The world map was one of the most contradictory and dangerous points in the general game design. As the game is about a city ruled by elites, a most important goal for them is power, not just survival. This requires a map with other cities like ours and elite families that are fighting for power.
Which game has a city builder combined with a developed world map? There are not a lot of examples, so we had to invent and correct many things.
In this way, the systems described below are planned so as to not distract the player from the game on the local map, but also to provide the player with new points where his efforts could be applied, and where he could interact with the world.
The map is split into kingdoms, each run by a noble family. They can subjugate each other and become vassals, pillage each other, and even destroy other settlements completely, leaving smoking ruins (that can be repopulated later on).
Besides, one can act with more finesse, using actions like bribing and seduction to trigger internal conflicts, up to an heir's rebellion, and also shadowy actions that are carried out by local cutthroats for money: these are the kidnapping of a lord, the theft of gold or books.
Communication between cities is not telepathic. Some tasks, such as matchmaking or seduction, require your lord's personal presence in a foreign city, while for other tasks, such as trade or bribery, you can send an envoy on behalf of the king. However, this would require paper, and it is quite expensive.
A kidnapped lord can be used as a valuable worker or a teacher, or you can use his knowledge and build something important, if your lords are a little dumb for that. There are also more cruel and brutal things you can do to your prisoners, as this is the early Middle Ages, after all. And, of course, you can release him for the ransom that his king will be ready to pay.
It's important to remember that other kings can perform all these actions against you as well (and against each other) when there are bad diplomatic relations. Norland's relationships are just that, interpersonal relationships between kings that can depend on many factors: different worldviews, relations to a third party (for example, a king will dislike the enemies of his friend), marriages between heirs, how big the trade is, and just a successful joint hunt.
The world map also allows for events like trade offers, marriage proposals, and also rebellions and conflicts, in which the player can support this side or the other. The map is alive: the kings visit each other, get married, weave intrigues, force others to be vassals, and create large kingdoms. Once a day, the player gets a news report for his neighbors. Somebody got executed, somewhere has seen a rebellion start, somewhere has an epidemic, and somewhere, someone has gotten married.
The smaller settlements on the map are villages - that regularly pay their kings a tribute with their resources, - and bandit camps. The camps are formed by the criminals who leave your city. The bandits can burn your villages and foreign ones (creating conflict) and even attack your city. They can take lords prisoners, but bandits can also be hired for the army or bought off for a while.
However, the biggest threat is the Renegades (working title), big armies of nomads from the West that burn cities down to the ground, sacrificing all inhabitants to their Dead God. They can be stopped either when you help neighbors stand against them or when you unite Norland under your crown, gathering all forces into a single fist. Or maybe you will find a third, unexpected way to solve the problem - as our testers often do. The choice is yours!
As for plans. Right now the map is built by us in Tiled and then colored manually. However, we are preparing a platform for the engine to paint any custom map automatically. So, after the release we'll try to make it so that you can load your own created maps into the game, give your settlements their names, write their history (in the information tab of the settlement menu), prescribe the lore in the books, and thus create your worlds within the game..
