Manor Lords News

A new patch has been released to the main branch, combining the work from two prior beta patches. Below is a brief summary of the most significant changes and a full changelog right below it.

Note: The new patch is available on the main branch. If you participated in the pre_release, please remember to set "betas" to "none" to access the update. We recommend starting a new save with the new patch, regardless if you participated in the beta or not.

Mods: Please remove any mods you have before beginning a new save to ensure you can play without interference from an outdated mod.

To discuss the patch, please join the official Manor Lords Discord server.

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[h2]Unreal Engine 5[/h2]

• The game has been successfully upgraded to Unreal Engine 5, addressing multiple stability and performance issues, including random crashes during loading screens and resolution changes.
  
• Improved visuals with new volumetric clouds, a virtual shadow map system for sharper shadows, and enhanced performance through GPU-based LOD handling for instanced components.
  

[h2]New Gameplay Features[/h2]

• Fishing System: Fishing ponds may now spawn on the map with a new resource node, Shoal of Fish. Fishermen can now fish at the Fisherman’s Hut, and fish multiply during spring months. Be careful of overfishing as ponds freeze in winter, and a new Winter Fishing branch can be unlocked to extend fishing year-round.
• Butchers & Food Spoilage: Butchers can now turn surplus livestock into meat, and a new spoilage system has been introduced. Foods like fish spoil faster than bread, and new Salt Deposits can be used to make sausages to reduce spoilage.
• Crossbows & Huntsmen Mercenaries: Crossbows can now be crafted at the Bowyer’s Workshop and equipped by militia and The Huntsmen, a new ranged mercenary unit.
  
• Production Limits & Reserves: Set production limits for different workplaces and reserves for prioritizing specific resources, such as shields or bows.

[h2]Performance & Optimizations[/h2]

• Significant CPU optimizations for late-game scenarios, making large cities run smoother.
  
• Reduced stutter and improved load times for large save files.
  
• Multiple optimizations for crowd animations, pathfinding, unit rotations, and rendering of surface checks to further improve performance.

[h2]Balance Changes & Bug Fixes[/h2]

• Advanced Pondkeeping was introduced to increase pond capacity and limit overfishing.
  
• Various balance adjustments to resource node spawning, deposit management, and food spoilage rates.
  
• Fixed several crashes and bugs, including deer behavior issues, villagers ignoring storage filters, and certain game-breaking edge cases related to saved games and building placement.

[h2]To the Manor Lords Community:[/h2]
Thank you for your continued support and for playing Manor Lords. We'd appreciate it if you could share your feedback through a Steam review — your feedback is invaluable in shaping the game and letting us know how you feel about it.

Greg Styczeń,
Lead Developer, Slavic Magic
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[h2]The Hooded Horse Publisher Sale is here![/h2]
Manor Lords is 30% off in the Hooded Horse Publisher Sale, running until October 10th! You can also find discounts on great strategy titles like Against the Storm, Breachway, Terra Invicta, and more.


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Hi all,

A small patch with several bugfixes was published to the BETA branch (pre_release).

We decided to postpone the main branch patch longer than I ever wanted cause of several reports that the UE5 build either crashes or performs worse than UE4.

We spent a ton of effort trying to investigate those reports and tested the game on over 40 PCs with different configs, could not find any pattern and in fact couldn't find any proof that the new patches perform worse.

In our crash investigations we found the following:
-Players forget they had mods installed, deleting the all mod traces fixes it.
-Players overclock their CPUs or GPUs (in cases of 13th and 14th gen Intel CPUs instability happens even with factory settings). Downclocking fixes it.
-Players set FPS to unlimited and/or settings too high and overheat their GPUs. For instance players report that limiting framerate, changing AA to FXAA or putting the laptop into a lower peformance mode fixes the crashes for them.
-Players using old GPU drivers. Installing newest drivers fixed it.
-One crash according to the player was fixed by him simply restarting his PC
-One crash according to the player was fixed by uninstalling the game, removing all leftover files and installing it again

Some players suspected the Steam update process itself. We were unable to confirm it but a possible fix might include deleting all settings files in C:\Users\ \AppData\Local\ManorLords\Saved\Config\Windows and turning off steam cloud, letting them regenerate on boot.

