Manor Lords is a medieval building game that is currently leading the wishlist charts on Steam. As a Twitch streamer, Erik “Gronkh” Range had the opportunity to play it in advance – and encountered so much misfortune that it could even help the developer.
What did Gronkh do? He recently tested Manor Lords on stream: The medieval simulation from a solo developer is currently the most wished-for game on Steam. Although he seemed to have fun, Gronkh abruptly ended his session when two of his oxen died in a fire.
As the streamer explains, the livestock are the “bottleneck” of the game: Without them, progress is impossible; one must first acquire a new ox, which takes time. In a previous attempt, he had already lost his only ox.
Gronkh then received an email from the Austrian medieval expert and content creator “Copeylius,” who contributes as a historical advisor on Manor Lords. He read the response in the next stream.
No one has achieved this before Gronkh
What kind of response did Gronkh receive? Copeylius informs Gronkh that they have addressed his “ox problem.” The official diagnosis: bad luck. Apparently, the Twitch streamer lost his first cattle due to a previously unknown bug.
The error has not been able to be reproduced internally, explains Copeylius. It likely had something to do with Gronkh placing a second tying beam despite only having one ox. If there are more oxen than tying beams, a warning appears in the game indicating that the animals are not properly accommodated – but the reverse situation seems to cause problems.
However, Gronkh is granted the dubious honor of discovering a completely unknown problem twice: no alpha tester has managed to lose oxen in a fire, according to Copeylius.
“You managed to create two situations with oxen that we have never encountered in thousands of hours of testing,” the historian writes and sincerely congratulates Gronkh at this point. After all, this is an accomplishment in itself.
You can see the relevant stream clip here:
There is a silver lining to Gronkh’s misfortune: feedback like this can help improve the game and make it fit for the upcoming early access starting on April 26, 2024. Therefore, Copeylius also thanks Gronkh again on behalf of the developer.
The Twitch streamer intends to give Manor Lords another chance someday – hopefully without issues with unruly ruminants.
Curious bugs were also provided by Baldur’s Gate 3: Due to the incredible scope of the role-playing game, extremely specific situations often arose that the developers likely could not foresee. A player encountered such a bug and ruined his save – others joked that the bug should actually be named after him.
