1.22.0-rc.8 - Fishing, Mechanisms, Metalworking and More!

[Narcosis]

9 minutes ago, coolAlias said:

My biggest hunting annoyance is all the brush etc. making it very difficult to keep track of a fleeing animal. It's also really hard to see animals that are laying down.

A simple fix for the first would be to reduce the movement speed of injured animals. A status effect system would be great but isn't necessary for my proposal at all - the code could be as simple as "movementSpeed = movementSpeed  * (currentHealth / maxHealth)", probably with some lower threshold so they can always move at at least e.g. 50% speed.

I think that was something that's been already presented and brought up a couple times in the past to no avail, sadly. In my opinion the game would benefit greatly from these - an entire library could handle all the buff/debuff/injury/ailment system together and it would allow for a lot of freedom in terms of content additions and modding. Large wounded animals could get weaker/slower but also more ferocious - like bears (fight/flight response); wounded animals could also leave a blood trail behind them with periodical drips of blood visible on the ground to spice up hunting mechanics; a percentage-based system on the ailments could basically dictate whether the animal will survive and heal itself after a while or just collapse and die, making hunt searches an interesting and alternative way to deal with large predators (think of potential bear traps, spikes etc); now you wouldn't necessarily have to only hunt, you might expect a dangerous predator you fought with but didn't quite managed to fell might be laying somewhere around in the area, dying. Obviously - polishing such a system would require adding more animations for wounded states etc but overall - for starters, introducing a mere wounded state with a slowdown on herbivores and maybe a buff for some predators to enter an "enraged mode" could be fun.

Not to mention - the player's own survival potential with new mechanics like illnesses, wounds, healing methods via salves and herbal medicine - as well as health or stamina buff via herbal concotions or natural drugs (with potential later drawbacks) etc. Vintage Story feels like a deep and immersive survival-focused experience, I'd really love to see this included and expanded; Obviously this also begs for a complete combat overhaul. Its not something that probably will come anytime soon, if ever at all though.

[Teh Pizza Lady]

3 minutes ago, Narcosis said:

wounded animals could also leave a blood trail behind them with periodical drips of blood visible on the ground to spice up hunting mechanics

There is actually a mod for this.  

[john_p]

Looks like milking any goat causes an exception and you get kicked. Re-connect and any bucket with milk vanish. 

edit: milking them does NOT crash the connection, but the buckets of milk automatically stacking. You have to dump each bucket in a barrel, back and forth, or the second bucket kicks you.

Edited April 13 by john_p
specifics

[LadyWYT]

2 hours ago, coolAlias said:

My biggest hunting annoyance is all the brush etc. making it very difficult to keep track of a fleeing animal. It's also really hard to see animals that are laying down.

A simple fix for the first would be to reduce the movement speed of injured animals. A status effect system would be great but isn't necessary for my proposal at all - the code could be as simple as "movementSpeed = movementSpeed  * (currentHealth / maxHealth)", probably with some lower threshold so they can always move at at least e.g. 50% speed.

I dunno. Simply slowing the animal down won't necessarily help the player find it if it can break line of sight by diving into thick brush. Some animals can still move rather fast even when mortally injured as well. I don't disagree that slowing down wounded animals would make hunting a little better, but I think the better solution here would be a blood trail for the player to follow, perhaps even bleed-type injuries so the animal has a chance to bleed out and die. Something like that is also better suited for a status effect system.

While it's annoying for animals to escape unwanted attention by diving into thick brush or lying low, I do think it's appropriate for that to be something that can happen if the player isn't being too particular about what they're doing. When hunting in Vintage Story, it's a good idea to try to line up shots to drive prey away from cover rather than toward it, as well as save hunting for more open areas. Clearing thick brushland with shears is a great way to open up territory for hunting without destroying other resources that may be present; fire works as well, but will cause more collateral damage.

[cjameshuff]

2 hours ago, coolAlias said:

My biggest hunting annoyance is all the brush etc. making it very difficult to keep track of a fleeing animal. It's also really hard to see animals that are laying down.

A simple fix for the first would be to reduce the movement speed of injured animals. A status effect system would be great but isn't necessary for my proposal at all - the code could be as simple as "movementSpeed = movementSpeed  * (currentHealth / maxHealth)", probably with some lower threshold so they can always move at at least e.g. 50% speed.

I think it'd actually be better to have movement drop to near zero before the health does. Realistically, an injury can easily leave you with very little mobility but still very much alive. Say mobility_scale = max(0.1, current_health/max_health*2.0 - 1.0), so they can only move at a crawl once they get down to half health.

