Vintage Civ

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Vintage Civ
Basic Info
Start DateJanuary 13th, 2022 (1.0)
OwnerSouthernBloc
AdminsPkeod, SimpleBastard, Novocain
Subreddit/r/VintageCiv
Discordhttps://discord.gg/wkfyFe8tHn
Minecraft Version1.16.4 (Vintage Story)
Server addressplay.vintageciv.com
Websitehttps://www.vintageciv.com/

Vintage Civ is a Civ server on Vintage Story that had its first beta released on the 2nd of January 2022.[1]

Along with the intense hyper-realism of vanilla Vintage Story, Vintage Civ uses a variety of new plugins, most notably the Shackle Gear [2]. Previously used on AbjectPovertyCraft, the Shackle Gear works similarly to Prison Pearl as a means for players to self-police themselves, a notable "rule" of the Civ genre, being the idea of an “anarchistic gaming experiment” [3]. Other features include Citadel built into the VS base game as plumb-and-square Reinforcement, to make up for absence of vanilla Vintage Story land claiming which prevents players from interacting, placing, or destroying blocks inside the land claim (at no cost whatsoever, unlike Reinforcement).

Another notable difference to vanilla VS is the lack of other player icons in the map, including your own. This makes the addition of the client-side mod VSHUD a necessity to many Vciv players for waypointing and navigation purposes. A certain feature coming from Vanilla VS allows players to be able to see other ingame player nametags within a certain distance, making underground or secluded living difficult. While people have been a bit resenting of the feature ever since VCiv launched[4][5][6], the devs have been thinking away at a rework of the ingame nametag system [7]. Another VS counterpart to Minecraft Civ is the inclusion of the Snitches mod, which comes from, well, Snitches[8].

More info pertaining to the unique features in Vintage Story compared to Minecraft can be found at the official Vintage Story wiki For other miscellaneous details and the mods included can be found at the Vintage Civ website

Mechanics of Vintage Civ

Vintage Civ throughout its entire history has based many of its features and mechanics off past Civ-like servers, most notably CivCraft and CivClassics. These are some notable differences to vanilla VS and/or similarities/differences to MC Civ.

  • The base game of Vintage Story includes reinforcement, its MC Civ counterpart being citadel. Similiar to Minecraft, different materials, different powers of protection. Steel is the highest and common rocks are the lowest in reinforcement power.
  • Unlike vanilla Vintage Story you cannot see others on the world map, a side effect of this is not being able to see your own map icon as well. Despite this you can see other players nametag at a certain unspecified distance
  • A far different way of terrain generation,
  • Combat Tag, forcing a player to either wait 30 seconds to log out of the server after getting hit by another player, or exit before the time limit runs out and leave a "dummy player" that can be killed.
  • Snitches
  • Bastions
  • Shackle Gear. Highest prison time per item being Anthracite. [Someone add more details and how to fuel a ShackleGear]
  • Acid Blocks [More details when 2.0 releases on May 27]
  • 25k by 25k size, with a diameter of 50k blocks.
  • [More to be added]

Nations and Civilizations

Player groups include anything from small scale squads who have just established a settlement to larger kingdoms made up of dozens of players.

More information can be found at the main page player groups

Name Leader Government Founding Date Discord Link
Talmberg Polskizoldak Collectivism 13th January 2022 Talmberg
"Vikings of Vintage" Davis 27th May 2022 Vikings of Vintage
Kindread Clan Candles 21st March 2022 Kindread Clan


2.0 History

For the first two days of its existence, Vintage Civ ran a test server as the admins added more plugins to the server and tested their stability in-game. Happy with their modlist, the official beta was launched on January 4, 2022, which the admins planned to run for 4-6 months or longer.[9]

1.0 Beta World History

The first days of the server were marked by exploration and the foundation of the server's largest town so far: Pond Scum. Named after the ponds that attracted the founders to it for farming purposes, the town boasts an unofficial population of 10-15 residents (most of the server's early playerbase).[10]Other early but smaller villages founded in the first week of the server include Veii (founded by the owner of the server himself) and the Shitshack Commune.

As players explored more of the map (which has a radius of at least 22k blocks), some chunks were discovered to generate large out-of-place pillars of rock and dirt. Dubbed "Cliffs of Insanity," the community as a whole voted to keep them until the end of the beta.

