Stars Reach

[Mr. Apocalypse]

This one is going to be interesting to watch.

 

Raph Koster is been working hard. This is basically SWG 2 without the Star Wars IP.

 

https://starsreach.com/

Edited June 30 by Mr. Apocalypse

[Techwright]

• Pre-Alpha animation looks like it is in a similar style to WildSTAR.  Nice.   
• Top Man was key on both Ultima Online and SWG.  Definitely one to watch. 
• The lore given on the website's video sounds like a cross between Star Trek and WildSTAR (significant portions of the galaxy terraformed by an ancient race whose tech is hidden throughout the worlds)
• Functionally, having game-world consequences for not tending to details in the nearby area sounds like a descendant of concepts from the never-brought-to-market Everquest Next.  As do other details like alterable terrain (voxel destructability perhaps?), though in Everquest Next pre-alpha it was temporary, and here he states it is permanent.  I wonder if he means within the boundaries of player "owned" territory, like a base.  I'd find it bizarre if players tried to permanently strip-mine a planet leaving nothing but core.
• I'm wondering what the basis is for that floating character movement in the video.  It doesn't look like low gravity, at least in a pre-alpha form.  Maybe jetpacks that have not had the graphics constructed yet?

 

Small complaint:  why does it feel like every sci-fantasy/space concept must come with it's own spearhead-tailed, horned devil?  IMHO it shows a serious lack of character creativity.  I'd not be surprised to find out their lug has cloven hooves as well.   Separately, each of these elements is fine, but collectively, it is neither catchy nor clever.

 

EDIT:  Forgot to add that I hope this space fantasy doesn't have magic, or at least disguises it as something like "cosmic power".  If I'm sitting down to play a space game, I'm not looking for space Gandalf to show up.  There's plenty of (probably way too much of) magic games out there already. 

 

 

 

 

Edited June 30 by Techwright
Added comment

[Lunar Ronin]

I've been following this for four years now (it's true), and I'm very excited.  Stars Reach is a mix of Star Wars Galaxies, No Man's Sky, and what would have been EverQuest Next.

 

They have two active and growing Discord servers, and I may or may not be building an unofficial web forum for the game as I type.

 

 

2 minutes ago, Techwright said:

• Pre-Alpha animation looks like it is in a similar style to WildSTAR.  Nice.   
• Top Man was key on both Ultima Online and SWG.  Definitely one to watch. 
• The lore given on the website's video sounds like a cross between Star Trek and WildSTAR (significant portions of the galaxy terraformed by an ancient race whose tech is hidden throughout the worlds)
• Functionally, having game-world consequences for not tending to details in the nearby area sounds like a descendant of concepts from the never-brought-to-market Everquest Next.  As do other details like alterable terrain (voxel destructability perhaps?), though in Everquest Next pre-alpha it was temporary, and here he states it is permanent.  I wonder if he means within the boundaries of player "owned" territory, like a base.  I'd find it bizarre if players tried to permanently strip-mine a planet leaving nothing but core.
• I'm wondering what the basis is for that floating character movement in the video.  It doesn't look like low gravity, at least in a pre-alpha form.  Maybe jetpacks that have not had the graphics constructed yet?

 

Small complaint:  why does it feel like every sci-fantasy/space concept must come with it's own spearhead-tailed, horned devil?  IMHO it shows a serious lack of character creativity.  I'd not be surprised to find out their lug has cloven hooves as well.   Separately, each of these elements is fine, but collectively, it is neither catchy nor clever.

 

 

 

Raph Koster was a top man on EverQuest II as well.

 

Yep, EverQuest Next is a definite influence.  So much so that the lead developer of EverQuest Next (Dave Georgeson), is one of the developers on Stars Reach. :)

 

Characters will be able to fly on planets with some type of technology (not yet stated), and be able to freely fly in outer space.

[Techwright]

1 hour ago, Lunar Ronin said:

Yep, EverQuest Next is a definite influence.  So much so that the lead developer of EverQuest Next (Dave Georgeson), is one of the developers on Stars Reach. 🙂

 

 

 

That is really heartening to hear.  Dave Georgeson's announcement speech a decade ago had me very, very excited, and I was terribly sad when EverQuest Next and crew were canned unexpectedly.    I've seen bits and pieces of what look like EQN design pop up in other things since then, and I've wondered if some of the crew moved to those games. 

