Manor Lords is a great medieval city building success, although it is still in early access. As with all games at this stage of development, you can expect balance issues, bugs, and game-breaking exploits. Trading is the main offender, and it is addressed in the latest Manor Lords patch 0.7.923.
Business in Manor Lords was so badly broken that most of the improvements in the last update focused on fixing the economy. The first thing that developer Slavic Magic did was to change the cost of trade routes. They are now 50% cheaper when you choose the Trade Logistics branch of development, instead of only costing 25 regional riches (which is nothing). This will make trades for certain goods difficult, forcing you to turn to production.
If that’s not enough, the base cost of opening a trade route went from 12 to 20. Also, the development branch of Better Deals reduced the foreign import tariff by 50% instead of eliminating it. Since business is connected with the market and regional economy, you still have to think about excess supply. The price multiplier for oversupplied goods is now 0.75x for oversupplied and 0.5x for critically oversupplied.
This will make you think twice when you decide to spam the market with one product so you can make money fast. With these penalties, it is better to have more products to offer to avoid oversupply.
Villagers now drink less, while archers are more lethal
One of the funnier bits I found in Manor Lords Patch 0.7.923 is the fact that the developer had to change how much the villagers drink. Apparently, they enjoyed alcohol too often, so Slavic Magic made them reduce beer consumption by 75%, which is about 1/3 per family per month. I guess it’s hard to be an NPC in Manor Lords.
Another improvement I’d like to think is tied to drinking less beer is the archer damage improvement. They went from a meager 4 to 13 damage, making them a force to be reckoned with on the battlefield. Now you can really diversify your battle strategies because you will no longer have the feeling that archers shoot feathers instead of arrows. Visit the Manor Lords steam page for the full list of all the changes in the first official Manor Lords patch.
For more on Manor Lords, check out Manor Lords Early Access Review on Pro Game Guides.
