Today, UK-based Long Jaunt officially moved patches 46, 47, and 48 out of beta, releasing the official Norland Big Winter update to the main branch of the early access medieval kingdom simulator. The developers first detailed these changes back in January as part of their 2026 roadmap presentation.
The Norland Big Winter update focused primarily on adding public politics, introducing more complex social and political interactions among your kingdom’s inhabitants, as politicians will gradually start putting forward various political demands, up to demanding that they be made heir, and later that they be handed the crown. Church parishes have also been built, replacing the ideas given to peasants based on the distance to their workplaces.
One of the biggest changes in the Norland Big Winter update is the addition of buffs to gameplay balance. Characters who wake up happy now receive an energy surge that lasts for two days, providing skill bonuses for lords and increased productivity for peasants. Other changes include:
- Sermon Overhaul – The “Approval” and “Joy” sermons have been removed and replaced with a “Hope Sermon” to boost followers’ mood
- Resource Tuning – Building relocation costs have been reduced from 10 to 7 Wood, and the population requirement for Ale technology has increased from 20 to 40
- Trade Buildings – A new “Trade” building category has been established, housing the Market, Den, and Tavern
- Social Thoughts – The strength of thoughts from consuming meat and berries has been doubled, as has the duration of alcohol-related thoughts
Map generation improvements make it so that you can start the game in any province of the global map, with each province having defined settings based on which the map will be generated. These settings include resources, biome type, hilliness, and landscape complexity, as well as redrawn trees and bushes, fields, added rivers and fords with water lilies.
For the User Interface, the Big Winter update adds new hints and tooltips, such as a politician support hint that breaks down support from the population, army, and allies. Other quality-of-life improvements range from upgraded assets such as fertile soil, bushes, and tree sprites to sound design and bug fixes.
Norland is available on PC via Steam Early Access for a typical price of $29.99. For more information on this, other updates the medieval kingdom simulator has received since its release, be sure to check the rest of Simulation Daily.
