Settlement

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A settlement is an area of land owned by a player or group of players. There are two kinds of settlements: villages and homesteads. 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 (not for homesteads)
• 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)
• Size 10 village deeds and above receive a trader (homesteads do not)

Founding

To found a settlement you must first obtain a deed. Unlike writs, which are created by building a house, deeds must be purchased from a NPC trader. Village deeds at size 10 or more include a free trader. The price of a village deed starts at 25 silver for a size 5, while homestead deeds start at 5 silver.

New settlements have some restrictions on placement. Villages must be placed at least 100 tiles away from the nearest village, or 50 tiles away from the nearest homestead.

Homesteads must be placed at least 20 tiles away from settlements with the other settlements permission enabled. If it is disabled, it must be at least 50 tiles away if the other settlement is a homestead, or 100 tiles away if it is a village. This distance is counted from both settlements' border, not the token.

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.

Disbanding

• A deed may be disbanded. The owner receives half of the cost of the deed, and half of the remaining 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 village takes 24 hours. Disbanding a homestead takes 1 hour.
• When villages disband, all the gates are unlocked.
• Size 5 homesteads may not be disbanded in the first week after having been planted.

Citizens

A homestead can only have one citizen. 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 of a democracy cannot be removed, they must leave on their own volition using /revoke <village name>.

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 are automatically protected by deed guards. Guards can be light, medium, or heavy. Changing the guard level requires the hire guards permission. If the guard level is decreased, it cannot be increased again until a week has passed.

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

Guards demand payment. This payment is calculated as a percentage of the deed price. One month with light guards costs 10% of the deed price, medium guards cost 31%, and heavy guards 56%. Note: size 5 homesteads are an exception to this rule. See the table below for their upkeep cost.

Two months with medium guards on a size 10 village costs 2 * (1g * 31%) = 62 silver. Note: the payment happens continuously in small increments, not one big payment once a month.

Every settlement has an upkeep fund, which guards take their payment from. Anyone can donate money to the 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 cost you 15% of the monthly upkeep, of which the drainer receives 7.5%. The minimum drain is 75 copper.

Deed expansion

Expanding a deed gives half the money back for the old deed to the mayor, keeps the old upkeep, and adds a month's worth of light upkeep.

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.

Wars

Wars in Wurm need to be accepted by both sides to come into effect. When a war is in effect, the normal penalties for same-kingdom fighting do not apply. Enemy citizens will have a red outline.

Permissions

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 trees, picking sprouts, planting sprouts

Destroy buildings 

Destroying buildings, building plans, fences, and fence plans
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

Manage roles 

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

Mine 

Mining

Terraform 

Dig, pack, pave and flatten

Expand 

Expand the settlement with a larger deed

Pass 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

DELETE 

This permission will delete the role if set

There are two additional permissions, which are not linked to roles

Other settlements

Normally, settlements are not allowed within 100 tiles from a village, or within 50 tiles from a homestead. Setting this option allows homesteads within those limits, with a minimum distance of 20 tiles.

Items and creatures 

This allows anyone to pick up items and tame animals within the settlement (but not inside buildings).

Details

Rows with one citizen are homesteads. The other rows are villages.

Guard columns are upkeep per month (actually 28 days). Note: size 5 homestead upkeep deviates from the usual rates.

Size	Deed area	Citizens	Price	Light guards	Medium guards	Heavy guards
5	11x11	10	25s	2s 50c	7s 75c	14s
		1	5s	1s 50c	4s 65c	8s 40c
10	21x21	40	1g	10s	31s	56s
		1	75s	7s 50c	23s 25c	42s
15	31x31	90	2g 25s	22s 50c	69s 75c	1g 26s
20	41x41	160	4g	40s	1g 24s	2g 24s
		1	2g	20s	62s	1g 12s
50	101x101	1,000	20g	2g	6g 20s	11g 20s
100	201x201	4,000	40g	4g	12g 40s	22g 40s
200	401x401	16,000	55g	5g 50s	17g 5s	30g 80s