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On March 04 2026 06:03 abuse wrote:Show nested quote +On March 04 2026 05:42 TelecoM wrote:On March 04 2026 03:57 kAra wrote: let the dead sleep in peace Game had a lot of potential, it can always bounce back, I am going to give it a try. comments like this make me think that aliens exist among us. IKR. I don't feel any hostility towards these people tho.
I am an anxious old piece of shit. The chances I get more stuff I like are almost extinct. Everything is shit, and it's unlikely to change.
For these people tho, anything could be a success. Everything is a possibility. Even a F2P game with a $43m budget and 30 CCU.
I envy them.
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On March 04 2026 03:17 CicadaSC wrote: New patch is finally live and off ptr. They added some new units, tier 3 (4?) is finally here. Big fan of the giga infernal unit called "Incarnate". Anyone else going to give the new patch a try or share some thoughts? will give my own thoughts now... and those are "Burnt out" i tried to breathe the hopium, but you can't even match someone within 300 mmr most of the time, and the pacing just feels off. I also think later stormgates need some balancing they are too strong, in a close match whoever gets it feels like just wins if they get a good option :/
at least make them take longer to claim if you still want them to be that powerful. Late game you have pretty big armies so even though they are a lot beefier they can still die quickly when focused.
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Canada13407 Posts
I want them to focus on Campaign stuff cuz that's more likely to get more people to come back at this point, if im being honest. Maybe its also selfish cuz I thought the campaign was kinda fun, and I don't really want to grind out multiplayer 1v1 stuff at this stage of my life in a new RTS :p at least not right now. I have been having fun playing RTS single player campaigns for forever though.
If somehow they can keep it alive for long enough maybe they could pull a no man's sky moment in the future where they just keep plugging away at the core concept. Though I doubt its gonna be getting much very serious active work on it and they're probably stuck on a handful of really dedicated community people to keep the multiplayer side of things going. A man can dream though.
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On March 14 2026 03:13 ZeromuS wrote: I want them to focus on Campaign stuff cuz that's more likely to get more people to come back at this point, if im being honest. Maybe its also selfish cuz I thought the campaign was kinda fun, and I don't really want to grind out multiplayer 1v1 stuff at this stage of my life in a new RTS :p at least not right now. I have been having fun playing RTS single player campaigns for forever though.
If somehow they can keep it alive for long enough maybe they could pull a no man's sky moment in the future where they just keep plugging away at the core concept. Though I doubt its gonna be getting much very serious active work on it and they're probably stuck on a handful of really dedicated community people to keep the multiplayer side of things going. A man can dream though.
Yeah, in an ideal world I would also like to see a fully fleshed out campaign too... But just in case you haven't heard, the game is completely abandoned outside those volunteers though. In a recent interview Tim Morten already said they have started their 2nd game and are focusing on gathering funding for that.
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I have unironically the best idea for Frost Giants next game and the future of RTS after playing slay the spire 2. A RTS rogue-like where you draft custom armies every time. What do you guys think?
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Northern Ireland26912 Posts
On March 15 2026 09:10 CicadaSC wrote: I have unironically the best idea for Frost Giants next game and the future of RTS after playing slay the spire 2. A RTS rogue-like where you draft custom armies every time. What do you guys think? It would annoy me personally unless someone nailed it to a crazy degree.
I like the idea of an improvisational strategy game, the problem is delivering it in such a way so it’s not a clusterfuck
While RTS metas can get somewhat stale, at least that’s something you can work on learning.
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On March 15 2026 09:10 CicadaSC wrote: I have unironically the best idea for Frost Giants next game and the future of RTS after playing slay the spire 2. A RTS rogue-like where you draft custom armies every time. What do you guys think?
Sounds good for PvE. With a hero unit that gains levels and sets your style for the run as DLC improvements, not required in first version of core game.
Procedural maps as well or a large set of curated maps?
Could perhaps do something like in ARTS games where you explore the map and go to the next zone instead of small encounters as in slay the spire. But would likely drag the game down since you would want to maximize army in each previous zone instead of moving on.
