The sci-fi MMORTS Starborne is set to leave the warm embrace of alpha testing and venture into the unknown of beta testing in early 2020 – OK, so it’s not that big an unknown. To mark the occasion, developer Solid Clouds and letting the alpha one last hurrah, booting up a Tournament Server on 1st December for a winner-takes-all deathmatch.
Starborne is pretty unique these days, but calls back to the early experiments with MMO games and online RTS. Played out in real time over the course of eight weeks, up to 5130 are able to claim a star system for their own and race to build up through the early stages. This eventually turns to alliance and federation building, with the ultimate goal being to capture and build up a Dyson Sphere or be more complete than your rivals in other parts of the galaxy.
We dove into the game back in August, and you can check out the preview here.
Just because the beta’s around the corner doesn’t mean that Solid Clouds are holding anything back, though. In addition to rounding out some more bugs in an update, they’re also tweaking the game rules and switching up some game mechanics for the Tournament. If you want to take part, there are some fairly strict entry requirements, otherwise you’ll want to wait until the open beta.
- Entry Requirements – Premium Account status or having built six stations in any server
- Shop Closed – Only cosmetics, Premium Account status and Premium Factions will be available
- Station Building – Complete rework from the ground up
- Multiple Rewards – Participation, Survival and Victory Rewards to be won in-game
- Bigger Coalitions – Coalitions will facilitate 100 players in total, increased from 60
- Earlier Lockdown – Alliance and Coalition lockdowns will happen on Day 29 (beginning of week five)
- No More Navy Base – Navy Base is removed from the game
- Return to Sender – Alliance/Coalition structures will automatically return fleets if they are over the fleet cap
- Bug Smashing – The development team will be spending a significant amount of time smashing bugs prior to (and during) the Tournament Server
Stefan Gunnarsson, CEO and Lead Designer, said, “The Tournament Server is something that we have been developing for some time in conjunction with our community who have contributed towards the rule-set that will be used. It will include a great number of game mechanics that will give players an insight into where Starborne will be once the Open Beta launches next year. Participation in the tournament will also be rewarded to ensure that newer players are also encouraged to play alongside our more experienced veterans.”
Source: press release
