Feature Request: Electricity

[vvbudh]

For when it's time, maybe can we get something like this to generate electricity? I feel like this fits the vibe. (Hippolyte Pixii's Alternating Current Dynamo)
 

Edited June 29 by vvbudh
Change link to img

[Maelstrom]

That will be something a mod will have to provide.  Devs have indicated that early steam power is the most advanced tech we'll see in the base game.

[Vexxvididu]

I really don't think electricity fits in the game at all.  The device you pictured wasn't invented till LONG after the game takes place.

[CastIronFabric]

9 minutes ago, Vexxvididu said:

I really don't think electricity fits in the game at all.  The device you pictured wasn't invented till LONG after the game takes place.

I think the game would have been better served if they did not put a hard date on end of progress. Not to say they would HAVE to continue to create features past a set age but rather that there is no hard set rule that it could not if they ever changed their mind. I think that would have been a better decision rather than stating something that they see is absolutely positively immutable.

I do know if they actually made such an explicit statement or not but I assume they did?

 

 

[Maelstrom]

1 hour ago, CastIronFabric said:

I think the game would have been better served if they did not put a hard date on end of progress. Not to say they would HAVE to continue to create features past a set age but rather that there is no hard set rule that it could not if they ever changed their mind. I think that would have been a better decision rather than stating something that they see is absolutely positively immutable.

I do know if they actually made such an explicit statement or not but I assume they did?

The roadmap indicates end game tech is steam power.  Tyron has stated in the forums and, iirc, interviews that firearms will not be developed either.

Remember, devs are creating the game they want to play and releasing it to the rest of the world to enjoy.   True 1980's style game development and it is soooo refreshing!

[Zaph42nd]

Feels more fit for a mod given the setting of the game, I suppose electricity could work within the game though it'd need to be restricted to 1700s technologies (early-steam age) to remain cohesive with early steam-based machinery (though, with Jonas devices, early electrical devices would also feel a bit out of place?). Closest devices in this case would be lightning rods, Leyden jars, etc... devices like motors and other similar electric devices wouldn't really fit the setting imo

[LadyWYT]

For those wanting electricity in the game, there is at least a mod for that.https://mods.vintagestory.at/show/mod/25300

Otherwise, I agree with the other sentiments posted here. Electricity doesn't really fit the vision of what Vintage Story is as a game. There are a few advanced technical contraptions that the player can make use of, but that's the key: there's only a few, and they have very niche uses. Gameplay in general is otherwise rather down-to-earth.

Plus it's not really much of a survival game if you can just hook everything up to "the grid". 

 

[CastIronFabric]

15 hours ago, Maelstrom said:

The roadmap indicates end game tech is steam power.  Tyron has stated in the forums and, iirc, interviews that firearms will not be developed either.

Remember, devs are creating the game they want to play and releasing it to the rest of the world to enjoy.   True 1980's style game development and it is soooo refreshing!

right but a few things

1. a roadmap is actually not a statement that time stops at a certain date. Its only a reflection of what the game intends to have at the moment, it is not immutable. My statement below addressed your point directly before you even replied.

Quote

Not to say they would HAVE to continue to create features past a set age but rather that there is no hard set rule that it could not if they ever changed their mind

2. I have zero idea what any of those choices has to do with 1980s style gaming. I started gaming in 1980 specifically, I didnt even become aware of crafting as game mechanic until 2002 which was a Neverwinter Nights mod. I did not even see building in a game outside of the Sims until 2004 which was the beta for Wurm, so I have no idea what you are referring to with that statement

3. I know they have decided to stop making tech beyond Steam. What  I was asking putting it another way is, have they explicitly said the game itself is to end at a specific tech time in history AND that they will never under any circumstances change their mind on it.

Keep in mind the is-ought fallacy dabbled in with a bit of idolatry of developers, So sayith the developer does NOT mean its immutable, it does NOT mean they cant change their mind. However regardless of that I addressed your reply already in my main statement.

also: The reason I said what I said is because there is a difference between these two possible realities

1. 'We plan to stop at Steam Power' (because we really do not want to work that long in the game and we really do not think we would ever get around to it)

2.'We plan to stop at Steam Power' (because we want this game to remain in a specific time frame in human history explictly)

I do not know it the reason has been explictly stated to be either 1 or 2.

 

Edited July 1 by CastIronFabric

[Maelstrom]

1 hour ago, CastIronFabric said:

1. a roadmap is actually not a statement that time stops at a certain date. Its only a reflection of what the game intends to have at the moment, it is not immutable. My statement below addressed your point directly before you even replied.

