Stars Reach News

[p]Carneros: Are you coming to Stars Reach with your usual gaming guild? Or are you making new friends and joining a new guild in this game?[/p][p][/p][p]mrgoshdarn: I’ve talked to some friends about the game, and I’m sure they’ll hop in and try once it’s more toward the finish, but largely, since this game has shined so brightly in the social department, I’m making new connections in-game.[/p][p][/p][p]ObsidianStone: I haven’t had a proper gaming guild in a long time. This is all new friendships and a new guild to get up to shenanigans with. Although I do have a few people I annoy constantly to convince them to play.[/p][p][/p][p]Dr. Julie Wainlight: I came into Stars Reach entirely on my own! Ended up finding common ground with a few people who share the same sentiments and goals so I wound up making new friends who ended up making a new guild together! It has been very collaborative and creative, I feel really fortunate to have found a likeminded and welcoming community who have already done some amazing stuff in pre-alpha already![/p][p][/p][p]LastDitchPlan: I’ve made entirely new friends in Stars Reach! I did bring one friend along for the ride (shout out to JD!) but in referring back to the first question, I wanted what I had when I played Star Wars Galaxies: an organic community that sprung up around the game. With SWG it was easy, we all loved Star Wars! With Stars Reach it’s been a blast seeing what parts of the Playable Worlds systems people enjoy, what they’re hopeful for and what they want to see grow and change.[/p][p][/p][p]JesDyr: While I may try to convince some people to play, I don’t tend to follow guilds between games. While I do enjoy group play, I am a solo’er at heart. I like starting off on my own and going from there. It is always fun to see where I land.[/p][p][/p][p]What is something you can imagine your character doing in game one or two years from now?[/p][p][/p][p]hooby: All of the above.[/p][p]I’ve been making new friends and acquaintances on the Discord for a while now.[/p][p]I’m also in a small, tight-knit but casual clan that’s more or less active across several different games. Not actively recruiting, and only accepting new members that fit in well. We aren’t large enough to stand on our own in most games, so teaming up with or directly joining other guilds is quite common.[/p][p]Stars Reach does plan to allow me to join multiple social guilds – so I will be able to be a member of my old multi-game clan, while simultaneously also being able to join a larger, more focused, SR-centric guild. In fact, I have just recently signed up with GUNC. Now that the game is adding character specialization options, it does get increasingly interesting to coordinate with others.[/p][p][/p][p]Nadraxes: My last gaming guild disbanded, afaik a few years ago. I haven’t been doing much in MMO’s the last years, except Elder Scrolls Online, where my guild is not really into other games. I did join a guild in Stars Citizen, ages ago that seems to be still around, but I haven’t logged into that alpha in a year or two.[/p][p]When I came here, I had no expectations. I don’t even remember how Stars Reach came into view. I definitely was not looking for an MMO and I found this by accident it seems. Reading up on the game and seeing UO triggered my nostalgia I guess, so I decided to try it out. The people from GUNC were so helpful and kind, that I figured it couldn’t hurt to back the game at a low level, so I went for Explorer. Still wondering if I should go up to homesteader, but can’t find a real reason to do so.[/p][p]I am an avid VR player and have my friends in VRchat that also consume much of my time. Being a “responsible adult with a wife and kid” also means my free time is limited, so I may not be in the game enough to warrant the homesteader tier. Of course, if VR would be supported, that may change my view. [/p][p][/p][p]Keaggan: I like to build a guild within each MMO I play. Each game has its own feel and temperament. While I do try to convince long-time gaming friends to play a game I enjoy, I find people are more passionate about the guild’s success when they are already invested in the game we are playing.[/p]

[h2]TOOLS AND WEAPONS REFACTOR[/h2][p]We changed almost all the tools and weapons to a new underlying system of code that allows the PQRV changes to occur (see the next section for details on PQRV). This allows us to make changes and improvements in the future much more easily than before, but it also lets us get rid of most of the “TAB to switch modes” gameplay that confuses new players so much.[/p][p]
[/p][p]Because of this, a bunch of tools have been broken down into multiple tools.[/p][p]
[/p]

