# Stormgate Transitioning Offline, with QOL and Performance improvements

- Product: Stormgate (https://whatsnew.fyi/product/stormgate)
- Vendor: Frost Giant Studios
- Date: 2026-05-01
- Original notes: https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/2012510/view/492721888204690411
- Permalink: https://whatsnew.fyi/product/stormgate/releases/2026-05-01-transitioning-offline-with-qol-and-performance-im

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- **removed** — Online game modes (Versus and Coop) have been disabled
- **added** — Campaign and AI Skirmish modes now support offline play without requiring a server connection
- **added** — User progress in Campaign and AI Skirmish now persists locally
- **removed** — Dependency on Hathora and Pragma platforms has been removed
- **removed** — Startup splashes and early access dialog have been removed
- **changed** — Performance has been improved by approximately 30% through optimization of expensive systems that scaled poorly with large unit counts and better limiting of off-screen component updates
- **added** — Units issued an ability command now gain temporary push priority to increase spellcasting reliability
- **changed** — Prepare, Cast and channel stages of all abilities are now uninterruptible to avoid accidental cancels
- **changed** — Atlas and Hedgehog Targeted Deployment and Reposition are now uninterruptible by normal move and attack commands while en-route and display their hologram on the target location
- **changed** — Fog of war now visually fades in and out quicker
- **changed** — Camera zooms are now smoothed and height changes over terrain are much smoother
- **changed** — Celestial Luminite harvest rates have been adjusted to match the 10/10 saturation of Vanguard and Infernal
- **changed** — Collection Array harvest period changed from 1.7 seconds to 1.515 seconds
- **changed** — Prism recharge time increased from 20 seconds to 21 seconds
- **changed** — All HQ and charge-producing structures queue slots reduced from 5 slots to 1 slot
- **changed** — All units produced by charges have their build time reduced from 0.2 seconds to 0.05 seconds
- **added** — New editor toggle added for uninterruptable_ignores_stop to control whether the Stop command can cancel uninterruptable orders
- **fixed** — Brute upgrade tooltip now correctly references the amount of HP and armor given
- **changed** — Carnivex trait updated from Vitals Leech to Shikari Venom with a description of the new slow poison effect
- **changed** — Fiend health increased from 60 to 75 and damage reduced from 10 to 8

Hi all, this update is a bit of a mixed bag with our transition away from live service and some nice QOL & game updates from the community team.

##

Offline Transition

As a first step towards de-coupling from Stormgate's existing server infrastructure, this patch disables live service Versus and Co-op modes, and adds offline support to the Campaign, AI Skrimish, and Custom game modes to prepare for the Hathora server shutdown.

A few of us have been hard at work adding Steam peer to peer support to the game, but the netcode is not quite ready yet -- this means that this update disables multiplayer modes for a time.

We hope to deliver proper steam-powered P2P support with UGC map downloading as soon as the code is ready. UGC map makers will be able to develop and test your maps offline-only until that update. Once peer to peer is squared away it may be possible to bring back an improved version of the versus/coop ladders but no confirmed plans yet.

- Online game modes have been disabled (Versus, Coop).

- Campaign and AI Skirmish no longer require a server connection to play and persist user progress locally.

- STUB online services peer to peer implementation... Attempting to join another player's peer to peer game will result in a placeholder error.

- Removed dependency on Hathora and Pragma platforms.

- Removed startup splashes and early access dialog.

##### Game Updates

##### Performance has been improved by about **30%.**

We've optimized some expensive systems that were scaling poorly with large unit counts, and are better limiting updates from off-screen components and calculations. So FPS better reflects what's actively on screen and is improved overall into the late game. These improvements are entirely unrelated to the offline transition, and are a result of optimized gameplay systems.

##### New QOL Feature: Ability push priority.

Now, when a unit that has been issued an ability command is on its way, it will gain temporary push priority to increase spellcasting reliability.

##

On the left, Hexens get pushed around by the army, delay their casts, and one input does not complete. On the right, Hexens take pathing priority momentarily in order to cast, so their abilities fire immediately and reliably.

##
New QOL Feature: Ability Non-Interrupt

In conjunction with the above, the Prepare, Cast and channel stages of all abilities have been set to uninterruptible to avoid accidental cancels. Pressing Stop on individual units, for most abilities, will still force a cancel if desired.

Atlas & Hedgehog Targeted Deployment and Reposition are now uninterruptible by normal move/attack commands while they're en-route, making it easier to set 'em and forget 'em. They also now display their hologram on the target location.**
**

##### **
General**

- Fog of war now visually fades in and out quicker. This doesn't affect gameplay, only visuals.

- Previously, there was a long fade time as units gained or lost vision, which made things visually smoother, but didn't as accurately represent where current vision exists.

- Camera zooms are now smoothed! And height changes over terrain are now much smoother.

**ECONOMY**

- Celestial Luminite harvest rates have been adjusted to match the 10/10 saturation of Vanguard and Infernal.

- Collection Array harvest period changed reduced from 1.7 seconds to 1.515 seconds

- Recharge time for Prisms increased from 20 seconds to 21 seconds.

**PRODUCTION**

- All HQ's and structures that use charges to produce units have had their queue slots reduced from 5 slots, to 1 slot

- All units produced by charges have had their build time reduced from 0.2 seconds to 0.05 seconds

**EDITOR**

- New toggle added for uninterruptable stages: uninterruptable_ignores_stop.

- Setting this to false will allow the Stop command to cancel an "uninterruptable order", while regular move commands will not. Certain abilities like Return to Hangar are intended to not be cancelable by the player, so this fla

_[Truncated at 4000 characters — full notes: https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/2012510/view/492721888204690411]_