soil instability question

[Nalier]

Hi guys!

Returning player here. I'm planning a new world for my next playthrough, and I was curious how popular the soil instability feature is. On one hand, I'm tempted to turn it on, on the other, I wonder if it'll be too taxing performance-wise for my computer >_>

[Broccoli Clock]

Turn it on, TURN IT ON!

I play with full cave-ins, and it's fun. Sure it's bloody annoying, but underground the mining instability is resolved by support beams. As for the surface instability, it's actually got its benefits as much as its pitfalls. For example, want to close up a cave that keeps spawning mobs? Fill that puppy full of earth, a couple of block removals it can be done in seconds. Annoyed by animals running away from you? Well you can trap them because they'll trigger land slips too.

As for the performance, I've not noticed any serious drain or FPS drops. I'm on a mid PC and play with mid settings, so make of that what you will. 

I will say if you do decide to go with full cave ins, including dirt, then it pays to have some rammed/packed earth in your inventory (it will not be effected by gravity) or a set of ladders, both of these things are easily crafted even at spawn, and will save you a lot of effort should you get stuck down a hole.

[Nalier]

Yeah, I figured packed dirt would be my next best friend xd

[Shoom]

It's a fun feature but it can wreck your scenery quite hard, some areas may end up looking like they were shelled by artillery fire because some naturally generated caves will collapse and some mountains will have their dirt slide off as animals walk on them. If you don't mind some chaos and want more challenging mechanics to wrestle with, then go for full soil instability!

 

[LadyWYT]

36 minutes ago, Shoom said:

It's a fun feature but it can wreck your scenery quite hard, some areas may end up looking like they were shelled by artillery fire because some naturally generated caves will collapse and some mountains will have their dirt slide off as animals walk on them. If you don't mind some chaos and want more challenging mechanics to wrestle with, then go for full soil instability!

 

This is my general thoughts as well. I don't play with the mechanic enabled, simply because I like keeping my landscapes mostly pristine, and I like digging simple but nonsensical holes. 

If concerned about performance, I would make a test world with the mechanic enabled and see how well your PC handles it, before fully committing to a playthrough with that kind of challenge.

[Nalier]

Yep, I decided to make a test world first and fool around a bit before making my decision.

Would be cool if soil had a lower chance of collapsing than sand or gravel.

[Never Jhonsen]

I love it, been playing with it for years

Same with cave-ins, turned that on when it became a thing

[Scorpixel]

Tried with it on in 1.20, walking on any kind of elevation would have the dirt (and whatever was on it) disappear into nothingness and made the scenery very hard on the eye.

Compared to cave-ins this setting was simply annoying and did not change the rest of my gameplay as packed dirt isn't affected.

Edited September 13, 2025 by Scorpixel

[Koumori]

6 hours ago, Scorpixel said:

Tried with it on in 1.20, walking on any kind of elevation would have the dirt (and whatever was on it) disappear into nothingness and made the scenery very hard on the eye.

Compared to cave-ins this setting was simply annoying and did not change the rest of my gameplay as packed dirt isn't affected.

Agreed. I had it on for a time, and enjoyed working around the instability while digging or trying to stack up dirt, but having cliffsides fall apart and natural tunnels collapse if I so much breathed near them was a nuisance.

[Nalier]

I was browsing mods, and this one might be just the thing:

https://mods.vintagestory.at/stickydirt#follow

Sticky Dirt alters the way soil instability affects dirt blocks, reducing the landslide effect.

[Lollard]

Wanted to have it enabled, but the random tiny landslides I was constantly causing by walking around everywhere were too annoying. Needs to be less aggressive.

[Brady_The]

2 minutes ago, Lollard said:

Wanted to have it enabled, but the random tiny landslides I was constantly causing by walking around everywhere were too annoying. Needs to be less aggressive.

Keep an eye on https://mods.vintagestory.at/stickydirt for an update. It does make the instability a little more enjoyable.