Two Corrupt Bowtorn spawned in base while sleeping through Temporal Storm

[Professor Dragon]

I just had an unnerving experience. 

Two Corrupt Bowtorn spawned into my base while I was sleeping through a Temporal Storm.
My question is "Did I just cut it too close, or is something else happening?"

SCENARIO

I'm not keen on facing monsters during Temporal Storms, but I'm still undecided about turning them off, as it shapes the way you play the game (having safe spaces, being prepared on treks).

So I play with the option that allows you to sleep through Temporal Storms.

My main house is well lit. Checked with a light levels mod - plus primary rooms 7 x 7 x 7 or less with solid blocks and meets "House" status.

The "bunker bedroom" is very well lit with a lantern and measures 2 high (plus one water hole in the floor and a solid trapdoor in the ceiling above ladders) by 7 or less wide and long. It meets "Cellar" status. Plus filled with furniture and equipment - so not a lot of spare floor space. This is the same room where I removed a rug at the foot of the bed, so that my head doesn't enter  in the ceiling on waking up.

I have the mod "HUD Clock Patch" to see when Storms come - this gives you an accurate time of when the storm starts.

Normally I time this so that I go to sleep between 20 and 30 "minutes" left on the clock. Much longer and you risk waking up during a storm. And I don't like less as I didn't want to cut it close.

• Went to bed with 17 minutes left on the clock. Less time than usual, but still should be good enough.
• Info. box advised "The temporal storm appears to be waning." This is a vanilla message.
• I was woken up under attack by a Corrupt Bowtorn. I died. (Yes, I take armour and shield off when sleeping through a storm to save food.)
  Maybe the above two events are swapped - there was a lot going on at the time.
• I respawned in the same bunker room (Of course!), was attacked, retreated to my wine cellar, equipped weapons and killed the Corrupt Bowtorn.
• Immediately above my bunker in my main room was another Corrupt Bowtorn. Killed that.
• No other creatures in the house or mulitple adjacent rooms.

 

 

So . . . what happened here, and how do I prevent it from happening again?

I have saved the logs, and can raise an issue if anyone thinks it is worthwhile.

Or did I just cut it too close?

Thanks, Professor Dragon.

EDIT:
At least I got two flax and four "bone arrows" out of the experience, for a trade of half of all my Nutrition on all bars.

Version 1.21.0 (Stable) with only basic mods - lighting, mapping etc.

Edited October 17, 2025 by Professor Dragon
Attachments resized to save space. Ask if required.

[gilt-kutabe]

@Professor Dragon

Sleeping through storms (or night) doesn’t skip time - it just fast forwards it. And most rust mob spawn restrictions (such as not spawning in well lit areas) are lifted. Unless something was changed in the latest update. Meaning mobs have the whole storm to spawn, and can do it pretty much anywhere. The best bunker is a 2x1 ‘room’ with a bed. Even then, I’m pretty sure it’s still possible for mobs to spawn in the room on the bed, but there is a much smaller chance of a mob selecting one of the two blocks in your room than one of 49 blocks in a 7x7 room.

[Professor Dragon]

1 hour ago, gilt-kutabe said:

Sleeping through storms (or night) doesn’t skip time - it just fast forwards it. And most rust mob spawn restrictions (such as not spawning in well lit areas) are lifted. 

Thanks @gilt-kutabe

You may be right, but what then is this option apart from being a huge trap?
(This is a question to everyone, not just you  )

https://wiki.vintagestory.at/Temporal_storm/en
/worldconfig temporalStormSleeping [0|1] controls whether or not players can sleep through storms, where 0 disables sleep during storms and 1 enables it.

I mean, why would anyone choose that option which sounds like:

• Allows a player to sleep safely through a Temporal Storm
  But actually means:
• Allows a player to sleep through the night to give the monsters a better chance of spawning next to them and killing them unawares

Why not just baste yourself in a light sauce before going to bed as well?

Funnily enough, I had a search around to look for information this . . . and it turns out that I had the same encounter back in 2022:

This was back in the day when objects on the floor actually had a reasonable chance of stopping a spawn, which got patched out later (if my memory is correct).
Never really came to a conclusion in that thread. Might be time to run this down.