While the roadmap has changed a couple times in the 5+ years I've played VS the roadmap has changed a couple of times, but it has never included a couple of items that have often been requested - firearms and electricity (or some other similar power source).  Additionally, Tyron in multiple interviews has said those items will not be in the game.  Those statements have never been included the word plan.  No, those statements have been firearms and electricity will definitively not be in the game.

1 hour ago, CastIronFabric said:

2. I have zero idea what any of those choices has to do with 1980s style gaming.

If you read my comment carefully you will see that I said 1980's game development.  

[CastIronFabric]

52 minutes ago, Maelstrom said:

While the roadmap has changed a couple times in the 5+ years I've played VS the roadmap has changed a couple of times, but it has never included a couple of items that have often been requested - firearms and electricity (or some other similar power source).  Additionally, Tyron in multiple interviews has said those items will not be in the game.  Those statements have never been included the word plan.  No, those statements have been firearms and electricity will definitively not be in the game.

If you read my comment carefully you will see that I said 1980's game development.  

1. regarding your comment about 1980s development I do not know what you are referring to if you could please explain it, that would be very nice of you.

2. There is a difference between these two assertions

A. The game will not have Steam power

B. The game will not have Steam power and that is an decision that we have made that is immutable.

I do not know that assertion B was made, I understand assertion A was made but we do not even know the reason for the assertion. I could be because they think they will never have time or maybe it means it would not fit well into the world, they have not explicitly stated it either way as far as I know.

EDIT: I have explicitly stated multiple times that I am not advocating that a developer should change its process because of a suggestion from the players, in fact I have gone out of my way to state I see what I am saying and that to be completely different things. 

EDIT 2: Perhaps this example will make sense. If I say 'I plan to go to the store today' I am saying one of the following could be true

A. I change my mind and decide not to

B. I do not get around to it

C. Someone suggests an idea that I find appealing and decide to do that thing instead or in addition to.

What I am NOT saying is---------

D. Someone told me I had to

Edited July 1 by CastIronFabric

[Slam]

On 6/30/2026 at 8:42 AM, Maelstrom said:

That will be something a mod will have to provide.  Devs have indicated that early steam power is the most advanced tech we'll see in the base game.

At the same time though, steam power could give us A/C in VINTAGE STORY. If steam power isn’t like brewing alcohol, where it just a giant water boiler that has to be place next to the steam engine, and instead used piping to transport water you could heat water using a water boiler, or natural hot spring (or cool water with Mechanical Refrigeration System) and plum it in areas you want to keep warm.

so, uh yeah, “early steam power” could give us ADVANCE A/C SYSTEMS in VINTAGE STORY. If this is interesting at all, I’ve made a post about water pumps and pipes Here which goes over a few uses they could have in Vintage Story including “A/C”

[VaelophisNyx]

lore-accurately, tech progression in vintage story isn't 1:1 with reality. Thus, I can see basic electricity being on the table. Maybe nothing more than electric lights and maybe a resistive heater, but just the bare bones basics (mostly so that mods can leverage it without having to introduce 10 types of wire and 4 separate electricity code bases)

[Rainbow Fresh]

5 hours ago, VaelophisNyx said:

lore-accurately, tech progression in vintage story isn't 1:1 with reality. Thus, I can see basic electricity being on the table. Maybe nothing more than electric lights and maybe a resistive heater, but just the bare bones basics (mostly so that mods can leverage it without having to introduce 10 types of wire and 4 separate electricity code bases)

If anything, "electric" lights are already in the game. Just that they are pipes filled with magical glowing mystery liquid, as seen used in the Resonance archives. We'd just need a Jonas tech-esque way to create that ourselves.

[CastIronFabric]

9 hours ago, VaelophisNyx said:

lore-accurately, tech progression in vintage story isn't 1:1 with reality. Thus, I can see basic electricity being on the table. Maybe nothing more than electric lights and maybe a resistive heater, but just the bare bones basics (mostly so that mods can leverage it without having to introduce 10 types of wire and 4 separate electricity code bases)

I think there is an arbitrary assumption that when a developer creates Lore, that Lore is immutable while game play must work around that immutable foundation. I do not know where this line of thinking comes from but to be fair it is estimated that this game has sold 1 million copies yet the number of people who are actively engaged in the forums is about 5, so there is that.

Regardless, when we play Vintage Story do we think about Lore while playing? Do we think about Lore at night before going to sleep after a long play? Is it really the foundation of our excitement about the game? I doubt it. So why is gameplay beholden to Lore and not the other way around during a games development cycle? 

I want to be super clear because many misunderstand me, it is obvious the decision to put in electricity or not is the developers choice. However, the suggestion the decision to do so must be in accordance with existing Lore is a different subject. The Lore can change.

