Starborne: Tournament Server<!-- --> | Starborne

Starborne: Tournament Server

Fri Sep 20 2019 (Updated: Tue Dec 15 2020) - 5 min read

Update

The time has come for us to unleash the true potential of Starborne.  Starborne was designed to facilitate an epic battle of thousands of active players up until the last minutes of the server.  We have experienced success in launching many servers in Alpha 9, and now we want to push it even further by reaching what we would consider a critical mass of endgame players.

To fully experience the critical mass endgame, we are hosting a Tournament Server that will be launched on December 1st, 2019.  We expect a vast difference in strategies and metagame in the struggle for victory; with tens of coalitions fighting instead of a handful.  We’re not stopping there- all players will have a chance to earn multiple rewards even if they shy away from Coalition play. We expect that post-beta servers will all have this critical mass. 

Here is an overview of the special rules and features coming for the Alpha Tournament Server:

  • Entry Requirements: Premium Account Status OR Having built 6 stations in any server
  • Shop Closed: Only Cosmetics, Premium Account Status and Premium Factions will be available
  • Participation Reward: All participants* get an in-game reward
  • Survival Reward: Those who make it through to the end will receive an in-game reward
  • Victory Reward: Significant Cosmetic Prizes for 1st, 2nd and 3rd place coalitions
  • Bigger Coalitions: Coalitions will facilitate 100 players total, up from 60
  • Earlier Lockdown: Alliance and Coalition lockdowns will happen on Day 29 (beginning of week 5)
  • 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 (no labor penalties from these structures)
  • Bug Smashing: The programming team will be spending a significant amount of time smashing bugs prior to (and during!) the Tournament Server. 

Entry Requirements

In order to mitigate inactive empires early in the game, we are imposing entry requirements for the Tournament Server.  For the Alpha Tournament Server, all players that have built 6 stations on any server before the Tournament Server will get free entrance.  Otherwise, Premium Account Status is required to access the Tournament Server. 

Shop Closed!

We are running this first Tournament Server as a test run; in Beta and beyond, Premium Account Status will be required to access Tournament Servers.  However, currently being in Alpha, we want to make sure that all players have an opportunity to join. Free access can be earned up until the Tournament Server Launch date.  

Players that earn free admission will still be able to use Premium Account Status; it is just not required for them to access the server.  We are implementing a system for all players to see if they have earned free admission to the server – stay tuned!

The Tournament Server is intended to be a competition of players that start on equal footing.  As such, the majority of items in the shop will be unavailable. The only shop items that will be allowed are Cosmetics, Premium Account Status, and Premium Factions; all of which are account-wide and work on all servers.  

Players will not be allowed to withdraw any items from their account inventory into the Tournament Server inventory.  Also, Welcome Reward daily rewards will not be able to be collected on the Tournament Server.  

Stellar Rewards

Our goal is to fill the Tournament Server to the brim with active players to make it as exciting as possible.  Instead of a handful of powerful coalitions fighting over the #1 spot, we expect that there will be battles for every rank.  On top of victory rewards, there will be rewards for all coalitions based on their final rank; every place matters!

In addition to Coalition based rewards, we are including multiple rewards that all players can earn.  Not every player wants to compete in Coalition warfare- so there will be individual achievement rewards that can be earned.  

Here is a brief overview of what the rewards may look like:  

*Note: Rewards are subject to change prior to the Tournament Server Launch.  We want to provide the best possible rewards for this server, but don’t want to promise any rewards that won’t be done when victors are declared!

  • Participation Reward: You take part with us, you get rewarded.
  • Survival Reward:  All who survive to the end will get a reward. 
  • Victory Reward: There will be separate rewards for the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place coalitions.  
  • Rank Reward: There will be scaling rewards for final ranks at the end of the server.  The higher the position, the better!  

Coalition Changes

In order to facilitate a server with thousands of active players, we are expanding the maximum size of coalitions.  Alliance membership is being increased to 25 and maximum coalition size is being increased to 4 alliances; resulting in a potential membership of 100 people.  We have listened to feedback from the community and will be making it much easier to form a maximum size coalition before the lockdown. 

Alliance and Coalition lockdown will occur on day 29 of the Tournament Server (beginning of Week 5).  This is to ensure that there is more time to engage in galactic warfare and less opportunity for alliances to swap coalitions at the last moment.  

Special Tournament Rules

The Tournament Server will receive a balance review and update pass prior to launch.  This may include ship statistics, policies, factions, permanent and timed cards, and even Premium Account Bonuses.  More details about these balance changes will be released prior to the Tournament Server Launch.

There are a few confirmed changes that we are bringing to the Tournament Server.  First, we’re removing the Navy Base. This is to prevent easy, large scale, and coordinated attacks from groups of coalitions; as was experienced in the Alpha 8 iteration of Starborne. 

We are also reforming the way that Fleet Capacity works on Alliance Structures.  Players will now receive an error when attempting to send fleets to an alliance structure that is at maximum Fleet Capacity.  If a fleet is in flight and arrives at an alliance structure that is full, it will automatically be returned to the departure station.  This is a targeted change to ensure that players cannot deploy fleets to shared structures with the purpose of causing a huge labor penalty for all defenders. 

Starborne Bugs – Do Your Part

Bugs are a threat to any galaxy; in this, Starborne is not unique.  In preparation for the Tournament Server, our programming team is dedicating a significant amount of time to target and eliminate high priority bugs.  It’s important that players continue to submit bug reports – we catalog and evaluate all bug reports that are submitted. While we prepare for the Tournament Server on our end, players can do their part by submitting bug reports via our website: https://starborne.com/report-a-bug/.  Also be sure to join our Official Starborne Discord if you would like to know more. 

Save the date, December 1st, 2019!

Our team is excited to see how one galaxy handles so many active players.  We will continue releasing more information about the Tournament Server as we get closer to the launch date.  Be sure to join us on the Official Starborne Discord to get the latest updates and even help shape the rules and rewards on the Tournament Server!

See you on the frontier, commander!

-Starborne Dev Team

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