Would a thirst mechanic be fitting for Vintage Story? and how should it be implemented?

[Jacsmac]

I saw rapids cascading down the mountainside and though it might be nice to get a big drink of that stuff. Maybe the Seraph has a similar idea.
Do you think a thirst mechanic would be a good addition to Vintage Story, if done correctly? On one hand, having to balance an extra stat might feel like pushing the survival aspect of the game too far. On the other hand, thirst is an opportunity to add some depth to the game through new mechanics.

I think it would be nice if being well-hydrated came with a small but noticeable stat boost, like faster regeneration. Similar to how diversifying nutrient intake increases HP, maybe there could be some extra, above-and-beyond level of hydration that one can achieve by investing in more/better water to drink.
Furthermore, there are already drinks in the game. Maybe they can give a small hydration boost on top of the nutrition and serve as a way in the mid to late game to keep hydration up without having to worry about finding water.

P.S. 
Rivers have drinkable-ish water, right? At least depending on how far upstream you are.

[LadyWYT]

7 minutes ago, Jacsmac said:

Do you think a thirst mechanic would be a good addition to Vintage Story, if done correctly?

Yes, but...what "correctly" looks like is going to vary heavily depending on who you ask.

A thirst mechanic makes sense for a survival game, and lends some unique challenge to hot environments since there's currently not much environmental survival pressure in those areas. However, the main drawback of thirst is that, in essence, it's the same thing as the hunger mechanic, just something that you'll need to take care of more frequently, with bigger repercussions if you don't(Hydrate or Diedrate, anyone?). And I'm not so sure it's a good idea to add yet another meter that the player will need to micromanage into the game. There could be an option to turn it off, of course, but it seems a waste to implement an entire system like that(a system that will likely affect several other gameplay systems) only to allow the player to ignore it entirely.

I think if a thirst mechanic were added though, it'd need to be after status effects are added, so that there's a penalty for drinking dirty water. Additionally, world generation would probably need a rework, since there's water everywhere and thus no need to really worry that much about hydration outside of a couple of story locations where water is practically non-existent. 

[Dilan Rona]

Actually yes, but LadyWYT does have a point though

[Streetwind]

Perhaps food could continue to follow the current, classic "eat or die" model, while a drink system could follow the more modern "Valheim" model where it doesn't matter if you don't consume but you're heavily incentivized to do it because of the advantages you get when you do.

Edited September 18 by Streetwind

[MKMoose]

1 hour ago, Jacsmac said:

Do you think a thirst mechanic would be a good addition to Vintage Story, if done correctly? On one hand, having to balance an extra stat might feel like pushing the survival aspect of the game too far. On the other hand, thirst is an opportunity to add some depth to the game through new mechanics.

One might say that any mechanic would be a good addition if done correctly, but what that exactly means and how difficult it is to actually achieve for the specific feature can vary tremendously. But that aside, I generally tend to feel that thirst would generally be a good addition as long as it doesn't make the player excessively go out of their way to hydrate.

The game feels to me like it has a long-ongoing identity crisis of sorts between the advertised (somewhat overused) "uncompromising wilderness survival" and the arguably more mechanically supported "immersive homesteading sandbox", but hydration can actually reinforce both of these fairly well depending on a few factors which could be customizable and vary between playstyles.

For the more survival-focused playstyles, thirst has almost no disadvantages as long as it's reasonably well-designed and well-tuned, because maintaining survival meters is half the essence of those playstyles. Implementing it in some way more interesting than just a bar to keep filling would be very valuable, though - thirst could be integrated more tightly into the game together with hunger and general health whenever status effects roll around.

For more casual playstyles where another bar to keep up easily becomes the opposite of fun, thirst would have to be designed much more carefully, but it also can be quite immersive and engaging. There's a lot of things in the game which are technically just maintenance, but they can also be cool and fun to do in moderation.

