cRPG

cRPG => General Discussion => Topic started by: Varric on September 03, 2011, 04:02:03 pm

Title: Stronghold Betatest over: Download & Manual inside
Post by: Varric on September 03, 2011, 04:02:03 pm

Stronghold Controls (Some controls requires a Hammer):
F - Spawns Hammer on Dummy, Create Portcullis on Gatehouse, Captures Mines, Upgrades Buildings/Mines, Claims enemy buildings.
F1 - Battalion order/Flag.
F2 - Enables/Disables Building Mode.
  >F3 - Cycle forward through props, Holding Shift cycles backwards.
  >F4 & F5 - Controls prop in building mode, Raises and lowers the prop, Holding CapsLock/Shift/Ctrl Rotates at X/Y/Z axis.
Right Mouse Button - Zoom out/Upwards in building mode. Left click to place building.
P - Sets Battalion.

Objective of the game-mode is to destroy the other team's dummy more than they destroy yours. Each time the enemy dummy is destroyed you get a multiplier. Each game typically lasts from 40-60 minutes.
You build various props to defend your dummy which costs resources points, you gain resource points at a regular interval, captured mines gives you more resource points, every upgrade gives more resource points and can be upgraded up to 4 times.
There are 3 mines on the map.
You can see your resource points where your gold is at the top-right.
You can pool your resources with other players by being in the same battalion, the leader of the battalion can spend it on buildings.
Siege camps spawn construction material.

You pay for equipment via your resource points pool, items cost /40 of their base price, every building gives 5% discount on it, for example, having a weapon-smith means you only pay 95% of the weapons you spawn with, having 2 means you only pay 90% and so on.

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Title: Re: Stronghold Manual
Post by: chadz on September 03, 2011, 04:03:33 pm
no download needed

server password:
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Title: Re: Stronghold Manual
Post by: H4rdn3ssKill3r on September 03, 2011, 04:06:21 pm
Question, So this game mode everything is availble for our use or do you get a certain type of equipment?
EDIT: Accually no lemme rephrase that, what is dependent on the equipment? what is dependant that you don't get black armor or you don't get white lamallar?


And why is the mine a junk pile? :3
Title: Re: Stronghold Manual
Post by: Belmont on September 03, 2011, 04:09:27 pm
Looking forward to playing this game mode, it looks promising.
Title: Re: Stronghold Manual
Post by: Kafein on September 03, 2011, 04:12:04 pm
When will the beta-test happen ?
Will it be open, half-open strat-like, closed... ?
What will be the principal task of testers, apart from playing ? Any specific feature the devs want to test on a large scale ?
When will the test end ?

Thanks.
Title: Re: Stronghold Manual
Post by: Varric on September 03, 2011, 04:16:25 pm
Soon.

Play this flash game while you wait.
http://www.onemorelevel.com/game/frantic_frigates
Title: Re: Stronghold Manual
Post by: Peasant_Woman on September 03, 2011, 04:20:45 pm
Under those rules the most effective way to get your stronghold set up quickly would be to have every player in one of the battalions to pool resources, leaders run around building constantly while the battalion members protect thier leader while he builds or go capture mines or whatever. Insta-base.

Sounds like it could promote teamwork, awesome.  :)
Title: Re: Stronghold Manual
Post by: chadz on September 03, 2011, 04:33:52 pm
should be ready in 30 minutes
Title: Re: Stronghold Manual
Post by: Kafein on September 03, 2011, 04:36:31 pm
Under those rules the most effective way to get your stronghold set up quickly would be to have every player in one of the battalions to pool resources, leaders run around building constantly while the battalion members protect thier leader while he builds or go capture mines or whatever. Insta-base.

Sounds like it could promote teamwork, awesome.  :)

This mode will be exactly like an RTS played by multi-schizophrenic people :mrgreen:. It will be extremely demanding in terms of teamwork, and more importantly, discipline. I don't even want to know what will happen with randomers.

should be ready in 30 minutes

 :D

Good enough time for me to finish that frantic frigates thingy...

Freaking second boss always gets me with those eyes D:

Me too  :cry:

Try qwop instead !!! http://www.foddy.net/Athletics.html
Title: Re: Stronghold Manual
Post by: Rubicon on September 03, 2011, 04:47:46 pm
Hopes I'll be in  :D
Title: Re: Stronghold Manual
Post by: Espu on September 03, 2011, 04:51:09 pm
Please stick to the topic so it's possible to find useful information later.
Title: Re: Stronghold Manual
Post by: H4rdn3ssKill3r on September 03, 2011, 04:52:38 pm
Varric started it :O

I still want to know what is dependant on the armor or do we get to choose what armor we get the armoursmith to make?
I don't want to be some dirty sarranid D:
Title: Re: Stronghold Manual
Post by: Kafein on September 03, 2011, 04:56:26 pm
Server is on, do we need to download the _dev mod or just rename cRPG ?

Edit : I renamed my cRPG folder and the server lets me in, but the download map speed seems stuck at 0
Title: Re: Stronghold Manual
Post by: H4rdn3ssKill3r on September 03, 2011, 04:58:43 pm
Probably download _dev...

We shall see.
Title: Re: Stronghold Manual
Post by: Chen1201 on September 03, 2011, 05:26:19 pm
can anyone join or do we have to download something or what??
Title: Re: Stronghold Manual
Post by: Kafein on September 03, 2011, 05:27:57 pm
Atm the beta is closed :

should be ready in 30 minutes
Title: Re: Stronghold Manual
Post by: Chen1201 on September 03, 2011, 05:29:02 pm
oh ok thanks
Title: Re: Stronghold Manual
Post by: Peasant_Woman on September 03, 2011, 05:30:48 pm
Oh come on, that time was never set in stone. It was a rough guestimation based on the desire to troll thirty players into sitting and pressing F5 for an hour. :lol:
Title: Re: Stronghold Manual
Post by: Deathwhisper on September 03, 2011, 05:33:16 pm
I guess it's just a bit late.

