Is there a fix for moats in Stronghold 2?

[EaglePrince 233]

Hi, I meant to ask, does there exist any fix / mod, that fixes moats in Stronghold 2? The only reason I don't like to place moats is because it looks too blocky... :(

 

Speaking about these, it would be nice if there was some fix for pitch as well, but that is more tolerable.

[Lord_Chris 267]

[...] that fixes moats in Stronghold 2?

 

It's a bit vague. In what way? The texture?

[EaglePrince 233]

This is how it looks like at both my computers...

It has blocky corners, and the water seems to be at the same level as the ground (instead to be in a little bit lower level).

 

I would like if it would be possible for moat to look a little bit more natural, if that is possible. If it looked like march (in Stronghold 2) for example (only different color), that would be great. :)

[Lord_Chris 267]

If you only want it to look different, then all you need to do is open the file /stronghold 2/terrain/river/moat.bik and edit it. Please note that it would still take up the same amount of space on a map. You can convert it from a bink file to being editable/openable ?/viewable by downloading rad game tools and converting it with that.

Edited July 27, 2014 by Lord_Chris

[EaglePrince 233]

Thanks, I will try this one. I doubt I will manage to do anything useful for some reason, but we'll see.

 

EDIT: Do you know of some way do edit Stronghold 2.exe? I took a look at that folder, and I saw that moat is in moat.bik file, while march for example is in march.dds file... I've god following in my mind - if I just edit this moat.bik, then I would edit how this square would look like, and it would look like that always - no matter what! I want it to be smarter, so he could "see" when there is another one nearby, so they could have common smooth edges. This moats would look like "just another type of blocky grass" - it would look more natural. I want a waterside to be between grass and water nearby grass...

 

I hope I explained it right.

Edited July 27, 2014 by EaglePrince

[Lord_Chris 267]

Do you know of some way do edit Stronghold 2.exe?

 

Nope, it's been compiled, and it's irreversible to my knowledge. But it's not legal anyway.

 

The second part isn't probably very easy to do, because of the fact that the file types are completely different and are made up of different files for those.

[EaglePrince 233]

Well, maybe it is still possible to do the way you suggested in the first place.

 

I also meant to ask this one... I think that moats in Stronghold Legends look better than in Stronghold 2. I don't have Stronghold Legends on my PC, so could you tell me if I am right about that, and if I am, maybe I could try to switch these files?

 

I just want to check if there is any easy way, before trying anything else.

[Lord_Chris 267]

The moat for SHL is located at /Stronghold Legends/terrain/river/moat.bik, and yes, it is the same file. You should be able to switch those and it should change the moat in SH2.

[EaglePrince 233]

I will try some stuff, and I will tell what happens.

[EaglePrince 233]

I just meant to say - I did not try to switch those files... Later I just tough it wouldn't change anything - it still wouldn't look any better. Also, Doomsword gave me this reply at Stronghold Heaven, and it just confirmed my thoughts.

You can change the color/texture but that's probably all.

So I would be able to change only texture, but I wanted more - I wanted to make the moat seem more like a moat. :) I wanted the water to seem as it is on lower level than the ground, but that is not possible - at least not this way.

 

Thanks for help! :)

Edited July 28, 2014 by EaglePrince

[Charles of Tours 69]

A possibility is to change the texture of the moat to the river texture, and smooth the edges (except in paths meant to be dug in) with the river water tool. But that would only work in the editor, and not in all cases even then. :(

 

Another possibility is to use the marsh / swamp texture to smooth the edges, like mentioned above, but this may be harder to do.

 

The moats in SHC and SH1 are a bit blocky too, but the tiles are much smaller (and we can't zoom in too far) which makes it look better. If one imagines the in-game tiles as pixels, then the older games would look more "High Definition" due to a higher resolution (view is farther away from the earth). I hope that isn't too confusing. :)

[Lord__Ship 7]

Well it's not a fix but using weeds to edge the moat with will make a big difference:

See here how I 'fix' my moats Stronghold weeds :)

PS to view it best go fullscreen.

Edited June 20, 2016 by Lord__Ship

[EaglePrince 233]

Well it's not a fix but using weeds to edge the moat with will make a big difference:

See here how I 'fix' my moats Stronghold weeds :)

PS to view it best go fullscreen.

 

I'm not home at the moment, and i can't watch the video, but from what you said I guess this only works in map editor - it wouldn't work for castle in skirmish game?