Features

Overview of everything STORM does.

Tips for best results

STORM runs in the background and a lot depends on your phone settings. A few things worth checking before the game.

What your phone needs

  • Location permission set to "Always" (not "While using"). The app asks for it when tracking starts. Without "Always" the system stops tracking when the screen locks, on iOS immediately
  • Precise location enabled. With approximate location your position on the map is inaccurate and does not help your team.
  • Low Power Mode / battery saver ideally off. In the background it slows GPS down and throttles location updates

What does not run in the background, even on mobile data

  • The web client inside the app (map, chat, server connection) stops while the screen is locked. Push notifications, which do run in the background, keep you informed about messages, missions and SOS. When you open the app, the current map state catches up automatically. The same applies to Android and iOS.
  • Mesh over Bluetooth: the app itself holds the BLE link to the LoRa module and the system may kill it in the background when memory runs low. Older phones with little RAM (e.g. iPhone 7 with 2 GB) hit this sooner than a new one
  • Test it before the game: pair the mesh, lock the screen and after 10 minutes check that the link holds and your position still reaches the map

🗺️ Live map

Tracking teammates and orienting in the field.

  • Real-time positions of all faction players and allies
  • Offline map tiles (OpenStreetMap, custom game layers)
  • Compass, AR view and directional bearing with N/S/E/W reference
  • MGRS coordinates support
  • Draw routes and markers directly on the map

🎯 Missions & tasks

Tactical tasks with GPS validation - from flag capture to a full enemy-app blackout.

  • Missions based on QR codes placed in the field
  • Anti-cheat GPS validation - to scan a QR you must be physically within an adjustable radius of the point
  • Mission types:
    • Flag capture - classic point control for the faction
    • STORM Jammer - capturing the QR blacks out the entire enemy faction's app. Fullscreen static + “SIGNAL LOST”, impossible to bypass, persists across refreshes. Recapturing instantly restores their app.
    • STORM Radar - capturing the QR reveals enemy faction positions on the map. Stealth mode: the enemy doesn't know. Loud mode: the enemy sees a warning with countdown. Timed or permanent.
    • Transport - scan QR at pickup, scan at drop-off + photo as proof of completion
    • Counter-strike mode - plant “bombs” at multiple defined locations, the other faction tries to find and defuse them
  • Completion history → who captured each point, when, and for how long

Drone detection (Remote ID)

Every drone is legally required to broadcast its position. STORM picks it up and draws it on the map in real time - no cooperation from the pilot needed.

  • A player's phone or a ground sniffer on a mast listens for Remote ID broadcasts nearby - passively, without talking to the drone
  • The position comes from the drone's own GPS, not from the phone that picked it up
  • An unknown drone over the field is visible to every faction; your own paired drone only to your faction and its allies
  • Drone card with altitude, speed and distance, a signal-loss countdown, and the flight trace in event replay
  • Remote ID drone detection in detail - how it works, how to pair a drone, who sees what, and the limitations
  • Air defense and shooting down drones - a faction air-defense site or aiming at a drone with the phone camera. The server decides the hit from Remote ID and the pilot is ordered to land

MESH (LoRa)

Play even where there is no mobile signal at all. STORM communicates over Meshtastic LoRa radio (e.g. a Heltec T114 paired with the phone over Bluetooth) and a mesh player is a full event participant - everything flows both ways into the main map.

  • Position sharing - teammates see a mesh player's GPS position on the map just like a player with a data connection
  • Chats - messages from the mesh network arrive in the faction chat and vice versa, every message from the app is also sent over LoRa
  • Marker creation - a mesh player draws markers on the map just like everyone else
  • QR code scanning = active participation in missions - flag capture, Jammer, Radar, transport
  • Fully functional on Android. The iOS version is currently in development and tuning
  • How to pair a node with STORM is explained in the Explanation section

💬 Tactical chat

Communication structured by hierarchy, with no language barrier.

  • Faction / group / team / player
  • Commander broadcasts
  • Push notifications
  • Categorized quick messages - moving out, fall back, contact
  • Online translation - everyone writes in their own language and the message arrives translated into whatever language the recipient has set in their app
  • App localized into 11 languages: Czech, English, German, Slovak, Russian, Ukrainian, Italian, Spanish, Polish, French, Portuguese

📡 Commander features

For organizers and faction commanders.

  • Admin panel for organizers and faction commanders
  • Hierarchy: faction → group → team → player
  • Statistics and event replay

🔋 Field operation

Reliable runtime for the whole game day, even in locations without signal.

  • Runs in background - screen can be locked
  • Optimized battery usage, reports battery level of all players
  • Adaptive GPS interval based on activity
  • Supports areas with limited signal (offline maps, message queue)
  • Player status: Alive / Dead / Medic / Vehicle / Night Ops / RPG + SOS broadcast to faction chat
  • Night mode - dark background + dimmed red text, protects dark adaptation at night
  • Mesh radio (LoRa) via Meshtastic for locations completely without mobile signal - done on Android, iOS currently being tuned (see the MESH section above)
  • Player aggregation on the map - instead of dozens of separate dots, the group commander carries a single marker with the player count of their team (less rendering load, a clearer map)
  • Elevation profile and visibility - a terrain cross-section between two points and a map of what can be seen from a spot. The phone computes it from an elevation model downloaded with the offline map, with zero data in the field
  • Station - a cheap organizer phone placed right at the mission. A player of any faction who fights their way to the mission taps their faction on it and scans the mission QR; the capture is credited to their faction. Players do not have to bring their own phone into the game

🛡️ Lock mode

If captured, the enemy reads nothing.

  • 5× tap on the map to lock the screen - decoy snapshot
  • Once captured, the enemy decodes nothing from the locked app
  • Random shuffling of teammate, marker and mission positions
  • Long-press on Tools to unlock and return to the game

🔒 Privacy

No ads, no tracking outside the event.

  • No ads, no third-party analytics
  • Data stays only on our server in the EU
  • Shared data accessible only to other players in your faction
  • GDPR compliant, right to deletion
Roles explained →