There's only 1 stronghold serveur up atm, with 3 people in it (devs obviously). They must be making the server ready for the beta.
Title: Re: Stronghold Manual
Post by: chadz on September 03, 2011, 05:36:17 pm
Download now:
http://www.fileserve.com/file/uPHzy87

zip contains a folder cRPG_dev - just place it in warband/Modules/

so in the path is like: warband/Modules/cRPG_dev/

See second post in the thread for mirrors.
Title: Re: Stronghold Manual
Post by: Deathwhisper on September 03, 2011, 05:36:59 pm
Download now:
http://www.fileserve.com/file/uPHzy87

zip contains a folder cRPG_dev - just place it in warband/Modules/

so in the path is like: warband/Modules/cRPG_dev/

Thanks!
Title: Re: Stronghold Betatest now: Download & Manual inside
Post by: Phyrex on September 03, 2011, 05:39:51 pm
Epic! Now I know what I'll be doing this evening and night.. :D
Title: Re: Stronghold Betatest now: Download & Manual inside
Post by: Bilbo on September 03, 2011, 05:40:12 pm
hooray  :D
download faster damn download manager!
Title: Re: Stronghold Betatest now: Download & Manual inside
Post by: Punisher on September 03, 2011, 05:43:50 pm
Mirrors for faster download without waiting time:

http://infinitum.dyndns.org/share/dev/cRPG_dev.zip (Espu)
http://miria.no-ip.org/cRPG/cRPG_dev.zip (Mylet)
Title: Re: Stronghold Betatest now: Download & Manual inside
Post by: H4rdn3ssKill3r on September 03, 2011, 05:44:55 pm
3 mbs for me on mirror 1, thanks lord for 100mb connection :D!
Title: Re: Stronghold Betatest now: Download & Manual inside
Post by: Polobow on September 03, 2011, 05:45:01 pm
Mirrors for faster download without waiting time:

http://infinitum.dyndns.org/share/dev/cRPG_dev.zip (Espu)
http://miria.no-ip.org/cRPG/cRPG_dev.zip (Mylet)

Much appreciated!
Title: Re: Stronghold Betatest now: Download & Manual inside
Post by: Chen1201 on September 03, 2011, 05:45:46 pm
DOWNLOAD RACE GO!
Title: Re: Stronghold Betatest now: Download & Manual inside
Post by: H4rdn3ssKill3r on September 03, 2011, 05:47:05 pm
Loading.. Faster... Come on load faster pc!
Title: Re: Stronghold Betatest now: Download & Manual inside
Post by: Kafein on September 03, 2011, 05:47:33 pm
visitors can't see pics , please register or login
Title: Re: Stronghold Betatest now: Download & Manual inside
Post by: VVarlord on September 03, 2011, 05:48:10 pm
We allowed to set our own servers up for this game mode? Not connected to the data base ofcourse.
Title: Re: Stronghold Betatest now: Download & Manual inside
Post by: chadz on September 03, 2011, 05:48:44 pm
Disclaimer: it's a very raw state, bug riddled and mostly untested.. but thats why it's a beta, amirite.
Title: Re: Stronghold Betatest now: Download & Manual inside
Post by: Bilbo on September 03, 2011, 05:48:52 pm
Thanks Mylet and Espu
and sorry for all the times i killed you in Defend the Village mode, especially you mylet

download finished :D
Title: Re: Stronghold Betatest now: Download & Manual inside
Post by: Polobow on September 03, 2011, 05:49:00 pm
DOWNLOAD RACE GO!

finished!
Title: Re: Stronghold Betatest now: Download & Manual inside
Post by: Chen1201 on September 03, 2011, 05:50:32 pm
finished!

OH NOESZ
Title: Re: Stronghold Betatest now: Download & Manual inside
Post by: RandomDude on September 03, 2011, 06:15:44 pm
is there any way to change the function keys?

f2 turns my wireless on/off
Title: Re: Stronghold Betatest now: Download & Manual inside
Post by: chadz on September 03, 2011, 06:37:49 pm
it's the 1-5 commands you can use in SP, should be changeable.
Title: Re: Stronghold Betatest now: Download & Manual inside
Post by: Bjord on September 03, 2011, 07:20:45 pm
Is this mod based off of the Stronghold game from 93'?

If it is, +10 internets to you devs. Was(is) a pretty fun game.

Title: Re: Stronghold Betatest now: Download & Manual inside
Post by: Polobow on September 03, 2011, 07:26:22 pm
The 5 sec a tick bug was awesome.
Too bad it had to end so soon.
Title: Re: Stronghold Betatest now: Download & Manual inside
Post by: Arrowblood on September 03, 2011, 07:27:04 pm
lolololz happend
Title: Re: Stronghold Betatest now: Download & Manual inside
Post by: Varyag on September 03, 2011, 07:28:03 pm
any chance for server to get back soon?
Title: Re: Stronghold Betatest now: Download & Manual inside
Post by: Bloody187 on September 03, 2011, 07:29:10 pm
I like the concept but mabe make the teams start with a small castle also if walls auto attached 2 each other it would be nice
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Title: Re: Stronghold Betatest now: Download & Manual inside
Post by: ThePoopy on September 03, 2011, 07:29:29 pm
we want moarz
Title: Re: Stronghold Betatest now: Download & Manual inside
Post by: Mushy on September 03, 2011, 07:29:55 pm
Is it still going? I downloaded it and I can't find a server that is running it o.O

I regularly check the forums so unless it was only on for 5 mins I doubt I missed it
Title: Re: Stronghold Betatest now: Download & Manual inside
Post by: H4rdn3ssKill3r on September 03, 2011, 07:31:37 pm
You missed it :P

It got shutdown 7 mins ago
Title: Re: Stronghold Betatest now: Download & Manual inside
Post by: Varyag on September 03, 2011, 07:31:53 pm
its off now due to the resource gainning too fast bug

P.S. its on AGAIN
Title: Re: Stronghold Betatest now: Download & Manual inside
Post by: H4rdn3ssKill3r on September 03, 2011, 07:32:44 pm
excellent
Title: Re: Stronghold Betatest now: Download & Manual inside
Post by: Mushy on September 03, 2011, 07:33:42 pm
Ah that sucks .. was looking forward to it :/

How was it?
Title: Re: Stronghold Betatest now: Download & Manual inside
Post by: gazda on September 03, 2011, 07:34:21 pm
Was nice, intense and fun, though you might wanna create a graphical user interface for placeing the objects, and as always balance it, just the way you know  :wink:
Title: Re: Stronghold Betatest now: Download & Manual inside
Post by: VVarlord on September 03, 2011, 07:35:21 pm
excellent

This. +10!

