Experimental Terra Nostra gameplay update available now

Above is the first ever gameplay screenshot from Terra Nostra. I'm looking forward to share more map details in the months to come. As previously announced, early access begins April 17 2026 for everyone with Premium. The server opens to the public May 1 2026.

With the reset coming up, we're introducing major gameplay changes early in order to test and make adjustments before launch. The updates mentioned below are live on Terra Aurora today. This allows us to gather important community feedback and measure impact in a lower-risk environment before introducing Terra Nostra.

New players become residents automatically

This is a large and highly experimental change on which we request your feedback. We want to do something about resident invitation spam as well preventing recruitment fatigue amongst mayors. New players are bombarded with invites and can't make a fair assessment of which town to join. Mayors are also forced to spend most of their time recruiting if they want to develop their town. Mayors who spam the most are the only ones benefiting from the current system, which is unsustainable.

Starting today, 1/3 of all new players will automatically become residents without needing to be invited first. The town a new player is added to is randomly selected, with the following rules:

• There must be at least one resident online in the town. We don't want to place new players in empty towns with nobody to show them around.
• Town must be open /t toggle open
• Town must have a set spawn /t set spawn
• Towns with high activity have a larger chance of receiving a new player. Active towns are likely better and more fun for new players to join. Such towns are rewarded for their effort by receiving a larger percentage of new players. All towns still have a chance to get a new player, regardless of activity level.

The other 1/3 of all new players will go through the GUI recruitment system. When they join, the server sends a welcome message with a short tutorial on how the server works. After that, the server prompts to use /rtp to teleport to a desired region and shortly after that, use /t random command to select a town in their current region. If those players haven't used /rtp by the end, the server prompts it again in a form of a dialog.

• /t random GUI features towns that meet the same requirements as above and are located in the player's current region. Those towns are also prioritised the same way as stated above.

If new player retention is better for the 1/3 cohort of new players that are automatically added to a town or for the 1/3 that are being guided through the server, we may consider one of them for all new players moving forward. An A/B test does not give the full picture, however, and community feedback around this is crucial.

Improved resident inactivity system

Historically, players who are inactive for 42 days are removed from the town they're in. It can be a huge inconvenience and in practice prevents players from taking longer breaks from the server. That's something we want to change.

Starting today, inactive residents stay in the town but do not contribute to claim bonus and town level. Once they return, they don't have to start over. They spawn in the same town they were in and regain access to their old plots. Mayors also benefit. Returning players are automatically marked as active and instantly contribute to claim bonus, instead of having to be manually re-recruited or potentially lost to another town.

Inactive towns with only one resident are still deleted if that resident (mayor) becomes inactive, this is how it worked before and remains unchanged.

Improved mayor succession system

A mayor is removed after 42+ days of inactivity. The mayor role is granted to another resident in the following order:

1. Councillor: The councillor who has been in the town the longest becomes mayor.
2. Oldest Resident: If no councillors exist, the resident who has been in the town the longest becomes the new mayor.

The issue with the current system is that the oldest player in the town is also likely to be inactive, creating a spiral of inactivity, forcing an exodus of inactive players.

Starting today, the most active resident in the town becomes mayor. This should give the town the best chance of surviving and makes the most sense for the residents that are left. We measure activity based on several factors and may be adjusted as we move forward. The way activity is measured is not public for now, as we don't want the system to be gamed.

The mayor inactivity limit is likely going to be raised after reset. Mayors deserve the posibility to take breaks from the server as well without losing what they've worked for.

Town and nation merging

Merge combines two towns into one (/t merge) or two nations into one (/n merge). For towns, the homeblocks must be touching, both mayors must agree, and the town that runs the command becomes the surviving town. Residents are combined and plot permissions remain intact. Town merge costs 128g + 8g per chunk being absorbed, intended to be used mainly for larger towns where manual transfer is slower and more expensive.

For nations, /n merge deletes the other nation and forces its towns to join the surviving nation where rules allow (including nation range limits); towns that fall outside the surviving nation’s allowed range will become nationless.

Other recent updates since last blog post

• Overclaim has been disabled until the reset.
• Added nation embargos.
• Auctions are now available to everyone.
• Outlaws can no longer use shops or auctions in towns they are outlawed in.
• You can now shift click badges in the /badges menu to hide them from your /resident profile.
• Ability to use /t toggle snow and /plot toggle snow to manage snow in a town.
• You can now opt out from being included in API /api opt-out.

Discuss on Discord

Let us know what you think about this in the dedicated Discord thread.