Smoke from fire pits and forges, pipes and ventalation

[argeshnex456]

When I think of this idyllic setting in this slightly dystopian or lovecraftian tone with it's small cottages and farmsteads I always imagine signs of life or signs of abandonment.

One of the main signs of activity being a soft trail of smoke rising from a chimney or a smoldering fire pit outside of a campsite 

Conversely one of the most important things to consider in a makeshift survival shelter is ventilation for your fire so you don't smoke yourself out or consume all of your oxygen while sleeping. 

I have played games such as Valheim that work this mechanic in very well and forces you to consider such things and they play a active and vital role in home construction.

I think this would be a fun mechanic to incorporate and add that extra layer of consideration in a build. Weather it be a small window, or a lattice gable at the peak of the roof, or maybe a ceramic pipe leading away from the hood over the forge. 

 

What are your thoughts?

[unknown1true]

I think smoke would be lovely, especially for preservation purposes! I want to build longhouses full of firepits and drying racks to prep my meat for winter.

[hstone32]

I dunno. Seems this game takes a rather abstract approach to determining what counts as an enclosed space or not. The game thinks half of my current shelter is a cave.

[Facethief]

Please, please, PLEASE just necro a topic before you start making more.

That aside, given I’ve seen this suggested before, and recently too, it may be worth adding. However, as I said in the aforementioned other thread, it really shouldn’t be anything more than aesthetic if it isn’t very explicitly stated.

[argeshnex456]

50 minutes ago, Facethief said:

Please, please, PLEASE just necro a topic before you start making more.

That aside, given I’ve seen this suggested before, and recently too, it may be worth adding. However, as I said in the aforementioned other thread, it really shouldn’t be anything more than aesthetic if it isn’t very explicitly stated.

First off, what's necro? XD second off smoke was a key tool in meat preservation so like the before mentioned posts stated it could be used to make meat into jerky (looking at you bushmeat) and smoking herbs brought out additional medicinal properties for primitive civilizations. 

As for the concerns about making a structure sound I think that could be mitigated with crafting pipes or vent blocks that function as walls or they could be items that allow you to modify existing blocks. Later on down the tech tree this could turn into wood burning stoves for house interiors as well (this could also lead off to the idea of boilers for energy but that's a tangent) 

I think the core mechanic is smoke. Detriments of smoke inhalation and ventilation but starting here and working off of it could open a whole world of content including aesthetics.

[argeshnex456]

5 hours ago, hstone32 said:

I dunno. Seems this game takes a rather abstract approach to determining what counts as an enclosed space or not. The game thinks half of my current shelter is a cave.

I don't know the coding on it or anything or how much a pain it would be to implement but I imagine it working a bit like "chiseled" blocks. 

Where you create a vent of one sort or another as an item then you can use that on a existing block like a stone brick or a cobble or a plaster block and then it would be "vented" allowing a pipe to be attached or just allowing smoke from the interior to flow through it as if it was a air block.

[Dilan Rona]

Would be a good mechanic to implement, but for now, we will need to settle for Primitive Survival for smoking food. There are other parts of Vintage Story that needs to be fixed tbh, and that includes the rooms themselves. What we would consider as a room, the game sometimes doesnt recognise as such.

[argeshnex456]

13 minutes ago, Dilan Rona said:

Would be a good mechanic to implement, but for now, we will need to settle for Primitive Survival for smoking food. There are other parts of Vintage Story that needs to be fixed tbh, and that includes the rooms themselves. What we would consider as a room, the game sometimes doesnt recognise as such.

Eh, IDK. I don't think it's the best case to consider something not worth pursuing because other things need to be worked on. I don't see it as a bad thing to keep eyes open for future development opportunities.

Smoking meat and herbs would be great for now but establishing gas physics opens up a whole world of interesting ideas 

[Dilan Rona]

I never said it is not worth pursuing just cause other things need work first. They are still working on the second half of chapter 2 for one, and introduced a new mechanic for healing that has a lot of people fuming regarding the archive boss fight.

And there is still a lot of work to do to polish the content, and fix bugs that they find (as happened with 1.20.x). I'm happy with what I got so far, and whatever content that I need, that the base game doesn't (yet) provide, the mods fill that gap nicely.

[Oak_Goblin]

I've thought of this as well and it is definitely a fitting idea.

As for implementation - ideally, the smoke particles would react dynamically to if there is a ceiling or chimney or open sky above the fire source. If the smoke particles hit a ceiling, they start moving sideways. A seraph standing in that smoke would get damage.

[Facethief]

11 hours ago, argeshnex456 said:

First off, what's necro?

To “necro” a post is to post something in it after a while of no discussion. In all reality, posting on the other thread I linked here wouldn’t even be a necro in this situation; the last discussion was less than a month ago. At least take a look at it; there’s something to be learned.

 

[Facethief]

2 hours ago, Oak_Goblin said:

I've thought of this as well and it is definitely a fitting idea.

