Greetings medievalists!

Aaand we’re back to animals. As we mentioned previously, the animal system is receiving a major overhaul. So, let’s discuss what that means.

Animals will have genders - being male or female will influence what they’ll be able to give to you and in what way. You’ll not be able to get eggs from male chickens (roosters), because that would be silly. We’re also adding animal aging - aging will dictate what type of resources they’ll give and in what amount. For example: younger animals will give less wool. Genders and age will be emphasized by different models (size, horns, and all those things).



All animals will have a period when they sleep because that happens in real life too and sleep is important!

We’ll categorize animals into wild animals, domestic animals, and pets.

You know them, you’ve seen them. Deer, rabbits, and wolves populated your maps and usually minded their own business. We’ll add boars, pheasants, and foxes (after all, we are Foxy Voxel) to this wonderful group.

Depending on the map type (and its size), the amount of those animals may vary (boars will love hillsides/mountains in particular). Do you want a specific animal, but said animal can’t be found on the map? Don’t worry, some merchants may have it available for purchase.

The Hunger stat will be added to the animals, too. This means they’ll look for food when hungry. Herbivores will look for plants like saplings, bushes, and redcurrants, but they’ll just take hit points from those resources (not necessarily consume them as a whole). This also means they’ll not eat trees, so keep an eye out for those “minor” plants.

Carnivores will, of course, look for meat. This also means that they’ll attack other animals to satisfy their hunger. There’s going to be a sort of hierarchy when it comes to their food type. Take wolves, as an example: they’ll look for rabbits and pheasants first since they are easier targets. If easier prey is not present or hard to get, they’ll look for deer, etc.

They’ll be able to eat carcasses too, but the amount of nutrition they’ll get from them will depend on the carcass type.

All wild animals will avoid your settlements, but if they are provoked or extremely hungry - be prepared to face them. Hopefully, this will lead to some interesting scenarios.

Now comes the fun part: will you be able to tame them? Yes, all of them! However, it’s not that simple.

Wild animals will have a tame button and we’ll add a tame order. Settlers with the animal husbandry job turned on will go to these animals and initiate taming. The level of the animal handling skill will influence what animals they’ll be able to tame.



Once the tamer is close to the animal, they’ll initiate a taming sequence. Again, the duration of this sequence will depend on the animal and settler’s attributes. Taming can either succeed or fail. If it fails, that animal will not be tameable for the next 24 hours and there’s a chance it might attack your settlers, so pick your animals carefully.

If it succeeds, congratulations! However, it’s not over yet. Animals will have, let’s call it, a tame bar. Once the tame process is successful, that tame bar will increase. When it’s completely filled, the tamed animal is officially turned into a domestic one. This also means that until this happens, you’ll have to repeat the taming procedure until the tame bar is complete. Some animals will get their bar filled after two tames, and some, like wolves, will require more taming sequences. Each animal will have a different chance that they, coupled with the settler's stats, will output different numbers.

Here’s the trick: the tame bar of that animal will slowly be depleted until it’s maxed out. Once the taming sequence is successful and finished, that animal will be on a tame cooldown of 24h until you try to tame it again. During that time the tame bar will diminish. This should encourage you to pick your wild animals carefully. All those factors will definitely be balanced, so it will take some time to see how pleasant it fills. More on that later.

In the next update, we’ll discuss domestic animals, as there is a lot to say about them.

IMPORTANT: So far, we managed to keep your saves compatible with our updates. The next official update, however, will break that cycle. We had to restructure code big time for that pathfinding to work and set the scene for the modding. This resulted in the new version of Going Medieval that will not be compatible with your older saves.

Once the update goes live on the experimental branch, a warning will pop up, indicating that existing saves will become incompatible. You'll have to start a new game to experience Update 4. Thank you.
For those that love your old saves, don't worry - we plan to introduce another branch without the new content and changes, but that one will allow you to still work on your old settlements. We understand that you spent a lot of time on them and feel like this is a good alternative.

11 days ago we held our second AMA session on our Discord server. For those that missed it, here are some questions and the answers from the team that accompany them. We even took some questions from the Steam discussions area:

Last week we held our second AMA session on our Discord server. For those that missed it, here are some questions and answers from the team that accompany them. We also took some from the comments on the previous Medieval Monday post:

Count Von Dread: This is something I've been wondering about for a little while. I suspect the developers perform a lot of the playtesting but is there an opportunity for people to assist with testing functions of the game outside of the experimental versions?
Gomboc04: We have done this before and might do it again :D But we're not promising anything
Northman Raspberry: Before the game was out, we had a special group of people (the most active members) that helped us with the testing. They are even in the credits of our game. Most of them are still on this Discord and you'll recognize them by their uniquely named roles. We're always discussing "should this be tested by more people" once we are closer to the update launch, but we are really happy with our internal team AND the feedback we get during the experimental-only phase. But, as Gomboc said - it's on a case-by-case discussion (or update by update if you will).

Medieval chicken of fate: Can settlers be happy when they are assigned an animal as their pet?
Gomboc04: This is something that we would like to add at some point, but as a more complex thing with depth. So, for starters, we might add simple mood effectors to settlers with pets. Later on, we would like to expand this with pets being tied to settlers and bonding with them (or not, if the setters are not good with animals). So this is something we will be adding as we work on social relationships between settlers and pets and other NPCs.

