Congratulations to Julian for getting to 1st place in Tournament 31!

Against all odds, fighting against the best of the best, even when everyone thought their opponents would win, Julian came on top of the 31st Official Forts Tournament! After beating Alexandr in the semi-finals, Julian had to surpass the one and only EtaN, even after losing a game.

Julian wins the 1st place prize of $50.

Julian manually holding his flak for the most opportune time

Snatching a game from Julian, EtaN still got to 2nd place after great battles of surfing on the time limit and eliminating his opponents anyway before it ends.

EtaN wins the 2nd place prize of $25.

EtaN delivering a howitzer after sawing an opening

On the other side of the bracket, after being eliminated by EtaN, Der Benzinpreisvergleicher defeated Alexandr in the bronze match and secured himself third place, using quite uncommon tactics.

Der Benzinpreisvergleicher wins the 3rd place prize of $10.

The depleted Uranium rounds from Der Benzin keeps going, and going, and going

In addition to our regulars, there were a number of new competitors who acquitted themselves admirably in this tournament, despite the limits set by the rules.

In the future, forts tournaments will try their best to stay away from short time limits, seeing how the meta shifts defensively.

Julian

EtaN

Der Benzinpreisvergleicher

*Prizes awarded as Steam Digital Gift cards.

Check it out here!

As always, thanks to our hosts and casters, Salzwerk, Cloud, Baumstander, Og and Project Incursus. Tournament replays are now available in the Featured tab of the Replays menu in-game, and tournament video is available below:

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

We are happy to announce our next DLC, Forts - Firebird. This new content brings an all new origin story, featuring new lightning and building tech, weapons, commander and more. Head over to the store page to see more and hit wishlist to be alerted the moment it drops!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/3977280/Forts__Firebird/

To celebrate, we are hosting a free multiplayer weekend until Monday September 1st. Non-owners will have access to the following modes:

• Multiplayer* - NOTE: Non-DLC owners who join games hosted by DLC owners to have access to the relevant DLC advanced weapons and features.

• Campaign - Play through the tutorial and part 1 of the Black Gold campaign.

• Quick Battle - Recently added mode for new players to get straight into the action with a few explosive missions.

• Skirmish* - One off battles vs AI opponents.

• Sandbox* - Free-play mode without opponents.

*Includes Workshop content.

As part of the celebration, Forts and all DLCs and the OST are on sale. Follow the links below:

https://store.steampowered.com/app/410900/Forts/https://store.steampowered.com/app/1811550/Forts__High_Seas/https://store.steampowered.com/app/1033530/Forts__Moonshot/https://store.steampowered.com/app/2278070/Forts__Elite_HUD/https://store.steampowered.com/app/1335840/Forts__Pro_HUD/https://store.steampowered.com/app/627370/Forts__Soundtrack/

Cheers,

EWG

Are you ready for Season 6 of the Forts Pro League? Now using a Swiss style bracket! Everyone can sign up for the FPL qualifier stage and registration opens on August 26th! Register your team on Challengermode and Discord following the instructions below.

Teams will be seeded in a qualifier round in a 3 round swiss bracket format. If you have watched tournaments from other games, you might be familiar with the swiss system. If not, it consists of successive rounds separated in groups of teams having the same amount of wins/losses. Whenever a team scores enough wins to be qualified to the next stage, or enough losses to no longer be able to catch up, they stop playing matches for that round. For the qualifier round, the cutoff is at 2 wins/losses, so the 16 teams to score 2 wins will advance to the main stage.

One match is to be played every week for teams who have not yet scored 2 wins or 2 losses. Teams may schedule their match at any time during the week, but if they have not played by Sunday at 8pm utc that given week they must contact a league official on Discord and make themselves available to play their match at this time. Any team not present will forfeit that match. At the end of this stage, the teams with 2 wins will qualify for the main stage, consisting of another swiss bracket, this time on 5 rounds (3 wins/losses cutoff), with the 8 top teams qualifying for the playoffs, where the ultimate winners will be decided in a single elimination bracket.

In other news, it has been decided that Co-op on Elimination will not be featured this season. There will also be some map pool changes, and the veto process will no longer feature commander picks, only bans.

When is it going to happen?

Signups for the FPL begin on August 26th and end on September 20th at 7pm utc. Opening day is September 27th at 7pm utc. The playoffs (tentatively scheduled for November 29th 8pm utc) will be held once the main stage has concluded. If you want to participate, make sure you are free on November 29th as well as the two weekends afterwards.