Hello @Thorfinn

Reaching out to you (I know you're a player, not a dev  , but your skills are pretty good) to see if you can confirm the above command behaviour (temporalStormSleeping) is documented anywhere.  In particular, should getting ganked in your sleep be a risk, or is this option meant to prevent that? Thanks.

I tried the Command Handbook (.chb), and although there is an entry for "worldconfig" I can't seem to get any information on the sleeping part:

/help worldconfig temporalStormSleeping
No such command found temporalStormSleeping

I can see that is the command name, both from the Wiki and from this file:

\Vintage_Story\Mods\VSSurvivalMod.dll
 { category: "temporalstability", code: "temporalStormSleeping", dataType: "dropdown", values: ["0", "1"], names: ["Disallowed", "Allowed"], default: "1" },

I'm at this point again:

• Suggesting that there is a 10 block "no spawn" within a Room with a player sleeping in bed, from Temporal Storm spawns. At least as an option.
• Disabling Temporal Storms altogether (I've paid my Drifter Dues): /worldconfig temporalStorms off
• Going into Creative and giving myself one of these for use around my main bedroom (and the gears to run it as needed):
  https://wiki.vintagestory.at/Rift_ward

I've honestly tried to play this game "as intended" for years now, but this might be the final straw before I join the "disable Temporal Storms" crowd, because I don't appreciate a random death just dropping out despite decent preparation. 

Thanks, Professor Dragon.

 

 

 

Edited September 4, 2025 by Professor Dragon

[LadyWYT]

I'm thinking you probably just got unlucky. Monster spawns are better than they were, but I've still seen the occasional one pop out of a rift in broad daylight. The second pic looks to be just an unfortunate spawn of the bowtorn inside, since there seems to be enough space for one to spawn in the room. The first pic though, I'm not so sure; I would suspect maybe it spawned in the puddle of water, or perhaps some climbed up the ladder and glitched through the trapdoor(assuming that leads to a cellar space, anyway).

24 minutes ago, Professor Dragon said:

I mean, why would anyone choose that option which sounds like:

• Allows a player to sleep safely through a Temporal Storm
  But actually means:
• Allows a player to sleep through the night to give the monsters a better chance of spawning next to them and killing them unawares

In any case, I would say that sleeping through a temporal storm should keep you safe, for the most part, assuming that you go to sleep once you get the imminent warning. That should give you enough time to actually go to sleep and start fast-forwarding time, meaning that the storm itself only lasts for a few seconds. Very little time for anything to spawn, unless you get very unlucky.

Worst case scenario, could always build a closet to sleep in for storms you don't want to deal with. Nothing should be able to spawn in a closet that's just big enough for you and a bed.

[gilt-kutabe]

30 minutes ago, Professor Dragon said:

Thanks @gilt-kutabe

You may be right, but what then is this option apart from being a huge trap?
(This is a question to everyone, not just you  )

https://wiki.vintagestory.at/Temporal_storm/en
/worldconfig temporalStormSleeping [0|1] controls whether or not players can sleep through storms, where 0 disables sleep during storms and 1 enables it.

I mean, why would anyone choose that option which sounds like:

• Allows a player to sleep safely through a Temporal Storm
  But actually means:
• Allows a player to sleep through the night to give the monsters a better chance of spawning next to them and killing them unawares

Why not just baste yourself in a light sauce before going to bed as well?

 

 

 

You’re never truly safe from storms, as far as I know, but like you said, a decent amount of preparation should keep you safe. Minimize the space mobs have to spawn around/on you, wear your armor, shield, and weapons, and be ready to wake up your character if you start taking damage. I believe my bedroom is about 3x7 (maybe 3x5) and I’ve had something spawn on me maybe once while sleeping through a storm on my 3-year world. And I almost always sleep through them. Either I’m lucky, you’re unlucky, or there’re other mechanics at play. Really, I see the ‘sleeping through storms’ setting less as a truly safe way to pass storms, and more a way to speed up waiting in a mostly safe bunker for ten minutes.