Lord_Chris

Hi Paul! You're right, it has been a long time - good to see you around again! I'm great thanks, things have been pretty manic lately but are finally starting to settle down a bit. How about yourself? You wouldn't mind uploading some to the downloads section/sharing them so I can upload them, would you? They could prove invaluable for us in the long-term and would help massively until we get a chance to get some walkthroughs up - even then I usually link saved games at the bottom of all walkthroughs I write.

I apologise as it has been a long time over a week - but I have finally rewritten that article! It has much more detail and it loads better than ever before. The updated version can be found at this link: https://www.stronghold-nation.com/article/62-adding-units-from-stronghold-legends-into-stronghold-2

But before he could hear anything, a sound of armour clinking could be heard from just around the corner of the Commander's Tent. It sounded like a small group of soldiers, and he could hear the voice of the old officer from the checkpoint. The officer walked around the corner with his left hand on the top of the handle on his sword, placed firmly in his scabbard, the right hanging by his side as he walked slowly, his head in a slightly lowered position towards the ground. He was in the process of talking to a very small group of soldiers around him. It was now dusk and it was apparent that they were leaving their shift. It appeared unknown whether there would be less guards on the night shift or more, and Sir Loring pondered over this for a moment. But it wasn't long before the group came around the corner, still walking slowly, before having their attention caught by Loring. They hadn't expected him to be tied to the Tree he was tied to, and it came as a surprise. The group stopped all of a sudden when they reached him. "Who moved him there?" asked the Commander to two nearby guards. They both stared at each other blankly for a moment before the officer quickly spoke up. "Well don't just stand there, find out!" The two of them ran off in opposite directions and the escort remained guarding Sir Loring. While waiting however, they remained fairly silent. Loring could tell there was some form of meeting ongoing in the Commander's Tent and strained to hear it. With the wind whistling through the trees it was very difficult. After a few seconds, he heard a voice "My Lords, we cannot allow this to happen. I propose that we station a force in the Mines of Xilious to deter any such invasion. It is of crucial ...." before Loring could hear any more the guards returned, along with the soldier who had moved Loring. The officer then questioned the solider "Are you responsible for this?" he snapped. The soldier looked down at the ground, clearly ashamed. "Yes sir." he muttered. The officer then relieved him of his duty and sent him back to the camp to be disciplined. He then turned to Sir Loring and pointed towards him. "Bring him with us" he commanded to a guard. "Clearly he is too dangerous to be left here." A nearby guard unchained Loring from the tree, though kept him chained. He had tight hold of the chains and moved him along with the group who continued along the path. Sir Loring had no idea where this was taking him, but knew he was not staying part of the camp - for some reason. They quickly moved out of the camp and up a winding, narrow path. All sounds ceased from the camp, and natural wildlife could be heard. They kept moving through the path, and came across a small stream with a wooden bridge over it. All the time, security was becoming more and more heavy, but managed to pass through without being challenged due to the officer's status. The bridge was only small enough for people, so Sir Loring quickly determined that there must be another way to wherever they were heading. After crossing the bridge they continued through the forest until they came to what appeared to be a large stone wall where the path suddenly ended against it. There was a very small path which continued around the right of the building. Loring was confused, there was nowhere to go any further yet they continued in the direction of the solid stone wall. It suddenly became quite dark, and it started to rain, slowly becoming heavier - and to make matters worse, they could tell a lightning storm was on the way as well. After reaching the wall, they stopped for a moment. One of the soldiers tapped twice with his Pike on the wall. After a few seconds, a heavy grinding sound could be heard, and a few seconds later a double door opened outwards out of the rock in front of them, heavily guarded in the inside. They trooped inside along with Loring. It would have been dark inside as well, if not for the steady lining of wall torches, approximately halfway up both the left and right walls, all the way along to the end. The floor was a sandy coloured marble surface, very smooth. In the centre of the room a large crest in a circle was emblazoned on the floor, before a small set of steps upwards and a set of arched wooden doors at the end of the room. Once inside, Loring took a moment to admire the marvellous construction, slightly taken back. But it was not a moment later that the same grinding sound of stone could be heard once again with the outside doors shutting. It was very cleverly camouflaged from the outside, almost impossible to see. Loring watched as several soldiers powered the door in the same way a Portcullis was opened and closed - an intriguing invention. The officer disappeared for several minutes and then returned, holding an Iron key. With not a moment to lose, his chains were quickly tugged by a solider and he was moved on towards the stairwell. But they instead moved to a smaller wooden door to the right of the stairs against the back wall, rather than heading . The door was opened, and they moved down a spiral staircase to a lower level of the castle. They could have ventured further down, but the officer had clearly decided that this was far enough for some reason. They headed towards an Iron door, which was firmly locked. The officer unlocked the door and then the group trailed through, before locking the door behind them. They then proceeded around the corner, headed through another set of doors before stumbling into what appeared to be a block of empty prison cells. Each one contained a locked iron door with a set of keys at the end of the hall hanging up. Loring was taken past several used cells and then a cell in front of him was unlocked. He was unchained and pushed in, before the door promptly being locked again. The guards then disappeared and a few seconds later he was left in silence. He stood up and looked around his cell. It was very cramped, only 10ft squared. It contained a small wooden table & chair, a low bed and hay and straw on the floor. A small wall torch lit up the room next to the table, but other than this there was very little. Meanwhile, back in the forest, Goodman and Geralt could hear the Thunder outside the cave. This was not a very nice time to be in that position, but there was very little they could do but take shelter. Goodman thought for a moment, about how best to reply to Geralt ....

