[Bug?] [Stronghold] Manual defend, unwinnable fight

[Dastardly_Dan]

I'm a fairly lowish level, but I don't see how this could possibly matter for a mechanic like this.  Anyway, when selecting "manual defend", the party is thrown up to a fight against two Treants (or however they're named here) and four Shades (which all summon shadows).  This party is way too low level to possibly stand a chance, straight up characters getting OHKO'ed.

 

The fight's difficulty is cursory, however.  Because when you select "manual defend" you are instantly transported to the battle, AND THE GAME AUTOSAVES.  So, unless you have a closer manual save, you're stuck in this fight.

 

Please please please get rid of autosaving right before manual defending, or atleast before you're put into the actual battle.

[philby]

It won't solve any of the issues but I would recommend saving the game before you do any of that kind of stuff just in case

[drumther]

That's why I always make a backup save before I start playing and after a couple hours of gameplay. I know this won't fix anything now, but **** happens, you just gotta be prepared :D

[AstralWanderer]

Please please please get rid of autosaving right before manual defending, or atleast before you're put into the actual battle.

A better option in my view would be to have 2 sets of autosaves - area autosaves and combat autosaves (plus possibly a third - plot-critical autosaves).

 

In the meantime, consider using a file versioning utility to keep backup copies of old autosaves - Aphar Backup is my suggestion (Dutch webpage, but software works in English) since it is free and light - all the other choices I've found require .NET Framework but these include AutoVer, Yadis Backup (both free also) or the commercial File Hamster. Using one of these can save future grief with PoE and other games (though you will probably need to create a new folder for all saved games and use a utility like Link Shell Extension to create junctions in place of the original savegame folders which tend to be all over the place).

 

Given that the Stronghold attacks can't be avoided by players (short of selecting Auto Resolve and losing most of your improvements), more care in balancing combats would seem a good idea - or at least giving players an option to better the odds, like hiring an uber-expensive NPC adventurer group to help with just that fight.

[Emptiness]

Part of the problem (imo) is that the game autosaves at the wrong moment.  Once upon a time, games would autosave before a transition would take place, in case the game crashed while making the transition.  Later, when crashes were less of a frequent occurrence, games started autosaving after the transition would take place, to save the player from having to load a save and then immediately transition.  The problem is that this design is flawed.  Yes, it does eliminate the hassle of effectively having to load twice most of the time that you reload from an autosave, but it comes with the danger that if something bad happens during or immediately after a transition (but before autosave is processed) then the player is stuck with an autosave that does not provide a way out of the problem.  Changing autosaves to happen before area transitions would eliminate that situation.  In the case of the OP, he would be able to just reload his autosave and then not choose manual defend (or else attempt preparations before trying it again, depending on the time remaining).