Johny [Steam]: Having skulls of enemies preserved as trophies is totally epic. Are we going to get heads on pikes or prisoners in cages for instilling fear in the hearts of attackers?
Gomboc04: Not in this next update, no. :) The skulls on the walls are purely aesthetic in nature and they don't bring much in gameplay mechanics, but we already have a system of something emitting mood modifiers when close by, so adding this will not be a problem. More from a gameplay perspective of what happens when the enemy is unhappy :)

RaeGames [Steam]: I'm going to guess and say that no matter what animal you have, there's going to be meat and bones come from said animals, but is leather/cloth as well, or is that only going to be for certain animals that you kill like deer and wolf?
Gomboc04: Meat, leather, wool, eggs, milk, and tallow are resources dropped by animals that are planned in the near future (from butchering and harvesting animals).

ミョ: Developers, do you have any plans to add weapons that actually existed in the Middle Ages? Personally, I want you to add a rapier and an executioner's sword
Gomboc04: We are planning to make our weapon number and type richer in the future. for narrative reasons and gameplay. One larger update in the future will be revolved around warfare so we plan to do it then. The next type of weapons we want to add are throwing spears, slings, and throwing axes, as well as differentiating the weapon types we already have so they give more strategic value than they do now

Ruoning [Steam]: Typically, the swords are more often pointing to the floor rather than to the roof, if hang. Don't know if we are able to change the direction. Thanks!
Gomboc04: This is 100% true. :D It was more of a solution where we aim to make systems that work on many levels. So, because the weapons on the walls can be equipped by settlers, they all need to point in the same direction (shields, bows, swords, axes, spears, etc). I had a problem making them in a different direction since rotating swords around made spears, axes, and berdaches look very bad, so I opted for this situation in order to not add a separate system only for racks that rotates and offsets the weapon by type. This way, when adding new weapons, they will automatically be able to be on the rack and work. 100%

Robinn: Are you planning to add features for entertainment like Backgammon table? Animals couldn't be a way to add another entertainment?
Gomboc04: Yeeees! I have been waiting to use my design for a bocce field for a while now. :D Archery range and dummies are something we talk about a lot to make a nice balance of training melee and marksmanship with a bit of entertainment.

normal rat: Are you planning to add double beds and children to the game?
DocHammerhead: Double beds probably at some point. Children are not very likely to get into the vanilla version.

CzarKloos: Are there any plans for a coop or multiplayer setup?
DocHammerhead: Honestly. No. :D Not saying never, but very very very far from it :D
Northman Raspberry: This is always a question that pops from time to time that we had to include it in our faq. But like Doc said, it's not impossible, but we want to nail the single-player experience.

Hamish: How soon can we expect some QoL features like task queues (when right clicking), and more status screens with filters?
DocHammerhead: Not very soon, but this next update enables us finally to be able to tackle those type of features. So, we're getting there.

retho1309: Can we make more variety of cooked food equal tier as lavish meal? As it is currently there is not much of a reason to make lower tier food once you unlock lavish meal. Nor would the settlers eat them if there are lavish meals. Actually making every individual meal a different quality based on the chef's skills, would make cooking skills more valuable. Settlers would also randomly pick a meal and not pick better meal quality (you wouldn't know until you taste it), like a random mood percentage buff chance for each settlers eating.
Gomboc04: This is a very good suggestion. I have been thinking about this a lot and wanted to make more interesting combinations of lavish meals and just make every meal in the game have a lavish version where it would drop with a quality chance just like gear. I would also like to create a bit more interesting things to do with lavish meals and not just mood modifiers - at one point have feasts and NPCs arriving and the better the food, the better the relationship with that faction

Count Von Dread: If you had to put these in a priority order for your future plan of the game what would it be ? Quality of life, game stability, frequent content updates (new things), additional scenarios/more functionality around custom scenarios
Gomboc04: This is a tough question. We look through discord/steam/reddit a lot to see what you guys want, to see what we can do. We think about what system will help us out the most with later feaures and mechanics, and we try to way that in as much as we can and determine the priorities. Unfortunately, its not simple

retho1309: It would also be more in depth and interesting if settler's health is based off a balance diet (Meat, Veggies, Fruits). So it would give us more reasons to plant all kinds of fields
Gomboc04: This is interesting, and something that pushes the food sim part a bit further than we would like to go. :( But different food types is something that we would like to utilize a bit more. Having religion play in to it with settlers not eating meat during some periods of time, if they are very pious etc. Have some setters react and prefer some types of food to the other.

ミョ: What kind of clothes and armor do you plan to add in the future?
Gomboc04: as mentioned in a question about new weapons. we try to add equipment that has a narrative (world building) role and a gameplay role. so as we add new systems (for instance when we add nice looking clothes influencing trade or social aspects, then we will be adding new types of clothing)

Medieval chicken of fate: Can tamed animals reproduce?
Gomboc04: Yes

Medieval chicken of fate: Will there be an improvement of dps on metal spear/berduche in the near future because i see the iron berdiche having the same dps on the wooden spear but i would like to ask if there will be like a minor increase pf damage for metal spears/berdiche
Northman Raspberry: Oh, balancing will be constantly overhauled. We'll fine-tune everything during the game's development. Right not we are working on making them functional and fair. Only if we detect major disruption of the gameplay do we fix it in the next hotfix. So yeah - balancing is very much a situational thing.

