Manor Lords Releases Fourth Major Update

Posted by By our-little-miss-is-home January 10, 2025 2 Views 29 Min Read
Manor Lords Releases Fourth Major Update

Summary

  • Manor Lords update 4 introduces major changes, including new maps, building mechanics, and gameplay adjustments.
  • The update also brings balance changes, such as taxation adjustments, stone well upgrades, and tweaks to unit formations.
  • Performance has been improved with audio enhancements, bug fixes, and UI updates, all aimed at enhancing the player experience.

Developer Slavic Magic has released the fourth major Manor Lords update, introducing several new features, including maps, building mechanics, and gameplay changes. Almost every aspect of Manor Lords has been addressed in update 4, inching the game closer to its final shape.

It’s been a while since Manor Lords’ last significant update. The game has been a sensation among historical strategy game fans, even though it’s still in an early stage. Every major update brings the game closer to the developer’s original vision, with the previous one introducing features like a King’s Tax and inter-region trading. Despite technical issues and complaints about slow update cycles, Slavic Magic has managed to keep its player base happy by addressing its feedback.

Manor Lords soldier on horse headed for a town

Related


Manor Lords’ Third-Person Mode Is an Uncut Gem

Manor Lords’ third-person mode is one of its most innovative features and could set a precedent, but it’s held back by some glaring technical issues.

Manor Lords introduces many game-changing features in update 4. As previously revealed by the Manor Lords developer, some of the new features include two playable maps called High Peaks and Winding River. Additionally, players will see a new bridge-building system, a stone well upgrade, and visual enhancements for the tavern. Among the major changes, players will find a less ambiguous cliff system with a more straightforward interface. Ale and water distribution have also been adjusted; now, both distribute similarly, and players won’t be able to upgrade the tavern with just one Ale.

Update 4 brings balance adjustments as well, including changes to how Manor Lords‘ taxation works when there’s no money to tax. Stone wells now serve up to 50 plots, new restrictions apply during droughts, and instead of three families, the tavern now employs only one. There have also been increases in the size of iron and stone deposits, along with an experimental change involving building cost rebalancing.

Other minor experimental changes have been added in this update, such as tweaks to unit formation mechanics and shorter rain durations. The game’s audio has also seen improvements, with new ambient sounds enhancing the atmosphere in the tavern. Additionally, work is underway on new cosmetics, like tweaks to clouds for stormy skies and a rework of the Deep Mine to make Manor Lords feel even more realistic.

On top of all this, the game’s performance is being improved through UI updates, fixes for several crashes, and numerous bug resolutions. Issues with brigand behavior, villager navigation, soldiers falling off bridges, and bugs involving animals have been resolved. Manor Lords is steadily improving, offering players a clearer picture of what the full game could look like in the future. In the meantime, the developer encourages users to keep reporting issues and providing feedback to help the game grow.

