Today we launched the Steam page for the sequel to Silk Roads: Caravan Kings, Silk Roads II: Paths of Fortune. Silk Roads II: Paths of Fortune builds on all of the features from the original, while expanding them in so many ways. For players who love the economic or family management aspects of Under The Yoke, Silk Roads II has all that and more:

• Build a caravan of unique characters and animals
• Manage the day to day of your camp
• Explore and trade across an open world in any direction
• Play through dynamic events as the world changes around you.

I hope you're in a festive spirit because Christmas has come early! I don't want to spoil this update for you, but it features:

• A few bug fixes and rebalances
• A reworked Animal Market UI (It's dramatically better)
• A bunch of new events for Holy Days, now you can celebrate Christmas like a real medieval peasant, as well as some other Holy Days you may not be as familiar with.

Hey Ladies and Villeins! Afrer several requests from players, I have implemented a system for repeating social interactions with other characters. This should reduce the need to micro. Next to the confirm button you will now find two buttons and a number inbetween. Using these buttons you can decide how many times you want to repeat the same interaction with this character. If your relationship hits a maximum during this period then your character will pause interacting until you've decided what benefit you want from this new friend. This update should be save game compatible. There are also a few minor changes, including a massive decrease to the resources from slaughtered animals (this was primarily balanced around the previous, weekly meal system.) I hope you enjoy!

Fixed a bug that caused animals to produce goods far quicker than desired.

Just a quick early morning patch to fix and issue where items of food wouldn't stack regardless of durability during feasts. This should make hosting a feast much easier.

Just a quick patch to address an issue that was causing animals to produce far more goods than intended.

Hey everyone, sorry for the delay with this patch, I've been away with poor signal and thus haven't been able to push it. I've been reading feedback and patching whilst away so this update should address a few issues, though I have not documented them all, most notably a bug that would cause the music to loop instead of go to the next track, and another that was allowing players to create jam or pickled vegetables when they only had those items in their inventory.

Bet you didn't expect to hear from me so soon! Just polishing up some bits that didn't get addressed in the last update:

• Animals will now consistently increase their meat, fat and bone slaughter values each month that they are fed.
• Animals will generate with a random amount of meat, fat and bone when they are purchased, rather than always being set at near 0.
• Some UI improvements to the Animal Sheet and a description generates for each item the Animal Produces.
• Horses will now provide Hides and Fat when slaughtered rather than nothing.
• The Animal Sheet should stop behaving weirdly in general.
• Bones can now be burned in the Kiln to produce Lime.
• Rebalanced Tallow Candles due to the quantity of fat one animal is able to yield.

Greetings Ladies and Villeins! Today Under The Yoke has received a major update featuring a massive quality of life overhaul as well as some rebalances and some bug fixes. If you're a new Serf joining us from the Steam Farming Fest sale or you're an experienced player who wants to dive back in, this is the update for you!

Info Boxes

Balancing

• The growth rate of crops has been reduced.
• The mill no longer produces as much bread per grain.
• Weeds are a more present threat.
• Fertility is much more important to the health of crops.
• Fertility has been reduced on fields after harvest.

Bug Fixes

• Removing all of your Farmland will no longer cause the game to crash.
• You will no longer be able to go into debt at the animal market.
• Making a Doublet will no longer produce a Tunic.

Welcome all new villeins and returning freemen! A little patch here with a pretty big impact, let's get to it:

• Improvements across the animal sheets, animal sheets should now update more often and more accurately.
• Animals should no longer stay in the pen after they've been sold.
• Character Sheets will now hide when selecting a special social interaction such as marriage or improving skills. This is a stop gap solution until Character Sheets follow the z index.

• Patch to fix an issue with loading furniture caused by the latest patch.
• Parents will no longer be pleased when their offspring die.
• Players can now access the Mill directly from the Cooking menu.

A quick post patch, patch to fix a couple of issues caused by the update and some other fixes and to announce a new (to me) subreddit!

