Settlement

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

Description

A settlement, or deed, is an area of land owned by a player or group of players: a mayor and optional citizens. A settlement is marked by a settlement token in the exact center.

See this website for details about the new deed system introduced in February of 2010: http://sites.google.com/a/wurmonline.com/new-deed-system/

The mayor is the most important citizen of a settlement.

A character may only be a citizen or mayor of one settlement at a time per server. The same character can be a citizen or mayor of another settlement on a different server. A player with multiple characters (alts) can have each character in a different settlement on the same server and may own multiple settlements on the same server if each character is the mayor of one settlement.

Advantages

• Control of who is allowed which actions within the settlement area
• Deed guards protecting the settlement
• Setting reputations to keep out unwanted people (see Kill on Sight)
• A settlement token to have your bank account at
• Reduced decay on structures
• Maintenance of signs, lamps, banners and flags by spirit guards
• Village chat
• Instant logout when leaving Wurm inside the settlement (some exceptions apply)
• 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
• Branding animals to show the village they belong to and to allow them to be lead by villagers
• An enchanting bonus similar to the productivity bonus
• A productivity bonus to item crafting for the citizens the older the deed is; see acquired knowledge in the village info at the token.

Note: It seems that the productivity bonus begins to decrease when upkeep is lower than one month (you will receive a message in the village chat tab when you log in when upkeep falls below one month). Keeping more than one month's worth of upkeep in the village coffers will reverse this trend.

Founding

Founding a settlement (deed) requires the use of either a deed stake or a settlement form. Unlike writs, which are created by building a house, settlement forms must be purchased from an NPC trader. The price of a form is 10 silver.

Right-clicking a deed stake in your inventory brings up a "Settlement Application Form" dialog in which you have all the options for your settlement (similar to using a settlement form). The founding costs are taken from your bank account.

Stand on the tile that you want your village centre token to be on, right-click the Settlement deed paper|deed stake in your inventory, and choose Village > Found Village. A series of forms follows where you can set:

• Settlement size, east-west and north-south
• Perimeter size, beyond the five free tiles
• Village name and motto and whether it is a democracy or autocracy
  • You can rename a village in the resize option. This resets the productivity bonus of the village and lock the name for 6 months.
• Number of guards.

When you use your settlement form to found a deed, you will have a credit of 10 silver. 3 silver will always be reserved for upkeep. The other 7 silver is used to cover your tile costs, and any left over will also go to your upkeep. If your inital deed would cost more than 7 silver, you must have the extra amount in your bank account. One tile on deed costs 1 copper to purchase and has a 20 iron upkeep. 1 perimeter tile costs 50 iron to purchase and has a 5 iron upkeep.

You can found a deed while you are still a villager of another deed. Once you found the new deed you'll become the mayor of the new deed and automatically leave the old deed.

A deed has a rectangular form. One edge of the deed can not be longer than four times the other edge. Minimum size is 5. Example: Settlement size east 5 west 5 and north 6 south 6 will create a deed 11 tiles by 13 tiles. To visualize the area better, make use of the Survey Area button in the forms that places temporary survey markers at the planned borders.

Notes

• Free players can plant a deed, but won't be able to invite other players using /vinvite until they turn premium.
• You need the writs for all buildings that fall within your new settlement area in your inventory to be able to place a deed.
  • You can place a new deed's perimeter over existing buildings for which you don't own the writ, provided you do not touch a house wall with the actual deed area - ie leave a 2 tiles gap between deed edge and any house wall.
  • You can expand a perimeter over houses you do not own - provided your deed tiles do not touch the building
• Settlements can only be founded within your kingdom. On Chaos or the Epic servers, this might require building guard towers.
• 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. You cannot build a house or fence on the token tile later on either, but terraforming is possible.
• A Token must be placed at least two tiles away from tiles submersed in water.
• A Token cannot be inside a cave, or a house.
• Aggressive animals, on what will become the deed, prevent planting of the deed; kill or lead them away first. Creatures in the future perimeter do not count.
• The mayor can destroy any building on deed, even if he/she does not have the writ for that building.
• You may not plant a deed on Holy Ground.

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

After founding, you can edit your settings from the Token > Settlement menu, or from the Settlement deed paper > Village menu.

Perimeter

The perimeter around a deed disallows non-citizens building structures, and the founding of other deeds. Your deed perimeter cannot overlap with the perimeter of another deed, although they can share a perimeter border. On the Epic servers, the kingdom guards will hunt down any player that have less than -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, but the minimum perimeter allowed is 5 tiles.

To understand the concept of perimeters and their implications to deed planting, you can check this example: [1]

Resizing

Deeds can be resized by the mayor at the token or with the settlement deed. You cannot resize if the settlement is under siege, or if your Templar is fighting an aggressive animal. There are no refunds for downsizing. Premium time is not required to re-size a settlement.

The mayor can expand his perimeter over a house which he do not have the writ for. This serves as a warning for a deed expansion and gives the owner of the house time to move. Only the perimeter can be expanded over a house - the mayor has to have the writ in his/her inventory to expand the deed over the house.

The money needed to resize must be either on the person resizing or in their bank.

Warning: At the question concerning hiring of a spirit Templar (or guards), if you leave it as 0 the resized deed will have no templar even if you originally had one (or more). Always fill this in with the number of Templars you want on your resized deed.

Disbanding

Warning : Do not sail to another server in your cluster between issuing a Disband order, and the actual Disbanding of the deed. Doing so may cause you to not receive the refund from the deed and the upkeep. Crossing to anther cluster (Epic / Freedom) is okay, as that is a separate avatar, and the original is still on the deed's server.

