Manor Lords - Early Access Release - 4/26/24

Eshelmen

Supreme [H]ardness
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Surprised nobody has made a thread about this yet.

With over 2 million steam users having this on their wishlist, Manor Lords may just be the city builder that we need.


View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UBbDrHOSRkc


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

Game is releasing on April 26th in EA.
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Manor Lords is a strategy game that allows you to experience the life of a medieval lord. Grow your starting village into a bustling city, manage resources and production chains, and expand your lands through conquest.

Inspired by the art and architecture of late 14th century Franconia, Manor Lords prioritizes historical accuracy wherever possible, using it to inform gameplay mechanics and visuals alike. Common medieval tropes are avoided in favor of historical accuracy, in order to make the world feel more authentic, colorful, and believable.

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Manor Lords provides a gridless city-building experience with full freedom of placement and rotation. Building mechanics are inspired by the growth of real medieval towns and villages, where major trade routes and the landscape influenced how settlements shaped and developed.

  • Spreading outward from a central marketplace, build your residential, commercial, and industrial districts following the natural lay of the land. Establish farms based on soil fertility, position hunting grounds according to animal populations, and ensure access to adequate resource deposits and forests to provide the raw materials needed for growth.
  • Assign areas for housing and watch your residents build their homes in accordance with the historical burgage plot system. Each region will be subdivided based on your roads and the allotted space, and homes will scale accordingly.
  • Build extensions behind larger homes to generate income and resources that would not otherwise be available. Homeowners don't just pay taxes – they grow vegetables, raise chickens and goats, and otherwise supply themselves and other townsfolk with essential needs beyond what your managed farms, pastures, and industries can provide.
  • Guide your settlements through the unique demands and opportunities of each season, enjoying the bounty brought by spring rains and preparing for the harsh snows of winter.

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From boots to barley and hides to honey, Manor Lords features a great variety of goods fitting of the era. Materials need to be transported and processed into finished products through production chains, and you must balance the basic needs of your people against the desire to produce luxury items to ensure happiness, manufacture trade goods for export, or forge arms and armor to aid in your conquests.

  • Resources are littered across the map, encouraging you to expand and establish multiple specialized settlements. Extract valuable ores from your mining colonies, while villages devoted to agriculture, herding, or hunting supply the grains and meats needed to feed your growing population.
  • Unchecked expansion will have a direct effect on the environment. Herds of deer will migrate away from encroaching civilization, lack of crop rotation will worsen soil fertility, and cutting down too many trees will result in deforestation.
  • Sell surplus goods to traveling merchants or establish trade routes of your own. Manufacturing and exporting quality goods will provide wealth to upgrade your city, pay taxes to your liege, hire mercenaries, and unlock technologies for new industries, products, and tools.

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Yours is but a small parcel of land in a vast territory, and the competing ambitions between you and neighboring lords will inevitably lead to conflict. Lead your people into battle, not as expendable units to be easily replenished, but as your beloved loyal subjects where every death is a cost worth considering.

  • Train a retinue of skilled warriors to fight battles alongside the levies you raise from the town militia. At times these soldiers will be needed to crush rebellions or suppress banditry, and at other times you will lead your men into battle to conquer or defend territory. When needed, mercenaries are a costly option to bolster your ranks.
  • A robust diplomacy system will allow you to communicate with other lords, using influence or threats to sway their actions. These competing lords have their own goals and will seek you out as well, and your response to their offers or insults can mean the difference between war and peace.
  • Command real-time tactical battles, taking into consideration fatigue, weather conditions, and equipment. Position your troops wisely – a smaller force can defeat a larger enemy, if commanded well.
  • Feel the cost of battle, even in victory, as each fallen soldier represents a lost person from your city. A pyrrhic victory can spell economic doom, or a winter of rationing food and firewood.

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Anyone else going to pick this up?
 
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For a while there was a demo and it had interesting differences over many of the typical genre.

One thing those games tend to not have right, is how often work from home was common back then, people lived at their bakery not commuted to work (which I imagine could be for gameplay reason making the town planning more challenging if everyone commute) home-work life line were ultra blurry for most people pre-industrial revolution factory and offices, here at least household at their own garden-chicken,e tc... producing their own food as an option.

It was in general a more analogue feeling to the planing, overall it was nice.
 
I thought it was just another Electronic Arts game to not care about but in this case EA = Early Access, not Electronic Arts.

This looks really cool. Amazing what the game dev tools today allow one guy to do.
 
