News Archives: 2011
Stronghold Heaven – Week Map 7
There was no Week Map News for over a week and this one was delayed a bit, all due to lack of great maps to choose from. But that is understandable, great maps don’t show up every week and the holidays made people forget about mapmaking. This is the last week map this year and it’s not like any other scenario but one made purposely for this holiday period. The Christmas Fort by Adam the First brings new challenges and a wonderful terrain design in a Tiny-sized map. Even though it’s very new to the downloads it has already received dozens of downloads by now.
Don’t miss it! Download it and comment in the forums.
Merry Christmas and A Happy New Year!
Here we find ourselves again at the end of another year. A lot has happened, from regular events like new projects and many user-made scenarios to Stronghold 3’s big release and new staff members. And that is just the beginning; There is still a lot of things left for 2012. No matter how the year was for you, busy, exciting or interesting, enjoy the holidays and have a great time! On behalf of the Stronghold Heaven Staff, I would like to wish everyone
Merry Christmas and A Happy New Year!!
Patch 1.7 for SH3 released
Firefly Studios has released the 1.7.25308 patch for Stronghold 3 on Steam. To download the patch, simply run your Steam client and the patch will download automatically. The patch includes plenty of fixes from the following categories: Miscellaneous, Language fixes, Balancing, Multiplayer, Multiplayer lobby, Audio and also includes two new maps.
You can view the full list of fixes here on the Firefly Site or in this SH Heaven forum thread.
Sites are Down; Patch Later Today
Unfortunately, FireFly Studios’ websites for both Stronghold 3 and Kingdoms are down. FireFly is investigating the issue and will have the sites back online soon. Nonetheless, Patch 1.7 for Stronghold 3 will be released later today on Steam. It adds new multiplayer maps, new historical sieges, tweaks, fixes and the ability to pick different multiplayer Lords. Firefly Studios’ announced this would be the last patch for this year, but that they would continue producing more patches when they come back in January.
Update: The sites are back up! And the patch hit Steam at 12:59pm EST!
The SH3 patch delayed one more day.
Firefly Studios has announced on their website and facebook that the Stronghold 3 patch will be released tomorrow, 22nd December. Read the official announcement below:
Hi everyone. We’re taken the decision to push the patch to Thursday to give us some extra testing time. The good news is peasants now fight back against enemies and animals, including wolves and we’ve also created 2 new multiplyer maps. Full patch notes will be released with the patch on Thursday.
UPDATE Firefly Studios delayed the patch release one more time until tomorrow.
Due to unforeseen circumstances we are going to need a little bit more time before we release the patch. We promise it will definitely be out tomorrow (Friday) though
The Steam PC sale!
The Steam PC sale started today and The Stronghold Collection is on sale for just £6.99!
Firefly Studios announced it on their Twitter pages.
Stronghold 3 Patch coming next Wednesday (21st Dec)
The next Stronghold 3 patch will be released next Wednesday 21st December 2011.
As an extra bonus we will be adding 2 new historic castles; Dunnottar in Scotland and Castillo de Coca in Spain, to siege over the Christmas holidays.
Quoted from Firefly Studios
Community Campaign – Map One!
March 2011 – Adam the First started a Stronghold 1 community project consisting in 10 maps made by 10 different mapmakers. Now it’s time to release the first one, The Forgotten West, Preparation made by DeSteff2222. The minimap picture on the left speaks for itself – An amazing terrain work by DeSteff who has once more showed his Stronghold 1 designing skills, and that’s not all because the map also features a great gameplay. The scenario is fun to play but not too easy to get bored.
Be you a Stronghold 1 fan or not, make sure you don’t miss the map and download it from here. Also the Community Project Thread can be found here. Future maps will be released as they get finished.
Christmas Comes to Stronghold Kingdoms!
Stronghold Kingdoms will be giving away hundreds of thousands of presents this Christmas in the great Stronghold Kingdoms Christmas Giveaway.
As a big Thank You! to the Kingdoms community, Fireflys two weeks of Christmas are almost here. Starting next week players of our free-to-play online strategy game Stronghold Kingdoms will be given the chance to win an in-game present every day.
