Lord_Chris

Yeah I eventually gave up on Steam and just bought a Steam code via Instant Gaming. It ended up being quite a bit cheaper for me, which is good for me personally, but disappointing in some ways as I did want to support Firefly with this. But nonetheless, it's a fantastic game! I was initially a bit cautious after Stronghold 3 and Crusader 2, to which I (probably surprisingly to most people) preferred the former, because they were very badly optimised and I didn't really take to either game. However after taking a look at Warlords, yes it's using the same Engine, but from what I can see Firefly have done a pretty good job of fixing a lot of the mess. There's a great deal of depth added to the game and the music is just incredible. I really recommend it.

Interesting. Do you think this change with the troop limit would work on multiplayer? If so would it only be the host who has to change this value, or would everyone? Perhaps it's something we could try to figure out at some point......

Welcome to the forum, @needforbleed! Thanks for your reply. Your idea of a standalone mod project sounds very interesting. So this would be a new application entirely, or based off the architecture of one game (i.e. Warlords) with all the other stuff combined/changed? I really think there's something to be achieved here if we can all manage to collaborate on this. It would be a massive breakthrough if we can find out how this is done and get some modding started. As always my PMs are open if you want to bounce ideas around etc without posting everything publicly on the forum.

I'm delighted to announce that we're now accepting Stronghold Warlords maps, files, mods, missions, saved games etc to our site downloads section. We already have the new options in Warlords available for you to choose from when submitting your file. You can upload your content by going to the following link (you must be logged in before using it) : https://www.stronghold-nation.com/downloads/submit/stronghold-warlords/ You can browse our existing content for Stronghold Warlords at the following download category: https://www.stronghold-nation.com/downloads/category/stronghold-warlords/ Very much looking forward to what you all come up with!

I seem to be having an issue with purchase at the moment, I’ve tried from a couple different accounts but it seems to be declining the transaction...... still trying to see what’s wrong. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

How about trying to build a massive Citadel with a couple of Warlords to reinforce it, and the player has a small estate on the edge of the map to build up an army strong enough to attack and overtake it? Although, this is probably better as a custom scenario at some point!

I assume this is relating to Stronghold Crusader 2, so I've moved this topic to that forum.

Just a quick reminder that for anyone who hasn't claimed their prize yet, you have until 30 January 2021 to message me in order to claim it.

I assume you're talking here about the fact that colours are assigned in order of players and the crests represent those player colours? The answer I'm afraid to this is no, as it's an in-built game concept that the crests depend upon the colour of the player in Skirmish and multiplayer games, as opposed to changing them. The only thing you could really do is just rename the actual crest images, but to do this effectively you'd need to do it before the game is started, and know the order of the players you're going to have before you start. And if it's a multiplayer game, then even that would only work on your own machine. If you think about this, it actually makes sense because in a Multiplayer game, Firefly would have no idea which player was who and in what position, so they needed a standard way of ensuring it would always be the same. If you really want to do this with the player colours, you're probably best off starting to take a look at some of the shader files and see if you can make sense of them. This isn't something you can just walk into though, as programming in any language requires dedication, patience and most importantly time. My PMs are always open for any programming-specific questions that don't really fit into the main forum if you want, but you're best off using the forum if you have questions so everyone can benefit from the answer. I'm not trying to scare you with this, but it is important you understand that it is a commitment (however long that takes). I can see you're really passionate about this, and that's great. My honest opinion is that if you're really interested in going for this, you need to understand the background around all the files first and some of the C++ syntax. That's one of the reasons I know so much about SH2 myself, simply because of years of trial and error and looking into what things are, etc. Sometimes we spend an awful lot of time waiting for the "right" person to do something for us or the "right" event to happen, when we don't actually recognise that we are that right person to make change ourselves. You know, I first created SHN as a kid back when I was starting College. I never would have guessed it would come this far with a bit of drive and ambition. Sometimes if you don't see the light you want in the world, you have to create it yourself With a bit of guidance and support, you may well turn out as a really good programmer, who knows. The world works in mysterious ways....

Well I'm a bit late now, but Happy New Year all the same! Let's sit down, have some good Ale and wait for Gandalf's arrival!

Great question @Isaiah I'm not really a fan of the term "New Years Resolution" because of the stigma around them that nobody ever actually does them, which, obviously demotivates people into achieving their goals. But one of my goals at the moment is to balance my time a bit better, so that I'm focussing on a bigger variety of things at the same time rather than "overdosing" on certain things I enjoy. Another is DEFINITELY patience, because I always want to do things quickly, no matter what they are (lol).

