Frost Giant Studios has just recently sent an email with exciting news for the future of Stormgate, including a date for the next Closed Alpha test, Infernal Host news, and a new progression system.
Make sure to read until the end to get all the juicy details (and info on how to increase your chances to get into the Closed Alpha)!
Closed Alpha
Closed testing for Stormgate started on July 7th for a very small number of players and included important RTS and community figures as well as a tiny number of randomly-selected fans who subscribed at the official Stormgate website.
With the July 21 newsletter, they’ve announced that an expanded closed testing phase will start on August 7.
This new testing phase will be under a strict Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA) and have a small scope with few players being given access to the Alpha.
If you want to increase your odds of getting into this testing round, make sure to fill out the official registration survey before July 25.
Infernals at Gamescom
The newsletter also confirms that steady development progress is being made on the Infernal Host faction and that they’ve been a primary focus in the past weeks.
Even better, Frost Giant will debut some unit concepts from the Infernal Host during Gamescom(August 23 – 27), where you'll also get to see some new footage on this much-anticipated faction.
If you’re interested in learning more about the Infernal Host, check out our “Everything We Know About Stormgate” post that details what has been revealed about the Infernals' playstyle, mechanics, and design philosophy so far.
New Progression System
Frost Giant is currently experimenting with a progression system called “Sockets & Cards.” The core idea is that each Hero will have “Sockets”, which are slots you can fill in with “Cards” that give different powers to your Hero and faction. The more you level up your Hero, the more Sockets you’ll unlock.
Since this is a progression system that specifically focuses on Heroes, it will not be present on 1v1 (since it does not have Heroes) but is currently planned to be present in Campaign, 3v3 Ranked, and 3vE Co-Op.
In this early version of the system, each Socket has a specific type of Card it can use. For instance, a specific Hero may have a Socket that only houses Unit-affecting Cards (cards that affect a specific unit), a socket for cards that affect your Hero (like empowering one of the Hero’s abilities), and a third socket for cards that affect the whole faction (like buffing the whole army).
This system also allows for a wide variety of different effects – from different starting conditions like starting with extra money or pre-constructed buildings, to altering the tech tree of the faction or completely altering the way your Hero plays.
Sockets & Cards also increase player differentiation substantially. Two players playing the same faction/hero may have completely different experiences by equipping different Cards.
More playstyles, increased replayability, and greater player differentiation. What's not to love? It even increases team play and role specialization opportunities, like having one ally with a ranged high-damage setup, while you specialize in tanky frontline units to protect them.
The Cards will be visually represented in-game with different artworks and a collection to see all the Cards you’ve earned.
There isn’t much information on the specifics of how Cards will be attained for now, but they’re considering making them obtainable through missions and achievements.
And, of course, always remember that these are early-development concepts, and might be heavily changed by release.
If you want to give your opinion on these systems, you can contribute to the conversation at the Official Discussion Topic Post.
Getting Involved
As always, if you want to engage with the Frost Giant developers and get information from them as they post it, you should sign up for their newsletter, head on over to /r/Stormgate on reddit, and sign up for the beta and wishlist the game on steam!