I would love to see a space age mod or someting

[Teh Pizza Lady]

1 hour ago, sleeves said:

All these points (on both sides) are outweighed by one simple thing: it's a mod. The whole point of modifications is to change the game, hence their name.

Yes but he was arguing about the base game. He conflates his ideas, which would be great for mods, as ideas for the base game and I have to, time and time again, say if I'm given a vote, it would be a resounding no.

[CastIronFabric]

4 hours ago, Rainbow Fresh said:

You are correct that there is no inherent law against any fictional story or world being progressed beyond its inception. On a fundamental, logically abstract level nothing and noone can stop you from taking Vintage Story as it is now and make a version of it that imagines how life would be in that world if they went past the middle ages, or even past the developer-intended end goal of technological progress, early steam power. However, to use a really, really blunt metaphor, just because you don't die eating a spoon full of raw cinnamon doesn't mean it's a good idea to do so. And that is what people get hung up upon. You said yourself that this has nothing to do with the feasibility of actually implementing all that is necessary for a space age mod, how well it would actually turn out gameplay enjoyment wise, or how much detail would be necessary to achieve a satisfactory end result. But it kinda is. The game as it is right now exists because implementing the scope of things it set out to have were feasible. Yes yes, there are many rough edges we'd all want the devs to polish and many more things we all want the devs to implement even into the base game, but the principle is the same. Vintage Story as it is exists, because it was feasible to achieve. It was feasible to achieve, because it set itself a clear scope; stone age to middle ages with maybe, one day, barely toe-dipping into post renaissance. We like the game as it is because of the way it is. If you just use a sledgehammer to knock out a core wall and go "This is nice, now do it all the way up into the space age"; that doesn't sound too feasible anymore. If it's not feasible, it will not be the same as what people like about it now. If it is not what people like about it now, what is the point.

So, no, you are technically correct: there is no solid barrier, no godly force forbidding and physically preventing you from taking Vintage Story and turning it into Factorio, or adding Star Wars to The Lord of the Rings. There is just many to be anticipated problems, including the end result turning out actually shit, that should reasonably prevent - or atleast thoroughly question - your attempt at doing it.

its common for people to misunderstand me and even repeatedly so on this specific point.

I am NOT saying its 'ok to do what you want'

I am arguing that is explicitly the intention of the game design itself.

huge difference.

Also, I think the idea that the game might consider moving into the Steam technology as the developers have suggested is not only self evident to be reasonable I am not even going to entertain the possibly that there is some magical wall that exists where it would be unreasonable to go farther than Steam. So that is immutable. I am not great at debating things that I personally see extreemly obvious.

So with that , I am punting from such a debate. later I hope that does not offend anyone.

Edited June 26 by CastIronFabric

[LiLbaconboss]

On 6/23/2026 at 1:27 PM, Rainbow Fresh said:

"Yes, I'd like to build an entire frigging spaceship this way"

I literally couldn't build a rocket capable of carrying a payload larger than a walnut into the thermosphere in real life. But I can spend hundreds of hours in a game sending an entire person to the Moon. The challenge in the game gives me the satisfaction that is a fraction of an actual accomplishment.

(Not to say hobby rockets are not really cool or lack any satisfaction. I just don't have the time or money to do that hobby, and I'm not too sure on local regulations as to launching a small rocket into the sky.)

[LiLbaconboss]

On 6/26/2026 at 8:45 AM, sleeves said:

All these points (on both sides) are outweighed by one simple thing: it's a mod. The whole point of modifications is to change the game, hence their name.

I would like to second this. I was not intending to say in any way the game is lacking or bad because it does not or won't have any significant technological development. Rather, I wanted to express my love of how satisfying the game loop is and how I think it could be expanded to include far more complex tech trees (if that makes sense).

[LiLbaconboss]

There is a lot of intriguing conversation my thought has sparked. I want to reply individually to all; however, my skills in formulating coherent text are lacking, so I'll try to respond in a more general and clear manner so I don't go in circles.

1: I understand how difficult it would be to code/implement all that is required for a comprehensive space age development. I openly acknowledge I could not make this happen. However, it would be cool.

2: I don't prescribe to the idea of a linear technological development. Just because, in historical terms, we did not have proper guns till about the 15th century does not mean it was impossible beforehand. For example, the Romans did have access to both steel, steam power, and complex clockwork and gear systems. However, they never used large amounts of steel tools, powered mechanisms by steam (for any industrial purpose), and they didn't make use of clocks or other mechanical devices. This is all despite having, in some capacity, those tools. TLDR, technology is not linear (in all cases); it's more about the accumulation of knowledge and applying that knowledge in innovative ways.

