Since December of 2022 Stratus has finally gotten a major development boost after being in a very slow development phase over the past few years.. I am pleased to announce that Stratus battle for the sky is back on track and we have accomplished a set of major milestones paving way for new update to be released at last. Unreal5 As many have seen we moved the project from unity over to the unreal engine which is a much easier to work with engine but required a lot of changes and adjustments for the team and learning stuff from ground up.. Over December of last year major progress made finally on fully implementing the online battle lobby with fully working battle rings in the lobby and match creation and we are currently implementing steam and and epic user accounts for lobby access.
In the last few months the project has further gained speed as we brought on a highly skilled networking coder who has been busy digging in major work of networking key elements of stratus and has taken our core stratus unreal code and gotten building construction working in multiplayer a long with separate priest control of their own priest by individual players Bridge placement is now working fully and smoothly on bridge placement and replicating for players, we are just in the process of finishing updating and networking the unit construction and the player control of their constructed units.. Code has been completed for rituals for altar for slaying of enemy priests and we are in process of finalizing the pickup and transport of stunned priests by resource collectors to place on altar.. Our current road map has us aiming to have a build ready for public playing by early to mid July.. We are excited to get this new stable build out that will be playable and we look forwards to seeing player feedback once this build is out.. Beyond the coding side we have also been pushing on finalizing concepts for the missing thunder faction so that in the coming release we can have the start of thunder in-game and have four playable factions of Rain, Thunder, Wind and Sun in-game.
A long with the new thunder faction we have redone the missing below ground home meshes and they are being integrated into the prefab islands at this time...



A new spell obelisk mesh that draws a little on the old classic look but a new look modernizes the spell obelisk look has been created and and rough textured.
We hope with the coming release update that people will see the time and effort that has gone into getting the project back on track with functioning lobby and smooth travel between lobby and game map that we can move past the issues and negativity that the project has had in the early days and start growing players as we release more updates and content moving forwards.

Our coder took a short pause from the C++ implementing for the multiplayer coding implementing to generate flight control for air mobile resource collecting units. This was important since Rain, Wind and Sun faction have such units and with the newly done wind faction concept airship we wanted to start getting the resource collectors done for the other faction. here is a quick test video of new air mobile resource unit for wind faction demonstrating collecting from resources and dropping off at nearest drop off point.. There is minor bug on first time resource collector raises up to move it raises slowly but then after all other time it raises at correct speed this will be tweaked. [previewyoutube=fNoOlBNwQIo;full][/previewyoutube] Also we adjusted the texturing on the wind workshop to give a little more detailing and texture correction..

This week has been very busy for the team as we have been pushing to get together content and finish prepping content so we can upload the new development build prior to the networking build. We recently completed modeling a low poly version of the wind skate and over the past few days we got a temp skin applied so that it will be usable in-game while we work on more polished texturing for it.



To answer question on our steam community forum What units will be working in coming build.

• Rain faction rain golem, ice cannon will be fully working..
• Sun faction Sun cannon, orb thrower, Gig base spawner and sun barricade fully working.
• Wind faction Wind archer, Wind blocker tower, Air spirit spawner, Wind skate will be fully working. new developer stand in asset for wind workshop also will be in.
• Resource collectors now drop off at nearest drop off location be it Shrine or temple.
• World map now includes the new prefab islands with their ]rock undersides
• The coming release will include testing targets placed on nearby islands so player can try out the different combat units.
• construction off bridge ends for all the units should be fully implemented.

This week has been a busy week for the team we have been moving rapidly forward on implementing further faction into Stratus with bringing the wind faction into play-ability. We have implemented wind faction wind bow, Wind Spirit spawner and Wind power generator.

[previewyoutube=l5h2sE7jNTU;leftthumb][/previewyoutube] We also have been creating new deco meshes for home islands including windows on side of islands for the below ground homes.

Also working from concept are done by Morgan Ogburn artist that worked on the old netstorm we have modeled Morgan's take on an air a combination of Manta and Whale.. these beasts will occasionally swim under the playing area and their calls can be heard echoing out.
[previewyoutube=d0v2bUxbHXQ;full][/previewyoutube] Coder is making very good progress on implementing the C++ elements as we are moving forwards with readying the MP build. I am in final process of tweaking of the wind faction as it is currently to make sure everything is working as it should and then we will roll out the new development build..

