jordettett Posted April 6 Report Posted April 6 I know I'm not alone in this, but it'd be nice to hear from some other players who have the same problem. It gets so bad that I give up on worlds I've spent tens of hours in, because I can't build anything I'm happy with and it kills my love for the game and the world I'm playing in until I try again a few months later on a new world, and the cycle repeats. How do you deal with this? Any tips from anyone with the same issue? Sorry if this isn't the right place to post about this! 4
Lollard Posted April 6 Report Posted April 6 Look up photos of old houses, mansions, manors, chateaus or whatever you like and copy them. 1
SeaWarriorSon Posted April 6 Report Posted April 6 1 hour ago, jordettett said: I know I'm not alone in this, but it'd be nice to hear from some other players who have the same problem. It gets so bad that I give up on worlds I've spent tens of hours in, because I can't build anything I'm happy with and it kills my love for the game and the world I'm playing in until I try again a few months later on a new world, and the cycle repeats. How do you deal with this? Any tips from anyone with the same issue? Sorry if this isn't the right place to post about this! Welcome to the forums! Mine got better after I started a creative world to brainstorm ideas for basic designs Typically, I'll look at how much space and materials I have available in survival, then remember those dimensions in a blank creative world and figure out a basic design that looks good. You can easily demolish it! Once you've got something good, you can take the design ideas into survival with confidence 2
LadyWYT Posted April 6 Report Posted April 6 Welcome to the forums! 3 hours ago, jordettett said: How do you deal with this? Any tips from anyone with the same issue? Generally, I'll keep things very simple at the start of the game, and use the prefab roof pieces and windows to make a basic shelter that still looks rather nice. Once I'm more established with bronze/iron, then I'll start working on a fancier house. When I start the bigger projects like that, I also like to work on small bits at a time, so that I'm not getting overwhelmed by trying to make everything look super nice at once. It's a lot easier to build a basic shell, and then go back over various areas, applying a bit more polish as the mood strikes me. In the event something doesn't quite turn out as well as I wanted, sometimes I'll just start over in a new world, since a new update is usually about to drop around that time anyway. However, I'll often try to fix whatever didn't turn out with the design, as that's rather good design practice in general. Once in a while I'll also use creative to expedite the fixes, as sometimes a proper fix means redoing a LOT of work and that kind of rework is just easier to do in creative than survival. 2
samogitia Posted April 6 Report Posted April 6 Copy. Copy existing builds 1 to 1. It's a massive trap for new people trying anything creative and going in blind without any experience. Find pictures of builds you like. And recreate them, or mix few together. After few builds you will start getting the idea what works and what makes buildings look good and so on. And then it will be much much much easier to build something nice by yourself. 2
SorchaR Posted April 7 Report Posted April 7 Czarls has some amazing builds for VS, either to use as inspiration: https://www.youtube.com/@Czarls Minecraft builds can help as well. our blocks are different in colour and we have more options available, but the basic shape is the same and there are a lot more Youtube build guides for Minecraft then for Vintage Story. They are a great starting point and as you adapt them to this game you can put your own flair on it. Try in creative mode first, as others have said. Sometimes I make a copy of my world instead of the flat default creative world, it makes it easier to take the landscape into account. Start simple and expand later. Don't start with a castle. On one of my worlds, my starter cottage became a pottery shed. On the one I'm on now, I'll start small and build a second floor and a larger build behind it so that the starter cottage will become my mudroom/kitchen. Also keep in mind you can always add and replace things later: beams, elaborate chiselling, a different roof type, even the outer walls can be (partially replaced). Again, you can plan this in creative mode. 2
Vanassa Posted April 7 Report Posted April 7 When I first started VS years ago, I ran into the same problem. What solved it for me was follow Minecraft build tutorials, especially the medieval ones, there are so many out there compared to VS build tutorials. Minecraft blocks are very similar to VS and you can follow some amazing builds step by step. Once you are familiar with a style you like, tweak it to use more unique VS blocks, roofing tiles and chisel to refine even further. Now I just look at pictures for inspiration as others have stated rather build tutorials. Good luck! 2
