Life, Death & Industry Update

Life, Death & Industry Update Notes

Greetings Lords & Ladies,

This update introduces several major new systems that deepen gameplay and simulation. The Affliction System adds illness and injuries driven by the new Hygiene & Warmth Stat, requiring players to manage villager health through treatment and proper living conditions. Expanded production chains introduce buildings like the Apothecary, Apiary, and Bathhouse, supporting medicine, hygiene, and new resources. Creative/Custom Mode has been added into a standalone experience for unrestricted building including two new tutorial scenarios. Alongside this, improved AI behaviors, personality-driven villagers, and early dynamic event systems begin shaping a more reactive and immersive world. Unarmed Combat, Torches, and Pets are also featured in this update. Additionally, we have initially re-enabled partial Controller Support as we have overhauled its support in the main menu and character creation. We will continue to expand on it in the game menus, but wanted to share our progress with you. We have also updated localizations for various languages - some languages are still presently being localized but the goal will be to continually update translations as we release new updates. This is a major systems update - so old saves will be marked as out of date - especially as we’ve overhauled our User Interface. A new save is highly recommended.

New Features & Systems

Affliction System

Villagers are now affected by illness, injury, and environmental conditions.

• New Hygiene stat added, influencing sickness and recovery

• Afflictions now include Minor, Major, and Severe tiers

• Injuries and illnesses impact morale, productivity, and movement

• Medical items (such as splints and tonics) can now treat specific afflictions

• Villagers will actively seek treatment when needed

  • In a near future patch we’ll be finalizing affliction with the bedridden state along with villager deaths - tended to by the Gravedigger and Grave Plots. We had some glaring issues here so decided to hold off on it in order to improve.

Warmth & Equipment Updates

• Clothing and armor now contribute to a Warmth stat

• Updated warmth calculations now account for all equipped items

• New UI displays warmth values in item tooltips

• Environmental exposure now has a stronger gameplay impact

  • Summer will apply heat to villagers, presently there are no counter gear against heat so we temporarily limited heat extremes - but straw hats and water cooling will come into effect in a post update patch.

New Buildings & Production Chains

• Apothecary (medicine crafting and treatment)

• Apiary (honey and wax production)

• Bathhouse (hygiene improvement)

• Town Bell (used during raid events and alerts)

Additional updates:

• Wax crafting added to Tannery

• New recipes such as Honey Bread

• Splint crafting added for injury treatment

• Building radius preview toggles in building details

AI & Villager Improvements

• Villagers now:

  • Fully satisfy hunger instead of eating single items

  • Eat from building inventories when seated

  • Use taverns during leisure time

  • Seek out medicine when afflicted

• New systems:

  • Villager personality traits expanded

  • Personality-based dialogue implemented

  • Recruitment pool expanded with new villagers

  • Rebalanced recruitment costs and stat caps

Combat

• Unarmed combat system introduced

• New additions Torch:

  • Torch can now function as a usable item

• Dogs will participate in combat acting as guards.

• Updated raid behavior:

• Improved logic and engagement flow

• Raids now target storehouse

• Town Bell triggers during raid events

• Improved waypoint and event indicators

Events, Quests & World Systems

• New quests and event types added

• Introduction of Dynamic Event Generation (DGEN) framework

• New POI-based events and exploration content

• Improved quest flow and stability

• Ledger system expanded to better track events and quests

UI & Quality of Life

Major UI Improvements

• New Critical Issues system with severity indicators

• Replaced all Character Portraits with in engine screenshots

• Building radius preview added to building UI

• Updated item tooltips with more detailed stats

• Improved quest UI and navigation

Controller Support (Ongoing)

• Improved gamepad navigation across menus

• Character creator usability improvements

• General input cleanup and stability fixes

Economy & Balance Changes

• Added crafting priorities & limits to prevent overproduction

• Rebalanced:

  • Villager recruitment costs

  • Item values and economy

  • Food and hunger systems

• Medical items now:

  • Heal over time instead of instantly

  • Have clearer roles and descriptions

Audio & Dialogue

• Voiceovers and facial animations integrated into scenarios

• Dialogue system expanded to support:

  • Personality-driven responses

  • Affliction-based dialogue

• Music system updated:

  • Improved timing between tracks

  • Better ambient flow

Art & Visual Updates

• Introduction of Wattle and Daub building set

• Updated main menu visuals

• Updated Chainmail and Plate sets with Norman Conical Helms

• New Clay Roof build parts

• Updated textures, materials, and lighting across environments

• New icons for buildings, items, and UI elements

• Optimization passes across:

  • Textures

  • LODs

  • HLODs

  • Foliage and environment assets

Bug Fixes & Stability

This update includes a large number of fixes and improvements, including:

• Fixed villagers and NPCs incorrectly clearing targets, improving AI reliability

• Fixed hunger behavior so villagers properly satisfy hunger instead of partially eating

• Fixed villagers not eating from building inventories while seated

• Fixed multiple creatures (wolves, boars, bears) not attacking correctly

• Fixed enemies and NPCs failing to properly detect or engage targets

• Fixed AI getting stuck in combat states or animations

• Fixed creatures continuing to move after death

• Fixed raid-related issues

• Raiders behaving incorrectly during attacks

• Raid events persisting or triggering improperly

• Fixed waypoint placement issues in Tactical View (including waypoints spawning in the sky)

• Fixed inability to rotate Tactical View without exiting build mode

• Building radius preview not displaying correctly

• Inventory and UI panels disappearing or not updating

• Incorrect or missing tooltips and item data

• Button highlight and navigation issues

• Quest UI not updating or displaying properly

• Items not moving correctly when assigned to porters

• Crafting recipes not updating properly in saved games

• Currency consumption and overflow handling errors

• Broken dialogue links and incorrect NPC targeting

• Quest steps failing to trigger or complete

• Duplicate or conflicting quest logic

• Incorrect affliction tags and overlapping effects

• Medical items not properly resolving conditions

• Affliction UI and tracking inconsistencies

• Missing or broken facial animations and lip sync

• Dialogue audio not playing correctly

• Floating foliage, rocks, and assets

• Z-fighting and material artifacts

• Incorrect collisions on various objects

• Broken or overlapping HLODs

• Texture and LOD inconsistencies

• Conflicts with RawInput and controller plugins

• UI navigation inconsistencies with gamepad

• Fixed crashes and compile errors across multiple systems

• General performance improvements and backend cleanup

Localization

• Updated localization files and resolved conflicts

• Added support for additional languages (ongoing improvements)

This update represents a foundational step toward deeper simulation systems, quests mechanics, and especially with the introduction of afflictions, hygiene, and expanded production chains. Many of these systems will continue to evolve as we refine balance and player feedback as we move towards Survival based mechanics.

As always, your feedback is critical in shaping Noble Legacy. Thank you for being part of the journey and we hope you enjoy this update. If enjoy Noble Legacy, our progress, and want to support the team. Be sure to leave a review - let us know your thoughts, and join our community!

– Studio 369