For an early access game, Manor Lords is already surprisingly complete. But give the community a finger, and they'll give you back... a water mill?
Everybody needs to have a drink. And seeing as we can't all have ale with our breakfast, water is the next best thing.
In Manor Lords, the water requirement is fulfilled by having a well nearby. The well supplies families with water, as one of the family members take a regular trip to collect the water from the well and carry it back home.
Food is the next basic requirement that everyone has. Currently, there are a fair few options available.
You have berries and wildlife as renewable resources. Berry bushes will deplete completely over the winter season and grow back during spring, provided you don't cut away too many trees surrounding them. Deer herds will continuously swell back to higher numbers, provided you don't hunt them down too low (or again, cut down too many trees).
Idle family members can work the backyard extensions on their burgage plots. Vegetables are the big winner in current stable branch (0.7.955), but is nerfed in patch 0.7.65 (avaible as beta branch on Steam). Eggs from Chicken rens and apples from orchards are available as well, although they don't grow as fast.
The largest yield you can get from farming. A well laid out grain farm can supply great numbers of wheat. Wheat will be threshed into grain, to be milled into flour which is to be baked into bread. With a conversion ratio of 1:4 (1 grain will make 4 breads if done right), it really helps the food supply.
That all being said, how cool would adding a water mill be?
Discord user Gothares recently pitched this idea in the Gameplay-feedback channel on the Manor Lords Discord server. And I have to agree, it's awesome.
Their idea makes a lot of sense. A water mill built next to a river would open up the possibility of fish farming. You could have the water from the river to be used for farm field or garden irrigation for better yields.
Seeing as they're rivers (sweet water, rather than the salt water see), you could even use them as a secondary (or maybe even primary?) water supply for a larger scale city!
Fellow Discord members of the Manor Lords community were quick to embrace this idea.
Already the water mill has 2 hearts and 29 :PrayToBasketman:'s, which is this channel's way of giving an idea a thumbs up. It stands out in a sea of other ideas, rarely receiving more than 5 likes in any way.
Channel member Fog is surprised about the currently used well mechanic: "I was surprised when i first saw that the current water supply is based only on wells. Historically the majority of cities and villages would be based around a river. Rivers were not only a source of water, but they were also used for the sewage. "
Fellow member Forwayn builds upon Gothares' idea of adding the water mill by mixing it up with an already introduced (but not implemented) feature in Manor Lords: smell. "And water-polluting industries like tanneries were put downstream in the city layout, to keep the water supply for the city folks relatively clean. This could bring another aspect of city planning into the game. But since there are some hints, like the unfinished stink-mechanics, I believe there will be something similar in the future."
To clarify: smell is already listed as one of the construction overlays used to gauge soil fertility. The feature itself isn't implemented yet, but it does promise to add another layer of city planning which players will have to take into account in a future version. Forwayn mentioning the tannery is a good example of it, as historically these were pretty stinky people. The same can probably be said for blacksmiths, as not everybody can appreciate the smell of a well lit fire all day long.
Alfredo Nimbus meanwhile concludes the thread by referring to the Early Access Goals in 2024 poll SlavicMagic hosted recently.
With AI cities and diplomacy being a clear victor, closely followed by castle building and siege mechanics, it seems unlikely that a new building like the proposed water mill will be introduced anytime soon. Especially as other map types (including the required river) only got 15% of votes.
At the time of writing, there is no response from either the developer SlavicMagic or publisher HoodedHorse on the thread on Discord. Which doesn't mean that they haven't seen it nor does it mean they don't approve at all.
So who knows!?
