Stormgate Patch 0.3.0

Welcome to the Stormgate Early Access 0.3.0 update, featuring the long-awaited fully customizable hotkey system. The dev team has been working incredibly hard to prepare this update for you, and we’re excited to roll out a variety of quality-of-life changes, improvements, and bug fixes across the entire game on February 25, 2025 when the patch goes live. Be sure to check out the full notes below to check out everything we have in store.

The Stormgate Early Access 0.3.0 update also includes support for Frost Giant’s upcoming Children’s Hospital of Orange County (CHOC) charity tournament. Everyone can participate for free–you can sign up today and do your part to support kids in need.

As always, thank you for your support!

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: http://bit.ly/stormgate

Build Spotlight:

Stormgate for CHOC Charity Tournament & Choco Pet:

At Frost Giant Studios and RallyCry, we believe that gaming has the power to bring people together—not just for competition, but for a cause. That’s why we’re proud to co-host a tournament in support of CHOC Foundation and Children's Hospital, an institution that provides world-class care for children in need. The Stormgate for CHOC Charity Tournament is free to join and open to all Stormgate players who want to compete for a great cause. Join us this weekend, March 1 and 2, and be sure to bring your friends. The more participants, the higher the prize pool, and the greater the donation to CHOC. Signups are still open! See full information here.

To further support the life-saving care provided by CHOC, Frost Giant Studios has stitched together an adorable in-game pet, Choco, modeled after CHOC’s iconic bear mascot which is available for $6.99. 100% of the net proceeds (less taxes and third party service provider fees) from each Choco adoption fee will go directly to CHOC to fund their cutting-edge pediatric research and programs.

Hotkeys and Automated Control Groups:

There have been a number of changes and improvements to the hotkey system both big and small, including long requested features and support. We are going to list some of the smaller changes first, because some of the larger changes make use of the smaller changes.

• Alternate Hotkeys: Stormgate now supports “alternate” hotkeys. You can now assign two hotkeys to the same action.
• Steal+Add To Control Group: Stormgate now supports “Steal+Add To Control Group” hotkeys. The hotkey for this is Alt+Shift+# (0-9). These allow you to remove your selected units from any existing control groups they are in and add them to a specified control group. For example, if you have 5 Lancers selected and you press Alt+Shift+3, those Lancers will be removed from all control groups they are currently in, but then added to Control Group 3.
• Remove From Control Groups: Stormgate now has a hotkey to remove selected units from all of the control groups they are in without adding them to any control groups. The hotkey for this by default is “Alt+`”.
• Cycle Town Halls: We have added a hotkey (Backspace) to cycle between your ‘Town Halls’ (each faction’s headquarters building). Pressing this hotkey will select one of your Town Halls and center the camera on it. If you press this hotkey repeatedly, it will cycle between your Town Halls one after the other, eventually looping back to the first.
• Cycle Quick Macro Tabs: We have added an assignable hotkey for cycling between quick macro tabs. Pressing this hotkey will open the first available quick macro tab, and pressing it repeatedly will cycle between the rest of the available quick macro tabs in order, eventually looping back to the first. The primary purpose of this hotkey is to improve accessibility for input devices with limited available buttons for players who use them. This hotkey is bound to ‘O’ by default.
• Per-Command Hotkeys (AKA “Fully Customizable Hotkeys”): We have added the ability to assign hotkeys based on individual commands instead of just based on grid position. Grid position hotkeys are still available. You can access the new (and old) hotkey options by using the “Hotkeys” button on the Escape menu, both in and out of game.
• Automated Control Groups Customization: We have also added the ability to customize Automated Control Groups. You can now decide for yourself what groups you want each unit to go into. You can access Automated Control Group customization through the “Control Groups” button on the Escape menu, both in and out of game.

In addition, we have also made a couple of changes to the default settings for Automated Control Groups and the “Select All Army” button.

• We no longer assign Automated Control Groups to keys 1, 2, and 3 by default.
• All army units now automatically go into Control Group 10 (0) by default.
• We have changed the default hotkey for “Select All Army” to “M”.
• We have added “Spacebar” as an alternate hotkey for Control Group 10 (0) by default.

