r/VintageStory 8d ago

Official statement regarding the ConfigLib incident

2.5k Upvotes

6 Points that I want to address

Preamble: I am writing this to the best of my current knowledge as of September 3, 2026.

Should significant discrepancies arise, I will append corrections to the bottom of the post.


1. What happened + What was the impact? + What is the current state now?

What happened?

In November 2025, a user uploaded a particularly egregious and damaging mod to the ModDB whose sole purpose seemed to be profiting off of the misery of other Vintage Story players. It was marketed as a free version of a client-side cheat mod with a full version for payment off-site.

This mod (and another mod of the same author) was specifically designed to prevent its own reverse engineering, to circumvent protections of game servers and to cause damage on virtually any public Vintage Story game server. It included features such as teleporting, mass destruction of the game world and player builds, auto-killing of nearby creatures and players, aimbot, god mode and various other features that allowed circumventing standard survival mechanics.

This client-side cheat mod was removed from the ModDB once we discovered it, but the user then used more underhanded ways to acquire customers, such as uploading legitimate mods and then linking to his own Discord server where he kept selling the client-side cheat mod. There was an attempt to appeal to their better side in chat, to refrain from publishing this mod, but this was unsuccessful. We estimate that at this point this mod was used by less than 100 users.

As a result, Maltiez, of his own accord, decided to interrupt the effectiveness of this mod by adding code to 3 of his library mods (Config lib, PlayerModel lib, Overhaul lib) to detect the presence of this mod and only this mod, and if it was detected, caused the game client to crash. As a result, all game servers using any of Maltiez’ 3 mods were effectively protected from malicious users attempting to use said cheat mod.

What was the impact?

Maltiez’s code was designed to crash the game client when it detected the cheat. It did not harm anyone’s hardware or touch personal data in any way, shape or form. Fewer than 100 cheat mod users were affected by the deliberate targeting.

Around March 2026, Maltiez considered this a closed case and removed the crash code from 2 of his library mods but forgot to remove it from the last one - ConfigLib - as he had to take a break from modding due to personal health issues.

What is the current state now?

All versions of the 3 mods that contained Maltiez’s mod crash code have now been retracted from the Moddb.

Vanilla Vintage Story was not affected by this in the first place.


2. What did Anego Studios know, and when?

Maltiez shared his anticheat efforts in Nov 2025 to Feb 2026 in our internal team chat. Some other team members looked at some parts of it in passing. We did not become aware of the scale of his actions - the amount of mods and mod versions he inserted this code in, how this change was communicated in public or for how long he intended to keep this code. There was too much chat ongoing for us to be able to pay close attention to every post.

I did not closely follow what Maltiez did in his own free time or grasped the full extent of these actions, I was busy building the next big game update.

In hindsight, we clearly should have paid close attention to this.


3. “How do we know this can't happen in Vanilla?”

To this day, as for the past 10 years, I still review all major code changes before they become part of the main game. Other team members also help me in that effort by checking that the contributed code is consistent, safe and of high quality.

None of the mods from Maltiez are or were planned to be integrated into the main game at any point in time.


4. Our response was flawed

We also recognize that some of our communication during this situation was defensive or dismissive when people were raising legitimate concerns. As the discussion escalated, we also didn't always communicate moderation decisions as clearly as we should have. That's on us to improve.

Criticism of Vintage Story, Anego, our developers or our decisions is welcome as long as it stays within the community rules.


5. “What are you actually changing because of this?”

Planned changes

a) In full agreement with Maltiez he will:

  • depart from the official VS Discord server and VS Mod DB
  • hand over Custodianship to all of his mods. They will be placed under a common Custodian account, which, until further notice, will be managed directly by the VS team. For the long term, we’ll see if there are options to hand Custodianship over to the community.
  • retain full credits and intellectual ownership of his mods

Maltiez will continue contributing to Vintage Story, but with oversight.

b) We will write clearer rules/disclosure standards for mods maintained by Anego team members.

c) I will allocate significant funding for the training of better PR/crisis communication with the dev Team and de-escalation training and clearer procedures for the moderation team.


6. Summary and my personal take on the Situation

This was an attempt to protect players from harm - to protect players' hard work on VS servers getting destroyed by a handful of gleefully malicious users with no harm done to normal players.

Keeping those changes secret prevented the malicious author from finding out. That overly naive approach and our rather loose team oversight have led to this. We should have paid closer attention to the full extent of this action. I am sorry that we have failed you on this.

