Hey everyone,

It’s been a year since Manor Lords launched into Early Access. Honestly, it doesn’t feel that long ago. I remember uploading the build, crossing my fingers that things wouldn’t immediately fall apart—and here we are several patches and plenty of additions later.

So, what’s next?

There’s still lots to do, and while I’ve been working on new features and improvements for a while now, I wanted to give you all a quick look at what’s coming. This is not a full changelog or final list—some of these things are still work-in-progress—but it should give you a good idea of where development is headed.

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As Manor Lords has grown, so has the team behind it. What began as a solo project now includes a group of talented folks across programming, art, design, and AI.

Since launch we’ve welcomed Nathan (map design), Tom and Kurtis from Flix Interactive (programming), Niklas (AI), Basia (2D art), Nicolas (3D art), and Darren and James (game design). We’re also still working with QLOC for QA needs — and more folks are helping behind the scenes, such as Daniel.

And of course — I'm still here too. 🙂

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The AI can now build and run its small village. We had to introduce multiple new concepts to it, like burgage plots, backyard extensions, and living space expansions, which didn't exist when the first version was done. We also had to change our understanding of the marketplace altogether.

A lot of work was done to make sure the AI could use the plot tool properly. We're still working on improving its city planning skills and will soon start working on its trading capabilities and farming.

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We've spent a lot of time developing a new screen that displays detailed information about regional production and consumption.

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We changed the approval balance so that it fluctuates less, and past events have less impact than the latest events.

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Many buildings will now require upkeep, which means a smithy will need a constant flow of tools, and deep mines need a flow of planks.

We are also working on a system where you can increase upkeep and work efficiency as well.

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We're introducing two new buildings: a Quarry for endless stone mining on rich deposits and a Lime Kiln — lime will now be required for advanced stone construction.

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Castles obviously brought more challenges for pathfinding and collisions, and making traffic flow correctly takes a considerable effort.

The whole world in Manor Lords was always coded in 2D, which made collisions simpler to resolve and made the game more optimized. However, this meant we can't have "proper" gates where people stand on top and walk below at the same time (they'd collide with each other). I decided to investigate this and rewrite the pathfinding to support multiple floors. However, it's still being tested whether the extra computation cost is actually worth it (it's literally only for the gates, which in theory can be cheated by garrisoning in and out from the gatehouse doors).

I also spent around a week and a half investigating other pathfinding systems to see if they would be a better fit for Manor Lords (for example, flow fields and continuum crowds). However, due to the game being gridless with a huge "open world," I saw that the current solution still beats others. So, it was a lot of work with no visible gain, but I had to be sure.

It's a bit foolish, but we're trying our best not to do what games often do to help units find their way, which is make walls thicker and passages wider. Instead, we try our best to keep the scale realistic—narrow passages, tiny doors. It's like the medieval constructors wanted to purposefully make it harder for large groups of soldiers to navigate around the castle. CURIOUS.

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The high peak cliffs were a bit annoying, so we've reworked the camera code to make it smoother.

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We're still in the design phase, but it looks like we're almost there. Hopefully, I can show you guys what we've done in the next update post. Coming Soon(tm)!

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We're replacing a lot of WIP graphics in the UI with proper manuscript-inspired art.

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If a region has a random pond resource node and a river, river fishing spots will replace the pond.

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We've reworked some of the Level 1 castle pieces.

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Last but not least, we've got new art for map resource node locations, which will bring them in line with the other UI changes we're making mentioned above.

That’s it for now. As always, I really appreciate all the support, feedback, and memes. It’s been a wild year, and I’m looking forward to showing more as things get ready.

Thanks for sticking around.
Greg

We’re excited to announce that Manor Lords is part of Steam’s City Builder & Colony Sim Fest with a 30% discount.

Manor Lords is a medieval strategy game that blends detailed city building with large-scale tactical battles and deep economic simulation. Rule your lands through shifting seasons, guide your people, and shape a city that can stand the test of time.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1363080/Manor_Lords/

Manor Lords is a medieval strategy game featuring in-depth city building and large-scale tactical battles. Rule your lands as a medieval lord. Experience the passing seasons, changing weather, and the rise and fall of cities in this richly detailed medieval world.

Manor Lords is part of the Steam Spring Sale at 30% off! Check it and other games out in the Hooded Horse Spring Sale.

Hooded Horse Spring Publisher Sale 2025[store.steampowered.com]
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1363080/Manor_Lords/

This is your roundup of the latest news for Manor Lords!

