Norland News

Patch #19 (New Quests, Enhanced AI Behavior, and Bug Fixes)

Hello everyone,

We are rolling out our weekly patch, which primarily focuses on bug fixes and gameplay improvements.

[h3]New:[/h3]

Quest to defend the player's village from a bandit attack.
Quest to defend the player's village from an attack by an AI lord faction.
The Inquisition will now travel across the global map to the player's city instead of teleporting to the city entrance as before.
Added the ability for lesser lords to settle abandoned cities.
When hiring soldiers from a bandit camp, they will receive the "Former Bandit" trait.
If a character in rage attacks their mortal enemy, the enemy will use a weapon to defend themselves.
Added an icon and tooltip for the "Shame Mask" trait.

[h3]Changes:[/h3]

Weapons will become more lethal against unarmored or unshielded targets.
Traits for minor bruises have been replaced with minor cuts for slashing and stabbing weapons.
Bandits will not attack the player while the "Loving Family" protection is active.
The game will no longer pause if a lord starts a fight with a character in a shame mask.
Beating a character in a shame mask will no longer add the "Fight" sin.
During "Rage" and "Beating" tantrums, a character in a tantrum will not flee from battle or surrender.
The player can no longer declare an attack on an AI city where their troops are present as a support army.
Armor is no longer required for hunting—only weapons are needed.
Buildings that are on fire or have enemy squads in the player's city can no longer be demolished.
Marriage quests will not be created if the only lords in the player's faction without partners are hired free lords.
The "Auto Trade" option is now enabled by default.

[h3]Fixes:[/h3]

Fixed a bug where, during soldier training, the last strike in training could deal real damage.
Fixed a bug where all workers could quit in the player's city.
Fixed a bug where messengers could not be sent (including for automatic or manual trade) if the player's king was on a campaign or insane.
Fixed a bug where the player's and AI's reinforcements could remain in the AI city even after the threat was over.
Fixed a bug where the "Decline in Trade" modifier stopped working correctly after the first game load.
Fixed a bug where an AI lord with low loyalty could spontaneously join the player's faction.
Fixed a bug where a lord could get the desire "Meet a loved one," who was permanently sent to the church, making the desire impossible to fulfill.
Fixed a bug where a lord captured during a battle in a bandit camp was immediately killed instead of creating a ransom quest.
Fixed a bug where the letter informing the player of their exclusion from the city alliance was written as if by the player's king.
Fixed a bug where killed but not burned characters still considered a building their home, which could lead to issues.
Fixed a bug where the player's king, after proclaiming himself Emperor, did not immediately wear the Imperial Crown after the ceremony.
Fixed a bug where an enemy squad going to set a building on fire and getting attacked could walk back to the start of the map before continuing to attack the player.
Fixed a bug where the prophecy hint about a wolf attack could display different numbers of wolves at the first and second warnings.
Fixed a bug where faction banners consisting of a background and details of the same color displayed with artifacts.
Fixed a bug where, when settling an abandoned city, the new faction could choose a banner symbol that was not normally available.
Fixed a bug where a manual battle on the global map would cause a crash when a quest result window was open.
Fixed the functionality of enemy orders to set houses on fire with arrows.
There should no longer be situations where the player's ally or vassal is attacked or neutralized without a visible quest.
After an AI city is destroyed, all of its plans to attack other settlements will be canceled.
If an AI lord who wants to leave a faction changes faction prematurely, the quest will be canceled.
If an army arrives at a target that is already in battle, the encounter between the army and the target will occur after the battle ends. Previously, the army would freeze in place.

[h3]GUI Fixes:[/h3]

Resource quantity numbers in building menus now have shadows for better readability.
The damage tooltip has been made wider.
The tooltip for faction relations has been made wider to fit all content.
Fixed the layout of the lord tooltip—now all traits and skills will fit within the tooltip.
Fixed the layout of the top panel in the character menu and the character tooltip.
Fixed the layout of the city menu—relations that occupy two lines now fit correctly in the menu.
Punctuation marks and brackets will be more accurately moved to a new line.

[hr][/hr][h3]We are also continuing to work on the bigger features promised in August, and many of them will be released next week.