Each day in the run up to Christmas, players will have the chance to win a prize by opening one of nine festive boxes when they login. Prizes range from rare strategy cards to premium tokens, with a guaranteed win on Christmas Day. The competition is open to everyone with a Kingdoms account, but it must end on December 26th. So put on your chain mail, find that oversized Santa hat and get to it!
More information about Stronghold Kingdoms and Firefly Studios can be found at strongholdkingdoms.com and fireflyworlds.com. Kingdoms can be found on Facebook at www.facebook.com/StrongholdKingdoms and on Twitter @shkingdoms.
Quoted from Firefly Studios
Stronghold Heaven – Week Map 6!
Unfortunately a Stronghold 2 Week map could not be chosen from the recent submissions this week, but have no fear, a Stronghold Crusader map is here! Hobbithole, also known as Hobbitsavior in the forums was quite active recently and posted several good maps. His most recent, probably the best looking and of course this week’s map is Curtains Down! With a great-looking eyecandy castle that takes half the size of the map you will have to accomplish several economical tasks, but don’t think that’s going to be easy. Plagues and fires will try to bring you down right from the start, but also a couple of strong invasions.
Check it now here and see the Week Maps Thread.
Stronghold 1 Mapmaking Video – Episode 3
Captain Diablo released a couple of days ago the 3rd mapmaking video for beginners. Credits are given to DeSteff2222’s Stronghold 1 map The Taste of Power. The video which is 20 minutes long is split into 2 parts: Part 1 can be viewed below as an embed video. Part 2 can be viewed here on YouTube. Also don’t forget about the thread made purposely for such videos – view it here.
Next Stronghold 3 Patch Coming Next Week!
Firefly Studios has announced today that due to more important features the game is going to support, the next patch will come up next week. Quoted from Firefly Studios:
Just a heads up to let you know the next patch will be released at the end of next week to give us time to add some new features including multiplayer Capture the Flag mode as well as a number of tweaks and bug fixes.
Cherub Wings for DeSteff2222!
DeSteff2222 was just promoted to a Cherub! We know he is going to be a wonderful addition to the staff of our Stronghold Heavens!
DeSteff is a self proclaimed “Stronghold Addict” and brings to our site his talent as an artist with a good grasp of graphic design. His enthusiasm and polite attitude will continue to shine for this Heaven as he shares his talents with us.
Take a minute to welcome and congratulate DeSteff in this thread!
Stronghold 3 Crashes Feedback.
Firefly Studios has recently announced that they would appreciate some crashes feedback from the SH3 players. Below is the message quoted from Facebook:
We are still trying to track down crashes in the game but we need your help. If you have a savegame that crashes while loading or soon after it loads then please Zip/Rar/7z it and email it to sh3_support@fireflyworlds.com (4MB max). If you could also include a brief description of the crash and any other useful info (dxdiag would be handy) then that would be great too. Thanks from Firefly.
Stronghold Heaven – Week Map 5!
December’s first week map is Blackwood castle 1355 made by our professional designer DeSteff2222. If you thought a Tiny-sized map (160×160) simply cannot give you the same fun as playing a medium or large-sized map, you will soon realize that’s not true. With an unique landscape and castle design style and an impressive scripting giving the small space, the mapmaker has shown his true mapmaking skills. In addition, the story is well-written and the gameplay is highly entertaining. Download one of the best tiny-sized maps here and comment the Stronghold Heaven Week maps in this thread!
Next week’s map will be for Stronghold 2!
Stronghold 3 – Patch 1,6 Released
Firefly Studios has released Patch 1.6.24988 for Stronghold 3. It includes plenty of fixes and a new free-build mode control panel. Read the full list of fixes in this SHH thread or in the link provided by Firefly Studios.
We have released a 1.6.24988 patch for Stronghold 3 on Steam. To download the patch, simply run your Steam client and the patch will download automatically.
Stronghold 3 1.6.24988
New free-build mode control panel. This allows you to do the following:
– Launch an attack/siege from a list against your castle
– Set the in-game difficulty (mostly for the sake of estate food consumption rates)
– Give yourself gold
– Activate and set the evil-ness of random eventsFull list of fixes in the top links
Stronghold 3 – New Patch Announced!
