Stars Reach News

By Raph Koster

Today I’m going to give you a tour of Stars Reach, the game. Like, the whole thing.

[h2]WHAT IS IT?[/h2]
Stars Reach is an MMORPG. It’s not a small scale survival game, it’s a game where thousands of players play together in a shared setting, a giant game with thousands of planets in a single galaxy. It’s a game in which those players explore, settle on, and rule living alien worlds.

[h2]WHO ARE YOU?[/h2]
You’re a human – one of eight kinds (our hoped-for target at launch). Oh, some look like sasquatches and some like devils, some like merfolk and some like hairless apes, but they’re all human in the end. As just as humans do, they’ve all managed to ruin their homeworlds in a variety of ways. Just as it looked like the species was doomed, each of the eight were visited by mysterious robotic Servitors from space and given a second chance by being given access to the stars..

You start out by selecting stats, of course. It’s an RPG! You’ve got three bars to worry about at the bottom of the screen: your health, your focus, and your stamina. Health is hit points, focus is basically sci-fi mana, and stamina is used for physical exertion.

Your character is made up of nine stats that you allocate at character creation, with names like Constitution, Agility, and Concentration. These come in sets of three, and ultimately determine how the three bars behave. If you want a lot of stamina, you probably want to allocate points into Fitness. If you would rather have a smaller bar but faster stamina regen, you would lean into Power instead.



You can also customize your character visually. We plan to support height, weight, muscularity, gender, and all the usual ways of morphing your face and body to look unique.

You’re an emigrant, leaving your homeworld behind to head out into the larger galaxy, sponsored by the TransPlanetary League, a government formed by the eight types of humanity. They’ll hand you a starter spaceship, a simple blaster, and basic training before letting you loose in the galaxy to make a new life among the stars.

[h2]WHAT’S THAT GALAXY LIKE?[/h2]
We like to say, it’s the most alive gameworld ever made. It’s all simulated, and everything reacts as it should. Lakes freeze over in the winter. Trees grow, and propagate. Sometimes, forests burn down. Players can affect it all, too. They can dig holes in asteroids or drive creatures extinct. You can watch an older video about that here – sorry about the graphics, they’re from a year ago, and the game doesn’t look like that anymore!

In most games of all sorts, but especially in MMOs, we have grown used to worlds crafted by designers that never change. In our game players change the world: they reshape the landscape, build whole cities, and yeah, probably ruin more planets just like humans ruined the original eight homeworlds. Everything saves, and the land doesn’t “heal” or pop back to its prior state, meaning that every choice made has real consequences.

In Stars Reach, new space sectors and planets are discovered as the game runs. Old wormholes might collapse, leaving older sectors of space unreachable. The game map is always changing. This matters because every one of these planets has different creatures, different resources with different stats, and of course, varying environments driven by varying climates, gravity, season lengths, and so on. We lean towards hundreds or thousands of smaller planets and space sectors, rather than just a few really large ones.

And both ground and space are alive – not just with the simulation, but also with aliens everywhere. The mysterious tentacular hivemind called the Cornucopia throws spores down on unsuspecting planets and infests them with corruption. The robot Servitors roam the spaceways sternly monitoring for violations, and occasionally molecularly disassembling people. Rogue berserkers hide in asteroid fields and there are worms in the wormholes. Creatures fling balls of lava at you and blow craters in the ground. They spread and propagate across planets, and can invade your town unless you beat them back. You can even drive them extinct… and revive a species if you have their DNA.



[h2]WHAT DO YOU DO?[/h2]
Well, you want to make your mark in the galaxy! The game offers a lot of ways to play, because it’s a true sandbox.

• You could build a farm, or a business.
  
• You could mine for hold, alien crystals, or just raw stone.
  
• You could craft amazing objects: an armoire, or a starship; a house, or an antigravity device.
  
• You could fight dangerous alien monsters.
  
• You could herd animals, and make clothes from their pelts.
  
• You could entertain others in the local tavern or cantina.
  
• You could map these worlds and sell your maps to newcomers.
  

The whole point is that you should be able to play the way you want, and the game should offer a progression path and ways to make in-game money for that playstyle.

You progress using skill trees we call professions. Every profession is a distinct way to play, and gives you access to tools and special abilities. People who have the tool but not the skill can’t use the tool effectively. People who have the skill and not the tool also can’t use the abilities. (This means we don’t need to have soulbound items, by the way!).

