- Update Size: ~150MB -

With this update comes the Castle and CPU Lord Editor tool, and the Custom Trail Maker, both of which will be explained below.

Your new Castle designs, Lords and Trails can be uploaded to the Steam Workshop. You can also download community made custom content just as easily from the Workshop, for infinite variety in your besieging!

The Castle & CPU Lord Editor is a free tool that allows full customization and creation of new Castles and CPU Lord configurations. Inside this tool you can create Castles of any design that can be used by the CPU Lords in-game, in both Custom Skirmish and Multiplayer games.

With this Editor you can:

• Edit existing CPU Lords and Castle Designs from Stronghold Crusader: Definitive Edition

• Create your own, new CPU Lords and Castle Designs

With the release of this update, the tool will already be in your Steam library -  for it to be viewable in the games list, make sure you have Tools enabled in the library view settings.

If you’re not sure where to start with the tool, worry not! We have created a guide for all your Castle and Lord editing needs! This can be found by pressing the ? button on the main screen of the Editor.

There is also a video guide available on our Youtube Channel, which gives an overview on how to get started with these Customisation features.

With this update, we bring you the Custom Trail Maker. This is in-game, found in the “Map Editor” section. Trails can be shared with the community on the Steam Workshop.

When creating Trails, you can change all types of settings, such as the CPU vs Human advantage, Extreme Troop Limit, and any of the Advanced Skirmish Options such as Enemy HP or Improved AI Sieging.

Trails you have created or downloaded from the Workshop, can be found and played in the Skirmish section, where there is a new Custom Trails button.

Sunk countless hours into Crusader and want to mix things up a bit? You can now edit the Lord and Castle configuration of any missions, using the Customize button. This applies across all Classic Trails and Sands of Time Trails.   

In this Update’s Map Pack, we have added three new maps for you to besiege and battle across:

• Water divides tall embankments. Long range siege warfare will be essential before a ground assault in the 600x balanced map - Oasis Crossing

  

• Build within the safety of the flatlands or claim the high ground near the cliff edge in the 700x Freebuild map - Approaching Seas

  

• Communication is key. Form alliances to take down the bigger issues at hand in the 500x Skirmish map - Mind Games

  

In Custom Skirmish and Multiplayer, you now have more control over the Castles your CPU opponents will build.

You can select between 1 and 8 of the default Firefly Castle types for each CPU, to choose the specific Castle design you want to face off against.

For the classic Crusader HD Lords, there are also two additional sets of community Castle Designs already included. "Community AIVs" is a set if improved Castle Designs, and "Community Historical" is a set of Historical (taken from real life Castles) Castle Designs.

These have been added to Stronghold Crusader: Definitive Edition in collaboration with Evy, from “Evrey's Modded Stronghold Crusader AIVs”[github.com] Castle Designs. 

If you make your own custom Castle designs in the Castle and CPU Lord Editor, or download them from the Steam Workshop, you can also select these for the Lords to build.

A new 10 mission Co-Op trail has arrived! Grab your most trusted advisor and prepare to best the Caravan of the Camels!

Watch battles for the ages unfold before your eyes in the hotly requested Spectator Mode! This mode allows you to set up a Skirmish between only CPU Lords - you’re out of the picture! 

Want to prove that you are the most Hardcore and Best Stronghold fan? Then the ultimate challenge has arrived! Available for all missions across the Classic Trails and Sands of Time, we are happy (terrified?) to introduce: the Extreme Difficulty setting! With this enabled, all CPU Lords will start the mission with prebuilt Castles. Good luck!

For the inquisitive ones among you, here are the full patch notes!

Please note that you will only see Multiplayer lobbies of other players on the exact same version of the game as you. People make sure you're on the latest version if you'd like to play Multiplayer.

• Added "Multiplayer Ping Location" hotkey (default is Alt-P), which when pressed in Multiplayer or Co-Op, will ping an action point on the mini map to all human allies. If the ally clicks on the action point icon, it will take them to the location where the player pressed the hot key.