Browser caching maybe? This is definitely working for me so I can only assume this is browser-specific. Can you provide a link to a post you've tried to edit and failed at?

For the game text, you mentioned about text from The Snake .etc. I've also found unused audio for them, Firefly appears to have axed them right at the last moment. If you're editing a Lord though, you can use some of these to give things a fresh taste. I've also noticed numerous spelling mistakes in those files, for example during the Apple Blight event in a custom map it says "stuck" instead of "struck". What more have you found regarding the animation lists? I'm not quite sure I fully understand what you're referring to there. You mentioned teenagers and children, the children are around with the mothers in Hovels, while the miller boys are the teenagers, if I remember correctly. Interesting conclusions!

Just a quick note to let people know that we now have walkthroughs for all missions & trails in Stronghold Legends. Head on over to our walkthroughs section to have a look.

Interesting. I've never tried Anti-aliasing, is there much difference other than textures? Also what happens if you zoom all the way out compared with zooming all the way in - does anything change with doing that?

I've made a structural change to the downloads section - there is no longer a Contest Maps section. The five files which were in there have now been moved into the regular download sections for each respective game.

They disguised themselves and started moving in the direction of the checkpoint, along with the cart. Not only was this a good way to try to get past, but also a clear way of testing just how far they could be seen from the direction of the troops. Almost immediately the guards from the lookout tower noticed them and signalled down to the guards below to move forwards to stop Goodman and Loring. The two of them slowly moved further forward - consistently looking down at the ground and avoiding eye contact - until eventually they were abruptly brought to a halt by a sharp command. "Halt! By order of his grace, Duke Renault, we demand to know what you are doing in these lands." the voice commanded. There were several guards with Pikes nearby, and they looked very tense, ready to quickly act if need be. This convinced Goodman of one thing - this was not a group of rookie troops; they were clearly very experienced in such matters and should be treated as such. "We're here to provide some goods to the Duke m'lord" said Goodman. "What goods" snapped the Constable, a look of direct suspicion on his face. He walked over to the cart and moved several items with his hand, all the time keeping a constant and uncomfortable stare at the two of them. Goodman could tell he was becoming more suspicious by the moment and once again shifted his line of sight to the ground. "Nothing but humble Merchants, m'lord" Goodman added, hoping his intervention would not hinder them at all. For a moment the Constable moved away from the Cart, looking like his suspicions had been dissuaded. "Very well." added the Constable, placing his sword back into his scabbard. The Pikemen moved towards each side of the path, and Goodman and Loring quickly moved forwards a few feet with their cart. They needed to get out of there as soon as possible. But just as Goodman was giving a quiet sigh of relief, the Constable spoke up again in his usual authoritarian tone of voice. He had kept a steady gaze upon them since they first started moving. "Hey you, hold up a moment." AT the sound of his voice, Goodman and Loring immediately stopped pulling their cart and turned around. "You're one of Duke Christopher's bodyguards, aren't you?" Goodman knew that the situation had now gone from bad to worse. "No good lord, just a humble Merchant" Goodman once again muttered. This time the Constable was not fooled so easily. "Not so fast" he added. "Guards, arrest these men!" The nearby Pikemen moved in and searched both Goodman and Loring, immediately confiscating their weapons. Goodman allowed them, knowing that he needed to get into the Castle alive. "So .... you're merely 'humble merchants' are you?" laughed the Constable. "Nothing of the sort! Bring out the chains immediately!" two or three nearby guards moved off for a moment along with the Constable. Two Pikemen kept a close watch on both Loring and Goodman, but several others stood around in a group having a conversation - falsely believing the situation was under control. Goodman knew this was his chance to cause as much disruption as possible, and whispered to Loring some final instructions, including to remain where he was and allow himself to be arrested - Goodman would return in good time and in force, to save Loring. But this was his chance, and he took it with open arms. Two guards returned with two sets of chains, and the Constable was behind them. But they were still several hundred feet away, so Goodman made his move. He stood up, and moved towards the left of the path. Taking a final glance to the right, he jumped into the bushes and ran for his life. The noise immediately was noticed by the nearby guards, and the Constable. "Hey! Get after him!" yelled the Constable. A few startled guards who were