Let's talk about heat in Going Medieval. Temperature can rise significantly once the summer starts. That means food can spoil easily, it can affect the mood and health of your settlers and it can slow your settlement expansion. Add to that events like “Heatstroke” and you are going to have a bad time if you’re not prepared. Sure, you can try making underground systems, but not everyone wants to try that. So, how to handle these situations?
How about with some ice?
Ice to see you! (sorry)
We’re working on the new production building that will be used for creating ice. However, for it to work, this building needs to be constructed somewhere where it’s cold - we’re talking about sub-zero temperatures!
Ice Station (we're still discussing its name)
Once the ice blocks are out, you’ll be using them to lower the temperature of the room they are located in. You will basically build refrigerators with this option.
There will also be other uses for the ice blocks - you will be able to sell them if merchants come to your settlement. Ice will not have any value in winter (that would be silly), but its value will be significantly upscaled once the summer kicks in.
Plan it, time it, and use it properly once the new update comes.
Steam Awards Nominations
The Steam Award event is live! During this event, players are able to nominate the games that they love in various categories. We would really appreciate it if you’d click on the link below and vote for us by selecting the “Sit Back and Relax” category on the Going Medieval Store Page. The event ends on December 1st 10AM PST so be sure to vote before then. It’s just one click away. Thanks!
Last week we held our first AMA session on our Discord server. For those that missed it, here are some questions (and answers that accompany them) that the team answered:
Balint66:How come the game is not "ported" to Linux? It uses mono-unity, so most of the calls and compatibility things are handled by the mono runtime, and unity, isn't it? master312: Two reasons: The first one is like you said - "Most of the calls", but not all of them. 96% of the stuff already works on Linux, and I personally use Ubuntu for all the development. Our current focus is getting out of early access. We are a small team, and 4% of the stuff that does not work would noticeably slow down development. Not to mention extra QA stuff required to test all the platform-dependent things. The second reason is that the game already runs really well using the Steam Proton compatibility layer. Berio: I also use ubuntu for dev, once built linux build for testing, it works ok, but proton works as well so we won't lose time on that.
FightingCookie:Are there any specific player feature suggestions that might be added? Pls spoil us! 🙂 Is there a plan to add a grass "wall" of some sort to cover holes or so? Gomboc04: We have a huge laundry list of things we want to add. The road map is just stuff in the bulk. A lot of cool ideas are floating around and we want to implement 95% of them. The biggest problem now is prioritizing, because some things require other, more complex, features, to work. So, we prioritize things that don't need a lot of additional features/mechanics. Not that the additional features/mechanics don't need to be done, but most of the time they are done on separate branches for a few months before we merge them back, etc. The grass wall thing you mentioned - yeah, that's on the list, but don't hold me to a timeframe for it. It's one of the things where we need a few new features just so we can make it work properly
i_got_blisters:What's coming 1st? Mod support or game optimization? master312: Game optimization is currently in the works. :) These include (but are not limited to :D): complete rewrite of pathfinding algorithm, a complete rework of the system that manages world objects (ex: trees, buildings), AI-related memory optimizations, and more. Gomboc04: That being said - we always have mods in mind and keep everything semi-open so it can be edited later on. As we rework some older systems, we open it up even more so in preparation for supporting mods.
i_got_blisters:Do you foresee expanding your team in the near future? Gomboc04: No, not really. Having a larger team does at a glance seem like a good solution to get things done faster, but it's really not. We are a small team and function well with one another. Adding someone new takes time out of all of our workday to get the new person up to speed. Also, we don't have a strict hierarchy in the team, so adding more people would at some point result in creating roles like leads, heads, and whatnot. Not that this is bad, it's just that the current workflow gives us more time to work on the game.
i_got_blisters:What will happen to going medieval when it comes out definitively? DocHammerhead: We will continue updating until it's complete with all the features we plan for it and while it makes sense.
GustavoChRi:What can you say about diplomacy? There will be alliances, joint wars, something interesting...... Rimwold has nothing cool about diplomacy, I think it's a really bad point of the game, which you guys could explore a lot. Gomboc04: Not gonna lie. This is something that we would love, but to add this we need more meaningful mechanics on the region map (multiple villages, automated trading). We will be adding some things like that one by one but it's going to take a while. Most of the things regarding the settlement map are a bit higher in priority.