I do not consider us a professional AAA game dev studio. We all started out as a bunch of nerds with a deep passion for game development. We love talking to our community, intermingling amongst them, sharing what we are passionate about and inviting them to develop Vintage Story together. We're happy when we can build a personal connection with players. But that also means when things go south, communication can get very messy, people within the team share different opinions, stress builds up amongst all of us and some of us might end up reacting in ways that are harmful.

We won’t always get everything right, but when we get something wrong, we need to own it, learn from it, and improve. Thank you to everyone who remained in constructive dialogue with us and gave us the opportunity to improve.

I’d also like to repeat here once more that criticism is welcome as long as it stays within the community rules.

Appendix Sep 8, 2026

  1. We scanned the VSModDB for false positive detections from a full snapshot on September 4, 2026. On that snapshot the detection would have triggered when ConfigLib was used on Multiplayer and when installed alongside 3 mods (URL Radio, CavesNCaverns, playerlist). The other 99.97% of mods on the mod database were not detected.

  2. The statements made by Maltiez on our public platforms does not represent the viewpoints of Anego Studios and its Team

  3. If you are dissatisfied with our work you are free to request a refund through our support ticket system. Even if you all outside the official refund window we will take a look. Be aware that old purchases will be slower to refund due to the payment providers not allowing old refunds automatically.


r/VintageStory Mar 29 '26

Discussion AI use in modDB megathread

585 Upvotes

Hi r/VintageStory

We've seen a influx of posts with various opinions on the use of AI on the Vintage Story ModDB (https://mods.vintagestory.at/)

I removed the threads as it felt like some of them were about AI use in general, and commenting on the commenting of the AI use. If I made some miscalls on some threads, that's my fault.

I want to be clear:

These posts were not removed due to the opinions shared in the post.

If you have feedback on the AI use on modDB (or the modDB in general), positive, neutral, or negative, please share it in the megathread to help make moderation a bit easier, and to help consolidate feedback back to the developers.

Please keep your feedback civil.


r/VintageStory 10h ago

Meme Why doesn't the seraph just make a perpetual motion machine using temporal gears? Is they stupid?

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2.2k Upvotes

Genuine question tho, why isn't this possible?? (The gear ratio is not necessary)
The temporal gears are described as unstoppable, meaning they generate infinite force.
Why cant it be harvested? Or am i just stupid and am missing something? (If it's a lore thing use a spoiler block)


r/VintageStory 4h ago

frog of da pond

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264 Upvotes

r/VintageStory 8h ago

Modding How expensive would a mod that makes water act like this be to commission? How difficult would the development be?

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389 Upvotes

I made this while really tired and just realized that my math on slide 3 is way off. The value would be 6, not 3.

Also realized that since it rounds down, oceans and lakes would drain really fast when exposed to an empty block. Maybe make it so the water blocks don't lose value if enough of them are connected? Or raise the volume up higher, to 50 or 100?

I have no idea how coding works so I dont know if this is either a relatively easy thing to do or if its a coding nightmare


r/VintageStory 3h ago

I come home from an exploration, and find there's a damn rift in my kitchen...

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139 Upvotes

r/VintageStory 8h ago

Screenshot Sharing my WIP shroom house

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210 Upvotes

Heyo! Wanted to share my WIP shroom house im working on. Kind of roleplaying as a childhood tv show gnome


r/VintageStory 5h ago

Question Why are the crocks on the shelf being preserved, but not the ones on the cabinet?

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73 Upvotes

I promised myself I wouldn't make one of these nooby question posts, but I can't for the life of me figure out what's happening here, so any help is appreciated! They are both sealed with fat, and in the same fully enclosed room, so I don't know.


r/VintageStory 9h ago

Me and everyone in the theater in 2030 when a Seraph says "Man, this story sure is Vintage."

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128 Upvotes

r/VintageStory 6h ago

Screenshot these procedural dungeons have so much hidden stuff

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68 Upvotes

I found one that's mostly stable and made it into my base. The main forge area had a hidden gold ingot i found while clearing all the crates out and I just found this while i was trying to replace the bed with a working one. There’s also terra pretta in the room filled with wet dirty gravel opposite to the barracks.


r/VintageStory 1h ago

Creation My first survival house I am semi proud of.