in conversation suddenly grabbed their weapons and ran into the trees, but in midst of the chaos it was very disorganised. "Get him in chains, immediately!" yelled the Constable, before running off into the Trees after Goodman. a few moments later the sound of a large horn could be heard from the lookout tower and within 30 seconds a platoon of Archers had arrived at the scene along with another officer for them. He strolled up and down the lines, while they were preparing to fire. Loring watched with a mixture of amazement and shock - if they open fired as they looked like they were about to, they could even risk killing their own troops in their desperation to apparently kill Goodman. It was too late for Loring to do anything however, as a guard finally arrived and chained his hands. He was kept nearby and guarded in force while this demonstration continued. "Ready ... and ...... fire!!" yelled the Archer group's commander. The sounds of many arrows could be heard whistling through the trees in the general direction of Goodman. Round after round was fired, until eventually the Archers paused for a moment. It was at this point Loring was taken away up the path further past the checkpoint by a small platoon of 16 Pikemen. Meanwhile Goodman was running for his life in the trees. He could hear the sound of Pikemen running behind him, but due to the dense undergrowth of the forest, and the thick, unsightly trees, it was almost impossible to see in front of his face, and the same for those troops. Still, he kept running, knowing that he had caused major disruption and problems. All of a sudden a large flurry of arrows came whooshing through the trees, landing all around Goodman. He hunched down, but kept on running, trying to avoid them at all cost. He knew that he had a physical advantage over the soldiers in that they carried many weapons and he did not, only lightly dressed. After a while, he stumbled upon a clearing with a well hidden cave and a small river nearby. He took refuge in there for a quick breather - hoping to avoid the detection of any potential troops nearby. They were now only a few minutes behind him, but this should give him enough chance to regain his breath and start running again. He had no idea where he was in the forest now, but this was the least of his worries. He regained his breath and was about to move out of the cave when he heard several shouts "Is he over there!?" Negative, still searching!" He heard the voice of the Constable yelling more orders "You lot, get over there and search that part of the forest - he must be found!" A small group of what sounded like 10 or so soldiers started marching at a jog in Goodman's direction, he immediately stopped peeking outside of the cave and quietly returned inside for a moment. They stopped and started slowly walking around the clearing. From his position Goodman could see that there were 6-8 of them, all with long Pikes again. They spread around the clearing for a moment, the senior of them bending down examining the soil looking for potential tracks. Another of them moved towards the cave. He paused for a moment, and stared right at its concealed entrance, though clearly didn't notice it. He slowly moved around the front for a moment, and then paused. Goodman held his breath, knowing that it was a very tense moment. But before anything could happen, another yell could be heard from the soldier analysing the tracks. "This way!" he shouted, pointing in a completely different direction of the forest. All the soldiers ran off in that direction, leaving Goodman safely inside his Cave. The shouts, footsteps and clinking of armour slowly became more and more distant. He waited for few moments, and then peeked out of the cave. Everything seemed clear. Goodman heaved a sigh of relief - it appeared he was safe, for now ......

Hi everyone, I thought I'd share a quick update with you all that I've just performed to our article system. Before you had to scroll all the way to the end of an article in order to rate it. I've changed this now so that it's the same as the system for rating downloads. Simply hover over the existing stars at the top of the article, and select which rating you would like to give the article. I'd also like to share several new files with you all that have been uploaded by @jmatthes- they are of an exceptionally high quality and have meticulous detail added into them. If you get a chance check them out, they're in our Stronghold 2 Custom War downloads section.

These things are possible, but it requires a very specific setup and can't be done with official scripted events, to my knowledge.

This sounds fantastic - I'm looking forward to it! :)

I don't believe this is possible, unfortunately. Most of the information like this is hidden away somewhere, where we can't find. I usually buy an entire estate exclusively for the purpose of candle production and get them persistently shipped in to me as quickly as I need in order to avoid this problem. In regards to 1.4.1, you can find the download patch here: https://www.stronghold-nation.com/downloads/file/12-patch-141-update/ Once installed, you need to download GameRanger in order to play online now, as unfortunately GameSpy no longer works.