Firefly Studios has announced on their Stronghold 3 Facebook wall that another patch will be released tomorrow, 2nd December. Details in the quoted news below:
A new Patch will be released this coming Friday.
We are continuing to work on stability and multiplayer issues and have made some changes that should help multiplayer lag.
However this patch will again focus a little more on game play related changes – and will specifically introduce the following new feature:
– The new control panel in free build will let players summon up invasions of varying sizes and frequency as well as adjusting the prevailing events and difficulty.
– Other notable changes include stairs/hoardings/rolling logs/brazier placement in walls has been improved and is now less rigid then before.A full list of other smaller changes and bug fixes will be given when the patch goes live.
Firefly
Stronghold Kingdoms – Russian World Announced!
Changes are going to happen in Stronghold Kingdoms, as announced by Firefly Studios on Facebook! A new battlefield for Kingdoms players and the first Russian World will be released on Thursday, 1st December. Below is the quoted news from Facebook:
Privet!
So we were thinking We know that things have been a bit quiet on the Kingdoms front as of late, but thats all about to change!
With that in mind, Firefly would like to announce the launch of Stronghold Kingdoms first Russian world!
Mir 1 will launch at 13:00 GMT on Thursday 1st December and we’d appreciate it if you could give our new Russian fans a hearty Stronghold welcome.
Today’s update to the game will affect various in-game screens, as well as adding a few new custom avatar items for you to obsess over!
Rest assured Kingdoms will soon be receiving lots of Firefly love. We have features on the mind and content on our hard drives.
2012 will be a good year for Kingdoms players
Stronghold Heaven Contest!
Lords and Ladies,
At the request of several users, Stronghold Heaven will be holding a competition in the near future. Currently, everything is on idea stage, details and the game(s) on which the contest will be hold is still to be decided. The contest will be singleplayer, either for map designing with the winner chosen by votes or a scenario challenge with the highest score as winner. Since the Stronghold 1 and Stronghold Crusader are the most popular games, they are also a preferred choice for a competition. Everyone can make suggestions and share their opinions in the Contest Ideas thread. As for the prize, the winner will be given a Custom Forum Title! Other ‘bigger’ prizes are possible if participants are many.
Ready to compete?
New walkthrough for the Crusader warchest trail!
The Crusader warchest walkthrough project is back on track! We’ve picked up on where we left, and have posted a new walkthrough corresponding to mission 69 – Choke Zones. If you’re having problems with the mission, you can read it here. Have fun!
Stronghold Heaven – Week Map Four!
Since the Stronghold 3 downloads section isn’t very populated yet, and Firefly is still improving the game with patches, a Strongold Crusader map will be in the Week Map spotlight again! Skirmish maps are one of the most downloaded map types as it allows the player to pick from a variety of challenges and AI behaviors and Saladin’s mercy, Saladin’s rage by return of Yasko is certainly worthy of playing. It was designed for a 1 vs 5 gameplay, with the enemies surrounding the player that stays in a lonely ground-level corner but of course it can work in other combinations as well.
With that said, don’t miss the fun and download the map from here! Discussion thread here
New Patch for Stronghold 3 Released!
Firefly Studios has released a small new patch for Stronghold 3. The official announcement can be viewed here.
We have released a small patch (1.5.24824) for Stronghold 3 on Steam. To download the patch, simply run your Steam client and the patch will download automatically.
Stronghold 3 v1.5.24824
– Mini-map and warning notifications have been added.
– Mini-map now has arrows indicating the location of the keep when off screen.
– Fixed various wall issues that were causing crashes.
– Fixed issue with troops changing the set stance when moved.
– Fixed issues to make withdrawing units from combat easier.
– Selectable building and troop limits have been added to multiplayer.
– The defensive bonus on walls and towers has been increased.
– The aggressive attack range of troops has been doubled.
– Fixed some multiplayer issues causing the game to go out of sync.
– The game now launches directly into the correct resolution.Please be aware save games made before patch 1.2.24396 that contain fire will crash when loaded.