Bit of something for everyone, if you like to defend your castle or your outpost thats around a mine or whether you like to take the offensive.

Like stronghold but first person  :wink:

Title: Re: Stronghold Betatest now: Download & Manual inside
Post by: chadz on September 03, 2011, 07:35:41 pm
it's back up, and xp&gold is enabled
Title: Re: Stronghold Betatest now: Download & Manual inside
Post by: Mushy on September 03, 2011, 07:36:20 pm
it's back up, and xp&gold is enabled

<3
Title: Re: Stronghold Betatest now: Download & Manual inside
Post by: Centurion on September 03, 2011, 07:37:02 pm
I like the concept but mabe make the teams start with a small castle also if walls auto attached 2 each other it would be nice
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Title: Re: Stronghold Betatest now: Download & Manual inside
Post by: Teeth on September 03, 2011, 08:56:42 pm
Guess I'll just leave feedback here.

I am really impressed by the build system, it works like a charm. The instructions are there, it's easy to place a building exactly as you wish. Only thing I disliked about the building system was that you had to hold f4 or f5 and press ctrl to turn, so after turning you had to fix the height again. Not really a big deal, so very nicely done.

The maps I have seen today are too big, you cant see where to go from spawn. You get lost, team gets spread out. I think smaller maps would be better, with both castles in sight of eachother with resource mines to the sides and middle. So that when you look from the castle walls, you know who has what and whats happening where. That you have an idea where the rest of your team is. Smaller maps would make the whole experience more intense.
Also with these current size maps, cav have an edge cause they can just do so much more in a smaller amount of time.

I think walls are underpowered. I think one team would win every time, if they just forget about the mines and the building and keep attacking the enemy dummy. Walls cant really stop em that much, especially cause you can just build a wooden stairway in no time at great heights. I've spend most of my stronghold time upgrading and fortifieng mines, but I didnt really have the idea that it helped my team much, cause the enemy team wasnt really bothering with the mines. We had 2 mines fully upgraded and fortified, but still the score was 6-3.
Also no idea what was going on at the main base while I was at the mines, due to the huge map size.

Teamwork is key in this mode, especially with these size maps, where lone attackers just die. Lets face it, its hard to organize randoms. Maybe implement some cool system for this, otherwise I think this will only truly shine in clan vs clan matches.

Also, this game mode needs boiling oil, flaming arrows and trebuchets with launchable cow corpses  :P

I'm very impressed with the work done so far, you guys are gods at coding. Keep it up!
Title: Re: Stronghold Betatest now: Download & Manual inside
Post by: okiN on September 03, 2011, 09:00:02 pm
I like the concept but mabe make the teams start with a small castle also if walls auto attached 2 each other it would be nice
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That's why you're supposed to pay attention to what you're building instead of just slapping stuff up in random order.
Title: Re: Stronghold Betatest now: Download & Manual inside
Post by: Teeth on September 03, 2011, 09:01:01 pm
That's why you're supposed to pay attention to what you're building instead of just slapping stuff up in random order.
Yeah its really not that hard, you just have to wait for the surrounding stuff to finish, which can take agonizingly long sometimes for stone buildings.
Title: Re: Stronghold Betatest now: Download & Manual inside
Post by: Odion on September 03, 2011, 09:01:21 pm
this is great, you should replace the 120 siege server with stronghold
Title: Re: Stronghold Betatest now: Download & Manual inside
Post by: Peasant_Woman on September 03, 2011, 09:06:47 pm
This is a really great gamemode!

Feedback/bugs I found;

-Wooden walls/gates should be weaker than stone, but cost less to build and cost less to upkeep.
-Engineer isn't working
-You shouldn't have to pay upkeep for captured enemy buildings, or at least less.
-Stables could be able to spawn a slow 0 difficulty horse/donkey purely for travelling. So that the game mode doesn't become mounted combat only, you wouldn't be able to attack while riding it, and it would de-spawn as soon as you dismounted. useful only for going somewhere.
-It would be great if there was a way to open a friendly gatehouse from the outside somehow.
-Perhaps there could be a bit more variation in the random maps allowed for play? Small rivers could be interesting.
-Occasionally when a dummy is destroyed it will report that one of your worn items captured the castle. 'Peasant Dress' Has captured the castle!
-Perhaps the number of mines on the map should be random? Always at least three, but could be possible to have two more?
-A way to tell how much each building item costs would be nice (when/if they cost different amounts).
-A way to repair damaged buildings would be awesome. For resources of course.
-Maybe you could chop down random trees on the map for an immediate small resources bonus. If so, maybe there could be a 'foresters hut' which spawns sapling trees you can plant and after a while they become fully grown and harvestable?

EDIT:
-There could be a 'market/trader' building which would spawn stone blocks/iron bars/whatever which you could pick up. If you take these to another market building they could be used on the building to gain a small amount of resources. This gives low level players/those who can't build very well something to do as well as getting players moving around the map a bit more instead of camping one place. To prevent abuse there should be a minimum distance that a market building has to be from another market building in order to be placed.

