I Talk About Stormgate's Gameplay Reveal And The Community's Reaction To It.

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[@FrostGiantStudios]

Thank you for your support! We love what you bring to the community and can't wait to get your hands on Stormgate!

[@nitrusdrexler1189]

You've given the rts genre hope, WE'RE COUNTING ON YOU!

[@Leikjarinn]

Remove the dogs or change them into robotic dogs please, believe me, the dogs, are a problem

[@Trabazavr]

we hope for you guys. We understand there will not be starcraft and warcraft anymore, times goes, but we hope for best

[@GHOSTSAREFRIENDS]

i hope those tank things have a "Fire at Ground" option so you can micro them and use them for area denial, as it is it looks like fast units simply avoid their shots

[@FrostGiantStudios]

The Atlas can fire at the ground. :)

[@tucanonerd4957]

@@FrostGiantStudios ABSOLUTELY EPIC. Everything is looking insanely cool. Every concern I've had from the footage has been clarified and answered so it is looking very very good.

[@bucketofnubbins8532]

​@@FrostGiantStudios​Any chance we can get the ability to move/attack-ground groups of units into a line like how Beyond All Reason does? Having to individually spread out tank fire sounds too APM intensive for a small gain. Regardless, I am super excited to play this game

[@Nurk0m0rath]

@@bucketofnubbins8532 You mean formation commands? That would be pretty sweet. And valuable in a lot of contexts. For instance you could order marines to "focus fire" on a tank line or "volley" over a field of zerglings to thin the herd. Honestly I think the idea of ordering all my marines in SC2 to fire at one enemy, and only that enemy can be shot is really pretty dumb. Given the way guns operate IRL, I should just tell them the angle to fire at and anything in front of them takes damage. But then formation based movement would be critical because if you just massed up big blobs of marines, they'd all kill each other before killing the enemy.

[@LaigledeMeaux]

Another thing, I bet the projectile speed is going to be pretty easy to modify, so if it needs to be buffed they can just speed it up most likely.

[@justanothercommenterwithan9089]

i think an idea for interesting terrain would be something like a swamp or a river that debuffs movement speed of smaller units but it doesn't affect larger one's or a fog covered area where the vision range of smaller units is reduced.

[@donbionicle]

Like that foggy canyon in the UED First Light campaign? Only instead of high ground, you just need bigger units.

[@justanothercommenterwithan9089]

@@donbionicle i never played brood war so idk

[@MazDance]

That's actually really cool, simple visually and makes sense logically.

[@guardianof2fort964]

@@justanothercommenterwithan9089 UED First Light is a custom campaign lol

[@sebastianmolina9943]

I thought about a river too. I like the idea of reducing the LoS of the smaller units. I think combining booth would be cool. it would push towards more variety in army compositions.

[@atlan5139]

I am incredibly interested for how they do campaign. I love RTS but I am way more interested in the story mode like SC2's campaign, I really wonder if they do it similar to SC2 campaign or if they try and make it play much more unique. I hope they have lots of flavor, things like the armory upgrades in WOL or things like that. Cant wait for more

[@LaigledeMeaux]

From what I've read from the devs, they seem to understand that the majority of players are casual, single player campaign players. They have mentioned that the reason the rts genre kind of crashed was because developers concentrated on the high end eSports part of the game at the detriment of everything else.

[@mortegon583]

@@LaigledeMeaux Well that's good to hear. I was concerned from this first demo being a standard 1v1 that they were going to be chasing that esport money, but it does seem like they're just not at the story stage of development yet

[@angamaitesangahyando685]

​@@mortegon583 "eSport money" does not exist if the game is die. So far, they have shown the blandest reveal possible. - Adûnâi

[@Benjackalope]

Definitely agree! I only every go back to sc2 (and spend several hours replaying the same thing over and over again) for the campaign. The campaign is always consistent, doesn’t cheese you with hard to defend strategies, and is very well designed for someone who just likes the lore of the game. The co-op isn’t that interesting (to me), and the arcade can be fun at times… but hasn’t held my interest in forever. Going on ladder just makes me feel like I’m about to encounter one of a dozen different cheeses that require a competitive player mindset to defend against. Going against the ai in a normal 1v1 just isn’t that interesting (always feels like I’m using the same strat, so it gets repetitive quickly). But the campaign unlocks new challenges, units, upgrades, story, and various things to still feel interesting.

[@TheGayRepublicanIcon]

They have said the campaign will be very Warcraft 3 like, where it will follow certain characters on their journey. They also have implied that new campaign content will come out roughly every quarter. So I am more than excited to get 4 new campaign content drops a year. After a few years the campaign will be massive and the story will be so vast!

[@enderrzvx1461]

Honestly the biggest part im excited about is how StormGate is supposed to be a CoOp focused RTS ( 2v2 , 3v3 , whatever they said) . Me and my friends are SUPER excited since no RTS before has really focused on that friend stuff . And even if the game is bad having fun with friends is always gonna make the game 10x better .

[@zarkie1630]

If you mean campaign coop, there's C&C red alert 3

[@dfyz1407]

Dude, me too. I'm fuckin loving coop in sc 2, but it's already played for ages and i can't find anything new for me there. Sadly

[@justanothercommenterwithan9089]

same one of the parts that got my interested was the co-op aspect

[@natanoj16]

Sc2s coop is what made me love SC2. Cant wait to see what Kevin will do with Stormgate Coop. Also love what they said about them having Campaign, coop and pvp as completly different setups/balances

[@Jormungand47]

Sponsored bots ..

[@lookwhatididtomyid]

Would a decent idea for terrain balance be "shallow" water that smaller units can't cross but larger units can wade/drive through?

[@LadyZechie]

I was thinking of something like that, except having it be like lava or something where it'd kill the little guys if they tried to step onto it

[@DEVGRUnotST6]

I had almost the exact same thought. "Just put a fordable river in there."

[@jacobgracey9069]

​​@@LadyZechie see problem with that is normal people might attack move across the map and half half their tiny people run to their death

[@logicalspaghetti]

Mindustry has a similar mechanic and it works well

[@cassiohenrique6815]

@@jacobgracey9069 I think it is just supposed to be a reasoning behind smaller units no being able to go somewhere. Not something that would actually happen. Ex.: you click and the unit either stops right in front of the lava river(?) or the pathing goes around it.

[@zygo0]

Honestly this pre-alpha reminded me a lot of the early SCII builds, with moving photon cannons and buildable thors that could be out turned by hellions that were also sort of diamondbacks. Genuinely curious to see how much stays in the final release

[@FrostGiantStudios]

We felt like an early look would be good for our game so that we could engage the community early on and shape the game together. We’re excited by the response and can’t wait to show you how the game evolves over time.

[@Benjackalope]

That is a good point. They’ve only revealed a sample of how the game might look and feel… but still have months of game development before finalizing any of the units. Not to mention, that the current line up doesn’t showcase the feeling of fighting other races, nor does it show the fancier high tier units.

[@linusgustafsson2629]

Not for me. Buildable Thor's was cool. Dudes with guns and dogs is not so cool.

[@pappanoodles3927]

I think one thing that is mainly leaving people just whelmed is the fact that, all the game play we have seen is from the generic human faction with most units showcased being stock standard rts units. what we see is cool but we don't see any real spice here. I think it would be a lot more interesting if they showed the demon faction with some of their more unique units to see how this game will pop out and so we can get a clearer picture of the identity of the game.

[@bwcmakro]

Yeah, the units to far are giving me like... Planetary Annihilation vibes? With the basic infantry being essentially just terran marines from SC2 on top.

