Monster Seiges

[QuirkyCandy440]

Hey there, not sure if this has been suggested/been mad into a mod (I have had a small look), but I feel like if monsters, not necessarily wildlife, were able to break down blocks, doors and windows, they would be far more scary than the little creatures I can stop with a flimsy door that can't even survive being opened. Though I love my little cottages I don't really feel like I'm experiencing end time level disaster when the unknowable horrors can't even get through my walls I made with floor cobbles and clay. 

When I say this I think of there being almost 'tiers' of monster (similar or even the same as damage tiers), that are able to break 'tiers' of blocks. such that the weak surface monsters could only break perhaps packed and lesser dirts along with basic doors. whereas the higher 'tiers' like bell heads could rip apart stone. Though perhaps certain areas could be exempt from this like story dungeons to prevent hostiles tearing through the walls. also there should be some blocks that cannot be broken to provide endgame security and reason to progress your structures. On a final point of unbreakable objects, some items should be unbreakable, like anvils, as I'm suggesting a way to make monster presence more alive and felt and not to cause a 9 iron ingot reset on someone's progress when their iron anvil gets bodied by a passing drifter.

additionally I don't think all monster types should be able to break things, like bowtorn and locusts, but I also like the idea of drifters being able to pile up on each other to surge over short walls, which would still give reason for activity during temporal storms even when your walls are impenetrable.

I'd also like to note that, I know the building style this would force might be very narrow (big keep with walls, with either your stuff inside it or around it). which wouldn't be for everyone. which Is why I'd see this as an additional setting and not wrapped up in any of the exiting settings (like difficulty).

In summary, I'd like to see something that made the monsters feel like a hazard, that I have to work toward protecting myself from (that isn't just a damage or health boost), and temporal storms as something that I would have to be an active participant in order to survive, essentially if you sit the cellar modelling clay the problem will grow too big for you to manage, so you have to actively fend of the monsters, with traps, weapons and defensive emplacements. 

 

Please let me know, if you have any comments on my points or if there's already a mod that emulates this idea.

[LadyWYT]

Welcome to the game and forums!

3 hours ago, QuirkyCandy440 said:

I feel like if monsters, not necessarily wildlife, were able to break down blocks, doors and windows, they would be far more scary than the little creatures I can stop with a flimsy door that can't even survive being opened.

The problem with this is that it strips away the player's option to hide during a temporal storm. Sure, burying yourself in a dirt hole or otherwise sitting behind a flimsy door might not be realistic, or particularly fun, but it's a safe option to handle the storm, especially in the early game when the player may not be geared/skilled enough to really tackle the storms head-on.

There's also the issue of chiseled blocks. No one wants to go to the effort to chisel nice stuff only to have it torn apart by monsters. However, if you prevent monsters from tampering from chiseled blocks than all you really accomplish is players turning everything into chiseled blocks or otherwise using them to block monster pathing. Technically, this problem can be solved by just allowing these blocks to become "transparent", so that monsters can "phase" through them during temporal storms, but all that really accomplishes is removing the option for players to hide...which brings us back to the first problem.

It's not the worst idea, but I think it fits better as a mod and not so much as a vanilla mechanic. 

[QuirkyCandy440]

1 hour ago, LadyWYT said:

Welcome to the game and forums!

The problem with this is that it strips away the player's option to hide during a temporal storm. Sure, burying yourself in a dirt hole or otherwise sitting behind a flimsy door might not be realistic, or particularly fun, but it's a safe option to handle the storm, especially in the early game when the player may not be geared/skilled enough to really tackle the storms head-on.

There's also the issue of chiseled blocks. No one wants to go to the effort to chisel nice stuff only to have it torn apart by monsters. However, if you prevent monsters from tampering from chiseled blocks than all you really accomplish is players turning everything into chiseled blocks or otherwise using them to block monster pathing. Technically, this problem can be solved by just allowing these blocks to become "transparent", so that monsters can "phase" through them during temporal storms, but all that really accomplishes is removing the option for players to hide...which brings us back to the first problem.

