Official VS Modpacks???

[greeny sheepy]

I realize that VSModDB exists, but would the devs or whoever manages that site consider adding a "Modpacks" Section? A lot of youtubers who play this game and that I watch have the list of mods they use and customize in their descriptions to make certain challenges or aesthetics things possible. Custom challenges like Skyblock and Arctic survival require certain mods and certain tweaks. I think that as more and more of these come up it might be prudent to allow a space on the official VSModDB to allow these packs to become more accessible from one click. Forgive me if this already exists in some form, but this idea spawned as I was watching a youtuber do a challenge, they explained that they tweaked mods slightly to make it more possible, and that as a semi-modder themselves, I thought that they'd understand how to navigate and upload the pack to the VSModDB if there was a vehicle for it.

[Maelstrom]

Welcome to the forums!

Currently there is no such thing.  Frankly, the popularity of VS exploded about a year ago when sales tripled so there hasn't really been a need for such a change.

[Broccoli Clock]

20 hours ago, greeny sheepy said:

I realize that VSModDB exists, but would the devs or whoever manages that site consider adding a "Modpacks" Section?

My 2 cents worth. This would be for an external developer/team to do. The game devs should not be collating together what they think the user wants, not only does that leave open the accusation of bias (why include one author's mod and not the other), it also relies on the devs to test every update of those mods. There is a reason modpacks are offered by, for example, CurseForge and not Microsoft themselves. 

All in all, the devs should take a cursory glance at the modding scene, if only to see what QoL is being patched or what is gaining popularity, but there is a roadmap and that should not change and it certainly shouldn't be driven by what is hot or not in the mod db. 

As for whether modpacks are needed is a different question, @Maelstrom pretty much nailed it with "there's not really the need for them". Remember, MC is a bad game, built poorly and relying on a stack of mods, piled jenga style, in order to wrangle the experience you want. There is no overarching control over who mods what so you need modpacks because the modding ecosystem is such a f*cking mess. 

 

Edit: Do I think the Mod DB needs a facelift? Yes, yes I definitely do. It's functional at present, but far from intuitive. It seems like something that was written to handle much less traffic/mods, and lacks a lot of the filtering, searching functionality you need as the db expands. As someone who has uploaded mods to the db, I've not found the process all that enjoyable at the start but I'm getting the hang of it. As a dev that focused a lot on web apps, I would love the opportunity to build it from the ground up.

 

Edited December 9, 2025 by Broccoli Clock

[Maelstrom]

27 minutes ago, Broccoli Clock said:

All in all, the devs should take a cursory glance at the modding scene, if only to see what QoL is being patched or what is gaining popularity, but there is a roadmap and that should not change and it certainly shouldn't be driven by what is hot or not in the mod db.

I'm sure they do.  The sepia map implementation in 1.19 was based on a mod introduced in 1.17 or 1.18.  I believe Tyron likes (read wants to implement) the idea of moving containers that CarryOn implements but doesn't want the added invetnory from a "wearable" container.

[Broccoli Clock]

6 minutes ago, Maelstrom said:

I'm sure they do.  The sepia map implementation in 1.19 was based on a mod introduced in 1.17 or 1.18.  I believe Tyron likes (read wants to implement) the idea of moving containers that CarryOn implements but doesn't want the added invetnory from a "wearable" container.

For QoL things, and I can see that carry on is that although I'd prefer that you had to make a "special rig" (nothing more than rope and maybe sticks) in order for the item to go on your back, I feel the biggest issue is balance. Sure there might be a QoL mod, but the reason it's unQoL is down to balancing, especially the early game.

I think it's "good development" to keep an eye on what is trending, but as a dev myself I know how easy it is to get distracted. 

Edited December 9, 2025 by Broccoli Clock

[greeny sheepy]

On 12/9/2025 at 6:50 AM, Broccoli Clock said:

My 2 cents worth. This would be for an external developer/team to do. The game devs should not be collating together what they think the user wants, not only does that leave open the accusation of bias (why include one author's mod and not the other), it also relies on the devs to test every update of those mods. There is a reason modpacks are offered by, for example, CurseForge and not Microsoft themselves. 