So far the previews are very positive along with what I've seen streamers playing. For Mack (worthabuy linked above) to sign its praises is a good indicator. As long as its not a crazy price I'll likely pick it up on GoG.
 
So far the previews are very positive along with what I've seen streamers playing. For Mack (worthabuy linked above) to sign its praises is a good indicator. As long as its not a crazy price I'll likely pick it up on GoG.
Rumors on Reddit announce that it'll be in the $30 to $40 range.
 
A bit pricey for early access but not a bad release price for a highly wishlisted game. Sale is on until May 10th at least. I think I'll wait a few days to see how its going with customers and not just early access streamers.
 
Pretty decent game from what I've played so far. Although I'm not sure I'm going to get invested as there are obvious early access things. Very solid game thus far though. I'm liking it more than Farthest Frontier which was released in a way more rough state.
 
Pretty decent game from what I've played so far. Although I'm not sure I'm going to get invested as there are obvious early access things. Very solid game thus far though. I'm liking it more than Farthest Frontier which was released in a way more rough state.
How does it run?
 
Installed via game pass, but never get past the spinning signing in so no idea if login server is down or just an issue with game pass.
 
I got it on Steam. Fast download and right into it. No issues. Let it sit on pause for an hour or two and came right back to it. Quit and went to do some yard work. Loaded back into the save, no issues. I'm at 4k ultra settings frame capped to 120.

We'll see how it goes as the world progresses and things get more complex.
 
Game looks interesting, I just dont have the time to play right now. I'll keep an eye on it as it matures.
 
played till Jan. not sure if my whole 18 people are going to make it. they just stopped doing shit and ive run out of food and money....
runs good though. playing 4k maxed with frs (yuk, can still see artifacting) but get 50-75fps and vrr smooths it right out.
 
Yeah - played for twenty minutes and people started dying. Rerolled again and now on 2nd or 3rd year already. I purchased a second ox and I never received it, lol. Same with Apple orchards, don't see it anywhere to make one.

As for money, I'm not sure how to make any. The marketplaces seem to be useless if you've got no foreign trade going on. People standing around "selling" what they farm/gather. Can't sell if no one has money though.

Also made barley and a tavern, still haven't opened yet. Not sure what's up with that.

Made it to roughly 70 people in my town and turned off for the night. Fun so far.
 
People standing around "selling" what they farm/gather. Can't sell if no one has money though.
had that shit too. "oh the hunters want a stall" build one and they sell all the damn food. "oh the log cutters what a stand" build one and lumber starts disappearing. open foreign trade, loose all my wheat, nothing comes in. wtf?! maybe i need to rtfm....

Also made barley and a tavern, still haven't opened yet
assigned a family to it but they no show? had that with mine, they never bother to go to work..

def early access. still not a bad start though, and some more time could fix it up.
 
I think I've talked myself out of this one for now after reading various reviews on Steam and online. Still rough around the edges. I think I'm more interested to see if they put the game back on sale when the summer sales start in June/July. $40 for what I'm seeing now just seems too much. Even $30 is pushing it, though I could get the Steam version for $24.
 
I think I've talked myself out of this one for now after reading various reviews on Steam and online. Still rough around the edges. I think I'm more interested to see if they put the game back on sale when the summer sales start in June/July. $40 for what I'm seeing now just seems too much. Even $30 is pushing it, though I could get the Steam version for $24.
It’s already on sale, it’s early access.
 
It's definitely a RTFM or learn and explore slow game. Everything builds on itself. Like when you start understanding the houses can produce stuff isn't intuitive. Of course that doesn't take off until you start making money
 
It sounds like it’s unfinished and hugely over-rated, or just over-hyped. One of those games you’re supposed to like.
 
It sounds like it’s unfinished and hugely over-rated, or just over-hyped. One of those games you’re supposed to like.
Hot take from someone who hasn’t played it.

I have played it, liked it, the hype seemed justified so far. But you need to look stuff up, it’s not a cookie clicker hold your hand game.
 
Hot take from someone who hasn’t played it.

I have played it, liked it, the hype seemed justified so far. But you need to look stuff up, it’s not a cookie clicker hold your hand game.
You misunderstood what I was trying to say. I wasn’t actually commenting on the game itself, but rather on how much hype this game received before it was released, and what people are saying about it now.

Like you said, I haven’t played the game yet (I have it installed), so I can’t comment on the game. But I can comment on the comments I’m reading at various forums, and some of the things I’m seeing are eyebrow raising.