How to participate?

Everyone is eligible to sign up for the qualifier stage of the FPL!

First, see the Forts Pro League Official Rules

Then form your team of two (you are allowed 1 substitute player) and meet the following requirements:

Player names must be clearly readable and match on Discord, Steam and Challengermode.

The maximum length is 16 characters for teams. Players are expected to use this name when playing all of their matches.

Offensive player or team names and profile images will result in disqualification from the league. Players currently under ranked or multiplayer bans are also ineligible to compete.

Team tags must be 3 characters or less.

Team logos should be 128x128 pixels. Offensive images will result in disqualification.

How to join the Forts Pro League:

• Make sure you have created your team on Challengermode;

• Message @42scientist or @taichuz on the Forts Official Discord with your Team name, composition, team tag and logo. Also include the Discord and Steam ID's of you and your teammate.;

• You will then receive an invitation for your team to join the League event;

• Accept the invitation on Challengermode;

• You are now officially registered in the Forts Pro League!

Team Capacitor (Link to the challengermode team) \[CAP] Fred (Link to Fred's Steam profile) \[CAP] Max (Link to Max's Steam profile)

Sample entry with Team and Logo



What are the prizes for Pro League?

• 1st place: $500

• 2nd place: $250

• 3rd place: $100

Prizes will only be awarded in the form of Steam digital gift cards. To be eligible for prizes, participants must be able to receive Steam gift cards from outside regions. Winners may designate another eligible player to receive their prize.

• FPL Season 6 at Challengermode

• The Official Forts Discord

For more information on rules and match scheduling please read the Forts Pro League Official Rules

Earthwork Games reserves the right to make changes to this event as needed

Project Incursus

Salzwerk

La Cantine (PileRouillée & Og)

Cheers,
EWG

Congratulations to Der Benzinpreisvergleicher, winner of Season 36. Taking second for the second consecutive season is Julian. And in third in successive seasons is Kriegeule. While the top 3 places receive Gold, Silver, and Bronze, every eligible player finishing within the top 20 will receive a Season 36 Medal. Congratulations to all medalists as well!

1. \[BOG]#Der Benzinpreisvergleicher

2. Julian

3. \[BOG]#Kriegeule #Salzierteeule

4. I am myself

5. InfinityPower

6. Tyler Durden

7. Nils

8. klaualles

9. Куртизанка

10. Ryabzyk

11. Александр

12. BrucePixar

13. Tar

14. barabulka

15. Tox

16. Hopser

17. Domy

18. ts

19. ニャミ•キメラ

20. Armordillo

- A dramatic shift in ranked demographics unfolded following Steam's Summer sale, with Russia overtaking Germany with the most active participants.

- More balance patches, more commander shakeups!

- Overdrive, Shockenaugh, and Moonshine had the largest gains, going from 1% to 6.4%, 10.5% to 15.6%, and 2.5% to 5.1% respectively.

- Spook, Hurricane, and Firebird dropped the most, 18.3% to 10.5%, 9.7% to 7.7%, and 6.8% to 4.9% respectively.

- Shockenaugh's winrate increased over last season, buoyed by the addition of Balls, but weighed down by unsuccessful swings.

Commanders listed in order of popularity. Winrate percentages shown on the Y scale, and below each commander

Season 37 is already underway and will run through September 30th. This season's map pool consists of the following battlefields:

• Crevice

• Elephants

• Hang Time

• Hillfort

• Pillars

• Vanilla

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

Here's another big update to brighten your day.

Game balance has been tuned in a few areas. We've taken on the mixed feedback from the last update around the balance of anti-air. Machine guns are now more prone to overheating, but mortars are slightly easier to shoot down. The overall effect is that mortars are more viable and anti-air receives a slight nerf in general. Rockets and Plasma Lasers get a firing cost reduction, while Cannons receive an increase.

Phantom has a new material: the Transfer Pad. When you build these, your allies can move devices to them during the active. If they move storage devices you will also receive resources in proportion to their resource balance. Devices are also moved faster during active. This will allow some interesting new strategies for well coordinated teams.

Work together with your allies using Phantom's Transfer Pad.

Other commanders have also been touched. Overdrive's active duration has been reduced by 29%, which should curb his extravagant lifestyle. Pinchfist's metal reclaim when not active has been reduced to 75%, but his 5% better collectors have returned. Warthog's Rockets gain the extra splash damage and radius other projectiles enjoy. Spook is unable to see Phantom's initial charge.