All in all, the devs should take a cursory glance at the modding scene, if only to see what QoL is being patched or what is gaining popularity, but there is a roadmap and that should not change and it certainly shouldn't be driven by what is hot or not in the mod db. 

As for whether modpacks are needed is a different question, @Maelstrom pretty much nailed it with "there's not really the need for them". Remember, MC is a bad game, built poorly and relying on a stack of mods, piled jenga style, in order to wrangle the experience you want. There is no overarching control over who mods what so you need modpacks because the modding ecosystem is such a f*cking mess. 

 

Edit: Do I think the Mod DB needs a facelift? Yes, yes I definitely do. It's functional at present, but far from intuitive. It seems like something that was written to handle much less traffic/mods, and lacks a lot of the filtering, searching functionality you need as the db expands. As someone who has uploaded mods to the db, I've not found the process all that enjoyable at the start but I'm getting the hang of it. As a dev that focused a lot on web apps, I would love the opportunity to build it from the ground up.

 

I'm not saying the dev team themselves need to put the modpacks together, but players are the authors of the mods themselves (unless I am incorrect about this one). I'm just saying create a vehicle for people to essentially share their modpacks with ease using VSModDB they way they already do with standalone mods. A new page where people submit full modpacks that they've tweaked values with to create that experience, or popular setups that people consider the essentials.

Say I want to share my combination of mods I call it "Vanilla Plus", and edited some of the values in the mods json files to create this slightly different experience that people with little to no knowledge of config editing want to use themselves. Just a page where there are modpacks that people can upload and create stable combinations of mods.

This can also simplify the recreation of modpacks. Rather than reading a forum post or checking the description of a youtube video and looking for all the mods myself, then trial and erroring the different files and updates of the mods, then finding out because "Mod A" updated it creates a fatal error with "Mod B" in one of the main things "Mod B" offers, there is a place where we know the mods work together on the same version without the errors updates to individual mods may cause. Perhaps a modpack is mods A through Z with tweaks here and there to balance, and we know that all these files work seamlessly together on VS 1.20.5, but in VS 1.22 some of the mods stopped being updated, or no longer are compatible with overlaps.

Trust me, I know MC is a bad game I played it for years then quit when I got this game, but at the same time, the mods the community offers add a spice of life to the game that allow for smoother gameplay in some regards, and exciting challenges or very useful tools in others. It may be prudent that just a new page on VSModDB is added for people to upload their modpacks.

As the game gains popularity, I can definitely see the want to fully replicate people's tweaked modpacks to get the experience they did.
My own example is of wanting to try a skyblock challenge in VS. I've seen it done, but the youtuber themselves said they edited a lot of the mods in order to get the balance and right materials in to make the whole experience possible. I would love to try it out, but I don't have the in-depth knowledge of config editing fully myself to try and recreate it. 

Sure, it's not necessary, but it would be nice. Maybe unused for a while, but as this game gains popularity and MC gets left in the dust, it seems almost inevitable that people would want to have a whole different experience within the confines of VS survival.

Perhaps I'm in over my head at this idea, but VSModDB on its own was an extremely crazy thing for me to discover, a centralized area for people to upload mods that are of such quality. Why not just add a page where people can share their combination of those unique and already seamless experiences?

[greeny sheepy]

2 minutes ago, greeny sheepy said:

I'm not saying the dev team themselves need to put the modpacks together, but players are the authors of the mods themselves (unless I am incorrect about this one). I'm just saying create a vehicle for people to essentially share their modpacks with ease using VSModDB they way they already do with standalone mods. A new page where people submit full modpacks that they've tweaked values with to create that experience, or popular setups that people consider the essentials.

Say I want to share my combination of mods I call it "Vanilla Plus", and edited some of the values in the mods json files to create this slightly different experience that people with little to no knowledge of config editing want to use themselves. Just a page where there are modpacks that people can upload and create stable combinations of mods.

