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 Alpha 7 Sign Up Is Live, Starts 3pm UTC October 18, 2017 Server is up! We are the Commune of Lowtax alliance. Bug me for an invite until I sort out people with roles to do poo poo. GOON DISCORD - https://discord.gg/p9GmdYr, you can also find us on http://www.discordgoons.com. Note: You need to follow GDN bots instructions to get access to the discord Starborne  What is Starborne? Starborne is a Free To Play grand-strategy 4X game that is expanded into being a MMO played in real-time. It's a bit of a mouthful but basically think MMO Civilization/Paradox Strategy Game. Your goal is to build your space empire, along with other players, to control the galaxy. There is the added wrinkle that you are expected to also coordinate with other players in Player Alliance, meaning there's an element of EVE Online's player diplomacy thrown in. This makes sense since the game is developed by Solid Clouds, a studio comprising of ex-EVE Online developers. In their own words "Solid Clouds felt there was a gap in the multiplayer strategy genre as most games in it have neglected the expansion and empire building elements of true 4X games."  They've also listed a bunch of games they are taking inspiration from to build Starbornes core framework: - Travian T3 for its amazing approach to multiplayer strategy and PvP elements. - Civilization for its tech tree and city-building mechanisms. - Hearthstone for its card crafting system, its sleek user interface and its admirable polish. - A plethora of strategy board games are definitive influencers.  The open beta is due out come 2018. For a more detailed FAQ check it out here: http://starborne.boards.net/thread/884/faq Also here's a 1 hour long tutorial by the devs for the October 2017 alpha test: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qd70u6Smv3A Is it any fun? Good question. The 7th alpha test for the game comes out on October 18, 2017 and will run for 12 weeks (campaigns are expected to take 6 months then reset). So, this is a good time to check out the game and see if it has enough to survive the fickle interests of Goons. Starborne's actions will be in real-time. So this means if you're mining asteroids, spying on neighbors, attacking etc. you have to plan ahead. A player's "turn" is limited in the number of actions they can perform in a period of time, letting them log off and return later without having to baby their units.  They've designed a card system as well that is a collectible card system, but not a trading card game. The cards are used to customize units and buildings, as well as the empire. This, according to the devs, will let you customize and make yourself unique from other players. You get card caches via in-game activity for that specific server and are only available for that campaign. However you can also purchase caches that you can then take into your game as well. Conceivably, this is how Solid Clouds plan to make their money as the game is Free To Play. Player Roles  Towards the end game, players no longer can afford to be jack of all trades, and for optimal success they are forced into dedicating their fleets to a specific purpose within their alliance. For example, Scouts are spymasters and saboteurs who, well, do spy related stuff for their group. Then there are Industrial players, Offensive players (attacking fleet), Defensive players, and Bomber players who are able to one-shot enemy stations as part of a siege.  In addition, there are different building types (Stations & Outposts) that can be built to serve different roles for the player. Each station has a building tree with three paths, Military, Domain and Industry however you can't build all the buildings in every station so you need to decide which path a station will take. Buildings decide your station's function within your empire and dictate its capabilities. Outposts are unlocked by certain buildings and are built in the claimed territory of that station. They help influence the power-level of a station. The placement of Outposts is hugely important.  Goon Alliance - Sector - Recruiters - Size/20 Commune of Lowtax - Libra Sector - Forge, Uziduke & Tallardar - 20/20 (Full) Unity of Lowtax - Gemini/Ursa Sector - Minchar - 2/20 Mekchu fucked around with this message at 02:29 on Dec 17, 2017 |
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Oct 17, 2017 06:17
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The quest to find that out starts in a day so we shall see!
Mekchu fucked around with this message at 14:26 on Oct 17, 2017 |
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Oct 17, 2017 13:48
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They had a day long only test server on Tuesday where I dicked around that I can upload some videos of but I think the hour long tutorial is a better tool to show the game off.
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Oct 17, 2017 18:16
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Plastic Paws posted:I'm actually looking forward to trying this out. Will be downloading it tomorrow after it is up. Not sure how alliance stuff will work out but maybe a goon one would be a good plan if enough of us stick with it. I am by no means a great organizer/leader so someone can do all that if they want. From my view, if you basically bumrush a section of the map (you can pick where to spawn) with a bunch of goons youcan essentially take it over fairly OK. It'd basically be a Soviet Union approach, just throw a mass of people at the enemy and crush them that way. I can also set up a Goon Discord of needed later today in my timezone before thegame goes live. As for the official discord most Goons tend to avoid them but I'll add it to the OP when I can get to a computer.
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Oct 18, 2017 05:28
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No worries. I made a Discord for us to use. https://discord.gg/v8wpZN Its barebones at the moment since I'm on my phone but I'll add more bells and whistles later. Mainly the Goon Discord bot thing. Mekchu fucked around with this message at 05:51 on Oct 18, 2017 |
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Oct 18, 2017 05:47
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Blazing Zero posted:correct me if im wrong, but are they doing a hearthstone pack model for fleet upgrades? so if you havent bought the recent pack cycle then youre behind, in power of those that do when the campaigns refresh. kind of like how youre SOL if you dont buy the new hearthstone set for deckbuilding. That's not necessarily my inference of how they're taking some of Hearthstones mechanics.
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Oct 18, 2017 14:32
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Server is up! PICK LIBRA SECTOR TO START. We are the Commune of Lowtax alliance. Bug me for an invite until I sort out people with roles to do poo poo.
