More Chores?

[Cleitus]

This might be a bad take, and I am willing to hear why it's so, but it feels like they keep adding more needless chores every update. I mostly get this feeling when reading the new patch notes (I haven't played 1.22 yet). Here are some examples of what I am talking about.

• Mechanical power changes. I love the water wheel (even though the new flowing-water type is a little immersion-breaking), but the changes that make your builds catch fire if they are too powerful are a little much. Even when they do implement stronger parts, it seems like it will just add more grind to what mechanical power already is. 
• Berry bushes. There's not really much more to say about the way these are in the update. They were always a pretty lame food source, but now that you have to work harder for them, what's the point? 
• Fat changes. Now you have to worry about it spoiling unless you render it, which just adds unnecessary work that doesn't improve the game.

The current version has its own set of issues, too. My biggest pet peeve is how long it takes to get some of my favorite building blocks. Ashlar blocks take hours of quarrying, wattle and daub take forever to gather all the ingredients, and plaster takes an eternity to make. Plus, the tedium of forming and firing enough clay shingles to make a roof. 

Overall, so many features feel like a tax on my time. I love the game, but I don't have the ability to sink hours into unfun busywork. Am I alone in this line of thought? Do I just need to find a different game? What do you guys think?

[Zane Mordien]

If you are limited on time then I would find a mod that gives you the playstyle you want. Every release definitely adds more chores.  

That's a lame comment sometimes but the game is definitely a time sink and if you don't have time, then make it work for you.

[LadyWYT]

9 minutes ago, Cleitus said:

Mechanical power changes. I love the water wheel (even though the new flowing-water type is a little immersion-breaking), but the changes that make your builds catch fire if they are too powerful are a little much. Even when they do implement stronger parts, it seems like it will just add more grind to what mechanical power already is. 

Friction is a real concern when designing machinery, especially if the parts are wooden. If those parts heat up too much, they should logically catch fire. From a game balance standpoint, I think this change is meant to prompt the player to think a little more carefully when it comes to designing machinery, and cut down on the "Frankenmill" designs that exploit game mechanics to make stuff like the helve hammer operate at warp speed.

The Create mod for Minecraft had similar concepts, I think, as did some other tech mods. Basically, if the machinery or wiring was under too much stress, parts would grind to a halt, break, or the wiring might burn up if the voltage was too high, etc. 

14 minutes ago, Cleitus said:

Berry bushes. There's not really much more to say about the way these are in the update. They were always a pretty lame food source, but now that you have to work harder for them, what's the point? 

Berry bushes weren't very realistic before, given that the player could easily break bushes and plunk them back down at base for large yields of fruit with little effort. While there are certainly different opinions on what the most realistic change should have been, it's not entirely unrealistic to need to propagate new bushes via cuttings and fertilize the plants annually to keep them healthy and producing.

From the gameplay standpoint, this should give players more chances to have their own berry patches in multiplayer, as under the old system it was a common occurrence for all bushes within a reasonable distance of spawn to get transplanted elsewhere. In singleplayer, it tips the balance of the game pacing to the player needing to rely more on hunting and foraging their first in-game year while they get themselves established.

18 minutes ago, Cleitus said:

Fat changes. Now you have to worry about it spoiling unless you render it, which just adds unnecessary work that doesn't improve the game.

Realistically, fat needs to be rendered or it will spoil, so for a game that wants to lean heavily into realistic natural processes this sort of change makes sense. I will note that the fat renders rather fast, and only one stick of firewood is needed to render a full pot of fat(which is currently 6, and could stand to be more in my opinion).

 

21 minutes ago, Cleitus said:

Overall, so many features feel like a tax on my time. I love the game, but I don't have the ability to sink hours into unfun busywork. Am I alone in this line of thought? Do I just need to find a different game? What do you guys think?

I think @Zane Mordien is pretty spot-on. I wouldn't call VS a game that grinds for the sake of grinding, since the grind does have meaning aside from just making the player play longer. However, I do think that it's intended to be slow-paced game, in that it's one the player completes over the course of several play sessions rather than a single weekend of play. 

Now that being said, the devs are quite good about providing a variety of options for players to use to tailor the game to their own liking, which includes making things easier or harder as needed. Likewise, the players themselves are also quite good at making mods to tailor the game further. If you're having trouble finding a way to adjust certain things in the game it also doesn't hurt to ask around the community to see if anyone knows of a fix.