New Patch for Stronghold 3 Announced!
Firefly Studios announced yesterday they are going to release another patch for Stronghold 3 today:
A small update will be released this coming Friday, November 25th.
This patch continues to increase stability – With a couple of crash bugs caught. Also, selectable building and troop limits have now been added to multiplayer.
More information after the jump
Some improvements to the troop controls have been made such as:
– Groups no longer jump out of user set stance when moved.
– Withdrawal from combat now works correctly.Other changes include:
– Troops on walls receive increased defensive bonus.
– Mini map notifications have been added.
– Selectable building and troop limits have now been added to multiplayer.A full list of other smaller changes and bug fixes will be given when the patch goes live.
The Firefly Team
Stronghold 1 Mapmaking Video – Episode 2
Captain Diablo continues his series of Stronghold 1 videos for beginners and this episode brings information on how to make things look natural. Credits are given to brave sir robyn‘s map called Special Brew. The episode, which is 20 minutes long, is split into two parts. View them by clicking on the links below and check the thread designated to stronghold videos right here!
Episode 1 – How to make things look natural
Part 1 ( 15 min ) / Part 2 ( 5 min )
Stronghold 1 Mapmaking Video!
Captain Diablo, a very experienced member and player of our community decided to start creating mapmaking videos for people who are new to map designing. In this first Stronghold 1 episode he talks about how to establish your goals and takes Secrets of Sylvandell CH5 by Sulis and The Usurper CH1 by Gordon Farrell as examples.
Thank him for the effort and contribution and enjoy watching the video!
Stronghold Heaven – Week Map Three!
Last week we went with a map from the original Stronghold game, this week we choose to spotlight a Stronghold 2 map that attempts to capture the feel of a SH1 map, and succeeds nicely.
Ardeche, created by longtime Stronghold player Jaliss, uses the wide variety of the Stronghold 2 editor to bring you a well rounded adventure where you must find the balance between economy and recruitment to defend your estate and meet some hefty goals. With limited building space and well timed events, Ardeche will keep you busy and in anticipation of getting closer to reaching the many economic needs while not succumbing to all the perils SH2 has to offer.
Download the map from here and talk about Week maps in this thread!
Firefly Studios releases the 4th patch for Stronghold 3!
Firefly Studios has announced the fourth patch for Stronghold 3 is now released and available to download!
We have released a 1.4.24706 patch for Stronghold 3 on Steam. To download the patch, simply run your Steam client and the patch will download automatically.
Stronghold 3 v1.4.24706
– 3 difficulty levels have been added. Easy, Normal and Hard. Some of the changes affect food consumption rates, along with troop numbers depending on the campaign you are playing.
– New Multi-player mode King of the Hill added.
– Several Exit game crashes fixed. This may still occur very occasionally.
– Animals will no longer count as enemies and therefore no longer block building placement.Please be aware save games made before patch that contain fire will crash when loaded. Also we are aware there are still syncing issues in multiplayer which we are looking to fix for the next patch.
View the full list of fixes in this SH Heaven thread or on this Firefly Studios page!
Another patch for Stronghold 3 has been announced!
The fourth Stronghold 3 patch is expected to be released tomorrow, 18th November, as announced by Firefly Studios.
A new patch will be released tomorrow (18th Nov).
We are continuing to hunt for and fix stability issues and some progress has been made on some memory related issues, with the games overall memory footprint also being reduced.
However this patch will focus a little more on gameplay related changes – and will specifically introduce the following 2 new features:
– Difficulty levels and King of the Hill Multiplayer mode
More information after the jump.Other notable changes are:
– Food consumption rates have been rebalanced downward as part of the work on difficulty levels.
– Troop and building limits added to Multiplayer (Host controllable)
– A full list of other smaller changes and bug fixes will be given when the patch goes live.The Firefly team.
The Stronghold Heaven Flickr Group!
The Flickr Group of our community has been around for a while, yet not many people are aware of it’s existence. It has already over 1,400 items, most of them uploaded by Peter2008, Sir Hugh and Lord Michael I.
