Lord_Chris

[colour=#6EA4BF]The formation of the Earth, and life[/colour] We see Earth as a pretty important planet, but as a matter of fact our solar system is just a home for our sun with a few bits and pieces left over. The formation of earth began as all of the other planets did; forming from rocks which were left over after the sun was created 4.5 billion years ago. These were then held together through gravity, and over time began to orbit the sun. The Earth was almost entirely molten, and it was collisions with other asteroids, meteors and space objects that made the planet bigger. One very large collision was thought to make the earth start spinning on its axis, responsible for day and night. Another was thought to have made the moon (more below) and it was over time that the planet cooled, the Volcanoes stopped erupting, and eventually liquid water was formed. But just how did water end up on Earth after it was molten for so long? No one really knows. One of the most common theories is that comets, which are made up of frozen Ice, smashed into the Earth. However, there are a few weaknesses with this theory. One being, that comets are only really found in the outer solar system, so for the most part, they would be too far away to impact the Earth. Another significant weakness is that the water here in earth contains a mixture of H2O (Hydrogen water) and HDO (Heavy density water). In 1986, a space probe had a close encounter with the comet Halley (Halley's comet) and discovered that the composition was in similar quantities to that on Earth. However, most of the other comets which have so far been analysed have twice as much HDO as on Earth. But comets are so far away from the sun, that we do not know if in fact this was representative of all comets. One other theory about how water formed was due to the Steam the volcanoes were giving out. But because this is part of the water cycle, and some kind of water source must exist, there is a flaw in this theory too. The origin of life The earliest life forms were only in the oceans on the planet, and were very basic bacteria, and some of these are called "extremophiles". These have the ability to survive in the most extreme conditions, such as at the bottom of the Antarctic now, which receives 0.1% of sunlight - or possibly 3.8 billion years ago. Some believe these also exist of Jupiter's moon "Europa". But there are also questions as to how exactly this formed in the first place. We believe it was from a comet with water, but there is no firm evidence. Eventually, over a long time, animals became increasingly complex, and divided into two groups; one that used the air, and the other which chose the stay hidden and use the water, and we evolved to better use the planet.

More and more users lately have been getting this error, especially on Windows 8/8.1. Rest assured however, that I feel I have finally found some kind of proper fix for this error. It only appears to occur on disk versions of the game. There are two potential methods I am posting, the first is less drastic, and I recommend you start from here- though there is less chance of it working. The second, is the way in which I have fixed this error (at least for now) for myself. The cause of this problem is somewhat unknown; for me, the first time it appeared to be caused by a crash, however, the second time this happened to me, I turned my PC on, attempted to start the game and got this error. Note: This error only seems to occur on Stronghold 2 1.4.1. If you're using an earlier version of the game, this should not affect you, you can verify this by reinstalling the game back down to 1.3.1, and it should work. It will also work if you patch up to 1.4. Only if you install the 1.4.1 patch will the game react. Another suggested cause I've heard is that Windows 8 does not like Direct X 9 at all, which is required to play Stronghold 2. And what worsens this problem is when Direct X 11 is installed. I've also heard that once the game crashes a certain amount of times, Windows 8 will mark it incompatible. Method 1 Note: I'm using a 64 bit system, therefore I have an sysWOW64 folder in C:\Windows. If you are using a 32-bit version of Windows, I'm sorry to say I do not know how this will work. You could attempt to Google this, or move onto method 2. In your sysWOW64 folder, find the file called d3dx9_27.dll Copy and paste this somewhere else, such as on your desktop Delete the original in sysWOW64 Attempt to run the game, which will give you message it can't be ran because the DLL you moved is missing. Now, copy the moved DLL back to the original location, and run the game This may, or may not work. It probably won't. If/when it doesn't, try a few times. If it doesn't work after two or three attempts, you'll have to use method 2. Method 2 This is the method that works for me. Unfortunately, it's not as clear into what causes it to work. I'm guessing there is some kind of cache that Windows keeps of incompatible programs, when you reset this, it appears to reset the cache and allow the game to run. Each step is assumed that the previous does not work. Reinstall Stronghold 2. Check the game works on 1.3.1 (the version you installed) Patch up to 1.4, and check the game works again Patch up to 1.4.1, you will almost certainly get the same error Perform the exact same steps above again, without checking if the game works Restart your computer, and check if 1.4.1 will run Download CCleaner Check every box except the "wipe free space", and run Run the registry cleaner Uninstall Stronghold 2 Run both cleaners again Now reinstall Stronghold 2, and patch up Restart your computer Run CCleaner, and then attempt to run Stronghold 2 afterwards only That should work. If it doesn't I can only suggest you attempt to do the same steps waiting a few days between reinstalling, I waited and it eventually worked again. You can also reply to this topic and I'll see what I can do to help you.