• Changed the reddit social link to: https://www.reddit.com/r/undertheyoke/ a fan run subreddit. Go and check it out!
• Fix for an issue with the villager sheet and animal sheet that would cause them to be clipped by their container, related to the changes made to character sheet to make it not dominate the mouse whenever visible.
• Fix for an issue related to negative prestige which would cause a player to be unable to continue the hallmote even if they weren't running for office.
• Other fixes to elections which should make them run a little smoother.
• Furniture should no longer duplicate after a house upgrade. This should also fix the problem of furniture carrying over across saves.
• Fixed some code around achievements that was causing them not to fire, if you're deep into a save and a whole bunch fire when you load the game or end the year, you'll know it worked.

Apologies for the quietness on my front, but I've been putting together and testing a rather big update for all you villeins! This update not only features bug fixes but also some requested quality of life changes and changes to existing mechanics so give it a read!

• Update to lists UI, henceforth lists should update more dynamically, meaning no more weirdness with characters appearing on some lists and not others or inventory items being selectable and then not or filters disappearing. This may not sound significant but it was a big chunk of work and the impact should be very material.
• Using the same trick that I used on the furniture list and job list, the full social screen of the character sheet should now always appear on screen, no more having to move your character to confirm a selection. I'm not able to test this myself as I have standard screen sizes so if you have a weird screen size and it starts working for you, let me know.
• Reworked the ploughing system. Ploughing should take longer now and account for the new skill system rather than the pre demo system. I've also reworked the UI and removed a few bugs that people had reported. Purchasing help is also more powerful now to incentivise dropping a few pennies here and there.
• Whenever the game generates an entire family (IE at game start or after a family gets wiped out), the game now has a massive preference for larger families with all families consisting of at least a husband and wife. This should help with population density as the game progresses but if people still run into issues around marriage I may look to alternatives.
• Consumable items now decay 1/3rd as fast. This may be an over correction on the balance of food items but giving players less than a month to conserve meats or fruits wasn't satisfying balance so foodstuffs have a bit more longevity now.
• Changes to the character sheet should stop it dominating the UI and blocking other buttons. This is a pretty big change though so keep an eye out for any errors regarding character sheet placement.
• The character inventory no longer has a warning prompt for accepting changes. It was annoying to click through every time you wanted to change your equipped items and it became redundant after the first time you read the warning.
• The market now displays the current durability of an item in text when the item is hovered over. The text is really small in order to fit in the UI as it's not part of the original design so this may be changed.
• The market should now accurately display the new carrying weight after a trade is made.

A patch to address animals producing offspring eternally.

Fixes a crash caused by pregnant animals. Fixes a crash caused by old villagers checking their health. Adds current respect to the Contract at load. Removes an exploit that allowed players to socialise for free. Readds the return to main menu option when quitting the game, a hotly desired feature for some reason.

Huge in effect rather than in size, this update has rationalised the cooking system, so that characters will no longer continue to starve after being assigned a valid meal. This is most likely the cause of a lot of seemingly random character deaths, and also random crashes wherein the system had not been designed to expect characters to die so suddenly and early on. I've also updated the systems to handle these early character deaths but they should no longer occur save for in fringe scenarios where someone is intentionally trying to kill their starting character quickly. There may still be other crashes that I am not aware of so keep reporting your bugs to me but I think this update should eliminate the cause of a lot of people's frustrations with the game.

A few fixes for you tonight: Feasts are once more fully functional including being able to use items across multiple states of wear. Villagers will no longer consider everyone under the sun to be their cousin. Animals will now produce meat at a higher pace, with it ticking up by 1 per turn until they hit their maximum yield, only losing produce when they go without food. Young animals will still produce far less meat but will more consistently have meat on them for butchery. Fixed a crash caused by villagers attempting to continue a failed courtship, possibly the cause of some random crashes. Disabled the social interaction button when an interaction was not selected which would cause a crash. Note Villagers and Characters do age, their sheets don't update in real time in order to save on resources. Age isn't often an important factor in gameplay and moving a character or closing the village view will update their sheet to reflect their current age.

