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Stronghold: Warlords News

New Map, AI & Warlords!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kKXA64asjIw
Today we reveal even more footage of our unique ‘shared base’ co-op mode, coming to Stronghold: Warlords' multiplayer at launch on March 9th 2021! Using fresh multiplayer gameplay from our pre-release build, this preview follows two brave 'Lords of Firefly', as Nick and Aaron carefully level up the challenge from last week with two medium difficulty opponents.



Going up against the legendary Thuc Phan and Qin Shi Huang on a fresh multiplayer map, our developers must choose between a fresh selection of warlords in the form of the Dragon, Pig and Mouse. Each provides unique tactical options, perks and advantages for the controlling player, assuming they can either win their allegiance using Diplomacy or force them to bend the knee with military pressure.



We still have plenty to show between now and launch, so stay tuned for more multiplayer videos as we complete work on this game mode and build toward our March 9th release date.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/907650/Stronghold_Warlords/

Co-op Mode Reveal

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6VyRFVrUq7A
Today we reveal footage of our ‘shared base’ co-op mode for Stronghold: Warlords, including our first ever multiplayer gameplay! Allowing players to share control of a single castle when playing together online, Warlords' co-op mode is different from regular team-based multiplayer. In addition to being able to party up and build separate castles in team deathmatch, Stronghold: Warlords will also allow players to share control over a large shared army, peasant population, castle defences and network of warlords under their command.



Our new warlords system, which allows players to command a network of unique AI warlords across the battlefield, also benefits from co-op mode. Co-op play means advanced players can share the ‘grand strategy’ gameplay of the warlords between them, optimising their use of each one for economic or militaristic purposes.



Early on in a match one player can manage their castle estate, while the other forms alliances with warlords to bring in valuable resources and secure strategic positions across the map. Then in the endgame, while one commander lays siege to the enemy, their co-op partner can divert resources and direct pincer attacks from nearby captured warlords!

Co-op mode will be available as a multiplayer feature in Stronghold: Warlords at launch on March 9th 2021.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/907650/Stronghold_Warlords/

Why upcoming RTS Stronghold: Warlords needed to be delayed

As the holiday season wrapped up, Stronghold: Warlords developer Firefly Studios faced a difficult decision: launch day was rapidly approaching, and the RTS game's multiplayer mode still wasn't performing the way it ought to. One option was to launch the single-player campaign on the scheduled release date, with the multiplayer mode to be added later.


"We were really, really considering that because we could have just released single-player, and that would have been a perfectly viable option in terms of what was actually ready at the time," marketing director Nick Tannahill says. Other games have taken this approach recently: Iron Harvest added ranked multiplayer a few weeks after launch, but saw a wave of unfavourable Steam reviews over what users saw as 'missing features' thanks to that decision.


When Firefly looked at its options, there were no hard contractual obligations that required Stronghold: Warlords to launch on the announced release date, and so the studio's leadership decided the better option was to delay launch - six weeks for the development team time to iron out the issues with multiplayer and ship the game as a complete package.


Read the rest of the story...


RELATED LINKS:

Castle building RTS game Stronghold: Warlords has been delayed until March

Here's a full playthrough of a Stronghold: Warlords campaign mission

Stronghold: Warlords reveals three new units, including Samurai

New Gameplay Q&A

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4l8jV5RnS-k
As our latest 'castle sim' in what is now a nearly 20 year history (!), Stronghold: Warlords has invited hundreds of questions during the course of development from series fans. In the past we've covered everything from basic questions about game content to returning units and advanced multiplayer features. As we approach release however it seems there are still about 100 questions remaining that we can answer before launch on March 9th. Enter our new 'Pre-Launch' Q&A series, created in the hopes of answering every single major pre-release question we have from fans about our upcoming RTS!



So pull up a chair, pour yourself a tankard of mead and join Natasha as she quizzes Nick one last time in a series of three in-depth Q&A videos. Answering questions against the backdrop of fresh gameplay, captured from a recent build of the game, Nick and Natasha blast through nearly 100 questions collated from social media, forums and fan sites:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y4zqkb1GccQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=163myxnh5X4
While we have attempted to answer every question raised since the game's reveal at E3 2019, some will inevitably have slipped through the cracks. So if you don't hear your question answered in part one of the series be sure to check out parts two and three (above) or join the Stronghold Discord to ask our developers directly! As a team we've enjoyed having an open dialogue with fans during Warlords' development and whether its a feature suggestion for this game or something for future titles in the series we want to hear it.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/907650/Stronghold_Warlords/

New Release Date & Demo

Dear Stronghold Community and Fans,

Last week we announced that we had come to the difficult decision to delay the release of Stronghold: Warlords for a second and final time. The release date will no longer be January 26th 2021. We will instead be launching Stronghold: Warlords six weeks later on March 9th 2021.

The reason behind this is that the game’s multiplayer mode is simply not ready to be released yet. We have run into some unexpected issues with it and - while we have worked very hard to resolve these with our current deadlines - we need more time to iron them out. We want to be as transparent as possible with you about this and we did consider releasing as planned, delaying Multiplayer to go live in a future update. However as we have promised Multiplayer functionality for Stronghold: Warlords at launch for over a year now, releasing without it wouldn’t be fair to players.



We want to thank you for your continued support and patience. Delays are never desired by any studio - especially this close to the announced release date - and we can only apologise for the disappointment it causes. It is however necessary if we want everyone to have an excellent, full experience with Stronghold: Warlords when it launches on March 9th, 2021.

In the meantime we have reactivated our old Warlords demo on Steam for anyone who missed it last year. Please bear in mind this build is from August 2020 and thus does not feature the polish, final feature set or roster of playable units you can expect from the game at launch.

To play the demo version please follow this link for full details on how to download it on Steam.



If you'd like to discuss the demo with fellow fans and developers at Firefly you can do that by joining the Official Stronghold Discord.

Thank You,
Firefly Studios

https://store.steampowered.com/app/907650/Stronghold_Warlords/