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On March 14 2026 05:16 CicadaSC wrote:Show nested quote +On March 14 2026 03:13 ZeromuS wrote: I want them to focus on Campaign stuff cuz that's more likely to get more people to come back at this point, if im being honest. Maybe its also selfish cuz I thought the campaign was kinda fun, and I don't really want to grind out multiplayer 1v1 stuff at this stage of my life in a new RTS :p at least not right now. I have been having fun playing RTS single player campaigns for forever though.
If somehow they can keep it alive for long enough maybe they could pull a no man's sky moment in the future where they just keep plugging away at the core concept. Though I doubt its gonna be getting much very serious active work on it and they're probably stuck on a handful of really dedicated community people to keep the multiplayer side of things going. A man can dream though.
Yeah, in an ideal world I would also like to see a fully fleshed out campaign too... But just in case you haven't heard, the game is completely abandoned outside those volunteers though. In a recent interview Tim Morten already said they have started their 2nd game and are focusing on gathering funding for that. Oh. I'm glad the studio didn't completely shut down. I wonder if they're going to re-try and do something else with RTS. It makes sense to do something that actually makes money, but my understanding is the reason why these people left EA/Blizzard was because they really wanted to do RTS and if they wanted to just follow popular trends they might as well not have left.
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On March 15 2026 09:10 CicadaSC wrote: I have unironically the best idea for Frost Giants next game and the future of RTS after playing slay the spire 2. A RTS rogue-like where you draft custom armies every time. What do you guys think?
Rogue Command already exists, friend
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On March 16 2026 19:27 lestye wrote:Show nested quote +On March 14 2026 05:16 CicadaSC wrote:On March 14 2026 03:13 ZeromuS wrote: I want them to focus on Campaign stuff cuz that's more likely to get more people to come back at this point, if im being honest. Maybe its also selfish cuz I thought the campaign was kinda fun, and I don't really want to grind out multiplayer 1v1 stuff at this stage of my life in a new RTS :p at least not right now. I have been having fun playing RTS single player campaigns for forever though.
If somehow they can keep it alive for long enough maybe they could pull a no man's sky moment in the future where they just keep plugging away at the core concept. Though I doubt its gonna be getting much very serious active work on it and they're probably stuck on a handful of really dedicated community people to keep the multiplayer side of things going. A man can dream though.
Yeah, in an ideal world I would also like to see a fully fleshed out campaign too... But just in case you haven't heard, the game is completely abandoned outside those volunteers though. In a recent interview Tim Morten already said they have started their 2nd game and are focusing on gathering funding for that. Oh. I'm glad the studio didn't completely shut down. I wonder if they're going to re-try and do something else with RTS. It makes sense to do something that actually makes money, but my understanding is the reason why these people left EA/Blizzard was because they really wanted to do RTS and if they wanted to just follow popular trends they might as well not have left. I'm quite amazed they decided to keep going. The company brand isn't probably the hottest right now, Tim Morten's reputation took a big blow and anything owned by the company is likely geared a bigger operation than they currently have.
I don't know much about entrepreneurship in US or anything like that, but it feels like there are way more downsides than upsides in remaining under the current company structure. In a sense I applaud the tenacity though, it just seems like an awfully long road ahead of them before any decent payoff is available.
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When you're a mercenary that jumps from project to project you build your portfolio between projects. This is prolly what is going on... portfolio building. An individual employee's perceived competence is not harmed by FrostGate's failure. OTOH making the game somewhat better improves their perceived competence. Its a no lose situation for any merc.
Many of the employees took the job knowing it was only temporary. They didn't buy any of the public PR BS because they got to see what was going on under the hood.
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On March 15 2026 09:10 CicadaSC wrote: I have unironically the best idea for Frost Giants next game and the future of RTS after playing slay the spire 2. A RTS rogue-like where you draft custom armies every time. What do you guys think?
Since you mention StS do you mean a campaign mode? Because otherwise isn't that just Mechabellum? https://store.steampowered.com/app/669330/Mechabellum/ Which is hugely popular and successful.
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On March 18 2026 04:36 cha0 wrote:Show nested quote +On March 15 2026 09:10 CicadaSC wrote: I have unironically the best idea for Frost Giants next game and the future of RTS after playing slay the spire 2. A RTS rogue-like where you draft custom armies every time. What do you guys think? Since you mention StS do you mean a campaign mode? Because otherwise isn't that just Mechabellum? https://store.steampowered.com/app/669330/Mechabellum/Which is hugely popular and successful. I actually own Mechabellum, it's a great game! but no no i picture something more like where its a traditional rts with micro and base building but with roguelike features.