There are some unexplainable GPU crashes that we can't find pattern for, which look very much like GPU overheating and losing stability. It's starting to block the development of the game so it will no longer be the top priority, however, we will continue looking.

Saves: If you're new to the beta, to avoid any potential issues, it’s recommended that you back up your saved files before switching to a beta version.

Mods: Please remove any mods you have before beginning a new save to ensure you can play without interference from an outdated mod.

[h3]To find your saves on Steam for Manor Lords.[/h3]

• Press Win + E
  
• Paste %USERPROFILE%\AppData\Local\ManorLords\Saved\SaveGames into the search bar.
  

To try the BETA, please follow these steps:

• Open Steam
  
• Right-click on Manor Lords in your library
  
• Select Properties
  
• Go to the BETAS tab
  
• Enter the password: veryNiceBasket
  
• Choose "pre_release" from the "Beta participation" drop-down list
  
• Wait for the game to update the files (if nothing happens, restart the Steam client)
  
• Launch the game
  

All new strings might not be localized yet, and stability hasn't yet been thoroughly tested. Some balancing changes are still experimental.

To discuss this, please join the official Discord server https://discord.gg/manorlords. You'll find a channel specifically for discussing the ongoing pre_release branch.

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Minor changes:
-Changed the season tooltip to display the current year instead of years survived, as well as the day of the month
-Changed the Animal Pen upgrade icon to reflect the new animal choices (Beta)
-Traders will continue working when sick until they reach home region again

Audio:
-Added pig sound effects (Beta)

Crashfixes:
-Fixed a crash when deer were startled off-map (Beta)
-Fixed a crash when the baron loots one of the bandit camps (beta)

Bugfixes:
-Fixed resources retrieved from the bandit camp being able to land in a pond, leading to the bandits possibly trying to loot them, not being able to get into the pond to get them and clog pathfinding, resulting in pathfinding for squads not working or being laggy
-Fixed Tavernkeepers transporting Ale back to the Granary if it exceeds 85% of the Pantry limit
-Fixed: It is possible to order an animal after demolishing the Animal Pen backyard extension (Beta)
-Second fix attempt: Resources retrieved from the bandit camp being able to land in a pond
-Fixed export price showing as "NA" in the trading post when doing local trade only (foreign trade checkbox disabled)
-Fixed villagers not unequipping carts when going to fetch water (beta)
-Fixed villagers clumping too much at the well (beta) (note: this might affect transportation limits of other buildings again, aka more workers waiting if too many people want to access the same building at the same time)
-Fixed grass not properly culling over fields

Cosmetics:
-[Experimental] Light function atlas enabled to allow ponds to receive cloud shadows - cloud shadow material edits were required (Beta)

Cosmetics:
-Tweaked grass LODs & Grass Wind
-Reworked the animal pen extension

Thanks for playing!

Greg
Lead de

Hi all,

A small patch with several bugfixes was published to the BETA branch (pre_release).

Saves: To avoid any potential issues, it’s recommended that you back up your saved files before switching to a beta version.

Mods: Please remove any mods you have before beginning a new save to ensure you can play without interference from an outdated mod.

[h3]To find your saves on Steam for Manor Lords.[/h3]

• Press Win + E
  
• Paste %USERPROFILE%\AppData\Local\ManorLords\Saved\SaveGames into the search bar.
  

To try the BETA, please follow these steps:

• Open Steam
  
• Right-click on Manor Lords in your library
  
• Select Properties
  
• Go to the BETAS tab
  
• Enter the password: veryNiceBasket
  
• Choose "pre_release" from the "Beta participation" drop-down list
  
• Wait for the game to update the files (if nothing happens, restart the Steam client)
  
• Launch the game
  

All new strings might not be localized yet, and stability hasn't yet been thoroughly tested. Some balancing changes are still experimental.

