Vintage Story Fantasy (Adventure Mode)

[LadyWYT]

9 minutes ago, Echo Weaver said:

The other thing that makes me twitchy about user-generated content is the network connection. I certainly don't want a game that requires an internet connection. I go back to Diablo again -- Diablo put up servers that allowed players to connect to each other, either just with friends or with anyone. There are so many ways to share content or participate together.

If it's branching off Vintage Story though, it shouldn't be an issue, least I wouldn't think it would be. Vintage Story already supports opening your worlds to your friends, without the need for a dedicated server or needing to be on a LAN. I don't know how things work on the backend in that regard, but it seems like the concept could be applied to a Hytale-style game.

[Echo Weaver]

2 hours ago, LadyWYT said:

If it's branching off Vintage Story though, it shouldn't be an issue, least I wouldn't think it would be. Vintage Story already supports opening your worlds to your friends, without the need for a dedicated server or needing to be on a LAN. I don't know how things work on the backend in that regard, but it seems like the concept could be applied to a Hytale-style game.

Yeah, I guess I thought of user-generated content as something more than inviting friends to log into your game instance. It sounded like building custom dungeons or quests to share.

[CastIronFabric]

18 hours ago, Echo Weaver said:

Yeah, I guess I thought of user-generated content as something more than inviting friends to log into your game instance. It sounded like building custom dungeons or quests to share.

what do you mean 'to share'? do you mean come into my game and play the same dungeon? or do you mean a blueprint to copy said dungeon into your instance of the game anywhere you want? can you expand on what you mean by the phrase exactly?

[CastIronFabric]

22 hours ago, Scriber36 said:

Please read through my comment, I've went into explaining my take on RPG for your sake, because you've asked. I've literally wrote paragraphs on it, unless I write a complete specification of a game, I cannot make it much less abstract. If everyone has a slightly different concrete image about the game after reading my ideas, that's completely okay. This is the conceptualization phase, not specification making.

Of course, you do you. If you get familiar with Hytale, you will know which ideas are from it. I've just followed YT videos and Blog posts and have my idea of Hytale from there. But as I've mentioned, being high-fantasy, the owned worlds with easy player invite, procedurally generated content, dungeons with reward treasure, dungeon portals, species colonies/interactions and player-made adventure editing with much modding capabilities are the core concepts borrowed from Hytale. Progression system and NPC companions are not.

I hope I've provided all answers/info you missed. Have a nice day!

1. I do not think the phrase 'RPG elements' is so well universally understood to mean certain specific features and not other features at a level where  a person would understand EXACTLY what features you are refering to specifically. I also do not think you personally hold the concrete well understood definition of exactly what those features are.

2. Just to be clear and simple, I am saying I think all the features you mentioned in the section of your large post I listed where never mentioned or hinted in in Hytale. Am I incorrect?

ADDED: according to AI, A 'RPG' does not have to have a skill system, quest system, lore, story, or various 'species' of 'races'

Edited July 17, 2025 by CastIronFabric

[Scriber36]

3 minutes ago, CastIronFabric said:

1. I do not think the phrase 'RPG elements' is so well universally understood to mean certain specific features and not other features at a level where  a person would understand EXACTLY what features you are refering to specifically. I also do not think you personally hold the concrete well understood definition of exactly what those features are.

2. Just to be clear and simple, I am saying I think all the features you mentioned in the section of your large post I listed where never mentioned or hinted in in Hytale. Am I incorrect?

As of 1, whatever constitudes to RPG is irrelevant to this thread. I've specifically gave you a definition regarding my post, but it's pointless to hunt for a precise universal definition. Go Google it. Being RPG has evolved over time in gaming, and today people think of many features initially was not part of its definition. Maybe think of table-top RPGs and you will get close to what I mean by RPG. But again, pinpointing it here is pointless.

As of 2, you are incorrect. I specifically mentioned which ones are from Hytale. Go and read the Hytale blogposts, I won't offer you citations for everything for no reason. As @Echo Weaver said, it's not even important which ideas are from Hytale and which are not. If you don't know Hytale, why do you care? And if you were to know Hytale, you would not ask. If you are interested in it and even reject my direct answers to you, then don't be lazy, go get familiar with Hytale yourself. This thread is not about what Hytale was specified and advertized as.

I don't want to seem unkind, but this conversation adds no value here anymore. Stop policing around. I've already mentioned there is nothing wrong with having ideas not universally understood in every detail. We just conceptualize here. Again, if someone is curious how I imagined certain aspects, can ask. Please accept this and move on from demanding explanations already given. Thank you.

