Mods / The tar mod
Author: ewoudje
Side: Both
Created: Jan 23rd at 2:08 AM
Last modified: Aug 31st at 8:15 PM
Downloads: 2527
Follow Unfollow 90
Latest release (for Vintage Story 1.21.0, potentially outdated):
tarmod_1.1.3.zip
1-click install
Ever wanted to build a medieval house and you didn't find a nice dark wood that would fit the theme?
Fret no more! You can now coat your wood!
Some versions on 1.20.* might not be working. Everything should be fixed in the mod version 1.1.3.
You first need to make tar, this is done by coating the bottom of a charcoal pit with clay.
After making a tar gathering pit it will collect all the tar made by the firewood above it. Using that tar you can start coating your planks.
A small note, in 1.20 tar was added to the base game. But it seems there is no way to get or use it. This mod adds that.
This is the way the tar coated blocks look:

A guide on how to use it, I know not my best work 😅. If somebody wants free yt views make a vid il put it here.
| Mod Version | Mod Identifier | For Game version | Downloads | Released | Changelog | Download | 1-click mod install* |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1.1.3 | tarmod | 330 | Aug 31st at 8:15 PM | tarmod_1.1.3.zip | 1-click install | ||
|
Fixed tar not generating, added even more error logging if something is wrong. | |||||||
| 1.1.2 | tarmod | 184 | Jul 25th at 1:04 PM | tarmod_1.1.2.zip | 1-click install | ||
|
Russian translations | |||||||
| 1.1.1 | tarmod | 30 | Jul 25th at 5:29 AM | tarmod_1.1.1.zip | 1-click install | ||
|
Added A Culinary Artillery recipes | |||||||
| 1.1.0 | tarmod | 468 | Mar 20th at 10:57 AM | tarmod_1.1.0.zip | 1-click install | ||
|
Added coated stripped logs | |||||||
| 1.0.5 | tarmod | 567 | Feb 5th at 5:10 PM | tarmod_1.0.5.zip | 1-click install | ||
|
Fixed the full coalblock bug | |||||||
| 1.0.4 | tarmod | 96 | Feb 4th at 4:35 PM | tarmod_1.0.4.zip | 1-click install | ||
|
Fixed some clipping with the tarpit | |||||||
| 1.0.3 | tarmod | 333 | Jan 30th at 9:03 PM | tarmod_1.0.3.zip | 1-click install | ||
|
Fixes throwing errors when having 2 layers of wood | |||||||
| 1.0.2 | tarmod | 193 | Jan 26th at 6:08 PM | tarmod_1.0.2.zip | 1-click install | ||
|
(Works with all 1.20 versions) | |||||||
| 1.0.1 | tarmod | 171 | Jan 24th at 1:09 PM | tarmod_1.0.1.zip | 1-click install | ||
|
Fixed recipes | |||||||
| 1.0.0 | tarmod | 155 | Jan 23rd at 2:37 AM | tarmod_1.0.0.zip | 1-click install | ||
|
Initial release! | |||||||
are beams supported?
Seems that the patch for the Confession doorways is broken, as well as the quad logs and (partially) the debarked log.
The Vivid Insanity God been helping me on the Vintage story discord and noticed this in my log:
And some minor things that you can likely just ignore:
It is true, i have a bunch of recipe that scream about the tar plank but otherwise the mod work. Just wanted to report it, just in case.
Translation into Polish:
ewoudje Yeah I kinda try to be frugal so that maybe is why I havent burned too much charcoal as of late. I can change things inside to match what i wanted but overall thanks for making this wonderful mod.
Ditsydoo no currently thats not the case, but usually you need quite a bit of coal for metal stuff no? I kinda assumed that as a byproduct you get quite a bit of it after a while. I did wanted to log type specific tar production, like pine producing by far the most but sadly firewood is typeless.
Other than contiouns coal making is there any other way to make tar? Its a byproduct but man I love how I can take so many diffrent woods and turn them into similar stacks.
ewoudje ah that's fair, the brush would be cool though I get not wanting to add too much stuff outside the narrow scope of the mod. One possible interaction would be interacting with buckets with placed planks, which should be possible with code, but idk just magically clicking on a plank pile and them being coated doesn't feel realistic either XD.
jayu I didn't because coating isn't very eqv to putting it in a barrel for a day :p.
There is some dead code in the mod that adds a brush that you would have to use instead but haven't come around to it yet, since i also want it to be able to coat placed blocks and the ship.
I was thinking for realism that you have to coat the ship, but that would be more intrusive then i would like the mod to be.
