Stronghold 2 v1.

4 – Readme

Section 1 Background
Section 2 Before You Start
Section 3 Stronghold 2 v1.1 Features
Section 3.1 Stronghold 2 v1.2 Features
Section 3.2 Stronghold 2 v1.3 Features
Section 3.3 Stronghold 2 v1.4 Features
Section 4 Changes & Additions to the Manual
Section 5 Graphics Settings
Section 6 Starting the Game

Section 7 Useful Web Addresses

Section 8 Technical Support

Section 1 – Background
The country has been torn apart, some say the King is dead while others accuse him of
cowardice, leaving his people to suffer their fate. You are Matthew Steele, growing up under the
wing of the Royal Champion Sir William, you have come to know little else besides war.

In this story you will fight against a shadowy alliance of ruthless Barons and bloodthirsty
Warlords, attempting to undo the evil they have wrought on the land. The path will be long and
arduous, be warned however, not everyone in this tale is to be trusted….

Section 2 – Before You Start

Before you run Stronghold 2 close all other programs. Ensure you have the latest graphics card
drivers installed on your machine, this is essential for the best performance and reliability. We
recommend using the latest Microsoft approved WHQL driver or the latest driver posted on the
manufacturer’s website. We have listed a few graphics card manufacturers’ websites below
where you can download the latest drivers:

ATI http://support.ati.com
NVIDIA http://www.nvidia.com/drivers
Intel (Intel Extreme) http://www.intel.com/support/graphics
PowerVR (Kyro) http://www.powervr.com/downloads/drivers
Matrox http://www.matrox.com/mga/support/drivers
S3 http://www.s3graphics.com/drivers.jsp
3Dfx http://www.3dfx.com
XGI (Volari) http://www.xgitech.com/sd/sd_download.asp
3Dlabs http://www.3dlabs.com/support/drivers

To run Stronghold 2, Microsoft DirectX 9.0c or higher must be installed on your computer. If
you have an older version of DirectX installed on your system, the Stronghold 2 installation will
ask you to install DirectX 9.0c. If you are having problems installing DirectX, you can
download it from the Microsoft website at http://www.microsoft.com/windows/directx

If you are playing Stronghold 2 on Windows 2000, please ensure you have at least Service Pack
2 installed. The latest Windows 2000 service pack can be downloaded from the Microsoft
website at http://www.microsoft.com/windows2000/downloads

We also recommend using Windows Update to ensure your version of Windows is fully up-to-
date. However we do recommend downloading your graphics card driver updates separately.

For the best possible sound quality please also ensure you have the latest sound card drivers
installed.

Section 3 - Stronghold 2 v1.1 Features

General

· User selectable invasions added to Free Build

· A few campaign chapters have been made easier
· Increased feedback of impending invasions
· Formations now place shields at the front and weaker units at the back of the formation
· Non-missile troops now respond to more aggressively to missile attacks
· Additional speech added to Carter Post system
· A.I. more effective at using mantels, cats and burning logs
· Health bars on buildings added
· All units of one type are selectable by double-clicking
· Advanced patrols implemented
· LAN support for Multiplayer added
· Various bug fixes implemented

Section 3.1 - Stronghold 2 v1.2 Features

Multiplayer

· Improved connecting to games

 · Improved game stability
· Kick Player feature implemented
· Country Identification implemented
· Password Protected Games implemented
· Direct IP Address feature implemented
· System for finishing games tweaked
· Gameplay tweaks to siege towers, stone towers, tower mangonels, armored units

Non-multiplayer

· Honor now received for using less lenient punishments

· Time until redemption bar on torture equipment panels
· Other tweaks to the crime system
· Fixed memory leak on higher end systems
· Reduced memory footprint
· Additional sfx added
· Various bug fixes implemented

Section 3.2 - Stronghold 2 v1.3 Features

General

· Various gameplay and movement code optimizations

Game Balancing

· Pheasant hunting less productive but deer hunting more productive

· Apple Farms more productive
· Dairy Farms more productive
· Pitch production now twice as productive
· Crossbowmen’s firing range and shot damage increased
· Knights cost more to build
· Axe throwers now less effective against metal amour
· Assassins not effected by traps - invisible at closer range
· Monasteries cost less to build and provide more honor
· Gong Farmers or Falconers are no longer affected by crime.
· Towers are more expensive to build
· Gatehouses cost a little more to build
· Statues provide less honor
· Tunneling range reduced
· Cannot now tunnel under water
· Moat costs reduced
 · Rock throwers and baskets now have triple damage.
· The range of burning logs has been halved.
· Torture devices now give honor every month

Bug Fixes

· Fixed occasional crash in War Chapter 4 and 6.

