Rexvladimir

You Do be speaking the true true and as a wise man once said "Sometimes the small true true is more important than the Big True True."

My wife said the same thing and I totally agree. +1

Ah, I love seeing this post slowly get found by more and more average players looking for help or guides for this broken system — and ending up right here. It’s almost like the “average player” doesn’t want to play an RNG simulator with resources that take hours to gather, only to be wasted on bad luck. Yet the same people defending this system (outside of Thorfinn) are the ones using mods because they themselves don’t want to deal with it. BTW as a small update me, my wife, and my friend have quit this game for the time being due to me refusing to prospect or continue cheating to find ores. Wife then made her own world using different settings thinking it would be better that way and quit within 7 days once she had to prospect for iron. As a great meme poster in this thread once said, “You don’t need to mod good game mechanics.” This system is pure gatekeeping. It will keep Vintage Story trapped in a niche corner of forum obsessives. There’s nothing wrong with offering a mod as a temporary fix, but let’s not forget — this is the Suggestions Forum, a place for proposing changes to the unmodded game. Why is that so hard for the diehards to understand? Oh right — because they’ve already solved the problem by modding it out. And since they “fixed” it for themselves, everyone else is just expected to bend the knee and accept that the system must stay untouched. I saw the same mentality when someone suggested adding fishing. The same crowd flooded the post saying “just download the fishing mod.” And guess what? That fishing mod is also one of the top 30 most downloaded of all time. My point extends to them too — there’s zero reason a game like this shouldn’t have fishing, just like there’s zero reason prospecting should require modding if it were truly a good system. Anyway, I’ll check back as more and more regular players stumble onto this thread and share their thoughts. Because when enough people speak up, even the defenders won’t be able to gaslight the truth out of this conversation. PS @Zane Mordien Posted this: "1) Stability - This is the backbone of the lore, so it is fully intended to inhibit you as you mine. 2) Food - You shouldn't be traveling that far from your base to find most ores. I think that is why there are so many options of bronze. People get so stuck on one ore they travel far and wide instead of realizing what is around them. I'm not saying this is you, but some people get stuck on the idea they have to find high or very high readings when they don't need anything better than decent. Heck even poor is good enough sometimes. 3) Durability - Definatly this is my bane as well, but again I think this is 100% intended to force you to make more copper pickaxes early on" This 100% can and will be used to further my argument on why this RNG system has got to go. 1) Stability You’re not meant to be in the mines long-term due to the sanity meter, which means you don’t have time to be guessing where ore might be. You need confirmation that the ore is in that chunk. Without it, the system punishes players for staying too long in a place the game itself tells you not to stay. 2) Food Hungry miners are dead miners. With food spoilage, you’ve got maybe 2–4 days of exploration before heading home to resupply. That puts you on a timer. You either need to be making consistent progress toward finding your target ore or actually finding it within a reasonable window—otherwise, you’re just running laps around your base. Sure, the “prospecting defenders” might tell you to relocate to continue the RNG grind, but that’s not realistic for anyone who isn’t unemployed. When your time and food supply are finite, you need predictable progress. 3) Durability You need a tin pick to mine iron, not copper. To get tin, you have to prospect—so now you’re trapped in a cycle of gambling with your tools for a chance at progress. Down to your last tin pick? Welp you have two options: keep a tin pick on hand, only use copper picks due to cheaper cost and faster gathering until RNJesus finally blesses your poor soul with some iron; or you are now back to looking for tin, to then smelt it, to then rebuild your supply”—thus meaning you are forced to put your goal on hold because RNJesus didn’t bless you this run. That’s not rewarding gameplay—that’s punishment by design. Now i want to add one more point that you missed. 4) Real-Life Time Investment How many hours is fair to gamble for ores? 1 hour? 2 hours? 10 hours? 24 hours? How many? You have to factor all the time you spend in order to find ore. The moment you say “time for iron,” you account for food, gear sets for protection, the pickaxes, the prospecting tools, travel time, the mineshafts, ladders, the travel time back, the smelting to replace broken gear, the finding of more ore to continue the search, the temporary storm that interrupts you, etc. These are all things that can reasonably happen while simply in search of iron. Now for some players (because the current system is a gamble) they find it within hour one. Good for you. However what about the player like me that went five hours with nothing and being down to my last pickaxe for the whole base? Then welcome another five hours of resupplying then ??? hours gambling to find iron. I heard the caving argument made to help "reduce search time" and I laughed. I checked my world and found 1 exposed vein in a cave after flying around in Creative for 2 hours peeking into caves. How much time would that take a regular player not in creative searching? Oh right— we don't have a conclusive answer because that system IS ALSO a gamble. So how many hours is acceptable to gamble: 1, 2, 3, 5, etc.? My system would just simply put a cap on your real-life time investment. Basically after X amount of hours (I don’t know exactly what that number is) you will find whatever ore you seek within this chunk. Conclusion; Zane’s argument actually proved my point perfectly: with the current mechanics and survival constraints, an RNG prospecting system is a terrible design that needs to be fixed (or, as even its defenders quietly admit, modded out like they do) Also I find it hilarious that no one has offered a real tangible change or proposal to fixing this system like I have. I’ve made the point many times: if you have a different idea of how to fix it, I would love to hear it, as maybe there is a better answer than hot and cold. And no—leaving it as is is not an acceptable answer.

