Survival or bureaucracy? New player struggling to find the fun in Vintage Story - am I missing something?

[LadyWYT]

1 hour ago, Gisbert said:

I haven't even seen any clay yet, but first I don't know what to eat.

It doesn't really matter what you eat, so long as you're eating enough to stay alive. If you have a choice of foods, you can hit C to bring up your character information window, and check your nutrition. If possible, eat foods that will fill up meters that are lower(though you can ignore dairy until later, as that one isn't achievable in the early game).

Clay you will want to search for either in grassland areas, or near water. It won't spawn in deserts(sand/gravel dominant with low rainfall), and will be difficult to see in forests if it spawns there. Once you have clay, you'll be able to make a cookpot, crocks, and bowls, which will allow you to make proper meals that are more filling than basic foodstuffs.

1 hour ago, Gisbert said:

Okay, I now have a map, but doesn't make any difference at first glance.

Pressing the M key will bring up the full map view; in this window you can right-click a spot on the map to place markers. It's a good idea to place markers whenever you run across something interesting, or that you think might be useful later.

 

1 hour ago, Gisbert said:

I spent the first hour trying to find anything at all because I spawned in the middle of this rocky desert.
I organazied the spawn bed mod before, just in case for less frustration if I die and to skip nights while searching a place.

I found some berry bushes and mushrooms along the way, made a few tools, got some wood, and, most importantly this time, an inventory.
I had to walk very far to get to water.

I managed to catch two fish, but everything till this point was so incredibly tedious. It took me an hour and it feels like I haven't achieved anything yet -> nothing. It feels devastating. I don't feel rewarded for something I did. No more food, and now it's night again (skipping will cost food again) and somehow I don't know how to proceed. There are barely animals far and wide. Okay, I saw two groundhogs, but somehow I can't hit them with the spear. They are fast. The fish filled my hunger bar less than mushrooms. I consume more than I harvest (see attached)

It seems like you're off to a decent start here. Yes, it's a bit tedious at times, but we've all been there, and it gets easier as you become more experienced at figuring out what to do. Aside from keeping yourself fed and looking for clay, keep an eye out for bits of copper on the ground, as these will come in handy later. You don't need to pick them up until you're ready to use them, or otherwise have a place to store them(they can be stored on the ground in addition to storage containers). However, you'll want to visit those locations later since bits of ore on the surface indicate there's a deposit of that ore underneath. Once you've found clay, you'll be able to make a crucible and various molds that will allow you to start metalworking. A pickaxe and a hammer will be your first priority in that regard--the pickaxe will let you dig up rocks and ore, but you'll need the hammer in order to process the ore into smeltable bits.

[OBAMFSpike]

1 hour ago, Gisbert said:

I've reached a point again where I don't know how to proceed.

Okay it does get a bit overwhelming but just stick to the concept of storage and food. Every cattail you come across is one of two things, food or storage. One reed basket two blocks deep with a block of dirt sealing the hole counts as a cellar and works wonders on preservation. Half of the cattails you consume and the other half you plant. These you harvest when grown every time to expand storage and can also be harvested in a pinch to stave off hunger. 

Berry Bushes. Every. Single. One. Of. Them. Should be planted back at your base. And collect sticks for a wattle fence as a perimeter big enough to keep your farm lands safe from raccoons and pigs and chickens and rabbits and no oh my. 

Im just shy of three hundred hours and have just gotten into the Iron Age. Which is a fresh breath of durability. Just wait until you get into the copper age and consumption hits you broadside. XD

[OBAMFSpike]

32 minutes ago, LadyWYT said:

you'll need the hammer in order to process the ore into smeltable bits.

I was able to get into the copper age just panning sands and gravels, though this took a winter or two locked up in a cobbled shed freezing my blocked butt off learning about temporal storms. XD

Come to think of it, I even managed tin bronze but believe this was possible from panning bony soil. Anyways, the pan opens up a lot for the game in my opinion. Love how the temporal gears can be inventoried in the off hand and when the inventory is full and panning must commence its like winning the lottery when a green gear shows up in your hand. 

[Gisbert]

32 minutes ago, LadyWYT said:

Pressing the M key will bring up the full map view; in this window you can right-click a spot on the map to place markers. It's a good idea to place markers whenever you run across something interesting, or that you think might be useful later.

