EaglePrince

I have submitted the map, and yes - I look forward to playing it in multiplayer. :) It is true that we already have several maps that we want to play in multiplayer, but we will find time for all that at some moment. I'd also like to add that not all villages had the problem with ox tethers - only one of them did, and that is the one that was close to me while I was doing my test. I removed some trees and bushes from around those mines and quarries, so now it all works fine, and it is a good thing that I noticed the issue with ox tethers as well. Here are some screenshots by the way. :)

Guys, I have figured it out! It appears that those kind of threes I was placing on the map (the trees you can see on the image in the bottom), and it happens in all villages because this is the only type of threes I was placing besides bushes. I added that regular type of evergreen/periwinkle trees (please, correct me, I don't know which of those two words is correct :D ), and then villages built their woodcutters. Another issue were ox tethers, and I figured out about them as well, though that was easier part, and somewhat obvious. While I was looking at the my new quick map I made few minutes ago I noticed that villages build their ox tethers differently than castle lords! While castle lords build those near all their stone quarries and iron mines, villages build their ox tethers near the stone quarry or the iron mine they built first. Village wanted to build all seven ox tethers near their first stone quarry while that wasn't possible because of threes. I have removed those trees, and now villages do build ox tethers! Thanks for your help, guys! :) We made it. :) Some time later I am going to fix those things, and I will submit my map to the Downloads Central. You shall see, it is going to be a great map for multiplayer and singleplayer - I wanted it to be perfectly "balanced", and I have accomplished that. By the way, I said "perfectly" because not all positions are same - it is perfectly balanced when played by four players, and but I wanted it to be good for many combinations. I will show you the minimap now. The minimap is going to remain the same, I will only make those adjustments. :) And those are the trees that made me problems.

Now I tried making a new map with several villages, and they work well - they build three saw pits, and they work until the village has built everything - including two iron mines, two stone quarries and seven ox tethers. I also tried Bradley's map 3 men's land, and yes, this works fine on it. By the way, Tokamaps, do you remember on which maps you had this issue? Did those maps have the high bridges placed in the same way you showed me few days ago? It's not that I see a connection between those two, it would make no sense to me that those bridges had effected the villages in this way, but I'm asking just in case. And no - I won't give up my bridges on this map. :D I may try some time later to put river crossings instead of the bridges but that would be saved as a new map.

It's 1.4.1... I have checked my older maps already, and this doesn't happen on them. I could try making a new blank map for test only, but I believe everything will work fine on it. I will let you know! You could be right, maybe the installation it's messed up. Of it turns to be this map, I could try deleting forests, and bringing it back... Or, I could simply add those woodcutters on the map, and that way villages should develop fine. Until someone destroys the saw pits, that is. But, from the bright side - those bordering villages rarely develop anyway.

That's the article I said i was reading yesterday. Indeed a good article, and I like how waves can be used for waterfalls and rivet streams. :)

I did mention doing that, but this is not that version. I tried using that trick only to fix the map, but it didn't work. And this map is the version from before I did that trick.

Yes, that is also a good idea. The good thing in Stronghold 2 is that, when you start as a freeman, then on one hand you do have a way to get peace time. It's similar in Age of Empires 3 where played usually need few minutes before that are able to advance technologically, and only then they are able to train army. Still, being able to have this peace time would be great, and not just for being able to start as dukes. It would be great for anyone who doesn't prefer rushing in multiplayer games.

Also this thing - many miss the restart option while in the game. Also, if one plays kingmaker game, if they leave that specific game they would be prompted to the main menu. Maybe it would be better if this worked like in Stronghold Crusader where the player is prompted to the screen for setting skirmish game on that same map, with same AI players, and with the same gold settings. This isn't important to much, but it's a suggestion. :)

Yes, I knew about that option, and I have used it before, but I just didn't know it works so smoothly. Looking forward to see your entry. :) EDIT: I didn't read your message carefully enough, I did not know that actually. :) There is an article from above in which the same or similar thing is described though, but I haven't tried that yet.

I like the idea with ships. Also, maybe we should add this: a warning before leaving the map editor. Even if you don't save the map, you can click the left arrow and leave the editor - you wouldn't be asked a thing, you would just lose what you made. :)

Thanks, Chris. :)

I have tested now what I mentioned... When I send them more wood they complete their estates - they build more farms, stone quarries and iron mines. Another thing I have noticed is that they won't build woodcutters even when they do have wood (which I expected actually), but I also noticed that they won't build ox tethers neither... I will send you the file now. :) Thanks. EDIT. While villages won't build ox tethers, castle lords do build those. Hmm, and maybe AI don't want to cut down my forests, maybe he thinks they are too beautiful to be cut down. :D

It is not for the contest. Actually, truth to be told, you will recognize the map I have already submitted. It is the same landscape, only this one has estates, and the submitted one for contest is not. And I won't be submitting a newer version of the map. I just wanted to make a landscape map for the contest which could be used in singleplayer and multiplayer as well. I will try out those stuff I mentioned now, and that you mentioned. Just to see how it works... From what you said, it could be possible that I was misinterpreting those two estate attributes.

