14 DAY TRIAL // Firefly Studios have announced The Fourth Age update to their massively multiplayer online real-time strategy game Stronghold Kingdoms, which introduces several changes to the game world.
Stronghold Kingdoms is based on the popular Stronghold strategy series, centering around the economic management of an ever-growing domain, complete with medieval warfare and castle building, challenging their players with complex administrative decisions, similar to those faced by a medieval noble.
Players begin with one lonely village in a parish, and their strategic decision and social dialogue options will secure the growth of their power and the success against their enemies, which are other capable human players instead of being computer-generated adversaries, a critical difference that completely alters the way the game plays, compared to the single-player variant.
World 4 / Great Britain & Ireland have changed into The Fourth Age on March 6, now benefiting from the introduced updates, including faster gameplay due to increased army speeds, more Parish building upgrade levels to maximize production and the ability for players to possess additional Villages and a brand new Military School.
Consequently, the amount of Villages Crown Princes may now access has been increased to 40, the Parish Capital buildings will have five extra levels and the Military School will unlock a new defensive structure for castles, the Bombard, which will have full map range and will fire at random targets, complete with splash damage.
Additionally, players who own more than 10 villages will no longer have to shell out the extra honor cost required to regain a village, if one of them is captured.
All markets have been cleared of all goods and all prices have been reset to the original value of 150, and weapons will no longer be available for purchase in markets.
Furthermore, all factions and houses have been disbanded, and factions are now limited to 20 players and houses to 3 factions, with the first faction to apply being accepted automatically and all subsequent factions having to be voted in.
The faster gameplay has been achieved by increasing the army and scout speed to three times the value of Age 1, and the rate at which glory is gained has seen some balancing.
The official Fourth Age commencement announcement on the Stronghold Kingdoms forums also informs that all players who were members of the winning house at the end of the previous age have received a Quest Wheel Spin and will be gifted with 5 Quest Wheel Spins, one Ultimate Random Pack, 5 Super Random Packs and 10 Random Card Packs at the beginning of Age 4.
For additional information regarding The Fourth Age, take a look at the Stronghold Kingdoms Wiki page.