Bowtorns and drifter stones should be able to 'break' basic windows.

[Broccoli Clock]

As the title suggests.

The argument is weakest from the stone throw, as it is just that - pretty weak, although if it didn't break the glass it would be nice for it to make a solid "stone against glass" sound. The bowtorn arrows though, they can hit hard, and have a very solid "thunk" when they land against your base. It totally makes sense that if they hit glass, it'd break. In fact it's almost comical that you can stand behind glass and get peppered by high speed javelins and still be safe!

Edit: Sorry I should have made this clear, I was originally intending for the glass to fall out of it's location, rather than be destroyed and you have to craft a new one to replace it.

How do you stop them from breaking your windows? Why... make proper windows, with lead. There is now a reason to upgrade the window other than cosmetics, or you could create shutters using gates on the outside. I do think shutters are very conspicuous by their absence, this is a deeply cottage core game after all, where are my couthie wooden shutters?

Anyway, the question is probably.. "Why?" I feel there should be more of a threat from mobs around your base, and that includes during storms. If I had my way enough stones or bowtorn arrows against things like doors would be enough to break them, but I doubt many others would vibe with that idea, but broken windows seems a nice trade off. I retains a level of fear without directly affecting the access of the mobs although will open up windows for bowtorns to target you, and you'd also likely loose the room bonus too (depending on your base layout). 

Most players, not all, but certainly from my experience of watching streamers probably the majority of players end up with a base that looks a little "castle like" and we've all seen the mega builds where the castle intent was far more explicit, and trust me I don't want to turn the game into a tower defence game (although, an interesting mod/overhaul suggestion considering the game's framework) but equally it would be nice for there to be an undercurrent of fear/worry/concern even if it's not present. Think of the jump scare nature of you just happily making some food, the evening has drawn in, the pot is bubbling away, perhaps the rain is gently pitter-patting outside, then *crash* a bowtorn arrow gets launched into your kitchen.

Edited March 14 by Broccoli Clock

[Silfrenbirce]

25 minutes ago, Broccoli Clock said:

Most players, not all, but certainly from my experience of watching streamers probably the majority of players end up with a base that looks a little "castle like"

I would in fact bet a lot of money that it's the opposite.  What you see streamers do almost certainly does not reflect what the majority of players are doing.  I sincerely doubt that anything approaching a majority of players are building castles, let alone mega builds.  I'm not sure what your point is with this, though, unless to suggest that even people who build up those elaborate bases should still have to worry about bowtorn getting at them.

On the one hand I can appreciate the merit of applying some pressure to players to ensure that their housing is adequate protection against the wild things that creep at night or during temporal storms.  That said, I also think there's a risk of making the game too frustrating and tedious.  Bowtorn are already quite dangerous as it is.

[Broccoli Clock]

Just now, Silfrenbirce said:

I would in fact bet a lot of money that it's the opposite.  What you see streamers do almost certainly does not reflect what the majority of players are doing.  I sincerely doubt that anything approaching a majority of players are building castles, let alone mega builds.  I'm not sure what your point is with this, though, unless to suggest that even people who build up those elaborate bases should still have to worry about bowtorn getting at them.

You've taken the conjecture as my main point here. I mention castle builds because the vast majority of players do end up with something like that. When I say castle builds I mean something that would be considered a simple motte and bailey setup, not necessarily a massive structure with D&D style battlements. Essentially any building/base that has some way to stop mobs from entering it would be considered a castle build, although it's etymologically lazy on my behalf.

My actual main point is that mobs throw things and that glass is breakable, you'll probably find you break your own windows by accident loads of times, so it makes sense for that to be reflected (no pun intended!) with projectiles.

4 minutes ago, Silfrenbirce said:

On the one hand I can appreciate the merit of applying some pressure to players to ensure that their housing is adequate protection against the wild things that creep at night or during temporal storms.  That said, I also think there's a risk of making the game too frustrating and tedious.  Bowtorn are already quite dangerous as it is.

I think this is a far more valid dividing line than the castle/not castle thing. It would become frustrating and annoying, the level of that annoyance would be that the glass is permanently broken and you have to replace, rather than just pick it up and return it to its initial location. I wasn't clear which of those I meant, so my bad for that, it is the latter though, that they knock the glass out rather than destroy it.

