Sanity/Stability is a problem.

[zartax35]

But it wouldn't be, if we had ways of restoring sanity/ temporal stability.

I keep finding the metals I need are constantly in unstable areas. Which means I've got about 15 minutes of being sub surface before creepy music starts playing letting me know I need to leave. Then I have to go wait somewhere stable for another 15 minutes before i can return. In a game where everything takes a lot of work and time to make happen, this is just completely unnecessary and feels unfinished. However, I love the the threat of going insane and tearing the fabric of reality if you're not careful.

When I first started playing the game, I assumed there would be a way to reduce the drain with equippable items and restore it by using items. Yes you have temporal gears, but after 70 hours in the world and plenty of drifters dispatched, I have 4. This is not sustainable.

Let's be real here, alcohol helps the horrors of life go down easier, I think it should do the same in VS. Low tier alcohol restores a little temporal stability, high tier restores a lot. I'd be happy with a mod that achieves this.

With all these equipment slots you'd figure that there would be at least one item that "lowers temporal stability drain by 5%" but there isn't, and there absolutely should be. I mean I'm wearing a temporal gear around my neck, that should achieve at least like a 2% buff.

These are both things that would be really satisfying to work towards, and would fit in perfectly. As of now, the whole thing feels super unbalanced and unpleasant.

Right now it just feels like you've tried to block half the world of with no recourse unless you just spend hours grinding killing enemies, which itself is not satisfying without mods. 

Addressing this needs to be a focus asap because this is really taking wind out of the sails.

[LadyWYT]

10 hours ago, zartax35 said:

But it wouldn't be, if we had ways of restoring sanity/ temporal stability.

There is though--the player can spend time in a stable area to recover, sacrifice a temporal gear and a bit of health to instantly restore some stability, or kill monsters to restore some stability. For players who don't like the mechanic at all, there is also the option to turn it off entirely.

 

10 hours ago, zartax35 said:

I keep finding the metals I need are constantly in unstable areas. Which means I've got about 15 minutes of being sub surface before creepy music starts playing letting me know I need to leave. Then I have to go wait somewhere stable for another 15 minutes before i can return. In a game where everything takes a lot of work and time to make happen, this is just completely unnecessary and feels unfinished. However, I love the the threat of going insane and tearing the fabric of reality if you're not careful.

The deeper underground one ventures, the more unstable things become. I'll also note that the Rust world ambience is only the first sign that the player's stability is dropping, and not necessarily the cue to leave the area immediately. The ambience fades in around 75% stability, but it's not until around 25% stability that monsters start to spawn nearby, and not until around 15% or lower that temporal storm effects begin. If stability drops to 0%, then the player will start taking periodic damage until they either restore some stability or die.

For the most part, players don't really need to worry about stability until it dips to around the 40% mark, in which case they should consider either heading to the surface or sacrificing a gear/killing some monsters to avoid dropping too low. The intent behind the design, I think, is to require players to do a bit of planning when it comes to where to build their base or what they're doing underground. Time in such areas is limited and thus needs to be used wisely.

10 hours ago, zartax35 said:

When I first started playing the game, I assumed there would be a way to reduce the drain with equippable items and restore it by using items.

There may or may not be such added to the vanilla game in the future, but in the meantime there are various mods that accomplish this kind of concept.

 

10 hours ago, zartax35 said:

Let's be real here, alcohol helps the horrors of life go down easier, I think it should do the same in VS. Low tier alcohol restores a little temporal stability, high tier restores a lot. I'd be happy with a mod that achieves this.

I don't know if it still works on the current version, but: https://mods.vintagestory.at/show/mod/27496

I don't think it's a particularly good idea for vanilla though, given what temporal stability actually is. While it gets compared to sanity a lot, it's not the same thing. When the player loses temporal stability, they are, quite literally, losing their foothold in the present time/reality and slipping into "somewhere else". Drinking alcohol isn't going to stop that from happening. A better use for alcohol would be mitigating a small portion of incoming damage.

10 hours ago, zartax35 said:

With all these equipment slots you'd figure that there would be at least one item that "lowers temporal stability drain by 5%" but there isn't, and there absolutely should be. I mean I'm wearing a temporal gear around my neck, that should achieve at least like a 2% buff.

Maybe, but I would expect it to be something more akin to the night vision mask--that is, a piece of equipment that requires significant investment, and not a simple trinket that can be easily made and worn. Trinkets should really remain cosmetic-only, as providing actual buffs is going to end up pushing players to min-max or else miss out on incredibly useful items. Of course, I will also note that if temporal stability is so easily mitigated by a simple trinket then sacrificing temporal gears to restore stability really has no purpose.

[zartax35]

On 2/1/2026 at 1:35 PM, LadyWYT said:

There is though--the player can spend time in a stable area to recover, sacrifice a temporal gear and a bit of health to instantly restore some stability, or kill monsters to restore some stability. For players who don't like the mechanic at all, there is also the option to turn it off entirely.