The goal for these changes is to provide players with a "Select All Army" key that they can optionally remove units of their choosing from so those units will no longer be selected with the key alongside the rest of their army. For example, if you want to leave your S.C.O.U.T. in some bushes on Hold Position, but still want to be able to use your “Select All Army” key, you can use the “Remove From Control Groups” hotkey to make it no longer selectable using your pseudo “Select All Army” key, which is really just Control Group 10 (0) now.

For players who prefer the old way that Select All Army functions, the hotkey still exists and can be rebound from M back to Spacebar.

We will continue to make changes and improvements to the hotkey system and would appreciate your feedback on these updates.

Patch Notes:

General:

• Twitch In-Client Embed
  • Twitch streams can now be featured directly in the Stormgate client.

• Flyer Flocking
  • Flocking flight behavior allows for flying units to overlap with one another in order to reach a destination.
    • A flying unit may pass through another flying unit to reach a goal.
    • Overlapping flying units in motion will seek to spread out from other flying units in motion.
    • Overlapping motionless flying units will seek to spread out from other motionless flying units.
    • Units must spread out before they can attack.

  
  
• Projectile Movement Behavior
  • Abilities that launch the unit as a projectile along a curved path (Heroic Leap, Tuck and Roll) will look more smooth.
  • Arcing projectiles (Mortardon, Atlas) now have more natural arcs and will reach a higher apex to cover longer distances.
  • Removed a brief visual delay before projectiles disappeared at their impact location.

• Unit Turning
  • Units now have turn smoothing, so they no longer turn at constant rotation rates. While turning to approach their intended facing angle, units’ rotation will slow down, which results in more natural looking movement.

• Camera Smoothing Setting:
  • This game option now has three tiers of camera smoothing for edge, arrow and drag scrolling. The highest setting is great for observers.

• Pre-Game Countdown:
  • A countdown to match start will now take place in non-campaign games after loading is complete.

• Pause
  • You may now pause the game in any mode.
  • Players are limited to three pauses while in games with other players.

• Area of Effect Targeting Affected Unit Indicators
  • When targeting various area-of-effect abilities, friendly units will be highlighted in green if the ability affects them and enemy units will be highlighted in red.

• Range Indicators
  • Range Indicators will correctly visualize range when range is upgraded via research.

• Error Messaging
  • You will receive more error messages when you cannot use an ability for a specific reason. (i.e. ‘Target must be damaged’ or ‘Not enough stored Bombers’). Even more error messages are coming in a future patch.

• Replay Vision Switching
  • You may now switch perspectives while watching replays.

• Postgame Scores and Kudos
  • Postgame graphs will now illustrate the flow of the game, including the following:
    • Army Value
    • Luminite Gathered
    • Therium Gathered
    • Luminite Bank
    • Therium Bank
    • Creep Resource Bounty
    • Resources Spent on Research
    • Expansion Count
    • Worker Count
    

  • After a game ends, you will be awarded kudos, highlighting something you did well in that game
  
  
• You will now receive an audio alert and minimap ping when an upgrade completes.
  
• You may now choose to enable or disable Rollback in a menu setting.
  
• When you quit a game via the in-game menu, your client will no longer try to rejoin the game.

Art:

• VFX:
  • We’ve completed a large visual effects pass with the following goals:
    • Increase polish and add visual quality overall.
    • Increase battle readability by quickening impacts, reducing the size or opacity of effects that obscure the battlefield.
    • Add custom VFX that were previously missing or placeholder.
    • Dissipate VFX more gracefully.

  • A few notable specific effect improvements:
    • Explosions are now more epic and detailed.
    • Lights and heat distortion added to many effects.
    • Unit & structure death visuals improved.
    • New Infernal and construction effects, signaling the beginning of an upcoming Infernal style change.
    • Flayed Dragon scaled up in size; new effects added.
    • Collection Arrays now have mining effects.
    • New attack and move UI pings.

  
  
• Lighting:
  • Standardized lighting system with new exposure values built for continuity across maps.
  • Time-of-day system can now incorporate a moving sun and moon, adding new life to our environments.
    • Currently testing on Infested Crater and two custom versus maps: TitansCausewayDayNight, and IsleofDread Stormy. Let us know what you think. Should we add these to the competitive map pool?

