Official Stronghold 2 suggestions list

[Lord__Ship 7]

I love the idea of these posts and could add any number of things I would like to see especially in the editor, such as an endless supply of new AI, models, textures and campaigns.

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Now my rant:....

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But as is obvious Firefly has no intention of making ANY updates to SH2 and has 'apparently' dropped interest in the game because of the poor support from the gamers and especially the critics. And double that reason with the sad reception to Stronghold 3 , because they did not build it anything like SH2 and made another editor instead that is no fun to use.

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I doubt very much there will be a Stronghold 4.

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It's sad. Unless you are a mainstream xboxer adolescent with games that are purely and solely made for killing and blowing things up with silly spiderman acrobatics and big busty girls around in ridiculous hollywood, clothing, games like the older classics are doomed.

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The only future existence this game has is from the tiny handful of modders that are able to make changes. A big thank you to the modders who lack any support from Firefly.

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LS

[Lord_Chris 251]

I did ask Marta Zampollo, one of the PR officers at Firefly whether they intend to update Stronghold 2 in the coming months, and she hinted that they were thinking about it. This was when I first created this topic, a few months ago. But I sent another email off to her today and asked if there are any firm plans yet, I'll let you know when I hear a reply.

 

I understand what you're saying, that Firefly doesn't give a massive amount of support for modding. But in my opinion, that's what communities like this one are for; for us to all help each other to become better at the game, understand more about it, and make better more detailed mods - but we're able to centralise discussions and help around here, rather than individuals all disconnected and only have a certain amount (or area) or knowledge. In other words, I see SHN as a community for "pooling" knowledge and information. :)

[EaglePrince 230]

I'd just like to add that it's not all so bad as you describe. Yes, that's what many developers do - add busty girls, and such stuff. Still, that is not enough reason to think that because of this any "more serious game wouldn't be able to survive". Lost of us started to play these games as teenagers. Also, when it comes to nowadays teenagers, I can tell you for sure that they do appretiate those games just like we did. I thought math in elementary school and in high school, and many of them like Crusader, Age of Empires, etc... Damn, sadly it would be unprofessional from me to challenge them on a game, or to answer some if their challenges. :P So it's not about the kids, it's about the games! I'm not sure what is it exactly, but I guess that it's not only about developers, not about available engines. It seems like it was easier to make lots of things back then on 2D engines than on those 3D engines. Obviously firefly didn't manage to make moats in Stronghold 3 nor in Crusader 2. Yes, they said moats wouldn't make sense in desert, but they would give them to us if they were able to.

 

What developers need today is to give them a quality new strategy game, with great gameplay. Yes, unfortunately, poor graphics or 2D whine could repel some if the players from butting the game, but if the gameplay isn't good enough they will impress players are first, but later they would come back, crying for they wasted their money, and writting bad reviews.

 

This is why we taught that it could be a smart thing for Firefly to do done more work on Stronghold 2, because this wouldn't be too much effort compared to making a new game, and with Stronghold 2 they already have a good 3D Stronghold game with excellent gameplay. Well, warfare isn't so awesome as it is in Crusader, but it is much better then in Stronghold 3 or Crusader 2. In Crusader 2 you even don't have laddermen. Still, I don't say Crusader 2 is bad, I like it, but still...

[Lord__Ship 7]

Sorry, I did not mean to knock adolescent xboxers. But my point is that games are now made almost exclusively for mainstream markets that pay money.

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Fine! That's what it is all about - I know that... so I realize that my whining about the type of game does nothing constructive.

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So instead I make an appeal for you to pass along to Firefly that the EDITOR program is the most important part of their game. Ease of use and access to the AIs, models, textures, pathing and speech etc., will allow modders to create fantastic worlds and mod (re: Bethesda Software games)

.Imagine! Being able to add hundreds of new models to Stronghold games? Imagine being able to easily write new scripts for the characters ? (even if you have to buy them from Firefly) Imagine an all wood castle with wooden barracks, kitchen, courthouse, etc', that can burn or be destroyed?

New bridges that can be destroyed and rebuilt in game....

