Hostile Creatures Arent Scary enough.

[MrBoom]

Shivers can break through Doors. Me and a buddy were talking about how the shiver is a very cool hostile creature but its no more scary than a drifter it just deals more damage. its animations are cool and its very interesting and unsettling to watch them. With this in mind we also thought about how when you are inside your house you Are safe and nothing can get to you unless a Temporal storm happens in which if you didnt build your house well they spawn inside. so we thought that the Shiver Could break doors if it saw you and saw you go inside or just saw you inside. it will break down the door and get you. it could have an animation for breaking the door or going inside if its a 1x2 door that is. i just think it would make the monsters more scary and make you realise that you arent safe.

Edited August 6 by MrBoom
adding tags

[ifoz]

I think the main problem with enemies breaking doors is that this is a block game, and so players would likely just start blocking up their doorways with things that are fast to break, like hay or dirt. This already happens in the earlygame, where players will often use hay / dirt or fence gates as 'doors', since the crude door has a chance to break when used.
Allowing enemies to break blocks would fix this, but opens up a whole other can of worms in regards to player freedom / creativity.


Honestly one of my favourite suggestions for making enemies a little scarier / bases less safe is palisades becoming craftable and some changes to fences - monsters would be able to climb 1-tall fences, and shivers 2-tall fences. Animals wouldn't be able to, so fences would still serve their purpose of protecting crops and livestock.
Palisades (like the traders have) would become craftable, and would stop monsters from climbing over. To balance this they'd probably be more expensive than fences.

That way you'd actually have to invest some time (and tree chopping) into properly fortifying your base (or just build larger walls out of regular blocks). This wouldn't really be related to any sort of 'siege/raid' mechanics, but just a way to give palisades a use, incentivise players to make bases that look realistically defensible, and cut back on using basic wooden fences as a hard barrier to the horrors of the night.

Edited August 7 by ifoz

[LadyWYT]

Welcome to the forums!

37 minutes ago, MrBoom said:

so we thought that the Shiver Could break doors if it saw you and saw you go inside or just saw you inside. it will break down the door and get you.

Except shivers are big creatures and will not fit into spaces smaller than two blocks wide. And like @ifoz already said, allowing monsters to break down doors simply prompts players to place blocks that the monsters can't break, and allowing monsters to break blocks really puts the damper on the player's creative freedom. The other thing to keep in mind too is that allowing monsters to break blocks/doors removes a safety option from the player, more likely making the monsters annoying rather than scary.

47 minutes ago, MrBoom said:

Me and a buddy were talking about how the shiver is a very cool hostile creature but its no more scary than a drifter it just deals more damage.

Hmmm...are you sure about that? Because they're faster than drifters, can step up two-block heights, have more health, and enjoy employing hit-and-run tactics. The low tier shivers aren't particularly scary but the corrupt and nightmare level shivers are probably the most dangerous "regular" enemies in the game.

If we're talking from a lore/in-world realism standpoint, there's also evidence that the high tier shivers are capable of ripping limbs off a target. I doubt the devs will actually let them do that in gameplay, but you never know. There could be a nasty status effect inflicted that is very similar to that kind of scenario, once status effects are introduced.

34 minutes ago, ifoz said:

incentivise players to make bases that look realistically defensible, and cut back on using basic wooden fences as a hard barrier to the horrors of the night.

Really, I think this is probably what most players want. Stuff to at least make their base look like a realistic fortress, and not so much "tower defense" mechanics that force them into certain specific designs or exploiting certain mechanics because the monsters are annoying.

 

41 minutes ago, ifoz said:

Honestly one of my favourite suggestions for making enemies a little scarier / bases less safe is palisades becoming craftable and some changes to fences - monsters would be able to climb 1-tall fences, and shivers 2-tall fences. Animals wouldn't be able to, so fences would still serve their purpose of protecting crops and livestock.
Palisades (like the traders have) would become craftable, and would stop monsters from climbing over. To balance this they'd probably be more expensive than fences.

These are my general thoughts as well, though I would also note that status effects are very likely to change how many players approach the game entirely. Combat becomes a lot more serious if enemies can break bones, inflict deep wounds, or otherwise inject poison or infect the player with disease. 

