Lord_Chris

[OOC] I extended the story by using this line from Crusader's post: If I'm correct, the Prince is still fighting while Goodman is in the camp?

At the moment only these two styles exist. I don't have the technical knowledge to be able to create the styles myself so I rely on the styling manager over there to do it for us. Pantherone hasn't been updated in a while, which is why it's probably buggy. I could give you the templates and let you create your own theme if you like - not that I'm trying to offload work onto you - but you might be able to better build a theme than me with the HTML/CSS knowledge you have that perfectly fits all your requirements? The panther site is down at the moment, we're working on trying to get it back up which hopefully shouldn't be much longer. That's why this was upgraded first ;) You most certainly can :) It's really easy to do, and it's not just specific to this forum - it would then work on any forum as the language packs are the same. PM me if you're interested in finding out a bit more about creating a Serbian language pack or would like to do your own style. I think a Gaming Event would be a great idea! I'd love a game of Stronghold 2 again at some point - perhaps we could even specially create a map for it?

Please give a big congratulations to our latest team member and new Community Liaison, @Mathew Steel! Matthew has been a long standing forum member and has worked incredibly hard over the last few years helping us on the site. He's contributed some fantastic articles, downloads and is always a great addition to any discussions on the forum. I'd like to be the first to congratulate his fantastic contributions - thank you Matthew, and well done!! We look forward to working with you. :) On another note I've updated the forum to the latest version. This has not been officially released yet, though it is a stable release. I've tried to test everything I can and everything appears to work, but as usual if there are any issues just let me know. A couple of changes in this version: There are now three languages available: German, English (UK) and Persian. Othern than English the others are Beta Language Packs so if you experience any problems please do let me know. New password requirements are now in force: changing your password from any point now on requires you to have at least 6 characters, including 1 uppercase character and 1 digit Other than this, everything is the same. Thanks everyone!

They travelled for a while, but soon stopped to rest. They took up again as it was getting later in the day - though the forest became much narrower and more winding and they soon lost their way again. Forced into much smaller lines, this was an ideal point for some form of ambush so Goodman kept vigilant - he knew only too well how these kind of circumstances usually end up .... They became more and more tried searching for the correct path out when they suddenly came across another field within the forest. This was a pure clearing and was extremely different to the one they were previously in - almost, like they were too far towards the edge of the forest altogether .... Goodman ordered the men to stop there and camp for the night. It was highly unlikely that they would find the Castle now as the light was starting to leave them, and he was very much aware the men needed some rest. While he could continue wandering around the forest for hours on end, they needed a break for the night. It didn't take long until the men setup a camp and Goodman informed one of the Chief Constables that he intended to have a look around. Walking in the direction towards the edge of the camp, Goodman was spotted leaving by Geralt who came running over. "My friend, what is the matter?!" he cried, sounding quite alarmed. Goodman replied, saying "I'm having a look around to see if I can find a way out". He knew no later than the words came out of his mouth that Geralt would likely want to come as well, and it was in his best interest to rest. He stopped for a moment, looking at Geralt and continued further. "Rest, dear ally. I will be back soon." These words seemed to comfort Geralt who still remained as puzzled but nodded his head and backed off, leaving Goodman to exit the camp alone. He walked into the forest and quickly found a small path. He walked over and looked for sure signs that could help him determine where he might be, or at least where to go next. And what he did find, was tracks: various broken twigs lay scattered on the ground in different locations along the path, foot prints and other nearby clues led him to know instantly that people had been here before. He continued along the path, trying to remain as quiet as possible and climbing over large tree branches which had fallen in the way of the path. He eventually stumbled near the exit, which appeared concealed. He had a quick look through the gaps within the tree undergrowth and could see soldiers of Duke Renault's guard - bearing the Royal Crest - casually talking to some Civilians. And some stone buildings nearby too - it looked almost like the edge of a Town, and Goodman was surprised. He did not expect such a place here, and it was clearly here for a reason. After a few moments the Civilians walked away down the road. The guards waited for a moment, and then continued along in the opposite direction on their patrol - leaving the path completely free of obstructions. Goodman waited for a few moments, and then made his move. He crept out of the forest and waited nearby the Stone building immediately to his left. He stood for a moment, and decided to have a look around. Lining himself against the wall, Goodman shuffled along and peeked around to the left. What he saw was astonishing: a wall and gate leading inside Barnemouth, manned by guards atop. The same guards which chased him before were here guarding it, and here for a reason ..... Outside of the gate was a small town and market, though as it was now past dusk, it was deserted - the Town's Curfew was now taking place for the night. No wonder they had become so lost from Duke Renault's Castle, Barnemouth was many miles North from it. They had to get inside - and unseen - to find out what was going on. Knowing the guards from before would instantly recognise him - and just how tight their checks were - he knew that he would have to find an alternative route into Barnemouth .... Goodman must get back to the camp and tell the men what was happening. But before he could head back, he felt a hand on his shoulder, which had an electrifying effect on him paralysing him for a second with shock. "We must get back to the camp!" whispered a familiar voice, filled with excitement. Goodman turned around, to find Gerault facing him - having not been able to resist and adventure, Gerault had followed him out of the camp! Goodman quickly heaved a small sigh of relief before nodding and creeping back into the forest with Gerault. He knew he could no longer keep things to himself and had some explaining to do ..... Meanwhile, back at the dungeon Sir Loring was placed in, everything was completely silent. All of a sudden, a rustling of keys could be heard and several guards walked into the corridor. Walking past, Goodman heard part of what they said - "So we're moving the Duke in 1 hour?" asked one of them. "Yes - we have all the arrangements made, he will be taken from his castle and placed into the agreed location" replied the second. Before Loring could hear more, both guards had passed his cell and continued on their way.

