Welcome to Patch 0.2.1!
While this is a relatively small patch, you will find changes to early economy, bug fixes, and balance changes. On top of this, we are rolling over our Season ladder rankings and win/loss stats for the first time, giving everyone a fresh start for the new year.
Plus - join us starting January 27 for a Lunar New Year celebration as we ring in the Year of the Snake with DOUBLE XP for your Co-op Heroes!
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
Still having trouble? Visit our Stormgate Help Center.
Double XP for Lunar New Year
Join us for a Lunar New Year’s celebration as we say goodbye to the Year of the Dragon and welcome the start of the Year of the Snake! From January 27 4pm PT to February 10 4pm PT, we’re offering DOUBLE XP for Hero progression. . Now is the perfect time to get those Heroes to level 20!
Patch Notes:
General:
- Various tooltip fixes.
- The Vector’s Delta Jump ability will now appear at the player’s cursor location instead of blinking to the center of a targeted unit.
- Fixed an issue where casting Solar Charge while selecting multiple Solar Habitats did not work as expected.
Co-Op:
- Kastiel’s Collection Array now issues a move-command when using right mouse click.
- Fixed an issue where the Throat Rip ability was not tied to the volume mixer.
Versus:
- Changes to our MMR and Queue systems:
- Rebalancing queue timers.
- Rolling out Early Access Season 2! This includes a reset of all win/loss stats.
- Division boundaries have been tweaked based on data from Early Access Season 1.
- Updating parameters for 1v1 matchmaking to help tune match quality.
Balance Notes/Commentary:
Hey hey, ‘Gaters,
Before diving into the specifics of this patch, we’d like to share the overarching goals of the 1v1 team in the coming months. We’re focusing on two core gameplay pillars:
- Creating Exciting Moments: Making cool things happen more often
- Clarity: Simplifying mechanics and making them easier to understand
Most of the large-scale changes we’ll make in 1v1 will be in service of these two goals, and our first major update focuses on revamping the economy, with adjustments designed to streamline gameplay, enhance pacing, and improve balance across factions.
Economy Changes:
General:
- Maximum Luminite income per base across all three factions increased from 600 per minute to 750 per minute.
Vanguard:
- Vanguard starting B.O.B. count increased from 8 to 10.
- B.O.B Luminite mined per trip increased from 4 to 5.
- B.O.B Therium mined per trip increased from 5 to 6.
- B.O.B Therium mining time increased from 6 seconds to 7.2 seconds.
Infernals:
- Starting Imp count increased from 8 to 10.
- Imp Luminite mined per trip increased from 4 to 5.
- Imp Therium mined per trip increased from 5 to 6.
- Imp Therium mining time increased from 6 seconds to 7.2 seconds.
Celestials:
- Starting Prism count increased from 1 to 2.
- Prisms can no longer directly mine from Luminite Mines but instead must enhance an already constructed Collection Array. Prisms enhance Mines for 50% additional income. Each Prism effectively adds 150 Luminite per minute. Previously, each Prism added 75 Luminite per minute.
- Max number of Prisms that can be attached to a Luminite mine decreased from 4 to 3.
- No changes to Collection Array gathering rate.
- Prisms now build from Deployed Collection Arrays rather than Arcships.
- Prism cost increased from 125/0 to 150/0.
- Prism supply cost increased from 2 to 3.
- Prism build time increased from 30 seconds to 40 seconds.
- Prisms can now return Therium to Deployed Collection Arrays in addition to Arcships and Therium Purifiers.
- Therium Purifier cost increased from 225/0 to 250/0.
- Morph Cores now obey combat unit rally points from the quick macro panel instead of worker rally points.
These changes are intended to achieve the following:
- Increase the pace of the early game.
- Accelerate the overall pace of the game and expand the scale of battles.
- Streamline and balance specific Celestial mechanics.
When we first explored quick economy adjustments, our primary objective was to address feedback that the early-game pacing felt too slow. Historically, we relied on Creep Camps to compensate for this, but they introduced several unintended side effects. While experimenting with various solutions, including a “Rich Luminite Mine” concept, we ultimately determined that increasing the mining rate and starting worker count was the most natural and effective approach.
This adjustment not only speeds up the early game but also addresses player requests for larger and more dynamic battles, making the game feel more engaging overall.
We’ve also received substantial feedback on the Celestial economy, particularly around the following issues:
- Collection Array income is disproportionately high compared to Prism income. This imbalance caused Celestial economies to spike significantly in the early game. While we appreciated that a mass Collection Array strategy was viable due to the different expansion patterns among the factions, we found it to be slightly excessive. By increasing Prism efficiency and improving the performance of workers in other factions, building Prisms becomes more critical.
- Prism Therium mining efficiency was too high compared to other factions. With these changes, Prisms are now more expensive, and other factions’ workers will mine Therium more efficiently. This ensures a more balanced and comparable Therium income rate across all factions
In addition to balance adjustments, we’ve worked to tackle some of the challenges players face in understanding Celestial mechanics. For example:
- Prisms could mine from both Luminite Mines and Deployed Collection Arrays, which often led to confusion.
- The Arcship was overloaded with responsibilities, creating a frustrating user experience.
While these economic changes address some of the complexity, we recognize there is still work to be done to make Celestials more approachable and intuitive.