[@calebbarnhouse496]

I don't think the faction choice is wrong, nor what was shown, I think it was simple a lack of focus on the units, imagine if they made it a 4 player game, each person has the same faction, game starts as it does, guy 1 builds his heavy guy, guy 2 attacks, guy 3 builds 1 transport and some light guys to counter attack the guy as he's returning to his base, using his higher mobility to cut him off, guy 4 then uses his own heavy units to rescue rescue his ally, then when the transport fight happens they pick up part of the heavy guys so they can get into the backlines, and the final assault uses transports dropping a bunch of heavy guys on one side of the base, which let's them enter there light guys from the opposite direction to flank and crush the enemy, a lot more interesting gameplay then just micro skillzzzz, and you get a nice spread of what the units can do in "real gameplay"

[@jeremyrugg3015]

This was their opportunity to show us their game and what was most important to them about it. So far nothing about it looks unique at all, to me. The question of why is this being made when SC2 or Warcraft exist comes to mind a lot. It feels like a great proof of concept that someone has the skills to make an RTS, but no convincing at all as to why they should. Same resource management as always. Same drop mechanics that are apparently important to them. Same APM dumps that you need to get good at. Same general unit archetypes from what we could see. No reason given for why we should care.

[@calebbarnhouse496]

@@jeremyrugg3015 I do think there is some good reason to care, and that's it isn't dead, no matter how much you like starcraft 2 or warcraft they are dead games, not necessarily in no one plays them, but support is gone, and no sequel is coming, I don't think this game will be anything super special, but it has the ability to grow and transform, while those 2 games aren't, starcraft 2 will almost certainly never see another campaign, new units, or even new abilities, no units will be given a rework, or changed in any meaningful ways, outside of minor balance changes, but in this game we can expect to see new units, new campaigns, characters, stories, and possibly even subfactions, with unique units, nothing is off the table for what can be done

[@GOLANX]

@@calebbarnhouse496 sure it may have potential but what they showed was a game trying to be the next esport, it's falling into the exact trap that Grant warned the devs about. They showed off the best of what they had, that should be the spectacle, and instead we saw garden variety RTS gameplay.

[@zaxtonhong3958]

10:00 I felt it could use an animation like how the warp prism has that little light line when it loads a unit It wasn’t particularly hard to parse in terms of who was winning tho. The Vulcans MELTED as soon as they charged in.

[@CombatMagic]

Vulcans need more armor, or better yet, they should get a friendly unit that gives them a shield or reduces incoming damage (like sentry's guardian shield but single target, maybe more like science vessel's matrix)

[@oskarsalt2053]

Maybe something like a grappling line from either the unit or the dropship? Would explain why it could pick up at range.

[@CombatMagic]

@@oskarsalt2053 if they make the unit inside visible under the transport, hooked with a grapple-thingy, that would look so cool

[@antongrigoryev6381]

"Someone said it's called, like, anime or something." *Me, looking at all the mechs and power-armored guys with giant swords: "Yeah, that makes sense."

[@harryhight3043]

I like the light/dense tree thing. Give the map makers as big of a toolbox as possible, and they will do amazing things.

[@Flemmi]

small unit being able to pass through and large ones being disatvantaged was a feature in Star Wars: Empire at War and i think that it is a great mechanic. it can be used to limit access to strategicly important locations. it creates new opportunities for different comps to be used there.

[@ladylolth3057]

I also like the infantry slowed in water from EAW.

[@IgeNial]

Dune 2000 did that back in 1998. Too bad infantry is terrible in that game, but I did win one game cause the opponent didn't expect me to do that.

[@clone3_7]

An even better feature in that game is, that (most) vehicles can run over infantry.

[@megamert2848]

I think the fight around 10:00 is okay for gameplay, biggest thing I see is that the siege tank might be absolutely horrible because most AoE targets might be smaller and faster and thus be able to dodge the shots. It will definitely require me to develop my skills in the micro direction.

[@burnt41]

I think either the the missile speed will be increased or it will be better against the other faction. I think the siege tank unit is a really good concept. Its just balancing it now

[@enderofbarts]

It looks like more of an area denial unit, it leaves some aura on the ground that deals a lot of damage.

[@aaronscott7467]

​@@enderofbarts it looks like that is an upgrade. I really like that, but the base shot just feels really bad

[@Tyrranid]

Even if enemies dodge the artillery they can't attack while dodging. Giving other units time to kill them. Creating space is huge

[@megamert2848]

@@Tyrranid yeah that is true.

[@stilesRTS]

From a dev pov, getting early feedback has great value in creating a successful product so even if this wave of negativity may result in less hype and a more negative atmosphere, it will (hopefully) greatly improve the final product.

[@NotMeButAnother]

My main concern is really the gamefeel. SC2 is so responsive, it makes almost every other RTS feel bad to play. As long as they can make the game feel good to control, I'll be interested.

[@giuseppebonatici7169]

SC2 has like 20 UI scan per second (time when the game is listening to the player inputs), frost giant said that they intended to go a higher rate. that half of the equation, the other is how rollback compensation changes it. I firmly believe that the game that was shown has some dev-related restrictions, that hits performance and the looks of responsiveness. but is difficult to view responsiveness, especially as every unit has gigantic attack delays (which is tunable, but lowering to much means that reaction could overtake strategy).

[@Envy_Dragon]

The most consistent thing I've seen over and over again from pre-alpha feedback is "it feels fantastic to play." Even Husky - former SC2 caster from WoL days, quit the game, deleted his videos, kinda vanished - came back just to say that he's hyped about it purely from how it felt. So... yeah, that seems really cool, actually. I'm interested.

[@lucparmentier2908]

SC2 engine reads inputs around 22.5 times per second on fastest (the speed used in ladder, tournaments and the harder PvE content). The person who made that engine almost 20 years ago for 2007 standards is making the current stormgate engine. It’s been stated to run at an insane 60hz (60 input reads per seconds) which is around 250% higher than sc2 and compared to AOE4’s 8 input read per second is 750% (or over 7 times) more responsive. We will see how that translates once the game is in our hands but if there’s one thing I’m not worried about anymore is the game feeling good in hand. Also they somehow put rollback in to make playing online WAY smoother (this technology is used in fighting games to great success and community support). I hope that responds to your concerns about the engine (named snowplay) in charge of making the gameplay feel smooth.

[@talenbeness5769]

Part of the responsiveness that makes SC2 good isn't just the tick rate, but also the *pathfinding*. Unit control in Starcraft 2 feels so good because it's so rare that units just don't do what you want them to do. Having 60Hz on the tick rate is good, but we'll have to wait and see how units actually control.

[@giuseppebonatici7169]

@@talenbeness5769 yeah, except big units in sc2. tinylisks are tiny for a reason xD. also, the mothership is the worst unresponsive mess. the only big unit that feels ok is the colossi and that because they dont have collision. but I am totally with you, the pathfinding is vital, but also the unit collision management (I don't know the formal name). just look what happens when you have an adept trying to move while being surrounded by zergling, even attacking sometimes glitches off because of weird displacements. thors are also kind of fine, but that's because they are basically static xD.

[@yizhou9824]

I think the slow ability on the Scout is really cool. It seems powerful as a disengagement tool to get away. I also wonder if it can be used as a tool to harass in the early game to hamper the opponent's income by getting it to attack a bunch of workers once and slowing them down.

[@stokermitchell8791]

I also felt very 'whelmed' when I first saw the reveal, my thoughts were just "Yeah that looks about right for something so early in development." But to get to the point of the video I'm just going to throw out random ideas. I want there to be more weird units and units that change roles thought the game, like a early scout/worker-harasser that with a upgrade can become a long range sniper, or if there was a upgrade to make your static defense able to move and become a normal unit, or have your medic unit able to poison enemies, or a spell caster that has really strong spells but doesn't regen energy, things like that. And I want the demon faction to be very swarmy in the lower tiers where a maxed out army could have hundreds of unites but have the higher tier armies be very small maxing out your supply with like 20 units small.

[@dwightyoung2291]

Dawn of war has a lot of that tbf

[@jarrakul]

I love that scouts have a sensor tower mechanic. I think it'll give a real incentive to include a couple in your army. Not as "ah dangit, I need to literally always have one and I forgot" as detection in SC2, but just a very good bit of extra information about what's around you. I love mechanics that keep units relevant through the whole game, and that seems like a good one. I was kinda hoping we'd get something similar with those light trees, honestly. Like, they could be a way that early-game units continue to be useful even as stronger stuff gets built. But the fact that the mechs can just blow away the forest kinda kills that. I feel like I'd prefer to see light forests as a persistent barrier to large ground units, but less as something that covers the whole path and more as something that blocks only part of it, making a choke point that would affect large units and not small ones throughout the game.