Tonight's patch addresses issues with feasts amongst others: Firstly, feasts should now improve opinions of guests as intended. Secondly, when you select an ingredient for a feast, you will now use any amount of that ingredient regardless of it's current durability. For example, you would no longer need 10 bread of exactly 50 durability, you may now use 5 bread of 50 and another 5 of 25. Along with that, the elections have been patched in order to fix a random crash when elected. Every month that your family is starving will come with an alert popup to remind you to select a meal, even digging up some roots is better than no food at all. When loading a save in which you were upgrading your home, you should no longer lose your build progress. Crafting a wooden ring will no longer cause you to produce a null product and all the issues that go along with that. Possible other minor bug fixes that have slipped my mind.

A handful of bug fixes today but not as many as the onslaught yesterday:

• Changes to the animals tab so they no longer disappear from the tab when they've been used as beasts of burden in the town.
• Changes to the UI of some special interaction screens.
• Fixed a bug that caused the Skill Improvement screen not to disappear after use.

A pretty big update today, I won't be able to cover everything but let's cover the big ones:

• Social System is actually fixed this time, each special interaction now has a description and should launch correctly when selected, also you should no longer gifts of 0 quantity.
• The game should no longer lose your workspaces after upgrading your house.
• Weeds and fertility will now have a more significant impact on the growth rate of crops.
• Default on taxes will no longer cause a crash, also the penalty is less severe.
• Animals can no longer be butchered after being sold.
• Even more dynamic menus for players using unique screen sizes.
• General fixes to jobs that had the wrong ingredients.
• Default save file names should now work on Windows.
• Tools will now degrade with use.
• Penalties for using faith, taste, etc during social activities will now stack.

Latest patch features a handful of bug fixes:

• Changes to the woodworking bench so woodworking jobs should now be available.
• Changes to the Social System so save files from the demo should no longer crash when taking certain actions.
• Update to the Character Sheet logic so the actions table should no longer fall off the edge of the screen when characters are working near the bottom of the screen.
• Changes to the larder to fix various weirdness around job ingredients.
• Henceforth wives will be given all relevant inventory slots, wives from existing saves will only having clothing until you remarry.

• Dismantled furniture should no longer ask to be built again when replaced with new furniture.
• Jobs requiring a certain quantity of tool will now accurately look for multiple tools rather than try to find all the durability from a single tool.
• Activity boxes should no longer be cut off by other work areas, so second characters on furniture, the church, the forest and other areas may now have the option to work at a job more than once.
• Children should now be available for hard labour from the moment they turn 6.

This patch features several changes, mostly to the social system:

• The favour social interaction which grants a guaranteed support in elections and court will no longer cause a crash when selected.
• The gift social interaction will now give gifts of inferior quality if a gift is valued too highly rather than no gift at all.
• Infants under the age of 6 will no longer lose mood as other characters do so there's no need to micromanage them.

Hey everyone, a lot of fixes coming your way so let's round them off:

• Characters will now be able to work alongside other characters on jobs where the cost of doing the job has already been removed from the player inventory.
• You should now be able to proceed building furniture between saves
• Taxes have been reworked so a serfs week-work obligations will properly reduce their taxes down to 0 if completed.
• Taxes are now paid on the first Monday of September and Tithes the second Monday after that.
• Reworked the Hallmote UI so there's not so much scrolling around if you just want to "Next" your way through it.
• Reworked starving so you don't take a tick of health damage until after you've made the decision not to feed your characters. Also health damage will now slowly tick back up so short term famines aren't quite so brutal.
• Reworked the health system generally so Characters won't die quite so young. Still needs tweaking but it's getting there.
• Reworked some notification systems to better display text.
• Reworked the character inventory system so when new items are added to the player inventory they can be equipped by other characters right away.

A small update to re-enable Quick Saving which was caused by a recent patch to prevent the game from locking up after certain events. During this period the game should have continued to autosave so no significant progress should have been lost.