OozySquash: Hey guys! I've seen it discussed on previous ama-talks how the settlers aren't necessarily designed for very large maps, are there any plans to balance this and make it more viable to have settlers working in a larger area without being so nerfed from dropping sleep and hunger bars etc?
Gomboc04: Yes. There are plans to balance this with existing mechanics, and add new mechanics that will counter that issue.

Medieval chicken of fate: Who is mostly in charge of the updates?
Gomboc04: A huge spreadsheet of ideas that changes prioritizations from time to time (from steam, discord, redit, us the devs, our publisher) and then whet is near the top we build an update around. like th update that's coming is mostly built around refactoring of pathfinding. giving us the option to make interesting and optimized anima behavior
Molnar Popaj: Don't forget common sense! Sometimes, no matter how a popular request is, it's impossible to implement it before doing bunch of other things.

Lyric: Any plans for moats?
Northman Raspberry: More like, are there any plans for water? :D This has also been discussed for a long time, but boy is the water complicated thing. Not impossible, mind you - just very complicated. We are not committed to it as of now, as we're trying to choose are battles that are doable in a sensible period. That pathfinding overhaul we've been talking about? We've been working on it for months. Now imagine a complex thing like water - the mechanic of its distribution, the effect on the terrain, its impact on characters and animals and other seasons...I think you can see why it will take some time and why fire will probably come sooner than the water.

Medieval chicken of fate: Will there be a part in the almanac on what are the needs of the animals for example. A cow will eat grass. And can I force the cow to be cannibal?
Gomboc04: I don't know. Maybe. We try to make it common sense - a cow can't eat meat, try giving her a redcurrant pie. You will be able to change their json file to be bloodthirsty man-eating cows.

Amary: I was wondering if you have plans to implement a feature where we can designate a rally point for non combatants settlers during a raid?
Molnar Popaj: There will be a combat focused update, that's a cool qol feature we could implement.

Lady Kathleen: For the most asked question of the game.... Is there going to be dirt in the short future or the long future?
Gomboc04: Yes

Vaatu: Can we ever expect to be able to build our own catapults, trebuchets, or other defensive siege equipment?
master312: We have talked about it many times, but no any concrete plans yet. We'll probably think about it in more details for the future combat update.

Count Von Dread: Will there ever be Cloaks, capes in the game? after all end game is always all about fashion
Baan: In short, yes. We were even thinking of other attachments like scarfs, backpacks, sword sheaths and so on.

Amary: Will we be able to copy torch fuel setting and paste it to multiple torches all at once to reduce clicks?
Gomboc04: in short: yes. in a future QoL batch of work

That will be all for today’s talk. Stay tuned, more exciting announcements will be coming soon!

For more direct communication, be sure to join our Discord server and talk about your Going Medieval experience with our active community.

Thank you for your time!

Foxy Voxel

We are active on TikTok: @going.medieval
Follow us on Twitter: going_medieval
Our Facebook page: Foxy Voxel

Greetings medievalists!

We mentioned in the previous Medieval Monday Talk that we’re working on animals, and that’s still true, but just setting that process takes time. Even simple things like animating them, have to go through several iterations. Here’s what we mean:



But, that doesn’t stop us from setting up other things, like wall racks. Remember our Wall Deer Head Decoration?



It was just that - a decoration, not tied to anything except for the 10 bones you needed to create it. Well, additional animals give us more decoration options. After you kill them, you’ll get an option to turn them into trophies



You’ll need a butchering table, a carcass, and some wood, to turn them into trophies. But, this opened another question for us: What if you, the player, want to use the heads of your enemies as a trophy? That sounds pretty metal, but also like something you would be proud of after a long and hard battle. So we're implementing that, too!



Some of you even suggested how it would be pretty cool to have an option to put weapons and shields on wall racks - not only would it optimize space usage, but it would give more aesthetic options. After trying it, we tend to agree with you.



Awesome, right? In other news:

We'll be hosting our second 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, 14th April at 3:00 PM CEST and will last for one hour (might go even longer depending on demand).

So, join our Discord at https://discord.gg/goingmedieval. On the 14th, we'll unlock #ama-talk channel there, 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). The first time was pretty cool for us and we hope to have even more fun this time. We are excited to see you there!

Foxy Voxel

We have active TikTok account: @going.medieval
Follow us on Twitter: going_medieval
Our Facebook page: Foxy Voxel

Greetings medievalists!

Time for another Medieval Monday Talk and this one is about a feature that many of you requested since the game went live - Animal Husbandry. There is a lot to talk about, and we’ll use upcoming Medieval Talks to provide more details. But for now, one step at a time. Let’s talk about Animal Panel.

There is going to be a new tab entitled “ANIMALS” located in the upper part of the screen.


Selecting it will open the Animal Panel. The Animal Panel is a way to give the player a quick overview of animals on the map, but it will also be used as a way of control over domestic animals, as well as wildlife.

Here is an example of the Domestic tab, within the Animal Panel:


From left to right, we’ll explain what each column represents.