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Oct 18, 2017 16:20
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Uziduke posted:Thank you for finding a better version of Ogame. Now lets hope it doesn't turn into a huge pay to win game. I wanna stay optimistic about that.
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Oct 19, 2017 03:24
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So we've discovered that alliances are capped at 20 players a piece, but you can make confederations/set each other blue. The confederation (group of alliances) stuff isn't fully implemented but you can set each other as "Blue" (friendly) on the in-game map so you can see who is what more easily.
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Oct 19, 2017 06:01
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 UpdateTheme song - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qN5zw04WxCc The Goon Migration  This is the map, everything not blue is a non-goon. As you can see some of our brothers and sisters are spread around and with that comes complications. Due to fleet movements being real time we don't much ability to defend our fringe area members. So, we've decided to pick up our poo poo and move to a new area of space on the tail of the Gemini sector.   Specifically we are aiming at the coordinates in the -301,303 area as there are a lot of untapped resources there for both early and late game, and it doesn't seem to be an area that will be crowded. The goal of each game of Starborne is to win with the most strategic points but we've decided to say "nope" to that and use this period to learn the game, and how best to break it to conduct our Goonish ways. So now you'll ask "Well how do I move everything?", it's actually pretty simple. Everyone gets a 7 day grace period where they are free from being PVPed by other players. During this time you need to do the following: - Build up 3k of each resource (you'll need to upgrade your warehouse) - Build up 80 Industrials - Tech into, and upgrade, your Communication Array. This will let you generate Infrastructure Points faster, which in turn lets you build a new station. Then when you're ready, which should be less time than it takes for your 7 day grace period, you can move on out to the new Goon Holy Land. Find a spot near fellow goons and get chugging at the resources. The Holy Goon Empire For whatever dumb reason, Solid Clouds made it so that you can't have more than 20 people in your alliance. So as time goes on, its conceivable we'll resort to creating a Confederation (collection of alliances) that both are and aren't a game mechanic at the moment. Currently we have only one alliance but we may need to do some organization to keep those geographically closest to each other in the same alliance for defensive purposes. This means Goons will likely be making its own confederation. So if anything happens and we ask you to move to a new alliance, that's why. Mekchu fucked around with this message at 15:14 on Oct 20, 2017 |
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Oct 20, 2017 15:08
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Well, other than Minchar posting about the game in this thread as well, we're mostly talking on the Discord. Also, I don't know who AD is or really care if you think he should make the OP or not.  Edit - If you want to, you know, find out if the game is good or not just ask and those playing will tell you their opinions. Mekchu fucked around with this message at 09:03 on Oct 21, 2017 |
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Oct 21, 2017 08:53
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Second Goon alliance made: Unity of Lowtax, bug Minchar for invite when you install the game.
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Oct 21, 2017 09:29
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Dustoph posted:Wow, some of you all salty for some reason. Talking about AD was a joke because he has made ops for maybe 20 failed or never coming out MMOs. As in, if he had made the OP I would instantly know I don't need to touch this, or if I did it wouldn't be for 10 years. I mean, you did come in and complain about a lack of people posting (even though they were) and made a reference to some dude that nobody else got other than you. Like I said, just ask what people's thoughts are and wait for their replies. Seemed to be a far more effective method to gauge this game's entertainment value. Kimsemus posted:I have a ~17 man alliance clustered in Andromeda, if any stray goons got marooned out there let me know (Kimsemus in game as well) and I'll bring you in. There is one other large "threat" alliance in the area we're prepping to deal with right now. That sure is some name you guys picked out. quote:Cuddle Struggle 
Mekchu fucked around with this message at 15:03 on Oct 23, 2017 |
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Oct 23, 2017 14:52
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That's pretty lame. They should fix that. Also JFYI PVP blocking is expiring today if you got in on day one.
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Oct 26, 2017 05:14
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CopperHound posted:I just got in today. What is this poo poo? Basically to stop new players from being dogpiled on, you get a 7 day period where nobody can PVP you. Those of us that got in on day 1 of this alpha have just passed our 7 day period, so we're free to PVP now. Edit - Oh sorry, didn't see the pic on my phone. That's someone sending a raid fleet to someone else. I guess you scouted it or something. That or it's a notification you're about to get raided by some other player. Mekchu fucked around with this message at 06:36 on Oct 28, 2017 |
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Oct 28, 2017 06:31
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Yeah its limited to 20 people. However we have two Goon alliances right now. Commune of Lowtax (full) and Unity of Lowtax (not full).
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Oct 29, 2017 06:23
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Yeah the main reason I had to stop playing was due to IRL stuff and then when I had time I was stupidly behind the curve and just out of loop with everything. They need to resolve that sort of thing but at least they're aware of it being a major issue at this stage.
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Dec 10, 2017 12:03
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I'm glad the dudes who asked for the leadership stuff as I phased out of playing didn't end up being awful.
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Dec 11, 2017 06:36
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beep_boop posted:The discord invite expired, and I had to start in a random system. The invite in the OP shouldn't expire. Anyway here's another invite, I'll update the OP with it. https://discord.gg/p9GmdYr
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Dec 17, 2017 02:28
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Gonna close the thread and let whoever wants to make the new thread for the next round of alpha make one. Discord is also up for grabs if anyone wants to take over the one we made for this previous alpha. Edit - Eltagg has the server for Discord now. Mekchu fucked around with this message at 04:24 on Feb 16, 2018 |
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Feb 16, 2018 04:09
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