Why I set creature hostility to passive

[LadyWYT]

1 hour ago, CastIronFabric said:

Regardless, I can not delete the thread and I would if I could.

Is there a time limit on thread deletion or something? I thought the thread author could delete their own thread at any time by editing the original post. Or at least, I thought it was a listed option if you open the original post for editing.

[WolvenCreator]

Well, after reading through a lot of the comments here and following the flow of analysis I'm so intrigued by this topic that I'm making my first comment ever on VS! XD

I think the psychology of interruptions/randomness is SIMILAR in vein of 'satisfaction' or 'challenge' to the effect waiting/prolonged gratification has on the brain. However, interruptions are uniquely distinct because it has a stronger and more immediate, concentrated negative reaction to something immediately interrupting you (i.e. you're looking at your map and a bowtorn strikes from the darkness). One key here in satisfaction from interruption is how you react to the interruption. You have two choices: Attack (aggression/bravery, high risk) or Flee (fear/desperation, high to medium risk depending on environmental context). A player can experience immense satisfaction by successfully achieving one of those two reactions and therefore the interruption, while annoying and/or stressful, can be overall enjoyable once the interruption and its consequences ends.

But this isn't always true with every interruption. How often these interruptions happen, which is random with VS, has an effect on negative enjoyment. Since it's random, it's not easy to draw quick speculation on enjoyment consistency over time. It can also depend on what the goal is from the concentration.
How important is the resource you're hunting for?
How time-consuming is the goal you're trying to achieve, and how long have you already been doing it?
Environmentally, are you robbed of the ability to perform one or both of the two options?
Are you stuck in a hole, on a cliff, or are you in an open field?
These things, and much more, impact enjoyment felt from interruptions and responses to those interruptions. Especially over time.

Interruptions are largely a negative experience (which can actually create enjoyment despite being negative) unless you enjoy the drama/risk of the reaction(s) to the interruption. This enjoyment, as I mentioned before, varies by environment/situation/goal/time investment. It also depends on the player's personality/mental traits.

Interruptions are generally things that, even if you do not particularly enjoy the drama/risk/success/failure of dealing with the interruption, you enjoy and appreciate in hindsight rather than in the present when you're overcoming/failing them. You complete your goals, multiple goals, and observe the successes you've created through trial, struggle, and time grinds. Interruptions are immensely satisfying as pieces of inconvenience, danger, and excitement within a larger story that you look back on later. That is part of the allure of surviving many years in VS. That satisfaction of looking back is greater than the anger/inconvenience of interruptions throughout the journey.

Vintage Story is largely random in its interruptions. Monsters and unseen holes are unscripted, untailored interruptions a player encounters at random intervals. It won't always 'hit right' in satisfaction - more often than not, actually, it will lean towards a negative experience or a failure to overcome a sudden obstacle rather than succeeding. The RANDOMNESS of it in VS makes it difficult to really land on a solid answer since the scale and consistency of interruptions varies so much between players, maps, goals, and conditions. So it's something you love over time, I think. It's part of that prolonged gratification process for the brain. VS is a big time investment game - veeeery few things come quickly, everything is a prolonged battle, a hunt, or an unplanned obstacle until you finally reach larger milestones you set for yourself. Players that enjoy VS typically have personal traits that really enjoy the waiting game and time grind over a timespan of real-life days or weeks in order to achieve things that, in other games, are practically handed to you within the first hour. The random interruptions are part of the story, messy in nature and often more negative than positive, but its part of the story of experience rather than a procedural system of tailored success for the player.

Edited May 14 by WolvenCreator

[Thorfinn]

Well argued.

I'd suggest there's at least another archetype -- those who enjoy adapting. Set a good half-dozen goals, and not really care what order you complete them, and only rarely do interruptions stop you cold.

I'd think you can find a good parallel in how people deal with adversity IRL. If one tends to be irritable, quick to anger when things don't go his way, he will likely hate in-game interruptions, too. Some of the low-probability solitaire games might be another aspect. Some people can play for hours, days, months, without a single win, others throw the cards in anger or frustration after a few losses.

[WolvenCreator]

Interesting! Survival sims like VS certainly rely on challenging players' adaptability. Adjusting game settings essentially gauges how intensely a player will have to adapt to their environment versus approaching a playthrough with specific less-story/less-combat centered ambitions for a play session. I think that's why the game modes in initial set up is so awesome for VS - standard, wilderness, homo sapiens, and specific customization options. The thrill and frustration of Adaptation is a quiet but very defining driving force in game experience.

Sometimes my goal is to get better at building, or to get better at combat, or to just relax and explore a world. Sometimes I just want to survive and work steadily through milestones. Personally, I don't really know what my playstyle is yet, but I do thoroughly enjoy the long grind of simple survival. I'm warming up to interruptions since I tend to want to complete my goals relatively smoothly, BUT I want to engage with the lore and combat more - interruptions and combat failures tend to frustrate me more than make me feel satisfied. It takes getting through it eventually a journey in itself (with far more failure than success) by working towards goals (weapons, armor, reliable food) that improve my odds.

If I'm expecting to engage with combat improvement, or lore exploration, I'm going to expect to have my ability to adapt to challenges/interruptions be challenged more often. Frustrating/Negative Enjoyment obstacles will occur more often. On the other hand, if I just want to explore or stretch my creativity through building (which I still suck at... so bad), I would enjoy less adaptability challenges from the world. If I just want to build a nice house and start a farm I'm going to be SO frustrated by bowtorn ruining my peace as I harvest crops, or bears interrupting my ten minute staring contest with my ugly house.

[LadyWYT]

On 5/14/2026 at 9:48 AM, WolvenCreator said:

Interruptions are generally things that, even if you do not particularly enjoy the drama/risk/success/failure of dealing with the interruption, you enjoy and appreciate in hindsight rather than in the present when you're overcoming/failing them. You complete your goals, multiple goals, and observe the successes you've created through trial, struggle, and time grinds. Interruptions are immensely satisfying as pieces of inconvenience, danger, and excitement within a larger story that you look back on later. That is part of the allure of surviving many years in VS. That satisfaction of looking back is greater than the anger/inconvenience of interruptions throughout the journey.

This is one thing that I've come to really enjoy about Vintage Story's design compared to other games: it's not really afraid to challenge or otherwise inconvenience players when necessary, and that's part of what keeps it enjoyable. Sometimes choices matter, perhaps even being the difference between life and death, and overcoming obstacles feels like actual rewarding progress since success hinges heavily on players figuring things out for themselves and applying knowledge appropriately. 

I can't really say the same about many other games, at least not modern ones. There's not necessarily anything wrong with removing the "boring" or "tedious" parts of gameplay, but sometimes those parts are critical to providing the balance that makes the game as a whole more enjoyable to play. One of my favorite childhood games, Age of Empires, made this mistake. A big part of AoE 2 was managing one's economic power by making sure villagers were not only well-protected and working, but also that they were working efficiently, which meant making sure they had resources depots nearby. AoE 3 tried to improve by removing resource depots entirely and just letting the resources be added directly to the stockpile, as well as making the "idle villager" button a flag that only popped up when someone was actually idle. It wasn't bad, persay, but it did remove a large layer of complexity that many players enjoyed and left fewer options for strategy.

[Thorfinn]

Assuming things have not changed too much, wolves, bears, drifters, bowtorn, etc. cannot get through a diagonal fence, while you can run between the posts at top speed. Make it zig-zag if you want. Use a "V" fence instead of a useless crude door in the early game. Between torches and fences, it's pretty easy to build a place that's safe to build. Until they decide to add, um, 14(?) variants on each fence block.