[@omenifighter]

What if without scouts you can't see the opponent units' health bars or other information about them? It makes scouts interesting things to add to armies, without making them required.

[@blecao]

I honestly agree about detection i had see it on daw1 and its awfull a lot of the times becouse each faction has its own source of detection and it feels bad Being totally unable to figth back becouse hey you forgot to got a priest is ....uff

[@Law-gnome]

While I am looking forward to Stormgate, I am definitely in the "whelmed" group with regard to this particular video. The gameplay seemed fine enough, with mostly easy to read visual design and a seeming focus on smaller groups. I am appreciative of the specific design focus of longer time to kill and the moving away from "you looked away and now everything is dead" style of combat from SC2. I like the forest movement mechanic, and I am hesitantly optimistic about creep objectives on the map. All in all, I'm more than happy to continue to look forward to this game and am still planning on getting this shortly after release (unless they release without a campaign, of course.) That said, I have a lot of criticisms, both about what they showed and how they showed it. 1) There was not a lot of visual distinction between the infantry units (other than the dogs, of course). It took me a few watches to recognize that there were melee guys and ranged guys in that final battle. If they are going to have ranged and melee infantry units, they need more distinction. 2) With the exception of the artillery, everything was just different flavors of gun. The mechs had a gun, the marines had a gun, the sentry gun was a gun, the flying thing had a gun. Those non-artillery things without guns didn't really stand out (other than the dogs, of course). This lead to things looking kind of bland. 3) The artillery looked good visually, and had a lot of flare, but currently look fairly useless. The ball travels really slowly and the AoE marker is fairly small. It reminds me of Doomfist's ultimate from Overwatch 1 - there is a big visual indicator and more than enough time to get out of the way. Unless you get crowd controlled in some way, it doesn't seem like the artillery will be a worthwhile investment. You can see it being completely useless in the last combat, missing entirely and dying like a chump. That said, it would be really interesting if the artillery had both an autofire capability and a ground-targeting capability to let you lead your shots if you want to spend the apm on it. 4) There was not a lot of spectacle in the units and gameplay they showed (other than the artillery, which looked great visually). There was nothing shown that made me say "Wow!" Nothing that would inspire me to think up interesting stories or scenarios. Nothing that really appealed to the Timmy in me (using Magic: the Gathering terminology). It was just generic RTS gameplay, the kind that makes you say "yes, they are clearly playing an RTS". 5) They didn't show much of the map movement. Everything was focused on one small area (mostly monk's base). How far are the bases from each other, relatively? How long does it take to get to the other player's base? Are there lots of trees for movement, or are they just this game's version of cliffs in SC2? Can the maps have height differences, or are the trees substituting for that? 6) They didn't show much of the setup time. How long does it take to build up your infrastructure? How long does it take to build an army? How long does it take to rebuild an army? 7) The developers spent a lot of time talking about how 3v3 was going to be the focus of their multiplayer. We know they intend to put in a campaign. So why did they show 1v1 (arguably the most "stock RTS" game mode they could possibly show)? Why should I be excited if their demonstration is just "We made an RTS. As you can see, it looks like an RTS. Ok, that's the end of our presentation, have a nice day"? 8) While the forest movement is neat, I want to know what other kinds of terrain there will be. Are there map tiles that trees would look out of place on (like aquatic maps or cave maps)? If so, are there location specific equivalents to the forest movement? Are there other kinds of terrain? Is terrain manipulation going to be a big part of the gameplay? I am looking forward to more updates about this game. I hope that they show a bit more spectacle in the future and give us a little more wow to be excited about.

[@Pendragondnd]

I really hope the dropship isn't just a dropship. I really liked how in sc2, each of the dropships was a dropship + something else. I do really love the eye guy, I think he's like a raven/science-vessel, a flying ability user.

[@DarthCheesuS]

I hope the Vulcan unit can cross chasms or other small gaps in terrain with its dash like ability

[@zinogrewinner5264]

Maybe rivers and streams

[@FrostGiantStudios]

Cool idea!

[@alcatraz160]

The arty unit looks very similar to the pacifiers from Red Alert 3. The game seems, okay? its not underwhelming, or overwhelming, just whelming mildly. I feel like they're doing it on the safe side of things, but that caution might also be hindering them from really going crazy with their creativity. It doesn't have that "wow, i really wanna explore this unit/mechanic" factor. Though they might be saving those up for the other factions.

[@lo4tr]

The whole idea of the 'human' race in games is to be easy to understand and get into for players that aren't used to the particular game genre. So, having these guys be pretty standard in terms of how they're played makes sense, giving them as the 'standard' race that let's us know just how different and interesting the other factions are in the context of this specific game. However, in this case, I don't think it's about being safe as it is about trying to differentiate the game from SC2 and/or WC3. The art style is already similar and the gameplay of SC2 is the standard across the whole of the RTS genre right now, plus the people in charge are the very same people from Blizzard... so, it seems that they are trying to focus on what the units aren't rather than what they are. The tank for example, seems to be about being 'not a Siege Tank' versus trying to be its own unit. This should hopefully be fixed in the leadup to launch with the community providing feedback.

[@allanshpeley4284]

They don't have creativity or originality as a core competency because they hired developers to run the business.

[@therat1117]

I really wanna see the demons! I think people want them to be a swarm faction, but it'd actually be quite cool if the demons were a lot more of a big bruiser type faction. They're deeeemons, if they were focused a lot more around melee but in the sense of having a combination of big tanky bois and glass cannons up front with a lot more casters than the pew pew gun humans (because demon magic is cool) such that their rear line is more focused on stuff like the orc warlock fireball or bloodrage or something like that, that'd really give the good *feel* of being a demon lord. That can also be their weakness, in that they have very little sustain because once you've blown off all the spells, if you haven't overwhelmed the enemy formation, suddenly you're out of mana and things can get hairy. I think that'd make things very interesting between a really Terran-like human faction that's really focused on positioning and layers of defence and stuff, and one that might be far more focused on attacking from unexpected angles with smaller numbers of units and going hard then having to retreat and regroup once you run out of steam. Kinda like SC2 faction versus WC3 faction. If we have tech humans and demons, maybe we could go really WC3 and have the third faction be a nature-oriented faction? I think that'd be thematically unique compared to the other two.

[@ismael9914]

I quite seem them as the spell caster faction, where the high tier unit instead of being big tonks with lots of health and damage are pretty meh stat wise units, but with abilities to buff your troops and inflict debuffs to get battles in your favour

[@blecao]

Totally agree on the spellcaster thing it could be awesome if they give some interesting things

[@silencearts33]

Orcs vs Terrans would be a match up I’d be very keen to see. Looking forward to seeing what FG does with them

[@Benjackalope]

I’d love to see the demon faction to mix both “magic/religious” themed gameplay with a nice mix between their stereotypical “mass” and spell caster and some brute strength. I think if you played the right combination, you could really touch upon the heart of a “demon fantasy”. If you think about what the fantasy driven behind demons are… being somewhat mysterious, ferocious, evil incarnate, chaos, terror… especially with the lore of this game being about fighting such things… I’d think you could achieve this feel with something akin to the following unit composition: Imps: stereotypical mass quantity demon unit. Especially good with out numbering your opponents, and highly effective as a quick and defensive “militia”. They’d be the horror of feeling overwhelmed, being outnumbered by the hundreds. Brute: tank who can endure harsh punishment, tanking for the bois. I’d give him something like a taunt that auto casts when friends start taking damage. He’d be the horror that everyone focuses on, a brutish monstrosity that just won’t go away. Assailant: these guys would be relatively low hp, and hang in the back of your army during the initial onslaught of the battle. But as soon as the tanks start taunting the enemy, the Assailants would leap quickly past their friends, jumping straight into the back lines, targeting the medics, the enemies spell casters, the now enemies vulnerable “siege tanks”. They’d be the horror unleashing sheer chaos to any formidable defensive line. Then as you suggested, these melee armies would be complimented with some spell casters who reside in the back. Necromancers to turn the dead into zombies. Demonic warlords who can either cast “fear” on enemy biological units, or cast a bloodlust frenzy over Allie’s, or some other variant. Perhaps a witch who can either summon imps to fight (working similarly to being the pylon for a warped in Protoss unit), by opening up some kind of a “hells gate” or “summoning portal” Perhaps a banshee that can either directly possess enemies, or that can trigger a group of enemies to go mad. The effected would either randomly start shooting each other, or move in random locations due to seeing “phantoms” or illusions, or a mix of both. Anyways… just spit balling ideas. Another think I’d like to see, is the angelic counterfeit of this game.

