To all Stratus followers,
After nearly eight years of development and the successful transition of the project onto the new engine, we are excited to announce a major milestone for Stratus.
As of this morning, full access has officially been restored to the Stratus developer account. Integration of the current build into the Steam pipeline is now underway. Once completed, the new Unreal Engine 5 playtesting build will become available to all players who still have Stratus in their Steam library and did not request a refund.
This marks a significant step forward in bringing Stratus back into active development and community testing.
Players will be able to host or join multiplayer sessions through a player-hosted battle lobby system. At this stage, dedicated servers are not yet active, as the current focus is ensuring gameplay stability and functionality during this testing phase.
Dedicated battle servers are planned for Phase 2 development.
The lobby battle ring is now fully operational, including:
Correct player slot assignment and freeing
Accurate team color allocation
Proper island spawn positioning based on player ring placement
The upcoming build includes major gameplay systems that are now functional and integrated, including:
Workshops correctly placing technologies into production queues
Functional production bars and allotment systems
Island capture mechanics fully operational
Shrine construction fully working
Clear island ownership visibility on both the world map and minimap
Resource collectors properly gathering and delivering resources to the nearest valid player-owned drop-off point
Capture and transport of stunned priests to altars
Ritual completion and proper victory condition handling
End-game victory screens functioning correctly when ritual conditions are met
Air units are now correctly targeting and attacking nearby enemies while applying damage as intended. Additional balancing and gameplay tuning will continue moving forward.
Defense blockers are operational as well, though further refinement and balancing are still planned.
Once the current build has been thoroughly playtested and stability has been confirmed, development will move into the next major phase.
Planned Phase 2 features include:
Dedicated battle servers
In-game player messaging
Guild creation systems
Guild member management within dedicated server battle lobbies
This moment has been a long time in the making, and we are incredibly excited to finally begin putting Stratus back into the hands of players.
Thank you to everyone who has continued to support and follow the project throughout the years. More updates will be shared soon as the Steam deployment process progresses.