Below is a preview of what’s coming next for Manor Lords—including a new playable map, castle planner upgrades, and a complete progression overhaul. We'll also show off some fascinating creations by members of the community!

Manor Lords is part of the Steam Spring Sale at 30% off! Check it and other games out in the Hooded Horse Spring Sale.

Hooded Horse Spring Publisher Sale 2025[store.steampowered.com]

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Slavic Magic is hard at work on the next update, and here’s a preview of what’s coming with even more planned for a future preview.

A large central hill dominates this new map, with regions surrounding it. There’s consideration for a mode where valuable resources are placed on the hill, turning it into a contested battleground. It also makes for a strong castle site, which ties into…

The castle planner has seen major updates. Each module and wall piece can now be upgraded individually. Platforms with battlements can be added selectively, allowing for more control over fortifications.

New modules are no longer restricted by distance from existing ones. Instead, the bailey area is calculated, with the castle’s maximum size determined by the lord’s rank.

The Development Tree is being reworked to improve immersion. Multiple designs have been tested to balance realism, history, and gameplay—often challenging when weighing historical accuracy against engaging mechanics. The fourth design document is in progress, with work continuing.

This is just a glimpse of what’s ahead. More details, including AI-controlled towns, will be shared in the next update.

Read more about it here:
https://steamcommunity.com/games/1363080/announcements/detail/505070009890899941

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The Manor Lords community has been busy sharing creative builds, strategies, and discoveries. From innovative town layouts to unexpected game mechanics, there's always something new being tested.

One standout example comes from u/Disastrous-Moose-943 from the Manor Lords subreddit, who built a "mega manor" by placing a manor at the boundary of three different zones. A creative way to expand your holdings—though we’re not sure the tax collectors would approve.

Inspired by this, u/Boy_Wonder22 took things even further with a tri-region city designed for optimized trade and resource efficiency. With 700 people already settled, trading posts and pack stations at each border enable near-instantaneous trade, while storage complexes maximize efficiency.

These are just a couple of the many impressive builds coming from the Manor Lords community. Keep sharing your creations—we’ll highlight more in future updates!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1363080/Manor_Lords/

We have an update preview with what's been in the works for Manor Lords. Stone castles, a new map, and a complete overhaul of progression. From fortified strongholds with modular upgrades to the introduction of Devil’s Hill — a prime battleground and castle site. Meanwhile, the rework of the development tree is progressing, with ongoing efforts to balance historicity and gameplay.

Let’s get into it.

While I’ve been focused on development, the team at Hooded Horse has been working behind the scenes to bring something extra — Manor Lords’ first collectible figures. You can find out about them at the bottom of this post.

A New Playable Map - Devil's Hill

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This new playable map has a large hill in the middle, dominating the landscape. Regions are circled around it - I'm considering a game mode that places very valuable resources on that hill to have the Lords fight over it.

It's a great castle spot, too, which leads me to...

The Castle Planner

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The castle planner had a ton of work done to it. You can now individually upgrade each module and wall piece. You can also selectively add platforms with battlements to the walls.

The Stone Castles

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The distance to the nearest existing module no longer constrains the placement of new modules. Instead, the bailey area gets calculated, and the size of the castle plan will be limited by the lord's rank.

Progression System Reworks

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A lot of people have said they find the current Development Tree not immersive. Since it wasn't finished anyway, we decided to take that opportunity to rework this part of the game.

We made several designs and prototyped a few alternatives, but we are still exploring the subject. It's especially difficult because we're trying to better marry realism, history, immersion but still keep it fun, so creative ideas often get a push back from historians for being too fantasy, or from folks focused on immersion on being too gamey, at the same time ideas which are just realistic or historical often do not benefit gameplay or storytelling or just aren't as exciting of a concept (at least from my perspective as a game director, I love historical inspiration but I'm not a historian and for me gameplay is most important). I'm losing count but I think we're on our 4th design document... But things are slowly moving forward.

I hope to share more on that in the next update, together with exciting news on the AI controlled towns.

That wraps up this preview of what’s in the works.

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Every lord needs a trusted companion—even if they happen to be a Basket Case. Manor Lords' first collectible figures are here, featuring the red-caped Manor Lord himself and the ever-mysterious Basket Man. Designed in collaboration with Youtooz, these Monitor Buddiez are crafted to sit proudly atop your screen, overseeing your realm (or at least your open tabs).

They're available to pre-order for the next four weeks and you can find the link to them here[youtooz.com]!

