Manor Lords Update – The Long-Awaited Patch is Finally Here

Manor Lords has finally dropped a brand-new update, and this one is a big deal. Fans have been waiting quite a while, and the lead developer Greg himself admitted that the long gap wasn’t planned. In his words, the team tried to do too much at once, while also expanding the dev crew and teaching new programmers how to handle a messy solo-dev codebase. That led to delays, discarded features, and big rewrites of systems that you’ll probably never see directly but were necessary to make the game run smoothly.

The important part? The new update is here, and it comes with a ton of new features, balance changes, fixes, and quality-of-life updates. Old saves won’t work anymore because so much has changed, but that’s the price of progress. Greg also promised that from now on, the team will aim for smaller, more frequent updates rather than letting things pile up into one giant release.

So, let’s break down what’s actually new in this patch — explained in plain English, so you don’t have to dig through developer jargon.

Why This Update Took So Long

Greg started his update with an apology. He knows players have been waiting, and he admitted he bit off more than he could chew. The dev team grew, which meant more visions to align, more people learning the ropes, and a lot of failed ideas that got tossed out. He even described looking at his screen and seeing a “graveyard of perks” that didn’t work out.

On top of that, some deep refactoring work had to be done. Basically, that means reorganizing the way the game handles data and logic under the hood. You might not notice it while playing, but without it, the AI towns simply wouldn’t function. What looked like small fixes often turned into massive rabbit holes.

Now that this foundation is cleaned up, the game should develop faster. That’s why this update is both a big content drop and a reset point for smoother patches going forward.

The Big Additions

Here’s what stands out the most in the new Manor Lords update:

AI Towns

AI-controlled players now feel more realistic. Their towns grow in a way that looks natural and organic, closer to how the player would build. They can’t fully challenge the player yet in terms of military, but they’re getting there. This is one of the long-term goals for the game — to make AI Lords feel like living opponents rather than scripted bots.

Progression System Rework

One of the biggest complaints before was that progression felt boring. You’d unlock perks or policies, but often there was one “obvious” best choice, and that broke immersion. Now, the progression system has been reworked to feel more thematic. Instead of gamey bonuses, the perks are grounded in settlement development, and you’ll face more meaningful choices as you level up your town. Only the first batch of perks is in the game right now, but more will follow.

More Depth in Core Systems

The update introduces new layers of depth that tie into how your town runs. Here’s what that means:

Maintenance: Buildings need upkeep now, or they risk problems like mine collapses.
Efficiency, Productivity, Yield: These are all new ways the game measures how well your workplaces function. It’s no longer just “building produces X.” Instead, you’ll see modifiers stack up, and you’ll need to optimize worker time and logistics.
Population Growth: Birth rates and growth now depend on conditions in your settlement.
Approval Effects: The happiness of your people has more impact, with tiers of approval leading to bonuses or penalties.
Environment Affinities: Some buildings now work better in specific areas. For example, pig pens get a boost in woodland-heavy regions.

On top of that, the game now gives you tools like graphs, records, and breakdowns of production and consumption so you can actually see what’s happening and adjust your strategy.

Castles and Combat Upgrades

Castles got a big boost in this update. You can now upgrade to stone castles, place soldiers on walls, and even peek inside towers. Units climb ladders to reach higher floors, and you can control castle gates individually. Platforms can be attached to walls, and castle modules can be upgraded and rearranged more flexibly. It makes sieges feel much more dynamic.

Food and Resource Rework

Vegetables aren’t just “vegetables” anymore. They’ve been split into cabbages, carrots, and beetroots, each with pros and cons. Meat has been expanded too, with mutton, pork, beef, chicken, and small game now available. Sausages can be crafted from pork and salt. Orchards now grow pears and quinces, and mushrooms have been added back experimentally.

This makes food supply chains more interesting and realistic, forcing players to diversify instead of spamming one source.

New Maps and Modes

Several new maps have been added: Devil’s Hill, Jagged Cliffs, Divided, and Large Lake. They bring new terrain layouts, including a giant lake map and cliff-heavy spots for creative town building.

Two new game modes are also here:

Duel: A one-versus-one mode against the AI.
Fractured Realm: A free-for-all with four Lords battling it out.

System Reworks Explained Simply

Some of the patch notes can sound overwhelming, so here’s what the major systems mean in practice:

Affinity System: Buildings interact with the land. For example, if you put an animal pen in a wooded area, pig farming gets better. This pushes you to plan settlements around the terrain.
Maintenance System: Workplaces need upkeep. Skip it, and you risk collapse or failure. You can control how much maintenance effort you put in, which affects labor speed.
Yield System: A new way of measuring output. Instead of flat production numbers, it now depends on labor speed, efficiency, and productivity. This makes things like worker travel time matter.
Approval Rework: Your villagers’ happiness matters more, with clear approval tiers that grant bonuses or penalties. People don’t just remember the past forever — they focus more on what’s happening now.

UI and Quality of Life

The game’s interface got a visual and functional overhaul. The style now feels more medieval, less modern. You’ll notice:

A new production screen showing balance of goods.
Approval hover info that explains missing requirements.
A restyled map view with hand-drawn resource symbols.
The ability to rename saves and cycle through regions.
Better building tooltips, save confirmations, and wall placement accuracy.
A reworked tutorial split into subsections for easier onboarding.

Small changes like road snapping, livestock tooltips, and log notifications also help make things smoother.

Balance Changes

This patch also touched on game balance. Some highlights:

Animal reproduction now depends on herd size.
Mining ranges are bigger on rich deposits, but crowding mines risks collapse.
Homelessness has a grace period of 30 days when settling a new region.
Manors and castles can no longer be set on fire by raiders.
Starting resources are more balanced, with some nodes boosted for variety.
Consumption scaling: Higher-level houses need more goods, like clothes.
Trading post values and livestock trade prices were adjusted.
Tariffs on imports increased from 5% to 10%.

Bug Fixes in Plain English

The devs squashed a ton of bugs. Here are a few examples explained simply:

Approval tooltips now show properly.
Villagers shouldn’t get stuck inside houses anymore.
Castle walls stay curved correctly after construction.
Roads won’t respawn randomly after loading a save.
Soldiers won’t freeze if their squad dies.
Granary upgrades should work reliably.
Resource clumps no longer float.
Wagons should pathfind properly around obstacles.
Militia can’t be pulled from non-owned regions.
Oxen won’t try to walk into stable walls anymore.

And that’s just a sample — dozens of small fixes improve stability.

How to Join the Beta

If you want to try this patch early, you can join the beta on Steam. Here’s the simple step-by-step:

Back up your saves first, just in case.
Remove all mods (they’ll probably break things).
Open Steam, right-click Manor Lords, and select Properties.
Go to the BETAS tab.
Enter the password: veryNiceBasket.
Select pre_release from the beta drop-down.
Restart Steam if needed, then update and launch the game.

Feedback is welcome on the Steam forums or on Discord, where the dev team is active.

Final Thoughts

This is easily the biggest Manor Lords update so far, and while it took a long time, it sets the stage for faster updates moving forward. The game feels more alive: towns grow more naturally, resources are deeper, castles feel real, and systems like maintenance and approval bring new layers of strategy.

Yes, it’s still a work in progress. Some things feel experimental, and not everything is perfectly balanced yet. But that’s what the beta is for.

Greg’s message was clear: he knows the wait was long, he’s sorry for it, and the team is learning from the experience. From here on, updates should come faster, and the game is inching closer to the living medieval sim players have been dreaming of.

If you’ve been waiting to dive back into Manor Lords, now’s the time.