On December 9th we plan to release a special Winter Update for Stronghold Crusader 2. Our first free expansion-style update for the game introduces full Steam Workshop support, six classic Crusader maps lovingly recreated by our designers and advanced Multiplayer options such as Strong Walls! Our biggest upgrade to the game since launch, the Crusader 2 Winter Update was designed from the ground up with the Stronghold community in mind.
Steam Workshop
The headline feature in our December update, Steam Workshop provides you with the official means to share and rate custom maps. Uploading a map or mission designed to test the mettle of your fellow lords is easy. Simply publish direct to Steam Workshop using automatic tags to sort your map by size and type, with custom tags available should you wish to go into more detail about your creation.
Don’t use the Map Editor? Then think of Steam Workshop as a treasure trove of custom maps, missions, historical castles and fantasy replicas just waiting to be downloaded. Never again will you have to trawl the internet for an accurate recreation of Minas Tirith or the Siege of Jerusalem. Using Steam Workshop you can get up and running in minutes, playing your chosen map in-game after just a few clicks. Load it up in Skirmish Mode, Free Build or go online and use the lay of the land to your advantage against friends in a Multiplayer death match!
Classic Crusader Map Pack
Available the minute our new update goes live, these six maps will be downloadable direct from the Crusader 2 Steam Workshop page. Voted for by players over the course of development, it was your Tweets, forum posts and Facebook comments that helped us settle on six of the most popular maps from the original Stronghold Crusader.
Recreated in 3D for the first time, the new maps are completely free for existing players and include such favourites as North vs South and A Friend Indeed, the latter of which can be seen in the images accompanying this article. We can’t thank you enough for helping us decide which maps to include. Have a favourite map of your own? Why not try your hand at creating it in the Map Editor and publish your masterpiece to our Steam Workshop page on December 9th for the world to see!
Advanced Multiplayer Options
Since launch players have filled the Crusader 2 forums with requests for advanced Multiplayer options. In response the team has spent the past few weeks noting down, coding, testing and balancing these features in preparation for the Winter Update. Many new options will be included to help tailor your Crusader experience, tweaking settings to feel more like the original game or changing things up with the newer options at your disposal. To name but a few, we are adding the option to turn on Strong Walls, Double Health Walls, enable a ‘No Fire’ mode and add restrictions to the trade of resources, food or weapons. You can expect more features to be revealed when the update goes live.
We hope you enjoyed our Friday info blast! Please enjoy the new screenshots and make sure you try out the Winter Update on December 9th. This is a huge step forward for the game and the Crusader team is looking forward to more updates and DLC drops like it in the future.