Welcome to Patch 0.1.3!

In this patch, we’re sharing the results of a fun partnership with Artosis on a pair of modified Custom Maps for you to try out. We’re also introducing a new 1v1 Map, Ruination, to our Custom Games lobby and we’ve brought Infested Crater back into the Co-op map rotation after applying performance fixes. We top this patch off with some bug fixes, performance tweaks, and finish with a healthy dose of balance updates.  

Enjoy!

Support:

How to Install a Patch on Steam:

• Open Steam
• Click on Library to see your games list
• Click Downloads at the bottom of the Library window
• If the new build does not download automatically, click the Download Now button to manually download the new update

How to report a bug or provide feedback on the latest build: https://playstormgate.com/feedback 

Still having trouble? Visit our Stormgate Help Center.

Help us out by leaving a review over on Steam: bit.ly/stormgate 

Build Spotlight: 

New Map: Ruination

We’re testing a new 1v1 map, Ruination, in our Custom Games mode. Navigate steep cliffs and high rises of a ruined city as you battle your foes. We’d love to hear feedback on what you love and/or hate about this map as we hope to add it to the ranked map pool in the future. 

New Map Variations: Broken Crown

Two work-in-progress variations of 1v1 map Broken Crown have been created with the help of Artosis, who provided valuable design input. These alternate map designs will help us continue gathering feedback and evolving our level design practices.

No Creeps - This version features no Creep Camps.

Lite - This variation reduces the size of the map to create a tighter game flow.

Additional map variations will be introduced in subsequent releases based on feedback from these two. Please try them out and let us know what you think!

Patch Notes:

Co-op

• Infested Crater returns to the map pool.

Custom

• New Map: Ruination
  • Navigate the steep cliffs and high rises of a ruined city in our latest 1v1 map available in Custom Lobbies.
• Broken Crown Map Variations
  • No Creeps - This version of Broken Crown features no Creep Camps.
  • Lite - We’ve also introduced a variation that reduces the size of the map.

General

• We’ve leveled up performance by substantially improving input lag.
• Audio
  • Various units and structures have received audio updates.
  • Fixed an issue where Audio would not play correctly when loading a checkpoint in the Campaign.
  • Fixed an issue where music would not play correctly on the Stormlands Campaign mission. 

Balance Notes and Commentary:

Co-op

Blockade

• Revitalize energy cost reduced from 15 to 10.
• Heroic Leap energy cost reduced from 30 to 25.
• Gear: Advanced Training
  • Biological units now start at Tier 2 Veterancy, down from Tier 3 Veterancy.

Amara

• Gear: Trained to Kill
  • Biological bonus attack damage decreased from 25% to 15%.

Ranked

General

• Projectile speeds increased across the board.

We wanted to generally increase the pace of battles and mitigate the occurrence of projectiles chasing their targets across the map.

• You can now target BOB Overcharge on a location. If you target a friendly Vanguard Command, the ability will overcharge all BOBs near the closest Vanguard Command. You may also target the minimap with this ability.
• You can now Shroudweave on a target location. If you target near a valid target, the ability will activate. You may also target the minimap with this ability.

A few quality of life improvements to abilities that required you to target a very specific type of structure.

• Teching to Tier 2 for all factions cost decreased from 150/100 to 100/100.

We’d like to slightly reduce the friction of teching up as we felt games remained on Tier 1 longer than we’d like. In addition, we saw situations where it was difficult to counter a Tier 1 unit because its intended counter was on Tier 2.

• BOB Overcharge armor granted decreased from 50 to 25.
• Shroudstones spawned from Shroudstone Manifestation no longer receive a damage bonus.
• Sovereign's Watch Charge-up time increased from 90 seconds to 120 seconds.

All three abilities, which allowed players to defend themselves in a pinch, created situations that disincentivized attacking or harassment. We plan to take a large pass at these types of abilities in the future, but for now, we’ll be tuning their power level.

Vanguard

SCOUT

• Damage changed from 5 (+3 vs Light) to 5 (+3 vs Light), (+5 vs Creeps).

In the last large balance patch, we toned down the lethality of the SCOUT, which caused Vanguard to fall behind in early-game creeping wars. This change will allow Vanguard to efficiently creep in the early-game without being oppressive in direct fights.

Vulcan

• Cost decreased from 200/125 to 200/100.

Along with the changes to teching up to Tier 2, this cost decrease is designed to entice players to tech to Vulcans on low base counts.

Atlas

• Weapon missile speed increased from 12 to 18.

