Slavic Magic studio has kicked off a new beta for a major update. If you’ve been waiting for livestock, now’s the moment.
Cows and calves are the headline: buy them from the livestock trader, collect milk as passive income, or send animals to the butcher for beef and hides — e.g., choices matter. They behave like livestock, not just decorative pawns.
Oats are in the fields now. You can eat the grain straight or turn it into feed for the animals on your farm — feed that will actually be needed later (see below).
The economy got a meaningful tweak: there’s a hunger mechanic for animals. Pasture species — cows, calves, sheep, lambs — need stored feed each month of winter; neglect them and they can die. It’s a colder, more attention-rewarding winter; be prepared to stockpile.
Drink options expanded: apple cider and mead can be brewed at the brewery, using apples and honey respectively. Small comforts for a harsh medieval life.
Crafting was overhauled to cut down on micro-management. The old focus system is gone. In its place: an active recipe queue with prioritization so you can run several production lines at once and reprioritize on the fly. Less clicking, more... planning (or chaos, depending on your playstyle).
Global map logistics and AI got a batch of fixes. Barn workers should now collect overflowing sheaves of wheat and rye from the fields, and the market restocking issues have been addressed — the shop should behave more reliably. Little fixes, but they add up.
Animals also move more naturally. There’s an experimental smooth-movement system that avoids instant turns and gives a curved walking path; cows in pastures have a new slow grazing mode. It reads like a minor polish, but it changes the feel of a field when watching herds.
AI opponents were tuned too: they’ll pick initial development perks correctly and place construction sites properly. Fewer dumb starts, hopefully more interesting matches.
The devs plan active polishing and bug-squashing on this beta with the aim of merging everything into the main branch by end of August 2026. They also say new development branches for medieval settlements will start appearing right after the patch lands — take that with a grain of salt if you want, but it’s their timeline.
Want in on the beta? On Steam: open the project properties, go to the Beta tab, and enter the secret password “veryNiceBasket.” FYI: remove all third-party mods before updating to avoid critical crashes.