hey everyone, welcome back to another
Firefly Studios video, Aaron here with another
episode of 'Inspirations Behind
Stronghold'. For those of you who don't
know, this is a series I do here at
Firefly Studios where I take you guys and
the community through the histories that
inspired our titles. So this week we'll
be looking at castle life so all the
different peasants, industries, food
productions that you operate within your
castle. With help of lead designer Simon
Bradbury, we'll be looking at some of the
different parts of the castle throughout
history and how Firefly successfully
implemented them in-game in our European titles, enjoy!
Inspirations Behind Stronghold - Castle Life Part 1: The Castle Itself
so first off we'll turn the clock all the way back to the inception
of the idea of Stronghold. why medieval
Europe? why feudalism, Lords, ladies,
Knights, peasants? why castles? was the
success of the stronghold series all by
grand design or did the 1999 founding
Firefly team just really love castles?
Here's what Simon had to say about where
it all began.
I've always had an obsession for castles,
ever since seeing them on holiday as a
small boy. Initially my passion was for
the dramatic and brutal defences. Walking
the walls and imagining the
excitements and terrors of an attack on
these stone walls, castles however have
so many different interesting aspects to
them, they're like great living machines
designed not only to maintain the walls
weapons and defences but also look after
the various inhabitants. To feed, clothe
and entertain the castle's occupants
require a complex mix of medieval
skills and systems, perfect for a
simulation game. Castles also had a huge
strategic role to play in the lands that
they inhabit. Not just the management and
protection of the towns and villages
that grew up around them but also much
further afield, controlling trade routes,
securing borders and maintaining
dominance over wide swaths of land
around them. So it was this founding
fascination with both castle life and
the strategy genre that spawned the perfect
breeding ground for the Stronghold
series. As armaments, industry, domestic
lifestyle and besieging were all needed
in equal measure to be a successful
medieval Lord,
both historically and within the Stronghold series.
Part 2: Production & Industry
So the castle itself as Simon had
already stated, these are complex beasts
of economic and social order which had a
duality of being a home and defence for
all those inside. Trying to portray a
castle in a video game is harder than
one might imagine, with dozens of
services, personnel and utilities all
with a shot of being represented in a
virtual medieval landscape. You had great
halls, kitchens, churches, chapels, pantries
and even butteries, yep
butteries were a real thing but
unfortunately they weren't rooms which
exclusively made butter. They were
instead a storeroom for beer, the name is
due to the fact that beer butts a.k
barrels were kept there. The point is
with so many nuances and details to how
a successful castle operated, how does
Simon and co pick and choose which ones had
to be in-game? here's his answer. Well,
there are probably over a hundred
industries involved in a castle, more
than we could reasonably add to a game
and still keep it fun. Most of the crafts
and skills we chose are pretty vital though,
such as wood and stone to build the
thing of course. Lots of weapon-smiths
and iron to make them, food, ale and wine,
candles and clothes, we have used a lot
of resources in previous Stronghold, the
trick is however to give the game depth
and atmosphere but without sucking the
enjoyment out of it.
Take beer for example, to be totally
realistic
we should have supply chains for hops,
barley, yeast and even water to make the
final product and then maybe pewter or
clay to make something to drink from, to
me that is too complex and certainly
something that would detract from the
RTS side of the game, so instead we just
go hops to Ale and assume the other
ingredients. It gives the flavour of the
process but keeps it manageable. So like
they say, moderation on all things, as we
all know when games get too realistic it
can suck the fun out of it, you are
playing a video game after all. So it's a
painstaking process of behind the scenes
design and balancing which it results
in all the different castle industries
and services you can construct within our games.
Part 3: The Peasants
But what about the peasants that you
cast bill is out there, employ to these
industries, where did the various levels
of peasant stupidity originate from and
why get voice actors to give comedic
stereotypical accents to the men and
women that are feeding your population?
Enough to make any Lord nervous about
his next meal, here's Simon again: There
are just so many absurd stories about
the poorly educated overly
superstitious folk that inhabited those
times. That I think it would be weirder if
they all talked sense. In France, animals
were often put on trial for unnatural
activity, these were not normal times.
Instead it was a scary hard but colorful
time to be alive and the language needed
to reflect that. As to the voice acting,
we've always just hired good actors. So
this acting is a creative two birds one
stone for Firefly, we were able to inject
a little bit of humor in character to
the gameplay while also providing a
little bit of educational truth for the
players. Also a side note, this extended
to military units as well, as your basic
man-at-arms were given historically
common accents, I thought we were
standing still, while your Knights talked
with trained pronunciation and arrogance, I need a horse,
Part 4: Fear & Desire
Now that we've covered castle lifestyles,
industries and the people that populate
them, what about the aesthetics, fear
factor, crime and punishment, little
details you put in place to add extra
layers to your castle, to not only give
it identity but you yourself as the
ruling ward. Here's Simon take: The good
Lord and bad Lord system, going back to
Stronghold 1, was an attempt to depict
just how different the Justice or lack
of it system worked in medieval times.
To allow the player to rule with an iron
fist or inspire loyalty in his grateful
subjects. So he could choose to let his
peasants have some time off and plant gardens
for them, give them maypole and other
entertainments like dancing bears
although frankly this does seem a bit
bad lordy and in return they will fight
more strongly for him. Far more fun
however is to go all mr Burns on the
peasants and make them work twice as
hard in return for not torturing them.
When it comes to the actual torturing
however, we admit to being a little bit
squeamish so the majority of the time no
blood get spilled. So that was our
penultimate episode of this series of
the inspirations behind Stronghold, the
next episode we'll be covering siege
equipments and traps and you know all
the defences within your castle and that
will finish our European series. Next year
I do plan on doing a Crusader
series so don't worry all of those who
have left comment saying where's
Crusader, I'll be doing a Crusader
series next year but that said if you do
have any topics or specific parts of
the castle that you'd be interested in
me covering for the Crusader series, that
maybe I haven't covered in this series
for the European titles, leave a comment
below and let me know, I'd be interested
to hear about that, we also probably will
do Legends once so don't worry legends
will be covered, maybe like a special
next year and as always if you liked the
video make sure you leave a like and
subscribe here on YouTube for more Firefly
goodness every single week, see you
next week!
For more infomation >> Na reta final de A Fazenda, Marcos Mion anuncia novidade e surpreende | Vento Grande - Duration: 3:16. 
For more infomation >> Os Médicos Não Falam Isso Com Seus Pacientes! Mas o Pés de Galinha Destrói Todas Essas Doenças... - Duration: 2:53. 
For more infomation >> Como o tipo de sangue negativo pode afetar a gravidez - Duration: 3:15. 
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