Another quick update with some fixes for events which will stop them from triggering twice in one go which should prevent the game locking up. This has also enabled more events so you may see some new ones, especially when it comes to interacting with other villagers or family members. Also made some changes to the Time Bar so the end of the month text no longer pops into the small time bar and the season icon should now be static and look better all around.

Another update to address stability concerns:

• Elections should no longer cause the game to freeze, they will also now be more competitive with more villagers running.
• Trials will no longer freeze when being sued by the Manor Lord. Players will also no longer be presented with trials in which they are neither a juror nor a plaintiff.
• The game should no longer randomly get stuck on pause after tax season.
• The game should no longer randomly get stuck on pause after an event.
• General back end improvements to Village AI which should alleviate some issues.
• The funeral menu now looks much better. Not critical to game performance but it was annoying me.

Addressing a few more issues raised by the community. All trials should now feature a character as either a plaintiff or as a member of the jury. Villagers will now no longer hoist their children on you. Game lock caused by multiple events generating at once but only one appearing should no longer occur. Children under the age of 6 who cannot work will no longer be able to assist in plough work or take a journey into town. Please alert me of any additional issues that crop up on either the Steam discussion page or any of the social media platforms linked on the main page.

A small update that addresses some stability concerns, particularly when dealing with trade or tax screens. Character Sheets will now close whenever another screen pops up to avoid interfering with the UI. Also rebalanced taxes and tithes, taxes will be requested in Winter after the Autumn sow. The game will now consistently track tithe payments.

Fixed an error that caused the game to crash when a villager became pregnant. Shout out to vyraka and bridgeofblues for their help identifying the error. Increased the amount of rye on the autumn feel when starting a new game.

Under The Yoke is now available to purchase! Experience over 250 years of English history in the full release of medieval peasant life-sim, Under The Yoke. For those of you returning from the demo, continue your story (and save) in a game revamped with your feedback. Play with an all new font, new items and inventory slots, a total rebalance of trade, items, jobs and moods. Also featured in the full release, the game will track how you play and relay your stats at the end of the game. Want to know how many generations you lived through or how many trials you won? The game now also features dynamic famine events. Each year, a poor harvest may result in low food supplies which will have a chaotic impact on the marketplace. Profit with high food prices or suffer the effects of starvation, but be warned, especially bad famines were known to occur towards the end of the game's time period. Some famines may take several years to return to normal so storing food is more important than ever. With the full release we are also making changes to the demo, now you can play the first 15 years of the game up to the year 1100. Set your family up for success before launching your save in the full game. All this and more in the full release of Under The Yoke, available now!

Welcome ladies and villeins! I am proud to announce that Under The Yoke finally has a firm release date for the 28th of March! We're excited for players to get to experience all 250 years of medieval life-simulation, especially with all of the recent changes, from a complete facelift with the new font to new mechanics and more. But, it wouldn't be an update without some new content, so jump back into Under The Yoke and check out your character Inventory screen. No longer are you limited to clothes, now you can equip jewellery to command greater respect, implements to make work a little faster and accessories to give your character a little extra cheer. I don't want to spoil them all for you, but there are 20 more new items in the game, some of which you can now craft yourself!

Ladies and Villeins, there was no way that this update was going live without me posting an update. You'll find lots of changes in this update, some little like showing the time left before food decays or the durability of an item in your inventory, and some major such as We have a new font! That's right! After some (rather funny) constructive criticism during the Steam demo I have relented and implemented a new font. It's much more readable, as you can see in the image above, but still sticks with the overall written theme. In this update you can expect a lot of re-balancing, it's now certainly worthwhile to try out your green thumb in the garden as we've completely overhauled the vegetable and herb growth rates and yields, and the same for processing and storing food. Speaking of food, not only does cooking tick on a monthly basis now but so do moods, now there's a lot more long term planning into caring for your characters, though they may get annoyed a little slower now, they'll also get happy a lot slower too. All these changes are still quite raw, the UI will take some time to adapt to the new font and the mechanic changes were so vast that a whole new round of playtests is in order. So get in there and give me some feedback! Oh, and there are also some new events, I can't imagine anyone exhausted the events during the demo but, just in case, let me know if you spot them.