· Fixed a crash when selecting the map type in editor.
· All objects in editor can now be deleted
· Fixed crash to desktop experienced playing War Chapter 4 and 6.
· Fixed issues with knights mounting horses
· Fixed controlling gatehouses bug
· Fixed pitch workers turning to crime bug
· Fixed invisible outlaws bug
· Fixed Lord walking on keep bug
· Fixed speech when placing pitch
· Fixed rocks sticking through buildings
· Fixed stone tippers on walls bug
· Fixed catapults not firing stone bug
· Fixed mangonels firing at long range bug
· Rock baskets can now be placed on towers and gatehouses
· Honor from punishments is now displayed in the interface
· Various other bug fixes

Section 3.3 - Stronghold 2 v1.4 Features

General

· Various multiplayer gameplay optimizations

· Real-Time Shadows, Bloom, Anisotropic Filtering and Anti-aliasing implemented.
· Map transfer in multiplayer lobby implemented.

Game Balancing

· Fire ballistae no longer auto fire, and targets must be selected manually (does not apply to tower mounted
ballistae)

Bug Fixes

· Fixed multiple troops pushing ladders off walls repeatedly.

· Fixed bug which allowed tower mounted siege equipment to be built whilst an enemy was in close
proximity.
· Auto-scrolling chat in multiplayer game lobby now fixed.
 · Fixed exploit where food could be sold repeatedly during periods of latency in multiplayer games.
· Various other bug and crash fixes

Section 4 – Changes & Additions to the Manual

Chapter 1.3 – Multiplayer

Online and LAN modes of play are available in Multiplayer

Chapter 1.5 – Options

Graphics settings can only be changed using the Graphics Configuration panel accessible before
the game loads or through the Start Menu.

Chapter 1.5 – Deleting Buildings

When you delete a building you get half your resources back.

Chapter 2.2 – The Stockpile

The stockpile is now larger than mentioned in the manual and can hold far more goods.

Chapter 2.8 – Creating Workers

Peasants are created from your hovels and will be turned into workers as they are running
towards the campfire outside your keep.

Chapter 2.11 – Military Basics

All troops created in the Barracks, except Armed Peasants, require honor.

Some troops in the Mercenary Post also require honor.

Chapter 3 - Church, Jousting & Traveling Fair

If any of these events are taking place some of your workers will stop what they are doing and
attend the event.

Chapter 3.2 - The Market Place

In the Market you can hold down the “shift” key to buy and sell goods in larger quantities.

Chapter 3.5 - Honor

Honor is now required for creating certain types.

Chapter 3.8 – The Monastery

Fighting Monks and Warrior Monks are created from the monks available in your Monastery and
require honor.

Chapter 3.9 - Crime

All torture equipment that requires a torturer, now only requires one torturer to operate it.

Chapter 3.12 – Jousting

Betting system not included.

Chapter 4.8 – Barracks & Available Units

To build troops you will need to have peasants, weapons, gold and honor available.

Chapter 4.9 – Mercenary Post & Available Units

As well as gold some units also require honor.

Chapter 4.10 – Monastery & Available Units

To create Fighting Monks and Warrior Monks you need to have monks and honor available.

Chapter 4.11 - Engineers Guild & Available Units

Laddermen can be created from the Siege Camp or Engineers Guild. Once an AI controlled
ladder man has placed his ladder the ladder man will return to the siege tent and collect another
ladder and head out again.

Fire Ballista and Catapult can be created from the Engineers post

Chapter 5.3 - Positioning Towers

Make sure the doors on your towers (represented by the green arrow) are facing towards your
keep!

Chapter 11.6 - Hotkeys

The hotkeys which open the panels, such as the granary, barracks, etc will display the panel
wherever you are on screen the first time you press that key. The second time you press the same
key you will be centered over that building
Carter Post

The Carter Post is used to ferry goods from one estate to another. To build a Carter Post select
the icon from the Industries panel and place the Carter Post in the estate which you wish to send
the goods from. To create a trade route click on the Carter Post, select which type of goods you
wish to send, select the quantity of goods you wish to send and finally select the estate you wish
to send the goods to. To send goods from one estate to another you must have the goods
available in the stockpile/granary of the sending estate.

Map Editor

You can now choose four types of scenario to create: Kingmaker, War Custom, Peace Custom,
and Free Build.

Kingmaker maps can be used in both Kingmaker mode and also multiplayer games.

Custom War and Peace maps allow you to create campaigns featuring multiple linked missions.

Section 5 – Graphics Settings

Changing your graphics card settings

Graphics settings can be changed using the Stronghold 2 Graphics Configuration utility
accessible from the Start menu. Generally speaking reducing settings or turning effects off will
increase the graphics performance in the game.