Looks good, surprised I never saw this mod before. Could also make it a barrel recipe instead of a simple grid recipe for more difficulty or immersion.
Last update should have fixed most of the issues
i dont know if im just unlucky but multiple charcoal pits have resaulted in no tar
just doesnt work ive tried on several hosted games
ewoudje Windows. I do have several other mods installed, but none that change anything to do with the charcoal pit, I think.
MarkusAureus All it should need is just having logs turn into charcoal above the clay channels (there is no incremental flow).
Il look into the bug, are you using linux or windows?
Is there something I am missing? The tar doesn't seem to be collecting at the bottom of the charcoal pit. I assume it needs to fulfill the requirements of a vanilla charcoal pit, other than the clay floor? Do I need to not fill the charcoal pit entirely as demonstrated in the video or is that irrelevant? I like the look of the tarred wood, but the charcoal pit is not producing tar, despite having the collection chamber and tar channels as demonstrated in the video.
I'd like to use this mod, any information will be appreciated
Edit; I attempted it in a 3x3x3 pit with cobblestone walls, kiln door, iron trapdoor, and a dirt floor for the clay channels, as well as a 3x1x3 pit entirely of dirt just to be sure it wasn't functioning. neither gave me any tar. I am seeing nothing in my logs about this.
I don't really like the process to it but GOD the textures of this "DARK" wood you made look SO GOOD, I need it in Vanilla omg !!! <3
Russian translation.
Brady_The Foxtrot88 Louse The issue of the fruitpress is a vintage story bug itself. It has been fixed in the 1.21 release canidates, can't do myself much to fix it on 1.20.
Foxtrot88 A Culinary Artillery recipes now are able to use tar.
I'm gonna keep an eye on this mod for when it's updated and much less broken. I just really want a dark wood type without having to hunt for aged logs in old ruins.
Not only does it completely screw up the recipe for the fruit press, this also doesn't even work as intended...I followed the exact instructions on the video, layout of the clay floors and all (using red clay) and I got NOTHING...
The fruitpress problem is quite bizarre, so I had a look in-game and what I found was even more bizarre.
You can craft the fruitpress, but it requires a special combination of boards and rods. The rest of the ingredients doesn't matter. The combinations go as follows:
acacia + meteoriciron
aged + copper
bald cypress + copper
birch + tinbronze
ebony + blackbronze
kapok + steel
larch + tinbronze
maple + blackbronze
oak + bismuthbronze
pine + iron
purpleheart + meteoriciron
redwood + bismuthbronze
tarred + steel
walnut + iron
This makes the fruitpress uncraftable on my end, removed the mod and its craftable again
ewoudje There seems to be an incompatiblity with A Culinary Artillery's furnitures.
cannot seem to get this to work on a multiplayer server have a 3x1x3 pit and followed the video and have yet to get any tar 4-5 tries
Tried making tar with a non-square charcoal kiln. Didn't seem to work, no tar was generated at the bottom. Do you need to have perfectly square bottom for the clay, perhaps?
Gotta say, there are a lot of mods on here where I see them and go "ooh, that's cool/useful!"
This one was a first for "oh my god, my house is gonna smell amazing! (pine tar my beloved)" 🤣
sevie Adelion I should have fixed the linux patching issue, i assume that was the cause of earlier issues
LaDestitute Yep i mustve forgoten to remove that while debugging
Hatrune_Cubic I added a coated log variant
Your mod is creating Harmony debug logs on the enduser's PC, btw; you might wanna fix that
Would be awesome thanks :)
Hatrune_Cubic Well i personally think it doesn't make much sense to coat bark. Altough i could add a stripped tarred log variant.
Btw question, could u add maybe tarred logs? would be awesome to get tarred support beams etc
Sevie pattern shouldn't matter, can you check the logs for errors? And also just to confirm you are using the latest version right?
still not filling with tar, this time attempted on a 5x5 pit
(all of the lines are connected properly, although it didn't use the same pattern as the 3x3 one. not sure if it matters.)
Thanks for the fix! Everything works all fine for now 😀
Alright 1.0.5 should fix the full coalblock issue.
I hope this can be a final stable version :P
It should be making firewood into full charcoal blocks instead of how vanilla works?
@ewoudje I might have, I'll do some testing with the latest version
love this idea for a mod though, hope you can work out all the teething issues
maybe you should make the requirement that all the block should be filled with wood. how i'm min maxing this mod is for charcoal because of said bug, and making tar with the least amount of wood.