Loving it so far, this is so much better than boring old battle.
Title: Re: Stronghold Betatest now: Download & Manual inside
Post by: Jarlek on September 03, 2011, 09:08:32 pm
Yeah its really not that hard, you just have to wait for the surrounding stuff to finish, which can take agonizingly long sometimes for stone buildings.
Would it be possible to make a "ghost" image of the how the building would be when they are finished building? That would help a lot I think.

it's the 1-5 commands you can use in SP, should be changeable.
Nice! I already have them customized so yay!
Title: Re: Stronghold Betatest now: Download & Manual inside
Post by: Varyag on September 03, 2011, 09:19:23 pm
Yes, IMHO siege should be replaced witht his gamemode. it is indeed very nice. Though success mostly depend on players coordination, thus making it mostly a clan gamemode. But still very nice.
Title: Re: Stronghold Betatest now: Download & Manual inside
Post by: okiN on September 03, 2011, 11:15:05 pm
-Perhaps the number of mines on the map should be random? Always at least three, but could be possible to have two more?

There used to be eight mines per map, but it was a bit of a nightmare. I mean, did you not see how disorganized and messy the teamwork was? People couldn't focus to properly defend even two or three targets, imagine how bad it will be with more.

Would it be possible to make a "ghost" image of the how the building would be when they are finished building? That would help a lot I think.

That might be handy, but it would probably be ridiculously complicated to do, if not impossible. Is it really that hard to just wait for one building to finish before adding an adjacent one?
Title: Re: Stronghold Betatest now: Download & Manual inside
Post by: PhantomZero on September 03, 2011, 11:42:36 pm
I would suggest being able to build a building that would allow you to bind a place for respawns, like the Siege Tent. This would make it easier for attacking melee since they wouldnt have to walk all the way across the world, as well as defend mines and such easily.


Maybe the dummy should spawn inside a keep already? Have two keeps and then allow players to build up around it like in the actual game, Stronghold?

It was pretty easy for cavalry to knock down the walls and couch lance the dummy a few times for a quick win.
Title: Re: Stronghold Betatest now: Download & Manual inside
Post by: Kafein on September 03, 2011, 11:51:44 pm
I think the dev team should focus on making this mode work on smaller scales then improve it :

- The map was too big. Infantry travels feel too slow and you can't have a visual overview of the situation. This would be good for big clan-organised matches, but definetly not for medium or small clans. At least provide maps of varied size to play with.
- Different costs for different buildings.
- It is possible to activate houses, but it seems it has no effect.
- Placement works well. Although if possible, objects should not "stack" on each other. This is problematic when someone is standing on a wall and tries to place the next piece of wall, because the center of the player's view will collision with the wall he stands on and make the new object ghost jump in the air.
- Some way of preventing the enemy from constructing wooden ladders to bypass your walls. Maybe a territory system a la Rise of Nations : you can only build in your territory, buildings make it larger. Each building as an influence radius that defines a circle where you can build. The dummy and mines also provide a territory zone (mines must be owned to give this). A special building should increase the radius of all your buildings, and itself have a big radius. Teams cannot share portions of the map. To determine who is owner of contested zones, an obscure algorithm involving distance to all the buildings affecting this zone and the strength of their radius should be used. A "zone" should be a very small portion of land, maybe 1mx1m.
- Buildings only destructible with catapults (very few shots). Would make catapults and buildings more useful, as well as avoid the "I can break a stone wall with my bardiche !" trolololing.
Title: Re: Stronghold Betatest now: Download & Manual inside
Post by: Deathwhisper on September 03, 2011, 11:55:17 pm
I would suggest being able to build a building that would allow you to bind a place for respawns, like the Siege Tent. This would make it easier for attacking melee since they wouldnt have to walk all the way across the world, as well as defend mines and such easily.


Maybe the dummy should spawn inside a keep already? Have two keeps and then allow players to build up around it like in the actual game, Stronghold?

It was pretty easy for cavalry to knock down the walls and couch lance the dummy a few times for a quick win.

I agree. The game really lacks a keep, like the ones we find in siege. Put the dummy on top of the keep. To push things even further, we should replace the dummy by a lord / king who would be static like in DTV. It would also look less stupid "Hey guys, the enemy is attacking! Let's defend the useless dummy! I don't know why though, someone placed it here in the middle of nowhere and asked us to protect it".

There should also be a "barracks" building, maybe some sort of small keep, that would cost a lot of money and take a few mins to build. It would be some sort of outpost, where you could respawn, sleep to regain health (like in full invasion) and refill your ammo.

It would be nice if we could repair buildings with a hammer, at the cost of resources, for something 0.5% hp per second, and also chop down trees with an axe weapon to gain some resources (and prevent trees from being in the middle of a gatehouse, it really looks stupid).

Anyway, the mod is great. It only needs a lot of players to be really interesting and strategic. Let's hope the stronghold server will eventually have more than 120 slots.
Title: Re: Stronghold Betatest now: Download & Manual inside
Post by: Jarlek on September 04, 2011, 01:05:21 am
There used to be eight mines per map, but it was a bit of a nightmare. I mean, did you not see how disorganized and messy the teamwork was? People couldn't focus to properly defend even two or three targets, imagine how bad it will be with more.

That might be handy, but it would probably be ridiculously complicated to do, if not impossible. Is it really that hard to just wait for one building to finish before adding an adjacent one?
Yeah, I just made that suggestion before I tried it myself, because a guy complained how difficult it was to make buildings. Now that I tried it myself i realize that it's not really needed. It wasn't that hard to make stuff and most props don't take long to rise up. And for those who DO take a lot of time. Well, you should have enough time to wait for it to get up. If not then you really shouldn't be building right now xD

I really liked the gamemode, but as people said it takes too long for infantry. What I would like is a bit smaller map but with impassable rivers with some natural passings or valleys or something, so that bridges would be a good thing to have. Would also make you able to make watchtowers and the like in strategic locations. This would also make it easier for infntry since they could have a "gather" point without fear of being killed by cav.

Another suggestion is to change most of the props. The native ones are really nice for a scene maker to use but in this gamemode it can be a bit impractical. Maybe change all the walls with a wall that already have a connected staircase (or at least ONE wall with a connected staircase), more than two types of gates and FLECTHERS/SMITHS/STABLES WITH SIGNS SO WE CAN SEE WHICH ONE THEY ARE! I built a fletcher first when i thought it would be a weaponsmith. Not that gamebreaking but slightly annoying. Also the way i found it, all buildings are 5k. What about making palisades/wooden stuff cheaper (like 1k or 2k) and small stone things like stairs a bit cheaper too? Also some way to know how much resources they would take would be nice, but not necessary.