I agree with that. We could rename this tread, or you could create a new one, and I would just repeat what I said here in shorth - together with Nigels suggestions.

It's the same with all estates. They build granary, hovels, few farms, and then they don't build anything else because they don't have any more wood. I will try now this thing - to buy a village next to myself, and to send him wood, and see what happens. My theory is that this way villages will build everything - including iron mines and stone quarries... Truth to be told, I was messing with those settings "AI places buildings" and "AI uses buildings from the map", but I believe I didn't change anything - I was just having a look into that out of curiosity. Right now it is set right I believe - as if it was on "AI uses building from the map" then villages wouldn't build even the stockpile on their own - there would only be a flag. I could send you the map, if you have some time to have a look - just to see if everything is set correctly.

Now I tried what I had in mind, but it didn't work... I just removed all of the flags, and I left only two of castle estates. I started a game, saved the game, and then I renamed the file extension to .s2m... Then I marked the villages over again, but it still acts the same. The game even remembered the type of each village. On the other hand, while doing this I didn't remove each estate color from the map, I just removed those flags by placing another unused color over them, and as there can be only one flag on an estate, one of the flags would disappear. So, the issue remains. :( There is another "solution" - to ignore the fact that villages and castle lords won't build woodcutters on their own, and to add for example three or four woodcutters per each estate. Still, I fear that they wouldn't rebuild the woodcutters if an enemy destroys them... EDIT: Now I also tried with an earlier version of the map, but it also didn't do the job.

Unfortunately no... I didn't put any building in any estate, so when they start they build their stockpile and everything on their own. I don't know if this could help, but is there a way to clear all estate flags from the map? Also, I do have an idea on my mind - to start the game, make the save file, rename it to map file, and mark castle estates over. Of course, before doing this I would make each village tiny, so they can't build anything.

Hi, guys. I hope you'll be able to help me. I've made this new kingmaker map. It's a map I had in my mind for a while, and I found some time to make it. Unfortunately, what makes me very sad right now is the fact that those villages and AI lords don't build woodcutters. Has any of you had this issue before? I have no idea what could it be. If that could help, I could send my map to some of you to have a closer look. For this reason villages don't develop - they just build a granary, few houses, several farms, and that's it...

Nice map, Floki. I don't know if I have told you that before, but you are one of those map makers that show how good Stronghold 2 editor is, and by the map you also show how this editor is not just a tool for making maps that people are going to play. To me it seems that, for you working with this tool is just like painting a picture. You are one of those map makers. And indeed, that is all about this map editor - if one wants to make a map quickly, and still to be nice as well, he will have a bad time, but if one is in the mood to make a good map he will enjoy working on it, and the result can be great. That's why I made that comparison. Here is my entry as well. EDIT: I didn't know that one can make sea waves going in different directions - onto the peninsula from different directions. I like how the direction of the waves changes smoothly. I didn't try that before. Just to be clear, I don't mean on the waves at the shoreline, I mean on the waves on the sea - the direction of the water. map for contest EaglePrince.zip

I was thinking about both of your ideas here, and yes, that would be really great! Only I wasn't writing the second one, but I will write down in the first post here concisely what are all the ideas we got.

Oh... Would your way also include cropping the map? If it would then it wouldn't help me with the map I'm currently working on. :( I later realized. that. It's not just that I have already started the map, but with positions of those four bridges I wanted to add would be impossible to do the task. Maybe only if I decided to build two high bridges, and the other two to replace with simple crossing across the river. Well, you can show me, but only if it wouldn't take to much of your time. :) The thing is that I would like to add at least two bridges like that into my map (preferably four), but I don't know if that is possible. The way I saw it in the article if one wants to build those bridges he needs to know where he wants to put them before actually making the map. In my case I would like to build those bridges around an island - to the north, south, west and east, while a compromise would be building those only in east and west.

By the way, I believe this topic should be made sticky, or perhaps merged with Mathew's topic, and renamed into Stronghold 2 map editor tricks, or something like that. It would be pity if at one point it went away on the second page or something like that, it should be visible, it's a real treasure for those who want to put those interesting stuff into their maps, but don't know how. :) Also, I'm looking for an article or a forum posts about making those stone bridges between cliffs - when a bridge is under another bridge. :) EDIT: http://www.stronghold-nation.com/article/65-bridges-over-canyons I have found it. :)

Thanks Chris! That sounds really great!:) I hope they would implement at least some of those things. If someone else have some ideas about what could be added in Stronghold 2 or Stronghold Legends, me could say it here. Hopefully they will listen.

