Planning my first "large" project.

[Iscariot]

So, gears, we love em right? Well, I live near a Treasure Hunter. "great!" I thought to myself after finding out that they'll lead me to some story event place.

But, I've learned something deeper... Cracked Vessels. With my salt troubles, I was informed of the commodities trader!

Cracked vessels from Treasure hunter = big money from the commodities trader

But uh.. One issue. BIG MOUNTAIN IN THE WAY between the two traders!

So.. an idea/project I've wanted to engage with since I got this game is.. Roads, routes, and supply lines/outposts. Stuff is far, and I am slow, so why not ease the journey? (ignore my crude MSpaint skills)

The green and yellow lines show the planned routes. green is a relatively clean bit of land with minor changes in elevation besides like.. 2 sheer cliffs. and maybe 2-3 bumpy hills

the yellow one, passes through a lower altitude, yet kinda maze like mountain structure (You know those like really thin, yet tall kinda hills? yeah that.)

The dotted line, is just a straight shot.

Another idea could be to make a tunnel that shoots off of the yellow line... Though I dunno what that'd mean for my temporal stability. Is there a specific Y level in which sanity dwindles? or is it just x amount of blocks below surface?

I feel like first though, I should work on a helve hammer and windmill. With a pulverizer, I'll crush iron, then I can buy saltpeter and sulfur to make stone blasting bombs. Which could make tunnel boring a bit easier.

Is it worth making a set path, that I dont have to jump around mountain faces to get over? Or should I just continue running through the wild?

I dunno! But I might just do it for the fun of it!

[Iscariot]

To be entirely honest I could just make 2 routes for the hell of it

I really wanna make a city scape kinda place of my own. While I am in single player and it'd undoubtedly be very lonely, It'd still be cool.

The King of Nothing at all x3

[LadyWYT]

40 minutes ago, Iscariot said:

Another idea could be to make a tunnel that shoots off of the yellow line... Though I dunno what that'd mean for my temporal stability. Is there a specific Y level in which sanity dwindles? or is it just x amount of blocks below surface?

If only it were that simple. Temporal stability varies; generally the deeper you go the more unstable it gets. However, there are occasionally stable chunks deep near the mantle, but it's very rare. For a tunnel, your best bet is to just tunnel through the mountain at the surface.

 

42 minutes ago, Iscariot said:

Is it worth making a set path, that I dont have to jump around mountain faces to get over? Or should I just continue running through the wild?

Now that is entirely up to you. A tunnel will be quite a lot of effort, but will save you time once complete(though make sure you light it well to keep the spooks out). Running overland through the wilds is comparatively less effort up front, but isn't as short of a trip.

[Iscariot]

1 hour ago, LadyWYT said:

Now that is entirely up to you. A tunnel will be quite a lot of effort, but will save you time once complete(though make sure you light it well to keep the spooks out). Running overland through the wilds is comparatively less effort up front, but isn't as short of a trip.

I feel like I'd definitely do this later after thinking about it. My experience as a new player to Vintage Story has definitely taught me this game rewards effort and planning ahead. Also found out that there's some meteor impact spots by the commodities fella! Not really motivation for the tunnel, but still definitely cool x3 

[vinnland]

I am a fan of the terraforming approach. Maybe because I have two massive iron mines around me, I have unlimited iron tools.

strategy: shovel + pickaxe = make a 1x2 straight light through the mountain

[Vratislav]

Nice ideas. 

I'd note that tunnel si OK when dug straight, but digging diagonally is much more effort and you will be slow down by corners of exposed blocks. 

Maybe, a combined approach would be working well, so to find a place, where atraight tunnel would bring the best effect. Something line this: 

I have some tunnels using profile 2x3 (it is an elk path) and even 4x6 (for the boat), and also some channels for boat, but I try to make them always perpendicular with X or Y axis. I have some channel that is slanted and I had to widen it like almost to the double to have smooth boat ride.

Edited September 5, 2025 by Vratislav

[Professor Dragon]

Barring "Points of Interest" or "Things to Avoid", I'd look either into the yellow route, or a combo yellow/overland along black dotted line. 

My reason is that the yellow route allows you a more direct route to the Commodities Trader from your House, and you won't always be visiting the Treasure Hunter trader. The green line is just further out of the way. You can also stop off along the way at those Ruins and loot or repair them.

I've adjusted the yellow route into an orange one.

And I've coded the "combo" route as purple below.

Funnily enough, really steep cliffs are sometimes not as bad as rugged terrain, because you just ladder straight up them.

I'd avoid tunneling myself. This is not Minecraft where light and tool use is trivial by comparison.

I'd also keep an eye out for a Survival Goods Trader - they've got useful stuff. And a Clothing Trader pairs well with a Commodities Trader.

But really, there are no wrong choices. Have fun!

Edited September 8, 2025 by Professor Dragon

[Never Jhonsen]

you've got three traders discovered in a line, which gives you the chance of finding more nearby

Traders usually spawn in a rough triangular pattern from each other, assuming they can find some valid ground

Yet another creature has edited your map, this time to show off possible trader locations. Assuming they could find a valid spawning point, you should be able to find someone in those purple spots

[Shoom]

Me and a friend dug a 6x8 canal through a ~400 block mountain with bronze pickaxes, I think it took us something like 30 pickaxes and maybe 20 hours on and off (we wont be making another one anytime soon)

If you value your sanity (and metal) I think an above ground stone path is better, the movement speed buff is quite significant, stone paths are also a good sink for excess stone and dirt when your crates are starting to fill up. 

Edited September 8, 2025 by Shoom

[HalfAxd]

4 hours ago, Shoom said:

If you value your sanity (and metal) I think an above ground stone path is better, the movement speed buff is quite significant, stone paths are also a good sink for excess stone and dirt when your crates are starting to fill up.

I second this!   I've done very long "roads" thru mountains, across plains, lakes, etc.  Takes a loooong time to do but I play this game to relax.   

When all is said and done, the speed enhancement is well worth it.

[LadyWYT]

I'll also note that if you go around the big mountain, you'll just have the smaller foothills to dig tunnels through...and digging several small tunnels is significantly easier than digging one tunnel through a big mountain.