Making a material capable of accepting moveable devices from allies is as simple as setting 'TransferPlatform' to true on a material. For Phantom this is only applied when active.

To coincide with this new movement tech, modders can expand the use of device movement and balance it per device. Each device can have its own movement cost and technology requirement, including separate values for transfers to allies. These can even be based on distance or any other factor by implementing a function in the device script. Generosity when gifting storage devices can also be adjusted.

This update introduces several eagerly awaited functions for modders. Firstly, GetDeviceListValue can be used to query device configuration from device_list.lua, weapon_list.lua, and ammo_list.lua.

Next, SetScriptValue and GetScriptValue are able to send and receive data to and from other scripts easily. These operate much like the recently added GetDeviceValue and similar functions.

Finally, CallScript better supports inter-mod separation of functionality. It allows you to execute a function in another script, passing a table of parameters, and have the return value assigned to a variable.

A handy function, LogValue, has been added to help you debug the use of these functions. It can write out any Lua values, including tables, formatted as valid Lua script.

When you've got a long list of replays, it can be hard to find one in particular. Now the game can take a screenshot every minute and embed it into the replay. If a replay has these they will show instead of the generic map screenshots when previewing the replay.

You can enable it in the Options -> Game menu (it's off by default). Keep in mind it will increase replay file sizes and may slow down navigation in the replay selection screen.

Quickly find the replay you're looking for.

If you're having trouble aiming the Shotgun and Smoke Bomb, this may help. When aiming these there is a new arc shown indicating the extents of the projectiles produced. It also applies to Scattershot's 20mm Cannon during active.

Receive feedback on the projectile spread of some weapons.

Fair environments are important in a competitive game, so we've taken a scalpel to a long list of maps. Of particular note is that in Balls it's now impossible to build on the terrain of the opposite side.

Work continues in the background on ranked arbitration. We hope to have this rolled out, along with some other exciting improvements, in the next update.

We're aware of connectivity issues some players experience since the move to Steam Networking Sockets. It's under investigation.

Add: (GetDeviceListValue) Script function to query item values in device_list.lua, weapon_list.lua and ammo_list.lua

Add: Commander language mods can appended strings to the Materials table

Add: Frame limiting system

Add: GetScriptValue, SetScriptValue and CallScript script functions

Add: LogValue and ValueToLua to scripts/core_utility.lua to output tables as valid Lua strings

Add: MoveCostMetal/ToAlly and MoveCostEnergy/ToAlly device config functions to specify move cost, parameters: deviceId, sourcePos, destPos, nodeIdA, nodeIdB, platformT

Add: Projectiles can set AntiAirClaims to adjust their estimated ability to shoot down enemy targets

Add: Record screenshots to replay

Add: Spread indicator to smoke launcher and shotgun aim

Add: Technology can be required to move devices using PrerequisiteMove and PrerequisiteMoveToAlly in *_list.lua

Add: TransferGiftsResourcesFactor rule for Phantom's TransferPad (defaults to 1)

Add: TransformPlatform material property for allies to gift devices

Balance: (Cannon) Increase fire cost from 3000 to 3500 energy (+17%)

Balance: (EMP rocket) Increase AA claims at less than 1.2s from 3 to 4

Balance: (Flak) Makes 2 claims on incoming projectiles to save allocating gunners

Balance: (Hurricane active) Incendiary Mortar and Heavy Mortar reload speed boost reduced from 100% to 50%

Balance: (Hurricane) Machineguns overheat after three bursts

Balance: (Incendiary and Heavy mortar) Increase shootdown radius from 15 to 20 (+33%)

Balance: (Machinegun) Decrease heat period from 1.8 to 1.5 (-17%)

Balance: (Machinegun) Increase overheat cool period from 7.5 to 11s (+47%)

Balance: (Moonshine) Increased GaugeDamageHitpoints from 1500 to 3150 (+110%)

Balance: (Overdrive) Reduce active duration from 14s to 10s (-29%)

Balance: (Phantom active) Time to move a device is reduced from 2 to 1 seconds (-50%)

Balance: (Pinchfist) Reduce metal reclaim during passive from 100% to 75%

Balance: (Pinchfist) Reintroduce 5% eco boost to compensate for reduced metal reclaim during passive

Balance: (Plasma Laser) Decrease fire cost from 5000 to 4500 energy (-10%)

Balance: (Rocket) Reduce energy fire cost from 1200 to 1000 (-17%)

Balance: (Shield) Sniper projectiles reflect off shields perfectly at moderately shallow angles

Balance: (Warthog active) Rockets gain the 25% damage/splash radius bonus

Fix: (Battlegrounds) Block 39, 11 + Left lower expansion has extra terrain in front of it

Fix: (Elephants) Blocks 2, 0 more space for lower AA expansion, left side can swing into cave.

