EaglePrince

Still waiting for Stronghold 2 Steam Edition... :) Does anybody here have any news I might have missed maybe? :)

Yes, 5 wood is 20 gold in Crusader 1, but what I meant is that in Stronghold 2 those guys may be faster in producing crossbows. I haven't tested that, but I assume that's the case, because in Crusader 1 crossbows don't bring gold that fast, although in addition to taxes and other things producing and selling crossbows does boost the economy.

Yes, I do know it is the same when it comes to price. Quite interesting, so in Stronghold 2 this gives even more gold than in Crusader 1. :)

You can also try with Photobucket. From there you can just use a tool to copy the bb code of the desired picture. The downside of Photobucket is it has a lot of add banners which can be annoying if you don't have a powerful PC. Maybe Postimg is better in that regard.

That things with crossbows is great in Stronghold Crusader 1, but I am not sure how much it is applicable to Stronghold 2 economy. Maybe it is, but I just feel that the best way to sustain gold in Stronghold 2 is to reply heavily on your villages, to get food and everything from your villages, and to produce some weapons in your castle, and have those buildings such as church, inn, musicians guild, etc. with which you can set high taxes and earn honor. Plus, in Stronghold 2 one can build farms wherever they want. :) But your way does seem really interesting for managing economy in small estates. :)

Oh dear, I wouldn't expect catapulting warewolfs into a castle is possible. God gelp the defenders. :D

Here are few more shots from me. It has become a lot warmer by now. Boulevard of Mihajlo Pupin in Novi Sad. (The boulevard was build during SFR Yugoslavia, that is after WWII, and it bears name of a famous Serbian scientist.) In the background of the first image you can see the Petrovaradin Fortress and its famous clock (which can also be seen on my older pictures of the fortress), while on the second one you can see a large white building we call Banovina. It is the seat of the Government of Vojvodina (the northern Serbian province). It was build in 1930, and in that time it served is the seat of Dunavska Banovina (Danube Banovina) during Kingdom of Yugoslavia. Speaking about banovina's of Yugoslavia... As you all know, Yugoslavia consisted of a many nations. The country needed to be divided somehow for easier government, but they didn't want to divide the country by ethnic borders, but by regions. They were hoping that this would keep the country more stable. Have a look at this map. Later I shall post more images of Banovina. And again, the building of Petroleum Industry of Serbia, but by much better weather. :) (For no specific reason, it was really nice weather and I wanted to take a shot. :) ) Sent from mTalk on Windows 10 phone

Very interesting reply, Charles. I agree with all your observations. Now I better understand what you wanted to say about Ottomans trying to "ottomise" Balkans. They did attempt to do it, only they were not as cruel as ISIS for example (am extreme example). About claims that somebody has to know Arabian to understand Quran. What I said, I said it because I have heard a lot of contradictory things from different sources, so I don't trust to anyone. And I would add also this. In my opinion, when they say "you cannot understand it unless you learn Arabic" it is "you cannot understand Quran in English unless we have brainwashed you enough for you to understand it the way we want you to". I'm sure that there is a standardized translation of Quran, and if I were to read Quran, I would read it in Serbian. And I would make sure that this translation is standardized (official) as you say. Even the word Kafir... They have so many offensive words for us, and that is one of them. That also says a lot.

I didn't manage to write a full reply again, so before reading what you said... I also wanted to say that it can be dangerous for a country or a nation to accept immigrants in too large numbers - large enough for them to become a significant part of the countries people. Or if they have potential to become a large part of countries people by having more children. As history has shown us many times - this can even result in a civil war, a country losing a part of its territory, and even with their people being driven away from that land. (So many examples from Balkans for that, sadly. And FROM ALL SIDES.) Now back to reading. :) Sorry, I'm from mobile, that's why I write like this. :) ADDITION: Mathew, let's just not forget how their culture used to be during Arabian Empire when they did the fine job in keeping the knowledge which would have been lost if there weren't them. Also there were some female mathematicians in Arabian Empire. But, like I sad, that doesn't matter now, now bad things you mentioned are common there. And like I said, you may be right, but to say truth, as somebody who have learned several foreign languages, even translating something word by word can give you bad translation. Though, it really doesn't matter, as this thing works in both ways, not just one. As much religion can effect the people, even more religion is effected by the people themselves. SECOND ADDITION: And to clarify what I stated about diversity as a possible problem. I mean it can be a problem if those people don't adopt, but they rather stick together. And it is definitely a good things when there are many different people, but they all feel as one. For that to happen, the newcomers need to be willing to accept the values of the people who already live there, and the people who live there has to be willing to accept the newcomers as equal. If this doesn't happen, I think that then there will be differences in opinions among the two or more sides - including about very important matters.