Unfortunately, there hasn't been any progress, at least on my end. This is a very complicated process, and I just don't have the C++ knowledge to do this, at least for now. That's not to say someone in the future won't, but it would require many hours of my time sitting going through file after file first of all reading and digesting it all, hours of testing minor changes to try and interpret what each line of code & colour does, then assuming I can get the understanding of it all, try to change something. And as we've already said, a lot of the code is compiled anyway, so after all that there's not even a guarantee it would work. I'm happy to help you in your project where I can though, or perhaps you may know a few other people who could help as well, but it's too much to do all by myself on a single standalone project. I know you said you've discussed this with Nick on Twitter in the past, I'd be interested in reading any conversations the two of you have had- I have contact with Nick myself so I could also follow up with emails to clarify anything if necessary. Feel free to PM me the links if you don't want to post them publicly, but it may well be a starting point.

That's a really neat landscape! I particularly love the little island in the middle there off the shore. Must have taken ages to complete but honestly so impressive.

Welcome @LordOh! You know, me and @EaglePrince were actually talking about playing a Crusader game online ourselves soon. Perhaps I could add you to a three-way PM so we can talk about setting up a game? By the way, I edited your first post and masked your email address a bit so it won't be scraped by bots and spammed.

Hi @Hockeymask, welcome to the Nation! Are you sure you've downloaded the correct Java version? Can you let me know the version number and type that you've downloaded? Some for example are for server-side code or other things, so it may not be the correct version you've downloaded- I understand this can get a bit complicated. The flip side to this also is that the AI Editor is a very old program. It's possible that it does not work on the very latest version of Java because of some compatibility change. I don't really think this is the case, because I downloaded Java again just in May, and it has worked perfectly for me on my machine. However, because I don't have any access to the source code of this program, I really can't say other than my own experience, from which it has worked. If you've installed Java correctly, Windows should automatically determine that the AI Editor is a Java file and not need to manually open anything, but just double click on the editor file itself. I assume this is what's happening, that you're trying to open it with Java?

Just to let you know I haven't forgotten about you, and I'm not ignoring you. I've just been very busy. I'm not sure I can provide a quick answer on this one, as I think I will have to look into things quite a bit, but I will get back to you.

Now that's quite interesting actually. 1.4 includes all the improvements from 1.1 through to 1.3.1, but unfortunately no real official list of changes seems to exist on exactly what has been done. There is a known list released by Firefly of changes in 1.4.1 though, which is available on our downloads page for that patch here: https://www.stronghold-nation.com/downloads/file/12-patch-141-update/ Perhaps Firefly made some update in the 1.4 patch which allowed this process to work. Though it's good to know the issue seems to be solved on 1.4.1, at least. Thanks for sharing!

Hi @spin khan, Welcome to the site, and thanks for your files the other day. It's been a while since we've had some Stronghold 2 files, and they were really nice. I've split your post from the Old Stronghold Knights topic, as it wasn't really that relevant. Are you referring to the site (Stronghold Nation), or the games? Unfortunately we aren't the official developers and are only a fansite, so if you are interested in developing the games, you will have to contact Firefly Studios. However we are interested in developing a mobile app for the site at some point, although this is currently only in the very early design stages of an API. I'm happy to talk about this a bit more in a PM with you if this is what you mean though.

Welcome to the Nation, @Jm2020! I do have contacts with some of the former Admins and staff at Stronghold Knights, most notably @LordPaultheDubious. I actually approached Paul a year or so ago to ask for this exact thing, and we managed to make contact with another of the admins there (can't remember his name offhand) who had a backup of the database containing all of the things you're asking about. Unfortunately, the backup was in storage on another computer, so it never really went anywhere. I don't know if we will ever get some of the old Stronghold Knights data or not, but there are a few odd tutorials, downloads such as the SH2 Map Unlocker which are in our downloads section. Paul has also been great in assisting me by providing some of his own articles etc too. I need to get them finalised and put up actually, but I've just been so busy. If we do ever get any data from Stronghold Knights, I would port it to the site so we can display everything here so no information is lost at all. I'm totally confident that if I was to get a backup, I would be able to bring all of this information back, certainly the downloads & articles, so nothing would be "lost". However, it's more a case of retrieving it that is the problem. Hope this helps.

