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. 

A new pre_release patch is available in the BETA branches on Steam. Full info here, including how to access it: https://t.co/5mmdlgu0irMay 10, 2024

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