This can also simplify the recreation of modpacks. Rather than reading a forum post or checking the description of a youtube video and looking for all the mods myself, then trial and erroring the different files and updates of the mods, then finding out because "Mod A" updated it creates a fatal error with "Mod B" in one of the main things "Mod B" offers, there is a place where we know the mods work together on the same version without the errors updates to individual mods may cause. Perhaps a modpack is mods A through Z with tweaks here and there to balance, and we know that all these files work seamlessly together on VS 1.20.5, but in VS 1.22 some of the mods stopped being updated, or no longer are compatible with overlaps.

Trust me, I know MC is a bad game I played it for years then quit when I got this game, but at the same time, the mods the community offers add a spice of life to the game that allow for smoother gameplay in some regards, and exciting challenges or very useful tools in others. It may be prudent that just a new page on VSModDB is added for people to upload their modpacks.

As the game gains popularity, I can definitely see the want to fully replicate people's tweaked modpacks to get the experience they did.
My own example is of wanting to try a skyblock challenge in VS. I've seen it done, but the youtuber themselves said they edited a lot of the mods in order to get the balance and right materials in to make the whole experience possible. I would love to try it out, but I don't have the in-depth knowledge of config editing fully myself to try and recreate it. 

Sure, it's not necessary, but it would be nice. Maybe unused for a while, but as this game gains popularity and MC gets left in the dust, it seems almost inevitable that people would want to have a whole different experience within the confines of VS survival.

Perhaps I'm in over my head at this idea, but VSModDB on its own was an extremely crazy thing for me to discover, a centralized area for people to upload mods that are of such quality. Why not just add a page where people can share their combination of those unique and already seamless experiences?

One more to add: perhaps I was misleading with the "Official" part of the title, by official I meant endorsed the way the discord and VSModDB itself offers when showing off mods and offering a place for discussion over them. Not that the devs need to craft these modpacks.

[Zane Mordien]

On 12/9/2025 at 10:29 AM, Broccoli Clock said:

For QoL things, and I can see that carry on is that although I'd prefer that you had to make a "special rig" (nothing more than rope and maybe sticks) in order for the item to go on your back, I feel the biggest issue is balance.

I still don't think they will ever let  you "wear" a container on your back. Strapping a chest to your back along with 4 backpacks doens't make sense. Even the 4 backpacks makes little sense. Moving a container around in your hands, I can see as something they would implement because it just lets you move things around your base. Longer distance would be too cumbersome. I've been wrong before though.

[hjvtdev]

11 hours ago, Zane Mordien said:

I still don't think they will ever let  you "wear" a container on your back. Strapping a chest to your back along with 4 backpacks doens't make sense. Even the 4 backpacks makes little sense. Moving a container around in your hands, I can see as something they would implement because it just lets you move things around your base. Longer distance would be too cumbersome. I've been wrong before though.

And that's why the four backpacks need to get lost! Add baseline "pockets", steal non-storage hotbar idea from Factorio to compensate, add belt pouch slot and a back slot, categorize items into two sizes: small and large.

Small items can be placed in any inventory, large items can only be carried in the back slot, either a single stack directly, or however many fit into a carryable container.

Boom, a much more immersive inventory system without the annoyance of having both the slot and the weight limit, or having to come up with weight ratings for everything.

[Zane Mordien]

4 hours ago, hjvtdev said:

And that's why the four backpacks need to get lost! Add baseline "pockets", steal non-storage hotbar idea from Factorio to compensate, add belt pouch slot and a back slot, categorize items into two sizes: small and large.

Small items can be placed in any inventory, large items can only be carried in the back slot, either a single stack directly, or however many fit into a carryable container.

Boom, a much more immersive inventory system without the annoyance of having both the slot and the weight limit, or having to come up with weight ratings for everything.

