Stormgate News

[p][/p][h2]1/23/26 PTR Update[/h2][p][/p][h3]Balance Changes[/h3][p]Therium Generator[/p]

• [p]Footprint decreased from 3x3 to 2x2 (reverting the change from a few days ago)[/p]

[p]Command Post[/p]

• [p]Supply granted increased from 10 to 12[/p]

[p]Sentry Post[/p]

• [p]Build time decreased from 55 seconds to 50 seconds (note: there was a bug that was incorrectly setting the Sentry Post build time to 60 seconds that has also been addressed)[/p]

[p]Lancer[/p]

• [p]Kinetic Redirection upgrade build time decreased from 90 to 60[/p]

[p]Hedgehog[/p]

• [p]Hp decreased from 215 to 205[/p]
• [p]Armor Shred Missiles debuff max stacks decreased from 90 to 75[/p]

[p]Morph Core[/p]

• [p]Value increased from 50 Luminite to 100 Luminite. This reduces the Luminite refunded when Matter Reallocation is used by 50 Luminite, and decreases the cost of structures when building from a Morph Core by 50 Luminite.[/p]

[p]Carnivex[/p]

• [p]Weapon Range increased from 0.25 to 0.5[/p]
• [p]Chrono Shell deferred damage max damage over time rate increased from 20 to 40[/p]

[p]Navi[/p]

• [p]Sovereign’s Decree range slop increased from 4 to 6[/p]
• [p]Hallowed Ground is now a targeted ability that moves the Navi to the selected location to channel.[/p]
• [p]Sovereign’s Decree should not go on cooldown or cost energy if the target leaves range[/p]

[p]Dominari[/p]

• [p]Pandemonium width increased from 3 to 4[/p]
• [p]Research Dominari Adept Training (Death March) build time decreased from 60 seconds to 30 seconds[/p]
• [p]Death March radius increased from 3 to 4[/p]
• [p]Chaos Mark debuff duration increased from 10 seconds to 15 seconds[/p][p][/p]

[h3]Visual Changes[/h3]

• [p]Ragdoll impact on kills have been added for:[/p]
  • [p]Incarnate Rampaging Stomp[/p]
    • [p]Incarnate weapon attack[/p]
    • [p]Magmadon weapon attack[/p]
    • [p]Brute weapon attack[/p]
    • [p]Carnivex weapon attack[/p]
    • [p]Vulcan Jump Jets[/p]
    • [p]Vulcan weapon attack when minigun is at max damage[/p]
• [p]Seraphim ground attack receives a new visual effect and sound effect to better represent and differentiate it's higher damage attack.[/p][p][/p]

[h3]AI Changes[/h3]

• [p]The Celestial Bot shouldn’t spam Arcships without expanding as much. There is still work to do to improve their behavior[/p]
• [p]Bots now recognize Rich Luminite mines as viable expansions[/p]

[h3]Map Changes[/h3]

• [p]Breach: fixed issue with missing Therium[/p]

[h3]Bug fixes[/h3]

• [p]Fixed not seeing when other players change factions in a custom game lobby[/p]
• [p]Gracelight Node Tooltip correctly states heal is removed only when taking damage[/p]
• [p]Morph Cores were morphing directly into Judicator and Energizer Nodes rather than Gracelight Nodes first[/p]

[h2]PTR 2026-01-20 Update[/h2]

• [p]Hornet has an enhanced anti-air attack FX and new SFX to better represent the fact that it is more powerful than its ground attack. [/p]
• [p]Added some idle and work animations for celestial structures. We're in the process of iterating through these to add visual interest and polish. [/p]
• [p]Increased emissive values on Celestial structure materials.[/p]
• [p]Therium generators have been increased in size from 2x2 to 3x3, and had adjustments to their selection volume. Hopefully this makes it easier and more intuitive to simply right-click the center of a patch, and workers will find their own nodes.[/p]
• [p]Fixed an issue preventing AI opponents from recognizing expansions correctly. Vokurka, for example, was rarely expanding.[/p]
  • [p]AI should now use pathing distance when considering a location for expanding their base. Previously, they would use straight, as-the-crow-flies distances when looking for an expansion location, leading to scenarios on some maps where AI would expand to an awkward base, or fail to expand at all. Now, AI should expand to the next closest pathable base.[/p]

[p][/p][h3]Bug Fixes[/h3]

