The new prerelease patch for Manor Lords has just been released for everyone to try, and the long squirrel in question than developer Greg "Slavic Magic" Styczeß had previously promised

Styczeş is already suffering from inefficient saws, homeless bugs, severe oversupply trade mechanics and poor archer damage. It promised to fix a lot of bugs, bugs, and overwhelming AI, but the actual patch includes this and much more. 

The biggest change is that King's tax or annual Royal tax (the name is still determined) is enabled for all players. "This tax is collected annually from all players (main players and AI) and sent to your Liege," Styczeş said in a patch note. It counts per population, so a counterbalance for players hoarding huge wealth, despite having an unoptimized economy."

For the time being, you'll be able to get into debt without any consequences, but this is not forever. In the future, if you fail to repay what you owe, you will begin to lose the king's favor, and eventually, if you refuse to pay, the king will send his army to your front door to collect money. 

The next big change is the introduction of global/local trading. This allows us to switch between cross-border transactions and transactions within the conquered lands, and all that is needed for it to function is the 2 trading points in both regions "Employed traders give priority to traveling to the place at the best price to start trading, yes, including areas potentially owned by other lords," Styczeş said. It can bring interesting results. For now, I have reduced the transport distance from the calculation to make it more predictable for the player the trader goes (to the place at the best price).

Other minor fixes include "adding a mindfulness system initially designed for cattle to free merchants." This system is used to reduce lumps and traffic jams that many players have had problems with. Farming problems such as crop disappearing in winter and inefficient harvesting have also been solved, so I've been working early to prevent fertility from falling when crop growth reaches 100%, which is what I've had a problem with since I don't have access to a lot of fertile land, so harvesting crops at the right time takes up a lot of my time and effort. It's a good idea. 

Styczeş also states that this patch "addresses excessively high ale consumption.""Consumption has actually been reduced by 75%. I don't want the villagers to be sticks in the mud that stop the party, but the speed at which they pass through the ale is actually damaging my economy. I can't maintain barley production to meet their ale needs and it's too expensive to import it now. A stable supply of ale in the local pub is also one of the requirements required to upgrade the baggage plot to Level 3, so access to ale is actually very important to progression.1 

The new patch includes a ridiculously long list of major and minor changes, crash fixes, and bug fixes, so if you can afford it, it's worth checking out the patch notes yourself. You will probably find the answer to all your manor lords prayers out there.