Hello, dear bloggers Stopheim. Sednya, wandering around the vast expanses of the Internet, came across a completely new information about the third part of our beloved Strongold. I know that copy -paste is not welcome, but I, in turn, do not force you to spit this topic, but it would not be very pleasant to go into minus, so let the rating remain at zero. The post carries only one goal – to give you as much food as possible for the mind and gnaw a little bit of your nails in anticipation of October 18 ..
Pleasant reading and viewing)))
Stronghold 3 – the long -awaited premiere in the famous strategic series, scheduled for mid -October. Recall that the line is a unique and balanced hybrid of the economic and military RTS, where only a strong business executive will be able to contain an omnipotent army.
This year, the Stronghold series (2001-2011) celebrates its tenth anniversary, and it seems that its creators correctly felt all the necessary directions to introduce innovation into an exciting gameplay. This year, the developers also presented the public with a successful online project, Stronghold Kingdoms (2011), where users are fighting for each other’s provinces, and now the authors fill it with new cards of feudal Europe.
As for the continuation of the main line, the entertaining attraction associated with its promotion is now Twitter, which is conducted on behalf of the Wolf (Wolf) – one of the notorious villains of the original Stronghold (2001). The invisible villain now actively lifts everyone who will turn to him in this social network, and also reports their latest conquests and insidious plans.
We talked about one of the most anticipated games of the second half of this year in this interview about the Stronghold 3 project with Simon Bradbury, one of the founders and the head of the British company, Firefly Studios, in the bowels of which at the end of the last century the idea of entertaining castles was born on the theme.
– Greetings! Please introduce yourself.
Good afternoon! My name is Simon Bradbury, and I am a leading game designer of Stronghold 3 Strategy.
– Tell us about your career in the gaming industry.
-My creative path originates back in the 1980s. At that time, I had the opportunity to make the game in just two months, and this period has already included everything necessary to work with design, art and code! For a rather long period, I followed various tasks for Impressions studio, where I had a chance to work as a designer and programmer in the first three parts of the Caesar line (1992-1999). After that, together with Eric Wellette, I founded Firefly Stronghold to develop the game. In total, in the course of my career, I participated in more than 40 gaming projects!
– What interesting events take place in the world Firefly Studios currently?
-Now all our efforts are aimed at completing the development of the game Stronghold 3, the release of which will be held in the fall of 2011. In addition, we recently launched our free online project – Stronghold Kingdoms
-This year, Stronghold strategic series celebrates its 10th anniversary. What do you remember this period?
– I always proudly look at what difficult technical problems we managed to overcome in the process of developing the games of the Stronghold series. Other projects in the RTS genre are incomparably easier. Our Stronghold line is trying to combine a real -time strategy together and a construction simulator. In addition, we always need to remember the high-quality algorithms for finding the path (Path-Finding) required for the game on the construction of medieval castles.
After all, here we invite users to find weaknesses of the fortress and close access to them, as well as place fighters on the walls or organize a way out through the gate for them. We always think about how to overcome any technical tasks that arise in connection with these ideas. In particular, right now, for the game Stronghold 3, this is extremely relevant, because we have corner sections of fortifications.
– How long is the development of the Stronghold 3 project? Whether in the course of her to abandon some ideas?
– The game Stronghold 3 has been developed over more than two years. Our main goal is in a certain sense to return the series to its origins. We would like to make such a project that would be closer to the most original original episode, and not to a more complex Sicvel – StrongHold 2 (2005).
As for creative ideas, they come to us tons from fans of the ruler, but we mainly use only those that simply implement to add gloss to our project. Those that are too complex or try to distort the essence of the project, by us, on the contrary, are rejected.
– The history of the Middle Ages rich in events is excellent material for fortresses and examples of cunning combat tactics. What research in this area did you conduct in the process of developing a third part of the series?