[@TheGayRepublicanIcon]

I want Blizzard to consider suing Frost Giant because the faction is just like the Burning Legion. That's what I want from them lol.

[@vizen7209]

People below have some great ideas for other terrain types and how they can effect other units and I love them. Fun is the important thing, and interacting with the map environment - whether through what it does to you or what you do to it - is fun and meaningful.

[@AbyssalSpectre68]

I totally felt the same way that Grant is talking about, but I will answer his call and post. Love you Grant! 1) The micro was cool, because watching the skill expression of good players is fun for me. It also made me feel a bit nervous that I might not be able to- even remotely- make use of my units' strengths. 2) Huge size disparity with units was awesome, I felt like those Vulcan's were cool! It seemed how a Goliath SHOULD feel, a massive mobile anti-infantry unit that crushes squads of units, but has to wind up to begin mowing them down. 3) Going off number 2, an even larger unit could totally have hardpoints or carry actively firing units around like the sieged-medivac times. Load a Vulcan on your wings and now you have anti-infantry. Crew up a siege gun or a green-glowy-boy instead for their specialties. Equip a dropship loaded with troops for a Combat-Hercules style. 4) For terrain ideas, I think "rough ground" or something that slows small units, doesn't impair medium units, and can still be leveled by large units would be a decent reverse of the light forest.

[@thomasfalen2880]

The Vulcan was horrible. Through the whole video they couldn't even kill one infantry that wasn't stunned. Like half the """fights""" would have an infantry washing over because they took the "big bad mechs" to low HP before a single unit was killed

[@RancorSnp]

Personally, I am in LOVE with Stormgate so far, this is clearly the closest thing to Warcraft 4 we will ever get, and I am SUPER INTO THAT. The art style is great to me, the only units that visually blend together are the bio units, and I still do not know if it's not something wrong with my eyes, since they have distinct giant weapons, but hopefully at the ACTUAL POLISH STAGE, not in the pre-alpha - they make sure that the bio units pop out as well as the mech units do. I've been very upset with the reception online, we waited 2 decades for anyone to attempt this, and we get so many people complaining that the art style isn't their prefered art style - even if it makes the game easier to read which is important for an RTS and that it is not an exact replica of Starcraft 2. And I said it on loop today, But Starcraft 2 is a game like Starcraft 2 that is still very much alive. Stormgate does not need, and should not be trying to be an exact Starcraft 2. I am very confident that the team will deliver a great game, and honestly, if this game will be a success or not depends on how good custom map support is more than any other thing people are complaining about. Still, it's not very annoying that we finally get a new RTS game that shows some promise, and half the internet is acting as if the game personally stabbed their babies and tryign to drag it down. EDIT : As for your question on the dropship clip, I think it is something that is very important to show. As per the dev interview from a year ago, the unit kill speed is meant to be slower than Starcraft 2 so that a player who is attacked does not see the battle is already almost over by the time they navigate their screen to the scene of the battle, Showing the dropship micro shows that even if the units get killed slower, the fight itself can still be very fast-paced and active. Dropship micro has historically made it's way into some of the greatest micro compilations. So this bit right here shows off the potential of high level gameplay even at this early stage of development.

[@ElRectalo]

For me personally, art style really matters. I'm fine with game having any artstyle if I'm going to spend like 2-3 hours in it, but I just cant take this art style for much longer. It's actually the reason why I chose dota 2 instead of LOL, i just physically can not play it for long, because my eyes hurt. And in this trailer, for me personally, this artstyle looks like something I just wont be able to look at for too much.

[@adunnathvixis5409]

@@ElRectalo Did you see the pre-alpha footage of SC2? It was horrible to watch compared to the finished game, so I wouldn't worry about the visuals yet.

[@ElRectalo]

@@adunnathvixis5409 being worried is about sending a message. If I just sit here thinking "they will fix it", they will not change anything. If everyone will be talking about visuals being a problem, they will start doing something about it.

[@natanoj16]

@@ElRectalo funny I feel the opposite. I cant stand the artstyle of Dota2. It feels to me like everything is muted in colour and blurs together. It is probably about what one gets used to :)

[@ElRectalo]

@@darkpain2452 K

[@AaronJonMorgan]

An interesting way of buffing big stuff would be to have gravel paths into some bases that allow both small and big units, but the small units either take more damage, or are slower to pass

[@nonamenoname9352]

The core fundamentals look solid, which is probably the most important part right out of the gate. I hope that sooner or later we can get some campaign content as that is what will really make or break it for me.

[@TheGayRepublicanIcon]

So true. The campaign is the most important feature. People need to love the universe they are building.

[@gerangam]

Monk's style of play reminded me of how I used to play Warcraft 3 against bots as a child. I built several strong units, a few towers for beauty, and then lost to the superior forces of bots

[@NeoGames2]

When I saw it myself... I was just like "So. It's starcraft 2 units in the warcraft 3 engine? This doesn't look good at all". I just hope that they make stuff different.

[@abaddonarts1129]

I like the cyclops unit you pointed out! It doesn't quite mesh with the smaller units I saw but isn't *too* far out to the point of being alien. It reminds me of the Modrons from D&D, which is a plus for me, and I like how the humans have just enough sheen and metal to them to feel a little like a Supreme Commander game or something but also still remind me of SC units. I'm very very eager to see the Devil/Demon faction, since the art that's been posted looks spectacular, and it gets me very excited to know what little details makes them stand out as a group.

[@Lapschi]

You are amazing Grant, love your positivity and passion about RTS and you are a jewel in this Genre we all love ❤️

[@MajoraZero]

The dropship fight looked confusing because I believe it's missing effects. Units disappear and appear too raw. Of course pre-alpha state, but it does make it hard to judge.

[@darkregin2]

For the factions the current narrative theyre going for is science vs fantasy, they could go for a religious one too like an order of crusaders or paladins (maybe similar to the design of protoss or wow draenei) maybe warrior monks - heck most ancient battles were based on faith, and that fits nicely in science vs fantasy vs faith With 3 factions they could go for some more interesting map placements Maybe meteor fields that nerf generic air units but also give the more astrological units more energy regen Or for the opposite clouds that stealth giant or air units and not small infantry or buildings Demons that could create new environments like smoke areas or rifts in the ground that could make the slow moving artillery more useful The slow moving artillery goes with their initial 5 points that Grant spoke about- If most people that play RTS just enjoy the casual PVE side, that's a lot more balanced than the instant murdering of the siege tanks But nothing stops that from being more interesting in the PVP too with terrain altering abilities - maybe we could have sentry style force fields but change it into those demon cracks or mountains

[@natanoj16]

I would love to see some mythic based factions ^_^ One of the things I hope for the most is cool sub-factions for a Coop / pve gameplay. Like humans who have survived in the abyss and gotten magic Demons who have gotten their hands on human technology and infused it with their power and more ^_^

[@rigen97]

@@natanoj16 oh or maybe entities claiming to be humanity's old gods (like greek or norse) arriving to save us in the darkest hour but humanity is obviously suspicious of them and view them as nothing more than deceitful tyrants.

[@blecao]

I like the idea of a faith faction maybe add priest units do give area buffs that you can upgrade to give some specific buff like shield damage etc Also one thing that i would love them to explore is to have more than 2 resources a faction specific resource on the more advanced factions thats allows them to deploy its goodies give upgrades and that Kind of like aoe3 exports for asians or several daw1 factions

[@danielquinones1771]

I liked that the mech minigun has a rev up time, making the dash that it has important for it to stay engaged in fights. It will have a different feel than the stutter stepping marines and that sounds cool.