That would be great Matthew to have you here with us! Feel free to post your character in here at any time. :)

Those are some great ideas @Floki, I can't believe they hadn't already been added to the list! I've added them now. :)

It's achievable but you have to upload the XML file with your map so that other players download it and get the translated village names. The downside to this of course, is that you'd lose the translations and only English speaking users would be able to use the map. Unless, of course, you had translated versions for each language. It's just like crests and other things where each person who plays the map must have the edited files to play. Best of luck with your exams, I hope they go well for you! I'm great too thank you, been very busy over the last few months, and hardly had a chance to look back, but other than this all good!

Once the village names have been selected, they're saved in any saved games for that map as some form of ID, I believe, which relates to the language string for that specific village name. They go sonething like 'VILLAGE_ESTATE_1' through to various numbers, if I'm correct. When the map loads, the game then translates that string into the village name. The reason for this is so that any map can be multi-lingual, no matter where it was made and which version. But of course for this to work, the names need to be set as various strings in the xml file. You might be able to extend it and add more village names, I've never tried this actually so it may work - but personally I'd find this highly unlikely. I just can't see Firefly developing a system like that. Could be wrong, though. Once any new game is launched, or a lord dies, or the 'convert to village' action is used, the game scrambles these and randomly selects a new village name. I'm not sure whether it prevents duplicates of already existing names or not (e.g when dynamically changing a village name such as through 'convert to village'), but this is never a situation that I've encountered. Because of this, the corresponding language string needs to be changed in whatever xml file you're using in order for the updated village name to display. Good to see you around again by the way, seems like a while since I last spoke to you! How are things going lately? :)

After some time marching, they came to a forest. A long, wide path with a fairly open forest, this did not seem too much of a problem other than the line size extended slightly in order to accommodate all troops getting through. They walked through the forest for a while but eventually came to a crossroads. Straight ahead would take them past a sizeable Garrison containing several buildings. Although well camouflaged, it could be seen from this far away and posed a serious risk to their strategy. No matter how strong in number they were, they could not get past without being seen, and to risk open combat was a fatal error in this environment. Not because of ambush, but because it would be very easy for enemy troops to sneak away and warn the Castle of the oncoming attack. Without being sure how many troops were even there, although it could be lightly defended, this could be a disastrous move which could end the entire mission in failure. They did not even know how any additional outputs existed in their path before even getting to the end of this forest. The adventurers were shocked. Goodman did not remember this checkpoint being here, although it was a long time since he was in this forest. The only alternative was a 50 mile detour, taking the group through Barnemouth, the infamous 'City of Death'. Then afterwards, a trip through Myhegh Forest to the Mines of Xilious. The group hesitated - this was not a move which they wanted to make. But their hesitation was shirt lived, as in the distance, the sound of a carter could be heard. Looking through some nearby trees, Goodman could tell that it was approaching the checkpoint. He kept very close attention to the guards to see how quickly it was spotted. Although this was approaching from a different direction, north eastwards, it would give Goodman an idea of how quickly the guards would spot the adventurers. It very quickly became evident that the guards in one of the larger wooden towers spotted the carter very quickly, even though they were not really paying attention at first. They then signalled to more guards who then came from behind the checkpoint. No longer this seemed liked only a checkpoint but much more of an outpost. Who had built this, and for what purpose. Were they friends or foes? Their questions were very quickly answered when the carter was eventually approached by some troops on the ground. "By the order of his grace, Duke Renault, who is in control of these lands, we demand to know at once what your business is." the Senior of the guardsman exclaimed. Several guards nearby held Pikes and were very well armoured. They must have been guarding something extremely important - although this was one of the central routes into the castle, however rural it was at this point on the track. "I am here to deliver some goods to the Duke" replied the Carter. "What identification do you have?" snapped the guard, replying immediately. "I have here, a document of authorisation from the Duke's Constable." One of the Senior guards took it and began to examine it. He looked closely for a few moments, before sharply dropping the parchment and pointing to the Carter. "This document is a fake! Guards, arrest this man at once!" The poor carter was immediately dragged away with a shocked expression on his face. Other guards attended to his cart, quickly taking it past the nearby tower for examination. "Take him away to Warington Citadel!" ordered the Senior guard. He had the appearance of a Constable and looked like nobility of some kind. Goodman sat thinking for a moment. He had never heard of Warington Citadel, but assumed it must be close by. Probably through the checkpoint. And maybe the Carter knew something too about what was going on. But he did know someone who would know what it is, along with the significance and history of it. That person lived in Barnemouth, which made a detour look even more likely. One thing was for certain. They could not get through this checkpoint through disguise, and fighting was not an option. Besides this, there could be layer upon layer of security past this checkpoint, all which was unknown ....