• A deed may be disbanded. If manually disbanded, the owner receives all of settlement coffer money back. 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.
  • Note - there used to be a 5s minimum refund. That has been removed as of June 2014.
• Only people with the manage roles permission, or the mayor, may disband the settlement; citizens can stop a disband.
• Disbanding a settlement takes 24 real hours.
• If you remove all villagers and resize the deed to smallest size before disbanding, disbanding will take 1 real hour.
• When disbanding, all branded animals lose their branding.

Mayor

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 makes the new owner of the deed the mayor. A player must have premium time to take over the ownership of a deed.

• If trading to a player who is not in a village, the transfer is immediate.
• If trading to a player who is in that village, they must have been a member for at least 24 hours before the transfer can take place.

If you are purchasing a Settlement from someone, do NOT join the village first. If you do, you will not be able to take ownership for 24 hours.

Voting

If your deed is a Dictatorship, the mayor cannot be voted out. (This was changed, as an 81% vote used to be enough to evict the mayor)

If your deed is a Democracy, your villages can elect a new mayor by a successful vote, by using the command /vote. Success requires a majority: 51% or more of the votes.

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 has voted. Each citizen is allowed only one vote per election, and can only vote for another citizen, not for themselves. A vote cannot be changed after it is cast. If a new mayor is elected, the deed transfers into their possession. Once an election is completed, a new vote will initiate a new election.

Note: Vote command gives the confirmation message: "You vote for Name as mayor this week.", so possibly the mayor can only be changed once per week, regardless of the number of elections?

Citizens

A village can have many citizens, maximum being the number of deed tiles divided by 11. You may remove even that restriction if you pay double upkeep.

Inviting someone to join your village requires that you have the (make people) citizens permission. Right-click them and choose Invite to join. They will get a Settlement invitation confirmation window.

If the village is a dictatorship, the mayor can remove citizens. Citizens can also leave on their own volition using the chat command /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. You can however found a deed and become a villager of the newly founded deed without having to wait for the 24 hours to pass.

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

Spirit Templars (Deed Guards)

Settlements can be protected by Spirit Templars. Hiring or releasing Templars requires the Hire guards permission.

Spirit Templars will attack any aggressive creatures that enter the settlement area, but not the perimeter. Unlike tower guards, they do not respond to calls for help.

They will also attack anyone who is marked as Kill on Sight for that deed. (See KoS and Reputation for details). Citizens with the manage roles permission can also set reputations manually. To remove someone added manually, set their reputation to 0 and tick permanent, then save the form.

The maximum number of Templars you can have is 1 per 49 tiles. Example: Number of Templars in a 31x31 deed is 19. On the Epic servers, the maximum number is limited to 20.

Spirit Templars demand payment. Hiring each new Templar will cost 2 silver summoning cost, or 3 silver if the settlement is on an Epic server. This is deducted immediately from the settlement upkeep, before they spawn. Each Templar also adds 1 silver to the monthly settlement upkeep, or 3 silver if the settlement is on an Epic server.

Templars can be managed at the token under Settlement > Manage guards, or from the Settlement deed paper under Village > Manage guards.

Upkeep / Coffers

Upkeep money is taken from the village funds every month (one month being 28 days). 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 can be paid at the token under Settlement > Info or Settlement > Manage guards, or from the Settlement deed paper under Village > Manage guards. Anyone can donate money to the upkeep fund at the token, even non-citizens. There is a minimum 1 silver cost per month for upkeep.

Upkeep used for expansion costs

When resizing a deed, some of the charges can come from the coffers. This will be reflected on the last screen of the resize dialog. It seems that 3s will always be left as a minimum, so if you have less than that, the coffers will not be used.

Example :

The settlement has 7 silver, 99 copper and 96 iron in its coffers.

This change will cost 26 silver and 80 copper.

Up to 4 silver, 99 copper and 96 iron can be taken from the settlement upkeep funds.

21 silver, 80 copper and 4 iron will be taken from your bank account.

The settlement has 3 silver in its coffers.

Upkeep draining

On the Wild and Epic servers, 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. Enemies can drain from an adjacent tile and do not need to be on the same tile as the token, even if there is a wall or palisade in the way.

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

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

To form or add to an alliance, right click on a person with diplomacy rights from another village, and ask to form alliance.

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 from the ground on your deed if the permission is set for allies to do so.

Wars

Same-kingdom wars are only possible on Epic and Chaos.

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

For permission information, please see Settlement Permissions in the permissions tutorial.

Settings & Settlement permissions

Village motto

The Motto will be on all gates when examined.

[14:28:13] You see a wooden fence gate in the settlement of <village name>.

[14:28:13] A plaque is attached to it:

[14:28:13] -----------------

[14:28:13] <Motto>.

[14:28:13] -----------------

[14:28:13] QL=26.913738, dam=0.0

Village message of the day 

Message of the day for village chat. Displays on login / change.

[14:21:04] MOTD:TESTING IT

These additional permissions are not linked to roles:

Politics

Marking this will make the settlement a permanent democracy (founding mayors can revert).

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 pick up items, to let them tame animals this permission still needs to be checked.

Cost Calculations

Tools

• Wurm Tools cost calculator
• Deed Calculator
• (No longer working as of 15 July 2012) New Deed system Cost calculator

Detailed breakdown

Initial cost per tile of a settlement:	100 iron coins
Upkeep cost per tile for settlement:	20 iron coins
Initial cost per tile for a perimeter:	50 iron coins
Upkeep cost per tile for a perimeter:	5 iron coins
Initial cost for hiring a guard (per 1):	Freedom = 2 silver / Epic = 3 silver coins
Guard monthly salary (per 1):	Freedom = 1 silver / Epic = 3 silver coins

Additional Information

You can sell items at a settlement token for iron coins. See the sell link for more information.

See Deed Faith Bonus for information about possible bonuses given to your settlement for sacrificing items.