To discuss this, please join the official Discord server https://discord.gg/manorlords. You'll find a channel specifically for discussing the ongoing pre_release branch.

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Gameplay & Balance:
-1 Malt now makes 2 Ale

Minor changes:
-Changed ox plowing directions to be even more historically accurate (from center, outside)
-[Experimental] The game hides the demolish button on the very last Hitching Post in the region in order to protect new players from game overing themselves by deleting the last hitching post and making the ox run away. I made the stables follow the same rules, so that if you have 10 stables and 1 hitching post, you may delete the hitching post, but if you have 1 stable, you can no longer delete it.
-Adjusted the description of the "Better deals" perk

Optimization:
-[Experimental] Dynamic foliage LODs: Tree detail will now vary on the camera angle additionally to being dependent on the distance to the camera.

Crashfixes:
-Fixed the game crashing when Baron clears a bandit camp
-Fixed the crash when booting the game while volumetric clouds setting is off in the ini file (Beta branch)

Bugfixes:
-Fixed Herders not collecting Wool from Sheep if the sheep move after the task is created and not move again due to the camera being far
-Fixed: Barter traders leave imported non-food goods in market stalls
-Fixed the "don't allow to delete last hitching post" safety check not working on stables or if you have multiple building tabs open at the same time
-Fixed: Reserve set in the Tavern for Ale distribution is not being respected
-Removed the extra 2 days between December and January which resulted from the day of the year counter starting at 0
-Fixed: Military equipment crafted by Artisans is not being transported to the Storehouse if the corresponding Workshop's Storage is full
-Fixed oxen not reaccommodating to another hitching post or stable if their current "home" hitching post gets demolished
-Fixed grass not disappearing after deleting and rebuilding a vegetable garden

Cosmetics:
-The irregularity of the vegetable field shape now scales with their size. This way they are no longer too wobbly as they get very large.

From our side this looks like a good candidate for the main branch, but I'll as usual wait for a confirmation from the community first.

Thanks for playing,

Greg
lead developer

Hi all,

A small patch with several bugfixes was published to the BETA branch (pre_release).

UPDATE: Apparently we have a new startup crash in this build that happens only on some selected PCs. Good news is, it's not my fault. Bad news, it's some blue noise texture missing in Unreal Engine. We're trying to figure out - I'll push a hotfix as soon as we do. In the meantime, there are some rumors that deleting the old config files fixes it (in \AppData\Local\ManorLords\Saved). UserSettings.ini might be the main culprit.

Additionally a Pig animal prototype was added - now you may choose to pick Goats or Pigs for your Animal Pen Extension. For now, Pigs have a 2x meat passive yield while Goats give 1 Meat + 1 Hides. Advanced Skinning doubles the Meat output of the extension, we're talking over further changes to the Development Branches related to husbandry and the Butcher, it would be nice to see more synergy between the Butcher and the Animal Pen Extensions.

By the way, before you give your criticism - from all we know medieval pigs were different to modern pigs, closer in appearance to wild pigs or boars. They look like this on purpose :)





Saves: To avoid any potential issues, it’s recommended that you back up your saved files before switching to a beta version.

Mods: Please remove any mods you have before beginning a new save to ensure you can play without interference from an outdated mod.

[h3]To find your saves on Steam for Manor Lords.[/h3]

• Press Win + E
  
• Paste %USERPROFILE%\AppData\Local\ManorLords\Saved\SaveGames into the search bar.
  

To try the BETA, please follow these steps:

• Open Steam
  
• Right-click on Manor Lords in your library
  
• Select Properties
  
• Go to the BETAS tab
  
• Enter the password: veryNiceBasket
  
• Choose "pre_release" from the "Beta participation" drop-down list
  
• Wait for the game to update the files (if nothing happens, restart the Steam client)
  
• Launch the game
  

All new strings might not be localized yet, and stability hasn't yet been thoroughly tested. Some balancing changes are still experimental.