Animals - This shows the type of animal in a form of a hyperlink. Hyperlinks will direct you to the Almanac entries for these animals. Also, each animal will have (f) and (m), indicating their gender, to differentiate between male and female.
Name - You will be able to give a name to the animal, and that name will also appear here.
Age - Represents the age of the animal in ingame years, with the age phase appearing in brackets.
Assigned to - When an animal is trained to be a pet, a dropdown will appear and the player will be able to assign the animal to a settler for training.
Haul - Some pets will have the ability to haul things. You’ll be able to turn that ability on/off here.
Battle - Some pets will be able to follow settlers and engage enemies alongside them. This too will be adjusted with an on/off function here. Not all animals will have this ability, but if you want to turn a bunch of rabbits into killing machines - you’ll be able to tinker with json files to allow that.
Train - Animals that have not yet been trained will have symbols indicating that they can be. This will start a training sequence.
Slaughter - Clicking on this icon will mark the animal for slaughtering (same as selecting the animal and clicking on the slaughter action or using the slaughter order from the order buttons down right).
Release - Clicking on this icon will mark the animal for release. When a settler releases the animal, it becomes wild again.
In Pen - If the animal is in a pen, the pen name will be added here. Clicking on it will select the pen and jump the camera to it. We might even add an option to name the pen. :)

Things are a bit different when it comes to the Wildlife tab of the Animal Panel:


Animal & Age columns are identical to the ones for Domestic animals.

Hunt - Use this button to mark the animal for hunting. You’ll still be able to mark the animal for hunting by selecting it as you previously did, but this is just an additional option.
Retaliate - Some animals have a chance to retaliate, meaning that if attacked, they’ll fight back. Chances for retaliation will appear here.
Tame - To turn wild animals into domesticated ones, you’ll use the Tame symbol here. You will also be able to start the taming process by finding the animal and marking it with Tame.
Tameable - Some animals will be harder to tame. The higher the chance, the easier taming process will be.
Retaliate - Once tamed, the animal will have a chance to retaliate. Those chances will appear here. Think of it as an animal being stubborn.

What do you think about this? In the upcoming weeks, we’ll also discuss the importance of animal gender, how the taming/training process will work and how it will affect resource management, so stay tuned.

Foxy Voxel

We have active TikTok account: @going.medieval
Follow us on Twitter: going_medieval
Our Facebook page: Foxy Voxel

Greetings medievalists!

Time for another Medieval Monday Talk. We were pondering for a bit on how to present what we are working on since there is a lot of technical things happening under the hood. But, we’ll try our best. Let’s talk about pathfinding.

When it comes to settlers' navigation in our medieval colony sim… there is a lot left to be desired. Let’s take a simple movement, like walking diagonally. Here it is how it looked before:



Notice the zig-zag movement. And this is how it will look in the next major update.



It might appear to be a minor thing, but this overhaul is a part of a bigger process that will offer significant optimization chances, easier implementation of upcoming features, and overall better game performance. Those existing issues could not easily be solved due to how the old system was interconnected with the rest of the game. There were a lot of variables, a lot of settlers, and a lot of resources. Calculating all of those options would affect the gameplay but also the CPU.

Within the new system, we implemented multiple agents. Agents represent everything "organic" that moves in our game - your settlers, enemies, and animals. In the current version, the problem is that everyone would try to follow such a system - your settlers, merchants, enemies, and even animals. It would look kinda silly - for a deer to walk over the limestone floors and stairs, just because we established that it is the fastest way for your settlers to move.

Since pathfinding is a big part of the game, this overhaul will allow for a faster calculation for every moving thing in the game and, in turn, allow for better game performance. It will also offer better game experiences. If there is an issue with hauling or ignoring job priorities, we will be able to find it easily and make a solution that will not upset the rest of the systems.

Now, every agent will allow for much more effective, much easier customization to their pathfinding. Animals will have different movement rules and penalties than humans. Deer and rabbits’ navigation will not be affected by flora, and floors will not provide as much penalty reduction as it does to humans (more on that later, below).

With human agents, we can separate how your settlers, merchants, and enemies will behave. An example: Your settlers and merchants will be able to avoid traps with ease (we plan for everyone to be able to activate traps), while the enemies will go through them.



Examples of settler movement vs wolf movement when faced with traps.

Agents will also allow for easier integration with the upcoming updates. Let’s say we plan to implement a new animal within the game (*ominous hint noises*) this new system will allow us to easily define how that animal would move throughout the game. That relates to settlements' position and location, type of constructions surrounding the animal, and other characters.

Take penalties, as an example, every grid space represents one node. Every node offers a penalty that is calculated by what is exactly that node’s made of and what’s on it. So if there was a bush there, that would cause 3000 penalty points to anything that walks through it, resulting in the slowing down of the character. The simple ground would offer 1000 penalty points, while the floor would provide 250 penalty points.

Everything mentioned above will affect game performance. You might not see it, but it will be felt.

Take this scenario as an example: A settler wants to reach a woodpile. With our old pathfinding system, it would ask if such a pile is reachable and start calculating. The system would take into account every single grid space, the penalties they provide, and thus provide the path for the settler. Now imagine such a simple action for every settler. That action would be very CPU heavy.

Here is an example of A star pathfinding that is used by our game: PATHFINDING. Try building a maze around the end position and once you are satisfied with the result, select Start Search. That is basically showing the current pathfinding logic - in that link, it’s a simplified and slower version, but it very much represents how the game calculates destinations related to the agent.

Thanks to the new region system, the game will instantly recognize where the thing your settler is looking for is. It will inform them about all the necessary regions they need to traverse in order to get to it.

Each region is made from 420 nodes (grid spaces) and it knows what the other regions that surround it are.



This makes calculating traversal significantly easier on the CPU since it doesn’t take the complete map into consideration when calculating. It takes only the necessary regions into account, making the experience much smoother, performance-wise.

