Stormgate developers conducted an AMA session on Reddit and answered a number of questions about their game. We have chosen the most interesting: how the armor system will work in Stormgate, whether there will be a variety of cards in the multiplayer or or "Like in Starcraft 2", How Frost Giant will build e -sports, is everything good with servers, as well as a few more less global questions.
How the armor system will work in the game?
The armor system will become a combination of SC2 and WC3 ideas. Units will not have specific types of damage and armor, as in Warcraft 3, but there will be a system "tags", Like in Starcraft 2. That is, certain units will apply additional damage to units with certain tags (for example: "light armor", "biological" and so on).
The developers considered that this is a good compromise: players will not need to remember the table of bonuses of different types of attacks on different types of armor (as in warcraft), but there is flexibility to configure how hard some units will contrast other units.
Some units will be able to receive bonuses that will give them additional damage against different types of units, and not against one. Similarly, how, for example, Bainling in SC2 inflict bonus damage to light units and buildings.
The armor will lower the resulting damage to a certain percentage, and not by a specific number of units. The same approach is used in WC3 and League of Legends. Specifically, in Stormgate 1, a unit of armor will give unit 1% of effective hitpoons against physical damage. 100 units of armor means that Unit has a double number of effective hitpings.
Frost Giant likes how upgrades change the interaction of units in Starcraft, but this is not too noticeable for the vast majority of players, and this system has a couple of disadvantages.
The developers, remembering that they make social RTS, would like to make a serious bet on the Buffs in the gameplay, and thereby emphasize the importance of team interaction. But if you use buffs to "Starcraft", then some nonsense begins quickly.
Also, during the development of a coop for SC2, the developers realized that they would like to almost endlessly scale the power of enemies, and in this approach "Starcraft" at some point I stopped working. Why should the player study the upgrade by +2 armor if the enemies apply 100 damage?
Wherein "Starcraft" will be used on separate piece units that will not meet in the game everywhere.
Will there be more diverse cards than in Starcraft 2?
Leoel-designer Aaron Larson agreed that the cards in SC2, especially in the later years of the existence of the game, lacked diversity. Main reasons: balance, feedback from community, significant focus on e -sports. From the very beginning, players from Ladder wanted to play on cards, which were as close as possible to the fact that they were played in tournaments. As a result, Blizzard stopped making cards for multiplayer and shifted this task to the shoulders of the community.
The guys from the Community made well -balanced cards, only they seemed very similar to each other, because the programes and those who play in tournaments, they were such cards and "We came in" most. It was possible to work out the build without changing it too much under each card.
Aaron said that Stormgate needs cards for those players who play seriously "For tournaments", and for those who just ride a fan. Also, developers seek to make a more diverse MAP pool for multiplayer. This applies and how "layouts" cards, and the mechanic used (like destroyed forests), which pushing players to use different strategies. But here you need to find a thin balance: the players should not have the feeling that they need "Read to play" according to a new card, but at the same time they should have an incentive to try something new.
What can you learn about powerful leitheim units? How they will be balanced?
From due to the Frost Giant development schedule, only TIR-1 and TIR-2 Units have been able to show. As for high -tech combat units, the developers have many ideas about how to make them balanced. Firstly, each such unit will have a pronounced "weakness". Secondly, the game will have upgrades for low-tech units, thanks to which they can be used in Leitheim.
Units for the early stages of the game will occupy approximately the same amount of limit as similar units in Blizzard RTS. But the leutheim units will occupy much more limit. Here FGS is guided by such a principle that in Blizzard-RTS the usefulness of Unit in Leitheim largely depends on how much the limit he occupies. As an example: the cruiser in SC2 costs 14 times more expensive than Marine, but takes only 6 times more limit. In general, the logic is such that the cost of unit by the limit is balanced depending on its usefulness in Leitheim. Thanks to this, the leutheim units will not be a universal solution that will cross out the use of other units. It will not be possible to simply build a limit from one high -tech unit and win over this.
At the moment, the maximum limit in the game is 300. In Endheim, the dimensions are obtained approximately as in Starcraft, but if the players of the MasCS of low -tech units, then, of course, it turns out more troops.
There should also be super-units in the game, but the maximum number of such units on the map will be limited.
