Key Highlights:
- Manor Lords beta 0.8.110 introduces seasonal crops, Fertilizer production and six new Rural Foundations Development Perks.
- Wheat and Rye are treated as Winter crops, while Flax, Barley and Oats are restricted to Spring sowing.
- A 0.8.111 hotfix has already followed, fixing several farming problems and partially reversing an ox-cart pathfinding change.
Released to Steam’s pre-release branch on 27 September, Manor Lords beta 0.8.110 substantially reworks farming while adding six Rural Foundations Development Perks, a Fishmonger artisan and a new Fertilizer production chain.
Slavic Magic says the update began as a Development Perk-focused patch, but recent Steam reviews pushed several longstanding technical problems higher up the priority list. Save corruption and crashes while loading ranked first, followed by oxen logistics and pathfinding, general crash frequency, building-speed problems involving oxen, and farming itself.
The developer says its QA and alpha testers are no longer reproducing several of those issues, but deliberately stops short of guaranteeing they are gone completely and is asking beta players to continue submitting problem cases.
Farming receives the biggest systemic change.
Crops are now formally divided by season:
| Crop | Season |
|---|---|
| Wheat | Winter, with optional Spring sowing at reduced yield |
| Rye | Winter, with optional Spring sowing at reduced yield |
| Flax | Spring only |
| Barley | Spring only |
| Oats | Spring only |
Fields now display a 12-month timeline showing upcoming farming activity, which becomes particularly useful because seasonal restrictions matter considerably more than they did before. Crop Rotation is also permanently enabled in the beta as an experimental change because Slavic Magic says there was no meaningful advantage to disabling it.
Unharvested crops no longer disappear immediately when October arrives. Instead, they gradually die and lose yield, leaving players a short opportunity to salvage what remains before the field rotates.
Rotation itself can now trigger in three different ways: on 1 September when a field has nothing to harvest, immediately after a harvest finishes, or on 1 November if the crop has died without being collected.
I think the new 12-month field timeline could end up being one of the most useful changes here, because Manor Lords is simultaneously making farming rules stricter while giving players considerably more information about what their fields will be doing next.
Fertility management is becoming deeper as well.
Pasture animals now produce Dung, which workers assigned to the new Dunghill can collect and compost into Fertilizer. Farmhouse workers can then apply it to Fallow Fields during Summer to raise their maximum fertility, with a single Fertilizer application lasting for just over two years.
That creates a direct production relationship between livestock and crop farming rather than treating the two systems as largely separate parts of the settlement economy.
The six new Rural Foundations perks unlock at Settlement Level 3 and are designed around improving medium-sized villages rather than simply pushing settlements towards larger towns.
| Development Park | Notable Effects |
|---|---|
| Experienced Forestry | Improves Sawpit output, Charcoal Kilns and Bow Militia range while allowing Winter tree planting |
| Woodland Beekeeping | Adds the Zeidler’s Hut, improves Apiation capacity and reduces Apples needed for Cider |
| Fish Husbandry | Increases Fish capacity, improves Fishmonger efficiency and enables Winter fishing |
| Livestock Provisioning | Improves Butchers, Cow reproduction, Animal Feed production and meat preservation |
| Practical Tillage | Improves threshing, enables backyard Dung collection and increases crop resistance to spoilage, weather and drought |
| Pastoral Practice | Improves Dunghills, Sheep reproduction, backyard animal output and Pasture capacity |
Practical Tillage is particularly substantial. It reduces crop spoilage by roughly 18%, cuts rain and snow damage in half and improves drought resistance by 50%. Fish Husbandry enables fishing throughout Winter, while Experienced Forestry extends Bow Militia range by 25%.
The Fishmonger is another entirely new artisan. Fish and Salt can now be processed into Smoked Fish, while the Dunghill becomes the sole storage location for both Dung and Fertilizer.
These Development Perks are the follow-up to the systems GLN discussed in the Manor Lords Wide Valley and livestock update preview, which specifically noted that new perks were planned to arrive after the cow breeding, construction and Wide Valley overhaul.
AI settlements are receiving considerably more work than the headline farming changes might suggest.
Computer-controlled towns now prioritise Granary upgrades earlier, evaluate worker placement daily during their first two months, establish trade sooner and select early trade goods around local resources and their chosen Origin Perk. They can also build multiple Hunting Camps, purchase Hunting Hounds, import materials for militia helmets and choose militia types according to regional resources.
A long list of AI bugs has also been addressed, including incorrect Origin Perk selection, constructing excessive living space, failing to create artisans, repeatedly hiring and firing Hunting Camp workers and exporting resources that had just been imported to satisfy a local need.
Logistics receives several smaller changes. Squads can now be ordered to follow roads, livestock workers have stricter responsibility for assigned animals, Logging Camps gain reserve and production limits and oxen were initially made less strict about following roads.
That last change has already been adjusted.
Beta 0.8.111 arrived two days later on 29 September and restored a high preference for roads specifically to oxen pulling carts. The hotfix also corrected Winter crops incorrectly showing no current task during Spring, late-sown fields sometimes becoming impossible to harvest, inaccurate predicted yields and several field-state display problems.
The latest hotfix matters because it shows how quickly the test branch is moving. Anyone covering 0.8.110 as though it were a finished stable update would already be describing at least one logistics behaviour that has subsequently changed.
Balance adjustments are fairly widespread too. Normal crop growth is 2.4% slower, Fallow Fields regain fertility much more slowly and the regional bonus from Rich Fertility has been cut by 30%. Deep Mine production is reduced, while Cow and Sheep breeding chances increase to 40%.
Military balance shifts in opposite directions for ranged units, with Warbows gaining 23% damage while Crossbows lose 16%. Fishing resource nodes can now support 15 fishing spots, and Vegetable Gardens continue growing during Winter at 20% of their normal rate.
Beta 0.8.110 follows Major Update #8 reaching the main branch on 27 August. That release introduced Wide Valley, cow breeding, livestock expansion, Cider, advanced construction and several of the systems first previewed by Slavic Magic during the summer.
It was also a major commercial milestone. Hooded Horse confirmed Manor Lords had surpassed 4 million copies sold by the time Major Update #8 launched, replacing the older three-million figure announced in February 2025.
Anyone who wants to test the farming overhaul currently needs the Steam version. Slavic Magic recommends backing up saves and removing mods before opting in through Properties > Betas, entering the password veryNiceBasket and selecting the pre_release branch. The full changes are listed in the official 0.8.110 beta notes.
That warning is worth taking seriously. This remains an experimental testing build, and the arrival of 0.8.111 only two days after 0.8.110 is a good example of why beta behaviour should not yet be treated as final.
