Stronghold 3: losing a battle, winning the war
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Stronghold 3's rocky start was a shock to many of its fans. Since its release, Firefly has worked frantically to stabilize the game and released patches that both fix and improve the game.
Hooked Gamers: Firefly is known to listen to their fans very closely. What improvements have been suggested by players that you think have had the most impact on the game?
Simon Bradbury: Difficulty levels, the ability to change the game speed, extra large maps, new Free Build maps and multi-player maps were all things asked for by players and patched-in by Firefly. I think the little things are important too though. The latest patch is a good example as it features barracks assembly points, something that has been suggested on the forums in the past few weeks. It’s a relatively small tweak that doesn’t impact balancing, but it streamlines micromanagement and actually making a few of the missions flow better.
There have also been countless tweaks to the gameplay based on player feedback. Building footprints have been reduced to give you more space, food consumption rates lowered, troops on walls and in towers were given defensive bonuses, wolves have been nerfed - The list really does go on… You can read it on our website!
Hooked Gamers: And what are some the fixes and improvements you are primarily focusing on for future patches?
Simon Bradbury: Well the patch we’re working on right now – Which should be live by the time this interview goes up – Introduces cosmetic and technical fixes for walls, woodcutters and one or two graphics card-related issues. A lot of the bigger bugs have been squashed so we have room to look at individual cases. As for what’s coming up – We are hoping to finally nail multiplayer sync issues very soon. That’s receiving a lot of our attention right now.
Hooked Gamers: In its current form (as good as stabilized and very playable), I’m sure you’ve started thinking about the future. What have you got in store for Stronghold 3 players that they can look forward to in say the next 5 or 6 months?
Simon Bradbury: More fixes and polish! We do have some more features planned, but our attention will be focused mainly on those 2 areas for a while. We will release some bigger items when we feel the game merits it and possibly some DLC later. There is also another multiplayer mode on the cards, which I’m not allowed to talk about other than to say it will be called ‘Coronation mode’.
Hooked Gamers: Thank you for this interview. We’re hoping Stronghold fans continue to find their way back to the game and that the launch issues will soon be a thing of the past. Do you have any remaining comments? The floor is all yours.
Simon Bradbury: You’re very welcome. I’d just like to take this opportunity to apologise to anyone who had a rough start with Stronghold 3. We are making the game better and thank you deeply for your patience.
