Manor Lords News

Development Update

[p]Hi everyone,[/p][p][/p][p]Huge thank you to everyone for all the thoughts and feedback so far on the experimental Beta release! The dev team has been hard at work incorporating your feedback, squashing bugs, and generally getting the next version ready for you. We're getting very close, but in the meantime, Greg and I (that is, I'm Tim, CEO of the publisher Hooded Horse) have been talking and thinking together on how to keep all of you informed of what's going on, by sharing interim updates like this one between versions talking a bit about what is being worked on and coming with the next version. This is the first of many such regular posts, to share frequent news of what the dev team is doing on an ongoing basis.[/p][p][/p][p]We'd love your feedback on this as we implement this process - some of what we'll be sharing will be minor stuff, like about how this or that bug is being worked on, so if you end up feeling we're giving you too much detail let us know, but if you like getting that kind of detailed frequent updates, let us know as well! This is a bit different than before, where we'd sort of wait to have big new features to show you, so we do want to make sure you enjoy these much more frequent updates on all the aspects of development.[/p][p][/p][p]The approach we're going to try is this - Greg has let us into his internal development team server and planning board, so we can directly see him and his growing team working on everything, see what they are doing and saying about this and that bug or new feature or balance tweak, the current task lists, basically everything as it happens. I'm staring at the board and discussions now, and Greg and his growing team have a lot going on we can talk about. We're then going to report on all that to you, and convey some examples and details on what the dev team is doing. That way, Greg can keep his full focus on managing his team and getting the updates ready as fast as possible, while we focus on giving you regular reports on what is coming by observing the team working directly.[/p][p][/p][p]Ok then, diving in to this one! So I'll be writing this one myself, since we just got into the development server and board today and it's a Saturday, and I'd rather ask myself to work on a weekend than have someone else on our team do so, but I didn't want to wait any longer to give you some news - but I'm kind of a useless CEO at this point and can ramble a bit. But for future updates, you'll usually have one of our great community team writing this, and they are much better than me. But let me give it a try![/p][p][/p][p]Balance Changes[/p][p]A lot of the changes the team has been doing as they prepare the next release are focused here. Yields of things like goats and orchards have been adjusted, the costs of many buildings modified, consumption of garments and footwear has been reduced, export values changed, and so forth. I'm seeing dozens upon dozens of balance changes in the dev records, many informed by the feedback players have been giving, touching so many aspects of the game - thank you to everyone who has been giving all the feedback on the experimental version![/p][p][/p][p]Gameplay Tweaks[/p][p]Here the dev team has been doing a lot to improve the experience and functioning. For example, workplace animals are now being assigned a home as close as possible to the workplace. When workers debranch a tree, they always pick the one closest to them now, and likewise, when they cut down a tree, they pick the nearest one - unless it's too far away from the logging camp. Worker families assigned to a building being upgraded now participate in construction, and oxen transporting timber now better select where to get the logs. There are tons of examples like that, a lot of focus on making things work smoothly across many aspects of the game, that should add up to a better experience. Again, all your feedback has been essential to this process.[/p][p][/p][p]AI Improvements[/p][p]Making the AI function more intelligently has been a major focus of the work. The AI is now constructing buildings much more efficiently, and generally managing its economy better. For example, it will no longer buy an Animal Pen, Vegetable Garden, or Orchard backyard extension unless it can afford to properly use them, and will no longer sell tools until it can properly estimate its own need. The AI will now plan out better regarding things like harvesting seasonal goods, understanding sick families when redistributing workers, and prepare more housing to meet incoming population. A ton of bugs related to AI behavior have been fixed as well. Over 50 AI changes to improve functioning logged so far.[/p][p][/p][p]UI and Text[/p][p]A lot has been done to enhance quality of life here. More accurate wiki economy section, improved "people" list styling, and rye bread now has reserves and production limits in inventory UI. Broken mercenary companies no longer display in the company panel, and quest finished messages no longer popup for mercenary company payments. Like AI improvements, there are so many little quality of life and experience items here, it's hard to summarize them as it's more just tons of little things all over the place, but that should make the version coming soon a nicer experience.[/p][p][/p][p]Bug Fixes[/p][p]This is probably the biggest category, squashing bugs has been the team's priority. I'm counting 130 bug fixes so far since the beta release. They are all individual and hard to summarize, fixes for how the lime kiln functions or how praying people use churches and on and on. However, I did notice one bug fix, "Fixed hounds following people around when they shouldn't", and as the owner of a beagle, I can't help but feel something has been lost.[/p][p][/p][p]Crashfixes[/p][p]A ton has been done to make the game more stable, including fixes for crashes in manor placement, growth of foliage, family members emigrating, placing bridges, and many others across the game. [/p][p][/p][p]Optimization[/p][p]Lots of work here to help performance, including fixing a way that inventory panel and log entries could cause a framerate drop, a map performance optimization, optimization around animations, closing some memory leaks, optimizing how market supply distribution could cause a lag spike, and many many more.[/p][p][/p][p]Ok, so that's been this first of these new frequent development reports! Again, thanks for bearing with me as I fill in for the community team on this Saturday, I just wanted to make sure you got this news update right away. And please do let us know what you think, and whether you enjoy these updates - if everyone feels like this is interesting, we'll be doing these regularly going forward, and give you frequent reports on all the stuff going on behind the curtain with the dev team. Let us know what you think, all feedback is very appreciated![/p][p][/p][p]Tim[/p][p]CEO, Hooded Horse[/p][p][/p][p][/p][p][/p]