You may see me as one who ignores facts, but I don't believe people when they cite Quran, or Bible, or whatever that sensitive. To be sure in that I would have to be able to read Arabian language which I don't. The reason for that is what you say may even be intentionally made mistranslation or misinterpretation for whatever reason. Maybe in its core it is a violent religion, which I don't believe, but what actually matters is the people. If they progress as a civilisation, so will their faith, just like in Europe. If they fit some reason become more violent, so will their faith, and same if they become peaceful. But we do agree about the fact that it is dangerous to accept those people as the current state is. Even though Islam in my opinion is not violent, many of them are, and like I said above, I came to that even in mosque's they recruit young people to join ISIS, and so on... Right now, as the current state is, they are very insisting on their customs which are oppressing, and we certainly don't need that in Europe now when European nations have advanced this far. And sorry for my post above being somewhat confusing, I didn't manage to finish it, but I did say almost everything. There I wanted to say that their people may not dislike Christians because of different faith, but because they may be blaming us for something. (Not my country in particular, but still...) But still, as it is right now - they are very insisting on others to accept their faith and their customers, and it's driving us all crazy. So, don't get me wrong. I agree that even EU should take care more about this matter just like not it's the case in the US. But if their countries developed culturally, then they would be different too, and we would have problem with Islam. And there is another thing. Diversity. In general... Is it good out is it actually bad... I think that for a country it is the best to assimilate the newcomers. I'm proud of diversity in my region, but that can be dangerous too in some situations, especially when it's diversity in faith. (ehm, Bosnia...)

I'm sorry for going off topic now, but I still don't see how people keep saying Islam is a violent religion. You have example how those two spreaded. But Christianity wasn't states religion while it was spreading over Roman Empire, while Islam was in Arabian Empire from its beginning. I think those two cannot be compared - at least when it comes to their beginnings. While in the very beginning Islam was indeed spreading peacefully before Arabian Empire. And one cannot say that Christianity didn't spread by force, because - what then about Crusades against Pagan Lithuanians, or even against Orthodox Christians. (Maybe they were not official, but it happened.) About Ottomans, yes, but you cannot say that they have islamised Balkans. They had 500 years for they, and yet Muslims are in minority here. And there were even less of them during 19th century. Simply, for one to have many if the benefits it was necessary to be Muslim, but as you can see, most of us didn't choose this option. And about Islam... You may say it is oppressing and violent religion, but for do you explain then that women were not covered 50 years ago. In Bosnia before the 90's there were no covered women, while now there are. Similar to Middle Eastern countries. It is people who were driven into hopeless situation, and then some of them became this violent. Because of Russia, the USA, and their allies. *FIXED THIS PARAGRAPH Just look at my county. We all used to love the USA, but after the Merciful Angel many came to hate the USA and England, and to consider them as the ones who hate us and who mean us no good.

I would only say that this wasn't simply about letting in anyone, they actually banned travels for all, including those who already got their visa's. But, we don't know, maybe they have reasons to believe that those visa's were given without proper verification that those people are not dangerous in any way. So, yes, this step is very likely justified. But... Oh, and I don't know if there have been some terrorists from Iran, and there is no conflict there... But that doesn't mean there aren't any, maybe I'm uninformed. Can't agree more with you. Now when you say it, who knows, maybe they are at least partly a reason why radical Islam came to be as widespread as it is. But I agree, it is better not to interfere, at least if you don't have in plan what to do after the interference. And, Mathew, don't feel like that. We learn by the time. We constantly make mistakes, but what maters is that we notice those mistakes (if they are mistakes), and move on having that in mind, and take care not to do it again. And I agree with your points, especially that people shouldn't identify their viewpoints by parties.

I don't know, the solution might be out there, I am sure that I'm not the only one thinking that the USA itself, or the USA with their allies, or with Russia too (why not?) would be able to crush ISIS in no time, but for some reason they don't want to (there are many theories why). But they appear not to want to do that because of some interests, thus the best solution stays out of the table. And of course, what you said Mathew doesn't have anything to do with racism, it is a fact they there are many potentially problematic people among them. Yes, this time it is really hard to tell who is bad and who the victim, they are all one people over there. Truth to be told, sometimes even those who appear to be the victims can be worse than their aggressor (who are aggressors in this particular case only because they are more powerful, otherwise the victim would be aggressor). And I hope they wouldn't let Trump mess up everything too much at least - if he was about to cause something like that with his decisions.

