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A fan site for Firefly Studios' series of Stronghold games: Stronghold 1, Stronghold Crusader, Stronghold Warchest, Stronghold 2, Stronghold Legends and now Stronghold Crusader Extreme! We have walkthroughs, image galleries, play-tested maps, patches, music, utilities, informative forums, tutorials and much more! The exclusive SHK SH2 AI-Editor has been released. Become a member (free) to enjoy all the benefits of the site, including private messaging, online games and access to our downloads areas and forums. Click here to find out more (if you are having problems registering click here for help). Key to Icons:  Stronghold 2  Stronghold Crusader  Stronghold 1 |
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 Topic: 1. Game Basics
The new items published under this topic are as follows.
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1b. Map Design: Painting Estates
Friday, June 17, 2005 - 11:14 AM (8834 Reads)
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 One of the most striking features of Stronghold 2 is the introduction of the estates system and its subsequent effect on the gameplay. This, however, has added a whole new layer to map-making that didn't exist in the previous versions of the game and it is an absolute necessity to understand this aspect before you can make any type of Stronghold 2 map. If your maps are giving an instant defeat or instant win when they are played, you probably forgot to perform this vital task...
Submitted by BraveSirRobin, WitchHazel, HicRic, Darron, Aubergine, LordBritian, HicRic
Note: Added note on maximum of 16 estates and also a full list of estate names.
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1b. Map Design: The Basics
Tuesday, October 14, 2003 - 04:47 AM (7496 Reads)
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 Map making is an art form dating back into the depths of time. Before there were GPS' (Global Positioning Satellites), etc., there were hand-drawn maps. It took a skilled mathematician and artist to create a precise map, and sailors and navigators around the world relied on exact accuracy. Maps can be symbolic, imaginary, or just plain functional. But there are too many types of maps to discuss in one place, so we will concentrate on a single subject: That of fantasy map making which is, after all, what we are interested in from a Scenario Design point of view!
Written by Aurthur List, Maintained by Karl Musser, Submitted by Aubergine.
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Castle Quotes
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You have been playing a very long time, Sire
-- Scribe
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Site Login
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Update! Lord Michael's Walkthroughs for 
Although not immediately apparent, your maps can be used as a canvas on to which you can paint! This tutorial shows you how to take a picture of your choice and imprint it on to your map to create some cool minimap (also known as "radar map") art... 
This tutorial provides a quick introduction to the settings screen that appears when you play a Kingmaker map in Stronghold 2. We'll cover player identification, player setup options, alliances, starting conditions, map selection, text chat and also provide a table that shows the effect on starting goods for each rank in comparison to the human/computer balance setting so you can create your perfect Kingmaker mission...
Stronghold 2 greatly extends the number of names used for people and animals. The lists of those names are shown in this article - everything from peasants to rabbits! 
Not got your Stronghold 2 manual handy? Fear not! In this article we list all the keyboard shortcuts including several that aren't in the manual! 
This reference guide shows all the resources stored in each storage location along with information on ranks, production, consumption, trading and transportation...
Ranks, a highly influential gameplay feature introduced by Stronghold 2, control which buildings a your Lord can place as well as which troops he can recruit in Kingmaker maps (including Multiplayer). This tutorial provides a detailed breakdown of what each promotion will cost you (in terms of honor) as well as summarising the advantages, disadvantages, military status and map makers tips for each rank... 
Honor is a major gameplay element introduced in Stronghold 2. Honor is required in order to buy promotions, recruit certain troops, buy estates and even complete some mission objectives. This tutorial explains the new honor sustem, how to gain honor and how to use the honor you gain...
In this tutorial we'll take a closer look at the camp ground to see what our peasants are up to and find out how to use the population torus to our best advantage. We'll also take a look at how the peasants get their names and how to change their name, how to get females to do mens jobs and even have lesbian weddings!
King of the Hill (KOTH) maps extend the basic multiplayer game format by forcing players to take control of a central keep. The player (or team) that holds on to the central keep for longest wins the game. In this tutorial we will show you how to create this mostly undocumented and quite rare map type which has become increasingly popular in recent times...
