Stronghold Crusader 2

Final update for the ‘castle sim’ sequel adds new maps, optimizations and single player DLC

Firefly Studios has just released their final content update for Stronghold Crusader 2. The update was announced in a post on the developer’s official website, where Firefly clarifies that no additional single-player content or DLC is planned for the future:

“As a team we’re very happy with the reaction and feedback from Stronghold players over the past year. Stronghold Crusader 2 was an important step forward for the series and we intend to build on that progress in future games. Work has now concluded on post-release DLC and single-player content, but there’s plenty to look forward to in 2016! Starting with the release of Stronghold Kingdoms on iOS and Android, which has been completely redesigned for touch, you’ll hear more about our plans for Stronghold and Firefly. We have lots in the pipeline for 2016 including multiple announcements and new releases, so watch this space!”

Watch the new Mini-Campaigns trailer here.

Free Map Pack

Stronghold Crusader 2 has also been updated with four new skirmish maps:

• Ruins – Just like in the very best 80s boxing movies it’s East vs West in ‘Ruins’. The map’s unique setup provides up to four players with a reliable source of Stone, but leave the elevated centre uncontested and even the mightiest walls will crumble.
• Mirage – All eight players must cross the great desert to reach fertile grasslands and enemy castles. Be quick! Unlike your typical mirage the aforementioned castles and armies within can definitely kill you, if left undisturbed.
• Three Rivers – The turtling player’s dream! Up to three castles stand high atop its very own hill, providing strong natural defences. Resources on the other hand lay scattered about the map in strategically vulnerable locations, so be prepared to fight over those village estates.
• The Fork – Your keep is on a mountain at the conflux of two great rivers. This provides plenty of opportunities to make the rivers run red with blood, just like in Revelation 16:4. Venture outwards to discover plentiful resources before testing your castle design with a few AI sieges.

Optimizations

Fixes and optimizations for pathfinding have now been added to the Steam version, with a GOG Galaxy update soon to follow. These changes should reduce the impact of these systems on frame rates and prevent variations in worker productivity during large games of up to eight Lords. Woodcutters were given special attention, given their importance to almost any player economy. Peasants assigned to Woodcutter Huts will now spend less time seeking resources, finding paths to them and generally act with greater autonomy.

A full list of changes can be found in the Stronghold Crusader 2 forum.

Stronghold Crusader 2: Delivering Justice and Stronghold Crusader 2: Freedom Fighters DLCs are now available on Steam.

Firefly Studios have just released their fourth Stronghold Crusader 2 DLC character pack, meaning ‘The Jackal & The Khan’ is now available at 33% off on Steam! “The Jackal & The Khan” is designed as the ultimate challenge for Crusader players and it is planned as our final release for the game. While those who own all Crusader 2 DLCs are in store for a few little surprises in-game, we would rather players discover these for themselves. We do however have something else to reveal.

If you’ve been holding out until now with dreams of owning the complete Stronghold Crusader 2 package then today is a good day. Out now on Steam with 33% off, the new Ultimate Edition of Crusader 2 comes with all four character pack DLCs and a second copy of the Stronghold Crusader 2 base game to gift to a friend. All Special Edition content is also included giving you an art book, soundtrack and Stronghold Crusader HD. We’ve even added the previously pre-order exclusive ‘Delivering Justice’ and ‘Freedom Fighters’ bonus mini-campaigns to the pack and several exclusive in-game shields, allowing you to own everything we’ve ever created for the game!

Watch the Stronghold Crusader 2 “The Jackal & The Khan” DLC launch trailer here.

Watch the Stronghold Crusader 2 Ultimate Edition launch trailer here.

The law of the Templar has come to the desert! Today Firefly Studios delivers Stronghold Crusader 2: The Templar & The Duke onto Steam via trebuchet. Available at 33% off this DLC expansion includes seven unique story missions, new castle types and more challenging AI adversaries shaped by player feedback.

View the Stronghold Crusader 2: The Templar & The Duke DLC trailer here.

The Templar

Once a rank and file soldier in King Richard’s army, The Templar has risen to power as a senior military commander in the Third Crusade. A zealot in the truest sense, The Templar was promoted after demonstrating his brutal pursuit of the holy crusade and ability to indoctrinate fellow soldiers. As a former foot soldier serving for years in the Crusades, The Templar now sees himself as a harbinger of justice from God. The Templar personifies the unwavering conviction that the Crusader Lords had in their mission and the lengths they will go to achieve it.