– You are absolutely right! The medieval period of history is a great source of inspiration for our developers Stronghold 3. Even before we started creating the original Stronghold, we were fond of the theme of medieval castles, and, in particular, the period of the so-called “Dark Middle Ages” (Dark Ages, X-XI centuries. – approx. Ed.)
If your childhood and youth take place in England, then quite often you will have to go on excursions to various medieval castles or explore magnificent fortifications during certain trips. For this reason, there is nothing surprising in the fact that such a large number of people are interested in this topic.
Of course, we devote a lot of time to historical research in the development of our video games. In our office you can find more than 200 books about medieval castles, living conditions and management of that time. When developing the game Stronghold 3, in the process of reconstruction in the project of the territories of real fortresses, the Google Maps service (2005-2011) helped us a lot.
Using these cards with views from a satellite, we got a unique chance to look at the famous castles directly from a bird’s eye view, which later helped us recreate the necessary virtual environment. So, we definitely understood where in these fortunes we need to place walls and protective towers!
– What game modes will be available in the game Stronghold 3?
– For the single -user part in the Stronghold 3 project, we will offer several game modes at once. For example, Tutorial training is designed for those who have never been familiar with our wonderful games of the Stronghold series, which have already been released a lot. [Smiles].
We also have a military https://madcasino.uk/ and economic campaigns, the “Free-Build” regime for free construction and the very embodiments of real historical castles in separate scenarios. As we believe, you will need even more than 50 hours of real time to pass all levels of our strategy!
– The economic sphere in the games of your famous series has always been one of the main attractions. What new improvements in this part awaits fans of the line?
– The economy is a significant portion of gameplay for the entire Stronghold series and Stronghold 3 Games. In my opinion, it is she who is one of the reasons why our developments have gained such a great popularity. In the genre of strategies, most other projects focus all the attention either on RTS retractions, as you can see, for example, in the same Starcraft (1998) or Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War (2004).
Others, on the contrary, are deepened into the simulation of a voluntary micro -study, like the same Settlers 7 (2010) or Tropico (2001). However, in our Stronghold series, we found a successful harmony between those and other ideas, because in order to create a good army, we will first have to engage in the development of the economy of our settlement so that it provides your army with the necessary resources and supplies new recruits.
One of the main changes in the Stronghold 3 project comes from the concept of the game Stronghold Kingdoms and is related to Popularity. This approach is more transparent, understandable and controlled for players. On the one hand, the very essence of this transformation does not sound so significant, but its effect for gameplay is very important, and we like it much more than the previous ideas in this area.
All this allows you to much more creatively approach the random events of the game world, which can be traced not only visually, but also statistically, in particular, with the fluctuations of the same rating of the ruler. You will certainly notice how these incidents began to play a more significant role in gameplay.
For example, if you are visited by the royal family in the game Stronghold 3, then your rating will immediately take off by 50 points, and you will see how the king himself is chosen from his fortress to greet his fed, which will begin to wave the festive flags in response to him in response. In general, our main task for improvements in this area was to make sure that the gaming economy would not be too complicated for understanding!
In the same Stronghold 2, we added too many innovations to this sphere, which distracted gamers from the essence of game mechanics. This is well illustrated by an example with a crime system when you needed to build various buildings and objects, including the “Guard Post”, “Court”, “Jail” (Jail) and even “Torture EQIPMENT devices”.
All these buildings were then required only so that people would not steal reserves from your vault. Players, in turn, had to think about where and how to place new structures, so that they would be present in the settlement. This at some point interfered with other decisions on the development of construction. So, we completely removed the crime system from the world of Stronghold 3, so as not to tire users with the need to put certain buildings, but to allow them to focus on those architectural tasks that they want to realize themselves.
Another small, but interesting addition – housing. Now that you place huts for peasants on the ground, the capacity of the houses depends on their proximity to the main castle. Neighboring buildings will be able to shelter up to 10 residents, while remote shachigs will become a refuge for only one filed.
