Lord Vetka

Well that sounds like an interesting contest, kind of hard to get an entry in by January 21 though:-) Are staff members allowed to enter and is there any picture of the castle or is this completely custom? Can we use a small map for this?

Thanks Lord Chris, glad to see that someone has some game, we should see a few people joining the fun. I am looking forward to sitting in the observers spot for a few of these games, as the levels go up it will be interesting to watch the different tactics people will use to take the castle.

Just checking, people do all kinds of things you would not expect, it should be fine! If that is the case, maybe we should just post the map into the contest downloads and every one can get a chance to see and try the map, just a thought. I forgot about the Greatest Lord screen, when I run contests I ask for the player to send me a save just before the end to confirm the score and check for cheating, it still would not hurt to get a save just before victory, not right at victory but say, as the troops start to enter the keep would be close enough so we can run the save and collect information that we might need. Yes he opened the sub forum for you and in case we want to do more of these, I already have an idea for the next one! We chatted about this and Chris has decided to be a contestant, so we have our first contestant, that would leave me and you to judge the entries, not that there is any judging to do but we do need to go over the details of each winner. I'm excited to see how it goes as well, it should be fun and interesting to see how each player takes on the enemy castle, the next Level, level 2 is a bit of a different fight and should be even more fun to play and to watch.

After some more adjustments and testing, I believe we have the first Level 1 map, there is a bit of a challenge to win for the first time but not real hard, a power player should be able to win on the first try and good players should be able to win by the second try, Level 2 will be harder, but the hardest part is getting it done with the most amount of gold left over, that will be the win condition for the 3 level contest. One thing about this idea Nigel, you want players to play the map for the first time without seeing it first, What's to stop the first player from giving away information on the map or giving the map to other people to practice on first? Also, the amount of gold the player has at the end of the game, to get that we need to save the map at a point close to victory, that way we can run the save and tally the gold total for the player. Well, now I can start working on the level 2 map, this one will be a bit harder, but we are trying to make the map playable for most players, we would like to see everyone have a chance to win and still have some fun doing it! Anyone else have an opinion they would like to offer, any ideas to make this better! All ideas for this contest are welcome!

That was a bit of a rue, I had made a new map, the old one got to messed up to continue. I wanted to surprise Nigel, well the surprise went well and we tested the new map, a few adjustments and we should be ready with our level 1 map, the next 2 levels should be fairly easy to put into the map.

Yes, still on hold, I thought we were waiting for enough interest, something we have had in short supply. It would be great to get a contest going with this map, but we do need contestants before we can do that. Any one interested in this contest should say so here, enough interest and we will have the contest, just need enough people, Lord Chris is saying around 10 to 15 people would be great, I would be happy with 5 people:-)

Well I'm starting to learn how weak this map editor is, to many saves then deleting stuff, moving things around and more deleting, next thing you know, the map starts causing troubles, we also passed the map back and forth, making changes on each side. I managed to get the map back in order by going back to an earlier save, then this morning I wanted to make a small adjustment on the resource piles and found a problem, now the map will not work properly in game, so I tried to check the editor verification on Steam but could not, I restarted my PC and finally managed to get the editor files verified, 4 files were messed up, that's fixed then I verified the game files and they were fine. Then made the changes to the map that I wanted to do earlier, now the map is fine, what a head ache that was. We should be good for some more testing Nigel, when your ready.

A little more to be done with this map, then I will take it to the next level, but we should be able to test this level 1 map on Friday again. We can see what people are thinking about the extra spectator seat before we make any decision, a referee would be good, but that does adds to the scheduling. To make it more exciting we could have the player take a couple of trebs and kill the spectator for extra points:-) I believe that we have given the player enough ways to attack the castle that we should see some varied results, should be interesting!

After our chat yesterday I opened the map in the editor and made some changes to the castle and the map and the goods:-), you should have the new version in your mail. This looks like we have our first level 1 map, a few adjustments and I would say it's ready. The gold win does seam like a good goal, I like the idea of extra incentive, maybe 1000 for first try 500 for second and well 0 for the final attempt. I have a question, we have the level 1 map, do you want to make a contest for level 1 then later level 2 then 3, or run the whole thing in one go? I would say February, either way we go, the hard part was making the first level, the next levels should be fairly easy to finish. We have a position for an observer, does this sound like something you guys would be interested in, we could add in a few more spots for more observers? But, if we have observers, whats to stop someone who plans on playing the map to come and observe first and get a better start, well I guess the host would have to keep track of who is observing!

I have to say the tip I gave about taxes is not complete, we were testing our Siege That map and had extra houses and no need for workers, so when I had enough troops I would put taxes to the max, and when I had more gold and wanted more troops I would lower the taxes, make the troops and raise the taxes back up to max. That can be used in normal conditions, add an extra house and turn the taxes up to max, let the villagers walk away until you start to lose workers and lower the taxes until you have max peasants and do it again. One thing I did with the resolution is change it so the huds are small enough to see more of the game screen, to remove the huds, space and c, but you can't grab anything, but you do get an open screen. Bandicam seams to be a good video capture tool, it does cost 30 dollars for the full registered version. But a good video editing tool is what I would like to find.

