Paul Harris

As well as some unique screen grabs, we'll also find out a little more about the history of the company and the Stronghold series of games, why the switch from 2D to 3D was made (along with our first hint as to what computer specifications and graphics card will be required), information o­n the campaigns and historic castles, details of the royal foods and other resources, Lord ranks and military troop formations...

Questions by our site members, Answers by Paul Harris o­n behalf of Firefly Studios

Was Stronghold the first game the founders of the company created?

Firefly was setup by Simon Bradbury and Eric Ouellette.  Before Firefly Simon was the Programmer and Designer o­n Caesar 1, 2 and 3 and Lord of the Realm 1 and 2 (definitely not 3 though!).  Eric was the Producer of these titles and that is where they met.

Who came up with the idea to do a castle game?

After the success of Lord of the Realm 1 & 2 it was obvious that people loved building castles.  As PC technology improved Simon and Eric wanted to take the idea a step further.  They decided to make an isometric caste building game and Stronghold was born.

In the past Firefly said that Stronghold 2 would be in 2D because the 3D Engines were not good enough – why did you make the move to a 3D engine?

It was a big decision.  When Stronghold was released in 2001 3D graphics cards were still relatively new and a large number of people where still using 2D cards.  To achieve the speed and detail level we wanted in 3D compared to 2D would have been very difficult.  Also Stronghold games have always been designed to be played by as broad a spectrum of people as possible so it made sense to make Stronghold and Stronghold Crusader 2D games.

Detailed Buildings: Detail has been taken to a whole new level.
In the apothecary, shown above, people and objects are all animated.
Also, note the waves crashing o­n to the beach in the background!

In 2005 however it is a different story.  The majority of people now have a 3D graphics card in their machine and the capabilities of the graphics cards have improved so much that it made the decision to make Stronghold 2 using a 3D engine much easier.  The game now looks infinitely more realistic, the game can be viewed from all angles and the level of detail in the buildings and units is superb.  If you compare the original Stronghold to Stronghold 2 I think the benefits are there for everyone to see.

How many campaigns will there be and can you give us any hint as to what they will be about and how many missions they are likely to contain?

There will be 2 campaigns, o­ne peace and o­ne war, with 12 chapters per campaign.  Each chapter contains at least o­ne main objective and also a number of quests which you can choose to take o­n if you wish.

How many historical castles will be included – from other game reviews we hear that Warwick, Harlech and Crieccith are going to be amongst them?

There will be at least 12 historically accurate siege castles in the game.  The o­nes you mention should make the final cut.  There will also be free build maps, kingmaker maps and custom maps.

There will apparently be new food types for royalty and possibly some for workers – can you tell us what they are?

Royal Food types are a new system we are introducing into Stronghold 2.  As you’ve have probably read in the previews honour is an important new resource in the game allowing you to buy estates and earn promotions.

Royal Food: Vegetable plots, pig farms, vineyards, eel ponds, kitchens...

One of the main ways to gain honour is by holding grand feasts.  The food served at the feast is produced in the royal food farms and cooked in the Lord’s Kitchen.  The more varied the royal food produced, the grander the feast and the more honour you gain.

Stronghold 2 will apparently include vegetables – if this is the case, will they be produced in farms or will they o­nly be available from the market?

Vegetables are o­ne of the royal foods grown especially for the Lord’s feast.

SHK Note: You can see vegetable plots in the previous picture.

Are there any new natural resources in Stronghold 2?

The three basic resources are still wood, stone and iron.  Some of the new natural resources we have added are sheep which are used to make wool and in turn cloth and beeswax which is made into candles and used in the church.

Resources Galore: New resources such as cloth, beeswax and grapes join
old favourites o­n the stockpile such as iron, stone and ale.

With the introduction of the honour system there are the also a range of new farms which, as I mentioned above, create royal food for the feasts.  These include the vineyard and vintner, pig farmer and vegetable garden.

In o­ne of the previews, it was said that the Lord starts out as a humble page, how then will he command any troops? And what must be done to get him promoted?

The concept of rank and promotion is new to Stronghold 2.  When you start the game you are a lowly Freeman with the authority to place o­nly the most basic buildings.  As you gain honour, through acts worthy of a Lord, the King will bestow promotions upon you which will allow you to access more buildings.

Castle Life: More buildings become available depending o­n the Lords' Rank.
In this picture he is a Freeman (shown at top of picture) whereas
in the previous picture he was a Duke.

In multiplayer mode you can choose whether to play with the promotion system o­n or off.  This adds a whole new dimension to the game as you have to achieve the right balance between resource gathering, military might and the accumulation of honour to achieve promotions.

Can you give us any information o­n some of the new military units in the game?

Two of the most popular new units are bound to be the Berserker and the Axe Thrower.  The Berserker carries a huge axe and is almost as strong as a Lord but has little armour.  The Axe Thrower is a missile unit who throws rapid fire axes and is deadly over short distances.  There are also now the Light Cavalry unit alongside Crusader’s Horse Archer.  The Light Cavalry unit is quick across the ground and excellent in close quarters combat.

Battlefield Mayhem: Stronghold 2 makes much more use of those big
fields in front of your castle!  Time for some real battlefield carnage!

We have also tweaked the Knight unit so that it is a lot more effective than in the original.  He is now o­n foot as standard but can call for his horse if a stables is available and his fighting skills are a match for any Lord.  The Knight does not come cheap though and will require lots of gold, resources and honour to build.

Will the Viking soldiers speak their own language?

Wait until you hear the Axe Throwers speak and make your own minds up! ;-)

We’ve heard from other reviews that there will be a new “troop formations” feature – will there be different kinds of formations?

Formations were o­ne of the most requested features fans wanted us to add to Stronghold.  We are not aiming to turn the game into Total War but you will now be able to organise your troops into formations such as rows and columns and also defensive circles when under attack.

If possible, can you hint at the computer specifications that will be needed – eg. Amount of RAM, type of graphics card, disk space, etc?

This is an early rough estimate but we are aiming for 1GHz CPU, 256MB RAM and a 32MB Graphics Card (GeForce2 and higher).

Loads of Detail: The new torturers' guild shown in all it's glory.
It might be time to buy that 3D graphics card you always wanted...

As I say this is not set in stone and might go up or down as we get close to release but we are working hard o­n optimizing the game so that as many people as possible can enjoy it.

Have you decided what your next project will be yet?

We have decided but unfortunately we can’t tell you yet.  I promise we will let you know as soon as we can.

Stronghold Knights would like to thank Paul Harris for answering these questions and also our members who asked them.  Hopefully we will get some more questions answered at a later date but for now we have to be patient and allow Firefly to put the finishing touches o­n this great new game!