Before it can even launch, Steam's most-anticipated city-builder is forced to patch an economy-busting 'exploit' by hard-nerfing sheep

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(Image credit: Slavic Magic)

Manor Lords

The developer of Steam’s most-anticipated city-builder says he had to nerf sheep at the last minute to prevent crippling economy exploits.

Manor Lordsis due to release next week. The medieval city-builder is on an incredible trajectory, having recently topped2.5 million wishliststo become themost-wishlisted game on Steam(despite its solo dev’s girlfriendpredicting it would only garner a fraction of that attention). As it gears up to release, developer Greg Styczen is getting it ready for its early access launch. That means that a select group of players have had their hands on the game, and they wasted little time in breaking the economy.

According to Styczen, a handful of those early players have been raising awareness of issues surrounding ‘infinite money’. A quick scan throughYouTubebrought me to the video below, which explains that with a few dozen sheep and a trait to help increase their numbers through breeding programs, you’d gather up enough wool to make yourself a medieval millionaire.

Personally I don’t have a game design problem with “infinite money” (as some clickbaity videos say), yes sheep make infinite wool, and “trade only” towns were part of the design. But I think the export abuse feedback came in so often that I decided to yolo a last minute feature. pic.twitter.com/GctO3gkr74April 18, 2024

Personally I don’t have a game design problem with “infinite money” (as some clickbaity videos say), yes sheep make infinite wool, and “trade only” towns were part of the design. But I think the export abuse feedback came in so often that I decided to yolo a last minute feature. pic.twitter.com/GctO3gkr74April 18, 2024

That feature is essentially putting sheep on the no-fly list. A screenshot reveals that wool is in critical global oversupply and is no longer available for foreign exports. Again, historically, it makes some sense—why would other countries continually buy up a resource that was in plentiful global supply?

Exactly how the feature will be rolled out for other resources, or how it’ll impact the wider early-access playerbase, remains to be seen. There’s some discussion as to whether it should be optional due to the amount of micro-management it’ll require later in the game, but Styczen also suggests it could be used to help introduce “random events impacting prices.” A particularly cold winter could see wool demand spike, for instance, which might suddenly see those sheep become a very valuable resource.

I played the medieval city builder-meets-RTS game that has 2 million wishlists on Steam and it blew my tiny mind.

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1

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3Kraven the Hunter review: “The insistence on an R-rating helps save this, with a decent helping of bloodthirsty action”

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3

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4The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim review – “An uninspired expansion of the most iconic screen take on Tolkien”

4The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim review – “An uninspired expansion of the most iconic screen take on Tolkien”

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5Nightbitch review: “Amy Adams' disappointing dark comedy is all bark and no bite”

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1Squid Game season 2 review: “Secures its place as one of the best shows on television right now”

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2Doctor Who 2024 Christmas special review: “Ncuti Gatwa is as magnetic as ever in this delightful festive treat”

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5

Creature Commandos review: “James Gunn’s heartwarming, R-rated tale about super-monsters proves that the DCU is in good hands”

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