What holds us back - A discussion on the biggest problems with Vintage Story and potential solutions

[Discipline Before Dishonor]

38 minutes ago, williams_482 said:

I don't recall needing to enter creative to get through the Devastation part of Chapter 2.

  Hide contents

I did get confused early on and look up a guide, which clued me in on how to jump and time-switch together to get past the first obstacle which required that. I also spent a fair bit of time figuring out how to work my way up the tower with jumps and time switches, and even took a break somewhere in there because it did take some mental effort to figure everything out. But all in all, I thought it was great? challenging, but worth it. 

 

My main point of contention is this part because it literally requires you to be pixel perfect to get through it. I tried to do this three times and then assumed I was trying the wrong thing and started to look elsewhere - and I ended up dying in my permadeath playthrough, because I started to look elsewhere. Irony is, I was trying the CORRECT thing, but I think that because I was wearing steel armor for protection (which is really intelligent in a place this dangerous when you think about it) I couldn't make the jump, and this hoodwinked me into thinking it wasn't the correct path to take. This jump needs to be tweaked, otherwise more players will experience what I did, and they'll need to look up a video, just to find out that the problem was never with their own reasoning in the first place but rather with the dev's flawed implementation of the solution to this part. 

 

Edited Saturday at 06:42 PM by Discipline Before Dishonor

[LadyWYT]

4 hours ago, Discipline Before Dishonor said:

I was wearing steel armor for protection (which is really intelligent in a place this dangerous when you think about it) I couldn't make the jump

Steel plate armor is very protective, but also bad for mobility, especially for non-Blackguards. Steel chain is a better option here, in more ways than one. The jumps, though tough, can still be done with armor equipped, but plate will likely slow most players down too much.

In the event that one is wearing plate armor, it doesn't hurt to remove a piece or two briefly to get some mobility back, and then put the armor back on once done. 

[CastIronFabric]

1 hour ago, LadyWYT said:

Steel plate armor is very protective, but also bad for mobility, especially for non-Blackguards. Steel chain is a better option here, in more ways than one. The jumps, though tough, can still be done with armor equipped, but plate will likely slow most players down too much.

In the event that one is wearing plate armor, it doesn't hurt to remove a piece or two briefly to get some mobility back, and then put the armor back on once done. 

I have heard the same thing from multiple sources. Good to know because I am was about to make plate. nope

[LadyWYT]

26 minutes ago, CastIronFabric said:

I have heard the same thing from multiple sources. Good to know because I am was about to make plate. nope

To be clear, plate armor isn't bad, but it's not the best armor for adventuring. It's better suited to base defense(plenty of food and healing material at home) or delving deep into caves(mobility isn't a big concern here).

When it comes to jumping around in general, I think as long as your movement speed is above 75% you should be fine for most jumps, but in my experience that's the approximate threshold for beginning to miss jumps instead of succeed.

[Discipline Before Dishonor]

20 hours ago, LadyWYT said:

To be clear, plate armor isn't bad, but it's not the best armor for adventuring. It's better suited to base defense(plenty of food and healing material at home) or delving deep into caves(mobility isn't a big concern here).

When it comes to jumping around in general, I think as long as your movement speed is above 75% you should be fine for most jumps, but in my experience that's the approximate threshold for beginning to miss jumps instead of succeed.

In wilderness survival enemies deal 50% more damage than normal, you have 5 less HP than normal, and I typically play it permadeath so the plate was a non-negotiable thing. However, if I had to do it all over again, I'd remove the plate gear temporarily as you advised to make the jump, after the flying bird thing pelted those arrows on me. There's a respectable grace period between peltings, so I could make the jump and then reequip the plate gear after. Still, in another post somebody suggested having a battle gauntlet of sorts where you have to fight through dangerous legions to potentially fix the elevator early and skip the parkour segments, and that would be an awesome alternative to have. 

Edited Sunday at 09:41 PM by Discipline Before Dishonor

[Ratbatboo]

On 1/22/2026 at 3:57 PM, EmperorPingu said:

I'm not saying we should remove storms or instability entirely, but what I am saying is that their current form within the game is entirely moronic

I would've been far more inclined to enter into a dialog with you if you hadn't used an unnecessary and offensive ad hominem attacks of this type.

Other people have already said most of what I'd add to you specifically in any case. A few of your ideas have merit, but most of them are predicated on an assumption about 'what the game should be' that I don't see evidence of. Not every game should be Pokemon or PalWorld. There's a rich diversity of other things out there, and trying to take those two as models is missing the point that a large part of the market craves something that's niche and isn't 'for everyone,' but instead fits what they want. In every such case, there will be some percentage of players who play, mod extensively, and complain that it's not quite what they want...Even though it's close enough for them to spend time on and write essays about.

  

On 1/24/2026 at 10:03 AM, SCHPETZE said:

I honestly never thought about this, but that you mention it, puts light on the reason I've had slight inconveniences with vintage story, and I agree with you, a good game, is a game where you don't feel discomfort while making a choice...

I would disagree emphatically here.

Some of the best games out there are those where the player realizes that their choices matter, and that no matter what choice they make, the outcome won't be good for all involved and sacrifices will have to be made.

And most of us are well aware of the opposite end, the so-called 'railroad' where all choices are false ones which lead you to the same conclusion regardless, just with slightly different dialog boxes.

Now, perhaps you enjoy such railroad games, but your own enjoyment is far from a universal enjoyment by all.

=========================

The majority of the rest of these really do come down to 'this doesn't play the way I think it should,' with the example of taking extreme mobility-limiting equipment into a high-mobility requirement dungeon being exemplary.

It's clear that not everyone is happy with the way the storms work. The devs would have to be well aware of that, given how frequent complaints about it are. I will agree that they can be frightening for a new player on their initial playthrough (personally, like one of the other commenters, I found that fear exhilirating). If I was going to suggest anything, I'd suggest that perhaps the area around the starting zone perhaps have the remnants of some decaying ruin whose toppling due to erosion marks the beginning of the player's adventure...As it sets off a timer for when the bubble of peace it was generating would fade. Have the floating rifts and the advent of the storm be hallmarks of 'Now you're in the world as everyone else has experienced it.' This satisfies the desire some players are expressing for 'less punishing at the beginning' while still maintaining the story that these rifts and storms destroyed prior civilization and have prevented new civilization from forming.

Set it as a big, obvious toggle during world creation.