Just recently, Lord_Arion, a member of our community also decided to contribute to the group with some great-looking Stronghold 3 screenshots. So be sure to check the Stronghold Heaven group on Flickr and have a look at Lord_Arion‘s great additions!
Everyone is welcome to share their Stronghold pictures on the group! The process is simple, but have a look here or at this step-by-step guide by GiGaBaNE in case you need help.
Stronghold Heaven – Week Map Two!
Last week there was Stronghold Crusader map, now It’s time to promote a scenario from the original Stronghold. Choosing one from the past three months or so was a challenge because there were several more good competitors but eventually the winner was the mapmaker who had shown the biggest desire to improve his skills, and that is LegionHero! And always remember that your map can be on the news too as long as it is recently uploaded on the downloads section!
LegionHero‘s Stronghold 1 map, “Provisions for the winter” is special in many ways, but what is truly impressive is the amount of effort he has put into to landscape, implementing tricks in original ways for a scenario where military and economical targets combines with the eye-candy landscape! It has already been reviewed with a 4,4 score by me (Lord_of_Hell) and had also received a couple of impressions from Peter2008. Be sure you download and play it for a very entertaining gameplay!
Discuss Stronghold Maps of The Week in this thread!
Firefly Studios releases the 3rd patch for SH3!
Firefly Studios has just released the third patch for Stronghold 3, as announced on their Facebook page.
We have released a 1.3.24532 patch for Stronghold 3 on Steam. To download the patch, simply run your Steam client and the patch will download automatically.
– Added a possible fix for the ‘failed to initialise’ bug.
– Fixed issue with units starting in a T-Pose when a map loads.
– Fixed issues with troops walking through walls.
– Fixed issue with man-at-arms being able to throw their spear through walls when directly ordered to attack someone behind the wall.
– Fixed issue with ranged units twitching while attempting to target a unit that is out of line of sight.
…
Make sure you view the full list of updates in this thread!
Firefly Studios announces the 3rd SH3 patch.
Firefly Studios announced on their Facebook and Twitter pages that the third patch for Stronghold 3 is expected to be released on 11 November.We will be releasing the next Stronghold 3 patch on Friday (11 Nov) that amongst other things fixes the following:
– Added a possible fix for the ‘failed to initialise’ bug.
– Fixed the graphics issue with troops occasionally starting in a “T-pose”.
– Fixed the load save issue we introduced in the last patch.
– Fixed a bug that allowed troops to walk through walls near gatehouses.
– Added “snap” placement of walls (via Ctrl key) at request of several users.We have also fixed some stability issues but there are still some hard to find ones out there. Please rest assured that we are working very hard on fixing them and will patch these in as soon as they are fixed.
A full list of patch fixes will be given out when the patch goes live.
SHH Week Map One! “Over Crowding” by fayez2010
By now a lot of Stronghold fans have shared their work and scenarios on our Downloads sections. Years after the first Stronghold games, people still make maps and enjoy the original gameplay. From this week on, they will also be rewarded for their work and contribution. Every week a different and recent user-created map will show up in the news with some details on what makes that particular scenario special.
This week’s map is a Stronghold Crusader v1,2 file: Over Crowding by fayez2010, a mapmaker focused mainly on economical challenges and this one really puts the player into a very uncomfortable situation but thrilling in the same time! One has to conquer a village with only a bunch of troops then handle a crowding penalty up to -10 in order to gain victory. But what really makes this map special is the gameplay which, thanks to the well-designed surroundings, really feels like a classical Crusader mission.
Read exciting impressions by
SH3 Second Patch Released!
The delay didn’t take more than 2 hours and Firefly Studios released the second patch.
Version – 1.2.24396
– The mouse cursor has been improved and will help with selection and responsiveness issues.
– Game speed added. Press + to speed up the game (x2 or x3 normal speed) and – to slow the game down to normal speed (x1).
– Buildings can now be placed on top of workers and animals. The game will move the workers or animals out of the way.
Make sure you view the full list of updates in this thread!
SH3 Second Patch Delayed.
Unfortunately Firefly Studios has just announced the patch they were working on was delayed.