EDIT: About the "spawn camps" I don't think that would be possible. What happens when you have multiple of them? There is no "choose spawn" in Warband so it would either be random or the last one placed. I can also see some bugs coming with thm being destroyed, destroyed while another is built or two destroyed at the same time.

I also have a question. How is resource gathered calculated? What's the flat rate and how much does an normal mine give? An upgraded mine? a 3x mine? a 4x mine? Do you get less the more players are in your team or do all get the same? Also we tried to pool our resources by going all into battalion 1, but it didn't work. Nobody could also move the battalion flag so maybe non of us was the "leader"? How do one become the leader?

Thanks for reading this and thanks for any answer!
Title: Re: Stronghold Betatest now: Download & Manual inside
Post by: okiN on September 04, 2011, 01:13:26 am
Yeah, I just made that suggestion before I tried it myself, because a guy complained how difficult it was to make buildings. Now that I tried it myself i realize that it's not really needed. It wasn't that hard to make stuff and most props don't take long to rise up. And for those who DO take a lot of time. Well, you should have enough time to wait for it to get up. If not then you really shouldn't be building right now xD

They take longer the farther you are from the dummy, so if you're fortifying the second mine out, it can really be quite slow. However, IMO you shouldn't be setting up an outpost there in the first place unless you have a squad looking out for you.

I really liked the gamemode, but as people said it takes too long for infantry. What I would like is a bit smaller map but with impassable rivers with some natural passings or valleys or something, so that bridges would be a good thing to have. Would also make you able to make watchtowers and the like in strategic locations. This would also make it easier for infntry since they could have a "gather" point without fear of being killed by cav.

I think chadz's idea is to have the game mode work with random maps so that there's more variety, but TBH I think it would benefit a lot from maps specifically designed for it.

Another suggestion is to change most of the props. The native ones are really nice for a scene maker to use but in this gamemode it can be a bit impractical. Maybe change all the walls with a wall that already have a connected staircase (or at least ONE wall with a connected staircase), more than two types of gates and FLECTHERS/SMITHS/STABLES WITH SIGNS SO WE CAN SEE WHICH ONE THEY ARE! I built a fletcher first when i thought it would be a weaponsmith. Not that gamebreaking but slightly annoying. Also the way i found it, all buildings are 5k. What about making palisades/wooden stuff cheaper (like 1k or 2k) and small stone things like stairs a bit cheaper too? Also some way to know how much resources they would take would be nice, but not necessary.

IMO the props work fine, I just wish you could tilt them more -- been suggested many times. I don't see any reason why you'd need a wall prop with stairs already attached, since adding a staircase is basically the simplest thing ever. The rest of the suggestions are fine, though all pretty old by now. :P
Title: Re: Stronghold Betatest now: Download & Manual inside
Post by: Jarlek on September 04, 2011, 01:26:30 am
They take longer the farther you are from the dummy, so if you're fortifying the second mine out, it can really be quite slow. However, IMO you shouldn't be setting up an outpost there in the first place unless you have a squad looking out for you.

I think chadz's idea is to have the game mode work with random maps so that there's more variety, but TBH I think it would benefit a lot from maps specifically designed for it.

IMO the props work fine, I just wish you could tilt them more -- been suggested many times. I don't see any reason why you'd need a wall prop with stairs already attached, since adding a staircase is basically the simplest thing ever. The rest of the suggestions are fine, though all pretty old by now. :P
Thanks for the answer. You don't know anything about the "pooling the resources" thing? Would be very helpful.

And not all of them are old suggestions! The "let me see WHAT building it is with a nice shiny sign on them (the building itself)" is all mine xD I also can't remember seeing anyone say that wooden stuff should be cheaper and stuff. But then again maybe I didn't catch it in all those milelong posts. Like the one I made xD

And while making staircase is easy (at least I think so and you agree) that was mainly the example I could think of. I basically meant some sort of corner props or tower-with-stairs-inside or walls-with-circle-stairs or something like that. Didn't manage to try all of the props myself but some of them were very annoying to place properly. (ESPECIALLY when you spend a good amount of time rotating, lowering/highering and twisting the prop JUST to get headshoted by some fucktard HA that just came by xD)
Title: Re: Stronghold Betatest now: Download & Manual inside
Post by: okiN on September 04, 2011, 01:39:32 am
I also have a question. How is resource gathered calculated? What's the flat rate and how much does an normal mine give? An upgraded mine? a 3x mine? a 4x mine? Do you get less the more players are in your team or do all get the same?

No idea, it's basically magic AFAIK.

Also we tried to pool our resources by going all into battalion 1, but it didn't work. Nobody could also move the battalion flag so maybe non of us was the "leader"? How do one become the leader?

Yes, flag controller is the one with build access, and he can use resources of everybody in the battalion. As for how you gain control, aside from "be the first one to use it" I'm really not very sure. That seems to more or less work, though.

And yeah, building can be a bit of a handful in places, but I've always found some way to work it out with the current props. The two "battlement staircase" props are very useful for tricky slopes. There are a couple of handy corner pieces as well, plus the round tower.
Title: Re: Stronghold Betatest now: Download & Manual inside
Post by: Jarlek on September 04, 2011, 01:50:47 am
1No idea, it's basically magic AFAIK.

2Yes, flag controller is the one with build access, and he can use resources of everybody in the battalion. As for how you gain control, aside from "be the first one to use it" I'm really not very sure. That seems to more or less work, though.

3And yeah, building can be a bit of a handful in places, but I've always found some way to work it out with the current props. The two "battlement staircase" props are very useful for tricky slopes. There are a couple of handy corner pieces as well, plus the round tower.
1 xD

2 I think there might be a bug there. Since it's all in one "round" that the guy who was it first could have left and nobody else getting it. I tried it on battalion 1 (where I managed to get most of my team in) but couldn't move the flag. I also tried two other but couldn't get the flag there either. Maybe make a poll option or something like they have in PW mod for every battalion leader? Anyways the "battalion commander" didn't refresh so maybe someone should check it out?