I would personally propose a rule of sorts, simple in concept though potentially more tricky in implementation: the player shouldn't have to go out of their way to hydrate unless there are clear indicators that hydration should be a significant issue in a specific context. Dehydration could even be very quick, especially in hot weather and possibly as a consequence of intensive physical activity, but it should also be very easy to counteract without disrupting other gameplay, except potentially in hot climates or in deserts or whatnot where water is intentionally scarce. This means, among other things, that:

• The game would likely need a number of changes in order to accomodate a hydration mechanic in the first place.
• Safe water sources should be plentiful in most regions of the world where the player is likely to want to spend time in - this would primarily require adding freshwater streams thoughout the world. They should be plentiful in regular grasslands and forests, but can be less common in regions like swamps and deserts.
• Obtaining drinking water should be easily accessible and straightforward, even conditionally in regions where safe water is not immediately available. No arbitrary technological barriers and no tedious, costly or overcomplicated processing. Ideally, this would require improvements to firepits and fluid handling to make all of it more intuitive and less annoying.
• Water storage should be convenient, as well as safe for an extended period of time if not indefinitely. Overhauling barrels into something that actually feels like real, proper barrels would be very nice for this purpose, and Hydrate or Diedrate does some of that very well.
• Portable water containers should be convenient and easily accessible, and they shouldn't require the player to clutter their inventory with a bunch of containers or other items at all times just to ensure that they don't accidentally run out of water. I was considering a dedicated water bottle slot for this, similar in implementation to the bag slots.
• Most story locations need reasonably accessible sources of drinking water, for relatively obvious reasons.
• Ideally, the game should always ensure to spawn the player in an area with accessible drinking water, and areas without it may need additional incentive to enter them.

 

1 hour ago, LadyWYT said:

And I'm not so sure it's a good idea to add yet another meter that the player will need to micromanage into the game. There could be an option to turn it off, of course, but it seems a waste to implement an entire system like that(a system that will likely affect several other gameplay systems) only to allow the player to ignore it entirely.

I feel like an option to disable it would be borderline necessary (the other route is probably that modders would immediately do it instead), but also I think the best way to go about the mechanic is to specifically avoid a boring meter. The specifics of how to achieve that may not be straightforward (though I think what I've described above would be a solid start at least), but the general idea is simple - make it fun and make it fit the game. Make hydration engaging and immersive while ensuring that it doesn't feel forced or intrusive. Whether that is deemed worth the design and implementation effort is another matter.

 

1 hour ago, Jacsmac said:

Rivers have drinkable-ish water, right? At least depending on how far upstream you are.

In a the context of a medieval wilderness, major industrial or chemical contamination is very unlikely, but some risks (especially microbiological risks) can always be there even in crystal-clear mountain streams. Rivers and especially clear streams can be safe, but drinking untested water without a filter is always a dice toss even if the risks are statistically very low. Barring other indications, generally risks increase as the water becomes more stagnant (that's why swamp water is generally not advisable) and comes in contact with more potential contaminants (that's why rivers downstream from settlements or pastures are generally less safe, and why rainwater is often quite safe as it can fall directly into a container with very little potential contamination along the way).

Regardless of the source of water, boiling is probably the most reliable way to render it safe, provided it's not chemically contaminated. Various methods of filtration can be useful, also done before boiling, especially for water from stagnant sources with a lot of sediments, or if nothing else as a standalone treatment option though it doesn't actually eliminate many microorganisms. Disinfection is also an option, ideally combined with filtration and generally redundant for boiled water, albeit most methods of it are probably either too modern for VS (e.g. chlorine or iodine), or too gimmicky (e.g. solar disinfection or silver liquid vessels).

 

20 minutes ago, Streetwind said:

Perhaps food could continue to follow the current classic, "eat or die" model, while a drink system could follow the more modern "Valheim" model where it doesn't matter if you don't drink but you're heavily incentivized to do it because of the advantages you get when you do.

It could be considered a bit odd from the perspective of realism or whatnot, but it is absolutely reasonable from a gameplay perspective. I've seen people suggest and have suggested in the past myself that hydration could be implemented as something more akin to the nutrition bars, and not the hunger bar. More about long-term accumulation and buffs, rather than short-term drain and debuffs or death.

Edited September 18 by MKMoose

[Zaph42nd]

4 hours ago, Jacsmac said:

I saw rapids cascading down the mountainside and though it might be nice to get a big drink of that stuff. Maybe the Seraph has a similar idea.
Do you think a thirst mechanic would be a good addition to Vintage Story, if done correctly? On one hand, having to balance an extra stat might feel like pushing the survival aspect of the game too far. On the other hand, thirst is an opportunity to add some depth to the game through new mechanics.

I think it would be nice if being well-hydrated came with a small but noticeable stat boost, like faster regeneration. Similar to how diversifying nutrient intake increases HP, maybe there could be some extra, above-and-beyond level of hydration that one can achieve by investing in more/better water to drink.
Furthermore, there are already drinks in the game. Maybe they can give a small hydration boost on top of the nutrition and serve as a way in the mid to late game to keep hydration up without having to worry about finding water.