We really wanted to include this change in the third part-Stronghold 3, because in the same first Stronghold it was not important exactly where you put at home, so some placed them where someone would hardly live: on cliffs or remote islands. This economic trick made it possible to protect residential buildings from the besiegers of the fortress of aggressors who could not reach them. Now you will have to take care every time to assess this or that decision at the place of placement of new buildings for citizens.
– How many resources will be available in the game Stronghold 3?
– Here you will meet 25 types of raw materials and resources. A couple of new products was added to strengthen the prestige balance (Honour). As noted above, in general, the economic sphere in the game has become easier than it was presented in Stronghold 2, so even new production chains for the development of prestige now immediately send their goods directly to the warehouse of the fortress, without requiring any additional buildings for their work.
– What types of units and siege machines will be available in the game?
– We will have a wide selection of units and siege tools in our Stronghold 3 project to get your army. The arrows are represented by archers (Archer) and crossbowman (Crossbowman), and among the infantry there are swordsmen (Swordsman), soldiers armed with palette (Maceman), and others. A fundamentally new family of troops – Ranger, and he is a kind of hybrid of a lanter and archer, which makes him a rather strong warrior, but also expensive for hiring.
In the camp of siege machines, a lot is already familiar to you from the previous games of the Stronghold series, such as Trebuchet (Trebuchet) or catapults (Catapult), but before you could charge your guns only with stones or contagious cow carburs, and now new sick animals will be at your disposal to increase or reduce the radiusdistribution of diseases provoked in the castle of the enemy.
– What is the new role of the Lord of the Castle in the Gameplay Stronghold 3? Can they manage?
– Yes, the character of your ruler will be visible on the map, and they can be controlled directly. This is especially useful for the Stronghold 3 initial missions, where you still have few troops, so the Lord’s forces will be able to fight with weak opponents: the same hungry wolves and bears.
– what main changes will notice the besieging locks and those who defend them from them?
– Well, the changes here are very large -scale, and everything, indeed, depends on whether you attack or defend you. If you protect your castle, it is better to place a soldier in a convenient place where they will open a good overview of the enemy army.
The construction of the walls is designed to influence the path of moving enemy fighters so that they quickly land on the territory where you have numerous traps prepared for them. Also in the defending role, you need to manage the repair of fortifications affected by the fire of the enemy catapults.
From the point of view of the attacking side, the events in Stronghold 3 are developing somewhat different. Firstly, you will need an abundance of good military reserves to throw them into a storm battle if necessary. Secondly, it will not be superfluous to examine the opponent’s castle and find weak places in the fortifications. In addition, in the economy of the native settlement it will have to be obtained and processed a lot of resources to create a sufficient amount of weapons and armor for your large army.
– The design of levels in the Stronghold series has always represented us very high -quality cards that open the abundance of tactical solutions. What awaits us in this part in the new game – Stronghold 3?
-We sought to ensure the presence of a wide range of various maps in the project, starting from the wealthy zones rich in resources to ghosts, exhausting from terrible diseases. The level of height always plays a significant role in us, but this time the importance of free space will increase even more. There are not so many free areas in many local territories, so you will have to think very well before starting construction.
The rotation of buildings in the Stronghold 3 project will allow them to be placed even in some narrow places. Of course, do not think that we have only small cards. In other huge locations, you can build a large castle of your dreams and fill it up to the top with ingenious traps, including new blocking traffic (Stake Trap).
– AI in the original Stronghold did not give a descent to the enemies. In which direction he evolved to the third episode?
– "I did not give a descent" – this is still said! We devoted a lot of time to the development of artificial intelligence in order to significantly move forward with what we had in this area earlier. Now enemies will be even smarter during the assault on your castles, so get ready for serious tests.
– What opportunities will be offered players in the Stronghold 3 multiplayer?
– We plan to include four modes in the game Stronghold 3: “Fight to death” (Deathmatch), “Capture and Flag”, “King of the Hill” and “Kingmaker” (Kingmaker). In the latter of the listed modes, a rating system will be provided to improve the abilities of your lord, performing the tasks. We will use the SteamWorks service to organize matches, so it’s easy to find new opponents on the network quickly. Multiplayer battles are designed for a team that includes up to 8 participants.