As for implementation - ideally, the smoke particles would react dynamically to if there is a ceiling or chimney or open sky above the fire source. If the smoke particles hit a ceiling, they start moving sideways. A seraph standing in that smoke would get damage.

This is a horrible idea for performance, and for people who play on low particle counts. It would require each individual particle to be able to collide with each other individual particle, and because of how particles are done in most games, that means each particle has to be checked against every other particle. I’m sure there’d be some way to optimize that, but that ignores that particles are (probably, I haven’t checked) handled client side, so anyone can just turn off particles and not have to deal with this, regardless of whether or not the server has this enabled.

[Oak_Goblin]

5 hours ago, Facethief said:

This is a horrible idea for performance, and for people who play on low particle counts. It would require each individual particle to be able to collide with each other individual particle, and because of how particles are done in most games, that means each particle has to be checked against every other particle. I’m sure there’d be some way to optimize that, but that ignores that particles are (probably, I haven’t checked) handled client side, so anyone can just turn off particles and not have to deal with this, regardless of whether or not the server has this enabled.

I figured it wasn't practical in terms of actual physics simulation, it would absolutely have to be a simplified mechanic to create the appearance of smoke moving dynamically. Perhaps air blocks could get a "smoke effect" in a certain radius and some conditional rules for how far it spreads.

[Thorfinn]

IMO, this is another suggestion that fails the, "Yes, it would be cool, but would it be fun?" test.

[argeshnex456]

3 hours ago, Thorfinn said:

IMO, this is another suggestion that fails the, "Yes, it would be cool, but would it be fun?" test.

I can appreciate the sentiment but with a game that requires 10 generations of animal husbandry before your pigs don't try and kill you or your chickens running away and other even more tedious elements.... (Looks at my bloody prospecting pic) 

 

One of the best things about this game is the grind and struggle of it and if this could be used for something further down the line (wood burning stoves or steam boiler systems so I can get my steampunk on) those possibilities are the fun things that could spring from something like this I think.

[Thorfinn]

3 hours ago, argeshnex456 said:

I can appreciate the sentiment but with a game that requires 10 generations of animal husbandry before your pigs don't try and kill you or your chickens running away and other even more tedious elements.... (Looks at my bloody prospecting pic) 

Why build with anything other than packed earth? Do you really need the game to punish you into using better materials? Installing windows? Chiseling stuff? Cooking with a wide variety of vegetables, fruits, meats and grains? Eventually maybe even dairy?

 

3 hours ago, argeshnex456 said:

One of the best things about this game is the grind and struggle of it

Wow. A very common complaint is that it is too grindy. Too much effort to make charcoal is very common. Steel being more trouble than it's worth. (True, IMO.) Having to burn flint for fire clay. Collecting sticks and grass for pit kilns. Heck, even having to wait until full Copper Age to build a quern.

 

3 hours ago, argeshnex456 said:

(wood burning stoves or steam boiler systems so I can get my steampunk on)

You and me both. But I'm not understanding how asphyxiating yourself because you forgot to put out the torches in your home way back in the Stone Age is going to help there.

[argeshnex456]

15 minutes ago, Thorfinn said:

Why build with anything other than packed earth? Do you really need the game to punish you into using better materials? Installing windows? Chiseling stuff? Cooking with a wide variety of vegetables, fruits, meats and grains? Eventually maybe even dairy?

 

Wow. A very common complaint is that it is too grindy. Too much effort to make charcoal is very common. Steel being more trouble than it's worth. (True, IMO.) Having to burn flint for fire clay. Collecting sticks and grass for pit kilns. Heck, even having to wait until full Copper Age to build a quern.

 

You and me both. But I'm not understanding how asphyxiating yourself because you forgot to put out the torches in your home way back in the Stone Age is going to help there.

I think that after playing that other game for so long I am a player who finds the grind refreshing. I can make good progress as long as the world isn't populated by drifters in a never ending flood of death. If I wanted easy I would just play Minecraft, but Minecraft does not offer me the substance of this game.

Finding food is hard, farming is hard, hunting and mining are hard, fighting off drifters is hard. 

But not impossibly so. 

When you progress even a little bit it feels like an accomplishment. I like that.

If other people find the game prohibitively difficult there are settings on world generation to fiddle with, all of that thoughtfulness has been provided by the devs already. 

The array of mods the public has made for the game show acknowledgement of the player base on not only what the game is but what it could be.

I live in a rammed earth hut in my solo game and on the server I play in because it's functionally sufficient. But soon, I'll be building a small cliff fortress literally brick by brick with copper trim on the doorframes and I'm so excited for it I can't stand it. 

People like feeling like they accomplished something. It's rare these days. That's sense of accomplishment is elusive too it can't be too easy and it can't be too hard. 

That's just me tho I can't speak for others on that. 

As for the smoke and vents I think its a good first step for gas physics and a easy win that can be experienced even in the stone age that has potential to be expanded on in a way that will be massively interesting and rewarding in late game.

