EaglePrince

Good news everyone! Firefly has finally announced what is good to be the Stronghold Next. Here's the video. It's going to be called Stronghold: Warlords, and it's going to be about Far East. However, we should hold out breath, it's planned to arrive in 2020. What are your thoughts?

And in case that it's simply about forum software, how easy would it be to migrate the forum into a more modern one? That might be a way to "fix" nite "issues", including not having a mobile friendly theme, and the ability to enable Tapatalk.

Same with me. When I go back, and resubmit the post, then it works. I am logged in with multiple browsers and devices, including Opera on my phone, and Chrome browser on PC's. Perhaps something else too.

Yes, in that case your post is even more relevant. One could easily get to think how, if you buy something online, you can't get your country to help you. And who knows, maybe in my case it would be harder than for you - from the UK. Nevertheless, I have heard about laws like that. For example, when I make a booking of a hotel room, and I get charged, then I can get my money back now matter what the hotel states, because I was charged by the hotel without being physically there. Now, that sounds strange to me actually. Your example sounds more natural. But it's definitely worth reading those "few paragraphs". Luckily for us, today all those documents are available online. PS. "11.4.2. Any, including one-time, breach by the User of the conditions hereof or of the Key Documents, as well as the terms for using other games of Battlestate Games Limited. In this case, Battlestate Games Limited and/or the Licensor does not refund the User or reimburse any losses." I don't know if it's because English is not my native language, but without your explanation I would have no clue what they meant to say with this. :D I was like "If I something, then something something... What!?" :D

This is an important topic, and I am happy you made it through. I would also like to add. It's not even about the EU only. Even in smaller countries laws explicitly say that one (in this case the costumer) cannot give up his right, not evening if you sign a contract. The law is above any contact. However, here where I live it does matter where you buy stuff. There are many shops that don't sell their stuff legally. I can recognize many who sell stuff from AliExpress. So I just stick to those few that I know they're fine. And surely, it's all far from the state of things in developed countries, and I happy that at some of those useful things were forced by the EU to my country. Out of curiosity. Did you buy the game online, or in a retail shop?

But Crusader is more dynamic because resourced and everything else is being produced faster, including massive armies. That's what I meant. :) And I completely agree with you, even in Crusader there are many players who play in higher speed because they think Crusader is not dynamic enough. But in reality, it's then who don't know how to use the time. I imagine you have the same feeling about Stronghold 1. And more dynamic isn't better. It depends. As I see it, Stronghold 1 is less dynamic, and therefore players must play more carefully - your mistakes here are far more expensive. And because of that, Stronghold 1 players need to be more patient, and I think that's why Stronghold 1 has more mature players. Once again, just like I told you at Steam, I like what you do. I hope you will also try some stuff suggested here by others, such as talking to the microphone instead of typing. :)

First of all, I meant noting bad. :) We simply prefer different styles of playing. I prefer to actually build a castle, and you prefer it another way. And both are fine, and both types of players can appreciate your content. That's what I did in the first place! I learned a lot by playing on my own. Then I met some other players, some of those "pros", and then I learned their ways. After that I made my own style - to build a castle, AND to build the economy more efficiently. And why not - use some of the fighting tactics I've learned from "pros". Later I only played with friends from this forum, and I changed it a little bit more - I refrained from using few more of those tricks. Such as - not spam mills and water pots for higher population. Also, there is no pro player in Stronghold 1 or Crusader 1. Pro is somebody who gets paid for it. No matter how good you're at playing the game, you're not a pro unless that's how you earn for living. ;) Stronghold 1 and Crusader 1 are simply two different games. Crusader is more dynamic and has more troops, while Stronghold 1 has slower economy. Both are very fun, neither is better. It is a matter of preference. I didn't fall into an abyss, I just noted what I don't want to spend my time on. Teaching other player to play is never bad. Maybe not teaching them is actually arrogant. They don't teach anybody, and when they defeat the new guy easily, they just quit telling how he's a noob. That's very immature. I actually prefer my friends from Crusader 1 for that matter, and the best ones are those who don't expect any loyalty. I mean, what loyalty, are they some kind of kings, or something? Hell, no. Be their friend, and accept that all of them have their own (real) lives. And accept the fact that they are not signing a contact with the Devil, they can do whatever they want, even online. There is no possible way one could become your enemy online. :D And it is not easy to learn to play Crusader 1, it is only easier to learn to play it in certain rules, such as "no fire, no flying stone". And it was easier to learn even before all that was on YouTube, because there were players willing to show you. I don't judge you, nor your friends. I am sorry if you got that impression. :) I am only speaking about those games, and how I prefer to play these games. And I don't say that those who don't think like me are worse in any way, we just like different things. ;) And what bonds us, we like the same game. :)