– What visual improvements are added to the project?
– the quality of three -dimensional graphics has significantly advanced since the release of the previous episode. We used the power of the Trinigy Vision engine, which we acquired a license from another outsourcing company. I think that players will certainly notice improvements in the area of visual quality of the image in the third episode of the ruler.
One of the main changes in this part caused by the new engine is that in the Stronghold 3 project it is more not necessary to build in invisible drawn cells. Previously, this led to the emergence of settlements, where everything looked too organized for medieval villages. Now the players will use the mouse wheel to rotate the buildings before placing them at any angle or put them with the maximum possible pressing of each other.
Of course, this immediately reflected on the prospects for designing fortifications. The walls no longer need to be laid in straight lines, and instead the design of the locks will turn out even more sophisticated, which will fully reflect the true state of things that existed in the history of the Middle Ages.
– How many units can simultaneously fight on the battlefield in Stronghold 3?
– As for the scale of the battles in the game Stronghold 3, we are still working with this, and here a lot will depend on the selected card. In general, the order of numbers here is calculated by hundreds of soldiers.
– The model of game physics feeds on the Havok engine forces. That this allowed you to bring to your strategy and its gameplay?
– This helped us make a new episode the most dramatic in the entire series! So, during the siege, you will observe how massive walls collapse under the fire of a trembus, and fragments of fortifications fly apart in all directions, damaging the nearest buildings. This is realized by a system for determining side damage (Splash Damage System). During this, soldiers on the walls can also be scattered around the neighborhood. Thus, a large siege will now become much more emotional than in the previous parts of the Stronghold series.
– We really like the music of the Stronghold series. Pleasant arrangements helped to plunge into the medieval atmosphere. How are things with the STRONGHOLD 3 soundtrack?
– Once again, to recording music, we turned to the composer – Robert Euvino (Robert Euvino) to write the soundtrack for our game Stronghold 3. He is a real professional in musical creativity. We will certainly include the best melodies of past games in the new album, but Rob also actively works in the direction of creating new excellent compositions for the project.
– What video games do you like the most?
– Populous (1989) and Barbie Horse Adventures: Wild Horse Rescue (2003). Guess my riddle what one of these two I really like.
– What is associated with Russia?
– Roman L.N. Tolstoy – “War and Peace” (1869). Its name is a great metaphor for the entire Stronghold series.
– Thank you for the answers, Simon! Want to add something?
– Please! Be sure to join our community of the Stronghold series on the social network – Facebook.* Be sure to let the wolf (Wolf) show your rough and offensive nature on our Twitter page. Yes, and do not forget to go to the official website of the Stronghold 3 game to find the latest news about this project there. Thank you for reading my interview!
P.S. We thank Maxim Sooilenko (1C-SoftKlab) for assistance in organizing this interview.
The video is lower, in the comments, thanks to the tanker =)
Of course looking at the video in German (!), it will be possible to emphasize several interesting things. Naturally, ours, the gaze will first fall on the gorgeous graphics and magnificent physics of the game. The walls break up into small pebbles and according to all the laws of Newton, roll down the mountain, although in my modest opinion, catapult, through the chur quickly destroys the wall. I’m afraid to even imagine what will happen when six of these guns will be summed up. I was pleased and how the infantry falls from the walls when arrows getting into them, it looks extremely fun.
Animation is also on top, our swordsmen use different types of strokes, this is of course not segun, but everything looks at a fairly good level. By the way, swordsmen in heavy armor, now running like athletes at the Spartakiad, I think that now they will become my main shock force. The rotation of buildings, all 360 degrees have already been known for a long time, I think this is an extremely convenient innovation. Unfortunately, in the video, we never saw new types of troops, very sad, but still I hope for developing ..
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* The activities of the parent organization META are recognized as extremist and prohibited in the Russian Federation
