Stormgate News

Hi, everyone, Tim Morten here.

Two days ago, Stormgate was released publicly into Early Access. This was a huge milestone for us. Early Access is a new experience for the team, but I genuinely believe in the benefits of using feedback to drive development.

[h3]We want to thank all of you who have been supportive of our team and of Stormgate. [/h3]

Remember: this is only the beginning of our journey. Our Early Access launch formally begins on August 13 when we open up the game for free to all players and we still have a long road ahead. We expect to be in Early Access for at least a year of active development before we believe we’ll be ready for 1.0. That won’t be the end, either, as we plan to release new stories and more content for years to come.

[h3]Here are a few highlights we’d like to share after our preview release:[/h3]

• Stable launch: We were able to bring together players from all around the world and, despite a few initial hiccups, achieved 98.6% uptime for our servers.
  
• Campaign is the most-played mode: Of the many thousands of total games played, campaign made up about half, followed by custom games. We are excited for the future of our ever-evolving campaign and will be dedicating a lot of time to improving them in the future. More on that below.
  
• More playtime = more fun: We found this interesting–though it may seem obvious–but Steam reviewer data indicates that the more players take the time to sink their teeth into the game and explore the various modes in Stormgate, the more they tend to enjoy it. You’ll find Reddit posts to this effect too, where players’ opinions improved after actually spending some time with the game.
  

[h3]Our Ultimate Thanks[/h3]
Some of our most dedicated supporters expressed disappointment when they saw that we had a Hero available for sale on day one. We tried to make the content in our Kickstarter bundles clear during the campaign, but we understand that many players looked at our “Ultimate” bundles on Kickstarter (and Indiegogo) as the path towards purchasing all of the gameplay content we’d have available for our Early Access release.

We want our backers to feel rewarded, so as a thank you, will be granting the next* paid Hero we release to everyone who backed Stormgate on Kickstarter or Indiegogo at the Ultimate Founder’s Pack tier and above, for free.

We also aim to grant that next paid Hero for free to everyone who purchased or purchases the Ultimate Early Access pack on Steam. Please note that this process will require additional engineering work and may be something we will have to fulfill after the release of that Hero.

*(Why not Warz? We need to grant the next paid Hero for free because players have already purchased Warz and we are unable to make him free retroactively.)

[h3]We’re Acting on Feedback [/h3]
Early Access provides us with critical feedback that will help us continue iterating and improving the game. Here are some of the issues we’re already taking steps to address in the months to come:

Audio and Visual Feedback

• We saw negative reaction to character models in the cut-scenes, particularly Amara, and to real-time segments not having animated mouths. We have changes planned based on this feedback, which will take time to implement. The current implementation was definitely something we considered “Early Access” and not “final.”
  
• We heard feedback about inconsistent audio levels, repetitive announcer lines, and spammy unit response lines. These will be improved.
  
• Some players dislike our stylized art direction and, as I noted in our last AMA, we’re going to continue to refine our look, but we’re committed to a stylized direction. We think it’s the right creative choice for Stormgate.
  

Customizable Hotkeys

• These are coming, though implementation in Unreal takes time. This will include fully re-bindable hotkeys, including adding support for modifiers.
  

Campaign Improvements

• We'll be adding a pause function to the campaign. We’re also beginning planning for a save/load system that will work in tandem with our existing checkpoint save system.
  
• The models you see in our cutscenes are the game models that were designed to be seen from top-down gameplay perspective. We’re going to look at our production timelines and schedule production on animated faces and other improvements for our models sooner than originally planned. This is significant work for our team, but we understand that many players feel the characters in our cutscenes are a critical part of the campaign experience.
  

[h3]Financial Projections[/h3]
I read the thread where someone tried to project Frost Giant's possible financial outcomes. Those projections were wildly inaccurate. Like any business, Frost Giant needs to make products that people decide to purchase in order to succeed. We're trying very hard to do that, and we're grateful to be well-funded relative to most start-ups, including many who never get to see their game in players’ hands.

[h3]We’re Just Getting Started[/h3]
We’re encouraged by how the game is performing during this limited preview period. The feedback we’re getting, positive and negative, will help us make the next great RTS. We look forward to opening Stormgate to a wider audience, and getting more valuable feedback, when we open up the game for free to everyone on August 13.

Everyone at Frost Giant is deeply grateful to the community who support Stormgate. This game is our passion project, and we're continuing to work hard to make it shine. Your feedback is tremendously valuable--we are listening. Please keep the suggestions coming, bear with us, stay respectful, and GLHF!

Early Access is here, and we're excited to feature the community playing Stormgate.

Stormgate is FREE and launches into Early Access August 13, 2024!

Want to get into the game even earlier?
Visit the Stormgate page on Steam and pre-purchase any Early Access Pack to get in on July 30!:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/2012510/Stormgate/

Stormgate is Frost Giant Studios' love letter to classic RTS games and a work of passion and dedication from our team. Early Access is an essential milestone in our journey, but far from the final destination. This initial release, which features competitive 1v1, the start of our ever-evolving campaign, 3P co-op missions, and custom games, is only the beginning. We plan on telling more stories, introducing new game modes, and sharing the tools we've been using to build our game with the community.