Manor Lords Update 4 Path Notes

Changelog Version 0.8.004 -> 0.8.024

Major Changes

  • [Experimental] Cliff system rework
    • Cliffs should be less ambiguous now. It should be more clear which area is buildable and traversable.
    • When in build mode and when units are selected, a zigzag pattern will appear over the cliff area.
    • Gaps between landscape components and cliffs should no longer appear when zooming far away.
    • Pathfinding errors around cliffs should be fixed.
  • Worker Restrictions for Stalls: Only the storage building workers can set up marketplace Stalls now. There was too much confusion about who owned what and works where, and it was very difficult for players to understand, for instance, that a gravedigger could have a food stall (selling home vegetable garden produce).
  • Inventory Source Restriction: Only storage buildings supply the stall inventories and peddle.
  • Goods Supply Cap: The number of goods a marketplace can supply is capped by the number of stalls (and, therefore, by the number of assigned storage building families). It can now be previewed in the market panel as “granary supply capacity” and “storehouse supply capacity.” As the bars fill up, the supply capacity is reaching a limit, and you need to assign more storage worker families.
  • Stall Mergers: Fuel Stalls and Fabric Stalls were merged into a General Goods Stall.
  • Connection Arcs Added: Arcs connecting storage buildings to marketplaces are now being drawn after selecting either one.
  • Marketplace UI Update: Marketplace supply UI will now show the number of assigned families in the storage buildings.
  • Instant Stall Assignments: Storage-building families will now try to build or take over a stall as soon as they are assigned.
  • Reduced Stall Storage Space: Decreased max stall storage space to still have the motivation for a healthy number of stalls on the market.
  • Abandoned Stalls Exclusion: Abandoned stalls no longer account for marketplace availability.
  • Market Availability Distribution: Tuned the market availability distribution so that houses reserve only as much variety as they need for the upgrade.
  • Regional Data Update: All data in the Marketplace supply panel is now regional, including “Free stall locations.”
  • Disable Stalls Behavior: After you disable “allow market stalls” on a storage building, workers abandon their stalls since they stop contributing to Market Supply.
  • Granary Direct Consumption: Instead of eating from the marketplace, villagers sometimes eat straight from the granaries to reduce the marketplace supply fluctuations.
  • Instant Market Supply Calculation: In order for all values to always match, market supply is calculated instantly every time stall storage changes (supply includes what workers are already transporting).
  • Extra Tooltip Info: Added extra marketplace tooltip info about available and required food variety in the region.
  • Marketplace Storage Filters: You can now use storage filters on the marketplace to ensure some goods won’t be distributed.
  • Refueling from Storehouses: To reduce supply fluctuations, plots and workplaces will refuel directly from storehouses if possible.
  • Instant Stall Setup: When you allow market stall setup, workers will try to build or take over stalls instantly.
  • Real-Time Overlay Updates: When hovering over any supply category, the overlay colors of burgage plots should now update in real time.
  • Abandoned Stall Goods Return: Storage workers will bring goods back to storage from abandoned stalls.
  • Category Reorganization: Moved the Marketplace & Market Carts to the Logistics category.
  • Ale and Water Distribution Changes:
    • New Distribution Logic: Ale from taverns and water from wells are now distributed in a similar way as marketplace items.
    • Reason 1: It’s no longer enough to just have 1 Ale sitting in the tavern to upgrade the whole town.
    • Reason 2: I wanted to add Well and Tavern upgrades.

New Features

  • New Playable Maps: Map selection now includes two new playable maps: High Peaks and Winding River.
  • Overstock Setting Added: Added an “Overstock” setting to the building tab for distributing buildings (Tavern, Marketplace). This setting allows the user to control how many extra goods are placed in the stalls or the tavern that exceed what’s currently needed.
  • Bridge Building System: A bridge-building system has been added, utilizing the Road Tool.
  • Stone Well Upgrade: Added a stone well upgrade that provides more water supply (30 plots). The wooden well water supply was reduced to 15 plots.
  • Level 2 Tavern Upgrade: Added a Level 2 Tavern upgrade and a new visual for the Level 1 Tavern.

Gameplay & Balance

  • Taxation Approval Change: Approval for taxation will now happen even if there is no money to tax — seems more intuitive for the players.
  • Stone Well Supply: Stone well supply increased to 50 plots to justify the extra cost.
  • Restrictions During Droughts:Fishing in ponds during droughts is not allowed anymore.
  • Charcoal Burning Adjustment: Charcoal burners now try to burn charcoal in stacks of up to 10 firewood at once (per assigned family).
  • Woodcutter Speed Reduced: Slowed down woodcutter’s debranching by 30%.
  • Windmill Storage Limitation: Windmills should no longer mill flour if there is no pantry space left.
  • Flour and Bread Changes: 1 grain makes 1 flour, and bread output doubles (to reduce clogging at the windmill).
  • [Experimental] Building Costs Rebalance: Balance pass on building and upgrade costs, reducing the amount of Logs and utilizing more Planks, Stone, and Tools to better reflect the look of the building and encourage more diverse resource use.
  • Tavern Employment Reduction: Tavern (Lvl1) now employs 1 family (reduced from 3).
  • Tavern Spoilage Reduction Boosts: Tavern (Lvl1) now provides a small boost to spoilage reduction over regular buildings.
  • Tavern Pantry Capacity Reduced: Tavern (Lvl2) pantry capacity reduced from 100 to 50.
  • Tavern Spoilage Boost at Lvl2: Tavern (Lvl2) now provides a small boost to spoilage reduction over Lvl1.
  • Iron Deposit Size Increased: Iron Normal Deposits minimum size increased by 60%; maximum size increased by 28%.
  • Stone Deposit Size Increased: Stone Normal Deposits minimum size increased by 20%; maximum size increased by 20%.