It's not the worst idea, but I think it fits better as a mod and not so much as a vanilla mechanic. 

firstly thank you for responding, and I do get your point on it stripping away the player option to hide, and damages the use of chiselling, but I would think that players that are likely to hide would not use this option in the first place, and as for when players don't have the resources yet, the sue of the grace period setting or just the players wanting to fight for their lives are both options. With the chiselling I do agree, perhaps the creation of specific defensive wall blocks or have the block become 'temporally corrupted' when they would have been broken and therefore passable by creatures, which would then require repair, whilst not needing to be rechiseled. though I'm not sure if that idea would fit into the VS lore as I'm still new. 

Though I can accept that pit may be better implemented as a mod

[August Moore]

On 7/12/2026 at 3:17 PM, LadyWYT said:

Welcome to the game and forums!

The problem with this is that it strips away the player's option to hide during a temporal storm. Sure, burying yourself in a dirt hole or otherwise sitting behind a flimsy door might not be realistic, or particularly fun, but it's a safe option to handle the storm, especially in the early game when the player may not be geared/skilled enough to really tackle the storms head-on.

There's also the issue of chiseled blocks. No one wants to go to the effort to chisel nice stuff only to have it torn apart by monsters. However, if you prevent monsters from tampering from chiseled blocks than all you really accomplish is players turning everything into chiseled blocks or otherwise using them to block monster pathing. Technically, this problem can be solved by just allowing these blocks to become "transparent", so that monsters can "phase" through them during temporal storms, but all that really accomplishes is removing the option for players to hide...which brings us back to the first problem.

It's not the worst idea, but I think it fits better as a mod and not so much as a vanilla mechanic. 

I kind of broached a similar topic in my post today, but the ability for things to break down doors feels very true to life. I get that it can make players feel like they have nowhere to hide, but there are options for that. Doors that are more solid, or even reinforced may hold up better to attacks. Meaning you can still use them to hide, maybe having a room with multiple reinforced doors so that even powerful temporal storms could be withstood. I am not a fan of the mechanic of drifters and such just spawning in your base even though it's light up like a christmas tree. I would prefer them being able to attack doors over spawning literally the second there isn't 16 levels of light.

[LadyWYT]

Just now, August Moore said:

I get that it can make players feel like they have nowhere to hide, but there are options for that. Doors that are more solid, or even reinforced may hold up better to attacks. Meaning you can still use them to hide, maybe having a room with multiple reinforced doors so that even powerful temporal storms could be withstood.

Right, but it's important to consider that the player will need to be able to construct those kinds of doors in order to use them, which will require metalworking at bare minimum. A skilled player can begin metalworking after a couple of days have passed in game, but less experienced players can't necessarily meet those same time requirements, and not every player enjoys pushing that hard either. The early game is also when the hiding strategy is the most valuable, and while players could just dig a hole to hide in, that's not as realistic or as nice as hiding in some sort of shelter.

5 minutes ago, August Moore said:

I am not a fan of the mechanic of drifters and such just spawning in your base even though it's light up like a christmas tree. I would prefer them being able to attack doors over spawning literally the second there isn't 16 levels of light.

This can definitely be a problem, but I'm not sure that allowing monsters to break down doors is the solution. Several players have suggested just banning monsters from spawning in spaces that qualify as rooms, however, this leads to the issue of the player building a compound of rooms to live in and thus never facing any risk from the storms. The better option is probably to add(or adjust, if it already exists) a limit of how close to the player new monsters can spawn. Enough of a "safe zone" that the player could hide in a room without worrying about something spawning in there with them, or otherwise not need to worry about something spawning on top of them if they choose to fight through the storm.

[August Moore]

4 minutes ago, LadyWYT said:

Right, but it's important to consider that the player will need to be able to construct those kinds of doors in order to use them, which will require metalworking at bare minimum. A skilled player can begin metalworking after a couple of days have passed in game, but less experienced players can't necessarily meet those same time requirements, and not every player enjoys pushing that hard either. The early game is also when the hiding strategy is the most valuable, and while players could just dig a hole to hide in, that's not as realistic or as nice as hiding in some sort of shelter.

