Under The Yoke V2 Launches

The long awaited V2 update is here!

The Scheduling System

When developing the patch for V2 I wanted to include as much feedback as possible, one of the consistent themes I saw was around micro-management. The scheduling system is meant to address a lot of that feedback.

Each day is now split into 3 parts which can be filled with jobs, activities and opportunities to socialise. While there will be some micro in changing jobs around as the seasons change, you can both save and load schedules. Any time a job is not able to be fufilled, the character will default back to resting but that scheduled job will remain. You will also see characters moving around the map to their assigned workspace so you can keep an eye on what's going on.

I have also done some work on reducing the micro from all the jobs, for instance there is no longer a requirement to 'collect' goods that take some time to mature such as dried meat in the larder or vegetables in the garden.

I also wasn't sure where to include this, by the serf tax week-work is no longer a job and instead acts as a flat penalty to skills, though not dramatic in the early game, you'll certainly feel it in the late game, incentivising that shift to gaining freedom towards the later game.

Lifestyle System

The new lifesytle system replaces the old 'Cooking' system and, I believe, adds to it significantly.

Now players will have control over the day to day aspects of their family's life. Firstly, the meal system has changed significantly, now players can opt into what ingredients they want their family to use when preparing their meals, while a peasant's stomach will be filled with bread alone, they will receive a penalty for such meager rations as well as a penalty to their taste, whereas a balanced diet will offer bonuses to both.

In addition to this, the old 'decay' system which caused moods to tick down is replaced by a desire for goods which fufill each need. From Firewood and Blankets for rest to a Comb and Chess pieces for Social, each fufilled good will slow their respective mood drain, meaning characters can spend more time working. These new goods can also be crafted and gathered by the player or purchased in town.

UI Changes

There are a plethora of UI changes across Under The Yoke, not least the top bar which will now carry the most pertinent information without needing to open separate menus. At a glance you can see your family's average mood, your animal fodder (if you have animals), your current money, your lowest food ration as well as your weekly consumption rate and your respect. Mousing over any of these will give you a full breakdown on how the calculation has been made.

Character Changes

Since characters are no longer dragged around the screen for jobs, I thought characters could do with a home of their own in the menus rather than relying on the character sheets (though they are still present). You can view everything about a character in here, with more info when mousing over.

New Game

The UI overhaul also applies to the New Game screen, this cleaner screen will be seen by most of you as V1 saves are not compatible with V2, unfortunately there were simply too many changes to make V1 saves viable.

Performance

It's hard to show in a screenshot but the game now will run much more efficiently, by pre-loading a lot of the assets most menus will appear vastly quicker than they did before the update.

Sign off

Hopefully you can already see what a massive overhaul V2 is, the vast majority of mechanics in the game have been either overhauled or replaced entirely. There are additional changes that I haven't gotten into here, frankly I don't want to spoil it all.

I really think this is going to change the game in a major way and make it that much more fun for new players and give old players an excuse to get medieval again.

I am both sad and pleased to say that I think this is it for mechanical changes to Under The Yoke, the game was never built with these mechanics in mind and some of the design decisions I made when starting development 3-4 years ago are both too difficult to replace and too difficult to design around.

There are other changes I would have really liked to have made, introducing a real Lord who you interact with and a whole favour system for other villagers are just two of many, but I think that will have to wait for a sequel.

I will of course be on bug patrol so please let me know if you encounter any issues either in the steam discussions area or on Discord, otherwise, enjoy!