Balance Adjustments

  • Apiary: Planks increased from 2 to 4.
  • Stonecutter: Logs decreased from 2 to 1; Planks increased from 0 to 4.
  • Mining Pit: Logs decreased from 1 to 0; Planks increased from 0 to 4.
  • Tavern (Level 1): Logs decreased from 5 to 3; Planks increased from 0 to 4.
  • Mill: Logs decreased from 4 to 2; Planks increased from 0 to 8.
  • Communal Oven: Logs remain 2; Planks increased from 0 to 4; Stone increased from 0 to 10.
  • Bloomery: Logs decreased from 2 to 1; Planks increased from 0 to 6.
  • Smithy: Logs decreased from 2 to 1; Planks increased from 0 to 4; Stone increased from 0 to 6.
  • Clay Furnace: Logs decreased from 2 to 1; Planks increased from 0 to 6; Stone increased from 5 to 8.
  • Malthouse: Logs decreased from 4 to 2; Planks increased from 0 to 6; Stone increased from 0 to 12.
  • Tannery: Logs decreased from 4 to 2; Planks increased from 0 to 6.
  • Granary (Level 2): Logs decreased from 5 to 2; Planks increased from 10 to 12; Stone remains 5.
  • Storehouse (Level 2): Logs decreased from 5 to 2; Planks increased from 10 to 16.
  • Stable: Planks increased from 2 to 4.
  • Burgage Plot (Level 2): Logs decreased from 4 to 2; Planks increased from 0 to 8.
  • Burgage Plot (Level 3): Logs increased from 4 to 3; Planks increased from 8 to 12; Tiles and Wealth remain unchanged.
  • Well (Level 2): Planks increased from 2 to 4; Stone remains 10.
  • Tavern (Level 2): Logs remain 2; Planks increased from 5 to 8; Stone increased from 2 to 10.
  • Church (Level 2): Logs decreased from 5 to 4; Planks increased from 10 to 16; Stone increased from 20 to 25; Tiles remain unchanged.
  • Chicken Coop: Planks increased from 0 to 2; Wealth decreased from 25 to 15.
  • Bakery: Planks increased from 5 to 6; Wealth increased from 5 to 10.
  • Tailor: Planks increased from 5 to 6; Wealth increased from 5 to 10; Tools increased from 0 to 1.
  • Armorer: Planks increased from 4 to 8; Wealth increased from 10 to 20; Tools increased from 0 to 2.
  • Blacksmith: Planks increased from 5 to 8; Wealth increased from 5 to 20; Tools increased from 0 to 2.
  • Cobbler: Planks increased from 5 to 6; Wealth increased from 5 to 10; Tools increased from 0 to 1.
  • Bowyer: Planks increased from 4 to 6; Wealth increased from 0 to 10.
  • Brewery: Planks increased from 5 to 6; Wealth increased from 5 to 10.
  • Joiner: Planks increased from 4 to 6; Wealth increased from 0 to 10; Tools increased from 0 to 1.
  • Butcher: Planks increased from 4 to 6; Wealth increased from 0 to 10; Tools increased from 0 to 1.
  • [Experimental] Food Consumption Adjustment: Instead of picking random food types to eat, families now try to consume all foods equally.
  • [Experimental] Region Strength Selection Change: Instead of choosing a random one, regions are now picked from a finite pool. This ensures, for instance, no rolls with zero rich iron deposits.