We are very please to show first look at the concept of the wind workshop building mesh.



we will be including this in the coming dev build, Coder finished recently last of the mechanic elements and is now in process of tieing in the C++ elements and networking so we are nearing the network build. I am in process of packing up the current developer play build and will be posting it for everyone to play test that bought the older version of the game..

We are very pleased to announce that the core element of island capture and control has been implement. This now allows for capturing and control of island under player and assigning island edge color for islands per player... Also we have further re-implemented resource system the following now work. 1. Resource collectors will now gather resources correctly from mana pools 2. Resource collectors will now drop resources off at nearest drop off point be it Temple or Shrine. 3. Mana Pool resource amount bar over mana pool now shows reduction of resource and amount left. SunBarricade Sun barricade for the sun faction now work.. 1. Sun Barricade will now generate a beam between two barricades when placed. 2. Friendly units placed under the beam of the sun barricade are now immune from incoming fire. We have further fixed air units so that air units no longer continue to attack platforms once enemy on floating platform is destroyed and it now also removes the old platform. Video highlighting some of the new adjustments. [previewyoutube=qlTkzVxFrqc;full][/previewyoutube] This now means the following Core mechanics are implemented 1.Bridging and placement 2. Temple and power system for power requirements for units. 3. Units combat mechanics for the different type of units. 4. Resource System for collection and drop off 5. Island control and capture mechanics With these systems now re-implemented in the unreal4 engine our coder is turning attention to implementing the Multiplayer element and player join hosting.. Our current aim is to release a MP build this November. prior to the MP build I will be updating the mechanic demo build on steam with new build that will have all the current features implemented along with the new islands packs..

Our coder has been working overtime over the past week and has gotten the Sun faction barricades just about fully implemented for placement and spawning of projectile blocking beams between generators. We put together a short test video showing the barricade in action blocking incoming Sun cannon fire. [previewyoutube=JThM9KC5444;leftthumb][/previewyoutube] Coder is making final tweaks on the barricade and will be moving forwards with Island control system for capturing with temple and shrines as the next feature a long with the ground work on host and joining. We are very excited that things are moving forward on coding and once the latest game mechanics features are implemented in stable form we will be uploading new tech build to early access. #gamedev #Indiegames #unreal4 #UE4 #games #Steam #UE4 #unreal4 #madewithunreal4

Gigs attacking completed.. Over the past few days our coder has further implemented and made adjustment on combat code for air units.. Air units will now only attack enemy units that are not currently being attacked by max number of air units, so player will no longer have ten sun gigs stacking on a single enemy cannon, also implemented is air unit offset so the units that can attack are not stacked on the same location but are offset over the target. [previewyoutube=bwgqOfnoh50;full][/previewyoutube]

Gigs attacking completed.. Over the past few days our coder has further implemented and made adjustments on combat code for air units.. These changes are as follows 1. Air units will now only attack enemy units that are not currently being attacked by max number of air units. 2. air units now offset so the units that can attack are not stacked on the same location but are offset over the target. 3. Health bar for units now are hidden until unit is selected. 4. Range indicator now shows when gig base selected. 5. Priest no longer needs to be at special side of structure to constructed but will start constructing temple or workshop from any side he reaches. Moving forward we will be starting work on island capture and control system that we have started laying the initial ground work on. also our coder has started reviewing the implementing of the hosting and joining so that we can start testing multiplayer connection. [previewyoutube=bwgqOfnoh50;leftthumb][/previewyoutube]

Its been a few months since we posted last update in that time we have brought up to speed our full time unreal4 coder who has gone over our code and adjusted and fixed element in preparation for networking replication and implementing AI. We have fully implement basic combat for players structures targeting and enemy attacking for testing and moving forwards. Over the past week our coder has implement the last of element of the sun cannons so they now will turn and change direction to face enemy. Also implemented is initial start of AI enemy turrets that will attack players structures or units. Its taken this long since we had to update our initial unreal4 code we initially implemented so that it could handle networking and also preparation for further AI development for single player testing. Our coder is currently in process of finishing tweaking last elements of air spawner units code and then will be moving forwards on island capture with temple and shrines and networking implementation for hosting and joining games. once these current fixes on air spawners are implement we will be uploading a new unreal4 stratus build that will have the new islands and enemy testing turrets in so players can try it out... For now here is quick development testing video showing sun cannons in action.. [previewyoutube=IUrC5ArEyiY;full][/previewyoutube]