I understand that this game is early-access, but any developer who releases an early access game has to realize that this model is not new and that many of us have been burned by putting down our money, only to be met with broken promises, and in many cases, unfinished games.

The other problem with the early-access model is that it allows fanatics to try and quash any criticism of the game by constantly saying the game is early-access, and that everything will be fixed in the end - yeah, maybe… maybe not, but if a game is broken then it needs to be criticized.

I’ll play it when I get the time, but I am sticking to my comment, that this seems to be one of those beloved games that if you say almost anything negative about it, you better get ready to duck. LOL.
 
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It’s already on sale, it’s early access.

Yes, I know. I'm interested to see if it will be on sale or discount as it were for as much or more this summer. It will probably be the same discount as now. I'm not sure I want to spend even $30 on an EA game right now that looks like it has awhile to go in development. 5-10 hours and lots of bugs to me says maybe I'd spend $15-25 for it to test it out. $30-40 is iffy.
 
Yes, I know. I'm interested to see if it will be on sale or discount as it were for as much or more this summer. It will probably be the same discount as now. I'm not sure I want to spend even $30 on an EA game right now that looks like it has awhile to go in development. 5-10 hours and lots of bugs to me says maybe I'd spend $15-25 for it to test it out. $30-40 is iffy.
I bought it just to help out the developer, Greg. Just so everyone knows, EA here is Early Access NOT Electronic Arts. He’s worked on this game for the past 7 years and is its sole developer. This is not some big company/game development powerhouse but an indie developer that’s doing great work. We need more folks like Greg creating games, not big companies that are focused on micro transactions and milking profits in order to shovel out some half baked crap with no soul. Yes, the full game may take another year or two before full release, but it is already quite playable in its current state from what I’ve seen. Definitely a lot more potential than most other games of this genre that are out there. I like supporting underdogs.
 
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I like it. It reminds me of Black and White without the giant creature and magic. You can see some Total War elements, too. So, it feels familiar. And, I like the middle ages setting. Low tech, "tech".

It's slow to start and the mechanics are not always intuitive. You'll make mistakes, and either research what to do or sort it out.

The early access part is clear and you are warned. There are a number of features that are not complete and many are labeled, so, you can see near term direction and not try to do things that can't be done, yet. So far, I have not run into any graphical problems or game bugs crashing the game. I do wonder about there possibly being a couple of incomplete game mechanics or balancing issues that appear complete now.

I lost an ox, too. Sounds stupid but in the early game you start with one, so, that's a big expenditure and losing one of the two really hurts. The reason was simple: the hitching post (building) you start with only accommodates one. You have to add another or upgrade it. Otherwise, the second ox wonders off.

There are a number of other game mechanics you'll have to sort out. Like money. Money does not come easy. And trade. Trade is not intuitive. Labor management is better actively managed, to a degree. It's not always best early game to try to set and forget a labor assignment. Like berry picking and farming. Seasonality suggests you flow labor to those or other areas during the year for better results. Mining, build some stores and then leave it. Especially if you can't use the mined material. Timber for building and fuel is important. The families are stupid and will freeze to death and starve unless you direct them to build shelter and harvest/hunt for food. Early game focus on housing, food and fuel.

Adding families is slow and keeping the balance early to stay above 50% approval is not easy. But, with the learning curve that's not bad. And, there are a couple of "go fast" settings.

Value is subjective. I think it's worth $30 to get it now and support the project. I'll have to determine down the road the real value. If they put a bunch of features behind "Season" dlc or have tons of small addons you have to buy to complete the game, like City Skylines and TW everything, then meh. If you are looking for an easy point a click city builder, this is not for you. But, if you are looking for a peaceful, but incomplete, problem solver with a soundtrack that'll put you to sleep this'll do.
 
I bought it just to help out the developer, Greg. Just so everyone knows, EA here is Early Access NOT Electronic Arts. He’s worked on this game for the past 7 years and is its sole developer. This is not some big company/game development powerhouse but an indie developer that’s doing great work. We need more folks like Greg creating games, not big companies that are focused on micro transactions and milking profits in order to shovel out some half baked crap with no soul. Yes, the full game may take another year or two before full release, but it is already quite playable in its current state from what I’ve seen. Definitely a lot more potential than most other games of this genre that are out there. I like supporting underdogs.
100% and well worth the $30 to do so.
 
Reinstalled and now seems to be working. Quickly realized I always like the idea of these games, but never enjoy them myself.

I get people love micromanaging a town, but I want more of a broad overview where I am signing off on stuff and not manually placing everything.
 
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