What available game settings are available in Manor Lords?

Before starting a new game of Manor Lords, you are offered the option to set various game settings. During the game setup, you decide on how easy or hard your gameplay will be. 

At time of release, the following settings are available for you in the game setup screen. They are divided in two sections.

End goal and fighting

The first part mainly focuses on warfare and the way AI opponents are set up.

End goal

Available options: None - Growth - Conquest

It doesn't really matter what you set the End Goal to be. As soon as you reach the goal, you can choose to continue playing anyway. 

Setting it to Growth, the objective is to reach a Large TOwn settlement level. For Conquest, you are required to conquer all the regions. 

AI opponents

Available options: Off (work in progress)

This setting will be introduced in later updates of Manor Lord and can't be changed just yet. 

Off map adversary

Available options: Absent - Present

This option adds an AI opponent off the map if set to Present. This opponent will control 2 regions. Even though they won't build any settlements, they'll still bring their armies to the main game map when challenged by you or bandits. 

AI aggressiveness

Available options: Reactive - Balanced - Aggressive

Reactive AI will only protect their own regions. Agressive AI will actively try to claim your regions. A balanced AI will try and press their claims to neutral regions first. If all neutral regions are taken, this balanced AI will turn aggressive. 

Note: Only available when the Off map adversary is set to Present. 

Raider frequency

Available options: None - Medium - Frequent

Raiders are wandering bands of bandits that roam the countryside in search of loot. They don't have a camp or settlement but will come from off the map and travel through regions, pillaging everything they can get their grubby hands on. 

Medium raider frequency will spawn no more than 1 raid every 2 years. When set to frequent, it's possible there will be multiple raids each year. 

Raider free years

Available options: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5

Amount of years before the raids from raiders start happening. 

Note: Only available when Raider frequency is set to medium or frequent.

Initial bandit camps

Available options: None - 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5

This setting determines the amount of bandit camps that are located on the map at game start. 

Random bandit camp spawn limit

Available options: 0 - 3 - 5

The amount of bandit camps that spawn during gameplay. If set to 0, no camps will spawn at all. When set to 3 or 5, random bandit camps will stop spawning if there are already three (or five) of them on the map. 

Settlement management

The second group of settings revolves more around settlement development. 

Starting season

Available options: Spring - Summer - Fall - Winter

Depending on the starting season, your game will be easier or harder. When starting in spring, you'll get a balanced start with the availability of seasonal deposits and you can start farming. Downside is that it does rain a lot. Each season has its own pros and cons.

Starting supplies

Available options: Standard - Double - Nothing

Defines the amount of supplies you start off with when starting a new settlement. 

Armament delivery

Available options: Yes - No

When set to Yes, a shipment of 20 spears and 20 shields will arrive to your settlement as soon as it reaches a storehouse and 5 residental plots. This will offer a great start to your militia, if and when needed to be rallied.

Residental requirements

Available options: Balanced - Demanding - Tolerant

With residental requirements set to balanced, a town will not grow at all as long as the requirements are unfulfilled. Demanding or tolerant requirements affect the Approval. 

Approval

Available options: Low penalty - Medium penalty - High penalty

Approval from your population impacts your gameplay. Depending on this setting, the approval factors have barely any, average or significant impact on population growth. 

Well placement

Available options: Underground water - Unconstrained

Wells can either be placed anywhere (unconstrained) or need to be placed on an underground water sources. This can be seen on the overlay map. There is plenty of underground water available on most maps.

Weather events

Available options: None - Balanced - Difficult

Weather can affect a settlement in different ways. Rain can damage supplies, droughts can kill crops and thunderstrikes may destroy housing. When set to balance, this might happen and you will receive warnings if any supplies are left outside in the rain too long. When set to difficult, things will just happen. 

When set to none, the weather can still turn as bad, but it will purely be cosmetic. 

Templates

To make things a little easier for you, there are a few templates available to choose from.

Depending on which one you choose, the gameplay will either be Relaxing (great to start out with), Challenging (good luck!) or a balanced mix of the two.

Enjoy your games of Manor Lords any way you like!