We have recently brought on more to the Storm Isle team to move the unreal4 build of Stratus forward at a faster development pace, the new coding team has taken our tech build we put together in unreal4 and have redone the bridging system to more closely follow the original NS games mechanics.. The coding team is making rapid progress on finalizing the bridging system and will be turning attention to the island capture and linking up of bridges to islands.. Once the bridging update is completed the following will be worked on. Combat and further unit implementation of ranges and attacks. Mulitplayer join and host. We are also laying the ground work for adding in basic AI If all all goes well we will be updating the unreal4 build of Stratus on steam with the latest build that has all currently implemented features. We look forwards to getting the new build out to testers and players.

We have successfully completed separating out and fixing the one multi tab production bug so now once research being put into production at the Rain workshop is no longer putting tech into production in the same slot locations at the other faction tabs. Rain Workshop now is 100% working with integration of tech research from rain workshop to the production tab.. SUN CANNON'S https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JluXoBkBzh4&feature=youtu.be In readying the new build we have redone the old unity3D animations we did before and have now updated from scratch the animations so they no longer stutter between clips and now are smooth between transitions.. The below youtube video show testing of the animations between different states in preparation to linking them into the behavior tree for the cannon unit for transitioning through states. https://youtu.be/tMDuEdeCZDc We are also finalizing implementng the healthbar systems and resource bars so expect those to be fully implemented in the coming update.

We are busy working on getting Sun cannon attacks working and tweaked while we are debugging the multi tab production bar, so that as soon as that is fixed can roll out new build not only with the multi bar working but sun workshop and the first set of sun units working. Those who played the older unity build will remember the issue had with just about all attack units. Often not attacking or to the point of igoring newly constructed enemy units.. The new attack system under unreal4 has better attack and updating of targets for structure and also removing destroyed enemy units so that units do not get stuck in a loop attacking empty space were enemy no longer is.. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PHicl1i9U2c&feature=youtu.be

We have now completed the initial prefab island asset packs for map creation. this pack includes home island medium and small island for placement on world map. https://youtu.be/G0J7mkdcLoY With the Island pack completed we are turning attention now to finalizing and debugging the workshop multi tab window for tech production and will then once that is fixed will be releasing the new steam build. We are excited to see how the new build runs for people with the new mesh island prefabs and how the new elements also added improve game-play mechanics.. Moving forwards beyond this coming release. we will be focusing on combat and getting player joining and game hosting working under unreal4..

We have now just about completed the first complete island prefabs, the new islands have been tested to ensure collision and building construction work, along with snapping bridge to edge placement. We are just finishing up the island prefabs by adding vegetation on the undersides with hanging Vines, we will also be adding in the edge farms that block bridge placement.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=axFPpZcDUVY&feature=youtu.be

First look video at the newly created prefab home island mesh for Stratus and the and smaller world island meshes created for easier map creation and generation of random maps for Stratus.. New Islands are configured to be optimized and use instanced meshes to allow for populating of multiple islands on the world map without affecting speed. HomeIsland-1 is now configured with its side detail edging meshes, now starting work on finishing adding the side detailing meshes to the 12 smaller island prefabs. The 12 smaller islands are modeled off the shape of the old netstorm islands and also modeled to fit the world grid space for easy snapping to world grid... https://youtu.be/5XXpHAmuCQ8

The world of Stratus is one of floating rocky islands and to which ends world maps need to be populated as such. Over the weekend and yesterday we have been readying the first set to trial prefab islands, these are the smaller islands that can be captured with shrines.. The new prefabs have been brought into UE4 and tested to make sure they align and work proper in game. Texturing and final adjustments now being done be before the final versions will be brought in and configured with island collision and setting for allowing bridging and construction on.. The new prefab islands also allow for easier implementing of user map editor to allow creation of maps and missions.





the next update to be rolled out will have the first 10 testing prefab islands and and moving forward we will be expanding the variations of the floating island prefab so that maps can be populated with random islands. Also over the weekend we put in extra time on working on tweaking a final bug that was with the workshop tech put into production and are just finishing last remaining debugging then will be rolling out the new early access development build. This build will have the following. 1. Sound and game option menu's 2. Fully implemented multi tab production bars. 3. Prefab islands now places and implemented on world map for testing.. Moving beyond this the next systems that will be the main focus are. 1. Networking. 2. Price assigning for units and structures from the resource systems 3. AI for testing AI for turrets and structure to allow further testing of units and creating maps for players to learn the elements of Stratus...