『Maksiu』:Do you want to include rivers, ponds and fisher in the game? DocHammerhead: Well, we do have some ideas on how to have water in-game, but that's still far away. Maybe someday.
ipsi:Will the enemies ever be smart enough to, say, dig tunnels under the walls? Gomboc04: We are slowly getting to that. At the moment, on another branch we are rewriting the pathfinding algorithm to support this - basically, making it so that enemies would "see" ground as yet another path, just something that needs to be dug first. :) Also, the enemies will take "air" in the path calculation (where they construct bridges and ladders to get to their goal).
Zebradescolorida14:Going Medieval is the only project you have in mind? DocHammerhead: Currently yes. We are entertaining some ideas but still far away from that. Going Medieval is our only focus at the moment.
amhran101:Enjoying the game, but really feel like I’d like to have 50-100 settlers. Is there a tech limitation on that right now or is the small settlement just a design choice? master312: Map size is a design choice since bigger maps might break game logic. An example of that would be that if a map is too big, the settler would/could die of starvation while walking to the other end to haul some item. But for a pure settler count, it's currently only limited by bad pathfinding and object managing systems we currently have. Otherwise, there is no hard limit on the number of settlers you can have. The complete overhaul of these systems is on the way. Northman Raspberry: I do have to ask - is micromanaging 100 settlers what you really want? Choosing for everyone clothes, weapons, jobs and schedules can seem... daunting? (that's just my perspective). Dev Tools and mods will definitely enable that.
donma90:Will survival (hard mode esp) ever get a max enemy cap because the enemy numbers will forever increase until you die or your pc dies due to the sheer numbers of enemies? Gomboc04: Yes. As we refine the enemy AI we will incrementally change the way hard mode is "hard" . An enemy cap will be implemented with this.
grzyveo:When the new update is dropping? Northman Raspberry: I think it's fair to say that it's not going to happen this year. Not that we are lazy but more like - we have to implement it, test it on our side and rebalance it before we push it to the experimental branch. And with December coming close, we also have to keep in mind vacations, holidays, and such things. I am sure we'll get a better sense of the release date for the next update once January kicks in.
Zebradescolorida14:Are you thinking of putting more animals? If so, what is it? Baan: Yes, the next one should be boars. I don't know if they are gonna be exactly like wolves, but aggressive - yeah.
P.S. New hotfix for the game is coming tomorrow!
That will be all for today’s talk.
For more direct communication, be sure to join our Discord server and talk about your Going Medieval experience with our active community.
We also make regular posts on Twitter, so be sure to follow us there.
We'll be hosting our first AMA ("ask me anything") session for Going Medieval on our Discord server. You can ask us any questions you like about the game, game development, or ANYTHING you want!
The event will start on Thursday, 25th November at 3:00 PM CET and will last for one hour.
So, join our Discord at https://discord.gg/goingmedieval. On 25th, we'll make a new channel where you'll be able to post your questions and we'll try to reply to as many as we can (be sure to pass the initial discord verification first if you are new to the server). We are excited to see you there!
Now that the Update #2 is out, let’s talk about the things we are working on. The period after the big update is always busy, because when we’re not fixing present issues within the game, we’re discussing and planning how to approach Update 3.
Yes, we have internal milestones, but the content of those milestones are influenced by various things. This includes suggestions and reported bugs provided by you, the community.
Here is a brief tease of what we’ve decided to tackle! We decided to extrapolate the usability of a certain resource types, to expand temperature influence, to differentiate factions a bit better, crops system will receive an upgrade, we will introduce a couple of new effectors for your settlers as well as more things for them to do and stand out a bit better with. Beyond that, we plan to introduce new furniture, buildings and other quality of life improvements.
We can’t wait to show you more in the coming weeks as we discuss everything mentioned above in more detail and accompany it with the proper screenshots.
While you wait, we invite you to join our Discord server (if you haven’t done so already), and share your settlements, game experiences, tips and tricks, partake photo challenges, show off your heraldry and give feedback on the existing feature, or even suggest a new one.
Greetings medievalists! The new hotfix (0.6.2.6) is now live on all platforms. Please save your progress and restart your game client to update. You should be able to load normally and continue playing. If you have any problems, please let us know.
Bugs and Fixes
Fixed the crash caused by using the relocate function for some construction - if the player would place a blueprint on a voxel, then cancel it, then repeat the process on the same voxel two more times, after the third time - it would result in a crash.
Fixed the progress blocker caused by pausing the game at the same time the Autosave feature triggers.
Fixed the issue when using multi selection (via double click) on walls OR windows, both would be selected in this process. Now, a multi selection of walls will select only walls separately like when doors are being multi selected. Windows selection works the same way.