[CastIronFabric]

8 minutes ago, Scriber36 said:

As of 1, whatever constitudes to RPG is irrelevant to this thread. I've specifically gave you a definition regarding my post, but it's pointless to hunt for a precise universal definition. Go Google it. Being RPG has evolved over time in gaming, and today people think of many features initially was not part of its definition. Maybe think of table-top RPGs and you will get close to what I mean by RPG. But again, pinpointing it here is pointless.

As of 2, you are incorrect. I specifically mentioned which ones are from Hytale. Go and read the Hytale blogposts, I won't offer you citations for everything for no reason. As @Echo Weaver said, it's not even important which ideas are from Hytale and which are not. If you don't know Hytale, why do you care? And if you were to know Hytale, you would not ask. If you are interested in it and even reject my direct answers to you, then don't be lazy, go get familiar with Hytale yourself. This thread is not about what Hytale was specified and advertized as.

I don't want to seem unkind, but this conversation adds no value here anymore. Stop policing around. I've already mentioned there is nothing wrong with having ideas not universally understood in every detail. We just conceptualize here. Again, if someone is curious how I imagined certain aspects, can ask. Please accept this and move on from demanding explanations already given. Thank you.

just as a side note because I am not engaging anymore in this conversation. 

 

I asked AI 'what  does RPG elements mean' and the answer is actually kinda funny, here it is:

'These elements often involve character progression, customization, and strategic decision-making, but can be incorporated into other genres like action, adventure, or even puzzle games'

which in other words means, pretty much elements found in almost every single game ever where the player is a 'character' and is SUPER vauge. Even Call of Duty fits those parameters

Anyway, I am out again..later

Edited July 17, 2025 by CastIronFabric

[Ironfeast]

Setting idea: what if the adventure mode took place in the same world but at a different time period? I was thinking some time in the past. To me, the ruins layer in VS has felt a bit empty. I know some of them have to do with story, but what about the rest of the smaller ones? It's clear that there was once a living and dynamic world previously, and maybe Adventure mode can help fill that out.

That still leaves plenty of creative room to expand with various fantasy races, locations, mechanics, etc that is very different from the current time period but also the opportunity to tie some world-building back to the base game. It also has the advantage of being able to pass work such as concepts and assets on to other game modes. Maybe there used to be a dragon-like creature? You can find it's bones. A small village has a master smith for weapon upgrades? You can find a masterwork weapon in the ruins. You interact with an elf-like race who lives in the jungle? You can find their ruins (and stuff) in jungle biomes.

I like the idea of being able to explore an active and vibrant world in one mode, while giving context to lore in a later time period.

[LadyWYT]

20 hours ago, Echo Weaver said:

Yeah, I guess I thought of user-generated content as something more than inviting friends to log into your game instance. It sounded like building custom dungeons or quests to share.

Like the Steam Workshop, or even Vintage Story's own mod database? That's usually the easiest way to handle user-generated content, I think. Very mild spoilers here, but the original Subnautica had community content in the game itself, in the form of time capsules. If you beat the game, you got to create a capsule with your own custom message, a screenshot/picture, and whatever items you chose to put in it(within a certain limit). Before it could be added to the time capsule loot tables though, it'd be put to a community vote. Granted, I think they've stopped adding capsules, but it was a cool idea.

 

4 minutes ago, Ironfeast said:

Setting idea: what if the adventure mode took place in the same world but at a different time period? I was thinking some time in the past. To me, the ruins layer in VS has felt a bit empty. I know some of them have to do with story, but what about the rest of the smaller ones? It's clear that there was once a living and dynamic world previously, and maybe Adventure mode can help fill that out.

That still leaves plenty of creative room to expand with various fantasy races, locations, mechanics, etc that is very different from the current time period but also the opportunity to tie some world-building back to the base game. It also has the advantage of being able to pass work such as concepts and assets on to other game modes. Maybe there used to be a dragon-like creature? You can find it's bones. A small village has a master smith for weapon upgrades? You can find a masterwork weapon in the ruins. You interact with an elf-like race who lives in the jungle? You can find their ruins (and stuff) in jungle biomes.

I like the idea of being able to explore an active and vibrant world in one mode, while giving context to lore in a later time period.

Welcome to the forums! It's an interesting idea, but I think an Adventure Mode is better suited for a fantasy setting, and not the one we currently have. Vintage Story has a great setting, but it takes place in the real world, around the late Middle Ages(sometime between 1200 and 1400, to be more precise). Of course, due to certain cataclysmic events, the world as we know it has been scrambled and there are now eldritch abominations running rampant everywhere...but anyway...