Yeah, I will start marking things when I once I have my basic needs somewhat under control and maybe a small shelter from which I can routinely explore.

This time I can't find any reeds to make inventory to proceed...
Admittedly, there are at least some berry bushes here. Finally!
But also many wolves.

I mean, I'm not deliberately acting stupid. I've just outplayed several wolves and am really trying to find my stuff.

Can mushrooms be cooked over the fire pit?
Can bags be made from something other than reed?
If not, what do I do when night falls?

[LadyWYT]

23 minutes ago, Gisbert said:

Are consumable that rare? Are you hunting every animal you came across? Or are you skipping some food completely?
What you guys eat the first hours? What can you collect that doesn't cost you more to find it than it fills afterwards?

Edibles aren't that rare(except in deserts), but if you're not familiar with what's edible you're probably missing a lot of things that could be foraged for food. As someone else noted earlier, cattails and tule are a good source of emergency food, since you can cook the roots. To get the roots, you will need to dig up the plant with a knife after harvesting--bare hands won't work here, as that will destroy the roots.

Berries are another good early food source--there are no poisonous ones, and you can mark large berry patches on your map so you can return later and harvest any that have ripened. You also get a handful of berries per bush.

Mushrooms are fairly easy to forage, and are most commonly found in forests, or in grassland with good rainfall. You don't need anything special to harvest these, but they only drop one mushroom per harvest, and some are poisonous. Before you eat it, check the handbook to make sure it's good to eat--a quick way to check is to target the mushroom in your crosshair and press shift + H to bring up the appropriate handbook entry.

Fish generally aren't worth harvesting, unless there are several in a pond that are easy to catch. There's not yet a good fishing system in place, so you'll probably spend more energy catching them than you'll get from eating them.

Hunting is probably the most reliable method of keeping yourself fed early in the game, since meat is filling when cooked and animals are fairly quick to respawn(depending on the creature type). Rabbits and chickens are easy to find, and very safe to hunt since they're easy to kill and don't fight back(roosters will fight, but do negligible damage if they even get the chance to fight back). Foxes and raccoons are also pretty easy to hunt and drop meat, as well as have a chance to drop fat, which is filling in an emergency and doesn't spoil or need cooking. Foxes will fight back though if you hurt them, so be prepared. Boar are probably the best overall hunting target, though they can be dangerous since they will fight back and will do decent damage. They're safer and easier to hunt than larger creatures though, and they drop a decent amount of meat, hides, and fat for the effort.

When hunting, you'll want to make a few spears and throw them instead of stab. Spears do much more damage at range than they do in melee, though it does require good aim. Make sure you're accounting for gravity(aim higher to throw farther), and release the shot when the square rectangle is touching the crosshairs(ie, release when the square is smaller for more accuracy). You can make a set of improvised armor to help soak up hits(it won't make you a tank but it might keep you alive), and crafting horsetail poultices will allow you to heal damage sustained. Also keep in mind that holding Ctrl while moving will allow you to sprint, which can help you chase down prey or kite enemies.

Just now, Gisbert said:

I mean, I'm not deliberately acting stupid. I've just outplayed several wolves and am really trying to find my stuff.

Can mushrooms be cooked over the fire pit?
Can bags be made from something other than reed?
If not, what do I do when night falls?

Mushrooms can be cooked in a cookpot when making meals, but otherwise can't be cooked. Which, they don't need cooking, but do make sure it's an edible shroom first. 

For inventory, there are other bag types available than reeds, but the first bag options you have(handbasket and hunter's backpack) both require reeds to construct. Keep looking around water for reeds, if you don't see any near spawn--they generally aren't too hard to find somewhere within walking distance. Until you have handbaskets, consider marking a temporary base, and store things on the ground as needed.

If night falls, find somewhere to hole up for the night, or make a torch and continue exploring/working if you're feeling brave. You can craft a hay bed from 24 grass(3 hay bales, 8 grass per bale) and sleep through the night, but that will cost you some hunger, so you may or may not opt to do that. If you are playing with lore content disabled, you don't need to worry about monster spawns at all, so finding a hiding spot isn't necessary for survival. Just keep an eye and ear out for wolves and bears; wolves like to howl, but bears are often quite sneaky.