Greetings fellow villeins! We're now about a month out from the first time some of you got to experience Under The Yoke at Steam Next Fest (the demo is still available for those of you that missed it). We received an awful lot of great feedback on the game so I wanted to share a little behind the scenes on what you can expect from Under The Yoke prior to a full launch in a few months time.

UX

Tutorial

Bugs

Balance

When?

Join us for an exclusive glimpse into the heart of Norman England as we showcase "Under The Yoke" during this year's Steam Next Fest! Dive into over 250 years of meticulously recreated Medieval English history, where you, as a humble serf, will shape the destiny of your family and leave an indelible mark on the pages of time. Forge Your Path from Serf to Freeman: Begin your journey with just an acre of land, a ramshackle cottage, and a determination to prosper. Guide your family through the Middle Ages, navigating the challenges of daily life, relationships, and survival. Each character possesses unique traits, shaping their personalities and influencing their destinies. Choose wisely, for the traits impact their compatibility, preferred activities, and unlock special events. Attend to Essential Needs: Balance the daily toil of your characters by meeting their Taste, Rest, Faith, and Social needs. Delve into an immersive medieval experience, satisfying their tastes with over 50 authentic ingredients, nurturing their faith in genuine church settings, and fostering social connections through village gatherings. Master Diverse Skills of Peasant Life: Surviving in the Middle Ages demands a diverse skill set. Master the arts of Farming, Herbalism, Cooking, Husbandry, Carpentry, and Tailoring. From plowing fields to crafting handcrafted furniture, there's always work to be done as the seasons and the value of goods change. Navigate Social Dynamics: Build friendships, pursue romance, and interact with neighbors as the village thrives around you. Beware of rival families vying for elections and jury seats. Forge alliances for collective prosperity, and enhance your cottage and garden with handcrafted furniture to elevate the value of your goods. Manage Livestock and Embrace Tradition: Farm animals are essential to your medieval life. Purchase and breed cows, horses, goats, sheep, pigs, and chickens. Engage in the age-old Hallmote tradition, addressing legal disputes and participating in village politics. Negotiate feudal dues and responsibilities with your Lord, paving your path from serfdom to freedom. Dynamic Event System: Immerse yourself in the vibrant tapestry of medieval England with a dynamic event system, featuring hundreds of unique events that ensure every play-through remains fresh. Experience history firsthand as your choices shape your family's legacy throughout the ages. Walk Through 250 Years of History: Under The Yoke intricately replicates the medieval rights system, allowing you to experience history like never before. From 1085 to 1335, respond to pivotal events, witness the world evolving around you, and walk in the shoes of the common man as you shape your family's destiny. Don't miss this opportunity to step back in time and experience the rich tapestry of Medieval English life in Under The Yoke. Join our developer live-stream for an in-depth look at the game mechanics, historical accuracy, and the immersive world that awaits you. Mark your calendars for an unforgettable journey through the ages!