Bowtorns are a pain in the ass already, but I appreciate this decision wouldn't bring them any more love, that's fair..

[Urmanin]

This is one of the worst suggestions I have ever seen. Genuinely what is wrong with you

[Broccoli Clock]

1 hour ago, Urmanin said:

This is one of the worst suggestions I have ever seen. Genuinely what is wrong with you

I'll take that as a badge of honour, rather than an insult!  

 

 

 

[Shoom]

How would the bowtorns tell your main house apart from say, your greenhouse though? Having to rebuild that every morning would be quite painful. 

[Broccoli Clock]

22 minutes ago, Shoom said:

How would the bowtorns tell your main house apart from say, your greenhouse though? Having to rebuild that every morning would be quite painful. 

The bowtorns aim at where you are. I'm not suggesting they can see through walls or anything daft, you need to tease them like you do now in order to get them to throw.

As for making sure they don't break your greenhouse as opposed your house, the simple answer is to not go in your greenhouse when being shot at by a bowtorn.

[Shoom]

2 minutes ago, Broccoli Clock said:

The bowtorns aim at where you are. I'm not suggesting they can see through walls or anything daft, you need to tease them like you do now in order to get them to throw.

As for making sure they don't break your greenhouse as opposed your house, the simple answer is to not go in your greenhouse when being shot at by a bowtorn.

Yeah my bad, I just assumed they would deliberately target glass blocks as they currently don't try to fire at you through windows from my knowledge.

[LadyWYT]

It's not a setting I would play with myself, but...I like it. Definitely not something that should be on by default except for Wilderness Survival, maybe, but as an optional difficulty? Sure, why not. It gives an option for players to allow mobs to be more destructive, in a way that's reasonable, without needing to mess with the block placement/chisel system.

4 hours ago, Broccoli Clock said:

Edit: Sorry I should have made this clear, I was originally intending for the glass to fall out of it's location, rather than be destroyed and you have to craft a new one to replace it.

Also helps that I'm reading all that with this note in place.  One possible way to cheese this is by just making sure all the glass is chiseled, however, that could potentially be accounted for by making all glass-type chiseled blocks act as glass and fall out of place, perhaps. Blocks that qualify as stone or wood could remain as-is, which still allows players the option of chiseling fancy windows if they so choose.

[Silfrenbirce]

8 hours ago, Broccoli Clock said:

You've taken the conjecture as my main point here. I mention castle builds because the vast majority of players do end up with something like that. When I say castle builds I mean something that would be considered a simple motte and bailey setup, not necessarily a massive structure with D&D style battlements. Essentially any building/base that has some way to stop mobs from entering it would be considered a castle build, although it's etymologically lazy on my behalf.

My actual main point is that mobs throw things and that glass is breakable, you'll probably find you break your own windows by accident loads of times, so it makes sense for that to be reflected (no pun intended!) with projectiles.

I think this is a far more valid dividing line than the castle/not castle thing. It would become frustrating and annoying, the level of that annoyance would be that the glass is permanently broken and you have to replace, rather than just pick it up and return it to its initial location. I wasn't clear which of those I meant, so my bad for that, it is the latter though, that they knock the glass out rather than destroy it.

Bowtorns are a pain in the ass already, but I appreciate this decision wouldn't bring them any more love, that's fair..

I didn't take the conjecture of castle building as your main point. I was thinking about it in terms of what the majority of players actually do and what they would have tolerance for.  I maintain that it is far more likely than not that most players do NOT build castle like structures - i.e. that most players don't go around treating the game like a building sim to the extent that most players' worlds are extensively built up quite so much as you often see on streaming channels. I'm not sure why you're backtracking now to argue that you didn't mean your words as written, but again, I was focused on the question of how most people are actually playing the game.  I maintain that what you see streamers do is not a reflection of typical players.

My point being that I don't think the average player puts in anywhere near that level of investment into building and probably wouldn't have much tolerance for bowtorns being able to break glass windows.  The people who have built up elaborate structures have long since made it past the point where drifters of any sort are a threat - with lighting and gating and high end materials.  I'm not sure that this kind of suggestion would mean much to them in the first place. But players who keep their bases fairly simple, or who take a good long time to build up to that level?  I can't see this being a popular change.  Perhaps, as suggested above, a survival toggle, but beyond that, no.
Not least because you might as well start asking why drifters can't break the simplest builds of any material.  I'm of the opinion that there is already enough pressure on players to work toward building a refuge - against aggressive animals as well as drifters and bowtorns, mind.  I see no reason to put them into a position of needing to rush past early game survival when there are already significant pressures on hand.