Fixed the issue where settlers that are sent in a Caravan would appear as "Settler Died" events in the Historical Records menu.
Fixed the issue that caused traded Items and resources, or ones given as gifts, to still be displayed in the Caravan Info Tab.
Fixed the issue that caused the roof to collapse if the construction of the door was started in a room next to a wall. Player would cancel construction of the door and, with that action, cause the roof above the door to collapse.
Fixed the issue that would cause resources/items to decay from weather events even though there was a roof above them. The roof would not properly register sometimes, if created during the weather event.
Fixed the issue that caused the counter in the Research Menu to corrupt when selling/gifting allocated Books.
Fixed the issue where players were not able to get a Retribution achievement
Fixed the issue where the Room types could be created using the Structure Pile variant of the required structures.
Fixed the issue that caused stored items in storage structures (chest, racks) to disappear after the voxels under those structures have been mined.
Fixed the issue that caused the blueprint to cancel itself when the blueprint beneath it was finally constructed.
Fixed various issues related to missing text.
Quality of life improvements
Leaf particles have been added to trees. (This can be turned off in options menu, within ‘Graphics’)
Added particles for when a production is finished.
Weight cap has been added to traders - trading can’t continue if the merchant can't carry any more resources (players can't gift 100k limestone to a visitor anymore. Yeah. Sorry :) ).
Settlements have a slightly different stock if they are mountain or valley settlements (wood and stone/gold/iron have different price modifiers and amounts).
Locking a merchant now makes the faction lose alignment (-5/h), also a note will appear when a merchant wants to leave, but is locked in.
Keybindings for panels (4,5,6) work on the world map now.
Greetings medievalists! The new hotfix (0.6.2.5) is now live on all of the platforms. Please save your progress and restart your game client to update. You should be able to load normally and continue playing. If you have any problems, please let us know.
Bugs and Fixes
Fixed several rare crash occurrences.
Fixed the issue where graves could be built on top of floor tiles if the blueprint was placed over a Stockpile that's located over the Floor.
Fixed the issue where copying the settings for the allowed resources from a Chest, Rack, Shelf or Stockpile and pasting them in the same structure made the checkboxes to appear as unmarked.
Fixed the issue where the text boxes were not reverting to the default values when higher/lower values are entered more than once in the Transform tab from the Edit Heraldry menu.
Fixed the issue where modifying a settler's name in the Settlers Selection screen had no impact outside of the profile tab.
Fixed various issues related to the UI of the Settlers Selection screen.
Fixed the issue that caused the Alignment status of Permanently Hostile Factions to be modified by returning settlers during Runaway events.
Fixed the issue that caused Heraldry to disappear from the Pause Menu and Summary Screen.
Fixed the issue that caused the "Send Caravan" button to not become greyed out once a Caravan has been designated to go to the settlement.
Fixed the issue that caused the Crop Field to appear as floating over the ground if the player would place crops on one location, and then mine those same voxels.
Fixed the issue that caused the Order buttons to lose functionality if the Info Tab of any item/resource/structure was opened prior to entering the Region Map.
Fixed the issue that caused cancelling the Relocate order when settlers are working on the initial structure to not work as intended.
Fixed the issue that caused facial hair of loaded settlers' presets to not appear as previously saved.
Fixed the issue that would block the floor from being constructed beneath the trap, if the trap was built first.
Fixed text formatting in the caravan trading screen.
Known Issues We are aware of these issues and you don't need to report them:
Resources counter displays wrong numbers in some situations after gifting/trading with the merchant.
Animations tend to freeze in some scenarios.
Please note, if you are using unofficial mods (especially those related to character customization) you might experience crashes. If you do, turn the mods off before starting the game.
Greetings players! The new hotfix (0.6.2.4) is now live on all of the platforms. Please save your progress and restart your game client to update. You should be able to load normally and continue playing. If you have any problems, please let us know.
Bugs and Fixes
Fixed several rare crash occurrences.
Fixed the issue that caused settlers to go to sleep on the ground even though there are available beds in the settlement. This was caused by merchant appearing and idling.
Fixed the issue that caused settlers not to eat nor drink at the table if the merchant was near.
Fixed the issue that caused bartering tutorial to appear behind the bartering panel.
Fixed the issue that caused “Next” button usable even though limit for Group Creation Points was surpassed.
Fixed the issue where settlers would be stuck in the loop loop of moving resources in and around the storage areas.
