One of the mechanics that sets Going Medieval apart from other colony sims is the ability to build and create on multiple levels. With the Z level system, players can build houses with multiple stories, cellars and even complete underground bases.
Building a cellar in Going Medieval can be a great way to save space in the main room and create an area where items can be stored. Whatever you plant on creating a cellar for in Going Medieval, this is the guide for you!
What is a Cellar?
As mentioned above, Going medieval has a system where players can build up higher, or dig deep into the ground. A cellar is a room that is under a house generally used for storage. This can also be called a basement. A cellar can be created before, or after constructing a house in the game. Although, it would be easier to build the cellar first due to the structural integrity rules. In Going Medieval, you will have to build structurally sound buildings. This means floors will have to have supports. You can use wooden support beams, or even walls that act as support columns.
How to Build a Cellar in Going Medieval
To build a cellar Going Medieval you will have to use the Mine action. For the same of this guide, I will be adding a cellar to an already existing building. You can follow these steps whether you have already built a room, or want to build the cellar first. To make a cellar, go to your building first. Figure out what are you want to use as a cellar. It will be a good idea to research the first research task before trying this. Architecture is the first research task and adds the ability to build wooden support beams. These will be important for keeping your floor up. It will minimize the need for a lot of support columns.
First, select the Mine action from your main UI screen. This is the icon which looks like a pickaxe in the bottom right. Now, mine out a few tiles in the floor of your cellar-bearing house. You can either mine a few tiles for your staircase in the house, or make a cellar entrance from the outside. This depends on where you would like your staircase. In the image below, I am going to make a staircase inside the house. The staircase will require 5 blocks to be mined out. You will need to have a block free at the top and bottom of the staircase for your settlers to get to it. Now, mine out the area you want to use as a cellar.
The area you have selected will be dug out by your colonists. Obviously if you wanted to make an entrance from the outside, you’d have to mine out a few blocks on the outside.
Make a Staircase to the Cellar
Once there is enough of the dirt mined out, you are able to start building a staircase! Open up the Base construction menu with the icon on the bottom left of the screen. You can also press the F1 key to open this building menu. Here you will see the pieces for building construction. Pick the staircase option. You can build the staircase from many different types of materials. Once you have the staircase selected, a sub-menu will appear with different variants. My settlers had mined enough of the cellar out so I started work on the staircase in the image below.
The settlers will continue to dig out the cellar and they will also build a staircase at the same time. You will need to have free space to start building the staircase on the next level. Sometimes there will be rocks or other resources in the way preventing you from placing down the staircase. You will have to put the staircase anywhere you can in this case just to get a settler down there to move the resources.
Now that we have a staircase built, we will get started on building up the base floor of the house.
Building the Floor Over the Cellar
Your settlers now have access to the cellar. You still have a large hole in your house though! We will build a floor and fix that now. As I mentioned before if you want to build a good sized cellar you will need to unlock the wooden beams. We start by building wooden beams around 3 tiles away from each other. The maximum a wooden beam can span in 10 blocks. Unfortunately my cellar was too long for this otherwise I would have just made two long beams across the long sides.
You can find the wooden beam under Base once you have unlocked the piece. Now, we will wait until our settlers have built the wooden supports! Now we are ready to build a floor once the beams are in. To build your first floor, go back to the base building menu. From here, select the Wooden Floor. You don’t have to use a wooden floor. From here there a few different variants for flooring. Now, simply click and drag over the area you want to build a floor. If your camera is on the wrong floor you should navigate back to ground level using the Z and X keys.
Now, because you have already built more than enough supports you are able to build a nice sturdy floor here on top. This acts as a roof to the cellar. Your colonists are able to walk around on the top and bottom floors once this is build. Even if they can’t walk over to the blueprint your colonists are able to built the floors from below. You don’t have to worry what order they build the floors in. Once this is finished we are able to start decorating. You can place most buildings and items here. Although some facilities may require a more stable ground and thus will have to be built in the cellar on on the ground.
Using the Cellar in Going Medieval
Now your settlers have a great little cellar room in the bottom of their house. It’s up to you to build whatever you like down there. Perhaps you will use the cellar for food storage? This can be a good idea if each of your settlers has a separate house. Having a quick access to food each morning and night will keep them from running back and forth to stockpiles. Maybe you want a tailoring operation int he cellar? The choice is yours!
I put two images side-by-side here so you can see the ground level of the building and the cellar. Then, I placed an Oak Brethren prayer spot and some decoration in the cellar. This is going to be the house of a devout worshiper. Using the same method, you are able to make a cellar as many stories deep as you’d like. Just make sure to use the proper structural supports!
