Improving Water

[Bruno Willis]

With the addition of rapids, it seems like V.S. is taking another step away from using the water mechanics from the other block game. That's great, because TOBG's water makes no sense and doesn't look good. There are lots of other ways V.S. might change water to improve it. 

Waterfalls: At the moment, when water falls, it remains a full block of blue liquid, which looks nothing like a real waterfall. Characters can swim up it too.

• I would love to see waterfalls changed so that when water drops it gets a different texture, becoming white water, and turning to mist if it falls more than 10 blocks.
• If possible, it would be nice if falling water could fall in a sheet, rather than as a full block of liquid. 
• It'd be lovely if when falling water hit a solid block at the end of its fall it produced a dramatic water splashing animation too.
• On top of that, I don't think the swimming up waterfalls mechanic needs to stay. It's not really that useful, and it seems like an emersion breaking hold-over from TOBG, rather than anything realistic or uncompromising. 

Swimming in Armor: At the moment there is no difference between swimming without any clothing and armor and swimming in full plate armor. There is no risk of drowning if you fall into water on accident. Water is not dangerous.

• I would like it if different sorts of armor restricted swimming in different ways. Textile armors would weigh you down but not prevent you rising to the surface, while chain and scale would make swimming back to the surface hard. Swimming in plate armor would not allow you to rise at all, except stepping up blocks (so you could walk along the bottom and make your way to the surface that way.
• I would like it if wearing bags and baskets restricted swimming in a similar way too. I know that would restrict underwater exploration, but now that we will be able to put down bags and access things inside them, I think it'd feel fine. You'd take your armor off, put it in your bags, and leave most of your bags on the shore when you dive.
• It would be interesting if currents and waves could be used to dunk characters under, making drowning more of a possibility. 

Water's edge: At the moment if you disrupt water sources by breaking a block, they will stay flowing endlessly, even if the body of water is massive, and the area it is trying to fill is a single block.

• I would like to see some way for these sorts of weird flowing water spots to heal naturally. They don't look good, and don't make much sense. When it rains, could the game check flowing water blocks, and if they're surrounded on all sides and on the bottom by either solid blocks, or water, replace the flowing water with a source block?

[LadyWYT]

3 minutes ago, Bruno Willis said:

• I would love to see waterfalls changed so that when water drops it gets a different texture, becoming white water, and turning to mist if it falls more than 10 blocks.
• If possible, it would be nice if falling water could fall in a sheet, rather than as a full block of liquid. 

I would like this too, as well as perhaps small "streams" of water particles dripping out of rocks/cliffs/bluffs/small overhangs to simulate little springs. Perhaps placing an empty bucket or other container underneath them could slowly fill up the vessel.

 

6 minutes ago, Bruno Willis said:

On top of that, I don't think the swimming up waterfalls mechanic needs to stay. It's not really that useful, and it seems like an emersion breaking hold-over from TOBG, rather than anything realistic or uncompromising. 

I'm inclined to agree, however, given that videogame water can be a little goofy, I don't necessarily mind it either, at least in part. The main reason I say that is that while the player should be careful when it comes to exploring their environment, it's probably going to be frustrating for many players to break blocks underwater/explore something underwater only to get sucked into a spot from which they have no escape.

Personally, I've found it fairly easy to get pushed around by moving water in VS, and fairly difficult to swim up the waterfalls. I'm not saying it can't happen, mind you, just that it's quite difficult compared to TOBG and can result in players trapping themselves.

10 minutes ago, Bruno Willis said:

I would like it if different sorts of armor restricted swimming in different ways. Textile armors would weigh you down but not prevent you rising to the surface, while chain and scale would make swimming back to the surface hard. Swimming in plate armor would not allow you to rise at all, except stepping up blocks (so you could walk along the bottom and make your way to the surface that way.