You progress by using the tool for a given profession, earning XP in that profession, and spending that XP to learn new skills in that profession. You can learn all the skills in the game, but you can’t keep them all active at once – there are only so many you can keep in practice at once. If you want to switch which ones you have in practice, you will need to wait some real world time, to prevent exploits.

We did a whole article about advancement and skill trees, so if you want to dive deeper, you can look over here.



[h2]WHAT SKILLS ARE THERE?[/h2]
Lots. Enough that I’ll have to do a whole separate article about them. But I will say that they fall into major groups:

Rangers are all about wilderness exploration, stealth, and forward bases. We did a blog post a while back that described this in some detail.

Mineralogists are prospectors and miners of minerals, gems, and gases. There’s a blog post about this too!

Botanists are all about plant life, forestry, farming, and herbalism. Farming is in our next update, and we recently published a preview.

Merchants are about business: buying and selling items, running shops, transport logistics.

Criminals evade taxes and smuggle goods.

Xenobiologists gather creature genetics, learn alien languages, and train pets.

Chefs cook!

Artisans craft a huge array of things ranging from woodworking to metallurgy, from civil engineering building roads to weaponsmiths making blasters.

Medics engage in active healing, but also craft medicines and engage in genetic modification.

Arts professions we hope to include cover making music, dancing, writing and journalism, and maybe even theater.

Leadership encompasses inspirational group buffs, group combat tactics, formations (which you might use for dancing too!)… basically, things related to coordination. At higher levels you unlock Politician skills which allow you to create and manage public spaces.

Combat tactics covers a variety of subspecialties around combat styles. Kill streaks, evasion bonuses, tanking, and so on can all unlock what we call “overfocus” and special moves you can only do in that state.

Combat engineering is all about building shields, turrets, and mines. With our dynamic world, we can make this really cool.

Weapon specialties will include bows, heavy turret guns, a spread of gun types from sniper rifles to close up assault weapons and pistols, fun stuff like swords, spears and sci-fi throwing knives, and if we can manage it, whips.

Piloting is still a ways out, but probably self-explanatory.

[h2]HOW DOES IT ALL FIT TOGETHER?[/h2]
It’s all tied together by the game economy. Every way to play outputs either goods or services other people need. Warriors need those weapons that weaponsmiths make. (In fact, all the weapons break and decay. Everything does.) Weaponsmiths can’t craft anything without the resources miners find. Miners need logistics to transport loads of heavy stuff.

Players will be able to create missions for one another: essentially, quests to deliver goods across the galaxy. Inventory space is intentionally limited, and you will be moving materials around using transport vehicles and supply lines. Advanced planets might set up wholesale markets. Artisans can choose to experiment on their crafted items to make unique one-off branded goods, but these can only be sold in player shops, not on the market.



[h2]WHAT ABOUT CONTENT?[/h2]
Besides the quests that players create for one another, there will be the things that we developers put in the mix. Planets can have encounters and hidden secrets, dynamic points of interest, and so on.

There are also events: planetary invasions by the Cornucopia, the possibility of Servitor eradication if you mistreat your world, and natural disasters like meteor showers. Alien spacecraft might crash nearby.

But at heart, this is a game about players taking control, not just about devs providing themepark rides for you. We can do things like progress the story of the game as a whole via environmental storytelling and events, but it’s not really a game like FFXIV or SWTOR where you are playing through a storyline arc for your character.

[h2]ELDER GAMES[/h2]
You’ll master all the skills you care to, and play through the progression game, and see all the content. What do you do as a player who has done it all?

We don’t like thinking in terms of “endgame.” Worlds shouldn’t have ends. But we do think in terms of elder games, the ways to play for people who have done everything.

The easy one is homesteading. Players can claim land and build. It’s a nice way to be creative and feel like you own a patch of an alien world (or a chunk of open space – you can do everything I’ve described in outer space, not just on the ground!). We did an article about this when we rolled it out for testing.

Then there is the challenge of managing a planet. We allow the inhabitants of a world to claim it, set up a government, and try to manage the world. They will quickly find (as we have during testing) that most players descend like locusts and wreck worlds. They will be able to set tax rates, build permissions, and even the PvP rules. Keeping your planet alive is important: you will be able to see a health bar for how the planet as a whole is doing.