Also, as a side note--if you find yourself getting frustrated, I recommend taking a break from the game and doing something else for a bit to unwind. Vintage Story is a very meaty game, with a very steep learning curve, and pretty much everyone who's played it has been frustrated in similar fashions when learning to play. In my case, I chewed through several worlds and ending up turning down a handful of difficulty settings when I was learning to play, and then added the difficulty back in as I got better at the game. In any case, taking a break will help clear your mind, and you might think of things to try that weren't coming to mind before.

[ifoz]

9 hours ago, Gisbert said:

That's interesting, because logically speaking, you have fewer “challenges” in homo sapiens mode?
I thought I was already playing in easy/chill mode with this preset.

Honestly I think the hardest part of homo sapiens is the super high respawn radius, meaning one death and you're back to square zero. This is tough even in wilderness survival mode, though there you can set spawn - a feature usually locked behind lore content unless you use mods.

I've played wilderness before, had to beeline to a treasure hunter and buy a temporal gear just so I wouldn't be getting thrown back to the stone age on every death. 

Standard mode has a respawn radius of 50, so if you die you aren't starting over from scratch.

Edited August 29, 2025 by ifoz

[Koobze]

I think there are some good posts on the forum outlining some "normal first steps" - I actually find the initial phase of the game to be the most fun. I usually play on the Exploration setting and tweak it further to increase my health, decrease hunger, increase food/tool durability etc. Depending on the map you get it can be quite difficult to start, but basically my usual process is:

1. Spawn in and start running south - I like to settle in a warmer climate, ideally near a lake or on a mountain with a cool view, but mostly I just want to explore.
2. Make a knife and a spear, and later maybe a shovel and axe but it can wait.
3. Keep running south for a few days! At night I slow down since it's hard to see and I don't have a torch yet, and if it's too dark I might make a small dirt hut with a bed to sleep through the night.
4. While running, grab all of the berries and other growing foods. It can be hard to spot - I use one of the zoom mods so my character can 'squint' to see farther which helps to pick out the actual veggies growing, usually they are a brighter green. I usually find it easy to survive many days on just berries.
5. While running, check the map occasionally and pick routes that are free of hills and ideally not dense forest (full of wolves/bears), and aim for small lakes so you can find reeds and make some hand-baskets for more inventory space.
6. While running, if you spot ruins, run over and have a quick look - they often have storage vessels that may have useful tools, food, seeds etc.

At some point I'll find a nice location that I could see myself living in. Sometimes it's a hill with a nice view, sometimes it's a peninsula where I can picture a nice dock, sometimes it's a little valley surrounded by hills that could become an enclosed ranch. 

At that point I'll shift more to building a house - which usually starts as just rammed dirt, or maybe some wood, but either way it's usually a single big room. I've usually picked up some loose copper bits, seeds, reeds, and clay, so I make some reed baskets to store that at my base, make a fireplace and bed, and start on a charcoal pit and doing some clayforming for storage vessels, molds, and a crucible. Some days I'll just be busy all day preparing stuff, some days I get tired of that and do some runs in a random direction, looking for berries/veg, ores, clay, wood etc - but usually food isn't a big problem since there are often berry bushes all around (and my settings mean I don't need as much food in general). Once you have a cooking pot it also gets a lot easier, just dump some grains and fruit/veg into the pot on a fireplace and (with a clay bowl) grab a portion whenever you head out, it's filling and feeds you for a few days no problem.

I have started many many games by now, and some end very sad - run into a wolf, manage to kill it, then immediately run into another one. Run during the night and fall in a hole and die. Run during the day and fall in a hole and die. Walk slowly during the day and get surprised by an animal, jump in a hole, and die. Sometimes that's enough to take a break, or decide to start a new world... but over time you should get a hang of what to look for and what order you need to do things to survive, and if you find yourself struggling with something (like food) you can always start a new world with the same seed and mostly the same settings, just changing something relevant to the previous problem (make food last longer, make your character get hungry slower) and give it another go with the added benefit of already knowing the lay of the land.

[Irulana]

Funny thing valheim give me more much frustration, I need to google so much stuff, it doesn't make sense to me, dying so often.Before playing VS i watched some plays.