• [p]Fixed an issue where many custom maps were referencing the wrong, darker, lighting preset. Overall the correct preset is brighter at night, brighter in the shadowed areas, and more consistent across maps.[/p]
• [p]ToggleInGameUI cheat now hides all of the replay UI as well.[/p]
• [p]Fixed some bugs with Dominari's Death Mark.[/p]
• [p]Hexen Venom Trap no longer targets air units.[/p]
• [p]Hexen Venom trap no longer triggers on buildings[/p]
• [p]Dominari: Chaos mark now properly applies after Pandemonium damage impact[/p]
• [p]Updated some tooltips.[/p]

[p][/p][p]Map Updates for Stormwatch and Short Circuit.[/p][p][/p][p][/p]

[h2]PTR 2026-01-16 Balance update[/h2][p][/p][p]To start, we'd like to highlight a nice QOL update we've introduced for the Atlas and Hedgehog: Redeploy and Targeted Deployment.

With these new commands, players can now tell these deployed units to deploy at a new location in a single command. They will run the sequence of: Un-deploy, move to new location, and deploy in place. Similarly a non-deployed unit can be given the command to deploy at a location.[/p][p]
[/p][p][/p][h3]Vanguard[/h3]

• [p]Lancer[/p]
  • [p]Kinetic Redirection research time reverted to 90 seconds[/p]
    • [p]Turn Radius decreased from 0.35 to 0.2[/p]
• [p]Scout[/p]
  • [p]Turn Radius decreased from 0.25 to 0.1[/p]
• [p]Medtech[/p]
  • [p]Attack Projectile speed increased from 25 to 30[/p]
• [p]Hedgehog[/p]
  • [p]Hp decreased from 230 to 215 (up 15)[/p]
    • [p]New Ability while Mobile: Targeted Deployment[/p]
      • [p]Deploy at a target location.[/p]
    • [p]New Ability while Deployed: Reposition[/p]
      • [p]Mobilize, then deploy at a target location.[/p]
  • [p]Armor Shredding Missiles can now stack up to 90 times, up from 30[/p]
• [p]Atlas[/p]
  • [p]New Ability while Mobile: Targeted Deployment[/p]
    • [p]Deploy at a target location.[/p]
    • [p]New Ability while Deployed: Reposition[/p]
      • [p]Mobilize, then deploy at a target location.[/p]
• [p]Evac[/p]
  • [p]Unload period decreased from 0.5 to 0.25[/p]
    • [p]Base speed increased from 6.5 to 7.5[/p]
    • [p]Veterancy movement speed reward decreased from 10% to 5%[/p]

[h2]Celestial[/h2]

• [p]Argent[/p]
  • [p]Attack Projectile speed increased from 20 to 28[/p]
• [p]Scanner[/p]
  • [p]Attack Projectile speed increased from 18 to 25[/p]
• [p]Cabal[/p]
  • [p]Cost reduced from 100/100 to 100/50[/p]
    • [p]Debilitate reworked:[/p]
      • [p]10 second cooldown (up from 5)[/p]
        • [p]Reduce attack speed and attack damage of enemy units within in a 1.5 radius of a target unit 25% for 10 seconds. (Radius increased from 0.75, and duration increased by 5)[/p]
        • [p]Autocast is set to OFF as the default setting (was default to on)[/p]
• [p]New Unit: Carnivex[/p]
  • [p]Cost: 200/75 (up from 175/50)[/p]
    • [p]New Upgrade: Chrono Shell[/p]
      • [p]Requires Arcfortress, Guardian Nexus[/p]
      • [p]60 second research time.[/p]
      • [p]Costs 100/100[/p]
      • [p]50% of all damage taken is deferred. Deferred damage is dealt at a maximum rate of 20 damage per second and can be fatal.[/p]
• [p]Vector[/p]
  • [p]Turn radius decreased from 0.3 to 0.15[/p]
    • [p]Swing time on ground weapon increased from 0.0 to 0.1[/p]
    • [p]Swing time on air weapon increased from 0.0 to 0.1[/p]
• [p]New Unit: Navi[/p]
  • [p]Radiant Mantle autocast defaults to off[/p]
• [p]Seraphim[/p]
  • [p]Cost increased from 100/75 to 150/75[/p]
    • [p]Attack projectile speed increased from 15 to 22[/p]
• [p]Animancer[/p]
  • [p]HP decreased from 220 to 180[/p]
    • [p]Dark Prophecy range increased from 9 to 11[/p]
    • [p]Animus Redistribution range increased from 9 to 10[/p]
    • [p]Attack range increased from 8 to 10[/p]
    • [p]Attack projectile speed increased from 10 to 22[/p]
  • [p]Animus Redistribution heal on surrounding allies increased from 10 to 15. This is technically a bugfix since it was always supposed to be 50% of damage dealt (and it deals 30 damage)[/p]
• [p]Archangel[/p]
  • [p]Traits:[/p]
    • [p]Avatar (Requires Research Avatar):[/p]
      • [p]When Archangel uses Meteor Strike, Aether Slash, or Censure, It activates Avatar for 10 seconds. This duration is refreshed each time it uses an ability. (does not stack)[/p]
        • [p]While Avatar is active, the Archangel gains 40 armor and resilience to enemy disables (in both air and ground). It’s attack becomes ranged and deals 40 damage in a line (while still dealing 120 damage to the primary target).[/p]
          • [p]Attacks no longer slow while in avatar form[/p]
            • [p]This does not consume energy.[/p]
        • [p]Arbiter’s Respite trait removed[/p]
    • [p]Flying mode abilities:[/p]
      • [p]Aether Slash:[/p]
        • [p]30 energy cost, 8 second cooldown[/p]
          • [p]Dashes towards a target location, dealing 20 damage to enemy air units in its path and slowing them by 40% for 5 seconds.[/p]
            • [p]If Avatar has been researched, activate it.[/p]
        • [p]Reprieve removed[/p]
        • [p]Avatar (ability) removed[/p]
    • [p]Ground mode abilities:[/p]
      • [p]New ability: Censure[/p]
        • [p]30 energy cost, 8 second cooldown, Autocastable (defaults to off)[/p]
          • [p]Target an enemy unit in range, leap to that unit and stun it for 1 second.[/p]
            • [p]If Avatar has been researched, activate it.[/p]
        • [p]Reprieve removed[/p]
        • [p]Avatar (ability) removed[/p]

