Gameplay: not a technical issue, but because this is using an economic system similar to that of Stronghold Kingdoms you find yourself growing incredibly slowly. In the grounds of the military campaign that can be a serious problem. Peasants not arriving but once every 15 seconds can really screw you when it comes to defending yourself. In the campaign you are frequently attacked with little time to repair let alone rebuild your army if things go awry.
Peasants: God forbid a single peasant is killed while operating a building. When you have to wait 5 minutes to get all your buildings restaffed you are unable to build an army. God forbid some wolves or bears come in from behind you and attack from nowhere because of a scripted event then follow up by mauling your king without any alert that they are doing so unlike previous titles where they would alert you by crying out "The lord is under attack!" or "The enemy is inside the castle." signifying that your keep had hostiles in it and the lord was in danger. The slow generation of peasants has more than punished me in Mission 9 of the campaign and nearly killed me in countless others before it. Building hovels doesn't exactly benefit you much in Stronghold 3 except for adding 8 more peasants (more or less depending on location) to the 15+ second wait time for another peasant. If farmers are killed you are doomed, which leads me to the next section.
Food consumption: There is a definite problem when you have to build tons of farms and food buildings to feed a small amount of people. If any fall the previous section will doom you, because farmers will very slowly get back to work and the process of economic collapse is swift and harsh. You run out of food quickly because new farmers come so darn slow because of the previous section and that is a -30 to your popularity which is generally more than enough to level your economy with everyone suddenly leaving, and it seems for me it tends to be my farmers that leave first, that is just wrong, if your farmers leave how the hell do you raise things back up.
Troops: Let me set a scenario up. You have 30 archers in a stone tower. 5 archers walk right up to the base of the tower frequently attacked only after they have begun firing on your archers. now 15 of your archers stand around doing nothing while the other 15 get massacred because they are blinder than bats when it comes to targeting something. I had 30 archers with ample height advantage in the middle of the day and they were slaughtered, and were Men at Arms bred in Sparta. My archers don't even fire on them until they have done tossed their spears from 500 yards away (exaggeration but you get my point, their range is greater than archers, I know that ain't right under any circumstance unless you are maybe Superman or something). Your men march so slowly too. I used to always use Macemen but they march like snails, it feels like using leather armored swordsmen, and with the Sparta bred Men at Arms they don't exactly live very long. In mission 9 I had 20 archers, 15 men at arms, and 6 macemen grouped up in aggressive stance and a band of 15 pike men walk right next to them (just out of melee range) My men just stand there, they aren't frozen just colorblind or flat out blind I guess). This needs fixing or else the higher units will be useless because of the Spartans at Arms. Don't even use height advantage because either a few archers on the ground or some Spartans at Arms will massacre them where they stand.
Construction: Stairs, my god, it is a struggle to get them to be able to place and when you do half the time the troops don't even realize there are stairs to the wall now and won't go into towers or atop gatehouses. 32 stone for 2 squares of wall is a bit excessive. I just sell stone for gold since it is such a pain in the butt to get people onto them right now. Your men are dumb as cavemen and wolves sure seem to be the more intelligent species as they can climb ladders (WTF) and slaughter your men without a second thought. I had to use the lord to get anything done against the wolves in mission 2 of military campaign.
Overall: The economics of Stronghold 3 NEED to revert with all deliberate speed to that of its predecessors as MMO economics don't work in an RTS. A 2 day process to get a peasant in Kingdoms is fine and dandy because you aren't under siege with every other minute. I need to raise an army in an RTS with some decency of speed, not watch as wall after wall of enemies easily slaughter my starting force and then march (painfully slowly) to my keep to finish my lord. Troops need a speed boost (come on men at arms you aren't wearing 500 pounds of armor, pick up the pace, especially macemen) The slow pace of the soldiers is ridiculous. macemen used to be great for hit and runs on enemy estates. Now the best melee unit is Spartans at Arms. I need to be able to raise an army and actually having peasants coming to my castle with some decency of speed. Peasant arrival was perfect in all the others. I could build troops and staff buildings at the same time and then have some left over. Now I can train 1-3 soldiers every 2 minutes while my buildings staff up and god forbid a single one falls add another minute as you wait for that building to restaff. Construction of stairs needs quick rectification and the amount of materials needed to construct something need to be decreased. When I have to use the great majority of my wood for a hovel there is a problem. the popularity system NEEDS to go back to the original formula as the random events get really excessive on the negatives when such things happen and generally drop you significantly and often into the negatives, wolves and bears will even if killed be the death of you right now as the -15 causes things to slow down greatly and after killing a few peasants your economy shuts down with all deliberate speed. Troops need an intelligence boost as well as a speed boost. When it takes 5 minutes from them to get from the barracks to the walls there is a problem. Height advantage needs fixing, when the people on the ground easily finish the people in a tower it just isn't right. food consumption needs to be decreased 1 ton of food per person is just outrageous. Without using all your resources on farms you'll run out of food, then everyone leaves and then it would be easier to just fall on your own sword and call it a day.
Short and sweet: Revert back to the original economics formula, decrease food consumption rates, decrease the intelligence of wolves and bears and increase the speed and intelligence of soldiers. Decrease the range of men at arms to be less than that of an archers. Fix archers, seriously they are blinder than bats right now and pikemen can walk right next to them unchallenged. Return the mechanics to that of its predecessors. MMO mechanics in an RTS don't work.
Update:
The Lord: I have never seen a lord so enthusiastic about dying. After attempting many historical sieges, which I'm sure were taken with a greater amount of troops than Firefly seems to think they were historically, the lord seems to always rush out to greet his assailants and get killed despite constant orders for him to stay put with his soldiers (not like he was going to survive anyway with the lack of balance). The lord needs not to be rushing off into battle like he does currently. He needs to stay put unless told otherwise by the player.
Historical Sieges: Alright, I'm sure castles out there were taken with only a handful of troops and a battering ram but I doubt every castle was dealt with the same way. Now when I attack and have only a battering ram and a couple mantlets, but deal with trebuchets when defending there is a serious problem of balance. If the AI is receiving trebuchets than when the player is attacking then they deserve to have equal means of offensive. In one mission they expect you to charge a wall loaded with rolling logs with no siege equipement say for some mantlets and those things are so weak they don't make any difference. They expected me to chisel the walls down with swordsmen while being crushed by logs and shot by archers. No breach was ever successfully made. Then they expect you to defend against dozens of men while trebuchets open a sizable hole in your wall because you can only tag one with rolling logs leaving you open to getting maimed. Balance in the historical sieges is ridiculous. This WILL need to be better balanced in a future patch as currently you have to have lady luck on your side when attacking and don't even think about prayer to god when defending, nobody is going to save you from the slaughters they put you in.
[This message has been edited by lord_arion (edited 10-30-2011 @ 11:50 PM).]