Fix: (Forts Falls) Asymmetrical + add no build zones to water

Fix: (Fracked) Blocks 45, 15 prevents lower turbines, lowers the amount of propellers you can build, couple other blocks slightly block building

Fix: (Hangtime) Slightly asymmetrical

Fix: (Hellmouth 3v3) Every non team owned block

Fix: (Hillboat, Hillfort) Offset on the central block allows for downwards shots to hit more easily on one side vs the other

Fix: (Italian) High Seas campaign translation contains slang profanity

Fix: (No Obstacle) Player is able to build foundations on inappropriate terrain

Fix: (Outstretch) Terrain close to base can block

Fix: (Overdrive) Focussed 2-barrel Deck Gun receives upgrade boost

Fix: (Penguins) Terrain close to base can block

Fix: (Phantom) The effects of the extended Magnabeam are cut short

Fix: (Pillars) Blocks 4, 2 blocks lower AA/mortars

Fix: (Spook) Enemy charge meter is not restored after joining until it changes

Fix: (Stalactites 4v4) Terrain asymmetry behind rear forts

Fix: (Vanilla Large) Lower base blocks are slightly different, not too impactful

Fix: (Vanilla) Blocks 7, 0 right in front of the base, blocks AA, especially with the meta having structure so close this does matter

Fix: (Wingman 4v4) Two blocks in front of the bases are different, slight issue for AA

Fix: (Wingman MS) Blocks 12, 10 top right expansion is easier to build forward on

Fix: (Wingman) Two blocks in front of the bases are different, slight issue for AA

Fix: (Ziggurat) Blocks 11, 6 starting base gets significantly fewer turbines, + all the other blocks are not perfectly symmetrical

Fix: Adding 'team' to profanity filter allows you to see enemy team chat

Fix: Assistant button tool tips appear when panel is not visible

Fix: Changing Vsync in options doesn't always update the actual setting

Fix: Crash in AllocateFortsToPlayers

Fix: Crash when an invalid teamId is passed to script functions

Fix: Device reclaim value and other stats do not respond to commander state

Fix: Heating is reset when moving weapons with Phantom

Fix: Logging functions incorrectly handle strings with new lines

Fix: Parts of the structure are drawn at the previous graphical position, causing a noticeable separation at speed

Fix: Players appear connected when they disconnect while downloading Workshop items

Fix: Quick Battle win music starts then stops when it should duck

Fix: Rich presence keeps attempting sign in if player has no internet connection

Fix: Structure claimed by barrels appear over mines.

Fix: Unable to convert bracing to back bracing at near zero energy in spite of it being no cost

Fix: When an upgraded weapon is moved, its upgrade source is selected to build

Fix: Wide strings cause memory leaks in Lua script states

Improve: (Balls) Prevent occupation of enemy terrain

Improve: (Code of Conduct) Include copyright to line about offensive Workshop material, and specify that a ban will be issued

Improve: (Spook) Don't see Phantom's true commander charge until first activation

Improve: (Vanilla 3v3) Display name is translated

Improve: Assistant button needs to be held to show panel

Improve: Error reporting for GetProjectileValue, GetAmmoValue, GetDeviceValue, and GetMaterialValue

Improve: Game invites from Discord Rich Presence work in submenus and matches

Improve: Lobbies are sorted by ping

Improve: Projectiles can have their FadeDuration customised (defaults to 0.2)

Improve: Rename Vanilla Large MS to Vanilla 2v2 MS

Improve: Rename Vanilla Large to Vanilla 2v2

Improve: Rich presence pop up only appears if player has discord running

Improve: RicochetFade values can be customised per projectile-material collision via Effect.Deflect entries, allowing projectiles to live long after reflections, defaulting to RicochetFade in db/constants.lua

Improve: Russian translation (thanks knestor)

Improve: Show active duration in commander description

Improve: The fort selection button in the lobby has a tooltip

Fix: (Phantom) Transfer Pad can't accept large devices such as the Hardpoint

Fix: (Phantom) Transfer Pad takes little damage from Buzzsaw

Fix: (Shockenaugh active) Firebeam fire cost is not reduced to match the regular Plasma Laser

Fix: Crash when upgrading a device as a client

Fix: Vanilla 2v2 MS is missing

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

After the great success of the latest meme tournament, it is time for a more competitive event, and no format could be better than a straight 1v1 single elimination tournament!