Yeah you could tell that a lot of effort had been put into your submission. A really well deserved win. I think with using just the game itself, you've done a pretty incredible job really in what you've managed to come up with. It's taken a lot of imagination and work, and of course the testing must have been a lot of well. A new tutorial would be fantastic- I'm sure it would be very popular I have to say I was very impressed with the difficulty levels. Not only did you spend a lot of time on the map itself, but also creating the different difficulty levels and re-balancing the troops etc must've taken ages. Really impressive. I liked the fact it didn't start on your army actually and started on the capital instead. It made you look around a bit to find out what was what. It's kind of like those really old "adventure maps" where you have to head over to a certain place, and you never know where to go. This game started showing you where it was, and you had to work out how to get there. It's nice! I'm sure we can forgive this little historical inaccuracy Although it would be nice if it were somehow possible to modify the game and add in some kind of behaviour similar to this. I've wanted this behaviour in Stronghold 2 myself before, and to a degree I technically managed to do it with the "move lord" event, but it was never really 100% accurate because it depended on things like markers or the lord being damaged a certain percent. In which case the event never really triggered because the lord was killed before he managed to flee. I had noticed that and wondered what was going on there. Very clever. I think people might like to learn some of this stuff actually, if you ever felt like doing any articles on tips or tricks that you know of. It is disappointing that the game is in this state still. It doesn't really run well on even my new machine. Though, we can't really fault Firefly's drive and attempts at making things better, as not many companies would keep going doing what they have done for so long. Hopefully Warlords will be in a better state when it's released.