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Manor Lords gets its first update since January, and its creator says he is 'rethinking what went wrong to ensure it won't happen again'

It isn't unusual for a game to go quiet after a popular early access launch, but Manor Lords has been quieter than most. Slavic Magic's medieval city-builder was the most exciting thing to happen in April 2024, a quietly enthralling simulation of everyday life in the Middle Ages that somehow achieved cultural critical mass, becoming Steam's most wishlisted game and selling 3 million copies in its first year of early access...
Read more.

Manor Lords releases first update in nine months as Steam reviews turn sour

When it comes to strategy games, none are as intriguing as Manor Lords. Developer Slavic Magic started off by putting his heart and soul into the game as a solo project, before it grew beyond his wildest dreams. Still in early access but with a bigger team now supporting it, the surprise hit has released its first major update for nine months. The lack of updates in this time has soured the fanbase somewhat, bringing its overall 'very positive' Steam rating down to 'mixed' in the last 30 days. Hopefully the scope of this patch, as well as the developer's transparency, will bring players back on board.

Read the rest of the story...

New experimental BETA finally arrived (0.8.035 beta)

Hello everyone,

Sorry for taking so long this time. I am rethinking what went wrong to ensure it won’t happen again. I focused on expanding the developer team and tackled way too many issues at once.

Right now, on the left of my screen in the engine window, is a graveyard full of perks that didn’t work out and were all eventually discarded. I needed to align visions with the new designers, and the new programmers learning the codebase (that was basically a giant solo dev spaghetti) also led to a bunch of problems.

There were also some major refactors done that will be (hopefully) completely invisible, but without them, the AI towns could not function properly (basically, how data is organized internally). Some tasks appeared innocent but ended up being huge rabbit holes.

From now on, the goal is to focus on smaller-sized updates but uploading more frequently, starting with bugfix and polish, and the rest of the Development Perks (in the beta, you’ll find the first 9 perks).

But, some of the things I think we eventually accomplished that you can try in the Beta:

Good progress on AI controlled players and AI towns. AI can’t challenge the player yet but it’s getting close, its towns look relatively natural and organic which is a major goal for us.
The new progression system should now feel thematic, and the choices should be less boring and obvious.
A lot more depth overall. There’s maintenance, efficiency, yield, productivity, dynamic population growth rates, various approval effects, environment affinities, and most of these things work based on modifiers that can be stacked together for ultimate results. We also added records and graphs for the player to be able to peek into the production and consumption data, worker time allocation to properly optimize their towns.
There are many other significant changes though they will all feel “work in progressy”, like the ability to upgrade to a stone castle, place your soldiers on walls and peek inside the towers. We broke up the resources in a more granular way so veggies became Cabbages, Carrots, Beetroots and so on, all with their own pros and cons, and residential requirements were recoded so that the players can utilize all those new resources in different combinations to satisfy the townsfolk.
Oh, and there are new maps to play on that I think you can find quite cool, like the one with a giant lake and others that have a lot of cool rocky cliff spots.

