New details about Stormgate: resources, units, macro and micro, crypts and campaigns
In a conversation with Back2Warcraft, the expected RTS Stormgate Kevin gameplay "Monk" Dong told some new details about this game. We have chosen the main one and a half hour interview. It is time to learn a little more about technologies, units, races, creeps and campaigns in the game from Frost Giant Studios.
Graphics and technology
Stormgate is inspired by Blizzard RTS and should please players who like Blizzard RTS. The game is not trying to be the next warcraft or the next Starcraft, but instead tries to be something unique. The game will differ from the mentioned games as much as they differ from each other.
Over the past year, the development has seriously advanced. Almost the entire faction "Humanov", She is also resistance, already ready.
The game will work on tikraty 64. This means that every second the game will read information about the teams coming from the player 64 times. For comparison, in Warcraft Tikrat-8, in Starcraft-Two-22.5.
The main thing in the schedule is readability. At the same time, the developers still take into account feedback and make amendments on the basis of the feedback. In addition, more cartoon graphics will not look outdated after many years.
Campaign
The campaign can be played alone or in a coopeous for three people. The campaign will be made in the spirit of RTS from Blizzard. Developers try to find a balance between format missions "Build the base and destroy the enemy" and missions with other goals.
The state has people who worked on "Missions for a new" for Starcraft 2; Probably, some ideas from that set of missions will be used in the Stormgate campaign.
It is also planned to add seasonal campaigns to the game to maintain the interest of the audience.
In early access will only be a campaign for resistance.
Resources
The game will have 2 types of resources: the primary resource is Luminite, the secondary resource is Therium. It’s like minerals and gas in Starcraft, gold and wood in warcraft. Therium was inspired by the Command series & Conquer. Monk noted that in the creation of the resource system, developers were largely inspired, among other things, Age of Empires.
At the beginning of the game "Terium generator" located in a sealed state; Players need to attack it to access this resource. After "printing" The generator begins to generate Terium Druz, which appear not on the basis of players, but on the map. You can send workers to these Druze so that they get a resource. A different number of workers can be sent to the production of terrium, depending on the situation (unlike, for example, gas in SC2, where a maximum of 3 workers mines one gazylek).
The deposits of the secondary resource will not be on the basis of players, but on the map. This is done for two reasons. First, so that the cards look more realistic. Secondly, the developers were inspired by carddlades from Brood War, which are constantly experimenting with resources on maps and make mineral walls or locations without gas fields, and so on.
It takes a lot of time to get the Terium’s production (specifically for the resource from the deposit) "distance". At least in the case of the resistance fraction. Probably, other races will get this resource somehow differently.
The standard luminite deposit contains 4 Druze. Each new worker increases the speed of the resource, but by a lower percentage than the previous worker. For example: the first worker produces 100 luminite per minute, the second produces 95 luminite per minute, the third – 90 luminite per minute. And so on. This gives opportunities for optimizing the economy (distribution of workers according to different DRUZs), and the economy becomes less sensitive to HARASS – the loss of 50% of workers does not mean a loss of 50% of the income.
It is planned to make it that resource mining mechanics in different races will vary.
Crypes
Crypes camps will be on the maps. FGS believe that the concept of control of the territory is very important for RTS, so players will need to fight each other for these camps. Cliping will give bonuses of three different types.
First type of bonuses: additional resources.
The second type of bonuses: an additional building appears on the map, the control of which is beneficial to the player (as an example, the green-naga tower from Starcraft 2 was given).
The third type of bonuses: buffs that will not affect the interaction of units (that is, there will be no buffs like +1 to protection), but which can, for example, affect the speed of the production of troops and workers.
One of the battles from the demonstration of gameplay
Crypes will respond so that the players always have an additional incentive to fight for something on the map. What kind of bonuses this or that camp gives is known in advance.
The landscape plays an important role in the game. For example, only small units will be able to go through certain types of vegetation. According to FGS philosophy, players should always have an incentive to go to the map and do something there.
Macro and micro
There will be a lot of macro in the game. But the developers try to introduce solutions into the game that will simplify this process (UI, "Mechanics of forgiveness" Like Terranov Extra-SapPlaces from Starcraft 2).