[Sunny_Sometimes]

If enemies breaking doors were to be a thing (which I'm not exactly sold on), I think it should at least be confined to higher-level enemies--probably high-level Drifters, specifically--so temporal storms would be the only time barricading is inherently encouraged.

Maybe doors would have different strength tiers, based on what they're made from, with metal doors and the big strong-wood gates having full immunity. That way, forts and keeps could be reasonably protected and smaller buildings and houses could have barred-iron "storm doors" layered with their usual ones, only to be closed when needed.

[Professor Dragon]

The mod Dana Tweaks allows Drifters to open doors.
https://mods.vintagestory.at/danatweaks

If you really want Shivers in your base (I can't think why you'd want that, but to each their own ), then I guess a clever modder could find a way to do that. (Probably something like a check for a shiver at the door and a teleport command to the other side if there is room.)

[LadyWYT]

1 hour ago, Professor Dragon said:

If you really want Shivers in your base (I can't think why you'd want that, but to each their own ), then I guess a clever modder could find a way to do that.

There was a mod that let them climb on walls like locusts, among other things...including making the bellhead shivers function like bells. I'm not sure that the mod still works though.

[Rainbow Fresh]

17 minutes ago, LadyWYT said:

including making the bellhead shivers function like bells.

Making Bellhead Shivers function like Bells is part of Temporal Symphony, which I'd recommend to anyone anyway regardless (but also fits the "not spooky enough" pretty well)

[Slam]

Maybe, a potential idea, the monsters are kinda glitchy during a temporal storm, blinking in and out of existence, what if they could “glitch” their way through blocks. This would be slow, and leave them venerable.

something like this would require some changes to their ai, such as not knowing where you are all the time, and would only do this while actively chasing the player (talking to you drifting with their head in the door) to allow players to still “hide” during temporal storms or night.

[LadyWYT]

1 hour ago, Rainbow Fresh said:

Making Bellhead Shivers function like Bells is part of Temporal Symphony, which I'd recommend to anyone anyway regardless (but also fits the "not spooky enough" pretty well)

Eh, Temporal Symphony is really hit-or-miss for me at this point. The initial execution was great, but recent updates went overboard in my opinion. In fairness, the mod does have a config file, but I don't play with the mod as frequently as I once did.

 

17 minutes ago, Slam said:

Maybe, a potential idea, the monsters are kinda glitchy during a temporal storm, blinking in and out of existence, what if they could “glitch” their way through blocks. This would be slow, and leave them venerable.

Keeping in mind that if you allow monsters to phase through blocks, you're likely to frustrate players who want to hide or are otherwise unprepared to face the full brunt of the storm. Hiding might not be an exciting option, but it is a safe one, and one that should be available to the player.

[Stevej018]

not scary?  You could request a leaping enemy, that always works.  Especially in the dark where its detection range and leap distance will catch you

Edited August 7 by Stevej018

[Kulze]

The scaryness of enemies currently isn't existing because the amount of different types is low. We got 4 major enemy types after all... well... 5 if we count locusts, but they share a type with normal drifters besides the climbing ability.

Currently we got melee enemies (Drifters), speedy guerilla style enemies (Shivers) and a ranged enemy (Bowthorns). Generators (Bells)

Increasing danger in a game such as Vintage Story it's rarely reliant on changing building mechanics or implementing things which cause a form of siege-behaviour to happen. Those things can nigh always be countered in ways which make the building aspect less sightly and ultimately lead to no significant changes in gameplay behaviour.

What does change how scary enemies become is to introduce more variety.
And there's a lot of options available.

- A bigger lumbering enemy which is defensive and only turns slowly while also doing extremely high damage, optimally in an area. Frontal attacks of any kind are blocked from a shield for example, with very little surface area to actually do damage, but the sides and behind are able to be damaged. High health enemy even when damaging it. The function of such a enemy is to enforce repositioning when it appears together with other types. They are to be avoided primarily.

