I can’t quite believe it’s already been a year since Manor Lords came thundering onto Steam. Once the most wishlisted game on all of Valve’s platform, the early-access strategy and city builder hybrid has spent the last 12 months going from strength to strength. Major updates from developer Slavic Magic have been overhauling the entire game, making Manor Lords an even deeper, more detailed, and expansive experience. With the road to a full 1.0 launch still a long way off, however, Slavic Magic is celebrating Manor Lords’ first birthday with a comprehensive look at what’s coming next.
While Manor Lords began life as a solo project for Slavic Magic, this has changed as the scope of the medieval city building game has grown. It is now being developed by an entire team, with some people focusing on map design, programming, AI, 2D and 3D art, game design, and quality assurance. Slavic Magic is still the heart of the operation, but it’s important to note that everything they’re working on going forward isn’t just a solo endeavour.
As for what’s next, Slavic Magic starts by outlining AI progression. Manor Lords’ AI can now build and run its own small village, with the team still working on improving their city planning skills, trading capabilities, and farming. The developer has also introduced new concepts to the AI like burgage plots, backyard extensions, and living space expansions, so when these new AI improvements are released, they’ll be better than ever.
Slavic Magic is also working on an all-new records view, which will show you detailed information about regional production and consumption. This is presented in the form of graphs, with an area’s production and use of different resources presented to you with a clean interface.
You can’t just build a township and leave it to fend for itself, though, and that’s why Slavic Magic is working on an upkeep system. Many buildings in Manor Lords will soon require upkeep, so you’ll want to carefully consider where your village is placed, and who’s in it. A smithy will need a constant flow of tools, for example, and deep mines will need new planks to stop them from caving in.
That’s not all, however, because you’ll have plenty of updates to different systems soon as well. The game’s stone resource is getting some big improvements, as you’ll be able to build a quarry to endlessly mine it. You can also make a lime kiln, with lime a key ingredient in advanced stone construction. So both of these buildings will be key to successful stone management. The team has also reworked the camera code to make navigating with it a bit smoother going forward.
Slavic Magic is also working on some pathfinding updates to help NPCs both stand on top of gates and walk beneath them at the same time. This feature is still being tested, however, and Slavic Magic is unsure if the computational cost is even worth it.
You can also expect a handful of mechanic reworks in Manor Lords’ future, too. Approval balance will fluctuate less, with past events having less of an impact on the latest ones. Slavic Magic also has an extensive progression rework on the way, but says we won’t be learning more until the next update post at the earliest. Some of the level one castle pieces are also being changed, but we don’t know exactly how just yet.
To round out the massive Manor Lords anniversary update, Slavic Magic says the team is replacing the work-in-progress graphics with proper manuscript-inspired art. This also comes with new art for map resource node locations, to bring these in line with the other UI changes being made across the entire game.
The future continues to look bright for Manor Lords, and I can’t wait to see what else the team has planned. With nearly 60,000 positive reviews on Steam, Manor Lords continues to be an early-access game done right.
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