Rakso, been there, done that. :) I used to play Stronghold Crusader of those "pros", but I don't like their ways. They are too competitive, and I my opinion it ruins the fun. I got tired of those guys making screenshot of every game, trying to prove something to the "community". What is more, settings rules which favor not building almost any defensive structures is wrong. Those guys should return to what the game was supposed to be. Sure, those scenarios you're describing are possible even in Crusader. Both players can just "turtle", build up a lot of defensive structures, and then it may seam pointless to try to end the game. However, if you let your enemy build up like that, isn't that your fault as well? Why did you let him? Try to push him, while he didn't make all that. Or - why play 1v1, why not 2v2. In this case, if one side "turtles", then each player from that team would actually be an easy target for the other team which controls the map. There are other ways you could play the game in the more natural way - you may set some other rules. Or, what is the BEST, absolutely the BEST, is to play the game with friends. Not with some bragging dudes over there. It is far more fun - there will be no leavers, and you will all play for fun, no matter how good or bad somebody plays. You will find a way to make the fight even. And when you play with friends, one awesome thing comes in in Stronghold 1! You can make an alliance, or you can force somebody to make the alliance, and he can even betray you. The fact that somebody made those Alpha rules doesn't mean to me that those rules are the best, but sure - it suited some people for some reasons. For example, this way the game lasts shorter time. But this is actually only important if you play with random people, not when playing with friends. I think that we look at it just differently. You want to take down your opponent, while some other people which may be labeled as "noobs" like to spend the quality time in the game. Look at Stronghold 2 for example. For fighting, it's not much, but to "chill and fight", damn, it's perfect. And if only we were able to play the multiplayer against AI lords. It's similar in Stronghold 1 and Crusader 1. You can build your castles, and fight, and agree not to "turtle" too much. Then you would have many skirmishes outside your castles, and one players defeat on an open field, or in front of an enemy castle, could have massive impact on the game - and even mean your eventual defeat. Because in Stronghold 1, which is great, one cannot replace their troops as easily as in Crusader 1. But you need some different rules for that, such as - not throwing cows on troops in open field. Maybe what I said now is the reason why people now haven't adopted this "pro" way of playing in Stronghold 1. It's too far away from the originally intended way of playing, the natural way of playing. However, all this is my opinion, and I may not be right. :D And no matter what we thought about this matter, people love knowing more tricks, and knowing how to play in a more efficient way. No matter whether they play "the way it was meant to be played", or by Alpha or Liga rules, this is useful to them.

Haha, it sounds like somebody's having fun. :D Or somebody else at least. :D Good luck to you in the next world! I would love to join you, especially when I hear you're just starting, but damn, I know I couldn't afford the time to play it. Also, I remember when I was playing Travian, it was very bad actually considering that one needed to access a PC every now and then. Though it might be different now when the games can be played on the phone.

Or, the other good way would be to use a microphone. Though I understand some might be "microphone-shy", me included. :) But speaking out loud is, I think, still the best for videos like this.

Glad to hear from all of you guys! Congratulations, you've been doing quite well, I see. :) And just one observation - computer science you say... So you're pretty close to me in that sense. For my PhD theses I do algebra, and I'm having around myself a lot of people who do computer science. Though those closer to me are less into programming themselves, but more into stuff like "what could a PC possible compute", in terms of how complex would something be to compute. Beside that, I'm teaching C# to students of mathematics at my faculty. :) Though I am a mathematician. One more thing worth telling. Programming can be very useful in mathematical proofs - it can help you with counterexamples. A group at St Andrews University (among few other universities in Germany and the USA I think) works on something called GAP. It could be used when working with graphs, and some structures that we call groups. I hope we would be able to play a game or two when the summer comes, together with Crusader1307. ;)