This change slightly reduces the dodge potential for more viable Atlas play. Units with average movement speed will no longer be able to fully dodge the weapon, which means that Atlases will generally always do some damage when they fire.

Hornet/Evac/Sentinel/Helicarrier

• Return to Hangar heal rate increased from 5 to 10 health per second.

We’d like for flying units that are sent home via Return to Hangar to get back into the battle a bit faster so more cool plays can be made and action can happen on the map.

Evac

• Health increased from 200 to 250.

These are getting a slight bump because, over the past few patches, including this one, we’ve been buffing various anti-air units. As a result, Evac play has fallen a bit behind.

Helicarrier

• Health decreased from 600 to 500.

In general, we’d like the Helicarrier to be more vulnerable if you can engage with the body. Along with the Shadowflyer changes, we’d like to give Infernals more tools to fight Helicarriers.

Infernals

Effigy

• Effigy health on-Shroud decreased from 200 health to 100 health[/.

We felt that the counterplay to on-Shroud Effigies was difficult, especially for Celestials who often have to expend Argent Energy in order to kill Effigies.

Brute

• Cost increased from 100 to 125.
• Range increased from 0.5 to 1.
• Range Slop reduced from 2 to 1.5.
• Outer radius decreased from 0.9 to 0.7.
• Weapon Period increased from 2.2 to 1.5.
• Damage decreased from 30 to 20.
• Backswing Locked decreased from -1 to 0.5.
  • Determines how long to pause after attacking before chasing a moving target.
• Swing Reacquire Range increased from 0 to 1
  • After swinging on a target, if the target dies before attack, scan this radius for another target to hit without re-swinging.

The Brute is slightly too cost-efficient overall in early-game where they are able to bully Vanguard players from creeping. This change, in addition to the below Fiend changes, should allow the other factions to be more competitive in creeping. In addition, we’re tuning small aspects of the Brute to make it less cumbersome to control, especially in large numbers. While these changes will improve the Brute overall, we still consider the totality of the changes to Brutes and Fiends to be an overall nerf.

Fiend

• Health decreased from 60 to 40.
• White Health decreased from 15 to 10.
• Damage increased from 6 to 7.

Fiends have constantly been a problem for Celestial players throughout various stages of the game due to the relative difficulty of consistently clearing out masses of respawning token units. Our goals with this change are to lower the Fiend’s power and shift that power away from tanking into DPS.

Hexen

• Hexen Adept Training upgrade cost decreased from 100/100 to 50/50.
• Venom Trap Activation Radius decreased from 2.5 to 1.5.
• Venom Trap Detonation Radius decreased from 4 to 2.5.
• Venom Traps will still set each other off but they all do their damage when they explode.

We want to shift Venom Trap towards a direction where they can create more explosive moments. After this change, it will be possible to set off a stack of mines and have them all explode on you. In addition, it will be less effective to send a single unit to clear out all the mines in an area. We’re also lowering the research cost to attain Venom Trap, because we received feedback that the cost was too high relative to other options.

Weaver

• Health decreased from 580 to 400.
• White Health decreased from 145 to 100.
• Lash autocast no longer intelligently discriminates against units with higher supply cost.
• Lash autocast range decreased from 10 to 8.

In the last major balance patch, we increased the base movement speed of Weavers from 2 to 2.5, a mere 25% increase. Since then, Weavers have catapulted from being a lesser-used unit to arguably the strongest unit in the game. While we enjoy the usability improvements from these changes, we’re going to adjust its health to balance out its power level.

In addition, we felt the autocast functionality of Lash was a bit too intelligent, removing the need to micro the ability.

Hellborne

• Cost decreased from 250/225 to 250/200.
• Can now attack air units.
  • If it attacks an air unit, it’ll deal splash damage to air units.
  • If it attacks a ground unit, it’ll deal splash damage to ground units.

The Hellborne was flagged as an underpowered unit relative to its artillery peers prior to researching its Tier 3 upgrade. Our goals with this set of changes are to grant Infernals a long-range ground-to-air option, more greatly differentiate the unit relative to its counterparts, and make it a more attractive unit overall before its Tier 3 upgrade.

Shadowflyer

• Primary damage increased from 50 to 50 (+20 vs Heavy).
• Splash damage increased from 25 to 25 (+10 vs Heavy).

We’d like to tune Shadowflyers to be a bit better against low numbers of highly armored air units such as Helicarriers and Arcfortresses.

Celestials

Power Surge

• Power Surge production structure build speed bonus decreased from 50% to 25%.

We felt that Power Surge is part of the equation that too efficiently enables early-game rushes, proxies, and pushes.

