Minecraft, Vintage Story, and similar survival sandbox games

[UltraFan123]

I have been navigating the Nether for several days - both in-game and in real life - and still found no fortress. Almost lost myself a few times as well. The temptation to just use structure-finding cheats is quite high.

This must be the end of the "cozy no-brain-power-needed" phase of Minecraft. It was good while it lasted.

[Rand]

Everwind


I played the **** out of the demo. I like it, despite the current level of jank and critical bugs.

[UltraFan123]

Played a variety of games for several days and felt "Minesick" so I decided to finally try some mods with this game, and the first one I decided to install has an annoying anti-pirate feature that randomly teleports me every 5 minutes.

Now that I have a job, I may be willing to actually purchase the game, if it weren't for the fact that the current Mojang as it is now is filled with uninspired hacks who filled the game with official brownoid protagonists, even though it was already perfect with just Steve and Alex as protagonists.

This game has millions of mods so I can either learn to modify the anti-pirate feature out or find another mod similar to the one I want.

[rusty_shackleford]

Played a variety of games for several days and felt "Minesick" so I decided to finally try some mods with this game, and the first one I decided to install has an annoying anti-pirate feature that randomly teleports me every 5 minutes.

Now that I have a job, I may be willing to actually purchase the game, if it weren't for the fact that the current Mojang as it is now is filled with uninspired hacks who filled the game with official brownoid protagonists, even though it was already perfect with just Steve and Alex as protagonists.

This game has millions of mods so I can either learn to modify the anti-pirate feature out or find another mod similar to the one I want.

Maybe give this a go?

Anyone heard of/played Veloren?
https://veloren.net/

[UltraFan123]

Played a variety of games for several days and felt "Minesick" so I decided to finally try some mods with this game, and the first one I decided to install has an annoying anti-pirate feature that randomly teleports me every 5 minutes.

Now that I have a job, I may be willing to actually purchase the game, if it weren't for the fact that the current Mojang as it is now is filled with uninspired hacks who filled the game with official brownoid protagonists, even though it was already perfect with just Steve and Alex as protagonists.

This game has millions of mods so I can either learn to modify the anti-pirate feature out or find another mod similar to the one I want.

Maybe give this a go?

Anyone heard of/played Veloren?
https://veloren.net/

Currently trying it right now. You can definitely tell that it's still in pre-Alpha, and I think the starting area could use a good welcoming soundtrack, but I will keep playing it for a good bit to see if there's potential.

[UltraFan123]

I've been playing Valoren for a bit now, and I have a few impressions so far.

• This game was definitely made primarily to be played as a multiplayer MMO, since the grindiness even at the very beginning is quite noticeable. Just to make a starter stone pickaxe, you need to scavenge everywhere for wood twigs and stones on the floor.

• I found a Souls-like mechanic in the shape of a campfire that saves your progress and restores your HP. Which I guess is pretty neat if you like that.

• The crafting mechanic is a bit more complex than in Minecraft since you need multiple crafting benches depending on what you're going to build. To make food you need a cooking pot, to make linen you need a sewing table, etc.

• Perhaps I haven't reached that point yet, but it seems you can't build your own structures in Valoren. I guess not even placing down blocks is a thing since there is a climbing mechanic that consumes stamina.

• Combat-wise, the game is a classless system that allows you to make your own playstyle. No weapons or armor are locked. So far the race you pick is just for aesthetics.

• Something that I like is that no areas in the map are locked behind arbitrary levels, since I felt like exploring areas far beyond the starting point and I encountered a plant monster that one-shot me just like that.

So far I like the game for the most part, and I will continue playing for a bit to see if I can git gud.

[Rand]

I tried Veloren.
At the moment, it's basically a glorified tech demo.

[asf]

minecraft attracts autists like nothing else

[DecadeRiptide]

Portal Knights is kinda fun. Used to play it on my phone. Graphics are good, and the enemy designs are fun. Problem with all these survival games is the lack of interaction with NPCs. The world feels bland without some characters you can feel 'attached' too.

[UltraFan123]

Veloren was okay-ish, but not enough content to keep me engaged for long.

Maybe I will check it again in a few years from now. If I remember.

[UltraFan123]

Of course, when I finally find another mod that's similar to the other one I wanted but couldn't use because of the annoying anti-pirate feature, it's laggy as hell.

I'm sure there's a good mod that my potato can run, I just need to find it.

[UltraFan123]

Turns out I can make my own custom-made modpack with the specific mods that I want. I can have only a few mods running smoothly instead of 300 mods that lag my potato.

It takes longer to kitbash and optimize but I feel like it will be worth it in the end.