 

Very interested now to see what happens with this one.

[Lunar Ronin]

3 minutes ago, Techwright said:

 

That is really heartening to hear.  Dave Georgeson's announcement speech a decade ago had me very, very excited, and I was terribly sad when EverQuest Next and crew were canned unexpectedly.    I've seen bits and pieces of what look like EQN design pop up in other things since then, and I've wondered if some of the crew moved to those games. 

 

Very interested now to see what happens with this one.

 

I strongly dislike the medieval fantasy genre.  I just find it dull and boring.  I know, I'm an outlier. :P  But what SOE/Daybreak Games had planned for EverQuest Next as a sandbox captured my interest, and I was actually going to play it if it ever released.

 

It took another ten years, but now we may see quite a bit of that in a science-fantasy MMORPG but on steroids, which is a win-win for me.

[Techwright]

1 hour ago, Lunar Ronin said:

 

I strongly dislike the medieval fantasy genre.  I just find it dull and boring.  I know, I'm an outlier. 😛 But what SOE/Daybreak Games had planned for EverQuest Next as a sandbox captured my interest, and I was actually going to play it if it ever released.

 

It took another ten years, but now we may see quite a bit of that in a science-fantasy MMORPG but on steroids, which is a win-win for me.

I'm much the same way on all points.

 

 

[ThaOGDreamWeaver]

I'm liking the lore section. Especially the idea that the benevolent (maaaybbbeeeee....) Servitors have allowed/assisted the various races to escape their homeworlds.

The Cornucopia = The Flood (with daddy issues). And we've got demon-humans, catgirl-humans, and Beholders. 

 

16 hours ago, Lunar Ronin said:

Pre-Alpha animation looks like it is in a similar style to WildSTAR.  Nice. 

 

I liked WildStar, or at least as far as I got into it in Beta - as far as I remember, it ran pretty smoothly, looked good, but the learning curve turned into a bit of a sheer wall quite early on. StarReach gives me slight Starfox: The MMO vibes, which would not be a bad thing in the slightest.

Edited July 1 by ThaOGDreamWeaver

[Techwright]

On 7/1/2024 at 11:26 AM, ThaOGDreamWeaver said:

I liked WildStar

 

Likewise.  I actually played it for several months.  Ironically, I predicted the lore about 8 years before WildSTAR was released, and certainly before I knew about it.  I was playing WoW and CoH back then, and a friend asked what I'd like to see in an MMO for the future.  What I described was a sci-fi/sci-fantasy concept pretty similar to WildSTAR, though without magic, without the cheeky attitude the game was known for, and with a few extra details they didn't have.

 

 

[Lunar Ronin]

Well, I mentioned that I was building an unofficial fan web forum for Stars Reach, and it's now up and operational.  This will be the only time I link to it here.  You can find it here if you're interested.

[Lunar Ronin]

There is now a wiki for Stars Reach, collecting all known information about the game.

[Lunar Ronin]

The game is starting to look good!

 

 

[Triumphant]

I don't like the art style, but then I didn't like WildSTAR's art style either.  Just not my thing, I guess.  🤷‍♂️

[Lunar Ronin]

3 hours ago, Triumphant said:

I don't like the art style, but then I didn't like WildSTAR's art style either.  Just not my thing, I guess.  🤷‍♂️

 

Yeah, the art style was an intentional choice and some people are just not going to like it.  On the other hand, others will love it.  It's to lower hardware requirements (more realistic the graphics, the greater the CPU and GPU requirements), lower development cost and time, and to attract a wide range of players.  Playable Worlds did quite a bit of marketing research and discovered that it's mostly hardcore bros who want realistic graphics, and they're not really the target audience.  According to their research, most other types of gamers prefer stylized graphics.

 

To each his or her own.

[Triumphant]

That's fair.  Given my rusty old tater, I can certainly sympathize with that approach, even if the art is not my cup of tea.

[Lunar Ronin]

New trailer is up!

 

 

 

[Techwright]

On 11/7/2024 at 9:01 PM, Lunar Ronin said:

New trailer is up!

 

 

 

 

Terrain modification looks similar in concept to that of No Man's Sky.   I'm wondering if they have voxel destruction/modification in combat as well.