P.S. 
Rivers have drinkable-ish water, right? At least depending on how far upstream you are.

Question has come up a lot on thirst, my thoughts are while it's conceptually interesting, it would be way too easy to accidentally make an extra bar that's tedious to manage; therefore it should intrinsically support other game mechanics and itself provide some benefit if managed well, some detriment if managed poorly, and some serious harm if neglected (similar to how hunger and food work right now). In my mind that means an effective thirst system should — involve body-temperature in a meaningful way to add more to climate systems, reward the player with reduced draining and maybe a minor health boost if managed well (perhaps water purity could play a part in this? It'd give reason to boil water), not prove overly punishing and be a medium/slow drain based on activity level and climate(s), improve existing or integrate into future hydrology generation (natural springs where rivers start, water-tables, etc...), and be easily hot-keyable/non-intrusive (perhaps water skins, jugs, etc.. could be placed on your back-slot and quick-accessed; each tier holding more water?). No mods currently quite do it right, I know a lot of people love Hydrate or Diedrate but I've never really tried it

[Michael Gates]

No, thirst is *always* just another satiation bar, and we've got four already. Hydrate or Diedrate is fine if you want to do that, but imo this doesn't actually add anything to the game experience. 

[LadyWYT]

7 hours ago, MKMoose said:

I feel like an option to disable it would be borderline necessary (the other route is probably that modders would immediately do it instead), but also I think the best way to go about the mechanic is to specifically avoid a boring meter. The specifics of how to achieve that may not be straightforward (though I think what I've described above would be a solid start at least), but the general idea is simple - make it fun and make it fit the game. Make hydration engaging and immersive while ensuring that it doesn't feel forced or intrusive. Whether that is deemed worth the design and implementation effort is another matter.

I like the nutrition bar idea, though I'm not sure how well it would really work. But I do wonder though what would happen if staying hydrated yielded nothing, while being dehydrated produced no penalty itself but amplified penalties from other mistakes. That is, the player isn't going to feel pressured to be constantly drinking or feel punished if they forgot to pack beverages on a trip or had other things to do. But if they're slacking off in other areas of the game, such as keeping up with nutrition/remembering to actually eat food, then they're going to feel the negative effects of those things a bit more if they happen to be sufficiently dehydrated. Injuries and illness, if implemented, might also take longer to heal(which would give the player more incentive to make tea and soup during these times).

[CastIronFabric]

I personally can not believe this is even a conversation. To me adding hydration to a game like this could not possibly be more obvious of an answer other than...yes of course.

 

 

[Calliecake]

My immediate thoughts are about how food is a challenge in the beginning of a new world, but really just free bonuses once you're completely set up, and I don't really feel like it's worth the development time/effort unless it's a more robust system than nutrition. Then at that point, it'd feel very odd in comparison to food, so if thirst were to be implemented, I'd like to see some kind of more complex, impactful food/water reworked system entirely. I'd really like incentives to have variety. Too often do I find myself going ugh I don't care, just make more red meat vegetable fruit stew because it hits a lot of the nutrition bars at once. I'd love more reason to make other foods other than for my own fun, especially drinks, which I almost always neglect because it's just another item (jug) to carry around that's less value nutrition-wise than a pot of food.

As for what would make a more rewarding/impactful system that I want... I have no clue! All I know is right now there is more to be desired with food as well, and if I saw a full-on nutrition/hydration update come out, I'd be intrigued.

[MKMoose]

On 9/19/2026 at 2:52 AM, LadyWYT said:

But I do wonder though what would happen if staying hydrated yielded nothing, while being dehydrated produced no penalty itself but amplified penalties from other mistakes. That is, the player isn't going to feel pressured to be constantly drinking or feel punished if they forgot to pack beverages on a trip or had other things to do. But if they're slacking off in other areas of the game, such as keeping up with nutrition/remembering to actually eat food, then they're going to feel the negative effects of those things a bit more if they happen to be sufficiently dehydrated. Injuries and illness, if implemented, might also take longer to heal(which would give the player more incentive to make tea and soup during these times).

This especially seems like an appropriate direction to go into with hyperthermia, primarily as a risk more localized to hot climates. In most climates, hydration wouldn't then be too critical, but in hot climates or on hot summer days, especially when intense physical activity is involved, adequate hydration could delay or outright prevent otherwise dangerous effects of overheating.