This game is not like the older games, people don't seam to leave, you just can't get more people when the pop is red, at 70-80 pop you can almost continually click for troops with out having to wait for more. The granary and stockroom are not really in danger outside of the castle, some troops might get to it, I have played some default maps where the granary is in danger though, mostly skirmish maps. I like to have my houses right by the keep for more peasants, and put the granary by the farms and close to the stockroom, if you have to a simple sub wall can protect some buildings. I will have a look at the Wondershare converter, I have been looking for a video editor for a little while.

Yes That was a good test, I do think the weapons should be 160 armor and 40 each of the other weapons that go with armor and 100 each of the bows and spears, it's enough to start with then the player can sell some or buy different weapons for what they want, 10'000 gold is a bit to much as well maybe 8'000 would be better. I have an idea for a win condition, the player with the most amount of gold at the end would be the winner, I think it would make each player take a little more time to plan his attack, the most gold at the end of 3 levels would determine the greatest sieger! At first I was not sure about having an attending defender who could move troops and add in some traps and pitch and go out and attack some of the attackers, but maybe it is more fun this way, maybe you should have 1 pitch pit for a small amount of pitch and some gold to buy a few traps to place around the castle.

Good video, how many megs is the video, I did a 10 minute video on SH2 the other day using "Bandicam trial" and it was over 500 megs. Your game is good but there are ways of increasing your efficiency, I like to have the granary close to the stockroom and closer to the farm land, the less your peasants have to walk the faster the production. We could use a good video editing tool, anyone have a suggestion for a good one? A simple way I found to get taxes is to set them to max when you don't need the villagers, when you place a new building or make some troops just turn the taxes down until you are done then back up again.

The map is now in the downloads "A Lord in a Canyon" can be found here, (well as soon as someone makes it a link:-)) What I had to do to make the map work is, at the first marker that triggers an invasion I colored in a small spot of red territory (the map is nearly all colored in neutral) and placed an invasion marker beside the G2 flag then placed a Harass marker there as well, then set the trigger to, near a marker, then repeated the same at the next trigger point, then Mathew added in one more trigger point using the same method, now the map seams to work the way it is intended. A good quick fun map for you to enjoy, download it today!

I don't have time at the moment, could you send me the map and I can take a look, it would be easier that way. Thanks.

I'm happy with the tests we did, we learned enough to continue on, I changed the skirmish map to a level 1 castle and tested it this morning and sent it to you for a look. Thanks Mathew, but we are planning to have 1 castle to attack and then take the level 1 castle to a level 2 castle for the next stage then a level 3 castle for the final stage, that is sort of what we are looking for, Nigel can correct us on that. The map I made has a level 1 plateau and a smaller level 2 plateau, the level 1 castle is built on the level 2 plateau with 4 towers regular walls and 1 gate, range units on the towers and melee units guarding the gate and keep, the second level castle will be the same castle but the lower level 1 plateau will get walls 4 towers and a gate at the other end from the level 1 gate, the towers will have range units and melee units guarding the gate, and the level 3 castle would be all of that and more troops and maybe 2 more towers, that is the general idea, we are still testing how we will do all of this, any more ideas are welcome! You should have the map now Nigel, lets see what you have to say.

The camera grid works great, the map you want to download would be "Chundra H" this is the only map that I used extra invasion markers on, those extra markers bring the harass slaves to the mines. In the markers tab is the pathing tab, double click the pathing and you get a chain, double click the chain and you get a path marker, place it where you want the invasions to go, then double click the pathing again for a new chain double click the new chain for a new path marker and place it where you want different invasions to go, keep doing that until you have all of the invasion points set, it should give you what you want. One thing I found is it seams you don't need more invasion flags than the first one, set the invasion to start at the blue one flag and they attack, check it and see, you might need the second blue flag but they seam to ignore it. I did use the second tab "AI" and used 2 separate Harass troops form up flags at the next path markers I placed by the mines. To get the enemy to chase your Lord is the default setting for the game, if you are under attack at the keep and move your Lord away to a safe spot they will find him and attack. I believe that should work for you. Edit- Well I tried to sneak this in after Mathews last entry, but.. Yes the story should be good the last one Mathew wrote for one of my Crusader maps was just great! The forums are a great treasure of info if we all try and keep the conversations here instead of PMs, PMs have their place and should be used at the proper times.

Good news, I have a map or 3, 3 versions of the same map, I sent them to you today. The skirmish map does not seam to work the way we want, the free build map can be exploited by being able to add 500 gold anytime, the invasion map is controllable but you would not be able to play along, that we have to test online. Take a look at my example and lets see where we go from there.