Join us for an exclusive glimpse into the heart of Norman England as we showcase "Under The Yoke" during this year's Steam Next Fest! Dive into over 250 years of meticulously recreated Medieval English history, where you, as a humble serf, will shape the destiny of your family and leave an indelible mark on the pages of time. Forge Your Path from Serf to Freeman: Begin your journey with just an acre of land, a ramshackle cottage, and a determination to prosper. Guide your family through the Middle Ages, navigating the challenges of daily life, relationships, and survival. Each character possesses unique traits, shaping their personalities and influencing their destinies. Choose wisely, for the traits impact their compatibility, preferred activities, and unlock special events. Attend to Essential Needs: Balance the daily toil of your characters by meeting their Taste, Rest, Faith, and Social needs. Delve into an immersive medieval experience, satisfying their tastes with over 50 authentic ingredients, nurturing their faith in genuine church settings, and fostering social connections through village gatherings. Master Diverse Skills of Peasant Life: Surviving in the Middle Ages demands a diverse skill set. Master the arts of Farming, Herbalism, Cooking, Husbandry, Carpentry, and Tailoring. From plowing fields to crafting handcrafted furniture, there's always work to be done as the seasons and the value of goods change. Navigate Social Dynamics: Build friendships, pursue romance, and interact with neighbors as the village thrives around you. Beware of rival families vying for elections and jury seats. Forge alliances for collective prosperity, and enhance your cottage and garden with handcrafted furniture to elevate the value of your goods. Manage Livestock and Embrace Tradition: Farm animals are essential to your medieval life. Purchase and breed cows, horses, goats, sheep, pigs, and chickens. Engage in the age-old Hallmote tradition, addressing legal disputes and participating in village politics. Negotiate feudal dues and responsibilities with your Lord, paving your path from serfdom to freedom. Dynamic Event System: Immerse yourself in the vibrant tapestry of medieval England with a dynamic event system, featuring hundreds of unique events that ensure every play-through remains fresh. Experience history firsthand as your choices shape your family's legacy throughout the ages. Walk Through 250 Years of History: Under The Yoke intricately replicates the medieval rights system, allowing you to experience history like never before. From 1085 to 1335, respond to pivotal events, witness the world evolving around you, and walk in the shoes of the common man as you shape your family's destiny. Don't miss this opportunity to step back in time and experience the rich tapestry of Medieval English life in Under The Yoke. Join our developer live-stream for an in-depth look at the game mechanics, historical accuracy, and the immersive world that awaits you. Mark your calendars for an unforgettable journey through the ages!

Welcome ladies and villeins! This is a quick update to let everyone know that the Under The Yoke demo is now available to play for free! Play from 1085 for as long as you can survive as you begin your journey through the medieval world. Trade, marry and farm your way out of serfdom and into prosperity as you develop your land, rights, holdings and even your family. Just head to the store page and press the big green demo button to get going!

Welcome ladies and villeins to a very medieval Christmas with Under The Yoke. I've been a little stuck on what to write for this devlog, last year at Christmas time we discussed Christmas celebrations during the medieval period, then at halloween we discussed how special holidays are represented in Under The Yoke. So, what is there left to discuss?

Winter in the middle ages

Welcome Ladies and Villeins to a spooky special Halloween Under The Yoke Devlog. For our new Steam friends, Under The Yoke Devlogs have typically taken the form of talking about the history behind a subject before cracking into how we represent it in gameplay, so if youre not big on history, feel free to skip ahead to the In Under The Yoke section.

In History

In Under The Yoke

Welcome ladies and villeins to the first Under The Yoke devlog. For those of you that have been following the game for some time, you may be wondering why were at #1 instead of #30 something. Well, weve had a lot of new friends join us from Steam, and as the game has progressed in development its worth refreshing our view on some of the mechanics. However, for those of you who are joining us from Steam, do feel free to pop over to priorygames.com to binge the old devlogs and get ahead of the pack. Now, lets introduce you a little to the world of Under The Yoke. Setting Under The Yoke is set shortly after the Norman conquest of England, namely 1085. You begin the game by making your mark in the Domesday book, a wide survey of King Williams kingdom, though he would not live to see his work carried out, it does mark as one of the most extensive historical records from the period and a major historical source. Who do you play? Most of you know by now that rather than a King or a Lord of even a Knight, you will be playing as a lowly peasant, with a meagre plot of land to your name, a dilapidated cottage and enough food to last you through to the next harvest, your path to glory awaits. How do you play? The game is turn based, with each turn lasting a day. You control your family members, able to drag them to different work areas and assign them tasks, such as fishing in the river, threshing crops in the fields or spinning wool in the cottage. Throughout the 250 years of game time, you will be confronted with a variety of mechanics that draw from real history, from feudal contracts to legal disputes to random events. Now some of these things, such as Hallmotes, may be entirely unfamiliar to you, but stick around these devlogs and youll get a head start on what to expect.