Quoted from Stronghold 3 Facebook page:
We are very sorry to tell you the Stronghold 3 patch has been delayed due to an issue beyond our control.
A further comment by Firefly Studios sais:
The code for the patch is complete and was ready to be released. This issue is affected us from releasing it and is not related to Firefly Studios. We hope this will be resolved asap to allow us to release this patch to you all.
15 Things You Never Knew About Stronghold!
Do you think you know everything about Stronghold? Think again.
Here are fifteen things that most of the gamers are not aware of!
1. Firefly Studios is a smaller operation than you’d think. A quick employee headcount puts the developer at just 26 full-time staff. The upside to this of course is that, if there’s a problem, they can just call across the room to whoever has a fix.
…
5. In 2001 Stronghold actually outsold Grand Theft Auto 3 in Germany, one of the most critically and commercially successful games of all time. Firefly’s first game stayed at number 1 in the German charts for seven months, becoming the second best-selling title that year in Germany across all formats!
…
Interesting? Read all the 15 Things You Never Knew About Stronghold on this page!
SH3 Second Patch Announced!
As Firefly Studios announced on their Facebook page, the second patch for Stronghold 3 is expected to be released tomorrow.
As part of our ongoing bug fixing and improvements for #Stronghold 3 we expect to make the next patch live tomorrow. Along with resolving various stability and gameplay affecting bugs the patch will add/address the following: Game speed controls, cursor offset and responsiveness Issues, ability to place buildings on top of workers/animals (game will move them out of the way) and wolves will no longer climb onto towers. A full list of fixes will be published when the patch goes live.
Get ready for more improvements!
SH3 Strategy Guide – Developer Tips!
Just recently the Stronghold 3 Developers have given SegmentNext.com an exclusive list of strategies in case the fans are having trouble with the game’s challenges.
If you are finding it hard to defeat the campaign scenario and lead your men to victory in multiplayer battles, dont worry, we have called our friends at Firefly Studios to share tips and strategies that will help you fight the toughest of battles.
Be it single-player campaign or online multiplayer mode, these strategies will lead you to victory. At the very least, they will help you refine your strategy against human and A.I. opponents in Stronghold 3.
Starting with the units, this guide will walk you through attack, defense, early and late game strategies that you can use to get the better of your opponent in Stronghold 3.
The full article is also available to read in the Stronghold Heaven Forums where people can as well share their own tactics and experiences.
Tutorials and We Have Downloads!
I’m pleased to announce that a Stronghold 3 Downloads section has just been added by Server Manager
The map editor has some great potential, and community member WLD Arthus has created some great tutorials displaying them. Be sure to check them out:
Custom terrain brushes – Shortcut
Making Tunnels and Caves – Surprise!
Hot and Cold Terrain – Lava and Icy Seas
Excited to start or see something you’d like for the downloads to have but don’t? Discuss it here.
Stronghold 3 – Firefly is listening and working
Firefly Studios has announced they are doing their best to come up with patches that will eliminate the bugs in the near future:
“Dear Stronghold fans,
You may not think it, but we at Firefly pay attention to almost every word you say. Whether its a Facebook comment, forum post, tweet or rant on your blog, if its about Stronghold chances are that someone at Firefly will have read it. The series has long had a devout following of fans, many of whom have been with us from the very start and we value all your comments…”
You can read the entire announcement here.
Stronghold 3 First Patch Released.
This is what Firefly wrote on the Facebook wall shortly after announcing the updates:
We’re working very hard to address issues some of you are experiencing with Stronghold 3. We’re planning regular patches to ensure you all have the best experience possible when playing the game and want to make sure we keep you informed every step of the way. With that in mind, here’s a list of fixes in a patch we’re releasing today…
Make sure you view the full list of updates in this thread and download the patch from Steam!
Upcoming SH3 Patch!
