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Hello everyone,
I think it is very important for the developers of the next Stronghold game to take into account several different areas of possible improvements that can be only achieved with dedication and hard work. Historic realism, a certain atmosphere, nice graphics, interesting NPGs, gameplay and longevity are crucial ingredients, in my opinion, to the recipe of a great game.
I discovered Stronghold a few years ago and found it astoundingly entertaining. I always dreamed about living in a castle and I love the Middle Ages so, that was a win-win situation for me to be playing it. I also played Stronghold Crusaders too, another great game. But I have to admit that Stronghold 2 lost much of the magic touch of the it predecessors.
In the first two chapters of this videogame, it was really entertaining to try to defend your peasants from the attacks of nearby enemies (even if they were “just” wolves and bears). There was a sense of relief in being able to build a good wall and guard it with archers and troops. The 2D graphics was spectacular in this sense and it helped building up the atmosphere together with the medieval music. Some of the details in the game, such as the medieval names of the population were very nice too. It was cool to see the lumberjacks being able to defend themselves against the wolves and the hunters firing arrows against the enemies. I liked very much the fact that you could build a very thick and impenetrable wall if you only wanted too. In fact it was also cool to be able to build a castle impossible to conquer. Another thing on graphics: remember the hawks that used to glide over your village in Stronghold? I found them amazing and always thought it would have been great to be able to switch into bird’s eye view and see what the hawk what seeing. It bet you could easily implement that now.
It’s great details like this that do the trick and don’t know why developers tend to underestimate the value of such details. For examples, Gran Turismo for playstation 1 was a killer application and one of the coolest thing of that game was being able to build race cars from used or new street legal cars you could buy. But in GT2 you could no longer do that: it was a major disappointment for everyone. Same thing with Grand Theft Auto: in San Andreas you could do practically everything while in Liberty City the graphic is much better but you can no longer modify cars, for example, and it is no more possible to win a huge amount of money from betting on horses. Please, don’t do this mistake with Stronghold 3! Details are extremely important! Don’t give up great details and gameplay for graphics, no one cares about it! It would be amazing if you could find a way to make the game look like it was designed DURING the Middle Ages. Check out some drawings from that period and use them as a model.
I am stressing this point because I remember finding myself very disappointed in playing with Stronghold 2 and the new 3D graphic environment. All the atmosphere was gone and I really hated those fluorescent lights and numbers above the head of the players, they literally killed the medieval touch to the game. Even though I saw some screenshots of Stronghold 3 and they looked pretty good, I strongly suggest to stick to the general outlook of the first two games and add some magic element.
Come to think about it, I thought it was really cool to have ghosts in the castle. Add some witches maybe or some wizards and put some more ghosts in it. Try to find a nice way to implement these magic elements: for example, as in the Bernard Cornwell novels, wizards and witches may be useful in battles. Or one could go seek for advice to them. Also, you could just add some ghost story in the game and perhaps they could scary the people out at night. To counter this effect, the king could hire more priest or an exorcist, why not.
Someone mentioned the NPG of the first Stronghold game (like the Pig and the Wolf), I think those were indeed funny and well made, but you might want to do something more adult in this game. There are plenty of interesting subjects to study and recreate in the game: merchant, kings, princes and mercenaries from Middle Ages might be used as an inspiration. I also like the idea of having Europe as a set. You could try to recreate the political situation of the past as in Medieval: Total War. Long distance commerce and ships are a great idea as well. But, generally speaking, you might want to focus on creating a very entertaining battle system, if this aspect of the game is poor, everything else becomes irrelevant. Think about it: you don’t want to be able to build great castles and then not go to battle because it’s tedious.
Another crucial point is time development: i believe that, since it’s a game about castles, Stronghold 3 should be set from the end of the Roman Empire to the advent of the great cannons that rendered castles useless. Therefore, Stronghold 3 should be set between 1066 (Battle of Hastings) and 1485 (Death of King Richard III). Although, the player might be willing to set his own time-consumption meter. For example: if I want the year 1078 to last for a longer time than usual, all I have to do is switch to a lower time consumption level. It would be nice to have multiplayer too, but only if that’s not the main point of the game. I think S3 must be a great one player game most of all.
Next: longevity. It would great to be able to play Stronghold 3 practically forever, or at least until the release of the next chapter of this saga. In order to do so, you could implement random scenarios generation from the computer. The CPU might choose a map, then place resources and possible enemies, mountains and valleys and so forth. This could be a good alternative to the economic and military campaign. Speaking of that: I would also add a “conquest of the world mode” or something similar, allowing the player to be able to conquer and re-build castles everywhere in Europe, becoming more and more influent. With influence comes responsibility and power too. It would be great to add some role playing element to the game, for example: it would be nice to be able to develop your own king as you like. These are just a few ideas and for now that’s all folks!
Sincerely,
Sir Holzer
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