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Build Spotlight:

Stormgate for CHOC Charity Tournament & Choco Pet:

Hotkeys and Automated Control Groups:

• [b]Alternate Hotkeys[/b]: Stormgate now supports “alternate” hotkeys. You can now assign two hotkeys to the same action.
• [b]Steal+Add To Control Group[/b]: 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.
• [b]Remove From Control Groups:[/b] 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+`”.
• [b]Cycle Town Halls:[/b] 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.
• [b]Cycle Quick Macro Tabs:[/b] 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.
• [b]Per-Command Hotkeys (AKA “Fully Customizable Hotkeys”):[/b] 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.
• [b]Automated Control Groups Customization:[/b] 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.

• 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.

Patch Notes:

General:

• [b]Twitch In-Client Embed[/b] [list]
• Twitch streams can now be featured directly in the Stormgate client.

• Flocking flight behavior allows for flying units to overlap with one another in order to reach a destination. [list]
• 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.

• 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.

• 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.

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

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

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

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

• 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.

• You may now switch perspectives while watching replays.

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

Art:

• [b]VFX:[/b] [list]
• We’ve completed a large visual effects pass with the following goals: [list]
• 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.

• 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.

• 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. [list]
• 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?

• A new walk animation has been added for Vulcans.
• Updated the Lancer’s attack animation to play at the correct speed.

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

• 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:

• [b]General:[/b] [list]
• 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.

• 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.

• 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.

• 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.

• 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.

• 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 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:

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.

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.

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.

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).

• [b]Improved Usability:[/b] 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.
• [b]More Interaction Opportunities:[/b] Extremely long-range units can be frustrating to counter. We’ve made changes to the Helicarrer and Saber to encourage more interaction.
• [b]Specialization and Counterplay:[/b] 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.

Exo

• Range decreased from 7 to 6.

MedTech

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

Vulcan

• Weapon range decreased from 8 to 7.

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.

Infernals

Infest

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

Wraithstone

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

Felhog

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

Fiend

• Damage increased from 7 to 8.

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. [list]
• Brute Movement speed increased from 4 to 5.

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%.

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.

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.

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).

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.

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.

Cabal

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

Seraphim

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

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.

Archangel

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