 

18 hours ago, Calliecake said:

My immediate thoughts are about how food is a challenge in the beginning of a new world, but really just free bonuses once you're completely set up, and I don't really feel like it's worth the development time/effort unless it's a more robust system than nutrition. Then at that point, it'd feel very odd in comparison to food, so if thirst were to be implemented, I'd like to see some kind of more complex, impactful food/water reworked system entirely. I'd really like incentives to have variety. Too often do I find myself going ugh I don't care, just make more red meat vegetable fruit stew because it hits a lot of the nutrition bars at once. I'd love more reason to make other foods other than for my own fun, especially drinks, which I almost always neglect because it's just another item (jug) to carry around that's less value nutrition-wise than a pot of food.

Meals are already usually a 2.14-2.79x satiety multiplier (1.5x base satiety plus additional satiety loss delay), and not realizing how huge value meals provide (or being unable to make them because of the lack of clay) is one of the primary causes why new players often struggle with hunger. The most obscene current case which even goes well beyond that is fishing, which can in certain cases provide the likes of 30x satiety multipliers with very little additional investment, from bait (especially bushmeat) to finished meal, but that's another matter.

Adding more bonuses for doing the right things or debuffs for doing the wrong things could easily start getting out of hand and further contribute to the game seeming overly difficult or inaccessible to beginners, so I do think some care is necessary to keep the game reasonably easy on newer players. I think there are a couple changes which could work very well for this, though - spoiler to keep everything cleaner:

Spoiler

I think that one of the best things which could be added to the game for the sake of new players would be diversified and reworked foraging, balanced in such a way that:

• a new player should be able to easily survive off of gathered foods, so that any kinds of death spirals are significantly less of a risk,
• foraging should be primarily useful for more nomadic, early-game gameplay styles, likely as a result of generally relatively slow replenishment of local resources,
• foraging should provide the player with a variety of items useful to get started with other food sources, like seeds for farming, fish bait for fishing, animal bait for trapping,
• the investment of time and effort into foraging should remain high enough that other foods sources are still attractive by the virtue of being more efficient, besides perhaps a specific selection of unique items obtainable only through foraging,
• the foraged items cannot produce an excess of clutter that takes up valuable inventory space - reworking inventory space to function based on something akin to weight rather than just on item stacks could be something to consider for this purpose.

One of the primary changes in that spirit which could be especially notable for foraging is creating variety through short availability windows. What this primarily means is that:

• foraged foods need to be plentiful,
• the periods of time within which foods are available need to be short (this also requires relatively low spoilage times),
• variety comes from having to switch between different food sources throughout the year as some become unavailable and new ones pop up.

A second, related change which would also perfectly fit hunting is integrating preservation as a core gameplay component through short spoilage times:

• meat from animals needs to be plentiful,
• the spoilage times for fresh foods need to be short, so that preservation becomes a necessity and a basic element of gameplay,
• processing foods to extend their spoilage times has to feel accessible and worthwhile, which means that it has to be reasonably convenient and cheap, as well as that it can't greatly reduce the satiety of preserved foods,
• a tension-relief cycle is created when new fresh food is obtained and has to be preserved - and once preserved, the player can benefit from it for an extended period of time,
• variety comes from varied fresh and preserved foods being both naturally integrated into gameplay and used in different ways.

 

18 hours ago, Calliecake said:

As for what would make a more rewarding/impactful system that I want... I have no clue! All I know is right now there is more to be desired with food as well, and if I saw a full-on nutrition/hydration update come out, I'd be intrigued.

I've seen the Novelty! mod recommended for this purpose. There's also a bunch of food mods like De Artibus Rusticis or a couple of the more popular ones, though while they undeniably do they provide a lot of variety, it can be subjective or debatable whether they actually provide appropriate incentives to use that variety.

I believe that one grossly underappreciated factor which would contribute greatly to practical gameplay variety is drastic differences between food categories useful for distinct purposes. In essence, this would allow the player to use food in some capacity as a problem-solving tool, so that the payer would be incentivized to choose different food types depending on what they need. As things stand, all food just fills the bar in the same way and differs only in nutritional categories and sometimes spoil time, so it could be interesting to introduce meaningful distinctions like:

• Dry foods which get little to no benefit from cold storage, to be used especially as travel foods, as opposed to foods which have to be kept in a cellar to extend their spoil time and as such are more preferable for a stationary lifestyle.
• Major macronutrient categories, best implemented as subcategories of satiety that fit into the existing bar with a shared capacity and not as separate nutrition-like meters, of which the two most notable ones are:
  • Fat-heavy foods, most useful for long-term sustenance and potentially playing a factor in protecting against cold temperatures.
  • Sugar-rich foods, which provide short-term benefits lilke accelerated recovery from damage, or potentially somethng like reduced debuffs from starvation, increased stamina regeneration rate.
• Drinks as well as potentially cold and hot foods more broadly, in the simplest implementation primarily as a method of cooling or warming the body to protect against the effects of high or low temperatures.

