I am proud to say that Manor Lords has completely taken over my life. And I’m not alone. If you’ve already gone through my co-worker’s piece on the game, you know it’s for a good reason. The modern strategy game contains an amazing gameplay loop and the perfect balance between combat and village management.
However, I felt something was amiss as I reached the late-game stages. Call it a big void or some kind of sauce, it sure was something. I also believe this missing sauce would elevate Manor Lord’s already amazing gameplay. So I did what I did best: I sat down and compiled a list of things Manor Lords needs to amp up its gameplay loop. With that, let’s break them down!
1. Farming Balancing
If you’ve played the later hours of Manor Lords, you know how important farming is. Depending on your soil fertility, you can build an empire of crops and import/export things. However, the crop mechanic sometimes does feel a bit ruthless.
Unless you know everything about cropping in-game, you’ll have trouble maintaining the fields and even efficiently growing crops. Furthermore, you can do a few things if your soil quality does fall.
I think the developer should balance the farming output. Maybe provide a little more per yield or make the fertility more forgiving. As it stands, farming feels unfulfilling even in relaxing difficulty in Manor Lords. Hence, it would be perfect if the developer could tune the farming.
2. General QOL Additions for Better Villager Management
Listen, anyone who plays Manor Lords will agree that the current quality-of-life features in Manor Lords are a little lacking. While you can look at your entire town by pressing and holding Tab, you can’t manage the townsfolk unless you go directly to each structure and re-assign.
The game can benefit from a proper addition of villager management. Maybe give us a list like other city builders where we can look at every assigned family at a glance. Then, we can take care of the re-assignment from this page itself.
That should cut down most of the downtime between figuring out who went where and allow a player to focus on other pressing matters, like running their tavern to maintain the entertainment in the village.
3. More Entertainment!
I know Manor Lords is in early access, and structures will grow later. However, I feel that, strictly from a cosmetic sense, the game lacks more entertainment choices. The tavern is nice and fine, and it does its intended job. But the current reliance on Tavern for entertainment is very ruthless if you don’t have a steady supply of Ale. However, given that the game is based on XI-XV century Europe, it can add more entertainment structures.
Maybe the game can add a seasonal festival ground that allows you to perform festivities at only a particular time of the year. This can leverage the seasonal system well. Furthermore, places where villagers can go to play chess and listen to music can also be a thing.
A Falconry field might add an extra layer to livestock trading. Each of these things was an era-accurate leisure activity. Hence, maybe we’ll have more choices in the future.
4. More Control of Production Buildings
As you’ve realized by now, production is important in Manor Lords. You’ll have to rely on and adjust it to ensure your village’s survival. However, while building and production are at a perfect place in-game, sometimes I yearn for more options to control the village production. And adding some of them will benefit the game a lot.
Things like assigning multiple limited work areas and checking your previously placed work area should be a thing. Furthermore, assigning drop-off points for materials to optimize storage and multiple work points for one structure can also be a good addition.
Hence, if we can get more production control, that will make the game a swell experience.
5. Combat and Defence Additions
Finally, I won’t be cribbing about the archer issue in combat because the developer has confirmed an archer rebalance in the next patch. However, I feel the game has some defensive options missing.
Small things like the Watchtower and wall dividers can help to stop the opposing forces from rushing into your settlement. Hence, we should get some of these in the future if the game permits.
Similarly, era-accurate offensive structures should also be given to everyone for that added conqueror feel. If we can get these things, that will immensely help the game’s combat and defense system, further making the gameplay fun.
These are some things I feel Manor Lords should balance and add to make an already great game even more fun.
Remember, since the game is in early access, most things mentioned here might be under development for future releases. What do you think about Manor Lords? Let us know in the comments below!