After updating to 1.16, a bug was discovered which completely deleted entire chunks and crashed the game when trying to open some chests or clay vessels. A vote took place where players voted to either restart the map and start 1.0, or to continue the beta with all the bugs, which the admin team could not fix or did not have the time to[11]; the vote ended with a vast majority of players voting for a server restart, kickstarting the official launch of the server to 1.0[12].

An example of the cliffs of insanity in 1.0

1.0 World History

Launching on January 13th, 2022, the 1.0 Version of Vintage Civ began.

Little events of importance happened during the first week as player groups were only beginning to establish themselves. Nations and player groups who had their origins in older servers such CivCraft and CivClassic found new homes in Vintage Civ 1.0. Many veteran Minecraft Civ players finding the differences of Vintage Story (Vintage Civ too) to Minecraft greatly altering how players aswell as towns interacted and managed resources.

Channers-Bastion conflicts

A large amount of controversy and internal feuding occurred in the first couple weeks of March 2022. The main subjects of these feuds was the town of Bastion, and the town of Green Spice (or Chan Town).

Green Spice as of March 21. Notice the tower in the middle of the picture being moderately destroyed and a number of random blocks and holes being present around the screenshot.

It started when Bastion resident Xorberax was lured into a room by another player from Chan Town and was trapped there for an undisclosed amount of time. Xorberax hit the door, trying to leave where he was stuck [13]. What Xorberax did apparently made the Channer upset enough to shackle [14] Xorberax for what he did, sparking a much larger series of events. After the mechanics of shacklegear were updated in the server, Xorberax was then released from the shackle due to the Channers not being familiar with the mechanics of refueling a shacklegear after the update [15].

After his unintended release, he decided to threaten the town of Green Spice claiming he's going to level the entire town, or threats of a similar nature. [16] After the usual bickering back and forth between Chan Town, Bastion, and Xorberax, he decided to go and bomb Chan Town himself. This was in retaliation against what they did to him before and due to other more personal reasons Xorberax has against what Chan Town is known for. The bombing resulted in a huge amount of gear and loot lost. Once most of the Chan Town members logged a while after the raid, they set off to find Xorberax in his home city of Bastion.

The members from the city of Bastion took notice of the impending attack and aided Xorberax against the attackers and got the Channers that came shackled. [17] Immediately after Bastion understood what had happened, Xorberax was banished from Bastion to fend for himself [18]. Green Spice was outraged that no further punishment was taken toward Xorberax, however, Bastion members were overwhelmed and tired and had had enough of all of it. A discord user by the name of MULTIPOLAR said he later secured the release to those shackled members of Green Spice and retrieved some of the stolen goods from Green Spice. Much back-and-forth ensued between Green Spice and Bastion over what to do with Xorberax.

After being threatened to be doxxed [19] and in hopes of the blame being put on Green Spice, sometime between March 11-13 Xorberax was basically forced to detonate ore bombs around the city of Bastion causing much damage to structures, some more than others [20][21][22]. It has been said by a player named Jaysus273 that there was another attacker a day or two before Xorberax committed his treason on Bastion. That player being Spicy Boy (on Discord), who attacked Bastion utilizing the power of ore bombs against the city [23]. Many players who eventually noticed this whole thing then lost motivation in living in Bastion, and for some, lost the interest in the entire server. The city of Bastion was widely considered to have ceased to exist from then on [24].

Decline

Throughout late March and early April 2022, the active population of Vintage Civ began to decline and reached the point where the peak player count reached only the single digits. Players have contributed this decline to a number of factors, including:[25]