- A leaping enemy. Swift, very low damage, middle-sized for decent combat experience, small-sized for being atrocious and everyone hating them. This type of enemy has to have a higher enemy count but does individually low damage. They harass and wittle the player down. Timing of attacks is important there.

- Overworld spawners. Significantly weaker in effect then bells obviously. Mobile locust spawner type enemy for example. Also harassment primarily. Slow-paced spawning and hence nothing more then a nuisance alone, but a real danger if left alone in a fight during an active timeframe.

- 'Bombers/Retaliators'. That enemy type is also a staple in games. Hit it and it returns damage in some way. In Vintage Story this makes sense through the use-case of spikes, just not ranged like bowthorns but retaliatory when hit or killed.

- 'Miners'. Another staple. A enemy which leaves environmental dangers behind while passing, trying to stay at a bit of distance. Those only have one task... to reduce the action range of a player. Removal of those environmental traps have to happen via attacking them once and/or over time.


So yes, with the current spread there's not a significant scaryness available yet, outside of deeper areas in the game as things hit like a truck and are often outside of the view-range or not easily accessible to retaliate against them.
But we've gotten not all too long ago the inclusion of shivers and bowthorns. Those significantly improved the variety of eldritch enemies and hence the dangers existing. If you're harassed by a shiver, 2 drifters trying to hit you and throwing their stones from time to time and 2 bowthorns being in the distance... the game suddenly becomes rather scary combat-wise. Even overworld variants can cause quite a lot of damage in such a situation. That only needs to be expanded upon a bit further to make combat an actual choice of fleeing or engaging in more situations then we currently have.

[TheRealMork]

Just a thought:
I think enemies should either get new "skills" or new behaviours as they grow stronger. The surface level ones not being scary for an experienced player seems perfectly normal to me. However, when you come to corrupted or nightmare, they should be a menace. Sure, giving them more hit points and more damages makes them more dangerous, but you can just scale this with better armours, weapons and healing items.
A perfect example of a good way to scale up the danger and hence the scariness of enemy, imo, is the sawblade locust. The fact that it gains an attack that have a bit of range (and the sound design that goes with it) makes it way more frightening than if it was just a stronger locust.

Some ideas for high level enemies skills/behaviours:
- Shivers being able to climb on walls like locust do, or otherwise being to jump farther, making this a pounce attack. When in combat, they could regularly jump above you and land behind you (they do this occasionally when they are above you, and I find it super neat: let's make this a combat tactics for the corrupted ones!).
- Drifters could tend to come in packs rather than one behind the other, and try to surround you to attack you from all sides (it would also lower the change of them hitting each other).
- Having some (not too many) locusts that would just run to you and explode would be pretty scary, too, I think.

[LadyWYT]

3 hours ago, Kulze said:

5 if we count locusts, but they share a type with normal drifters besides the climbing ability.

Locusts are definitely not in the same class as drifters, any more than shivers are the same as drifters. Drifters have two different variants--shufflers and crawlers. The shufflers are the most common ones encountered, and fit into roughly the same spaces as the player. The crawlers are slower and not as adept at climbing up blocks(they have issues in the snow), but can fit through a 1x1 space. All drifters favor a basic melee attack, and can throw rocks to harry the player at range. High tier drifters have a knockback on their melee attacks.

In contrast, locusts can climb on walls, fit through 1x1 spaces, and perform leap attacks. Locusts can also spawn quickly from spawners and overwhelm the player with numbers. They also tend to be restricted to specific locations rather than being found anywhere. They're also mechanical creatures, so Clockmakers will have an advantage fighting them.

50 minutes ago, TheRealMork said:

I think enemies should either get new "skills" or new behaviours as they grow stronger.

The premise for this is already in the game, since higher tier rotbeasts have more knockback. There's definitely room to improve on the idea though, and I daresay a status effect system will help with that.

 

52 minutes ago, TheRealMork said:

- Shivers being able to climb on walls like locust do, or otherwise being to jump farther, making this a pounce attack. When in combat, they could regularly jump above you and land behind you (they do this occasionally when they are above you, and I find it super neat: let's make this a combat tactics for the corrupted ones!).