Check out the Stormgate Roadmap to see what's on the horizon:
https://playstormgate.com/news/the-stormgate-roadmap

Questions? Refer to the FAQ:
https://playstormgate.com/faq

If you've been a Stormgate playtester, you're going to want to read this list of the ten most impactful changes coming to Stormgate PvP carefully before diving back into the ranked ladder. Let's get into it!

[h2]1. More Powerful Creep, More Rewarding Rewards[/h2]

Creeps are a crucial part of our game, but we received feedback that the rewards they provided were not enticing enough relative to the risk and attention it required to kill them. We’ve reworked the Creeps to both be much more enticing and difficult to kill, allowing them to play a much more impactful role in the game.

[h2]2. Map Reworks[/h2]

We’ve made a ton of changes to every map that drastically alters how they play. Most notably, the positions of Creep camps have been tweaked on every single map. Some maps, such as Titan’s Causeway and Isle of Dread have undergone huge reworks based on player feedback. Combined with the Creep reworks, each map should feel like a new experience.

[h2]3. Increased Tier-Up Times[/h2]

We increased the time it takes to tier up your command structures to reinforce more distinct early, mid, and late-game phases. In addition, this change allows tiering up to be more meaningful gates to key pieces of powerful tech. No more rising up the corporate ladder in record time for those easy promotions!

[h2]4. More Economic Harassment Opportunities[/h2]

We agree with the feedback that it was a bit difficult to harass players’ economy, especially for Celestials. While we never want worker harassment to be too volatile, we think the current situation discourages engagement with each others’ bases. As a result, we’ve tweaked B.O.B. Overcharge, Prisms, and Collection Arrays. Let us know how this feels after you test this out for yourselves.

[h2]5. Veterancy Specialization[/h2]

We’ve standardized the Vanguard Veterancy bonus to grant health and damage bonuses across the board as well as one special bonus that makes veteran units do their job better. Combined with the Promote ability, our intention is that you’ll be able to more specialize into key units that counter your opponent’s army. Suddenly surprised by a ton of Spriggans? Pump out a Hornet and Promote it for an effective counter!

[h2]6. Bringing Back Infestation[/h2]

In our Elephant closed beta release, the Gaunt’s Infest passive was overly centralizing the early-game, causing too many Fiends to be generated before players of other factions could reasonably hold them off. In our Frigate release, we removed the Infestation passive and instead kitted them to be more of a speedy skirmisher. While we got feedback that the new Gaunt was very fun to play with, others felt that the Gaunt had lost some of its soul and identity. As such, we’re reintroducing the Gaunt’s ability to Infest but putting it behind an upgrade so we can delay the timing at which it comes online. This allows them to be the best of both worlds: a speedy skirmisher that also Infests!

[h2]7. Animus Tweaks[/h2]

Similarly, in our Elephant release, Animus was generated too slowly early-game but too quickly later on. In Frigate, we made some changes that normalized the generation rate, but the resulting numbers made Animus too rare, causing Animus Rituals to be hardly used. Specifically, we removed the ability to gain Animus from killing enemy units. While this allowed Animus to become more of a comeback mechanic, a negative side-effect was that it disincentivized Infernals players from creeping/trading, which wasn’t very thematic with what Infernals are all about. In EA, killing enemy units will now grant some Animus, and Animus Rituals have all been rebalanced to encourage players to use their abilities.

[h2]8. Celestial Power and Construction Reworked[/h2]

First, Power. We received two main pieces of feedback from our first iteration of Power:

It felt more stick than carrot, more of a punishment than a bonus.

It felt binary: you never cared about how much extra Power you had, just that you were not in Red Power.

We’ve made a few changes to address this feedback:

You now gain passive bonuses for being in Yellow or Green Power.

Red Power no longer prevents you from building structures, attacking with structures, or using Energize from Power Banks.

Astral Interventions now cost Power, which recharges over time.

Power Redistribution has been replaced with Power Surge.

Then there’s construction. The most prominent feedback we received about Celestials was how difficult it is to understand where to start due to their build options being locked behind the Quick Macro Panel. In addition, players were confused why certain buildings were built from the Morph Core and others were built through the Quick Macro Panel. In response, we’ve surfaced additional ways to build structures without accessing the Quick Macro Panel and allowed Morph Cores to morph into any structure more efficiently than through other means. We hope this feels more intuitive and player-friendly.

[h2]9. Upgrades Galore[/h2]

We’ve added 27 new upgrades into the game, many of them Tier 3 upgrades that will change the way you use lower-tier units in the game. In addition, we’ve added faction-wide upgrades that affect core faction mechanics. Some of our favorite upgrades include:

Survival Protocol: Allows Exos to negate fatal damage once every 120 seconds.

Molten Touch: Allows the Hellborne to light enemy units on fire.

Divebomb: Allows Shadowflyers to Divebomb enemy structures.

Darkness Spreads: Increases the radius of all Shroud by 50%.

[h2]10. Less Durable Towers[/h2]

Finally, we received feedback that turtling with towers was too strong a strategy in our final closed beta playtest. We attribute this to the strength of and especially the durability of towers and that the only counter to towers were artillery units that could be zoned out by more artillery units from other factions.

To address this, the spammable towers from Infernals and Celestials were reduced in durability, and we’ve added some abilities that allow for alternative ways to counter/bypass towers. In addition, we hope that by highlighting the importance of Creep camps, turtling on low base counts will be less enticing. Going into Early Access, the strength of towers is something we’ll be closely monitoring.