How to resolve negative approval and increase approval in Manor Lords

These days, I don't buy anything any more without checking a review site. Be it a new PC, graphics tablet, lawn mower or hotel room: always check what other people think about it. Do they give their approval to whatever I'm looking to buy?

In Medieval times, internet didn't exist. Neither did review sites. Still, approval was still a thing. At least, it is so in Manor Lords. 

Approval needed to increase families

When playing Manor Lords, you will have already figured out that families are your population unit. Everything revolves around having enough families available to fulfil all tasks. 

Manor Lords is not an RTS. You can't build a family, like you could a spearman in Age of Empires. You can't plop down a residence and 50 new workers plop out, like in Settlers. 

What you do need to do, is to have enough living space for new families to settle in your region. If you have, and your approval is high enough, each month a new family (or two!) can join your settlement. 

Want to know more on families? Read this Comprehensive guide to attract new families!

How to resolve negative approval in Manor Lords

Now, approval is based on a few things. Several factors of the game impact approval, either positively or negatively. You will need to address them to make your Manor Lords experience a good one. 

A Manor Lords region with 3 negative approval modifiers: hunger, cold and homelessness.

Unless you're some kind of Caligula or Ivan the Terrible, you're not looking for ways to generate a low approval rating. Still, it helps to know what could affect your approval in a negative way while playing Manor Lords, so you know what to avoid. 

Let's have a look at all the negative approval modifiers and see what the solution would be. 

Homelessness

Humans are creatures of comfort. Ever since someone way back when ate an apple and got kicked out of paradise, we're looking for a place to live. 

Not having enough Burgage Plots to provide your families with living space, will seriously impact your approval. It causes the homelessness approval modifier. 

The amount of approval loss depends on two things:

1. How many families are homeless
2. How long they've been homeless for

The more families are homeless and the longer they've been homeless for, the bigger the approval penalty will be. 

To avoid a lack of living space impact your approval rate, build extra Burgage plots. Or, if you can, extend existing Burgage plot with the extra family module.

Cold

With the home comes the warmth. But only if your families can buy something to burn in their hearth on the market. 

If you run out of firewood or charcoal, your families will get cold. This will lead to a negative modifier on your Manor Lords approval as well.

To remedy this, you need to provide fuel.

• Cut some firewood at the Woodcutter's Lodge
• Set up a Firewood Stall at the market (requires development point AND regional wealth)
• Import firewood through the Trading Post

Getting people warm should be the first priority when you are running into cold issues. After you've provided them with firewood, you should consider investing a development point in Charcoal burning. This allows you to build a Charcoal kiln, in which 1 firewood will be burnt into 2 charcoal. This essentially doubles your supply of fuel!

Keep in mind: leaving your families cold for too long, might lead to freezing and ultimately, death!

Hunger

Everyone loves food! At least, I do. Having a full belly always makes me happy.

That's the same for your Manor Lords families. If you don't provide them with food, your people will be hungry. And let me tell you: they won't approve of it. 

Often the easiest way to increase approval is to provide more (types of) food. Get some berry pickers or hunters going, invest in farming or build chicken extensions on burgage plots. 

Farming

Farming Wheat is actually pretty lucrative when you consider the production ratios. 

1 Field of 1 morgen requires about 4 families to work it for 3 months in the autumn. It will yield about 70-80 wheat (depending on fertility), which will be threshed into the same amount of grain (1 wheat will be 1 grain).

Each grain will then be milled into 2 flour AND each flour will be enough to bake 2 breads using the Bakery extension. 

So 1 Field will yield about 300 bread! That is enough to feed 25 families for a whole year. Not bad huh?

Just as an FYI: hunger has a much bigger effect on your approval rating than homelessness and much quicker. So if you need to choose between spending your logs on homes or on a Forager hut, pick the latter!

Lack of entertainment

Even your Manor Lords families require to be entertained. Rather strange if you think of it. If they're characters in a game, shouldn't they be the entertainment?

Regardless, they require entertainment. If they are not entertained, your region will suffer a Lack of entertainment penalty in your approval.

Entertainment in Manor Lords is provided by a working tavern. For a tavern to be active and working, it needs 2 things:

1. A family assigned to work there; and
2. Enough ale to provide the entire region

Now, the ale is currently (version 0.7.955) an issue. People just need too much of it.

Good news though: in (beta) version 0.7.960 and up, this is amended. In that version, the ale consumption has been lowered by 75%.

Taxing

Nobody likes paying taxes. Even Trump doesn't, so why should anyone else (joke, of course)

In Manor Lords, families aren't much different. You might think yourself of the next Trump, sitting high and dry in your Manor. But setting a tax rate will definitely lower approval. 

Resolving this negative approval rate is really easy. Select the Manor, go to the taxes page and set the tax rate to 0%. 

Your families will thank you! And not give you any more money... but hey, at least they'll be happy 😉

Negative approval table

In this table, you will find all the causes for negative approval and their solution.

How to increase approval even more

If you are striving to be a good ruler, you won't just resolve the negative approval causes. No, you want to be better! 

A Manor Lords region with a great approval rating. New families will flock to this region to settle down.

If you are looking to increase your approval even more, try these tips for the best Manor Lords approval rate possible! 

Church level

You need a church in your village. Those bells need some place to toll!

Once you upgrade your Church to a Small Stone Church, your families will really appreciate it. 

So much so, that (especially your level 1 families) will greatly approve of your Church. Praise the Manor Lord! 

Market food variety

I'm a simple kind of guy. If it were up to me, I'd cook once a week and eat the same thing every day. My family however requires variation to our diet. They want different things. 

The same is true for Manor Lords families. They need food to survive. Without food, a negative approval will happen. Provide them enough food, they won't complain - but also won't be very happy.

Provide them with different kinds of food and they'll be happy as a clown. Their approval will go up and you'll be in the green rates in no time. 

Clothing market supply

Not many people would voluntarily run around the streets naked. That's why families need clothing. 

Clothing is a basic requirement. But the more variety you can provide, the happier they'll be. 

If you can manage to provide not only leather (from hides), but also yarn (from wool) or linen (from flax), your families will greatly approve. Add some shoes (by Cobbler's workshop), cloakes or clothing (from Tailor's workshop) and they'll approve even more. 

So even if you have satisfied the need for clothing, don't hesitate to go that extra mile. Your approval rating will thank you for it. A +18 bonus rating isn't unheard of!