I disagree with this one. Shivers are big creatures that are built for speed, not climbing or leaping, and I think they should remain as such. I am suspicious though that a monster focused on climbing and leaping, slashing attacks is in development, though I have no way to prove it.

 

54 minutes ago, TheRealMork said:

- Drifters could tend to come in packs rather than one behind the other, and try to surround you to attack you from all sides (it would also lower the change of them hitting each other).

This is already how drifters tend to operate, and I don't think they're meant to be intelligent enough to coordinate attacks like that. The "friendly fire" bit is also quite humorous to watch, in addition to being useful in certain circumstances. Overall, I think this is how drifters should remain--a basic enemy that doesn't require too much planning, but one that can still be dangerous if the player doesn't take them seriously.

 

56 minutes ago, TheRealMork said:

- Having some (not too many) locusts that would just run to you and explode would be pretty scary, too, I think.

While turning some locusts into mobile bombs is a definite option, it's also much too similar to Minecraft's creeper. There's also the aspect too that the mechanical creatures were built as helpful machines, that have since gone rogue. It doesn't really make sense to make a tool that self-destructs, especially since such devices aren't really cheap or easy to make.

 

3 hours ago, Kulze said:

- A bigger lumbering enemy which is defensive and only turns slowly while also doing extremely high damage, optimally in an area. Frontal attacks of any kind are blocked from a shield for example, with very little surface area to actually do damage, but the sides and behind are able to be damaged. High health enemy even when damaging it. The function of such a enemy is to enforce repositioning when it appears together with other types. They are to be avoided primarily.

This would be a prime role for the eidolon, or at least, a scaled down version of the standard eidolon. The tale "Blind Bat Rickhart" likely describes an encounter with one in an underground ruin. It's not the kind of enemy you'd encounter regularly, but it would be utterly terrifying and a rather serious encounter when one does appear. And I say scaled down, because those things are huge, and the one the player encounters in the Archive was severely weakened but still very strong. The typical eidolon, I would say, is probably about four times as tall as the player, and easily several times stronger and tougher by far. 

[MrBoom]

7 hours ago, Stevej018 said:

not scary?  You could request a leaping enemy, that always works.  Especially in the dark where its detection range and leap distance will catch you

honestly thats really cool i like that idea. get me thinking of like a type of bowtorn that has a chain on its arrow and it can drag you. although i dont see that working well

 

[Kulze]

4 minutes ago, MrBoom said:

get me thinking of like a type of bowtorn that has a chain on its arrow and it can drag you. although i dont see that working well

Actually... it can.
Think about it like the following: A barbed projectile on a chain. The mob fires it, it impacts you and then tightens as the mob yanks it back out.
For the player it's damage, suddenly stopping for a moment and then a involuntary jump towards the enemy, changing positioning and potentially forcing you into advancing enemies or away from one you want to engage.

So yes, absolutely something which would be rage-inducing, but not overpowered by itself. Near cliffs likely a significant risk, or near any shaft leading into the depths.

[Professor Dragon]

May I put a vote in here for "I am already scared of Rust Monsters", please?

They definitely slow down or halt:

• Exploring
• Mining
• Accessing lore
• Resource gathering

And they influence or force:

• Base building design choices.

I would be perfectly happy with a version of Vintage Story that has all the lore, and none of the Rust Monsters. Treat them as something "That was in the past, and aren't around now, for whatever reason." And/or make them bound to locations that do not matter, such as random instanced dungeons.

There is a Home Sapiens mode which has no monsters, but then it has none of the other good things such as Lore or Traders.

So, while I appreciate that different players like different things - and all power to you, there are some great ideas on this thread - I'd definitely like to keep an option for people who like a more "chill" experience.

Professor Dragon

Edited August 7 by Professor Dragon

[Rainbow Fresh]

9 hours ago, Professor Dragon said:

I would be perfectly happy with a version of Vintage Story that has all the lore, and none of the Rust Monsters.

Technically, that exists already - it's the "always passive" creature hostility setting. We'd need separation between monsters and animals for those, yes, but other than that passive monsters are just decoration and if you know they don't do anything they aren't scary even if you run into one in the deepest, darkest depths of a dungeon.

