EaglePrince

For what I know, there are only 1.1 and 1.3 patches, while one can get 1.2 only by installing Stronghold Crusader Extreme. There is a patch for 1.2 version in this downloads section, but for what I've seen it didn't work. One my friend tried to update the game with that patch, and game version remained the same. Still, who knows - it may not have been because of the patch after all.

So I made it to win this scenario this evening. :) I believe it is one of scenarios from Heaven Games that is not rated, but it does deserve it. One can easily see Vetka put some time into this map, and he did a great job. I realize I was telling things like this about Vetkas maps before, but this one is really good. :)

I opened this topic to share my experiences with Vetkas scenario Castle Fendron. You can download the map from Stronghold Heaven by following this link, but I will copy the story and the minimap here as well. These are the story and the minimap. If anyone wants to have some fun, I would recommend him playing this scenario, it is really interesting. I like the story, although I didn't read it before playing, but I should have though. :) On the other hand, I think the story is more interesting to me now, after getting this map to know. The thing I missed by not reading the story is that Edwin would attack me with massive army I barely managed to stop. As a result of those fights I lost my breweries in the village I was defending. In fact, one brewery did survive, but that one was destroyed during my fights to take back the village. :angel: :) After this, there was no hope for me to collect the beer, so I had to give up, and load an older saved game. Now I will do it in smarter way - I will prepare myself for those battles, and I will not let Edwin surprise me again! I like how Vetka designed the map - I am in a castle on a hill (the castle near the sea which can be seen on the minimap), I have one village, which is really needed, and I could also say that each village on the map is needed. In some villages I can find some wheat, in some I can find wool, while in another I have weavers workshops, and in one village that is possessed by Edwin I can get iron and bakeries, which I need to win the game. The landscape is really great - I like how he put those roads there, and everything. Those cliffs are really interesting, and it is really enjoying to fight on that map, and use advantages of the high ground. I'm really enjoying this game. :)

That is interesting thing indeed, I didn't know about that.

I've just took a look at your map - it looks great! That cliff in front of the sea, sea coast itself, the river, the castle, and even that path - just like in some fairy tale, or some medieval movie. :) I haven't tried to play it, but I already like it. I hope I'll be able to play it tomorrow. :) I'll create another tread to tell my impressions - not to go off topic here. Some people paint beautiful pictures during their free time, while you create beautiful maps. :)

"-Different type of lords have different looking buildings/walls/towers. Along with new names and different resource requirements to build." I wasn't aware of this one - interesting indeed! I would only like to add that some of things you mentioned were included in older Stronghold games, such as game-speed hotkey: one could click + or - to increase or decrease the speed of game. Also, barracks rally point, that is something that all Stronghold 2 players know about, but it is also available in Crusader 1 and Stronghold 1 - after selecting barracks you could click "4" for example, and this way, you would be able to put rally point for the forth unit from the barracks. Similar works with engineers guild and mercenary post. :) Speaking of siege camps - I hope they would make it in such a way that AI could build his siege camp only when at least on his unit is near. In Stronghold 2 AI lords can build their siege camps deeps inside your territory. I don't know about Stronghold 2 multiplayer games, but if humans could do that same thing, that might get misused, but luckily for me, in Stronghold 2 I played only with men who fought with honor. :)

Well, 200+ is definitely enough for a strong economy. Speaking of making nice maps - I have faith in many good map makers, such as Lord Vetka. :) I hope you would see one of mine as well, but until that, I hope I would create at least one Stronghold 2 map as well. :)

I do not own Stronghold Crusader 2, but I've been watching how it looks, works, and everything, and I do like it. I hope I would get it, but right now I'm playing the smallest violin in the world. :) I guess I could catch some promotion, or something like that. :)

Downloaded it, and moved it to maps folder. :) I do have 1.4.1 version, so that shall not be any problem. This could be my next game to play. I'll have a look at the river as well. :)

Well, speaking of AI difficulty, AI opponents in each Stronghold game were easy - they are never equal to human. On the other hand, fighting against seven opponents giving them starting advantage is another story. :) Speaking of moats - yeah, that is a good argument: why do we want moats in desert; but still, in those deserts we do find enough oasis and some water already (lakes and rivers). Pitch - I don't know how it works in Stronghold 2, but in Crusader 1 it is very useful - I used it a lot during our battles against AI lords. If your opponent is attacking you with heavy armored troops, pitch can help you a lot.

Does someone know if there is any population limit for players castle? If it is 150-200 people, I believe players would rather produce weapons in their castles than in estates. Those workshops take much less space than in Stronghold 2 - it's more similar to the original Crusader, so it is possible to put this industry within the castle walls. This way, it would be less likely for someone to interrupt your production, or even destroy your industry. From what I have seen, there shall be great Stronghold Crusader 2 maps. :)

Thanks, Vetka! It is familiar indeed, I going to send you a PM about it right now, but you noticed it first. :) For those others - I made the screenshot in Lord Vetka's Arden map. :) I put this shield of mine, set graphics to highest quality, and I did it. The river looks really great!

