Raph Koster announces Star Reach, his new Space MMO

Kyleran

Link to new game

https://starsreach.com/

AMA held on r/MMORPG 

https://www.reddit.com/r/MMORPG/s/kN5ORL0LQH

I'm Raph Koster, creator of Ultima Online and Star Wars Galaxies, and I have a new MMO coming called STARS REACH -- AMA!

Hey everyone! For those who don't know me, I was the original lead designer for Ultima Online, and responsible for most of the sandboxy features in the game. I was also the original director of Star Wars Galaxies, so you can blame me for dancing Wookiees and player housing (but I was off the project by the time of the NGE, so you can't blame me for that... )

I have been working away at a new MMO called STARS REACH, and we just announced it this morning. You can find info about the game at http://www.starsreach.com.

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.

*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....

... It is also NOT DONE. The graphics need a LOT of work still, there's plenty of development left to do on gameplay in general, and loads of optimization ahead. But we feel it's important to get players involved in the dev process, and it's time. We're gearing up for testing this summer, and will be doing fairly open development from here on out.

We thank Raph Koster for his time and responses!

Message from Raph: [https://www.reddit.com/r/MMORPG/comments/1dqodoo/comment/lapuah9/?utm\_source=share&utm\_medium=web2x&context=3](https://www.reddit.com/r/MMORPG/comments/1dqodoo/comment/lapuah9/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3)

lotrlore

Pssst - gonna just drop this here.

https://www.mmorpg.com/interviews/interview-stars-reach-is-playable-worlds-upcoming-mmo-set-in-a-fully-simulated-sandbox-galaxy-2000132058

Kyleran

MassivelyOP has their own story and interview with Raph

“Is this really Star Wars Galaxies 2?” I ask. “Please say yes.”

“Yeah, in a bunch of ways it is, absolutely,” Koster says, leaning back in his chair with a smirk.

https://massivelyop.com/2024/06/28/raph-kosters-new-mmorpg-is-called-stars-reach-and-yes-its-basically-star-wars-galaxies-2/

Kyleran

lotrlore said:

Pssst - gonna just drop this here.

https://www.mmorpg.com/interviews/interview-stars-reach-is-playable-worlds-upcoming-mmo-set-in-a-fully-simulated-sandbox-galaxy-2000132058

OK, you win....this time.

Brainy

As I expected, mixing PVP with PVE as always.  No surprise there Raph.  Why cant you just let the PVE crowd have their own separate server so they never have to deal with the toxic players?

Ooooh thanks they get some special zone.

Where the owner can likely just turn it into PVP anytime, steal all your stuff.

Geez this fool will never get it.  How many patches will it take this time Raph to figure out that griefers and gankers will always figure out a way to ruin PVE players day? 19 or 20 or infinite?  I am going with infinite because apparently you have zero lessons learned from UO.

mekhere

Brainy said:

As I expected, mixing PVP with PVE as always.  No surprise there Raph.  Why cant you just let the PVE crowd have their own separate server so they never have to deal with the toxic players?

Ooooh thanks they get some special zone.

Where the owner can likely just turn it into PVP anytime, steal all your stuff.

Geez this fool will never get it.  How many patches will it take this time Raph to figure out that griefers and gankers will always figure out a way to ruin PVE players day? 19 or 20 or infinite?  I am going with infinite because apparently you have zero lessons learned from UO.

I think having the PvE players mixed with the PvP players are the perfect relationship. It's an equilibrium. The PvP players are the business owners that feed the auction house and control the outcome of war with potions, armor, and weapons. Without you the world doesn't work. PvP players teach PvE players how to deal with conflict, aggression, and customer service. It's those soft skills we love so much in PvE players. PvP players need you, want you, and love you Brainy. Don't leave. You don't need another server. 

Unintended

We shall see, but so far all I see is another empty open world crafting game that we've seen a thousand of the past decade. I want to see a crafted world, I want to see developer made content and mechanics and something that represents an MMORPG. If it's just going to be EverQuest Landmark then I do not care one bit.

Scot

Unintended said:

We shall see, but so far all I see is another empty open world crafting game that we've seen a thousand of the past decade. I want to see a crafted world, I want to see developer made content and mechanics and something that represents an MMORPG. If it's just going to be EverQuest Landmark then I do not care one bit.

This is the big flaw in such games, we will have to wait and see how much content there is.

Unintended

Scot said:

Unintended said:

We shall see, but so far all I see is another empty open world crafting game that we've seen a thousand of the past decade. I want to see a crafted world, I want to see developer made content and mechanics and something that represents an MMORPG. If it's just going to be EverQuest Landmark then I do not care one bit.

This is the big flaw in such games, we will have to wait and see how much content there is.