Personally, I am always all for more enemy variety because killing my 50th drifter this night just because the rift activity turned apocalyptic gets old real fast. As with multiple other previous discussions though, that's only nice if we do get a surefire way to earn safety in our base. Because even the 50 drifters, bee-lining single file into my blade, disrupt anything and everything else you'd ever want to do in the game, and there is alot of stuff to do at home. So, make the wild land a horrific, postapocalyptic hellscape full of creatures beyond human comprehension that turn even the slightest resin-run into Expedition 33 for as long as I can return home and relax there in-between.

[Facethief]

21 hours ago, Stevej018 said:

not scary?  You could request a leaping enemy, that always works.  Especially in the dark where its detection range and leap distance will catch you

I would love (hate) to be sitting in my cosy house and just suddenly hear something thumping around on the roof making a horrible screeching racket. Or one just launching out of a cave and hitting the player on the way up.

They should totally be in shiver-level agony though, having little air control and making a terrible racket when they land after bouncing and skidding to a stop.

Dang it, I think this is gonna have to go on my “better writeup” backlog.

[SnapJelly]

I wouldn't like it if enemies could break through doors, I'd just put haybales infront of the door instead if that were the case. Or else make some kind of fence barrier to prevent them from reaching my door.

I sorta understand the desire to feel more in danger but there's plenty of stuff to do in game which required a bit of peace and a moment to sit still, nighttime is perfect for that.

Same with how if temporal storms hit when I am far from home I just block myself in and wait it out, I would do much the same if my home wasn't safe at night

[Slam]

On 8/7/2026 at 10:49 AM, LadyWYT said:

Keeping in mind that if you allow monsters to phase through blocks, you're likely to frustrate players who want to hide or are otherwise unprepared to face the full brunt of the storm. Hiding might not be an exciting option, but it is a safe one, and one that should be available to the player.

 

On 8/7/2026 at 10:30 AM, Slam said:

something like this would require some changes to their ai, such as not knowing where you are all the time, and would only do this while actively chasing the player (talking to you drifting with their head in the door) to allow players to still “hide” during temporal storms or night.

I’ve already addressed this, they would only do it if they were actively chasing the player. They’re ai would need to be change since currently they can sense you through walls.

The other block game already does something similar-ish as well, which was already brought up with ability for drifters and what not to break down doors. Zombies In the other block can break down doors in hard mode, but it very rare since they would already have to know they’re target is behind said door.

[LadyWYT]

1 hour ago, Slam said:

I’ve already addressed this, they would only do it if they were actively chasing the player. They’re ai would need to be change since currently they can sense you through walls.

Sure, but players probably still aren't going to be thrilled to run inside and shut the door behind them for safety, only to learn that the monster breaks down the door in pursuit. It's scary until the player figures out that they can just...place blocks in front of the door, which brings us back to the problems originally mentioned. And of course, if the monsters can't detect the player until the player ventures outside, then you have players getting frustrated because they feel trapped inside at night, or players otherwise wondering why monsters can't detect them through windows/doors but can detect them as soon as they step outside and remain locked on even if the player ventures back indoors.

In short, creature AI is complicated, and it's hard to write it in such a way that the player is appropriately challenged(ie, they can't just cheese it) and the creature in question still behaves in a somewhat believable way.

[Facethief]

14 hours ago, LadyWYT said:

Sure, but players probably still aren't going to be thrilled to run inside and shut the door behind them for safety, only to learn that the monster breaks down the door in pursuit. It's scary until the player figures out that they can just...place blocks in front of the door, which brings us back to the problems originally mentioned. And of course, if the monsters can't detect the player until the player ventures outside, then you have players getting frustrated because they feel trapped inside at night, or players otherwise wondering why monsters can't detect them through windows/doors but can detect them as soon as they step outside and remain locked on even if the player ventures back indoors.

In short, creature AI is complicated, and it's hard to write it in such a way that the player is appropriately challenged(ie, they can't just cheese it) and the creature in question still behaves in a somewhat believable way.

I already have issues with drifters running against doors if they spawn close enough to the door.