Edited September 20 by MKMoose

[CastIronFabric]

On the food conversation I vote for looking at models that already exist in the market place and leveraging that. I know I mention this game all the time and its not intentional it just very simply has the best craftting/skill system I have ever seen although the gameplay itself is not as outstanding. Which game am I referring to when I when it comes to a cooking system? Wurm Online. Its cooking Buff system is excellent as well as its overall cooking approach.

Edited September 20 by CastIronFabric

[LadyWYT]

On 9/20/2026 at 7:48 AM, MKMoose said:

Drinks as well as potentially cold and hot foods more broadly, in the simplest implementation primarily as a method of cooling or warming the body to protect against the effects of high or low temperatures.

I think this is already a feature, at least when it comes to hot food warming you up. The problem though is that you have to be hungry enough to actually eat it in order for it to do any good, and if the food is hot that means there's a fire nearby, which will warm you up faster than eating food. Drinks would be a better way to handle it since a beverage can be consumed at any time, but the concept overall probably needs the temperature system to be reworked before it becomes particularly useful.

 

On 9/20/2026 at 7:48 AM, MKMoose said:

Dry foods which get little to no benefit from cold storage, to be used especially as travel foods, as opposed to foods which have to be kept in a cellar to extend their spoil time and as such are more preferable for a stationary lifestyle.

I like this idea. It would make the storage process more interesting, as opposed to the "shove it all in the cellar and forget it" strategy that exists currently.

 

On 9/20/2026 at 7:48 AM, MKMoose said:

Major macronutrient categories, best implemented as subcategories of satiety that fit into the existing bar with a shared capacity and not as separate nutrition-like meters, of which the two most notable ones are:

• Fat-heavy foods, most useful for long-term sustenance and potentially playing a factor in protecting against cold temperatures.
• Sugar-rich foods, which provide short-term benefits lilke accelerated recovery from damage, or potentially somethng like reduced debuffs from starvation, increased stamina regeneration rate.

I'm not sure about this one--macronutrients seem better suited for a mod, since it otherwise feels like too much micromanagement for the vanilla game. I think the nutrition categories we have already are enough, and all the player should really need to worry about is keeping those full and otherwise just staying fed. That doesn't mean that the nutrition bars themselves couldn't be a little more interesting when it comes to gameplay though, especially if certain debuffs are added with the status effect system.

Fruit nutrition could affect the player's disease resistance, with a low fruit nutrition making them more susceptible to illness. It shouldn't be enough to make the game too aggravating to play if the bar drops low for a while, but it should help push players to place more priority on preserving fruit for the winter rather than just ignoring that nutrition group.

Dairy nutrition could make injuries from falls a little less serious, and help speed the healing process of broken bones. The player isn't punished for having low nutrition in this category(important since it's the most difficult to acquire), but now they have more incentive to buy dairy products from traders or acquire dairy stock earlier.

Protein nutrition could help speed the healing of flesh wounds. It could potentially affect damage and work speed, however, I think this is more appropriately handled by tool/weapon choice instead.

Vegetable and grain I'm unsure about, since both are easily farmed en masse and keep for a long time even without any special preservation. Maybe they could affect stamina, if stamina were a thing, but otherwise the basic health bonus that already exists feels like enough. The player could technically just rely on these categories to survive and be fine, but if they never really put effort into maintaining the other categories they may find themselves needing to spend a little extra time and resources on the medical loops to keep themselves in good condition.

[byo13]

The way I see it, the game uses the food mechanics as in a fuel for every action so it must be constantly monitored by the player. It's not the same way as other games. In VS, hunger seems like gas to a car. I think it's fun and challenging the way it is.

Adding another layer of micro management would need the hunger mechanics to be relaxed a bit to accomodate thirst and the inventory space maybe bigger.

