Game can detect a room, can it detect a house, so things stop spawning in it

[Monty B]

Id really, super appreciate, some logic in the game that stops things from spawning inside a player built structure without having to make the floor into slabs. Yes, I get the lighting thing, even if the players house is dark, I think it should still prevent monster spawns. 

I don't know how you have the logic written, but I hope what I'm asking isn't a PITA to do. Im a newer player, this is actually my first post.

How I would write this, if I were on the dev team, would be to stop spawns on player placed blocks, period, so long as the blocks are within a certain radius of a bed that's been used within the last x amount of days.

 

Is there, by chance, a mod that does what I'm asking?

Ive tried searching, and a lot of mods are out dated, and I can't seem to find one that toggles the topic of my post. 

 

Thank you for your time,

Monty

[Echo Weaver]

I agree -- I don't think I've seen a mod to do this. The team does seem to tweak monster spawn criteria every release to try to get enough monsters to spawn outside bases while not spawning inside them.

I'm curious what problems you're experiencing that lead you to request this.

[Monty B]

1 hour ago, Echo Weaver said:

I agree -- I don't think I've seen a mod to do this. The team does seem to tweak monster spawn criteria every release to try to get enough monsters to spawn outside bases while not spawning inside them.

I'm curious what problems you're experiencing that lead you to request this.

I'd say 75% or more of the times I exit my "base", upon return there's something running around inside. It could be something as simple as running outside to cut grass or set up a charcoal burn, even if I've departed for a few minutes, upon return it's more likely than not that I'll have to fight something off, and half my base being underground with several rooms... I have to run through and check everything before I sort and put away my loot. No walls or floors of my base are natural. Everything has been mined/dug out and replaced. I would be more forgiving about this, had I mined into the side of a cliff and not replaced the floors or walls with new blocks.

It's not a significant issue, but it ruins immersion and it doesn't feel right overall, that I have to clear my entire base upon return, even if its been a short period of time. 

Edited October 18, 2025 by Monty B

[Echo Weaver]

6 hours ago, Monty B said:

It's not a significant issue, but it ruins immersion and it doesn't feel right overall, that I have to clear my entire base upon return, even if its been a short period of time. 

Huh. I'd consider that a significant issue, especially since I leave the door to my base open because I've been known to come tearing in with a bear or some other beastie on my tail and my hit points almost gone.

I've never had this happen, and I wouldn't expect it to happen so often -- at the very least, not on low and calm rift activity. Your base is lit up? Just how deep is it? If you dug into the side of cliff, then you wouldn't be deep either. 

[LadyWYT]

9 hours ago, Monty B said:

I'd say 75% or more of the times I exit my "base", upon return there's something running around inside. It could be something as simple as running outside to cut grass or set up a charcoal burn, even if I've departed for a few minutes, upon return it's more likely than not that I'll have to fight something off, and half my base being underground with several rooms... I have to run through and check everything before I sort and put away my loot. No walls or floors of my base are natural. Everything has been mined/dug out and replaced. I would be more forgiving about this, had I mined into the side of a cliff and not replaced the floors or walls with new blocks.

It's not a significant issue, but it ruins immersion and it doesn't feel right overall, that I have to clear my entire base upon return, even if its been a short period of time. 

What are you lighting your base up with? Lanterns or chandeliers are the best sources of light, and should stop monster spawns indoors(outside of temporal storms). Torches are decent for early game, but they don't offer nearly as much as lanterns or chandeliers, so you will need more of them to stop spawns. Oil lamps provide enough light to see, but not enough to stop spawns; I use oil lamps to light up my cellars so it's not pitch dark, and it's not uncommon to have a monster or two spawn in my cellar as a result.