Tournament 31 is the first one quitting the roman numerals standard, and will be held on August 30th at 7PM UTC. Up to 16 players may register, with first two rounds being Best of 1, Semifinals, Bronze match and Finals being Best of 3, with a 15 minute time limit for all rounds.

Registration will open at 7pm UTC on the 9th of August. In order to register, every participant should ping 42scientist on the Forts Official Discord server with their challengermode profile link, steam profile link, and then be invited on Challengermode.

Hosts:
Project Incursus
Salzwerk
La cantine

On to the details.


When will Registration open?

August 9th 2025 at

12pm PDT (West Coast USA)

3pm EDT (East Coast USA)

8pm GMT (London)

9pm CEST (France, Germany)

5am August 10th AEST (Brisbane Australia)

Entries submitted before this time will not be accepted. Once registration has opened the first 16 players to submit a valid entry will be admitted. Valid entries must fulfill the requirements listed below under How do I join?


How will players be seeded?

Seedings will be based on past results in official events and ranked seasons.


Prizes?

The prize pool is as follows:

1st place $50

2nd place $25

3rd place $10

Prizes will only be awarded in the form of Steam digital gift cards. To be eligible for prizes, participants must be able to receive Steam gift cards from outside regions. Winners may designate another eligible player to receive their prize.

If you have any additional questions please contact us on Discord.

In order to participate, you must do the following...

Join the Official FORTS Discord

Your names on Discord, Steam and Challengermode must match

Inappropriate competitor names will not be accepted

Send a message on Discord to 42scientist with your CM profile and Steam profile

Registration will not open until August 9th at 7pm UTC

Maximum of 16 players

Tournament 31 starts August 30th, 2025 at...

12am PDT (West Coast USA)

3pm EDT (East Coast USA)

8pm GMT (London)

9pm CEST (France, Germany)

5am 31st of August AEST (Brisbane Australia)

The FORTS Tournament lobby
The Official FORTS Discord
Challengermode Bracket

1v1 Team Death Match

Single elimination

15 minute time limit

Moonshot enabled

Tons of Guns enabled

Repair Station enabled

Portals enabled

Commanders enabled

Draws decided by core damage inflicted (total damage if core health is equal)

Maximum of 16 players

Check-in on Discord starts 1 hour before tournament

Late or absent players forfeit their matches

Use of exploits or bugs for self-charging or any other purpose is strictly forbidden.

Earthwork Games reserves the right to make changes to this event as needed

Project Incursus
Salzwerk
La cantine

• Battlegrounds

• Crevice

• Desert Ruins

• Hang Time

• Ledge Grab

• Moorings

• Stalactites

• Vanilla

Cheers, EWG

Congratulations to butterdog for getting to first place on the meme tournament!

After winning tirelessly through his first couple matches due to unfortunate developments from his opponents having to resign, butterdog beat his opponents spaghetsie on the legendary map Battleships Non Tanya, and Alexander (Александр) in a wild 3 round match, using various magnabeam strategies as well as Tier 3 cannons.

By virtue of getting to 1st place, butterdog wins $50 in steam cards.

butterdog and spaghetsie fighting in the shade

Closely following butterdog, and even winning one round against him during the finals, Alexander won most of his matches using small 2-laser Concentratinators. Unfortunately for him, it was not enough to get to first place.

With his 2nd place, Alexander secures himself $25 in steam cards.

Alexander and Junyu in an intense photonic exchange

3rd on the bracket, Doriepixar, proud member of the pixar team, used some of the wildest strats of the podium, including but not limited to the now famous "flak attack", which while visually captivating, failed to deliver much damage at all, but still enough to get him a win. The bronze match was also a highlight, with Dorie literally swarming his opponent spaghetsie, who unfortunately failed to claim his lower ball for several minutes by swinging barrels.

Doriepixar therefore wins $10 in steam cards.

Doriepixar giving Dranistian all the flak

In addition to the already mentioned meme strategies, there were insane attempts from all players involved to show the best spectacle ever seen in an official tournament. While the list would be too long to enumerate, two players have been the most prolific in wicked strategies:

Nemopixar, another member of the pixar team, specialized on laser technology, using phantom magnabeams as main source of damage, as well as a redirect tier 3 laser, acting as a periscope.