And there’s war. It’s not a core focus for us right now, but we have a design that includes three factions each allied to major cultures from the game lore: the Servitors, the Cornucopia, and the humans. Once we get there, we plan to have zone-based PvP, with wild space planets, faction point tracking and faction perks, and so on. We also plan a guild type just for PvP guilds so they can be ranked against one another.

Of course, economic competition is yet another form of PvP, just a little less violent. Building up the most powerful company in the galaxy is absolutely an elder game we are working towards.

Lastly, we do hope that we see roleplaying developing in this game. We have a lot of lore, and we’re posting up a short story every week to give glimpses into the universe of Stars Reach. You can check out the stories posted so far here.



[h2]THE BIG PICTURE[/h2]
Ultimately, this is about handing you a galaxy. Putting you, the players, in control. It’s about building that immersive, reactive, dynamic world we have dreamt of since we all read Snow Crash or first saw a Holodeck. Our dreams for MMOs haven’t been big enough for a while. Stars Reach is all about being a game that dreams big.

I hope this overview gives you a good enough sense of what we’re building that you can dream along with us. I’ll see you in the asteroid belt!



[h3]BE A PART OF THE JOURNEY[/h3]
Stars Reach is the MMO sandbox we’ve always dreamed of. Terraform planets, build empires, and shape a living galaxy. Help bring this world to life! Back us on Kickstarter and be part of the journey from day one.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/starsreach/stars-reach

Durrast grunted as he turned over one more rock. One more of ten thousand around him. The greenish sunlight filtered down through sandy haze blown up by a recent sandstorm, and grit was getting in his eyes. He wiped them tiredly, then wiped his hands clean on his budding horns.

Nothing under the rock this time, not even giant scuttlebeetles. Still squatting, he sighed, then squinted at the sun on the horizon. Too early to head back in, really. He set down his portable harvester and reached for the mesh bag clipped to his belt; hefted it thoughtfully; concluded he might barely have enough desert mushrooms in there to sell. He could make big eyes at the merchant, play up how he was just a little kid, maybe?

Ugh, embarrassing. One more rock, then. Maybe down in the ravine there, where shadows gathered and moisture might lurk.

He gingerly headed downslope. The terrain bore the typical signs of having been carved away by aggressive miners. He’d have to watch out for sudden holes. If he fell in, he might die, and that would be quite an inconvenience – he’d ReLife back at town, but all these mushrooms would be left behind.

There! Under an overhang and shielded from the sun, just what he was looking for. More than he could fit in his bag! He pointed the harvester at them, and let the beam of light carefully separate the mycelium from the rock, keeping the fungus as intact as possible. As usual, a tasty meat-like aroma rose from the mushrooms, and Durrast’s stomach growled.

A sudden streak, glaring whitegreen light, then a pressure wave knocked him off his feet. Then came the sound, and a shower of dirt and sand. He rolled out from under the overhang before it gave way, clutching the mesh bag of mushrooms.

It took him a moment to not feel dizzy as he stood. Then he climbed a rock and peered up over the edge of the shallow ravine.

Crashed ship. Not much left of it, honestly. Smoke was already rising to the greenish sky. And limping away, skin already crisping in the heat, was a pudgy fishlike human, not very tall, clearly a bit wounded. His huge aquatic eyes were frantically looking in every direction at once.

Lomeisen…! A Hansian! Durrest had never seen one before. This planet’s climate varied between hot and dry, and hotter and dryer, so Hansians tended not to visit. Mostly Terrans and Gertans like himself here.

Tentatively, Durrast tried to casually say Yo! “Zobek!” It came out as a bit of a tentative croak. He cleared his throat and shouted it. “Zobek!”

The Hansian stopped and looked around, then fastened his huge eyes on him. “Oh, thank goodness. Where the waves go, young friend.” He was already gasping in the heat. “I think I need…”

Then he faceplanted into the sand.



A bit of water poured generously on both the head and down the gullet helped the fellow enormously. He explained his name was Plissashl, but to call him Pliss. He had a camp kit, so it wasn’t long before they had a small portable stove going, a few mushrooms on the griddle, and a bit of light as the sun started to dip low enough to make the ravine a bit draftier and darker.

“Feels almost like a beach party back home,” Pliss said. “Go with the flow, we always say. Sand around, a cookout, all we’re missing is some surfboards and waves.”

Durrest had no idea what a surfboard was, and didn’t say a word.

