Thought I'd gather my thoughts and let you know about the good, the bad and the ugly in the upcoming Manor Lords early access release! Let me know if you got any questions!

This game is EXACTLY what I wanted! No more boring spreadsheet games like Anno. No more building modern cities. No turn based strategy map. No buildings / city limits like Total War. I can just go back in time and be a Lord on a map with my peeps. So excited!

Kudos to the developer, he's put a tremendous amount of passion into this project and it shows!

The founding dev will be a multi millionaire if he isn't already. Let's hope he'll stay grounded

I'm going to be honest with you, I really like what I'm seeing. Just for the record, it has to be said that your Manor Lord videos are the quintessential example of perfection. Now don't misunderstand me here, there are no two ways about it. You may have some people who don't appreciate the hard work you do, but don't worry about that too much. Make no mistake, I most certainly do! (I just recently found your channel due to the upcoming release of Manor Lords, and after binge watching all the ML videos I just had to write a comment using your unique commentary style as a tribute! Much love and respect.)

on discord they said new maps will be added

We shall always remember the great history of Sankt Georgen, the first walled town in manor lords history.

From GamesRadar (this made me howl with laughter): [The dev said] "I just saw one press review try to cheese their way and build town walls with the castle planner tool," the game's official Twitter account flagged, "please restrain yourself from doing so. I'll add a *proper* town wall tool in one of the updates and the castle planner is meant for manors/castles. Should've locked it for now." The cheese wall in question seems to have been discovered, or at least widely shared, by One Proud Bavarian, who put a spotlight on a method to "build a city wall without ruining your save game."

Coming from Cities Skylines, this is exactly what i've been looking for for so long. It scratches that itch of "medieval citybuilding with a focus on aesthetics rather than complex management" perfectly and i'm sure that in due time, it'll become an even greater game. I can see, for example, as the castle building mechanics becomes more advanced and detailed, people playing this game just to build and customize castles, maybe even remaking real ones. I am very much in favour of the simplified production chains, as i don't care for really complex ones. I followed your playthrough and i will wholly agree with you on the aesthetics, it's virtually impossible to make a bad looking town in this game. I'm really looking forward to new maps, new assets and new gameplay mechanics, hopefully even mods in the future.

This is the fourth time that I have heard this announcement and I am still baffled by the Dev's honesty and humility. In the age of false promises, MicroTransactions, Lootboxes and all the other ways to leech off of Gamers, it is truly a breath of fresh air to hear from an Indie developer who actually cares about us gamers and is so concerned about the OUR satisfaction and opinions over his own bottomline. Such a talented, passionate, dedicated, honest and a humble man is truly a rare gem in this day and age.

I think the best thing this developer can do is instead of trying to focus on everything the playerbase wants, focus more on creating mod tools and making it easier for modders to mod the game. It's certainly going to be impossible for the dev to keep up with the demands of the playerbase, so creating effective mod tools is probably the best solution to make the most people as happy as you can. Obviously don't stop updating the game just to make mod tools, but there should be an amount of focus put towards mod tools because that's pretty much the only way to even attempt to keep up with what the players want.

Not sure if anyone else has ever played it, but Caesar III from the 90s was a great city builder that also incorporated military fighting and provincial development. Even though it's a DOS based game, it's probably one of the best and most challenging games I've ever played in the genre.

In my opinion the developer should focus on the the following in his next update 1) The trade system 2) Rivers and integrating trade in it or even buildings 3) Walls or some actions towards the castle planner

Not gonna lie, that comment about "I have no real frame of reference for city builders, even though I may have more than a million hours in the Anno Series which is legally required of me to keep my German passport" made me spit out my drink in laughter.

I don't think there is a lot of challenge to remake Berlin in this game considering it's more of a renaissance and later city then a medieval one. It's not quite Bruges. Imagine if you could mod the game to recreate Bruges.A city where, and I am quoting a contractor here, "unesco comes to this cellar to lick the walls". As it dates from the 1300's.

@OneProudBavarian Danke Schön for the playthroughs and the highly interesting background to the development of villages & towns in Franconia. I used Google maps and you can indeed see these building types there. I subscribed and look forward to seeing more content from you.