The problem I see is that the vast majority of teaching staff are so left-wing this is a very large part of the problem. When you have this mixed with the EU funding (a proportion of what we give to the EU in the first place coming back to us, but the EU decides what it's spent on ...) of various institutions such as Universities I think it's only too easy for people there to become corrupted by foreign influences and stained by political correctness. We've seen it in the local Police force & whole local political system - numerous times. I've even heard rumours coming out of various schools whereby students are scolded for saying they would vote to leave the EU, that teachers are forcing the issues of political correctness on them on this very subject of Muslims and Islam, leading them down a particular path where the teacher wants them to go and ultimately indoctrinating them - without them even realising it. The school system has been fiddled in such a way as to try and indoctrinate people down a particular view point - in effect brainwashing people. Naturally these schools tend to be left-wing anyway, but because of the influence the EU has had, it's used this to its advantage and manipulated it even further, helping to speed up this whole process. I think your teacher should be reported for saying that to you, I would actually go further and say she should be suspended altogether. You were simply pointing out a factually-correct statement and she immediately jumped down your throat with the 'racist' card. That's exactly the problem we have, free speech is being shut down.

Have you tried placing rally points on the tower?

That's very interesting. I always assumed that this was built into the game once your popularity got too low so that it gives you a chance to rebuild your economy (e.g. to stop all workers from leaving and not coming back again) though maybe this is the reason after all - or maybe it is a mix of both.

That's a nice addition, though it would probably be quite fiddly with CSS. I think it's probably easier in the short term to try and alter the font size, rather than the font itself. I do agree though that this is very similar to the message text and should be reviewed.

Definitely not maintenance - with that you always get the maintenance page. Would appreciate it if you let me know if there are any more occurrences of this .....

Unfortunately as and [user]eagleprince] have already mentioned, it's not possible to play Stronghold 2 Multiplayer via LAN. This is likely due to changes in support for Stronghold 2 Multiplayer as Mathew also pointed out and at this present moment in time it's also not possible to edit the game/modify it in order to add this feature in - this information is compiled inside the .exe (I assume, as it's nowhere else to be found ...) and therefore non-editable or readable. You'd need Firefly to release the source code of Stronghold 2 to be able to edit this, which I don't see happening any time soon, unfortunately. I have, however, added this suggestion to the Official Stronghold 2 Suggestions list. One of my contacts inside Firefly informed me last year that there may be more changes or updates coming to Stronghold 2 in the near future. Last time I checked they had not progressed at all, but that was some months ago.

I've been getting a lot of these errors sporadically for a while now, where the site appears down - as soon as you refresh the page again they're gone and everything is normal but they're incredibly annoying. Just wondering how many other people have experienced this problem or whether it's an isolated case on my PC only? Would be very interesting to know ....

Yes, it's 1.4.1. It's actually a Great Tower - there's one in each of the four corners. This is in the castle files as barclay01.aic but it never seems to be used, ever. My best guess is that it's partly because of its massive size and the fact it consumes so much stone (well over 1,500) Firefly must have axed it from the game but left it as a file. I'm honestly not sure. ** Edit ** The three castle designs are available here: https://www.stronghold-nation.com/article/268-lord-barclay-stronghold-2-ai-lords

While rewriting our AI lords article, I've stumbled across this castle from lord Barclay which I've never seen before in-game. Has anyone else ever seen Lord Barclay use this Castle?