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On March 16 2026 19:27 lestye wrote:Show nested quote +On March 14 2026 05:16 CicadaSC wrote:On March 14 2026 03:13 ZeromuS wrote: I want them to focus on Campaign stuff cuz that's more likely to get more people to come back at this point, if im being honest. Maybe its also selfish cuz I thought the campaign was kinda fun, and I don't really want to grind out multiplayer 1v1 stuff at this stage of my life in a new RTS :p at least not right now. I have been having fun playing RTS single player campaigns for forever though.
If somehow they can keep it alive for long enough maybe they could pull a no man's sky moment in the future where they just keep plugging away at the core concept. Though I doubt its gonna be getting much very serious active work on it and they're probably stuck on a handful of really dedicated community people to keep the multiplayer side of things going. A man can dream though.
Yeah, in an ideal world I would also like to see a fully fleshed out campaign too... But just in case you haven't heard, the game is completely abandoned outside those volunteers though. In a recent interview Tim Morten already said they have started their 2nd game and are focusing on gathering funding for that. Oh. I'm glad the studio didn't completely shut down. I wonder if they're going to re-try and do something else with RTS. It makes sense to do something that actually makes money, but my understanding is the reason why these people left EA/Blizzard was because they really wanted to do RTS and if they wanted to just follow popular trends they might as well not have left.
Let's be honest here, though. Frost Giant may not have technically shut down in the sense that someone (probably Tim Morten himself) is still paying the $30 per month (or so) web hosting fees for frostgiant.com, and a slightly higher number to keep the Stormgate servers running.
But the company has not had any income (or indeed, employees) since late August of last year.
We know from their financial reports that they launched what they had (the 0.6 release) last August because they were completely out of money, and we know based on Steam charts that the launch earned at most two weeks' worth of Frost Giant's former operating expenses.
Tim Morten has been saying, ever since the failed launch, that he is looking for more funding to develop a theoretical "second game", even as recently as two weeks ago. But he has never said that he has found any new funding. In theory, someone could just give him the $5 million that he's asking for tomorrow, and he could rehire a subset of former employees and be on his way.
He did say that he wants to make another RTS, and (again in theory) they have a bunch of code from Stormgate that could make it easier to make a second game. They wouldn't have to start from scratch.
But there's the small matter of Frost Giant's $2 million loan from Silicon Valley Bank that has come due. I honestly don't see how any investor would give Tim $5 million for a new game just so he can pay off $2 million in debt from his last one.
Also recall that Stormgate cost over $40 million to make, and only generated slightly over $1 million in total revenue.
Again, what investor is going to fund this?
On March 16 2026 23:13 Bacillus wrote: I'm quite amazed they decided to keep going. The company brand isn't probably the hottest right now, Tim Morten's reputation took a big blow and anything owned by the company is likely geared a bigger operation than they currently have.
I don't know much about entrepreneurship in US or anything like that, but it feels like there are way more downsides than upsides in remaining under the current company structure. In a sense I applaud the tenacity though, it just seems like an awfully long road ahead of them before any decent payoff is available.
Well, Tim decided to keep going. Nobody else at Frost Giant has said one word since the failed launch. Most have gone on to other jobs.
Harrison King was the one exception. He decided he would be the project manager for what became the Community Patch. It's basically a bundle of things (most notably some T3 units) that weren't released for 0.6 because they were in a half-finished state, plus a bunch of fan-made maps.
Since Frost Giant has absolutely no money, releasing the patch required a few dozen hours of volunteer work from former Frost Giant engineers. Honestly it was a pretty cool thing to do. But as of this weekend they could still only manage a maximum of 53 concurrent users. And as Harrison King said himself:
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well... looks like we are officially cooked.
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just give em another 40m and let em cook
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Canada13407 Posts
On March 14 2026 05:16 CicadaSC wrote:Show nested quote +On March 14 2026 03:13 ZeromuS wrote: I want them to focus on Campaign stuff cuz that's more likely to get more people to come back at this point, if im being honest. Maybe its also selfish cuz I thought the campaign was kinda fun, and I don't really want to grind out multiplayer 1v1 stuff at this stage of my life in a new RTS :p at least not right now. I have been having fun playing RTS single player campaigns for forever though.