In any case, the lighting is what I would check. As for a mod that stops them from spawning indoors entirely...I'm not sure that one exists. You might try a mod like this one, that stops surface spawns entirely outside of temporal storms: https://mods.vintagestory.at/nosurfacemonsters

[Monty B]

On 10/18/2025 at 10:04 AM, LadyWYT said:

What are you lighting your base up with? Lanterns or chandeliers are the best sources of light, and should stop monster spawns indoors(outside of temporal storms). Torches are decent for early game, but they don't offer nearly as much as lanterns or chandeliers, so you will need more of them to stop spawns. Oil lamps provide enough light to see, but not enough to stop spawns; I use oil lamps to light up my cellars so it's not pitch dark, and it's not uncommon to have a monster or two spawn in my cellar as a result.

In any case, the lighting is what I would check. As for a mod that stops them from spawning indoors entirely...I'm not sure that one exists. You might try a mod like this one, that stops surface spawns entirely outside of temporal storms: https://mods.vintagestory.at/nosurfacemonsters

Yeah I finally had to /gamemode 2 and just spawn myself lanterns. There is no effective way in the early game to stop this, and its becoming increasingly more annoying the longer I play. Tonight I decided to start farming and setting that up. Just being outside, I am constantly dealing with drifters spawning inside the house and running outside to throw sh!t at me during the day. 

On 10/18/2025 at 7:34 AM, Echo Weaver said:

Huh. I'd consider that a significant issue, especially since I leave the door to my base open because I've been known to come tearing in with a bear or some other beastie on my tail and my hit points almost gone.

I've never had this happen, and I wouldn't expect it to happen so often -- at the very least, not on low and calm rift activity. Your base is lit up? Just how deep is it? If you dug into the side of cliff, then you wouldn't be deep either. 

As mentioned before, little lighting, just oil lamps, because nothing else is available at the start besides torches, but they have to be constantly refreshed. It's one floor deep, so, 4 or 5 blocks. Also, the house isn't on any corrupted land, the gear doesn't move.

[Professor Dragon]

Hello @Monty B

I'm curious how you went with this:

• Did the extra light stop the spawns?
• Did you end up installing a mod to reduce/eliminate monsters spawns?
• What TYPE of monsters are spawning? Are they "Surface <X>" mobs, or "Deep <X>" mobs? eg Surface Drifter.
• Do you see or hear any Rifts close by?

If the problem is still occurring, seeing a screenshot of the inside would help.

The issue sounded like a simple "Not enough light" scenario, which is resolved early game as has been noted already, by fat lamps, candles torches, and eventually lanterns and chandeliers. Early game houses are constrained heavily by having available light.
The only ways around that are:

• Install a mod in order to reduce monster spawns, such as the one that @LadyWYT recommended.
  If that doesn't work for you, there are plenty more at the mods database.
• Disabling lore content, which unfortunately also disables structures and story as well as monsters.

I just wanted to call out one thing, so you don't feel that you have to keep doing it, and that is it doesn't matter what surface you build with.
People used to try and cheese the spawning mechanics by placing down rocks and so forth, but that doesn't work anymore.
It is LIGHT that you need to control Spawning with.
So, no need to replace the floor, unless you are doing it for aesthetics.

Specifically, enough light prevents (or should prevent) monster spawning when it is not a Temporal Storm.
During a Temporal Storm (the screen changes colour to sepia), all bets are off. Anything can spawn anywhere. There are no safe spots - although there are ways to minimise the issues.

This is where a mod such as "Easy Light Levels" or "Spawn Highlight" or similar is a wonder.
No more counting gaps between torches - just flick it on, confirm the room is lit up, and then flick it off again. I use Easy Light Levels on the current verion 1.21.5 and it works fine.

If you are still getting spawns when there is enough light, something else is going on, such as you getting Deep monster spawns from a nearby cave or a Rift or something.
I am assuming that you are on a current version and not using mods.

For reference, have a look at the file "drifter.json" under your install location ". . .  \assets\survival\entities\lore".