A new fantasy setting is going to give a lot more creative freedom than just setting the new mode in VS's past. That's not to say that VS's past couldn't be a more fantastical version of ours, with wizards and dragons and whatnot, but that's not really the vibe that VS goes for. Aside from the backdrop of eldritch horror and steampunk motifs, most things in the game are heavily rooted in realism.

[Moltrey]

All this conjecture makes my head ache. I think I will just wait for whatever this small group decides to do and then make a judgement call on playing it or not.

[Echo Weaver]

30 minutes ago, Moltrey said:

All this conjecture makes my head ache. I think I will just wait for whatever this small group decides to do and then make a judgement call on playing it or not.

We're not a focus group. We're just excited fans. I hope the devs will see some of our brainstorming, but no guarantee that anything we say will happen.

[Echo Weaver]

47 minutes ago, Ironfeast said:

Setting idea: what if the adventure mode took place in the same world but at a different time period? I was thinking some time in the past. To me, the ruins layer in VS has felt a bit empty. I know some of them have to do with story, but what about the rest of the smaller ones? It's clear that there was once a living and dynamic world previously, and maybe Adventure mode can help fill that out.

That still leaves plenty of creative room to expand with various fantasy races, locations, mechanics, etc that is very different from the current time period but also the opportunity to tie some world-building back to the base game. It also has the advantage of being able to pass work such as concepts and assets on to other game modes. Maybe there used to be a dragon-like creature? You can find it's bones. A small village has a master smith for weapon upgrades? You can find a masterwork weapon in the ruins. You interact with an elf-like race who lives in the jungle? You can find their ruins (and stuff) in jungle biomes.

I like the idea of being able to explore an active and vibrant world in one mode, while giving context to lore in a later time period.

I love this idea, but as @LadyWYT indicated, it's probably not compatible with lore. I breezed over the rest of what she said so as not to spoil myself until I play the plot. Gotta get on that.

[Echo Weaver]

45 minutes ago, LadyWYT said:

Like the Steam Workshop, or even Vintage Story's own mod database? That's usually the easiest way to handle user-generated content, I think.

I don't actually know what Steam Workshop is. I suppose the mod system could be built out to include player-created maps. I know Minecraft Bedrock does something like this.

What @Scriber36's comments brought to my mind was something more like games with user-published levels. Players in one game can access dungeons published by other users, then return to their original game with all the loot and power-ups or whatnot.

Edited July 17, 2025 by Echo Weaver

[Enjen]

32 minutes ago, Echo Weaver said:

I don't actually know what Steam Workshop is. I suppose the mod system could be built out to include player-created maps. I know Minecraft Bedrock does something like this.

What @Scriber36's comments brought to my mind was something more like games with user-published levels. Players in one game can access dungeons published by other users, then return to their original game with all the loot and power-ups or whatnot.

Oooo like Little Big Planet hahaha (I don't know if anyone here is familiar)

Edited July 17, 2025 by Enjen

[LadyWYT]

38 minutes ago, Echo Weaver said:

I don't actually know what Steam Workshop is.

It doesn't exist for every game, but it's essentially a hub for players to upload mods and blueprints for various games. Like, if one wanted to mod Skyrim, they can go to the workshop page and subscribe to the mods they like, and Steam installs those mods for them. Planet Zoo utilizes the workshop to let players upload their build blueprints, so that other players can download them and use the schematic in their own worlds.

Essentially, it's Steam's version of an official mod database, I think, but it covers more than just mods.

[Echo Weaver]

41 minutes ago, Enjen said:

Oooo like Little Big Planet hahaha (I don't know if anyone here is familiar)

That's actually one of the names I was trying to think of. I haven't actually played it -- I read a lot more video game reviews than I actually play games. I'm always searching for a good couch co-op or LAN experience because my family is all hard-core gamers who hate fighting with each other .

Have you played it much? How are user-generated levels handled? What do you think the user content adds to the game?

ETA: Actually I should rephrase that to, "I read reviews for a lot more games than I play." I play a lot. I just like to target a game that's exactly what I want and then play the heck out of it. So I read a lot of reviews to elevate the ones I might actually play.

Edited July 17, 2025 by Echo Weaver

[Enjen]

6 minutes ago, Echo Weaver said:

Have you played it much? How are user-generated levels handled? What do you think the user content adds to the game?

Oh my god you have no clue! For years my siblings and I enjoyed Little Big Planet 1 - 3! It was the highlight of our childhood gaming lives hahahaha

Unfortunately, user-created levels were hard to regulate. We got a lot of Duplicate levels (Levels were able to be copied and modified) so by the end of the games life, there was just a bunch of spam for levels of the exact same content. I think the way levels were organized was very cool, creative and smooth! But, y'know any time a community has power, there will be spammers  we all know how the internet can be.