To discuss this, please join the official Discord server https://discord.gg/manorlords. You'll find a channel specifically for discussing the ongoing pre_release branch.

[hr][/hr]


Major changes:
-Changed the goat pen extension to a more versatile "animal pen"
a) You now have to choose what animal to order, either a pig or a goat
b) Pigs give 2x meat every 150 days, Goats give 1 meat + 1 hides every 150 days

Minor changes:
-Added the livestock order timer to save data

Gameplay & Balance:
-Communal oven will now require refueling

Bugfixes:
-Fixed: Incorrect animal gets delivered if save/load is performed after ordering one (for example traders importing chickens by mistake) (Note: Fix may only be working for future saves)
-Fixed the fuel reservation bug sometimes getting fuel into the negatives (Beta)
-Fixed building access limit triggering too aggressively, resulting in a workers "waiting" cause they think too many people are trying to access the same building at the same time
-Fixed villagers taking away Charcoal from workplaces that have fuel stockpiles
-Fixed: Trapping perk does not work until loading a save file
-Fixed: Workers keep producing goods without respecting the set reserve if it is set to 1000 or more (Beta)
-Fixed: Bloomery not respecting crafting reserve (Beta)
-Fixed: Trading post workers do not sell goods after loading a save
-Fixed: Production in the Hunting camp blocks when the Generic storage is full of Carcass
-Fixed: "Lazy buildings" (Like the sitting log in the hunting camp) being treated as workbenches
-Fixed deer carcasses sometimes not disappearing from the rack after crafting is finished if a game was loaded during the crafting process
-Fixed the meat lying under the table in the hunting camp
-Fixed hunters sometimes bringing over 2 carcasses for skinning in the hunting camp even though there are only 2 skinning racks

Cosmetics:
-Increased the distance of cartwheels/barrels rotating which was earlier reduced too aggressively for optimization
-Tried my best to match UE5 settings (foliage LODs, fog level) to UE4's settings since some players perceived a downgrade
-Increased how quickly the weather changes to reduce the periods of overcast weather since some players reported that the game is too gloomy


Thanks for playing,

Greg

Lead dev

Hi all,

You can now access a new experimental branch of Manor Lords (0.7.991).

Saves: To avoid any potential issues, it’s recommended that you back up your saved files before switching to a beta version.

Mods: Please remove any mods you have before beginning a new save to ensure you can play without interference from an outdated mod.

[h3]To find your saves on Steam for Manor Lords.[/h3]

• Press Win + E
  
• Paste %USERPROFILE%\AppData\Local\ManorLords\Saved\SaveGames into the search bar.
  

If you'd like to try it, please follow these steps:

• Open Steam
  
• Right-click on Manor Lords in your library
  
• Select Properties
  
• Go to the BETAS tab
  
• Enter the password: veryNiceBasket
  
• Choose "pre_release" from the "Beta participation" drop-down list
  
• Wait for the game to update the files (if nothing happens, restart the Steam client)
  
• Launch the game
  

All new strings might not be localized yet, and stability hasn't yet been thoroughly tested. Some balancing changes are still experimental.

To discuss this, please join the official Discord server https://discord.gg/manorlords. You'll find a channel specifically for discussing the ongoing pre_release branch.

[hr][/hr]


Gameplay & Balance:

• "Winter fishing" changed to "Advanced Pondkeeping" and now also doubles the pond's capacity
  
• When bought, sheep all have pregnancy counter set to 0 for better predictability of the sheep breeding development branch
  
• Upped fish pond regrowth to 50% in spring seasons
  
• Increased fishing spots to 11 per pond
  
• Fish Pond capacity is no longer random and has doubled from the previous maximum
  
• Default fishing reserve upped to 120 to avoid players overfishing by default
  
• Increased fishing action speed by reducing loop repetitions from 5 to 2
  
• [Experimental] The bonus resource node was removed since most people thought that it's a bug.
  