  • General hype for CivMC after its Q&A on March 25, 2022 leading players to focus their attention towards it.
  • A rumour that admins had been working on Vintage Civ 2.0, leaving players not wanting to give attention to the 1.0 server that might be going away soon.
  • The plugins xSkills and QPtech- which allowed players to upgrade certain abilities (eg. increased health, faster block breaking, etc.) after reaching certain goals- breaking after being updated, causing those who were working towards those goals getting burned out.
  • The most populous towns, Bastion and Ember Valley, which both were near spawn and very welcoming to newcomers, being abandoned after the aforementioned conflicts. Multiple small communities had sprouted up near them and began to feel unsafe without them around. Also, too, the Kingdom of Savaguard, a strong and highly militant city, had once claimed alliance with Bastion, yet failed completely to respond to Bastion under siege and fire.
  • Stragglers from Green Spice raiding and griefing other towns like Kindread Clan and Ember Valley, causing their residents to quit.
  • A shallow tech tree.
  • Discrepancies in moderation; Some mods/admins, like SouthernBloc and Pkeod, have been generally tolerant of neo-nazi and right-wing views and users in the discord,[26][27] but rules against harassment and hate speech have been implemented and enforced by other mods/admins, like SimpleBastard and KingOfTheMochas. This lead to the server being populated by far right-wing users who scared away a number of regular players and the right-wingers getting subsequently banned.[28]

Nevertheless, the admin team continues to work on a new website and a new in-house version of xSkills.

2.0 Test Servers

It was announced on April 9, 2022 by SouthernBloc that an early version of the 2.0 server has been launched publicly, to last for 24 hours, later said to be on for about 2 weeks. [29] The servers listed in this subsection were publicy released with the intention of finding bugs and balancing issues that can be found in the early release of new content being added. These test servers contains highly anticipated features not seen before in the Vintage Civ server such as bastions, combat tag, pack animals, more enemies, new land generation, and a variety of new building blocks and other smaller mechanics.[30][31]

On April 17 2022, SouthernBloc held a Discord call discussing the details surrounding 2.0 of Vintage Civ and the future of the server(s) with a handful of other important members such as developers and contributors. In the same call he showcased the trailer for 2.0, planning for release on May 27 2022.[32] In the call SouthernBloc stated that moving towns or structures from the 1.0 map to the 2.0 map will not be done, as he says it gives an unfair starting advantage to some players [33] and that in the release of 2.0 the blocks and materials used in the old 1.0 structures would be deleted as they are from mods that wont be in 2.0.[34]

2.0 Server Details

The day before launch on May the 26th of 2022 SouthernBloc posted on the #announcements of the VCiv Discord channel featuring a large message featuring and listing most of the main server details aswell as new changes for 2.0. The message states:

To @everyone As we get closer to release, roughly 24 hours out, we are doing the final scrubs and polishing on some mods and concepts. The next phase is to roll the dice, and see what kind of world the new generation is going to give us. So far, the snippets I have taken look promising. I've been asked to provide a server info sheet, which I am happy to give. This really only contains the information you should know at the start, as we have always encouraged the players to reach out and discover the new world and its changes. Its been a bumpy road, but everyone's positive energy has kept a lot of this project alive. Thanks guys.

Server Info

Version:1.16.5 IP: play.vintageciv.com

World Info: The world will be 25K by 25k, with climates being realistic, dirt gravity enabled. Fire Spread is also on.

Spawning: Spawning will be random spawn anywhere on the map, if a bed is not set. This has been tested pretty thoroughly. Make sure you lay in the bed for a good amount of time, rather than just right clicking and praying.

Class Changes:

Tailor: Class Exclusive Linen, as well as other tailor required products.

Malefactor: Can make the Raft Hunter: Class Exclusive with Survival mod traps and the such

Clockmaker: Class exclusive to mechanical stuff with the exception of basic windmills. Also required to make Bastions.

Auction House: Disabled

PVP: PVP is enabled. There is also a combat tag of approx. 30 secs, and if you log before it is up you run the risk of your player entity being left in game.

Death Changes: Upon death, you will drop everything with the exception of clothes. Dropped armor will take durability damage, which can be repaired.

There is a lot of game mechanics that were changed for the sake of the genre, that I wont go into full detail about now. As a town, city, community, as you learn things, I encourage you to share what you find. -Vintage Civ Team[35]

Beta

It was announced on April 9, 2022 by SouthernBloc that an early version of the 2.0 server has been launched publicly, to last for 24 hours, later said to be on for about 2 weeks (Which did not last 2 weeks). [29] The beta test server as of April 17th has players spawn at 0,0 in the very north-western corner of the world in the water. The closest landmass to the spawn point is a small island which contained a single homestead with a small overgrown farm to the south of it. The beta world has a small size of exactly 5000 blocks north to south and has every quadrant being absent except the +,+ quadrant, which the entire map is in. There has been a few small camps set up by players that have crossed the oceans and landmasses far from spawn though the server has not had as much popularity as the 1.0 beta three months earlier.

