this is not a "castle simulator" and its definitely not a good RTS..although it could have been both
1) villagers are helpless against threats - when an enemy force or a pack of wolves invades my town my apple farmer shouldnt be calmly walking with a pile of cheese he should be running to the nearest armory to grab a spear or manning the wall with a crossbow - if thats too much scripting for you then at least give me control over the villagers so i can command them myself..something like a militia system used in age of empires would be a nice start
2) buildings that are instantly placed - i hate hate HATE this, why is it that only Settlers series ever implemented actually having to carry building materials and construct something - there's nothing realistic about being able to drag a huge 50ft tall stone wall around and have it instantly built without any labor or time passing...there's no realism about being able to instantly create stone towers all over the map..this is the same gripe i had with age of empires and just about every other RTS out there...completely eliminates any chance to suspend disbelief and use realistic strategy, offensive or defensive - the reason defensive fortifications were so effective and impressive throughout history is because they were extremely hard and slow to construct and extremely hard and slow to destroy - neither of which applies in the world of Stronghold 3) soldiers that can knock down 50ft stone walls using nothing but their melee weapons - ...wtf? the first time i saw this i seriously considered uninstalling...how is a spearman chucking his way through a 20ft thick stone wall faster than an industrial tunnel digging machine
4) popularity system - obviously Firefly has never read the wiki article on Feudalism - this is not how things worked back then - serfs didnt pack their bags and leave when the rations were low - because they were SERFS and tied to the land, besides they'd be executed by their lord if they tried to escape - people dont just pack up and leave their homes whenever something isnt going good, the whole popularity system is a mess - i would understand lowered morale, slower working rate, but not my entire village disappearing if the taxes are too high
5) population control - this ties into the popularity system - the whole system is a mess - it should have been done Cultures-style where the people actually breed with each other and make new offspring...hmm pretty...REALISTIC...instead they just appear out of nowhere and disappear exactly the same way...litearlly vanishing before your eyes ..amazing design
6) siege engines - the siege engines in this game are beyond ridiculous - a cataput that can fire off a shot every second? are you ****ing me? if they really had that in the middle ages noone would build castles because anyone could show up with one such catapult and tear it to the ground in minutes
7) villagers that cease to function as soon as the gates are closed - guess what, stonecutter - if there's a freaking army assaulting my castle the last thing i care about is you cutting stone - grab a hammer or whatever and RUN to the castle to man the walls, that goes for every other castle profession too
8) the keep - ok...so i have a 3 story keep in the center of my castle...i get attacked..they breach the walls...naturally my lord is on top of my keep...except...here it comes...YOU CAN'T LOCK THE DOORS TO THE KEEP...what kind of horse**** is that?!..wtf is the point of having a keep if any enemy soldier can just run inside and attack the lord?! the keep is supposed to be a place of last stand that can't be penetrated with anything less than a battering ram - you wouldn't even be able to burn your way into a well designed stone keep as it would have it's own water supply
9)the moat - great design feature EXCEPT moats can't be filled in by spearmen in 1 minute UNDER FIRE...seriously why bother making moats and stone walls if the enemy soldiers can just instantly fill them in and then FORCE their way THROUGH your stone walls without even using siege engines....the reason castles and moats existed is because you CAN'T do that... personally i don't like suspending my knowledge of physics when i play what is supposed to be a "simulation"
10) troops have infinite ammo (archers + crossbowmen), never sleep and never need to head back to town for food
11) buildings can't be placed too close to the signpost or they magically disappear when the enemy troops appear...WOW this one is just money all around...best part is they dont even tell you where the line is so you have to experiment with save/load to see if any of your buildings are within the restricted zone...GREAT DESIGN firefly - high five
12) buildings are instantly destroyed by enemy troops - and i mean INSTANTLY, it literally took 2 spearman 3 seconds to completely raze my entire apple farm...using nothing but spears...this is just retarded and frustrating - the enemy can literally destroy your entire village in under a minute using nothing but melee weapons
the bottom line is that if they designed the game around realism it would be far more enjoyable and people would be able to use realistic defensive/offensive strategies
to me the game was a complete disappointment, especially because so few companies are even willing to tackle this area of the RTS market, one that has so much potential
ill stop here, i meant to write this a long time ago but it feels even more appropriate now that Stronghold 3 came out and they fixed NONE of these issues....so good work there firefly im not sure who their target demographic is but they've definitely alienated the vast majority of it by now