I also want to note too that when major changes to mechanics roll out, it's not unusual for things to get a little uncomfortable for a while since old strategies become obsolete and it takes players time to figure out new ones. In the event something proves to be undertuned/overtuned, it typically gets adjusted sooner or later.

[Shoom]

Your concern is understandable, honestly though from my experience with 1.22 so far these changes don't really change the game all that much.

Machinery catching fire sounds way worse than it actually is, you need to downshift several times in order to get RPM high enough for things to start smoking, you'd have to go out of your way to achieve this, it's not something that will happen by accident.

Rendering fat is a quick process just takes a few pieces of firewood and a cooking pot, which you have to make anyway.

The berry bush overhaul is the largest and most controversial change of this update but the only real difference here is that you can't gather a few stacks of bushes during your first week and coast through the first summer/autumn on nothing but berries.

[QueenGeeBee]

Genuinely, I think a lot of people are reading the changes and reacting to them without trying them out.

Ive seen several posts saying they havent played the update yet but they dislike the changes, and they really arent as bad as people are assuming imo. Maybe its just a playstyle difference but im drowning in bones for bonemeal and the gears arent going to catch fire with thought out set ups.

Fat processing is whatever though to me. I guess it makes sense and timewise is forgiving enough to get it done.

[PoisonedPawn777]

I quite like the berry bush changes, now I can propagate a berry farm without stripping the surrounding area of my emergency backup food source. The quenching/tempering system is a little.. eh. Otherwise, happy with the changes.

[Blaiyze]

I mean, I picked up this game *because* of the intricate crafting systems - it was evident right from the hop that there was going to be a lot of busy work to doing anything and progressing in this game. That said, it is something that will have to be balanced so that you always have something to do but not too terribly bogged down at the same time. So far I'm enjoying the balance, there's always stuff to be working on and towards. 

But this is also why I wait until a stable release before jumping in on an update - there's always refinements to be done before the stable version drops.

[ArgentLuna]

I doubt that most players with normal set ups are going to have them catch fire, more the people with eldritch abominations of windmills going into the patch and its there now to encourage you to spread the load out.

As with everything in the game if you dont like whats coming then dont progress to that patch as long as your content with all that is releashed so far being your limits (or find a/ make/ get a mod made to suit your whims)

 

The busy work is one of the things i really like about the game, was talking a friend thru how steel working was going to go and other people in the chat are like this is fun? and i said yes much fun.

[Broccoli Clock]

19 hours ago, Cleitus said:

This might be a bad take, and I am willing to hear why it's so, but it feels like they keep adding more needless chores every update. 

This is called expanding the complexity of the game, this is a good thing.  

In years to come, people playing the VS version of the time will comment, "wow, remember when this game was so empty of stuff?". Trust me, that's how it works. This game is more of a shell than people think, and that's not me either throwing shade or suggesting there isn't a ton of stuff in the game as it is now. I say this as I've watched tons of indie games grow and develop over decades.

As for "what is fun", well that's all subjective, isn't it? I love cottage core stuff, I will literally geek out to mundane simple things. Chores or not.

What I would say is this, and it aligns with Zane's comment earlier, there are people out there who are either time poor, or less abled, where "houseworking tasks" are for whatever reason not possible. The game; either through accessibility features, world settings, or mods, should be able to provide that limited/stripped down/streamlined experience. However the the generic vanilla experience is always going to be grindy. 

The devs are adding new content to a game that we all know is still in development, the development map is pretty clear and the progression doesn't seem like it's tailing off any time soon. What's more, and this is the kicker for me, this game is built on "chores", to paraphrase Pratchett, it's "chores all the way down".

You open with "this might be a bad take", so I guess you know you are going out on a limb, and that's fine... because, by the gods, I'll happily throw out a shit opinion onto this forum just to see what sticks (as anyone reading my posts will know), but.... yeah.. to me, this is a "bad take". 

Edited March 15 by Broccoli Clock
edited to stop sounding so miserable! :P

[Zane Mordien]

17 hours ago, Broccoli Clock said:

What I would say is this, and it aligns with Zane's comment earlier, there are people out there who are either time poor, or less abled, where "houseworking tasks" are for whatever reason not possible. The game; either through accessibility features, world settings, or mods, should be able to provide that limited/stripped down/streamlined experience. However the the generic vanilla experience is always going to be grindy. 