I would still like to add one thing - when you read Rekso's post, your impression might be "another guy playing like a 'pro'", because most of people here don't like playing Stronghold games like that. For one thing, all of us here like to enjoy Stronghold, and to actually build the castle. This is my opinion: if people play a Stronghold game, and it turns out that playing it without building the castle gives more chances to win, then something is wrong with the game, and it needs to be fixed. Unfortunately, we have no power to fix the game like that, and therefore, we make an agreement not to do some stuff which give an advantage without making any sense. Portable shields might be my favorite example of that. Troops moving with portable shields gives them more protection than putting them on a tower. That's a nonsense which becomes even more serious in Crusader 1 where you can see dozens of portable shields running alongside with horse archers. Still, watching videos like this is valuable - we can take from them exactly what we like. Plus, there are certainly some non-active visitors who would like to learn exactly how to play "like a pro". That is why I think having these tutorials at Stronghold Nation would be quite a good thing. Maybe some of these could be added into all other tutorials. :)

Yes, I see we've come to an agreement. I would only add one more thing about these differences in costs. It depends on the map. If the map is with little iron, and you cannot buy a lot of iron to produce more weapons, then choosing pikemen means twice as large army. Plus, pikemen are more resilient to arrows, and even to killing pits. Two killing pits are needed to kill a pikemen.

Hey, guys. A friend of mine from Steam likes playing Stronghold 1. He's pretty good at it, and because very few online players know how to play more efficiently - me included, he has started making videos. Those are videos of his multiplayer games, but he has made some nice multiplayer tutorials as well! This is one of his videos. And this one is a tutorial. I know, some of us don't even want to play "in the most efficient way", but to know more is definitely better! Yes, there are many "dirty tricks" in these games that we don't like, but we can use those tricks that are not dirty, that would help us bring a little bit more dynamics in the game. And it's now just about few of us speaking here, it is also about all those people out there who quietly come by, download maps, find some solutions, read about some tactics, etc. I'm expecting that he will come to say hi in this thread. In the meantime, this is his channel. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCw6lU4an1bmqgXH5kxA4nSQ

This is nice observation. I think there is only one thing you didn't mention - cost. If you fight on a map with less iron, this is a very important factor, so you choose between a group of swordsmen and twice as many pikemen. Still, I wouldn't call them defensive units either, because they are slow, and in case you need to displace your troops within the castle, you're going to have a hard time. It's all fine when everything is as expected, but the opponent could wipe out all your archers on one side of the castle, or even set the castle to fire. In the later case these swordsmen behind the gate would die. Not to mention cows that the enemy throws upon your castle. Because of this you would actually have to keep them on the keep. But, as everybody else here knows well, I like swordsmen, and I even use them to attack. You just need to use them smart. For example, of course you wouldn't send them out alone without some archers or crossbowmen. And swordsmen do have some great advantage over pikemen. In case of melee fight they kill their opponents very quickly, while the opposite is the case with pikemen. So yes, swordsmen are more vulnerable to crossbow bolts, but pikemen would have to fight under fire longer before being able to move on. Nevertheless, when an enemy brings tons of archers and crossbowmen on top of castle, just waiting there for my attack and making their defenses stronger, then I attack with pikemen, and swordsmen are out of question. And another thing. I prefer to play as I please, rather then fighting in the most efficient way. It might indeed be much easier to play without swordsmen, but they are still going to be my choice in many situations.

This is somewhat late reply, but yes, I have the same feeling as you do. Few days ago I took a look at their YouTube channel, and it seems like they still don't have anything new concrete to show. I myself have also lost interest in listening what they have to say about Stronghold Next, but not that I'm not interested. I am very interested in what they are about to bring us, but I've just stopped paying attention. They are just giving us some teasers, but we haven't seen a single screenshot yet. We still don't know what is it going to be about either? Only that it's something new - not Western Europe, and not Crusades.

Glad to see you're interested, and yes - I would love for you to show me how it looks like where you live. I enjoy following people on Flickr. Some of them share photos from where they live, such as Minnesota, Wales, etc. Some of them have chances to travel a lot, and they share their photos from all around the world. I love both, but I would enjoy your photos much more because I know you guy. :) This fact alone would make these photos "less generic". Here are few more shots from Budapest. I have plenty more from this year, and I should organize them better, and I would like to share more of them with you. Shoes on the Danube Bank, Budapest by gari, on Flickr The Sz?chenyi Chain Bridge, Budapest by gari, on Flickr

Yup, I do think the knight's white pony-tail when zoomed in is one of the bugs in Stronghold 2 Steam Edition, I also have it. I didn't know they hand't fixed it yet, even by now, and right now they are saying they mostly work on Stronghold Next. Luckily for me, I still have the retail version of the game as well, so I can remain on the version 1.4.1. Steam Edition used to have some other more serious and strange issues. In castle build my mom at some moment couldn't place a building somewhere in her castle, as if at some specific spot was something invisible object. By the way, I myself am not bothered with the fact how many of them use somebody else's crest depending on their colors, though I agree Firefly should have taken care of that. Why not William to have his own crest when orange, only in orange color, right... But what I would like more is for me to have my own crest, and to make it visible by others in the multiplayer game. Now if Chris and I wanted to play a game with our custom crest we would have to sent our crests to each other, deal who would be the player 1, the player 2, etc., and then start the multiplayer game. Too much trouble.