• [p]Terraformer is now three tools:[/p]
  • [p]Terraformer: Extracts minerals and actively scans for resources.[/p]
  • [p]Depositor: Takes resources from your inventory and puts them into the world.[/p]
  • [p]Chronophaser: Has the heat beam, and also erodes/lithifies.[/p]
• [p]Harvester is broken up into two tools:[/p]
  • [p]Harvester: Harvests plants and plants bushes, flowers, and mushrooms.[/p]
  • [p]Pruning Shears: Force grows plants, and lets you prune and stunt trees on your Homestead.[/p]
• [p]The other tools still exist as the forms you knew, but their functionalities have changed to avoid TAB switching. These include: Xyloslicer, Trailblazer, Pathfinder, Fabricator, Instaformer and Paver.[/p]
• [p]All the weapons have been converted also, but functionality is the same.[/p]

[p]
[/p][p]All F1 screens have been updated with details for each tool and weapon, so be sure to check those out for more details on how to use the new versions![/p][h2]CRAFTING PQRV STATS MATTER NOW![/h2][p]When you are crafting an item, you should stay very aware of the PQRV stats of the resources being used. Why? Because when you make the item:[/p]

• [p]We compare the stats for all resources involved, individually for each stat.[/p]
• [p]We throw out the lowest one.[/p]
• [p]We average the other stats together.[/p]
• [p]That average (for each individual stat) is the final PQRV for the item you’ve created.[/p]
• [p]The end product you’ve created may have characteristics that are influenced by the PQRV stats. For example, many items have their battery characteristics influenced by Potential and Resilience. The number of nodes in the Ring Node special for the Companions Orbs is affected by Potential. Etc. You can see what is affected in the Crafting interface when you’re making the tool or weapons.[/p]

[p]
[/p][p]NOTE: We’ve just started adding PQRV ramifications. There will be many more additions and changes in the future.[/p][p]Potential, Quality, Resilience, and Versatility. (In case you were wondering what PQRV stands for. The window in the upper, right of the Crafting interface will show you what, if any, characteristics of the item you’re making are affected by PQRV and which ones they are.[/p][p][/p][h2]NEW SHOPS[/h2][p]There are two new ways to spend the Klaatus you earn by doing missions![/p][p]We have also moved around where the various kiosks are located within the starbase. The three types of Shops are in the marketplace area of the Starbase and the Mission Kiosks are at the top of the balcony stairs in the central chamber of the Starbase.[/p][p][/p][h3]BASIC TOOL SHOP[/h3][p]If you have a Profession that doesn’t have access to all the tools, then you can buy a stripped-down, very basic version of critical tools like the Harvester, Terraformer, Xyloslicer, and Pathfinder here. However, those basic tools don’t have any specials in them and they are at base-line PQRV stats. You’ll want to upgrade them when you can.[/p][p]Because we now have these basic tools available, many of the “nonsense” flora drops we added last update to shore up the lack of being able to accumulate different kinds of resources have been removed.[/p][p][/p][h3]HOMESTEADER SHOP[/h3][p]Once you unlock the ability to place Homesteads (in the Architect skill tree), you can purchase a Homesteader object in this shop. Once you have a Homesteader, you can go out into the world to a location you want to claim, right-click on the Homesteader in your inventory, and then place the Homestead like you would a Camp. Once placed, the Homestead acts like what you’re used to in the world.[/p][p][/p][h2]HOMESTEADING[/h2][p]As mentioned above, Homesteading has been moved out of the Ranger skill tree and is now part of the Architect skill tree, as originally intended. Unlock the skill nodes there, purchase a Homesteader from the shop in the TPL Starbase, and place it in the world. [/p][p]Homesteaders are not refunded to you if you disband your Homestead later on. You’ll need to purchase a new one.[/p][p][/p][h2]RESOURCE SELECTION[/h2][p]When you are doing Resource Scanning (Terraformer) or selecting what resource to deposit with the Depositor, you now open a resource selection menu by hitting TAB. This shows all the resources available for you to scan/place and you choose it by left-clicking on the resource.[/p][p]This also applies when planting seeds with the Xyloslicer or Harvester, and will be used with any future tool where selection from multiple resources is necessary.[/p][p][/p][h2]LONG-RANGE SCANNING[/h2][p]At long last (!!!!) there is now a way to prospect at long range. Equip your Terraformer, hit TAB and select a resource to search for, and then hit the “E” key to emit a scanning pulse. [/p][p]If you are far away from the nearest resource deposit, you’ll see an arc appear that gives you the general direction you need to travel to get there.[/p][p]Once you get close enough, the long-range scanning will automatically switch to close-range scanning and you’ll begin seeing the resource cube outlines to indicate where you should dig (usually below you, but if you’re underground already or near a tall mountain, it might be above you).[/p][p]You should find it much easier to find resources now. If not, please let us know! (And be aware that this is the first draft. We will be improving it soon!)[/p][p][/p][h2]MISCELLANEOUS IMPROVEMENTS[/h2][p]Lots of changes. Enjoy![/p][h3]AUDIO[/h3]