Hopefully, this gives you a better understanding of what you can expect in the next update, without the need to go fully technical on it. But trust us - this is excellent news for Going Medieval

Foxy Voxel

Greetings medievalists!

The new hotfix (0.7.17) 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.

• Fixed crash caused by settlers trying to install a Structure Pile.
  
• Fixed crash caused by canceling relocated structures mid-construction on the same voxel several times, using the assigned keybind.
  
• Fixed crash caused by drafting a settler that is sleeping in a bed via keybind,
  
• Fixed the issue where undrafted stances of settlers couldn’t be modified through the Manage menu when other settlers are traveling with a caravan.
  
• Fixed the issue that caused merchant idling behavior to bug out if a merchant's stall is locked away or walled off.
  
• Fixed the issue that caused settlers not to sow the fields when seeds become available.
  
• Fixed the issue where a roof blueprint could be placed and built overlapped over Floor Tiles, with no warning messages displayed.
  
• Fixed the issue where the structure piles would multiply if their installation was canceled multiple times via the assigned keybind.
  
• Percentages in the production speed modifiers in the selection panel of a production structure are color-coded now.
  
• All variations of research tables now count for the warning message “research table missing”. Also, all research tables unlock the research panel (if the player somehow purchases an advanced research table before constructing the basic one).

Foxy Voxel

Greetings medievalists!

The new hotfix (0.7.15) 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.

• Fixed the issue that caused settlers to ignore hauling to stockpiles marked as ‘very high priority’.
  
• Fixed the issue that caused settlers to stop sowing the fields even when Seeds became available.
  
• Fixed the issue that caused Clothes and Armors to be displayed sideways when stored on armor racks.
  
• Fixed the issue that caused settlers not to sow fields, even though seeds, as a resource, became present.
  
• Fixed the issue that caused icons for winter clothes to appear smaller than the rest of the items when hovering over racks and chests.
  
• Fixed the issue that caused the game not to update counter of the “Until you have” option for the Armourer’s Table once the Buckler Shield has been crafted.
  
• Fixed the issue that caused the Reroll and Pseudonym buttons for Background on the Settlers screen to appear, even if the Advanced Customization menu is disabled.
  
• Fixed the issue that caused the "Load" preset feature in the Settlers screen to stay disabled upon using the “Save” preset feature for the first time.
  
• Fixed the issue where deleting a preset (in a Settlers screen) would corrupt Save menu's functionality and additional presets would overwrite the remaining preset.
  
• Fixed the issue that caused the settler's avatar to not properly update with the settlers' hair color when changing the body type.
  
• Fixed the issue that caused short screen freezes when changing settlers’ body type in the Settlers screen.
  
• Fixed the issue that caused changing settlers’ body type to modify the current Group Creation Points value, even though no other options that use Creation Points were changed.
  
• Fixed the issue that caused Structure Piles to not be accumulated and properly displayed in the Merchants' Trading menu.
  
• Fixed the issue that caused Factions' Alignment values to be inconsistently displayed in the Info Tab and in the tooltips.
  
• Fixed the issue that caused the Hair Color/Skin Color menu to have the scroll bar present.
  
• Fixed the issue that caused sides of voxels situated in the Forbidden Zone to not have red overlay.
  
• Fixed the issue that caused the disappearance of tooltips for Apparel and Equipment items when hovering over them in the Seal the Deal screen.
  
• Fixed the issue that caused corruption of settlers’ avatars after modifying their "Height" or “Body Type” value by typing in the text box and clicking on a different settler afterwards, in the Settler Creation screen.
  
• Fixed the issue that caused Summary Screen to not update properly when going back and forth between menus to select a different Heraldry.
  
• Fixed the issue where packaged meals (human meat) would not count in the “until you have” production counter.
  
• Fixed the issue that caused tooltips not to update in real time when using the "Allow/Forbid" order.
  
• Fixed the issue that caused "Pain" and "Inebriated" stat values not consistent with the ones in the Scenario description.
  
• Fixed the issue where text boxes from a custom scenario, upon entering 9 or more digits, would corrupt such scenario.
  
• Fixed the issue that caused the corruption of the custom scenario edit menu if “Override” stats are added.
  
• Fixed the issue that caused all of the shields to have "Two Handed" description in their Info tab and Almanac entries.
  
• Map seed number has been added to the pause menu and statistics panel within Historical Records.
  
• Mail helmets are no longer comically large.
  
• Metal shields are now properly added to the almanac.
  
• Wooden Buckler and Wooden Shield from the Research menu now have a proper Almanac link functionality when clicked on.
  
• Beds can be built now in rooms like the kitchen and workshop.
  
• Animated equipment like bows and flails will have proper animations after loading a game (previously, only equipped items from that session would be animated properly).
  
• Facial hair is hidden when mail helmets are equipped.
  
• NOTE: Due to shield and buckler productions changes within the code, every active production of that equipment from 0.7.11 saves and before these productions will be automatically deleted upon load. Any new production set will work fine.
  
• Fixed minor text issues.

Foxy Voxel

Greetings medievalists!

The new hotfix (0.7.11) 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.

• Fixed several rare crash occurrences.
  
• Fixed the issue that caused brazier material to appear half transparent when lowering world layers.
  
• Fixed the issue that caused new construction variations to appear hollow when lowering world layers.
  