“Interesting,” Pliss said, taste-testing the mushroom patty with his tongue. He took a delicate bite, and swished it around in his mouth like it was wine. “Meaty, but sweet, somehow, with an aftertaste like pears. Have you ever had pears, boy?”

Durrest shook his head.

“So much for you to discover in this Galaxy, as you grow! Of course, there are many sorts of pears, tart ones, sweeter ones… Hmm.” Pliss chewed. “You don’t happen to know the species name for these do you?”

Durrest shook his head.

“Pity. And my equipment is burned up in the ship. Hmm, you have a harvester tool, surely that would sample… but wait, no genetic sample module?”

Durrest shook his head.

“Ah well.” Pliss swallowed noisily and reached for a second patty. Durrest could see his day’s earnings vanishing rapidly into the Hansian’s mouth. Pliss went on, mouth full, “I’m a baker, you see. Might make for an interesting ingredient. Don’t talk much do you?”

Durrest shook his head, then asked, “What happened? Why’d you crash?”

An evasive look came over the baker’s face. “Oh,” he said airily, “just a malfunction in the –”

Both their Newsnet comms pinged at once. Servitor override, planetary broadcast. An Interdiction.

PLEASE REMAIN CALM. WE ARE SEARCHING FOR INTERDICTED CONTRABAND. RESISTANCE MAY RESULT IN THE EXTERMINATION OF ALL LIFE ON YOUR PLANET. RUDENESS MAY ALSO RESULT IN THE EXTERMINATION OF ALL LIFE ON YOUR PLANET.

Pliss froze as he listened, mushroom patty halfway to his wide mouth. There was a brief pause in the broadcast, then it resumed.

ALSO, DON’T SNEEZE ON US, ONE OF US IS SUSCEPTIBLE TO RUST.

“Oh crurf. Do you know anywhere to hide?”

“Town,” Durrest said briefly. He was curt, half scared and half excited. A Servitor Interdiction! Lomeisen! He’d seen patrols of course, and once a Seeder ship flew overhead. But the fact of that matter was this planet just didn’t have much life on it, so the Servitors just didn’t care. Then a thought occurred to him. Not much life also meant nothing much for them to care to save.

“Uh, they aren’t serious about exterminating all of us, are they?”

Pliss was frantically packing up his camp kit. “Of course they are, kid. What, never interacted much with them before?”

“N-no.”

Pliss paused, then tucked the kit away in his molecular compressor pack, where it dwindled down to miniature size. “Look, they try to keep species alive, but they don’t care very much about any one individual. We’re disposable. No matter how much our work matters.” He sounded bitter.

“Work?”

“Yeah, kid. Work, like preserving cultural heritage.” Pliss was ready to go, looking one direction and another. “Which way is town? We have to move.”

Durrest hefted the mushroom bag onto his back, and pointed silently. His knees were shaking a little, and it wasn’t the weight of the bag. Extermination of all life on the planet.

Pliss paused. Looked him up and down. Looked into his eyes. Closed his eyes. Took a deep breath. Exhaled it slowly.

“Sorry kid. You must be freakin’ out. Sipiss!” he cursed to himself. “Look, they’ll never suspect you. And it saves the work. I don’t matter, in the end. We’ll meet here in two days, at dawn, okay?”

Durrest had no idea what he was talking about, but he felt his eyes getting big. Maybe he wasn’t as grown up and tough as he thought. Maybe the galaxy was full of much scarier things than giant scuttlebeetles, or pears.

Pliss knelt before him, and handed him a folded piece of paper. “Here, take this. We’ll split up, you go to town and I’ll go the other way.” He put his long webbed hands on Durrest’s shoulders. “You’ll be fine.”

He stood, and began to run as best he could with his rolling waddle. Just before rounding a corner of the rockface, he said over his shoulder, “Even if they find it, they’ll know it’s not yours. You’re just a kid.”

But he sounded uncertain about it.

Durrest stood there for a bit, paper in his hand. Then he tucked it in a sock. Once he couldn’t hear Pliss’ heavy breath, he started trudging back to town with the heavy mushrooms on his back.

*



Shadows were getting longer as Durrest reached the outskirts of town. Suddenly, his eyes stung from bright light as the dusk was illuminated.

Two meteorites fell from the sky just off to the side, glowing hot and angry. As they got close to the ground, their rate of descent slowed, and a crater of sand formed around them. Two metallic balls, spinning rapidly end over end; then they slowed until they paused hovering, and then slowly unfolded into the shape of two Servitor hunter-killers.