Firefly Studios has recently posted on their Stronghold 3 Facebook wall letting everyone know that they will soon come up with a patch:
“Greetings fans, and apologies for our delay. Firefly has been diligently working towards solving the recently surfaced issues and we’ve got good news! Tomorrow we’ll be issuing a patch to fix some
of the problems we’ve heard of. We thank our loyal fans for the feedback and continued support as we bring you the Stronghold 3 experience. As you know, making a PC game to fit every configuration and custom rig is quite a task, and we’re ironing out the last wrinkles now. We’ll have full details on our patch coming soon, so please stay tuned and keep an eye out for our next update.”
You can have a look at their Facebook page here.
10th Anniversary of the Stronghold Series!
Ten years have passed since the first Stronghold won the hearts of so many gamers. Ten years of challenges for the fans and the producers. Now there are seven Stronghold games each with its own special features and exciting looks. For this unique occasion Stronghold Heaven is happy to host an interview with Firefly Studios who were kind enough to share a bit from the memories that led the Stronghold Series become so enjoyed by people all over the world. Make sure to read about the whole experience on this page!
The Horn Has Been Sounded!
Now that Stronghold 3 has been released in Europe and will be released in North America on the 25th, Stronghold Heaven has added new forums to support the game. We are working arduously on adding a downloads section for new maps. Meanwhile we are collecting and hosting tutorials on Stronghold 3 mapping techniques, scripting, and map-editor general overviews. This is the first map editor Firefly Studios has released that is stand-alone. All articles will be credited and appreciated by other members of the mapping community.
You can discuss the new, exciting changes and contribute here!
A New Cherub Soars!
Stronghold 3 Delayed
The delay was announced four hours ago on Firefly Studios’ Stronghold 3 Twitter Feed. The new due date is October 25, as reflected by the product pages on Steam and Amazon. In the meantime Firefly has promised continued updates and screen-shots as they their 10th Aniversary approaches! Be sure to check the forum thread for more updates!
Stronghold 3 on Steam!
Stronghold 3 has been available for pre-purchase on Steam since July 25th. Along with the pre-purchase, you are able to download and play the original Stronghold and receive the Tower of London exclusive map. The system requirements are listed on the Steam page along with pre-released screenshots and the trailer. It has been Steam’s top seller this week. You can discuss more about Stronghold 3 here.
Stronghold 3 in the News!
Merepatra from Firefly Studios stopped by the forums to let us know that the Stronghold 3 website has a new look.
Check out Firefly Studios’ new Stronghold 3 website.
South Peak Interactive also announces the new site with this teaser.
Stronghold 3 Website Launch Teaser.
IGN tops the news with a treat for awaiting fans, their interview by; Alec Meer, IGN UK, brings us the first exclusive gameplay trailer. In his new article… he says:
Stronghold 2 was, by Firefly’s own admission, a sequel more about feature creep than actual improvement to the formula. The offered fantasy was constructing a whacking great medieval castle then raising an army to tear down an opponent’s stone fortress. The reality was that you spent so much time fighting minor fires within your own walls – such as curbing petty crime – that it was maddeningly tricky to focus on bringing iron justice to opposing castle-lords. Stronghold 3 gets back to the singular joy of diligently constructing a big bloody castle, replete with its own economy and populace, with the better bits of the second game brought back to the fold in theory without the excessive micro-management.
To read his entire article and watch the trailer,check Stronghold 3: Building a Better Future at IGN.
A Stronghold 3 Interview with Simon Bradbury
We had the chance recently to talk with Simon Bradbury from Firefly Studios.
His insightful answers in the interview give us a nice insight into the upcoming game; Stronghold 3.
Check out the two new screen shots of the game that accompany the article.
We would like to sincerely thank, Simon, for taking the time to talk with us.
Please join us in reading:
“A Stronghold 3 Interview with Simon Bradbury!”
Celebrate your Achievements!
With the recent update, Stronghold Kingdoms Achievements are now active.
They work like Quests. There are 40 categories from all over the game, each with 4 ranks (Iron, Silver, Gold, Diamond). Players get medals which can be viewed by other players. From Silver onwards, some Honour is also given as a reward along with the decoration.
See the Official site with announcement and the Wiki page
Come into my tent brave knight…
What is this? An old gypsy woman beckoning you? “Come into my tent brave knight and together we shall look into the future”. You enter through the flap she holds open to guide you. Inside it is surprisingly warm. Your armour steams up with condensation.