Nemopixar's laser periscope peeking up

Pile Rouillée, who is recently known for his core slingshot contraption, graced our eyes of a magnabeam redirected howitzer for his match against Nemopixar. He did not in fact end up winning this one, but if he did, he would have demonstrated the newest of his slingshots on Skylands.

Pile doesn't just bend bullets, but howitzer shells as well

And what Pile could have done on Skylands

Pile has been voted by admins to be the best memer, and to be awarded $20 in steam gift cards.

Butterdog

Alexander

Doriepixar

PileRouillée for his magnabeam howitzer

*Winners have been contacted and prizes will be issued as Steam Digital Gift cards via Steam friends upon expiration of Steam's 3-day friend waiting period.

Check it out here!

As always, thanks to our hosts and casters, Salzwerk, Project Incursus, PileRouilléehttps://www.twitch.tv/communautefortsfr& Nikita.

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

Congratulations to first time champion buttedog aim, winner of Season 35, and more than living up to their illustrious name. Taking second for the first time is Julian. And in third is FPL S5 winner Kriegeule. While the top 3 places receive Gold, Silver, and Bronze, every eligible player finishing within the top 20 will receive a Season 35 Medal. Congratulations to all medalists as well!

1. buttedog aim

2. Julian

3. Kriegeule

4. klaualles

5. Poolboy

6. Forts > University

7. Domy

8. Александр

9. Ryabzyk

10. no tox

11. Nils

12. rehcielgrevsierpnizenB reD

13. Cloud

14. ZXCCURSED

15. Schuka

16. Infinity Power

17. Nanuuki

18. Tar

19. Ems

20. Y-Roux

- Commander shakeup! Balance patches definitely had an effect on people's preferences.

- Buster and Spook were the biggest beneficiaries, going from pick rates of 6.1% to 11% and 14.2% to 18.3% respectively

- Firebird saw the most falloff, 14.3% to 6.8%, followed by Shockenaugh, 5.9% to 1%, though likely more reflective of Balls dropping from the S35 map pool. Balls is back in S36 so we'll soon see

- Shockenaugh experienced the greatest drop in winrate, falling from 51% to 41%,

- Buster saw the greatest climb in winrate, going from 43% to 52%.

Commanders listed in order of popularity. Winrate percentages shown on the Y scale, and below each commander

Season 36 is already underway and will run through July 31st. This season's map pool consists of the following battlefields:

• Balls

• Battlegrounds 1v1

• Desert Ruins

• Hang Time

• Ledge Grab

• Split

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

Now that the 5th season of the FPL is over, the time has come at last to bring some smaller events in between seasons. This one will be very special, and first of its kind: a meme tournament!

Bored of seeing the same strategies being pulled off over and over? This tournament will specialize in crazy contraptions, strange physics interactions, and unintended strategies the devs never had in mind when making the game! It will be held on July 12th at 7pm UTC. It will be a simple 1v1 single elimination tournament, all matches being best of 1 except for the finals being bo3.

In order to win a match, you will have to use a strategy with the most significant part being unintended by the developers. This includes but is not limited to:

• Tier 3 weapons (vertical cannons for instance)

• Particle accelerators

• Concentratinators/runes

• Pile style Slingshots (not necessarily of your core...)

Using a standard strategy will result in disqualification. Also, the player who pulls off the most spectacular meme strategy during the tournament (decided by admins and audience) will get an extra $20!

Registration will open at 7pm UTC on the 16th of June. In order to register, every participant should ping 42scientist on the Forts Official Discord server with their challengermode account linked, and then be invited on Challengermode. Only the first 16 will be able to participate, so be quick!

Hosts: Project Incursus
Salzwerk

On to the details.


When will Registration open?

June 16th 2025 at

• 12pm PDT (West Coast USA)

• 3pm EDT (East Coast USA)

• 8pm BST (London)

• 9pm CEST (France, Germany)

• 5am June 17th AEST (Brisbane Australia)

Entries submitted before this time will not be accepted. Once registration has opened the first 16 players to submit a valid entry will be admitted. Valid entries must fulfill the requirements listed below under How do I join?


How will players be seeded?

Seedings will be based on past results in official events and ranked seasons.


Prizes?

The prize pool is as follows:

• 1st place $50

• 2nd place $25

• 3rd place $10

Prizes will be awarded in the form of Steam digital gift cards.

If you have any additional questions please contact us on Discord.

In order to participate, you must do the following...