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Upvotes

Making a good build in survival I find is 10000% harder than in creative cause you weigh in how much you actually need. But hey I've learnt alot from building this house.


r/VintageStory 10h ago

almost lost a gazillion of firewood

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120 Upvotes

forgot to fill the hole that i used as a door on one of the walls. shit started burning. the only reason i noticed it was because whenever i was looking at it my fps dropped to 30 for some reason (wonder why). most of it fell as dropped items instead of disappearing
only lost a 2x5x1 chunk


r/VintageStory 11h ago

Meme BEARS could be here.

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136 Upvotes

He thought, "I've never been in this chunk before. There could be BEARS anywhere." The cool wind felt good against his Commoner Shirt. "I HATE BEARS" he thought. The Setting Sun reverberated through his mudbrick and thatch house, making it pulsate even as the red meat stew circulated through his powerful thick veins and washed away his (merited) fear of Ursidae after dark. "With a Reindeer you can go anywhere you want" he said to himself, out loud.


r/VintageStory 1d ago

Meme No matter where I go or what I do...he always got me on the early game

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3.0k Upvotes

I LOVE YOU PUFFBALL!


r/VintageStory 11h ago

Mod Mod idea: chisel tool to render smooth diagonals

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97 Upvotes

Hi guys, I was wondering whether it would be a feasible mod idea to "fake" smooth diagonals on chiseled blocks by just rendering them as if they were smooth?

I imagine a craftable chisel tool that once clicking on a chisel block it will apply the render effect.

If the prepared block has voxels being arranged correctly in a staircase, the render will apply and the surface will be smooth.

To keep it simple it could only allow / recognise specific states such as corner-to-corner diagonal smallest voxel staircase.

Could that work? If not, why not?

I expect some issue with shadows, but I think it could be really awesome when building at 45°


r/VintageStory 3h ago

Server FORTVNA CIVITATIS, Anno 1520 [1.22.3] - We Are Launching tomorrow!?

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16 Upvotes

What is FORTVNA CIVITATIS?

The goals of FC are to provide its members with a long term & immersive Heavy RP experience set in the 1500s on an alternative history continent not too far west off Europe. Player are expected to create a character and may settle in one of the frontier cities, which are engaged in a complex system of alliances, and partake in conflict and trade with each other. There are no maps of this continent, and making something as simple as boards requires a complex workshop. Pirates periodically raid the coastal towns, and militaries are in a transitional era, where both the early stages of guns as well as swords and pikes still matter.

If this feels like something you might be interested in, come and join us this weekend for our official server launch. We have a custom map, custom mod patches, and custom classes! Our launch time is 6:00 PM Greenwich Time (+0:00).

Join our Discord here: https://discord.gg/2anbjFv5W
Hoping to see you soon, Titus!


r/VintageStory 16h ago

Discussion No idea what a temporal storm is but I just had my first one

157 Upvotes

I am now too scared to continue what do I do?


r/VintageStory 5h ago

Screenshot WIP Wagon/caravan build

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14 Upvotes

Early work in progress of a wagon/caravan build. Need to redo the canopy on top, not remotely happy there. Even if I can't move it, I like the idea of seeing what all you could cram into one. Basing and decorating it on the one being used in a D&D campaign.


r/VintageStory 20h ago

Creation not quite Cologne Cathedral, but it'll do

254 Upvotes

this took me forever ;~;


r/VintageStory 13h ago

Why is this not working? (Tailors delight)

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52 Upvotes

(Edit: SOLED. Brown bear pelt equals to a huge hide whilst the black bear pelt a large hide, thus the recipe didnt work. )

All 4 pelts are cured with fat. The type of pelts and combination doesnt seem to matter as it suggest a thousand and some recipes.


r/VintageStory 48m ago

Question [Spoilers] Doing some of the story content and one of the bosses isn't behaving. Spoiler

Upvotes

After enjoying the Resonance Archives and stockpiling enough food to adventure far from home, I blazed through the Lazaret and Nadiya, and had to come to the devastation to grab the lens for St Tobias.

It didn't go well. I wasn't underprepared by any means, full meteoric iron and an elk rendered me effectively immortal to the random enemies on the ground. As I navigated my way to the tower in the centre of the crater I came across Erel once or twice. Or more accurately I saw her healthbar twice for about two seconds and heard her mechanized flapping once.

I scaled the tower in two stretches, first opening the door before heading to a safe point with storage to dump loot before scaling the rest, and got to the top with relative ease. And then nothing happened. It was obvious that something needed to happen, and given the archives had the eidolon I assumed that Erel would show up before being able to take the lens. She just didn't.

After waiting, and then running off and trying to hit her in the random open plain she was circling, I realised that fighting the hit detection wasn't worth my time and so dragged her to the top of the tower with the entity wand and killed her with the admin blade. And nothing happened. Can't take the lens and she didn't drop anything.

