Lord_Chris

Now that is interesting, particularly as I'd already thought it may have been an archive and tried to open it as a .zip and .rar. That means that if it is an archive, it's a pretty uncommon format. My instinct would be that a lot of this is down to the game engine. I don't really think Firefly will have customised some of this. The .v files are obviously done to stop people from being able to easily change things, almost like a protection. The .model file is obviously the same, because it's sensitive data and Firefly wouldn't really want people being able to get a hold of what they're doing easily. The .shmap file doesn't really matter, because it's only a saved map file with textures etc that are already existing within the game. So, it doesn't really matter if somebody gets a hold of the textures and saved map data.

That's fine Take as long as you need there's absolutely no rush. I'll definitely look forward to reading it, though!

Would you be interested in writing an article for us on how people can do this kind of thing? Or if not, possibly explain it to me so I could have a go and write something? I really feel that this could massively help people in customising the newer games and it's quite an exciting opportunity.

Crusader 2 (and from what I've seen of Warlords) also use the .model extensions, and use the same kind of file data for them too. If we find out the correct file format and how to open/modify it, this will work on all three games. I will continue looking and see if I can find anything on this.

This is pretty incredible I have to say. You have some awesome graphical skills, which has always been an area where I have lacked personally. The way you've brightened up that terrain really is quite remarkable. Do you think this is something that can be taught to people if we were to put an article up about it? Or does it depend more on the person's individual skills?

Yeah that's a nice addition to the downloads section as a stand-alone mod. If you have any others, please do consider doing the same! Users tend to download files more easily if they're small rather than packaged together, so don't feel that any one file or mod is too small to upload. Unfortunately, I'm not really sure what format they used to create it. But I would say we're on the right track in finding out. The description there of a pch file actually sounds pretty accurate to me, because we know that this is compiled code and not readable code. And we also know that Firefly have used variations of C in the past, on Stronghold 2 for example they use what I believe is some form of C or C++ in the shading. You inspired me to take a look if this is some kind of archive knowing how they do this with other files, so I attempted to open this file as a zip and a rar, but this doesn't work. So it's compiled code, not an archive containing other files. This makes it trickier to edit, but not impossible. I definitely think that we will be able to find out what this file format is, but it'll probably take a bit of work to do. It may be worth using the game engine website to take a look and see if anything is on there. Firefly originally used the Trinigy Vision engine, but in 2011 Havock bought this out and it has since been rebranded to the Havok Vision Engine instead. I have a feeling that while some things have clearly been customised (i.e. the shmap extension for maps) a lot of what Firefly are doing is 'out of the box' stuff in terms of the file formats. I could be wrong, but that's just a strong instinct I have with certain things. From the image in the following article you can clearly see that there are similarities between what you are using to try and open the software, and what is shown here: https://www.cgw.com/Press-Center/GDC/2011/Vision-Game-Engine-Goes-Mobile.aspx If you want to add models, you would have to use the same formats as exactly are there already for the game right now. So dds files for skins, model files, materials.xml, resources.xml etc. It's probably worth choosing a unit that is already pretty close to what you want to achieve, and then duplicate it and try to adapt it first, rather than completely create a one from scratch.

Apologies @Lord Aquila - this is a known issue as I'm currently in the process of updating the downloads section. It should be done within the next few days (I didn't think you'd be ready to submit quite yet ). If you want, send it to me in an email or via the PM as an attachment, and I will upload it for you (under your own account)in a few days when the downloads update is totally complete. Or, I can let you know when the update is complete so you can upload it again then. In terms of the downloads section, try our Site Questions/Support forum- you should be able to create a new topic in there to discuss any site issues you might have

I must be thinking of a different game then in that regard. I'm not sure which one. LUA files are a part of the game structure, but there's a lot more going on than just those. The game LUA files are mainly for behaviours and the mannerisms of the various units in the game. But it also controls things such as starting goods in multiplayer games. Firefly first used LUA scripts in CivCity Rome, and they've been re-used again in Stronghold 3, Crusader 2 and now in Warlords as well. In my opinion they're a really neat way of being able to control aspects of the game and make them more flexible. It's also great for us modders who can finally get to some things. I keep meaning to do an article on them actually, but I haven't ever been able to look into them in enough detail, or know the language well enough, to properly know how this would be best written yet. Given the way Stronghold 3 is so different to the earlier games and how flexible it is, I'd be surprised if you couldn't add in new units so some degree. There's certainly the functionality to do some of this. However, this isn't ever something I've really looked into, and it's probably a pretty complicated process. I would certainly be open to working with you on this and exploring it in more detail though if it's something you're interested in pursuing. Feel free to shoot me a PM if you'd like to talk a bit more about your project in person, or you could create a new topic on the forum if you'd like a more public audience. Once you understand how the game is structured, that's most of the battle and most things are just a case of renaming or altering. Yes, you can unlock the maps using the following tutorial. It's written for Stronghold Crusader 2 but it also works with Stronghold 3: https://www.stronghold-nation.com/article/244-lockingunlocking-stronghold-crusader-2-maps