[h2]Infernal[/h2]

• [p]Imp[/p]
  • [p]Charge cooldown decreased from 18 to 15[/p]
• [p]Enflamed Imp[/p]
  • [p]Movement speed reverted to 5.5[/p]
    • [p]Explosion damage decreased from 100 (+50 structure) to 50 (+50 heavy) (+20 more damage vs heavy from before)[/p]
• [p]Brute[/p]
  • [p]Turn radius decreased from 0.26 to 0.18[/p]
• [p]Gaunt[/p]
  • [p]Gaunt Swing Time on ground weapon decreased from 0.2 to 0.1[/p]
    • [p]Gaunt Swing Time on air weapon decreased from 0.2 to 0.1[/p]
• [p]Hexen[/p]
  • [p]Skull of Shedda Rework:[/p]
    • [p]Slows the targeted unit by 40% for 10 seconds. (up from 5)[/p]
  • [p]Forsaken Trap Rework:[/p]
    • [p]Renamed to Phantom Trap[/p]
    • [p]Trap detonation turned into an autocast ability, can manually explode them[/p]
    • [p]A Phantom spawns for every enemy unit hit by this trap[/p]
    • [p]A unit can only spawn a Phantom this way once every 6 seconds.[/p]
    • [p]Units hit by the trap are cursed[/p]
    • [p]Units hit by the trap take 50 damage[/p]
  • [p]Necrotic Hexfield renamed to Miasma[/p]
  • [p]Attack projectile speed increaased from 18 to 25[/p]
• [p]Weaver[/p]
  • [p]Cost decreased from 125/175 to 100/175[/p]
    • [p]Weaver hp decreased from 380 to 320[/p]
    • [p]Lash range decreased from 10 to 9[/p]
• [p]New Unit: Dominari[/p]
  • [p]Cost: 150/200[/p]
  • [p]Traits:[/p]
    • [p]Chaos Mark[/p]
      • [p]This unit’s weapon attacks and Pandemonium apply Chaos Mark to hit enemy units for 10 seconds.[/p]
        • [p]Each time an allied unit deals damage to a target with Chaos Mark, the target takes 2 (+2 heavy) extra damage, and the allied unit heals for 2 hp.[/p]
    • [p]Wrath of the Domina (Reworked)[/p]
      • [p]This unit’s weapon attacks and Pandemonium deal 2x damage to enemy units with a Chaos Mark. Unlocked with Dominari Master Training[/p]
• [p]Abilities:[/p]
  • [p]Pandemonium (40 energy) (Reworked)[/p]
    • [p]Unleash a wave of dark energy that travels forward in a direction originating from the caster. Enemy units caught in this wave take 25 (+25 heavy) damage and gain a Chaos Mark for 10 seconds.[/p]
      • [p]Pandemonium wave width increased by 1, and range increased by 2, travel speed decreased.[/p]
        • [p]Pandemonium debuff no longer deals damage after it expires.[/p]
      • [p]Death March (40 energy, 6 range)[/p]
        • [p]Grant targeted units 25% increased movement speed and 25% increased attack speed for 10 seconds. (changed to grant attack speed instead of attack damage)[/p]
      • [p]Dark Oblation (2 second cooldown, 6 range)[/p]
        • [p]No longer requires an upgrade[/p]