Edited September 21 by byo13

[MKMoose]

On 9/21/2026 at 7:11 PM, LadyWYT said:

I think this is already a feature, at least when it comes to hot food warming you up. The problem though is that you have to be hungry enough to actually eat it in order for it to do any good, and if the food is hot that means there's a fire nearby, which will warm you up faster than eating food. Drinks would be a better way to handle it since a beverage can be consumed at any time, but the concept overall probably needs the temperature system to be reworked before it becomes particularly useful.

It is a feature of meals and pies specifically (not bread, not individually cooked food items), and the effect can actually be decently strong (even a small portion of a hot meal can raise temperature by up to 5 °C, so it can be useful to eat fractional servings frequently). But, if you do have a hot meal on yourself, then it probably also means that you have a firepit which will warm you up just fine - or if you don't have a firepit, then the meal will go cold quickly either way.

Though with that said, given how massive the satiety multiplier and spoilage time extension from meals and pies currently are, I'd be careful about making them even more useful. Cooling with drinks is definitely the more important half of this idea.

If we wanted to make cold climates more interesting or make fire a more integral part of gameplay, what could instead go a long way is toning down the effect of rooms which currently makes it impossible to freeze, making animals and/or drifters afraid of fire in some capacity, and probably related rebalancing to a few other parts of the system.

 

On 9/21/2026 at 7:11 PM, LadyWYT said:

I'm not sure about this one--macronutrients seem better suited for a mod, since it otherwise feels like too much micromanagement for the vanilla game. I think the nutrition categories we have already are enough, and all the player should really need to worry about is keeping those full and otherwise just staying fed. That doesn't mean that the nutrition bars themselves couldn't be a little more interesting when it comes to gameplay though, especially if certain debuffs are added with the status effect system.

Arguably the biggest issue with the current nutrition bars is that they are completely independent from each other and almost entirely self-contained. The optimal strategy is to just keep all of them as high as possible all the time. What makes macronutrients as I've described them potentially much more interesting is that they would fit under a single satiety bar, which means two things:

• The perceived complexity of a single bar which can be filled in a few different ways may be lower than multiple individual bars, even if it is actually more complex.
• The shared ceiling means that the player can't just max out all stats, and instead has to choose between different food types in some capacity.

While the nutritional categories do incentivize some variety by requiring at least 5 distinct food items to keep everything high, the variety which they incentivize can get somewhat boring simply because it doesn't have any tradeoffs or priorities and as such it is independent of any context. You just have to eat some minimum amount of every food type on average. On the other hand, having to choose between a couple food categories depending on the situation that the player is or is about to be in would (if balanced appropriately) have the chance to create much more dynamic gamepay where the food choice is a more significant part of short-term decision making.

The difficult part is preventing one food category from being optimal all the time or preventing specific situations from having an obviously optimal answer which can actually end up reducing variety, as that requires some deliberate and restrained design choices.

All that said, while I do think macronutrients are a very notable alternative or addition to nutritional categories and satiety, it is certainly not something I would insist on. The other changes I've described above which focus more on food availability and spoilage may have a much better effect on food variety.

 

Side note: taking this general concept further could land you at "buff foods" - specific items which provide less satiety (or even no satiety at all in certain cases) but apply some unique effects specific to these foods. This could be a bit gamified and include primarily certain difficult-to-obtain foods like rare fruits, cheese or whatnot, but there are also some cases where it could even be quite realistic - various drinks including alcohol most notably. The most obvious effects include temperature resistances, health regeneration similar to the existing saguaro fruit, and of course intoxication, but a lot of other options are there as well.

The main advantage of providing little to no satiety is that it would be impossible to check multiple boxes (satiety and a buff) with regular food, and as such the buff item would effectively be almost like an additional, flexible nutritional category providing different buffs depending on which specific foods you've eaten recently.

This could actually be a pretty interesting if gamified direction to go into with hydration.

Edited September 22 by MKMoose
Add an additional idea for buff foods/drinks.

[CastIronFabric]

On 9/21/2026 at 12:39 PM, byo13 said:

The way I see it, the game uses the food mechanics as in a fuel for every action so it must be constantly monitored by the player. It's not the same way as other games. In VS, hunger seems like gas to a car. I think it's fun and challenging the way it is.

Adding another layer of micro management would need the hunger mechanics to be relaxed a bit to accomodate thirst and the inventory space maybe bigger.

can you expand on that a bit, how is it different from other games exactly?

