Last night, we pushed a new playtesting build of Stratus to Steam, bringing another major step forward in the game’s development.

This latest patch addresses a long-standing issue with workshop and shrine construction. Previously, after placing a workshop or shrine and sending a priest to construct it, the priest could occasionally reach the destination only to find that the structure was no longer able to be constructed. This meant players sometimes had to place a second structure, losing the resources spent on the original.

We have now identified the underlying issue within the priest construction code and implemented a fix. After extensive testing last night, the issue appears to have finally been resolved.

Combined with the bridge-placement lag fix implemented last week, the construction system is now becoming significantly more stable and polished.

Moving Toward Full Playability

With these major construction issues now largely ironed out, Stratus is becoming increasingly playable from start to finish.

Our next major task is implementing proper costs and requirements for Workshop upgrades. Previously, workshops could be upgraded without any resource cost or other requirements. We are now adding these progression mechanics to give workshop upgrades a more meaningful strategic role during a match.

Once this is completed, the primary focus will shift toward unit balance, including adjustments to attack values, damage, health, ranges, and other combat mechanics.

After these final gameplay and balancing passes, Stratus will be fully playable from the beginning of a match through to its conclusion.

At that point, our goal will be to expand playtesting beyond our current initial group of testers and begin opening the development build to a much wider audience.

There is still plenty of work ahead, but Stratus is now reaching an exciting stage of development—and we are getting much closer to having the complete gameplay experience ready for broader testing.

For the Storm!