Win a Free Copy of Stronghold Warlords Upon Release!

[Lord_Chris 251]

Hi guys,

The admin team have met and discussed the contest and in light of Firefly's announcement  to postpone the release of Stronghold Warlords, we have agreed to extend the deadline until 4th October 2020 at Midnight (GMT). Entries will cease to be valid after this point. This doesn't change the status of the entries that have already been submitted.

Thanks for your support!

[Krarilotus 9]

😄
Is there any info on how many people compete already? I am buildign my scenario new at the moment, without any UCP. I have read the e-mail from Lord chris again and i felt like i ll honour the originality of the content, therefore i ll build the whole thing in v1.1

I will deliver only a one map entry tho it seems, whioch tho will feature some brand new design aspects, that you might have never seen before, and that are also possible with just vanilla Stronghold Crusader. I am not planning on modding any of the sound and image files, but i might change some AI names, to fit into my story.

The map will take place in medival vietnam and has the theme of the first mongol invasion with a little twist!

I ll keep you posted 😄

I ll play artofmaths map now, just to have a little reference 😄
I am sure his double wolf is a beast!

[Krarilotus 9]

@Andreas9541 I am missing your entry, have you forgotten to upload it?
Also, is there anyone else entering besides artofmath?
Feels pretty empty 😞
I would have expected more awesome maps and scenarios!

[Lord_Chris 251]

  On 29/09/2020 at 13:01, Krarilotus said:

I am buildign my scenario new at the moment, without any UCP. I have read the e-mail from Lord chris again and i felt like i ll honour the originality of the content, therefore i ll build the whole thing in v1.1

Read more  

That's great @Krarilotus! Entries have to be in by midnight on the 4th though, so try to get it done ASAP if you can!

  On 29/09/2020 at 13:01, Krarilotus said:

I will deliver only a one map entry tho it seems, whioch tho will feature some brand new design aspects, that you might have never seen before, and that are also possible with just vanilla Stronghold Crusader. I am not planning on modding any of the sound and image files, but i might change some AI names, to fit into my story.

Read more  

That sounds really good, I will look forward to seeing what you come up with

I don't really want to prejudice any result right now while the entries are still open so I can't really say how many entries we've had yet, but I can definitely discuss this later once the deadline has passed.

I hope this helps!

[Krarilotus 9]

Yeah @Lord_Chris, i don't mind your answer at all, but as the contest requires the upload to your own download page, it is easy for contestants to follow how many entries have been made, as there is basically no other uploaded content, that would qualify for the contest in the timeframe of the contest 😕

Could this also mean another postponement of the end date?

And if there are only 2 enries, does that even qualify those for any prizes, as it isn't really a competition then?

I just wish there were enough entries to make it a nice and fair contest!

 

[Lord_Chris 251]

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.

[artofmath 5]

Before I did my double Wolf I was actually thinking of modding the sound files of SHC to suit an Asian setting. 

We could then create a "Great Wall" scenario where the leader of a Chinese garrison (with crossbowmen available) needs to fend off hordes of Mongol invaders (horse archers and arabian swordsmen)... all set in a steppe-like landscape with few resources. The player would need to develop a trade economy: buy wood, sell pikes, to buy hops, crossbows, and leather armour... 🙂

[Krarilotus 9]

  On 01/10/2020 at 23:58, artofmath said:

Before I did my double Wolf I was actually thinking of modding the sound files of SHC to suit an Asian setting. 

We could then create a "Great Wall" scenario where the leader of a Chinese garrison (with crossbowmen available) needs to fend off hordes of Mongol invaders (horse archers and arabian swordsmen)... all set in a steppe-like landscape with few resources. The player would need to develop a trade economy: buy wood, sell pikes, to buy hops, crossbows, and leather armour... 🙂

Read more  

After i already made an outstanding Chinese wall map with the Chirstmas calendar, i wasn't really up for makign another one. And the contest dictates that you need to not use anything that modifies the executeable, so i wouldn'T really think anything would be worth doing without the UCP that wouldn'T even come close to my other map 😕

But yeah, this would be an obvious scenario ^^

My map is almost finished, i am now letting people playtest it, after i did one run on hard and one on expert difficulty (i have 4 versions of the map in Stronghold Crusader, so there is one for everyone...). Its a very fast paste game and you wouldn't really play much longer than 1 hour. But playing expert mode is super challenging and hard mode is also living up to its name, so if you really want a good challenge, they are there for you 😄

I would recommend the map actually to be played in hard mode, but for the sake of the competition, i could understand if the judges just play the normal difficulty setting, as i don't want anyone to be having a hard time. I like to provide more difficulty levels so more people have fun with the map. Ofc i am counting on people not to exploit the game, as otherwise no map is fun after all.