• Join the Official FORTS Discord

• Your names on Discord, Steam and Challengermode must match

• Inappropriate competitor names will not be accepted

• Send a message on Discord to 42scientist with your CM account and Steam profile.

• Registration will not open until June 16th at 7pm UTC

• Maximum of 16 players

• Tournament starts July 12th, 2025 at...

• 12am PDT (West Coast USA)

• 3pm EDT (East Coast USA)

• 8pm BST (London)

• 9pm CEST (France, Germany)

• 5am 13th of July AEST (Brisbane Australia)

• The FORTS Tournament lobby
  

• The Official FORTS Discord
  

• Challengermode Bracket

• 1v1 Team Death Match

• Single elimination

• 20 minute time limit

• Moonshot enabled

• Tons of Guns enabled

• Portals enabled

• Commanders enabled

• Draws decided by core damage inflicted (total damage if core health is equal)

• Maximum of 16 players

• Check-in on Discord starts 1 hour before tournament

• Late or absent players forfeit their matches

• Strategy has to be something not indended by the devs.

• Earthwork Games reserves the right to make changes to this event as needed

Project Incursus
Salzwerk
Russian Forts
La cantine (french with og & Pile Rouillée)

• Balls

• Desert Ruins

• Elephants

• Ledge grab

• Moorings

• Snow Leopards 2v2 (with pick your fort)

• Skylands

• Vanilla

Competitors will be made aware of which maps they are playing on in advance, so they can prepare their strats.

Cheers,
EWG

Strap in! We've got a bumper update for you.

Discord and Steam Rich Presence have been integrated into Forts. This will allow other players to see your activity in the game, how full your lobby is, and even allow invites to be posted to Discord chat. Expect a one-off message about enabling this when you start as Discord must obtain your permission for this to work. Steam rich presence is enabled by default. These settings can be toggled in Option's Online tab later, and Discord has its own settings for controlling Rich Presence.

Forts is now integrated with Discord. Image shows Discord overlay and rich presence

1. Participants

2. Camera

3. Profile

The long awaited cross-bracing toggle has been added! This will save you time when you are happy to sink resources and mass into a sturdy structure. A hot key has been added to toggle this, defaulting to J. To fit the new button on the HUD, we've created an 'assistant panel' pop up which contains the grid snap, auto-doors, and cross-brace buttons. You can toggle this panel with a hot key defaulting to I. Auto-doors also gets a new hot key defaulting to H. These settings are now kept from one match to the next.

Toggle the assistant panel on for additional controls.

1. Assistant Panel

2. Grid snap

3. Auto-doors

4. Cross-bracing

Our network system has had an upgrade by utilising Steam Networking Sockets. This has advantages in traffic security, and in some cases it reduces round trip latency and improves stability. The cream on the cake is we can estimate ping times to lobbies before connecting to them. A new column has been added to Lobby Select for this, and we've re-arranged the screen to better use the space.

Anti-air performance has had some love too. Baiting should be less effective, as commonly used bait projectiles have a limit to how many weapons will target them at once. This may be expanded in future updates as we learn how to best use the new functionality. Several bugs were also addressed to improve its behaviour. Mod makers can utilise this feature by setting AntiAirMaxClaims on a projectile as a flat value, or as a sorted table of Time and Claim values:

Mod makers will be happy with the addition of a family of powerful new functions useful for extracting data from material, device, ammo, and projectile configuration scripts. GetMaterialValue, GetDeviceValue, GetAmmoValue and GetProjectileValue are able to query any form of data, including nested tables, and single values of various types. GetProjectileValue is used by the AI to retrieve the AntiAirMaxClaims table mentioned above.

For the hearing-impaired, those who can't play with sound, or if you just need additional warning, we've added a visual fire alarm effect which pulses at edges of the screen. This can be turned off in the Game tab of the Options screen.

Several commanders have received updates. Moonshine has a more powerful Plasma Laser, Phantom's Magna beam lasts longer and applies damage, Scattershot receives more flexible machine guns, and Spook's enemy commander reveal is delayed by 2 minutes.

Don't forget that our update posts and change logs can be viewed in-game by pressing the version under the title in the main menu. This update includes a handy button in Options screen's Game tab so they can seen while you're in the middle of a battle.

Finally, we've added a code of conduct to set a standard of interaction during online play. This must be agreed to in order to access the Multiplayer menu. It's not onerous, so don't disappoint us!

As always there are smaller improvements and bug fixes included. See the full list below or in-game.

