Need Feedback for Age of Confession 3.0 - Religion in vintage story?!

[ChaosPrincessin]

[ Introduction ]

Hi,

I’ve been thinking about this idea for a long time, and now I’d like to hear your opinion on it. I know it’s a controversial topic, especially in video games, but hear me out. Religion, as a worldview, has been part of a society’s identity throughout human history. This worldview drives people to do both the best and the worst—both historically and in the present. Here, I want to draw a clear line. My mod is meant to focus on the essence of religion, NOT on specific religions. 

[ Vintage Story ]

Vintage Story is a game. Everyone can interpret it however they like. My interpretation is that the player must not only survive, but also explore their origins. I believe the origins are intentionally obscure, leaving it up to the player to interpret the connections.

 

[ The Idea ]

My idea is to incorporate this interpretation as a role-playing element into the game. There should be a game mechanic that draws inspiration from religion to convey a sense of community. Players who want to be part of a community can help maintain it and are rewarded for doing so. The community's adversaries are temporal instability and players with hostile intentions. The central focus of this community is a single block that players must maintain and defend. In return, this block provides a reward for the players.

 

[ Game Mechanics ]

Players with the appropriate permission and/or class can found a religion.

/confession create belief <xyz>

A player can then place an Altar Block and assign it to a religion.

/confession bindCommunity <belief>

The block is now considered a community center. Players can pray near it, which charges the block in regular bursts. The higher a "community charge level", the greater the reward. The reward consists of four parts:

1. Temporal stability is restored. 
2. The player gains a small amount of health points
3. Corrupted creatures take periodic damage if they get too close to the Center of community (The altar) while players are on devotion.
4. While the player on devotion, the hunger rate is reduced by half

Praying increases the charge level. At the same time, the block loses a small amount of charge every day. Praying regularly leads to high activity = a generous reward. However, if you don't pray for a long time, the charge drops to 0 and the community is deleted.

 

[ Rules ]

• If the altar block is destroyed, the community will be deleted
• If a community is not maintained for a long time, it will be deleted
• Religions that do not have a community for 365 ingame days will be deleted
• Within the radius of effect, any player can pray and receive the same reward
• A new community cannot be created within the scope of an existing active community
• Admins can delete religions and communities immediately to prevent abuse
• Communities that belong to a religion with many other communities lose less charge than communities that are part of a small religion
• A player can create only one belief and one community

 

[ Examples of Gameplay ]

• Players can settle in unstable regions. The altar serves as a source of temporal stability
• Players can establish settlements and benefit together from a central location
• Conflicting interpretations, lack of space, or a lack of acceptance can pose a threat to the community. Players must protect it from other players
• To keep their community alive, players need to actively engage with it on a regular basis
• Players can decorate their altar according to their beliefs. The place could help visitors understand their interpretation
• Communities of the same religion support one another, no matter how far apart they are
• Players who don't want to fight during a temporal storm can now still take action against the corrupted creatures

 

so... what do you think?

 

Edited April 18 by ChaosPrincessin

[LadyWYT]

3 hours ago, ChaosPrincessin said:

so... what do you think?

Welcome to the forums! I think it's a cool idea for RP servers, and I seem to recall seeing a mod or two that implements this concept. But I also think it's an idea that probably works better as a standalone mod, and not for something like Age of Confession. The reason I say that is that Age of Confession implements stuff from real world religions, which is just asking for trouble as it's just way too easy for the lines to get blurred and roleplaying events to be mistaken for malicious intent or malicious intent to be excused as roleplaying. It also seems like it could very easily cross the line into violating Vintage Story's TOS, since it opens the door for players to more easily start fights over real world religion:

Quote

You warrant that the mod contains no harmful or malicious code, no material which is defamatory, bullying, offensive, obscene, or pornographic, and no breach of copyright of any other person.

https://mods.vintagestory.at/terms

 

[Teh Pizza Lady]

BillyGalbreath was bullied off the VS Discord and ended up deleting all of his mods because his religious preferences offended some people. I think it's best to leave it alone and just have the items in Age of Confession be purely decorative unless you're prepared to implement your proposed changes in a way that respects all of the religions represented equally and in a way that doesn't make any religious choice better than the others. Otherwise you're opening yourself up to a host of problems you didn't think possible before.

4 hours ago, ChaosPrincessin said:

[ Rules ]

• If the altar block is destroyed, the community will be deleted
• Religions that do not have a community at the start of the new year will be deleted
• Within the radius of effect, any player can pray and receive the same reward
• A new community cannot be created within the scope of an existing active community
• Admins can delete religions and communities immediately to prevent abuse
• Communities that belong to a religion with many other communities lose less charge than communities that are part of a small religion

Like, especially this... this just opens a whole bunch of cans of worms that I'm not even going to touch because of the host of discrimination claims that could result from it. nope.jpg

[ChaosPrincessin]

Oh, actually, I’m going to remove all the religious items/ blocks from Age of Confession. The altar is, after all, just a simple block that already exists in Vintage Story. I trust that players will realize they’re in a game. Public discussion forums, on the other hand, are a different matter. As far as I'm concerned, the player can place a stick on the altar and call it their belief.

[LadyWYT]

26 minutes ago, ChaosPrincessin said:

I trust that players will realize they’re in a game

I mean it would be really nice if this were the case, but y'know...people gonna people sometimes.