I'm not a fan of the inventory management game with large and small items. It would look better as a backpack and 3 backpack attachments that expand it's inventory space. This game does not need a weight system. That would suck the fun out for the castle builders, which is a sizable part of the player base it seems to me. If they did, they would need to revamp when you get pack animals to make it more reasonable. 

Hey, maybe then they could make a Jonas Pack animal linking device so you could pull inventory from the pack animal within 100 blocks and finally there would be a use for Jonas tech.

[hjvtdev]

1 hour ago, Zane Mordien said:

That would suck the fun out for the castle builders, which is a sizable part of the player base it seems to me.

I think quite the opposite. Want to build? Just plop down your adventuring backpack, pick up your building backpack, and go on building.

[Brandon S]

I just wanted to say that I agree. We don’t necessarily need official modpacks, but since Vintage Story modding is so centralized on VSModDB, it makes sense for the DB to host modpacks just like Modrinth and CurseForge do.

On top of that, I think we’d benefit from better instance management in the launcher (I know we don't really have a launcher). I know we technically have that already, but it's manual. Another solution could be world specific mod sets, just like Luanti. 

With better instance management + modpacks, we could have a pack with a specific set of mods pinned to a specific version, installed to a dedicated game version with its own worlds and config.

I’m not sure if this is the direction the devs want to go in, but I think it would make it much easier for modpacks to function as standalone game modes or even games, it would make "overhaul" mods easier, so we'd have stuff like TFC and VintageCraft popping up for VS, and who knows, maybe more games spawning from VS. 

I wonder if this is the direction the devs want to go in because I know it's very Minecraft-coded, but I feel like not everything MC does is inherently bad. Minecraft's official launcher does instance management, but sucks at mods, VS treats mods as a first class citizen, but no instance management by default, I believe we should have both. Minecraft leaves modpacks to third parties because they barely support modding, VS is one of the most pro-modding games out there, and modpacks and overhaul mods are an inherent part of modding, so why not treat it as a first class citizen too?

[Brandon S]

3 minutes ago, Brandon S said:

With better instance management + modpacks, we could have a pack with a specific set of mods pinned to a specific version, installed to a dedicated game version with its own worlds and config.

I do think there's a problem when it comes to storage, storing multiple old versions of mods might not be feasible. So I guess for stuff like that, the modpack might have to link to third party hosting if not using the latest version of the mod, as to only store the latest and the pre-release versions of the mods. 

So having modpacks be more like a recipe than an actual file.

Edited 20 hours ago by Brandon S
typo

[Broccoli Clock]

This is sort of adjacent to modpacks, and I am of the opinion we don't "need" modpacks just now, but equally can see how they would be nice to have as the game gets more and more complex. My problem is less about the modpacks themselves, but the way they would be accessed, and that in turn brings up the Mod DB.

When I put up my first mod, I found the Mod DB to work but be finicky. When I posted a comment about how things could be better I was contacted by someone (honestly can't remember who) saying the Mod DB was to be updated and improved, and I have to say it's desperately needed. Since then, noting has changed, and I do wonder if it ever will. I hope so.

Listen, it's not a bad setup, it does what it needs to and the "1 click install" does a lot of the lifting, but the layout, the search/filter options, and just the overall feel doesn't make me want to spend time on there. It feels even more awkward uploading your own mods, and then in turn updating them. 

I'm not throwing shade here, the mods are locally hosted (which is important to stop exploits and malware), and as I say the "1 click install" is a really good idea, but I spent decades writing extremely complex web apps for multinational companies, so I've got a pretty good idea of the levels of UI/UX required.

If VS/Anego/Devs want mods to be a serious part of the game, and I believe that is the case, then they need to desperately look at the mod section. It's fine, let me be clear, it is entirely functional, but you want it to be more than functional, you want to be "fun".

Currently it feels like a setup for a tight nit community of relatively informed users, this is always the core audience for indie games that gain traction, but if VS "fully hits the mainstream" then I hate to say it, it's not really fit for that purpose. I don't want to sound miserable, I am sure there are people dedicated to keeping the Mod DB working correctly, and I don't want to diminish their input.