3 True, but the problem was all the props already placed by randomers who had no clue what they were doing (I've had some experience with the scene editor) and had very, well, STUPID distances between props and height differences. Would be nice if this would be either easier OR restricted to certain leaders (battalion commanders?) so there's not that many fail-builds.
Title: Re: Stronghold Betatest now: Download & Manual inside
Post by: chadz on September 04, 2011, 01:53:53 am
The batallion commander is the guy who carries the flag (take it, drop it close to you on the ground, so you carry it around)

map size: what i agree is that it's currently boring as inf to walk around. my ideas are a cart that you can hop on as infantry, being pulled by a horse and building a church tower (=chapel) as a remote respawn point. if neither of those works, i guess reducing the map size is the only way to fix it. last resort, though

as for the formula:
base money = 1000
every player in the game brings his level in, so, average, level 28*30players, for example
then, mines bring gold: base 800, 1st up: +750, 2nd: +585, 3rd: +420, 4th: +255
also, every construction that's not a building (walls, towers, etc) costs upkeep (1% of total income)
the money is shared between all players in the game. formula might change (heavily) in the future.

as for the other suggestions - many are user interface suggestions which make sense and just have not been added due to lack of time. etc etc
Title: Re: Stronghold Betatest now: Download & Manual inside
Post by: Kafein on September 04, 2011, 01:56:16 am

3 True, but the problem was all the props already placed by randomers who had no clue what they were doing (I've had some experience with the scene editor) and had very, well, STUPID distances between props and height differences. Would be nice if this would be either easier OR restricted to certain leaders (battalion commanders?) so there's not that many fail-builds.

As I said in IRC, this mods seems only good for clans. In passworded or strictly administrated servers.
Title: Re: Stronghold Betatest now: Download & Manual inside
Post by: okiN on September 04, 2011, 02:06:26 am
3 True, but the problem was all the props already placed by randomers who had no clue what they were doing (I've had some experience with the scene editor) and had very, well, STUPID distances between props and height differences. Would be nice if this would be either easier OR restricted to certain leaders (battalion commanders?) so there's not that many fail-builds.

TBH I was tearing those down with no remorse. The waste of resources is a shame, but at least it's not from my battalion, whereas if I leave them standing, they will eat away at my income by adding to upkeep. If it's in my way, or obviously serves no purpose whatsoever (eg isolated wall section in the middle of nowhere), I'll demolish it.
Title: Re: Stronghold Betatest now: Download & Manual inside
Post by: Jarlek on September 04, 2011, 02:11:19 am
The batallion commander is the guy who carries the flag (take it, drop it close to you on the ground, so you carry it around)

map size: what i agree is that it's currently boring as inf to walk around. my ideas are a cart that you can hop on as infantry, being pulled by a horse and building a church tower (=chapel) as a remote respawn point. if neither of those works, i guess reducing the map size is the only way to fix it. last resort, though

as for the formula:
base money = 1000
every player in the game brings his level in, so, average, level 28*30players, for example
then, mines bring gold: base 800, 1st up: +750, 2nd: +585, 3rd: +420, 4th: +255
also, every construction that's not a building (walls, towers, etc) costs upkeep (1% of total income)
the money is shared between all players in the game. formula might change (heavily) in the future.

as for the other suggestions - many are user interface suggestions which make sense and just have not been added due to lack of time. etc etc
Thanks for the info chadz! And yeah I kinda thought so about the interface suggestions. I'm just so excited about this gamemode and I wanted to be useful xD (stronghold is my favourite games ever and I love every single one of them! Now that you made us able to be a part of that in a FPS game. :D:D:D)

About the bolded part. Sound really fun actually. It also reminds me of a suggestion I've had for some time but thought was a bit silly and possibly exploitable. Would it be possible to let horsemen carry a teammate on his back? The teammate should obviously be unable to attack and possible the same with the horseman. It's mainly meant for transportation and moving allies between fights. Otherwise carts are awesome too, but maybe a wagon (open wagon ofc) would work better? I everything fail we could always have CHARIOTS :D
Title: Re: Stronghold Betatest now: Download & Manual inside
Post by: Thomek on September 04, 2011, 03:10:23 am
The mine upgrade bonuses should be other way around.

If it was  1st up: +255, 2nd: +420, 3rd: +585,  4th: +750 it would encourage building them up to max and defending them more important. Better for teamwork! :)
Title: Re: Stronghold Betatest now: Download & Manual inside
Post by: MrShovelFace on September 04, 2011, 04:07:21 am
can NA has beta server?

take the official siege down while ur testing and put up a north american stronghold server

(its not like anybody plays on NA official siege)

and besides everyone knows north americans are far better at finding and abusing bugs so we would be far better than euros at beta testing  :P
Title: Re: Stronghold Betatest now: Download & Manual inside
Post by: TR_Ragnarok on September 04, 2011, 04:38:20 am
can NA has beta server?

take the official siege down while ur testing and put up a north american stronghold server

(its not like anybody plays on NA official siege)

and besides everyone knows north americans are far better at finding and abusing bugs so we would be far better than euros at beta testing  :P

Cant tell if this is a complement or a insult...
Title: Re: Stronghold Betatest now: Download & Manual inside
Post by: Duster on September 04, 2011, 06:47:40 am
Cant tell if this is a complement or a insult...

Maybe it's neither, and you're just looking for a reason to be upset
Title: Re: Stronghold Betatest now: Download & Manual inside
Post by: Beans on September 04, 2011, 06:47:44 am
Does the server for this mode only go up at specific times? I got all excited when I saw this thread but there isn't any server up :(
Title: Re: Stronghold Betatest over: Download & Manual inside
Post by: chadz on September 04, 2011, 07:59:44 am
Test is over for now - can't let it uncontrolled while it's in beta, because there could be nasty exploits that are irreversible.

