Manor Lords is all about building the best and most optimized city layout. Check out some of our tips for the best city layout, and what you should avoid when expanding your town.

Best City Layout Tips

Tips for the Best City Layout
Reroll for Ideal Starting Region Construct Burgage Plots Near Workplaces Centralize Buildings That Share Resources Build Storage Near High Production Buildings Upgrade Burgage Plots Close to the Market
Extra Note
Best Layout Could Change in the Future

Reroll for Ideal Starting Region

Having the best city layout starts with getting the best rich deposit resources in your region. If you don't get good resources, or the resources are too far apart, your village's work efficiency won't reach its maximum potential.

Reroll for your ideal starting region by exiting to the menu and starting a new game. Once you get a good initial spawn, you can start planning the best and most efficient layout for your town.

Best Starting Resources

Construct Burgage Plots Near Workplaces

You'll want to build Burgage Plots close to workplaces, like a Forager Hut or a Farmhouse. This will reduce the time workers will take to reach their workplace, and they can start producing resources straight away.

Reassign Villagers to Their Closest Workplace

You can also reassign a worker to the workplace that's closest to them. This lets you fine-tune and optimize your city layout to maximize your workers' efficiency.

Centralize Buildings That Share Resources

You'll want buildings that share resources to be close to each other to minimize the distance your workers have to travel. This will increase your overall work efficiency since you can spend more time producing goods and waste less time traveling between buildings.

For example, if you're making Linen, you'll want to put your Sheep Farm and Weaver's Workshop near your Sheep Pasture so that you can minimize your workers travel time.

Build Storage Near High Production Buildings

You'll want to build your Storehouses and Granaries close to buildings that produce a lot of goods to help your workers quickly transport items between buildings. If you don't, there's a chance that production will get bottlenecked, and your resources will get damaged because the building's storage is full.

If ever you're struggling to empty buildings of their wares, you can always build extra Storehouses or Granaries so that you have more workers to transport goods.

Also Includes Trading Posts

This tip also applies to Trading Posts, since their storage can rapidly fill up when you import and export a ton of resources. Even if the building technically doesn't produce goods, you'll want storage buildings nearby so workers can quickly move your imports and exports before they get damaged or destroyed.

Upgrade Burgage Plots Close to the Market

The way the Marketplace distributes goods is by prioritizing the closest Burgage Plots first. You'll want to have your upgraded Burgage Plots, especially those that are Level 3, close to the market so their demands are immediately satisfied, as long as you have the requisite resources.

High-level Burgage Plots are more demanding than lower-level ones, so you'll always want to satisfy their needs first to maintain a high approval rating.

Best Layout Could Change in the Future

Do note that these tips might become obsolete in the future since the game is still in Early Access, and future updates will change the way you want to layout your town. Keep this in mind since your current city layout might become a lot worse in the future.

For example, there are mechanics like Smell and Fire Hazards that aren't implemented yet. This would change how buildings are laid out since you'll most likely need to build your industry buildings further away from your settlement.

City Building Mistakes to Avoid

Stay Away From the Border

Don't build your roads and settlements near your borders. Currently, there's a bug where your oxen get stuck at the border and they'll stop transporting your building materials. If you have to build near the border, position your buildings in a way where your oxen don't have to go to the edges of your territory.

If you do encounter this bug, the only way to fix it is to demolish the building that the ox is going to and then save and reload your game. If you know of a better fix for this bug, let us know in the comments down below!

How to Fix the Stuck Ox Bug

Expand Village Away From Forests

Whenever you construct a building, you will need to uproot trees to make space for it. With this in mind, you'll want to build away from forests so that you'll always have trees to chop for Timber and Firewood.

You also want to avoid expanding towards Wild Animals and Berry Deposits. If you're not careful, you might force the animals to migrate far away from your settlement, or you could accidentally build over and destroy the berry bushes.

Can Move Gathering Buildings That Need a Forest

Relevant Buildings
Logging Camp	Woodcutter's Lodge
Forester's Hut	Hunting Camp

If you need to destroy trees to make space for your town, you can always move forest-reliant buildings to a different location. Thankfully, all Gathering Buildings that require a forest can be relocated.

For the Hunting Camp specifically, it's reliant on a nearby Wild Animal Deposit. If you cut down any nearby trees, the animals will migrate and you can move your Hunting Camp to follow them at the cost of potentially moving further away from your settlement.

Do note that you can also relocate a Forager Hut, but Berry Deposits are a static resource that can't be moved.

How to Relocate Buildings

Cut Down Trees Away From Berries and Animals

You don't want to build Logging Camps or Woodcutter's Lodges near resources like Wild Animals or Berry Deposits. If you chop down too many trees near them, the resources will disappear.

If you have to build close to them, at least set a limited work area so that your workers don't cut down the trees near these resources.

Manor Lords Related Guides

Beginner's Guide: Tips and Tricks

Manor Lords Tips and Tricks

List of Tips and Tricks
Game Setup and Difficulty Options	How to Explore World in Third Person
List of All Achievements	How to Change Region Name
Character Creation Guide	All Seasons and Weather
How to Change Church Bell Sound	How to Make a Custom Coat of Arms
What is the Best Scenario?	How to Get Clothing Stalls
Best Settings to Change	What is Diplomacy and Mechanics
What is the King's Road?	How to Get Artisan Workshops
How to Store Exposed Goods	How to Fix of Generic Storage Full Alert
Lack of Entertainment Explained	What Does Burn Field Do?
What to Do With Dead Oxen	How to Make Money Fast
Best Starting Resources	How to Fix the Stuck Ox Bug
What is King's Favor?	Is There Controller Support?

City Building Tips and Tricks

List of Tips and Tricks
How to Increase Approval to 100%	How to Survive Winter
How to Win a Growth Victory	Crop Rotation and Fertility Guide
How to Claim Regions	How to Get More Families
Trade Rule Guide (Set to No Trade Fix)	How to Pay Royal Tax
How to Relocate Buildings	How to Cure Diseases
How to Maintain Public Order	How to Put Out Fires
How to Check Map and Overlays	How to Delete and Remove Roads
How to Get Rid of Homelessness	Build Order and What to Build First
How to Assign Workers	How to Move Supplies
How to Make Roads	How to Limit Work Area
How to Rotate Buildings	How to Use the Castle Planner
Best City Layout	-

Combat Tips and Tricks

List of Tips and Tricks
How to Beat Restoring the Peace Scenario	How to Win a Conquest Victory
How to Win a Domination Victory	Combat Guide: How to Battle
How to Stop Bandits From Stealing	How to Make Weapons and Armor
How to Survive Raiders	-