No because SWG was an MMORPG, it wasn't Minecraft or Rust or whatever else. I'm hoping they are making SWG2 and not one of those boring voxel building or survival building games that everyone is bored of now. It reminds me of No Man's Sky or something and I do not want endless space full of a procedurally generated worlds.

Scot

Unintended said:

Scot said:

Unintended said:

We shall see, but so far all I see is another empty open world crafting game that we've seen a thousand of the past decade. I want to see a crafted world, I want to see developer made content and mechanics and something that represents an MMORPG. If it's just going to be EverQuest Landmark then I do not care one bit.

This is the big flaw in such games, we will have to wait and see how much content there is.

No because SWG was an MMORPG, it wasn't Minecraft or Rust or whatever else. I'm hoping they are making SWG2 and not one of those boring voxel building or survival building games that everyone is bored of now. It reminds me of No Man's Sky or something and I do not want endless space full of a procedurally generated worlds.

He actually compared SR to the MMO side of No Man’s Sky, so its definitely not pushing to SWG 2. 

cameltosis

Brainy said:

As I expected, mixing PVP with PVE as always.  No surprise there Raph.  Why cant you just let the PVE crowd have their own separate server so they never have to deal with the toxic players?

Ooooh thanks they get some special zone.

Where the owner can likely just turn it into PVP anytime, steal all your stuff.

Geez this fool will never get it.  How many patches will it take this time Raph to figure out that griefers and gankers will always figure out a way to ruin PVE players day? 19 or 20 or infinite?  I am going with infinite because apparently you have zero lessons learned from UO.

You got a very different impression from the interviews than I did.

From what I saw, this will be a primarily a PvE game with consensual PvP for those that want it. Yes, if a guild is able to control an entire planet, they will be able to set the rules of that planet, including turning into FFA PvP planet. But, conversely, the guild can also decide to make that planet completely PvP-free.

As Raph mentioned in one of his interviews, he's more worried about PvE griefing. As the players will be able to terraform planets, it'll be possible for players to dam a river - which sounds cool - but that would cut off the water supply for other players who need that water downriver to irrigate their fields.

There is also good evidence that having both PvPers and PvEers increases retention in both communities. Just got to make sure their interactions are consensual, which Raph has already said it will be.

cameltosis

Unintended said:

Scot said:

Unintended said:

We shall see, but so far all I see is another empty open world crafting game that we've seen a thousand of the past decade. I want to see a crafted world, I want to see developer made content and mechanics and something that represents an MMORPG. If it's just going to be EverQuest Landmark then I do not care one bit.

This is the big flaw in such games, we will have to wait and see how much content there is.

No because SWG was an MMORPG, it wasn't Minecraft or Rust or whatever else. I'm hoping they are making SWG2 and not one of those boring voxel building or survival building games that everyone is bored of now. It reminds me of No Man's Sky or something and I do not want endless space full of a procedurally generated worlds.

Raph said on MOP that Star Reach is basically SWG 2.0.

SWG had procedurally generated worlds with added dev-made content, and Stars Reach is gonna be the same, just way better as the technology (and their expertise) has gotten way better since the early noughts.

Terazon

Sounds like a collection of projects thrown together and called an MMORPG.

If it is anything like, and it sounds like it will be, SWG, then it is a hard pass for me.
SWG was dreadful in my experience.
Catchy bullet point ideas on paper but as a game I found it incredibly boring.
I have not liked anything Raph has been a part of, and I do not think this project will be any different. 

Brainy

cameltosis said:

Brainy said:

As I expected, mixing PVP with PVE as always.  No surprise there Raph.  Why cant you just let the PVE crowd have their own separate server so they never have to deal with the toxic players?

Ooooh thanks they get some special zone.

Where the owner can likely just turn it into PVP anytime, steal all your stuff.

Geez this fool will never get it.  How many patches will it take this time Raph to figure out that griefers and gankers will always figure out a way to ruin PVE players day? 19 or 20 or infinite?  I am going with infinite because apparently you have zero lessons learned from UO.

You got a very different impression from the interviews than I did.

From what I saw, this will be a primarily a PvE game with consensual PvP for those that want it. Yes, if a guild is able to control an entire planet, they will be able to set the rules of that planet, including turning into FFA PvP planet. But, conversely, the guild can also decide to make that planet completely PvP-free.

As Raph mentioned in one of his interviews, he's more worried about PvE griefing. As the players will be able to terraform planets, it'll be possible for players to dam a river - which sounds cool - but that would cut off the water supply for other players who need that water downriver to irrigate their fields.

There is also good evidence that having both PvPers and PvEers increases retention in both communities. Just got to make sure their interactions are consensual, which Raph has already said it will be.

Sounds like you are drinking the cool aid.

Think about this for a second.

So if the PVE "Griefer" dams the river, then the mayors option is to what?  Turn the world PVP FFA and kill all the PVE players damming rivers?