• [p]There is now an audio cue you’ll hear when creatures aggro on you. [/p]
• [p]Audio in space is improved.[/p]
• [p]There are audio cues when crates are rezzed in by the Servitor during the FTUE Hallway experience.[/p]

[h3]COMBAT[/h3]

• [p]Creatures now properly regenerate health again after they no longer have aggro on a player.[/p]
• [p]The Kharvix flocking is now fixed so they won’t eternally circle you without attacking. Beware! The same fix was made to Deer variants.[/p]
• [p]Creature spawners: [/p]
  • [p]We dropped the lowest form of each creature from the game. They typically just ran away and were so trivial to kill that they only added clutter instead of useful gameplay.[/p]
  • [p]World spawner limits were adjusted and the number of creatures spawned per encounter group were adjusted. You should see smaller groups now (eight’ish in some camps instead of sixteen’ish).[/p]
  • [p]There was a bug with world limits that was spawning WAY too many super-low threat creatures. That has been fixed.[/p]
  • [p]Spawners mature from one threat to the next at a slower pace now, and the more dangerous they are, the slower they mature to the next level.[/p]
• [p]Kill missions no longer select the highest-threat creatures. [/p]
• [p]Combat XP has been boosted significantly, in preparation for changes that are coming in the next update after this one.[/p]
• [p]The Frozen and Electrified durations caused by creatures have been reduced to two seconds (instead of 3 or 5). Immunity to those effects now only lasts four seconds instead of five.[/p]
• [p]Heat and Cold immunities were removed from creatures. However, immunities for bosses are more robust now. (Again, in preparation for the combat changes in the next update.)[/p]
• [p]Consumables can now be used if you are under a status effect that freezes your movement. [/p]
• [p]We put in a fix for overcharge timing, where it was sometimes taking much longer than expected.[/p]

[p]
[/p][h3]OTHER GAMEPLAY[/h3]

• [p]You can now trade Klaatus![/p]
• [p]You no longer drop Gravel out of your Terraformer hopper. Instead, you drop “Tailings” which are worthless remnants of the mining process. If you extract Tailings, all you do is fill up your Hopper. If you leave the Tailings alone in the world, then they will eventually turn into dirt that is appropriate for the world you’re on.[/p]
• [p]You should never again receive an “Incomplete Item” if you leave the Basic Crafting screen without hitting “Collect”. It will now autocomplete for you instead.[/p]
• [p]Public event weighting was changed so that some types of meteor shower (like Antigravium) are rare now, and bosses don’t spawn as often (to make them more of an event when they occur).[/p]
• [p]Players receive five of each of the basic Medicines when they start instead of three.[/p]
• [p]XP cost on skill nodes that grant sets were adjusted to reflect the number of items within those sets. (Sets with fewer items cost less to unlock than those with greater numbers.)[/p]
• [p]The Toolmaking skill tree no longer unlocks the Basic Set of Fabricator pieces. That was an error and they are unlocked through the Architect tree.[/p]
• [p]Data issues with the Brimming Bonnet, Blushing Bonnet, Goji Berry and Emberbloom Torch were fixed.[/p]
• [p]If you are in a safe zone (like a portal platform), you cannot place a Camp.[/p]
• [p]Starting professions have been refined further.[/p]
• [p]The Ice Fall meteors no longer occur in space (to prevent them from creating “ice armor” on the asteroids).[/p]
• [p]Ice Fall meteors no longer deposit ice. (The water spreading from them was deemed to be too negative on gameplay.)[/p]
• [p]Skill trees have been revisited. This mostly affected the Architect and Toolmaker skill trees, but many were lightly touched.[/p]
• [p]The Settler profession now unlocks the Basic Set (for Fabricator) and the Stone Block Set (for Instaformer).[/p]
• [p]All professions now start with low-end PQRV value tools. You are now properly incentivized to get better weapons and tools. NOTE: If you have a character that was made in previous tests then your weapons and tools have been replaced with low-PQRV items. (Sorry for the switch, but everyone starts on the same footing here.)[/p]
• [p]Fungusamugus is no longer a candidate for healing missions. (Granted, that was amusing…but so wrong.)[/p]
• [p]The portals to other planets have been moved out into space away from the Starbase.[/p]