Im not fully sure what could be causing the coalpiles to be full instead, the patch that modifies default behevoir only reads values of the original method wich shouldn't cause this.
I released 1.0.4 wich should in general help with bugs that would make your charcoal pit empty. Altough errors still could influence the tar amount being generated. (Wich you would see in the logs)
@Nebux I don't know if it's because of the mod or not. While I was testing a couple bugs, I made a 2x2 pit, with no tar collector and it happened on there, too.
We tried this mod with an 11x11x11 pit and all it does is burn away the wood. nothing gets turned into charcoal, no tar gets collected. The pit is created correctly, I've done it many times. The mod just doesn't seem to be working properly with this size. Is there a limit?
mod is great, the only thing is that it makes the normal charcoal pits filled with charcoal to the brim. you see it in your video that even the fire pit get's filled with charcoal.
Spyke1021 Good catch, fixed in 1.0.3.
Confirmed that 4x1x4 charcoal pits work just fine. As soon as you add another layer, it breaks and does not complete making charcoal.
Ardail Are you using the 1.0.0 version? it had these bugs.
I don't see any of the the pieces in my clayforming panel, is this mod not capatiable with culinary artillery taking the slots in the clayforming menu?
Edit: oh it seems it only works with blue or fireclay but not redclay, also can't make the clay layer as shown in the tutorial video using a 1x3 row of clay no matter the type
might help if the guidebook showed what you needed to do to make these pieces, none of your items when brought up in the guide book show a recipe
Just tried a 3x1x3 and it worked just fine. I'll try other sizes and get back to you.
Spyke1021 That should work, as long as channels are connected to a tar pit and wood is being burned on top of the channel it will work irrelevant of height. And the burning length shouldn't be modified either, maybe something is happening in the logs?
Sevie are you using the latest version 1.0.2? The previous one had a issue where that could happen, also try to reload it to see if its a desync issue.
after finishing a charcoal pit, i ended up with nothing?
Does it specifically have to be in a 3x3 area, and if it does, how tall can it be? In your video, you only have a single layer of firewood, and I wanna be sure I'm doing this correctly. I had over two hundred hours on a 4x4 charcoal pit and it never finished.
Im still unable to replicate the error, could you try if the mod works without the other mods?
And if so could you try to locate wich mod the cause is?
Edit: My best bet is that its linux related, im gonna look into it but not really sure how it breaks it.
Maybe it helps 😇. tar mod on newest version ***
Adelion thats the same error as Mnemesia, that error should only happen when there is a mod incompatibility. Can you give the modlist?
ewoudje --- Take a at Adelion´s message, we are at the same server. Maybe it help you.
i have followed error in console maybe that helps i'm on Version 1.20.3
:
26.1.2025 19:53:58 [Server Error] [tarmod] An exception was thrown when trying to start the mod:
26.1.2025 19:53:58 [Server Error] [tarmod] Exception: Patching exception in method System.Void Vintagestory.GameContent.BlockEntityCharcoalPit::ConvertPit()
JunidO Huhh thats wierd, are you using other mods if so can you send a list? I assume there is nothing relevant happening in the logs?
Edit: I just added a new version that fixes a liquid bug, not the one you are describing but maybe it helps
Watched your video. Build it step by step, with red clay, blue clay and fire clay. Used the exaxt pattern like you with the fire wood. And...... ------- no tar. :(
Yskar I added a video i hope its more clear now!
And this is just in general i didn't calibrate the tar properly so if you feel like it should be more/less etc do comment.
A small video would be nice, i didn't really get it how to use it.
@ewoudje No worries, we're all human! It may be worth documenting the instructions for how to use the mod items(tar collector/clay layer only works when used on dirt blocks, right click to add channels to the clay layers), too. Had to experiment a bit to figure it out myself. Other than that, for something so simple, I'm excited to play around and make some decorated areas!
Spyke1021 You are right, it seems i forgot to add red clay while porting to 1.20 and i just in general forgot the crafting recipe for the layers 😅.
Uploading a fixed version right now
How do you create clay layers for channels? I see it's an item, but I can't make them by putting clay down. Also, red clay doesn't have a tar collector.
I'm actually using the 1.20.1 version on a Linux environment with the 7.0.20 build of C# framework, I don't know if it can be related
Mnemesia im unable to replicate the error using the modlist provided in the pastebin.
Are you using the correct vintage story version?
Hello, I've tried your mod on my server but it seams to fail its loading, here is the error that occured and the mods used on the server: https://pastebin.com/sT8N0Bgf