 

[Liefeling]

On 7/1/2026 at 3:34 PM, CastIronFabric said:

I do not know that assertion B was made, I understand assertion A was made but we do not even know the reason for the assertion.

I think @Maelstrom was just trying to confirm that electricity will not be a thing that gets added. While you're right that a statement from the devs shouldn't mean they can't change their mind, when they put one out it should be taken at face value. There is no point to holding out and saying "well we don't know the reason / whether they will change their mind" because their reasoning doesn't matter. 
It seems you are very keen on there being a possibility of them changing their mind, and there absolutely is one. But you're arguing that we can't take the roadmap or their statements as any sort of confirmation, which is not true. "No means no" -> "the game will not have electricity means the game will not have electricity" so assertion A means assertion B unless the developers say otherwise.

In regards to the 1980s way of doing game development that maelstorm refered to and why it was praised. Back in the day making a game involved a lot less community input than currently, the devs had a vision for how they wanted to make their game and went with it.
Nowadays, while community feedback is good at improving the game, listening to them too much can dilute it and make it hard to understand what the game is "trying to be" (a certain unnamed block game comes to mind). So it seems to me maelstorm is praising the devs for being very steadfast in what they believe their game should be, and i personally agree with that sentiment. 

Edited July 16 by Liefeling
typos :=)

[LadyWYT]

22 minutes ago, Liefeling said:

Nowadays, while community feedback is good at improving the game, listening to them too much can dilute it and make it hard to understand what the game is "trying to be" (a certain unnamed block game comes to mind).

I think it's also fair to say that sometimes when a game community says they want something, they don't necessarily stop to think of what adding that thing actually means for the game, especially for the long-term. And sometimes the requested feature would be a good addition to the game, but the community's idea(s) on how to implement said feature aren't that great. And of course, sometimes the community feedback just isn't useful; saying "I hate this" or "I want to see X in the game" is feedback, but without any explanation to go with the statements it just becomes an expression of individual preference rather than information the devs can potentially use to improve the game.

[CastIronFabric]

2 hours ago, Liefeling said:

I think @Maelstrom was just trying to confirm that electricity will not be a thing that gets added. While you're right that a statement from the devs shouldn't mean they can't change their mind, when they put one out it should be taken at face value. There is no point to holding out and saying "well we don't know the reason / whether they will change their mind" because their reasoning doesn't matter. 
It seems you are very keen on there being a possibility of them changing their mind, and there absolutely is one. But you're arguing that we can't take the roadmap or their statements as any sort of confirmation, which is not true. "No means no" -> "the game will not have electricity means the game will not have electricity" so assertion A means assertion B unless the developers say otherwise.

In regards to the 1980s way of doing game development that maelstorm refered to and why it was praised. Back in the day making a game involved a lot less community input than currently, the devs had a vision for how they wanted to make their game and went with it.
Nowadays, while community feedback is good at improving the game, listening to them too much can dilute it and make it hard to understand what the game is "trying to be" (a certain unnamed block game comes to mind). So it seems to me maelstorm is praising the devs for being very steadfast in what they believe their game should be, and i personally agree with that sentiment. 

I could be wrong but I think he was implying assertion A (which I already knew) implies assertion B by default and self evident. That is how I read it anyway, they are however very different. 

Assuming what you say is in fact what he meant by 1980s development cycle I should point out that if we were doing 1980s development cycle none of us would be playing the game right now because its still in development. Furthermore, I have gamed since the 80s and in my personal view games today are FAR better than they ever were. Now most of that (if not all) is because the technology allows for it. However, if it was not for player feedback and early access approach we would all be stuck playing Skyrim and Sims 4 at best.

I think he also thinks I was implying that a develper should bend to my will and I was not. I am simply stating assertion B does not imply assertion A by default, so its possible but I am not demanding for things to be done differently. To a casual observer what Malestrom appears to be saying is 'its unacceptable to question the devs plans it in effect holy scripture and its near hearsay to even question it'. I do not really think Malestrom is engaging in Dev idolatry but sometimes it appears as if it is although likely not intentionally and I would not suggest as much, it just sometimes appears as such. However to be super clear, I am not saying Malestrom is doing that, I am saying that sometimes it appears as such to me when looking at it casually.

Edited July 16 by CastIronFabric

[Maelstrom]

2 hours ago, CastIronFabric said:

I could be wrong but I think he was implying assertion A (which I already knew) implies assertion B by default and self evident. 

@Liefeling did a perfect job responding in my stead putting to words my thoughts better than I attempted to do before bailing on the attempt.

[CastIronFabric]

7 minutes ago, Maelstrom said:

@Liefeling did a perfect job responding in my stead putting to words my thoughts better than I attempted to do before bailing on the attempt.

ok, fair enough thanks for validating