3: Vintage Story does have some level of automation that is in proportion to the technology available. If one added more complex tech, one could see further automation within that same proportion of tech.

4: To my knowledge, Seraphs are functionally immortal (can't die of old age), so even if it all had to be done by hand, the passage of time would functionally not matter.

5: The game is neither strictly Stone Age nor medieval, as it has what basically amounts to magic with the gears and Rust Dimension that propelled the original humans far further technically than would be compatible with either age.

6: Vintage Story is not trying to tell a historical recreation of events from the 4th-8th century. It's trying to tell an alternative history that implements basically magic (at least this is my interpretation of how the game is).

I think that is everything I wanted to say. I do apologize if this was a thoroughly incoherent and maddening experience. I tend to only write in a technical manner (example: lab books/manuals; less literary interpretation, more solid fact).

[Rainbow Fresh]

4 hours ago, LiLbaconboss said:

There is a lot of intriguing conversation my thought has sparked. I want to reply individually to all; however, my skills in formulating coherent text are lacking, so I'll try to respond in a more general and clear manner so I don't go in circles.

1: I understand how difficult it would be to code/implement all that is required for a comprehensive space age development. I openly acknowledge I could not make this happen. However, it would be cool.

2: I don't prescribe to the idea of a linear technological development. Just because, in historical terms, we did not have proper guns till about the 15th century does not mean it was impossible beforehand. For example, the Romans did have access to both steel, steam power, and complex clockwork and gear systems. However, they never used large amounts of steel tools, powered mechanisms by steam (for any industrial purpose), and they didn't make use of clocks or other mechanical devices. This is all despite having, in some capacity, those tools. TLDR, technology is not linear (in all cases); it's more about the accumulation of knowledge and applying that knowledge in innovative ways.

3: Vintage Story does have some level of automation that is in proportion to the technology available. If one added more complex tech, one could see further automation within that same proportion of tech.

4: To my knowledge, Seraphs are functionally immortal (can't die of old age), so even if it all had to be done by hand, the passage of time would functionally not matter.

5: The game is neither strictly Stone Age nor medieval, as it has what basically amounts to magic with the gears and Rust Dimension that propelled the original humans far further technically than would be compatible with either age.

6: Vintage Story is not trying to tell a historical recreation of events from the 4th-8th century. It's trying to tell an alternative history that implements basically magic (at least this is my interpretation of how the game is).

I think that is everything I wanted to say. I do apologize if this was a thoroughly incoherent and maddening experience. I tend to only write in a technical manner (example: lab books/manuals; less literary interpretation, more solid fact).

Mind that this is not a "no you're wrong", this is solely meant as some additional counter-arguments to your brought up arguments.

2. In-wrold lore-accurately, as far as we can tell at this part in the story, the Seraph was once part of the old civilization before the collapse. Therefor, all our knowledge of crafting recipes comes from the fact that previous civilization already invented that technology. The previous civilization did not advance past (assuming a future implementation of all roadmap goals) early steam engines (with some side-business in technomagic, yes). Therefor, to stay true to the game's setting, the Seraph would not know how to build a rocket. They game would need some sort of research system to implement this in a faithful manner, which I don't know how it could possibly look. Because time-gating stuff or just having progress bars go up is boring as hell, just feeding resources into a machine Raft-style to learn their uses is un-realistic, and real research not easily portrayable.

4. The passage of time would functionally not matter to the Seraph, but the player who would have to play dozens if not hundreds of in-game years to represent the research necessary to come up with such things.

5. The game is, from a technological or knowledge point of view, in late medieval/early renaissance times. It logically starts in the Stone Age for the player Seraph because you start with nothing; you may know how to make steel, but you do not yet possess the means to do so. You only have sticks and stones.

6. Correct, but no official clues of this alternate history points at the existence of such technology yet. And comments here have previously led me to believe people are all about building an Apollo-style rocket, not a scrap-metal heap powered by temporal witchcraft. The latter of which would be a whole different approach to everything and much easier to envision fitting into the game.

[CastIronFabric]

6 hours ago, LiLbaconboss said:

There is a lot of intriguing conversation my thought has sparked. I want to reply individually to all; however, my skills in formulating coherent text are lacking, so I'll try to respond in a more general and clear manner so I don't go in circles.

1: I understand how difficult it would be to code/implement all that is required for a comprehensive space age development. I openly acknowledge I could not make this happen. However, it would be cool.