And the results are in! Feedback posted here

Well, after an intense competition which spanned over many months, we can now FINALLY reveal who has won our contest to win Stronghold Warlords for FREE! Thanks goes to everyone who participated in our contest this year. I have to say that when checking the entries, @EaglePrince and I were completely blown away by the quality of the submissions. It's clear that substantial effort has been put into every single one of the entries, and we're really grateful for the submissions members have made. It's made judging the entries incredibly difficult because they were all so good. I feel very privileged to have been able to judge these entries, and I know @EaglePrince feels the same way as well. The Prizes to be awarded are as follows: 1st place: Free copy of Stronghold Warlords upon release and the Stronghold Kingdoms Starter Pack 2nd place: Free copy of Stronghold Crusader 2 Ultimate Edition and the Stronghold kingdoms Starter Pack 3rd place: Free copy of Space Colony The categories for the competition were as follows; Category A (Easy): A Custom scenario using any Stronghold game; Category B (Medium): A historical structure from the far-east; Category C (Hard): A game modification in some way; The Judges for this contest were: @Lord_Chris (me) @EaglePrince For entry to each category, entrants receive 1 bonus point for their submission, on top of the grading of the actual submission. Each Judge grades the submission independently between 1-5 points, then these scores are averaged out and the bonus points added on: (My score + Eagle's score) / Number of Judges + Bonus points. We received a total of 4 entries before the deadline, all of which were valid. In accordance with the Competition Guidelines, we have awarded the results as follows: 1st place: @Krarilotus for the submission Mongol Invasion 1258: 8 points; (5 by me+5 by Eagle) / 2 = 5 + 3 bonus points for valid entry to Categories A, B & C = 8; 2nd place: @artofmath for the submission The Mamluk Siege of Acre, 1291: 7 points; (5 by me+5 by Eagle) / 2 = 5 + 2 bonus points for valid entry to Categories A & C = 7; 3rd place: @Andreas9541 for the submission Blue Star: 5 points; (4 by me+4 by Eagle) / 2 = 4 + 1 bonus point for valid entry to Category A = 5; 4th place: @Lord Mordred for the submission A Three Way Skirmish: 4 points; (2 by me+3 by Eagle) / 2 = 2.5 (rounded = 3) + 1 bonus point for valid entry to Category A = 4; Congratulations to all winners! Your submissions are absolutely superb and we're so pleased and excited to be able to award you the prizes you deserve. Feel free to message me at any point to claim your prizes. Commiserations to @Lord Mordred who missed out on 3rd place by 1 point. It's worth noting that in the case of @artofmath's submission, we were at first unsure which categories to award bonus points for, given that the map is for the middle-east, and not far-east. However after a conversation with our history expert @Crusader1307, and @EaglePrince, we have both decided to award a bonus point for Category C, which is for a game modification, purely on the basis that the Castle was very difficult to construct and required a lot of effort. We unfortunately couldn't award any more points, because the map wasn't really for the right geographic region. The official feedback for entries, taken into account for grading, is as follows: Mongol Invasion 1258: My feedback: Excellent landscape. Very finely tuned with incredible attention to detail. The sheer level of depth and complexity is stunning. Great use of troops, with very well constructed natural defences and obstacles. Cleverly placed Oasis and an exceptional background history. Eagle's feedback: Here I like everything! The landscape, the castle, the scenario itself… Everything looks great, and it is fun to play. The story is great too. I like how the author of the map chose Vietnam’s history, which is what Stronghold Warlords is going to be about. At first it seems strange since we don’t have Far Eastern troops, but the scenario is so fun that very soon you forget about those “missing details” (about which nobody could do anything at all, actually). I have to mention that, once the scenario has been started, the player is looking around, to see what’s going on, and the idea about destroying barracks as soon as possible didn’t cross my mind. Simply because pretty fast those lords have plenty of troops in their castles. Maybe something about this could be mentioned in the story. Something like “those lords had lived relaxed lives, and once upon hearing the news that you’re coming, they have started to gather more and fresh troops.” Although something like this has already been told in the story. Maybe it’s just me. :) The Mamluk Siege of Acre, 1291: My feedback: Exceptional landscape. Perfect for the scenario, and very well planned out. Incredible build design and very well replicated in the game. Every detail of the map is perfectly placed and coordinated. Great use of troops, and an overall fantastic scenario. Eagle's feedback: I like how the scenario was made harder for the player (no inns, no churches), but with everything being justified in the story. And the backstory itself is very interesting. Those two Wolves in one custom shared castle work together really great. It’s needless to say that a lot of effort had to be put into making this scenario with this epic castle, but it was totally worth it! Missions like this are pretty great because here a player can build his usual castle, and test it, both its economy and defences, against an extraordinary opponent such as two wolves in a joined castle with plenty of resources on their hands. Blue Star: My feedback: Very photogenic landscape with excellent placement of ambient buildings. Great use of ruins, trees and shrubbery. Nice natural terrain. Sadly as this doesn't work in game it can't be awarded full marks, but nonetheless very well constructed and designed. Eagle's feedback: This game did work for me, I didn’t notice anything strange. Maybe I missed something, or maybe some lag would appear later in the game. A Three Way Skirmish: My feedback: A nice well constructed map. Very compact which makes it difficult to build everything. Nicely detailed without going overboard. Disappointing that it's based off an existing idea in Stronghold Legends, but nevertheless very well replicated in Stronghold 2. Eagle's feedback: I like that it’s about a map from Stronghold Legends. The landscape is really nice, and the only thing which I don’t prefer is stone keeps being too close to the edge of the map. But that’s just my taste. :) I've tailored my official feedback purely to the criteria and needs of the contest, so you can be sure that my personal preferences didn't play any role in my grading. However, as promised I would like to give each of you my personal opinion as well. So I've written a small piece below for each of you with personalised feedback from me. I will also be posting these comments on the official files a bit later on today, as well. I know @EaglePrince is excited to share his own personal experiences with you guys as well. I'd like to thank everyone again for their entries, and congratulate all the winners on their well-deserved prizes! @Krarilotus I will be in touch nearer the release of Warlords with a Steam code for you once I receive it off Firefly. You can however message me now if you would like your copy of the Stronghold Kingdoms Starter Pack already. Everyone else, please feel free to message me at any convenient time to claim your prizes. Thank you to all our wonderful community members and staff who showed their interest in this competition, dedicated their own time to it, and submitted content to our community. Finally, I'd like to thank Firefly for allowing this competition to be possible. Their generosity has allowed us to hold yet another historic contest and moment in the Stronghold community.

I get this is now 4 years hence, but I have added in URL forwarding to fix this problem. The new system I've built has allowed me to easily do this without impacting anything else on the site in terms of speed or efficiency.

Thanks for the clarification. I never doubted you owned a physical copy of the game, I was just cautious about discussion around copying the game onto other discs because it could lead on to other discussion in that area which would be contrary to the site rules (hence why I said it was precarious territory). I would be interested to know thought whether the issue is related to your own disk or not when you get a chance to install your Cousin's later on. My instinct seems to tell me though that it's something to do with your machine. Do you have another computer your could try your own disk on? Perhaps you could try to play it via your Cousin's computer since he already has Stronghold 2 installed. If you can get that working on there, we can be confident that it's your computer at fault and focus our efforts on trying to get a resolution on that for you.

Thanks @S0ck3tz, I've joined the new Discord. I'm happy to help out in any way I can.