This might be blasphemy, but I genuinely believe the Castle series could survive (and even prosper!) from a re-boot. It would be really nice to play this game with a few updates!

So let me ask the community - What should a castles reboot look like? What would you like added? Tweaked? What should remain absolutely, totally, exactly the same?

(*Disclaimer* I know, I know, you come to GOG to play OLD games, not new ones. But lets save the impassioned defenses of "leaving the great's alone!" for another thread and another time. The world is woefully lacking Castle-sim games. So lets discuss what a NEW one would look like.)

Here is what I would like to see.

A) Advanced AI - the old computers and coding meant that the AI was a little stupid.

B) Bigger Map with more Economy! - More resources, compelling reasons to fight over territory, MORE CASTLES TO BUILD!

C) Inter-active quests. - I love love love the quests in this game. It adds that RPG element and really brings flavor to the world. You feel like you're "in it". Add more dynamic choices and choices that impact the larger game world in tangible ways.

What to keep the same

A) Castle Building - Duh. To this day Castles still gives you the most options for castle building. They might be able to update it a bit, add different materials and what not. Make the terrain more than just a flat green field. But the key elements are there.

B) Quests/RPG elements - As stated above, these parts were wonderful. Great. Amazing!


So GOG world! What say you?

This is not in the realm of impossibility. I just found out while playing Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers that they are currently rebuilding the entire game for release in 2014... and it will be completely true to the original. The idea here is to allow old fans the thrill of playing the game again with todays graphics and music, while bringing in all the new players with a proven classic.

This can be done with a lot of old classics. Castles 2 is one of them. I would work on the battle scenes to make them more interactive, strategic, and graphic. The plots can be enhanced to be more complex and much less predictable. The castle building can be more fun to manage and maybe subject to weather or constant need for resource availibility. Marriage and children can come into play to help forge alliances and prevent attacks. Just a few thoughts. :)

Honestly, I think Paradox and Total War have successfully updated the model. I wouldn't be against a reboot, though.

They've missed the part that I really would like in a strategy game.
The feeling that you are a Ruler. The thing I liked the best with Castles was getting messages, doing Kingly decisions that really mattered and not doing them myself but giving the orders and having my underlings taking care of the implementation.

If anyone knows about another game that's played like that I'd be very happy.
Except that Pass something game on here. For some reason I could never get into that.

Yeah, I tried that King of Dragon Pass (or something like that, I could just look I guess... but I wont). It didn't really meet my needs.

I LOVE the total war games, but Tarm is right, its missing the "Ruler" aspect. I get tired of building the same things in each city, fighting the same battles around the same castles using the same tactics. So on and so on. Plus, it lacks the "mystery" of the Castle games. The meteor falling in the lake quest, for example, kept me guessing. It was fun!

I like the idea of weather and supplies impacting castle building.

I'd like it to look like the Mac port of Castles II (which was simply called "Castles: Siege and Conquest" since Castles I was never released for the Mac and they apparently thought it would be confusing or something).

Seriously, look at how much better this looks than the DOS version. It's a shame GOG doesn't have a remake of this version of the game.

I would like to see a reboot which expands on the background material in the manual which doesn't really come out in the game. It would be interesting to play a version that incorporated the whole of the series' fantasy-Europe, with both international and factional politics.
I guess it would end up as something akin to Crusader Kings with expanded RPG and RTS elements.
I can definitely imagine a Crusader Kings mod based on Castles II, now that I think about it.

Stronghold from Firefly had already kind of done it, very similar gameplay.

Here is what I would like though; (Castles 1)

-Ability to control armies better so troops don't rush foolishly towards enemies
-Add siege mechanics, siege towers, trebuchet etc...
-Add ability to build surrounding town to increase tax revenue
-Ability to hold Tournaments once reknown is high enough
-more historical lore

I'm not so interested in more detailed resouce management however as too many things like that starts to make a game feel like work. (Like many other strategy games do)

Upon revisiting this post, I'd actually be happy with a smartphone rework. Up the graphics just a touch (maybe the mac version posted above?) and sell to me for a buck. I'd play the hell out of it on my commute.