No, if we go off topic, we can fix it, I would rather answer you here as it benefits more people. Your question was " The map is working fine but it's currently too easy. I'd like to add small ambushes where the enemy will chase the player and attack." In the factions tab you find pathing and the invasion markers, to get the enemy to attack other points instead of a straight attack on the keep, I placed additional invasion markers near the points I wanted Harass units to attack, the additional markers are separate from the one you place for the invasions, you need a new invasion marker to have the harass units attack, not an additional marker. To be sure, I'm not talking about the colored flags, but the third tab and the invasion markers, then the harass flags in the second tab. I think if I remember correctly that I also added in Harass flags to each point as well, then scripted slaves and they attacked the mines and if any were left they would come and attack out buildings as well. The map I'm talking about is "Chundra", it's in the downloads check it to see how I did the extra harass invasions. I hope that helps, if not ask again!

No problem I do that enough myself, you will see the pathing tab in the main tool section, pathing all by it's self. You do need the other pathing tool for the scripting, place the invasion marker by the enemy keep or the invasions will not work. Have any questions about scripting, feel free to ask, don't worry questions rarely sound bad.

You will need to do the pathing, any unit will go anywhere on the map unless you do pathing. You could build a castle under the sea if you wanted and it would play! Click the pathing tag and you will see the options, set the brush up one and run some pathing along the bottom of the mountain, you can cover the side of the mountain, I just make a loop around any ground I don't want people walking on. You could download Two Cities to see how I setup the pathing and the camera. Also, the mountains cause the camera to jump up and down, annoying, use the camera grid to smooth it out, you can also add in for the start, a place you want the player to see before he is moved to the keep or even a few places, play around with the tools I suggested, if you have any questions just ask. Your new map sounds quite good, hope to see it in the downloads, take your time, it's best to post a map that is 100% working, testing will give you that. Good Luck!

You might have corrupted game files from to many changes over time, it would be a good idea to uninstall the game completely, then reinstall and allow the game to patch up to 1.4.1, when I do a reinstall, I will reinstall the game then run it, then restart my PC then manually install the next patch and do that with each patch until I'm patched to 1.4.1, I do it that way because I find I get a good clean install that way, also if you have removed the game, then I would clean the registry of any SH2 files before reinstalling. Edit- Mathew, if you made a map and have Lord Barkley as your enemy and he is making troops then he will by default send out Mounted Knights, did you script him to send knights or is he doing it on his own?

I now have a map and will do some detail on it then add in some defenses, give it a test and send it over to Nigel for his approval, don't forget, this is Nigels project, lets try and follow along. I have been thinking of how this will work, one thing is, if someone is doing defense duties in the castle, then that will change the outcome for each player, it's not needed, but Nigel if you want to do the defending that is fine, just saying. I have done some testing already, the amount of gold will be set and goods could be traded, I put weapons and goods and food in the siegers camp, they could sell the goods for more gold. Maybe it would be better to give a certain amount of gold and no goods, the player would have to buy weapons to make his armies. Any way we divvy out the gold will be the same for every player, we need to figure out which way to go. Nigel, I have done contests and watched others for quite a while now here and at HG, we only ever get a few contestants, 2-3 5 if your lucky, but, that last online contest did bring in more players! Maybe to make it interesting, the winner would need the least amount of enemy troops killed for the win, you get the win by killing the Lord, but the least amount of troops killed will be the win in the contest. I do believe that would slow the game down a bit, getting more to what you are looking for Nigel.

I have used mounted knights on maps before, but that was a long time ago, I just did a test and the knights I scripted as reinforcements came in on foot, but the knight I placed on the map came in mounted, I could be wrong but I think if you want mounted knights on the map, it has to be done while you are making the map. You could sneak them in, maybe place the knights you want in a corner some where in a small walled section on enemy territory and use an enemy near a marker to switch the territory to you so you can ride out of the gate that now belongs to you. I have also used enemy near a marker to change ownership of a gate to you. If you use the enemy near a marker, I make the territory enemy then you are the enemy triggering the marker. I hope that helps. Play around with it and see what you can do, if you want more help, just ask!

I have done a bit of testing, if a player is given the red estate then it can be setup with gold and goods, the enemy castle can be setup on a blue estate and observers can be setup on the other colors. A skirmish map for MP. I can give as much as 100,000 gold plus the amount given in game, default 1000, up to 1000 units of food items each, same for candles and ale, the economy is setup with enough goods that the player does not need any economy or building as far as it goes, I placed 4 houses the Inn and Church and had a steady stream of 40 villagers to make troops with, placed all of the buildings for making an army, barracks, siege camp, mercenary post, and armory, the inn and church are there for popularity. Granary to keep the peasants in line! My question would be how hard of a castle would you want to start with, I did some testing here as well, I had a basic castle of 4 walls 4 medium towers one in each corner and one gate, the next castle has the same thing but larger towers on each corner with walls to match, and just kept adding more until I had 5 test castles from one base. Also do you want the castle built on level ground or shall we make it interesting? Same for the castle square or interesting! If we have 5 maps with increasing difficult castles, maybe the win could be how far can a player get, each level is harder until it can't be won any more. And as the enemy castle keeper, are you wanting to be able to make troops and do repairs to your castle?