Ecosystems

[Mikael Marvin]

Hello,

It would be great if vintage story had an actual system for the animals (need more animals, predatory and non predatory), where balance is maintained similarly to actual nature. where somehow balance must be maintained not only in animals but maybe even in resources that animals produce...

a great example is the following link to a youtube video that explains the lack of ecologies in minecraft. I really liked the idea, would be a great addition - probably a big one 

 

[Heegrim]

I would love a deeper ecosystem simulation too but that is a monumental task from a programming perspective. It is very difficult to maintain balance in a simulation, populations are prone to explode or collapse if the conditions are not set up perfectly. Not to mention the performance cost of simulating things the player rarely sees. 
 

The devs are amazing though, so I’m sure they have got something good cooking for an eventual ecosystem update. 

[DeanF]

On 5/21/2026 at 9:58 AM, Heegrim said:

I would love a deeper ecosystem simulation too but that is a monumental task from a programming perspective. It is very difficult to maintain balance in a simulation, populations are prone to explode or collapse if the conditions are not set up perfectly. Not to mention the performance cost of simulating things the player rarely sees. 
 

The devs are amazing though, so I’m sure they have got something good cooking for an eventual ecosystem update. 

A very interesting video.

But the programming isn't really insurmountable- it's been done before, at least as early as the 1990s.  The problem is players...
Players generally decimate ecosystems in games.  See Ultima Online for an example:

Or at least that's the example that I remember.  Have complex ecologies actually worked in a game at some point?

Also, the idea might actually work in a solo game.  If you decimate the local wildlife, then there are no animals left to hunt and it's your own fault.  But in a multiplayer game the Tragedy of the Commons always manifests.

Edited Friday at 06:50 PM by DeanF

[LadyWYT]

On 5/21/2026 at 10:58 AM, Heegrim said:

I would love a deeper ecosystem simulation too but that is a monumental task from a programming perspective. It is very difficult to maintain balance in a simulation, populations are prone to explode or collapse if the conditions are not set up perfectly. Not to mention the performance cost of simulating things the player rarely sees. 

 

On 5/22/2026 at 12:44 PM, DeanF said:

But the programming isn't really insurmountable- it's been done before, at least as early as the 1990s.  The problem is players...
Players generally decimate ecosystems in games.

 

On 5/22/2026 at 12:44 PM, DeanF said:

Also, the idea might actually work in a solo game.  If you decimate the local wildlife, then there are no animals left to hunt and it's your own fault.  But in a multiplayer game the Tragedy of the Commons always manifests.

I think the key is to simulate enough ecosystem for the world to be believable, rather than try to make it a 1:1 replica of reality. Even if singleplayer poses less issues than multiplayer when it comes to balancing that kind of thing, you're still going to run into problems of players getting upset that they collapsed the entire ecosystem because they unwittingly took too much of certain resources, or players upset that the ecosystem collapses due to a key predator getting stuck in a hole/tree/bush and not being able to keep prey animals in check. Or in other words, typical videogame goofiness. 

With a rough simulation though, you can provide enough detail for the player to get immersed in the world, while also providing enough safeguards to make sure they don't accidentally kill their world due to forces they either couldn't understand very well, or had no control over.

[Banch]

My favourite ecosystem simulator is Rain World, and trying to put that kind of creature interaction into a sandbox game just seems... unfeasible. Rain World is a game that uses static maps, so the creature AI is then able to navigate however it wants over the pre-defined collision. In a game like Vintage Story, not only is the world randomly generated each time, but the player is able to change it however they want. More complex animal AI would need them to have knowledge of the terrain, specific spawn/territory nodes, and other stuff that just seems like it would break constantly.