Recommendations for castle building sim?

[JasonPratt]

While the Steam sale is about to wrap up, I've been pootling around looking for a good castle-building sandbox sim that I could play for my nieces. There are several new contenders but they're still in beta or even alpha.

I've got most of the Stronghold series already, although I've only ever played S1 and (to a much smaller extent) its rather initially buggy 3D sequel S2. (This was back in the day when patches were few and hard to come by, although I did like S2 in principle.) I've got Stronghold: Crusader but haven't really tried it, even though reportedly it's still the best of the bunch. (In HD naturally, but I've heard much more dubious things about S:C2.)

The nieces love both castles (in principle) and Little House on the Prairie, and I've often thought someone could hit major gold combining those two genres in a family-level TV show someday: The Littlest Castle or something like that, where a newly minted baron is sent with his family and some starting families to repair, renovate, and ugprade an old keep on a hill at the borderlands somewhere. Over the seasons as the girls grow up, the keep and its environs are constantly upgraded, and they deal with normal problems of living and settling the area, plus politics internally and back home and with any neighbors, etc.

So ideally I'd like to be able to set up something as similarly as possible: start with a small keep, on a decently large map, upgrade facilities from there. More ideally I'd like to be able to rename peeps on the ground and follow them around, even more ideally zoom in to get an eye-level view of what's going on. Seasons change, etc. Fantasy elements are fine but not required; for sake of (one of) their parents, low-fantasy at most would be better than high fantasy.  ::)

I thought Forest Village might be good for this, except it's still missing "keep" functionality: you can build up to that point but the keep doesn't do anything yet. Also, it's just about the last thing instead of nearly the first.

One of the latter Settler games maybe? Rise of an Empire or Heritage of Kings? Those tend to focus on a particular main character avatar riding around helping manage situation, and you can zoom in pretty far but not to full eye-level (despite the opening cinematic of whichever one I tested our recently). It does tend to start with a nearby small keep and upgrade from there (like basic missions in Stronghold).

Uh... one of the later Guild games?  ???

[jamus34]

No idea on ages but if they like LHotP then they might like Banished. It has that building a society in hard conditions feel to it

[Jarhead0331]

Medieval Engineers comes to mind. Its by the same crew that did Space Engineers.   

[Gusington]

Medieval Engineers still in beta?

[JasonPratt]

No idea on ages but if they like LHotP then they might like Banished. It has that building a society in hard conditions feel to it

True, and the whole rationale for Forest Village is to pick up on Banished, evidently abandoned by its dev, and create an expanded version. But it's still in late alpha or maybe early beta -- technically there are features still to be added, which should make it a late alpha; and more importantly, its castle mechanics are currently only meant for some minor aesthetics late in the game.

But yes, that's exactly why I considered FV first: Banished but better plus castles.  O0 What's already there would be very LHotP Medieval; the castle portion might be ready by this time next year.


JH, I had forgotten to check into Medieval Engineers, thx!

[JasonPratt]

Ah, MediEngineers has come along quite nicely. The main problem seems to be that a lone single-player would be working (and fighting) alone? -- like in a sp of other survival games? (Fortresscraft for example.)

[JasonPratt]

Okay, they did have bots, but since the introduction of "planet" worlds, the bots (and animals, and maybe barbarians too) have been taken out.

[JasonPratt]

Hm, Stronghold 2 just today was removed from the Steam store (more or less) in anticipation of releasing a new Steam version of the game, to be provided for free (like CoH) for anyone who owns Strong2 already.

I suspect this is because, despite its problems, Strong2 is the best-liked of the various 3D iterations of the system (StrongCrus1 being the overall champion).

[JasonPratt]

Guild Renaissance? I've got that already, but Steam support seems better and is super-cheap right now. Doesn't seem like a builder sandbox, although it's got lots of family RPG. (...uh, not for the whole family maybe. ;) )

Settlers 7? Not sure I want to risk hosing my UPlay account. Reports of stability with Ubi fluctuate recently; some say lots better, others report poison. As noted I have Set6, I think also 5 somewhere.

[Yskonyn]

Life is Feudal allows (after a loooong grind) to build castles, but you would need some pretty dedicated friends to play along with.

Settlers 7 is a fun game, but not really castle building.

Something different, but perhaps up your street might be Lands of Lords; www.landsoflords.com
A browser based medieval empire builder with resource gathering, trade, construction, dynasties and diplomacy.
Its slow paced but perhaps to your liking?

I have always liked the premise of the Guild games, but they never clicked. The UI is cluncky and the games were riddled with bugs and broken functionality is what I remember. But perhaps the later versions have improved?

[Anguille]

I would recommend Castle Strike if you can find it somewhere. I really enjoyed the building options and it's solid. Don't know why it's not on GOG yet.

On GOG, there will be Kingdoms & Castles soon....looks fun.

Citadels had some nice ideas but it has bugs. For the current price, it might be Worth a look.

[Gusington]

I have never played any of the Stronghold games...which is the most solid one available right now? Love me some castles.

[Destraex]

A friend wants this:
Veil_of_Crows. I think their is castle building and it is single player only which I know you guys love.
http://store.steampowered.com/app/601540/Veil_of_Crows/

[Gusington]

I've looked at  Veil of Crows but a lot of the Steam reviews claim it is 'unfinished' IIRC.

[Anguille]

I have never played any of the Stronghold games...which is the most solid one available right now? Love me some castles.

I really liked Stronghold 2...and it's being updated...