The Stronghold and its features.

[GhoulishVisage]

The Stronghold was an interesting stretchgoal to unlock, as it opens up a plethora of new game-play possibilities.

So I was thinking I would make a little list of things that would be neat to implement for the Stronghold.

 

 

- Stronghold starts off as a crumbling ruin inhabited by bandits/undead, once you have unlocked ownership the first task is to renovate it into a usable state. This will most likely be done through monetary expenditure.

 

- Staffing the Stronghold is done through a combination of monetary expenditure for generic staff and quests for key NPCs (such as head librarian, blacksmith etc).

 

- Stronghold can be furnished in several preset ways, and one unique way depending on the race of the player character.

 

- Stronghold can be upgraded with unique rooms/structures according to player class.

 

- Stronghold can be upgraded with unique rooms/structures for your companions. This will give them a stat-boost or something similar.

 

- You can acquire a head butler, who acts somewhat like an Alfred Pennyworth for your pc in the Stronghold. He'll likely hang out in the enterance and give you the low-down every time you come to visit.

 

- There are simple interactions between the Stronghold and a nearby village. Depending on the actions you take in the Stronghold the village may either prosper or become a slum.

 

- Make the pc choose between benefits for upgrades on the Stronghold. For example a gatehouse could be turned into a trading post, which increases monetary income, or it could be turned into a barracks, which increases security and defense.

 

- A treasure room, where we can see our cash.

 

 

 

So what do you think would be interesting for the Stronghold in PE? Try to keep in the realms of reality, so no

"YOU CAN TRAIN AN ARMY SO THAT YOU CAN LAY SIEGE TO OTHER STRONGHOLDS, AND YOUR STRONGHOLD AFFECTS THE WORLDS ECONOMY AND YOU CAN EXPORT ORE TO OTHER PLACES AND SEE THOSE PLACES BECOME WEALTHY OFF OF YOUR ORE AND YOU CAN ALSO PERSONALLY GO INTO THE QUARRY TO MINE ORE AND YOU CAN MAKE YOUR MILITIA GO INTO DIFFERENT FORMATIONS AND AND AND"

Also bear in mind: This isn't The Sims, it isn't Anno, and it isn't Stronghold: Crusader.

[GhoulishVisage]

Also, things I do NOT want in the Stronghold:

 

-Individually placable furniture. This isn't The Sims, several preset themes will be fine. Creating a whole interface for placable, rotatable and buyable furniture/decorations is a waste of time and resources.

 

- Things that fail if you're away from the base for too long. Sometimes returning slips your mind. This isn't Farmville. Your butler/head whatever should be able to manage everything for you.

[Pshaw]

Also, things I do NOT want in the Stronghold:

 

-Individually placable furniture. This isn't The Sims, several preset themes will be fine. Creating a whole interface for placable, rotatable and buyable furniture/decorations is a waste of time and resources.

 

- Things that fail if you're away from the base for too long. Sometimes returning slips your mind. This isn't Farmville. Your butler/head whatever should be able to manage everything for you.

 

I agree with the first half and disagree with the second.

 

I think you should be able to receive word that your stronghold is under attack and if you don't hoof it back their to help out their should be consequences. Now I would want the time frame to be a bit generous to allow you to finish up what you're doing if it's a short trip but aside from that I think you should need to have to return sometimes. Granted I don't think the keep should fall into disrepair if you're not there once a week nor should the peasants rise up if don't stop by an visit them from time to time. Even so for some events I think that time should be an issue. If you receive word of plague in the nearby town and people want your advice and you decide to go off into a cave for 3 weeks I don't think it unreasonable to return to a keep full of corpses or return to find out that the nearby village has been burned to the ground.

 

As for things I'd like to see time sensitive events like the ones above along with other less pressing events similar to having a stronghold in BG2.

 

In addition I'd like there to be some sort of resource management and direction given to the stronghold. If I want to build up a strong guard so I don't need to return for every pesky bandit raid as mentioned above I should have to improve defenses and devote income to hiring guards. So I'd need to manage what people on my lands were focused on doing such as getting building materials and trading enough to pay for the guards. However maybe that would mean they weren't making enough food for themselves so they were dying off so you'd need to balance that and so on.

 

Finally I would like things the OP mentioned. Purchasing add-ons and improvements to the strong hold and so on.

[rjshae]

Mostly good suggestions.

