Settlement

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To see a list of the current settlements, see the Category Settlements.

New deed system

The deed system was recently updated, see this website for details: http://sites.google.com/a/wurmonline.com/new-deed-system/

Description

A settlement is an area of land owned by a player or group of players. A settlement is marked by a settlement token in the exact center of the settlement.

Advantages

• Deed guards protecting the settlement
• Reduced decay on structures
• Village chat
• Respawn at your own settlement from anywhere on the map when you die.
• Respawn at allied settlements that are within 50 tiles when you die.
• Skill-loss when dying on your own deed or allied deed is only 0.025. Suicides have the normal skill-loss of 0.25.
• Control of who is allowed which actions within the settlement area
• Setting reputations to keep out unwanted people
• A settlement token to have your bank account at
• Instant logout when leaving Wurm inside the settlement (some exceptions apply)
• Champions suiciding on a deed get a 50% chance of not counting as a real death
• Less skill decay (see the token for how much)

Founding

To found a settlement you must first obtain a settlement form. Unlike writs, which are created by building a house, settlement forms must be purchased from a NPC trader. The price of a form is 10 silver.

Settlements can only be founded within your kingdom. On the wild server, this might require building guard towers.

The settlement is usually centered on the settlement token, and covers its size in tiles in every direction. A size 10 settlement thus covers a 21x21 square (10 + 1 + 10). This area includes the tile borders' "outside" the outermost tiles.

If the founding tile of the settlement has a house or fences, the token is moved to a random spot away from them. The deed borders do not move with it.

Founding a settlement too close to water will fail. Each token must be placed a certain distance from tiles submersed in water. In the case of a size 5 deed, there must be no water tiles in a radius of 2 tiles from the center of the deed. This means that a 5x5 square should be at the center of where you plan to deed.

Tip: You can test whether you are able to plant a deed at your current location simply by trying to found it.

Deed resizing

Deeds can be resized by the mayor at the token or with the settlement deed.

Disbanding

• A deed may be disbanded. The owner receives half of the cost of the settlement form (5s), and half of the remaining upkeep if manually disbanded. The owner will receive nothing back if the deed is disbanded due to lack of upkeep. The money is placed in the former owner's bank account. It is believed this money comes direct from the King (reasonable since deed money goes to direct to the King).
• Only people with the manage roles permission, or the mayor, may disband the settlement; citizens can stop a disband.
• Disbanding a settlement takes 24 hours.
• When villages disband, all the gates are unlocked.

Citizens

A village can have many, with the exact number depending on the size. Making someone a citizen of a village requires the citizens' permission. If the village is a dictatorship, the mayor can also remove citizens. Citizens can also leave on their own volition using /revoke <village name>. Citizens of a democracy cannot be removed; they must revoke their citizenship. If you have become a citizen of a settlement in the past 24 hours, you will not be able to join a new village until 24 hours have passed.

Each citizen is assigned a role determining which actions are allowed inside the settlement. Customizing, adding and removing roles requires the manage roles permission.

Voting

All settlements have a mayor. The initial mayor is the founder of the settlement. At any given time, the mayor is the one who holds the deed. Trading the deed make the new owner of the deed, the mayor. Villages can elect a new mayor by a successful vote. Success requires a majority: 51% of the votes if the village is a democracy, 81% if it is a dictatorship. Citizens may vote at any time, once per election. The election ends immediately whenever one candidate has received a majority of the votes, or when all votes have been cast. (Elections can continue, even though the incumbent mayor is already clearly going to win, until a majority have voted.) Each citizen is allowed only one vote per election, and can only vote for another citizen (not for themselves). A vote can't be changed after it is cast. If a new mayor is elected, the deed transfers into their possession (not tested). Once an election is completed, a new vote will initiate a new election.

Possibly the mayor can only be changed once per week, regardless of the number of elections in a week? - investigating.

Guards and upkeep

Settlements can be protected by heavy deed guards. Changing the guard settings requires the hire guards permission.

Guards will attack aggressive creatures that enter the settlement area, as well as any character with -30 or lower reputation. Negative reputation is automatically acquired when stealing and otherwise breaking the settlement rules. Citizens with the manage roles permission can also set reputations manually.

