On March 23rd we launch the first in a series of new game worlds. Europe 4 will feature the new ‘Era’ system with significant changes to combat, religion and how you dominate the Glory Race!

Please Note: This is a quick summary of major gameplay changes coming to all new game worlds, starting with Europe 4 next week.

Click here for more detail in our developer diary forum post!

Listening to your feedback in the forums, support tickets and in discussion with the community a few things stand out. Above all else we see requests for new game worlds and discussion surrounding the issue of ‘multiaccounting’, which is why our upcoming gameplay update will address both these things!

As it stands the use of dummy accounts can allow low-level players to exert influence in conflicts between much larger warring Factions and Houses. The reason for this is that the game currently unlocks Monk abilities relatively early on, with no upper limit to the number of Faith Points that can be accumulated.

Starting with the launch of Europe 4 on March 23rd at 3pm GMT, all new game worlds will launch as ‘Era’ worlds to remedy this problem. This new Era system has been designed to replace the ‘Ages’ in Stronghold Kingdoms and will be used in all game worlds from this point on, meaning only existing game worlds will use the legacy Age system. See below for an overview of changes to the core gameplay:

Religion – Monk abilities will begin unlocking at Rank 10 with Interdiction and end with Excommunication at Rank 20. Interdiction upgrades will also only unlock with each new rank and match your current rank. For example, in order to interdict a Marquis you yourself will need to be at the same rank.

Faith Point Cap – Additionally, a rank-based limit on the maximum number of Faith Points a player can accumulate will be implemented. Players’ Faith Point caps will initially be set at 750 and increase at each full rank-up after Rank 8, reaching a maximum of 200,000 points for players ranked Prince and above.

Voting – Currently any player Rank 4 or above is able to vote and run in parish elections. This has made it easier for dummy accounts to take over entire parishes and even delete parish castles. In any new game world players will need to be at least Rank 8 to participate in elections.

Combat – We’ve also made some changes to PvP mechanics on Era worlds, giving new players increased protection from the more destructive aspects of gameplay. That said these will still be a factor for higher ranked players and relevant for newbies once they rank up.

New worlds will operate with the following combat mechanics:
• Players below Rank 8 cannot be razed, only captured.
• Increased costs for razing lower-ranked players.
• Raze is only available to players ranked Prince or above.

Glory Race – Based on player feedback on Ages we have created the aforementioned Era system, which will exist in place of Ages on all new worlds and automate transition between Glory Races. While Eras will work similarly to Ages and still feature Glory Races, changes between Glory Races will be cleaner thanks to the new automated system.

All changes announced in this post will only affect game worlds launched after this point and will not affect existing worlds.