Will the working counter will be displayed on the screen?
In default, such a thing in the game will probably not be. But it is possible that FGS will think about adding a counter to the game that can be turned on manually. Make such a counter "compulsory" They don’t want because the more in the interface of all sorts of meters, indicators, and so on, the more difficult it is for beginners in this interface to get used to.
What kind of new content is planned to add to the competitive mode of 1×1?
Judging by the response of the chief director of Frost Giant Tim Morten, the main content for 1×1 is the update of the balance. Here the studio plans to adhere to the same principle as in Starcraft 2 in recent years of its active support: large updates once a year, but nothing overly revolutionary, so as not to break the balance. In general, you need to listen to the community: what format of work on the balance the players themselves consider to be optimal?
What if someone makes a separate game in the StormGate editor? As it was with Dota and Warcraft 3, for example.
Frost Giant seek to create a friendly environment for creators. The company does not want to operate or get involved in litigation. With all this, for starters, the main task of the editor is to give the authors the opportunity to create new cards.
How easy it will be to create RPG heroes in the editor? Will there be support for characteristics, objects, levels, abilities and so on?
The editor will not be delivered with the game at the time of the release, but will become available later. Otherwise: the editor will give players the maximum opportunities for creating complex systems. Stormgate game has more gameplay logic and gameplay events than in SC2 and WC3, but the more opportunities – the more difficulties in terms of structure.
How important is it to Stormgate Eyportsport?
Frost Giant believe that e -sports is one of the pillars of modern RTS. Stormgate does not have a goal at all costs to lure players from other titles, but the developers hope that if they manage to create a stable ecosystem, the players themselves will want to try themselves at Stormgate.
As for a professional scene, FGS is inclined with a hybrid approach, in which the company has some of its competitions in each region (conditional Path to Pro and Pro Series), plus there are tournaments from third-party operators-for example, as done with meijors in CSGo.
One of the main tasks is also a stable e -sports scene – not only for Frost Giant themselves, but also for players, teams, casters and organizers. The developers constantly communicate with different players, teams and content creators in order to understand what they need and find ways to match the requests. FGS also work on mechanisms, thanks to which the scale of and prizes and their prizes will be able to determine how much in them "invested" The entire Stormgate system.
It is planned to make a serious bet on crowdfunding-for example, like The International in Dota or as once trophy funds in Starcraft 2. Crowdfunding is a great way to give players the opportunity to determine the size of the prize and the prize fund of events. Craffandfunding will also allow FGS to create e -sports in Stormgate hand in hand with the community.
For financing e -sports, more will also be used "Traditional" schemes – attracting sponsors and selling broadcast rights. Over the past few years, there have been a lot of experiments with how to make e -sports attractive and useful for sponsors, and now FGS can use existing "developments" In Stormgate.
ESTOMASTOR-manager Trevor Hausten promised that Frost Giant will tell in detail about e-sports in Stormgate later. Probably either during or immediately after the largest testing.
How the server infrastructure will be arranged?
Frost Giant concluded partnership with Hathora. Server infrastructure will be dynamically scale depending on the load. If at some point the need for additional servers arises, then they will be connected automatically.
Developers pay great attention to the selection of a server for matches. Work is underway on an algorithm that can select the server not only on the principle "Minimum ping for both players", but also create the most honest conditions in Ping.
What is there with Rollback technology?
Rollback allows you to predict what teams the game will receive from the player in the next seconds right during the game. Thus, if the teams for some reason come with a delay, then the game does not need to slow down.
Development is underway, but so far the technology at the stage of the prototype. Rollback is an experimental technology, and "We still need to understand how much benefit from her will be in reality". But the current prototype at the moment looks quite promising. Judging by very, very early tests, the Rollback system really makes units control is noticeably more smooth in a situation where there is a loss of packages between a client and a game server.
At the moment, only the movement of units is tied to Rollback in the game, so that control really looks more smooth. But animations and sound still do not have a binding to this system.
Will there be any set of skinchiks that can be bought at the start to support the developers?
Frost Giant experiment with different forms of support from the community in T.h. Different forms of preliminary purchase of the game are considered. So far the best way to support our game is to add it to the list of desired on Steam.