Few food tips how I do early game:

• Move too green flat area.
• Collect berries from bushes then cut then and take them with you, leave flowering or empty for later. Plant bushes around base
• collect all the seed to start early farm, turnip grows fast
• hunt animals, sometimes they fight back so have few spears
• small ponds are nice to catch easy fish
• forests have mushrooms just check stat if they edible
• if you have not other foot you can roast cattails roots
• if you have clay make pot and bowl as cooked food satisfy hunger better

 

[sukasaroth]

I'm a huge believer in turning on "color accurate map" in the world settings for newer players. This way you can see the differences in the terrain and help you find clay, peat, meteors much easier without making it too easy. 

 

Best of luck to you. 

Edited August 29, 2025 by sukasaroth
Typo

[lifewater]

VS is definitely not for everyone.  Early game can feel oppressive where as Valheim is feels very "free".  VS always makes me feel like I'm on a time crunch at the start.  The first 20-30 hours of gameplay feels more like a race against time then anything else.  Its definitely more on the punishing side.

Some things you can do to ease up on that is possibly changing hunger rates down to 50%, this makes the pressure for solving food issues easier.  You can install mods like Faster Breeding to get animal husbandry going quicker, along with Animalfeed to make it easier to feed them.  Once you solve the food issue the game really opens up, but unfortunately for me that takes a full in game year to do (im not a very good gamer)

Edited August 29, 2025 by lifewater

[Teh Pizza Lady]

Bear in mind that Homo Sapiens was not the intended difficulty setting of the game. The game, its systems, its mechanics, etc were all developed and balanced around Standard gameplay. A lot of players have given you a lot of tips here. But with all of this in mind, I took to the wiki to see if there was something I had truly missed.

Quote

 

Playing in Homo Sapiens mode removes the following features, entities and items from the game:

• Traders
• Ruins
• Drifters
• Shivers
• Locusts
• Bells
• Bony soil
• Cracked vessels

-- https://wiki.vintagestory.at/Homo_Sapiens

So you don't have to worry about drifters, shivers, locusts or bells. But you are also missing out on traders, ruins, bony soil and cracked vessels. These features are where a vast majority of us are getting our early-game items. I have built entire trading routes to get stuff I was missing (halite for salt, anyone?) or too lazy to find or craft (shovel from a tool vessel, heh...)

And referring to something another user said about Valheim, would you still enjoy it if you weren't greeted by Hugin for every major achievement in the game? Would you still enjoy it if you didn't have the random Odin sightings? What if they removed the Graylings, Draugr, Trolls, etc from the game so there were no hostile mobs to fight off? Would you still think the game was fun? Would you still feel immersed? The Lore of the game may not be important to you, but it does more than you think.

I started off not really caring about Vintage Story. My friend got it for me for Christmas one year. I didn't really care to play it but I figured I might as well give it a try since she went to all that effort to give me a game when she didn't know if I would enjoy it or not. I was, at the time, in a Minecraft slump. Mining and crafting were BORING to me. I was struggling to find purpose in the other block game. Then I tried Vintage Story... I hated it.... at first. I nearly starved to death because I didn't know anything about the game, huddled around my campfire, praying that I would build a decent shelter in that 5-day grace period before the drifters started spawning. I didn't make it.

Fast forward several months, I am still pretty new to things in the game. I still struggle a lot, running out of sticks or not having the thing that I need that I told myself to make "just in case" and then said, "Nah, I won't need it." (which you have to admit, it's pretty funny staring at the corpse of the goat you just chased down and killed and realizing you don't have a knife or the flint to make one). But now I love this game and I actually want to play it when I'm not doing other things. Just give it some time, restart your world in Standard mode. Take the things you've learned now and apply them to that new world and don't be afraid to live in a hole in the ground for a while until you get a better handle on things. My first home was literally dug into the side of a hill and stayed that way for a long time.

[TrashCabbage]

Hey there,

Just wanted to say I completely understand your frustration. The game may not be for you, it is not for everyone. My first experience with this game was with a few friends, which made surviving easier and dying less of a vibe killer. 