While working on implementing the new multi tab production bars for putting tech into production a long with new sound menu options and key binding system, we also have been busy working on readying the replacement islands and putting together the first prefab home island that is configured and modeled for the UE4 grid system. Old home island in Stratus:Battle for the sky and new test mesh showing single prefab island with underside.. Texture still to be set and edge farms and vines.. but island is setup to use adjustable textures. The new home island is also properly setup for UE4 Grid scaling, now bridges can place and link up on island edges no mater where island is placed on map so that island shapes are always able to link up. We are aiming to have 4 home island prefabs ready and 10 smaller islands for placing on world maps by the middle of this week. this will be setting stage for having islands for testing AI on and also test map for Multiplayer and setting stage for getting networking implemented so players can start actively playing again under the new engine.

Over the past few days we have been busy working on implementing multi-tab production tabs for the tech production bar on left hand of screen.. Before in prior test builds starting with the unreal4 engine we were limited to just the rain faction tab that had been configured as the only build tab once tech was put into production from workshop.. Now using the new array button system for each tab the bar is populated with the icons buttons that go for each tabs automatically and button in production bar update with buttons for which tab is currently active.. IE rain unit production icons populate the build tab for rain and sun units now are auto populated to the sun tab.. This new tab system also sets the stage for bringing in the workshops for Sun and wind to be usable in coming builds. Also in the process of being implemented are user options control for setting the following settings.. Audio: music, ambient, sound volume. Key Binding: for quick bridge placement and and unit production slot selection... also setting keys for camera controls and Quick zoom to priest to allow players more control over game controls... new control binding setting is adjustable so more options can be added for key binding of other commands. Once we finish getting the new options the steam build will be updated with new build for testing..

As part of readying for the next production stages on Stratus: Battle for the sky and moving the project forward we have taken down the unity3D build, we have replaced it with the unreal4 build initial developer build. Players should be able to load up single player option and load into map and test building construction and resource collection on home island along with putting tech into production from rain workshop and try the new player camera controls which should be much smoother. Note! the current build on steam is currently only for Windows, but we are getting Mac and Linux builds ready.. We are also in process of working with the art teams and studios and will be readying the priest designs for Wind, Rain and Thunder factions to fill out the concepts we already have for the Sun priest and early wind priest concepts.

As indicated in earlier forum announcement we have submitted Stratus to several publishers who have expressed interest in the development potential of the project growth with proper development funding for Stratus. To this end we have been working on getting together further presentation documentation and also some new assets to show the direction that the art and game will go with further development funding from publisher. To this end the one art studio working with Storm Isle Production in conjunction has finished up the new Sun Priest player models We now present the firs older lower detail priest model
And now the brand new player avatar priest models for the Stratus: Battle for the sky Unreal4 Build.

While it may have appeared that the project is dead, I am happy to say it is not! Storm Isle Productions had to do some major adjustment on the project, and we will be rolling out an update soon that will not just be new meshes but will add some of the key following changes to finally make Stratus playable.. New Lobby: New battle lobby replacing the current buggy one. Building construction: buildings now construct as the old netstorm fading in into being from ground up, replacing the mesh slowly rising from ground. Workshops: Users will now be able to research and put tech into production from workshop. Blockers: Wind blockers now only take damage from back and sides as in the old classic netstorm. Sun blockers now block incoming fire but allow your units to fire through through them the defence beam. Unit ranges: air units now work correctly for attacking enemy units and do not freeze up after destroying first few enemy units or first few shots. Island capture and more optimised more realistic island meshes that optimise frame-rate more. Resource Collection: resource collectors no longer freeze Stratus Advanced AI Start: along with the major changes steps have been taken to start implementing Single play AI although this is just early step it will pave the way for the single player campaign. Besides the main game elements fixes we will also be rolling out the new wind faction designs to the Stratus advanced release.

The art team has sent the first of the newly finished wind faction meshes that have been textured and are now ready for implementing into Stratus, The new units are as follows! Winder Archer, the wind factions attack archer able to attack units in a set directional range, Shooting bolts the size of spears able to damage ground structures constructed in its range and enemy units that enter its attack field..