And somehow you dont think this will be used against PVE players to take away their safe zones?

Lets get real, the extremely vocal and very small FFA PVP have been using this moronic excuse as long as I can remember.  FFA PVP prevents toxic PVE players LOL.  Its the toxic PVE'ers that everyone is so worried about.  We have to have all these FFA PVP options because we cant let these toxic PVE'ers get away with this stuff.

In UO Trammel (PVE safe zone) was so popular because everyone wanted to get close to the toxic PVE'ers I assume?  They were just waiting for the opportunity to get back at those toxic PVE'ers that they swarmed the PVE servers and abandoned all the Care Free totally innocent FFA PVP areas.

Yes thats what happened LOL.

Slapshot1188

Brainy said:

cameltosis said:

Brainy said:

As I expected, mixing PVP with PVE as always.  No surprise there Raph.  Why cant you just let the PVE crowd have their own separate server so they never have to deal with the toxic players?

Ooooh thanks they get some special zone.

Where the owner can likely just turn it into PVP anytime, steal all your stuff.

Geez this fool will never get it.  How many patches will it take this time Raph to figure out that griefers and gankers will always figure out a way to ruin PVE players day? 19 or 20 or infinite?  I am going with infinite because apparently you have zero lessons learned from UO.

You got a very different impression from the interviews than I did.

From what I saw, this will be a primarily a PvE game with consensual PvP for those that want it. Yes, if a guild is able to control an entire planet, they will be able to set the rules of that planet, including turning into FFA PvP planet. But, conversely, the guild can also decide to make that planet completely PvP-free.

As Raph mentioned in one of his interviews, he's more worried about PvE griefing. As the players will be able to terraform planets, it'll be possible for players to dam a river - which sounds cool - but that would cut off the water supply for other players who need that water downriver to irrigate their fields.

There is also good evidence that having both PvPers and PvEers increases retention in both communities. Just got to make sure their interactions are consensual, which Raph has already said it will be.

Sounds like you are drinking the cool aid.

Think about this for a second.

So if the PVE "Griefer" dams the river, then the mayors option is to what?  Turn the world PVP FFA and kill all the PVE players damming rivers?

And somehow you dont think this will be used against PVE players to take away their safe zones?

Lets get real, the extremely vocal and very small FFA PVP have been using this moronic excuse as long as I can remember.  FFA PVP prevents toxic PVE players LOL.  Its the toxic PVE'ers that everyone is so worried about.  We have to have all these FFA PVP options because we cant let these toxic PVE'ers get away with this stuff.

In UO Trammel (PVE safe zone) was so popular because everyone wanted to get close to the toxic PVE'ers I assume?  They were just waiting for the opportunity to get back at those toxic PVE'ers that they swarmed the PVE servers and abandoned all the Care Free totally innocent FFA PVP areas.

Yes thats what happened LOL.

I'm going to go out on a limb and suggest this is not a game for you.  But luckily there are hundreds of others out there that might fit you better.

As for me, I am cautiously interested.  

Brainy

This is Raph's (if I just had one more patch I could solve griefing) Koster's solution to griefing?

To let guilds or mayors change world server rules?

Dont worry PVE players.  Everything you built wont be stolen while you sleep, because some mayor changed the world rules.  People wouldnt do it unless they have a good reason /wink /wink.

Prediction 1: Another massive MMO flop
Prediction 2: 5 years after this flop, Raph (1 more patch to fix griefing) Koster, will be saying, I think I could have fixed it with 1 more patch.  Nobody could have predicted people would be like this.

The only thing I agree with is this wont happen often, because most PVE players wont even buy this game in the first place once they see they are stuck with FFA PVP players on the same server.  At least some PVE players have wisened up, more than I can say about Raph (1 more patch to fix griefing) Koster.

kitarad

I do have an issue with giving players too much power. It seldom turns out well. However you're right this game isn't for me and I can watch how it turns out from reading about it. I definitely will not spend my time building anything in this type of world. The arbitrary nature of the type of decisions that will affect my game time is left in the hands of players. I have seen players behaving poorly even when there are rules. If they can make their own rules I see even less chance of me enjoying that.

I am sure the game will do well. I hope you all have fun.

[Deleted User]

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mekhere

Here are the AI solutions to preventing PvE Griefing in a FFA MMO. 

Preventing griefing in free-for-all player-versus-player (PvP) and player-versus-environment (PvE) games can be challenging, but there are several strategies you can consider:

1. Mutually Exclusive PvP Combat:

   • In games like “Puzzle Pirates,” PvP combat was mutually exclusive. Players couldn’t harm each other unless they personally allowed it. Consider implementing a similar system where players must opt into PvP interactions1.
   • Additionally, you could introduce penalties for attacking other players, such as reputation loss or temporary restrictions.