Broccoli Clock Posted April 7 Report Posted April 7 (edited) 22 hours ago, jordettett said: I know I'm not alone in this, but it'd be nice to hear from some other players who have the same problem. It gets so bad that I give up on worlds I've spent tens of hours in, because I can't build anything I'm happy with and it kills my love for the game and the world I'm playing in until I try again a few months later on a new world, and the cycle repeats. How do you deal with this? Any tips from anyone with the same issue? Sorry if this isn't the right place to post about this! Small steps. That's literally it. That's the whole advice. You might say, "well that's fine for you, but everything I create I think is shit", however my response is, "you'll never stop thinking your builds are shit, that's just part of the process". I've got hundreds of hours and still think everything I build looks crap and I'm not happy about it. I am easily my own worst critic, for example the images shared in the spoiler below.. Spoiler This is from my current (1.21) base. ..are fine at best, crude and slightly embarrassing at worst. Are they either crude or embarrassing? Of course not, I'm just never happy with anything I do. Ultimately, don't focus on what you consider "failure". The inability to chisel the perfect doorway first time is not a failing in any way, but instead of saying "fuck this, and removing it", keep it in place and come back, adding/removing as your imagination lets you. Sooner or later you'll start to develop a style, and once you do then it's not all that difficult to expand that style. For example, the chiselling on the door, once you are happy(ish!) with it, can then be replicated on the exterior walls. Slowly but surely it'll all come together. Edited April 7 by Broccoli Clock 5
Vratislav Posted April 7 Report Posted April 7 Yes, most advice was already said: Starting from small and expanding slowly, leaving enormous detailing (and chiseling) for later, designing in creative, (ab)using MC tutorials and using real buildings, MC builds or even builds from other games for inspiration. In addition to this, I'd really emphasize designing, starting from rough paper sketches (paper with 5mm grid is your best friend) and then in more detail in creative. You may test general proportions of the building just by sketching it on the paper. Then, in creative, you set up colors and details: which local stones fit with local wood types, what is the good window frame design (by putting several ones put side to side), elaborate crazy ideas, and decide then if to build it. It can be tweaked in survival a bit, so even the creative designing does not need to be too meticulous. From my personal experience, in two 1.22 testing worlds, I was lazy to do the design on paper or in creative and started building bases without designing: oh, I was disappointed with the results... 6
idiomcritter Posted April 7 Report Posted April 7 i've been testing out ai lately, and thought, what would ai say about this matter.... holy crap, a 5 step program complete with half steps under each main step.... sounds like a VS build? ha! ----------------------------- 2 things, in my non ai words... first; any emotion usually has reasons, and i've learned that those said emotions are like a gift. that is, the emotion has the capacity to point back to the individual's ideas and values. And when revisiting those values, an opportunity can arise to further validate the feeling, or consider changing the value (creators choice among the many) point might be to take a moment and give space to the reflection? (which kinda sounds like what the op is doing with breaks in play) second a worded picture; a child arriving home just handed mother a finger painting. the mother gushes and pins the picture on the kitchen refrigerator door. child doesn't see imperfection, nor does the mother, why? (forgive the silly imagery?) ------------------------------- anyways, not sure i said anything different than the other posts here, enjoy the creation, imperfections will always exist, a reason to garden perhaps 4
runnybabbit Posted April 8 Report Posted April 8 (edited) I bring along some friends who are bad at building and think everything with a basic level of attention to design is amazing. Then I relentlessly flex on them to fill the gaping whole my persistent imposter syndrome has gouged out in me. Nah in all seriousness though, I rarely attempt big projects all at once, and instead focus on small 'modular' bits. Edited April 8 by runnybabbit 1
wildforester Posted April 8 Report Posted April 8 One word of advice, if you make something and dislike it so much that you decide to move, don’t. You picked that original spot for a reason and moving is so incredibly hard without near end game materials. I bring in friends to get their opinions on what to add/change when I’m unsure. Also as many ppl have said above, plan stuff out on paper and look for inspiration 2
jordettett Posted April 8 Author Report Posted April 8 Oh wow, that's way more replies than I expected. Thank you all for the advice, I'm taking notes in my journal and I'll give it another go when I feel up to it, though I'm not sure if I'll start over in a new world or try again in my current world. We'll see... 4
LadyWYT Posted April 8 Report Posted April 8 22 hours ago, idiomcritter said: second a worded picture; a child arriving home just handed mother a finger painting. the mother gushes and pins the picture on the kitchen refrigerator door. child doesn't see imperfection, nor does the mother, why? (forgive the silly imagery?) No no, this is rather accurate. We tend to be our own worst critics. Case in point--in one of my college painting classes, we had to paint a still life. The professor didn't like that I used a really bright monochromatic color scheme(which I liked), but loved that I didn't just paint the items in question...I painted the drawings hanging on the wall in the background too. Later on the assignment was to paint a model(girl in a hat, and overalls, sitting in a chair), and I absolutely hated my painting because the proportions were goofy. The professor absolutely loved it though. That's not to say that every piece of art is good, mind you, more that it really just depends on what perspective you examine it from. 2