What I like most about the game, is that the scope is small, it does not try to feel overly grand.

The devs just called you out on twitter about you janking the walls😂😂

awesome prologue, very happy about how understanding people are about the game.

Very fair assessment, I encourage everybody to wat h the whole video. OPB differentiates well and manages expectations fairly. Not under- nor overselling the game. He adresses all important aspects and puts them in perspective. I am kinda proud to be a Bavarian myself now after watching it 😅

I would love to see Manor Lords eventually allow you to play on a map covering all of Europe or, at least, entire countries like England, France, Spain, Germany, etc.

This is just such a beautiful Village/town builder. I trust that the 2000 pop limit re pathfinding will be solved. I hope that the walking through buildings "bug" will be fixed. And I trust that Greg (the dev) will continue to listen to the players and to add more and more fascinating elements.

Hopefully this lets aaa developers know there is a demand for it and fund it.

i'm very excited for what you will be cooking in the early access version, loved your series on manor lords so far!

thank you for your exceptional playthroughs and commentary

Tbh, squalor could be a factor, it would make the need for a monks monastery necessary for disease control.

This game is what I've been waiting for for a long time. I think the last ones that came close were Anno and Stronghold. And to a certain extent 'War for the Overworld' haha. I just hope we can expect more fortifications and defences. And the option to encounter more bandits. And also just seeing the villages come to life even more. See children playing around, see some communal activities, etc. Just a bit more life would make it really amazing. Even more than it already is.

I always found the modern Anno's to be very stressful. All the optimization is too much work and too little fun for me. Manor Lords is more up my alley.

I like the level of complexity/simplicity so we can focus on building the overall village, yet enjoy the challenges of exchange and trade and balancing regions/specializing regions. This is a pearl of a game!

The demo had no combat, all of this is an extra bonus that I did not expect ! I am very interested in seeing what the community does with this game in the far future ! :)

Watching this makes me want to garden and brew beer

I fell in love with it when I saw it as a related video in the Medieval Manorial System during my SHS year. Now, two years in, I'm still falling for it! It's just so good! I even played the demo last year!

This is basically a medieval version of what Ancient Cities should have been.

Will wait for full release.

The lord of a manor isn't trying to perfectly optimize his textile industry. Serfs are farm equipment, enabling the lord to live his best CK3 life. I literally could not see a local lord thinking past simple supply chains.

My favourite things baout the manor lord is the organic building. I really hate the square grid based city building which has so many dead spaces in between where you couldnt fit a building just right. Here to design however I want and the game just figures itself out is amazing

Absolutely love how the game is coming along. This is a game I’ll buy, play a lot, and come back to every time there is new update. Kind of like how I play age of empires. I just hope there is good support for mods to keep the game fresh and exciting

Waiting for this one like no other title in years :) Any idea if the early access includes a "creative" mode where you can just create villages/cities without resource management?

what happened? why arent you uploading?

Jo mei, da muass I ja glei a abo dolossen... Servus, dear proud bavarian - I will advise my british husband to watch you, finally a bavarian he can truly understand ;) Well, he's getting better in bavarian aswell. Good to learn about Manor Lords and general medival townbuilding, as I've heard from Steinwallen viewers. Thanks and have a nice life!

God this game is beautiful, cannot wait to play!

Giving me Medieval Tropico vibes, one of my old favourites, if only for the music!

Agent based games tend to drop performance as population increases. One of the unavoidable downsides of accurately having your citizens actually doing what they're supposed to be, when they're supposed to be.

any info on whether the public release version will be the same as this or will it have more content?

I'm afraid of the hype. I really hope the game doesn't die buried in negative reviews from people who expected something else.

Will you conquer the whole map? I was looking forward for that

You gonna review the new ck3 dev diary?

I am getting this shit on Friday and gonna play it all night 😎🔥

played it on game pass, bought it on steam. excited to see where this game goes.

Hi OPB, what is your pc build?

A very good city builder crossed with warfare is Kingdoms and Castles(its on mac too!). developer has abandoned but is good for many different kinds of city building fans

Hey, who did/where did you get the thumbnail art for this video.

