Villages, fields and the feudal region

Crowded settlements send parties of adults to reachable land with room for a village and its fields. Local lords collect rents, village knights owe tribute to the town's lord, and the dues end in the industrial era.

Each village tracks residents, completed housing and demographic pressure. A crowded settlement, or one whose people are at least 48 and eight years old, sends a party of eight to twenty-four adults to suitable land at least 48 paces from any other village core (a tunable), leaving room for homes and farms without scaling up with the map. They walk the route; only reachable land is considered, and a river needs a ford or a finished bridge. They establish homes and farms and keep their new residency. A settlement counts as a village of its own at 32 people, and every village can organise its own expedition.

Barns occupy open land beyond the village, with long cultivated strips and walkable dirt headlands. Fields stop at woodland, water and terrain obstacles; farmers sow individual cells, short green rows grow into standing grain, and they return to reap in autumn. Grain enters the stores when it is harvested, and the engine’s fertility multiplies every field’s yield.

Serfs, freeholders, burghers, clergy, knights and a lord have distinct standing. Local lords collect rents, village knights owe tribute to the town’s lord scaled by what the two peoples think of each other, and food, shelter and dues affect loyalty and the willingness to migrate. Succession chooses a living adult locally. Feudal dues end in the industrial era. The F3 tab in the viewer shows crowding, migration, estates and village housing; the settlements list on this page shows each village’s people, housing and pressure.

In the code: crates/sim/src/city/settlement.rs crates/sim/src/city/rural.rs

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