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Rule by Fear! (or Not) - Changelog: 1.4.9 - Sanctuary in Time
🕑 Added 2025-09-19 23:51:20 +0000 UTCGreetings, one and all!
I've got some exciting new features and content to share. Version 1.4.9 of Sanctuary in Time introduces all-new, darker options for managing your settlement. Will you be a ruthless tyrant or a benevolent lord? It's entirely up to you!
These updates are coming to patrons first, then after the early access period, they’ll be released for others as well.
Max (Novus Operandi)
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New Feature: Rule by Fear! (or Not)
A new stat called ‘Submission’ has been introduced to the settlement. It serves as a counterbalance and alternative to raising a follower’s Devotion. Whereas Devotion represents a follower’s obedience through trust, Submission now represents their obedience through fear. It can be raised through player actions that embody firm discipline & punishment.
New followers will now be more naturally trusting or fearful when they first arrive. And depending on which of these states is the more prominent, either their Devotion or Submission stats will be displayed on filecards and weekly duty reports (though both will always be shown in the more in-depth Manage interface).
Duty assignments & customizing options have been updated so that any assignments or options previously unlocked by raising a follower’s Devotion, can now also be unlocked by raising their Submission instead.
Inspections have been updated so that followers motivated to obey through Submission will greet the player differently than those motivated through Devotion or Love.
Side story events have been updated so that the new Submission stat is always kept in mind. In some cases, new choices have been added to existing events or the results of existing choices have been modified to account for this new stat.
Dismissal scenes have been updated so that followers who are predominantly submissive to the player will now respond differently when being dismissed.
Raising a follower’s level of fear (i.e. Submission) will now result in a natural decrease of their trust (i.e. Devotion) in you (and vice versa). The amount of the decrease in the opposing stat will be less than the original increase, but still, there will be consequences to every action, so bear that in mind when deciding how to best rule your settlement.
In-game tutorials have been updated to communicate information about the new Submission stat.
A new Cheat Menu option has been added for ‘Followers start at Max. Submission’. This Cheat Menu option, when enabled, will allow you to initiate a New Game Start with all followers beginning at maximum Submission.
New Feature: Automatic Punishments for Followers
A new inspection option has been added to ‘Start Regular Punishments’. When selecting this option during a follower inspection, you decide that a willful follower could benefit from a firm hand and regular punishments. So, those are exactly what they’ll receive. From that moment on, whether resting or working at an assigned duty, that follower will experience increases in Submission rather than Devotion, and the flavor text surrounding those increases will also be different. You can then countermand this order, if so desired, by selecting ‘Stop Regular Punishments’ from the same inspection menu.
LOOK CLOSER choices in dialogues have been updated (for followers already recruited) so that a brief addendum mentions whether you’re fostering that follower’s Devotion to you or her Submission to your authority, as well as the current level of that stat. (This is determined based on whether or not she’s currently receiving regular punishments from the player.)
New Coaching Activity: Tough Love
A new coaching activity is now available called “tough love”. Followers who possess very low levels of health or submission now qualify for this form of coaching, and initiating it will result in weekly reports of their progress as you strive to bring their levels up to a more acceptable standard. This new form of coaching serves as a counterbalance to the “moral support” option, and focuses on stern admonishments and light corporal punishment to motivate followers to excellence.
Initiating “tough love” coaching will automatically enable regular punishments for a follower, while initiating “moral support” coaching will do the opposite.
New Dismissal Choice: Execution
A new, darker choice for dismissing followers is now available. You can choose to execute them, instead of the usual options. This will lead to a scene in which the MC personally dispatches the follower in a somewhat gruesome fashion before disposing of the body.
Misc. Updates
Titles for the lower levels of Devotion have been renamed so they now describe a more neutral absence of trust, rather than outright mistrust; Mistrustful, Deeply Uncertain, Very Uncertain, and Uncertain have been renamed as Wary, Slightly Confident, Fairly Confident, and Conditional respectively. This was done to balance Devotion against the new Submission stat.
Follower orgasms will no longer increase their Devotion to the MC. Now, they will only increase Love (during inspections or sex) + Courtship skill (during sex only). This was done to prevent undesired consequences for followers who are being primarily managed through the new Submission stat (as increases to Devotion will now decrease Submission).
New scene text has been added to inspections which only appears under special conditions. If the follower being inspected is a family member of the MC (any relation) & the UNDRESS choice is selected for the first time, a unique response will be displayed which comments on their relationship. Afterward, they’ll respond as normal.
Fixed bug that could cause the recruitment event for aunts & cousins to fail to load under certain conditions.
