Stars Reach (Raph Koster) - Octopus Overlords (2024)

Raph Koster, the guy who brought us Ultima Online and Star Wars Galaxies, has unveiled a new game.

Announcing Stars Reach

It’s been years of work, and we are far from done, but I am super happy to finally reveal what I have been working on at Playable Worlds: Stars Reach.

This is the game I have wanted to make for nearly thirty years. It is the spiritual sequel to Ultima Online and to Star Wars Galaxies. It has in it all the lessons of all these decades of online game development — and it looks forward, not back, to reinvent what an online world can be. I believe it does things that other games just can’t do.

Stars Reach uses simulation to a degree never seen in an MMO before. We know the temperature, the humidity, the materials, for every cubic meter of every planet. Our water actually flows downhill and puddles. It freezes overnight or during the winter. It evaporates and turns to steam when heated up. And not just our water — everything does this. Catch a tree on fire with a stray blaster bolt. Melt your way through a glacier to find a hidden alien laboratory embedded in the ice. Stomp too hard on a rock bridge, and watch out, it might collapse under your feet. Dam up a river to irrigate your farm. Or float in space above an asteroid, and mine crystals from its depths.

The whole game environment is modelled this way. It gives us not just those examples of gameplay, but many more. And it makes the whole experience that much more immersive, because everything acts like you expect. Melt the sand on the beach, and it becomes glass.

This is a sandbox online world featuring all the things that players of those games love.

• A classless skill tree advancement system, where peaceful play matters just as much as combat
• An intricate player-driven economy where players can craft their way to fame and fortune
• An accessible yet deep combat system, where you can choose whether to play using action aiming or more forgiving homing shots or lock-on targeting
• In-world player housing that lets you build and customize your home and form towns… and enough room for everyone to have a house
• A single shardless galaxy, with both space and ground gameplay… in fact, you can build that house on an asteroid, if you want
• The ability for a group to govern a planet, and define its laws, whether you want a peaceful home or a PvP free for all

But we’re also doing a lot of new stuff. Like, we are aiming for sessions as short as five minutes. A fresh take on horizontal progression. Making an MMO with hardly any HUD!

"What? What? What?" -- The 14th Doctor

It's not enough to be a good player... you also have to play well. -- Siegbert Tarrasch

"What? What? What?" -- The 14th Doctor

It's not enough to be a good player... you also have to play well. -- Siegbert Tarrasch

An accessible yet deep combat system, where you can choose whether to play using action aiming or more forgiving homing shots or lock-on targeting

Not sure if this means bringing in the worst of the awful SWG combat or not.

Spiritual sequel to both SW:G and UO. Now that is a weird spirit.

I swore off MMOs years ago, unless a solid WH40K MMO comes along, and even then, given my current interests, it might not be enough.

I like the idea of MMOs, but am incapable of managing my time. Every single psychological trick used in an MMO to keep you playing works very well on me.

It's a bit dangerous.

LawBeefaroni wrote: ↑Wed Jul 03, 2024 12:24 pm

An accessible yet deep combat system, where you can choose whether to play using action aiming or more forgiving homing shots or lock-on targeting

Not sure if this means bringing in the worst of the awful SWG combat or not.

Yeah, the combat mechanics (especially the weirdly abstract pre-CU stuff where you could incapacitate yourself by firing a weapon) were definitely not my favorite part of SWG.

"What? What? What?" -- The 14th Doctor

It's not enough to be a good player... you also have to play well. -- Siegbert Tarrasch

I am expecting a planet of dild*s due to the deformable terrain. And planets of furries.

And griefing when visitors start flooding your town.

Isgrimnur wrote: ↑Thu Jul 04, 2024 1:37 am

I loved that show!
The infamous shovel expansion!

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