Ps. Due to how major the changes were, older saves will no longer work!

Here are the full patch notes so far, and as usual, let me know what you think on our Discord.

Thank you, and again apologies for taking so long.

Greg – lead dev

[h2]How to Access the Beta[/h2][hr][/hr]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. They will most likely crash the game.

To find your Manor Lords Steam saves.
Press Win + E
Go to %USERPROFILE%]]AppDataLocalManorLordsSavedSaveGames 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

You can report feedback and bug reports on the Manor Lords Steam forums or join us on Discord for bug reports and discussion about the latest patch.

[hr][/hr]

Patch Notes — Version 0.8.029–0.8.035 (Beta)

[h2]Major Changes[/h2]

Starting Location Selection: Ability to preselect the starting location in the game setup screen.
New Maps: New playable maps: Devil's Hill, Jagged Cliffs, Divided, Large Lake.
New Game Modes: New game modes: Duel (1 vs 1 with AI) and Fractured Realm (4 Lord free-for-all).
Jobs & Buildings: Added new jobs and buildings: Quarry, Stonemason, Lime Kiln, and their connected resources: Rough Stone, Dressed Stone, Mortar.
Wall Positioning: A new system for positioning units on walls.
Ladder Climbing: Units now climb ladders to access higher floors.
Hover Fortifications: The player can now hover the castle fortifications and see the soldiers inside.
Gate Control: Added the ability to open and close each castle gate individually.

Castle Upgrade System:

Module Upgrades: Every castle module, including walls and gates, can now be upgraded to lv2.
Placement Logic: Module placement is no longer restricted by distance to the nearest major module. The planner now displays the total Bailey Area. Bailey area allowed for construction is limited by your lord's or lady's Rank (still WIP).
Wall Platforms: You can now attach platforms to the castle walls. The level of platforms is capped by the wall type.

Affinity System:

Environment Types: Each Region is divided by area into multiple Environments (Meadow, Woodland, Farmland, Urban, Rural)
Building Affinities: Different buildings can have Affinities with different Environments, for instance the Animal Pen has a "Pannage" Affinity which increases Efficiency of Pig Pens in regions with a lot of Woodland area.

Maintenance System:

Workplace Maintenance: A lot of workplaces now must be maintained to function properly.
Failure Risks: Failure to maintain a building can result in various risks, for instance the mines can Collapse.
Rate Tuning: You can dial your maintenance rates, which affects Labor Speed.

Yield System:

Yield Definition: Yield is a measure of how much your workplace produces. Various buildings use different timespans and benchmark values depending on their nature.
Yield Influencers: Yield can be affected by Labor Speed, Productivity and Efficiency.

Productivity: Productivity is a measure of your Logistics: Transport and labor times vs idle times, sickness, extension work, militia assignments.
Labor Speed: Labor Speed measures how fast your workers perform workplace related tasks.
Efficiency: Efficiency measures how much output do you get per crafting, per plant or per passive income cycle, depending on the production type. High Efficiency means your Gardens will produce more Vegetables and your Crafting tasks may produce extra items.

Approval System Rework:

Memory Weight Shift: Approval memory weight was shifted to dramatically favor current event versus past events.
Approval Tiers: There are now approval Tiers. Landing in a specific Approval Tier may give various penalties and bonuses.

Food Resource Rework:

Vegetable Types: Vegetables resource was split into Cabbages, Carrots and Beetroots. You can now choose your preferred vegetable type in every Vegetable Garden.
Wildlife Change: Deer were replaced by Small Game since it's more plausible in historical terms.
Meat Differentiation: Meat was divided into: Mutton, Chevon, Pork, Beef, Chicken, Small Game, and are made by different animals accordingly. Chicken is now produced every fourth cycle from a Chicken Coop.
Sausages: Sausages are made from Pork and Salt.
Orchard Types: Pears and Quinces were added as Orchard resource types.
Mushrooms (Experimental): (Experimental) Mushrooms were added back.

