EaglePrince

So in the end only Nigel and I played 1v1 game. It was interesting. Even though Nigel started badly we managed to compensate it somehow - I bought an estate close to him, so he could get it, and use it to develop faster. I had stronger economy in the end, so I just left my defensive troops in my castle, while I took those offensive troops and sent them upon Nigel's walls. He managed to survive the first attack with 50-60 swordsmen and about ten of my knights. Later after that I trained more knights, and I after fighting with his troops on the wall and inside his castle my knights managed to kill his lord. He was resisting very well, though I have feeling that in this game we both enjoyed not just the fighting part, but also the part in which we were developing our economies and building out defenses, and expending out territories too. :) Unfortunately we didn't make it to play with Tokamaps. I am sorry about that, we were trying to find a good map for us to play, though the first idea was to play Dolina Odmetnika. Tokamaps had other suggestions, he also tried editing one of his maps, but sadly it just took us too much time and in the end Tokamaps didn't stay with us to play, as he has an exam tomorrow. I am sure it would be even more fun with Tokamaps. I should also add, it's not that we only spent time on choosing a map, we also spent some more time because during all those trying something seemed to messed up with my game. As a temporarily solution Nigel and I later player one of the Firefly's maps. After that I tried moving those maps from the folder, and then it worked well. In fact, I also tried that before the game with Nigel, but I mistakenly did that with maps for Stronghold 1, as I was in hurry. :( Maybe it was something about maps, maybe it was something about the cache, we don't know, but it worked later... Tokamaps, I am sorry we didn't make it to play all together. I am looking forward for out next opportunity to play, but we need to take care of one thing. :) We need to deal what map to play before the game starts - while we make the event, here in this tread. This way we can save our time, it would be perfect if we were able to play those two hours instead of looking for maps and solving problems we could have dealt with before. :) I'd gladly play any of your maps, only those things need to get ready before we want to start the game. There can always be some unexpected issues, but if we plan everything else on time, then those issues would hopefully be solved sooner, and we would have more time to play. :) Don't get me wrong, I just want to say that we all needed to be better organized, and that will be the case in future - just like when we played the previous game. :) We knew what map we want to play, we noticed later that the game was crashing for some reason, then you remembered that it was about a mod you installed, and even with some time spent on this we had enough time for a glorious war. :)

We're still choosing the map, it is likely that we won't choose it until 21:00, so come if you can. Look into the PM I sent you right now. :)

That's the case with me, and then I find those games in which I barely survive and win the most fun. :D

You wouldn't be slowing me down, 21:00 would work for me as well, I only don't know about others.

When would you be able to come? Maybe we could shift it to 21:00 for example, if others agree?

Thanks. :) I would certainly like that. I had that in mind yesterday - to submit it as an article, but it was too late and I had to wake up early this morning. Do I submit it, or you will do all the work? :)

That is unfortunate. Still, if one wants to play a challenging game he could refrain from training knights on his own. :) Thanks for reply. :)

I'm glad to hear that. :) I hope we meet again on battle field. :)

I failed there miserably. :D He definitely knew better all important details about units in Stronghold 2. I learned a lot during this game. :)

I have made this short tutorial about how to make a minimap for Stronghold 2. Here is shown how one can do it with Fraps and Gimp, but once one sees how to do it with Gimp - they could do it in similar way using any other image manipulation program. 1. Download and install Fraps. It's a free program by which you can easily make screenshots in any game. Before the next step attention to what key is dedicated for you to make a screenshot with Fraps. In my case it's Print Screen key, as it was easiest one for me to remember. 2. Run Fraps, and then run Stronghold 2, and go to kingmaker game, and find your map. 3. Put yourself in one estate to the left, and then put yourself in another estate to the right. 4. Leave Stronghold 2. 5. Download and install Gimp, it's also a free program, and this one is used for image manipulation. It offers a lot more then you need right now actually. ;) 5. In Fraps you have the View button by which you can open the folder where your Fraps screenshots are stored. Open that folder, open Gimp, and drag those two screenshots into Gimp. Note: Gimp may open a little slow, but be patient, once it's open everything runs smoothly. :) 6. Use the cropping tool to crop the minimap from one image, and the other. You can use Control & Mouse Wheel to zoom in and out, so you can do crop it perfectly. Once you select the area you want to crop double-click it to do the cropping. You can use the Mouse Wheel Button too to move around while cropping. 7. Use rectangle select tool too select one side of one of those minimaps, copy it (Control + C), and paste it (Control + V) into another one. Then you drag it in the right position; you can also use the arrow keys for that. 8. Go to File/Export As..., go to Select File Type (By extension) to choose PNG or JPG. I prefer JPG, as it loads faster on webpages. Name your minimap as you will, export it into the folder you want, and that's it. And this is the result.

Tomorrow at 20:00 by Central European timeline. Here's the event I've created for this game. http://forums.stronghold-nation.com/post/10141/#p10141 Nigel and I intended to play on my map this time. I should remind you that the map wasn't made unbalanced, but it is for fun. You could also record it if you want. :)

Hopefully, somebody else could join us as well. :)

Indeed a great video. :) By the way, I was speaking with Nigel, he would be able to play tomorrow evening. Maybe you could join as well. I haven't created the event yet though. :)

But the is no way to disable some troops no matter the rank?

