs, together with the main team.

Then, when these points were addressed in the "main" mode, separate the two experiences, making the necessary changes to fit the adventure mode.

I love the fantasy aesthetic and would love to see the adventure mode come true, but it's not what I am expecting to be a priority for the team, and it feels like the attention was split into two different projects (as much as they may overlap).

This feels too early to create two separate workforces that inevitably will need to work together so as not to waste development time. 

I have no issues with more content, just how long it will take and if the content was created primarily for the core VS experience.

Edited July 6, 2025 by Mathathian