We now have all saved missions from CivCity Rome uploaded. They're available here in the downloads section as individual saved games: https://www.stronghold-nation.com/downloads/category/civcity-rome/saved-games/

Hi Paul! You're right, it has been a long time - good to see you around again! I'm great thanks, things have been pretty manic lately but are finally starting to settle down a bit. How about yourself? You wouldn't mind uploading some to the downloads section/sharing them so I can upload them, would you? They could prove invaluable for us in the long-term and would help massively until we get a chance to get some walkthroughs up - even then I usually link saved games at the bottom of all walkthroughs I write.

I apologise as it has been a long time over a week - but I have finally rewritten that article! It has much more detail and it loads better than ever before. The updated version can be found at this link: https://www.stronghold-nation.com/article/62-adding-units-from-stronghold-legends-into-stronghold-2

But before he could hear anything, a sound of armour clinking could be heard from just around the corner of the Commander's Tent. It sounded like a small group of soldiers, and he could hear the voice of the old officer from the checkpoint. The officer walked around the corner with his left hand on the top of the handle on his sword, placed firmly in his scabbard, the right hanging by his side as he walked slowly, his head in a slightly lowered position towards the ground. He was in the process of talking to a very small group of soldiers around him. It was now dusk and it was apparent that they were leaving their shift. It appeared unknown whether there would be less guards on the night shift or more, and Sir Loring pondered over this for a moment. But it wasn't long before the group came around the corner, still walking slowly, before having their attention caught by Loring. They hadn't expected him to be tied to the Tree he was tied to, and it came as a surprise. The group stopped all of a sudden when they reached him. "Who moved him there?" asked the Commander to two nearby guards. They both stared at each other blankly for a moment before the officer quickly spoke up. "Well don't just stand there, find out!" The two of them ran off in opposite directions and the escort remained guarding Sir Loring. While waiting however, they remained fairly silent. Loring could tell there was some form of meeting ongoing in the Commander's Tent and strained to hear it. With the wind whistling through the trees it was very difficult. After a few seconds, he heard a voice "My Lords, we cannot allow this to happen. I propose that we station a force in the Mines of Xilious to deter any such invasion. It is of crucial ...." before Loring could hear any more the guards returned, along with the soldier who had moved Loring. The officer then questioned the solider "Are you responsible for this?" he snapped. The soldier looked down at the ground, clearly ashamed. "Yes sir." he muttered. The officer then relieved him of his duty and sent him back to the camp to be disciplined. He then turned to Sir Loring and pointed towards him. "Bring him with us" he commanded to a guard. "Clearly he is too dangerous to be left here." A nearby guard unchained Loring from the tree, though kept him chained. He had tight hold of the chains and moved him along with the group who continued along the path. Sir Loring had no idea where this was taking him, but knew he was not staying part of the camp - for some reason. They quickly moved out of the camp and up a winding, narrow path. All sounds ceased from the camp, and natural wildlife could be heard. They kept moving through the path, and came across a small stream with a wooden bridge over it. All the time, security was becoming more and more heavy, but managed to pass through without being challenged due to the officer's status. The bridge was only small enough for people, so Sir Loring quickly determined that there must be another way to wherever they were heading. After crossing the bridge they continued through the forest until they came to what appeared to be a large stone wall where the path suddenly ended against it. There was a very small path which continued around the right of the building. Loring was confused, there was nowhere to go any further yet they continued in the direction of the solid stone wall. It suddenly became quite dark, and it started to rain, slowly becoming heavier - and to make matters worse, they could tell a lightning storm was on the way as well. After reaching the wall, they stopped for a moment. One of the soldiers tapped twice with his Pike on the wall. After a few seconds, a heavy grinding sound could be heard, and a few seconds later a double door opened outwards out of the rock in front of them, heavily guarded in the inside. They trooped inside along with Loring. It would have been dark inside as well, if not for the steady lining of wall torches, approximately halfway up both the left and right walls, all the way along to the end. The floor was a sandy coloured marble surface, very smooth. In the centre of the room a large crest in a circle was emblazoned on the floor, before a small set of steps upwards and a set of arched wooden doors at the end of the room. Once inside, Loring took a moment to admire the marvellous construction, slightly taken back. But it was not a moment later that the same grinding sound of stone could be heard once again with the outside doors shutting. It was very cleverly camouflaged from the outside, almost impossible to see. Loring watched as several soldiers powered the door in the same way a Portcullis was opened and closed - an intriguing invention. The officer disappeared for several minutes and then returned, holding an Iron key. With not a moment to lose, his chains were quickly tugged by a solider and he was moved on towards the stairwell. But they instead moved to a smaller wooden door to the right of the stairs against the back wall, rather than heading . The door was opened, and they moved down a spiral staircase to a lower level of the castle. They could have ventured further down, but the officer had clearly decided that this was far enough for some reason. They headed towards an Iron door, which was firmly locked. The officer unlocked the door and then the group trailed through, before locking the door behind them. They then proceeded around the corner, headed through another set of doors before stumbling into what appeared to be a block of empty prison cells. Each one contained a locked iron door with a set of keys at the end of the hall hanging up. Loring was taken past several used cells and then a cell in front of him was unlocked. He was unchained and pushed in, before the door promptly being locked again. The guards then disappeared and a few seconds later he was left in silence. He stood up and looked around his cell. It was very cramped, only 10ft squared. It contained a small wooden table & chair, a low bed and hay and straw on the floor. A small wall torch lit up the room next to the table, but other than this there was very little. Meanwhile, back in the forest, Goodman and Geralt could hear the Thunder outside the cave. This was not a very nice time to be in that position, but there was very little they could do but take shelter. Goodman thought for a moment, about how best to reply to Geralt ....

