Greetings medievalists!
Do you remember when we mentioned that we’re constantly discussing new features and what needs to be overhauled with existing ones? Let’s dive into overhauling features, specifically temperature, which will be revamped in the next update.
Currently, the game recognizes only two types of temperature: inside and outside. Inside temperature (rooms) considers all the objects emitting heat inside it and finds the median value, which applies to the entire room. So, if you had one torch in a corner of a medium sized room, the heat from that torch would be distributed evenly throughout the room. While the feature worked well enough (even if it wasn’t realistic), it caused some of you to ask questions like: “Why doesn’t the room next to it receive some of the heat” or “Why heat sources placed outside don’t emit heat”.
Don’t worry, we’re introducing a new temperature system in the next update, that will make things more believable and fun. Rooms will now heat each other, depending on their contents. For example, a kitchen with a stove and torches will heat the bedroom above it if the floor separating them has low insulation. Since everything will emit heat, including furniture, buildings, animals, and settlers, you’ll have plenty of ways to ponder on how to distribute heat. Fun fact: In medieval times, people positioned cattle in the room beneath their living quarters to control the temperature. You can do that too!
If all this sounds a bit overwhelming, we’ve got you covered. We’ll introduce a temperature overlay button that will show the temperature distribution and help you optimize your gameplay experience.
To tackle temperature, we had to change how sunlight and shadows work in-game. In the upcoming update, they will impact the gameplay. For example, the angle of the sun and shadows will impact your map, and the type of map will influence the overall temperature distribution. Winter will be harsher on mountain maps, while on valley maps, they’ll barely be an inconvenience.
During the summer, things will get warm, and working outside will be difficult due to the heat. But fear not, settlers will look for shadows (tree shadows, ground shadows, building shadows, you name it) to avoid negative mood modifiers and protect their health. Wearing appropriate hats will also protect them from possible heatstroke.
That is all for this time. It might seem somewhat abstract-ish, but the way temperature calculates and emits paves the way for many stuff we plan for the future. We’ve made some other changes too, including the day/night cycle, where plants can be grown, and more. We’ll dive deeper into these changes in our next MMT which you can expect next week. Until then…
Stay medieval!