Back to Trump, I am glad to hear that all those stories about Trump are actually overstatements, and it appears that still the only ones protesting against him are perhaps the same those people who protested immediately after his election. As about what he's doing, I completely agree that people shouldn't bash him for trying to protect his countries borders, and things like that. It is another issue if his wall would be a complete waste of money as an ineffective mean of stopping illegal immigrants. And same holds for bashing him for saying he will deport all illegal immigrants. Of course illegal immigrants should be deported, I think. On one hand, I can understand those people, as from my perspective the USA is indeed a country of opportunities (though I wouldn't go there to take some opportunities, I would go there to find a better payed job to have a better life), and if I was to go move there, I would go there legally. And if their system actually allows illegal immigrants to stay, then they are making fools of everybody who wants to do things by obeying the rules. I mean, why bash him for trying to enforce the rules that have been here for a long time. As about the decision to ban those travels, who knows. I understand it is every countries responsibility to take care about safety of its people. Only they could have made some exceptions, but again - I know very little about that. I still hope that they will not leave behind all those people who were loyal to them in recent past, and who collaborated with them, by completely forbidding them to travel to the USA. But I think we better don't go into that topic (the events from Middle East), there is not much point in discussing something we barely know something about. There are too many speculations, including to how ISIS came to power, but I guess that this topic has no place on this forum. After all, we are strongholders, not conspiracy theorists. :D

Well, perhaps your right, Mathew, about Islam being violent, I cannot tell. I don't know that topic entirely. I can tell for sure that right now it has to evolve the same way as Christianity has evolved from burning people on sticks to what it is now - a truly peaceful religion which gives comfort to people and so on, without having some unjust demands. Maybe my impression is wrong, but I think that Islam actually was on that way, at least when it comes to Bosnia. But, sadly, conflicts change everything. They bring hate towards people one wouldn't hate, and it even affects religion. I don't know if you knew that in the wars in Yugoslavia we had priests from all three sides encouraging people to join the fight. Yes, Orthodox, Catholic, and Muslim. And what we can say about Arabs... Well, they have been in difficult situation for decades for now, so they are definitely not like this because of their religion, but because of all circumstances. What are all those circumstances, I don't really know. After this, I'm getting back to the topic, but now I must move. :) Like Schwarzenegger would say, I'll be back. :)

Thanks for your explanation. That sounds really bad to me that people actually have completely no power over what is their president doing. But I don't know, there are of course other arguments why it shouldn't be as I would imagine it more logical. Still, I would like that add that this ban is only about six countries I think, and not about Muslims. Actually, even Christians from Syria are not allowed to enter the USA. But regarding the stereotypes, I would say that none of the major religions is violent. It is only about how people use it. Christianity, Islam, etc. are not about violence, but about love (for start). Only these are being manipulated from time to time by people who want to justify their causes, and who want to push others into a conflict. Still, sadly, it is the fact that Islam is being used right now by many groups, not just ISIS to manipulate Muslim people to join their cause. It goes that far that even priests try to manipulate people in mosques. I don't know what would be the best thing to do, but if a community in a country wants their religion freedoms, they shouldn't obey some rules, and if they don't, then their religion organization should be banned maybe because of incompetence to keep mosques safe for children. Of course, easier said than done... But I can't understand it comes that somebody accepts some people, and then they make their districts where even police refrain to go. That can't end well, we had that at Kosovo before 1999., and the entire war broke out after an attempt of police to arrest a criminal (or criminals) who was hiding with civilians. I am not religions, but I think that I can say that above without having somebody offended, because I too am partly "Muslim". I said "Muslim", and not simply Muslim, because - like I said, I am not religious, and I don't consider myself as a Muslim actually. Plus, my mother is Catholic, and I really dislike when I hear some people saying "you are what your father is". Maybe it was like that two centuries ago, but from what I have learned in history - it wasn't the case even then. I celebrate Christmas and Easter, even though I haven't been baptized. But regarding God - it may or may not exist, who knows, I think that we actually know nothing about that matter. Well, that's why it is called faith. :) I mean, yes, Islam is religion of peace by its definition, but if I was a Muslim parent, I don't know if I would send my child to mosque for the reasons above. Also, the safest things for them may be to have completely no connection to that religion at all. So, I understand why would Trump ban travels to the USA for citizens of some countries, I even think that EU should try harder not to let people enter its territories illegally, and that EU should take more care about people who come, and those who just wonder around not seeking for a job and not learning the language should be deported more quickly. But his decisions look to me like my governments decisions - to solve an issue with a solution which does too much damage. This wouldn't seem to me so wrong if they only said "Sorry, no asylum here for you, guys", but if I got this correctly, even if somebody worked in Microsoft, but they are from Iraq, they wouldn't be able to come back to the USA where they have a job. I don't know, maybe I'm wrong, but I think that people who work their asses for money don't have time for some cr*p like having something with ISIS, and that those people who can be dangerous are those who stay unemployed, or at least - don't have full time job. Again, my post isn't against any religious group, what I wrote above is about religious institutions, and my opinion that one specific religious institution doesn't do enough to prevent their members from doing bad things. Still, sorry, I didn't mean to start the discussion about whether Trumps decisions are good or bad, but when it comes to my main question - I believe that Tom has given me the answer. :)