Thanks for sharing! I was just going to do the same. By the waym what is this? Could that be a hint? And what nation could this be?

Nick (from Firefly, the guy in the video) actually said it wouldn't be something regarding Far East, thus samurais, Japan, China, nor Korea will not be the theme of Stronghold Next. (I hope I haven't memorized something wrong here.) He also said it wouldn't be about Romans either because they want castles, not city management. For the same reason I think we can rule out ancient Greece too. Yes, Romans shouldn't imply "no castles", but perhaps their reasons is Romans (and Greeks) having very reach city life. Their cities were huge, while Roman fortresses were not self-sufficient. I might be wrong there. But that is why I think it would be Middle Ages (or maybe Dark Ages), and that it would be something in or around Europe. They want something new, but not too much different.

I agree. From that point, what've they choose, it would be challenging. Another thing about Byzantines and Ottomans would be that Fireflies fan base is mostly in the UK, Germany, Poland, etc. We love it here in Balkans as well, but I'm afraid that my fellow Balkan buddies just don't have as much money to post for the game as those in Western and Central Europe, and Firefly is aware of that. Therefore I'm also almost sure that Byzantine Empire, with their neighbors: Bulgarians, Serbs, etc., is out of question. But Anglo-Saxon England is something I would love to see! With all that diversity with Welsh, Picts, Irish, and Vikings, it could be great. And something we are familiar with. Regarding the Stronghold theme, I think any part of Europe would fit, especially if they want something new.

Hey, guys! We have some news about Stronghold Next. Firefly has made a video answering some of fans' questions, and in the future they will give us more answers. Here's the video. Stronghold Next - Mega Q&A (Part 1) In short, what I found the most interesting, is that it will have colon in its name. It will be "Stronghold: [something]". We don't know what will this new Stronghold be about, but they did say it's not going to be Legends, nor Crusader, and it's not going to be about Far East either. Whatever they have chosen, there are plenty of stuff. My assumption is that it's going to have Europeans, but what exactly... Viking Invasion on British Isles, The Golden Horde (yup, they did not invade only Russia, once they even reached heart of Europe while fighting against Hungarians and Poles), Arabian invasion into Europe during Charles Martel, something about Byzantines (which dealt with many different nations including Turks, Slavs, many nomadic peoples, Crusaders, Venetians, Saracen, etc.)... But Viking Invasion is my favorite guess, and I would like the idea with Mongols too.

Those are great news, Tom, I'm happy things have turned out great for you regarding your studies. :) As for the event, I'm looking forward to seeing it. :)

Congratulations Mathew, this is indeed well deserved. :)

Yup, that's approximately how it should work. You scroll through your maps, and when you're at a map you want to play with others, you press Send map (or something similar), and the others have to press Receive map (or something similar). They need to accept the map to be sent to them. However, on some occasions I too was not able to send a map like that. Then we would all leave the game, and try it again. I have to note that it is necessary for all players to have the same version of the game. If one of you have Steam version, then it is the HD. Then everybody else must have the latest HD version as well. What versions do the others have? If they don't have the latest patch, they should be able to download it from the official Crusader HD website. DO KEEP IN MIND that those who have older versions should be advised to backup their entire cfg files from Documents\Stronghold Crusader. Because after playing 1.4 this file would become useless with 1.1 and 1.2 versions. Thus if they decide to reinstall 1.1 or 1.2, they would lose their campaign and Crusader Trail progress. Also, I don't have Steam versions of Crusader installed, but I believe they haven't removed this feature from the game. Though even if they had, you can send the file to your friends via Dropbox, OneDrive, Google Drive, etc. But I'm pretty confident that you didn't have this options because of some temporary issues, or due to incompatible versions of the game. 1.1 and 1.2 are compatible with each other. 1.3 is only compatible with itself. 1.4 is only compatible with itself. If my reply doesn't help, and you have any further questions, do ask. :)