[@damiens4601]

Curious to see Grant take on it, I know its pre aplha so much can change, but the big thing for me was the lack of impact when units were fighting, it didnt feel like they were hurting each orher

[@kyugokato2262]

I think that comes from the warcraft element and I personaly like the slower style

[@Frodonsake24]

Yeah I'm sure they're gonna add some feedbacks, using both visuals and sound design , to make it more impactful.

[@darkregin2]

Now that i've fully seen the clip, my current feelings on stormgate are... I'm glad its a pre-alpha It definitely needs a lot of work I can't say i enjoy the unit spacing Or the economy And I feel like we're going to need a lot more unit variety before things become interesting Maybe that unit variety we'll see with the second faction, as mirror matches werent interesting to watch in SC either But that goes to my next concern - Just 2 factions is going to be very dry if they don't expand that hugely

[@Mahons]

On the steam discussions forum under a Races/Factions discussion made by a user a FrostGiantGerald dev account commented "We're starting with one, then adding another, and then . . . who knows what happens next! We have confirmed that we're going to have more than two, in case that helps. " I will put the link to this quote in a different comment in case youtube shadow bans it So I would expect at least the 3 factions like we know of it from SC2

[@ryu-ken]

It's too slow

[@darkregin2]

I think i heard something like this a while ago- I thought they were going to aim for like the command and conquer style where they have 3 main factions, then lots of slight variations on those Then I realise they have experience with this in SC2 coop which basically has the 3 main factions then chops them up into tiny pieces, maybe they could have a less restricted version of that

[@megamert2848]

I mean not hugely, I honestly think that in order to have truly diverse factions you can only have about 3 or 4 without it being too hard to play, because for example AoE2 has 10+ faction but they are al like 90% the same so playing them doesn't feel as unique. But with only 2 or 1 you wouldn't have enough variety.

[@mass74dead]

they should add symbiosis of 2 races. like infested terran in sc2

[@ZacharyCadieux]

I think the light forest terrain has a lot of potential, but I think it would be interesting to still have a consequence for the infantry passing through. Maybe they have their movement speed reduced when passing through, which would make them a lot more vulnerable to the artillery shots and open up some interesting defensive options. Something I think would be very interesting would be the ability to "place" light forest terrain down, or other terrain/vision blockers, but I'm not sure how technically difficult that is. Maybe heavy vehicles can destroy rocks/cliffs and open up ramps?

[@swancrunch]

they could also receive more damage from artillery shells - like if a tree falls on a marine)

[@vectrom21]

It makes scouting or having map vision more important. It's a cool design.

[@giuseppebonatici7169]

they could also reduce (futher) the max density of units inside them. It should have some risk attached. and do damage if the trees fall.

[@ixioxp119]

i like that the artillery isn't a hit scan, so often in sc2 i felt that i was already at a disadvantage just because i moved into the range of a tank like i didn't know about, especially if they got off their shots thought a scan so it wasn't even me getting too close without scouting

[@mapron1]

Well, I don't like it from defense perspective. It feels like trash defense unit, launching projectile to land in 5 seconds - no one will build that (your base will already dead in 5 seconds lol).

[@omgwtfhaxfan1221003]

If its projectile, It needs to 1 shot infantry, in the demo, It dodn't do alotta damage. Its pointless. The gunners were better units than the tonks

[@badcat6628]

faster projectile speed and some higher damage will make this unit alot better, kinda reminds me of the mangonel from aoe2

[@badcat6628]

you could also remove the aoe indicator for your opponent, so its harder to guess its landing spot but the user can still keep their units from pathing into it

[@Jpeg.g]

But the projectile needs to be faster, that is so pathetically slow.

[@ninosegers]

the little trees are a mix of sightblockers, reaper ledge, and destructable rocks. think its interesting it allows for early game harasment while not having base wide open

[@ITSREIGNING]

I saw the big guys do a dash through the trees, so I imagine you can set up island terrain to give them shortcuts that the little guys don't. And there needs to be a giant tier 5 unit that flies in the air and crash land when they die.

[@megamert2848]

Yeah, great idea to open up more mobility for the big units, although don't know if all bigger units will have dashes, maybe more something along the lines of there is fast flowing water here and it washes away infantry but bigger mechs and vehicles can just wade right through.

[@OctoDog13]

I thought of rocky type of terrain in a sense that vehicles can ride over rocks, but infantry can't since it's dangerous to step or something. Maybe a slow effect or smth.

[@gallonofcats1097]

Yes. And make it a big flying disc. With laser in the center. And call it "Czar". I thing I should go play supreme commander again.

[@hakonmarcus]

I've always liked the idea of terrain that does damage, or that does damage to small/bio. Like the periodical lava floods in SC2 - why weren't they ever part of multiplayer maps?

[@megamert2848]

@@hakonmarcus I think they never used the near instakill lava because it would be too rage inducing because you could lose way too much to it and probably to not have it favor terran too much you could have 0 bases in the flooded area. But a limited section with like rivers/walls rising up could indeed be interesting.

[@doogong]

For the demon faction, I'd love to see some kind of creep spreading mechanic. I've always liked the idea of changing the terrain as the game went on

[@ismael9914]

The problem with Starcraft 2 creep is that it makes Zerg + non zerg coop mode counter productive, where the zerg benefits but the other cant expand

[@Niyucuatro]

@@ismael9914 With a different theme, you can make the "creep" to be player specific rather than race specific and make it benefit team mates too. I mean theme as in magic rather than an extending organism.

[@adtrlthegamer7449]

@@ismael9914 That's true. I agree with it being annoying but on the other hand I equally disagree as that's also something that made the Zerg all the more horrifying to fight against, as they surely devoured the planet.

[@anima94]

@@allhailderpfestor4839 I assume they hardcoded in creep to be neutral so allowing your ally would also allow the opponent to build on it

[@adtrlthegamer7449]

​@@Niyucuatro (Sorry if this is a lot to take in.) I'm thinking they can make the ground change visually and maybe a slight boon to the demon player, also allies and enemy alike. Say Demons move slight faster and/or regen hp, but lose that/those aspects off the changed ground. (Could make it so the ground splits open and looks more rocky/craggy.) Or another thought I had is, maybe enemy and ally Demon ground change/cover is separate and like your forces on the battlefield. It clashes with the enemy's ground cover, say your demons ground cover, if like I said above with the ground cracking, the glow from it would be your color and that of your enemy. With both ground cover/change clashing with each other, it only benefits the player of the same color. -Say your Red and your opponent is Green, your both demon but your units are benefitting from the enemy's ground cover despite both of you being demon. Till you either, 1. capture the ground changer of your enemy, or 2. you clear their ground cover to replace with your own. (A small thing I'd also do, if it only affects you only and not your allies the glow is only your color but if also affects your allies who are also demon, then I feel like the demon ground cover for allied demons could start fading in and out of your color, in this case Red and Blue of your ally. While also the same happens with your demon enemy's.)

[@cowcat8124]

I like the big robot guys, they look cool And I like how the artillery isn't hitscan so all of your units won't die instantly when they get in range like in StarCraft II

[@marley7868]

yeah but despite being obviously dodgeable it does like no damage

[@pointdefensedrone2443]

@@marley7868 I agree, the amount of damage for something so hard to hit your enemies with is pathetic, but this will probably get fixed. In any case, this still looks more fair than loosing 20 units because one of them accidentally stepped on a deadline of a siege tank range in sc2.