2. Bounty System:

   • Implement a bounty system where griefers get flagged, and other players receive rewards for eliminating them. This encourages players to police each other and discourages griefing1.
   • The fear of being hunted down can deter griefers from causing trouble.

3. Land Claiming and Protection:

   • Allow players to claim their own land or property. This prevents others from destroying their buildings or belongings.
   • Use plugins or game mechanics to enforce land ownership and protect structures.

4. Community Incentives:

   • Reward positive behavior. For example, in “Puzzle Pirates,” players were encouraged to teach newbies how to play, resulting in more profitable voyages.
   • Consider ambassador systems or greeter programs to guide new players and foster a friendly community1.

Remember that no solution is foolproof, but a combination of these approaches can help mitigate griefing. Adapt them to fit your game’s context and mechanics.

Brainy, an FFA game is targeted at hardcore extremists who enjoy an FFA challenge. There are people who need to be challenged on this level. Let those players just be with each other. There open world should be scaled into a smaller world imo, but these people do exist, and they need a healthy outlet. This game just isn't for you. I hope you enjoy the AI bot's recommendations to fix the rage griefers have committed for the last 2 decades. I look forward to hearing your thoughts about it. 

Arglebargle

Pretty much in both UO and SWG, I have seen that Raph argued against elements designed to stop Toxic PvP.  He felt there were other ways to handle it.  Ways that no one else has apparently ever managed.  Of course, this time, he does own it all, so we shall see.

As it is ftp, I'll probably give it a fair shake, but I won't invest in any tangible building stuff til it's clear that their proposed systems work. 

Tokken

I thought they said PvP was optional, at least that is what I read on their site. Devs said it would be opt in if you want to PvP. If not, then I am out as well.

Brainy

mekhere said:

Remember that no solution is foolproof, but a combination of these approaches can help mitigate griefing. Adapt them to fit your game’s context and mechanics.

Brainy, an FFA game is targeted at hardcore extremists who enjoy an FFA challenge. There are people who need to be challenged on this level. Let those players just be with each other. There open world should be scaled into a smaller world imo, but these people do exist, and they need a healthy outlet. This game just isn't for you. I hope you enjoy the AI bot's recommendations to fix the rage griefers have committed for the last 2 decades. I look forward to hearing your thoughts about it. 

I am not against FFA PVP servers.  I think its obvious MMO's should try to pull that crowd in.  Why leave EZ money on the table.

All I am saying is keep them separate on their OWN server, COMPLETELY separate from PVE servers.

If you want mixed servers, I am fine with that also.  But you definitely need at least 1 PVE only Server.  

Lets not mince words here, I am not talking about a PVE zone, or PVE area.  I am saying somewhere completely separate, so that PVE players can compete against other PVE players without having FFA PVP players getting all the goodies on the PVE server.

DigDuggy

Will look forward to seeing more about this. I would love a scifi game that isn't a flight simulator.  No hype though.  I refuse to get truly excited because there have been too many disappointments.   The highest I go in terms of excitement is 'It looks interesting, I'll keep a watch on this one'  Anything more is doomed for dissapointment.

mekhere

Brainy said:

mekhere said:

Remember that no solution is foolproof, but a combination of these approaches can help mitigate griefing. Adapt them to fit your game’s context and mechanics.

Brainy, an FFA game is targeted at hardcore extremists who enjoy an FFA challenge. There are people who need to be challenged on this level. Let those players just be with each other. There open world should be scaled into a smaller world imo, but these people do exist, and they need a healthy outlet. This game just isn't for you. I hope you enjoy the AI bot's recommendations to fix the rage griefers have committed for the last 2 decades. I look forward to hearing your thoughts about it. 

I am not against FFA PVP servers.  I think its obvious MMO's should try to pull that crowd in.  Why leave EZ money on the table.

All I am saying is keep them separate on their OWN server, COMPLETELY separate from PVE servers.

If you want mixed servers, I am fine with that also.  But you definitely need at least 1 PVE only Server.  

Lets not mince words here, I am not talking about a PVE zone, or PVE area.  I am saying somewhere completely separate, so that PVE players can compete against other PVE players without having FFA PVP players getting all the goodies on the PVE server.

I completely agree with you and support your PvE server. I like to take a break and just PvE alone myself. It is very relaxing.

kitarad

So if I find a little spot on a planet and make a home for myself. I grow crops and fish and enjoy myself. Then  a whole guild claims the planet and changes it to a FFA arena. If the FFA types stuck with each other and played with each other there wouldn't be a problem now would there? Do they, will they , can they?

No they always target the people who do not want to participate in their gameplay and force them into it. This is why I refuse to play these games. Not only will they destroy my home they will also harass me daily. How does that respect my time and effort? This is the reason I do not trust these types of games or the developers saying they know how to make it work. They don't.

[Deleted User]

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