I'm starting to get there myself. I sneak an hour in whenever I can around the kids, job, exercise, yardwork, cleaning the house, etc... I miss those days of long ago when I would just play a game all weekend long.

[Thorfinn]

On 3/14/2026 at 2:32 PM, Cleitus said:

I don't have the ability to sink hours into unfun busywork.

I do have the time, but choose not to. Most of what you are talking about can be just ignored. Yes, fat goes rancid, but it is common enough by late summer that it is not a big deal. Yes building a berry patch is harder, but there's no reason you have to have  one. Fruit (berries) are common enough in the wild that it's pretty easy to stick with gathering until .our fruit trees are bearing. Yes, mechanical power is different, but so long as you don't try to gear it up, it works.

But by all means, follow @Zane Mordien's advice and make the game yours. Heck, if something is too tedious for your taste, no one is stopping you from typing /gm 2 and skipping the drudgery.

[samogitia]

Biggest time sink in this game is time itself. Just waiting for seasons and years to pass. Having more chores to chose from to fill the time the better gameplay is.
Having your quern spining at mach 4 and grinding stack of grains in seconds was neither interesting or immersive. You do that and then what? 
Berry bushes had 0 interaction or gameplay. You pick one and plant near your home and thats it. 
The same with fat. And i think using firepit to cook, boil things other than food is underutilized. The same with smithing. I want more general items to require smithing not just tools/armor and ocasional nails.

[Zane Mordien]

13 hours ago, Thorfinn said:

Heck, if something is too tedious for your taste, no one is stopping you from typing /gm 2 and skipping the drudgery.

I'm having this argument with myself right now about RC2. I had chainmail pants and half of the parts made for the new windmill in prerelease 5 then I started over in RC2. I'm staring at a pile of iron blooms and I think I'm just going to delete the iron it would take to create what I had before and go from there. I'm so stuborn though that I think I'm cheating if I don't do it all over again even though this isn't even a stable release.

[Urmanin]

On 3/14/2026 at 10:45 PM, Zane Mordien said:

If you are limited on time then I would find a mod that gives you the playstyle you want. Every release definitely adds more chores.  

That's a lame comment sometimes but the game is definitely a time sink and if you don't have time, then make it work for you.

"Mods will fix it" definitely means the game is headed in a good direction huh

[Zane Mordien]

2 minutes ago, Urmanin said:

"Mods will fix it" definitely means the game is headed in a good direction huh

If you don't have enough time to play the game then it's not really the same thing. I used to play MMOs and spent 40+ hrs a week playing. I can no longer do that, but there is no option in an MMO except pay to win. In a game like VS, if you don't have the time for the grind then by all means Mod it to your satisfaction. 

[Teh Pizza Lady]

4 minutes ago, Urmanin said:

"Mods will fix it" definitely means the game is headed in a good direction huh

This may be a triggered response, but alas, I have been triggered, so this is my soapbox and the hill I will absolutely die on. Your statement, in my opinion, is objectively wrong on several different levels.

First, Vintage Story was designed around modding.

From the very beginning, even the game itself is a collection of 3 different mods working together. The architecture of the game intentionally exposes itself to mod creators to tweak, modify, and enhance the features within. The modding API is extensive, well-documented and very stable compared to other game creators (cough cough bethesda cough). The developers not only expect the players to want to mod it, but also encourage it. It is far easier to create a Vintage Story mod than it is for other block games.

So when someone says, "Mods will fix it", it means the base game provided the framework and the players can tailor it to their specific needs. That's a feature, not a failure.

Second, Vintage Story cannot and should not satisfy everyone.

The game sits in a weird position between sandbox and simulation. Some players want more realism and complexity. Others want less grind and faster progression. Some players want different crafting mechanics. Others want simple, uncomplicated recipes to bypass the established progression systems.

If the developers tried to satisfy everyone in the base game, the design would be bloated and inconsistent. Modding solves this problem by allowing the different groups and communities within the playerbase to customize the game differently.

Third, Vintage Story mod support reduces the need for "lowest common denominator" design.

Games without official mod support have to dumb themselves down to satisfy everyone who plays them. The Vintage Story developers, instead, can afford to shape the game the way they see fit and experiment with deeper mechanics instead of keeping everything bland. If players think something doesn't work the way they want, they can adjust it without diluting the core design of the base game that someone else may enjoy.

Finally, your statement undermines and dismisses a major strength of the game community itself.