Greetings @Lord Aquila, welcome to the Nation! Sorry for my slow reply. I've been very busy lately. That looks like a very nice modification! You may wish to upload it to our downloads section when you are done so other map makers can find it too I can't remember which way it is off-hand, but the game will automatically look for files within the directory or files within the archive, and load one of those first. I think it will look for files within the archive and if that doesn't exist fall back to any folders that may exist. You might want to make sure that the files are only in one of those formats first to ensure the game is loading the correct files. In terms of the .model files, I'm not really sure what software will actually open them. They definitely are not corrupt, though. It's just a case of the software not recognising the format of the file so it wrongly assumes they are corrupt. I suspect they're kind of like a hybrid file of some kind where Firefly have simply changed the file extension but are using a different type of file (such as gr2). They aren't gr2 though, I've checked. Don't forget that in earlier Stronghold games, they used .uni files. To this date there's still nobody who really knows how to open those either, although we do know they are compiled with information on how to load the model. It's my suspicion that .model files are something similar for Stronghold 3, with the extra addition of having a data folder containing resources and materials XML files to load the relevant shading and graphics file for the model. So in summary the model file is probably just a similar variation to the old .uni files built in a different format for the newer game engine used in Stronghold 3. We know that this engine is used again in Stronghold Crusader 2, and again in the upcoming Stronghold Warlords, and I know that the file formats for all three of these games are the same in terms of how the models are structured. If you're actually looking to modify the model, I'd recommend taking a look at the DDS files, because you'll have far more luck with changing the skin of a unit than the actual structure of a unit, and changing a DDS file is very easy in today's age and can be done in free programs such as Photoshop or personally I use Paint.net (software, not website).

It will definitely be ready before the release of Warlords, that's a cast iron guarantee. You will all get your prizes as soon as we've both graded and averaged your submissions. I'm sorry it's taken this long without any results. The things that have happened have been totally beyond my control, but I haven't been able to do this or much else because of them.

Unfortunately with delays due to covid and my own extenuating personal circumstances, I still haven't been able to grade any of the submissions yet. I'm very sorry about this, but there's not really anything I could have done about it. However, I have agreed to let @EaglePrince judge alongside me and both of our scores will be averaged out. The new deadline for grading the contest is therefore 30 November 2020. We will try to reach a conclusion by that time. Thanks to everyone for your continued patience and support!

Thanks My ideal scenario would have been to have had a panel of 3 judges, separate from the person Administrating the contest, unfortunately as nobody else stepped forward I was the only person who was able to do it.

Welcome to the Nation, @GamerBillii! I hope you find your stay here a pleasant one I'm sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but the maximise function just isn't available in the AI Editor. It's been disabled for some reason. I don't know why as I wasn't active in its development. The Stronghold 2 AI Editor was created all the way back in, I think, 2008 by Lord Britain and HicRic among others from Stronghold Knights. I do have contacts with some of the former admins there, but as is always the case there's a lot of "ambiguity" around who created things, and who still has them .etc.... so sadly I don't have the source code of this application to be able to make any changes to it. If so, I would actually create a Stronghold Legends AI editor too, because the AI castles in Stronghold Legends work in exactly the same way as those in Stronghold 2. I don't have the relevant Java knowledge to be able to do something like this from scratch unfortunately, but I am sure there is someone out there who does. However, I have emailed the only address I have for HicRic to see if he responds. He may be able to provide the source code of this application to us, so that I could also update it and make sure it still runs efficiently in 2020.

Hi guys, Unfortunately I'm not going to be able to get your feedback within the 21 days I initially thought. There have been a lot of personal circumstances and complications since the contest closed, including a bereavement and also contracting covid, although luckily I appear to have been ok. Nonetheless, I feel like I need some time to rest from this, and I don't want to push myself too much with anything. I also want to make sure that I can take my time to look at your entries and not rush anything, so I I'm going to have to delay judging for the meantime. I'm hoping that I should have the entries properly looked at and graded by 8th November.

