We're absolutely thrilled to announce the highly anticipated Season 2 of the Forts Pro League! After taking player and viewer feedback we're ready to bring more great competitive 2v2 Forts action. The most notable change in Season 2 will be non-exclusive commander picks, making commander mirror matches possible. Who wore it better? Now decided with cannons and lasers and rockets!
The FPL has invited back the 10 qualifying teams from last season including Hagelslag Maten, winners of the Forts Amateur League Season 1. During the group stage they will face each other in a round robin format with the top 4 qualifying for the playoffs where the final victor will be decided. Meanwhile, the teams in last positions face relegation to the FAL.
Speaking of the Forts Amateur League (pathway to the FPL) Season 2 open registration begins effective immediately at Challengermode and closes on July 8th. There is no limit to the number of teams that can join and all Forts players not currently under a multiplayer or Forts Official Discord ban are eligible to participate. Teams will be divided into round robin groups, and the winners of each group will face each other in the playoffs. The winning team from the FAL playoffs will gain immediate entry into the future FPL Season 3, taking the position of the last placed FPL team. And the Runner-up will have an opportunity in a relegation match against the next lowest FPL team.
When is it going to happen?
Signups for the FAL begin now and end on July 8th. Both leagues will be starting on July 15th. The playoffs (date to be announced) will be held once the round robin stages have concluded.
How to participate?
The FPL is invitation only. If you want to have a chance to be promoted to the Pro League, you can start by signing up for the Amateur League!
Player names must be clearly readable and match on Discord, Steam and Challengermode. The maximum length is 16 characters for players and teams. Players are expected to use this name when playing all of their matches. Offensive player or team names will be disqualified from the league.
Team tags must be 3 characters or less.
Team logos should be 128x128 pixels. Offensive images will result in disqualification.
Message @42scientist on the Forts Official Discord with your Team name, roster, team tag and logo. Also include the Discord and Steam ID's of you and your teammate.;
You are now officially registered in the Amateur League!
What are the prizes for Pro League?
1st place: $100
2nd place: $50
3rd place: $20
Prizes will be split equally between team members and distributed as a Steam gift card.
For the second season in a row we crown a different champion! Helicopter (better known as Matteo) is our season 23 victor. And having also won previously in season 12 one of only two players to have won multiple championships. In 2nd place is PLAYER II (better known as mcc72k), of team Pro Aim fame alongside Helicopter in season 1 of the FPL, And the final player atop the season 23 podium is Malme, last season's champion who broke EtaN's streak of 9 consecutive victories.
While the top 3 places receive Gold, Silver, and Bronze, every player finishing within the top 20 will receive a Season 22 Medal. Congratulations to all medalists as well!
Some Season 23 trivia:
The recent trend of more first time medalists continued
We saw the widest variety of picks yet, with almost the entirety of the top 20 playing multiple commanders throughout the season
Architect continues to gain traction but Eagle Eye has had a resurgence as well
The ranked ping limit was so successful at improving connection reliability that it has been increased from 300ms to 350ms in update 1.21 in order to facilitate more matches
1v1 Leaderboard
Helicopter
[PA] PLAYER II
Malme
EtaN
I am myself
[BOG]#Der Benzinpreisvergleicher
Spinix愛
greatwo
Klappi
籽岷妙妙屋
Schuka
鱼
Dranistian
[DFC] Cloud_
john ツ
Poolboy
cyrv
AkkerFreek04
Goldjunge
Rigor
Season 24
Season 24 is already underway and will run through July 31st. This season's map pool consists of the following battlefields:
Hang Time
Hillfort
Moorings
Stalactites
Vanilla
Desert Ruins
Make Sure To Join Our Discord
If you haven't already, join our Forts Official Discord server to connect with other players, share strategies, create maps/mods, and receive advance notice of upcoming events.
Cheers, EWG
Forts Update 1.21
G'day Forts fans!