• Fixed the issue that caused Caravan Halt to have a hard to select hotspot.
  
• Fixed the issue where the progress bar of some structures would clip with floor graphics,if the floor is used above those structures.
  
• Fixed the issue that caused Wooden Buckler and Wooden Shield from the Research
  
• menu to lack the Almanac link functionality when clicked on.
  
• Fixed the issue that caused ‘Seeds’ text in the Shelves' Info tab to be missing the hyperlink that opens the Almanac when clicked on.
  
• Fixed the issue where the ‘Wooden Shield’ used the wrong icon in every menu and tooltip where present.
  
• Added info about production speed % in the production structure selection panel. Now, you can see what influence the room has, or temperature, or rain, etc.
  
• Forbidden structures for some room types have been updated.
  
• Minor visual glitches have been removed.
  
• Fixed minor text issues.

Foxy Voxel

Greetings medievalists!

The new major update titled “New Resources & Cultivation” 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 new resources, new buildings, more harvesting options, fueling system, new settler’s modifiers and various other tweaks and improvements.

Watch the video below to see the update’s highlights, and if you want to go into more detail, beneath the video are the full patch notes:

But first, for an optimum user experience, we suggest that you:

Please note: if you are using unofficial mods (especially those related to crops) you might experience crashes or even an inability to start the game. If you do, turn the mods off before starting the game. If the problem persists, be sure to delete all of the folders in the steamapps\common\Going Medieval and then verify the game files.

Also, one more thing to keep in mind: We had to reset your ‘Manage’ panel presets in order for it to allow new food types to be added. That means that all of the custom presets are deleted, but nothing stops you from making new ones.

Now, onto the updates:


We have made some major changes to crops. You won’t be able to magically conjure them from thin air anymore and we’ve added a new phase to the life cycle of plants. Saplings are also in the game. Here is how it’s all going to work:

• To sow crops, you will need new resources - seeds and saplings.
  
• Agriculture now unlocks all crop fields, but they will not appear in the crop field panel unless you have the seed for that crop somewhere on the map.
  
• One seed/sapling occupies one grid space.
  
• One settler can carry a maximum of 300 seeds | 30 saplings in their inventory.
  
• Some crops, like barley and redcurrant, are sown with their produce (one redcurrant, as a resource is used to plant one redcurrant bush).
  
• All plants drop seeds in their ripe phase, but there are certain plants like cabbages, carrots, and beets, that give more when in flowering and seeding phases.
  
• Trees drop saplings whenever they are cut, except when in the dead phase.

Blight is the new event in the game and will appear during summer and autumn. It will occasionally occur on random sections of the field and will destroy your crops if it isn’t dealt with.

• Blight can affect only flax, barley, cabbage, carrots, and beets.
  
• When the blight appears, you will want to cut contaminated crops before it’s too late, as it will spread to nearby crops.
  
• Strategic crop placement will also prevent the blight from spreading - the size of the crop fields, as well as their shapes, play a big role in blight control.

To make things a little easier and interesting, we added some new flora elements.

• Apple trees are added to the game and can be sown with apple saplings. You can't find those saplings in the wild, but they can be bought from merchants or settlements. These trees have several harvest cycles and produce apples, wood, and sticks.
  
• Wild flax and wild barley are here (or, as we’d say it: growing wild!). Look at them as a starting point from which you will obtain seeds. They look a bit different and give fewer resources than regular flax and barley.
  
• Even if your scenario starts with zero wild flax and barley, over time they should appear all over the map. The amount will depend on the map type and size.

NOTE: Wild flax and wild barley will not grow on maps from an old save.


With the latest update, we are bringing some useful new resources that can be utilized across your settlement.

• Bread - produced as a meal if you use barley as a singular cooking resource.
  
• Apple pie - produced as a meal if you use apples as a singular cooking resource.
  
• Redcurrant pie - produced as a meal if you use redcurrants as a singular cooking resource.
  
• Honey crisps - produced as a meal if you use honey as a singular cooking resource.
  
• Apple cider - produced from using apples in the brewing station.
  
• Mead - produced from using honey in the brewing station.
  
• Honey - produced from skeps. It can be eaten raw, used for cooking and used as a basic medkit (like herbs.)
  
• Wax - produced from skeps. Used to refuel candles.
  
• Tallow - produced when butchering some animals. Also used as a basic medkit (like herbs). Can also be used to refuel candles.
  
• Ice blocks - made from ice boxes. They can only be produced if the temperature around them is -1 or less. Ice blocks lower the temperature of the room around them when stored in any room.
  
• Silver - mined from voxels.
  
• Silver ingots - made from silver in the smelting station, like other ingots.

NOTE: silver voxels can't be found on old save maps. Only when starting a new game


We’ve added new weapon materials for you and your enemies:

• Silver versions of weapons, armors, and shields are in the game. When it comes to quality for weapons, silver is a bit better than gold, but still worse than iron or steel. Silver items have a greenish tint to them, so they look like rusted silver. It’s a design choice to make them different from gold, iron, and steel.
  
• Bucklers, kite, and regular shields now have all-metal variations (gold, steel, iron, and silver.)
  
• Enemies and visitors have some new equipment that you can't create. Things like armor made from bones, animal headpieces, headbands, etc. Nothing stops you from taking those forcefully, though.

New production buildings, as well the ones that are going to make trading easier, are now in the game.