 

I'd like to see stronghold architecture that is plausibly realistic and medieval in style. No well-lit pool rooms, tea rooms, frilly decorations, or aviaries; just cold, cramped, dimly-lit stone rooms with open, unpaned windows. Something serviceable that a knight would own, rather than a count. Putting it in a defensible location would be a big plus; atop a hill or at a bend in the river. Perhaps an inner courtyard that is open to the sky, a tower for a cranky old wizard to occupy, stables, and a granary and well shaft in case of a siege. Environmental effects would be good, such as the sound of wind whistling through the window cracks and down the chimney, beams of gradually shifting daylight sparking with dust, a water seep where a crack needs fixing, &c. And a frequently used garderobe, of course, just buzzing with flies.

 

But I'm sure I'll be happy with what they give us.

Edited October 20, 2012 by rjshae

[GhoulishVisage]

I think you should be able to receive word that your stronghold is under attack and if you don't hoof it back their to help out their should be consequences. Now I would want the time frame to be a bit generous to allow you to finish up what you're doing if it's a short trip but aside from that I think you should need to have to return sometimes. Granted I don't think the keep should fall into disrepair if you're not there once a week nor should the peasants rise up if don't stop by an visit them from time to time. Even so for some events I think that time should be an issue. If you receive word of plague in the nearby town and people want your advice and you decide to go off into a cave for 3 weeks I don't think it unreasonable to return to a keep full of corpses or return to find out that the nearby village has been burned to the ground.

 

I mostly meant in a maintenance/chores sort of way, like "make sure to pay the guards/water the crops/click the cows/fight generic bandit raids every seven in-game days or things go bad" that would get tiresome.

I think having to return to the Stronghold for events and crisis would be fantastic.

[Kane_Severance]

I really hope you can have some choice as to how your stronghold develops. An arcanist may want a wizards tower, libraries, summoning circles; a priest may prefer temples and statues to their dieties; a fighter might prefer training halls and armories; and a rogue may want trapped vaults, secret rooms and taverns.

 

Maybe give a few options as to what kind of stronghold you want (fort, thieves guild, wizards tower, temple) or allow the stronghold to choose between different buildings. Maybe not allowing you to build all of them in one go.

[Conconhead]

I'd like to see sometihng similar to the Overloard stype of decoration. "Here are your choices. Dark and Gritty, Elaborate and Fancy, Girly, Masculine, etc." Where you don't place every stick of furniture or select the individual color of your drapes or the wood grain on your table -- but a chance to at least personlize the fort from a set of pre-selected styles to better suit your character's persona.

[Metabot]

""YOU CAN TRAIN AN ARMY SO THAT YOU CAN LAY SIEGE TO OTHER STRONGHOLDS, AND YOUR STRONGHOLD AFFECTS THE WORLDS ECONOMY AND YOU CAN EXPORT ORE TO OTHER PLACES AND SEE THOSE PLACES BECOME WEALTHY OFF OF YOUR ORE AND YOU CAN ALSO PERSONALLY GO INTO THE QUARRY TO MINE ORE AND YOU CAN MAKE YOUR MILITIA GO INTO DIFFERENT FORMATIONS AND AND AND""

 

Why have a stronghold with no army and no sieges...?

[rjshae]

...and they can use the other 0.1 million to make an RPG.

[Metabot]

...and they can use the other 0.1 million to make an RPG.

 

harr harr

 

They said it will some rts aspects to it.

[JFSOCC]

merge with this: http://forums.obsidian.net/topic/61510-whats-everyone-looking-for-in-strongholds/

?

[UncleBourbon]

I'd just like some of the NPCs you encounter to be "recruitable" at some point later in the game - maybe not obviously, and certainly not in such away that is obvious they were placed in game to say, be the stronghold's alchemist. That said, I'd like to see a lot of more individual/party play - but kingmaker-esque segments would be a plus for me. Some rts/base developement does not necessarily take away from the roleplay factor - though it would mean dev attention being spent on the former rather than the latter.