Hey, guys. I think this is the first political topic started by me, but there is the first time for everything. :) In the presidental elections in the US Donald Trump won, and now we are seeing more and more news about Trumps moves which many people don't approve. I have even read how some Californians want to secede from the USA. I think that is far from truth, but all this has led me to the question I have put into the title. Why talking about seceding, when people should be able to demand another election, on which hopefully another president would be elected. Do Americans have that right, or they actually need to wait for another four years until the next elections? Here in Serbia we had so many elections in last few years, that the people is sick of elections. :D (Though in our case it was for political reasons, not because people was asking for it because of some such important matters.) And if Americans do have that right, is anybody talking about that? I am starting this topic after numerous of new decisions by Trumps office, with the one about the travel ban being the latest one. As far as I understood it, he even wanted to deport those who have already got permission to stay, live and work in the USA. He has banned all travel from Iraq for example, and he wanted to deport them too, while some of those people have earned that right by being loyal to Americans, and in fact - many of them we're loyal to Americans knowing they would later be allowed to stay in the USA. Still, I do accept that I certainly don't know all of the facts, and I don't know the background of everything. I know little from the news, and speaking about that - in theory that could imply that I actually know nothing for sure. As I was writing before, we can read something from the newspapers, have our opinions about it, while the facts may be a lot different from what we were told.

Well, we had some winters with -20C, so even though it's still below zero, we're handling it quite well. Like I believe I said before, last few winters were with very little snow, so I'm really enjoying this one. Well, it's easy for me since I don't depend of it. Thanks, to both of you. I only miss the blue sky. :)

Here I come with few more photos. :) This one is from my university campus. And this one is from Limanski park. Nothing historical to see here, this is newer part of the city, every building one could see here was build after World War II, that is - during SFR Yugoslavia. Still pretty cold, as you can see, though this picture was taken on Monday six days ago. (On the third picture below you can see a white building with marble facade. The building belongs to Petroleum Industry of Serbia, their headquarters are there. The building of it was started in 1989., and it was finished in 1998. Some call it Karingtonka, for Carrington from Dynasty series (who was rich, of course :) ), because the building seemed unnecessarily expensive to many citizens.) And one shot from the downtown. This one was taken in Zmaj Jovina ulica (Jovan Jovano? Zmaj street), which is the main street in the pedestrian zone. Jovan Jovanovi? Zmaj (1833.-1904.) was a poet, he is famous for his poets written for children, almost everybody in Serbia has grown up with his poets. He's the guy on the monument which can see in front of the red building, in the middle of the picture. One more fact about him: zmaj means a dragon in Serbian, and it is not part of his name actually. When got famous for the satiric Journal called "Zmaj" which he started, everybody called him "Jovan Jovanovi? Zmaj". Thar's why the street is called "Zmaj Jovina ulica", as street of Zmaj Jova, and Jova is a nickname for Jovan. The red building is Bishops Palace (of bishop of Ba?ka, northwest region of Serbia, north of Danube and west of Tisa river). This building was finished in 1901., after the older one was destroyed in bombing of Novi Sad in 1949. by Hungarians. (Which happened because Hungarians wanted independence from Austria, while Serbians were on Austria's side. Later Hungarians and Austrians made a compromise by making Austro-Hungarian Empire.) Further you can see the Saint George's Cathedral. We all call it Saborna crkva (which I hope is best translated as 'Cathedral Church'). The Church was finished in 1905. after the older one was destroyed in 1849.