This can definitely be a problem, but I'm not sure that allowing monsters to break down doors is the solution. Several players have suggested just banning monsters from spawning in spaces that qualify as rooms, however, this leads to the issue of the player building a compound of rooms to live in and thus never facing any risk from the storms. The better option is probably to add(or adjust, if it already exists) a limit of how close to the player new monsters can spawn. Enough of a "safe zone" that the player could hide in a room without worrying about something spawning in there with them, or otherwise not need to worry about something spawning on top of them if they choose to fight through the storm.

It doesn't necessarily require metal working right away. There are plenty of ways to get around that. Blocking up your door with dirt, adding a trapdoor right under it, even adding things like health to door types can mitigate the need to have more complex doors right away. It's not like we are suggesting that they can break down any door at any time. There are so many ways to deal with this. And yeah, it might be annoying for first time player to have to deal with, but Minecraft already has a mechanic like it and it works to great success. Not all mobs can break down doors, the only ones that could would be drifters, and unless you happen to have a particularly nasty one spawn in, the door problem is an easily solvable issue. Plus, I would much rather know that enemy mobs can break down my door and have to occasionally fix that then to keep turning around to a two headed drifter that spawned right behind me, or to keep getting sniped in my base. That is suuuuuuuper annoying.

[LadyWYT]

15 minutes ago, August Moore said:

Blocking up your door with dirt

If we're going for realism though, we don't want to be encouraging players to just put dirt or other cheap blocks in front of the door.

 

17 minutes ago, August Moore said:

adding a trapdoor right under it

Trapdoors require metalworking to craft. They also pose a similar issue as the above--while they could technically be passed off as a "trap" for unwanted intruders, it's really just exploiting game code/creature behavior to get around needing to actually fortify doors. Players probably won't want to put trapdoors right under every single door either.

 

21 minutes ago, August Moore said:

even adding things like health to door types can mitigate the need to have more complex doors right away

Maybe, but this kind of mechanic also means that the player will need to either constantly maintain their door, or replace it periodically since it will inevitably break. I don't think most players would be particularly thrilled with either prospect.

As for the early game, the best the player could hope for in this scenario is the crude door, which may not require metalworking to craft but is already ignored by many players simply due to the fact it has a chance to fall off its hinges when used. It's a fun novelty item for playing with your friends, but it's certainly not going to be at all useful for keeping monsters out with the proposed mechanic.

24 minutes ago, August Moore said:

but Minecraft already has a mechanic like it and it works to great success.

Not in my experience. I know it's technically a mechanic in Minecraft, but it's not one that ever actually matters since it's easily mitigated by just...putting the door on backwards. Or putting something in front of the door. Or not even using a door. Or creating a trench that the player can cross but mobs cannot...you get the idea.

[Rainbow Fresh]

8 hours ago, August Moore said:

but Minecraft already has a mechanic like it and it works to great success.

8 hours ago, LadyWYT said:

Not in my experience. I know it's technically a mechanic in Minecraft, but it's not one that ever actually matters since it's easily mitigated by just...putting the door on backwards. Or putting something in front of the door. Or not even using a door. Or creating a trench that the player can cross but mobs cannot...you get the idea.

Not in my experience either. I know Zombies breaking down doors on Hard difficulty is a thing. I have never even encountered it outside of poor villages being reduced to ash when the RNG-based zombie horde event kicked in. In my over a decade of playing Minecraft, I have had about 2 worlds on hard/hardcore difficulty. Mostly because for your average enjoyment of the game Normal is perfectly fine and because when playing with friends who are... less avid gamers than me putting them through anything higher would be unfun. In those two worlds where zombies could theoretically destroy doors... I never had it happen even once. Mostly because you just Light up a wide area so monsters don't spawn, sleep through the night, aren't anywhere near home 90% of the time or have infinite iron about 2h into the game to make iron doors. So I, too, cannot agree that it "works to great success".

[August Moore]

Look, to each their own, but I personally agree that is has been a successful implementation by Microsoft. They don't always manage to break down doors, which is the point I was trying to make. Drifters may not be able to break down every single door, door hp would be temporary, like in Minecraft. They may just give up the chase if they don't see/hear the player. It doesn't have to be dialed up to the highest intensity. 

21 hours ago, LadyWYT said:

Not in my experience. I know it's technically a mechanic in Minecraft, but it's not one that ever actually matters since it's easily mitigated by just...putting the door on backwards. Or putting something in front of the door. Or not even using a door. Or creating a trench that the player can cross but mobs cannot...you get the idea.

