One Valheim player has found that his base wasn't quite where he left it when he returned to the game after a recent update. A lot of hard work goes into crafting bases in Valheim and protecting them against unfortunate disasters is a big part of the game.
Because of Valheim's procedural generation, updates can sometimes spell havoc for players' established worlds. Terrain may change entirely, there may be rivers or hills where there was once dry ground or plains. Despite Valheim recently being added to Xbox Game Pass, it is still in early access, and as a result, updates are very common, meaning homes players have labored over are occasionally at risk.
Reddit user Q_Man_17 shared the unfortunate position he found his own base in when returning to the game after an update. It was perched precariously atop a natural rock hill surrounded by lashing waves, with no apparent way of reaching it. Understandably frustrating, this can sometimes happen in the game as it frequently updates and the procedurally generated game world is unpredictably changed. Handling updates or adding new structures like the ballista in Valheim may be particularly challenging for the developers as they find ways to implement changes without risking players' established worlds.
With big names like Bethesda employing procedural generation for Starfield after its first attempt way back in The Elder Scrolls 2: Daggerfall, AAA studios are catching on to the method's benefits. Procedural worlds can offer a unique gameplay experience which players can't get in a more traditionally designed environment. Even Blizzard's upcoming Diablo 4 uses procedural generation for its dungeons to provide players with a different experience every time.
Valheim's popularity derives, in part, from this unique geography that is created each time a player starts a new game. But that also means it's possible that implementing updates may affect those worlds in usually minor ways, like adding a hill where there was none, for example. This can be a much more challenging proposition than for non-procedurally generated worlds, and the developers have earned a lot of praise for their implementation of popular features like crossplay for Valheim between Xbox and PC. Luckily, problems like those experienced by Q_Man_17 are not exactly universal and only affect some unfortunate players. It's possible that these issues are a result of the game being in early access, and they may become a thing of the past when the game gets a full release.
Valheim is available on PC and Xbox Series X/S.