Browser caching maybe? This is definitely working for me so I can only assume this is browser-specific. Can you provide a link to a post you've tried to edit and failed at?

For the game text, you mentioned about text from The Snake .etc. I've also found unused audio for them, Firefly appears to have axed them right at the last moment. If you're editing a Lord though, you can use some of these to give things a fresh taste. I've also noticed numerous spelling mistakes in those files, for example during the Apple Blight event in a custom map it says "stuck" instead of "struck". What more have you found regarding the animation lists? I'm not quite sure I fully understand what you're referring to there. You mentioned teenagers and children, the children are around with the mothers in Hovels, while the miller boys are the teenagers, if I remember correctly. Interesting conclusions!

Just a quick note to let people know that we now have walkthroughs for all missions & trails in Stronghold Legends. Head on over to our walkthroughs section to have a look.

Interesting. I've never tried Anti-aliasing, is there much difference other than textures? Also what happens if you zoom all the way out compared with zooming all the way in - does anything change with doing that?

I've made a structural change to the downloads section - there is no longer a Contest Maps section. The five files which were in there have now been moved into the regular download sections for each respective game.

They disguised themselves and started moving in the direction of the checkpoint, along with the cart. Not only was this a good way to try to get past, but also a clear way of testing just how far they could be seen from the direction of the troops. Almost immediately the guards from the lookout tower noticed them and signalled down to the guards below to move forwards to stop Goodman and Loring. The two of them slowly moved further forward - consistently looking down at the ground and avoiding eye contact - until eventually they were abruptly brought to a halt by a sharp command. "Halt! By order of his grace, Duke Renault, we demand to know what you are doing in these lands." the voice commanded. There were several guards with Pikes nearby, and they looked very tense, ready to quickly act if need be. This convinced Goodman of one thing - this was not a group of rookie troops; they were clearly very experienced in such matters and should be treated as such. "We're here to provide some goods to the Duke m'lord" said Goodman. "What goods" snapped the Constable, a look of direct suspicion on his face. He walked over to the cart and moved several items with his hand, all the time keeping a constant and uncomfortable stare at the two of them. Goodman could tell he was becoming more suspicious by the moment and once again shifted his line of sight to the ground. "Nothing but humble Merchants, m'lord" Goodman added, hoping his intervention would not hinder them at all. For a moment the Constable moved away from the Cart, looking like his suspicions had been dissuaded. "Very well." added the Constable, placing his sword back into his scabbard. The Pikemen moved towards each side of the path, and Goodman and Loring quickly moved forwards a few feet with their cart. They needed to get out of there as soon as possible. But just as Goodman was giving a quiet sigh of relief, the Constable spoke up again in his usual authoritarian tone of voice. He had kept a steady gaze upon them since they first started moving. "Hey you, hold up a moment." AT the sound of his voice, Goodman and Loring immediately stopped pulling their cart and turned around. "You're one of Duke Christopher's bodyguards, aren't you?" Goodman knew that the situation had now gone from bad to worse. "No good lord, just a humble Merchant" Goodman once again muttered. This time the Constable was not fooled so easily. "Not so fast" he added. "Guards, arrest these men!" The nearby Pikemen moved in and searched both Goodman and Loring, immediately confiscating their weapons. Goodman allowed them, knowing that he needed to get into the Castle alive. "So .... you're merely 'humble merchants' are you?" laughed the Constable. "Nothing of the sort! Bring out the chains immediately!" two or three nearby guards moved off for a moment along with the Constable. Two Pikemen kept a close watch on both Loring and Goodman, but several others stood around in a group having a conversation - falsely believing the situation was under control. Goodman knew this was his chance to cause as much disruption as possible, and whispered to Loring some final instructions, including to remain where he was and allow himself to be arrested - Goodman would return in good time and in force, to save Loring. But this was his chance, and he took it with open arms. Two guards returned with two sets of chains, and the Constable was behind them. But they were still several hundred feet away, so