This also you? "Came here to say this. I use Prospect Together even in single player because it draws borders around the chunks so I don't have to guess where the next chunk is. It saves me a LOT of time prospecting!" - Teh Pizza Lady September 19, 2025 8:52 PM But prospecting is perfectly fine. Memes above so relevant. This is why i will fight this forum tooth and nail. So far outside of Me and Thorfinn everyone else is using mods but wants to argue that the system is great. If it is so great you wouldn't mod it nor would the mod be in the top 30 most downloaded mods of all time. Will continue showing great examples of the broken prospecting system. Also @Thorfinn The copper was located at 35 y. More than low enough for a reading. Clearly didn't show the "chance" of copper in the picture.

You have failed at every turn to combat my arguments and ignore my points to focus on smaller parts/points while ignoring the main point. I have provided proof after proof yet you conveniently choose to ignore those and only focus on the things you can respond to. Still not going to mention the lack of a copper reading even showing up in the prospecting picture above while standing right in front of it? How about the bad cassiterite reading while right in front of it and it being a big chunk while the reading said "very poor"? Not going to mention the fact that you just learned about parts per milli in this very thread but still want to act like the expert? Yeah, YOU have survival bias. "I played the game this way just fine thus everyone else has to as well and if they don't like it that way go download a mod." That mentality is a great way to keep something niche. Unlike you I do know what I am arguing and will continue to prove my point as more examples appear. The fact that you think the AVERAGE person would ever visit a forum just further proves my point. You respond to almost every suggestion forum post made. That is not average. The average player buys the game, plays the game, quits the game. If they end up on a forum it is because someone post a guide that they were googling. Steam charts prove this with the amount of people that buy a game compared to the amount of people in a reddit for the game or the forums/steam discussion tab of that game. But I guess under your logic games like Balders gate 3, RimWorld, Satisfactory, Factorio, Schedule 1, Hades, Undertale, Terraria, Star Dew Valley, and Minecraft don't have people who love/are passionate about the game because they don't visit the forums. Developers that do target forum post users will always create a niche game and never branch out into main stream because of it. The forums only objective is to foster a strong core community (not the target audience) and bring potential problems to the developers attention. I would like to see this game as a great alternative to Minecraft or as my wife and I jokingly call it "adult Minecraft". That will never occur with the current main progression system being so obscure. Anyway go ahead and make your response, However, I have nothing further to discuss with you about this topic. I will continue pushing this topic for a good prospecting change to make it a more beneficial system for not just myself but every other current player, new player, and even you. Best of luck in your forum crusade "average player".

I was standing right in front of it, and that was the reading as stated. From now on to further my point i will screen shot the ore and the reading just to further prove how broken this system is. I still adamantly disagree with you that the system is “good” under probability. The reading needs to guarantee ore in that chunk, not just suggest a chance. You have over 700 posts on the forums and respond to almost everything. You are not the average player, as I pointed out in my post. The average player is told by almost every guide to ignore that number. And let’s be honest — even in this very thread, you didn’t know it was parts per mille. “Oh, I see. I think it’s parts per thousand. The actual notation is 0/00 rather than what’s used in the game %%. That’s why I couldn’t Google it. Seems like one could have used an extended Unicode character or something.” So please, keep the survival bias out of this discussion and look at the facts. Even you didn’t know what that number meant until Kyassady explained it. Personally, I don’t even know if they’re right — but since I don’t know either, I have to go with their explanation. Meaning the system is broken and doesn’t work as intended and is being replaced by mods.

This one makes me laugh it doesn't even show that copper was an option as i am standing in front of it. Also the Tin ore reading was wrong and it was pretty large, not "very poor"

Another fine example of the broken prospecting system. I prospected this right in front of the iron vein. Yet it shows as yellow. With no proper indication that iron is here had I been looking for it. Second number means nothing, why is it even there? Just saying that it is "parts per million" means nothing to the average player. This world was created in patch 1.21.0 so it is not a outdated world issue. Will continue posting fine examples like this.

Guys, this discussion is starting to get derailed, so I’ll make this my final point. The title of this post is being proven true—even within this thread, many people are advocating for one mod or another. As I stated: “Prospecting is a broken system being replaced by mods. Let’s fix it.” It’s also really disappointing to hear someone mention that players are resorting to x-ray mods out of frustration with prospecting. That alone says a lot. “Prospect Together” is one of the top 30 most downloaded mods of all time out of thousands of available mods. I wouldn’t be surprised if many people in this very discussion are using it right now. That clearly proves my point. If you have a better way of fixing prospecting, please share it. I don’t believe my solution is 100% perfect, nor am I saying there isn’t a better one out there. But as of right now, I haven’t seen anything posted here that improves upon it. The general consensus so far seems to be either: “Deal with it because I did, so you can too,” or “Just mod it with this.” That said, I do appreciate the engagement on this topic and genuinely hope that through this discussion, a better system can be created for all of our benefit.