The customer base will rise considerably when there are hundreds or thousands of mods to enhance the game with, instead of re-doing everything with new engines making previous methods obsolete.?

If firefly should bother to re-make Stronghold 2 tell them not to change a thing but merely make the game capable of handling a ton more graphics, models and AI and the ability to import them into the editor.

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If I were making a game - the editor would be far more a big deal than the game that it edits.

Bethesda games would never be as popular as they are without the modders that change everything that's usually terribly annoying with the standard released games. ?

Modders may be a small part of the industry but without them and their free work that contantly breathes new life into old games, Bethesda's popularity would be a lot less meaning their income would probably be only half what it is.

End of rant:

LS

[EaglePrince 230]

And I am sorry that you got the wrong impression that I got wrong impression about you. :P

 

You're not W whining, that is a fact I guess, that most games are like that...

 

And yes, you are correct, the editor is one of the most important parts of Stronghold games.

 

Also, you are correct, it would be awesome to be able to mod the game. The only issue is how much read easy it may be for Firefly to do it, and do they want to do it. I mean, the do want to sell their next games well.

 

And yes, Firefly does count on their fans... Without their fans, they have very little scenarios, maps, etc...

 

Don't get me wrong, I just wrote everything quickly these few days, and in the end you can get a wrong impression.

 

And you're not whining. :D

[Lord__Ship 7]

I assume that the lords are not balanced so as to add variety to their various capabilities.

Look how fast and how many, vikings pour onto the scene with Olaf and I notice it's not that hard to beat the Bishop or Sir Grey.

I would however, love to be able to set the castles, troop allocations and weapons allowed in Kingmaker.

I guess I want Kingmaker to be the same as War custom with missions and all but with the same AI as Kingmaker so they all still do their best to attack and defend.

LS

[EaglePrince 230]

You may try to see at Stronghold Heaven those AI castles made by Doomsword. I also made several corrections to Williams castles. Like this it is way more exciting to play.

[Lord_Chris 251]

That is a good addition to Kingmaker, I added it to the list. :)

[Freedom 0]

Nice suggestions! But I'd like to know if anyone is or will work anytime soon on the suggestion to add units from Stronghold Legends 2. Not all of them, just 8 to my liking: 1 witches, 2 werewolves 3 wizard 4 sorcerer 5 ice queen 6 giants 7 gragons - all hired in an individual building just like the mercenary market (8 units) or the barracks (8 units too). I guess Stronghold 2 fans would really appreciate that, if not so, I woudn't even grudge any funds for such an addon/mod!

One more thing: is it possible to simply replace some units I personnally don't often use (for example, macemen or soldiers with boats on their backs) by some from Stronghhold Legends using only game directories of both STR 2 and STR Legends? If you know such modders or anything related to this modifications let me know asap.

Thank you in advance

[Lord_Chris 251]

Please do not excessively double post. I have deleted your three other posts, two of which were quotes of your first and the other was exactly the same - and all posted within 30 minutes of the first post too. Folks help on the forum as their time, schedules and whimsy dictate, and by double posting it isn't helping anyone, even yourself.

 

I'd also like to point out that here in the UK, it was actually 5 o'clock on the morning when you made those posts. So some users in various time zones, such as myself, were actually asleep when you posted those messages.

[Freedom 0]

The thing is I'm a newcomer here. I wanted to delete my posts on my own, just did'nt know how. So, I'll just stay subscribed to the topic. May I then clarify what is the priority for mods/addons to be made according to your list?

For my future reference, shall I state the person in my post whom I directly address to or it is not necessary? So, as you replied, nothing has been decided yet upon which mod/mods are going to be in progress at an early date. Thank you anyway for the information currently provided.

[EaglePrince 230]

What you're speaking here about would be fine if it was within the mod, but I must say that most people wouldn't like to see those supernatural units in Stronghold 2. In fact, that is why many haven't tried Stronghold Legends at all. Firefly really shouldn't make such a mutant game - Stronghold 2 with elements of Stronghold Legends. But if you were saying differently, such as: bringing more of the detailed castle management and other cool stuff from Stronghold 2 to Stronghold Legends, then I would say it's a good idea.