The tools available for level creation just got better and better with each iteration of the game. Truly a masterpiece. I was sad to see it go. The best time for it's User-Levels I have to say was LBP2 in my experience.

[CastIronFabric]

20 hours ago, Echo Weaver said:

I don't actually know what Steam Workshop is. I suppose the mod system could be built out to include player-created maps. I know Minecraft Bedrock does something like this.

What @Scriber36's comments brought to my mind was something more like games with user-published levels. Players in one game can access dungeons published by other users, then return to their original game with all the loot and power-ups or whatnot.

'Player created maps' assuming that means the world itself and not just an image of literally the map of explored areas in another persons world would be the save file and that would be on average 10gb in size. Additionally one would not really need a high end 'mod' for that specifically. Just a simple way to share files. 

[Echo Weaver]

20 hours ago, Enjen said:

Oh my god you have no clue! For years my siblings and I enjoyed Little Big Planet 1 - 3! It was the highlight of our childhood gaming lives hahahaha

Unfortunately, user-created levels were hard to regulate. We got a lot of Duplicate levels (Levels were able to be copied and modified) so by the end of the games life, there was just a bunch of spam for levels of the exact same content. I think the way levels were organized was very cool, creative and smooth! But, y'know any time a community has power, there will be spammers  we all know how the internet can be.

The tools available for level creation just got better and better with each iteration of the game. Truly a masterpiece. I was sad to see it go. The best time for it's User-Levels I have to say was LBP2 in my experience.

That sounds awesome.

That highlights the great and the awful about user-generated content. I think Roblox is big-budget example. My daughter unearthed some absolutely brilliant games there, but with real money involved, the vast majority of available content is either crap or actively exploitative. That's an extreme case, but in the case of non-monetized user content, it still seems that without some kind of quality moderation, you will end up sifting through mountains of crap. The truly brilliant contributions get suffocated.

This is somewhat helped by rating systems and download counts, but that highlights very specific broad-appeal stuff and still makes a lot of truly original content hard to find.

This sure makes me sound like a grumpy grumpface, but really I'm just poking around at the problem and wondering if there are innovative ways to improve the situations. Formal modding and modding databases DO have much higher confidence quality, but contributions to the VS mod database count in the dozens, and I'm pretty sure there's human involvement. With something like user-generated game levels, contributions are likely in the thousands, and any kind of human moderation gets incredibly difficulty and time-consuming.

[Scriber36]

2 hours ago, CastIronFabric said:

'Player created maps' assuming that means the world itself and not just an image of literally the map of explored areas in another persons world would be the save file and that would be on average 10gb in size. Additionally one would not really need a high end 'mod' for that specifically. Just a simple way to share files. 

I was thinking more of a rather limited area of the map being shared. Maybe letting the client(s) procedurally generate the surrounding area if a natural environment is needed. Having a floating island castle dungeon or generating the rest of the world procedurally would take a few MB in size to download, I assume.

What would need a high end mod is what @Echo Weaver mentioned about this: to make it easily accessible to players without manual file sharing (e.g. ingame catalog/portal to access the dungeons) and to connect worlds oganically; so I can find a badass dungeon, invite you, you join me, we beat the dungeon and return to our worlds with the reward/treasure obtained in the dungeon. Without an explicit support for this, it would take much effort to set up this session for us and it wouldn't feel part of the world. The mod would give continuality, using your already existing character, doing everything within the running game from selecting the dungeon to finishing it.

Or if we use such organic portals from personal world, we could build portals to connect our worlds. You could enter my world anytime through that portal when I'm also playing that world of mine. That'd be quite cool imo.

[Scriber36]

1 hour ago, Echo Weaver said:

That sounds awesome.

That highlights the great and the awful about user-generated content. I think Roblox is big-budget example. My daughter unearthed some absolutely brilliant games there, but with real money involved, the vast majority of available content is either crap or actively exploitative. That's an extreme case, but in the case of non-monetized user content, it still seems that without some kind of quality moderation, you will end up sifting through mountains of crap. The truly brilliant contributions get suffocated.

This is somewhat helped by rating systems and download counts, but that highlights very specific broad-appeal stuff and still makes a lot of truly original content hard to find.

This sure makes me sound like a grumpy grumpface, but really I'm just poking around at the problem and wondering if there are innovative ways to improve the situations. Formal modding and modding databases DO have much higher confidence quality, but contributions to the VS mod database count in the dozens, and I'm pretty sure there's human involvement. With something like user-generated game levels, contributions are likely in the thousands, and any kind of human moderation gets incredibly difficulty and time-consuming.