However, for everyone that has played: Feedback is appreciated.
Title: Re: Stronghold Betatest over: Download & Manual inside
Post by: Aseplhood on September 04, 2011, 08:39:28 am
Great mode :) You guys really did a lot of good work. Still, placed objects make fps drop to around 40 from 120, which isn't funny to play for me :/
I've got a crappy laptop, so  have to play with dx9 and pretty low settings. Well, everything would be perfect without few bugs that have been told already.
Title: Re: Stronghold Betatest over: Download & Manual inside
Post by: Bilbo on September 04, 2011, 09:26:47 am
First of all this is a really nice new gamemode you have made there. The maps should be a bit smaller to reduce the lag and make it more infantry friendly. Also you may should decrease the Buildings resolution to give the fps a little boost :P
one more question is the repair cost limited, is it so that you can only loose a maximum of like 50% of your income? cause after we played the same map a lot there were many many useless stuff buildings^^ the income was between 45 and 70 per tick though we were controlling a lvl4 mine. Another bug i noticed is that the ep/gold sytem is kinda bugged at the moment, sometimes there was no single gold/ep tick for like 15 minutes and than there were 3ticks in a row dunno if it is supposed to be like this or if it is Beta sideffect :P
it would be awesome to have the option to "select a spawn" for example if you are controlling a mine for 15 minutes you should be able to spawn there or something like this. Can“t wait to play the finished game mode

Thanks equus africanus asinus Team for this new awesome mode :)
Title: Re: Stronghold Betatest over: Download & Manual inside
Post by: Bilbo on September 04, 2011, 09:28:54 am

Thanks equus africanus asinus Team for this new awesome mode :)

wut? don.key is replaced with equus africanus asinus xD
Title: Re: Stronghold Betatest over: Download & Manual inside
Post by: ABCF on September 04, 2011, 11:59:21 am
Test is over for now - can't let it uncontrolled while it's in beta, because there could be nasty exploits that are irreversible.

However, for everyone that has played: Feedback is appreciated.

Someone will literally hack the strategus database, change variables for upcoming battles, and have total access to tons of personal information if this beta were to last while chadz slept.

Be safe at home, kids, chadz has got your computer secure.
Title: Re: Stronghold Betatest over: Download & Manual inside
Post by: Mustikki on September 04, 2011, 12:04:10 pm
Can we get random plains aswell as random steppe maps.
Title: Re: Stronghold Betatest over: Download & Manual inside
Post by: Teeth on September 04, 2011, 12:30:47 pm
Can we get random plains aswell as random steppe maps.
I have seen both
Title: Re: Stronghold Betatest over: Download & Manual inside
Post by: Hellsing on September 04, 2011, 12:36:21 pm
The mode is awesome, but it would be nice if you get some start resources, that you can spawn with your equipment at the begining :D
And it would be good when the functions (F2, etc.) are explained in the start message :mrgreen:

-Spanky
Title: Re: Stronghold Betatest over: Download & Manual inside
Post by: BlameMeForTheNoise on September 04, 2011, 12:44:30 pm
'twas fun. But even on my rig (4GB Ram, Radeon HD6970, Phenom x2) my framerate dropped from 120 to 40 (and a lot of lag) when placing buildings and/or being near buildings.
Title: Re: Stronghold Betatest over: Download & Manual inside
Post by: Kafein on September 04, 2011, 12:56:29 pm
'twas fun. But even on my rig (4GB Ram, Radeon HD6970, Phenom x2) my framerate dropped from 120 to 40 (and a lot of lag) when placing buildings and/or being near buildings.

Get some more RAM and a 64 bit OS if you don't already have one. I have 8Gb ram and win 7 64b, inferior GPU and CPU yet I didn't really had any framerate problems.
Title: Re: Stronghold Betatest over: Download & Manual inside
Post by: Wildling on September 04, 2011, 01:12:59 pm
Played it, it should be awesome with 120+ players.
However.

- The fps is bad, maybe decrease the building resolution.
- Sometimes you don't spawn with your horse, and it gets repaired either way.
- The Dummy needs more health, takes nothing but almost 4 hit to take it down.
Title: Re: Stronghold Betatest over: Download & Manual inside
Post by: BaldRider on September 04, 2011, 01:26:06 pm
Add a respawntimer, since currently playing as cavalry or just having a few points in riding is incredibly beneficial, seeing you can just keep charging out when you respawn.
As an infantry group of 3, supported by 2 friendly cav, we had to kill atleast 10-15 cavalry players in order to cross the distance to the other castle. A lot of these being the same player coming several times.

Title: Re: Stronghold Betatest over: Download & Manual inside
Post by: Deathwhisper on September 04, 2011, 01:27:42 pm
Played it, it should be awesome with 120+ players.
However.

- The fps is bad, maybe decrease the building resolution.
- Sometimes you don't spawn with your horse, and it gets repaired either way.
- The Dummy needs more health, takes nothing but almost 4 hit to take it down.

Yeah, a low resolution textures pack for props would be nice (although I didn't have fps issues yesterday.

The dummy should be replaced by a keep imo. Put a static NPC on top of it (like a lord / king) instead of a dummy.
Title: Re: Stronghold Betatest over: Download & Manual inside
Post by: Kafein on September 04, 2011, 01:35:00 pm
Buff buildings by not allowing regular weapons to destruct them, only catapults. It would nerf cavalry enough.

Afterall, this mode turns into siege when strongholds are constructed. And cav is nearly useless in siege mode. An inf-based team just has to assemble an attack group to storm the enemy castle. Either by destructing a wall from far away with a cata or with siege towers/ladders etc. Cavarly can just get there faster, but won't be that much better when they have to go inside (if the stronghold is built in a clever way).
Title: Re: Stronghold Betatest over: Download & Manual inside
Post by: Cain on September 04, 2011, 02:24:44 pm
Anyone else crashing when loading server list?
Title: Re: Stronghold Betatest over: Download & Manual inside
Post by: Gheritarish le Loki on September 04, 2011, 02:59:35 pm
Yeah, lag when you try to build something is pretty annoying (unplayable).