 

I mean, warewolves and witches should stay in Stronghold Legends, and I think that they don't fit into any other Stronghold game. While on the other hand, if you feel that castle life in Stronghold Legends is oversimplified compared to Stronghold 2, then I could agree. But keep in mind that for many players Stronghold 2 actually the one which is overcomplicated, though we love it for those very same reasons. :)

 

What is exactly what you like in Stronghold 2 and you miss in Stronghold Legends by the way? :)

[Freedom 0]

To EaglePrince. Well, all those animations - feasts directly in the castle, dancing and the royal/kithen service with pages brining food to the royal table, that's cool! When you are tired of war it is "relaxing" to take a quick look at what's going in the castle and outside (the chief cook and her assistents are actually busy in the kitchen cooking (don't know how they are called in English), plus the lady's ward which makes castle management more realistic. And of course the church service! I noticed that AI lords do not at all have sanitary structures, falcons and the court building with executioners building and torture facilities (e.g. scaffold and others), the pub where you actually see lord's workers (gardeners, blacksmiths ...) getting drunk by sitting? right there in the building! Of course if all that is? sometime included in Stronghold Legends I will certainly play it. But isn't it easier to just add 8 units from Stronghold Legends instead with a dedicated (is correct to say dedicated?) building than vice versa? As I posted before and following what you said, I would even pay anyone competent enough for making this mod. Ah, plus I would like some units like horsback arabian archers, assassins, thieves? in Stronghold Legends. Thanks for showing interest

Edited April 15, 2017 by Freedom

[EaglePrince 230]

I see. Well, it does seam correct that it should be easier to add these few units to Stronghold 2 than to add all those things to Stronghold 2. But like I said, somehow I feel that it would make more sense to add stuff to Stronghold Legends than to add those units to Stronghold 2, because adding supernatural units to Stronghold 2 might change the idea of the game.

 

What you say indeed sounds interesting. Only that we, sadly, won't see that stuff, I think. We're still waiting for Stronghold 2 Steam Edition, if it is ever to be released, and even when it comes, it may only come with some no real improvements, but only with some Steam specific stuff such as those achievements, etc. But I hope it won't be the case with Stronghold 2, and that we're going to see some interesting stuff. For example, what I would love the most would be to be able to play multiplayer games against AI lords. I would love to play some relaxing online games like that.

[Freedom 0]

Anyway, with or without supernatural creatures, Stronghold 2 is one of the best strategies, to my mind. I'm staying subscribed, if any more news is reported on my idea or some points in the official list. I hope there are individual modders who may be interested apart from Firefly. Do you think it is difficult/takes long for a good modder to make a mod like that? (adding 8 creatures that were in question). I'm just interested).

Is it hard to learn modding on my own?. Or is it worth at all? I mean just for my specific purpose (the above mod we talked about)?

Edited April 16, 2017 by Freedom

[EaglePrince 230]

I agree, Stronghold 2 is the best Stronghold game for me too for certain types of game. When I just want to relax, fight against William a little, and so on. The game is really enjoyable.

 

As to how hard is it to learn modding, that question may be for another thread, but anyway - I'm not sure. I have never tried to mod Stronghold 2 myself. When it comes to switching body models from game to game - that is question for somebody else, but I believe this would be more than that. You would need to put warewolves instead of another unit, and you would also have to edit their attributes to be as strong as in SHL. But that might require you to edit the exe file, and all that might not be that easy. Plus, if these units have some special abilities, then I think adding this unit to SHL as it is (together with its abilities) wouldn't be possible. And all this I'm saying in the best scenario possible - if all of this files are the same type in SHL as in SH2.

 

But like I said, I know nothing about modding. Just like Jon Snow. :D I'm just a mere philosopher. :)

[Lord_Chris 251]

I'm not sure that adding units into the game is possible, I'm afraid. At least with the current setup - which is why hooks and addons are such an important addition. They would allow you to extend or alter the game's functionality without actually needing to change anything in the core of it. That means you'd be able to just paste in a few files and allow the game to take care of the rest, rather than overwriting files or even changing them altogether.