Sovereign’s Watch

• Sovereign's Watch can now attack structures.
• Sovereign's Watch can now attack workers.

We’d like to revert a change we made to Sovereign’s Watch that was aimed at preventing certain types of cheese. With other nerfs to Sovereign’s Watch, edits to certain maps, and edits to the map pool, we no longer believe this is as much of an issue, and we’d like to help Celestials defend certain early-game static defense rushes.

Strike Node

• Upgrade cost increased from 75/0 to 100/0.

Blast Node

• Upgrade cost increased from 75/50 to 100/50.
• Weapon period increased from 2 to 3.

Celestial defensive structures were the most efficient defensive structures in the game, even if you don’t account for the potential bonuses provided by Power Surge. This encouraged Celestial players to turtle and enabled extremely greedy early-game builds where all that’s needed is a single Blast Node plus Sovereign's Watch to hold off an entire army. We’re also adjusting Blast Nodes in a way such that it’ll be easier to micro against it.

Collection Array

• Collection Mode to Flying Mode morph time increased from 1 second to 5 seconds.

We wanted to increase the amount of foresight Celestial players needed to lift off their Collection Arrays to increase the ability for enemy players to punish greedy Collection Arrays.

Argent

• Build time increased from 26 to 28.

Mass Argent pushes against all factions are still an issue, and this change, along with the Power Surge change, are designed to temper this.

Vector

• Ground weapon damage changed from 6 (+6 vs Light) to 9.
• Recall research duration increased from 60 seconds to 90 seconds.

The Vector was a bit too devastating against Light units, including workers, especially when used in rushes and proxies. These changes will allow SCOUTs and Exos to better fight Vectors in the early-game. Combined with changes to SCOUTs and Power Surge, our hope is that Vanguard will be able to more easily hold rushes and transition to mid-game on more even ground and then have the freedom to Creep the map.

Something we’ll be looking very closely at is the efficiency of Recall and its potential to fully heal the Vector during the early-mid game.

Scythe

• Pulse Shield damage reduction increased from 50% to 90%.
• Pulse Shield duration decreased from 10 seconds to 2 seconds.
• The original Tensor Pulse trait has been removed. Instead, a new version has been added, which requires an upgrade.
  • Old Trait: This unit’s attacks deal more damage the closer it is to the target, up to a 100% bonus.
• New Upgrade: Tensor Pulse
  • Allows the Scythe's weapon to deal 100% bonus damage to air units within 4 range.
  • Tensor Pulse trait removed by default.
• Retaliation Matrix ability and upgrade removed.

We’ve received feedback that the Scythe is both a frustrating and confusing unit. The frustration comes from how little damage the unit takes in general over the course of a fight, so we’ll be tuning the Pulse Shield ability to be a more powerful ability over a much shorter duration.

This Scythe and how it does damage is also confusing, because it has two hidden damage modifiers in Tensor Pulse and Retaliation Matrix. In response to this feedback, we’ll be removing Retaliation Matrix and reworking Tensor Pulse to be more binary of an ability. In addition, we’ll be changing the visuals of the Scythe’s attacks so it’ll be easier to tell when it’s doing extra damage.

Cabal

• Mind Shackle energy cost decreased from 75 to 50.
• Mind Shackle cooldown decreased from 60 to 20.
• Mind Shackle slop range increased from 1 to 5.

This is one of the least-used abilities in the game that we think has a lot of potential. During investigation into this ability, we found a bug that essentially made the slop range of this ability 1 instead of the intended 5. Slop range is the amount of bonus range the ability can still channel if the target walks away; after this channel, the target of Mind Shackle must walk 10 distance away from the Cabal to cancel the ability, up from 6. We believe these changes have the potential to greatly improve this ability.

Animancer

• Animus Redistribution damage decreased from 30 to 20.
• Animus Redistribution energy destroyed increased from 15 to 20.
• Dark Prophecy slow debuff amount decreased from 50% to 25%.

We felt the healing aspect of Animus Redistribution was a bit too strong, so we’d like to tune this ability to one that’s more focused on draining energy. In addition, the slow debuff from Dark Prophecy felt a little too punishing.

Archangel

• Cost decreased from 400/300 to 350/300.
• Ground weapon range increased from 0.75 to 1.5.
• Air weapon range increased from 0.75 to 1.5.
• Radius decreased from 1.4 to 1.2.

Similar to the Brute, we’d like to improve the usability of this short-range unit.

Bugs

• Fixed a bug where the Blinding Saliva debuff from Spriggans was not dispellable.