And yes — these little rulers will stay put. Every Monitor Buddy includes a free adhesive pad to ensure they sit securely on different screen edges.

Hi all,

I decided to apply the fixes we tested in beta to the main branch.

As a reminder here are the most prominent changes:

-Fixed the bug where artisans stop working after upgrading the residential building
-Added different pickup zones that make storage buildings operate much smoother
-Since villagers often got stuck trying to pickup yields from vegetable extensions, the smallest vegetable patch was replaced by a storage shed
-Improved optimization

I also hotfixed the bug from the 0.8.028 beta which caused lv2 granary to sometimes never get finished

Also another reminder: A lot of players had problems with crashes on launch cause their antivirus software is deleting the game exe. Nothing was changed in the code that could cause it and obviously there is no virus - AV software has gone a bit crazy. Add the exe to exceptions and verify game files and it should fix it.

Lastly, I heard that some players who last played the game back when it was running on UE4 are now facing crashes on the UE5 builds - in those cases deleting all game files (including in AppData) and reinstalling the game fixed the crashes.

Full changelog

Version 0.8.028->0.8.029

Minor changes;
-Fixed some "holes" in Winding River landscape topology

Crashfixes:
-Fixed the vegetable extension crashing on a specific triangular plot shape

Bugfixes:
-Fix attempt for some PCs loading the coat of arms image as black if it was previously created in the UE4 build
-Walked back the change from 0.8.010 "Windmills should no longer mill flour if there is no pantry space left" since it can lead to the windmill getting stuck when the storage is perfectly full
-Fixed vegetable plots not being spawned on plots when the extension area center line is far different than the plot area center line. Note: Sadly that necessary fix might cause irregular vegetable patches from previous saves to appear invalid or have some plants removed.
-Fixed construction resources sometimes differing after loading a save, potentially leading to soft locking the construction progress if the player lacks resources

Version 0.8.024->0.8.028
(same as the last Beta):

Minor changes:
-[Experimental] Veggie gardens are no longer instantly constructed. They now include a shed for vegetable storage for smoother logistics and easier handcart access. Also, because we need to fit the shed, one small vegetable patch was removed.
-Separated resources into pickup zones in the lv2 storehouse to make logistics more efficient
-[Experimental] The game will skip playing lengthy pickup animations inside the lv2 storehouse, lv2 granary and trading post (behind doors where it's not visible anyway) to make logistics smoother
-Added a special pickup zone for ale in the lv2 granary
-[Experimental] Disabled dynamic FOV on High Peaks to reduce clipping with the side mountains
-Added shed barrel drop zone to the lv1 tavern so that they don't have to fit them through the tiny door
-Tweaked pushing distance for characters colliding with static obstacles to reduce the chance of them getting stuck in tight doorways
-Added more info about construction status to save data to avoid buildings loading as unconstructed if they get altered between patches. This will also force older patch buildings to load as constructed.
-Localization updates

Optimization:
-Landscape texture optimizations
-GUI optimizations

Bugfixes:
-Fixed upgrading a residential buildings blocking all crafting in the artisan workshop until the player reloads the save or rebuilds the extension
-Fixed the overstock being limited to the active worker count
-Fixed the overstocked good amount not displaying in the tooltip
-Fixed buildings potentially loading as invisible when construction is in progress
-Fixed construction workers sometimes not equipping the spade when digging
-Fixed: Storage is full notification appears upon upgrading the Well
-Fixed tavern and trader TAB floaters displaying 0/0 workers
-Fixed all vegetable patches inside a single residential plot using the same vegetable type (new saves only)
-Fixed orchards appearing as saplings for a moment after loading even though they were grown when the game was saved

Cosmetics:
-[Experimental] Map view tweaks, trying to look more like it's actually drawn
-[Experimental] Increased vegetable garden drawing distances

Thank you!

Greg and team

Build and expand your medieval settlement in Manor Lords, now 30% off during the January Sale. Check it out alongside other great titles in the Hooded Horse January Publisher Sale.

Manor Lords is a medieval strategy game featuring in-depth city building and large-scale tactical battles. Rule your lands as a medieval lord. Experience the passing seasons, changing weather, and the rise and fall of cities in this richly detailed medieval world.

Hooded Horse January Publisher Sale 2025[store.steampowered.com]
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1363080/Manor_Lords/

Hi all,

Few more fixes to the open beta branch.

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.