  • Units & structures have received material updates to brighten their darker areas so that they generally look better at night and in the shadows.
  
  
• Animation:
  • A new walk animation has been added for Vulcans.
  • Updated the Lancer’s attack animation to play at the correct speed.

• Misc:
  • Terrain textures have been improved to increase visual detail, enhance blending, and bring out specular highlights to accentuate the new lighting.
    • The Forest Autumn tileset has been considerably darkened.

  • New model for the Skymine.
    
  • Updated Luminite Mine art.
    
  • Updated Shroud visuals.
    
  • Updated Fog of War border look.
    
  • Blockade has received a new look.
    • Note: UI/Portraits are not yet updated to the new look.

Audio:

• Added a mute setting and in-game toggle hotkey.
• Large pass on volume levels and concurrency values of all the gameplay sound effects in the game for more audible battles and less volume disparity between units and abilities.
• Decreased the length of various gameplay sound effects.
• Removed most of the sounds that units make when they walk across the battlefield.
• New audio for the Animancer’s Dark Prophecy.
• New audio for the Flayed Dragon.

Bug Fixes:

• General:
  • Repeat-keys now function correctly for training units in the quick macro panel.
  • Cancelling a unit will now always only cancel one unit unless the key is held.
  • Workers carrying resources no longer fail to deposit their resources when shift-queued to build and then mine.
  • Workers no longer sometimes get into a stuck state when returning resources.
  • Workers no longer get stuck waiting to mine after being repeatedly issued harvest orders.
  • Top bar abilities no longer sometimes display incorrect cooldown information when pinged.
  • The party inviter’s ID is no longer sometimes missing in the party invite message.

• Versus:
  • B.O.B.s and Imps no longer sometimes continue to mine from invisible Luminite mines after the mine has been depleted.
  • Infernal structures will no longer consume charges without spawning a unit if the spawn area is too crowded or the queue is full.
  • Felhogs are no longer included in drag-selection.
  • Shroudweave now correctly targets a location instead of a structure.
  • Vectors do not leave behind beams in certain situations.

• Co-op:
  • Blockade now starts with a Guardsman instead of a Crusader when equipping the Range Amplifier gear.
  • Amara’s Protect the Backline teamwide passive no longer applies to units and structures it shouldn’t.
  • Maloc’s abilities can no longer be queued multiple times.
  • Maloc’s Buster Amplification upgrade is no longer missing.
  • Warz’s Flayed Dragon now spawns with full health while using Shroud Infusion.
  • Auralanna will now heal a manually targeted unit until it is full health.
  • Kastiel can now build Prisms from the quick macro panel while Level 3+.
  • Kastiel’s research can no longer be added to the research queue multiple times.
  • Sic! no longer repeatedly casts unintentionally .
  • Scavengers art has been centered.
  • Eager Volunteers gear now reduces the resource cost of biological units correctly.
  • Weavers no longer benefit from Kastiel’s Range Amplifier gear.
  • Imp-ressive Harvesting gear now properly increases income.
  • When using Therium Replication, Prism resource floating text now correctly reflects the amount gathered.
  • Units costs reduced by the Eager Volunteers gear no longer require the un-reduced amount of resources to build.
  • Graven Sense can no longer be accidentally triggered multiple times.

• Replays:
  • The “Watch Solo” is no longer grayed out when you initially switch to the Replay tab.
  • When rewinding a replay past a loaded cargo unit, the loaded units will no longer vanish from existence.
  • Units killed in a replay are no longer invisible after rewinding the replay before their death.
  • Players can no longer move their camera outside of map bounds during replays or observation.
  • The Unit Info Panel now correctly updates while gameplay is paused in a replay.