If you are not against it, honestly check out a ten minute youtube video. Literally hundreds of "10 beginner tips" type videos for VS. As others have said, the lore content is a big part of the game, it does add more enemies but also more valuables for you to balance the experience. I will say that it is not intrusive at all imo if you are worried about it interfering with your wilderness survival simulation. You can choose to turn off temporal storms and stability. (personally i think the storm mechanic is very flawed and needs a rework.)

The most tech related things you will find is rare

Spoiler

teleporters

unless you go looking for the story content. Otherwise, it is the occasional ruins with a pot of basic items or a unique decoration for you.

Ultimately, as others have said politely or impolitely, you just have to go do the thing. explore, focus on food first (get clay asap too!), if you die try to get your items back etc. The game really opens up once you get your food stabilized and your first metal tools.

Edited August 29, 2025 by TrashCabbage

[Gisbert]

3 hours ago, Irulana said:

Funny thing valheim give me more much frustration, I need to google so much stuff, it doesn't make sense to me, dying so often.Before playing VS i watched some plays.

I think it's because I'm a very "mechanical" player.
If you dislike the combat system in Valheim, the game is nothing for you.
If you are interested, I can give you some very good tips for Valheim and for enjoying Valheim more.

Also this quote from LadyWYT

Quote

"Ironically, I would say the opposite; Valheim, as much as I enjoy it on occasion, is the picture of drudgery for me, due to all the grinding it demands for gear. Battling the monsters is fun and all, but the resource collection is fairly simple and upgrading the gear fully just becomes a matter of "kill a ton of these things, collect a ton of that". Sure, equipment never breaks fully so you'll never really lose the stuff you craft, but anyways...different flavor of game."

is a "sign" for me that we are talking about 2 different games/genres and feelings of enjoyment they deliver.
Because Vintage Story isn't just a "more extreme survival game". If that were the case, VS players shouldn't have any problems with Valheim at all.

Topic Update:
I did it in the last try! I had fun for about the last hour yesterday, then I had to log off.

I created a situation for myself where I had my fire, enough food in my inventory, and an area full of reeds to harvest.

And for the first time, I was able to relax and somehow felt no “pressure” or missing information while doing anything else, so I could enjoy the grind of harvesting the reeds/wood/collect some food and watch my cozy little fire burning. The tip about the reed roots (as food) was also worth -> its weight in gold. I felt somewhat cozy to be the first human doing his first stuff and finally enjoyed that I PLAY the game.

The problem I see in VS is that you need too much information to simply have fun and “let yourself go.” 
I'm not talking about QoL information stuff which add a bonus to your enjoyment, but about prerequisites for enjoying the game in the first place.

Simply put, you need too much prior knowledge for VS. Project Zomboid as counterexample of how to do things. Zomboid is also ultra complex, but you can enjoy the game "nearly" right from the start. I'm not talking about the "standard frustration", because all these games are frustrating/difficult to a certain extent.

And now it continues... I still have no idea about the clay stuff and I'm already dreading hearing “rotate fields.”
I think that's something VS could definitely improve on. But I'm not a game designer, I can only describe what I think.

I'll definitely keep the game and see how long it takes me to get into it. The only thing that mattered to me was whether I could get into it at all.

[Gisbert]

1 hour ago, traugdor said:

And referring to something another user said about Valheim, would you still enjoy it if you weren't greeted by Hugin for every major achievement in the game? Would you still enjoy it if you didn't have the random Odin sightings? What if they removed the Graylings, Draugr, Trolls, etc from the game so there were no hostile mobs to fight off? Would you still think the game was fun? Would you still feel immersed? The Lore of the game may not be important to you, but it does more than you think.

In fact, I turned Hugin off completely.
I would prefere a Valheim without most of that "mystical" stuff - but that's personal taste.

So somehow yes. That's not the problem with VS for me.

[LadyWYT]

41 minutes ago, Gisbert said:

Topic Update:
I did it in the last try! I had fun for about the last hour yesterday, then I had to log off.

I created a situation for myself where I had my fire, enough food in my inventory, and an area full of reeds to harvest.

And for the first time, I was able to relax and somehow felt no “pressure” or missing information while doing anything else, so I could enjoy the grind of harvesting the reeds/wood/collect some food and watch my cozy little fire burning. The tip about the reed roots (as food) was also worth -> its weight in gold. I felt somewhat cozy to be the first human doing his first stuff and finally enjoyed that I PLAY the game.