Minor Changes

  • [Experimental] Pickup Location Randomization: Pickup location randomization for fields to make collecting crops smoother.
  • [Experimental] Unit Formation Dragging and Collision: Dragging and projecting a unit formation, instead of skipping columns, will stick to the obstacle edge if a collision is detected.
  • [Experimental] Virtual Supply Distribution Adjustment: Virtual supply distribution is clamped to a number of active workers. Example: There are two taverns. In theory, 1 tavern is enough to supply all houses so that the other tavern would stop all work. After the change, both taverns will still try to share some work.
  • Missing Floater Icons Added: Added missing floater icons (when you hold TAB) to the tavern, trading post, and the marketplace.
  • Building Access Limits Adjusted: Adjusted building access limits to have fewer villagers “waiting” as the building gets too many transport requests at the same time.
  • Tooltip Updates: Tooltip updates.
  • [Experimental] Rain Duration Shortened: Shortened rain duration.
  • Deep Mine Animation Changes: Instead of doing the mining animation on the surface, Deep Mineworkers will actually go underground and bring mined resources on their way out.
  • Retainers Excluded from Approval Ratings: Because it’s impossible for the player to manage, retainers will no longer affect the resident’s approval rating, including from taxation.
  • Construction Goods Banner Added: Added a problem banner “construction goods missing” for where the player blocks themself by exporting construction resources or reserving them for crafting (e.g., by unpausing a sawpit that has logs in it that were meant for construction).
  • [Experimental] Disabled FSR: Disabled FSR cause it potentially causes a GPU Crash even when it’s disabled.
  • Stamina Regeneration for Disbanded Soldiers: Added stamina regen for disbanded soldiers.
  • AI Command Improvement: Improved AI unit command indecisiveness in tight spaces.
  • Pathfinding Emergency Mode Fixes: Pathfinding emergency mode will no longer ignore water obstacles.
  • Burgage Plot Info Displayed in Region Panel: Burgage Plots now display “total,” “occupied,” and “under construction” in the Region Panel.
  • Granaries Limited for Tithe Goods Collection: Tithe goods will only be collected from the Granaries to avoid causing extra market supply fluctuations.
  • Unit Cards Reordering Added: Added the ability to drag and drop unit cards to change their order.
  • [Experimental] Task Failure Messages Updated: “Access limit reached” will show in the task description when a task failed because too many people tried to access a single building at the same time.
  • Region Names Adjusted: Renamed the regions in Germanic Valley to better fit their meanings in German.
  • [Experimental] FOV Adjustments: FOV changes now depend on the camera zoom level.
  • [Experimental] Unit Formation Improvements: When sending a unit by single clicking on a road (or a bridge), the unit will try to form a narrow formation and align the formation direction with the road direction.
  • Inventory Grid Widget Optimization: Cleaned inventory grid widget generation to remove flickering tooltips and improve optimization.
  • Burgage Plot Numbers Added to Region Panel: Number of burgage plots is now displayed in the Region Panel.
  • Living Space Availability Displayed: Living Space displays what is Available rather than Total in the Region Panel.
  • Smoother Camera Interpolation: Smoother camera height interpolation.

Performance

  • Static Collision Checks: Optimized static collision checks.
  • UI Updates: UI update optimizations.
  • Market Demand Calculations: Market demand calculation optimizations.
  • Marketplace Dirt Erosion: Optimized the eroding marketplace dirt functions.
  • [Experimental] Unit Ground Collision: Further optimized unit ground collision checks.

Crashfixes

  • GPU Crash Fix Attempt: Fix attempt for the UE5 crashing on some PCs with a “GPU Crash Triggered” message.
  • Animal Death Crash Fixed: Fixed a crash when animals are killed, for instance, by arrow fire, while being traded.