@OneProudBavarian have you played Farthest Frontier? I think you could like it as it is something in between Anno and Manor Lords.

This looks awesome. It looks like a SimCity/CitySkylines II mashup with Rise of Nations, set in the 14th century. Looks very promising !

A tip for getting rid of trees is build farmland or pastures then demo it & it will get rid of trees and everything inside of the area

Rivers - not just streams, lakes, FISHING :D far down the line actual day/night cycle with stamina to armies that sometimes have to make a camp. :) this is obviously early alpha but it will get there in couple of years.

It could have been helpful to describe your gaming rig as you were talking about performance issues so we could compare with our own rigs.

I really hope they do a multiplayer map it would be so fun.

ML its a pretty simple logistics game (compared to Caeser 3, factorio, etc), a pretty simple city planner (compared to the city skylines, the sim cities, etc), a limited aesthetic game (architecturally) and the UI is occasionally missing some crucial elements. The bugs do exist, but that adds to the charm 🐑 :P But the masterful mix of all these admittedly mediocre elements, along with an astounding appreciation for historical accuracy?! *Chefs kiss I may or may not have been the medieval nerd kid growing up :) However, the amount of work, love, and dedication does not leave much more to be desired (for me, at least!). Whatever issues are present could be buffed out so easily, the only way the game could disappoint me is if the dev cashed out and dipped. I would easily buy this version for 30$. For your average person tho, should probably only lay 15-20$.

I would love to build bigger citys but this still looks amazing

To be honest, I actually like the lack of min-max garbage that I've seen from the game. I don't mind complex logistic chains. What I absolutely hate is having my city layout slaved to bullshit AoEs like Anno.

i played after a certain amount of time and Mecrs just stopped appering all together i couldn't get them anymore so i simply had to start going into Milias and even if i lost 1/4 of my population it wouldn't affect me to much as they regenerated way too quick. Its a great game and i already love playing it, but as said its early Access, but on a great path forward hopefully.

im waiting for the cavalry update for this game, imagine bunch of guys with horses come to your village in the middle age of europe , its total war mixed with bannerlord and stornghold,like damn how cool would it be

Supply chains isn't actually a city builder thing originally. I call these games Colony Sims. In a classic city builder the economy takes care of itself and you just set the framework for it to develop.

I get that resources seemingly run out fast represents fact that they're not supposed to be industrial endeavors and for villages own needs as priority. Still feels like resources run out quite fast. Why don't taverns brew their own basic ale, like they historically did? Would it be too easy? Or just part of supply chain thematic? Where are fishers huts?

21:10 In a while, crocodile!

Bei Anno 1800 habe ich zwar nur 6000+ Stunden, trotzdem denke ich es mit M vergleichen zu können: ( noch) zu kleinschalig und ( noch) keine Mods. Es ist eher ein Banished mit etwas Kampf. Ich werde mir die EA Version natürlich zulegen, denke aber nach zwei bis drei Durchgänge erstmal damit fertig zu sein.

...did the whole "don't use the wall glitch" controversy kill this channel? What happened

Hopefully the developer understands that mod tools will increase the player base and longevity of the game.

Make a massive cathedral in the future

Best part about this game is number of players on the first day and reviews, it shows big companies that history games have a huge demand and that is worth investing in them, i only don't know how total war never realised it and decided to waste all their money on hiyenas but whatever, maybe now we will see big surge in quality history games and rivals to total war and paradox...

Is the early access build the same as the reviewers' build?

I hated gridbased citybuilders from the start, that's why I really like this game!

I wish it would include a bit more warfare... And I wish I could build a castle 😅 But hey... You can't have it all...

Lovely video. Thank you. Sigh one day and 18 hours left, till I no longer has a social life xD

Ye olde first!

I enjoy cities skylines but hate the traffic, death waves, consequences of bad traffic (corpses everywhere, burning city, crime wave, garbage piling up.), and the building system which is obviously made to create planned, square cities which i want none of.

Helllo

They don't have Calvary and it would be really cool if you could fight with your lord

Yes. It is worth it. Especially at that price.