Which was my exact point about using this mechanic in Vintage Story.

There are so many ways to implement this in ways that don't ruin immersion, and are balanced. I don't want to argue for the sake of arguing, I just want a mechanic that works better than drifters spawning inside of what is supposed to be a secure base, and this seems immersive and easy to solve.

[LadyWYT]

1 hour ago, August Moore said:

I don't want to argue for the sake of arguing, I just want a mechanic that works better than drifters spawning inside of what is supposed to be a secure base, and this seems immersive and easy to solve.

In fairness, I'm not entirely against allowing monsters to break down doors. Just that if it's a mechanic that's going to exist, it shouldn't be easily bypassed by the player exploiting other game mechanics, like placing trapdoors or haybales in front of the door to block monster pathing.

[Facethief]

I think just letting drifters climb on each other would be good.

[August Moore]

2 hours ago, LadyWYT said:

In fairness, I'm not entirely against allowing monsters to break down doors. Just that if it's a mechanic that's going to exist, it shouldn't be easily bypassed by the player exploiting other game mechanics, like placing trapdoors or haybales in front of the door to block monster pathing.

That's fair,  but it is also how it could be solved in situations like this in real world situations. I mostly brought that up because as I pointed out in my separate post about animal behaviors, it would be nice for doors to not be a one size fits all solution to mob spawns. It could not just be an issue of enemy mobs but it could also be pest/hunting behaviors in animals. Bears and wolves are more likely to break down doors if they are hungry and know that prey is there than to attack humans. What if the door mechanic also applied to that? Sure, blocking up the door from drifters and the like would prevent them from getting into your base, but you won't always be able to stop bears or wolves from eating your animals. Could give the game a more dynamic late game feel. When you eventually move on from barring the door at night to using better doors that stop drifters and the like from breaking in, you get comfortable. You forget that higher damage mobs can break down better doors. You realize bears will attack your farm. That way you dont just end up with a 100% viable farm/defense technique. It could even be a feature you opt into like moving water sources or fire from lightening. That way newbies won't get destroyed right away, and veteran players can opt into a more dynamic and dangerous play style.

[williams_482]

Not having a 100% reliable way to stop your gen 5 sheep from being randomly eaten by bears inside their barn except through constant patrolling sounds like absolutely miserable gameplay. 

[Rainbow Fresh]

Agreed with williams. "Challenging" and "tedium" walk a very fine line in game balancing and that line is usually moved the most by the ability to overcome challenges. Take food for example. At the beginning of the game, you starve because you have nothing, no means to get anything valuable and spend all your energy trying to get somewhere. Then you progress the game, build a farm, tend some livestock and cook nutritious, long lasting meals. That is progress, you overcome the starvation. That is fun. On the other hand, no matter how far into the game you are, you will still need to constantly eat and eat and eat like a machine as you burn through satiety for every step you take. As unavoidable as this might be, it is tedious and will get boring and annoying real quick.

Bears breaking down doors to get to food, which is kindly enough not you but unkindly enough your animals or food stores. How do you prevent that in the long run? By having to build a barn for animals that has to be reinforced with a steel door so it doesn't break? Or by using the several aforementioned cheesy workarounds LadyWYT talked about that essentially remove the door breaking mechanic again at the cost of forcing the player to turn every single door into a slow, ugly and boring block barricade you have to break and replace to enter? Neither sounds like a good time, just like arbitrary limitations in player creativity. Cause a sleek wooden door matching the woodtype of my house is several times nicer than a steel door, let alone 2 dirt blocks. And if we counter the cheese - however that would be possible - then people will just not bother at all with animal husbandry because, as william mentioned, if you get your several years of effort worth generation 5+ animals randomly mugged by a randomly spawned bear that randomly vandalized your barn that you have to expensively build in the first place because pens aren't vaiable at all anymore is bullshit and animal husbandry is non-essential.

I understand wanting more challenge, but this is just adding challenge for the sake of challenge that ends up becoming a tedium real quick. Just removing indoors spawns from temporal storms would help with your initially mentioned problem.