• Art:
  • The Saber’s attack VFX will now appear when attacking a target in Fog of War.
  • The Wraithstone’s slow debuff visuals correctly scale to unit size.
  • Prism has updated build icon art.
  • Summoned units destroyed by Kastiel’s Cancellation Pulse now play a death animation.
  • Kastiel’s Darkfire Taunt now plays a VFX on affected units.
  • Kastiel’s gear no longer changes icons when entering/exiting gameplay.
  • When attacking a structure, Spriggan attack VFX will now appear towards the direction the Spriggan is standing instead of around the corner.
  • Projectiles no longer linger at their point of contact.
  • Projectile collision impact on Infernal Structures appears more centered.
  • Projectile impact collision appears consistent with all Shroudstones.
  • Magmadon animation will no longer cancel the trample animation when attacking.
  • Infested Crater no longer appears significantly more foggy when playing on Low/Med settings. The map is slightly more foggy on Low, but acceptably so
  • Lobbed projectiles against air units are no longer misaligned from their target.
  • Exo (and variants) projectile beam is now aligned properly.
  • The Aberrant’s attack projectile against air units now has a straight trajectory.
  • Darkspeed is no longer missing VFX.

• Audio:
  • Fixed various issues where sounds would not obey the Master Volume and SFX Volume mixers.
  • Fixed an issue where certain death sounds would not play.
  • Hoplite move SFX no longer causes audio to cut out or restart.
  • Auralanna has found her voice and is no longer quieter than other units.
  • Ryker’s Follow and Move audio no longer overlaps.
  • Ghost and Shadow now play a “poof” SFX on death.
  • Ryker’s Unleash! Ability now has a cast SFX.
  • Auralanna now has a unit response for the Stop command.
  • In Turf War, the first transmission is no longer cut off by the second.
  • Designate Prime Structure no longer has VO.
  • Ryker no longer interrupts himself when playing move VO.
  • The Atlas’s deployed attack no longer ducks all other game SFX.

• Buddybot:
  • Buddybot no longer sometimes builds structures when the option is unchecked in the menu.
  • Buddybot now properly spawns Prisms from Collection Arrays instead of Arcships.
  • The Auralanna Buddybot will no longer make Scanners unless the build army setting is on.

Balance Notes and Commentary:

Hey all!

Stormgate 0.3.0 is here, and it’s one of the most significant updates we’ve ever released, especially for the 1v1 versus mode. We’ve made a host of improvements aimed at enhancing the player experience, including one of the most requested features: fully customizable hotkeys on a per-command basis. On top of that, we’re thrilled to introduce fully customizable, automated control groups, designed to streamline gameplay and improve overall efficiency.

We’re also excited to unveil flyer flocking—a new mechanic that allows flying units to pass through each other. This change aims to make air units feel more responsive and fluid to control, while ensuring that flyer stacking isn’t too dominant.

Additionally, we’re making several balance adjustments to better align the game with our long-term vision. Here are some of the key changes coming in this patch:

Economic Tweaks

• Starting Therium node count increased from 3 to 5.
• B.O.B. Therium backpack capacity increased from 6 to 7.
• Imp Therium backpack capacity increased from 6 to 7.
• Collection Array cost decreased from 550/0 to 450/0.
• Collection Array cost when built from Morph Core decreased from 450/0 to 350/0.

We’re pleased with the direction of recent economic changes but believe these minor adjustments will further refine the balance between Luminite and Therium in the early game. These changes should also reduce the lulls Celestial players experience, especially when building their first Collection Array.

Increase Harassment Opportunities

B.O.B.

• Health decreased 130 to 100.

Imp

• Health decreased from 80 to 70. White Health unaffected.

Flame Imp

• Health decreased from 80 to 70. White Health unaffected.
• No longer sets their White Health to 0 when they transform.

Power Banks

• Cost increased from 100/0 to 125/0.
• Health decreased from 300 to 250.
• Power produced increased from 15 to 20.
• Footprint decreased from 3x3 to 2x2.

These changes are aimed at enhancing harassment opportunities for all factions. We also want Power Banks to be more valuable harassment targets while making Celestial base layouts more flexible.

Evac

• Movement speed increased from 5 to 5.5.
• The Skysprint Retrofit upgrade still increases movement speed by 25%. The resulting movement speed increased from 6.25 to 6.88.

Harbinger

• Cost decreased from 100/150 to 100/100.

These adjustments should improve the effectiveness of drops as a harassment tool.

Artillery Unit Reworks

Atlas

• Deployed weapon missile speed increased from 18 to 22.
• Plasma Arc Infusion upgrade research time decreased from 90 seconds to 60 seconds.
• Will now look for a new target with 5 range to attack during their weapon swing if the target of their current attack has died.