1. [p]Stormgates[/p]
   • [p]Soulforge[/p]
     • [p]Copies now have a 120 second timed life[/p]
   • [p]Shadowmark[/p]
     • [p]Does not affect HQs[/p]
   • [p]Powerstone[/p]
     • [p]Imbue Empower now increases the target unit’s max health by 200 HP + 25% of the its original max health[/p]

[p][/p][p][/p][h2]Map Updates[/h2][h3]1v1[/h3]

• [p]Avant-garde[/p]
• [p]Bayou Caouenne[/p]
• [p]Deepvoid Outpost[/p]
• [p]Short Circuit[/p]
• [p]Shock Station[/p]

[h3]2v2[/h3]

• [p]Eco-Dome[/p]
• [p]Gaia's Grove[/p]
• [p]Hell's Haven[/p]
• [p]Lava Labs[/p]
• [p]Templar's Temple[/p]
• [p]Forge of Ashes (new)[/p]

[p][/p][h2]Misc[/h2][p][/p][p]Retextured Aeon Gate[/p][p]Rotated the Creation Chamber[/p][p]Fix for 'ToggleInGameUI' cheat - Added a few missing UI elements to hide properly[/p][p]"Allies are under attack" Alert cooldown has been increased from 10 to 15 seconds so it is less spammy. In team games, this can basically fire every 10 seconds and it becomes background noise. This timing a tradeoff between spam and potentially missing alerts if teammates are attacked in a new spot during the cooldown period.[/p]

[h2]PTR Update 2026-01-14[/h2][p][/p]

• [p]Added two new community maps to the custom games list: [/p]
  • [p]1v1 Avant-Garde[/p]
  • [p]Stormgate Battle Arena - a custom tug of war/MOBA-style game with a ton of customized hero characters.[/p]
• [p]Added the latest updates to existing community maps, including:[/p]
  • [p]Holodeck[/p]
  • [p]Frostline[/p]
  • [p]Blackspire Station[/p]
  • [p]Malice Depths[/p]
  • [p]Short Circuit[/p]
  • [p]Scarlet Isle[/p]
  • [p]Cosmic Enigma[/p]
  • [p]Desolate Temple[/p]
  • [p]and a handful more[/p][p][/p]
• [p]Stormgate Triggers updated so that the first Stormgate now spawns at 3:30 into the game.[/p][p][/p]
• [p]Potential fix for an issue where a non-functioning top bar UI would appear in some games[/p]
• [p]Added a cheat to remove visible UI elements. Type the following (case sensitive): "ToggleInGameUI"[/p]
• [p]Enabled a random selection for AI faction when playing against the bots.[/p]

[p][/p][h3]Art:[/h3]

• [p]Aeon Gate - added floating particles around the structure.[/p]
• [p]Rotated some Celestial buildings
  [/p]

[h2]Patch Notes[/h2][h3]Generic[/h3]

• [p]Destructible Sharp Rocks set to 5HP from 10HP.[/p]
• [p]Increased max zoom for the observer camera (Needs some shadow adjustments still, as they can clip out at max observer zoom currently)[/p]
• [p]Alert minimap target size increased.[/p]
• [p]Lighting on all TOD setups has been slightly brightened during day and night to help clarity a bit.[/p]
• [p]Skirmish Commanders can now be selected as the faction for AI players in Custom game lobbies. This is the beginning of us enabling players to skirmish vs Vokurka and Major Galt with their friends. Please try this out and report any issues you discover! (This change requires custom maps to be rebuilt.)[/p]

[h3]Celestial[/h3]

• [p]Archangel[/p]
  • [p]Reprieve is now transient[/p]
• [p]Arcship[/p]
  • [p]Build cooldown for Collection Array reverted to 60s from 180s[/p]
• [p]Navi[/p]
  • [p]Sovereign's Decree projectile now impacts on the target instead of the first target reached.[/p]

[h3]AI[/h3]

• [p]Fixes to allow AI commanders to use the following abilities: Phase Shift, Sonar Disruption, and Trample[/p]