[p][/p][h3]USER INTERFACE[/h3]

• [p]The entire HUD has been reconstructed. This is not finished. There is some temporary artwork still there and the placement of assets aren’t final. It shouldl be completed before the next update.[/p]
• [p]The FTUE screens you see during character creation have a nicer font now.[/p]
• [p]Announcement text that appears in the upper, center of the screen has been improved and motion added to make it more obvious.[/p]
• [p]There is a Sorting pulldown menu on the Crafting and Inventory interfaces to let you more easily sort by Name and PQRV stats.[/p]
• [p]The skill node descriptions have been greatly improved upon to make it more obvious what you receive when you unlock the skill. This is a particular improvement for anything that unlocks sets, like Stone Block Set, or Walls and Windows.[/p]
• [p]Decimal points were removed from the stacks in the inventory pane.[/p]
• [p]The first time you use a new tool or weapon after entering the Starbase as a new character, you’ll get a first-time dialog to explain a bit about that weapon. Additional detail is in the Help screens.[/p]
• [p]All Help screens have been updated to match new functionality.[/p]
• [p]A series of fixes were made to the game camera, and it should be a lot better in tight spaces. It shouldn’t get stuck thrashing anymore. You should also be able to zoom in a little more. [/p]
• [p]Waypoints now clear properly if you abandon a mission.[/p]

[p]
[/p][h3]OTHER[/h3]

• [p]Night is slightly brighter and lighting colors were tweaked – hence the name Twilight Update. After much feedback, night should be slightly less dark.[/p]
• [p]We’ve added a few more names to the Hall of Heroes plaques in the main room of the TPL Starbase. They should all be there now![/p]
• [p]Corrected an issue with Roof and Arch A recipes not being granted with the skill unlock [/p]
• [p]We put in a fix for beams from tools getting stuck on due to changing positions while firing.[/p]
• [p]We have put in place some tighter limits on character names and use of punctuation in the names.[/p]

[p]
[/p][h2]KNOWN ISSUES[/h2]

• [p]You can’t currently shut off the HUD with F4 because it’s in a state of transition.[/p]

[p]

[/p]

• [p]Updates and fixes to Brave New Worlds were announced this week. The list is longer than expected here.[/p]
• [p]In Thursday’s livestream, we showed some tips and tricks for capturing video in Stars Reach and some behind-the-scenes on the making of a new trailer. Watch the recording here.[/p][previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]
  • [p]Our reporter on the street, Carneros, interviewed several players to ask their thoughts about the Stars Reach community: Player Spotlight: Part One 2025.07.31 – Stars Reach[/p]
  • [p]MassivelyOP had great comments on the last Fireside Chat:[/p]
  [p]https://massivelyop.com/2025/07/30/stars-reach-smooths-its-latest-patch-talks-opt-in-pvp-and-preps-a-lot-of-game-for-24-7-testing[/p][p][/p]
• [p]This weekend’s playtest schedule includes one 11-hour test, one 16-hour test, and one 46-hour test running from Saturday morning to Monday morning!![/p]

[p][/p]

• [p]Backer Invites + Discord Backer Badge.  Almost all of the backers have submitted their survey, but if you haven’t then search your email box.[/p]
  • [p]New testers received an invite from FirstLook with a playtest schedule and instructions. (Check your spam folder if you don’t see it!)[/p]
  • [p]Existing testers will not get a new invite, your Discord role should now show a Backer badge. Not yet? Log into FirstLook.gg and sync.[/p]
  • [p]Can’t find it? Email [/p]

[p][email protected][/p]

• [p]Kickstarter late pledges are still available but this may wind down soon: [/p]

[p]https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/starsreach/stars-reach[/p][p]Check out our licensed merch in our Web Store! [/p][p]https://starsreach.com/store[/p][p][/p]

• [p]We also have late pledges available on payment plans at our store[/p]

