Manor Lords patch adds new maps and a city builder staple, bridge-building, and also makes it so "taverns realize ale isn't magic

A new Manor Lords update is here, and as well as adding two new maps, it’s full of bug fixes, quality-of-life changes, and balance tweaks, not to mention a crucial change to make sure that “taverns realize ale isn’t magic – it’s just ale.”

As outlined in the patch notes for version 0.8.024, this update combines the work of the last two beta patches. Major changes include a rework to the cliff system – notably, it should now be more obvious where you can build and traverse, and pathfinding errors around them should no longer be a problem.

But what about the “magic” ale? It’s a bit of a mystery what this line at the top of the patch notes refers to, but it seems it could relate to some changes made to water and ale distribution, which now see the two distributed “in a similar way as marketplace items.” Sort-of-solo dev Greg Styczeń has two reasons for this – as well as the fact that he simply “wanted to add Well and Tavern upgrades,” he adds: “It’s no longer enough to just have one Ale sitting in the tavern to upgrade the whole town.” Tavern supply is one of the key requirements you need to fulfill to upgrade your burgage plots to level three, which – over time – is required to upgrade your settlement level. Based on these patch notes, it sounds like perhaps this lone magic ale might have been able to tick off this tavern supply requirement all by itself, but Styczeń hasn’t elaborated.

There’s also a handful of new features to get stuck into. Beyond the new Winding River and High Peaks maps, a bridge-building system is now available, at long last adding a city builder staple to the hit indie. Additionally, distributing buildings like the marketplace and tavern now have an ‘Overstock’ option, which lets you pick a limit on how many extra goods are placed in them beyond what they actually require.

The full list of bug fixes and additions is absolutely enormous – if you want to see everything version 0.8.024 has to offer, be sure to check out the patch notes. Styczeń has also issued a couple of warnings to players to take note of before diving in – “it’s recommended that you back up your saved files before switching to a beta version,” and you should probably remove any mods: “They will most likely crash the game.”

After 2.5 million sales, Manor Lords publisher says it “would almost be arrogant” to not be surprised by the city builder’s success – but “you cannot count on it to repeat.”

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