Editing downloads should now work again. Let me know if you have any further problems.

I used to play a game called Imperial Glory (I know, yet another story :D ) and there you used to have open fields with different terrain. So for example, you'd have hills and highlands in Scotland, in England you'd have a castle (below), and in Russia for example, you'd have snow and mountains. Each player would start at the opposite end of the field, and there would be a few defensive buildings at one end (or maybe even the middle) of a field. The players would then attack each other through open fields, and either attempt to take buildings, or high points .etc, any way to wipe out their opponent. I see a "field battle" as this, where basically two players fight to the death with set troops. The only problem I can see, is that there is no use of artillery .etc, so there aren't any long ranged units, only mid to long ranged. Is this the kind of thing you have in mind? I think this would be a really good idea. I would say that the player with two armies would be the best option, we're all used to fighting on walls .etc, but without them, perhaps it might be more of a challenge - and maybe make some more interesting results too. The general goal would be to annihilate all enemy forces, or kill the lord. But I'm assuming you'd have to kill all the enemy forces to get to the lord anyway. Someone may even go as far as to re-create entire battle armies (as close as the game will allow) for real battles, Crusader might be able to help us there.

I guess you forgot about this then, @Nigel ;) Actually, I only just remembered myself.

I admit it's not exactly clear, the deluxe version of the game has 1.3.1 update in by default, along with all the new features only in the deluxe version. When you said patching up, I assumed you had an earlier version on your disk that would have likely caused problems, which is why I wanted to double check. If you did have an earlier version, then you wouldn't have had the deluxe. It's essentially another name - just like Stronghold 3 gold which has all the updates in prior.

The 1.3 Deluxe is 1.3.1. :)

Moved to Stronghold 2. What version did your game originally install? And where are you getting the 1.3.1 patch from?

[colour=#6EA4BF]Days, Months Years and Seasons[/colour] These all happen at different times, and for different lengths on each planet. Ancient Civilisations took note of days months and years by two possibilities: One, the Sun, or two, the Moon. This allowed people to know when to plant crops and search for seasonal foods. Several civilisations including the Mayans and Babylonians developed complex ways to tell seasonal changes. Days We all know what a day is, and every planet has them. But do you actually know what causes them? A day is the amount of time for a planet to spin 365 degrees on its orbit. Because of this fact, there is always one side of a planet facing the sun, while the other half is in darkness - and this is exactly why the night is dark; there is no light making it from the Sun, which makes the opposite side of the planet dark. Most people think that a day is 24 hours, but in fact, it's very slightly less. A day is actually 23 hours, 56 minutes and 4 seconds. The extra four minutes gets added up, and every four years, this is responsible for what becomes a leap year - an extra day gets added into February to make the calendars correct. Interesting fact: The calendar was created by the Romans in 45 BC. Months A month is the amount of time for a moon to orbit the earth. The luna orbit means that one side of the moon is deadlocked towards the Earth, and the "dark side" of the moon will never be shown on the earth due to how the moon rotates. The moon rotates in this manner due to Earth's own gravity. The moon also goes through various stages, such as Waxing Gibbous, Waning Gibbous, Full Moon and New Moon. Years This is the amount of time that a planet takes to orbit the sun. A planet is rotating constantly on its axis (as shown above) but it's also moving around the sun at the same time. This is what is responsible for years. Every 365 and a quarter days (due to a day not being exactly 24 hours) a new year begins. Seasons Seasons are the one thing that people can find confusing. Seasons depend on the tilt of the Earth's axis. You now know that the Earth moves on its axis, and moves around the Sun. The seasons Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter are all caused by the tilt of the Earth's axis. This is also why the opposite side of the Earth has the opposite season. For example, in Australia, it can snow during the Summer, because Australia is on the opposite side of the Earth to the UK. So when we get warn weather, it's Australia's winter even though the season is called Summer still. I'd also like to point out that the tilt of the Earth is in fact caused by the Moon. Due to seasons, Constellations in the night sky can appear at different points in the night sky throughout the year.