Your reviews, as always, are greatly appreciated![/h3]

Patch #18 (Balance, Optimization, Archer Command)

We continue to balance the game, making it easier for new players to get started on one hand, while addressing late-game imbalances on the other.

For instance, the starting family will now include four lords, and the chancellery will use half as much paper for inspections (and we're not done with that yet). On the other hand, the Loving Family has prepared something you all adore—a progressive tax scale on trade and another threshold for increasing the army tax. Praise Mother Sophia for her caring generosity!

We're also adding the "Target Archers" feature, as announced in the roadmap, which allows you to assign your units to attack either the enemy's melee fighters or their archers.

Additionally, in the statistics menu, you'll now see the number of trees cut down by your lumberjacks, along with those that have grown during that time, to give you a clearer view of the forest's balance (I know many of you didn't realize that our forest regenerates!).

We've also improved the optimization related to combat and training, but this is just the beginning of the work we plan to do in this area throughout August. It’s going to get better (at least, we'll do our best).

[h3]New[/h3]

New squad option: "Target Archers."
Display in the natural resources statistics the number of trees cut down and grown yesterday.

[h3]Balance[/h3]

New default family configuration at the start of the game: the king, his wife, and two brothers of the king.
An additional house of lords has been added in a new game.
After 7 vassals, the soldier tax will increase based on the selected difficulty level. The player will receive a notification about this.
On easy and medium difficulties, the chancery will consume 0.5 paper per inspection.
Different durations for inspection activity based on game difficulty: 20, 30, 40 minutes on peaceful, normal, and hardcore, respectively.
The cost of concluding a trade agreement on the global map will depend on the number of agreements already concluded and the difficulty level.
Updated mechanics for soldier tax increases based on the number of allies/vassals; now, a letter from the Matriarch will be sent upon the second increase or decrease in taxes.

[h3]Stability[/h3]

Fixed a silent crash that could occur after the birth of another lord in an AI family with many children.

[h3]Fixes[/h3]

Fixed a bug where, upon the simultaneous death of both the king and heir, a new king was not appointed.
Fixed a bug where leaving an alliance did not remove the thought about being in an alliance.
Fixed a bug where partially completed trade agreements would disappear after loading the game.
Instead of checking the relationship between the messenger and the merchant lord in the AI city (for the maximum discount), the relationship between the player's king and the merchant lord will be checked.

[h3]Optimization[/h3]

Optimized battle processing, most noticeable when multiple training grounds are in operation simultaneously.

[hr][/hr][h3]We’re continuing to work hard and look forward to your feedback and reviews! Thank you![/h3]

Underappreciated strategy game Norland shares impressive first roadmap

Of the many strategy and simulation games to come out this year so far, Norland stands out as one of the most unique. Set in a fictional medieval European landscape filled with feuding kingdoms, it offers both Rimworld and Dwarf Fortress style settlement management with the strategy and combat of games like Crusaders Kings 3, Mount and Blade 2: Bannerlord, or Manor Lords, all wrapped up in a customizable narrative. Now, with the unveiling of a roadmap detailing the updates coming to the Early Access game over the next few months, Norland looks to continue shaping up into something special.

Read the rest of the story...

Future of Norland: Roadmap for the Next Quarter

Hello everyone, Dmitry here.

[h2]Overview[/h2]
Throughout this week, in addition to bug fixing, we’ve been busy planning future development, considering your feedback and our vision for the project. We’ve decided to release public roadmaps every three months, highlighting several significant features each month.

This doesn’t mean that only these features will be developed — on the contrary, this is the minimum we can promise, but we’ll likely do more. Other things may just shift in terms of timing.

[h2]Current and Upcoming Features[/h2]
For example, we’re already working on Steam achievements, and next week, we’ll start on the family tree interface. However, since this interface is actually a very complex task — considering that lords can have many illegitimate children, divorce, remarry multiple times, etc. — we can’t say exactly when it will be ready (probably in a couple of months). So many features won’t appear on the roadmap, and their introduction will surprise you.

[h2]Long-Term Goals[/h2]
We also prefer not to make specific predictions for a longer period. Norland is full of new mechanics, and we’ll continue developing them. Plans often change if these mechanics don’t work as intended or if we receive strong feedback from the community, like, "Oh, this is great. It urgently needs to be developed further!" Therefore, making long-term promises in developing such a project means taking on unnecessary commitments and creating overly risky expectations. We hope you understand.