One thing coming to mind is organizing community competitions with clear goal and rewards to steer the creativity and keep it colorful and fresh. E.g. "make the best story map about being a castaway" or "enter a gothic castle to rescue someone abducted by the forces of evil" etc. Then community would nominate their works, and would also vote on maps within that category. Like game of the year competitions and community game awards on Steam, determined through voting. Ingame rewards would motivate players to create maps and maybe also get rewards for casting votes.

Talking about Steam and truly brilliant contributions... on Steam there are users doing professional reviews suggesting games. They go by the name of curators maybe? I guess they are volunteers too.

Making categories for players to search by would also give more space and prevent popular maps to overtake everything. The "mountains of crap" issue would need attention indeed.

Maybe dungeons could be verified by a moderator team from volunteering fans, and until verification, they can be found, but would clealy be indicated as unverified, and hence everyone would know it's by high chance just crap; and most player would browse only the verified maps/dungons by default.

But maybe this starts to feel a bit too much of a hussle? Does not Minecraft have something like this for its Bedrock Edition, an ingame shop of maps?

 

TL;DR: Have user-made content built-in categories and competitions with voting? Maybe volunteers to verify submitted maps, or curators doing professional reviews finding and highlighing gems?

Edited July 18, 2025 by Scriber36
fix typo + added some further clarification

[Cattastrafy]

It's probably been said, but I hope we have a solid "learn by doing" skill system in AM!

[CastIronFabric]

2 hours ago, Scriber36 said:

I was thinking more of a rather limited area of the map being shared. Maybe letting the client(s) procedurally generate the surrounding area if a natural environment is needed. Having a floating island castle dungeon or generating the rest of the world procedurally would take a few MB in size to download, I assume.

What would need a high end mod is what @Echo Weaver mentioned about this: to make it easily accessible to players without manual file sharing (e.g. ingame catalog/portal to access the dungeons) and to connect worlds oganically; so I can find a badass dungeon, invite you, you join me, we beat the dungeon and return to our worlds with the reward/treasure obtained in the dungeon. Without an explicit support for this, it would take much effort to set up this session for us and it wouldn't feel part of the world. The mod would give continuality, using your already existing character, doing everything within the running game from selecting the dungeon to finishing it.

Or if we use such organic portals from personal world, we could build portals to connect our worlds. You could enter my world anytime through that portal when I'm also playing that world of mine. That'd be quite cool imo.

so share 'chunks' basically.

I actually think that is technically possible. Understand that the player would not be able to leave that 'chunk'. Also, just for those who are unaware, the maps have seeds. So a player could play the same world as long as its untouched.

Personally what I think is a better idea is simple building blueprints that player made buildings can be shared. Exactly like Space Engineers does.

Edited July 18, 2025 by CastIronFabric

[Echo Weaver]

2 hours ago, Scriber36 said:

TL;DR: Have user-made content built-in categories and competitions with voting? Maybe volunteers to verify submitted maps, or curators doing professional reviews finding and highlighing gems?

I didn't know about any of this, and they all sound like great ways to deal with the deluge of user-created crap with a few huge diamonds.

I have seen what monetized user-created content can do to a fan community, and I am solidly against. Content should be generated only out of love for the game, full stop. Does Bedrock's shop sell user-created content, or do their staff do it?

[Echo Weaver]

2 minutes ago, CastIronFabric said:

Personally what I think is a better idea is simple building blueprints that player made buildings can be shared. Exactly like Space Engineers does.

If one could share a house blueprint, it stands to reason that one could share a dungeon blueprint, and not a big stretch to share a blueprint that spawns vanilla monsters.

Perhaps a blueprint could be dropped into an existing landscape and replace an admin-specified region of the landscape.

This seems more practical than the Hytale-promoted concept of having portals to regions on other game instances.

[CastIronFabric]

4 minutes ago, Echo Weaver said:

If one could share a house blueprint, it stands to reason that one could share a dungeon blueprint, and not a big stretch to share a blueprint that spawns vanilla monsters.

Perhaps a blueprint could be dropped into an existing landscape and replace an admin-specified region of the landscape.

This seems more practical than the Hytale-promoted concept of having portals to regions on other game instances.

Oh I am not disagreeing with you on the technical at all.

To be clear when you say 'dungeon blueprint' I assume you are talking about something that the game generates not something the player created.

and yes, I think that would be technically possible but I personally would not be interested in that but I would be interested in plopping down a players build just like Space Engineers does which is what I was saying. I personally am just not to much into dungeon crawling.