Edited March 14 by Silfrenbirce

[Emeal]

I hate this idea so much because its so true, those little freaks would totally break and enter if possible.

We would need Tyron to implement Window Shutters or the community would riot.

Edited March 19 by Emeal

[Thorfinn]

I would either not enable it or stop using glass. There's enough to do without having to run around picking up windows before they despawn, put them back in place, repeat. 

[Lithembia]

Leaded glass windows are not bulletproof glass, it's just glass in a gridwork of lead. If you threw a rock at it, it would still break. Go chuck some rocks at stained glass windows at a church downtown and see how they feel about it. (Don't do this.)  

If windows could actually be broken the fix would be shutters, but that would be a pain because windows can't be opened to close the shutters from inside (which would also let drifters in). No one wants to have to run laps around the house closing all the shutters outside before dark. 

Also I do not have a castle. I have a few one- to two-story cobblestone houses. One has a fenced in front yard, but building a moat never occurred to me. 

On 3/14/2026 at 10:30 AM, LadyWYT said:

It's not a setting I would play with myself, but...I like it. Definitely not something that should be on by default except for Wilderness Survival, maybe, but as an optional difficulty? Sure, why not. It gives an option for players to allow mobs to be more destructive, in a way that's reasonable, without needing to mess with the block placement/chisel system.

Also helps that I'm reading all that with this note in place.  One possible way to cheese this is by just making sure all the glass is chiseled, however, that could potentially be accounted for by making all glass-type chiseled blocks act as glass and fall out of place, perhaps. Blocks that qualify as stone or wood could remain as-is, which still allows players the option of chiseling fancy windows if they so choose.

Slap a window up, go outside, put a solid block over it, then chisel away in the desired pattern. Unless I'm mistaken, projectiles would hit the chiseled block even if 90% of it is gone. 

[Bruno Willis]

On 3/14/2026 at 10:47 PM, Broccoli Clock said:

The argument is weakest from the stone throw, as it is just that - pretty weak, although if it didn't break the glass it would be nice for it to make a solid "stone against glass" sound. The bowtorn arrows though, they can hit hard, and have a very solid "thunk" when they land against your base. It totally makes sense that if they hit glass, it'd break. In fact it's almost comical that you can stand behind glass and get peppered by high speed javelins and still be safe!

Edit: Sorry I should have made this clear, I was originally intending for the glass to fall out of it's location, rather than be destroyed and you have to craft a new one to replace it.

How do you stop them from breaking your windows? Why... make proper windows, with lead. There is now a reason to upgrade the window other than cosmetics, or you could create shutters using gates on the outside. I do think shutters are very conspicuous by their absence, this is a deeply cottage core game after all, where are my couthie wooden shutters?

Anyway, the question is probably.. "Why?" I feel there should be more of a threat from mobs around your base, and that includes during storms. If I had my way enough stones or bowtorn arrows against things like doors would be enough to break them, but I doubt many others would vibe with that idea, but broken windows seems a nice trade off. I retains a level of fear without directly affecting the access of the mobs although will open up windows for bowtorns to target you, and you'd also likely loose the room bonus too (depending on your base layout). 

Most players, not all, but certainly from my experience of watching streamers probably the majority of players end up with a base that looks a little "castle like" and we've all seen the mega builds where the castle intent was far more explicit, and trust me I don't want to turn the game into a tower defence game (although, an interesting mod/overhaul suggestion considering the game's framework) but equally it would be nice for there to be an undercurrent of fear/worry/concern even if it's not present. Think of the jump scare nature of you just happily making some food, the evening has drawn in, the pot is bubbling away, perhaps the rain is gently pitter-patting outside, then *crash* a bowtorn arrow gets launched into your kitchen.

I actually love this idea, I've asked for it before. The way I'd get around it being a total nuisance is by adding "storm shutters" to the game. They'd be heavy wooden shutters which could be fastened outside, over windows (ideally you'd be able to slide your window open and close the shutters from inside). If there were shutters, then I'd say stones and bone arrows would break any sort of glass window, unless it were covered. 

