u/ppls7117

Figured I would hop on the Stronghold 4 announcement trend and give my two bits on what I've seen in the announcement and gameplay demos, knowing the devs frequent this sub.

The Good:

• I really like the general look of the game. I think there are some issues with the current lighting (looking at u/CoupleOk6506's post) and the cartoonish/ai-ish look of certain assets, and clunky animations, but nothing that can't be fixed in due time.
• The honour system - one of my favourite stronghold features, good to see it improved upon in the new title.
• The castle feels alive once more, with improved production lines and churches to boot.
• Events! Great new feature, I think the timings are a little off. Maybe that's just me, as I haven't played the game yet. I'd like to see these affecting more than just popularity, though that may already be in the works?
• UI improvements. WOW! Unit and building stats to help you optimize, and are easily understandable and displayed on all fronts.
• No stacking units!!!

The Bad:

• The targeting. I'm assuming this is on the to-fix list, but watching catapults be unable to fire, and watching all the archers target the same unit is so blatantly bad that I have to put it on here. These things really kill the immersion and experience.
• This one might be a hot take, but Good and Bad things. Why are these back? This feels like a huge waste of potential for an innovative new system to add to the game.
• The Hovel upgrades feel... out of place. There does not seem to be any reason behind adding this feature, so why is it here? Extra/passive honour? Surely there are better means to accomplish this.
• The cover art background is good, but the character clashes with the scene. It looks really bad currently because of it.
• BRING BACK THE JESTER

Some Ideas and Thoughts for the Road:

• Stables - it would be cool if a large variety of units could be mounted for increased functionality/mobility through a building akin to the SH/SH2 stables.
• Upgradable Keep - instead of upgrading hovels for passive honour production, perhaps instead you can upgrade your keep to grant passive honour, more protection for your lord, and increase the build distance of your walls. Dare I say, the upgrade process functions like SH2 build sites, but an instant upgrade would work as well.
• Hovels house more peasants closer to the keep (I think this was a thing in SHC and SHC2, good feature, and you already potentially have multiple hovel assets to use for it).
• Apothecary/Hospital - works in conjunction with the events system, diminishing the effects of those which cause disease or illness in the castle, and the worker can also heal troops brought to it. An injured lord could visit this building to get healed. Something similar to what we see in SH, but modified to fit the new game.
• Ruined Castles - if a lord is slain, their castle should turn to ruins instead of being outright destroyed, and their walls should stay in place. This could offer some interesting strategy, as a ruined castle could become a battleground.
• Estates - akin to ruined castles, it would be interesting to implement some sort of estate system into the game. My thought is that it would be something similar to what we had in SH2, but without the hard borders and the ability to outright destroy it. The player would not be able to build anything for their estates in this case.
• Build Sites - these are incredible narrative and dynamic tools, and I really hope to see them in this game for both skirmish maps and custom maps.
• Attack Here - this is sort of a nothing feature, but I always liked being able to fill your own troops with arrows.
• Boats - I would love to see some sort of naval transport option in this game, but such a feature might be better suited for a Viking installment.

Overall, I am looking forward to what you guys create for SH4.