Basic:

Texture Detail – This setting adjusts the size of the textures used in the game. The smaller the
texture size the more textures the graphics card can fit in its memory. Adjusting the texture detail
will help users with graphics cards with no on-board memory (e.g. Intel Extreme) or low on-
board memory (e.g. 32MB) achieve greater performance. Texture Detail must be set before the
game loads and cannot be changed in game.

Texture Filtering – An effect which improves the quality of textures. Reduce texture filtering to
increase performance.

Anisotropic Filtering – Allows textures to appear cleaner and crisper when viewed at sharper
angles. Reduce anisotropic filtering to increase performance.

Geometry Detail - This option adjusts the amount of polygons drawn on screen. Reduce
geometry detail this setting to increase performance.

Draw Distance – Determines how far into the distance objects in the game will be drawn.
Reduce draw distance to increase performance.

Antialiasing – Reduces the jaggedness and pixelation you see on edges of 3D objects. Reduce
Antialiasing to increase performance.

Shader Version – Shaders are graphical effects applied to game objects to enhance their
appearance. The higher the shader version the more graphical effects used but at the expense of
performance.

Features:

Ground Shadows – Turn unit ground shadows on or off. Turn off ground shadows to increase
performance.

Arrow Trails – Turn arrow trails on or off. Turn off the arrow trails to increase performance.

Particle Systems - Turn particle systems on or off. Turn off the particle systems to increase
performance.

Grass – Turn landscape grass/shrubs on or off. Turn off grass to increase performance.

Bump Mapping – Bump Mapping is an effect which produces richer, more detailed textures on
objects. Turn off bump mapping to increase performance.

Bloom – An effect that causes very bright objects to glow. Turn off bloom to increase
performance.

Depth of Field - An effect which simulates the focal properties of a camera lens. Turn off depth
of field to increase performance.

Advanced:

Npatch Detail – Npatch technology is used by many recent ATI graphics cards (8500 upwards)
to smooth the curved surface of 3D objects by increasing the polygon count through a process
called Npatch tessellation.

Distance Based LOD - This allows you to control whether you want the detail level of objects to
change as you zoom the camera in and out. Turn on distance based LOD to increase
performance.

Detail Level – If Distance Based LOD is enabled you can control how quickly the level of detail
will change using this slider. Lower the detail to increase performance.

Frame Rate Based LOD - As the frame rate drops the level of detail of objects reduces to
increase performance.
Multipass Shaders – Allows lower end graphics cards to simulate some shader effects used by
higher end cards. Enabling Multipass shaders puts more strain on the graphics card and may
reduce performance.

Section 6 – Starting the Game

If you are new to the Stronghold games we highly recommend you play the tutorial first! It isn’t
too long and explains the game’s main concepts. Once you have finished the Tutorial move onto
the Peace or War campaigns.

Don’t forget to use the hints and tips section available in each mission, if you get stuck in the
game. You can access them mid game, through the mission briefing screen by clicking on the
back arrow next to the mini map.

Section 7 - Useful Web Addresses

Official Stronghold 2 Website

http://www.stronghold2.com

Firefly Studios Website

http://www.fireflyworlds.com

2K Games Website

http://www.2kgames.com

Links to Unofficial Fan Sites

http://www.lordwibble.com
http://stronghold.heavengames.com
http://www.strongholdknights.com
Section 8 – Technical Support
If you have a technical problem concerning the operation of Stronghold 2, please contact our
technical support representatives for assistance. In order to help our representatives assist you as
efficiently as possible, please provide them with the following information: computer brand and
model, available hard drive space, amount of system RAM, type of video card, amount of video
RAM, type of sound card and version of DirectX. Also, please provide a detailed description of
the problem, including any error messages you receive.

Note: This information is for technical support only and representatives are unable to provide
game hints or suggestions.

For US Support:

Website http://www.take2games.com/support

Phone 1-866-219-9839

Email usa@take2support.com

For Canadian Support:

Website http://www.take2games.com/support

Phone 1-800-638-0127

Email canada@take2support.com

For UK Support:

Website http://www.take2games.co.uk

Phone 0870 1242222 (calls charged at UK national rate)

Hours 7 days a week, 8am to 10pm (GMT) excluding bank holidays

Email take2@europesupport.com

We recommend using the auto-update feature within Stronghold 2 to keep up-to-date with the
latest Stronghold 2 fixes and new features.

Thanks for purchasing Stronghold 2. Our aim as a developer is to create the best castle
building experience possible and we hope you enjoy playing the game as much as we
enjoyed creating it.
Firefly Studios

Copyright 2005 Firefly Studios Limited. All Rights Reserved. Firefly Studios, the Firefly Studios logo and Stronghold® are
trademarks of Firefly Studios. 2K Games and the 2K Games logo, Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc. and the Take-Two family
logo are trademarks of Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc. Portions Copyright 2005 Take-Two Interactive Software, inc. All
rights reserved. All other trademarks and copyrights are properties of their respective owners.