Regional Development System Rework

Development Perks: To a lot of players, the development tree was a weak point of the game and described as immersion breaking. Therefore, a new, more grounded system of Development Perks was introduced. The player is now faced with more realistic choices at each settlement level development and those choices reflect the settlement development stage.
Perk Design: The perks are also designed to be more nuanced from game design perspective so that choices are less obvious.
Rollout Status: Since it's still in progress, only 1st batch of perks (Origins) is available.
Policies Removal: Policies are temporarily removed (still undergoing rework).

[h2]Balance[/h2]

Animal Reproduction: Wild Animal reproduction is now dependent on their herd size. A minimum of 2 animals is required.
Mining Range: Rich deposits have larger mining range than normal ones, allowing you to potentially place more mines on a single deposit.
Mine Collapse Risk: There is an increasing chance of collapse if the user places too many mines close to each other.
Homelessness Grace Period: Added a 30 day grace period since settling a region for the homelessness approval factor.
Castle Fire Safety: Manors/Castles are no longer flammable under the assumption that raiders shouldn't be able to easily light them on fire.
Starting Node Balance: Starting Resource Node balance changed: Players get either Fish or Small Game, either Berries or Mushrooms, either Iron or Salt, Clay, Stone and Fertility. Two of those get boosted to a Region Strength (Rich Resource Node or a Rich Fertility).
Fishing Node Odds: Temporary: Increased chance of fishing resource nodes on maps with many river regions.
Consumption Scaling: Families now consume extra goods related to their Burgage Level, eg. Clothing for Lv2 and up.
Regrowth Tweaks: Tweaked resource regrowth rates.
Trading Post Values: New values and Trade Types assigned to Foods and Materials in the Trading Post.
Livestock Trade Balancing: New values assigned to most Animals for orders and Livestock Trading Post.
Tariff Increase: Increased import tariff from 5 to 10.
Iron Recipe Rebalance: Rebalanced Iron related items and recipes to make the Iron Slab cost ratio more consistent.
Garden Replanting: Vegetable Gardens need to be replowed and replanted after harvest.
Settlement Growth Bonus: Every region now gains +1 Growth for 1 year from the "Fresh settlement" modifier.

[h2]UI[/h2]

UI Restyling: Overall UI restyling with a more "medieval" and less modern feel.
Production Screen: A new screen where you can preview your regional production and consumption balances.
Approval Hover Info: When hovering over Approval, it should now display missing Requirements over nearby Burgage Plots.
Map Restyling: Paper map restyling. Resource nodes will display as drawings instead of icons in the map view.
Family Widgets: Family widgets now have a Consumption tooltip displaying their consumption rate and days left.
Road Snap Fix: Road Snap Points no longer get distorted on the grass.
Resource Icons: New Resource Node icons.
Rename Saves: Existing saves can now be renamed.
Region Cycling: Regions can now be cycled through on the Region Screen.
Windmill Efficiency: Windmills now display their efficiency value on the inventory panel.
Log Notifications: If you get a few log notifications at the same time, they are all displayed for a few seconds instead of just the last one. This makes it harder to miss an important message for instance on the 1st day of the month when a lot happens.
Save Confirmation: Added save overwrite confirmation window.
Building UI Fixes: Removed the building placement front arrow since building entrances are displayed now.
Destroy Button: Alt clicking to delete a castle module was replaced by a destroy button.
Module Snapback: Manor Modules now also snap back to the original dragging start position to reduce accidental changes.
Wall Selection Accuracy: Improved accuracy when selecting wall points.
Tutorial Overhaul: Added tutorial subsections and reworked the tutorial contents.
Description Generalization: Pass on all building descriptions to list less direct numbers, but more general terms for what they do as yields can now vary.
Extension Display: Added extension type to building floaters displayed when pressing tab.
Livestock Tooltip: Livestock Tooltip now displays Extension animals.