2: I don't prescribe to the idea of a linear technological development. Just because, in historical terms, we did not have proper guns till about the 15th century does not mean it was impossible beforehand. For example, the Romans did have access to both steel, steam power, and complex clockwork and gear systems. However, they never used large amounts of steel tools, powered mechanisms by steam (for any industrial purpose), and they didn't make use of clocks or other mechanical devices. This is all despite having, in some capacity, those tools. TLDR, technology is not linear (in all cases); it's more about the accumulation of knowledge and applying that knowledge in innovative ways.

3: Vintage Story does have some level of automation that is in proportion to the technology available. If one added more complex tech, one could see further automation within that same proportion of tech.

4: To my knowledge, Seraphs are functionally immortal (can't die of old age), so even if it all had to be done by hand, the passage of time would functionally not matter.

5: The game is neither strictly Stone Age nor medieval, as it has what basically amounts to magic with the gears and Rust Dimension that propelled the original humans far further technically than would be compatible with either age.

6: Vintage Story is not trying to tell a historical recreation of events from the 4th-8th century. It's trying to tell an alternative history that implements basically magic (at least this is my interpretation of how the game is).

I think that is everything I wanted to say. I do apologize if this was a thoroughly incoherent and maddening experience. I tend to only write in a technical manner (example: lab books/manuals; less literary interpretation, more solid fact).

Similar to your list here is my list on this subject and I think each item on the list below should be delt with separately and unfortunately its easy to accidently conflate them but they should be delt in isolation.

1. There is the question of what does the developer want to do. The developer might not want to move the game pasted 'Medieval Ages' but that does not mean that it is intrinsically a bad design because the developer does not want to do it. That line of thinking is a bit of the is-ought fallacy combined with a bit of idolatry of the developers. I reject this line of thinking completely. Also the spin off on that I reject, that being 'well the developer is not going to do it and as such for that reason its intrinsically a bad idea.

2. The idea that Lore, Backdrop and Story is the only thing in the game that is immutable is a concept I reject on core principles. Why is Lore considered immutable and thus all game play must flex to it? I have no idea, I think its purely arbitrary rule someone at some point in gaming history just randomly made up thinking that a video game story is so amazingly good that its on the level of sacred text, lets get a little more grounded. I think its the other way around, Game play is in the drivers seat here, not Lore when it comes to a compelling video game.

3. Is the idea even feasible technically.

I think its easy for all of us to accidently conflate those three separate items and not be able to isolate those three points when it comes to asking if a new features should be in place.

Edited June 28 by CastIronFabric

[sleeves]

1 hour ago, CastIronFabric said:

Game play is in the drivers seat here, not Lore when it comes to a compelling video game.

Agreed, and doubly so for mods. No one's trying to devise a lore-friendly reason why rust creatures have impressive tailoring skills with the drifter tuxedo mod; why should we be any stricter with tech mods?

[CastIronFabric]

2 hours ago, sleeves said:

Agreed, and doubly so for mods. No one's trying to devise a lore-friendly reason why rust creatures have impressive tailoring skills with the drifter tuxedo mod; why should we be any stricter with tech mods?

Correct. Many people think Lore is the most immutable aspect of a game that it is the center point and everything else revolves around that when it comes to a video game. That is incorrect. Gameplay is the drives seat, the rest of it is background at best. In fact I will go even deeper and say the cadence between task and reward and how each task cycle goes to the next objective is the most important part of game play.

EDIT: I also think conflating a 'drifter tuxedo' with 'we can not go beyond Steam because somewhere hidden in some Lore text there is some reference to not going past Middle Ages but because the developer said they are open to making Steam its ok to just dabble a bit into Steam but no way go past that!' is a bit rich to say the least

Edited June 28 by CastIronFabric

[Rainbow Fresh]

3 hours ago, CastIronFabric said:

Correct. Many people think Lore is the most immutable aspect of a game that it is the center point and everything else revolves around that when it comes to a video game. That is incorrect. Gameplay is the drives seat, the rest of it is background at best. In fact I will go even deeper and say the cadence between task and reward and how each task cycle goes to the next objective is the most important part of game play.