Well, this might be good indeed. In Stronghold 2 you build massive production in other estates because of population limit in your castle estate, and you need workers for stuff needed for earning gold and honor. Here you can build a massive production of weapons inside your castle, and rely on your villages to send you food. Maybe I didn't elaborate this quite well, as I haven't been playing Stronghold 2 for a while, and now I started to play it again; but I am quite certain that in Crusader 2 you might do similar thing - only you wouldn't use villages for producing different good. This thing would also make sense - you produce food in villages, while your industry is in the city. Still, we should mention that in Crusader 2 villages are not that much present like they are in Stronghold 2. If you put eight players, it seems like there wouldn't be much space for villages, although one could create a map with few villages in the middle of the map, for example, and all other players would fight over that village.

Germany is Central-European, so same as Belgrade - Serbia. :) It's 19:30.

I hope they'll add most of other stuff at least.

I agree about that. Mathew could have written the post a little bit differently, so others would feel need to reply something. :)

I believe we cannot say Firefly was not thinking when releasing this game, or something like that. What we can see now, is that they were trying to make it as simple as possible, so player could focus on fighting. This might be the best, as right now we have all three possibilities: in Stronghold 2 we have the most options, and everything is the most detailed, in Stronghold Crusader we have less options, but we still have to take care of our economy, while in Stronghold Crusader 2 we can build a stable economy which would, once we build it, take care of itself. Right now I have that feeling how it might be oversimplified as well, but we shall see. If they added some more features, so Crusader 2 would be somewhat closer to Crusader 1 by this matter, this would turn out to be a great game. They don't have moats, but I do have to admit - right now the desert looks more like it should look - it is dryer that the ground in Crusader 1 in some way, and if there were moats, one could indeed wonder "where did this water come from?". So if they add some more stuff, so it could be something like the old Crusader without moats, that would be great. Still, I believe that we should be able to build mangonels and ballistae on stone towers as well - not just on those wooden structures. And of course, I have always liked it more when we need to send engineers to our siege equipments, including mangonels and ballistae. Also, I have played Stronghold 2 lately, and those things are not right to me. I conquer some villages, and then AI builds siege camp deep inside my territory, and attack my castle. He doesn't do any harm to me, but still, that is not right.

I do understand that, it's just, we taught that newer ones could come to the top, instead of older ones. :) Thanks for your reply. :)

In fact, I believe this one doesn't have to be in a PM. Mathew only wanted to share how he's satisfied with how pitch is done in Crusader 2, and I believe I am not the only one who is curious about that. Could you post a screenshot of pitch, and perhaps one more with a small army burning on that pitch? :) But only if that doesn't take you much time, of course. :) I must say, this thing was one I was the most curious about before the game was released.

That is interesting - they made that pretty smart. Well, if they do add laddermen, and if they make them work like in Stronghold 2, which would be likely, it would be great! :)

I agree. :)

I meant to ask, what to you think about having a different forum layout over here. The reason I'm asking this is because we have Stronghold Crusader 2 now, and it is all way down now, and if someone wanted to see it, he would have to scroll all way down. This is one of the reasons in fact, but it is the most important one, but I also don't want to tell this is very much important. I'm just opening a discussion, to hear what you think. My suggestion would be to put games in this order: Stronghold Crusader 2 Stronghold 3 Stronghold Legends Stronghold 2 Stronghold Crusader Stronghold Stronghold Kingdoms CivCity Rome Another option would be: Stronghold Stronghold Crusader Stronghold 2 Stronghold Legends Stronghold 3 Stronghold Crusader 2 Stronghold Kingdoms CivCity Rome Again, I don't say I am sure that we need this, I'm just asking for opinion, and I've got feeling how Crusader 2 shouldn't be all way down there. :)

I have just read the story, it seems like a great battle. Considering to your story, Stronghold Crusader 2 did turn out to be a nice game - I hope they will also add some more features in future - such as those laddermen I've been speaking about. It's nice how you were able to send each other resources. By the way, were you able to send those instantly, or you were sending it like in Stronghold 2, using carters? I did notice Crusader 2 has carters, so I guess the answer is obvious, but I still had to ask. :) Also, if you did have to send your resources this way, I'd say it was even more fun. One more thing I was glad to read about was how Caliph was resisting! I'm glad to hear that Firefly did make it to make Caliph a difficult opponent to kill. I must admit I was skeptical about that after seeing his castle design.

If I got that right, it does come with the game, but it is not ran from the game - one can start it from Steam, before starting Crusader 2. Nevertheless, I should tell, I do have the game, I read this on a forum. :)

I don't have my own copy of the game yet, but I am sure this will serve at least to some players, who like to share their maps. :) I will mention to that guy at Crusader 2 forum, that he can upload his maps here.