Manor Lords - medieval city-building with large scale battles

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

I guess I made a right choice when I decided to wait at least 6 months from initial release.

 

[Axioms]

there was a mass shill operation around this title it seems

It is a bit worrisome that they sent helmets and stuff to people. Kinda thought Hooded Horse was a bit more honest, but I guess marketing is marketing. Now where is my medieval helmet!

The founder of Hooded Horse worked at McKinsey so... Also the funding comes from people he met while working there.

 

[Lacrymas]

Overhyped gaem.

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

Overhyped gaem.

That's another game that will be published by Hooded Horse.

 

[Alienman]

And early access. *Gulp*

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

And early access. *Gulp*

If it isn't cherished pet project, then just wait and see.

 

[Lacrymas]

Overhyped gaem.

That's another game that will be published by Hooded Horse.

Old World is fantastic, I'm not familiar with the rest of their oeuvre. Didn't they publish Against the Storm as well? I don't get the hype around that either.

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

Overhyped gaem.

That's another game that will be published by Hooded Horse.

Old World is fantastic, I'm not familiar with the rest of their oeuvre. Didn't they publish Against the Storm as well? I don't get the hype around it either.

Menace from Overhype Studios (Battle Brothers devs) is one of upcoming games by Hooded Horse.

 

[Tyranicon]

You don't get to be the top wishlisted game on Steam without employing an army of shills. Like come on, that should be expected by now.

But yeah, the game doesn't have too much content to it right now besides achingly slow town-building. Once you make a shit ton of regional money (one cool thing is that your peasants and you have different money pools) there's basically nothing to do but raid random bandit camps.

There's only one other lord in the region and as far as I can tell he doesn't build anything, but will send small mercenary bands to also raid the bandits.

 

[Axioms]

Overhyped gaem.

That's another game that will be published by Hooded Horse.

Old World is fantastic, I'm not familiar with the rest of their oeuvre. Didn't they publish Against the Storm as well? I don't get the hype around that either.

Old World and Against The Storm were a meaningful thing before HH. So I don't count those the same as their other games.

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

You don't get to be the top wishlisted game on Steam without employing an army of shills. Like come on, that should be expected by now.

That's just Hooded Horse doing their jobs.
Earlier this year they promoted heavily that one card based spaceship game, Breachway I think it's called.

 

[motherfucker]

There's only one other lord in the region and as far as I can tell he doesn't build anything, but will send small mercenary bands to also raid the bandits.

Depending on the setting, he might try to claim other regions, including your own

 

[Tyranicon]

There's only one other lord in the region and as far as I can tell he doesn't build anything, but will send small mercenary bands to also raid the bandits.

Depending on the setting, he might try to claim other regions, including your own

Yeah, he claims regions very quickly. But the tediousness of building up settlements in the game means I don't even want them.

On a lark, I decided to fight him, and he shows up with a 36-man retinue instead of the 24 max you get (although you can get additional retinues if you own other regions).

It's probably the only way to experience the "joy" of combat in the Early Access as the bandits are pushovers. Anybody who played a round of combat and said this game is a "Total War killer" is out of their mind. I'm not a huge fan of recent Creative Assembly, but the combat in Manor Lords is simplistic in the extreme and missing basic elements like an after combat report.

Not to mention archers are even worse than in Total Warhammer. Even the heavy archers do almost no damage, and you either spend 10 minutes watching two bands of archers shoot each other to death in the fastest game speed, or you watch the same with infantry chasing them.

Clearly we're waiting for cavalry to be implemented.

I like the game, but this is really Early Access, like 25% of the game. Which is fine, I've put out EA games with less content. But they need to put out a roadmap soon.

 

[BrainMuncher]

I like the game, but this is really Early Access, like 25% of the game. Which is fine, I've put out EA games with less content. But they need to put out a roadmap soon.

Did someone say this has been in development for seven years? So another 21 years of early access to get to 100%?

 

[JarlFrank]

There's only one other lord in the region and as far as I can tell he doesn't build anything, but will send small mercenary bands to also raid the bandits.