First and foremost, love the name brother, Askeladd would be proud. Secondly, I understand what you’re saying: in real life, we would just be guessing whether ore was actually located in an area. The thing is, though, we have to balance realistic gameplay with fun gameplay. In real life, wooden tongs would instantly ignite when holding a 1000°C crucible; the scraps hammered off ingots would be saved and reused; it would be impossible for a character to carry 90% of the inventory due to weight; if you were wearing or carrying full plate armor, you shouldn’t be able to swim… and so on. We can make the “in real life” argument all day, but there has to be a line. At some point, fun gameplay has to matter more than strict realism. For example, I just spent almost 3 hours smithing to finally make my first iron chainmail. That was a grind, sure, but I didn’t mind — because I was guaranteed to get that chainmail at the end of the process. If the game instead made it a random chance what the durability would be after all that time, I’d have a serious problem with it. That’s why I’m asking you to seriously consider my proposal without survival bias. Think about how you would have felt if you had played the game for the very first time, but with my system in place instead of the current one. I genuinely believe you would have found it more enjoyable — and at the end of the day, fun is what matters most in a video game.

When a system is the main gatekeeper of progression, and failing to master it permanently stalls your advancement, it makes the entire game feel trash. Some of you might be too young to remember this, but in Star Fox Adventures there’s a boss fight that requires you to button mash at an almost impossible speed. If you can’t do it, you can never beat the boss and never progress further in the game. That one poorly designed mechanic ruined the entire experience—and to this day, I’ve never finished it. People resorted to using modded controllers or physically altering their controllers just to get past it. That’s exactly what’s happening here: if Vintage Story requires a mod or debug commands just to make prospecting tolerable, then the system is trash. And if the system that blocks you from leaving the “dirt hut” stage of the game is trash, then the whole game risks becoming trash in the eyes of new players. I am putting up with it because i like everything else but as mentioned before if i was not able to switch to creative mode, I would have also quit. This should never be the case. This is a perfect explanation of what the average player has to go through. Too add on to what you have said, "If you love truly love something, you must learn to criticize it" Thank you for seeing the value in this as it would be a net benefit to all as well as keep the core game intact.

Hello Devs, My wife, my best friend, and I recently started playing Vintage Story. We were really enjoying the game—until we got to prospecting. That system frustrated us so much that both of them gave up on it entirely, and I was the only one left trying. I ended up watching over 3 hours of guide videos just to understand how it works. The first thing I noticed was that every single guide either used debug console commands or the Prospecting Together mod. To me, that’s a clear sign the system is broken. As you know, there are two readings in prospecting. The first tells you the abundance of an ore in a chunk. The second is a random percentage that most guides say to just ignore. But why? Why are we using a system where half the readings don’t matter? Why not make both equally important? For example: I was searching for tin to reach the Bronze Age. I dug down and got three samples: Cassiterite, Ultra High, 0.29%. I thought, Great—I must be close. I went 100 blocks north and got a worse reading. Went east—worse reading. Went south—better reading: Cassiterite, Ultra High, 0.37%. I dug out both Ultra High spots, doing local ore readings every ~6 blocks down in multiple directions, and eventually I did find cassiterite in both places. That felt good. But then I went looking for iron. And iron broke me. I triangulated the highest reading in a small area: 8.22%. Dug all the way to bedrock, sampling the entire way down. Nothing. Tried the next-highest spot at 7.97%. Still nothing. After ~5 hours of this complete waste of time, I gave up, switched to Creative, and started digging straight down everywhere. Eventually I found the ore—100 blocks away from my “best” reading. There, it had dropped from Ultra High to Very High, with a percentage of 6.68%. That’s not engaging gameplay. That’s just frustrating. Most complaints about Vintage Story I’ve seen are about prospecting. Most guides rely on mods or debug. And I had to resort to Creative just to keep playing, because the system had burned through so many of my resources that I was about to be sent back to the Copper Age. My Proposal Keep the system mostly the same, but make the second percentage number meaningful. Turn it into a hot/cold indicator that guarantees the ore is in that chunk—you just have to locate it. Using my example above: At the actual iron location, the reading should have been Ultra High, 100%. At the nearby 8.22% spot, it could say Ultra High, 80%, meaning “you’re close, keep looking.” That way, the second number actually guides you toward the right chunk instead of misleading you. You’d still have to dig down and search locally, but you’d know the effort isn’t wasted. Why This Matters If I hadn’t been playing with my wife and friend, they both would have quit and written the game off as trash. If I didn’t have the option to switch to Creative, I would have quit too. Randomly digging holes based on bad readings isn’t fun. A refined hot/cold system would keep the challenge of searching while guaranteeing progress. Source pictures provided. TL;DR: Make the second percentage in prospecting a hot/cold indicator that accurately points you toward the chunk containing the ore vein.