a new set of 128 historical aivs and a aic that could get added to the patcher.

[Monsterfisch]

So I have been working on a whole new set of aivs based on real castles cities etc from the real world which I finished the other day in its first complete set (alot of the ais will get an update going forward but for now its good enough to stand alone).

If you guys are interested in checking them out and giving feedback you can feel free to do all that over here on the git I set up for it.

There is also a aic file that goes along with it which which isnt mandetory for the aivs to work properly but sure makes it more interesting.

Here is a preview of what you would be able to expect. While the castles are developed with the visual style you see in the screenshots it should work decent in the default crusader look as well. that beeing said you can get the theme I am working on (from the screenshots) as well, there is a download to the changed files like the waterpot towers etc etc as well in case you want to check them out.

With that beeing said if @Sh0wdown wants to add it do the patcher i would welcome that a bunch afterall i made them for that reason most of all.

[Heroesflorian]

Great to see this project entering the wild! :)

[Halbarad1]

Very impressive! Must have been a lot of work and does look really good :)

[DarkThief-Darek]

Looks really awesome! Especially with the SH1 texture pack.

I hope in the future we will be able to install those SH1 texture packs with the UCP.

[Flechador]

Omg Looks really great! Cant wait to test them out!

[Panaminion]

wow, well done sir!

[Russianstory]

Great, great, awesome! Beautiful fortresses! Say the bots themselves are still old? I think such locks + new AI Bots and Rat will become impenetrable.

Великолепно отлично потрясающе! Красивые крепости! Скажи а сами боты ещё старые? Думаю, такие ЗАмки + новый ИИ Ботов и Крыса станет непробиваемой.

[Lolasik011]

@Monsterfisch Wow! Awersome !!!!! How I adore textures from Stronghold 1....

[Monsterfisch]

@Russianstory there is an aic for ai behavior in the download area you can feel free to modify it and improve on it ofc =)

@Lolasik011 @DarkThief-Darek I agree sh1 visuals are just the best in my humble opinion. I assume since showd0wn mentioned something about snipping files from already installed instances of the previous game for character quotes if that works I am sure something like texture packs in the patcher could actually become a thing. that being said its not super complicated to add them as you really just have to drag and drop the files in the gm folder ;)

[Evrey]

@Monsterfisch Hey, really cool project, and I think you might be interested in what I released a short while ago: My history pack, though with just 16 castles. =)

You might be interested in the equal and different choices we made any why. For example:

• Your Nottingham is the 15th century layout, mine the 13th century.
• Saladin really-really-really should have the citadel of Damascus.
• Also, Saladin would never pick Cairo. Instead, it is very much Caliph.
• You might be interested in what I picked for Sultan, Wazir, and Caliph and especially why.
• I think it's hilarious that we both gave Trifels to Richard.

This is no request for changes, though. Just my way of appreciating different works based on the same ideas. Great work!

[Monsterfisch]

@Evrey yeah, i saw the release you did earlier today glad to see i am not the only one with the idea of actually bringing some real castle shapes into the game instead of you know mostly geometric shapes ;)

• In terms of Nottingham, I really wanted the sheriff to be an ai that has cities under his control, similar to his vanilla character, hence why I didn't focus on giving him the fortress only which you have done. with the 13th century version.
• with Damascus, the issue really was that I had finished all my Saladins already before I started working on my Emirs and I didn't stumble on hints when researching the place that would point in Saladins direction. mind filling me in a little about the connection between Saladin and Damascus?
• Cairo as far as i could research is actually quite a bit influenced by Saladin so it confuses me a little that you wouldn't give it to him. After all, according to Wikipedia (whatever that is worth), Saladin constructed the Cairo Citadel and build a wall to surround Cairo and Fustat to make one big city out of the two
• I will definitely give your description another look as I really just skimmed over it when I looked at them
• Trifels is a pretty iconic castle in Richards life so I am not surprised ^^ I am also planning to make the castle he was shot at and died as an extra additional castle, as I am planning to make more Aivs so people get more castles to play around with. as there are still so many I would like to make just limited slots

[Russianstory]

Oh yes yes)))) I just have to get acquainted with this program)). I would be glad. If the program were translated into Russian, as well, when you hover the mouse cursor over the function name and the slider, a brief summary of the function would pop up next to the mouse cursor (what it is for). I think it will be good and useful for all who will be engaged.