I mostly agree, though I think I liked the way my friend put it the other day when we were talking about it. Something like the Vigor mod would probably be more appropriate here, so that way the players can walk around normally but have a stamina limit for things like sprinting and swimming. Wearing heavy armor increases the amount of stamina used for such actions, and running out of stamina means the player can still walk but can't sprint until they recover a bit. In the case of swimming, there could be a "fast swim" the player activates with the sprint key to get a short burst of speed in the water, which burns stamina faster, while the normal swim speed is much slower but also burns stamina at a much slower rate.

In that way, armor and action choices now have a bigger impact on the entire game, and not just a specific area. Instead of swimming across a massive lake, the player will probably want to build a raft. Since sprinting costs stamina, the player will also want to pace themselves in combat, as well as when exploring, since running too low on critical can mean no escape options when the player really needs them.

16 minutes ago, Bruno Willis said:

I would like it if wearing bags and baskets restricted swimming in a similar way too. I know that would restrict underwater exploration, but now that we will be able to put down bags and access things inside them, I think it'd feel fine. You'd take your armor off, put it in your bags, and leave most of your bags on the shore when you dive.

I still think this would be too harsh, and better suited for a mod, or at the very least an optional challenge in the game settings that is toggled off by default. Wearing four different backpacks should realistically restrict one's movement, however, it would realistically affect more than just swimming and I don't think most players would really enjoy that kind of realism. Granted, I could be wrong, but limited inventory is a somewhat common complaint.

 

20 minutes ago, Bruno Willis said:

Water's edge: At the moment if you disrupt water sources by breaking a block, they will stay flowing endlessly, even if the body of water is massive, and the area it is trying to fill is a single block.

• I would like to see some way for these sorts of weird flowing water spots to heal naturally. They don't look good, and don't make much sense. When it rains, could the game check flowing water blocks, and if they're surrounded on all sides and on the bottom by either solid blocks, or water, replace the flowing water with a source block?

That would definitely be a nice change. I don't know how feasible it would be to code, or for performance, but for filling in those weird pond gaps it would be great.

[Bruno Willis]

33 minutes ago, LadyWYT said:

I would like this too, as well as perhaps small "streams" of water particles dripping out of rocks/cliffs/bluffs/small overhangs to simulate little springs. Perhaps placing an empty bucket or other container underneath them could slowly fill up the vessel.

This would be a lovely addition. It looked to me (on the recent V.S. video showcasing sharpening) that the Devs are working on moss at the moment. I'd love to see mossy patches on the underside of cliffs, dripping water which can be collected. That'd be very atmospheric. 

[Heegrim]

Yeah, idk why they don't use the same logic for filling water bocks as TOBG. A single water block is already an infinite source, so why does the ocean not refill when you make a hole in the shoreline???

[CipherStormwolf]

Water should turn into rapid water if it moves down at a certain steepness for a certain amount of blocks. Simple solution to the problem of limited rapid water. You can move other water sources so why not "move" rapid water?

Another thing could be that the water when turning rapid will move dirt, gravel, sand out of the way and create "rivers" that way the players would need to actually build something to hold it and you would not just get an inifinite amount of rapid water for basically free! Also it needs to interact with cold weather! No waterpower for you in winter, just how there sometimes is no wind. Not sure if that already is a thing in the game, imagine a frozen waterwhell!

That should balance it nicely!

[LadyWYT]

1 minute ago, CipherStormwolf said:

Also it needs to interact with cold weather! No waterpower for you in winter, just how there sometimes is no wind.

One slight problem--fast-moving water tends to be resistant to freezing. A thin layer of ice might develop on the surface if it's cold enough, but it has to be pretty dang cold for moving water to freeze solid.

The main advantage of water power is that it's supposed to be consistent, with the disadvantage being that the player has to build their machinery at the source in order to actually use that kind of power. If rapids can easily freeze up in winter, then water power can easily become something players start ignoring since the benefits no longer outweigh the negatives.