Wind Spirit spawner: The wind spirit spawner harnesses the power of the wind to summon a wind spirit in the form of a mini tornado that will attack any units ot structure in its combat radius.



The wind tower blocker and wind power generator are meshes are currnently being UV mapped and texture and will be added into the patch that will be released soon.

We are showing today the first look at the new wind blocker concept designs for Stratus, the new design tries to keep some elements of the old wind tower but upgraded to fit the new wind faction style look..

We are pleased to show a first look at some of the new wind faction unit rough draft designs concept art models. The new units concepts are as follows. Wind Power Generators: Channels energy from the wind temple Wind Spirit spawner: Spawn mini's tornado's that attack nearby enemy units. Wind Archer: Directional attack unit that fires arrows.

We are in the process of modeling the Wind faction have started modeling the wind faction now that all concepts have been done for the faction.. First up is the new Wind faction wind archer turret


We also are working with a new coder that is assisting our team and working with our current coder on getting up to speed and readying to roll out new updates.

New Patch out! 1. Should fix some of the reported UI and video issues 2. some of the bridge placement connection island bugs should now be fixed. 3. AI: now can construct temples and workshops and altar... as first step of implementing of AI further.. 4. some further server stability for in-game and lobby have been fixed.. we request that if anyone has a bug to please report it, we also ask try to replicate it several times as much as possible then let us know what or where the issue is and what was being done at time of bug happening and we will move rapidly on getting these issues ironed out.

We are currently in the process of implementing structure salvage of structures for coming patch, we are also implementing start of power generator meltdown ability for blasting through bridges. We will be rolling this out in the coming patch and will also include the fix on game load freeze on launch of game that appeared in last lobby update.

We have switched how the rings are setup so that instead of being on all the time if no one is on rings will not always be running, now when a player joins the lobby its initiates the ring server starting and if the player waits a battle ring will appear. also the new servers are being run on faster systems that should further greatly improve speed once in-game. This should also help where we had issue before of people joining the lobby but no rings were visible since the battle server was down since admin was not around and had not started the ring server but now will spawn lobby rings as needed as players enter the lobby. We are also in the process of readying new wind faction unit models.

We have just rolled out a new Stratus ea patch 1.7 that adds the following adjustments. Sounds: start of implementing faction sounds for units and buildings New Icons: replaced construction icon for workshops construction and further art adjustments Unit construction requirement. Updated Ownership: ownership of islands little more clear Tool tips: hovering mouse over unit productions bar or building construction icons now pops up information text. Unit construction requirement feature also paves way for tech implementing and putting into production from workshop.

Sound files were sent in by the sound team and they have outdone themselves on the new rain unit sounds, the new sounds include sound files for rain golem, ice cannon, and rain spawn beast.. These are the best polished sound effects we have yet gotten and once implemented into coming build with really give depth of feel to the rain faction and add more sound and life to the rain faction units and structures.. Sound files also in the work are Rain Temple sound Rain workshop Sound Rain power generator

We are on the third day of general play streaming testing of the latest early access build of stratus RTS .. if anyone would be interested in checking out and watching some play testing of the streams then check out the twitch stream between 1 pm EST to 4 pm EST and from 6 PM EST to 10 PM EST https://www.twitch.tv/barnebisssip

Tomorrow will mark the first day our of planned three day play testing.
Yesterday we uploaded a new build that should hopefully fix some of the issues folks have had with loading the game and the islands not generating or getting black screens..

We are announcing well ahead of time a three day play test for the 23rd 24th and 25th to do stress play testing on coming patch our coder is readying to roll out with fixes and some new features... We will be setting play tests up for the following times Evening of 23rd USA Eastern Time starting from 6 PM until 11 pm Evening of 24th USA Eastern Time starting from 6 PM until 11 pm Afternoon of 25th from USA Eastern Time 1 pm until 4 pm + 6 PM until 11 PM Mark your Calendars for this three day play testing event and we look forwards to playing the coming patch with the community.

Dev team will be on tonight for play testing starting at around 7:30 until 11:30 PM Eastern Time US We invite everyone to drop by the lobby at this time to do play test testing with the devs.

Review of Stratus posted by MMOHUT http://www.onrpg.com/news/editorial/stratus-battle-for-the-sky-first-look/?o=a http://mmohuts.com/news/stratus-battle-sky-early-impressions/ "but I’m of the opinion that Stratus: Battle for the Sky is going to be a stand-out RTS because it’s doing something no other game is doing right now. It’s hard to stand out among the sea of RTS/Strategy games in general, but I think that Stratus is doing just that. Even if I did lose every single time I played, I had fun! It really challenged me to think in new ways to get to the other players High Priest."

