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

[LadyWYT]

5 hours ago, SCHPETZE said:

the last we NEED to rely on mods

Here's the thing though...the vanilla game is going to be the developers' vision, and whatever options they deem appropriate to achieve their goals. Anything outside of that will have to be handled by mods, so some players will need to use mods in order to get what they want. It's not possible to account for everyone in vanilla, and the more moving parts there are to account for, the harder it gets to make and maintain content without breaking something in the process, especially when many of those systems intertwine with each other.

[CastIronFabric]

Here is my views overall:

Is this objectively my favorite game ever covering 40+ years of gaming? Yes (with only one other maybe challenging that spot)

Is it perfect? no

Does it contain things I do not like? Yes

What is my measurement of success? Call me a narcissist but for me success is a fun game to play. Given its my favorite game ever, its a success in my mind. I do not care how many people play it. I do not subscribe to the theory that more money from sales = better game. I think looking objectively at the market place that assertion does not hold water.

Conclusion: in my mind it is a smashing success and really the only thing holding it back is me not making mods (now THAT sounds like narcissism but given I do not care what other people think its more like just flat out selfish and too much pride which I am ok with)  

 

 

[Zaph42nd]

3 hours ago, LadyWYT said:

Here's the thing though...the vanilla game is going to be the developers' vision, and whatever options they deem appropriate to achieve their goals. Anything outside of that will have to be handled by mods, so some players will need to use mods in order to get what they want. It's not possible to account for everyone in vanilla, and the more moving parts there are to account for, the harder it gets to make and maintain content without breaking something in the process, especially when many of those systems intertwine with each other.

My thoughts too, mods exist to allow players to shape the game in some ways but not necessarily the core experience, the modularity and mod potential is what I think really is the draw of vintage story. And even if there are changes I don't always agree with, it is fairly easy to roll-back versions or find mods that otherwise revert changes, for example berry-bush reworks initially I reverted via modding till I decided to engage with them more and found that, while I don't think the system is perfect, it does make sense with the other mechanics already in game.

[Novadegree]

6 hours ago, LadyWYT said:

Here's the thing though...the vanilla game is going to be the developers' vision, and whatever options they deem appropriate to achieve their goals. Anything outside of that will have to be handled by mods, so some players will need to use mods in order to get what they want. It's not possible to account for everyone in vanilla, and the more moving parts there are to account for, the harder it gets to make and maintain content without breaking something in the process, especially when many of those systems intertwine with each other.

I agree. I need the mods, to be honest I probably wouldn't still be playing the game without them. But some of what I see in the updates started out as mods or versions of them anyways, it's not too farfetched for me to see what I like to end up in the game (eventualy). 

[grinning_serpent]

In terms of options, I think the most immediate one might be to split up the temporal creatures options into one for creatures in general, and one for temporal storms. Because I agree, in vanilla play the temporal storms are largely pointless.

It might make more sense to try and make them interesting, however. The biggest issue is that they aren't something you really interact with. You go afk in a room or small cubbyhole until it's over. Later in the game you might go out and fight the monsters for lack of anything better to do, but temporal storms spawn high tier monsters while you're still using, at best, maybe some copper gear so you're not going to come out ahead in that equation.

 

So why not make the storms interactive?

- Make them spawn enemies tied to the strength of the storm, so that the first storm of a game probably isn't much that you haven't been seeing already. Ensure that enemies cannot spawn inside what the game defines as a "well-lit room."

- Make slaying enemies accelerate the storm, with the tier of the enemy reducing the storm's length by a greater amount.

- Make enemies able to break low-tier blocks like soil or wood (only when in pursuit of a player they have detected), and able to open unlocked gates and doors, to encourage players to defend themselves and their home instead of just afk in a corner somewhere. This also makes storms more of a threat to be prepared for. That wattle gate is stopping monsters right now, but that storm coming up tomorrow will make it stop being an immovable object to them.

- Players dying during the storm reduces its duration. If all connected players die during the storm (TPK), the storm ends immediately and the current built-up "strength" of storms is cut in half (the next storm will be weaker than the one you just fought, down to some established minimum.) This could be abused, but if players deliberately abuse features to get around gameplay mechanics, maybe they should just turn off those mechanics in settings?

I'd also recommend disabling sleeping during storms so that the player *must* interact with them. It could be limited to just Wilderness Survival if that sounds too strenuous for normal mode.

 

Like it or not, combat is a major element of normal/WS gameplay in VS and it's odd that what should be a regular dangerous time to be prepared for is, in actual play, just a mild annoyance at best. It might also make sense to integrate monsters into the progression curve. A mod I've been playing a lot lately, for example, has monsters have a chance to drop a new item that's required to free things from molds, making slaying monsters and accumulating some of this material a hard requirement to advance into the copper age and something you will always need more of throughout your playthrough. It's a small thing, but it encourages the player to kill isolated monsters or even small packs of them when they'd normally just want to sprint away until they despawn.

[cjc813]

On 1/22/2026 at 9:57 AM, EmperorPingu said:

You do not have to read any further if you don't want to.

It's adorable that you think I read more than the first sentence of the first post.

Not helpful, I know, but Jesus, bro. That was a wall and a half of text.

Ain't nobody got time for that.