He's an outsider lord from outside the region who claims areas and fights you.
Other lords within the region will apparently be implemented later and can actually build villages you can pillage and take over.

 

[Harthwain]

He's an outsider lord from outside the region who claims areas and fights you.
Other lords within the region will apparently be implemented later and can actually build villages you can pillage and take over.

On that note, will it be possible to go "outside" the region in a similar fashion? Or is this only one way (the AI way)?

 

[janior]

early access was a mistake, i'll check this game out in 6 years or so

 

[SmartCheetah]

early access was a mistake, i'll check this game out in 6 years or so

IMO it's a good early access game. The post you quoted earlier was really biased against the game - most probably because the dude who wrote it seems to be one of the folks who oppose the current popular thing. A lot of stuff he said is just nitpicking and "I know it's Early Access BUT" mantra.

Is it overhyped? Surely - mostly because a lot of shills/stupid youtubers wanted to make Total War killer out of the city builder game. I've spoken to the sole developer several years ago and he said that he took a lot of inspiration from TW games but never wanted to compete. His major plan was to create a fun and really nice looking, semi-realistic (in historical terms) city builder. And he definitely did well on that front.
Is the game boring? Depends on the type of player you are. If you enjoy creating big cities out of small villages, it can last you for many hours. I've already played like 10-12 hours and would like to play some more. I also saw a lot of WiP screenshots with stuff that isn't even in the game - so I know that sooner or later it might evolve into a true gem.
Comparing prices to games that were released several years ago is fucking stupid. Everything got more expensive. Dude (and Hooded Horse) saw the opportunity to milk the fact that the game built a lot of hype, and it's totally justified. If he will deliver meaningful and fun content in the following years, I would be very happy with those 20 bucks spent.

People who are on the fence might just wait for some content updates and steam sale. I see no point in judging Early Access game 3 days after it's release, not knowing how the further developement will look like.

 

[IDtenT]

It's okay, my Gamepass sub pays for the early access.

 

[Stavrophore]

This game feels incredibly shallow, cool models and graphics, but the complexity and intertwining of the systems are poor. Showoffware[feels like UE5 advert] i would say. We've entered an era of decline where a flashy stuff is selling extremely well upfront, and then people move on/latch on to other stuff, when the game only captivate you for dozen of hours and needs another 5 year development to be good. Just consume shiny thing, the shiny thing gets matte very quickly, and you throw the shiny thing to buy new[same] shiny shallow trinket.

 

[Tyranicon]

This game feels incredibly shallow, cool models and graphics

This is true, but the game is solid enough where I'm decently optimistic about the end result, instead of instantly derisive like I usually am.

Manor Lords is exactly where an Early Access game wants to be: players want more content because the game is fun.

I'm not super big into city builders, so people who are might have different opinions, but I found the building part enjoyable enough (if in dire need of some rebalancing and some QoL changes). Unfortunately right now the game is basically micro'ing trade because there's no midgame besides fighting the outside AI lord, which is boring.

Other lords within the region will apparently be implemented later and can actually build villages you can pillage and take over.

This is what the game badly needs. Actual opponents on the same footing as you.

What will decide the quality of the game is the entire reason I'm interested in Manor Lords: how you can interact with other lords in the region. Will there be a good diplomacy mechanic? Or is this just a slow-form RTS where you map paint?

We'll have to see.

 

[Mortmal]

After 7 years of development, I was surprised to see it released under the early access tag, and let out a loud sigh. My brother wanted it, so I bought it for him. But it turns out it's indeed really unfinished, nothing like what you would expect from the trailers. Another one of those things that may eventually end up complete in several years. It's like a non-release once again.

 

[IDtenT]

Let's just hope that with the massive bank this is making, that the dev is able to handle growing from a garage band into a full-fledged studio.

 

[Aemar]

the dev has stated he has NO plans to release a roadmap.

Let's just hope that with the massive bank this is making, that the dev is able to handle growing from a garage band into a full-fledged studio.

End of the road for this project's development process. Mission completed.

 

[Cyberarmy]

I played this one a bit and while it felt OK, I think I'm really spoiled by Against The Storm. That shit is so addicting to play that I had to uninstall it to be able to play other games...