Goodman made his move. He stood up, and moved towards the left of the path. Taking a final glance to the right, he jumped into the bushes and ran for his life. The noise immediately was noticed by the nearby guards, and the Constable. "Hey! Get after him!" yelled the Constable. A few startled guards who were in conversation suddenly grabbed their weapons and ran into the trees, but in midst of the chaos it was very disorganised. "Get him in chains, immediately!" yelled the Constable, before running off into the Trees after Goodman. a few moments later the sound of a large horn could be heard from the lookout tower and within 30 seconds a platoon of Archers had arrived at the scene along with another officer for them. He strolled up and down the lines, while they were preparing to fire. Loring watched with a mixture of amazement and shock - if they open fired as they looked like they were about to, they could even risk killing their own troops in their desperation to apparently kill Goodman. It was too late for Loring to do anything however, as a guard finally arrived and chained his hands. He was kept nearby and guarded in force while this demonstration continued. "Ready ... and ...... fire!!" yelled the Archer group's commander. The sounds of many arrows could be heard whistling through the trees in the general direction of Goodman. Round after round was fired, until eventually the Archers paused for a moment. It was at this point Loring was taken away up the path further past the checkpoint by a small platoon of 16 Pikemen. Meanwhile Goodman was running for his life in the trees. He could hear the sound of Pikemen running behind him, but due to the dense undergrowth of the forest, and the thick, unsightly trees, it was almost impossible to see in front of his face, and the same for those troops. Still, he kept running, knowing that he had caused major disruption and problems. All of a sudden a large flurry of arrows came whooshing through the trees, landing all around Goodman. He hunched down, but kept on running, trying to avoid them at all cost. He knew that he had a physical advantage over the soldiers in that they carried many weapons and he did not, only lightly dressed. After a while, he stumbled upon a clearing with a well hidden cave and a small river nearby. He took refuge in there for a quick breather - hoping to avoid the detection of any potential troops nearby. They were now only a few minutes behind him, but this should give him enough chance to regain his breath and start running again. He had no idea where he was in the forest now, but this was the least of his worries. He regained his breath and was about to move out of the cave when he heard several shouts "Is he over there!?" Negative, still searching!" He heard the voice of the Constable yelling more orders "You lot, get over there and search that part of the forest - he must be found!" A small group of what sounded like 10 or so soldiers started marching at a jog in Goodman's direction, he immediately stopped peeking outside of the cave and quietly returned inside for a moment. They stopped and started slowly walking around the clearing. From his position Goodman could see that there were 6-8 of them, all with long Pikes again. They spread around the clearing for a moment, the senior of them bending down examining the soil looking for potential tracks. Another of them moved towards the cave. He paused for a moment, and stared right at its concealed entrance, though clearly didn't notice it. He slowly moved around the front for a moment, and then paused. Goodman held his breath, knowing that it was a very tense moment. But before anything could happen, another yell could be heard from the soldier analysing the tracks. "This way!" he shouted, pointing in a completely different direction of the forest. All the soldiers ran off in that direction, leaving Goodman safely inside his Cave. The shouts, footsteps and clinking of armour slowly became more and more distant. He waited for few moments, and then peeked out of the cave. Everything seemed clear. Goodman heaved a sigh of relief - it appeared he was safe, for now ......

Hi everyone, I thought I'd share a quick update with you all that I've just performed to our article system. Before you had to scroll all the way to the end of an article in order to rate it. I've changed this now so that it's the same as the system for rating downloads. Simply hover over the existing stars at the top of the article, and select which rating you would like to give the article. I'd also like to share several new files with you all that have been uploaded by @jmatthes- they are of an exceptionally high quality and have meticulous detail added into them. If you get a chance check them out, they're in our Stronghold 2 Custom War downloads section.

These things are possible, but it requires a very specific setup and can't be done with official scripted events, to my knowledge.