[p]Screenshots of the Week:
Chayce views the landscape of Akacala.[/p][p][/p]

[h3]TPL Interviews[/h3][p]Carneros: When you try a new MMORPG, how important is the culture and quality of the player community? Does that factor into your choices? Or do you figure the only culture that matters is your own guild’s culture?[/p][p]McActionpants: The community is the heart and soul of any MMO for me. I generally like to mix in with the larger crowd and not join any guilds at all, so it’s important to have a great many of the players be open and sociable.[/p][p]ObsidianStone: Culture and community is everything. In some MMORPGs it’s so easy to just dabble and stumble through solo, which is fine, alone time is good. But it doesn’t lead to longevity or memorable moments. Community and an MMORPG that fosters community… magic.[/p][p]Dr. Julie Wainlight: It is probably the second most important factor without a doubt. I’ve been through several MMORPGs in the last 2 decades and community really makes or breaks the game. The most important factor is the game design, mechanics and how it plays, especially when you have to be considerate of community because the designs and mechanics create incentives, behaviors to reinforce the community as a tremendous halo effect that continuously compounds. I’ve seen the positives and negatives of that effect in extremes.[/p][p]When you play an MMO, you have to accept that there are many different points of views, different playstyles. In my view that is actually a strength and not a weakness! There are so many ways people can surprise you and give you ideas you never considered if you have a relatively open mind in various domains from crafting to combat. The real trick is to have each playstyle be recognized for singular or collaborative experiences and that is a tightrope act without one overshadowing the other.[/p][p]LastDitchPlan: Player community factors into my decision to join an MMO/MMORPG a lot! Ideally I’ll be spending a lot of my free time in the world created and want to overall enjoy the folks I’m spending my time with. MMOs generally are such a microcosm from my perspective that you really need to love the whole thing, these are strangers you run into on vacation, they’re realistically your neighbors and I want to enjoy the entire cul-de-sac, not just my house on the street.[/p][p]JesDyr: It is always the gameplay that attracts me to a game and I rarely go into an MMO with a guild lined up. After I have been lured in with gameplay, it is the community that keeps me playing. That could be the overall game’s community, it could be one or two general subsets of that, or it could be the friends I made along the way. It has varied over the years, but it is always important.[/p][p]Are you coming to Stars Reach with your usual gaming guild? Or are you making new friends and joining a new guild in this game?[/p][p]hooby: I’ve tried quite a few MMORPGs, and most times I had no clue what the community would be like, ahead of time. It’s hard to judge a community from the outside, as second-hand accounts of others aren’t always that reliable. So no, I don’t think it factors into the decision to try a game.[/p][p]What I do have noticed though, is that the culture and quality of the community is a strong indicator for how long I am going to stick around. When a toxic community sucks all the joy out of the game, I’ll be gone a lot sooner than when in-game friendships keep me playing way past the point of getting bored with the game.[/p][p]In an MMORPG, the culture and quality of the community seems very deeply connected to my ability to enjoy the game. Having a great guild can do a lot to mitigate the negative effects of a less likeable community – but there’s something magical about the larger community being great, that you simply can’t replace with anything else.[/p][p]Nadraxes: Culture and the player community is quite important as it is what usually “binds” me to a game. I played a ton of MMO’s and some were really bad. What kept me coming back to them was my guild and the bonds that were formed between the players. Of course guild culture is a big reason for joining them in the first place, but the community at large is also quite important to be inclusive and non toxic. Especially for me, as I often play at odd hours and not always having the biggest of guilds, I often run alone in the game. Having a toxic community will detract a lot and I will enjoy myself a lot less.[/p][p]In these cases, when the community is toxic, I often find it much easier to just move along to the next mmo that promises to fulfill my wishes for a dreamworld.[/p][p]Here I found the community, at least in this early stage, to be quite helpful and understanding if you ask newbie questions for the upteenth time. [/p][p]Keaggan: When coming into any game where I MUST interact with other people, I think the community plays a significant role in the overall fun. However, the larger the player base, the more the community will change. I think having player-regulated options goes a long way in self policing. A company can’t force people to act a certain way, but a player group can. Now we can choose to set how a large portion of planets can operate (PvP/PvE/Safe/Hostile/Etc), as well as clearly defined zones and PvP tags in the “wild Space” are more important than the community the devs try to build.[/p]