We're back with another bi-monthly update covering a range of important bug fixes and quality of life improvements, to serve the Forts community and enhance the playing experience. We've also included a few commander changes. Read on for more.
Post-Battle Stats
Individual player stats now appear in the battle results screen.
Hot on the heels of the Observer HUD and multiplayer loading screen comes the post-battle stats screen. After the battle has ended, players will get a breakdown of how each player fared, individually listing damage done and reactor health left. Ordered by Damage Done, this feature will allow players, observers, streamers and viewers a handy overview of player performance. It's even shown during replays.
Energy Shield now absorbs firing resources as well as reflecting beams, giving Shockenaugh an edge against beam-happy opponents. Shocker!
In line with the hyper theme of the character, Hurricane's Repair Stations now reduce the duration of the EMP effect of EMP Rockets and the like by half a second, each second. This effect stacks; the more Repair Stations, the quicker your weapons recover from EMP.
The banked shot ability added to Eagle Eye a couple of updates ago has proved effective. Perhaps too effective. We've give this a little tickle and increased the time to bank the extra shot from +20% up to +25%.
Change list dlc2 28 r14448
Add: player stats to multiplayer results panel Add: Add results window to end of a multiplayer replay Add: Add round scores (if configured in obs tools customisation) to results screen Add: Lobby chat warning message when current map has no AI Add: Map/mod edit box and filters to workshop screen Add: GetProjectileClientId, SetProjectileClientId script functions for player stat tracking of script created projectiles Add: GetWeaponClientId and SetWeaponClientId script functions for player stat tracking of script created weapons Add: Observer Tools HUD pulse background of last built field when important constructions occur Add: Show event of important item construction tech Add: Host option to enable artificial lag for host Add: EMPRepairFieldRadius and EMPRepairFieldRate properties to device repair field to reduce EMP effect (RepairFieldPeriod must be > 0)
Balance: (Shockenaugh) absorbs firing resources as well as reflecting beams Balance: (Hurricane) Repair Stations reduce EMP effect at half time Balance: (Eagle Eye) increase time to bank extra shot from +20% to +25%
Fix: ranked map preview is sometimes missing Fix: joining players sometimes reset the lobby's game mode (thanks Vykro) Fix: scripts are able to allocate unlimited amounts of memory, causing the PC to grind to a halt Fix: (Shockenaugh) the energy used to fire beam weapons is not absorbed by shields Fix: Debug Console vars available in multiplayer matches Fix: non-owning clients send door close messages when deleting a weapon Fix: lobby ready and mod remove buttons can be spam clicked Fix: desync caused by sprites with a 'colour' table or with invalid frame textures Fix: desync of playing clients when a client connects at the same time as another joins Fix: all structures are suddenly destroyed when zero speed projectiles collide Fix: crash when weapon animation scripts cause an exception Fix: crash when the only node 'mass' is negative in building_materials.lua Fix: crash during preview and construction when there are no bracing plates in building_materials.lua Fix: (SetWeaponReloadTime) documentation says remaining time, when it should be progress time Fix: crash when a player drops out and then tries to send loading progress Fix: English Workshop item names are overwritten with local language display names when updating a workshop item Fix: Observer Tools HUD Label and Commander filters not applied when starting a match/replay Fix: Observer Tools HUD text bleed for long team names Fix: Observer Tools Metal rollover text field not set correctly Fix: Select button is not added to hosts downloaded lobby chat line messages after subscribing to a selected map/mod Fix: Unregistering console vars not correctly comparing string names Fix: (UpdateGroundTriangles script function) no effect during gameplay Fix: (GetBlockVertexPos script function) crash when vertexIndex is out of range Fix: (EnumerateStructureLinks script function) matchSide parameter doesn't function correctly Fix: lobby medal popup is shown over afk and desync messages Fix: desync message shows 'Due to inactivity your game is