[williams_482]

22 minutes ago, CipherStormwolf said:

Water should turn into rapid water if it moves down at a certain steepness for a certain amount of blocks. Simple solution to the problem of limited rapid water.

The limited and irreplaceable rapid water is a very deliberate design decision, which the dev team have been considering for multiple years. They are being careful to avoid the problems with water power in Minecraft's Create mod, where players being able to create infinite sources of water power anywhere they wish becomes a significant balance issue. 

If all you had to do to create your own rapids was climb a mountain (or pillar up 30 blocks) and dump a bucket, players will just do that. And then do it again for every additional water wheel they want to add. 

[LadyWYT]

8 minutes ago, williams_482 said:

If all you had to do to create your own rapids was climb a mountain (or pillar up 30 blocks) and dump a bucket, players will just do that. And then do it again for every additional water wheel they want to add. 

It could be countered by disabling players from creating water sources via bucket, but that limits options for creativity in addition to other issues.

[Bruno Willis]

2 hours ago, LadyWYT said:

It could be countered by disabling players from creating water sources via bucket, but that limits options for creativity in addition to other issues.

This would be the route I'd use. I think the devs are a bit stuck with water as long as they keep the weird TOBG water rules.

Personally I would love to see a total re-imagining of water mechanics, so that water sources aren't something which can just be placed or destroyed, where water can flow continuously towards low points, rather than just sink into the earth, and where water can be diverted or blocked to flood areas. It's a huge ask, but I think the devs could come up with far better water mechanics than TOBG has, and I think better, more believable water would seriously elevate the game.

Edited March 24 by Bruno Willis
Grammar

[CipherStormwolf]

18 hours ago, williams_482 said:

The limited and irreplaceable rapid water is a very deliberate design decision, which the dev team have been considering for multiple years. They are being careful to avoid the problems with water power in Minecraft's Create mod, where players being able to create infinite sources of water power anywhere they wish becomes a significant balance issue. 

If all you had to do to create your own rapids was climb a mountain (or pillar up 30 blocks) and dump a bucket, players will just do that. And then do it again for every additional water wheel they want to add. 

But in the real world people build dams to gain a powersource, perhaps there could be additional checks the game does to determine if flowing water will turn rapid. I understand that the game should not be too easy and therefore the rapids need to be restricted but there should be something else done. I actually have not checked how common rapids are perhaps you could just build an aqueduct and connect them in a way that will make them usable in your power network. There also is the issue of overheating. I hope when the update comes in full that it will be fun to use and work with. That is the most important thing, therefore sometimes restrictions can be bad.

[CipherStormwolf]

19 hours ago, LadyWYT said:

One slight problem--fast-moving water tends to be resistant to freezing. A thin layer of ice might develop on the surface if it's cold enough, but it has to be pretty dang cold for moving water to freeze solid.

The main advantage of water power is that it's supposed to be consistent, with the disadvantage being that the player has to build their machinery at the source in order to actually use that kind of power. If rapids can easily freeze up in winter, then water power can easily become something players start ignoring since the benefits no longer outweigh the negatives.

Not a bad point but I was talking about the waterwheel itself and those can freeze over and just stop. I would love a mechanic for that, get a hammer and free it from the ice!

[Thorfinn]

On 3/24/2026 at 12:57 PM, LadyWYT said:

It could be countered by disabling players from creating water sources via bucket, but that limits options for creativity in addition to other issues.

Other issues like in Wilderness, you have to find a huge lake to build your farm in because of the crop changes? Either that or a couple dozen small farms dotting the map?

[LadyWYT]

6 minutes ago, Thorfinn said:

Other issues like in Wilderness, you have to find a huge lake to build your farm in because of the crop changes? Either that or a couple dozen small farms dotting the map?

That too, though a decent workaround I've found is just settling in an area with good rainfall. Irrigation does help crop growth times, but it's not absolutely required. 

[DUCATISLO]

water should duplicate similar to minecraft