[h2]Minor Changes[/h2]

Camera Collision: Improved the camera collision with cliffs on High Peaks.
River Fishing Nodes: Fishing nodes often spawn in rivers now (allowing river fishing).
Elevation Overlay: A new Elevation overlay.
Graphics Presets: Added global graphics presets.
Cold Warning Fix: When a burgage plot is refueled, the cold warning should now instantly disappear.
Module Collision: Castle modules now collide with each other when placing in order to avoid building areas impossible for pathfinding and reduce clipping.
Wall Snapping: When castle modules are placed on a wall, they will split the wall and snap the walls to edges instead of clipping with the module.
Wall Joining: Added an option to join 2 walls into 1 after you snap their ends together.
Wall Snap Points: Added missing wall snapping points to the outer towers.
Module Rotation Fix: When rotating a module, the attached walls should now stay attached. The rotation is limited if a module has wall connections.
Stream Integration: Streams now use the river system and therefore will spawn small bridges.
Apiary Extension: Apiary is now a backyard extension. Wax is now produced every third cycle from an Apiary.
Deterministic Mechanics: Removed a lot of chance based mechanics in favor of more deterministic calculations to make yield balance more predictable (this includes farming and mining which used to be chance based).
Yield Linearization: Yields are more linear as Orchard Trees and Field Crops mature.
Family Structure Data: Moved consumption & approval data to the Family structure instead of storing it on husbands (this was a temporary workaround to represent per family consumption and approval effects).
Disease Data Shift: Since individual villagers no longer have a consumption update, we also moved the disease data to the Family structure. As a side effect, whole families will now get sick together.
Clothing Change: Cloaks are removed, and instead there are two recipes of producing Clothes - either from Wool or from Linen.
Windmill Supply Change: Granary workers no longer supply Windmills since it was inconsistent with all the other workplaces needing to get their own crafting resources.
Deprecated Jobs: Deprecated some jobs since they no longer were fitting the game design: Removed Dye and Dyer in their previous implementation. Removed Firewood Cart and Food Cart.
Stable Optimization: Skipped animal petting in the stables since it's no space for it anyway and it only clogged pathfinding with unresolved requests. Tweaked the ox guide locations in tight spaces to avoid unresolved pathfinding requests.
UI Performance: Optimized population and living space UI updates.
Tooltip Update: Updated text for establishing a trade route tooltip, delivering more information.

[h2]Sound[/h2]

Drag Audio: Added sound effects when dragging castle modules.

[h2]Bugfixes[/h2]

Approval Tooltip: Fixed approval tooltip not displaying during the first in game day in a session.
Job Assignment: Fixed job assignment sometimes not correctly picking an unassigned family living nearest to the workplace.
Wall Blueprint Curve: Fixed the castle wall blueprints being less curved after committing construction at least once.
Camera Snap Fix: Fixed the camera snapping above water level when moving over waterbodies.
Problem Banner Bug: Fixed an issue with the problem banner appearing when the trading post is connected to the trade network.
Soldier Immobility Fix: Fixed soldiers becoming immobile if all their squad members have died.
Region Data Load Fix: Fixed region data and problem banners displaying incorrectly after loading a save where the player has lost all region control.
Tree Scale Bug: Fixed felled trees sometimes loading with overly large scale.
Road Respawn Bug: Fixed certain pre-placed road pieces respawning when loading a saved game.
Granary Upgrade Bug: Fixed the Large Granary not upgrading sometimes.
Villager Stuck Bug: Fixed villagers somtimes getting stuck inside their homes when loading a saved game.
Floating Resources Bug: Fixed Resource Clumps floating in the map view.
Burgage Tint Fix: Fixed Burgage Plots not tinting red when hovering over any supply if the value is exactly 0%.
Wagon Pathfinding Fix: Fixed pathfinding ignoring the broken wagon next to the Trading Post.
Militia Region Restriction: Fixed the player being able to add militia units from non owned regions.
Ox Navigation Bug: Fixed livestock orders failing due to the ox trying to navigate into the stable wall and failing.

[h2]Cosmetics[/h2]

Fishing Visuals: Tweaked fishing locations.
Garrison Tower Model: Lv1 Garrison Tower model was reworked to be more proportional with the scale of the Lv1 Palace.
Workshop Models: Reworked Joiner, Bowyer, Armorer & Butcher workshops.
Door Detection: Improved door opening detection precision.