It would be nice to have dedicated shutters anyway, and it would make the lore about the horrors line up with player experience. 

Think of how fun it would be, running around as the storm hits, closing all the shutters, and then you pause, rest in your safe little kitchen, have a bite to eat. There's a smashing sound from the room above. "Did I forget to close the bedroom shutters?" you think to yourself. Then the drifters start pouring in. 

I'd also love it if some drifters could open doors unless they were "bared." (a dedicated lock from the inside, which would look really cool/make lots of lore sense). That way if the drifters broke a window and got in, they might be able to open doors to get to you. Real horror.

Ideally, shivers would also be able to climb, and squeeze, slowly, horribly, through one block wide gaps. That'd add some extra disgustingness to them, which I'm sure they'd love. 

[Bruno Willis]

I would lock shutters behind saws. Door bars would have to be early game though. I'd say they could have a variety of different versions -

• Crude bars made with logs horizontally and a stone axe, which could bar any door, even a crude door. They'd have a durability, probably pretty high considering the resource cost, but when broken, would simply disappear. 
• Milled bars, made with a single support beam and 2 nails/strips. They'd have a lower durability, but be able to be repaired by right-clicking a support beam into the bar housing. 
• Metal lock, made with an iron bar and 2 iron nails/strips (or steel). They'd have no durability bar, and be permanent protection. 

When a drifter reached a door, it would have a small chance to try the door, like a 5% chance? Each time a drifter tried the door, it would nock 1 durability off the bar on the door, or open the door if it were unbarred (or destroy the door, if it were a crude door). That way having a bar on your door would feel like really good protection, as long as you remembered to use it, but it would still gradually wear down. I think that'd be fun game-play, personally.

[LadyWYT]

3 hours ago, Bruno Willis said:

Think of how fun it would be, running around as the storm hits, closing all the shutters, and then you pause, rest in your safe little kitchen, have a bite to eat. There's a smashing sound from the room above. "Did I forget to close the bedroom shutters?" you think to yourself. Then the drifters start pouring in. 

Would probably produce some good stories for the funny story thread, for sure.

 

3 hours ago, Bruno Willis said:

When a drifter reached a door, it would have a small chance to try the door, like a 5% chance? Each time a drifter tried the door, it would nock 1 durability off the bar on the door, or open the door if it were unbarred (or destroy the door, if it were a crude door). That way having a bar on your door would feel like really good protection, as long as you remembered to use it, but it would still gradually wear down. I think that'd be fun game-play, personally.

I think it depends on the demeanor of the player and what kind of game they want to play at the time. I can see it being fun if one is in the right mood for it, but I can also see it being very frustrating for players that would rather have a bit more chill to their game. At the very least, if a mechanic like this was added, it should probably come with some sort of "mob griefing" rule, so that players can prevent monsters from interacting with doors and windows.

 

3 hours ago, Bruno Willis said:

Ideally, shivers would also be able to climb, and squeeze, slowly, horribly, through one block wide gaps. That'd add some extra disgustingness to them, which I'm sure they'd love. 

I disagree. Shivers are rather large and their primary strength is being able to run down and overpower targets. The crawling drifters can already fit through one-block gaps, but can't climb very well. Locusts would be great for this job, but don't occur during temporal storms since they're not the right monster type. I think this specific job is better suited to some new kind of rotbeast, perhaps a "slither", in that it's similar to a shiver but smaller, slower, and very long, making it ideal for climbing up walls or crawling into small holes in search of a target.

[Broccoli Clock]

On 3/20/2026 at 10:44 PM, Lithembia said:

Leaded glass windows are not bulletproof glass, it's just glass in a gridwork of lead. If you threw a rock at it, it would still break. Go chuck some rocks at stained glass windows at a church downtown and see how they feel about it. (Don't do this.)  

While I take your point, leaded glass is much less likely to shatter. Not that this is a thing in VS, nor am I suggesting it should be, but there is a distinct difference in the way leaded glass and a standard pain would react to being hit. You see similar with security glass. Ultimately though none of this is a true analogue, and I was just looking at the "glass progression tree" as to where the cut off line should be. The user should be able to defend themselves from such attacks (either toughened - or in VS' case leaded - windows, or shutters of some kind).

As for throwing rocks at churches, I feel an entirely honest answer may be met with disapproval.