• 18 new Charges available in the Coat of Arms options

• Added a celebratory trail completion video to Co-Op and Sands of Time trails

• Added ability to lock “Ready Up” in the Co-Op lobby

• Added Steam rich presence (Steam will display to your friends what mode/trails etc you’re playing)

• The first Co-Op Trail has now been named “The Twin Vipers”

• In the Classic trails, the player troop limit has been doubled

• In Multiplayer, capped the maximum number of troops made in one click (when using the CTRL shortcut) to 100

• Further improvements to Multiplayer Systems (in relation to resyncs and crashes) with help from several players in the Multiplayer Beta Branch

• The Sultan now recruits Slaves with which to dig moat

• Decreased the number of Knights the Jewel needs to begin harassing

• In Realm of the Crocodile - Mission 2 - The Staging Post, you can now place a poleturner

• Fixed a bug where, whenever a CPUs drawbridge would be opened, and if it is the only entrance into their Castle, the pathway is considered blocked. This would then cause the CPU to destroy ALL of their economic buildings instantly.

• Fixed a bug where CPU wells/water pots would be incorrectly turned off

• Fixed a bug where units climbing a ladder would be issued a new command before climbing is completed, causing them to stop climbing mid-ladder and be killed

• Fixed a bug where Pikemen and Monks would sometimes get stuck/rubberband before reaching an enemy unit, while in defensive or aggressive stance - Assign either defensive or aggressive stance

• Fixed a bug where a CPUs destroyed Engineer Guild would leave an unbuildable patch

• Fixed a bug where sometimes, when a harassing CPUs Siege Equipment was destroyed, Engineers would appear

• Fixed a bug where, if siege tents were placed with no gap between the tiles in a line where the entrance is blocked by another, engineers would not be able to enter the tent

• Fixed a bug where CPU Lords would place siege equipment in inaccessible areas

• The UI will now correctly display how many rocks are available for a catapult when more than 250 are available

• Fixed a bug where under certain conditions, newly recruited troops would move to the location ordered but then once reaching the destination would walk towards the barracks and remain there

• Attempting to recruit Engineers, Tunnelers or Laddermen while at max army size will now trigger the correct warnings

• Fixed a performance issue caused by troops being moved around moats

• Fixed a bug where CPU Lords would occasionally build another Lord’s Castle design in small spaces (Lordly plagiarism!?)

• Fixed a bug where save files with Turkish characters would not be shown when trying to load a save. These saves should now be able to be loaded.

• Fixed a bug where some hotkeys would not respond when reassigned

• Fixed bug caused by using low speeds (below 35) in Co-Op and Multiplayer

• Fixed a bug where gold gained when killing a CPU Lord would be displayed as a negative amount

• Fixed a bug where 200 Gold was being displayed as the cost for Improved Laddermen instead of 20

• Fixed a bug where the UI of the religious tab on the Scribe Book would show that the percentage required to reach maximum popularity bonus from religion is 100%, when in reality it is 95%

• Fixed a bug occasionally causing a black screen to appear after quitting a mission

• Fixed a bug where the “quit mission” popup would sometimes display incorrectly

• Fixed a bug where, when returning to the Custom Skirmish Screen or Loading in a save, the text 'Advanced Options Enabled' would incorrectly not be displayed above the 'Advanced Skirmish Options' button

• Fixed a bug where when exiting a custom skirmish match, and returning to the lobby, the button to start another skirmish match would be greyed out

• Fixed a bug causing CPU Lords in the Lord Selection panel to display in the wrong order after quitting a mission and then returning to lobby setup

• Fixed a bug that would cause the Map Editor and Scenario Editor buttons to stop functioning

• Fixed a bug where some brushes in the Map Editor would have bumps

• Fixed Building Availability bugs in the Map Editor

• Fixed issue in map “Conquest”, where your troops would immediately kill something under your keep on mission start, and unblocked inaccessible Iron Deposit

• Fixed Richard Lionheart not building his market in Crusader Extreme Trial - Mission 13 - Best Friends

• Fixed the Pig’s Castle sizing issue in Crusader First Edition Trail - Mission 4 - An Old Friend

• Fixed the orange and yellow Snake’s Castles intersecting with each other in Crusader First Edition Trail - Mission 18 - A Barren Land

• The Saladin’s speech and text now match, when playing a line in reaction to his buildings getting destroyed

• One of the Abbot’s Castle Designs had a gatehouse in the middle of the estate area leading nowhere, this has now been fixed

• Russian Localisation: Fixed issues with descriptions of CPU Lords (Marshall, Sheriff and Nizar)

• Arabic and Arabic Left to Right: Various localisation fixes

• Fixed the cause of two crashes - when pressing escape to close the CPU castle select screen, and occasionally when closing team selection screen