О да да)))) мне только предстоит познакомиться с этой программой)). Был бы рад Если бы программу перевели ну русский язык, а также, при наведении курсора мыши на название функции и на бегунок - возле курсора мыши всплывало бы краткое содержание функции (для чего она). Думаю, это будет хорошо и полезно для всех, кто будет заниматься.

[Truetobi91]

@Russianstory

The hover-descritpion function is already planned by @ByBurton ; the creator of the AIC Editor.

[PitchNeeded]

Excellent castles! I assume you will be giving Sultan tower archers in the aic?

[Lolasik011]

@Monsterfisch Wow !!!! I saw new towers textures. I want your texture pack to be in the next version of the patch. And texture pack Russian story mod ! not enough yet (hud, music, sounds and textures) with Stronghold 1.

[Evrey]

@Monsterfisch So, the relevant pieces of history are this:

• Cairo was founded by be Fatimids to be their capital, a dynasty of caliphs.
• Saladin did start off as the Sultan of Egypt before getting his hands on Syria etc.
• Indeed Saladin ordered the construction of the Citadel of Cairo to protect it from the crusaders.
• However, although Egypt was his big money maker, he apparently despised it. Think Richard and England.
• Instead, Saladin's favoured "residence" and capital-ish city was Damascus.

[Monsterfisch]

heh that's deeper than i would have gone in the association analysis between the two. what I could see myself do however, would be switching Emirs Damascus with Saladin's Cairo, as I set the two chars up rather similarly. The caliph, on the other hand, is not really meant to have a city-based aiv, Bagdad being the exception of the rule

[Evrey]

Sure thing, makes sense. As for the Caliph and cities... that's why my history Caliph got the citadel of Cairo and Wazir got the actual city. After all, besides other things, some viziers were the representatives of a caliph.

I just happen to know that because I read up a ton of background info from all parties involved in the first three crusades.

[Monsterfisch]

Makes sense after all this is no bare common knowledge.

Do you happen to know some more character relevant castles that would be worth creating btw? I am planning to make additional castles for people to pick and choose going forward.

[Evrey]

@Monsterfisch The choices I made due to fitting historical characters:

• Saladin -> Damascus
• Caliph -> Something from Cairo due to the Fatimid Caliphate, Egypt in general
• Sultan -> Something from Konya, see Kilij Arslan II. of the Sultanate of Rum, and other castles in said sultanate in general
• Richard -> Really should get something from Anjou, which is where Richard spent most of his time if he wasn't imprisoned or waging war
• Frederick -> Must have Nürnberg, favourite residence of all medieval German emperors. Another great pick would be Rothenburg ob der Tauber, where he gathered his army and then began his part of the third crusade.
• Philipp -> Paris is an excellent pick and the most important one. Others would be Orleans and other rich cities of the tiny medieval french Crown domains.
• Sheriff -> Nottingham, the rest doesn't matter
• Wazir -> Basically whatever Caliph gets
• Nizar -> Masyaf, the rest doesn't matter

The choices I made due to fitting the Stronghold lore:

• Rat, Snake, and Pig should get french and english castles. French ones representing their possible origins, and english ones from duchies marked as their territory during the Stronghold 1 campaign.
• The Wolf, if again going by names, should get italian and scottish castles.
• The Marshal should get a castle from Cornwall, as that's the county from where you start your rebellion in Stronghold 1.
• The Abbot should only get scottish stuff.

And finally:

• I have no fucking idea about the Emir.

[Monsterfisch]

@Evrey I was more thinking castles I haven't done already ;) But Nürnberg is a good cool and the Anjou region as well I already got Chinon castle where Richard's father lived as well. The Sultan stuff is something I will look in as well . Are there any particular castles/medieval cities you could point out being generally interesting and not necessarily relevant to the characters? ;)

[Rakso69]

@Monsterfisch You could add for Rat some slavs villages such as Biskupin and alike, instead of the generic. Search up for ;)

[PitchNeeded]

And finally:

I have no fucking idea about the Emir.