 

The deeper underground one ventures, the more unstable things become. I'll also note that the Rust world ambience is only the first sign that the player's stability is dropping, and not necessarily the cue to leave the area immediately. The ambience fades in around 75% stability, but it's not until around 25% stability that monsters start to spawn nearby, and not until around 15% or lower that temporal storm effects begin. If stability drops to 0%, then the player will start taking periodic damage until they either restore some stability or die.

For the most part, players don't really need to worry about stability until it dips to around the 40% mark, in which case they should consider either heading to the surface or sacrificing a gear/killing some monsters to avoid dropping too low. The intent behind the design, I think, is to require players to do a bit of planning when it comes to where to build their base or what they're doing underground. Time in such areas is limited and thus needs to be used wisely.

There may or may not be such added to the vanilla game in the future, but in the meantime there are various mods that accomplish this kind of concept.

 

I don't know if it still works on the current version, but: https://mods.vintagestory.at/show/mod/27496

I don't think it's a particularly good idea for vanilla though, given what temporal stability actually is. While it gets compared to sanity a lot, it's not the same thing. When the player loses temporal stability, they are, quite literally, losing their foothold in the present time/reality and slipping into "somewhere else". Drinking alcohol isn't going to stop that from happening. A better use for alcohol would be mitigating a small portion of incoming damage.

Maybe, but I would expect it to be something more akin to the night vision mask--that is, a piece of equipment that requires significant investment, and not a simple trinket that can be easily made and worn. Trinkets should really remain cosmetic-only, as providing actual buffs is going to end up pushing players to min-max or else miss out on incredibly useful items. Of course, I will also note that if temporal stability is so easily mitigated by a simple trinket then sacrificing temporal gears to restore stability really has no purpose.

No idea how to do the quote thing you did. This is a super comprehensive response, thank you for taking the time to type this up.

Of course I'm aware of the "playing the waiting game" solution. The whole game is a series of waiting games and it doesn't really need more. I'm trying to work around this function. I do have the stabilitea mod and I think it's a great idea, and now that you've explained what's going on when you lose stability it actually makes more sense. I also had no clue killing drifters restored stability, I just never noticed! This should be a solid addition to my arsenal of game knowledge.

Now that this picture has been painted a bit better for me, I almost retract my request for alcohol to restore stability, but now it makes me want it to have some other kind of function. Idk what, but it should do... Something. It's just such an in depth and cool system for it only to restore a bit of hunger and makes things wavy. 

Again, I love the stability mechanic, I had always looked at it as a kind of sanity that causes your mind to slip into the otherworld because you're going mad, I got this vibe because I heard this game had "Lovecraftian Elements" and alcohol seems to be the go to for dealing with the horrors of his storys. I just want more ways to either combat it or work with it to make the whole "Now go wait somewhere else" mechanic less prevalent and painful.  

At the end of the day we need some kind of item that you can grind for and create to restore some stability, and I just feel like being able to do that with a still would be awesome and really add some meaning to moonshining. 

[LadyWYT]

10 hours ago, zartax35 said:

Now that this picture has been painted a bit better for me, I almost retract my request for alcohol to restore stability, but now it makes me want it to have some other kind of function. Idk what, but it should do... Something. It's just such an in depth and cool system for it only to restore a bit of hunger and makes things wavy. 

https://mods.vintagestory.at/slowtox

You might try SlowTox. It boosts health regen and damage, while also potentially poisoning the player if they drink too much at once. Very fun mod, and best paired with something like Daymare's Cup Mod or some other mod that adds smaller drinking vessels. Because otherwise you'll be downing 1 L of alcohol at once, which is quite a lot.

[williams_482]

On 2/1/2026 at 2:35 PM, LadyWYT said:

Trinkets should really remain cosmetic-only, as providing actual buffs is going to end up pushing players to min-max or else miss out on incredibly useful items.

Worth a mention that the temporal gear amulet (and temporal gears stored on an elk) do have a significant practical benefit: the produce a small amount of light. Which doesn't matter that much under ideal circumstances, but if you stumble into a puddle while caving and extinguish your torch, or you're trying to find your mount who wandered off in the dark, it can make a real difference. 

Never mind the benefit of having access to a temporal gear without needing to spend an inventory slot on it.

So if you're in a min-maxing mood, the temporal gear amulet is already the clear best way to use that clothing slot. 

[LadyWYT]

1 minute ago, williams_482 said:

Worth a mention that the temporal gear amulet (and temporal gears stored on an elk) do have a significant practical benefit: the produce a small amount of light. Which doesn't matter that much under ideal circumstances, but if you stumble into a puddle while caving and extinguish your torch, or you're trying to find your mount who wandered off in the dark, it can make a real difference. 

Never mind the benefit of having access to a temporal gear without needing to spend an inventory slot on it.

So if you're in a min-maxing mood, the temporal gear amulet is already the clear best way to use that clothing slot. 

Forlorn Hope amulet works as well. Hoenstly I had forgotten about that when I wrote my initial comment, and I'm not really a fan of going back to edit old comments so I just left it.  That kind of limited utility I don't really mind so much, since it is, well, only useful in very specific circumstances.

Mostly, I don't want to see the trinkets become like Skyrim jewelry or MMO trinkets. It's nice to be able to wear small items to customize character appearance, without having to sacrifice character stats in the process.