[Andreas9541 3]

  Quote

@Andreas9541 I am missing your entry, have you forgotten to upload it?
Also, is there anyone else entering besides artofmath?

Read more  

The last two months were very busy for me. I don't want to get into too much detail, but I had a few bad weeks and also decided to start my own business so I can escape my boss.

Still, there is one day left, so I will do my best to at least upload a nice map. It may not win competitions, but maybe this can give some inspiration to people.

Update: I just managed to finish my map. I uploaded the map in the download section for Stronghold Crusader 2 skirmishes. If you guys find any major glitches please let me know.

A fair bit of warning for those who are playing competitively. This is more for people who want to interact with the map itself and enjoy the scenery along the journey to slaying their enemies. It's a weird map, so don't take some of the elements too seriously 😛 

Edited October 3, 2020 by Andreas9541

[Lord_Chris 251]

  On 01/10/2020 at 23:58, artofmath said:

Before I did my double Wolf I was actually thinking of modding the sound files of SHC to suit an Asian setting. 

We could then create a "Great Wall" scenario where the leader of a Chinese garrison (with crossbowmen available) needs to fend off hordes of Mongol invaders (horse archers and arabian swordsmen)... all set in a steppe-like landscape with few resources. The player would need to develop a trade economy: buy wood, sell pikes, to buy hops, crossbows, and leather armour...

Read more  

That sounds really neat, @artofmath! Maybe this is a project we could work on together at some point once the contest is over

  On 02/10/2020 at 21:04, Krarilotus said:

My map is almost finished, i am now letting people playtest it, after i did one run on hard and one on expert difficulty (i have 4 versions of the map in Stronghold Crusader, so there is one for everyone...). Its a very fast paste game and you wouldn't really play much longer than 1 hour. But playing expert mode is super challenging and hard mode is also living up to its name, so if you really want a good challenge, they are there for you

Read more  

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

  On 03/10/2020 at 03:44, Andreas9541 said:

The last two months were very busy for me. I don't want to get into too much detail, but I had a few bad weeks and also decided to start my own business so I can escape my boss.

Read more  

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.

[Andreas9541 3]

I tried loading the map I created for a playtest and SHC2 crashes immediately right after the map loads. That means there is a problem with the file, which I cannot find because SHC2 map editor also crashes (more like 'not responding' kind of message), so my apologies for those who wanted to try the map, but can't play it. I wasn't going to win the first place anyway, and since I already got SHC2 with all the DLC's I don't mind if someone finds out the problem with the file after the competition.

[Lord_Chris 251]

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.

[Krarilotus 9]

I just submitted my map. I tho encountered a few issues with the submission. First of all, when i loaded the site with being signed in, i couldn't see any submission button, as it showed me a login form but no panels for my personal stuff. The next thing was, that i accidentaly hit enter during writing the submission text without being inside of the box, which then did submit? maybe? an unfinished file. But it didn't notify me and i could just continue editing without anything. When i was finished shortly after and tried to submit tho, it told me there was a file already in the system. I tried it again but it didn't work. And I would recommend you fix it in a way, that when you click the submit button an actual window pops up, as on Stronghold Heavengames, to tell you: Are you finished and sure you want to submit the file? And as soon as you click then ok, it will not keep you on the 'edit' page, but show you another page, which says: uploading now, stay on the site until the file has finished uploading. And then you would display the: Upload complete! message when it has finished uploading.

I have already reported on bugs in the past, i really hope you get your site working properly at some point. Otherwise i see no benefit of using it over Stronghold Heavenagmes, which is way more functional, you can better embed pictures in the dowload area as it isn't a fixed size (you can make it wider ...) and has other features as well that are just working. Unfortuantely there are no peopler eally checking the uploads over there, so it can take ages to get a file submittet 😕
Let me know if you need any more site testing and feedback. I would rather use an actively groomed site which is safe and secure.

Thanks for hearing me out, and let me know if anything went wrong with my uplaod @Lord_Chris 
I also uploaded again under a different name, just to get an uplaod number, as the first one did obviously not show. But i would rather keep the file name simple as: Mongol Invasion 1258 and have the right picture displayed ( i put the wrong picture in my second uplaod by accident)
Also  I sent the e-mail to the given adress with my experience in a nutshell again.