[Thorfinn]

43 minutes ago, argeshnex456 said:

Finding food is hard, farming is hard, hunting and mining are hard, fighting off drifters is hard. 

Get a little more time on the clock, and you will likely decide all these things are too easy, even on the hardest settings the game has. You will be seeking out mods not for QoL reasons, but rather to give the experience of a greater challenge.

I think smoke and gas physics is a perfectly fine idea. Would make a great  mod. For those who want smoke.

Incidentally, at the moment, Primitive Survival is the go-to mod for those who want smoked meat. There used to be a really good mod that did just meat curing. You built a regular room and, I think, just "placed" meat on the ceiling. I don't remember specifics, but seems to me you had to soak the firewood. One of those that fell by the wayside when finding enough food to thrive dropped to trivial.

On 8/6/2025 at 8:55 PM, argeshnex456 said:

Smoking meat and herbs would be great

You crazy kids and your smoking "herbs". Didn't know smoking meat was a thing. How do you get it lit?

[Facethief]

11 hours ago, Thorfinn said:

You crazy kids and your smoking "herbs". Didn't know smoking meat was a thing. How do you get it lit?

“Flax alternative” is the only suggestion that I stand 100% by. Everything else is just 99%.

[LadyWYT]

20 hours ago, Thorfinn said:

IMO, this is another suggestion that fails the, "Yes, it would be cool, but would it be fun?" test.

Yeah I have to agree with Thorfinn here. I didn't enjoy this mechanic at all in Valheim, and I doubt I'd enjoy it here. To be clear, it's not the health drain that bugs me about it...it's the constraints it places on building. There are already building constraints in Vintage Story, but those are also easy to work around--just make the enclosed space a certain size, or build from glass for a greenhouse, and you're done. You can place chimneys, ventilation, and other decorations however you wish to spruce up the space, without worrying about whether your decorations actually have to function. They just have to look good, and that's it! Plenty of room for variety, while also leaving the "basic firepit in a dirt box" available as an option for those who really need/want it.

With a ventilation mechanic though, I don't see it being as easy as punching a hole in the roof/wall and calling it a day. I'm guessing players would need to build chimneys and ventilation shafts to pretty specific specifications, which limits the creative freedom when it comes to designing structures. I suppose you could just make the mechanic a difficulty toggle, however, I'm not a fan of a just making everything a toggle. Modded territory is the best place for this idea, in my opinion, so that those who really want that kind of challenge can have it, while leaving the base game unaffected.

As for smoking meats...Primitive Survival handles that concept very well. Have a smoker block to smoke the meat in; easy to make and use, and won't crater performance to lower-end hardware, as @Facethief mentioned.

[Echo Weaver]

Heh. I'm totally the target audience for this smoke and chimney idea. Clearly it's polarizing . There really is something fundamental about smoke rising from a chimney. I create faux chimneys for my firepits, but that doesn't really fill the need. Some folks want harder and more engaging monster fights. I want richer homesteading (but also reasonably challenging threats. Heh.)

I didn't know about the decorative chimney block, though. I will have to play around with that.

I can't speak to the performance issues around smoke, but it sounds like it would be a real issue. There's already the mist effect for vision reduction, though. Seems like you could do something with that.

(Tangentially, it does really bug me that the mist effect occurs inside my base.)

[Krougal]

I don't think it would be bad, as long as it doesn't tank performance. I don't think it would need to check all the blocks and everything, it could just check against the room.

So if there is no room, then it doesn't even need to be checked. It seems like it always goes right to "it must be a complex and detailed realistic system" to be added to the game, sometimes something simple is more than adequate.

It would also necessitate work on chimneys and other ventilation systems to be any fun.

Valheim did traumatize me, so much so that any new survival game I started playing I was trying to make sure there was ventilation, and my friends are like, "What are you doing? This isn't Valheim."

 

[Echo Weaver]

1 minute ago, Krougal said:

Valheim did traumatize me, so much so that any new survival game I started playing I was trying to make sure there was ventilation, and my friends are like, "What are you doing? This isn't Valheim."

I have never played Valheim. This is making me very curious.

[Krougal]

2 minutes ago, Echo Weaver said:

I have never played Valheim. This is making me very curious.

My friends and I had some fun with it, but it's been shelved like so many others.

They had very rapid early success, and I felt like they got very lazy after that and development slowed to a crawl.

They still haven't finished it.

It also runs like shit.

It's only 20 bucks though, so depending how you feel about throwing 20 bucks away, it may or may not be worth it.

[Thorfinn]

1 hour ago, Echo Weaver said:

Tangentially, it does really bug me that the mist effect occurs inside my base.

But it wouldn't bug you to have the smoke effect occur inside your base?

Even with big honkin' holes in the thatch roof, which is not remotely airtight, the room got smoky enough to drive bugs out, and, I'm sure, contributed to the shorter lifespan of the people. I don't see how it could avoid doing so. And, again, thatched roof, not the much more draft-resistant wood and stone and glass roofs I see all the time in-game.