not discoverable' if host was previously away Fix: commander can be charged by reflected projectiles attacking team-mates Fix: Uninitialised data in Observer Tools Fix: Observer Tools teams scores not sent to clients in lobby Fix: restarted campaign missions produce replays which desync Fix: (reactor) sprite unnecessarily depends on construction sprites, causing desyncs when textures are replaced Fix: Observer Tools isn't initialised until second frame of match Fix: Players can delete built in maps in the editor map select list Fix: Maps and Mods items offset from each other in workshop screen Fix: filter edit box shadow consistency in map and mod select screens Fix: Text filter is not applied after toggling 'Use English Names' in map selection screen Fix: (\bind command) commands are not triggered by key Fix: (\bind command) commands with paged output are not escaped Fix: (\bind command) doesn't wait for key Fix: (\bind command) key is added to prompt after selection Fix: (\keylist command) listing doesn't show entire key label
Improve: increase ranked ping limit to 350ms Improve: Remember last tab in Workshop screen when re-opening and only populate tabs when made visible Improve: AbsorbsBeams is mutually exclusive to ReflectsBeams (materials can do both or either) Improve: repair, EMP repair, and disruption device abilities are mutually exclusive Improve: Vertical positioning of victory/defeat results Improve: DedicatedHost setting is written to settings_hardware.lua when disabled for easier editing Improve: (\bind and \keylist commands) control modifiers are localised Improve: (\bind command) is cancelled by pressing Escape
Remove: option to disable anti-air in Skirmish and Multiplayer
Make Sure To Join Our Discord
If you haven't already, join our Forts Official Discord server to connect with other players, share strategies, create maps/mods, and receive advance notice of upcoming events.
Cheers, EWG
Forts Map Making Contest V
G'day Forts fans!
When we polled the Forts Pro League players at the conclusion of last season they were overwhelmingly in favor of expanding the current map pool. What better inspiration could there possibly be for a new map competition? We're looking for 2v2 maps balanced for high level competitive Moonshot play.
The winning creator will receive a $100 Steam gift card, Map Maker Champion in-game medal, and have their map promoted in-game, on Steam, and across social media with an opportunity to be included in the upcoming FPL Season 2 map pool.
Are you excited for season 2?
Format
The event will consist of two stages: Stage 1 - Map makers will be able to submit their maps starting on June 10th 8PM UTC and ending on June 17th 8PM UTC in accordance with the rules below. Maps submitted before June 10th 8PM UTC or after June 17th 8PM UTC will not be accepted.
Stage 2 - Our judges will select the 5 best entries to go into the Live Stream June 24th 8PM UTC, where a group of top players will compete in exhibition matches to showcase each map while the judges look on.
Prizes
1st place
$100 Steam gift card
In-game Map Maker Champion medal and accompanying role on Discord.
The winning map will be promoted in-game, on Steam, and across social media with an opportunity to be included in the FPL Season 2 map pool.
Upload your map to the Steam Workshop with the name "FMMC5 - yoursteamname" example, FMMC5 - Romerolagus
Select a separate map name to include with your entry submission.
Set your Workshop visibility to Unlisted
On the Official Forts Discord, direct message @42 scientist#0042 with a link to your entry and the desired name for your map before June 17th 8pm UTC.
Maps will be graded according to appearance, gameplay potential, and Forts best practices. A more detailed description of the full grading criteria will be made available on Discord. We look forward to seeing your creativity on display.
Guides
In order to improve your map's chances of winning, check out these guides on Steam for best practices:
Forts Tournament XXVI - High Seas 2v2 Co-op - Winners!
G'day Forts fans!
Congratulations to team Incursus=BAR, winners of Tournament XXVI!
EtaN and Cloud made the most of their opportunity to collect another tournament victory and simultaneously make a not-so-subtle game recommendation to our host and caster Project Incursus. Leveraging their overwhelming APM and ability to manage the chaos of High Seas projectile laden skies they stormed to victory over their opponents.