The names of Estates in the game are stored in the language file you're using, and, as @EaglePrince has already pointed out the game chooses these at random. I have managed to change the names of estates in the past, as it's a really easy process. You'll need to find whatever XML file is in your Stronghold 2/i18n directory and all estate names are in there. Simply change the wording and then re-open the game and the estates will change names. If there are multiple XML files in there, open the text file named 'lang.txt' which contains the file name of the XML file which is used by the game. This is the file you will need to edit. And, as @Crusader1307 added, it would be great if you could upload your map to the downloads section when complete!

I think there might be one AI who uses Assassins, but Lady Seren definitely uses Horse Archers. As @EaglePrince mentioned, I don't believe Firefly will ever release the source code unfortunately. That means there is not a lot of things which can actually be changed relating to AI, or their behaviour.

The King waited for a moment, clearly lost in thought of what to do. He then suddenly spoke. "I'd like to ask both of you to do this task. I'll provide you with four platoons of my best troops to try and rescue the Duke. This is a sizable amount but the Duke's safety is much more important than having good men standing idle around me."

There was a knock at his door, and he opened it to which he saw a servant. A servant who did not look particularly familiar but out of attention being elsewhere, he did not particularly think more. "My Lord, may I have a moment?" Goodman nodded and signalled to come inside, then shut the door behind him. He moved over to his circular table, his back turned - where he moved over and picked up his sword, polishing it lightly. "So, what news do you bring?" he asked the servant. But just a moment after he had finished speaking, the servant put his hand in his pocket and removed a small, easily concealed Aztec blowpipe. Raising it to his mouth, he prepared to shoot a dart in the back of Goodman's neck. But Goodman caught sight of this out the corner of his eye in the mirror opposite - and immediately lurched to the right onto the table, avoiding this fatal dart which instead hit the mirror shattering it into a thousand pieces onto the oak floor. All that remained was the strong rectangular shaped frame where the mirror seconds ago had stood.

[OOC] Let's see if we can revive this ..... The two of them rode at the top of the company for a while and talked. Then they approached a dense forest with a small single-track pathway. There was no way around this for 30 miles, and Goodman knew that there was not time to take the detour. This would be the perfect site for an ambush, and he knew of all the enemies who could take advantage of this. But before he could decide whether or not to go through, a messenger came riding up from behind the company, at full speed along with a scruffy looking troop who had clearly been in combat. The messenger himself wore the emblem of the Duke on his tunic. "My lord, the Duke has been captured. He has been taken to a hidden fortress inside the forest by Duke Renaut's troops." Though Goodman had not seen this particular messenger before, it seemed obvious the situation appeared legitimate. He thought for a moment before taking the time to reply. Duke Renaut was renowned for ruthless killing in cold blood and was a fearless warrior as well as being very powerful and deceitful. He was also a very skilled strategic commander. His troops were made of up the very best, and this was not someone who anyone in their right mind would actively seek to anger. Duke Renaut had usually always been loyal to the Duke and this was an extremely concerning situation.

Automarket is probably possible - as all you'd want from the game is the exact same behaviour, but without a market being built. However, it's probably coded in the exe file which means it's untouchable unless Firefly release the source code. Seasons on the other hand, I would absolutely love to have myself. But I honestly can't ever see that happening. At least seasons which are changed by the game. It's going to be an incredibly difficult process and again, a lot of what you need to edit is probably hard-coded in the exe file. However, that's not to mean we can't have some fun with this. I see absolutely no reason why we can't make buildings have snow .etc. on them, maybe some rain or other things. In fact, to a certain degree this already exists as our snow mod in the downloads section. We could also maybe even use some files from Stronghold Legends, or if a modder is confident enough in editing the texture files then they could edit those and add the snow effects themselves. I'm dreadful at art otherwise I would try this myself. We do however have a comprehensive guide here on how to do this process. The only problem with that example is that it you would have to manually alter the names of game files when you wanted the seasons to change. We could of course create some kind of installer which could do this for us, but that would have to be uninstalled and another one reinstalled before the season would change. Maybe we could even randomise it. Who knows?

Good to know the issue was resolved. Thanks for letting us know. :)