Locking/Unlocking Stronghold Crusader 2 Maps

By Lord_Chris

In this article, I'd like to show you how to lock or unlock Stronghold Crusader 2 maps. In Stronghold 2, you can download our Map Unlocker program, that runs on Java - this also works on Stronghold Legends maps as well. However, in Stronghold 3 and the new release of Crusader 2, it wasn't previously possible to lock or unlock such maps.

I then attempted the trick on Stronghold 3 and found it also worked there. It's more surprising just how simple it is to complete as well. When the map is locked, you will see the following screen:





The process is very simple to complete, first of all, find a suitable map you would like to unlock, or choose a map you would like to lock. From there, copy it to your desktop, and change the file extension from 'shmap' to 'zip'.

Note that in some versions of Windows, file extensions may not be shown automatically, meaning you can't edit the file extension - so when you are changing the name, it's part of the name you are adding instead of the extension (particularly newer versions of Windows). If this is the case, for Windows 7 or Vista, follow this guide. For Windows 8 or 10, use this one. You can now change the file extension. Windows will then throw an error that the file might become unusable, just click on yes and continue.



From here, find the file named 'editor.ed' inside the archive. Copy it to your desktop, and change the file extension of that from 'ed' to 'txt'. It's important to copy it out of the archive because otherwise you won't be able to edit it. Now open it up in a text editor installed on your machine (I use Notepad++) and search for the word 'locked'.



If the map is currently locked, then the value will be true. If the map is unlocked, the value will be false. Simply change this value to the opposite of what it currently is, save the file, and then reverse the process - change the file extension from 'txt' back to 'ed', paste it back into the zip archive, and change the file extension of the archive from 'zip' to 'shmap'. Now, open it in the editor!

This image shows the map freebuild a large area in the editor:


Enjoy a new map creation experience!