I ask because 'fuel for car' sounds like 'yes that is how hunger works in every single game ever created' so clearly I am not understanding something and that is on me

[metsavana]

On one hand thirst mechanic does seems to be appropriate for a survival game. But on the other hand what exactly does it add to the experience? Just another stat to babysit

Thinking about managing thirst already gives me a headache. Because finding water is only one part of the equation. You also have to purify it, store it in a portable vessel, keep an eye on another bar, etc. Let's say the easiest way to make water drinkable is to boil it. Okay, you've boiled a pot of water and now you'll have to sit and wait for it to cool down, because shoving 100 C water down your throat sounds like a bad idea.

So overall I feel like it will most likely leave negative impressions on the players.

[Banch]

I've been playing with Hydrate or Diedrate on my latest world, and it isn't annoying enough that I want to turn it off, but I also wouldn't say it adds much to the experience. I haven't used the well-digging mechanics because surface water is everywhere, which is kind of a shame since being able to make wells that actually work seems like a fun addition to the game. Mainly I just drink a lot of juice... other mods adding things like broths and tea also give you more variety on how to get hydrated, but it is still just one extra bar you have to fill.

When it comes to drinks in the vanilla game, I'd really like to see more uses for alcohol. Especially distilled alcohol, building all that equipment is just something I end up doing in the middle of winter to kill time, and I never end up drinking any of it. Maybe if we get a herbalism system - which I don't really want to be a "magic potion that gives you buffs" system, but on the other hand if it's just "herbal tincture that does nothing" then there's no reason to engage with the system. The same goes for alchemy, I'd really like something that sticks closer to real life with only light fantastical elements like Jonas tech.

[LadyWYT]

6 hours ago, metsavana said:

Okay, you've boiled a pot of water and now you'll have to sit and wait for it to cool down, because shoving 100 C water down your throat sounds like a bad idea.

To be fair, the game lets us eat boiling hot stew and soup without issue, so I think the same rules would apply to hot water as well. IE, it shouldn't be an issue. That's not to say that couldn't change in the future, considering that the player used to be able to handle hot crucibles and metal without tongs, but I think in the case of consumables it makes more design sense to favor player convenience over realism when it comes to temperature of said consumables.

[byo13]

23 hours ago, CastIronFabric said:

can you expand on that a bit, how is it different from other games exactly?

When I first played VS I had to change the hunger level in the settings because other games are more lenient on food consumption. VS had this insane amount of rules that make hunger managament one of the most challenging yet totally fun mechanics for me. If I run, use armor, carry items with the left hand, every step I take seems to add significant food consumption. I know that my analogy is a bit confusing as food is actually fuel for living beings but the rate in which it's used, for me, seems more like a vehicle using gas as everything I do increases my hunger and it's very perceptible every few minutes so it's a constant management. Playing with the default rules is now very rewarding once I got used to how it all works and why, and now I feel it's one of those things that make this game so unique.

Survival craft games, in general, are usually a little boring in the end game, once you progress enough to become a god of your world, and all that's left is building and improving your base, but not this one, for many winters. I can still feel that sense of urgency, hunting and gathering, along with food spoiling mechanics, all this feels enough challenging to keep me going.

Should thirst mechanics be implemented, I would be very careful not to make this system too grindy or a micro management hell, because hunger is already challenging as it is, default options. But it could be fun, and optional, maybe.

[CastIronFabric]

6 minutes ago, byo13 said:

When I first played VS I had to change the hunger level in the settings because other games are more lenient on food consumption. VS had this insane amount of rules that make hunger managament one of the most challenging yet totally fun mechanics for me. If I run, use armor, carry items with the left hand, every step I take seems to add significant food consumption. I know that my analogy is a bit confusing as food is actually fuel for living beings but the rate in which it's used, for me, seems more like a vehicle using gas as everything I do increases my hunger and it's very perceptible every few minutes so it's a constant management. Playing with the default rules is now very rewarding once I got used to how it all works and why, and now I feel it's one of those things that make this game so unique.

Survival craft games, in general, are usually a little boring in the end game, once you progress enough to become a god of your world, and all that's left is building and improving your base, but not this one, for many winters. I can still feel that sense of urgency, hunting and gathering, along with food spoiling mechanics, all this feels enough challenging to keep me going.

Should thirst mechanics be implemented, I would be very careful not to make this system too grindy or a micro management hell, because hunger is already challenging as it is, default options. But it could be fun, and optional, maybe.

ok I think I misunderstood. Its not that 'fuel for car' is different than other games its just the amount of fuel required is not to your liking. The mechanism is the same its just the amount is different. Ok that makes more sense.

