Manor Lords Developer Is Experimenting With A New Economic System To Allow For Strategic Monopolies

The developer behind the medieval city-builder Manor Lords is experimenting with significant new gameplay mechanics focused on economic competition. After a relatively quiet 2025, which followed its massive early access launch in 2024, development has been accelerating. The game, which has sold over 2.5 million copies, saw a major update in December that reworked core systems and overhauled castle construction, setting the stage for an even more active 2026.

It might be a promised big update we've heard from devs on Manor Lords 1 year birthday. The new year is already promising continued momentum with plans for more substantial updates that could fundamentally change how players interact with the game's economy and each other.

Following the major December patch, the team is keen to maintain its pace. In a recent Steam update, Tim Bender, the CEO of publisher Hooded Horse, detailed what players can expect from the title that PC Gamer named the Best City Builder Game of 2024. These plans indicate a clear direction toward deeper strategic layers, moving beyond simple city management and into the realm of regional economic power plays. The initial changes will focus on refining the existing housing and production progression before tackling a much larger and more ambitious overhaul of the entire trade system.

Image: PC Gamer

The most immediate change planned is the introduction of a new upgrade level for the Burgage Plot, the game's fundamental residential building. Currently, these plots have three levels, but developer Slavic Magic is adding an intermediate level between the existing levels 2 and 3. Bender explained that its purpose "is to more smoothly bridge the gap between early and late-game housing." In conjunction with this, the developer is also considering shifting some workshop progressions to later in the game. For example, baker and cobbler extensions may be tied to the level 3 Burgage Plot to encourage the use of the early-game communal oven. According to Bender, "shoes as an item aren't strictly required until this stage of progression anyway," a point the game's barefoot peasants might contest.

More significant, however, are the ideas being explored for a subsequent patch. Slavic Magic is working on an extensive rework of the trading system, designed to let players compete with rival lords economically, not just militarily. This new system ties trade routes to specific locations, with each location importing and exporting particular goods. While a resource like iron might be available on multiple routes, different cities will offer better prices, making certain routes more desirable and, therefore, more contested. Each trade route can support a maximum of three merchants, and players must hire at least one to engage in trade along that route. If all merchants on a profitable route are hired, other lords can attempt a buyout, which increases the hiring fee and triggers a cooldown before another buyout can occur, turning these routes into contested economic battlegrounds.

This system is intended to enable complex economic strategies.

"You could, for example, attempt to monopolise Iron Slabs by hiring all Merchants on routes that export them. This would be expensive, but could leave a rival Lord without access to Iron, forcing them to adapt by paying inflated prices, expanding into an Iron-rich region, or negotiating with you directly."

— Tim Bender

Such a move could even lead to diplomatic deals where a rival trades surplus goods in exchange for access to the monopolized resource, effectively paying the player as a middleman. Both the developer and publisher are actively seeking feedback from the Manor Lords community on this potential direction for the game's economy. They are asking players to comment on whether this type of competitive trade adds meaningful strategic choice or raises concerns.