Manor Lords, the captivating city-building simulator from Hexagonal Studios, continues to captivate players with its deep mechanics and engaging gameplay. Dedicated fans are pushing the boundaries of what’s possible within the game, leading to both impressive creations and valuable insights for the developers.
Building a Metropolis: A 50-Hour Labor of Love
One such example comes from a player known as Busy-Shallot-3550. Over a dedicated 50-hour period, they meticulously constructed a sprawling metropolis within the world of Manor Lords. This impressive feat resulted in a city boasting a population exceeding a staggering 4,500 residents.
However, this ambitious project also highlighted a crucial aspect of Manor Lords’ current state: ongoing optimization efforts.
Early Access Blues: When Big Dreams Meet Technical Hurdles
Manor Lords is currently in Early Access on Steam, a development stage where players can experience the game while it continues to be refined. While Early Access offers the benefit of player feedback and early access to content, it also means that technical issues can arise.
Busy-Shallot-3550’s city, while impressive in scale, pushed the game’s technical capabilities to their limits. The immense population size resulted in significant performance issues. Even with a powerful PC featuring an R5 5600 processor, RTX 3060 Ti graphics card, and 16 GB of RAM, the game became virtually unplayable.
The most concerning aspect was the save file size and loading times. Despite using a fast SSD drive, loading the massive city took a staggering 20 minutes. Additionally, the game’s performance dropped to a crawl, with frame rates dipping to a near-unplayable 0-2 FPS even with optimizations like x12 and x4 acceleration enabled.
The primary culprit behind these issues appears to be memory leaks within the game. Busy-Shallot-3550 reported memory usage climbing to a concerning 75 GB, severely impacting performance.
A Developer’s Promise: Optimization Efforts Continue
Fortunately, the impressive city creation caught the attention of Manor Lords’ developer, Greg Styczeń. He acknowledged the scale of the project, expressing his admiration for Busy-Shallot-3550’s dedication and enjoyment of the game.
More importantly, Styczeń reiterated his commitment to ongoing optimization efforts. This is a reassuring sign for players, indicating that the developers are actively working on addressing performance issues like memory leaks that can hinder the experience, especially in large-scale projects.
FAQs
Q: Is Manor Lords a finished game?
A: No, Manor Lords is currently in Early Access on Steam. This means the game is still under development and may have bugs or performance issues.
Q: Why did the giant city cause performance problems?
A: The large number of residents in the city likely triggered memory leaks within the game, leading to high memory usage and impacting performance.
Q: Is the developer working on fixing these issues?
A: Yes, the developer of Manor Lords has acknowledged the performance problems and has promised to continue working on optimization.
Q: How can I play Manor Lords?
A: You can purchase Manor Lords through Early Access on Steam. Be aware that as an Early Access title, the game may have technical issues.