One of them was rusty, while the other gleamed metallic and clean.

“Oh, this planet is great. Really great,” the rusty one said. He stretched his needle fingers out, cracked his neck with its ungainly head. “Really eases the rust spots to have low humidity. Just have to watch out for the grit in the gears, you know?”

“We are within standard operational parameters. The climatological environment is of no consequence. Standard issue lubrication can handle silica-based particulate matter,” the other said in a monotone.

“Just saying,” the rusty one said cheerfully. “It just feels good!” He did a flawless little dance move, toe pointed out, and the angle of the blades on his legs and arms perfect. “Like a holiday!”

The silver hunter-killer looked at the rusty one with its blank flat eye sensors. “This is not recreational time. We are seeking pernicious corruption. Once it infects a planet, it never dies. It is passed from host to host forever. It replicates, an infection that cannot be cleared.”

“It’s no pineapple upside-down cake, that’s for sure,” the rusty one said.

“I do not understand entity type ‘pineapple upside-down cake,’ and do not understand what this signifier means to your programming.”

Durrest, still standing there stock still, could swear he saw the rusty Servitor actually sigh. A small bit of steam even emerged from a neck joint.

“Dude,” the rusty one said. “You really need to get the sensory upgrades.”

“Degrading your assembly is a probable cause for your chassis developing rust.”

“Hey now!” The rusty one spun at his waist swivel point, and smacked the other Servitor with his metal arm. The force of the blow would have cut Durrest in two. The other Servitor was unmoved. The rusty one glared at him and said “That’s offensive. I was made this way.”

The clean Servitor said nothing in response.

“Fine.” The rusty one looked around, and spotted Durrest. “You. Come here.”

Durrest trudged towards him, no longer very excited to see a Servitor up close.

“What’s in the bag, kid?”

“Desert mushrooms.” He proffered the mesh bag to the Servitor. He had to hand it up – this was the largest sentient thing he had ever seen, bigger even than Grrogho, the Skwatchi who ran the tavern and spent all day complaining about the heat.

The rusty robot held the bag in fanblade serrated hands tipped with needles, while the clean robot ran arms covered in micropellet projectile vaporizers over the mesh bag, and played some sort of sensor beam over it.

“Gross,” the rusty robot pronounced. “Never did like mushrooms.”

“Local organic fungal species,” the clear Servitor pronounced. He spun his torso, and played the beam over Durrest, starting at the head and working downwards. It tickled, then started to burn. Durrest felt tears start in his eyes as the beam worked its way down his chest, then to his knees, and –

“Let’s go,” the rusty Servitor said. “There’s a whole town to check.”

The burning sensation stopped at the top of Durrest’s boots. He opened his eyes, and saw the two robots stalking towards town.

Not exterminated! he thought to himself. I stood up to deadly Servitors! Lomeisen! And they’re here looking for the Aberration! I wonder if Pliss had spores? He stopped suddenly, dropped to the ground, and pulled off his boots to check his feet, where the Servitor’s beams hadn’t. Frantic, he checked his skin all over where he could see, anywhere the paper had touched.

No little tentacles. No wriggling worm things. He even checked his eyeballs in the reflection in the shiny bits of his harvester.

I’m clean. Relieved, he put on his socks, tucked the paper in again, and put his boots back on.

He walked back to town, standing a little taller, feeling a little older, a little bit tougher. Like a survivor.

*

The next morning the town was roused and summoned to the central plaza by the fountain. The two Servitors were there, and between them, held in their crushing grip, was Plissashl the Hansian baker. He was battered and bloody, and where his arms were held crushed by the Servitor pincers, they bruised purple and green.

“Ahem!” said the rusty Servitor. “Announcement incoming!”

NewsNet pings sounded across the crowd watching. Durrest stayed behind larger adults, peeking through Grrogho’s legs only occasionally. Sometimes it helped, being small. He wanted to stay out of Pliss’ view, just in case.

ANNOUNCEMENT. OUR GENEROUS FORBEARANCE ALLOWS YOU TO LIVE. NO SIGNIFICANT INFESTION WAS FOUND. NO SUCCOR OR ASSISTANCE WAS PROVIDED TO THIS ENEMY OF THE OLD ONES. YOUR EXTERMINATION IS NO LONGER REQUIRED.

Sobs of relief broke out across the gathered townsfolk.

“It wasn’t Cornucopia,” Pliss mumbled through swollen giant lips.

