Manor Lords' experimental trade rework is going to completely transform the medieval city builder's fight for resources

After a 2025 that was largely quiet on the Manor Lords front until the very end of the year, developer Slavic Magic and publisher Hooded Horse are intent that 2026 will see more regular updates for the breakout, million-selling medieval city-building game. As part of that new-look process, Hooded Horse is now handling its developer diaries, and CEO Tim Bender is back to give us a fresh look at what the team is currently hammering away at in the workshop. On the table for the next Manor Lords update are improvements to the progression for housing and workshops, and a deeper trade system that opens the door to more economic competition between rivals.

The last pair of Manor Lords updates have restored its Steam rating after a nine-month period of near radio silence had seen player confidence start to wane. Striding forward from this new frontier, Slavic Magic's next big patch adds a new burgage plot level that sits between the current ranks two and three, so as "to more smoothly bridge the gap between early and late-game housing."

You'll also no longer need to upgrade to a small stone church in order to push your housing to level three. Adjusting the levels means changes to existing mechanics, and Bender highlights the 'burgage plot expansion' upgrade as one such shift. This would previously double the living space within a plot, but will now always add one extra living space regardless of level, ensuring smoother upward scaling.

The team is "experimenting with more varied workshop progression," with a view to introducing additional specialized workshops in the future. With the coming update, it's currently planning to move the baker and cobber extensions to level-three burgage plots. The former change is designed to encourage use of the communal oven feature early on, while the latter is under consideration "since shoes as an item aren't strictly required until this stage of progression anyway."

While the housing changes sound sensible, it's the trade rework that's got me more excited. "We've seen the reaction to the new development perk system [introduced in update five] and lots of speculation and suggestions as to what's coming next for it," Bender writes. "The next tier of perks will arrive after the burgage plot update and it will be focused on 'trade privileges,'" and so, before that arrives, the team "saw an opportunity to add more depth to the trade system itself."

The plan is to end up with a system "that allows economic competition between rival Lords, not just military conflict; clearly separates regional and foreign trade; streamlines inter-regional trade and bartering; and feels less predictable, with opportunities that vary between playthroughs."

The current concept that's under consideration uses merchants as "the backbone of foreign trade." It'll tie trade routes to specific locations, with each city importing and exporting a small number of specific goods, subject to their prices and tariffs. Each route would be handled by up to three merchants, who can be hired to work for you. Once employed, they'll make a visit to your trading post every three months, moving goods based on your desired supply levels.

Naturally, it's not all smooth sailing: other Lords are able to buy out your merchants by offering them a better deal, increasing the next hire fee and applying a cooldown before you can make a bid to snatch them back. Competition for the merchants' business will be especially fierce on valuable routes, although Slavic Magic reassures that employees will honor their existing deliveries before taking on their new contract with your rival.

"Over time, this system allows for deliberate economic strategies," Bender remarks. "You could, for example, attempt to monopolize 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. In some cases, this might lead to diplomatic deals where a rival trades excess weapons or other goods for iron slabs, effectively paying you as a middleman."

Of course, there will be some caveats. Families that you've assigned to trading posts can stock them and deal in inter-regional trade routes, but can't act as merchants for any foreign trades, even with low-tier goods. "In a worst-case scenario, if you run out of regional wealth and all your merchants are bought out, you may need to rely on your plots clawing together some passive income before being able to trade again," Bender warns.

Bender notes that this suggested rework isn't the full extent of the team's ideas, but that "we felt it had enough potential to bring to the community early." He says the team is eager to hear what players think of this competitive trade concept and what it brings to the strategy of Manor Lords, along with any potential concerns. If it proves a success, future perks and policies might offer ways to adjust hiring fees, buyout costs, merchant frequency, route availability, and even the value of goods.

Personally I'm very much in favor of the concept on paper. Trade is always an interesting element of any strategy-tinged games, but one that can sometimes fall by the wayside. The idea of actively fighting for control of specific resources sounds like a good one to me; ultimately I suspect a large factor in its success will be how well (or badly) the rival AI handles things. If the system becomes too easy to exploit, or the computer feels overly aggressive in pushing you out of every possible deal, it could be more of a frustration than a feature.