Bugfixes

  • Brigand Behavior Fix: Fixed brigands not leaving their camp sometimes when the enemy troops are near.
  • Pathfinding Fix on “Winding River”: Fixed oxen and traders getting stuck off the map on “Winding River” due to insufficient pathfinding data in the non-playable area.
  • Oxen Order Management Fix: Fixed oxen orders get lost after the player demolishes or relocates the building.
  • Coat of Arms Display Fix: Fixed orange tint sometimes appears in the player’s Coat of Arms in the Lord’s panel.
  • Granary Navigation Fix: Fixed villagers trying to navigate to the closed-off portion of the small granary.
  • Bridge Pathfinding Fix: Fixed gaps in the bridge pathfinding obstacle leading to soldiers “falling” off the bridge.
  • Small Stable Pathfinding Adjustment: Changed how oxen rest in the Small Stable to reduce failed pathfinding requests for guides wanting to stand next to them (in a wall).
  • Soldier Animation Fix: Fixed soldiers still pick running animation sometimes when only slightly pushed due to overoptimization.
  • Warehouse Transport Fix: Fixed warehouse workers not transporting excess goods from the trading post if there are over 10 transport requests.
  • Cliff Road Placement Fix: Fixed cliffs not blocking road placement.
  • Retinue Editor Color Fix: Fixed Retinue colors not updating in the Retinue Editor.
  • Wool Yield Limit Fix: Fixed wool yield accumulating indefinitely on sheep (instead of being limited to 1 until collected by the sheep farm worker).
  • Sheep Wool Drop Fix: Fixed sheep dropping wool when startled by raiders.
  • Sheep Shearing Logic Fix: Fixed sheep herders shearing wool even when their workplace storage is full.
  • Tavern Visitor Seating Fix: Fixed tavern visitors sometimes sitting in the air after upgrading the tavern to lv2.
  • Clay Furnace Operation Fix: Fixed the clay furnace working even when not refueled.
  • Tavern Upgrade Seating Fix: Tavern visitors sit in the air after hitting “upgrade” while people are drinking.
  • Encamping Raiders Issue Fixed: Fixed raiders encamping while at full strength instead of raiding if any bandit squad was wiped out to 0 before.
  • Enemy Units Encamping Outside Map Fixed: Fixed enemy units being able to encamp outside the map area.
  • Raider Movement Towards Player Fixed: Fixed raiders not moving towards the player’s region if there’s a bandit camp near them and the army think it’s all encamped.
  • Units Walking Underground Fixed: Fixed units walking underground near streams.
  • Livestock Traders Importing Dead Animals Fixed: Fixed livestock traders trying to import dead animals.
  • Combat Lag Spikes Reduced: Fixed lag spikes occurring when combat is happening in hard-to-navigate spaces.
  • Bandit Camp Spawning Fixed: Added another check to fix bandit camps spawning on ponds.
  • Disabled Sawpit Oxen Task Fixed: Fixed oxen not getting logs from the sawpit even though it’s disabled.
  • Tavern Visit Issue Fixed: Fixed: If the nearest tavern is taken or empty, villagers will refuse to go to another one.
  • Soldiers Locomotion Animation Fixed: Fixed soldiers sometimes triggering wrong locomotion animation, e.g., using the running animation when actually moving slow, or using the standing animation when actually moving fast.
  • Regional Good Surplus Update Fixed: Fixed assigning the first worker family and unassigning the last worker family not updating regional good surplus, even though it doesn’t count as reserved for crafting when you unassign all workers from the workplace.
  • Surface Mine Construction Fixed: Fixed the surface mine sometimes gets stuck and construction never finishes.
  • Granary Workers Collecting Non-Pantry Items Fixed: Fixed granary workers collecting non-pantry stored items from the Trading Posts when the player disables all export of them.
  • Flexible Plot Snapping Fixed: Fixed: Flexible plot might not snap to the point closest to the cursor.
  • Unit Command Exploit Fixed: Fixed the player being able to force units into a pond or a river by issuing commands furiously.
  • Retreating Units Getting Stuck Fixed: Fixed units get stuck on obstacles while retreating if they are in permanent collision with their own squad members.
  • Hunters Bow Equip Issue Fixed: Fixed hunters not unequipping bows before going to fetch water from the well.
  • Large Characters Movement Improved: Increased the distance large characters (animals, horse riders, handcart pullers) count as near to the camera to reduce the chances of them visibly going sideways due to overoptimization.
  • Cursor Spyglass Change Fixed: Fixed the cursor changing to spyglass sometimes while the pause menu is visible.
  • Problem Banner Cycling Fixed: Fixed clicking on a problem banner does not always cycle through all the affected buildings or villagers.
  • Excessive Water Collection Fixed: Fixed residents bringing too much water home if their task update synchronized perfectly by chance, possibly leading to clogged wells in large cities.
  • Camera Diving Underwater Fixed: Fixed the camera being able to dive underwater in a pond after the snow melts and turns pond ground collision off.
  • Armament Delivery Trigger Fixed: Fixed armament delivery does not trigger when the player upgrades the storehouse before finishing 5 cottages.
  • Villager Storage Limit Respect Fixed: Fix attempts for villagers not respecting storage limits because of a rare chance the items are marked as belonging to the target building, but the villager does not have a transport task just yet.
  • Invisible Crossbowmen Items Fixed: Fixed: Invisible Crossbowmen items stored in Burgage plots when the unit flees from combat.
  • Array Error During Spoilage Fixed: Fixed a possible error when the array was changed during iteration when spoilage destroyed a supply dump holding only food.

Audio + Sound

  • Town Ambience Adjustments: Tweaked town ambiance levels + added new ambient sounds.

Cosmetics

  • Snow Displacement Disabled: Disabled snow displacement cause sadly it kept glitching.
  • Drinking Mug Added: Added the missing drinking mug during the drinking action in the taverns.
  • [WIP] Deep Mine Rework: Work in progress on a Deep Mine rework.
  • [WIP] Cloud and Atmosphere Tweaks: Work in progress on tweaks to clouds and atmosphere to create some dark, stormy skies.
  • Cliffs Added to Parchment Map: Cliffs now show on the parchment map.
  • Residential Expansion Visuals Updated: Updated visuals of Residential Expansions (Level 1 and Level 2).
  • [Experimental] Abandoned Stall Covers Removed: Brought back abandoned stalls having no cloth covers.

Source link