Can't wait for the feedback i get for my map, and i hope i can even be considered for winning something ^^
Also i hope its not too difficult for you. I have had one playtester test easy difficulty, 2 playtesters beat the map on normal difficulty, and tested myself normal, hard and expert, so it should be fine. But i did not finish expert difficutly, i just found a way it should work, as i didn't have enough time to fiddle everything together. But its a really big challenge, so if anyone beats expert... ^^ You'll get a cookie for real 😄

Anyways, i recommend you play the map on normal difficulty and have some fun with it! That way it won't take too long and its decently balanced. If you have time left over, you can check out the hard difficulty and have a challenging run ^^

PS: i attached a preview image to the map taht is also included in the downlaod here 😄 (See if that works ^^)

[Andreas9541 3]

Alright, I had a good look at it and I found that the village guardhouses were crashing the game, so I deleted them. For some reason the sea was not showing, but I hope it works now. I also noticed that many village workers were unemployed, because they refused to cross the wooden bridges. 5 years later and it's still the same pile of buggy RTS that I knew from back then. Anyway, for those who don't glitch and lag like me, enjoy the game. I reuploaded the file in the downloads section.

[Lord_Chris 251]

  On 04/10/2020 at 14:00, Krarilotus said:

First of all, when i loaded the site with being signed in, i couldn't see any submission button, as it showed me a login form but no panels for my personal stuff.

Read more  

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?

  On 04/10/2020 at 14:00, Krarilotus said:

The next thing was, that i accidentaly hit enter during writing the submission text without being inside of the box, which then did submit? maybe? an unfinished file. But it didn't notify me and i could just continue editing without anything.

Read more  

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.

  On 04/10/2020 at 14:00, Krarilotus said:

And I would recommend you fix it in a way, that when you click the submit button an actual window pops up, as on Stronghold Heavengames, to tell you: Are you finished and sure you want to submit the file? And as soon as you click then ok, it will not keep you on the 'edit' page, but show you another page, which says: uploading now, stay on the site until the file has finished uploading. And then you would display the: Upload complete! message when it has finished uploading.

Read more  

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.

  On 04/10/2020 at 14:00, Krarilotus said:

I have already reported on bugs in the past, i really hope you get your site working properly at some point. Otherwise i see no benefit of using it over Stronghold Heavenagmes, which is way more functional, you can better embed pictures in the dowload area as it isn't a fixed size (you can make it wider ...) and has other features as well that are just working.

Read more  

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.

  On 04/10/2020 at 14:00, Krarilotus said:

I also uploaded again under a different name, just to get an uplaod number, as the first one did obviously not show. But i would rather keep the file name simple as: Mongol Invasion 1258 and have the right picture displayed ( i put the wrong picture in my second uplaod by accident)

Read more  

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.

  On 04/10/2020 at 14:00, Krarilotus said:

Can't wait for the feedback i get for my map, and i hope i can even be considered for winning something ^^
Also i hope its not too difficult for you. I have had one playtester test easy difficulty, 2 playtesters beat the map on normal difficulty, and tested myself normal, hard and expert, so it should be fine. But i did not finish expert difficutly, i just found a way it should work, as i didn't have enough time to fiddle everything together. But its a really big challenge, so if anyone beats expert... ^^ You'll get a cookie for real

Read more  

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!

  On 04/10/2020 at 14:34, Andreas9541 said:

Alright, I had a good look at it and I found that the village guardhouses were crashing the game, so I deleted them. For some reason the sea was not showing, but I hope it works now. I also noticed that many village workers were unemployed, because they refused to cross the wooden bridges. 5 years later and it's still the same pile of buggy RTS that I knew from back then. Anyway, for those who don't glitch and lag like me, enjoy the game. I reuploaded the file in the downloads section.

Read more  

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!

[Krarilotus 9]

  On 04/10/2020 at 14:59, Lord_Chris said:

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?

Read more  

I didn't log in but used the #keep me logged in' feature. So i was signed in and went to the download section and to the main site but on both i didn't see  this module.

Which now i see as i completely aresaed my browser history and havent shut off my PC or browser since i logged in again.

  On 04/10/2020 at 14:59, Lord_Chris said:

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.

Read more  

And i admire you for that. I would also ask kindly, if you could get in contact with GRhin from the UCP project. We are currently creating a modloader to install Cruasder content directly, as we have the problem, that we get so many submissions of content, but we can't include them all in the UCP compiled project for obvious reasons. And so this would basically recreate the functionality of a download section here in stronghold nations, which would mean all the work doubled and the community split. I would rather have it all connected and not search through all the sites all the time ^^.

To get in contact with him, i can recommend using the discord link on the UCP website, which should be somewhere linked on the github (its hosted by the Github). He has shown progress to the project lately on his stream, so i bet the modloader will not take long to be finished.

Also this forum is awesome for its funcionality actually 😄

But yeah discuss this via PM is a good idea, i ll send one, when i figure out how to ^^

  On 04/10/2020 at 14:59, Lord_Chris said:

Was there any difference in your maps?