Blaiyze Posted April 9 Report Posted April 9 (edited) To answer the question: yuuuuup. Big time. This is why I pause time and flip my game into creative and free build my homestead. I live for the cottagecore vibes and just want a cozy home to kick back in and pre-building it before I get going eases that anxiety. Yeah, some will call that cheating but whatever, it's how I want to play. I like having a dedicated place and structure for everything. Like others have suggested, I look up buildings that I want to replicate or take inspiration from and then exptrapolate a bit for what I'll be using it for in game. I do keep a save file for when I want to rough-it vanilla style - or, at least without pre-building everything. But the anxiety very quickly builds up because it just takes an obnoxious amount of time to manually gather all the resources just to build reasonably sized, and aesthetically cute (it's important, ok XD), home base. I've built large structures in MC and VS where I've manually collected and gathered all the pieces myself and I just... it's too much. I just want a cute homestead to tuck into and explore from. Edited April 9 by Blaiyze 5
ifoz Posted April 10 Report Posted April 10 (edited) I think it's a thing probably all builders (really, all artists in general) experience at one point or another. Builds also always look terrible when you start out - I have had many builds where I blocked out the floorplan and walls, thought they looked terrible, only to slowly work to improve them and end up with something I was proud of. Probably my favourite build I've made so far (this was in creative mode) is the tavern in my village - and I did not like the way the blockout/basic layout looked at all. I spent a couple days wracking my brain about it and eventually managed to find a way to cram details and a proper interior into that blockout, and everything kind of just went from there. I think a decent way to make nice builds in survival is starting small - making a large base often means you need to grind more for resources, construction takes longer, and it is easier to get demotivated, burnt-out, or begin to dislike the project. I'm also posting some images here so you might be able to see what I mean. I don't want to show off a build of mine to say "look at how this looks, you should build like this, problem solved!" but instead to say that even a build whose end result I am very happy with went through a stage where I was doubting the entire thing. Image below of blocking out the back side of the tavern, which I thought looked terrible. Image below of the finished back exterior, which I am now really pleased with. Even now I still think there are improvements to make, like making the shingled roof beams more staggered than straight. The point is though, with enough effort, even builds that start out bad can end up as something you are proud of. It really just takes practice and trial and error, and usually the builds you work the hardest on are the ones you end up the happiest with just because of the effort put in. Edited April 10 by ifoz 8
Rezerkity and stuff Posted April 14 Report Posted April 14 On 4/6/2026 at 12:02 PM, jordettett said: I know I'm not alone in this, but it'd be nice to hear from some other players who have the same problem. It gets so bad that I give up on worlds I've spent tens of hours in, because I can't build anything I'm happy with and it kills my love for the game and the world I'm playing in until I try again a few months later on a new world, and the cycle repeats. How do you deal with this? Any tips from anyone with the same issue? Sorry if this isn't the right place to post about this! The biggest part about progression is that at the start you can't do much. Restarting a world won't make your buildings better, since there's not exactly limited space. Perhaps instead of nuking your worlds due to unhappiness about your buildings, try using the resources you have access to and building away from your main base? You could even make little forward bases for travel, and connect them with paths. If it doesn't look pretty, then you can keep trying! My biggest advice is to look at real pictures of architecture you like the look of, and go into Creative mode to try and build them there. After that, you can experiment with block availability. Like what can be a cheap substitute for this block early on? I can't afford stone, so what if I use daub? If I can't gather those resources, maybe just packed dirt will even look similar? Building is very much a knowledge check about what blocks are available to you, and how you can place and position them to your liking. Chiselling also gives you such enormous variety and freedom. So, try sticking to one world, and experiment in creative mode, it helps a lot with the anxiety. 2
Lanceleoghauni Posted April 17 Report Posted April 17 My builds are not going to win any awards aesthetically, but I get a lot of enjoyment out of crafting with local materials to create homes that work with the landscape. Tight, cramped interiors that are nevertheless carefully thought out and eminently practical and "Cozy". Might be worth interrogating what it is you wish to capture in your builds. Grandeur? Glory? Or a softer, quieter life of excessive storage and decoration built up over in game years? Whatever it is, try to lean into it
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