Predictions of what devs will have playable by next version

[Facethief]

As stated above. What do you think the devs have been working on? What features do you think they prioritized?

[Micah Holmes]

rivers

[Facethief]

How deeply insightful.

[ifoz]

From the Discord devlogs, we know of forge improvements (metal tongs, bellows, quenching and tempering), as well as status effects (psychedelic shaders when eating the wrong mushrooms). 
There's also a sharpening system that seems to just add a temporary flat damage boost to your weapons.

From Elvas' dev streams, we also know about the overhauled trader outposts (no more wagons, they have huts!) as well as some work on the procedural ruins/dungeons.

There's also a concept for a functional wardrobe, though we don't know if that is actually coming in 1.22 or not.

Edited November 10, 2025 by ifoz

[Alonso7]

They have show multiple fish species, so fishing is coming for sure. 

[Vexxvididu]

The post made it sound like rivers were a big maybe.  I wouldn't be surprised if they don't work out since they'd heavily disrupt current world generation.  Would be cool though.

I'm a bit worried that metal working will be made more complex than needed.  I like how it is now.... though I'd not be opposed to making the more advanced materials complicated. I'd want copper and bronze to work much the same as they do now.  But maybe have the new stuff be relevant to steel and even iron.  That's of course just my opinion.

[Teh Pizza Lady]

8 hours ago, ifoz said:

From Elvas' dev streams, we also know about the overhauled trader outposts (no more wagons, they have huts!)

That's... kind of already in the game.

on 1.21.5, our Treasure Hunter trader lives in a crude hut (that does not count as an insulating room and I am unable to take shelter there from the wind and rain!  )

 

Edited November 10, 2025 by Teh Pizza Lady

[LadyWYT]

Rivers I wouldn't expect to see until a very major update, given that's the kind of thing that would essentially require a new world(they could probably generate in old worlds fine, but who wants to walk for miles to find one) and it's something very difficult to do right. If it's not done right, then it won't feel like it fits properly in the VS world. 

And yes, I know there is a mod or two that adds rivers, so it seems "easy" to implement, however...to my knowledge, those mods also have a lot of issues(bugs, doesn't play nicely with other mods, etc) and leave oddities in the landscape(like tunnels through mountains). A proper river in the game shouldn't be causing issues and should look like it actually belongs where it exists.

[Teh Pizza Lady]

1 hour ago, LadyWYT said:

A proper river in the game shouldn't be causing issues and should look like it actually belongs where it exists.

I will note that some rivers may actually carve holes through mountains but those are rare. Usually formed by lava tubes that later become filled with water. The rest are formed by water seeping through cracks in limestone and slowly eroding away the rock until it widens into a proper river, usually over a long period of time.

[hstone32]

Rivers, as mentioned, but I'm really hoping for a status effect system also. I can think of so many things that can be built off of status effects. Herbalism is the obvious thing, but there could be other systems, like penalizing players who eat only 1 type of nutrition, or an actual sanity system (instead of everyone mistaking temporal stability for sanity).

[Echo Weaver]

1 hour ago, Teh Pizza Lady said:

I will note that some rivers may actually carve holes through mountains but those are rare. Usually formed by lava tubes that later become filled with water. The rest are formed by water seeping through cracks in limestone and slowly eroding away the rock until it widens into a proper river, usually over a long period of time.

Those tunnels don't look like perfectly round railroad tunnels, though.

[MKMoose]

1 hour ago, Vexxvididu said:

I'm a bit worried that metal working will be made more complex than needed.  I like how it is now.... though I'd not be opposed to making the more advanced materials complicated. I'd want copper and bronze to work much the same as they do now.  But maybe have the new stuff be relevant to steel and even iron.

A lot of the new additions seem to be completely optional. Hopefully, this means that while the total complexity of forging will increase, the minimum effort required to obtain a usable product will not change much if at all.

Quenching and tempering are also generally only used for ferrous alloys from what I've seen, which means that working with copper and bronze will likely stay mostly unaffected.

I do also hope they don't overdo it with the new features, because metalworking is already pretty complex as is and takes a while for a new player to learn and master, but it is undeniable that the current mechanics have a lot of potential for greater variety while forging and for additional refining and maintenance after the initial forging. I think I trust them to balance this quite well to avoid overwhelming newer players.

[Teh Pizza Lady]

2 hours ago, Echo Weaver said:

Those tunnels don't look like perfectly round railroad tunnels, though.

Well I never used the mod so I wouldn't know LOL

[Echo Weaver]

Just now, Teh Pizza Lady said:

Well I never used the mod so I wouldn't know LOL

I played with it on a server that I joined briefly (not their fault, they were awesome -- soil gravity was crashing my client).