And cav is too much advantaged over pedestrian.

Btw, xp system was bugged when on more that x2 multiplicator.

Otherwise, pretty good job, i was feeling like in PW but with better ending goal (and worst bugs ofc).
Title: Re: Stronghold Betatest over: Download & Manual inside
Post by: Paul on September 04, 2011, 03:49:57 pm
I think the build lag had been fixed in the newest (non public) version. It wasn't there in older versions either.
Title: Re: Stronghold Betatest over: Download & Manual inside
Post by: Deathwhisper on September 04, 2011, 04:10:50 pm
Btw, will there be a new betatest soon (i.e in a few days)?
Title: Re: Stronghold Betatest over: Download & Manual inside
Post by: Lt_Anders on September 04, 2011, 05:15:09 pm
Opinions, etc:

Laggy, EU server.(Can't fix that :wink:)
Horrible FPS: I got a consistent 17 FPS Couldn't even attack anything except for the buildings.

Building menu:
After I placed one building, i was unable to after that build any more buildings. I had 8k resources and I couldn't build a single gate house. Even though I properly set everything up. I tried changing battalions that didn't work. Don't know why I didn't work.

Maps:
I'm not a big fan of that kinda map. I think a custom made stronghold map would be better. One in which the 2 dummies are on flat or semi hilly land with the rest of the maps having things like a river, forest, etc. not just a giant open map with sparse trees. Also keep the hills limited, as there were multiple times i could walk UNDER a building and get through to the other side due to the hills and the buildings being bigger than hills.

Mines:
Don't know if intentional, but at one point my team owned all 3 mines and we made 181 resources a tick(or w/e). This was with approximately 16 players. Later we held 2 mines (one fully upgraded) and were making only 60-80 resources with 20 or so players. Think there's a bug there.
Secondly, When you own a mine, the GIANT YELLOW ARROW OF DOOM is supposed to show up. We owned 2 mines, but only 1 arrows showed up.

That's the end of my 45 minutes or so of playing.
Title: Stronghold
Post by: Horns_Archive on September 04, 2011, 06:54:02 pm
Is beta testing still closed or is it open now, all i need to know.
Title: Re: Stronghold
Post by: Deathwhisper on September 04, 2011, 07:02:37 pm
Still closed afaik.

I guess chadz will modify a few things before starting another beta session.
Title: Re: Stronghold
Post by: Horns_Archive on September 04, 2011, 07:34:58 pm
ok, another thing, would it be legal to use our own server in a beta test  :mrgreen:
Title: Re: Stronghold Betatest over: Download & Manual inside
Post by: Beans on September 04, 2011, 07:41:33 pm
It would be cool if you left the server up at all times, but only enable gold/xp during your specific testing periods to encourage a ton of people to get on. That way everyone can mess around with it and find more bugs.
Title: Re: Stronghold Betatest over: Download & Manual inside
Post by: Gunnvid on September 04, 2011, 10:37:43 pm
Great mode!

I enjoyed it alot. Here are some things I was thinking while playing it.

-Stone walls and stone buildings should only be damaged by catapults or have alot more hp.

-A respawn timer. Operation human meat shield worked too well at the dummy.

-Horses should cost a fortune! cav should be lategame! or you have to be really careful with it, and not just suicide charge into the dummy every 30 seconds like you can now.

-Exchange the dummy for the virgine..

I did not have any FPS problems other than while in the build menu with stone props, some wooden props did not make the fps lower.
Title: Re: Stronghold Betatest over: Download & Manual inside
Post by: Fuer_Grissa_Ost_Drauka on September 05, 2011, 04:53:33 am
Is there going to be another Beta test for stronghold? or was that our only taste of stronghold until it is released?
I found the game mode very fun, and would enjoy seeing another beta test up.
I would also enjoy an NA server running the mod, i'm sure it would be very apretieated by the NA community, and there are quite a few un-used servers for NA players, (NA_Battle2, cRPG_TunaTown, NA_CRPG_2 ). Only my opinion though, since everyone else is posting thiers.
Title: Re: Stronghold Betatest over: Download & Manual inside
Post by: Leesin on September 05, 2011, 08:29:08 am
I think it would be nice if we could have a server running it all of the time, just disable xp/gold. It could be updated whenever chadz makes changes etc and that way we'd get a full community opinion on ideas and how things could or should function, rather than just the few opinions of people that just happen to be online when the server comes up.
Title: Re: Stronghold Betatest over: Download & Manual inside
Post by: Wildling on September 05, 2011, 02:26:44 pm
I think it would be nice if we could have a server running it all of the time, just disable xp/gold. It could be updated whenever chadz makes changes etc and that way we'd get a full community opinion on ideas and how things could or should function, rather than just the few opinions of people that just happen to be online when the server comes up.

Strong this.
Title: Re: Stronghold Betatest over: Download & Manual inside
Post by: Bilbo on September 05, 2011, 04:32:36 pm
I think it would be nice if we could have a server running it all of the time, just disable xp/gold. It could be updated whenever chadz makes changes etc and that way we'd get a full community opinion on ideas and how things could or should function, rather than just the few opinions of people that just happen to be online when the server comes up.
+1
Title: Re: Stronghold Betatest over: Download & Manual inside
Post by: Chris_P_Bacon on September 07, 2011, 04:49:41 am
I think it would be nice if we could have a server running it all of the time, just disable xp/gold. It could be updated whenever chadz makes changes etc and that way we'd get a full community opinion on ideas and how things could or should function, rather than just the few opinions of people that just happen to be online when the server comes up.
It'd be better for bug testing too. No better way to find bugs then to get a lot of people to spend a lot of time on it.
Title: Re: Stronghold Betatest over: Download & Manual inside
Post by: MrShovelFace on September 08, 2011, 01:19:37 am
I am utilizing my abilities as crpg secret police commander to find and root out bugs through utility of the unused NA official siege server