 

A lot of things appear to be hard-coded though at the moment in files which are compiled (i.e. non-readable and irreversible) so this would require quite a few restructuring changes. I'm not entirely sure that will ever happen, even if Firefly did add updates. What we would really be looking for would be for Firefly to reveal the source code, but I doubt that will ever happen.

 

However, it is possible to change the skins, speech, weapons .etc. of existing units. You just replace various .uni files, skins .etc of the units. Modding Stronghold 2, as in adding custom music, changing unit files .etc. isn't very difficult to pick up, and we do have existing tutorials for most of those things you're probably referring to. And when a tutorial isn't available we're more than happy to help the best we can on the forum. That is still a work in progress though, as there are a lot of tutorials ? and for a lot of games too!

[Freedom 0]

Hello everybody!?

I was thinking of some priority points from the suggestions list for Stronhold 2.

I'd like to know if it is feasable at first to make automarket, seasons and better unit textures (for all units) in Stronhold 2 in the nearest future (not much better, just a little would do). Personally, for example, I don't ? quite like seeing crossbowmen or archers running around with unfinished crosbows and bows. Maybe, it woudn't be much of a trouble for a competent modder. If it were any other strategy game, that woudn't matter much. I don't mean Firefly as they are being engaged in different stuff at the moment (I'm doing dustice to them fo making such a great game). Though who can if not them?

[EaglePrince 230]

Will, making the game in better graphics would be awesome. It would be great to see an HD version of Stronghold 2. Unfortunately, I wouldn't expect to get something like that. Many older games got their HD version recently, but graphics has remained almost the same. That's why I wouldn't expect that for Stronghold 2 either.

 

But that would be interesting to see. Still, I think that it would be the best if else could get more stuff that regard gameplay. For example, I would love to see a game such as Stronghold 2 with unit collision. That would effect field battles far more interesting, and castle sieges as well.

[Lord_Chris 251]

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?

[Freedom 0]

The follwing idea suddenly occurred to me: does AI in Stronghold 2 ever hire stronger units like assassins, knights or horseback archers?. If not so how can I edit/what files to edit to "enable" this option (if any)? And another question is? how to make AI smarter - make it use various siege weapons such as? trebuchets, sap shields, burning carts etc? It was previously mentioned that Steam Edition for Stronghold 2 is under developemnt as far as I remember and of course some source code is to be revealed. Hopefully, this is the only reason why not make changes. Are Firefly actually in the know/will consider potential improvements to the game? (unless this is related to the source code).

[EaglePrince 230]

I think we can say for sure that no peace of source code is going to be revealed.

 

But what you mentioned is used by some AI lords. For example, Hammer uses knights, and he does build trebuchets as well. They don't ride horses though. And I don't know if any of AI lords uses assassins. I know that there is at least on AI character who uses horseback archers. Maybe The Queen uses them if I am not mistaken. So it's basically as in Stronghold Crusader where each of the AI lords has its own typical troops which he uses.

 

Speaking of sap shields, I'm not sad because they don't use them. They don't use them, fine, I don't use them neither. Maybe it would be more interesting if it was other way around, but it just bugs that these shields are not realistic enough. Mostly because no Stronghold game has unit collision. Still, in Stronghold 2 it may not be that case so much, but in Stronghold Crusader portable shields are so much overpowered, that it would have been better without them in my opinion.

 

But there is a lot of room for improvements for AI lords, on that we all agree! They have to be smarter when attacking castles, and especially when defending their own estates.

[Lord_Chris 251]

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.

[EaglePrince 230]

I'm not sure about Lady Seren, if I remember correctly, she uses light cavalry, but not horse archers, while the Queen does use horse archers. But as I said, I'm not sure, I rarely pay attention to which AI lord uses which troops, mostly because most of them use more than few unit types. :)

[Aubrey de Vere 1]

Hello, new player, first post. I would love to be able to change the names of Estates in the Map Editor.