Incursus=BAR clearing the skies with shotguns
In second, team Green Leaf follows up a 6th place finish in the inaugural season of the FPL with their best result to date. After being knocked out of the top half of the double elimination bracket by Incursus=BAR, Vykro and Dranistian emerged from the bottom half for the rematch. This time they would manage to take one game before ultimately losing the best of 3.
Team Green Leaf locked in a slugfest with Up Grade Santé
And the even less subtly named Beyond All Reason in third place. AlexD and Helicopter not being shy about advertising their love of the RTS genre. A love shared by many Forts players, as witnessed above. Their tournament run ended in a duel of Thunderbolts against team Green Leaf.
A battle of BARs as Beyond All Reason brings the deckguns and cannons to bear against Commando BAR
If you haven't already, join our Forts Official Discord server to connect with other players, share strategies, create maps/mods, and receive advance notice of upcoming events.
Cheers, EWG
Forts - High Seas 2v2 Tournament XXVI
G'day Forts fans!
Are you ready to set sail upon the High Seas again? As promised we return to naval warfare for our 26th official tournament with 2v2 High Seas Co-op. From the smallest dinghy to the largest battleship to a combined land and sea armada you and your crewmate share full control as you compete for fame and glory. And of course Steam gift cards too!
Tournament XXVI will be held May 27th at 8pm UTC and hosted by Project Incursus. In order to participate teams must first compete in a qualifying event on May 20th at 8pm UTC with the top 8 teams advancing to XXVI. Please note that we will be using Challengermode to handle registrations.
Registration for the qualifying event will open on May 13th at 10pm UTC Up to the first 16 eligible teams will be accepted.
Entries submitted before this time will not be accepted. Once registration has opened the first 16 teams to submit a valid entry will be admitted. Valid entries must fulfill the requirements listed below under How do I join?
How will teams be seeded?
Seedings will be automatic based on past results in Challengermode events.
Will all matches be streamed? During the qualifiers select matches may be chosen for live broadcast while others take place offline. All main event XXVI matches are planned to be streamed live.
Prizes?
The current prize pool is as follows:
1st place $100
2nd place $50
3rd place $20
Prizes will be awarded in the form of Steam digital gift cards. Each team member will receive a card equaling half the value of the full team prize.
If you have any additional questions please contact us on Discord.
How do I join?
In order to participate, you must do the following...
Including but not limited to: Castaways Fort Falls 2v2 Frigates Hillboat Sun & Oil 2v2 The Leviathan Volcanic Rim Windswept
Cheers, EWG
Welcome 42 scientist!
G'day Forts fans!
We are pleased to announce our newest member of the Earthwork Games team, 42 scientist!
42 is a longtime member of the Forts community who has taken on a variety of roles over the years. Winner of Tournament XII with teammate Sgitkene, unofficial and official Forts Statistician, creator and curator of The Spreadsheet, 6 x 9, Discord moderator, Tournament Organizer, host and replay Caster, French translator, tester, and now Community Admin overseeing the Forts Pro and Amateur leagues.
So let's give 42 a big Forts Community welcome and congrats on becoming an official part of the EWG team!
Make Sure To Join Our Discord
If you haven't already, join our Forts Official Discord server to connect with other players, share strategies, create maps/mods, and receive advance notice of upcoming events.
Cheers, EWG
Forts Update 1.20
G'day Forts fans!
This update contains several quality of life improvements and general fixes. See below.
Multiplayer Loading Screen
The multiplayer loading screen has been upgraded to show the map, the players on each side - including their medals and loading progress, and the logos and names of the sides.
See how fast your rig is at loading compared to others.
Replay Descriptions
Replays can now be given a short description in the pause menu, and be tagged as a favourite. The description is shown in the replay selection screen, and can be changed later. This will help you keep track of replays of interest. As always, there are a bunch of other fixes and improvements. The observer tools especially have been polished after feedback. Ranked players will be happy to know that matches with players with ping above 300ms are now rejected. There are also a few additions and fixes to the scripting API. See the full list of changes below.