We have just released a new update patch fixing some further issues and laying path implementing further game elements for matches! New update adds 1.color coding for priest sphere for player color 2. Shift mouse drag select for multiple units allowing quick selection of multiple resource collectors. 3.Further resource collectors synchronization issue fixes 4. Ice golems can now capture priest + added mouse cursor capture icon when hover mouse over stunned enemy priest. 5. Mouse altar placement cursor when resource collector carrying priest when mouse cursor is hovered over altar is selected. 6. priest can now be ordered to start ritual but all points have not been added on the altar for each stage just yet. 7. Further adjustment to Unity 5.5 server If anyone is wanting to test we will be aiming to do some testing Wednesday night USA Eastern time

Our coder has been busy working on starting to roll out the start of priest capture and sacrifice and has released small update that now when priest goes to zero health he becomes immobilized with red sphere around him to allow capture.

With Priest immobilization in the next to be done is priest capture with resource collectors to bring back to altar and start of ritual at altar.. Coder has also further patched a few further stability issue's with the server connection so be sure to check them out and let us know how it runs for you.. Coder has also added in start of AI with allowing placement of computer AI priest which currently at this time only places enemy priest but its being setup to and integrated into the Battle ring to allow selecting of AI or human player for slot.

We are very pleased to release a first look at the new thunder factions small thunder power generator structure mesh that is currently work in progress
Stratus patch status Over the month we have collected a number of bug reports from playing with early access buyers and we are busy resolving some of the remaining critical ones that have been reported, We are also aiming in the coming patch to include the first of new features that will start to allow players to play a game from start to finish.. Our coder is currently working on these bug fixes and game feature additions but it will likely be following new years the main patch will be released.

We are looking to have a set of play tests this weekend Saturday 17th and Sunday 18th, Devs will be looking to be in the channel between 1 to 3 pm East Coast US time, and again from 8 pm until 1 am East Coast US Time. If you are planning to come on and play at any of these times be sure to let us know.

The Dev team will be online to play test and help new folks get the basics of controls and to answer questions from anyone that is up for playing a match with the developers... We are looking to collect stability reports from latest patched version of Stratus and locating further roots of some issues left from the past release we are currently fixing.

Current fixes are as follows 1. Fixed additional issues with the server reliability for game stability during long games. 2. Cleaned up the bridge and build GUIs, Improved UX 3. Hot Keys for bridges and buildings, use shift to access build hotkeys Hot keys for bridges are currently set to q,w,e,a,s,d keys 3. Combat improvements: Sun cannon firing and structures such as acid barricades now absorb units caught between the line of the acid barricade. 4. Initial inclusion of Music and sound for some units 5. Hot keys zoom to priest “p” "r" keys and priest pictures on priest bar to press to zoom 6. Lobby fix, No longer requiring full restart of stratus after each game to successfully be able to join a ring again in lobby, This patch should fix current most critical connection stability issues that have been major issues for first week of release.. We will be turning attention to following issues for the following patches as coder gets stuff patched 1. Bridges vanishing on construction but area remaining impassible 2. Construction from enemy bridge section removed 3. construction requirement of bridges no longer needing workshop just temple.. 4. Units attack targeting of enemy structures fixed 5. Tool tips for units and buttons While we will be aiming to get these issues above fixed we will also be looking to move towards the priest health and immobilize, capture and sack as the next major step..

Update: due to recent steady stream of bug reporting and feed back from players play testing the code adjustment and bug patching has made good progress and we are making headway readying first big patch roll out.

