Medieval Strategy Norland Is Drowning in Bugs — Developers Explain Why the Problem Is Endless

The medieval strategy Norland continues to contend with persistent bugs that the developers have not been able to fully eliminate. Two factors are responsible: the inherent complexity of its systems and Long Jaunt studio’s particular development philosophy.

The author of Norland published a detailed post on Reddit explaining why the game contains so many bugs.

Norland is composed of numerous interlinked systems — war, economy, religion and more. These systems are divided into low-level and high-level layers. Low-level elements tend to be simple, while even the basic components in high-level systems are highly intricate. Because most of Norland’s systems are high-level, the game accumulates a multitude of exceptions and bespoke interactions, causing bugs to surface in unpredictable places.

The developers prioritize innovation over conventional solutions. That mindset makes the game distinctive but also complicates debugging. New systems are often developed to roughly 80% completion — enough to function but not to be flawless. As the author put it, from the three qualities “high complexity,” “innovation,” and “bug-free gameplay,” you can realistically choose only two, and the studio opted for the first two.

The most recent patch, 41, introduced public plots, a developer mode, and a handful of minor adjustments: the “loyalty base” technology was removed, and the chance of buildings catching fire has been increased over time.

Source: iXBT.games