Found an interesting project in France, where people try to reenact building a medieval castle:

[Panzerechse]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ajqort8ldXA

<----If this documentary isn´t full of inspiration, then I don´t know anymore, what could be better....
It also gives good impressions about the scale of walls and buidlings...

[VipreRX]

That was an amazing watch. Feel like I've seen that crane design before but can't recall where.

[OzWally]

Yes been following them for years.
Iirc it would take them 30-35 years.

[Heron]

There's a similar project in Germany called "Campus Galli"! They're following a detailed 9th century plan for a monastery that was only planned but never built at the time, with 9th century tools (within the constraints of 21st century German safety regulations).

It's 300 years earlier than Manor Lords, but the feeling I got from the Manor Lords demo is even closer to Campus Galli than to Guédelon because in Germany they're still establishing themselves. They've been setting up mostly wooden structures since their start in 2013 (the largest being a church and a granary). in preparation of the stone works that will take decades. I've been to both Campus Galli and Guédelon in real life.

https://youtu.be/QjeErYX2ZUs

The 1200 years old plan for the monastery:

https://www.campus-galli.de/klosterplan/

[Panzerechse]

Yes, that was always the original line....from wood to stone. That building complexes and settlement literally organic grew. And this is where Manor Lord needs some balancing, everything just went too fast, my opinion. If Manor Lord would have castle building as a like " we build a pyramide" grand project plus keeping the castle in realistic scales and fashion, that would make it outstanding. If then, on top of it, realistic siege warfare is coded, then Manor Lord would be the only game so far in all computer game history, that has that.....

[Ruin]

Originally posted by Panzerechse:

plus keeping the castle in realistic scales and fashion,

Why? This should really be upto the player... If the player has the time, resources, creativity and patience to build some huge mega-fortress, then why should they not be allowed to do so?

I'm cool with keeping a certain aesthetic consistent, but why restrict the scale if the ability to build larger dynamic structures is there and, based on the limited options for the Manor in the demo, massive dynamic Castles could definitely be an option...

[Panzerechse]

What I wrote was aimed at the realistic scales of all parts you can build with. Media and games have presented us now long enough with fantasy castles, that would have made a king bankcrupt or would sink into the ground by it´s sheer weight. Or just collapse with static problems.

I have no problem if you, the player, in the end build a very large castle all over your shire. But if the developer sticks to realism (what I hope), then it would be a castle large in width, not in height.

[Tim Taylor]

The start of building Château de Guédelon precedes "Anno" or "Age of Empires", but I am glad its mentioned in relation to this game.
Campus Galli is also a great way of trying to understand (and experience) how they did things back then with the tools available back then.

Please also remember that most of the "fantasy castles" we talk about today were mostly started in the 16th century, up to the 19th Century with buildings like Schloss Neuschwanstein, while other structures like for example "Cologne Cathedral" (Kölner Dom) already started in the 13th century - and took some 600 years to get finished.

Anyways: a casual castle build took years to decades to get finished. Now imagine this implemented into Manor Lords, where you can watch people building structures in nearly real time and how much game time it requires to build some larger structure like a castle in the backdrop of your settlement. Imagine the hordes of workers need for it, the material, the tools etc.

Btw I dont see a problem in building high structures, whats the problem there? Statics seem to be on, so I dont see any problems with that.

Hm, now i would love to see a game that lets you realistically build the Kölner Dom =)

[Panzerechse]

"Btw I dont see a problem in building high structures, whats the problem there? Statics seem to be on, so I dont see any problems with that."

I was refering to fantasy castles in fantasy arts and games, that where too big for the physic laws of our planet and expressed my wish, that the developer of this game stays with a certain realism. A realism, that is shown well in the applied archaelogy project I have presented here with the youtube link.

I hope, I made it finally clear.
I am not hellbound to restrict players in their gameplay.