27 minutes ago, ChaosPrincessin said:

Oh, actually, I’m going to remove all the religious items/ blocks from Age of Confession. The altar is, after all, just a simple block that already exists in Vintage Story... As far as I'm concerned, the player can place a stick on the altar and call it their belief

If there aren't any specific real world religious references(that is, artifacts and terms that are religion-specific) and it's just a framework for players to implement their own stuff using vanilla items or other modded assets, I think it's probably fine. 

[Spear and Fang]

On 4/8/2026 at 8:38 AM, Teh Pizza Lady said:

BillyGalbreath was bullied off the VS Discord and ended up deleting all of his mods because his religious preferences offended some people

what no
Billy was asked to change his Discord profile description, and he said fuck that and left.
hardly bullying

[ChaosPrincessin]

I agree with the pizza lady on one point: the game mechanics must not put individual players at a disadvantage. The reward should be the same for all players, regardless of which community they actually belong to. Rather, it should encourage teamwork, because the more players participate, the faster the reward increases. The PvP concept, on the other hand, is a fundamental policy of a server that wouldn’t be created solely by my mod. You could add a setting that allows players to limit PvP, but I don’t think that would deter players who discriminate against others based on religion, gender, or political views. My opinion: The best way to deal with such people is not through fear or avoidance, but through determination. I wonder if I'm responsible for this because I created the opportunity?

 

[Teh Pizza Lady]

10 hours ago, Spear and Fang said:

what no
Billy was asked to change his Discord profile description, and he said fuck that and left.
hardly bullying

From my understanding he had already been dealing with harassment over it, so things were already near a breaking point. When he didn't respond, someone got a moderator involved and then we all saw what happened. That specific incident isn’t the point. The point is that tying gameplay systems to real-world religious preferences can create unnecessary friction and cause people to act out against each other either in-game or in real life. That’s why I suggested keeping Age of Confession’s religious elements purely decorative unless they’re handled to ensure balance and equal and fair treatment for all.

[LadyWYT]

10 hours ago, Spear and Fang said:

what no
Billy was asked to change his Discord profile description, and he said fuck that and left.
hardly bullying

11 minutes ago, Teh Pizza Lady said:

From my understanding he had already been dealing with harassment over it, so things were already near a breaking point.

Just on the outside looking in here, but I mean...there were echoes of the aftermath on the mod database, where someone else reuploaded Freedom Units and the moderators had to step in because some people were hating on the uploader in the comments. I think that's the main problem...some weren't leaving it at just disagreement/reporting rule violations of one guy, and instead taking things to the extreme.

 

15 minutes ago, Teh Pizza Lady said:

The point is that tying gameplay systems to real-world religious preferences can create unnecessary friction and cause people to act out against each other either in-game or in real life. That’s why I suggested keeping Age of Confession’s religious elements purely decorative unless they’re handled to ensure balance and equal and fair treatment for all.

Precisely. 

[Spear and Fang]

Fair enough. I just thought I'd point that out, because I've found the moderation team to be fair and reasonable.  I like Billy a lot but he brought this on himself.

[ChaosPrincessin]

Well, thank you all for your thoughts. I’ll design the mod so that only the mechanics are inspired by religion. I also realize that I’m having a hard time explaining my idea clearly, which can easily lead to misunderstandings (I'm not just referring to this forum). That’s why I’ll think about how to create instructions for the game and on the mod database that won’t immediately stir up controversy. 

 

On a different note, I’ve been thinking about what kinds of rewards can make for an engaging gaming experience without rendering existing elements obsolete. Assuming the community center block had four levels, the reward for players who pray or meditate could be scaled as follows:

"Holy" Damage: When a player prays/ meditates within the area of effect of the community center block, corrupted creatures in that area take periodic damage. The more players who participate, the greater the effect (with a cap, of course).

 

In my opinion, that’s already a pretty good reward, but not so powerful that it makes vanilla elements unnecessary. Do you think it’s too powerful? Or should I choose completely different rewards instead...

 

EDIT: I should add that a player who is praying or meditating is locked into an animation. This state is interrupted as soon as the player moves or clicks.

 

 

Edited April 13 by ChaosPrincessin

[ChaosPrincessin]

Right now, I'm also wondering if it would be interesting if certain offerings could influence the weather. Or if they could lead to a better harvest. Of course, the probability would have to be minimal... This would once again benefit players who live within the community. 

[LadyWYT]

On 4/13/2026 at 4:18 AM, ChaosPrincessin said:

In my opinion, that’s already a pretty good reward, but not so powerful that it makes vanilla elements unnecessary. Do you think it’s too powerful? Or should I choose completely different rewards instead...

Looks good to me, though I think it's also something that will be hard to balance without some playtesting. Sometimes the numbers will look good on paper, but not work as well in practice.

 

6 hours ago, ChaosPrincessin said:

Right now, I'm also wondering if it would be interesting if certain offerings could influence the weather. Or if they could lead to a better harvest. Of course, the probability would have to be minimal... This would once again benefit players who live within the community. 

Go for it. If nothing else, you could always make config options for it all, so players/server admin can choose what bonuses they want to allow and how strong those bonuses should be. Even to the point that the bonuses could make some vanilla elements unnecessary, provided there are enough followers participating at the shrine or whatever.

[ChaosPrincessin]

I released a first proof of concept version: https://mods.vintagestory.at/ageofconfession

[Jessica Krier]

I think this is a Great Idea, my group, while very casual about it, loves to have some sort of unique religious aspect (ie, building obelisks, Temples, a strange block that spawned in that we carved into an idol "the amythist wound." ect). I find it to be a fitting aspect to the world of Vintage story.