Manor Lords' new massive patch stops your villagers from partying too hard and introduces players to the woeful world of the King's Tax

The new pre-release patch for Manor Lords has just been released for all to try out, and it sure does fix a long list of problems, more so than the developer Greg "Slavic Magic" Styczeń had previously promised.

Styczeń had already promised fixes for inefficient sawpits, a homeless bug, harsh oversupply trade mechanics, poor archer damage, and an overpowered AI, but the actual patch includes this and much more. 

The biggest change is that the King's Tax or Annual Royal Tax (the name's still to be decided) is enabled for all players. "This tax is collected annually from all players (main player and AI) and goes to your liege," Styczeń says in the patch notes. It's counted per population and therefore should become a counterbalance for players who hoard huge wealth despite having non-optimized economies."

For the time being, you'll be able to go into debt without any consequences, but this won't be the case forever. In the future, you'll begin to lose the king's favour if you fail to pay back what's owed, and eventually, the king will even send his army to your front door to collect the money if you refuse to pay. 

The next big change is the introduction of global/local trading. This'll let you switch between trading beyond your borders and within the lands that you've conquered, and all you'll need for it to work is two trading posts in both regions. "Employed traders will prioritize to travel to the place with best prices to commence trade, and yes, potentially including regions owned by other Lords," Styczeń says. "This can have interesting consequences in the future. For now, I reduced the transport distance from the calculation in order to make it more predictable for the player where the traders will go (to the place with the best price)."

Other minor fixes include adding "a mindfulness system that was initially designed for the oxen to the free merchants. This system is used to reduce clumps and traffic jams," which many players have had problems with. Problems with farming, like crops disappearing in the winter or inefficient harvests, have also been addressed, so you no longer have to micromanage an early harvest to prevent fertility from decreasing when crop growth reaches 100%. This is something I've had a problem with as I don't have access to much fertile land, so harvesting crops at the right time has taken up a lot of my time and effort. 

Styczeń has also said that this patch will address "overly high ale consumption." The consumption has actually been lowered by 75%. While I don't want to be the stick in the mud that stops my villagers from partying, the speed at which they go through ale is actually damaging my economy. I can't keep up barley production to meet their ale needs, and it's far too expensive to import it right now. A steady supply of ale in local pubs is also one of the requirements needed to upgrade your burgage plots to level 3, so access to ale is actually really important for progression. 

The new patch contains a ridiculously long list of major and minor changes, crash fixes, and bug fixes, so if you have a spare moment, it's well worth checking the patch notes out for yourself. You'll likely find the answer to all your Manor Lords prayers in there.