How viable do you think a unga bunga caveman run is in manor lords? (no farms, no trade)

its a great game

As a long time City Skylines player, I will now be switching to Manor Lords as my game of choice.

His Thoughts: Chef's Kiss 💋

But what will be the price??

Imperium Romanum forever!

I don't like how forests get removed by placing a field. You could (ab)use that mechanic to deforest.

gj

Not very long now, until I make rundels of my own.

So long as they add an actual castle to the game, I'm in.

sup

The future and potential of this game could be extraordinary. Imagine settings in a Japanese era, a tribal era, or an Egyptian era; the developers could delve even further back in time. This could lead to a much larger game eventually, featuring ships, ports, and castles.

I have a 1060, pretty old rig at this point, but I can run this game on max settings which is quite impressive. There is plenty of worst looking games that run quite bad.

8:25 this

"....for middle aged enthusiasts...", hey, is he talking about my age?

My own initial thoughts on this game and it won't be a popular opinion. Going to be a bit of a rant and I preface this with the fact that I want the game to be good. But it just isn't there yet. Sadly, this game has so many game-breaking bugs that it's just unplayable. Reading the steam reviews, I'm not alone here either. Villager AI randomly stopping or going inactive, refusing to build anything. Villagers being stuck in the homeless state regardless of if their house is rebuilt or not. Raiders come in with 2-3x more troops than you can field, ultimately leading to your town getting burnt to ash. Raiders just teleporting your resources away from your town, "stealing" them from across the map. Town approval just freezes at random numbers (usually the low percentages) and prevents migrants from wanting to show up. Buildings not functioning correctly or registering. Villagers not doing their jobs. The AI completely takes over the map before you are anywhere near the ability to expand to other regions. Farms are damn near useless. The mid-late game doesn't even exist because almost all of the mechanics for it are not implemented and are just placeholders. Even then, you can't keep up with the AI militarily because of that reason. As of right now, it's just a pretty game that got overhyped. It feels almost the same as it did during the open beta. Also, for the love of it all, please do not compare this game to Total War. The only thing this game has even remotely close to TW is the way you move your troops on a battlefield. That is, it. Battles are also extremely small scale (which isn't really a problem) where TW has thousands of troops on a battlefield. I would argue its more in tune with AoE with TW movement than anything else. The sad reality is this game has been in production for 7 years. Yes, I know its early access. I know it's only one dev. But this is after 7 years and if the dev continues to work alone, it's going to be another 4-5 years before the game even has the core mechanics implemented. As it stands now, there is definitely not enough manpower working on this game. Not to mention the dev also has to deal with player found bug fixes now. It's not just building/implementing gameplay mechanics. I hope more help is hired for this. Otherwise, it's just another pretty game with nothing going on. For some positives, it looks great. It seems fairly stable, doesn't crash too often. Progression, although sluggish, feels rewarding. The freedom of being able to choose where to build things is also nice. No limitations or set build points for most buildings. However, it must be said. Indie devs releasing games as "early access" gives off the same vibe as triple A companies asking for $70 preorders. It's become taboo for indie devs to release games in early access. Which I understand. Sometimes the funding runs dry, and you need the money. However, the game usually has most of its mechanics implemented. Early access used to mean, "The games nearly done, just needs a little more time". Now, it's just "Here's a half-baked game with thrown together ideas! I will charge you the finished product price for a game that's not nearly complete". IMO, this game shouldn't be more than $25 in its current state, and that's being lenient. In general, early access versions shouldn't be charging you the same amount as you would for a fully completed game. Cause let's be honest, you aren't buying a completed game. You're putting your faith into a dev to hopefully improve the game and not just take your money and run. At the end of the day, I hope this game gets the help it needs. Hopefully the solo dev puts this money towards hiring some additional help and get this puppy up and running.

How does no one compare this game to settlers. It is very similiar.

the main thing im missing from banish- manor lords is schools where you still have to feed children but cant use them, and having them educated making them more efficient as adults, also mods would be nice, also more map options/bigger map with more features like a river to trade on

Freestyle city building game with free areas in FEODALISM age. Yes it is the most matter thing for me.

Guess I’m buying a pc now