Helicarrier

• Health increased from 500 to 600.
• Bomber health decreased from 200 to 100.
• Bomber movement speed decreased from 12 to 10.

Hellborne

• Cost decreased from 250/200 to 250/150.
• Weapon swing time decreased from 1.4 to 0.7.
• Weapon backswing time decreased from 1.1 to 0.55.
• Weapon period decreased from 4 to 3.
• Weapon damage changed from 50 (+50 vs Structure) to 25 (+75 vs Structure).
• Single-target vs unit DPS decreased from 12.5 to 8.33.
• Single-target vs structure DPS increased from 25 to 33.33.
• Weapon cone damage changed from 12.5 (+12.5 vs Structure) to 6.25 (+18.75 vs Structure).
• Will now look for a new target with 5 range to attack during their weapon swing if the target of their current attack has died, increased from 3.

Saber

• Range decreased from 14 to 11.
• Damage changed from 60 (+30 vs Heavy) to 40 (+50 vs Heavy).

We’re making these changes to address feedback on artillery units:

• Improved Usability: Atlas and Hellborne had long weapon swing times, which were frustrating for high-level players attempting precise micro. We’ve adjusted various aspects of these units for a smoother experience.
• More Interaction Opportunities: Extremely long-range units can be frustrating to counter. We’ve made changes to the Helicarrer and Saber to encourage more interaction.
• Specialization and Counterplay: Players more familiar with classic Blizzard RTSes often associate artillery units with units that also provide crowd-control splash damage. (The Siege Tank, Reaver, Lurker, Colossus, and all Warcraft III siege units fall into this category.) One issue with this design is that if these units don’t have sufficient weaknesses and counterplay, they can often create deathball situations. We feel the Hellborne and Saber have this issue, so we’ll be moving closer to a model set by RTS games such as Age of Empires or Company of Heroes franchises where artillery units are much more specialized and fulfill more specific functions.

Vanguard

Lancer

• Health decreased from 260 to 240.

The Lancer was slightly too durable and cost-effective, particularly against Infernals. This adjustment should bring its power level more in line with its cost.

Exo

• Range decreased from 7 to 6.

This change aims to reduce the Exo’s kiting potential, which could create frustrating, non-interactive scenarios, especially against Infernals, where it previously outranged Gaunts by 2.

MedTech

• Nanoswarm energy cost decreased from 50 to 40.
• Nanoswarm damage against enemies increased from 10 to 15 per second.

We want to encourage more strategic use of Nanoswarm in the early game, particularly as an offensive tool.

Vulcan

• Weapon range decreased from 8 to 7.

The Vulcan was overly effective at zoning out opposing tier-1 units. This adjustment should make engagements against it more interactive.

Sentinel

• Health increased from 200 to 250.
• The Sentinel Adept Training upgrade research cost decreased from 100/100 to 50/50.
• The Sentinel Master Training upgrade no longer requires a High Command. Requires a Central Command instead.
• Fixed a bug where the Master Training upgrade was not increasing the energy regeneration of Sentinels.

We believe Nano-defense Bubble is an exciting zone-control ability, and these changes aim to encourage more frequent and strategic usage of the Sentinel.

Infernals

Infest

• Now deals a fixed 2 damage per second rather than 1% of a target’s health pool.

This change shifts Infest towards being more effective against small units, rather than serving as a general-purpose damage-over-time effect. Units with less than 200 HP will take more damage, while those with more than 200 HP will take less.

Wraithstone

• Movement speed debuff decreased from 40% to 30%.

Felhog

• Health decreased from 60 to 40.
• White Health decreased from 15 to 10.

We’d like to promote harassment by reducing the effectiveness of these two defensive tools.

Fiend

• Damage increased from 7 to 8.

This is intended as a slight buff for both Fiends and Brutes, as they are currently underperforming.

Brute

• The Sundering Soul Craze upgrade has been reworked. It now increases the movement speed of Brutes by +25% and grants Brutes +1 Fiend on death.
  • Brute Movement speed increased from 4 to 5.

We’re making Brutes faster and reworking their tier-3 upgrade to be more impactful, addressing feedback that Infernal units can feel sluggish. You’ll notice all of the Infernal units in this patch will receive a similar movement speed treatment.