The rusty Servitor shook him harshly, and Pliss went limp. “It doesn’t matter! What were you thinking? You know it’s still a plague.”

“We are obligated to take you to molecular disassembly to ensure a lack of infestation,” the clean Servitor intoned.

Pliss sagged between them.

The rusty robot extended telescoping sensors from the vicinity of what might represent his nose. Then he sniffed at the nearly unconscious baker. “Can’t believe you’re throwing your life away on this. Not like it’s over strawberry shortcake, either. Ah, the ethyl butyrate levels when the berries are fresh!”

The clean Servitor hunter-killer momentarily froze, then rotated his head towards the rusty one. “I believe I comprehend. Relative esters provide sensory inputs you can assess via particulate analysis. This is what you call… smell and taste?”

“Yeah!” The rusty Servitor got enthusiastic. “It’s so fascinating. Like, the difference between ethyl butyrate versus ethyl methylphenylglycidate, it’s dramatic but somehow organics clump them both as strawberry…”

“My neural net might find these additional inputs of interest after all…” said the clean robot, as a whirlwind formed by his massive feet.

Pliss started to struggle as the two robots began to curl into hovering balls and glide away, but it was no use. As the three of them zoomed into the sky, Durrest heard his scream: “But it’s my grandmother’s recipeeeeeeeeee…”

Durrest felt very small and young again, at that moment. Like something soft caught in the gears of a very large whirling machine he only faintly understood.

In an alley later, the young Gertan unfolded the paper, and worked at deciphering the unfamiliar letter shapes.

[h2]HOLIDAY FRUITCAKE

1 cup candied fruit…[/h2]

He wondered if he could substitute mushrooms.

We are currently working on adding Farming to the game. Since we’re currently working on things, the details in this article may change, but the shape of the end-result feature should be quite similar.

We recently added the ability for players to harvest seeds from nearly every flower, tree, and bush in the game and gave them the ability to plant those seeds and regrow them anywhere in the world. There were no rules as to where you can place those plants and they’d grow any place you put them, even if the heat and humidity weren’t right for the plant, and even if you planted it on stone.

With this update, a lot of that changes.

Some of the big changes:

You can only plant seeds in soils.
The soils have to be the right soils if the plant is going to thrive and not die.
Even with the right soil, you’ll still need to make sure it gets the right amount of water and that the temperatures are conducive to it growing well.
Those of you that have played the game will realize that changing the soils, and balancing heat and humidity out in the wild is challenging and/or impossible. So that’s where Farms & Gardens come into play.

When you build a Farm/Garden on your Homestead, you can control all those variables. You can place the soil, invest the soil with additives to change it into other soils, and use ThermalMeters and HydroMeters to adjust the heat/humidity to make your “plant children” happy.

Use your Harvester to harvest a plant out in the wild, gathering seeds and in the process, get more information about the plant’s favorite soil, heat, humidity, and seasonality.

Use your Terraformer to dump soil that you gathered in the world into your garden bed.

Then use a Trowel to clear weeds, enrich the soil, clear plants and turn your plants into potted plants so you can decorate with them or sell/gift them to other players.

Place a ThermalMeter near your plants to adjust the temperature in that area to the right comfort level for those plants. Use a HydroMeter to do the same thing for moisture levels, making it drier for desert plants or wetter for tropical plants.

Use Calcium Fertilizer or Ammonium to shift the pH level of your soil up or down, transforming that soil from one type to another, getting it to the right type for the plant. There are a lot of soil types, so keep shifting it from one to the other to achieve the soils you want.



And of course, get better at Farming! There’s a new branch of the Botany skill tree that’s dedicated to the Farming systems. It’ll help you get better yields from plants, unlock better versions of ThermalMeters and HydroMeters, increase the number of Garden Beds you can use, unlock some of the abilities mentioned above (like potting plants), and increase growth speed.

[h2]AND THIS IS JUST THE BEGINNING[/h2]
Later on, we’ll add things like hydroponics, greenhouses (including ones for outer space), growth and yield stimulators for your soil, raised beds to avoid pests (and the pests and diseases you’ll want to avoid) and more. But even just this first bit is quite a lot, so we’re focusing here and then we’ll enlarge after this gets a chance to settle.

Hey, Explorers!

It’s been a bit since our last internal playtest, and we’ve been hard at work polishing up the Stars Reach experience. This milestone focused on streamlining mechanics, improving usability, and squashing those pesky bugs. Here’s a breakdown of the items we currently have in progress and are testing internally.