The center of the unnamed 2.0 alpha town as of April 23
Alpha

After existing for 9 days, the 2.0 beta world was wiped for a new one that was supposed to last til launch day of the actual 2.0 world [36]. With this the IP for the Beta was replaced with the new world being the 2.0 Alpha. The new Alpha world has randomspawn on, similiar to other civ servers in the genre. According to SouthernBloc this will apply for the actual 2.0 server that will launch in May [37]. The server runs on version 1.16.5 and the size dimensions for the world are -2500 to 2500 east to west and -2500 to 2500 north to south making the world 5000 x 5000 blocks.

With the highest numbers of players online being four, the popularity of this 2.0 server iteration was similar to what the Beta server achieved.

After stumbling on SouthernBlocs homestead Miloski and other two players being McBain and Fey all allied to form a town on the island SouthernBloc was originally situated in. As of April 21 this settlement had a total of 4 players currently in the mid-late bronze age with a number of other higher tier items and gear. As of April 24 2022 this server still stays in the regular IP that was used for the beta, while the test server below is now in the main servers usual IP.

Test

On April 23 2022 SouthernBloc launched yet another completely new server referred to as simply the "Test" server. Instead of the previous two 2.0 test iterations, it is connected to from the default server IP being play.vintageciv.com and has dirt gravity turned on, changing the way players build and traverse. With the terrain generation being done for the most part and the world map much bigger than the previous two 2.0 iterations, Southern states this server will last til the 2.0 launch day [38]. It was noticed the day after the server launched that naturally grown wild crops are unusually rare [39], along with the fact that the equator is also unusually large, makes finding and growing crops much harder.

A group photo taken by SouthernBloc on April 24 with Fey (with the hunter's hood) Cratin (in the bed) Nessie (white haired) and Miloski (blue skinned) just before they left the island [40]

Starting off with a small dirt hut player Nessie built, it quickly gained a handful total of residents after the location started being spread around the Discord due to the hot climate and just because it was one of the only settlements at the time. The settlement's roster comprised of Fey, Miloski, SouthernBloc, Cratin, and Nessie. With a small farm being built to the side of the now-wooden and stone brick house the new civilization was growing. The island settled on was distinctly shaped like an elephants head, making it known as Elephant Island or Republic of Elephants, names of that sort [41][42][43] There was a inherent problem with the location, there were not many trees on the island and crops could barely grow in that climate. Going back to the aforementioned statement about the equator being too large and wild crops being too rare, makes this location especially hard to get food with other means besides hunting aswell as flax being difficult to find naturally. This all contributed to the reason the settlement there decided to leave the island for good.

The 5 player group set sail in hopes of finding an appropriate area for farming and forestry. It took a while for all the group members to eventually meet up and start building due to various mishaps along the journey, but in the end the loot stored at Elephant island was transferred to this new location.

Compared to the other 2.0 test servers like the beta and alpha, the current 2.0 test server had seen relatively large active player activity for being just a test server and at one point having 9 online players on April 27 2022. The addition of new and different features to Vciv as well as the constant speak and promotion about it in Discord attracted some old Vintage Civ players such as Makometer, Forks, Fey and Enna1. As of May 2 2022 the server has seen almost a year ingame aswell as reaching a high of 9 concurrent players late in April shows the popularity that is to come in the release of 2.0 at May 27 2022.

2.0 World History

The server officially launched on Friday of May 27 2022. With randomspawn on in a certain radius around 0,0 to prevent server overload, the many players who have joined have already started putting up small shacks and hay beds around the server.

