A new Manor Lords update has arrived on the stable branch, and you might want to hold your nose before you dive in. Slavic Magic’s medieval city builder has been testing quite a few new features on the beta branch in recent months, and a large set of those have now made their way into the main game proper. Among them is an expansion to farming with the introduction of dung collection mechanics, fertilization, and seasonal crops, along with another artisan type, and a fresh selection of six additional development perks.
Let’s face facts – farming isn’t a clean business. The reality is that excrement is a great way to boost your crop output, and it’s all part of the natural cycle of life. If Manor Lords is going to fulfil its calling as a period-appropriate medieval game, it needs to embrace that, and Slavic Magic has taken the challenge in its stride, even playing off the inevitable “Manure Lords” jokes along the way. You can now assign families to the Dung Collector role, and have them gather the stinky stuff to deposit in a new building, the Dunghill.
The pasture animals that got all that love a few months ago are going to be your best source of Dung, with various rates of production across the different species. Dung Collectors will scoop this up and use it to produce Fertilizer, and both the before and after products must be kept at the Dunghill, which you probably want to place carefully (and as downwind as possible). Farmhouse workers can then use Fertilizer to boost the maximum fertility of fallow fields, and it’ll bolster their production for “just over two years.”
Alongside this, Manor Lords crops have now officially been split into winter and spring variants. While Wheat and Rye prefer winter, you can sow them in the spring for a quicker but smaller return, while the likes of Flax, Barley, and Oats can only be sown during the spring. To help you keep track, there’s an overhauled field calendar that lets you take a look through the next 12 months of “upcoming field-related activities.”
Fields where crops have been selected but nothing has been planted will now be considered fallow by the simulation, allowing them to gradually regenerate their fertility. Your people can plow these fields in spring, summer, and autumn, but this is “the lowest priority of all tasks.” Leave crops unharvested by October and instead of force-rotating, they’ll now begin slowly dying – you’ll have a short while to salvage as much of the yield as possible as it gradually diminishes.
Joining the ranks of the artisans is the Fishmonger, who takes in Fish and Salt to produce Smoked Fish. Slavic Magic has also introduced six new ‘Rural Foundations’ perks that are unlockable once you reach settlement level three. There’s Experienced Forestry, Woodland Beekeeping, Fish Husbandry, Livestock Provisioning, Practical Tillage, and Pastoral Practice. There’s one adjustment, too: Born of the Alps no longer protects sheep from high elevation, but instead increases their wool production under such conditions.
The full set of this weekend’s new Manor Lords patch notes stretch out quite a bit further beyond that. Among the other changes, you’ll find a slight reduction to the growth speed of crops, and to the rate fallow fields regenerate. You’ll also need to rely more on fallow cycles for sustainability, instead of simply swapping out crop types. Cows and sheep will be easier to breed, the Deep Mine is less efficient, warbows and crossbows are now stronger, and the collection and threshing of Sheaves will prioritize the least-available grain types first.
Manor Lords update 0.8.117 is available now on the game’s live branch. Slavic Magic says it’s still working on more perks for the future, but decided improvements to farming were a greater priority based on the current crop of Steam Reviews.