I tell you what that looks very nice, it certainly looks like it was difficult to create. I honestly don't think you could have created that much better - with the compact space available within the editor, this is a very very nice natural landscape. I can already see invasions happening on all sides of the map! Really looking forward to how this progresses.

Backup plan: Is it possible to re-configure your keyboard function keys? This probably depends on exactly what kind of computer you have as it's normally specific to each model. You might have to take a look at your manual, but it should be possible to change them. Another issue which can sometimes occur, is that "F" keys can sometimes toggle. Try pressing the F1 key + the function key which can provide the correct function for you if just pressing the relevant "F" key does not work. If the F1 + Function key does work, this is often something that can be reversed in the BIOS. There will definitely by a way to reverse this change, it might be worth taking a look at your machine to see what changes have occurred recently as well, and see if any of those might have affected anything.

Sorry I didn't get back to you! I thought I'd replied, but must have got sidetracked. I'm loving this, I think it's fantastic. Drawing out maps before starting them is something that never really occurred to me before, but it makes a lot of sense. Have you got much further with it?

That's a really nice idea! There are so many possibilities for this, too. There could maybe be a "Castles of the World" Trail or similar, with a map showing various trails around the middle east, or perhaps start in the middle east, move around the Mediterranean for a bit and then down south through Egypt into North Africa, Morocco and up into Spain or something. If it works, it doesn't even need to be confined to purely historic castles, either. We could expand it to fantasy castles, legendary castles, rebuilding cities..... you name it. Or, here's a cool idea too, maybe it could become a "Knights Templar" trail. Where you could go around some of the places the Knights Templar were active, and re-create real history with them... so, obviously Acre would be a big one. Maybe there could be a small island on the far-left of the map representing Nicosia or something, and you could have to try and protect shipping or supplies, which you need in order to complete the castle, and which you can only get through that certain channel. We could even use some of the various "secret passage" tricks to create secret ways in/out of the city as it actually was. Then there's Jerusalem as well, where you could have to protect the city and keep the Holy Grail under Templar control or something. To make it even cooler, we could maybe re-skin a few units as well, and then I (or someone else if they wanted) could package it all together into an installer so people can get all this stuff in one file. In terms of other castles, I know it's not exactly in the same area but have you thought about maybe Vatican City? This could be a really dramatic battle, staged in the early days of the Crusades or the Papacy for example. I'll have a look and see if I can think of any other good Castles

This is so genius I can't believe it's never been done before! I think this is an exceptional idea and I think it could really be the start of something big. Perhaps we could even create an official SHN historical campaign trail, or something. So the mission would be kind of an "Invasion" mission, right? Or are you thinking more of a custom scenario where there are other objectives to complete as well, resources to gather.... etc?

I've re-approved your map @Krarilotus. Thank you to everyone who has entered! In line with site policy I will try to let the results be known within 21 days. If this can't be achieved for some reason, I'll let everyone know here. Good luck to all entrants!

I'll see if I can also add in a submit link next to the "mark all files read" link, which might make it easier for future users. We do already have a similar concept in the gallery, so it does make sense. I've replied to your PM RE the UCP. Thanks. I could see the files were the same but wanted to be sure you hadn't changed anything in the content. I've removed the duplicate and approved the first file. @Andreas9541 I've also approved your file too.