References

  1. https://www.reddit.com/r/VintageStory/comments/ruif1f/vintage_civ_the_first_official_beta_release_of_a/
  2. SimpleBastard (February 3 2022) Shackle Gear Shackle Gear is a prison system developed for Vintage Story and Abject Poverty Craft by Novocain. Players can make a “Shackle Gear” item (can be searched in the handbook) that allows them to imprison or ‘shackle’ another player. When a player is shackled their build/break, and pvp
  3. https://www.reddit.com/r/VintageStory/comments/ruif1f/vintage_civ_the_first_official_beta_release_of_a/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3
  4. MarcAfk (February 14 2022) Still probably shouldnt see a nametag at all considering there was a mountain in the way.
  5. Pineapple (March 10 2022) why not remove nametags all together, people have to share there name and you can only get it 100% for sure from the snitches if they fuck around with your shit
  6. Fiammata (February 04) can visibility of nametags through walls/floors/distance be minimized?
  7. KenigVovan (May 1 2022) I made small mod which just change value for "nametag" behavior and player(horse, cat, dogs) names act like trader's. I think it easier to include to civmods, if it's not yet
  8. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Zm6EUunXyym0NpvCV7uTeNPSBCBoQGL2/view
  9. https://old.reddit.com/r/vintageciv/comments/rwampl/we_are_live/
  10. https://old.reddit.com/r/vintageciv/comments/rx9jjj/pond_scum_village_beginnings/
  11. SouthernBloc (January 13, 2022). “Vintage Civ Players, @here As you may know, we migrated to 1.16 yesterday (Whooo), However; Some of the Map didn't make it, or its a chunk bug with 1.16. Unsure. This leaves us with 2 Solutions. 1. We reset the map, and start the true and full Vintage Civ 1.0 Iteration, upon which nothing will be changed with the exception of performance related issues, and maybe Gun mod if it updates. A starter kit will be provided, (see below) with the /starterkit command. This would happen today, prior to the weekend. The Iteration would be guaranteed to last as long as humanly possible. We have fixed performance, we have the mods people want, and we have a stable population. 2. You can play on a broken map, with bugs, and broken inventories. I don't know how else to spin it. But I am overwhelmed with fixing map issues. [...]” – via Discord (#annoucements). Vintage Civ. Retrieved January 14, 2021.
  12. SouthernBloc (January 14, 2021). “Community has decided. Map will be reset for 1.0.” – via Discord (#annoucements). Vintage Civ. Retrieved January 14, 2021.
  13. Xorberax giving his own side of the story to Toastier
  14. ComfyFaust in the Vciv Discord server explaining why he shackled Xorberax
  15. Sikandar (Multipolar) (March 11 2022) Just saying, we only wanted Xorberax who never should have been released, possibly released through an update
  16. M U L T I P O L A R(March 13, 2022) "We had Xorborax pearled originally (assumed he got out as shacklegear was just updated) but Southern clarified that we didn't refuel his shackle right, because the mechanic is different from civcraft so he got out. He was our bargaining chip and we lost it, we were working on a treaty with Bastion as Xorberax threatened to level our town. Having lost it, Bastion stopped talking to us. Faust initiated the talks, Greenkitten our ambassador reached out to Jaysus but they never got back to us, because why should they they got their guy free."
  17. M U L T I P O L A R(March 13 2022) "After bantering in the discord we logged on and saw that our entire town was destroyed and vault broken, and shit stolen. So we saw the guy who did it was still online and were quite pissed. Four of our guys geared up and went to Bastion to shackle him, but 3 other Bastion guys ran out and helped him and he shackled all of us."
  18. Sikandar (Multipolar) (March 11 2022) Our town was raided, in anger we tried to shackle the perpetrator, but more or less were lead into a trap and 4 of us were shackled. Bastion is supposedly exiling the griefer, but no real punishment.
  19. KindOfTheMochas (March 13 2022) He claims the channers made him do it so theyd stop doxxing him but I have no evidence of that (edited)
  20. TTastic (March 13 2022) Bastion was bombed by Xorb and Toe? TTastic (March 13 2022) Like recently or is this rehashed KingOfTheMochas (March 13 2022) Recently
  21. KingOfTheMochas (March 13 2022) "Uhhhh I think Xorb said he got trapped in a room by Faust after he asked him to come to chantown for some reason and then Xorb tried to break down the door to escape and Faust shackled him and then he went (Apeshit) and threatened to blow Chantown to smithereens and then he got freed for some reason (channers said there was some kinda deal with jay but it sounds like jay denies that) and then he ended up actually blowing it to smithereens and then channers got reasonably mad but to an unreasonable amount and doxxed (?) him and then he agreed (?) to nuke Bastion if they stopped doxxing him and so he did and now we’re all pissed at him and also each other"