This is the way. It's a struggle, but once you get that first initial breakthrough, the rest of the game begins to look less like an insurmountable wall, and more of a challenging mountain that you need to think carefully about in order to find a good path to scale it. I would also say that part of the initial challenge of Vintage Story is just learning how to approach the game, since it requires a very different thought process to succeed compared to other titles in the genre. Most games, in my opinion, have the player focused on what's presently important; the player doesn't need to worry about future tiers of progression and challenges until they actually get to those points. Vintage Story is similar, in some ways, in that you don't need to worry about things like steel at the very start of the game. However, the better you can anticipate future challenges and plan accordingly, the easier the game will be. A player's first winter is a decent example of this in practice: one needs food daily to survive, yes, and one can survive the winter without food stored. But winter will be much easier to survive if one plans ahead and preserves a good store of food.

 

50 minutes ago, Gisbert said:

The problem I see in VS is that you need too much information to simply have fun and “let yourself go.” 
I'm not talking about QoL information stuff which add a bonus to your enjoyment, but about prerequisites for enjoying the game in the first place.

Simply put, you need too much prior knowledge for VS. Project Zomboid as counterexample of how to do things. Zomboid is also ultra complex, but you can enjoy the game "nearly" right from the start. I'm not talking about the "standard frustration", because all these games are frustrating/difficult to a certain extent.

The learning curve can be an issue, though I think it really depends on player personality. Vintage Story does have a tutorial, yes, but the tutorial is just enough to teach the player basic controls and help them acquire their first set of basic tools that they'll need to achieve pretty much everything else in the game. After that, the game quits hand-holding and lets the player decide for themselves the best way to proceed with the game. If the player needs further information, the handbook contains pretty much everything they'll want/need to know about the game and its mechanics, but if that's not enough there are other sources of information as well(forums, YouTube, the wiki, etc). The benefit of such design is that the player is free to make their own choices and reap whatever consequences follow...good or bad. The drawback, of course, is that so much information can be overwhelming(at least at first), and it's easier for the player to make bad decisions due to a lack of experience.

 

57 minutes ago, Gisbert said:

And now it continues... I still have no idea about the clay stuff and I'm already dreading hearing “rotate fields.”
I think that's something VS could definitely improve on. But I'm not a game designer, I can only describe what I think.

I'll definitely keep the game and see how long it takes me to get into it. The only thing that mattered to me was whether I could get into it at all.

Crop rotation really isn't as difficult as it might sound, and there are also workarounds that you may or may not end up using later, depending on your playstyle. For now though, just keep focusing on the more simple goals, and take it one step at a time. You're on the right track! 

[Teh Pizza Lady]

1 hour ago, Gisbert said:

In fact, I turned Hugin off completely.
I would prefere a Valheim without most of that "mystical" stuff - but that's personal taste.

So somehow yes. That's not the problem with VS for me.

Right. And that's fine if you don't care about the lore stuff, but I just wanted to highlight that half of the game is missing when you turn it off completely with Homo Sapiens mode because you're missing out on things like the ruins, which contain the cracked vessels (which contain a lot of early game resources that are super valuable) and the bony soil (which helps you get even more valuables like metal nuggets and arrow/spear heads), and the traders which allow you to barter and trade for things you will 100% need to survive.

[CastIronFabric]

Play in Adventure mode first so you can get the basics down.

oh and for me..I never play a game without watching some early game videos.

Edited August 29, 2025 by CastIronFabric

[Kamila]

I think what you're feeling trying out VS, is the same frustration ppl feel playing Valheim the first time or so... In Valheim you dont think anything of walking into the dark forest on your first play through. second or third you're a lil more conscious just running into the dark forest. definitely learn your lesson first time visiting a deathsquito in the plains or a wraith in the swamps... and come on! your telling you the frist time you ran into a sea serpent you death felt "heroic"?  EVery death in valheim felt just as punishing at VS. especially if you died on a different island and you boat is over there with your gravestone....  The main difference between the two comes down to valheim is more fantasy based and VS is going more for a real medieval progression. 

 

[Kamila]

VS discord is also a great place to learn some tips and discuss with other players and check out builds too! so many amazing builders in this game!