[@marley7868]

@@pointdefensedrone2443 Artillery hurts but to balance it there are four usual options yeah it hits hard far away and can pretty much delete any unit in two shots but it's ungodly expensive and is armored with paper two it's devastating but it's range is limited and it has a long reload three it's a constant bit of burst damage that comes in handy and really helps punish death blobs four kinda like his but if it hits something it does disgusting damage cause lets be real that would be the only reason you'd build it since it sucks in every other regard

[@alexs5814]

I mean, yeah, but it feels like the projectile is a bit too slow and the dmg is underwhelming so far. Avoiding a good hit is well and all but hitting a meaty chunk of enemy units should have more payoff than just barely a quarter of health of four units. maybe hive the hit units a small stun to facilitate further hits? although, stunlock is not fun to be on the recieving end of so it's likely not gonna happen.

[@followeroftheprince]

​​@@alexs5814 The guy in the very center of the attack nearly lost half his health from the attack. Meanwhile others in the same attack took basically nothing of importance. I think, the siege blasts do scaling down damage the further from the center of the blast. Which, doesn't help since that actually makes it even weaker since even if you do get a hit in it will probably be reduced in damage

[@13_iq]

I love how much the units stand out from one another, i can tell at a glance how many of each is in an army

[@Benjackalope]

And it’s also really easy to quickly see what certain units are for. Marines, basic infantry (or the melee counterpart being more tanky and front liners) Goliath, big mech with giant gun. Siege tank, probably mobile. Drop ship, medic, other support, and scout.

[@LukAzJune]

I'm actually quite happy with the unit spacing. Other people seem to prefer units that are really stacked together, but I would hardly call the unit spacing in the reveal egregious.

[@Earthhorn]

Seems like Mass Marine Murderball still is the answer.

[@Starki11er88]

I really liked it. Looking forward to see what the final product looks like. I like the focus for slower engagements as a casual who's APM never cracks 60.

[@edammusic973]

For me the biggest hurdle is that Stormgate has to live up to the legacy of Blizzard without Blizzard resources. Add to that that the campaign, which creates attachment to the factions and overall game is hard to show off in pre-alpha (and I´d say harder to monetize as well). I am not too worried though because the developers got the chops. What would help is a statement of intent video like the reveal of Sanctuary: Shattered Sun to show what they aim for (not where they currently are).

[@BlueTerror7446]

Regarding the dropship micro I think it's great to see. I play SC2 at lower levels and it will probably continue in Stormgate, so I won't be able to do it, but it'll be cool to see pros do highly intensive stuff with a lot of skill expression. I also heard from other sources that they're trying to prolong the fights without things such as Widow Mines, Banelings and Disruptors. I think this is a good direction. "I fear not the man who has practiced 10,000 kicks once, but I fear the man who has practiced one kick 10,000 times." - Bruce Lee My reason for this opinion is that the problem with explosive gameplay encourages you to sit there and practice the same 3 seconds 10,000 times. Skill expression gets crammed into those 3 seconds and the gameplay loop gets very repeated. Sure it looks cool and is easy to advertise but I don't think it's fun to play. With their focus on prolonged fights and increased durability, fights could take minutes, giving them more room to be unique and the player gets to enjoy practicing a new fight 10,000 times over. As for terrain that favours mech you got my gears spinning and I'd love to see mud fields. Infantry moves slower but mech just plows through.

[@hirnlos9462]

For the Terrain: I dont think we need special terrain to favor mech, if normal flat, open ground favours mech and infantery needs the cover of woods/buildings to compete.

[@BlueTerror7446]

I bet you someone will make a map with some mud feature regardless. (Assuming there's a map editor of similar style to SC2.)

[@Innerdesert]

@@BlueTerror7446 There will be an editor, that is the main selling point of Stormgate.

[@semrehocin3976]

i really like the gatling mech. a combination of piercing aoe damage and a dash to reposition the unit looks like a great way to get a lot micro potential

[@13g0man]

Using them to set up flanks while their infantry line shoots your tanks would make for interesting tactics - can you put a flank up against unpathable terrain? Could the enemy then use that unpathable terrain against you via artillery bombardment or high ground tactics?

[@HighLanderPonyYT]

I like them but their windup time seems annoyingly long.

[@vectrom21]

I like the mech unit also like it's animation. They just seem weak, but balancing can resolve that.

[@Patryk128pl]

I think the 3rd faction might be some kind of heaven-like kinda-Protoss faction with some sort of "greater ethics/good". I mean, we already have Hell race confirmed, so it seems kinda fitting... Though I hope for some more aliens, and maybe a bug zerg-like faction. But seeing something completely new would be super cool, like those Scion's Custom Races for SC2.

[@tanneredwards2882]

I’d love to see them play more into the unit size stuff like the trees mechanic. Like I love the Colossus in SCII because of how different it feels from every other unit. Being able to climb cliffs, units can walk under it, it’s so tall that air units can hit it. I saw some other people mention hardpoints or stationing infantry in a ship like a flying SCII bunker. I think these features help sell the scale of a unit without necessarily having to make it physically large in game (like real scale large). I think the breaking down of the trees is fun to play with. You could have large units that can simply walk over the trees rather than through them. I like the dash through and destroy the trees thing they’ve got going currently. You could implement a difficult Terran mechanic when the trees are destroyed to debuff infantry or even block them instead and medium and large can pass through fine. I think the unit spacing was a little loose, but I don’t need zergling density. If you tell me they have an advantage for going through small spaces, then I think they can be a little closer. When I watch real scale SCII I think “this is what the game wanted to be”. And I acknowledge from a competitive RTS point of view that is not realistic lol. But it really made the gameplay experience feel different from pretty much every other RTS I’ve played.

[@demulazer6223]

11:10 I really enjoy juggling units with dropships, but in this fight it still took me like 3 rewatches to understand what happened because I just didn't notice the units getting picked up, in sc2 for example there is like a trail of particles from the picked up unit to the warp prism, while this time the units just disappear (yes I know this is pre-alpha). Also idk why but the Vulkan looks so sick, I like everything about it - the dash, the minigun winding, the piercing bullets like the HotS archangel, and I assume this is around sc2 immortal tech, so I can't even imagine what t3 units will look like

[@zaxtonhong3958]

My concern is the Vulcan doesn’t play well with stutterstepping (every time it attacks after moving, it needs to spin up for a sec) And that’s kind of a death sentence in sc2 unless you have crazy range, which doesn’t appear to be the case for the vulcan.

[@DemiLuna1]

I love the idea of the siege weapons not being hitscan, one thing i never liked about SC2 is that just having 2 or 3 tanks to go against means you lose half your army pushing in. I do think the projectile could be a little bit faster, but that's just a minor thing. I also like the tree stuff, mostly because it forces you to think outside of your "ramp" and you can't just wall off the ramp for easy defense early on.

[@wgkgarrett]

I do like the idea of something more complex than ramps and the occasional vision blocker.

[@tezereth]

That’s why I’m in love with Warzone 2100 mortar and other artilleries. It feels great seeing the shells raining down on your enemies while half of them hit a mountain on the way. It feels more real but still satisfying

[@pknepps]

I think you have the best opinion on the overall reactions I've seen. I've been looking at stormgate content nonstop since the reveal yesterday, and I fully agree with your analysis of the current state of rts vs what Frost Giant is trying to portray.

[@cobaltroselazuli2921]

The “Light Forests” - I’ve noticed a few of the recent(ish) rts games that didn’t do well have tried the exact same thing here, Grant: - Age of Empires 4 has “Stealth Forests”, which units can use to hide from everything but Scouts and certain buildings. These can be cut down just like normal trees but are far sparser than your standard tree line. - Grey Goo has “Stealth Forests”, often circle-shaped patches of trees units can hide within to ambush enemies which some units are too large to use as cover and which Air units and certain unit upgrades can see into. - Total Warhammer 3’s launch maps featured what the community referred to as “Tree Acne”, circles of Forest placed around maps seemingly for the sake of balance with no regard to how that affected the visuals of the map (and which made me think the map designers just set the Tree brush tool in the editor to max size, clicked in a spot and moved on but I digress). These maps are considered sub-par compared to previous ones. - Dawn of War 3 featured something similar, though if memory serves it was visually more like StarCraft 2’s little stealth patches - reeds, exhaust ports, that sort of thing. This absolutely isn’t enough to say “aha, these rts failed because they tried to have little sneaky spots on their maps”, but it is enough consistency to make me wonder if the same mindset responsible for putting them in those games is also why they’ve so often focused on hardcore multiplayer design and balance over their casual content.

