“How about adding the mechanics of building your own village?”

[kalifer]

Core Idea

Player’s Mission is to revive the abandoned village of Kalifer and transform it into a thriving settlement.

Key Stages

Ruins Exploration — locating the site, studying history, analyzing reasons for the disappearance of inhabitants

Base Restoration — clearing the territory, organizing a camp, ensuring security

Infrastructure Development — constructing houses, workshops, farms, and defensive structures

Main Mechanics

Construction includes:

Resource gathering

Tool creation

Building various structures

Organizing storage facilities

Recruiting Residents happens through:

Completing quests

Rescuing travelers

Helping those in need

Exploring the

And, of course, everyone has been waiting for coffee for a long time

“Is it possible to do this, or is it too complicated a mechanic and you won’t be able to?”

[LadyWYT]

40 minutes ago, kalifer said:

Core Idea

Player’s Mission is to revive the abandoned village of Kalifer and transform it into a thriving settlement.

As a mod, sure. There's at least one that already exists that allows the player to build their own village. Otherwise, no, the idea really does not fit the lore. The setting is the late Middle Ages, after catastrophic events that wiped out almost all of humanity. The few that remain have banded together into small settlements of their own, or decided to risk their lives traveling from settlement to settlement as traders. Overall, the game is supposed to feel a bit isolated and lonely, and the player themselves is essentially just another wanderer; adding more settlements like this would change the feel and overall goal of the game quite significantly.

And without spoiling too much on the lore...there is already one village that currently exists in the game, and if you talk to some of the villagers they explain just how difficult it is to even expand a settlement in the current environment, let alone found an entirely new one. I think that in order to found a new settlement, one would have to find enough human survivors willing to leave their current safe homes for dangerous wilderness, and like I said previously the player is largely considered just an odd stranger--nobody terribly important.

The village mod in question: https://mods.vintagestory.at/vsvillage

[kalifer]

Just now, LadyWYT said:

As a mod, sure. There's at least one that already exists that allows the player to build their own village. Otherwise, no, the idea really does not fit the lore. The setting is the late Middle Ages, after catastrophic events that wiped out almost all of humanity. The few that remain have banded together into small settlements of their own, or decided to risk their lives traveling from settlement to settlement as traders. Overall, the game is supposed to feel a bit isolated and lonely, and the player themselves is essentially just another wanderer; adding more settlements like this would change the feel and overall goal of the game quite significantly.

And without spoiling too much on the lore...there is already one village that currently exists in the game, and if you talk to some of the villagers they explain just how difficult it is to even expand a settlement in the current environment, let alone found an entirely new one. I think that in order to found a new settlement, one would have to find enough human survivors willing to leave their current safe homes for dangerous wilderness, and like I said previously the player is largely considered just an odd stranger--nobody terribly important.

The village mod in question: https://mods.vintagestory.at/vsvillage

Okay, maybe you’re right, but what about coffee trees?

[LadyWYT]

36 minutes ago, kalifer said:

Okay, maybe you’re right, but what about coffee trees?

https://mods.vintagestory.at/vintagecoffee

Someone already modded those too.  Coffee trees are unrelated to villages, but would make a good addition to the tropical regions of the game to help flesh those area out more. 

[CastIronFabric]

Yesterday I saw that Space Engineers 2 is going to have a feature for colonization which involves exploring and stabilizing an area (If I understood it correctly). That is a feature I have wanted in many games for well over 10 years now. 

I do that as a RP in this game on my SP experience. That RP works well with the 'Better Ruins Mod'

 

Edited September 20, 2025 by CastIronFabric

[JokoJose]

Well, it doesnt have to be "humans", it could be robots made with Jonas parts hehehe, as a way for the player to kind of make some kind of safe heaven so wanderers can stop and rest for a while before they go out to wander again. After all, when humans survive, our main goal is always reproduce, expand and survive. What is the point of a single village, that once they die, humanity will be completely extinct? If humans dont expand and procreate to increase their numbers, what was the point of surviving on the first place. 

Surviving and making small villages or even wandering as traders have to serve a bigger purpose on the lore. If there is only 1 village, then, what is even the point for traders to "wander" So, lore base, it should make sense for humans to want to expand and start new settlements, after all, that is how we ensure the survival of a race.

[CastIronFabric]

2 hours ago, JokoJose said:

Well, it doesnt have to be "humans", it could be robots made with Jonas parts hehehe, as a way for the player to kind of make some kind of safe heaven so wanderers can stop and rest for a while before they go out to wander again. After all, when humans survive, our main goal is always reproduce, expand and survive. What is the point of a single village, that once they die, humanity will be completely extinct? If humans dont expand and procreate to increase their numbers, what was the point of surviving on the first place. 

Surviving and making small villages or even wandering as traders have to serve a bigger purpose on the lore. If there is only 1 village, then, what is even the point for traders to "wander" So, lore base, it should make sense for humans to want to expand and start new settlements, after all, that is how we ensure the survival of a race.

Here is how I would do 'Colonization' or 'Reclamation'. Plant a flag, but that flag must be lets say 1000 blocks away from any other flag and within that 1000 blocks must have various things. So for example, perhaps 3 qualifying rooms, 200 firewood, 100 charcoal. I am just making up those requirements randomly and I am not married to any of them but basically various things that establish that as an area that is settled. Then you buy buy/craft a trader, plop the trader down..done.

If someone wants to be as uncreative as possible and just make the requirements having it look as crude as possible, that is their business. Now what would the reward be for settling an area? I do not know but from a functional standpoint it does seem it would be very possible.

 

 

 

Edited September 21, 2025 by CastIronFabric

[JokoJose]

well, main reward would be for traders to settle in. For example, if you build a smithy area, a weapon/armor trader joins, if you build a kitchen area, a food trader joins. Those building/areas, are appart from your personal ones, it will need a specific item and have to meet the room requirements too. In that way, you have your own personal space while at the same time you have wanderers joining, making trading easier for you. In a multiplayer server, you get a % of the sells, small % like 1%-5%.