The Duke

Travelling from France to ‘fight the good fight’ The Duke hopes to share in the glory of the holy crusade. Ever the opportunist, The Duke is always prepared to retreat and claim no part in the Crusades. For the moment however he is prepared to lend his vast wealth and political standing to King Richard’s campaign. A foppish and arrogant leader, The Duke gained his lordly air from a pampered upbringing in the French Royal Court. Despite this meticulous outward appearance, The Duke lacks the cutthroat political savvy to make him an effective ruler. The end result is a man who appears confident but is unsure of himself, joining the Third Crusade in a reckless attempt to prove himself.

Free Map Pack DLC

Stronghold Crusader 2 has also been updated on Steam with three new maps, each playable in online multiplayer or offline skirmish mode against the AI. In ‘Tight Corner’ plenty of close-quarters standoffs take place in confined areas. With these conflicts likely to boil over and expand the field of battle, players will often find themselves drawn into skirmishes between their enemies. ‘Outposts’ features bands of AI outlaws in addition to player Lords, roaming the map and controlling areas until they are wiped out. As the name suggests ‘Mountain Climb’ is distinguished by a fortified central position that, once secured, makes defeating the elevated player a literal uphill battle.

Stronghold Crusader 2: The Templar & The Duke DLC is available now on Steam for the promotional price of £2.67/$4.01/€3.34.

Source: Blue’s News

Firefly Studios now offers The Emperor & The Hermit on Steam as new DLC for Stronghold Crusader 2, their siege warfare simulation. This carries a 33% launch discount, offering seven new player missions, AI opponents, castle designs, achievements, and coat of arms designs. Here’s a trailer, and here’s more:

Following on from the ‘Invasions’ update, which added Sandbox sieges and an easy AI mode for the modern laid-back gamer, The Emperor & The Hermit introduces spiritual successors to The Emperor and The Abbot from the original Stronghold Crusader. Playable in skirmish mode and multiplayer The Emperor and The Hermit are leaders driven by religious fervour and an insatiable desire to ‘cleanse’ their enemies. Backed by zealots who follow their cause without question, said cleansing typically ends in virtual bloodshed.

New missions, legacy features and AI characters all on their way for the ‘castle sim’ sequel

A new Q&A video has been released for Stronghold Crusader 2, answering questions on downloadable content and other post-release feature updates. Firefly answers questions put to them by players on new single player content, multiplayer modes, forthcoming updates and Steam Workshop:

The latest release in Firefly’s series of question and answer videos, made possible by the developer’s successful move to self-publishing on Steam and other indie-friendly platforms, aims to answer the biggest questions from fans on the future of Stronghold Crusader 2. Since its move to self-publishing Firefly has enjoyed an open and transparent relationship with players, from social media and forums to public game shows and community nights. These improved player-developer relations helped massively in the development of Stronghold Crusader 2 and continues to be a source of inspiration and fun for the Anglo-American developer.

What new game modes will be introduced post-release? Will these updates be free? When can players expect new AI characters? What features and characters will return from Crusader 1? Will there be new Crusader Trail missions? The freedom of self-publishing has allowed Firefly to be completely honest with fans of the franchise, answering these questions and revealing more detail about the future of the franchise.

Stronghold Crusader 2 is available now on Steam.

Developer promises more free updates, with extra features and content currently in development

Firefly Studios has released a new update (1.0.19574) for Stronghold Crusader 2, the recently released ‘castle sim’ sequel. The update, which is now live on Steam, introduces a new skirmish map, unit stats, map balancing and bug fixes. Click here for full changelist.

In a new blog post on the official Stronghold Crusader 2 website, Firefly revealed that the majority of post-release content for the game will be made available for free. “We really are just getting started and, after we have finished working on fixes and optimisation, the team will be adding more features and content. Extra AI characters will come in the form of paid-for DLC, but the majority of this post-release content will be free and automatically downloaded through Steam.”

Stronghold Crusader 2 is out now on Steam.

New launch trailer celebrates the release with footage of skirmish mode and online multiplayer

Fans of the classic castle building series can now return to the deserts of the Middle East circa 1189 in Stronghold Crusader 2, with the game out now on Steam. A new launch trailer has been released to mark the occasion, showing the developers battling it out in online multiplayer.

After two years of development Stronghold Crusader 2 is now available. Looking back on the game’s development, the team posted a thank you message on the official website:

“Thank you for supporting us and making Stronghold Crusader 2 possible. This is our first ever independently developed and funded Stronghold game, built with your encouragement, feedback and support over the past two years. It is far from the end for Crusader 2, with content updates, DLC and patches all planned to follow in the weeks and months after launch, but it gives us great pleasure to say that the game is now available on Steam!”

The game is now available on Steam, with a Special Edition that includes Stronghold Crusader HD, ‘The Art of Stronghold Crusader 2’ digital art book and full soundtrack composed by Robert Euvino.