[@coleperry9934]

I hope there is a 3 or even a 4th faction. I really want them to play up this fantasy syfy look and have one that is a syfy version of a fantasy fiction.

[@tristantully1592]

There will be a third, they haven't shown it yet.

[@TheGayRepublicanIcon]

I think they will do smaller content drops and then "expansion packs" if you will that will contain a new faction. I expect AT LEAST 5 but not for years.

[@Neopolis3]

Maybe big units have less (or no) penalties for attacking uphill, could make for some interesting decision-making on where to make your base and fight your battles.

[@nicknorris4612]

Most my interest for Stormgate comes from the fact that they're going to make it more coop or team based and so I'd really love to see their ideas for that. It would be awesome to see what kind of new mechanics they'll introduce to make it fun. I haven't really seen anything in this footage that got me excited tbh. I don't think it'll bomb or anything but I also feel like this footage has shown off only the most basic RTS elements.

[@gowzahr]

I think it all depends on how it's used. If the thin forest is in places that support certain strategies, rather than outright supporting certain units. For example, placing them by resources to facilitate worker harass on some maps.

[@Martuna12453]

I do like what I see with the pre-alpha, and even if it's not complete, it shows what their initial intentions are with spacing and movement and unit interactions. Can give us an idea of how Frost Giant wants to develop this. And I was thinking of another great RTS game series when posed with this question and I think they could take a page from Red Alert 2's multiplayer. They had only 2 factions, but 4 different nations that change up that faction ever so slightly that would change how they interacted. Would love to see 4+ factions, but otherwise having a way to adjust the factions in the multiplayer meta would widen the curve and allow players to play to their strengths. Thinking in terms of SC2, have something in the faction selection that buffs bio but slows eco a little, or mech buffs but lowers line of sight and flier speed. I know that would cause a balancing nightmare, but I think that would really shake things up.

[@oou8316]

Just few things about red alert 2 - there are 3, one is op without balance mod, and from those 9 subfactions only 2-4 are played in multiplayer (korea, iran, usa, russia - after buff and of course yuri) In ra2 difference was just one unit and thats it, just use it or its trash. Of course ra2 have like x mods, where are subfaction more different (i know only one - mental omega). I heard somewhere that in coop they will something like subfactions so this way there dont have to be perfect balance, just play what you like.

[@foolsgold7971]

Dude this looks sick!

[@ahuman7027]

Good analysis, on the connexion between unfinished games and that good trasnparency! Love that potential, we'll let them tackle that :)

[@mathiaslamu1868]

The intent of encouraging micro with unit abilities (big mechas firing in a line, slow-enough-to-dodge projectiles, slow on the dogs, dropships etc) while being slow enough not to be entirely unforgiving, e.g. TLO's retreat when the mechas popped out, seems great to me. Meanwhile the talk in the original video emphasize build types, research etc so that part is not forgotten which I also like. I think this is a good foundation to start building the hype on and look forward to hearing more about it.

[@TemplarWarden]

A Reaction Reaction, oh boy hitting the algorithms 👍

[@ryu-ken]

Reaction of a reaction are my favorite videos

[@Lordblow1]

Overall I feel like the units are kinda interesting, they feel a bit like those from Red Alert 3 in overall looks and how they seem to play. On that noteI think that most people don't rly talk about it because it is so early in development and art stile somehow feels like something that will have a bit more staying power. It just feels like theyre is very little I can actually say on the game besides that. It just doesn't feel very tangible.

[@lowfianimal8605]

I am pretty hyped. The mechanics look recognizeable and fun, and I have wanted to micro more for a while, which the lower time to kill encourages. I am expecting more polish, but even if everything just reaches the level of the factories, it will look pretty good. Also, it sounds like you have some juicy insider info... Unless you were just saying that the tanks attacks are inspired by the void Thrashers. In which case, I should probably remember what else they can do, and how that could be used. As an aspiring game designer, I find this peek into their process fascimating.

[@PrimalRockSlapper]

I love the trees only small units can use, I think the best usecase is in the middle of the map increse the rush distance for large units you can rush to. I also love the powerbuilding where the worker that starts it is safe but any making faster can be attacked and killed. I think it would be cool to have some terrain with forced movement where the big guys are ether not affected at all or slightly affected.

[@dicksonZero]

i think immortal juggling has a factor of cool in there that i would like to keep. perhaps giving it a delay between the instant pickup and the instant-ish drop off, so that the player picking up the immortal experiences more down time? i dunno perhaps it may make the pro scene and the casual scene more even

[@ChannelMiner]

Yeah, I do NOT want to kill dogs. I agree with you that the reaction seems kinda mediocre. I've seen some negative opinions on the art style imo i like it. I also see a lot of people saying they don't like the gameplay, while I don't want to just be another early alpha apologist, but I do think this gameplay looks pretty good and I am very excited for Stormgate.

[@garbuz3324]

My first reaction to this was: this kind of looks like a well polished Blackchain, made by veteran game creators. I hope it's going to be more than that

[@voracioussergal9360]

I just had an idea for infernal luminite extraction. you spend 5 workers to make "corrupted mine" that mines at low speed. then a "inferno" crack starts going from main base HQ(which could be a portal) to the corrupted mine. the closer the crack the more luminite you extract per second. but single scout being sent to your base reveals its location. but when crack reaches the mine you get a burst resource boost based on distance.

[@kriboskakmak5006]

I think the dropship micro scene is pretty cool. It's probably there for people who are skeptical about the slower game speed (compared to sc2) to show how much more important micro is now when the game is slower.

[@dwreider]

It would be interesting to see (and your guyses oppinion) on what if the factory units ( vulcan and tank sofar) had a kinda surpressife fire ability to target an area or location to keep shooting instead of the windup that they have on their attack

[@lowfianimal8605]

Manually targetting the ground with the tanks seems like a great idea, given how slow they fire. Imagine if you can predict where the opponents ar my is going to be.

[@VeryBadPlayerTV]

This is easily the most humble take and earned you a sub. Crazy how literally no one I've watched recently understands that.

[@FyrrMadash]

My idea for the terrain that buffs bigger stuff might be something like uneven terrain. While "human sized" Troops have trouble climbing over this part (becoming slower etc.), big vehicles and mechs could just stop over it without caring about the terrain

[@natanoj16]

I am so excited to see a tech/magic mix RTS. Rise of Legends was one of my favorite RTS games due to the genre mix

[@Kaiasky]

I kinda really love that the marines aren't sc2 stutterstep microgod marines. I think when you're actually playing it'll feel like there's a clear difference between 'bad RTS engine' and 'unit that takes time to move' and I think i could get used to heavy feeling marines. I really like the bulky lookin medic droid too.

[@adexab]

not gonna lie, the light forest being destroyable looks fun, a fog mechanic that hides small units unless you have your own small unit to detect them could be fun weather in general, maybe not during pvp but during mission having more weather affect how a map is played would be fun(rain would make mech move slower but not during high wind)

[@leugimuxu]

The stuff about different Tree density having an impact makes me hope that environment will be a big factor which can be pretty fun and make different biomes/tilesets have some cool influence. Hopefully they can pull that off.

[@BladeDrago997]

I do like how the fights aren't as quick as SC2, where it feels like units get shredded in nanoseconds by stim marines or adrenal glands zerglings. Giving someone even a second or two of time to respond to the map notification of an attack feels like you have a bit more of an opportunity to respond to your opponent. Thinking about the infantry vs mech map movement, maybe maps could feature areas of thick mud or something similar, that really slows or hampers infantry who can't cross well on foot but the large mechs can walk through, or tanks with treads. In the spirit of being able to remove the terrain too, like the trees, maybe a cryo canister or some natural ice crystal can be nearby that freezes the terrain on destruction, turning the slowing ground into normal terrain that infantry can cross no problem.