  22. Xorberax admitting what he had in mind
  23. Jaysus 273 (March 11 2022) False, I was behind the city to the south, the opposite side to the main gate, when the conflict started, and I joined to defend the town when bombing was being performed and my residents attacked
  24. Toni (Toobke) (March 14 2022) bastion doesnt exist anymore
  25. Isaac (March 30, 2022). “I think the server is on life support because:” – via Discord (#general). Vintage Civ. Retrieved April 2, 2022.
  26. Pkoed (March 30, 2022). “Tbh good, we're building a specific genre with a specific vision and we're not going to compromise that just for emotionally stunted people who refuse to play the game and shackle the people they don't like, that's the entire point” – via Discord (#general). Vintage Civ. Retrieved April 2, 2022.
  27. SouthernBloc (January 13, 2022). “[Meme image containing the n-word mocking anti-racist sentiment]” – via Discord (#shit-posts-aplenty). Vintage Civ. Retrieved April 2, 2022.
  28. Lima Bees (March 30, 2022). “A lot of people also don't want to associate with people who use hate speech. Bad look. But that's being worked on so yanno” – via Discord (#general). Vintage Civ. Retrieved April 2, 2022.
  29. 29.0 29.1 SouthernBloc (April 9 2022) so for the next 24 hours, I am going to unwhitelist the test server so I can see any potential issues performance wise from the mod list currently. Keep in mind this is a beta test, and there might be problems. IP: 147.135.65.45:27500
  30. SouthernBloc (March 20 2022) 20MAR22 Test Server Changelog -More Animals 1.2.1 added -addeds more farmable birds that are region specific -Shackle Gear updated -added integration with combat tag -CivLock added -locking chests to groups is now a thing -Pack Animals 1.0.1 updated -Caribou, Camels, and Elephants are now tameable, and are pack animals -CivBow 1.0.0 added -All bows have an increased damage bonus. -WhyFlags and children mods added -Allows for creating of flags -Custom flags coming soon TBD -Copper Locks -Anti-Cheat Improvements and much more @here
  31. SouthernBloc (March 13 2022) Changelog for 03/13/2022 @here Main Server -Ciders and the such have a much more extended shelf life, but longer brewing time. -Resin should generate more frequently. To those who asked about make planted trees generate resin, trees are hardcoded to not produce a block other than lock. -QPTECH removed. -Xskills removed. A backup of the map was made. XSkills was saved. Test Server -Bastions added -Pack animals added -1st map iteration of oceans/continents/sea life -Changes made to Trees -Changes made to Rocks -Changes made to rebalance tools -Combat Tag added -Copper locks readded -Lock output buffed to 3 instead of 1 -20 more animals added
  32. SouthernBloc (April 17 2022)@everyone https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J12nGdJtZDc Happy Easter Everyone. Thank you for all the support over the past few months. Its been rough. But it couldn't have been done without everyone. Thank you. -VintageCiv Dev Team
  33. SouthernBloc (April 17 2022) Copy pasting the towns is unheard of, not to mention can be seen as unfair treatment by new players.
  34. SouthernBloc (April 17 2022) Issue with moving towns is because we aren’t going to run with 30 out of house mods, so a lot of the stuff used to build those towns will be deleted
  35. SouthernBloc (May 26 2022)https://discord.com/channels/927062370352762941/937503678477262908/979445284205633607
  36. SouthernBloc (April 18 2022) this one will most likely last till launch day. I wanted to see variation in the water generation
  37. Miloski (April 18 2022) thats going to also apply til actual 2.0? SouthernBloc (April 18 2022) yes - same mechanics as old civ
  38. SouthernBloc (April 23 2022) @here The Test Server is now launched on the main IP, play.vintageciv.com. This will last until launch day, but the map gen tweaks are done for the most part. The 1.0 server will relaunch on the test box, but we need to test how it works on the main box. I stress that you take some time and play with the mechanics, so come launch day we have the final tweaks ready. Have a good weekend all!
  39. SouthernBloc (April 24 2022) wild crops are terrible to try and find ngl
  40. SouthernBloc (April 24 2022) Vintage Civ Test Department, Circa 1386
  41. SouthernBloc (April 23 2022) Elephant Republic
  42. SouthernBloc (April 232022) socialist republic of elephas
  43. The elephant looking island that the unnamed settlement lived on for almost a day.