If somehow they can keep it alive for long enough maybe they could pull a no man's sky moment in the future where they just keep plugging away at the core concept. Though I doubt its gonna be getting much very serious active work on it and they're probably stuck on a handful of really dedicated community people to keep the multiplayer side of things going. A man can dream though.
Yeah, in an ideal world I would also like to see a fully fleshed out campaign too... But just in case you haven't heard, the game is completely abandoned outside those volunteers though. In a recent interview Tim Morten already said they have started their 2nd game and are focusing on gathering funding for that.
Yeah but a man can dream lol
It is sad, but it is what it is. I guess, maybe I should have stated that they should *have* focused on campaign, and whatever resources they do have, with the existing assets, engine and map maker they have internally, maybe they can life support strip that for something. IDK.
I think a big thing they were banking on was the snowplay engine being something they could farm out for others to use and enjoy. At this point in my life I don't have the hours to sink into getting mechanically raw good at an RTS again. But I picked up Marathon and it scratches a competitive itch I haven't had in a long time to improve myself and do better every game one after the other. And I kinda hope *someone* picks up that mantle in RTS in a way that lets me enjoy that process in a second genre I have always enjoyed.
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On March 27 2026 00:25 ZeromuS wrote:Show nested quote +On March 14 2026 05:16 CicadaSC wrote:On March 14 2026 03:13 ZeromuS wrote: I want them to focus on Campaign stuff cuz that's more likely to get more people to come back at this point, if im being honest. Maybe its also selfish cuz I thought the campaign was kinda fun, and I don't really want to grind out multiplayer 1v1 stuff at this stage of my life in a new RTS :p at least not right now. I have been having fun playing RTS single player campaigns for forever though.
If somehow they can keep it alive for long enough maybe they could pull a no man's sky moment in the future where they just keep plugging away at the core concept. Though I doubt its gonna be getting much very serious active work on it and they're probably stuck on a handful of really dedicated community people to keep the multiplayer side of things going. A man can dream though.
Yeah, in an ideal world I would also like to see a fully fleshed out campaign too... But just in case you haven't heard, the game is completely abandoned outside those volunteers though. In a recent interview Tim Morten already said they have started their 2nd game and are focusing on gathering funding for that. Yeah but a man can dream lol It is sad, but it is what it is. I guess, maybe I should have stated that they should *have* focused on campaign, and whatever resources they do have, with the existing assets, engine and map maker they have internally, maybe they can life support strip that for something. IDK. I think a big thing they were banking on was the snowplay engine being something they could farm out for others to use and enjoy. At this point in my life I don't have the hours to sink into getting mechanically raw good at an RTS again. But I picked up Marathon and it scratches a competitive itch I haven't had in a long time to improve myself and do better every game one after the other. And I kinda hope *someone* picks up that mantle in RTS in a way that lets me enjoy that process in a second genre I have always enjoyed.
Well, we need a RTS that makes you want to git gut and not something you feel forced to. I don't see that happening with a classic RTS (C&C like, SC/ WC like or AoE like) concept to be honest.
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Per Gobsmack: " We have some unfortunate news. I'll get straight to it:
Our game server orchestration partner, Hathora, has been purchased by an AI company, and they are winding down their service at the end of April. This will create a planned outage for Stormgate's multiplayer modes. Stormgate will be patched so that it can be played offline, but online modes will not be available at that point. We hope to restore online play in a future patch, but this work will be dependent on Frost Giant finding a partner to support ongoing operations.
We're very grateful to our community of players, and we will post another update as more information is available, including more info about how offline mode works, and whether we get any patches out before the server wind down.
Thank you for your support.
The Frost Giant and Community Development team. "
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Yeah, that's the official end of Stormgate.
if Frost Giant was still a thing and had any money whatsoever, they could patch the game to use a different orchestration provider. It wouldn't be simple, but it would be possible.
But there isn't anybody who still works there, and there is no money to even pay for a contractor to make the changes.
RIP Stormgate. You were never good, but you tried.
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