Fixed the issue where "You have unlocked the Research Panel" notification would appear every time if the research table was relocated.
Fixed the issue where player could enter any letter/symbol in advanced Settler customization.
Fixed rare issue where merchant would stay on the map forever after loading - Merchants and guards now forcefully leave the map if the game is loaded and no merchant event is active.
Enemy’s village will be placed minimum 6 tiles from the player’s settlement, this will not affect the existing saves.
Settlement stock will not refresh every time player access it.
Please note, if you are using unofficial mods, especially those related to character customization, you might experience crashes. If you do, please turn the mods off before starting the game.
The new major update titled “Merchants & Diplomacy” is now live on Steam, Epic Games Store, and GOG. All those fixes and improvements from the experimental branch are now stable, tested, and present in this update! These include advanced options when it comes to starting settlers’ customization, the option to relocate buildings, our new trading and faction systems and various other tweaks and improvements. Read about all the exciting new changes, here!
Faction System
The Faction tab is located within the Historical Records panel in-game. It shows you what alignments you have with other factions and which faction is at war with who. You can change alignment with other factions by trading with them, gifting them things during trading/caravan gameplay, attacking traders, returning runaways or refusing to do so (more info in the event segment!).
New Region Map
To unlock the Region map, you will have to research “Cartography” in the Research tab. Once you do that, you’ll be able to build a new furniture type - the Cartography Table which will, in turn, give you access to the Region tab. You can now select other settlements on the region map and see their basic information, as well as send caravans to them.
Bartering
Merchants, as an event, will arrive at the player’s base over time. You can start the bartering process by selecting one of your settlers and right-clicking the trader NPC. Only resources on stockpiles/shelves will be available for trading from the player’s side.
Trading is based on the value system of resources/equipment and the value of each resource differs depending on time of year, merchant, if the player is giving or taking, etc.
You can attack merchants and lose alignment points with the trader’s faction, but be careful - they will usually come with bodyguards. If the merchant turns hostile, both the trader and their bodyguards will act like raiders.
Merchants will not trade weapons/armors/shields if they have neutral alignment with you, and certain traders (like weapon merchants and large goods merchants) will not appear if the player has no friendly factions on their region map.
Caravan System
Right now, the caravan system is only utilized for trading and gifting purposes. Attacking other settlements via caravans is not currently in the game, but will be supported over the course of the development.
You can now send caravans by selecting other settlements in the region map and choosing the ‘send caravan’ option. However, for that to work, you will have to choose which settlers to send and what goods to send with them.
The caravan won't start if there are no settlers chosen, the mass is too great or there is not enough nutrition for the trip to and from the destination settlement.
Sending a caravan will give you the ability to trade with the settlement when the caravan arrives at the destination.
Bartering with settlements is the same as regular trading, except that the prices are in favor of the player and not the faction.
Caravans can’t return home if the player has bought more mass than can be carried or if the amount of nutrition is not met for the way back.
Relocate Structures - [Community Request]
We’ve also implemented a feature where you can turn almost any production building/furniture/decoration/trap into a pile allowing for the relocation of a structure. Once turned into a pile, it can be moved onto stockpiles or be installed anywhere else (if there is space for it!)
Installing and reinstalling a structure takes ⅓ of the time it takes to build it, but this process doesn’t have a minimum level requirement, nor does it give XP to settlers. It’s also worth mentioning that you will be able to buy some structures (as piles) from merchants, even though they’ve not been previously researched.
Event System Overhaul
To adapt to newly introduced trading and faction systems, we decided to do some tweaks to events. Beyond introducing new trader events, we’ve overhauled how existing raid events work. Before there were 3x different raid events for 3x different factions in the game. Now there is only one raid event and the faction is chosen randomly from hostile factions.
Dev note: If you load the save that is currently experiencing a raid in the 0.5.31.15 version of the game, that raid will disappear. All the raids that come after that one should work properly.
The Runaway event has a slightly different outcome now. Refusing to give the settler back will not necessarily initiate a raid, but it will set -50 to the alignment with the faction that is looking for the runaway. This can result in the faction potentially turning neutral from friendly or hostile from neutral.
Character Creation
We’ve enabled the option to customize starting settlers if you choose to do so - by selecting the Advanced Customization option, the settlers screen will expand and you will be able to choose things like their looks, backgrounds, pseudonyms, religious alignments, ages, weights, heights, what perks they have and what skills they excel at.