Wait, so you signed in, went to the main site and then still were logged out? Or had you already opened that tab and not refreshed it since logging in? Thanks for letting me know about this. This isn't actually something that's ever happened before, but I do know the default behaviour of HTML forms is often to submit them if you press enter. I'm guessing it might be something to do with the editor, which I intend to change anyway. It had to be placed there in a rush once I upgraded the forum to IPS over the summer. Either way, I will find a way to prevent this behaviour in future when I fix these issues. To be honest, I would have already fixed this form and changed it, but I didn't want to mess around while it was still "live" and people were submitting files for the contest, knowing it would effect it. I am making changes behind the scenes and have been for some time now with the downloads section, the challenge is doing it in the least disruptive way while it's still a working downloads section for the contest. I have recently optimised the vast majority of site pages (frontend), and I only missed 3 pages, which were the pages for submitting a download, updating a download and viewing a download. When I first designed the downloads system it was back in 2013, I updated it as I went and kept fixing and optimising, but I never really took the time to rewrite totally from scratch and optimise it again properly. That's what I'm doing now. Some of the more Eagle-eyed of you may well notice how the section 'Stronghold 1' has changed to 'Stronghold' in recent weeks. That's just one relatively minor change I made which hasn't affected a lot. We did actually used to have a separate page like HeavenGames does, if you're referring to the submission errors one. I changed it a while back, because in the event there are submission errors under that system, when you opt to go back all the content you previously entered on the form is gone again. It's also possible you might forget errors if there are multiple ones detected. So to fix that when you submit now, any errors are prompted at the top of the page instead, with all your content still there. All bugs I receive are looked into, that I can assure you. I'm aware the site isn't perfect, no site is, the difference between SHN and HG is that HG probably had a team of designers, programmers and more who originally commercially created the system back in the early 2000s. Here there's only me to do all the programming, database management, CSS styling, template editing and updates plus general administration. It isn't an easy job, and there's often a lot to do. Another difference between us and HG is that they got their system in pretty good shape straight away, re-used it on multiple sites, and it hasn't ever changed since. SHN is constantly evolving to try and keep up with modern browsers, mobile devices, Apps, HTTP protocols and newer web technologies, such as PHP. In contrast, HG still use CGI & text files for their forum & user accounts, I believe unhashed or very weak hashed passwords at best (offhand I seem to think it's MD5 but I don't recall why), deprecated database functions which are vulnerable and an outdated PHP version, either 4 or very early 5, if it's 4 then that has been unsupported since 2008, and is extremely vulnerable. Basically no modern webserver could even run such a version anymore, while in contrast we're running the latest version. This isn't an attack on HG, or trying to "big up" the site as being more secure, just stating some facts as to why both sites are so different. I am sorry you feel this way but please do know that I am trying my hardest to constantly improve the site, bring more content to it and add new features. A lot of the changes are quite subtle so people very rarely notice anything unless I make a big announcement, but they are happening all the time. There are also a number of new features that I haven't announced yet too. As always I am open to suggestions and feedback on how to make it better, any feature is possible if enough members want it. If you're willing to help out at all, I really appreciate that. Send me a PM if you like and we can talk a bit more about it In terms of embedding pictures, you can use BBCode to embed pictures into your download. You can also use the editor, but again I'm going to change this to better reflect what we need. I accept that the content area could be a bit wider, unfortunately there's not a lot I can really do about that because we need to display all of the file info as well. But most images should resize automatically and be shown where most appropriate on the page. I had seen there were two files, and yes I was a bit confused about this myself. I have checked and the files appear to be completely identical, other than the preview image, including with the main content you submitted. Was there any difference in your maps? I couldn't find any. Unless you've changed the submission, I'll remove the newer file as that has the incorrect preview on, let me know if you want this submission saving. I'm really looking forward to trying it I can confirm we've received both the files and your entry. Congratulations and thank you for entering! Thanks Andreas, I will take a look at your file now and get it approved ASAP. This doesn't change the validity of your submission, though, if you have already entered. I'm pleased you think you've managed to fix the problem!

Don't worry Andreas, the map crashes in the game but loads in the editor ok for me (although it is unresponsive for a while), since it's only a Skirmish map and the main thing on those maps is design anyway, I can have a look at it through the editor and grade it that way for you instead.

That sounds really neat, @artofmath! Maybe this is a project we could work on together at some point once the contest is over That's great to hear @Krarilotus, there's still plenty of time to submit it by tomorrow evening too. You don't need to wait for your download to be approved before sending the email too, as you can submit it any time until the deadline providing you just email the submission number of your download (you get this as confirmation as soon as you upload your file) or the link to it if it has been approved by that point. You might even wish to upload all versions of your map in your archive when you upload the file so that people can challenge themselves in future as well, providing you tell us in your email which version is to be used in the contest, that's fine I'm really sorry to hear that @Andreas9541... this year has been a very tough time for a lot of people, so you definitely aren't alone in that fact. Here's hoping things start to get better for you again soon. Thank you for your submission, I've just approved it now! Feel free to email it at any stage Thank you everyone who has entered so far! I'm really looking forward to playing all of your entries. As well as providing official grading purely for purposes of the contest, I will try to provide personalised feedback on my overall experience of playing your files to you as well, like I normally do when I review files. This is totally separate from the competition and won't influence it or my judgement in any way, but I thought it would be nice for you guys to get genuine appreciation for your work as well.

There won't be any more postponement of the end date. I'll be sending out one more email today, though, so there may well be additional entries at the last minute as well. Regardless of how many entries there actually are, the same process will follow that they will all be graded and the top 3 winners will receive the prizes mentioned. Prizes will be awarded regardless of how many people enter, and someone will win a free copy of Stronghold Warlords, who that person is yet, depends solely on who enters and how their submission is graded That's all I can really say at this stage. I know it's a bit "ambiguous" and not really answering any of your questions which I understand may be frustrating, I just can't really comment on anything like that until the deadline has passed.