• [Experimental] Since most people expect between 2-3 ponds and 2-3 salt deposits per map, instead of spawning them as a bonus node from a random pool, fishing ponds can now randomly replace berry deposits, and salt deposits can randomly replace iron deposits. Once again, the randomization uses a fixed pool to spawn 2-3 of those per map, as the players seem to expect.
  
• Added generic storage to the Malthouse since it stores fuel
  
• Spoilage is now rounded up from half (1.4 becomes 1 unit) instead of always rounding up. If spoilage is lower than a single unit but greater than 0, it becomes a % chance to spoil.
  
• Market stalls now have max spoilage reduction as in real life it would have a high turnover (...and it was too punishing)
  
• A minimum of 2 sheep are now required for breeding to occur
  
• Sheep pregnancy duration lowered to 145 days (+-1) (Variable is currently hidden in the game)
  
• The number of lambs born per region cap increased to a maximum of 2 every ten days.
  
• Goat extension yield changed to 2 hides and one meat every 150 days + 1 extra meat with the advanced skinning development branch
  
• Iron Parts are now required to make Crossbows. They are made from Iron Slabs by the Blacksmith Artisan.
  

Minor changes:

• Enhanced the tooltip for the "NA" price to explain better why it's not available
  
• "Fuel reserve" renamed to "fuel stockpile" not to confuse with the new "reserve" options
  
• Removed the "max capacity" placeholder text
  
• Added max mining deposit capacity to save data
  
• Added a "spoilage multiplier" difficulty setting to the game setup
  
• If an animal breeding fails due to collision, another attempt will be made next cycle
  
• Adjusted stone gate spawning locations for specific lv3 plots (left side anchored, no expansion upgrade)
  
• Added new help buttons to reserve and production limit and added entries for text in barter UI and work area and road curvature
  

Crashfixes:

• Fixed a crash when drawing over 200 waypoints for a squad
  

Bugfixes:

• Fixed: Villagers can fetch water from the not fully constructed well
  
• Fixed: Windmill does not respect Production Limit
  
• Fixed the tavern production limit being visible even though it doesn't produce anything
  
• Fixed invalid push force scaling at high framerates, resulting in units pushing themselves away indefinitely in rare situations
  
• Fixed deer not being startled by buildings
  
• Fixed some parts of the lv3 residential stone gate wall floating or spawning with gaps
  
• Fixed lv3 stone gate not always being spawned deterministically when a plot is narrow and there is no expansion, leading to some buildings appearing as unconstructed after loading a save
  
• Fixed villagers & oxen sometimes not respecting storage filters
  
• Fixed "berry" regional strength sometimes being picked even though there is no berries spawned cause a pond replaced them
  
• Fixed the heads sometimes disappearing when a newly spawned villager exits a building
  
• Fixed soldiers running away from the enemy immediately after loading a save
  
• Fixed deer counting as 2 when breeding
  
• Fixed setting highlights disappearing after changing the language
  
• Fixed storehouse workers collecting fuel stockpiles from buildings that need to be refueled
  
• Fixed the "Rooftiles" icon being greyed
  
• Fixed the "constantly pause and unpause the game to stop days passing" exploit
  
• Fixed deer icon not moving to their lair location after reloading the game
  
• Fixed lamb age not loading properly
  

Cosmetics:

• Tried to tune the ice material to make it less like, according to one player, concrete :)
  
• [Experimental] Pond material changes: The water edge is softened at the cost of AA motion precision (sadly, we can't have both). Pond water now receives shadows. Note: Shadows will look pixelated up close with "sharp" shadow settings.
  

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If you've enjoyed playing Manor Lords, please take a moment to share your feedback in a Steam review. Thank you for playing!

Greg and the team