There are some limitations to the creation points used to “build” your settler - they are not infinite. They are randomly distributed to every settler and the players can change where they want those points to go. The number of points it costs to alter a skill, perk, background, passion, etc., varies.
You are able to save your settlers as presets, so you can use them in other scenarios.
Additional fixes/features
Certain crop fields now have a minimum botanical skill in order to be sown.
Trap prices and damage have been changed - they are a bit expensive to make now and need a higher minimum skill.
14 new heraldry symbols added to the heraldry editor.
Level up particle effect added when settlers gain a level.
All dust effects are replaced with a new dust shader.
Added particle effect when production buildings are complete.
Added dust effect when a pile spawns on the ground.
Added dust effect when settlers run.
Changed the way layer transparency works (the annoying transparent 0.5 layer has been removed).
Perks have been tweaked in terms of balance and conflict with others perks.
Added tooltip information for perks if they conflict with some other perks.
Fixed issue with loading screen not showing text properly in non-English languages.
Fixed several Community-noted translation issues.
We hope you enjoy experimenting with the new features and continue to let us know if you come across any more bugs or issues. Remember, F10 is your friend!
Check the amazing trailer for this update:
Thank you for your patience, people. Feel free to post your experience regarding the new update on Steam discussions. If you want more dynamic/direct communication - head over to our Discord server. Even though we might not reply, we are reading everything.
We’re here to notify you that we’ve updated the experimental branch of our game. (click on the link to see what the experimental branch is and how to access it)!
Once that version is stable enough, we will move it live on the main branch and make this a full update for everyone. Faction system, caravan system, new region map, trading, event overhaul and the ability to relocate structures are all the things that you can expect there. Go here if you want to see a detailed breakdown of all the things mentioned above.
There are some issues we are aware of, and they don’t require reporting. You can check them here. And other news...
We’re in the GeForce NOW library
You asked for it, and we listened. Going Medieval is part of the GeForce NOW library.
The latest feature that we are talking about ( requested by our community) is an option to relocate structures.
Let’s say you’ve built a great hall and you’ve placed everything in there - you’ve got your chairs, tables, banners, and torches for your 6 settlers. But, as time passes by, more settlers will join your settlement. Now you need more room for additional tables and chairs in the great hall! If you could only move that backgammon table, there would be enough space to build another set of tables and chairs. Now, you will be able to do so.
By selecting the object, a new button will show in the bottom right part of the screen, named “Relocate”. Choosing that button will give you an option to choose another location for that structure. Once the location has been set, the settler will come and start deconstructing the selected object. Once deconstructed, the object will turn into a pile of the same name, and that pile will be moved to the newly selected location and be “installed” there.
To keep things balanced, installing and reinstalling a structure takes ⅓ of the time it takes to build it, but this process doesn’t have a minimum level requirement, nor does it give XP to settlers.
You will also be able to choose the “Remove” option that is located next to “Relocate”. “Remove” will just turn that object into a pile.
When the object is turned into a pile, it can be moved to a stockpile and be stored for later use, when you find a proper time to reinstall that object again.
Structures turned into piles can be sold to merchants, but you can also buy some from them - even those that you’ve not yet researched!
That will be all for today’s talk. Stay tuned, some exciting announcements will come soon!
For more direct communication, be sure to join our Discord server and talk about your Going Medieval experience with our active community.
We also make regular posts on Twitter, so be sure to follow us there.
We are back to talk trading and everything besides. This time, we are talking about skills, well... one skill in particular: we are talking about the Speechcraft skill.
Speechcraft has been there since the beginning, but it didn’t have a use. Until now! This skill will evolve as the game develops, but in the coming update, everything about Speechcraft will tie into the bartering process.
The more time your settlers spend trading, the more experience points their Speechcraft skill receives. With more Speechcraft points, they’ll be able to barter better - buy at a lower value, sell at a higher value. With enough Speechcraft points, settlers will be able to take more stuff than they give (since our bartering system is based on value and not the exchange of money).
By hovering on the Speechcraft skill, you will get a pretty good idea of how it will evolve.
We’ll also tie it to perks. For example, drunk settlers that have specific perks with them may receive a significant boost to bartering. But, everything in due time.
In other news, Foxy Voxel has expanded! Another programmer recently joined our team and his primary focus will be to make the game moddable. He’ll also do other tasks, but it will take some time to get familiar with the ways we do things.
So far, so good!
While you wait for the new update, be sure to join our Discord server and talk about your Going Medieval experience with our active community.
We also make regular posts on Twitter, so be sure to follow us there.