[Gisbert]

1 hour ago, Kamila said:

I think what you're feeling trying out VS, is the same frustration ppl feel playing Valheim the first time or so... In Valheim you dont think anything of walking into the dark forest on your first play through. second or third you're a lil more conscious just running into the dark forest. definitely learn your lesson first time visiting a deathsquito in the plains or a wraith in the swamps... and come on! your telling you the frist time you ran into a sea serpent you death felt "heroic"?  EVery death in valheim felt just as punishing at VS. especially if you died on a different island and you boat is over there with your gravestone....  The main difference between the two comes down to valheim is more fantasy based and VS is going more for a real medieval progression. 

 

 

4 hours ago, Gisbert said:

I'm not talking about the "standard frustration", because all these games are frustrating/difficult to a certain extent.

I would generally say that all these games are by and for people with kind of ADHD/autistic tendencies/tendencies towards self-destructive behaviour and/or...

‘Normal’ people don't sit at home and play Zomboid for 2,000 hours. But I don't like the use of the term “normal” in general and the stigmatisation of ‘alternatives’ like me. But seriously, which ‘Bobby Brown’ plays VS? The cool kids from school are lining up for their 100th reissue of Battlefield and are happy with the same boring game design once again, paying 100 dollors for collectors box, no offence.

What I'm trying to say is that these (our loved sadistic games) are designed to frustrate/challenge you, and the target audience (we) like that, but at the same time, they reward you for improving.It doesn't work any other way, but ultimately the player rewards themselves and doesn't receive any reward for free from the game, because the game punishes him for this kind of playstyle.

The problem I (as a new player) had (and still have) with VS and what I didn't understand myself at first is not that I couldn't abstract from this gamedesign, but that VS requires too much information to enjoy the standard frustration/grind - to begin with, at least compared to the other games listed and at least for me. As a non-VS player, as a non-survival freak, as a non-cooking fanatic, etc.

Compared to Zomboid/Valheim/Banished, and whatever else (it doesn't have to be survival), this game requires a horrendous amount of insider knowledge about itself and how to play it until it makes you feel fun while playing, and it doesn't shy away from rubbing it in the player's face. That's a different kind of frustration.

But I'm not a game designer, I can only say how I feel.
Maybe this helps someone else to make a decision.

edit:
If you ask me, a game shouldn't require you to learn so much vocabulary that you can barely start to understand the main menu in order to make basic settings. That's not fun - That's not even playing. But that's exactly how VS feels. Once you speak the language, however, that hurdle is overcome and you can really ‘play’ and enjoy. You can start enjoy dying to a wolf, because now you know what to do. Valheim and Co. does NOT have this problem. Not even close to this extent.

Edited August 29, 2025 by Gisbert

[ZizSaday]

One thing I didn't see others mention: in the desert, the termite mounds provide sustenance- termites. You just break the mound and a # of termites fall into your inventory.  It's been a bit since I did a desert start but I think they spoil pretty fast, which seems like an emergency food source to me. 

Be careful how many cattail roots you eat - without the root they don't regrow/respond!

I've never played on homo sapiens mode. I honestly tend towards exploration mode but fiddle with the settings (temporal storms on, 10 days before creepies appear, but reduce creature water speed to a more realistic 50-75% in water [most land creatures slow in water when walking/running, don't they?].)

I also tend towards a "warm" start climate - I wanted to see what papyrus looked like, and then it seemed like food was more plentiful (and I didn't nearly freeze to death the first night!) 

[The Lucky One]

17 minutes ago, Gisbert said:

 

I would generally say that all these games are by and for people with kind of ADHD/autistic tendencies/tendencies towards self-destructive behaviour and/or...

‘Normal’ people don't sit at home and play Zomboid for 2,000 hours. But I don't like the use of the term “normal” in general and the stigmatisation of ‘alternatives’ like me. But seriously, which ‘Bobby Brown’ plays VS? The cool kids from school are lining up for their 100th reissue of Battlefield and are happy with the same boring game design once again, paying 100 dollors for collectors box, no offence.

What I'm trying to say is that these (our loved sadistic games) are designed to frustrate/challenge you, and the target audience (we) like that, but at the same time, they reward you for improving.It doesn't work any other way, but ultimately the player rewards themselves and doesn't receive any reward for free from the game, because the game punishes him for this kind of playstyle.

