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, summary

• Spirit guards protecting the settlement
• Reduced decay on structures
• Village chat (not for homesteads, unless you're schizophrenic)
• Respawn at your own or allied settlement when you die
• Skill-loss when dying on your own deed is only 0.025
• 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 the game inside the settlement (some exception 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 is (size/10)^2 gold. A size 5 homestead deed costs 5 silver, other sizes currently cost the same as a village.

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 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.

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

Citizens

A homestead can only have one citizen. A village can have many, 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.

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 monsters that enter the settlement area, as well as any character with -30 or lower reputation. Negative reputation is automatically 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 that 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 thus costs 2 * (1g * 31%) = 62 silver. Note that 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 a) half the money back for the old deed to the mayor and b) keeps the old upkeep c) adds a months worth of light upkeep.

Allies and wars

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

Allies

• Allies can spawn on your deed when they die (and vice versa)
• 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

Guard columns are upkeep per month.

Size	Price	Deed area	Citizens1	Light guards	Medium guards	Heavy guards
5	5s (HS) 25s (V)	11x11	1 (HS) 10 (V)	1s 50c (HS) 2s 50c (V)	4s 65c (HS) 7s 75c (V)	8s 40c (HS) 14s (V)
10	75s (HS) 1g (V)	21x21	40	10s	31s	56s
15	2g 25s	31x31	90	22s 50c	69s 75c	1g 26s
20	2g 4g	41x41	160	40s	1g 24s	2g 24s
30	9g	61x61	360	90s	2g 79s	5g 4s
40	16g	81x81	640	1g 60s	4g 96s 31c	8g 96s
50	25g	101x101	1,000	2g 25s	7g 75s	14g
70	49g	141x141	1,960	4g 90s	15g 19s	27g 44s
100	100g	201x201	4,000	10g	31g	56g
200	400g	401x401	16,000	40g	124g	224g

¹ Homesteads can only have one citizen, regardless of size.