Thanks, Tom. :) And thanks for what you said about the photos. I know that your areas are also beautiful. Plus, I would say they are even more beautiful, but we like to see something different now and then. Like I was saying before, I would love if people here cared more about keeping the city beautiful. During 20th century they didn't care enough about keeping the old look of the city, and they don't care enough about that even today. Also, keep in mind that I am giving my best to avoid those uglier stuff. :P Oh, and my apologies to Crusader, I've been busy, and I haven't read all of his newer articles yet, but I shall do that tomorrow. :)

Ah, thanks! :) I remember you said you lived in Germany for a while. :) Yes, it is similar climate here as in Germany, though in northern Germany it tends to be colder, and winters can be really harsh compared to our winters here - colder and with more snow. Plus, by the time winters here generally become less cold.

Just wanted to share few more photos. These are from the center of my city, Novi Sad. I took those shots mostly because of the decorations. I had not noticed until that evening that they put a decoration in shape of a dove bearing an olive branch - which is from the crest of the city. What you can see above is The Name of Mary Church, which is located at the main square, and we call it The Cathedral, although it's not actually a cathedral. As you may see, it got warmer, but it lasted only for few days and snow has been back. On Thursday I took few more photos near Danube. :)

Go to the Downloads section. http://www.stronghold-nation.com/downloads/ Go to the subsection you want, and download the maps you want. Those will be in .zip archives, so you will have to unpack them. Then you should each map file (which have .s2m extension) copy into Documents\Stronghold 2\Maps folder. Start the game and enjoy the maps. If you have any further questions, feel free to ask.

I think it will be more interesting if we include pictures from other places too, because that way we would have more pictures, and it is interesting to share pictures and impressions about places you have just visited. And, if we look at the bigger picture, then we would show not just where we live but where we were too, which is similar actually. Also, maybe from Chris's perspective Scotland wouldn't be where you're from because he knows you're from Wales and he's from England, while I would say "but you are from the UK". Also, from my perspective Prague isn't where I am from, while from Crusader1307 may say "but you are from Europe, it's only 800km away from your home". :) My main point was for us to share pictures made by ourselves, only I may not have expressed myself well enough in my first post. :) As for food, I didn't have the intention to upload photos of food, haha. :D Well, maybe if it is something really really interesting, but I have never taken a photo of food. :) Oh, as about uploading pictures, I would recommend Flickr, it works quite well, and I believe they also have Android and iOS apps which makes it easier to upload photos there. There is even a third party Windows 10 mobile app for Flickr. But it works great even on browser, it doesn't have so many adds like PhotoBucket. This is more like a social network for people who like sharing photos, everybody gets 1TB of storage for photos, and you can easily share pictures from there with the bbcode. Looking forward to see your images. Yeah, these areas are different, Vojvodina (the northern province of Serbia), where I live, is flat, we have saying that if one steps on a pumpkin they would see entire Vojvodina. :) Well, with the exception of Fru?ka Gora, that is one of the two our only mountains, and the main part of the fortress which you can see above was built on a rock which is part of Fru?ka Gora. This summer I learned that Fru?ka Gora got it's name for Franks who had settles the mounting during Middle Ages, because it is how Serbian people used to say Frankish mountain during Middle Ages. At that time border of Serbian kingdom used to be about 40-50km to the south of this mountain. Well, I may have learned that before, but in that case I had forgotten that. :) But even though Vojvodina is flat, it has some really interesting landscapes, some of which are not so much typical, and hopefully I will share some photos of it with you. :)

Well, I do like to see various landscapes and places in various conditions. I actually quite often want to stop by, and take few shots of what I see, but I don't do it quite often. For example, while I'm traveling I wouldn't stop by to do something like that, because I feel like I would just p**s off the rest of the company by that. :) But perhaps I should be doing that, I do like that, and perhaps they would tolerate me. :D Another thing is that most people may find it strange when somebody wants to takes pictures of what they see often, but I guess that too is not enough reason not to take those pictures. So that's my plan! Although I don't travel so often, I would like to make some photos of interesting places in my city and in my country, and whenever I travel somewhere, so I would keep those pictures for myself, and to show you guys what are places that I find interesting around me, or - that in a way represent where I am from. I hope this is going to be really interesting to us. Just like I like to learn about other cultures and history of other nations, I believe I will love to see places where the rest of us are from - including USA, UK, Germany, Lithuania, etc., and hopefully the rest of you will feel the same way. Looking forward for those rains in California to stop and to see some shots from the west of the United States. :)