It definitely has a lot to recommend it, but the rivers don't feel real. They have currents, which is super cool (though I think resource-intensive). However, I think they are all at sea level, which means that they're almost always at the bottom of a canyon. There's no sense of rivers running downhill. And when they run up against a geologic formation high enough, they cut through with a perfectly circular tunnel. Honestly, I'd guess that if the devs took inspiration from the mod, the uncanny tunnel shape is probably the easiest thing to fix. I'm pretty sure the big thing they're crunching on is integrating rivers with landscape elevation.

[ifoz]

9 hours ago, Teh Pizza Lady said:

That's... kind of already in the game.

on 1.21.5, our Treasure Hunter trader lives in a crude hut (that does not count as an insulating room and I am unable to take shelter there from the wind and rain!  )

I know, but now there's also going to be huts/outposts for all traders. Wagons have been phased out!
...At least in their current form. I did see that there was a really large wagon, almost like a house on wheels.
Maybe that'll be one of those really rare outposts of 2-3 traders?

Edited November 11, 2025 by ifoz

[Vexxvididu]

7 hours ago, MKMoose said:

A lot of the new additions seem to be completely optional. Hopefully, this means that while the total complexity of forging will increase, the minimum effort required to obtain a usable product will not change much if at all.

Quenching and tempering are also generally only used for ferrous alloys from what I've seen, which means that working with copper and bronze will likely stay mostly unaffected.

I do also hope they don't overdo it with the new features, because metalworking is already pretty complex as is and takes a while for a new player to learn and master, but it is undeniable that the current mechanics have a lot of potential for greater variety while forging and for additional refining and maintenance after the initial forging. I think I trust them to balance this quite well to avoid overwhelming newer players.

I think I agree on all points.  And yes, quenching is only really a thing in the real world for carbon steels.  Quenching other alloys is mostly not to harden them if done at all.

Would be great if they added more ability to repair metal tools...  we'll see.  I trust them to add cool stuff without making the basics too hard.

[Broccoli Clock]

If rivers are introduced, and I think they should be (for a game that leans into realistic world gen rivers are distinctly conspicuous by their absence), I really hope they integrate it into the climate/biome/geography. The rivers mod, which I've used and in many ways replicates rivers pretty well, is a bit of a blunt instrument. No shade, it's trying to do something the game doesn't do just now.

How lovely would it be to see genuine marshes generated because of a river hitting low lying soil, or a canyon like structure with a river in its valley that has eaten away the sandstone but left the granite? Rivers starting at believable locations (such as high level run off, melt water and or lake drainage) or rising up in sedimentary basins flowing from natural aquifers under the ground. Jinkies if you could tie it up to the weather cycle we could have seasonal flooding. 

It's all a lot of work, of course, a ton of work, and with things that involve random gen, the testing to make sure it worked both correctly and added to the gameplay would be a nightmare. That said, what a lovely experience it would be.

As for the rest of the possible additions, I have no issue with tweaking around the metal work. I've always felt that if you smith a (for example) iron pickaxe, that head of that axe isn't going to break. The handle might, it's a stick, but the head won't. It will, in real life, become dulled and a way to sharpen them would resolve that and stop the need for repeatedly smithing tools. It's a game balance, of course, if you provide a way for players to constantly sharpen blunted tools, then you reduce the requirement on smithing in the first place. I think there is wiggle room to expand the gameplay in a way that doesn't lean too heavily one way or the other.

Bit disappointed not to see all that much focus on future fauna, adding more (and varied wildlife) adds so much to the game, but we'll see how that progresses. 

Edited November 11, 2025 by Broccoli Clock

[LadyWYT]

3 hours ago, Broccoli Clock said:

I've always felt that if you smith a (for example) iron pickaxe, that head of that axe isn't going to break. The handle might, it's a stick, but the head won't. It will, in real life, become dulled and a way to sharpen them would resolve that and stop the need for repeatedly smithing tools.

Given the couple of snippets I saw, I'm guessing that metal tools will still be at risk of breaking. However, it looks like the player might have more control over how likely those tools are to break, via the tempering process. I'm guessing that tempering tools to be harder will allow them to retain a sharper edge for a longer time, with the tradeoff being a higher chance to break. Less tempering probably results in a softer tool that won't hold an edge so well, but won't be as prone to breaking either.

Is it true to real life? Eh, kind of. In real life, you can recycle broken metal tools back into something usable, but in the context of a videogame like Vintage Story, I think some risk of breaking(and losing the tool) is needed to help keep things balanced. Otherwise, the player will never need to seek out new ore deposits.

[Broccoli Clock]

16 hours ago, LadyWYT said:

.. is needed to help keep things balanced. 

Yeah.. pretty much the answer to every, "it's like this IRL, why doesn't the game do that?", question. It's always going to be the bar you set in any realistic/immersive environment. 

I do like to lean into realism, but you have to have sacrifices for balance.

[Shoom]

I pray for more mechanical doohickies. 

Edited November 13, 2025 by Shoom