Update #8 | Social Interactions · Going Medieval update for 14 March 2023

The new major update, titled “Social Interactions'' is now live on Steam, Epic Games Store, and GOG (0.13.3). All the fixes and improvements from the experimental branch are now stable, tested, and present in this update! These include: social interactions and affection system, individual action logs, new animals, 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, check beneath the video for the full patch notes:

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

Disable Mods if you have them

Please note: if you are using unofficial mods you might experience crashes or even an inability to start the game. If this occurs, 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.

Now, on to the update - we’ll separate it into different segments:

Settlers will interact with each other when they are close to one another. The system is currently reserved for human interaction only, but we plan to expand it to animals, too. Here is how it works:

All interactions are instant and not accompanied by additional animations. This way, social interactions will not disrupt the tasks of your settlers or the flow of the gameplay. Settlers will turn their head towards social interaction target when in range, to acknowledge them.
Settlers can have a conversation every few hours. Some perks (like “Contemplative”) might influence the number of conversations they have.
Settlers now get +3xp in speechcraft for every conversation.
The outcome of conversations is determined by the speechcraft skill, difference in age, difference in religious alignment, affection amount, some attributes, and some randomness.
Social interactions can’t occur if one of the settlers is drafted or is sleeping.
Interactions can have several different results - they are essentially positive and negative small talks.
The amount of positive/negative value is determined by settlers' attributes and affected by some perks (such as “Ill Favored”, “Ruthless”, “Disfigured”, etc.)
Positive interaction will be buffed if settlers wear quality clothing, are drunk, or have perks for specific situations. For example: Night Owl will tend to have positive interactions at night, and Sun Seeker will have it while the sun is shining.
Some social interactions result in the changing of the religious alignment and are represented by different icons (golden oak leaf for oak brethren and purple grail for the church of restitution). By hovering on the settler's “Religious Alignment” bar, you can see recent interactions and how they might have influenced religious change. NOTE: This means that settlers can change their religious alignment even if there is only one religion present in your settlement.
Some settlers (like ones with the “Punch drunk” perk) will have a high chance to have negative conversations with settlers, when drunk.
Dreams can now influence the chance of positive/negative interactions for settlers.
Rebellious settlers will insult more often.
Rebellious settlers have longer pauses between conversations
Conversation chance increases when settlers sit down/eat/play backgammon.
Sitting down to play backgammon together will increase the chance of a conversation happening and will also increase the chance of positive social interaction.

Affection

Social interactions, like small talk, pleasant conversation, and unpleasant conversation, will result in the modifying of the affection of one settler towards another.

Other actions in the game, like battling together (being close together while fighting) carrying each other to a bed, tending wounds, etc. will result in affection as well.
When the affection is high enough (+80) the settlers will become friends. If the affection goes under -80 then settlers become rivals. Friends can still have bad conversations, and rivals can have pleasant ones.
This has no immediate gameplay impact other than different mood modifiers when a friend/rival dies or is banished.

Individual Action log

We have added the Log feature to certain things. Social interactions, combat, health, and other notable events will be shown in the log.

All conversations between settlers will be logged. One settler will discuss something with the other, and that one will respond accordingly.
All combat hits, moves misses, and evades are logged. Different weapon types have different wording, as well as animal attack types.
Health changes, birthdays, and animals turning into domestic/pets are also added to the log.
Certain effectors (when characters eat a good meal, drink good ale, etc.) are also shown here.
Logs are inherited by the carcass of a settler/enemy/animal. After that trophies and graves also inherit this log so players can read what happened to that settler/enemy/animal after their death. Graves will show enemy types if you choose to bury them.
Settlers and enemies will say their final words before they die.

NOTE: The log is saved as text and will not be translated when changing languages mid-game. Also, if a settler/animal is renamed it will not reflect in the log.

Keep in mind that these features will constantly evolve as new things are introduced and the existing features are upgraded.

New animals

The bears and polecats are now in the game. We are aware that bears were not a thing in medieval England, but there are reports of a couple being traveling sideshow attractions in those times. In the canon of Going Medieval, we like to think that the plague helped them break free from their captivity and roam the land.

Polecat
Polecat, gameplay-wise, is basically the wild version of the cat.

They can spawn on any map type.
Polecats are nocturnal animals that, like foxes, will sleep during the day.
They will hunt down your chicken, rabbits, and pheasants (fox logic).
You can get leather from it and build banners, armor, etc.
Can be used for vermin control when turned into a pet.
You can turn a polecat into a trophy. Bear
Bears are very strong animals that spawn very rarely on the map.
Taming and training them can take a long time.
They can be used for hauling and battle.
Their leather can be used for banners, clothing, etc.
You can turn a bear into a trophy.

Bugs and fixes

Fixed the issue that prevented some players from placing construction on locations where they could be placed.
Fixed the issue that caused room detection to not work as intended in certain scenarios.
Fixed the issue that prevented animals from returning to the caravan from harvesting, if during the return of the caravan, the game was saved & loaded.
Fixed the issue where the blueprint of all the graves did not match their size grid when using the “Copy” function.
Fixed the issue that made settlers face the wrong side when working on a research table.
Fixed the issue that made settlers appear as floating if they were ordered to deconstruct stairs and were in the middle of them with a “Sleep” schedule in progress.
Fixed the issue that caused the behavior of beams to become corrupted if you place them in between Doors or Windows.
Fixed the issue where settlers would sow crops on a location where they shouldn’t due to the “Temperature conditions do not meet” factor.
Fixed the issue that prevented constructions from placement with the first click, if players were using the “Relocate” or “Install” feature.
Fixed the issue where the order “Until you have” on the Sewing Station did not work as intended if the produced item was Rush Matting.
Fixed the issue where using Curdling Milk as a cooking resource when making a meal on a campfire or a stove would result in no meal being created upon completion of production.
Fixed the issue where raiders would run around aimlessly during an incursion.
Fixed the issue that caused placement of the crop/stockpile in a random position, if the player used only one voxel for that crop/stockpile.
Fixed the issue where settlers wouldn’t repair damaged structures while a merchant is near them.

Quality of life improvements

The capacity of some pile stacks related to Raw Food has been increased from 25 to 50.
Upon finishing harvesting of animals, settlers will take gathered resources (milk and wool) and carry them to the stockpile.
We have added a minimal skill level to train and tame certain animals (bears, wolves, foxes, and boars have this now).
Taming and training process of certain animals has been rebalanced.
We have also added feedback to the player when trying to train or tame an animal and not having the required min skill level.

We made subtle changes to the animation of some animals. This is purely cosmetic, but it livens up the world a bit.

We added a tail system where tails move a bit differently now (can be seen when an animal moves and you pause the game) tails now bend a bit when the animal turns, making them a bit more fluid.
The spine system has been added to animals as well. When the animal turns, the spine will bend in that direction a bit. This is very subtle but makes their movement a bit less stiff. Most noticeable in donkeys and cattle.

Known issues

Settlers will not choose the closest production building (if there are more of the same type), but the one that has a production set first in the global list of productions.
If your settlers are experiencing weird animations with some actions, be sure to cap the game's FPS in the game's options. Cap it to 60fps. If the issue persists, cap it at 30.

That would be all for the official update notes. New patches and improvements will be deployed accordingly. In the meantime, 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

Going Medieval update for 14 March 2023