castledoom.com

JuntaJoe · Joined: 07 Nov 2004 Posts: 7391 Location: Texas

.....is finally here! *slobber!*

http://www.2kgames.com/stronghold2/

Morrowind is simply going to have to take a vacation. :lol:

The first edition kept me happy for years. These guys make the best castle sim and strategy game on the market, bar none. No one even comes close.

It will have a top notch and easy editor. Expect player made scenarios out the wahzoo!

This is sooooo cool.

Brf · Posted: Wed Apr 27, 2005 5:28 am Post subject:

I will need to take a good look at this at my leasure.... I was just playing abit of Stonghold last night....

JuntaJoe · Joined: 07 Nov 2004 Posts: 7391 Location: Texas

Eddy was a bit curious in some comments in the mod board and figured answering here would be better.

The first edition game had several parts:

*A long campaign which mixed civil and military leading up to some fat battles at the end.

*A long scenario path of ever increasing difficulty that was based on combat. (in the xpac)

*A siege section where you tackled famous castles of old in your choice of the offensive or defensive role.

*A scenario selection of unrelated missions. This is where the mod community joins in and thousands of scenarios will be available for online downloading.

*An economic campaign to master the difficulties of managing your fiefdom.

*A freebuild section where you get different bare maps to choose from and build your castle and town from square one without real interference. You do have the option at any point to schedule an invasion to test what you've built, but you can skip that if you wish.

So the game focuses well on both aspects of medeival life. Military or civil.

It was just too fun and never got stale. I just found new games to play with.

And it seems that the makers have beefed up the civil side in this new edition.

Eddy · Joined: 12 Nov 2004 Posts: 714

Interesting. I'll keep an eye on it.

Brf · Posted: Wed Apr 27, 2005 2:44 pm Post subject:

Hmmm.... the system requirements are abit out of range for my current computer. I will have to wait until I can afford to upgrade....

JuntaJoe · Joined: 07 Nov 2004 Posts: 7391 Location: Texas

Wow, I didn't see a system specs note on that link I had. Or I didn't see it.

Gotta link?

Brf · Posted: Wed Apr 27, 2005 3:07 pm Post subject:

I followed the Download-the-Patch link. There was a Specs link on there.

JuntaJoe · Joined: 07 Nov 2004 Posts: 7391 Location: Texas

Minimum Hardware
Operating System: Win98SE/ME/2000/XP
CPU: 1.4 Ghz
RAM: 256 Mb
Graphics: 32Mb (GeForce2 MX upwards)
DirectX: 9.0c
Disk Space: 2.5 Gb

Recommended Hardware
Operating System: Win98SE/ME/2000/XP
CPU: 2.0 Ghz
RAM: 512 Mb
Graphics: 64Mb
DirectX: 9.0c
Internet play Broadband connection recommended

Wow, Brf, your system is that old?

How long has it been?

Brf · Posted: Wed Apr 27, 2005 4:31 pm Post subject:

Yup. My system is a 1-Ghz. Other than the processor speed I am ok.

It came with 128-meg of Ram, which I upgraded to 384, which meets the minimum. I upgraded the graphics to GForce4 MX 440. But I think I still have DirectX-8....

Since the processor doesnt meet the minimum, I would have to upgrade.

JuntaJoe · Joined: 07 Nov 2004 Posts: 7391 Location: Texas

A mid line system about 3 years ago, huh?

Yep, they go out of date fast.

Will your mobo take a bigger chip?

Brf · Posted: Wed Apr 27, 2005 6:02 pm Post subject:

4 years ago actually. I would sooner buy a new system then try to upgrade the processor on this one

JuntaJoe · Joined: 07 Nov 2004 Posts: 7391 Location: Texas

Well, between your skills and my shopping links, it's really a matter of finding the dinero.

No wonder you've been mumbling something about an hourly rate. :lol:

Anywho, those specs aren't uncommon these days for games. And the ones coming out soon will be worse.

I'll try to pick up the game this weekend and give an After Game Report.

s_stabeler · Joined: 20 Feb 2005 Posts: 2296

well, i may need a new graphics card..........i have an ati radeon( i think) 9600 series, would that do?

JuntaJoe · Joined: 07 Nov 2004 Posts: 7391 Location: Texas

I think you are fine. A fast glance at the ATI site says all 9600's have 128meg of video ram. With half that as the recommended amount then you should be fine.

Well, I ordered it from Amazon last night. They offered free snail mail delivery, but it probably won't arrive until the following weekend. That's ok as I hear they really need to get the next patch out. There are a couple things that imbalance the gameplay that need to be recitfied.

I also hear that they have one buggy building, but the developers are getting that fixed in the next patch as well. Firefly is always serious about bug or imbalance issues. One of the reasons to buy their game is that they don't put an arbitary barrier on patch support time like some developers do. I hear that Activision will only fund 2 patch sessions before dumping the rest of the fixes into the xpacs.

And I've learned a bit more about the scenario types. There are 4 kinds. War, peace, kingmaker, and freebuild. War is obvious. Perform a military objective, though civil duties are usually a part of that in the defensive mode. Peace is a series of civil objectives. Freebuild is simply what I mentioned earlier. Kingmaker is new. The game is now multiplayer online capable. These are war scenarios most of the time. But like the last version, single player is fully supported.

I haven't seen the Seige or Skirmish. Seige may be combined with War and Skirmish may be coming in the xpac like it was in the first game.

Note that scenarios are not the same as the main campaign.

But it would appear that if Eddy isn't big on war then the game does fully address his desires outside of the main campaign.

JuntaJoe · Joined: 07 Nov 2004 Posts: 7391 Location: Texas

Woot! Amazon just sent me a note that they shipped already today and the post office has it.

It's coming from Kentucky. I figure I get it early next week. 8)

Robbo · Posted: Fri Apr 29, 2005 2:42 am Post subject:

Looking forward to it down here as well - especially, as I mentioned at estioland, the gong faming :D

Quote: well, i may need a new graphics card..........i have an ati radeon( i think) 9600 series, would that do?

You should have no problem running Stronghold on a 9600. Driver or rendering issues perhaps, but unlikely. 9600 are mid-range cards today, while the GeForce2 was a low end card, 4 years ago :)

If you like actual evidence about this, you can check out this graph (http://www.ixbt.com/video2/images/over-2003/ut-800.png). The 9600 gives 97.2 frames per second, while the GeForce2 manages 16.5. (Assuming lowest spec versions of both cards)

CooJoe · Posted: Fri Apr 29, 2005 3:28 pm Post subject:

Not to be stupid, but.

How do I find my system specs?

Edit:
It looks like I'll need to update the Ram.

I don't know what Graphics card I have, though.

JuntaJoe · Joined: 07 Nov 2004 Posts: 7391 Location: Texas

This may sound obvious, but I never throw away any papers that come with my pc.

Robbo · Posted: Fri Apr 29, 2005 8:10 pm Post subject:

There are a number available, but the one I use is Belarc Advisor

Your video card type, and onboard RAM are listed by right clicking on your desktop, selecting Properties, and then the Settings tab.
Click Advanced, and look for the Adapter tab. This will then list a 'Chip Type' and a 'Memory Size'. (see attachment)

CooJoe · Posted: Fri Apr 29, 2005 8:25 pm Post subject:

I'll definently be needing a new graphics card.

Geeze my system sucks.