F.A.Q
KICKSTARTER F.A.Q.
A. Stars Reach has been funded by investors for the last five years, so we are well along in development. We have already built the core technology, and the game is playable right now. We have multiple planets, combat, crafting, fully modifiable worlds, player building, outer space, and more, all working already. There are already hundreds of players who have been playing for six months, adventuring and building cities together.
A. Right now we’re in a pre-alpha testing phase, in which we’re periodically adding folks from our community. With our eternal gratitude, Kickstarter backers of the Reacher tier ($30) and above will be at the head of the line for the remainder of our closed testing phase. During the testing phase, the servers will not be open 24/7, and wipes will be frequent, but players will have daily access to the dev team as we add features and make changes based on player feedback.
Once we are ready, we plan on releasing to Early Access first, which will require a paid supporter pack. The great news is that supporters of our Kickstarter at the Reacher tier and above will also get admission to Early Access included, plus the additional Kickstarter-only benefits as described in the Rewards section!
After we’ve had plenty of time to iterate with our Early Access audience, we’ll be going to full Launch at which point the game will be Free to Play. We’ll do a few days of Head Start to ensure a solid and stable launch, which is typical for MMOs, and as is typical, this Head Start period will cost a bit of money.
From that point forward, our plan is that ongoing development will be supported by:
- Optional Supporter Packs – Every few months, we plan on releasing supporter packs that people can choose to purchase to help support Stars Reach. These won’t be a requirement. We think of these as an entirely optional way to kick in support for the game and team and get some cool rewards in return.
- Property Passes – Building homesteads is an important part of Stars Reach. To start a Homestead or to be a long-term landowner in general will require a Property Pass. These passes also include getting a first look at new Shop items, awards of unique items, event passes, and more. Kickstarter supporters at the $30 tier or higher will have this ability through all of testing and early access. After launch we expect this will be a monthly paid pass.
- MTX store – We do plan on having store support post-launch once we are free-to-play. We’re going to be very intentionally avoiding anything that could be perceived as pay-to-win! We think of this as another optional way for people who feel like it, to toss in some support, either on top of or separate from the Supporter Packs. People have different preferences, and we want to be able to support them.
- Social Currency – We plan on having a social currency that rewards people for being regular players. We get that microtransactions and passes may not be for everyone (but really are important to keeping the lights on). So this is a way to reward people who play loyally, letting them earn a special currency for shop purchases.
We believe we can be in Beta (which we define as “all core launch features are complete, but not all game content is in”) before the end of the year.
We are aiming to launch in the first half of next year.
Our phases of development include:
Pre-Alpha: The period from seven months ago that continues until the game is ready to launch into Early Access.
-$30+ Kickstarter backers will have priority access into the playtests.
-Players that signed up previously for playtesting will be invited if there are not enough KS backers participating.
-Kickstarter backers gain their priority access after the Kickstarter campaign ends on March 25th.
-Server and/or character wipes will happen regularly during this period of time.
Early Access: Any player with a Steam key can play at this time.
-People with Steam keys include any $30+ kickstarter backer, anyone that purchases a founder’s pack, or anyone that buys an Early Access key from Steam.
-Server wipes will happen occasionally. We’ll try to minimize them so that we can balance economy, gameplay, etc.
-When Early Access concludes, the final server and player wipe will occur.
Head Start: The game is ready to launch, but we want a window of time to test things with players involved before opening up to everyone. (This is standard MMO launch practice.)
-Head Start passes are gained by purchasing the Kickstarter add-on or by buying a Head Start pass after the KS campaign has ended.
-The Head Start period is expected to last 3-7 days, but duration may extend if problems need to be resolved.
Live: This is the period after Head Start ends and it goes on for the life of the game. All players with Steam keys may play normally.
– You can go back and “Manage Your Pledge”, choose the same package again, and purchase the Add-On as part of that process, or;
– Wait until after the Kickstarter campaign is complete when the Founder’s Packs options are made available and buy it then.
-Helping us to ensure that the game is running well and ready for launch, and;
-Establishing footholds on a few planets so that there are places mature enough to be useful to other players when they arrive.
In no way is this a “pay-to-win” option. There are many planets available at launch and no group of head starters will be able to dominate play in any way during the short Head Start window. They cannot “corner the market” on resources, they cannot “get all the good stuff first” and they don’t have access to any unique features or systems that won’t be available to every other player on launch day.
For a lucky three (3) of you that funded at a lower level and bought the Head Start Add-On, you are being grandfathered in and given Early Access. Congratulations!
The Head Start Add-On has been fixed now and no longer has this confusing text associated with it.
The current homestead sizes are a cube 21m on a side. You can stick multiple of them together to make a larger structure, and in testing right now we have given three to every tester. That said, you should expect that homestead sizes (and quantity) will evolve quite a bit as the game economy develops.
A: Yes. You will be able to set permissions for any/all storage containers on your Homestead (or in a Colony building). This can range from just yourself, to specific indivduals, to guild access, etc.
1) Abandonment – If a planet doesn’t receive enough activity over time, the wormhole gate leading to it will close, effectively removing it from the game. While the exact threshold for “abandonment” hasn’t been finalized, we want to ensure that active planets remain intact.
2) Government Overthrow – If the planetary government is set up as a democracy, leadership can be voted out and replaced. However, players aren’t required to use a democratic system, so governance style is entirely up to the ruling group.
Currently, yes. The ways to defeat this are: a) surround your Homestead with other Homesteads so they can’t get close to the things you want protected, or b) settle on a world that has a planetary government and then build where their zoning laws allow so that this can’t happen. If you build on the frontier, well…it’s wild and wooly out there.
GENERAL F.A.Q.
No! We have lots of work to do yet — lighting, gases, ongoing work to upgrade visuals, etc.
A. This is a sandbox, exploration, and alternate-life game on a massive scale. We call it a living galaxy.
A. It’s broader and takes place in an intelligent, living, fully modifiable universe rather than in stage-managed, static set pieces that only look like worlds. It draws a lot of inspiration from our team’s time working on past MMOs (the project is headed by Raph Koster, the original designer of Ultima Online and Star Wars Galaxies, who basically invented the sandbox MMO). It’s the kind of play environment we’ve wanted to build for years.
A. We are in pre-alpha.
A. This world is not divided into shards. Every planet and space zone is unique. It takes place in one logical universe. We all play together.
A. Nearly everything is made, harvested, refined, or crafted by another player. Players control the in-game economy.
A. Yes. Very much so. There is a role for players who want to move things from point A to point B to make money from those differences.
A. No. Unless players later choose to make one. That’s outside our hands. Players have a lot of freedom.
A. There are relatively few NPCs in this game. But players can hire NPC hirelings to tend their shops when they aren’t around.
A. We’re after a player-driven galaxy. But that doesn’t mean we don’t have a rich story to tell and ways to tell it in game. Check out our Lore page for the barest glimpse!
A. We are planning for free-to-play with optional subscription and a cosmetics store.
A. We are a team of MMO enthusiasts working to build a game that evolves the MMORPG genre. And we are led by some names you might recognize including Raph Koster, and Dave Georgeson and others with decades of MMO experience.
A. Ultima Online, Star Wars Galaxies, EVE Online, EverQuest Next and EQN Landmark, and old-school Runescape.
A. We expect our minimum specs to be Windows 10 or 11, 64 bit CPU, 16GB of RAM, and a 3D card which launched in the last 9 years with at least 8GB of VRAM.