Gaunt

• Damage decreased from 8 (+4 vs Light) to 8 (+2 vs Light).
• The Reaper’s Rush upgrade now increases the movement speed of Gaunts by +35%, up from +25%.

The resulting movement speed increased from 5 to 5.4.
We're continuing with our philosophy of reducing specialized bonus damage on tier-1 units to avoid polarizing early-game matchups. Additionally, we’re restoring some of the Gaunt’s previous movement speed to bring back its fun, fast-paced playstyle.

Magmadon

• The Raging Tendons upgrade’s movement speed bonus increased from 25% to 30%. The resulting speed increased from 4.38 to 4.55.
• Weapon period decreased from 2.1 to 1.8.

These buffs should make Magmadons feel more impactful and better at catching enemy units while Trampling.

Weaver

• Movement speed increased from 2.5 to 3.
• The Shroudwalk trait now grants a 50% movement speed bonus on Shroud, down from 60%. The resulting movement speed increased from 4 to 4.5.
• Can no longer Shroudweave.

These changes should make Weavers feel more fluid when moving across the map, while the removal of Shroudweave opens up more harassment opportunities as Weavers won’t be able to instantly respond.

Shadowflyer

• Bloodburst range decreased from 5 to 1.
• Single-target damage changed from 50 (+20 vs Heavy) to 45 (+15 vs Heavy).
• Area damage decreased from 25 (+10 vs Heavy) to 15 (+5 vs Heavy).

After the flyer flocking changes in this patch, flying units will be more able to stack on top of each other. This will cause flying units to be slightly more powerful and anti-air splash damage to be much more powerful. We’ll be monitoring both the strength of flyers and anti-air splash damage after this patch, but in anticipation of these changes, we’ll be reducing the strength of what is often regarded as the most powerful anti-air unit in the game.

Flayed Dragon

• Animus cost increased from 150 to 200.
• The Inhale Poison upgrade has been removed. Flayed Dragons can now Inhale Poison without an upgrade.

We felt like the Animus cost for a Flayed Dragon was slightly too trivial and locking the Inhale Poison ability behind the upgrade didn’t create interesting gameplay.

Celestials

Kri

• The Radiant Fury upgrade now increases the damage done by Blaze of Light from +20 to +40. Resulting damage increased from 40 to 60.

We’ll be enhancing Kri’s late-game impact, ensuring they remain useful beyond the early game.

Cabal

• The Cabal Adept Training upgrade cost decreased from 100/100 to 50/50.
• Gravity Flux missile speed decreased from 15 to 10.

We’ll be bringing the Adept training cost to a similar cost as those of the other factions as well as slowing Gravity Flux down so that there can be more room for a Vanguard player to react with Return to Hanger.

Seraphim

• Movement speed increased from 4.5 to 5.
• Resolute Seal energy cost decreased from 50 to 25.

We’d like to increase the movement speed of this unit so it has a better chance to run away from its anti-air counters for continued harassment. In addition, we feel Resolute Seal is so rarely used that it would be appropriate to give it a significant buff.

Animancer

• The Animancer Adept Training upgrade cost decreased from 100/100 to 50/50.
• Dark Prophecy no longer requires channeling.
• Dark Prophecy range decreased from 13 to 9.
• Dark Prophecy cooldown decreased from 15 seconds to 2 seconds.
• Dark Prophecy duration decreased from 8 seconds to 4 seconds.
• Dark Prophecy slow% reduction decreased from 25% to 15%.
• Dark Prophecy now ramps up in damage every second: 20 → 25 → 30 → 35 DPS
• At the end of the Dark Prophecy, units are dealt 50 additional damage.

We’ve gotten a lot of positive feedback about the changes we’ve made to Miasma in the last patch, rebalancing it as an instant cast ability rather than a channeling ability. We’ll be making similar changes to Dark Prophecy with a goal of improving the power of this ability as we’ve received feedback that it’s currently feeling a bit on the weaker side.

Archangel

• The Scorched Earth upgrade research time decreased from 120 seconds to 90 seconds.

While we didn’t necessarily want players to come out with fully-powered Archangels out of the gate, we felt this research took too long.

We’re excited to see how these changes play out and look forward to hearing your feedback. See you on the battlefield!