[DecadeRiptide]

Turns out I can make my own custom-made modpack with the specific mods that I want. I can have only a few mods running smoothly instead of 300 mods that lag my potato.

It takes longer to kitbash and optimize but I feel like it will be worth it in the end.

Modpack for what?

[UltraFan123]

Turns out I can make my own custom-made modpack with the specific mods that I want. I can have only a few mods running smoothly instead of 300 mods that lag my potato.

It takes longer to kitbash and optimize but I feel like it will be worth it in the end.

Modpack for what?

In Minecraft and similar games you can combine several mods as long as the versions of the game are compatible. In my case, I want to create my own version of RPG modpacks that I wanted to try but couldn't use because they either had anti-pirate features or were too laggy.

[UltraFan123]

Took me longer than expected, but I finally created a custom modpack that feels like the RPG I wish Minecraft was in vanilla.

I will try it out tomorrow and see how it runs.

[Brother Michael]

Took me longer than expected, but I finally created a custom modpack that feels like the RPG I wish Minecraft was in vanilla.

I will try it out tomorrow and see how it runs.

Please do share when you do. I’ve been using the Fantasia modpack and can thoroughly recommend it so far. It bills itself as Elder Scrolls inspired, and seems to be accurate given the fun I’m having with exploration, crafting, and eugenics.

[UltraFan123]

I wanted to test and see how the mods worked with each other, so I briefly created a Creative world and tried pretty much everything I could.

The core of my modpack is this magic mod: https://www.curseforge.com/minecraft/mc ... spellbooks

I chose it over another popular one called "Ars Nouveau" because in Ars there's a whole spell-creation system that's far more complex and time consuming than in Iron's Spellbooks. And since this was my very first modpack, I didn't wanted to start too crazy.

On top I added other mods like a map, extra biomes, extra fauna and flora, mythic mounts, dungeons and bosses, and even an extra dimension from an interesting mod called "Macabre" that's much more difficult than the endgame.

What I think I'm going to enjoy the most however are these 2 mods: https://www.curseforge.com/minecraft/mc-mods/workers

https://www.curseforge.com/minecraft/mc-mods/recruits

In my OG vanilla world, 90% of my time outside of building was spent looking after my renewable resources, so the "Workers" mod will take a massive load off my back and will allow me to focus on the things that I actively enjoy more about the game.

And the "Recruits" mod will allow me to bring companies of soldiers that I can arm myself to accompany me on my quests to dungeons and boss fights.

I just want to test a few more cross-compatibility features before officially starting my brand new survival RPG world.

[Rand]

Excellent developer post on modding and usebase focus:

https://hytale.com/news/2025/11/hytale- ... and-status

[UltraFan123]

One of the mods I installed, the waystone mod, ended up being more overpowered than I expected since it can teleport me even between modded dimensions.

The only issue I still have is that I can't teleport my villager soldier troops with me. The magic mod has portal spells that function a bit similar to the waystone, but they likewise only work with me.

I guess I will have to use the boat mechanic to move my troops through the nether and end portals the boring old-fashioned way. That only leaves the modded dimension as the only place I can't take my army with me.

[Maledict]

Excellent developer post on modding and usebase focus:

https://hytale.com/news/2025/11/hytale- ... and-status

Wow, the impossible may be possible after all...?

Their website states it will get pre-released in January:
https://store.hytale.com/

I refuse to get a Microsoft acc for Minecraft, so I'm curious, as Vintage Story just seemed not up my alley

[DecadeRiptide]

Excellent developer post on modding and usebase focus:

https://hytale.com/news/2025/11/hytale- ... and-status

Wow, the impossible may be possible after all...?

Their website states it will get pre-released in January:
https://store.hytale.com/

I refuse to get a Microsoft acc for Minecraft, so I'm curious, as Vintage Story just seemed not up my alley

You can try sklauncher for Minecraft. It's the only game I pirate honestly (and then never play lol). Microsoft is known for locking people out of their MS accounts and forcing them to pay for all their apps again with a new one.

SKlauncher allows you to install modpacks too, either through the launcher or you can just import one. I prefer to download the modpack zip file on CurseForge via the web browser and then import. Idk if how safe it is though, no idea if they're installing bitcoin miners or smth (I don't think they are). They have a Linux version too

[UltraFan123]

What I use is the TLauncher. It's also a free version of Minecraft and it allows you to download mods and even make your own custom modpack as well.

[DecadeRiptide]

What I use is the TLauncher. It's also a free version of Minecraft and it allows you to download mods and even make your own custom modpack as well.

I avoided it because there were loads of people saying it had spyware :/