Also, perhaps have them continue to lose health if taken below a "mortally wounded" threshold, so if you can do enough damage, they will stop nearby and eventually die, rather than dashing off across the hills.

[coolAlias]

36 minutes ago, LadyWYT said:

I dunno. Simply slowing the animal down won't necessarily help the player find it if it can break line of sight by diving into thick brush. Some animals can still move rather fast even when mortally injured as well. I don't disagree that slowing down wounded animals would make hunting a little better, but I think the better solution here would be a blood trail for the player to follow, perhaps even bleed-type injuries so the animal has a chance to bleed out and die. Something like that is also better suited for a status effect system.

While it's annoying for animals to escape unwanted attention by diving into thick brush or lying low, I do think it's appropriate for that to be something that can happen if the player isn't being too particular about what they're doing. When hunting in Vintage Story, it's a good idea to try to line up shots to drive prey away from cover rather than toward it, as well as save hunting for more open areas. Clearing thick brushland with shears is a great way to open up territory for hunting without destroying other resources that may be present; fire works as well, but will cause more collateral damage.

For sure, but a status system and/or blood trails might take a lot of work to implement, whereas my suggestion is a simple fix that could be implemented in as little as a few minutes to a few hours at most depending on how entity movement speeds are coded.

As for clearing areas of brush to improve visibility, yes, that is doable if time-consuming, but I'd much prefer if hunting were more approachable without having to destroy the environment.

[Teh Pizza Lady]

16 hours ago, cjameshuff said:

I think it'd actually be better to have movement drop to near zero before the health does. Realistically, an injury can easily leave you with very little mobility but still very much alive. Say mobility_scale = max(0.1, current_health/max_health*2.0 - 1.0), so they can only move at a crawl once they get down to half health.

Adrenaline is a hell of a drug! You can be nearly dead and as long as there is *something* to pump through your veins, adrenaline will keep you going until the something stops pumping.

[HalfAxd]

17 hours ago, cjameshuff said:

My biggest hunting annoyance is all the brush etc.

This is very realistic if you've ever hunted before... you have to pick your areas to hunt in.  Drive the animal into that area so you can see it.

In the game you can easily clear brush by burning it all... you'll get the benefit of visibility, burned out critters (free hunting) and be able to see surface ore, etc.  Win win!

A very effective tactic is to build animal trenches 3 blocks deep (2 wide) and quite long with tall stacks of dirt on each side for sighting.  Maneuver around and behind the animals and drive them towards the trench (aiming the critter between the stacks of dirt)...

Works like a charm and is historically accurate. 

Also... use a pit 4 blocks deep and 3 wide (at least) for bears and let them chase you in to it... either jump over and watch them fall in or give yourself a ladder to jump up to as exit.

Enjoy

[cjameshuff]

38 minutes ago, Teh Pizza Lady said:

Adrenaline is a hell of a drug! You can be nearly dead and as long as there is *something* to pump through your veins, adrenaline will keep you going until the something stops pumping.

Adrenaline can't do anything about a severed tendon. The reality is that injured prey will often turn to try to fight or collapse in exhaustion rather than continue trying to flee, and predators strongly prioritize visibly injured or sick prey because they are easier and less risky targets.

[Teh Pizza Lady]

32 minutes ago, cjameshuff said:

Adrenaline can't do anything about a severed tendon. The reality is that injured prey will often turn to try to fight or collapse in exhaustion rather than continue trying to flee, and predators strongly prioritize visibly injured or sick prey because they are easier and less risky targets.

Well yeah but that would require enabling locational damage. Which would be cool, but given that most hits are going to be on the head or body due to hit box sizes and the fact that they're moving around, your chances of getting that "lucky" hit are going to be very slim. So sure, develop the system and turn it on, but I don't think it'll work quite the way you're envisioning. Also don't forget to apply the system to the player so they can be crippled by the first bite from a wolf attack!

[Maelstrom]

On 4/11/2026 at 3:51 AM, MKMoose said:

I would expect wildlife to be much more skittish and defensive, not more aggressive. Granted, at least the animals affected in this RC are now ever so slightly less anemic when fleeing as well, not just when seeking.

Remember that there is in game reasons for wildlife to be more aggressive.

Having said that, the wildlife is not nearly as aggressive as it was prior to bears being introduced.    Wolves would follow you for very long distances.

[Slam]

On 4/11/2026 at 9:10 AM, MKMoose said:

In an open field or forest, they have all the escape routes in the world. They can run some 20 km/h over short distances and climb trees.

