Three big pieces of the Viking world arrived since the last devlog: you can take to the water, you are no longer alone in the north, and iron is within reach.
Taking to the Water#
There are no boat models in YUMA. Every boat is generated by code from a handful of numbers: length, beam, how much the gunwale sweeps up, the overlapping planks of a clinker-built hull, the curled stem posts, benches, oars, the mast and a striped wool sail. Two boats exist so far: the faering, a small rowing boat for up to four people, and the karve, a thirteen metre longship with oars and a square sail.
Boats float on the sea with its tides, on lakes and on rivers, where they drift with the current. You row with your crew, and your followers take the oars and make the boat faster. The sail works with the real wind of the weather system: running before the wind is fast, a broad reach is the fastest point of sail, and like a real square-rigged ship the karve cannot sail upwind. Boats run aground on beaches, can be pushed off again, carry cargo and are saved with the world.
Clans of the North#
The world now has its own people. Each region can hold a few Norse clans with a name, a chieftain and a culture: raiders, traders or farmers. They live on sheltered shores with good land and keep living while you are far away: they grow, trade with each other, go hungry in hard winters and remember how you treated them.
When you come close, their village rises from the same building blueprints your own villagers use, and its people walk out to meet you. You can talk to the chieftain, trade, bring gifts and, once they trust you, ask someone to join your village. Treat them badly, or let a hungry winter come, and a raiding party may appear at your camp.
Iron From the Bogs#
Iron in the Viking age did not come from mountain mines. It came from the bogs: bog iron, rusty nodules that form under the peat. In YUMA these deposits now lie in bogs and wet hollows of the world. Dig them out, burn charcoal in a kiln, smelt the ore in a bloomery, hammer the bloom into bars at a forge, and the iron age begins: iron axes and picks that bite into the hardest rock, spears, a sword and an iron rimmed round shield.
Also New#
Rain and snow now soak you properly, charcoal keeps a fire going, and a quick multiplayer test confirmed that combat, warmth and the saga journal work with two players on one server.
What’s Next#
Playtesting all of this, real character and animal models, and then the mythic side of the north: barrows, trolls and the first boss.