EDIT: I also think conflating a 'drifter tuxedo' with 'we can not go beyond Steam because somewhere hidden in some Lore text there is some reference to not going past Middle Ages but because the developer said they are open to making Steam its ok to just dabble a bit into Steam but no way go past that!' is a bit rich to say the least

1. A Visual Novel is a game. Does the gameplay of enabling auto-forward and watching the storyline be played out like a movie take "the driver seat" over the story that is being played? Does the fact that this particular VN does or does not have optional menu button C and QoL feature for replaying branches of the story have more impact than whethere or not the story is any deep and enticing? Granted, Vintage Story is certainly not a story-first driven type of game, but I "reject" your broadfire argument that gameplay generally takes precedence. The enjoyment of a game is a carefully balanced triangle of content, controls and presentation.

2. Vintage Story's world is not yours. It is also not mine, or any other players'. It is Anegos Studio's creation and property. The canon lore, as the developers state "this is true and this is false" is the ground truth that makes this world this world. You are correct that there is no intrinsic technical limitation prohibiting any mod creator to break away from Vintage Story, but it is exactly that - breaking away from Vintage Story. By doing so and contradicting or just sidestepping established canon lore you are deliberately, openly making and announcing your own thing; which will intrinsicly rub those that specifically like VS for what it is the wrong way, and will inherently bring forth the question of if it is worth making a mod for a game that makes that game another game, or make a whole nother game instead. Because the new contents target audience will not be the old game's target audience; there can and surely will be overlap, but that will naturally be smaller than either target audience in full. Not every Vintage Story player will like a space age simulator, and not every Kerbal fan will want to buy Vintage Story for the space mod. Hence the lore of a game, series, movie or novel has importance and authority and any content created going against it will have to fight harder for peoples acknowledgement.

[sleeves]

1 hour ago, Rainbow Fresh said:

Not every Vintage Story player will like a space age simulator, and not every Kerbal fan will want to buy Vintage Story for the space mod.

Which is why it's a mod in the first place.

[LadyWYT]

9 hours ago, Rainbow Fresh said:

building an Apollo-style rocket, not a scrap-metal heap powered by temporal witchcraft. The latter of which would be a whole different approach to everything and much easier to envision fitting into the game.

I actually disagree. A scrap-metal space vehicle powered by temporal witchcraft doesn't really fit anymore than an Apollo-style rocket, because the devs have been pretty clear about wanting to remain relatively grounded in reality when it comes to what the player can do in regards to technology. So you have things like the library gasifier and the resonator being rather fanciful in their design, but it's pretty clear that the former is a steam-powered lighting system and the latter is a phonograph. Bells, locusts, and eidolons push the envelope a bit more, but it's not too difficult to imagine someone looking at an animal and then trying to build a clockwork version of it. Space flight, however, poses the problem of accounting for gravitational forces, friction, oxygen systems, etc., which is all stuff that someone from the medieval times isn't too likely to be aware of, and is difficult to learn about purely through trial and error. It's also difficult to justify developing in the fledgling stages of a technological revolution(and given what the lore is, it doesn't seem the Old World ever had a chance to move past that stage), especially when teleporters exist as a means of travel.

Now of course, for a mod, anything goes, but more successful mods tend to remain fairly faithful to the established setting of the world. There's also a limit to how many times you can use magic to justify something before the audience sees it as a cop-out. What the "magic" can't do is just as important as what it can do, and when there are no limits then the story lacks tension, since it becomes a question of "well why didn't the characters just use magic to solve the problem".

1 hour ago, Rainbow Fresh said:

Hence the lore of a game, series, movie or novel has importance and authority and any content created going against it will have to fight harder for peoples acknowledgement.

Pretty much. It's why a lot of IPs are struggling these days, while older versions of the IPs are still quite strong. Ever-changing lore means that there's no foundation for an audience to get attached to, and no attachment means no reason to give the thing your attention.

[CastIronFabric]

18 hours ago, Rainbow Fresh said:

1. A Visual Novel is a game. Does the gameplay of enabling auto-forward and watching the storyline be played out like a movie take "the driver seat" over the story that is being played? Does the fact that this particular VN does or does not have optional menu button C and QoL feature for replaying branches of the story have more impact than whethere or not the story is any deep and enticing? Granted, Vintage Story is certainly not a story-first driven type of game, but I "reject" your broadfire argument that gameplay generally takes precedence. The enjoyment of a game is a carefully balanced triangle of content, controls and presentation.