I can only assure you that we have many plans — such as reworking and generating global and local maps, climate, politics, ongoing improvements to diplomacy, tactics and warfare, new buildings and resources, and more.

[h2]Detailed Roadmap Until November[/h2]

August: For the remaining part of the month we want to focus mostly on optimization. However, we also want to add a new feature to further support the lives of Lords; Graves.
Furthermore, we want to improve the battle tactics system, and will be adding a "Shoot at enemy Archers" command to your squads.
September: Right after that, we will start enhancing the combat aspect by adding crossbows and ranged towers. We will also make several improvements to diplomacy on the global map. As for new events, we’re talking about strange and mysterious guests who will frequently visit your province. Depending on how you interact with them, they will bring interesting stories and gameplay opportunities. Work on optimisation is also ongoing.
October: We will try to complete the city fortifications — walls and gates — and also focus on feudal relationships, particularly the mechanics of barons and usurpers. The family tree interface will likely be ready around this time as well.

[h2]Participation and Feedback[/h2]
We are always eager to hear your experiences and insights! Sharing your feedback on Steam helps us continue to improve and tailor the game to what you love most. Also, we're excited to announce that we will create a separate test branch where all new features will arrive earlier than in the stable version. If you're interested, you can try out these features and share your thoughts before they are released to the wider player base.

Thank you for your participation and activity on behalf of the entire Long Jaunt team.

Stay tuned!

 If you'd like to keep up to date with the latest Norland news and announcements:
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Patch #17 (Revolution Risk, Hemophilia, Stability)

[h3]Patch #17 is here, bringing some noticeable changes and fixes we think you'll appreciate.[/h3]

We've added different ground textures for various map regions to give each area a distinct feel, especially in new games. We've also updated the bleeding mechanics — now, untreated wounds can be fatal, depending on their severity, which should make combat more realistic.

Keep an eye on your vassals. With a revamped revolt system based on their relative strength, their loyalty might be more fickle now.

On the fixes side, we've made some localization improvements to better handle characters in various languages, cleared up persistent bugs across different game scenarios, and fixed a crash issue when loading saves. These changes aim to smooth out your gameplay and interface interactions.

Check out the full list of updates below to see everything new and improved.

Full Patch 17 Changelog

[h3]Patch Additions[/h3]

Map Textures: Different ground textures for various map regions enhance local and global map aesthetics, affecting new games and manual battles.
Bleeding Mechanics: Updated bleeding effects now lead to death if wounds are untreated, with the hemophilia trait impacting bandaging capabilities.
Revolt Mechanics: Dissatisfied vassals now have a calculated chance to revolt based on their relative strength to the player.
[h3]Fixes[/h3]

Localization Fixes: Improved rendering of characters for various languages, ensuring better display in tooltips and interface elements.
Prisoner Management: Fixed a bug where prisoners captured by bandits were improperly managed, leading to gameplay issues.
Trait Mechanics: Addressed a bug where "False Fanaticism" did not prevent fanatics from reacting negatively to an agnostic with this trait.
Demolition Bug: Resolved an issue where demolishing a building under attack could cause errors.
Bribery Fix: Corrected a scenario where bribing a peasant for sex was possible without suitable candidates.
Time Estimation: Fixed a bug affecting the estimated time calculations to workplaces in warehouses or halls.
Inspection Tooltip: Adjusted incorrect color displays in the lord’s inspection tooltips.
Trade Menu Layout: Updated the layout of the trade menu with caravans for better usability.
Tutorial Tips: Removed inappropriate tutorial tips about mines in provinces without iron deposits.
Ambition Limit: Set a maximum on the number of allies or vassals based on the number of provinces in the game.
City Interface: Lesser lords are now correctly categorized under "lords" instead of "guests."
Trait Inheritance: Fixed an issue where new lords could inherit conflicting traits from their parents.
[h3]Stability[/h3]

Game Stability: Fixed a potential crash issue when loading a save, enhancing overall game stability.

[h3]We've also analyzed your feedback this week to incorporate it into our development plan. The roadmap for the next three months will be announced Monday, so stay tuned![/h3]