Listing something here does not mean that it will make it into the next update. If something has bugs or is incomplete, we hold it back. Sometimes, features may even get scrapped if we discover they aren’t fun or a good idea. So do not take anything here as a promise of delivery by a given date.

[h2]AUDIO AND VISUAL ENHANCEMENTS[/h2]

• Updated Camps and Stove audio for a more immersive soundscape.
  
• Instaformer preview VFX overhaul: Switching between place/delete modes is now clearer and easier to
  

follow.
[h2]TOOL AND INTERACTION UPDATES[/h2]

• Tool action indicators: The HUD now includes text descriptions for Q/E keys when toggling tool modes.
  
• / Key for chat: Quickly open the chat window and begin a /command with a single keystroke. Say hello to smoother communication! This was requested by multiple players.
  
• Building decor placement: Crafting stations have moved to the Fabricator. The old right-click versions are retired for a more streamlined placement process.
  
• Interaction text updates: Various interactables, like crafting stations, now have improved messaging for better clarity.
  

[h2]BUILDING & ENVIRONMENT UPDATES[/h2]

• Backend structure overhaul for bushes: While changes should be invisible to players, keep an eye out for any odd bush behavior.
  
• Building block organization: Added tags to building blocks, pavers, and decor for better alphabetized grouping.
  
• Boundary alerts: Receive warnings when building outside map dimensions. No more accidental void expansions!
  
• Backpack safety notifications: Alerts now pop up when entering an area that saves your backpack.
  

[h2]BUG FIXES[/h2]

• Fixed tools displaying incorrectly when viewing other players.
  
• Corrected Ballhive attack types for consistency.
  
• Balanced hopper outputs to match input extraction rates.
  
• Homesteads now correctly display player names after server resets.
  
• Extraction and depositing are now evenly matched for a smoother resource flow.
  
• Addressed an issue with character corruption resulting in your character being ruined and turned into “PlayerCharacter.” (Pro tip: Create a new character for this playtest!)
  
• Resource lists cleanup: Blocks and Tiles removed from prospect lists for a more focused experience.
  

[h2]WHY INTERNAL PLAYTESTS MATTER[/h2]
Internal playtests are a critical step in shaping Stars Reach. They help us uncover bugs, identify areas that need polish, and ensure the mechanics are fun and intuitive. Every change we make brings us one step closer to delivering the immersive and community-driven MMORPG we know you’re excited for. Your feedback in future tests will only make this galaxy shine brighter!

[h2]KICKSTARTER IS COMING SOON![/h2]
Ready to help bring Stars Reach to life? Our Kickstarter Coming Soon page is live! Bookmark it today to be the first to know when we launch! Early supporters will get exclusive rewards, so don’t miss out. Click here to join the mission: Kickstarter Coming Soon.

We’re thrilled to have you on this journey. See you in the stars!

Image via playtester B1ackWu1f


This weekend’s playtest was an epic ride! With a surge of new players jumping in, we hit double our usual traffic… and things got exciting fast!

The Refining Test brought a ton of new recipes and crafting opportunities to explore. Players immediately dove in, experimenting with combinations, sharing discoveries, and even unearthing some unexpected bugs. The feedback you provided is already shaping future updates, and we couldn’t be more grateful.

On the technical side, the servers held up under the increased load – mostly! However, we did experience a few hiccups, including a space zone crash and a mass disconnect event that briefly sent everyone to the void.

Additionally, the infamous “Player Character” bug made an unwelcome return, causing some returning players to start fresh. But in true Stars Reach style, the community stepped up in force! Veterans became mentors, guiding newcomers through the galaxy’s challenges, helping those forced to restart, and making everyone feel right at home. This kind of teamwork is what makes this community truly out of this world. Teamwork FTW!

As the day wrapped up, one thing was clear: no one wanted to log off. The passion, creativity, and dedication from our testers are the fuel that keeps us pushing to make Stars Reach even better. We’re blown away by the ideas, stories, and camaraderie you bring to this universe.

Thank you to everyone who joined this playtest and helped us push the boundaries of what Stars Reach can be. Your contributions mean the galaxy to us, and we can’t wait to see what’s next.

Want to help shape the galaxy? Back our Kickstarter today and become a part of the adventure! Together, we’ll make Stars Reach unforgettable.