The maximum number of guards you can have is 1 guard per 7x7 tiles area. Example: Guard amount of a 31x31 deed is 19.

Guards demand payment. Hiring each new guard will cost 1 silver summoning cost. This is deducted immediately from the settlement upkeep, before they spawn. Each guard also adds 30 copper to the monthly settlement upkeep.

Anyone can donate money to the upkeep fund, even non-citizens. If the upkeep fund is depleted the settlement is disbanded automatically. A large upkeep fund reduces decay on buildings and fences in the settlement. If the fund has more than a month of upkeep there is no decay at all.

Upkeep draining

On the Wild server, citizens of the enemy kingdom can drain your token once all your deed guards are dead. An enemy draining your token will remove 15% of the monthly upkeep cost from the upkeep fund, of which the drainer receives half. Upkeep cost is treated as always being at least 5 silver, which gives a minimum drain of 75 copper (37.5 to the drainer). A drain can occur once every 24 real-time hours. Every time a deed is drained, the drained amount will increase by 50%. This is reset if the deed is not drained for 2 days

Draining cannot take more money than the upkeep fund actually contains. If a drain empties the upkeep fund completely, the deed will disband in a short while. (The reason given will be the generic lack of upkeep message.) Unlike normal disbands, no money is refunded to the former mayor.

Allies and wars

Someone with the diplomat permission can make alliances or declare wars against other settlements.

Allies

• Allies can respawn on the deed if they die within 50 tiles of it.
• Allies have their own deed role.
• Allies have a green outline.
• Allies can loot your corpse when you're online.
• Allies can pick up items on the ground, even if they're on deed and your permissions would otherwise not allow people to do so

Wars

When a war is in effect, the normal penalties for same-kingdom fighting do not apply. Enemy citizens will have a red outline.

On wild server: When declaring war it will come into effect 24h after the declaration, unless the other side accepts it, in which case it will start immediately.

Permissions

Permission Roles

Each role can have a different set of permissions enabled. There are no known permissions that control butchering and burying.

Build 

Plan, color, and continue buildings and fences
Also allows lockpicking

Forestry 

Chopping down young trees, picking sprouts, planting sprouts

Cut old trees

is required for cutting down old trees

Destroy buildings 

Destroying buildings, building plans, fences, and fence plans. Only works on citizens, not allies.
Also allows lockpicking

Farm 

Sowing, farming and harvesting fields
Also allows milking and leading animals

Hire guards 

Changing guard level

Citizens 

Making non-citizens into citizens. If your village has the maximum number of citizens, none can be added.

Manage roles 

Change role permissions and role assignments, change reputations
Also allows disbanding the settlement

Mine rock and ore

Mining

Terraform 

Dig, pack, pave and flatten

Expand 

Expand the settlement with a larger deed

Pass all fences 

Passing through all fences, even locked ones

Lock fences 

Locking fences

Attack citizen 

Attacking citizens

Attack non-citizen 

Attacking non-citizens

Diplomat 

Form alliances, declare war, make peace

Fish 

Allows fishing

DELETE 

This permission will delete the role if set

These additional permissions are not linked to roles:

Politics

Marking this will make the settlement a democracy

Unlimited citizens

Allows the recruitment of citizens above the maximum amount. While you are above the maximum amount of citizens upkeep is doubled.

Merchants

Allows placing of personal merchants

Items and creatures 

This allows anyone to pick up items and tame animals within the settlement (but not inside buildings). Allies are always able to do this, unchecked or not.

Perimeter

The perimeter around a deed disallows building structures and the founding of other deeds. Your deed perimeter cannot overlap with the perimeter of another deed, though they can share a perimeter border. On the wild server, the kingdom guards will hunt down any player that have less then -30 reputation in the deed within the perimeter.

The first 5 tiles around a settlement deed are free perimeter. You can extend beyond the free perimeter, but this will come at a cost. Initial fee per tile is 50 iron, with an added monthly upkeep of 5 iron. Perimeter can be resized at any time.

Cost

See the Cost calculator

Cost per tile of a settlement:	200 iron
Upkeep cost per tile for settlement:	20 iron
Cost per tile for a perimeter:	50 iron
Upkeep cost per tile for a perimeter:	5 iron
Cost for hiring guard:	2 Silver
Guard monthly salary:	1 silver