[@AetherSeeker]

Maybe I'm in the minority, but I absolutely do not care about the PvP aspect. I don't care about specific unit balance. I wanna see a campaign with a good story, wild and varied objectives and perhaps some kind of meta advancement to tailor and tweak my faction to fit my style. Am I currently whelmed by what we've seen? Absolutely. They do have my interest, but they do not yet have my attention. If this turns out to be a "free to play, but buy all the cosmetics and the game-play is only other players" then I'll move on to waiting for the next thing. But I hope it'll be more than that.

[@JackDGrimm0013]

I really like that the mechs charge is not just a movement ability, but also stuns and lets them blitz through small trees. I love versatile abilities and this seems like a good sign

[@ZiggySol]

Seems like the big units have very low dps

[@musketman6376]

I like the "marine" unit a lot and the Vulcan is very interesting ,but I feel like the Vulcan does very little damage and isn't really that big of a threat to any other units, but its by far my favorite unit

[@Andrew-ql4zd]

im not sure if you noticed but while i was watching it my like 3rd or 4th time i noticed that the vulcan units had a pericing attack similar to hellions. this makes me feel like they would act similar in a way that hellions would where they are better against clumps or enemies in a line than a big death ball of high teir units. I also noticed that with just the 2 of the vulcan mech units, when they had a unit that got hit by both like lanes of bullets the unit got its health decimated so i would assume that with like 3 or 4 of them you could most likely rip apart infantry armies. I do agree tho that aside from the dogos the vulcan unit seems very cool and is one of my favorites so far.

[@blacknyellow962]

The gameplay definitely looks interesting since it seems to combine elements of Warcraft III and Starcraft 2 with the ability to speed up buildings with multiple workers, dropship micro etc. I suppose we'll have to wait and see where the following updates go since like you said a lot of people are associating this with the usual "Pre Alpha - half baked gameplay that actually makes it to launch" that has been apparent in the genre for awhile. Funny, in their attempts to be transparent and open about the development they've unintentionally roused everyone's skepticism. The heavy units (Vulcans I think) look interesting since their dash/stun seems to disable micro (including dropships) which could be cool for disabling hard targets like spellcasters. Maybe they'll be able to dash over small objects too? Maybe they'll have upgrades specifically for that dash? IE: Stun length, distance or area of effect?

[@LddStyx]

They should have opened with the wild stuff that grabs attention and makes people speculate. The space lasers and giant walking bases, medic buffs that mutate your own infantry in unpredictable ways, buildings that explode once finished, mines that teleport units to them once triggered, mechs that have a chance to self-resurrect once destroyed, builders that voltron-combine together to form emergency combat units, scouts ripping trough basic infantry in one hit, combat engineers that dig in and transform into bunkers in the middle of battle, hacker type units that can possess mech units and so on.

[@richreper4375]

Im too hype Im not gonna lie, I have to activly temper my expectations every time I see a reveal bc of how happy it makes me to just see how much time, effort, and skill has been put into this game. The quality just looks great, and the units look responsive, when most modern rts just feels crappy to control imo. Hopefully alpha is fun for yall, and hope we can join in beta!

[@grayogden9232]

first and really looking forward to this game

[@userasdf]

I want a race that doubles down on the zerg creep mechanic. The entire race is just buildings. No units or limited units that are just workers. So any attack is through like a nydus worm mechanism with spreading creep where new buildings can grow and attack from. And commitment to the infested command centre type mechanism that if the creep takes over buildings they can use those buildings. THey can either build the same troops or some version of those troops Would find it cool if a strat would be to just destroy your own expansion so the enemy doesn't get it. (assuming you can get a situation working where multiple bases is viable. Would be very hard to balance but would be cool. This is why I liked starcraft to begin with. THe races were so different from each other vs like command and conquer where it felt like 90% of the units were just reskinned with slightly different stats and a few big things were different.

[@marley7868]

interesting there should be some artillery buildings cause let's be real the enemy should have scrubber towers and stuff un infest there work that said the match being one big containment/seige does sound fun

[@thyrussendria8198]

My thoughts on the light forest is that it could add to base assaults since it would allow you to basically do an ambush flank attack to hit the enemy's backline while their frontline is dealing with your main force.

[@tonyheath626]

One balance to the treeline concept would be to allow light infantry to pass through 'normal forrest' and allow bigger (mech/artillery) to pass through the 'light forrest'.

[@evronian1129]

I really like the Warcraft 3 style of having interaction with the terrain and secrets in the terrain, so I really hope they play around with environmental hazards. Also, I was hoping that Storm Gate would have some new way to collect materials instead of just having a goldmine. I think something similar to They are Billions where the anima is straight out of the environment, or maybe something similar to the vespene mission from LotV prologue where there are geysers on the map for you to build something over, but it has to be well defended. And for the third faction, I think something like the Necrons from 40k would be great. Like an army of robot aliens that need the anima to power their bodies. Maybe they could have something similar to blight or creep, like a layer of chrome similar to that one episode of SpongeBob where everything is Chrome. Actually, the idea of some T-1000-esk living Liquid Metal is really interesting to me. Maybe it’s like a living supercomputer alien, or maybe it was made by the humans but corrupted by the demons to turn away from the humans, but it isn’t necessarily on the side of the demons either. On the subject of units with interesting abilities, I like the idea of specialized units, but I would prefer if SG units have a similar make to the Mobius mod for WoL, where you can buy special upgrades to each unit to make them more capable in differing ways. Also, I’d love to see a remake of the hero system. Maybe each faction could have it’s own hero that adds to the army with some beneficial ability (like Stukov’s passive healing) that would warrant having the unit on the field but not make it an automatic win if the other player doesn’t have a hero out. Those are my immediate thoughts at the very least.

[@s-man5647]

10:26 is a whole mood. I also run into that same confusion whether to say "see your opinion" or "hear your opinion" when I know I'm never gonna literally hear you

[@benjaminlindemuth615]

Personally, this footage makes me really excited. I am not an RTS expert, but I have played a decent amount. In this footage I see a number of things that are really familiar, and I see some stuff that is different. This keeps me interested to see what they do in the future. Maybe it is because I am not as entrenched in the gaming community, but I am loving the experience of seeing Stormgate build over time and I am so hyped to see what is coming!

[@VitusPrimeGuy]

What I like is how it looks like the Marines are very clearly designed with stutter step in mind, there's a real big delay between their shots which should make it easy for newer players to benefit from the tech.

[@guest273]

I really hope they make the main campaign playable by 2 or 3 players at once. Like one player gets the buildings + workers + the hero units while the other gets to micro the regular army. And then on the next mission if you don't start out with 2 bases they swap places. Or if a 2nd base is built it goes to the player that is baseless. The only game where I've seen multiple players be able to play trough a campaign simultaneously is MoW Assault Squad. However I don't like that they tried to distribute the units evenly. Like you get a squad of 10 units and one player gets 5 dudes, the other 3 and the last one 2 from the same squad (depending on how much total stuff is alive per player). I do think that a similar system which is fine tuned would be really cool for multiplayer. Like one player gets the mech units, the other gets flying and the third one gets infantry etc.

[@hsjoberg]

Big stuff could take advantage of high-ground/low-ground perhaps, affecting line of sight

[@patrickclark8457]

I kinda of liked the idea of there being terrain that benefits certain types of units because there were some comp maps that had speed boosts or slowdowns in sc2 and i always enjoyed maps having more character

[@Kaldris]

I like these episodes where we get to hear your opinions and thoughts on a topic. I noticed when re-watching the trailer on FG's channel that in the very final fight before the GG is called the flying eye drone is attacking some dropships, appears that they're Air to Air units and likely why they weren't doing anything in the main ground push. I do think the reaction from the people who know RTS' genres being 'this is only pre-alpha' is the correct action, we don't want to overhype it and ignore what might be constructive criticism. I watched the trailer with my wife. She has a cursory understanding of RTS and virtually no desire to ever watch it. When she saw the trailer her main thought was 'looks like league of legends'. Interestingly I think 'muted' reactions like this are what drive so many historical fans to try to over-correct in the developers favour. The interesting part is it's not by hate or by lying, but by acceptance and a general theme of it'll continue to improve to be what we hope it will be.