Change list dlc2 27 r14189
Add: multiplayer loading screen with map preview and player details Add: description and favourite option replay details to pause menu Add: GetLocalClientIndex and GetClientTeamId script functions to get the local client index and client team ids Add: \resave_replay command with observer tools customisation override Add: -stripchat option to \resave_replay command Add: Pin checkbox for observer tools filters Add: Show stats of relative resource gain per sec in observer tools Add: GetBlockOwner and SetBlockOwner script functions Add: GetWeaponMinFireSpeed script function
Fix: Particle effects are released from idle weapons due to cursor movement Fix: Placing any struts during simulation makes projectiles despawn Fix: (Orbital Laser) fires twice when the beacon hits a device under water Fix: (Orbital Laser) fires when launched up from under water (thanks Squet) Fix: \save command fails to copy packed files Fix: when projectiles exist, the \save command reproduces them as structural joints Fix: stuttering during before first game due to preloading large textures Fix: clients drop out when watching instant replay after host quits Fix: Observer Tools override changes not saved correctly to local replays Fix: passing neutral structure will allow weapons to fire without opening doors Fix: propellers and turbines facing wrong way Fix: (ModManager) rare crash when searching for mod dependencies in un-terminated file buffer Fix: (Trail effect) redundant memory allocations are made: Keyframes parameter no longer used Fix: crash when editing a map with a missing ground texture Fix: Custom observer tools textures not propagated to existing non playing clients in a lobby chatroom when changed Fix: DLCs sometimes fail to load Fix: IsPropType and GetPropName crash or return invalid results if index is out of range Fix: Observer Tools Reactor Labels are rendered over the top of the replay HUD and other UI elements Fix: Observer Tools visibility state only saved when observer hud customisation is enabled Fix: Observer Tools visible over normal HUD after restarting match during instant replay Fix: the invalid texture is freed when loading a map with a missing ground texture Fix: crash when Log* functions are passed text longer that 1024 characters Fix: (TerrainEditor::CreateBlock) sets block owner according to local team, without converting to side Fix: BeamMaxTravel is clamped to the world diagonal distance, limiting beams fired from outside the world bounds
Improve: (ranked) fail match if ping is over 300ms Improve: Save observer tools filter settings between matches and sessions Improve: (map editor) only draw structure bounds when a node is selected Improve: (LoadControl) the callback is automatically set for all buttons, with code -1 Improve: (replay HUD and upload map dialog) disambiguate name of root controls Improve: (scripting functions) parent can be the name of the root control Improve: Changed countdown and match timers to use improved readout font Improve: Changed replay timer to display current match time Improve: Layout of Observer Tools Reactor Labels to remove unnecessary UI clutter Improve: Layout of Observer Tools team names, commander, commander gauge and avatar UI elements Improve: Observer tools shows current match time instead of countdown time while there is no active countdown Improve: Re-add team colours to chat system message player names Improve: Replace Observer Tools number readout with better font Improve: Replace Resource Panel number readouts with better font Improve: Shift Observer Tools reactor labels an additional 100 units away from the reactors Improve: Switch observer tools badge and timer positions Improve: Observer Tools Filters auto hide in a similar fashion to the unpinned replay HUD Improve: Observer Tools Reactor labels for other powered devices (barrels, control) are minimised be default Improve: Observer Tools Reactor Label positioning improved for other powered devices (barrels, control) Improve: Observer tools relative resource rate field changed to individual resource rate
Optimise: remove redundant trail keyframes
Remove: (AddSpriteControl) documentation of non-existent 'style' parameter Remove: "Filters" checkbox for observer tools filters (redundant now that we can unpin filters)
Change list dlc2 27 r14191
Fix: players can select or suggest local mods in public lobbies
Make Sure To Join Our Discord
If you haven't already, join our Forts Official Discord server to connect with other players, share strategies, create maps/mods, and receive advance notice of upcoming events.
Cheers, EWG
Forts Pro League Season 1 Playoffs Winners! SPOILERS!!!
