Stronghold 2 Readme

Section 1 Section 2 Section 3 Section 4 Section 5 Section 6 Section 7 Background Before You Start Changes & Additions to the Manual Graphics Settings Starting the Game Useful Web Addresses 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 manufacturers website. We have listed a few graphics card manufacturers websites below where you can download the latest drivers: ATI NVIDIA Intel (Intel Extreme) PowerVR (Kyro) Matrox S3 3Dfx XGI (Volari) 3Dlabs http://support.ati.com http://www.nvidia.com/drivers http://www.intel.com/support/graphics http://www.powervr.com/downloads/drivers http://www.matrox.com/mga/support/drivers http://www.s3graphics.com/drivers.jsp http://www.3dfx.com http://www.xgitech.com/sd/sd_download.asp 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 Changes & Additions to the Manual

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 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 3.9 - Crime All torture equipment that requires a torturer, now only requires one torturer to operate it. 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 centred over that building 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. Honor To build troops honor is now required for creating certain types.

Section 4 Graphics Settings

Changing your graphics card settings Click on Settings and click on the picture of the video card (level of detail). 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. increase performance. Turn off ground shadows to

Arrow Trails Turn arrow trails on or off. Turn off the arrow trails to increase performance. Particle Systems - Turn particle systems on or off. increase performance. Turn off the particle systems to

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 5 Starting the Game

If you are new to the Stronghold games we highly recommend you play the tutorial first! It isnt too long and explains the games main concepts. Once you have finished the Tutorial move onto the Peace or War campaigns. Dont 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 6 - 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 7 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. Internet For US Support: Phone Email 1-866-219-9839 usa@take2support.com http://www.take2games.com/support

For Canadian Support: Phone Email 1-800-638-0127 canada@take2support.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.