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Stronghold Legends Q&A Feature
Derek dela Fuente
24/04/2006
TVG travels back to the times of King Arthur and discovers the vast improvements that awaits...
Stronghold Legends is a Real Time Strategy game that builds on the fantastic Stronghold heritage, which has already sold over 2 million units worldwide, and is developed by the award-winning Firefly Studios.
Stronghold Legends offers a number of new elements and features including a new strategic conquest style of play and exciting new multiplayer modes. Gamers can play as King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table, Count Vlad Dracul or relive the heroic sagas of the mighty Siegfried of Germany in twenty-four missions that span three unique campaigns.
TVG spoke with Simon Bradbury, Designer at Firefly, about what innovations and changes will be made to the Stronghold franchise that will have strategy fans excited.
Stronghold Legends will be the fourth title in the series. Could you tell us a little bit about how you've seen the brand evolving since the first title and what elements/qualities Stronghold offers within the RTS genre?
In terms of the Stronghold brand we feel it is less about evolution and more about ensuring the franchise stays fresh by widening its view. We view the pure Stronghold (1&2) games as primarily 'castle sim' titles and Legends and Crusader has focused more on RTS play but still with a defensive tilt and strong economics. This is what we feel sets the series apart from other RTS titles. As to the future, we do have some more plans to further widen the 'Brand', but obviously I'm not at liberty to say anything just yet!
"The main change was obviously the switch to 3D, which turned out to be more painful than we had expected."
Stronghold has gone through a number of changes over its three releases, however Stronghold 2 attracted criticism from some quarters due to the many bugs and glitches. Firstly, can you tell us how disappointed you were with the feedback and secondly, what has been the design and concept brief to ensure that Stronghold Legends gets the series back on track?
The main change was obviously the switch to 3D, which turned out to be more painful than we had expected. This ended up soaking up more and more time towards the end of production, leaving some other areas with not quite the polish that we usually give them. In terms of reviews, some reviewers forgave us for problems on the release version and others didn't. Overall however Stronghold 2 is still selling very well and as we have continually patched it, both the product and user feedback are both just getting better and better! With Legends however, we have already taken that 2D to 3D hit. We have ironed out all the problems we faced before and will have plenty more time this time around to balance all areas of the game to a much higher level.
Stronghold Legends will feature new gameplay innovations including a new strategic conquest style of play and exciting new multiplayer modes. Can you expand on these for our readers please?
Stronghold Legends adds in a new mode involving the player and the AI moving pieces about on a strategic 'territory board', when these armies meet the player can elect to take a die roll or play out a skirmish game, if they don't like the odds!
Multiplayer is undergoing a small revamp at the moment, with several new multiplayer modes added. 'King of the hill' is coming back from Stronghold 1, 'Capture the flag' (or flags!) and an economic war is added to the regular deathmatch mode of play.
"I think Stronghold 2's AI suffered a little in certain areas as a result of the effort we had to pour into the 3D transition."
What made you choose the King Arthur period where you could assume the role of Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table, Count Vlad Dracul, etc? What distinguishing events from this period are presented in game?
There are 3 legends to play Arthur, Vlad (Drac) and the Rhine legends of Germany. Arthur is the longest one, probably because he is so well known and the legend is particularly rich - Merlin, Lancelot, Guinevere, The Knights of the Round Table, Excalibur, sword in the stone, Mordred, the grail quest, Monty python, and the list just goes on and on..!
Can you give us the focus on the emphasis of the city-building elements of Stronghold Legends that will be presented as well as the economies of workers?
Legends is less about 'city building' than Stronghold 2 was so in fact we have mainly taken stuff out here! The idea being to streamline play a little more. There are new economic buildings added exclusive to the various sides mainly, for example, playing as 'Ice' will introduce seal holes as a good source of meat!
How is the siege mechanics adopted in the game?
The sieges will be reworked, mainly too accommodate the special units that each 'race' can use, but also because of new siege equipment and changes to the original units (e.g. trebuchets). There are many new game mechanics at play now, flying units, units that can climb up or knock down walls, freezing, burning, healing... all of these are new or more common in Legends, BUT the basic premise of the game remains the same, a well built and staffed castle will be able to defeat even the largest and most varied of hordes.
Stronghold games have always offered a blend of combat, economy and castle siege design so can you give us one interesting fact about each component and tell us a little about the way you balance the game?
Well... I can tell you our favourite facts about each section, it being the same for all, which is the immediacy of play. Units can be created immediately, castles are built straight away and economic problems can be corrected (almost!) immediately. This is what we feel makes the game what it is and this is what we are currently balancing right now. I feel the trick with balancing a game like Legends is just down to time, playing it, over and over and over until it just feels right.
What kind of focus has the team placed on AI as a result of its poor showing in Stronghold 2?
I think Stronghold 2's AI suffered a little in certain areas as a result of the effort we had to pour into the 3D transition. There were certain ideas that we never got round to implementing and few areas that were not quite all they should have been.
In Legends we have much more time and we are looking at all areas of the AI, from Defense and economics to set sieges and overall strategy. We have just finished up our 'harass' code, which now does a splendid job of keeping the player on his toes!
Could you tell us about the units, and any special new ideas associated with them?
The first point to make here is that Legends has all the original units available to all races. Each race then had a legendary set of units as well, associated with it. Think 'the villagers in the town' in a Dracula movie, with many strange 'goings on' up at the castle. We have made the new units as 'realistic' as possible, i.e. staying true to legend, rather than following the conventions of modern fantasy genres. That is we are only depicting the monsters that actually existed, rather than any made up stuff. These will include Giants, Dragons, witches and many, many more. But these will all also generally be more expensive to use and the player will probably still find themselves using more of the regular units in general. The knights of the table for example, all have a unique ability, but you can only have one (each) of them at one time and they cost a hat full of honour to build.
As for siege weapons, yes plenty of new ones, from stake hurlers and werewolf launchers to giant rolling spiked balls!!
Where do you see and hope the RTS genre will evolve and grow to in the next few years?
Like most people I guess, I hope to see more innovation. I would also personally like to see AOE 1 redone again in 3D, but that's maybe just me!
Could you elaborate on the 24 missions that span across the three unique campaigns a little more?
I think I already answered this for Arthur, but we also tell the tale of Vlad Dracul (the Impaler), the tale is based initially on historical fact and then as time progresses moves on into legend as Vlad starts to mess with the 'dark arts'.
Perhaps our current favourite is, strangely, the least known set of legends, that of the Rhine legends, there is one in particular we like, where Dietrich has to first guide his men around several, 'encamped dragons' before sieging an Ice castle and then repairing his own whilst several club wielding Frost giants come down from the hills to pummel him into the ground! Maybe it's the icy landscape we like and kidding ourselves that we might get to go snowboarding one day!
Any final thoughts you'd like to share with our readers?
Yes, a question, can an RTS ever work on console, yes or no?!
TVG would like to thank Simon Bradbury for his time; Stronghold Legends is scheduled for an autumn release, so keep an eye out for further coverage.
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Date Added:Sun 11th Feb 2007 19:31
Merlin cant break the ice-cape, ive dun it a 1000 times by now, but it just wont break....
Please help!!!
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