G’day, Forts fans!
Congratulations to Speckfanatiker for winning the inaugural season of the official Forts Pro League!
Capping off a day of drama, tension, and even a touch of controversy, Der Benzinpreisvergleicher and Naomi emerge as champions of the first season of the FPL and take the winner's medals. The Playoffs began with the relegation match between FPL team YES (Flinnshadow + Taichu) defeating FAL team Clockwork Titans (Hallrassy + Schuka) to retain their spot in the FPL roster for next season. Then the top 4 FPL teams faced off to determine the ultimate winner.
Amburulo of Danke Merkel delivered the standout individual performance of the tournament against Eagle Die. After losing their teammate Finn at cannon o'clock and being pummeled by warheads they battled back 1v2 in a match lasting nearly 20 minutes. This earned them the MVP nod from the judges and casters, but would not be enough to hold off Speckfanatiker in the Grand Final.
In one of most baffling moments of the competition, and perhaps the most controversial, a member of team Eagle Die missclicked in the opening seconds of their match vs Speckfanatiker and inadvertently collapsed their base. It happened so quickly that the cause was initially assumed to be a malfunction of some sort. After an examination of the replay showed it to have been accidental, the ruling was made for the match to continue with Eagle Die down a player.
1st Place - $100 in Steam Gift cards
Speckfanatiker
Der Benzinpreisvergleicher
Naomi
2nd Place - $50 in Steam Gift cards
Danke Merkel
Amburulo
Finn
3rd Place - $20 in Steam Gift cards
Pro Aim
Helicopter
mcc72k
Replays & VODs
Replays from the FPL group stage and Playoffs will be made available in the Featured tab of the Replays menu in-game and viewable until next update
Full English Cast with Incursus and Noze https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q2p1BMT_MfQ
Full German Casts with Salzwerk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zLJKcdAbZ84
Relegation match from Salzwerk and DerGoldjunge https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y01kE8Jsc1c
Cheers, EWG
Forts Ranked Multiplayer - Season 22 Champions!
G'day Forts fans!
Amidst all the recent excitement the Season 22 results are here! And for the first time in 10 seasons we crown a new victor. Congratulations to Malme, the first player since Matteo to supplant EtaN atop the leaderboard. Vitas would be proud. It came down to the wire, with with only 6 points separating them from our second place finisher Der Benzin in the final minutes of the season. Rounding out third on the podium and taking bronze is mcc72k. Der Benzin and mcc72k will also be competing against each other in the upcoming FPL Playoffs you can watch live on April 15th,
While the top 3 places receive Gold, Silver, and Bronze, every player finishing within the top 20 will receive a Season 22 Medal. Congratulations to all medalists as well!
Some Season 22 trivia;
Mortars, rockets, and missiles saw much heavier usage in top 20 matches with Ledge Grab and Pillars in the rotation.
Commander pick rates among the top 20 changed radically as a result of the new features and balance updates, with Architect and Firebird being the biggest beneficiaries.
People still persevere in their attempts to core swing on Pillars, and some even succeed.
And finally a reminder that good sportsmanship is always appropriate and to respect your opponents. We're all here to have fun!
1v1 Leaderboard
Malme
[BOG]#Der Benzinpreisvergleicher
[PA]mcc72k
Hallrassy[CMV]
EtaN
Armordillo
pur
ドミー
zebdww
[CMV]Vert1ks
WIG_籽岷妙妙屋
neoboletus.erythropus
Dranistian
kulipa0627
Злая Дрозд
Goldjunge
[Anime]greatwo
felixwoelmuis
Murt
CSS
Season 23
Season 23 is already underway and will run through May 31st. This season's map pool consists of the following battlefields:
Abyss
Hang Time
Moorings
Pillars
Stalactites
Battlegrounds 1v1
Make Sure To Join Our Discord
If you haven't already, join our Forts Official Discord server to connect with other players, share strategies, create maps/mods, and receive advance notice of upcoming events.