Add: Avoidance option to Lobby Select screen when attempting to report

Add: Button to access the Version Info screen from the Options screen

Add: Clearance can be tested against neutral and enemy structures using MinFireClearanceVsEnemy

Add: Fire Alarm Visual Feature

Add: GetAmmoValue script function to retrieve arbitrary ammo configuration

Add: GetDeviceValue script function to retrieve arbitrary device or weapon configuration

Add: GetMaterialValue script function to retrieve arbitrary material configuration

Add: GetProjectileValue script function to retrieve arbitrary projectile configuration

Add: Multiplayer code of conduct

Add: Projectile AntiAirMaxClaims to limit AA, either flat number or table of time to impact vs claims: { Time = 0.8, Claims = 1 }

Add: Rich presence for Discord and Steam

Add: Setting to auto cross-brace when extruding

Add: ShowAntiAirSolution to ai.lua to indicate when an AA tries to fire at a projectile but doesn't have an angle

Balance: (EMP rocket) 1 AA will target projectile until 1.6s away, then 2 until 1.2s away, then 3 to mitigate baiting

Balance: (Flak) Increase shrapnel damage multiplier vs mortars from 0.6 to 0.7 (+17%)

Balance: (Flak) Increase shrapnel max age from 0.25 to 0.33 (+32%)

Balance: (Heavy mortar) 1 AA will target projectile until 1.2s away, then 2 until 0.8s away, then 3 to mitigate baiting

Balance: (Incendiary mortar) 1 AA will target projectile until 0.8s away, then 2 AA will target, to mitigate baiting

Balance: (Moonshine) Plasma Laser fire duration increased from 1.5s to 1.65s (+10%)

Balance: (Phantom) Magnabeam does 60 damage per second

Balance: (Phantom) Magnabeam fires 10% longer

Balance: (Phantom) Magnabeam is incendiary at point of contact

Balance: (Scattershot) Machine guns can aim 8 degrees higher and 8 degrees lower than normal

Balance: (Spook) Enemy commander reveal is delayed by 2 minutes

Fix: (Hurricane active) Reload time reduction is not applied to ammo

Fix: Anti-Air can fail to shoot at projectiles at close range

Fix: Anti-Air fires at targets it doesn't have an angle to

Fix: Crash when playing back corrupt replays

Fix: Extruding a door in front of a weapon with auto-doors on converts it into back bracing

Fix: GetDeviceEfficiency returns 0 when the device is not affected by efficiency

Fix: InterpolateTable crashes with invalid column

Fix: Overheating can be circumvented by deleting then cancelling

Fix: Players can delete struts without joining a team using Co-op on Elimination

Fix: Strut deletes itself after changing material overlapping device

Fix: When smoke blocks AA such as machineguns, the player can manually shoot into doors

Improve: account command can take a teamId to inspect damage taken by opponents

Improve: Anti-Air focus can be limited per projectile using AntiAirMaxClaims in projectile_list.lua

Improve: Increase the distance at which the cursor can be from the extrusion source before it fails

Improve: In-game assistant settings are persistent

Improve: Limit artificial host lag to avoid making game unresponsive for host

Improve: (Lobby Select) Added lobby count to local tab for consistent layout

Improve: (Lobby Select) Turned the refresh button into a smaller graphical button with ‘Refresh’ tool tip

Improve: (Lobby Select) Updated layout to use full width for lobbies

Improve: (Lobby Select) Ban history panel is moved to a tab

Improve: Ping estimate is shown for each lobby in the Lobby Select screen

Improve: SteamNetworkingSockets are used for game traffic

Remove: Ineffective and now obsolete distance filter controls in Lobby Select screen

Improve: Mix regular tips in with the code of conduct tips in ranked waiting screen

Improve: Rich presence pop-up won't show until the player unlocks multiplayer

Fix: Code of conduct not shown when entering multiplayer via Quick Battle

Fix: Version info screen layout for ultra-wide aspect

Fix: Code of conduct screen layout for ultra-wide aspect

Fix: Context script button crash when there's no selected strut

Fix: Crash when disconnected during loading

Fix: Crash when dropping out of multiplayer

Fix: (Lobby select) Ranked lobbies show ping

Fix: Fire alarm stays on if visible during instant replay

Fix: Visual fire alarm stuck after restarting mission

Fix: Crash when host has a fort select request open on exit

Fix: Crash in IsDeviceLocked

Fix: Crash updating tooltips with custom HUDs

Fix: Ping appears next to message 'Log into Steam to use this feature'

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