2. Vintage Story's world is not yours. It is also not mine, or any other players'. It is Anegos Studio's creation and property. The canon lore, as the developers state "this is true and this is false" is the ground truth that makes this world this world. You are correct that there is no intrinsic technical limitation prohibiting any mod creator to break away from Vintage Story, but it is exactly that - breaking away from Vintage Story. By doing so and contradicting or just sidestepping established canon lore you are deliberately, openly making and announcing your own thing; which will intrinsicly rub those that specifically like VS for what it is the wrong way, and will inherently bring forth the question of if it is worth making a mod for a game that makes that game another game, or make a whole nother game instead. Because the new contents target audience will not be the old game's target audience; there can and surely will be overlap, but that will naturally be smaller than either target audience in full. Not every Vintage Story player will like a space age simulator, and not every Kerbal fan will want to buy Vintage Story for the space mod. Hence the lore of a game, series, movie or novel has importance and authority and any content created going against it will have to fight harder for peoples acknowledgement.

1. I am not getting into this. The reason we play a game is for the interaction, skill mastery in using a safe mechanism, not for the story. I have watched enough lectures on the subject of game play to know this is a fact not an opinion. It should be self evident as well.

and I have no idea why you think a 'interactive novel' is a game. It does not check any of the requirements anymore than the terrible 'choose your own adventure' novels from the 80s. We have been playing games since the dawn of humanity, story telling in games have only existed for about 50 years. Think about this, when you play online with your friends how much time are you spending talking about the story? when you sit in bed at night thinking about Vintage Story are you thinking about the story? or your next project? When you play alone, how much time do you devote thinking about the story? Log it over the course of 200 hours how much time you are consciously engaged in the actual story or lore. So, why is it more important than the actions you are doing which make up the vast majority of your time. Please do not answer me, I do not want to engage in debate over this. I want to plant that seed and perhaps it will resonate without conversation. 

2. I understand the game is not mine, that is why I put into bold the words 'inherently several times. The argument being made is that a game is 'inherently good design because the developer decided to do it. Please try to understand the difference between what you are saying and what I just said. I am NOT saying the argument is that a game needs to be that way because the developer said they will do it but rather that the argument is the  'it is intrinsically a good design because the developer did it.' That is is-ought fallacy

3. A developer (any developer) who changes the game (as this developer has done) is evidence that the game is mutable by the developer. Now I am asking you directly, what rule book exists that states a developer can change game play but CANT change Lore. Make your chase.

 

I doubt I will say anymore on this matter.

Edited June 29 by CastIronFabric

[CastIronFabric]

Everyone, please try to understand the difference between these two statements when I speak.

A. 'The game must be as it is because the developer has decided to do it'

and

B. 'The game is of good design inherently becasue the developer has decided to do it' (is-ought fallacy)

Item A is a reasonable assertion, B however is a different conversation completely. Those are two fundamentally different assertions.

Also, if you please, when debating about Lore as a mental exercise ask yourself why is it a game developer can change game play but cant change Lore. What rule books exists that says game play is mutable  but Lore is not. Where is it written that a game developer might not make the perfect game play but once they put pen to paper for a story its perfect and can not be changed. Where specifically does that line of thinking come from?

 

Edited June 29 by CastIronFabric

[williams_482]

How this thread about someone wanting a tech progression mod that goes all the way to rocket ships turned into such an intense argument is beyond me.

This person is merely asking for the Vintage Story equivalent of the various super in-depth Minecraft modpacks, which I'm sure Vintage Story players were disproportionately likely to have played relative to Minecraft players as a group. Yes, it will obviously be a difficult mod to make, and yes, it will obviously be of interest to a decent chunk of the playerbase. Does it make a ton of sense next to the lore? Not really, but it's a mod. And it's not like a player who cares couldn't squint at a good implementation and and find it close enough to fit in. 

I think the lore is important to the game, and I want to play this mod. 

[CastIronFabric]

12 minutes ago, williams_482 said:

How this thread about someone wanting a tech progression mod that goes all the way to rocket ships turned into such an intense argument is beyond me.

This person is merely asking for the Vintage Story equivalent of the various super in-depth Minecraft modpacks, which I'm sure Vintage Story players were disproportionately likely to have played relative to Minecraft players as a group. Yes, it will obviously be a difficult mod to make, and yes, it will obviously be of interest to a decent chunk of the playerbase. Does it make a ton of sense next to the lore? Not really, but it's a mod. And it's not like a player who cares couldn't squint at a good implementation and and find it close enough to fit in. 

I think the lore is important to the game, and I want to play this mod. 

well to me its self evidence and was instantly so from the start. We start in Stone age, we go to Steel, developer thinking about Steam. Seems like a natural and obvious progression to keep going if the technical viability exists to do so. Anyway, I have said to much on this subject already.

Edited June 29 by CastIronFabric