Thanks, Chris! :) I am sure that if I asked this on various forums that we could collect lots of players who would like to see these things, but I should only add that for this we shouldn't try seeking for people only at Stronghold 2 forums, but in other forums as well. In my opinion, after Stronghold 2 and Stronghold 3 they have noticed that many like playing Stronghold with simpler economy, so they could bring a mod with simpler economy for those players. Besides this, all those additional options I have would be really great for most of players: multiplayer with AI lords, stuff that they introduced in Stronghold Legends (which as far as I know uses the same engine as Stronghold 2) such as auto-buy and auto-sell options, better looking moats like in Stronghold Legends, ability to save a multiplayer game, and using custom crests in multiplayer. Also, they could make the thing with crests somewhat different - for example, I can choose a shield which would be mine, and depending of what my color in the multiplayer game is, the color would change, meaning if I choose the red dragon on white shield, if I get to be the green player, I would have a green dragon on white shield. The game would just pick one of those eight shields. This would work perfectly with all those crests made by Firefly, while if one wants to use his custom crest in multiplayer he would need to make eight crests for each of eight colors, and one doesn't do it that way, the game would choose the default green shield for him if he is about to be the green player. All those things are something that were people asking for a long time, it would be great to see those. :) I hope they would make this possible. Also, if we were able to play multiplayer game with AI lords, maybe we could have multiplayer scenarios, but that may be going too far for now. :) This would be great because many players have never actually given a chance to Stronghold 2 because of rats, gong and crime. I like this concept, and it doesn't actually make the game any harder, but unfortunately that is the case with many players. If those players learned the game better they would have different opinion about it. And, once again - there are many awesome maps which make the game way more beautiful.

I am writing here as this is related to Stronghold 2, and after what I was told here. If they don't work on Crusader 2, maybe they could have a look into Stronghold 2. Many games have their HD versions and things like that released years after the original game release. In this case we miss: -AI lords in multiplayer (it doesn't matter to me if they don't attack all players, or things like that, it's just that it would be interesting to have fight with your friend against six Williams for example). -they could add few more kingmaker mods such as: no rates, no gong, no crime... which is of the things that drove away many potential players of the game. I like those things, but I think that Firefly could benefit from that. -they could also add a mod without honor. In Crusader 2 they just took this logic: "simpler it is, more players will like it". To some extent I believe that this is why more people play Crusader. When they see gong in Stronghold 2 they just say "what the heck is this". smile -they could add auto-buy and auto-sell options like in Stronghold Legends -they could make moats better looking - they way they look in Stronghold Legends at least. They have the experience from SHL, it should be easier for them those accomplish those two. -another thing they could give us is ability to save game in multiplayer, or maybe to have autosave as well. I believe this could be done easily - the one who hosts would make a save of the game on his machine, and when they want to continue they just come back, and all players need to remember who was player 1, who was player 2, etc... And when they are in their places the host just loads the game, and they can finish what they started. I say this as I realize that in Stronghold 2 everything is on the hosts PC (or something like that). -maybe they could even enable using custom shields in multiplayer games, so I wouldn't be the only one who would see my custom shields and banners. And one more thing. Now, years after the original release, we have seen how great Stronghold 2 maps can be, and now there are tons of maps and scenarios downloadable from here and from Stronghold Heaven. So - there are tons of maps, while the original release had few of them, and none of them is as good as The Chokepoint Island made by Tokamaps for example. There are lots of great maps, so: -the gameplay of Stronghold 2 is way better than the one is Stronghold 2 and Crusader 2, while with those suggestions I had it would be better in anyone's opinion. I mean, come on, Crusader 2 doesn't even have laddermen (correct me if I'm wrong, that is if I missed that they added those guys in a patch)... sad -they already have this game, so only some small additional work would be needed to accomplish this. -the graphics in the game is really good, in my opinion it's not that much behind those newer games. Plus, like I said, there are many awesome maps out there, so with those they could show to people that Stronghold 2 maps are not just "huge green plains like a carpet" - they have a great map editor by which stunning landscapes can be done. Sorry for making it too long maybe, I hope you will read this. smile I just think that they could give us those things that we miss in Stronghold 2 really easily, and if you're asking me, I would pay a DLC that would bring us those things. smile Just look at Rise of Nations: Extended Edition, that is basically the same game with few details added, better water reflection and stuff like that, while this what I wrote about would be completely extended edition which would fit every Stronghold fan! smile