The best desktop resolution for the game is 800x600x16.
Clan Selection
The strategy for the game starts right here. By careful choice you can make the game easier or harder for yourself,
depending on what your after. If you're looking for easier, Clan Keith is a good one to start with. They have only a
couple of fairly non-aggressive clans on their borders at the beginning of the game (backs to the sea) and that can give
you more time to get a foothold in the game. A similar strategy can be applied to the Munro Clan. If you're looking for a
slightly harder route, try choosing Clan Scott. They have to defend against aggressive neighbors and have an open flank to
the English from the off. Its quite tough to be a Scott in 13th Century Scotland. An alternative Strategy is to choose one of the Island Clans, either the MacDonalds or the MacLeods. They are slightly protected by their Island homelands but its also a little harder to attack the mainland clans. Personally, I usually go for Clan Keith if I am looking for a slightly easier game and Clan Lamont if I am looking for a slightly harder one.
Advancing Time in 2D
Using F1 in 2D :- The 2D section is there to allow you to manage your campaign at a high level and decide on an overall
strategy to win control of Scotland. Using F1 will advance time, day by day, to progress the campaign. When you press F1
the game goes through a system of updates (peoples movements, all the trade caravans, army
movements, updates all the diplomacy etc.) which can take some time. It must finish each loop of updates before it can
accept another keyboard or mouse command.
To stop it advancing time you need to press F1 again ONCE. It will then stop at the end of the next round of
updates. The problem seems to stem from people just repeatedly pressing F1 to get it to stop rather than waiting.
This just keeps telling the game to start and stop advancing time so it appears not to stop and just keep going.
Alternatively, people keep their finger down on F1 which has exactly the same result.
My advice is to use the N key to advance each day at a time; especially when you first start playing the game. It's a
lot more controllable.
No towns in the 3D battles
This is part real and part technical limitations. We had to set a limit to the number of polygons on the screen and to have
large armies and big towns in the view would just not work technically. The real point of view is that if you being
attacked the last thing you would do would be to let the enemy come into your settlement. Most clan battles were fought
out in the open ground of the highlands and well away from the settlements. The film 'Highlander' gave quite a good
impression of this.
Retreating Units
When the troops are placed on the battlefield, we put a radius around them called 'the retreat radius'. In an effort to
stop the battle spreading halfway across Scotland and localize the action, if troops go outside the retreat radius they are
lost to the player. The manual failed to explain this in enough detail. Combine this with enemy AI which told the opposing
troops to either retreat to a different position or hide, this meant that the player could mistakenly advance in the wrong
direction and inadvertently go outside the retreat radius and loose both troops and the battle. We have amended the radius
and the AI to stop this from happening. This will be in the patch.
The Military Screen
Players seem to be complaining about not being able to pick the required number of peasants up to place in the army boxes.
Here's how it works. Left click on the peasants box once...get one peasant. Left click on the peasant box and hold the
button down and it will increase the number selected by increments of one. Double left click on the peasants box and it
will take all the peasants available.
Trade Routes
Having created a very accurate map of Scotland we then had to create a realistic trading system. Using the height
information from the map, the game generates a route that is realistic between 2 points. It doesn't allow a trade
caravan to go straight over a mountain. Its a bit like a 13th Century version of Auto route. Caravans are forced to use
realistic routes which are why they appear to wander around the map. They are traveling along valley bottoms or along routes
of equal height. As with most things there is a downside to this. As the game expands so does the trading. A game with
16 Clans can generate in the region of 500 trade routes which all need to be monitored and updated. This can slow the game
down heavily (depending on the machine spec). If you find this is the case then I suggest you select 'Simplified Trade'
from the options menu when you set the game up. You could also try selecting 'More Starting Stores' at the same time. Because you have more supplies (and so do the other clans) there is less of a need to trade. I nearly always play the game with either one or both of these options on.
Morale
There have been various mails about how to keep your troops and stop them from deserting. Firstly, if you have
troops based at a location, you must build a barracks for them; they don't like sleeping rough! Next, keep them fed.
If troops are not getting the correct food their loyalty will wane. Thirdly, don't leave them doing the same job forever.
Highlanders were born to fight and not to sit around with their thumbs up their arses or spend a year on guard. Rotate
their duties so they don't get restless. The leader is also a vital part of the equation. Better leaders inspire the troops
and keep them keen.
[Legal]
All data in this patch is copyrighted to Eidos Interactive and Red Lemon.