[matthewfarmery]

if possible, (have to remember the stronghold is only a small part of the game, and might end up having a limited budget) but I would like a choice of location, maybe depending on the location, determines several factors, how large the stronghold is, its overall function, is it there for trade? or is it there to protect something ( village or prosperous land) also it would be nice if say you could have the option of building it along a river (trade) or maybe you just want the biggest badass looking stronghold there is (with a increased chance of getting attacked, and takes a small fortune to keep it running (at least that will party deal with the money issues, having too much and what to with it all) I would also like too see the prospect of losing it, and maybe a chance of getting it back (long forgotten tomb or secret passages, and someone (maybe as a quest) might give the location of the enterence for doing them a favour

 

but yeah, if you are a wizard, then you want your stronghold in a certain way, if you are a warrior in another, would like to see choices and consequences for what you decide, and how well you ran the stronghold, if its for trade, and you impose a very high tax to raise funds, but your high tax is just going to hurt you in the long run, as it drives people / trade away, or maybe you have some farmland, do you develop it to make it prosperous? or do you let it go to waste and order another village to be built, but as there is no longer any farmland to grow crops, the second village (probably you might already control one already) but without farmland your peasants and stronghold itself starts to stave, so you might be forced to bring in food from another farther away village, but then the trade route could be open to bandits, so money needs to be spent to keep the road safe

 

I would love if some of the above was possible, as for building it / enhancing it, maybe can be built or upgraded through dialogue choices, as GhoulishVisage mentioned, this isn't the Sims, so you shouldn't have to build the stronghold that way, but yeah I would like to see a lot of choices over the stronghold and its development and upkeep

Edited October 21, 2012 by matthewfarmery

[cosmin haraga]

^well

^{1 something I haven't seen anyone debating:}

^{stronghold placement - since we're getting 2 major cities and probably 2 landmasses - how about a decently sized island ?}

^{harbour village + stronghold - sort of nwn 2 crossroad keep - upgrade coastal defence gives less troopers in case of attack - because their ships sunk}

 

^{2 how about a silver mine or pearl hunting / something - a way to earn money other than questing - just as a money boost nothing fancy}

 

^{3 also let's not restrict buildings to monk temple/ wizard tower , let anyone build everything - and maybe give boost to party members}

 

^{4 player house is gone? how about a small cottage - storage space / party retreat for both big cities?}

Edited October 22, 2012 by cosmin haraga

[matthewfarmery]

I did mention locations in my post, including a large landmass for a large stronghold, or along a river for trade, but been on an island, (or a moat) sounds also cool, so I do hope we have a lot of chances concerning strongholds

[cosmin haraga]

my bad - haven't seen it

 

i wonder how devs keep track

 

it's usualy esier to start new posts than read eveything - especialy those with lots of replys - they tend to break down in separate discussions.

[chunkalot]

Would be cool to be able to send your companions to stay in your keep when you're not taking them out adventuring.

[mokona]

I totally want to put my stronghold on an island.

[AGX-17]

I actually liked the idea of bankrolling and building the stronghold from the ground up. Not like minecraft, but hiring workers. Since it's presumably not going to be mandatory, it can be a pet project for a successful adventurer to pursue (adventurers tend to do a lot of travelling anyway, so building your own fort seems a bit excessive if you're not being awarded land and title by some lord or king. Then again, most kings don't like their noble underlings to have castles from which to launch rebellions.)

 

At the same time, gunpowder cannon made castles obsolete, so it seems more like a manor house or estate would make more sense.

Edited October 22, 2012 by AGX-17

[Aeschylus]

Like the idea of NWN, crossroad keep, but perhaps expand on that... have a small army... peasents join your keep and farm/give taxes... as you become good/evil it adapts to your alignment... characters add to the city if they favour magic or religion... the city changes with if u favour science or magic.. mine to better your walls... battle dragons and bands of bandits... expand your city and be diplomatic to other cities.... not to take away from the game but making it a part of the game would be excellent.

[nikolokolus]

All I need is a moat -- a moat and a bunch of hungry crocodiles. That's all I need, just this moat and these crocodiles ... and some murder holes. That's all I need is a moat, these crocodiles, and these murder holes ... and a tower

 

Edited October 23, 2012 by nikolokolus

[Rokku]

I hope strongholds have a minor role to play for the ending of the game.

Nothing too involving just a minor story tweak that changes depending on if you built a magnificent stronghold for good or a dark ominous necromancers lab.

[BBBD]

If I have an army, why am I adventuring?

[JFSOCC]

If I have an army, why am I adventuring?

because you like to, because some problems can't be solved by sending an army in, because of diplomatic issues (someone you want to get at is in another sovereign state.)

[BBBD]

If I have an army, why am I adventuring?

because you like to, because some problems can't be solved by sending an army in, because of diplomatic issues (someone you want to get at is in another sovereign state.)

 

Thank you for making my point. If armies are part of the stronghold by the time we reach this point all quests, stories and events have to be guided so that our army isn't useful or else our adventurer party pretty much is useless. Now if our army isn't useful why have one? The only reason is basically a mini game where we play at war.

Edited October 23, 2012 by BBBD