• Icebox - produces ice blocks. Temperature around the structure influences the speed of production. The production will stop when the temperature becomes higher than -1. The lower the temperature, the faster the production.
  
• Skep - produces honey and wax. Skeps are also influenced by temperature and will not produce if the temperature is too low.
  
• Merchants stall - merchants will go to this structure once they appear on your map. Their goods will appear on the stall when they reach it, and you will be able to start the trading process either by the right-clicking merchant or the stall.
  
• Caravan Halt - settlers will gather at this structure when forming a caravan. Forming caravans also works as before. When settlers return, the resources will spawn around the nearest halt instead of on the edge of the map.

You can now change visual variations to some structures. NOTE: This type of change will have no impact on gameplay. It only impacts the visuals of the game.

• Elements that have variations are: roofs, walls, floors, fences, merlons.
  
• Beyond shape variations, roofs now have material variations, too. These are strictly visual differences.
  
• By using a rotation of these variations, only the visual representation will be affected.

NOTE: Corner merlons and corner fences are included as variations of merlons/fences now. This move creates empty spots in the places you used previous corners.


The research panel had to be reorganized a bit due to the integration of the elements mentioned above.

• Beekeeping and Ice Making research nodes are now in the research panel - unlocking these nodes will allow you to build Skeps and Ice Boxes.
  
• The research panel received a bit of visual rearrangement due to the integration of these elements.

Crop fields have an additional panel next to the selection panel now. Within that panel there are a couple of options that you can select:

• Crop field priority - You can change the priority of crop fields, just like you do with stockpiles. All crop fields with the same priority will be treated the same as before (the closest one has the highest priority). Priority influences sowing, cutting, and harvesting.
  
• Don’t Sow - Settlers will still harvest the existing crops on the field but will not sow another round while this box is checked.
  
• Harvest Phase - You can now choose in which phase a crop gets harvested. The phases you can choose are only phases where a harvestable resource is present (note that barley plants only have one harvest phase.)
  
• Cutting Phase - This option appears when you select tree crops. Some trees, like apple trees, have both cutting and harvesting phases within this panel.
  
• Changing crops - You can change the type of crops that are sown on the selected field. Changing a crop type will order the crops on that field to be cut down so the new ones can be sown.

Other notable changes in this area:

• Plants now die if they are under a roof. A message will appear in a plant’s selection screen when this happens. If you place crop fields under the roof, it will not trigger settlers to sow there
  
• Resource amount dropped after harvesting/cutting is now multiplied by the percentage of HP the plant has. For example: if the hailstorm, frost, or blight hurts the plants, they will give fewer resources because of it.

Light and heat sources now require refueling in order to emit heat/light. Once these buildings are out of fuel, settlers will need to use one of the fuel types to refill them.

• Structures like braziers, torches, and candles need refueling to emit heat.
  
• Each structure can have a different kind of fuel. Torches and braziers use coal, wood, and sticks, while candles use tallow and wax.
  
• Each fuel resource has an assigned fuel strength, meaning they will not offer the same fuel amount. More tallow is needed than wax to refuel a candle. You will also need more sticks than coal or wood.
  
• Settlers that have the Steward job turned on will do the refueling.
  
• Once refueled, those buildings can be turned on/off without settlers.

NOTE: The fuel system is used on furniture that gives heat (braziers, candelabra, torches). We are not using them on production buildings (even though they give off heat as well).


Settlers now have different modifiers as they age (some of the attributes are different if they are young, adult, middle-aged, or senior). These modifiers are also affected by the settler's height and weight.

• Settlers gain random perks (sometimes) when they have a birthday. The perk is given in the same rule set as randomizing a settler when creating them.
  
• Some perks (for now only the cannibal perk) can’t be received with birthdays.
  
• Settlers can now die of old age. Every time it’s time for them to wake up (if they are older than 65 and after at least 3h of sleep) there is a chance they will die. As they grow, their chances of dying will increase. If you really want to see the odds and edit them, you can do so within the WorkerBase.json file.

The rebellious state and merry modifiers have been changed.

• Rebellious - Before, when a settler’s mood would drop under a certain threshold, the settler would become rebellious. Now, when the mood drops under a certain threshold, there is a 50% chance the settler will become rebellious, with each negative mood modifier that happens. There is a cooldown where the settler can't become rebellious sometime after being rebellious.
  
• Merry - Before, while a settler’s mood was over 80%, the settlers were merry by default. Now, when the mood is over 80% settlers have a 50% chance of getting the merry effector, with every good mood modifier that triggers.

Settlers are dreaming.

• Settlers can now have good or bad dreams. (there is also a chance they do not dream.)
  
• Settlers that have some perks, like glutinous, cannibal, and bloodlust can also have different dreams.
  
• Settlers with the bloodlust perk now get a mood modifier when killing someone.

Enemies now have new equipment that relates to the factions they are tied to - this is an aesthetic choice as we think it adds a bit more personality to the factions.

• Shields and plate armors now have heraldry on them. They will have the enemy heraldry while the enemy has them equipped and the player’s heraldry while the player has them equipped.
  
• Factions now have a percentage of female visitors and/or enemies.

New songs, yay!

• Added two music tracks and changed music playlist logic.

• The Animal Husbandry job type has been added to the JOBS panel. At the moment, it is only used for beekeeping.
  
• The camera will not move to the merchant location once the event appears in the game.
  