I am sure there were lots of Arabian castles controlled by local emirs during the Crusades. As a historical character, I always have seen Emir as representing one of the local rulers Saladin appointed.

The Abbot should only get scottish stuff.

Maybe one based on a medieval monastery design too, this desert monastery would be ideal:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Catherine%27s_Monastery#/media/File:Katharinenkloster_Sinai_BW_2.jpg

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Catherine%27s_Monastery

[Evrey]

@Monsterfisch You already have most cool castles I could think of within your collection.

• There is Coburg, quite influential and never conquered, but it is architectually way less spectacular than all the other ones. So it might not fit your otherwise overly decorative style.
• The Hornburg of the LotR movies is pretty cool, if you fix the inner gate issue, but that's not a real life castle, though it does have a realistic layout.
• Eltz is an amazing castle, but pretty much impossible to model in any Stronghold game in any interesting way. Any attempt would be unrecognisable at best.
• You even already have fucking Aleppo. And making the citadel a miniature within the surrounding city was a good choice, IMHO. Aleppo lives from its gate palace, the massive dimensions, the S curve within,... Very, very hard to replicate in Stronghold, if not impossible. But your chosen scale makes that fat gate house approximate it well enough.
• Okay, well, using your technique of re-positioning the keeps in the AIV editor, you could try making a better attempt at modelling Tintagel castle.

[Monsterfisch]

ah yeah nice, you happen to know a couple more settlements like that or some other type of village reconstruction I could check out? @Rakso69

@PitchNeeded I actually saw that monastery in my research as well I will defiantly look into that one too

@Evrey yeah my rendering of eltz castle sure doesn't look like the original as you can't replicate the vertical layout in stronghold unless you can have custom terrain alongside with the aiv. I had the same issue with Fleckenstein castle. In the end you get a compromise that should at least work according to the original and still be fun to play against.

as for coburg id say its spectacular enough to make the cut heh

tinagel castle would be an interesting challenge as well so yeah noted.

[PodeCaradox]

Hello Monsterfisch, how did you get the Stronghold 1 skin mod working? Is there an way for Crusader Extreme to intstall a Skin packet? It's because of the TroopsLimit why i choose Extreme over normal Crusader.

Thanks for u help.

[Monsterfisch]

I have a couple of modified image files on the GitHub page where you download the castles you basically use those together with the ones from sh1 (overwrite the sh1 files you have placed in shc extreme)

[PodeCaradox]

I have now copied and replaced the .gm1 files from stronghold 1 and afterwars your files from the github in the gm folder from stronghold extreme, but now my stronghold extreme wont start anymore(load half of the red loading and shutdown without error message), am i doing anything wrong?

[Monsterfisch]

try moving them in 2 by 2 instead of the whole bunch and start the game inbetween to locate which ones cause the crash

[PodeCaradox]

Ok i tested it the following gm1 files are the error: icons_front_end.gm1 icons_front_end_builder.gm1 icons_front_end_combat.gm1

if anyone else have the same issues copy all files but not this 3 ones and all is ok.

Thanks Monsterfisch for help

[Monsterfisch]

ah yeah you dont need those files at all i have also only change the files that affect the ingame visuals not the interface etc so only walls building terrain etc

[PodeCaradox]

Can u specifally give the file names u replaced because now i have ingame two bugs, one my cavallary have issues and the game interface.

or is there a list which files to replace?

[Monsterfisch]

i think i only replaced all files starting with "tile" and the "anim" for castle and buildings i think that should be a safe starting point and from there you can replace stuf you are missing based on the name like stables etc as they tend to have some little piece that looks out of place otherwise

[PodeCaradox]

Ah ok, i only replaced the tiles u said now and all worked for me, thank you Monsterfisch.

Maybe i create an github with the files needed and tutorial on it, if anyone else want sh1 graphics in extreme .

[Monsterfisch]

@Gaaammmler it would probably be sufficient if you write up a guide for it which I could add to my github page considering there are files in missing in sh1 that were added in a crusader like the 3x3 tower and the waterpot that I have added via my files.

[PodeCaradox]

Hello Monsterfisch,

i wrote an Guide on the following Git https://github.com/Gaaammmler/Stronghold-Crusader-Sh1-Graphics i hope it helps other people out there to use the beautiful SH1 Textures.