Edited September 24 by CastIronFabric

[byo13]

11 minutes ago, CastIronFabric said:

ok I think I misunderstood. Its not that 'fuel for car' is different than other games its just the amount of fuel required is not to your liking. The mechanism is the same its just the amount is different. Ok that makes more sense.

Actually I do like how it is in VS, very much, but it was an acquired taste indeed.
Yet I still feel hunger management is different than most other games I have.

Hunger here is tied to every action, while other games simplify this system, with hunger being continuous and a little higher when sprinting.

Edited September 24 by byo13

[CastIronFabric]

5 hours ago, byo13 said:

Actually I do like how it is in VS, very much, but it was an acquired taste indeed.
Yet I still feel hunger management is different than most other games I have.

Hunger here is tied to every action, while other games simplify this system, with hunger being continuous and a little higher when sprinting.

I am now even more confused that I was before I asked the question, I thought you did not like the system

Regardless, I am punting on this one and moving on.

Edited September 24 by CastIronFabric

[chk1]

On 9/20/2026 at 2:48 PM, MKMoose said:

the foraged items cannot produce an excess of clutter that takes up valuable inventory space - reworking inventory space to function based on something akin to weight rather than just on item stacks could be something to consider for this purpose.

I have also thought about this, since I've enjoyed this kind of weight-based system in other survival games in the past (I'm thinking of The Long Dark, specifically).

I think the issue is that since VS is also a sandbox game, it would be hard to keep a system like this consistent. For example, I think it's pretty normal for most players to carry around a whole stack of dirt or planks or whatever (i.e. a superhuman weight to carry). These are probably the most reasonable ways to resolve that, that I could think of, at least:

1. Things are made (somewhat) realistically heavy => player can only carry few blocks at a time => mining, building etc. are made much more difficult. I'm not sure if you could square this - it would completely upset the balance of the game and would require a big rework of other systems.
2. Things are made heavy according to game balance rather than realism => Kinda ruins the immersion, since it draws attention to the inconsistencies.

You would also (almost inevitably) have a situation where items suddenly gain/lose weight as they are crafted into different forms, further ruining immersion.

In my opinion, it would be better to mostly keep the system as-is, but implement something like "fuzzy item slots". i.e. the same slot could store some set of similar items - right now, they only accept the exact same item. 

For example, buckets with the same type of liquid could now stack, even if they do not have the same amount of fluid in them - so 46L of water in buckets would no longer take up twice the space of 50L of water in buckets, and 4/5 of a pie would no longer take up twice the space of a whole pie. Regular stack limits would still apply for the sum of the numbers of items in the slot.

I imagine it working a bit like the item bag in MC, where you can "scroll" within the slot to select a specific item, but this is a secondary issue.

It could also be implemented as an actual bag (separate from the bags we have now), eg. you'd have a mushroom basket that would store 64 of any combination of mushroom types.

I think this is a good idea independent of the thirst system, As I for one find it very annoying when (for example) a partially eaten pie slice suddenly becomes unstackable with the others. At the same time, any thirst system would likely be a pain without at least a partial implementation of something like this (see the bucket problem).

 

Beyond that, I agree that thirst as a typical status bar would be hard to implement without making it a chore. Having fluids as (one of the) methods of temperature management, or delivering other status effects, seems more sensible.

This might seem radical, but I wouldn't even mind adding a spoilage meter to water, to give some more utility to ales and other alcohol (this would also be in line with historical reality, if that matters). And with this, it goes without saying that getting potable water shouldn't be as easy as reaching into a lake. You shouldn't drink standing water, afterall.

I will also say that I've been playing on a 50% ocean world lately, and aside from making it more fun overall (you can make proper use of the sailboat now), it makes freshwater much less of an afterthought, depending on where you decide to set up.

Maybe something to keep in mind, since I'm guessing the devs will revamp the worldgen sooner or later to have more ocean by default.

[Descruff]

When it comes to thirst, the first question should be: How often and when should the player drink?
Taking drinks throughout the day? or would once per meal be enough? If the latter then somehow enhancing the meal (assuming the meal it's self is non hydrating) could be good enough.

A radical idea might be to make it so Satiety doesn't instantly go up from eating a slice of pie. (You ever go out to eat, finish your meal, still feel hungry enough for dessert, but by the time its in front of you, you don't feel hungry anymore?) Like healing with a poultice you have to actually digest the food over time. Wet foods like soup and stew digest faster, while drier foods like charred pies, could take a bit more time, but that could be sped up with a refreshing beverage.