• Clay brick and Limestone Brick arches are in the game, due to the popular demand
  
• The Bartering and Caravan screen has sorting arrows now - you can sort items by alphabetical placement, value, amount, etc.
  
• Non-tradable items will be always at the bottom of the screen by default.
  
• We’ve introduced daily maximum attainable level experience for a skill per settler. On a daily basis, settlers will be able to earn 1600XP for one skill. If that number is passed, the settler will earn 10% of the XP for that skill (meaning, if they earned 50XP for cutting trees, now they’ll earn 5XP). When the day starts anew, XP that was 1600/1600 will return to 0/1600. The cap limit is influenced by various factors, so settlers will differentiate among themselves. We also introduced skill decay - once a settler reaches level 5 with a skill, XP for those will start to decay. Decay will be slower but over time, as settlers age, decay numbers will increase. Decay will not affect their current skill level - skill level cannot decay under the last level gained.
  
• A new tooltip system has been implemented. Tooltips should no longer stay active on the screen and appear dubbed from time to time. Tooltips will now follow the mouse cursor in order to look a bit more fluid.
  
• World layer level is now written in the save data - upon loading, the game will remember the layer on which you were on.

We have also fixed a bunch of things:

• Fixed the issue that caused roof textures to flicker and overlap when different combinations are made (next to one another) and the camera is rotated.
  
• Fixed the issue where settlers would get multiple birthdays in some cases.
  
• Fixed the issue where surrounding textures can be seen through the Kiln texture.
  
• Fixed the issue where "Some custom images have been deleted, “Your heraldry design might lack the custom image used." message would appear in the Heraldry edit menu.
  
• Fixed the issue where some perks were addable to the body types that didn’t make sense.
  
• Fixed the issue where the shadow texture of tools and weapons did not display properly.
  
• Fixed the issue where merchants’ storage capacity is sometimes out of proportion without trading/gifting anything, and the "Accept" button is greyed out.
  
• Fixed various tooltip issues.
  
• Fixed various text issues.
  
• Fixed issue where editing resources in the production building would edit resources in the next building you select.
  
• Holding down CTRL for layer jumping will no longer deselect what you have selected.
  
• Holding down CTRL for layer jumping will no longer place buildings in construction mode.
  
• Adjustments are made for the click-through system (clicking on the same thing to select the object behind it). Click through issues have been fixed (in certain situations the player would select a floor element instead of a settler)
  
• Fixed issue of production being paused resuming after lading that session.

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.

Foxy Voxel

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See the trailer for the game here: https://youtu.be/GuHfL2kf8tM

Greetings medievalists!

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. Harvesting system overhaul, new resources, equipment, and structures, along with the fueling system, visual variations to structures, settlers aging, and many more can be found there.

[Go here] if you want to see a detailed breakdown of all the things mentioned above.

NOTE: If you are using unofficial mods (especially those related to crops) you might experience crashes or even an inability to start the game. If you do, turn the mods off before starting the game. If the problem persists, be sure to delete all of the folders in the steamapps\common\Going Medieval and then verify the game files.

Your experience matters, so be sure to share your experimental branch experience with others in the [Experimental branch subforum] or our Discord server.

Thank you for your time.

Foxy Voxel

Greetings medievalists!

Let’s do something different this time - let’s talk about feedback. We read your comments/posts here and on Discord, and we noticed that Medieval Monday Talk #12 in particular was polarizing.

While the idea of seeds and saplings sounds nice, in some cases, it can be a micromanaging hell - introducing too many mechanics to flows can make things more complex, which in some cases can be cumbersome , and you would have to worry about a couple of more things when it comes to food production now.

We hear you, though - So, let us discuss what we did and how, by our accounts, it can improve the gameplay.

The primary reason for this decision is emphasizing the survival feel. The idea to go out in the wilderness and collect saplings and seeds fits perfectly in the harsh medieval period of our game - how far will you go to improve your life and what risks will you take to improve your crops?

While the idea sounds intimidating, the realization of the concept is much more convenient.

For example - all over the map we will introduce wild flax and wild barley. These “wild” versions of familiar plants provide less than expected number of resources, but they should be very easy to find, thus making them a perfect starting point.



You were worried that the whole process would turn tedious, with unnecessary micromanaging forced upon the existing functional gardening system. We heard your criticism, hence why the whole system received significant rebalancing and simplification.

Now, every crop and tree will drop one seed/sapling when harvested/cut. In theory - if you have 30 cabbages, you will get 30 seeds by their harvesting. The cycle still exists - what you harvest will provide enough resources to start another seeding/planting session, that is - if settlers don’t fail at their jobs.



Redcurrants, barley, and flax are even more convenient - with each harvest phase, they’ll offer more than one seeding resource, which will call for crop field expansion (if you want that, of course).



Carrots, beets and cabbages will have a “Going to seed” phase in which, if they are harvested then, will give more seeds.



Thankfully, all of this can be easily managed with automatization and this window will give you options when to harvest. If you just want resources for another cycle, keep it in the ripe phase. If you want more crop fields, perhaps consider setting some to be harvested in the “Going to seed” phase.



Granted, some seeds will be acquired only through trading, but look at them as optional elements - ones that will offer additional resources and more cultivating options that each have their pros and cons.

We hope you’ll get to experience the new update soon and see for yourself that the system is not bothersome at all. 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.

Thank you for your time, folks.

Foxy Voxel