Stratus Development Update – Air Combat & Multiplayer Progress
Stratus: Battle for the Sky · published
Over the past week, we have made significant progress implementing and debugging both the air unit spawners and airborne attack units. This marks another major milestone toward completing Stratus' multiplayer combat systems and brings aerial warfare one step closer to its final form.
Air Unit Spawner Improvements
Air unit spawners have now been fully reworked and are functioning reliably in multiplayer.
Key improvements include:
Air unit spawners now correctly detect and acquire all valid enemy targets within range.
When an enemy is destroyed or leaves the detection radius, the spawner automatically clears that target and searches for the next nearest valid enemy, provided its currently deployed air unit is not already engaged.
This results in continuous and efficient target acquisition without invalid targets or unnecessary delays.
Air Unit AI & Flight Time
Air units have also received a complete overhaul to their targeting and flight systems.
The following features are now fully implemented:
Air units correctly store and track their assigned target.
If their current target is destroyed, they immediately search for a new valid enemy, provided sufficient flight time remains.
The air unit flight timer is now fully operational, with remaining flight time displayed directly on the unit's health bar as it counts down during flight.
When an air unit's flight time reaches zero, it will smoothly return to its home spawner for refueling. Once refueling is complete, the unit checks whether its previous target is still valid. If it is, the unit resumes its attack. If not, it automatically acquires a new target before taking off again.
Sun Orb Launcher Complete
With the air combat systems now operational, we have also completed implementation of the Sun Orb Launcher for the Sun faction.
Designed as a combined ground and anti-air defensive structure, the Sun Orb Launcher automatically engages enemy air units that enter its attack radius while continuing to defend against ground forces.
To improve target prioritization, the launcher now uses two independent detection ranges:
Primary Detection Range – A larger radius dedicated to detecting ground units.
Secondary Detection Range – A smaller, specialized radius used exclusively for detecting enemy air units.
This dual-range system provides far more accurate targeting and allows the launcher to respond effectively to both ground assaults and aerial attacks.
Ice Cannon Multiplayer Overhaul
With the networked air unit systems complete, development shifted to rebuilding the Ice Cannon from the ground up for multiplayer.
The Ice Cannon's core combat functionality is now fully operational across the network.
Completed features include:
Intelligent target validation that continuously checks whether an enemy remains within range, has moved out of range, or has been destroyed.
Smooth firing delays and spin-down animations that remain synchronized across all players.
The only remaining feature to implement is the Ice Shard projectile's bounce damage. Even without this final mechanic, the Ice Cannon is now functioning smoothly and reliably in multiplayer battles.
What's Next?
Our next networking priority is the Wind Archer. Once that unit is complete, development will move through the remaining attack units for each faction.
With the core multiplayer attack framework now established, implementing the remaining combat units should progress considerably faster than before.
New Testing Build Available
All of these improvements have been compiled into a brand-new testing build and uploaded to the testing branch.
As always, we're looking forward to seeing how the upcoming playtests perform and greatly appreciate the continued support and feedback from everyone helping test the game. Every bug report, suggestion, and play session brings Stratus another step closer to release.
For the Storm!