Crusader 2 will be Steam Exclusive!

[Lord_Chris 251]

Now our news has been replaced by topics from our announcements forum on our homepage, here is this announcement on stronghold crusader 2.

 

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The Crusader 2 team is pleased to confirm that Stronghold Crusader 2 will feature achievements, voice chat, cloud saving, Steam Workshop support, game invites and gameplay stats. However in order to include all these features in the game, either at launch or through post-release updates, it will need to be run through Steam.

 

As an independent developer our resources are limited. That said we still want Crusader 2 to have all the cool and convenient features players expect from a modern RTS and a true sequel to the original Stronghold Crusader. We can handle much of the game just fine on our own, so the game?s skirmish mode, AI, single-player campaigns and other core gameplay systems such as co-op have been tailor made by Firefly. However secondary features like achievements, game invites and gameplay stats will be powered through Steam, where the majority of our players come from.

 

Our primary reason for making Crusader 2 exclusive to Steam is fairly simple then. The time required to create our own bespoke tools and systems for such features could end up delaying the game for the wrong reasons, which nobody wants, without necessarily providing better functionality. It sounds clich?d but this is win-win, we get to include the features fans of the genre expect without delaying the game or taking our focus away from core gameplay features.

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[Charles of Tours 69]

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... Steam, where the majority of our players come from.

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:lol: I question the credibility of that statement. Perhaps the Stronghold Kingdoms platform, which is free and downloadable via Steam, distorts that number as an outlier to the owners of the non-Steam copies sold years before the original titles were published on Steam. I don't have any statistics, but I have a feeling this will turn away some long-time fans who don't feel like downloading (or using) Steam.

 

Still, there are some good guys working for a good community over at Firefly. I'll probably buy a copy (or two, like I did with SH3) just to support them and indirectly also support the community and websites such as this. Best of luck Firefly, make us proud once again!

[Lord_Chris 251]

Hmm, I don't fully believe them on that either. I know loads of people who despise Steam (including myself) and have explicitly said they aren't getting it because of it. You know how much I hate steam, I'm sure I've told you via PM before, the only reason I might get it (still undecided) is for the site. SH3 is an alright game, it's on the way to becoming a good one (if only it hadn't have been abandoned it might have been) but I just hate the steam element of it.

 

It makes the game run incredibly slow - just looking at the time for the game to initially start up, the game takes about thirty seconds more to load than if it wasn't on steam, you connect to a server thousands of miles away, when in reality it was probably easier to just install the game on your system and be done with it. Then of course there's the old issue with bringing in a third part - you have to give steam your details for a 'free steam account' when in reality all you want to do is play the game, and it becomes more and more of a task to do just that.

 

But, they aren't to be criticised, they're doing a great job, and this one will turn out to be a masterpiece! :)

 

The game generally looks very good, I'll also point people in the direction of this video as it's pretty informative: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Nx2jwT9CRM

[EaglePrince 230]

I've been visiting Stronghold Crusader 2 forum for a while, and I must say that, although I had low expectations (I just didn't want to end up disappointed), now I think it can be a really nice game. I've got feeling like FireFly did learn something from their past 3D Stronghold games, and that they have realized that people want a sequel of Stronghold Crusader. There will be some changes, and although many of us are resisting those, I must say: if something doesn't seem attractive right now, it doesn't me we won't like it. :)

 

Speaking about Steam - well for all of us it is something we don't need, and therefore we don't want it (plus - those stuff said by Chris), but if this turn out to be a great game, I guess most of players will tolerate it.

I had similar experience with Uplay when buying Settlers 7, but in the end, I still tolerated it in order to play a good game (although I still don't like how one cannot access some parts of the game if the player isn't online - it is possible to play offline, but then some maps wouldn't be available for example). There are many downsides, but I guess I will tolerate it.

 

By the way, are there any chances that the game price to lower a bit some time after releasing? I never bought a game just after being released - I didn't have powerful enough PC. I would always buy a game after I get a new computer. :)

[Lord_Chris 251]

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By the way, are there any chances that the game price to lower a bit some time after releasing?

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I wouldn't say straight away, it will probably take a while. But who knows - the site may offer one for free in a contest at some point!

 

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There are many downsides, but I guess I will tolerate it.

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You sound much more tolerable than me - I uninstall steam when not using SH3 - that's how much I hate it. I can't bear to have it hogging resource usage on my PC.

[EaglePrince 230]

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But who knows - the site may offer one for free in a contest at some point!

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Woah, if that is the case, I shall be one of the contestants - that's for sure! :) Only I shall see minimum system requirements for the game before anything else.

 

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You sound much more tolerable than me

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Or that, or Uplay is way less annoying than Steam - I haven't tried Steam yet.

[Lord_Chris 251]

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Woah, if that is the case, I shall be one of the contestants - that's for sure!

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Nothing definite yet, that is just a possibility. If anything is decided, then you'll be able to see it in the announcements (or competitions) forum.

[EaglePrince 230]

I understand. I must also admit, it would be a relatively expensive prize.

 

But I don't want to sabotage myself or some other potential contestants, so instead of that, I should say "Hey, yeah, great idea! You should do something like that - that would be our way to celebrate the new Stronghold game!". I'm just kidding right now. :)

[Mathew Steel 151]

I am looking forward to the game. I think they've done great work with it. Already pre-ordered and am going to play it on my birthday. Can't get much better than that! Well...unless it was free of course :D

[Nigel 71]

I just downloaded the manual from a link given at the official Crusader 2 site.

http://forum.strongholdcrusader2.com/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=570

 

Browsing through the manual it looks really nice

- like they have taken the best elements out of SH2 and SHL (estate capturing, marketplace, unit formations) and combined them with the old Crusader.

Edited September 21, 2014 by Nigel

[Lord_Chris 251]

This is pretty useful, thanks!