The problem I (as a new player) had (and still have) with VS and what I didn't understand myself at first is not that I couldn't abstract from this gamedesign, but that VS requires too much information to enjoy the standard frustration/grind - to begin with, at least compared to the other games listed and at least for me. As a non-VS player, as a non-survival freak, as a non-cooking fanatic, etc.

Compared to Zomboid/Valheim/Banished, and whatever else (it doesn't have to be survival), this game requires a horrendous amount of insider knowledge about itself and how to play it until it makes you feel fun while playing, and it doesn't shy away from rubbing it in the player's face. That's a different kind of frustration.

But I'm not a game designer, I can only say how I feel.
Maybe this helps someone else to make a decision.

edit:
If you ask me, a game shouldn't require you to learn so much vocabulary that you can barely start to understand the main menu in order to make basic settings. That's not fun - That's not even playing. But that's exactly how VS feels. Once you speak the language, however, that hurdle is overcome and you can really ‘play’ and enjoy. You can start enjoy dying to a wolf, because now you know what to do. Valheim and Co. does NOT have this problem. Not even close to this extent.

Valheim holds the player's hand significantly more so than VS, at least in a single player scenario. I've had multiplayer sessions with orgmates that leave me clueless though... Because they've progressed far enough while I haven't.

I much prefer VS' style of discovery over being handed information, thankyouverymuch.

[Teh Pizza Lady]

46 minutes ago, Gisbert said:

If you ask me, a game shouldn't require you to learn so much vocabulary that you can barely start to understand the main menu in order to make basic settings. That's not fun - That's not even playing. But that's exactly how VS feels. Once you speak the language, however, that hurdle is overcome and you can really ‘play’ and enjoy. You can start enjoy dying to a wolf, because now you know what to do. Valheim and Co. does NOT have this problem. Not even close to this extent.

Does the game not have a proper localization for your language?

[Jonathon Read]

As someone new to Vintage Story and to these games as a whole. I love the hardness of it. Though, for me as a man who loves to play with others. This game definitely feels like it would definitely be way more fun and easier with a friend. I started solo and with a friend and the game went from hard and less fun to really fun and slightly easier, but nothing crazy. One can cook and hunt food and other look for ores etc. I think the game can be played solo for sure, but is more enjoyable with friends and seems like it might be more focused around that to make it still difficult for a group and isn't finish it all in one day. Which is nice. It also makes good feel useful and needed where other games really don't. Also, dying in the game just like most isn't a huge deal. Like, you drop stuff and have to run back which with stone paths and able to set spawn location isn't really a huge deal still. Also, when I'm doubt. Mod it out. I almost never start a game vanilla anymore. Take time to think what you feel you need see if mod has it fine a friend or more and enjoy yourself. God bless and hope you find what you need to season it up just right for you.

[7embre]

I've seen a lot of beginners/streamers struggle in the early game due to having a very poor starting location, in terms of clay, massive amounts of forests around, gravel deserts etc. It's hard to navigate, because terrain is hilly; every path you take leads to a bearritory, and you aren't finding much from exploring. Like, you don't have a safe spot, it's hard to find food, almost impossible to find clay, and on top of that "medium rift activity" strikes in. I'd say it really can mess up your start if you have very dry spawn in terms of humidity. On top of that, you decided to roll with Homo sapiens.. oof, you're in for a rough one.

These issues are easily overcomed by experienced players, as we generally know where to look for things and how they look, plus we developed an effective starting course of actions. But I can see it affecting beginners. For me personally, early game here shines much brighter comparing to the mid to end game. It opens the game with each progression step, with each little find early on, and then gets to "now you have opportunity to do this, if you want" later on. Or just doesn't, speaking of steel. But early game also heavily relies on your surroundings. Coming back to your Vallhime take, with all my love towards that game, gear progression there suck. And the amount of grinding to get enough metals for the full set of armor too.

I'd really suggest you trying standart mode tho, even if you don't like the lore content. It wasn't my sauce as well at first, but I'm glad I rolled in with complete defaults the first time around. It doesn't haunt me as much as a proper horror would, but makes me ask questions about the world and keeps things a bit more grounded.