“Sit”. You sit down on the sturdy seat by the table to which she points. Why do you feel the need to obey her every suggestion? “So you want to know the future? First you must cross my palm with silver. Everyone knows that!” You fumble with your purse on your belt and although you have smaller coins for some reason you place a high value one in her bony hand.
Together you both peer into her crystal ball, her hands sweep this way and that over the misty glass orb. “I see…” she mutters. “I see that there is a new poll open at Stronghold Heaven and together we shall predict the future of SH3 by guessing which new character will appear in this long awaited game. … Ah heh heh heh heh heh”
Her cackling laugh tails off as you stumble into the cool night air. You don’t know why, but you feel you must go to the top of this page and vote.
The results are in
The votes have been cast, the views have been expressed. Indeed, it is all over bar the … er … scream of death. Was your chosen scream the winning one? The scream of death poll is closed and results can be read here.
Ask Firefly!
Wonderful news! Here is your chance to ask questions directly to Firefly Studios. While we cannot guarantee an answer to every question you can feel assured in knowing that someone will take the time to read all the questions.
Please be mindful of the NDA and keep things civil. Bear in mind – that while Firefly is involved in Kingdoms/Stronghold 3, they may be unable to answer certain questions.
Please ask questions only, if you wish to discuss things we have other forums available for that.
Big thanks to the folks at Firefly for taking the time to do this!
Ask your questions in this special forum section, “Ask Firefly!”.
A big thank you from our staff to Myll_Erik for all his help!
Catching up on SH3!
Firefly studios has recently given an interview to te people over at egrepublic! In the interview, the folks at Firefly once more assured that the new title will be a “back to basics” title that will hopefully revamp the series, but will also feature some new stuff to cater to the potential new Stronghold players. They also emphasized on the graphics, and since they will be adopting Trinigy’s Vision Engine instead of making a graphics engine from scratch, this means the guys at Firefly will have more time to focus on the game making. They also revealed a bit more about the day/night cycle and how it’ll affect gameplay, what game types will the title feature, and other great news that’ll make any Stronghold fans’ heart skip a beat. Just read the article for more information!
On other news, Gamestop has posted the game on their online catalogue, marked it with a 49.99$ price tag and marked the first day of August of the current year as the release date!
Stronghold 3 Update
Firefly Studios’ Steam store page has launched: SH3 on Steam.
The page lists the minimum system requirements as follows:
Stronghold 3:
OS: Windows® XP (with Service Pack 3) or Windows Vista® (with Service Pack 2) or Windows® 7
Processor: 2.8 GHz Intel® Pentium® 4 or AMD® Athlon 64 3000+ or higher
Memory: 1 GB for XP / 2 GB for Vista and Win7
Graphics: 128 MB DirectX® 9.0c-compatible video card (ATI® Radeon X1000/GeForce® 6 Series or better)
DirectX®: DirectX 9.0c
Hard Drive: 2 GB space free
Sound: DirectX 9.0c-compatible sound card
Also, check out the newly released images on the SH3 Facebook page,
showing a castle in the rain and a daylight scene of buildings and villagers.
New Stronghold Kingdoms Official Sites and German World opens
Merepatra, from Firefly Studios posted this wonderful news in our fourms.
We at Firefly Studios have now opened a new official SHK website which you can find at http://www.strongholdkingdoms.com/
We have also opened the first German language world and a new German language website at http://www.strongholdkingdoms.de/
Come, comment on the new sites, check out the official post in our forums here.
Glorious Stronghold Kingdoms!
In the Stronghold Kingdoms Beta world, glory points have been introduced. Now the competition between the houses of the Beta world will step up a gear.
SHK Admin said “The glory point target will just be round 1 which is expected to last 3-4 months, expect several other rounds after this.”
They have also said that after SHK finishes being beta, the Beta world will not close. Instead “it will continue on as World 1”. This is great news for SHK players. They can carry on building their villages and parishes and factions and houses and alliances in the knowledge that their achievements in the game can carry on.
Please share your opinions about Glory in SHK in this thread.