After connecting to the host server, the game settings screen will be shown which contains loads of different options. In this tutorial we will explain what the options are and how they will affect the gameplay...
Siege-That maps contain a castle that is usually built from limited stone and gold on a pre-defined landscape. Unlike normal sieges, you can only be the attacker on these maps. They are designed to test a designers skill in creating the perfect castle and the players' ability to lay siege to a castle. By using some tricks, we can make these maps just as good as normal sieges...
Dynamic Invasion (also known as Free Build) maps are just like normal invasion maps but with a few unique features. They allow you to trigger your own events and invasions while playing the game and if you win the game you are given the choice to keep playing (whereas a normal invasion would just end the map)... 
Freebuild (also known as Landscape) maps usually contain a beautiful landscape on which players can build the castle of their dreams. This tutorial shows you the basics of making a freebuild map and also provides templates allowing you to add invasions, messages and events to them. And for players of freebuild maps, we show you how to make the most of the in-game event and invasion editor...
Have you ever played a game for three years, read the manuals countless times and then one day suddenly realised that there is a great feature that you've never used and can't work out why? Imagine the perplexed look on my face when my brain finally reminded me of the undo feature that works in-game and also in the map editor...
If you want to know at a glance how well you are doing (or not as the case may be), look no further than the Lord's Description on the scribe's information panel! In this article, we'll show you all the various descriptions you can achieve and what causes them. Armed with this information you can improve your gameplay and add find new ways to describe mission objectives when map making.
In all versions of Stronghold, the names of your workers are defined by mixing a first name and a last name. The lists for those names are shown in this article, along with all names of oxen, dairy cows, hunter's dogs and even chickens!
Have you ever wanted to make a map where all the workers are already working from the start? Or would you like to be able to do some unusual things in your map, like place permanent siege tents? Then read on and find out how you can convert your saved games back in to editable maps and use them in the map editor!
When it comes to precision map making, the ability to view zone connections and path linkage is one of the most poweful tools provided by the map editor. In this tutorial we'll show you how to get a whole new perspective on your maps with no less than 9 different ways to visualise them!
Have you ever wanted to change the colours of players yourself by editing the .map file in hexadecimal? Well, in this tutorial, Jalis shows us how! For those of you that do not want to edit the .map files yourselves, Jalis has been kind enough to provide us with lots of ready-made maps (at the end of the tutorial) that change the troop colours. Read on...
Game speed is generally considered to be a subject as dry as dust, but it is vitally important to game play and can mean the difference between life and death. Just ask your troops. Push the game speed too high and it drastically reduces thinking time and exposes your personnel to undue risk. Slide it too low, however, and the experience, certainly on Stronghold, has been compared (perhaps rather unkindly) to watching paint dry. Read on to find out everything about game speeds...
Here I will discuss briefly the formation and positioning of swamps, bogs, and marshes. You will learn how and where to place them, and a few techniques for drawing them...
In this short tutorial, we'll look at one of the least used but most powerful features of the map editor - its ability to quickly change map type. Here we can convert single player to multi-player, invasion to siege, etc., and allow map making tricks from different types of map to be combined in to a single map!
Mountains form the main images in the common map. Now you need to know how to draw and place them. Here are a few hints...
Here we will discuss all of the possibilities concerning rivers in your map. You will learn to draw them (hopefully) and learn to discern where to place them, how they react to each other, etc. This section will be fairly long, for rivers are in my opinion the most complex part of the map.
Place names can make or break a map. Here I will discuss the nuances of naming your map and it's locations, and why you should not use too many 's in your names. I hate 's!
As part of our ongoing quest to provide the best Stronghold 
A campaign (or scenario) requires a storyline, the most essential element. No matter how good the scripting or how stunning the map design, the campaign will not be fun to play if the person is going in circles around colossal plot holes or has no idea what's going on due to no story at all. 
Let's face it, most scenarios could use more focus on character creation. After all, it is the characters of the story that make the story work. I personally like creating characters for my stories and I always try to make them unique and the center of my stories. 
Addressing important people with the correct formal salutations was a matter of life or death in medieval times. Failing to correctly address your superiors would be seen as insubordination and could lead to execution or being put in the stocks... 