I will download it some time later. By the way, you could submit it to Stronghold Nation download central. This way it would be right where people would be looking for it. :)

Hi, do you know how could we disable some unit types in kingmaker map? It's not that I need i it right now, but after making those William's castles, and after playing Tokamaps's most resent kingmaker map started to wonder about this one. This would make kingmaker harder, as without knights it would be harder to kill a lord in a well defended castle. Also, I believe that Tokamaps disabled buying any type of goods on his map, and that made me believe that similar is possible with troops. I'm also interested to know how would this effect AI lords that is those "forbidden" troops.

Now after what we wrote here about, I hope someone of the moderators would be willing to rename this tread maybe. We were not just speaking about the first issue I had, but about some other issues, such as engineers guild being misplaced, etc... I hope the tread could be renamed to "Stronghold 2 AI editor" for example, so if anyone comes with any question, he can come here, and see if we have an answer here already, or simply ask. :) ABOUT AGGRESSIVE RALLY POINT I have also noticed one thing I wasn't speaking about in the editor at first. There is a rally point mark "aggressive troops" in the editor, and it is mostly placed on the ground inside the castle. I thought those are troops that are going to be sent into attack later, and that they just sit there until that moment. I though I could make AI lord stronger by putting that rally point on the keep, so those archers would be on top. Now while I was playing a game with my castle I have noticed that those troops are not just being prepared for attack, they are there to defend the castle as well. For that reason they are best to be left on the ground in my opinion, as if you attack William, those troops will run outside as the first line of defense, and if you climb his walls with laddermen those troops will try to stop you from entering the castle.

This one seems indeed interesting, I expect several entries on this one. :) I hope I will make an entry as well. :)

Well, make someone with the right knowledge shows up... :) Still, have you tried fighting alone against at least five Williams? I'd say it's pretty hard in the end part of the game as well. Just like in Crusader, when you play against one AI lord it's always easy no matter how much money you give him. It can get harder only if you play with more of them, and same applies to Stronghold 2. Right now, in the game in which I was testing these Williams I was holding them back pretty effectively while he was attacking with spearmen, but later he started sending lots of swordsmen, and without moats I had full hands of work - especially as in Stronghold 2 castles are larger, and there is more you need to take care about then in Crusader where it is smaller and you can always monitor entire situation. Of course, when I make it to take down one of them, and when I get more estates it is natural that I will be stronger - I will be recruiting knights more easily, and Williams will stand no chance attacking me with swordsmen, but that's like it in almost any war. When you manage to take control over more resources and defeat some of the enemies things get easier. :) Of course, it would be wonderful if they were programmed to make their attacks less frequently but with larger armies after their failures. EDIT: Tokamaps, if you would like to try fighting against all Williams on your map from your usual position in north-east maybe you could consider downloading castles made by Doomsword. He made smaller castles for William (so he would be able to choose one among four castles, not only two), and he made several tiny castles which can be used by any lord. This way they are way more effective on any position, and even the William on the hill estate would handle quite well, I'm pretty sure about that. I only haven't tested that on your map, but I did on another where some castle estates were smaller.

That is correct. The resolution is set to lower as the computer I work on is pretty old, though I don't need I better one the moment. That is the computer which is mostly free at my house, because the rest of my family prefers the newer one. :) Still, even that newer one has a cheap GPU, so I left the lower resolution on that one as well, and that applies for all games, including Settlers 7, Stronghold 3, or Crusader 2. The resolution is 1024x768 on both computers. And yes, about William, he is quote hard to handle while he attacks - especially if you don't have moats. With these castle he can be tough to be killed as well. :)

Yes, I was playing your map from the position on the hill. It is interesting, it's easy position to defend, though there is very little space. On the other hand, there is enough space for farms in lower part of the estate, only it was hard for me to get down to defend it in early stages of the game while I had few archers. Some time later I managed to build a wall in lower part as well, to protect farms - after killing the William in the middle. It was an interesting game - on an interesting map! :) Only I didn't continue it later to kill other Williams, but that would be easier to do with his older castle. :P And thanks, I'm glad you like it. I hope you will use those castles as well, I remember you said you like playing against William too. :)

I have tested everything, everything works well. I picked a fight against five Williams now as freeman, and it's hell of a fight. :) I still own only one estate, they are pushing really hard, though it's a lot easier to deal with them now after I dag moats around my castle and my economy. Farms and many other important building that are not inside my castle are behind the castle, and they can not reach them because of the moats which are attached to the edge of the map. It's calmer now after I did this, and now I shall collect knight and try to defeat them one by one. I also tried to attack one of them relatively early - with swordsmen, but he repelled that attack unfortunately for me. That one had to be the first to fall. :) So, the castles are ready and I shall submit them now. For anyone who wants a challenge in Stronghold 2 I have a suggestion - pick a fight against these Williams! :D Now William is really "Richard the Lionheart" from Crusader in Stronghold 2, just what we would expect from him. :)

So, this is the newest version of my castles for William. :) I have added rock tippers, and I also added some man traps in front of the gatehouses and those parts of the wall which are exposed to enemy attacks, or in other words those that can be accessed without digging. I believe those files are ready to be submitted, only it may need few more tests - I haven't seen how it acts when I start as a freeman. Still, I assume if everything works well this way (starting as dukes), it should work well if I start as a freeman too.

It works now, now he builds the engineers guild as he should do. :) Like Doomsword suggested that it may be possible, he builds engineers one square off, so although in the editor it wasn't overlapping with the armory, in reality it was the case. First I removed the armory to see what happens, and then it was clear. Now, if someone could test that with his William I would be grateful. I would like to know if this was an error with original William's castle or it was me messing up with the file... I believe that it was an error with original castle, as I made a backup, but I'm unsure if I mixed up some of the files. :)

The map indeed looks really beautiful. :)