Because Vintage Story has such extensive modding support, the community can produce QOL improvements that eventually become part of the base game itself. They can produce total gameplay overhauls or even small tweaks. They can create new game mechanics. They can find performance improvements that get absorbed into the game code and added to the next release.

TL;DR: Assuming that modding is a bandaid for bad design is a very close-minded view and misunderstands the entire philosophy behind Vintage Story's core design. Dismissing mod support ignores the flexibility, experimentation, and creativity the developers deliberately built into the game.

[Urmanin]

4 minutes ago, Teh Pizza Lady said:

This may be a triggered response, but alas, I have been triggered, so this is my soapbox and the hill I will absolutely die on. Your statement, in my opinion, is objectively wrong on several different levels.

First, Vintage Story was designed around modding.

From the very beginning, even the game itself is a collection of 3 different mods working together. The architecture of the game intentionally exposes itself to mod creators to tweak, modify, and enhance the features within. The modding API is extensive, well-documented and very stable compared to other game creators (cough cough bethesda cough). The developers not only expect the players to want to mod it, but also encourage it. It is far easier to create a Vintage Story mod than it is for other block games.

So when someone says, "Mods will fix it", it means the base game provided the framework and the players can tailor it to their specific needs. That's a feature, not a failure.

Second, Vintage Story cannot and should not satisfy everyone.

The game sits in a weird position between sandbox and simulation. Some players want more realism and complexity. Others want less grind and faster progression. Some players want different crafting mechanics. Others want simple, uncomplicated recipes to bypass the established progression systems.

If the developers tried to satisfy everyone in the base game, the design would be bloated and inconsistent. Modding solves this problem by allowing the different groups and communities within the playerbase to customize the game differently.

Third, Vintage Story mod support reduces the need for "lowest common denominator" design.

Games without official mod support have to dumb themselves down to satisfy everyone who plays them. The Vintage Story developers, instead, can afford to shape the game the way they see fit and experiment with deeper mechanics instead of keeping everything bland. If players think something doesn't work the way they want, they can adjust it without diluting the core design of the base game that someone else may enjoy.

Finally, your statement undermines and dismisses a major strength of the game community itself.

Because Vintage Story has such extensive modding support, the community can produce QOL improvements that eventually become part of the base game itself. They can produce total gameplay overhauls or even small tweaks. They can create new game mechanics. They can find performance improvements that get absorbed into the game code and added to the next release.

TL;DR: Assuming that modding is a bandaid for bad design is a very close-minded view and misunderstands the entire philosophy behind Vintage Story's core design. Dismissing mod support ignores the flexibility, experimentation, and creativity the developers deliberately built into the game.

Mods should be additions to the game, they shouldn't have to fix the game. You picked a shit hill to die on.

[Teh Pizza Lady]

5 minutes ago, Urmanin said:

Mods should be additions to the game, they shouldn't have to fix the game. You picked a shit hill to die on.

I believe what you are making is a strawman argument, because you are arguing against something I never actually said. I never said they should fix things that are broken, even though they sometimes do. I said the game was intentionally designed to allow players to modify things to their own needs and preferences.

The major difference is that mods fixing a broken game means the developer has a track record of leaving broken systems alone and never fixing them. Mods allowing customization to suit your needs or preferences is a sign that the game is actually balanced at its core, and the majority of players probably agree, but not everyone. Vintage Story, obviously, is the second one.

The game isn't broken (aside from obvious bugs in the pre and rc downloads), but instead is full of deliberate design choices that allow the developers to give the players the freedom to customize the game without diluting their own vision for it.

Mods WILL fix it but only because you think it's broken compared to what you actually need or want, not because it actually is.

So the idea that "mods fixing it" is a sign of bad design just does not make sense to me in the context of a game that was built around modding from the start, especially since I don't think it is in particular need of fixing aside from a few bugs here and there.

[Silfrenbirce]

2 hours ago, Urmanin said:

Mods should be additions to the game, they shouldn't have to fix the game. You picked a shit hill to die on.

Your premise presupposes that the mods suggested to you do fix the game or that that is their intention.  That's not what was said or why they're being recommended to you.  Mods that change the game to suit your needs and experience as an individual is not an admission that the game is broken or "heading in a bad direction."

Your experience of the game is not objective evidence that the game has bad mechanics.  It reflects only that certain mechanics do not personally suit you.  So, no.  Nobody picked a shit hill to die on.  You are just being stubborn and petulant.

Edited March 16 by Silfrenbirce