In our previous blog about claim stability, we shared some changes we were planning. We asked for your feedback before making them. Today, we want to follow up on that feedback and let you know these changes are coming in the next update. We currently expect it to arrive on November 10th.

The goal remains the same: we want claims to have more connected land, with fewer holes and fewer long, thin sections. We also want players to have enough space and room in their upkeep budget to change their settlements without facing unfair costs.

Based on your feedback, we have made a small change to how we measure stability. Claims will now have a bit more room for error before we count them as unstable. We believe this should help claims that were just barely unstable, while still meeting the goal in our first blog. Thank you to everyone who shared examples and helped us understand how these changes would affect your settlements. As always we will continue to listen to the community and make further changes if needed.

More tiles and smoother maintenance costs

Along with the stability changes, we are adding more tiles at each claim research level. If your claim is currently at its tile limit, you will have more tiles after the update. You will not need to do any more research to get them. You can use these tiles to fill holes and connect parts of your claim to make it more stable.

We have also changed how supply maintenance costs are calculated. Costs will now use “progressive brackets”, meaning that when your claim reaches a certain size, only the tiles above that threshold are charged the higher cost. Adding one tile will no longer cause a big jump in the maintenance cost of your whole claim.

Together, these changes will lower the tile maintenance cost of your current claim. Larger claims will see a bigger drop in supplies cost. In the sample claims we checked, cost fell by 10-40%. If your claim needs better stability, you can use the extra tiles to fill in unstable areas. This should give you a more connected claim that covers more land and costs less to maintain than before.

Preparing your claim

We know players have built their settlements around the current rules. That's why we wanted to give everyone time to prepare before these changes take effect.

Please check your claim’s stability soon after the update goes live. Use the extra tiles to make changes where needed. Even if your claim is stable under the current rules, it is worth checking it under the new rules.

We will post another announcement during the week of the update, with further reminders and the exact details. Our goal is to fix the claim layouts that have been causing problems while giving settlements the room to adjust and continue building.