The game will have a lot of micro. Time to Kill Factor is about 2.5 times higher than in Starcraft 2 (for comparison, in WC3 TTK Factor is about 3.5–4 times higher than in SC2). Thanks to this, there are more opportunities for micro, and the game does not so much and quickly punishes the player for errors.
There will be mechanics that will allow "Cambet", If macro sags. There will be games of the game, more oriented to micro.
Races and units
Races will be very asymmetric.
Resistance is the most understandable and easy to master the race. She has enough standard mechanics and strong enough, durable units. The race has a defensive game, many units have different modes and their own specialization. Subsequent races will be more and more original; In them, players will see mechanics who probably have not previously met in RTS.
Atlas on the principle of operation resembles a siege tank from SC2 and a catapult from WC3. In the layout mode, he shoots energy balls. In combination with a dropshop called EVAC, this unit can be used for Harass, which already resembles river from Brood War.
Vulcan is a unit, the main task of which is to deal with small flimsy units. Applies AOE-dron in a straight line, but the attack begins with a delay in the promotion of a machine gun. Therefore, in certain situations, it can, for example, reject. Unit can also jump with a jet engine, while getting the opportunity to go through friendly (and only friendly) units and sending the first enemy unit to the camp, which falls under this "Blink". After studying the special grade, Vulcan can destroy the trees.
Many units will have abilities that can be unlocked by studying various technologies. For example, Med Tech can treat biological units and increase their protection – this is its first ability. The second ability is called nanoswarm; If you cast it on friendly unit, then around it will form "cloud", which will restore the hitpotes of friendly units; If you cast it on enemy unit, then the same cloud will apply ao-won. The third ability is an AOE display that disperses the debuffs on friendly units and buffs on enemy units.
The developers adhere to the systems of tyir, as in Warcraft 3, there are three stages of technological development.
EVAC is a dropship, the peculiarity of which is that it can unload units for a considerable distance, and also take them from a significant distance. Made with an eye on a prism from Starcraft 2. Monk compared this EVAC capacity with a mini-tank. Also, Evak, like all other flying units of resistance, has the ability "Return to the hangar", which gives the boost to speed and returns Unit back to, in fact, the Hangar Bay – this is the name of the building in which flying units are produced). This ability was inspired by the mechanics from Company of Heroes. Unit returns to the hangar and there completely restores HP, but the player cannot use it until he is completely restored.
Each faction will have starting units for reconnaissance. In resistance, this is a dog called S.C.O.U.T. As a fighter Khumanovsky Scout is very weak, but some kind of damage can apply. He has a passive ability that works similarly to the sensory tower of terrane from SC2 – it discovers units in the fog of war, but does not show what kind of units this is. The second ability allows the scout to increase the viewing radius so that it is equal to the radius of the previously mentioned "sensor". Later, with the help of special scout upgrades, you can turn into combat unit. Well, another dog-scout is a mechanical unit, so it can be repaired by workers.
Demons will be a gragor -like race – in the sense that their strategies are built on throwing rivals with meat. "They are ready to sacrifice any number of units to achieve their goals" (c) monk. Monk also noted that demons will be able to sacrifice their own units in order to get some kind of benefit. Monk said that this race will constantly step on the opponent’s territory with the help of mechanics called "Demonic curtain" (Demonic Shroud), but did not tell what the essence of this mechanics is. There is a suspicion that this is something like a Zerni crypt from SC2.
The quality of life
There is no mandatory task for FGS at some point to switch players from the PVE content to PVP. On the contrary: for players who like to play PVE more, there will be a joint mode and there will be seasonal campaigns. But at the same time, for each game mode there will be separate tutorials designed to help players get comfortable in the game.
Stormgate will have automated control groups that will automatically add new units to bandages immediately after they appear on the map.
Function "Fast macro" (Quick Macro): If the player wants to build some kind of building, then he can do this through a special panel in the interface. The game itself will automatically select a worker who to entrust this task. This will not always be the most optimal choice, so there is an incentive to choose the right workers yourself, but this simplifies the life of inexperienced players.
At the end of the conversation, Kevin thanked the community for support and emphasized that the game is still in development: the developers constantly try new iterations for various elements and come up with something new. "We work very quickly, but we need to do a lot more" (With).