Stronghold 3
| Stronghold 3 | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Developer(s) | Firefly Studios |
| Publisher(s) | SouthPeak Games |
| Designer(s) | Simon Bradbury |
| Engine | Trinigy Vision Engine as its 3D game engine,[2] Path Engine (KI), Havok physics engine |
| Platform(s) | Microsoft Windows |
| Release | October 25, 2011[1] |
| Genre(s) | Historical Real-Time Strategy |
| Mode(s) | Single player Multiplayer |
Stronghold 3 is a 2011 real-time strategy computer game developed by Firefly Studios and published by SouthPeak Games. The game is the seventh in the series after several spin-offs, a remake and an MMORTS. It is the sequel to Stronghold, released in 2001, and Stronghold 2 released in 2005. Unlike previous games in the series which were published by Take-Two Interactive, the game will be published by SouthPeak Games, the new parent company of Gamecock Media Group, publisher of Stronghold Crusader Extreme.
Synopsis
Background
The original Stronghold told the story of The Boy and his quest for revenge against Duc de Puce (The Rat), Duc Beauregard (The Snake), Duc de Truffe (The Pig) and Duc Volpe (The Wolf) for the ambush and murder of his father. After the capture of the King abroad, enemy invasion, civil war and his father's ambush en route to negotiate a treaty with The Snake, The Boy was pushed back to a forest on an overlooked peninsula. It was here that he found a small band of troops still loyal to the King and, with the help of Lord Woolsack and Sir Longarm, began to take back the country county by county. Eventually The Boy confronted The Wolf in his tower, after an intense battle he impaled the enigmatic Wolf on his sword and threw him to what he thought was his death.
Plot
Set 10 years later, Stronghold 3 follows the continuing story of The Boy. The Wolf, it seems, has cheated death and become bitter, twisted and psychotic during his painful recovery in the east. Now it is he who seeks revenge. By raiding towns and villages in the dead of night The Wolf has created a tide of panic, with The Boy and his allies the only force to stand against him.
Features
Once again players will be able to choose between two single-player campaigns. A story-driven military campaign that chronicles The Wolf's return through a series of RTS missions and dark graphic novel interludes and an economic campaign that has the player focus almost entirely on village productivity and resource management. Both campaigns will be fully narrated[4]. Players will also be able to 'change history' by choosing whether to attack or defend accurately re-created historical castles in the game's "Historical mode." The game lacks a Kingmaker or skirmish mode available as in previous titles.
The game engine will utilise Havok physics, which will influence the effectiveness of burning log traps and cause buildings and castle walls to crumble more realistically. In addition the game engine will feature a new weather system and advanced lighting.[5]
"Stronghold 3 was designed as a throwback to the original Stronghold. It’s a new generation Stronghold game and as you know the first title is all about story, in this case The Wolf’s military exploits and Lady Catherine’s economic tale. Really it’s a different beast to sister titles like Crusader and Legends, which are more skirmish-based. There are currently no plans to add a skirmish mode to Stronghold 3 and we’re not ready to talk about the future of the franchise just yet, but hopefully the map editor and historical sieges will keep you busy in the meantime." - Simon Bradbury
Buildings in Stronghold 3 will be more dynamic than before, with the housing capacity and appearance of hovels changing the further they are built from the player's keep, which will also be upgradeable. Hovels have been implemented very poorly. As placing your hovel a couple of centimeters away from the keep will give you a filthy shack (which houses considerably less) instead of manor. Castle construction is no longer confined to a grid-based system. Which makes it all the more harder, connecting walls is a nightmare and the game is missing the ability to customise the width and length of walls. Furthermore building can no longer be connected to walls. Instead of constructing a stronghold players a forced to play a frustrating tetris mini game due to the absolute lack of space, rendering the building of fortifications nigh impossible.
A new fog-of-war mechanic will be introduced for night-time game play, during which all areas outside of the immediate vicinity of the player's castle will be hidden in darkness. Players will however be able to use torch-holding peasants and other fire-based devices to explore the map at night. They will also be able to illuminate specific areas by setting fire to watch towers.[5]
Firefly has stated that the option for players to launch diseased cows from trebuchets will return[6], in addition to smaller animals like pigs and sheep[7]. A Facebook competition was run to let fans vote on the final animal ammunition type, with a sack of diseased badgers eventually making the cut.
Development
Firefly Studios had previously claimed in 2008 that they would be working on Stronghold 3 due to the high demand by fans, but only after the completion of Dungeon Hero. However, in 2010 the status of Dungeon Hero was uncertain after being delayed numerous times. In 2009 when asked if they had any other unannounced games in development other than Dungeon Hero and Stronghold Kingdoms, the answer was that they still had one more game in development.[4] The game was further teased in 2009 when Firefly stated in their newsletter that they had "something very big in the pipeline" which would be revealed in 2010. This game would later turn out to be Stronghold 3.[5]
The game was officially unveiled on May 14, 2010 with a teaser site.[6] The Steam page for the game was later opened on March 18, 2011,[7] which first stated the release date to be approximately the 21st of June 2011. Firefly then announced that the game will be delayed for another month until July 2011 in order to make refinements to the game. Eventually it was announced that the game would be delayed until late September 2011, after which a final release date of October 25th was announced.[8] The game went gold on October 6th[9].
References
- ^ "Stronghold 3 gone gold". New Game Network. October 6, 2011. Retrieved 2011-10-06.
- ^ "Clients - Vision Engine". Trinigy. Retrieved 2010-08-26.
- ^ "Stronghold 3 On Steam".
- ^ Wesley Yin-Poole (May 13, 2008). "Stronghold 3 and Crusader 2 coming at some point". VideoGamer.com. Retrieved May 10, 2010.
- ^ Firefly Studios Staff. "Firefly Newsletter - Issue #2". Firefly Studios. Retrieved May 14, 2010.
- ^ SouthPeak Games Staff (May 12, 2010). "SouthPeak Games Acquires Rights to Publish Firefly Studios' Stronghold 3". SouthPeak Games. Retrieved May 10, 2010.
- ^ Firefly Studios Staff (May 18, 2011). "Firefly Studios announce opening of Stronghold 3 Steam Page". Firefly Studios. Retrieved May 21, 2011.
- ^ "Stronghold 3 Official Facebook Page".
- ^ Fraser Brown (October 6, 2011). "Stronghold 3 goes gold and gets a new trailer". Destructoid. Retrieved October 11, 2011.