The team at polywick has submitted the first look at concept of the revamp of the old Thunder resource collector redux.. We are eager to hear what folks think of the design that are part of EA

Thank you for all your support and patience with this project. When I started back in early 2010, then a fan project, I didn't know much about the game that inspired this, but I knew there was a very dedicated community thirsty to see a revival of this kind of unique and competitive gameplay. I began working on the project because I knew there would be people at the end of the day wanting to play. You couldn't convince me to work so hard for close to seven years (going on eight) otherwise. As a developer there are much more efficient ways to make money than making games, at least the kinds of games that don't try to siphon money from its players. There have been many ups and downs, many versions of Unity (we started with 2.6), and even many names for this project. And while this release to early access hasn't been as smooth as I would have liked, Nathan and I decided it was time to make this game available to the broader community and start to grow the base of fans, hopefully discovering new ones. There have been bugs, but despite this the reception, the satisfaction, the joy have all been better than I'd hoped. This community cares. Hop on sometime and find a match, you'll see. People there will be eager to help you learn as much as to destroy your temple. It is not at all toxic, and I hope (and will do what I can from my end to ensure) that remains true. Whether Stratus does well commercially or not, and we certainly hope it does, as long as there are people playing, I will be writing code. I've toiled this long to make the game work for those who've stuck with us since the beginning; I don't intend to stop now that those numbers are growing! Over the next few weeks, expect to see major improvements in the combat and resource loops, the network and server stability, and of course the ability to capture and sacrifice priests. To the fans who've kept us going this long, thank you. I have lurked and read all the messages of love and support posted to forums, Facebook or Steam. It keeps us going. To all the new fans discovering us now, welcome! May you one day win the skies over Stratus. Thank you, Duhprey/Longshot Studios.

Over the past few days the team has been reviewing reported bugs one of the major ones was the ring exit and rejoin bug.. This bug resulted from a person clicking on battle ring in lobby and then clicking outside the ring and moving out of it and then trying to rejoin which resulted in no ring options popping up. Over night following testing with players we have released a new patch update that should increase stability so that now if a player clicks on a ring and clicks outside of ring it should not glitch the ring.. There is still an issue with clicking on a ring then clicking on another ring the join option will pop up but if one attempts to directly move to a third ring without first moving out of the ring first the ring will glitch.. We have been able to replicate the ring hopping issue precisely and coder is working on patching that issues now that we have narrowed in on how to replicate it.. Further we have implemented in the last update we released Saturday afternoon health bars for building and units to finally be able to see how much damage and units are taking.. Last night following a six player game we played with Early access players we released a new update that added in a basic mini map which is still having its features implemented.. Following the direct ring hopping bug fix the next priority issue that will be fixed next are.. 1, resource gathers freeze on some storm mana pools. 2. bridge placed ghosting vanishing 3. construction off of enemy bridges sections will be removed. We are aiming to have priest damage and capture implemented by the coming weekend so players will be able to capture and sack the enemy priests to win and launch back to the lobby..

Stratus: Battle for the sky is approved by steam for release What to expect from this first release 1. Player may log into the current work in progress lobby and join a battle ring, player may select world size, island size, Island numbers 2. Player Can launch game and getting into game, we have tested with up 7 players in testing of joining and hosting server. 3. Once in game players may construct temple and and workshop along with power generators and rain resource collecting golems and collect resources. 4, Player can also place bridge section and connect islands and construct from bridges.. 5. Rain faction Ice cannon, Rain beat spawning pools work to attack enemy structures in range.. 6. Review the currently finished Sun faction and Rain faction units designs. Coming Update The dev team is currently working on the following patch update fixes 1. health bar for units and structures showing current remaining health. 2. resource collection loop timing out bug that pops up sometimes fixed where resource collector stop occasionally 3. Priest capture and Altar for win game 4. correction to minor buildings dependency requirement for resource collectors and bridges Important This is a very early release and marks the first presence of Stratus: Battle for the sky on steam and as such it is still buggy but we are looking for players to report bugs so that we can move forwards with patching and implementing remaining factions and features as we move forwards to completing and polishing the game through funds raised.. Why release now? the team hopes through coming to steam early access to help raise funds to continue developing and finish the thunder and wind factions and finalize and polish gui elements for in-game and the battle lobby along with remain elements needed to complete Stratus.. Please report all issues or questions to the games community page http://steamcommunity.com/app/355490

We were contacted this morning by steam to alert us that while they were able to launch and play the Windows version of Stratus they were having issue with launching it on Steam OS on their end, while we have been able to launch Stratus on Steam OS on our end we are attempting to replicate the issue that Steam reported.. Also Steam said we could not have the front end loading screen of Stratus in our screenshot director or images from older developer builds and needed to remove them.. We are currently working on replicating the Steam OS load issue steam reported and will be working on adjusting this tonight... On good report is that Steam was able to successfully load the windows version without issues.

We are making final last minute corrections and changes to meet steam requirement to following their recent review..