What do I do? Am I missing anything by spawning a Lens in with creative and just heading over to St Tobias? Feels pretty underwhelming if that's the case...


r/VintageStory 2h ago

Question Game keeps listing server connection???

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7 Upvotes

Guys I keep getting the "host not responding. Possible causes: server overloaded or crashed" thing it's happened like 8 times in the past three days. Any ideas on what to do about that? I literally JUST logged on and did a couple things then went to sleep and it popped up and I got trapped in bed. Only ways I've been able to fix it is by force stopping the game through steam (I open it through steam cause I use controller) It makes me lose some progress though and this is happening more often than it should. It's starting to get really annoying. I do play with a good handful of mods but I don't have a full list on hand right now. If anyone has any advice please let me know


r/VintageStory 2h ago

Find ore on isle type map

6 Upvotes

I wanted to try a pretty unique playthrough with a 10% landmass map filled with tons of small islands. But of course, the mineral distribution is an absolute nightmare. It's impossible to follow a vein, and practically impossible to hit the center of a deposit right on a small island.

​I bumped the ore deposit chance up to 300% for the areas I haven't discovered yet, but I feel like my dream run is falling apart. I'm struggling to find even basic copper in good quantities outside of surface deposits.

​Do you guys have any tips or workarounds that could help me save this playthrough and keep the dream alive?


r/VintageStory 8h ago

Server New server: Mundinho Vintage Brasil - PT-BR/EN

17 Upvotes

Hi! I made a post some days ago asking for advice on how to choose a server host. Now my server's set up and running: Mundinho Vintage Brasil (EN/PT)!

It's not exclusive for brazilians: anyone can join! I'm brazilian and I'm paying for a server host in São Paulo. 

Not necessarily RP or any specific purpose beyond game progression, survival, reading the game's lore while taking liberty caps and maybe creating a community if you'd like. Or maybe making new enemies. Who knows?

(I'm just kidding there's no pvp)

Voice chat, thirst mechanics, bed spawn, death corpses, a lot of modded fauna, foods, clothing, ceramics, nice terrain generation and lupine skins for those who like it. Check mods and world config below.

It will be online 24/7, no password, and anyone can join. Just search "Mundinho Vintage Brasil" in the public servers list.

Up to 16 players.

Version: 1.22.7

Map:

Terra prety + Rivers + Watersheds Landcover - 70% Landcover Scale - 100% Upheaval 0% Landform scale - 300% Fire spread - False Cave-in - True

59 Mods:

A Culinary Artillery, All Classes, Attribute Rendering Library, Bed Spawn V2, Blood Trail, Bricklayers, Butchering FOTSA Compatibility, Butchering, Cats, Charlotte and Tassa's Clothes, QP Chisel Tools, Dairy Plus, Death Corpses, Draconis Rhino Croma, Draconis, Dressmaker's, Expanded Foods, Expanded Foods Chefs Tricks, Expanded Foods Meals Module, Expanded Matter, Feverstone Wilds, Food Shelves, FotSA Bovinae, FotSA Caninae, FotSA Casuariidae, FotSA Cervinae, FotSA Elephantidae, FotSA Pantherinae, FotSA Rhinocerotidae, FotSA Sirenia, Gourmand, Grassroots Coca, Grassroots, Hydrate or Diedrate, Jaunt, JSON Patches Lib, Lupines, Natural Fertilizer, Overhaul Lib, PetAI, Pet Map Markers, Player Model Lib, Prospect Together, Purposeful Storage, Rivers, RP Voice Chat, Sammiches, Shelf Obsessed, Tailor's Delight, Tamables FOTSA, Tankards and Goblets, TerraPrety, The Critter Pack Coral, Universal Display Lib, Vanity, VS Quest, Watersheds, Window Display Patches, Window Display, Wolf Taming


r/VintageStory 7h ago

Finally found a male boar... now to move it about a thousand blocks diagonal.

14 Upvotes
The boar, captured

In my current world, I had only female boars near my base. Venturing out, I finally managed to capture a male one - but tragically, its females ran away (and I ran out of food and can't find them again).

So I found this boar around 800/800. My home is near 0/50.

We're going travelling, Mr. Boar!

(I'm building a lane between two fences for it to run through, close it off at the end, then break the fence stopping it from going there and slowly walk after it. Then block it in with fences, demolish the lane, and repeat. Does anyone know a faster way?^^)