Runaway city-building success Manor Lords is getting a major overhaul to its systems: 'It's not just a new feature or two. It's a full rework'

A peaceful and pastoral field with several sheep gathered, as featured in Manor Lords. — (Image credit: Slavic Magic)

City-building smash hit Manor Lords received relatively frequent updates after it launched into early access last year, but the pace of patches has slowed considerably since the start of 2025. While there have been plenty of previews for new features planned by developer Slavic Magic, actual, tangible changes to the game are thin on the ground.

Now, Manor Lords' creator Greg Styczeń has explained why these regular updates haven't been coming, and the answer is the studio is working on a considerably larger, deeper overhaul of how the game functions. "I know you've been waiting a long time, and the reason for the delay is pretty simple. We're overhauling a lot of systems at once" he explained in a Steam update. "It's a full rework of how things like buildings, production chains, and environmental interactions function."

Styczeń doesn't share full details about the coming overhaul, but he does provide a thorough explanation of how one mechanic is changing—the affinity system. This governs the relationship between your structures and the areas in which they are placed.

"We wanted a more in-depth relational system between buildings and other buildings, as well as between buildings and their environments," he explains. "We prototyped what building games usually do—effects applied in a radius, or in specific zones, but found out that the Manor Lords' flexible plot system doesn't play very well with placing stuff in areas, especially when they are circular."

Styczeń describes trying to fit rectangular plots into circular areas as "not pleasant", which, yeah, square pegs and round holes and all that. Instead, he and his team have come up with an environmentally contextual solution:

"The environments we have so far are meadow, woodland, farmland, rural, and urban. Buildings have different affinities; for instance, apiaries will benefit from a large Woodland area in the Region," Styzcen writes. "Experimentally, we made it even more complex, and some buildings can buff the affinities of other buildings. For instance, having apiaries can increase the existing effect that pollination orchards get from meadows."

That's as far as Styczeń goes regarding systemic reworks. But he also shares some info on other, non-mechanical features being worked on. These include new shopfronts and artisan workstations, a new map called "divided", which is bisected by a mountain range, a new camera feature that lets you peer through the walls of fortifications, so you can see your soldiers standing guard inside towers and turrets.

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New shopfronts and workstations in Manor Lords — (Image credit: Slavic Magic)

All of this, plus the other, unrevealed changes Slavic Magic has in the oven, are why meaningful changes to Manor Lords have been sparse this year. "Because we're working on all these big changes, we haven't been able to put out smaller patches. They would make things messy or break stuff that's still being worked on."

Styczeń doesn't provide any kind of timeline regarding when these features will wend their way into the game, but does say there will be further updates about what other changes are coming to Manor Lords down the line. "I'll keep posting here as we get closer and share more along the way," he concludes.

Rick has been fascinated by PC gaming since he was seven years old, when he used to sneak into his dad's home office for covert sessions of Doom. He grew up on a diet of similarly unsuitable games, with favourites including Quake, Thief, Half-Life and Deus Ex. Between 2013 and 2022, Rick was games editor of Custom PC magazine and associated website bit-tech.net. But he's always kept one foot in freelance games journalism, writing for publications like Edge, Eurogamer, the Guardian and, naturally, PC Gamer. While he'll play anything that can be controlled with a keyboard and mouse, he has a particular passion for first-person shooters and immersive sims.

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