Other Balance Changes
Next, we’d like to take a regular look at balance. As it stands, win-rates look as follows:
- Vanguard vs Infernals: 50%
- Infernals vs Celestials: 52%
- Vanguard vs Celestials: 43%
Win-rates look pretty good overall with the exception of VvC, which we believe was affected by changes to Hedgehogs in the previous patch. Additionally, players have frequently highlighted two issues: the relative imbalance of the Celestial economy and Vanguard's difficulty in punishing more “greedy” strategies.
Below are the balance-related adjustments we’re including in this patch:
Vanguard
- Hedgehog
- Damage changed from 8 (+7 vs Heavy) to 10 (+5 vs Heavy).
- Hedgehog armor decreased from 5 to 0.
- Exo
- Health increased from 130 to 145.
- Damage changed from 12 (+6 vs Heavy) to 14 (+3 vs Heavy).
In the last patch, we adjusted Hedgehogs to make them more specialized against Heavy units, enabling Exos to counter them more effectively in direct engagements. However, this change left Vanguard with limited options against early-game Kri openings. As a result, we’ll be reverting this specific Hedgehog adjustment and instead addressing the issue through more changes to the Exo.
Looking ahead, we plan to shift our unit design philosophy over the next few patches. Our goal is to reduce the specialization of Tier-1 units while focusing on making higher-tier units more specialized and impactful. Historically, we believe a large part of the V>I>C>V triangle we’ve had in the last few months is due to how hard the Tier-1 units counter each other, and the game can’t stabilize effectively. By delaying these harder counters to later tiers, we aim to make the early game more focused on unit quantity and strategic usage rather than unit types.
- Hornet
- Release Skymine no longer requires an upgrade.
- Helicarrier
- Cost increased from 300/250 to 375/325.
- Now starts with 3 Bombers on creation.
- Training time increased from 55 to 70 seconds.
Both of these unit changes aim to bring players to the fun more quickly.
Infernals:
- Gaunt
- Ground weapon acquisition range increased from 7 to 9.
Addresses a niche issue where Gaunts had difficulty engaging a ground army half a screen away if there was an Arcship directly on top of them.
- Hexen
- Miasma energy cost decreased from 60 to 50.
- Miasma cooldown decreased from 15 seconds to 2 seconds
- Miasma no longer requires channeling. Miasma no longer drains energy during channeling.
- Miasma now has a 5 second fixed duration, down from potentially infinite.
- Miasma effect delay time decreased from 1.5 seconds to 1 seconds.
We received feedback that Miasma was overly nerfed, and players missed the positional play provided by Hexens. We’ve reworked Miasma to be more useful, more straight-forward, and more different from Dark Prophecy.
Celestials:
- Arcfortress
- Fate’s End damage reduced from 1800 to 1200.
- Fate’s End energy cost reduced from 75 to 50.
- Fate’s End cooldown increased from 10 seconds to 20 seconds.
This ability was solely being used to snipe enemy Command Structures such as Shrines. We’ve reworked the ability to be better against other structures but worse against Shrines.
- Morph Core
- Health decreased from 230 to 180.
Reducing the effectiveness of Morph Cores as a combat unit in order to better mitigate the effectiveness of certain rush tactics, especially against Infernals.
- Argent
- Damage changed from 8 (+4 vs Heavy) to 10 (+3 vs Heavy).
- High Energy bonus damage decreased from 100% to 50%.
- Charged damage changed from 16 (24 vs Heavy) to 15 (19.5 vs Heavy).
- The Longshot Module upgrade now also increases the damage bonus from High Energy from 50% to 75%.
- Fully upgraded damage changed from 16 (24 vs Heavy) to 17.5 (22.75 vs Heavy).
Following our goal to make Tier-1 units less pointed, we're adjusting Argents to be more “all-around,” both in the sense that they’ll be less specialized against Heavy targets but also reduce the differential between when they have Energy and when they do not.
- Scanner
- No longer requires Arcstation.
- Now requires Guardian Nexus.
We’d like to grant Celestials more easy scouting at Tier-1, especially in the mirror.
- Cabal
- Gravity Flux duration decreased from 6 seconds to 4 seconds.
Gravity Flux was slightly more effective against Vulcans than we’d like, which we believe is one of the big culprits around VvC imbalance.
- Vector
- Anti-air weapon range increased from 6 to 8.
- Scythe
- Movement speed increased from 5.5 to 6.
The two changes above allow Celestials to more easily fight Infernal flyers. The change to Vectors further enhances them as an anti-Spriggan unit while the movement speed buff to Scythes allows them to stay on pace with Flayed Dragons.
- Seraphim
- Condemnation creep damage increased from 200% to 300%.
- Creepbane Guard creep damage reduction increased from 50% to 75%.
The Seraphim wasn’t impactful enough in its intended role to justify its usage. We believe it can be significantly strengthened without becoming overpowered, particularly given the reduced importance of Creeps in this patch compared to the standard mining economy.
While this is not a large patch, we believe the economic changes and adjustments on balance will have a significant impact on how the game feels. We’re resetting the ranked ladder and will be keeping a close eye on how the three factions perform. Be sure to leave feedback on Discord or Steam and let us know how the game feels after these changes go live!