Version 0.8.028->0.8.029

Minor changes;
-Fixed some "holes" in Winding River landscape topology

Crashfixes:
-Fixed the vegetable extension crashing on a specific triangular plot shape

Bugfixes:
-Fix attempt for some PCs loading the coat of arms image as black if it was previously created in the UE4 build
-Walked back the change from 0.8.010 "Windmills should no longer mill flour if there is no pantry space left" since it can lead to the windmill getting stuck when the storage is perfectly full
-Fixed vegetable plots not being spawned on plots when the extension area center line is far different than the plot area center line. Note: Sadly that necessary fix might cause irregular vegetable patches from previous saves to appear invalid or have some plants removed.
-Fixed construction resources sometimes differing after loading a save, potentially leading to soft locking the construction progress if the player lacks resources

Thank you!

Greg

Hi all,

I've been working on fixing some issues that came up after the last main branch patch. Mostly improving storage building logistics, but there also was a pretty bad bug where the artisans would stop work after upgrading their residential plot if they already had the artisan workshop.

By the way, a lot of players had problems with crashes on launch cause their antivirus software is deleting the game exe. Nothing was changed in the code that could cause it and obviously there is no virus - AV software has gone a bit crazy it seems. Just add it to exceptions and verify game files and it should fix it.

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.

Version 0.8.024->0.8.028

Minor changes:
-[Experimental] Veggie gardens are no longer instantly constructed. They now include a shed for vegetable storage for smoother logistics and easier handcart access. Also, because we need to fit the shed, one small vegetable patch was removed.
-Separated resources into pickup zones in the lv2 storehouse to make logistics more efficient
-[Experimental] The game will skip playing lengthy pickup animations inside the lv2 storehouse, lv2 granary and trading post (behind doors where it's not visible anyway) to make logistics smoother
-Added a special pickup zone for ale in the lv2 granary
-[Experimental] Disabled dynamic FOV on High Peaks to reduce clipping with the side mountains
-Added shed barrel drop zone to the lv1 tavern so that they don't have to fit them through the tiny door
-Tweaked pushing distance for characters colliding with static obstacles to reduce the chance of them getting stuck in tight doorways
-Added more info about construction status to save data to avoid buildings loading as unconstructed if they get altered between patches. This will also force older patch buildings to load as constructed.
-Localization updates

Optimization:
-Landscape texture optimizations
-GUI optimizations

Bugfixes:
-Fixed upgrading a residential buildings blocking all crafting in the artisan workshop until the player reloads the save or rebuilds the extension
-Fixed the overstock being limited to the active worker count
-Fixed the overstocked good amount not displaying in the tooltip
-Fixed buildings potentially loading as invisible when construction is in progress
-Fixed construction workers sometimes not equipping the spade when digging
-Fixed: Storage is full notification appears upon upgrading the Well
-Fixed tavern and trader TAB floaters displaying 0/0 workers
-Fixed all vegetable patches inside a single residential plot using the same vegetable type (new saves only)
-Fixed orchards appearing as saplings for a moment after loading even though they were grown when the game was saved

Cosmetics:
-[Experimental] Map view tweaks, trying to look more like it's actually drawn
-[Experimental] Increased vegetable garden drawing distances

Thank you for playing!

Greg

We’re happy to share that Manor Lords is participating in the January Publisher Sale at 30% off. Check it and other games out at the Hooded Horse January Sale.

Hooded Horse January Publisher Sale 2025[store.steampowered.com]

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We're hard at work on the next patch, and here's news about the massive Update 0.8.024 that we just released. Keep sharing your thoughts and feedback; we're always reading through them.

New Maps: High Peaks and Winding River
Two new playable maps join the roster, offering unique terrain and opportunities for settlement building. Whether you prefer the dramatic cliffs of High Peaks or the winding waterways of Winding River, these maps provide new challenges for every player.

Overstock Setting
Micromanagement just got easier. A new feature in the building tab lets you control how much extra stock is allocated to market stalls and taverns, ensuring goods are distributed efficiently and minimizing resource congestion.

Bridge Building
Say goodbye to river barriers. The new bridge-building system—integrated with the Road Tool—allows you to expand your settlements across rivers seamlessly, opening up new avenues for growth.

Upgrades: Stone Wells and Taverns
The stone well increases water supply to 30 plots, making it a more effective solution for larger settlements. Meanwhile, the wooden well has been adjusted to cover 15 plots. On the Tavern front, a new Level 2 upgrade adds functionality and a refreshed aesthetic, with Level 1 getting a visual facelift to match.

Here is a link to the full patch notes.
https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1363080/view/534338967351329253?l=english