New gameplay footage, details on The Wolf’s combat style and recommended strategies against the series antagonist

Stronghold Crusader 2 has gone gold and to celebrate Firefly Studios has released new gameplay footage of the series’ most notorious AI opponent.

“Stronghold is known for its tendency to test players’ mental dexterity and with the resurgence of these kinds of games it makes perfect sense to include The Wolf” the developer said in a new blog post. “We want this addition to the cast of AI characters to reinforce our message that Crusader 2 retains the series’ sense of challenge. When you are victorious against The Wolf, or any character for that matter, it should feel like an absolute triumph.”

An opponent who taunts the player with lines such as “I would rather tear down your castle with a spoon than offer you assistance”, The Wolf does not mince words. As an AI Lord he is not the greatest ally, his aggressive attitude and unpredictable mood making military assistance or trade unlikely. As an AI opponent however The Wolf provides skilled Stronghold players with the worthy challenge they seek.

Skirmish matches against The Wolf are characterised by his ability to build strong defences early on, turtling until he can amass an army of the game’s most heavily armoured units. Rushing The Wolf is difficult, but the longer players leave him alone the more dangerous he becomes! In order to stand a chance, players must match his numbers and employ effective counter troops. Crossbowmen are required to pierce his troops’ thick armour and Pitch Ditch needed to set his Swordsmen ablaze. Units who are weak against armoured troops, such as the Whirling Dervish, should be avoided.

Stronghold Crusader 2 can be pre-ordered on Steam with 10% off, exclusive mini-campaigns and more.

System Requirements Revealed

Firefly Studios has just released the minimum system requirements for their long awaited ‘castle sim’ sequel Stronghold Crusader 2. Having entered closed Beta last week, most of the remaining developing time on Crusader 2 will be spent optimising the game’s performance on PC and tweaking gameplay.

“When we first announced Stronghold Crusader 2 one of the first pieces of information released was that the game will use a newly enhanced 3D engine. By this point the team was so experienced with the Havok Vision Engine that learning something completely new and moving away from 3D would be a waste of that knowledge. Our stated goal with Crusader 2 was to create the best 3D Stronghold game yet and that’s exactly what we intent to deliver.

Everyone here at Firefly wants the playability of the 2D Stronghold titles within a 3D space and our enhanced version of the Vision Engine has thankfully provided us with the tools needed to achieve this. Naturally a concern for players at the time was ‘Will the game run on my machine?’. This is a fair question and of course we are aiming to get the game running on a wide range of systems, performance being just as high on our list of priorities as bug fixing. With the game currently in beta and as such feature-complete, we have already had time to focus on optimisation and performance testing. As a result, we have been able to determine the minimum system requirements for Stronghold Crusader 2.”

The minimum PC system requirements for Stronghold Crusader 2 are as follows:

• Operating System: Windows® XP/Windows Vista/Windows 7/Windows 8 (latest service packs) with DirectX 9.0c
• Processor: Intel Core2 Duo 2Ghz or equivalent
• Memory: 2GB RAM
• Video: NVIDIA® GeForce® 8800GT 512MB or AMD Radeon™ HD 2900XT 512MB or better
• Storage: 6 GB available HD space
• Internet: Broadband Internet connection

The latest entry in Firefly’s best selling series of medieval real-time strategy games, Stronghold Crusader 2 is set to appear online and in store shelves on September 2nd 2014.

For more information please visit the official Stronghold Crusader 2 website.

The time has come! Stronghold Crusader 2 is now in beta and set for release on Steam on 2nd September 2014. To celebrate reaching this stage in development we have put together an E3 trailer with fresh footage of the game at beta, including many of the new features that set Crusader 2 apart from the original game.

The game is essentially finished with all our core systems in place including co-op, unit abilities and dynamic events like the tornado and locust swarm. Self-publishing comes with its own set of challenges but one of the great advantages is that we can release when we are ready, when the bugs have been squashed and the game is worthy of the Crusader name. After taking the game to several public shows over the past nine months we are very happy with the game’s feel. The team has been tweaking areas of gameplay such as unit balance and castle destruction in direct response to feedback received at these shows and it has made a huge difference. Players are telling us it feels like the original Crusader in terms of moment-to-moment gameplay and just hearing that is hugely encouraging.

The whole team feels as though we have managed to make a game that expands on the original Crusader without changing what people found so enjoyable about the original. It is mission accomplished on that front and we still have time for a lengthy beta period to polish everything off before launch. Having to be so vague about our release date, at least until recently, was frustrating but we only wanted to give a specific date once we knew the game would be finished and up to the kind of standard players expect. Soon there will be a great Stronghold game available on Steam, one we can’t wait to get into the hands of players.

More game information can be found on the official Stronghold Crusader 2 Website.