The spawn conditions are laid out there:

        spawnconditions: {
.
.
.
                maxLightLevel: 7,
                lightLevelType: "OnlyBlockLight",
.
.
.
                insideBlockCodes: ["air", "tallgrass-*", "loosestones-*"],

Note that the only conditions it checks for is the light level and what block it can spawn in.
And given that "air" is one of them, that means pretty much anywhere there is sufficient space. You'll also see that "loosestones" is mentioned, which prevents the exploit that people used, and "tallgrass" as that grows on dirt inside huts.

This is what most of the mods that disable monster spawns are working off - they are changing these conditions. Most commonly the "maxLightLevel" command to 0 or 1.
You could do it yourself if you wished if one of the off-the-shelf mods wasn't what you wanted - although I'd recommend you backup your main world, and experiment on a test world.

Now, to get back to the title of your post and the original suggestion

I really like this idea. I agree that there should be an Option where there are no monster spawns allowed in "Rooms". People could leave it off if they are fine with finding Drifters in their basement if they didn't get the lighting right.
And/or there could be a tighter "No spawning in radius of player" and/or "No spawning while player is asleep in a bed". All of these I think would improve appeal. It is catering for the body of players who come from Minecraft where there are similar mechanics. You can always take the training wheels off later.

That being said, there has been no sign that is the direction that the game developers are taking. It is very much "Here is Lovecraftian Horror, and it doesn't bend to your whims."

THE LONG AND THE SHORT OF IT, is that it should be an "easy" early game challenge to overcome Drifters in your house. It is expected behaviour if the room is not lit properly.
However, if the room is lit, then looking into why is in order.

This has been an interesting post. I hope the above helps.

Professor Dragon.

 

 

Edited October 24, 2025 by Professor Dragon

[Mac Mcleod]

On 10/17/2025 at 9:19 PM, Monty B said:

Id really, super appreciate, some logic in the game that stops things from spawning inside a player built structure without having to make the floor into slabs. Yes, I get the lighting thing, even if the players house is dark, I think it should still prevent monster spawns. 

I don't know how you have the logic written, but I hope what I'm asking isn't a PITA to do. Im a newer player, this is actually my first post.

How I would write this, if I were on the dev team, would be to stop spawns on player placed blocks, period, so long as the blocks are within a certain radius of a bed that's been used within the last x amount of days.

 

Is there, by chance, a mod that does what I'm asking?

Ive tried searching, and a lot of mods are out dated, and I can't seem to find one that toggles the topic of my post. 

 

Thank you for your time,

Monty

You can mark blocks as chiseled without consuming your hammer or chisel (as long as you don't remove any) and currently, monsters will not spawn on them.  You can also have cobblestone interior floors and mobs won't spawn on them.

Except: During an extreme temporal storm when you are very low on stability (then mobs can even spawn in empty air.. all bets are off).

[GeekFather]

Besides light levels, building your house in a temporarly stable area should matter. Just like if it is temporarly un-stable results in more spawns. It would make this mechanic even more important. 

[Diff]

2 minutes ago, GeekFather said:

Besides light levels, building your house in a temporarly stable area should matter. Just like if it is temporarly un-stable results in more spawns. It would make this mechanic even more important. 

Yeah it'd be nifty if an area's overall stability also operated similarly to the like rain levels of an area, so more unstable areas see more severe rift activity more often. Or if they experienced temporal storms more often, cause right now temporal storms are more like temporal earthquakes

[b0mbyx]

i actually thought u were going in a different direction from the title lol! i do understand tho, i kept having mob spawns in my rooms, so i just downloaded that complete darkness only for supernatural enemies mod  (i'm easily frightened and slowly working on my confidence, getting jump-scared by enemies every .5 seconds in my ostensibly safe home made me want to pull my hair out)

 

NOW my biggest gripe is i cannot get rid of this freaking chicken spawn IN my house. it's a former ruin that i moved into and have since built onto and repaired a lot of the blocks , and made sure that they counted as rooms with the debug command. i can kill them and they don't come back for a while, but eventually i come back to a random flock in my kitchen making a fuss. this is a weird problem to have i'm aware but i'm drowning in poultry already i don't need these!!! D:< more rot for the rot pot i guess until it's resolved somehow