The Frost Giant team have released another Reddit discussion topic, this time covering all things progression. This includes things like overarching Stormgate progression systems such as achievements and a player leveling system, as well as in-game specifics like forms of unit veterancy.
Let’s take a look at the latest topic and what the team have in mind for Stormgate.
The Different Types of Progression
The discussion topic kicks off by explaining progression and highlighting key types that the team is focused on.
Progression can be split into two key parts: player progression and game progression. The latter focuses on the player, such as their journey of growth as they get more familiar with a game. Meanwhile, game progression focuses on game systems, like unlocking rewards over time, completing quests, or units growing stronger.
This topic’s key focus is game progression, both in terms of progression within a single match (match progression) and within the game as a whole (meta progression).
Match Progression: Unit Veterancy and Inventory Systems
The Frost Giant team mentioned two key features that they are considering in terms of match progression. The first is unit veterancy, i.e. a unit getting more powerful over the course of a match.
So far, all they’ve mentioned is that they are exploring the idea of it. However, the team is clearly aware of the issues with it, highlighting that it can make the game rather snowbally. It’ll be interesting to see what they come up with in that regard.
The second feature focuses on customizing gameplay and feel of armies in the campaign and co-op modes. One approach that the team is considering is using a Warcraft 3-inspired inventory system. This would allow “leader characters”, aka heroes, to equip items collected from creep camps (groups of neutral enemies) or through completing objectives.
Interestingly, these items would likely have an army-wide impact, specifically “allowing a player to contribute to the game in different ways, or change how their army performs.” This may tie back to the team looking to give players ways to take on different roles in co-op.
Meta Progression: Achievements, Leveling System, and Player Karma
Meta progression is a vital aspect of any game and the Frost Giant team seem to have a few plans in mind for it.
The first (and most common) feature they talked about is achievements. It seems that Stormgate will have achievements and some may even give “meaningful rewards.” There’s not much about achievements past that, however, we can expect to see challenges that will feel worth doing.
There are also plans to introduce a leveling system, presumably something that will be account-wide. This means that playing the game and completing certain missions or objectives will give experience and players will get some sort of rewards for leveling up, or reaching certain level milestones. Again, there aren’t too many details here.
Last but not least is more of a social progression, best described as player karma. As Stormgate focuses on being a social RTS and will have team modes, the Frost Giant team is looking for ways to encourage players to be a “positive influence on the community.” Essentially, players may have a karma rating, which would increase with good behavior and decrease with poor behavior, such as sabotaging games or flaming in the chat.
Players with high karma may even gain rewards, which could include things like “a certain level of added responsibility within our community, such as the ability to decide on reported behaviors, or privileges in our official Discord.”
That’s about it for the February Stormgate discussion topic. We received a ton of news in this one and definitely have a lot to look forward to in Stormgate! As always, make sure to join in on the discussion on Reddit and, if you haven’t already, wishlist the game on Steam.
