Today, Long Jaunt Studios revealed that long-awaited improvements are coming to Norland via the Patch 57 beta.
Norland Patch 57 beta expands Norland’s political systems, overhauls combat formations, introduces character Worldviews, and delivers a significant performance boost. The update also reorganizes world map interactions and adds new intrigue options, giving rulers and politicians more ways to influence rival factions.
One of the biggest changes in Norland comes from a new game engine and extensive optimization work. In testing with large, densely populated cities, average FPS increased by around 60%, while video memory usage was cut in half. These improvements should allow players to build cities with roughly twice the population and field armies that are twice as large in battle, while players using weaker GPUs, including laptops, should also benefit from the reduced video memory requirements.
Combat now features organized squad formations. Squads move and fight together, holding their ground and blocking enemy movement. Soldiers in a formation match speed, and formations on roads gain movement bonuses.
The combat overhaul is only the beginning, as the developers plan to continue improving Norland’s combat systems in future updates. A new damage system is planned that will make weapon statistics easier to understand while introducing different damage and armor types, although the previously planned bonus for attacking enemies from behind is not yet ready due to the additional AI work required.
Norland’s political systems have received an equally significant expansion through new Dark Politics and intrigue options. Rulers and politicians on the world map now display their level of army support, allowing players to identify political figures whose support can potentially be undermined through intrigue. Characters with weaknesses that can be exploited by particular actions are also marked with corresponding icons.
When a politician becomes dissatisfied with their ruler and gains more support than the king, Norland players can use new Dark Politics actions to manipulate the political situation. These include forcing a ruler to attack a neighbor or compelling them to agree to a peace treaty, creating new opportunities to influence wars without committing an army directly.
World map interactions have been reorganized for clarity, as threats now include attacking, neutrality, crown transfer, and vassalization. Surprise attacks are under Aggression. The Politics section covers alliances, reconciliation, slander, tribute, peace, and voluntary vassalage. Lord-related activities like inviting guests, Wise Conversation, and creating Puppets now have their own category.
Norland Update 57 beta also gives Norland players some particularly ruthless new options. Children belonging to rival factions can now be kidnapped, causing twice as much fear in their ruler, while nighttime intimidation, murder, poisoning, and additional forms of political manipulation provide new ways to destabilize enemy factions.
Nighttime intimidation costs 300 gold and has an 80% chance of successfully breaking into the target’s location, increasing to 100% when performed by a Burglar. If the target wakes up, they will fight the intruder, while a captured performer suffers an injury and can be forced to pay up to 300 gold.
Another major addition is the new Worldview system, which gives rulers and politicians in Norland their own political and personal outlooks. A character’s worldview determines their initial prejudices and sympathies as well as how they respond to aggression and peace treaties involving neighboring rulers.
For example, a Religious ruler favors the Matriarch’s friends and dislikes her enemies, while a Predator hates everyone and a Traditionalist favors rulers from their own culture while disliking those from other cultures. These differences are intended to make Norland’s political landscape more unpredictable and create additional tensions between rulers and the politicians serving them.
Players can now choose the worldview of every ruler on the map when starting a new game, including their own ruler. Politicians receive a random worldview that differs from their ruler’s and personally react to aggression and diplomatic agreements, meaning political figures within the same faction can have very different priorities.
A ruler who acts against their own worldview also receives a negative thought, making it increasingly important for players to consider their ruler’s personality and worldview when deciding how to govern their kingdom. Relationship mechanics have been adjusted ahead of a larger rework. Giving gold or rings now removes the Envy of Gold thought for five days, and characters in love no longer develop thoughts about romantic rivals.
Characters who have sex with the object of their love receive a +50 Mood thought for five days, while the permanent Mood bonus from being in love has been reduced to +14. The effects of Beauty, Gray Hair, and Baldness on Interest have also been reduced, and being in love now lasts exactly three days.
Norland Patch 57 beta also brings a large collection of quality-of-life improvements to Norland. Players can adjust the radius of patrol flags while placing them, building placement now provides more information about factors affecting Comfort, and world map actions display their relevant strengths and weaknesses. Multi-monitor support has also been added, including monitor selection in the settings menu, while VSync is now enabled by default.
Visual improvements have also been made across Norland, with arrows now rotating while in flight and producing dust particles when striking the ground. Characters who are partially submerged in water now receive an underwater visual effect, dialogue bubbles are rendered above characters, and several building assets have been updated.
Norland Update 57 beta brings balance changes to talents, recruitment, prisoners, mercenaries, politicians, conspiracies, and world map interactions. Berserkers now have a 20% chance to rage after being hit. Defender-led squads get a combat bonus when defending their home city, mercenaries can be dismissed while traveling for a full refund, and politicians no longer automatically order certain Dark Deeds each evening.
Lastly, Norland Patch 57 beta also addresses a wide range of bugs and technical issues, including crashes, visual problems, relationship issues, building behavior, pathfinding, equipment duplication, interface problems, and world map interactions.
With the developers planning to continue expanding Norland’s feudal system and villages, add new buildings, improve combat, develop the story generator, and rework the knowledge system, this update lays a stronger foundation for the game’s continued development.
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.