[colour=#6EA4BF]The Universe, Galaxies and Nebulae[/colour] What exactly is The Universe? There are lots of similar, confusing terms in space, and this is certainly no exception. The Universe is everything in existence. What is a Galaxy? A galaxy is a system of millions, or billions, of stars, together with gas or dust, which is held together by gravitational pull. A galaxy contains hundreds of solar systems, similar, or not similar to our own. Each solar system contains a central sun, like ours (or mostly bigger) and several planets of several shapes and sizes. Each star inside a galaxy is a sun, and each sun belongs to a unique solar system (in 99% of cases). Our galaxy is called The Milky Way, below is a map of our Galaxy along with the position of our sun. http://qph.is.quoracdn.net/main-qimg-0ecf217e39e271c7a6e09a1015e01149?convert_to_webp=true[/img] What is a Nebula? A Nebula (or Nebulae plural) is a cloud of gas and dust in the outer solar system. Many people mix up the difference between Galaxies and Nebulae due to this difference. They are in some ways, similar, but are completely separate things. A Nebula is a region where stars are formed. Every star is born in a Nebula - and they can also contain remains of dead, or dying stars. http://static.giaoducthoidai.vn/uploaded/tranghn/2015_02_22/329801423735560_woyc.jpg?width=500[/img] How many galaxies are there? There are hundreds of billions of galaxies, and in each one is hundreds of billions of stars. That's one to two hundred billion solar systems at least in The Milky Way, including our own. Our sun is just one of the hundreds of billions of stars in The Milky Way alone.

Thanks both of you! I'm going to start today at some point with articles. Stellarium is really good for showing you what stars are in what place - and it's not even limited to Earth either. I've viewed from Mars, and Mars' moon Phobos before. You can have custom landscapes, plugins, star regions .etc.

We have a history thread, so why not an astronomy thread too? ;) I've got to say, this thread was kind of inspired by Crusader's history thread, I'll keep this thread updated with all the things to look out for in the night sky, and I'll try to add some articles every now and then about what is what, how you can tell and what the features of the different things are .etc. But before we get started, I'd recommend downloading the program Stellarium. This can be configured to show the stars where you live, and is available on Windows, Linux, MacOS as well as Ubuntu for free. It's also available on Android and iOS for a small price. I'd like to start with the full moon (or this time, Super Moon - I'll let you know more about that at some other point ;) ) which will be available in four days time (August 29th). The moon will be on the opposite side of the earth to the sun, and this will occur approximately 18:35 UTC. That's one hour later here in the UK due to DST. The moon will be on one of its closest approaches to earth, and will probably look brighter and larger compared to usual.

This explains why it's detected as a virus; from what I can tell myself, and you've explained there, it's injecting something into the game - this explains why all anti viruses start screaming and attempt to quarantine it. And since we can only play online in 1.4.1, this pretty much makes this redundant, unfortunately. I contacted the creator of this tool yesterday asking him for information on how it was done, and whether or not it can be upgraded or not. I'd be more than happy to attempt to upgrade it to be compatible with 1.4.1 myself, but I would need the source code first - and know how it was done in the first place. And I'm guessing that the email I sent to will probably be abandoned by now, after all, he was last active in 2007.

I've ran the program myself and MalwareBytes also gave a false positive to me. However: I've only ran the program, I haven't tested it yet. I'll test it at some point, and if I deem that it doesn't have anything inside it (which I really don't think it will have, otherwise it will have been executed as soon as I ran it probably) then I'm happy for it to be uploaded. It does have an unknown publisher which means windows smart screen attempts to block it, but it seems to be fine so far. Anyway, you can upload it now if you'd like, and it can sit in the queue for a bit until I get the chance to review it, there's no harm in it sitting there a few days.

... And, it depends on how the mod is configured. Adding to what Charles said, some exe files do things based on your system architecture (i.e x64 or x86). I'm downloading it now and seeing what it does, perhaps you might want to upload it to the download section - if you get permission as Charles says.

Thanks for the report. Unfortunately, this is still off moving forum software, I've been unable to update that page yet. There are three more pages (I think) in the download section that haven't been updated yet, I'm trying to push ahead but I just don't have the time at the moment :( I'll try to expedite this and get it done within the next few days if I can, but I can't make promises. I have been fixing several other things in the download section such as the comment system and ratings, and they are massively enhanced now, but as of yet, I honestly haven't had a chance to do it.

So you won't be playing?

Absolutely. Just as Charles would say - A hobbit need never leave his hobbit hole.

Well, do what you have to do, I say :D

Foe @EaglePrince who never came yesterday (and anyone else who may be interested) we're holding another game tonight at the same time.

I've opened a room on GameRanger.

You mean today ;) Congratulations on passing your exam! :)

Ok then , postponed until tomorrow. :)

Well, in that case, how about we postpone it until tomorrow? That way @EaglePrince can join in too and we can have teams. Is this alright with you @infinitysuns or would you rather continue just the two of us?

A reminder to everyone that the battle is today. Don't want anyone forgetting! :)