Aw man I would love to see this, them running up a tree, hiss at you thinking “haha, stupid 2 legs, you can’t get me” while you processed to aim a bow or a spear at them.

maybe they can have barrows up there, and watch them fall out when you cut the tree, you’d just be chopping trees and boom, free hat fell from the sky.

[cjameshuff]

1 hour ago, Teh Pizza Lady said:

Well yeah but that would require enabling locational damage.

...no, it doesn't. A deer that's been hacked half to death or had a bunch of spears shoved through it is going to be slowed down by its injuries. You don't need to implement some fine-grained damage model to simulate this.

[Teh Pizza Lady]

48 minutes ago, cjameshuff said:

...no, it doesn't. A deer that's been hacked half to death or had a bunch of spears shoved through it is going to be slowed down by its injuries. You don't need to implement some fine-grained damage model to simulate this.

I can tell you from personal experience that when hunting, an injured animal is faster than you think, especially when it's in flight mode. I can't go into too much detail without making it gory but definitely get some real life hunting experience and you'll see what I mean.

Also our spears bounce off and it takes about 5-6 hits with a copper falx to kill a deer so I don't really think that our weapons are hacking them half to death as much as you think. More like blunt force trauma-ing.

Edited April 13 by Teh Pizza Lady

[misterjeffman]

20 hours ago, LadyWYT said:

I dunno. Simply slowing the animal down won't necessarily help the player find it if it can break line of sight by diving into thick brush. Some animals can still move rather fast even when mortally injured as well. I don't disagree that slowing down wounded animals would make hunting a little better, but I think the better solution here would be a blood trail for the player to follow, perhaps even bleed-type injuries so the animal has a chance to bleed out and die. Something like that is also better suited for a status effect system.

While it's annoying for animals to escape unwanted attention by diving into thick brush or lying low, I do think it's appropriate for that to be something that can happen if the player isn't being too particular about what they're doing. When hunting in Vintage Story, it's a good idea to try to line up shots to drive prey away from cover rather than toward it, as well as save hunting for more open areas. Clearing thick brushland with shears is a great way to open up territory for hunting without destroying other resources that may be present; fire works as well, but will cause more collateral damage.

Honestly it would be nice if they improved how fires burn brush, with it only burning grass, bushes, and sticks and not trees when it rained within a few days and such.

 

Along with that, making it so if you burn an area including the trees, it opens up the door to slash and burn agriculture and more additions to the agriculture system. It would be great to be able to make swiddens in forested areas with poor soil to grow crops better. Really fire just need a rework in this game to be more realistic as one of humanities best tools lol. 

[coolAlias]

9 minutes ago, Teh Pizza Lady said:

I can tell you from personal experience that when hunting, an injured animal is faster than you think, especially when it's in flight mode. I can't go into too much detail without making it gory but definitely get some real life hunting experience and you'll see what I mean.

Also our spears bounce off and it takes about 5-6 hits with a copper falx to kill a deer so I don't really think that our weapons are hacking them half to death as much as you think. More like blunt force trauma-ing.

Perhaps I am misunderstanding, but it sounds like your argument is realism for adrenaline-fueled flight speed, but game mechanics / design choice for our weapons doing very little damage (I would even say unrealistically little)?

In any case, my and I believe several others point is that while yes, we can work around the current hunting mechanics by burning everything down and digging long trenches, but we do not find that fun.

What I do think would be fun is stalking an animal through the woods, lining up a good shot, and then following it to where it collapses from its wounds.

I am not proposing we remove trenches and wildfires, because some people find that fun. I'd just like to see support for what I and many others imagine when we think of subsistence hunting.

[Teh Pizza Lady]

20 minutes ago, coolAlias said:

Perhaps I am misunderstanding, but it sounds like your argument is realism for adrenaline-fueled flight speed, but game mechanics / design choice for our weapons doing very little damage (I would even say unrealistically little)?

In any case, my and I believe several others point is that while yes, we can work around the current hunting mechanics by burning everything down and digging long trenches, but we do not find that fun.

What I do think would be fun is stalking an animal through the woods, lining up a good shot, and then following it to where it collapses from its wounds.

I think you summed it up pretty well. I definitely see a need for improving the damage model especially when lining up shots with steel arrows and a recurve bow. One or two shots with a broadhead should be sufficient to do what you're suggesting. There are mods that make the whole "following it to where it collapses" bit easier. 

My argument was that getting into what is effectively a brass knuckle on a stick fight with a deer shouldn't cripple it and slow it down until it's maybe one hit away from being gone. Then it can slow down and be easier to catch or get away from, depending on what you need in the current moment.