Read more  

There is no difference in the files. I just uploaded it again so i could give a reference number for the e-mail. It might be though, that i changed the tags after uploading again, seeing that i would need to add a comma ^^ But that doesn't really matter i guess... Also i am not sure if i changed anything for the text, but i am sure it wouldn't be major, must have just been some corrections, as i have reviewed it again to correct errors.

[Lord_Chris 251]

  On 04/10/2020 at 15:10, Krarilotus said:

I didn't log in but used the #keep me logged in' feature. So i was signed in and went to the download section and to the main site but on both i didn't see  this module.

Read more  

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.

  On 04/10/2020 at 15:10, Krarilotus said:

There is no difference in the files. I just uploaded it again so i could give a reference number for the e-mail. It might be though, that i changed the tags after uploading again, seeing that i would need to add a comma ^^ But that doesn't really matter i guess... Also i am not sure if i changed anything for the text, but i am sure it wouldn't be major, must have just been some corrections, as i have reviewed it again to correct errors.

Read more  

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.

[Krarilotus 9]

I just updated the description to remove the errors that needed correcting and adding a bit more inofrmation to the download page. I haven't changed the files, so if you downloaded the original uploaded files, they are still the valid Contest Entry.

Sorry for the trouble 😄
I just couldn't live with these mistakes when already linking to the downlaod section on different discord servers where people would get exited to download new content for the game!

Can't wait to get feedback 😄 ^^
I will probably also make a little video about the map, to be shared on YouTube, as i usually do with all my slightly bigger projects.

[Lord_Chris 251]

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!

[Krarilotus 9]

@Lord Mordred you also submitted an entry 😄 What is your mission all about?
Did anyone else try out any of the maps yet? I really liked the castle from @artofmath 😄

[artofmath 5]

@Krarilotusis it possible to build a version of the Wolf AI that uses primarily macemen for infantry, with a smaller number of pikemen and swordsmen, a version that doesn't use trebuchets? I'm building a new map - Siege of Jerusalem - and I'm wondering if that's at all possible, for gameplay purposes...

Edited October 15, 2020 by artofmath

[Krarilotus 9]

  On 15/10/2020 at 17:35, artofmath said:

@Krarilotusis it possible to build a version of the Wolf AI that uses primarily macemen for infantry, with a smaller number of pikemen and swordsmen, a version that doesn't use trebuchets? I'm building a new map - Siege of Jerusalem - and I'm wondering if that's at all possible, for gameplay purposes...

Of course it is. You can give him what ever troops you like. I would recommend checking out the UCP tutorials on that. Basically if you search AIC tutorial wolfkiller rat on youtube you should be guided to an old video of mine wher i explained some of the AI-Character stuff from the UCP. (UCP stands for Unofficial Crusader Patch)

Read more  

 

[artofmath 5]

  On 15/10/2020 at 21:59, Krarilotus said:

Of course it is. You can give him what ever troops you like. I would recommend checking out the UCP tutorials on that. Basically if you search AIC tutorial wolfkiller rat on youtube you should be guided to an old video of mine wher i explained some of the AI-Character stuff from the UCP. (UCP stands for Unofficial Crusader Patch)

Read more  

@Krarilotus I downloaded the UCP and installed the mod, but the aic folder isn't there in the folder where SHC is installed. Without access to the AIC files I can't do any modding. Do you have any suggestions?

I'm dreaming of a Wolf AI that uses archers, crossbowmen, macemen, swordsmen, catapults, and fire balllistas. No rams or trebuchets.

[Krarilotus 9]

  On 18/10/2020 at 02:48, artofmath said:

@Krarilotus I downloaded the UCP and installed the mod, but the aic folder isn't there in the folder where SHC is installed. Without access to the AIC files I can't do any modding. Do you have any suggestions?

I'm dreaming of a Wolf AI that uses archers, crossbowmen, macemen, swordsmen, catapults, and fire balllistas. No rams or trebuchets.

Read more  

@artofmathThe AIC tutorial i made, over on YouTube, covers the basics on what to modify.

With the version 2.14, the AIC folder moved to the UCP resources folder. It is now in json format for easier readability.

To access one aic, simply export an AIC from the patcher out of the aic tab. It then appears in the folder: resources/aic/export inside your UCP folder :)

 

hope that helps?

if not, you can always ask me directly via discord or PM. Krarilotus#6749

Edited October 18, 2020 by Krarilotus

[artofmath 5]

@KrarilotusI just sent you a friend request on Discord. I'm Lord_Nemo#5474.

I'd like to learn from you how to mod the AI characters! 😄