Starborne, the cosmic MMORTS, bids farewell to alpha with a tournament

Starborne, the sci-fi MMORTS that's got a hint of EVE Online (as well as CCP's co-founder), will be leaving alpha soon. It's been in development since 2014, and with the beta approaching in early 2020, developer Solid Clouds wants this phase of the galaxy's development to go out with a bang. A few bangs, probably, as players fight for dominion over the galaxy on a tournament server.

The tournament will feature a new story, rules, mechanics and rewards, as well as letting players hang out in larger coalitions. It's been in development with the community collaborating for some time, says Solid Clouds, and it will give players a taste of things to come when beta launches next year.

Here's a trailer with a lot of shouting.

New rules and entry requirements are below.

Entry Requirements—Premium Account status or having built six stations in any server
Shop Closed—Only cosmetics, Premium Account status and Premium Factions will be available
Station Building—Complete rework from the ground up
Multiple Rewards—Participation, Survival and Victory Rewards to be won in-game
Bigger Coalitions—Coalitions will facilitate 100 players in total, increased from 60
Earlier Lockdown—Alliance and Coalition lockdowns will happen on Day 29 (beginning of week five)
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

Solid Clouds will also be working on bug fixes before and during the tournament, which will begin on December 1.

Starborne's galaxy isn't persistent, with each game instead lasting for eight weeks, with room for thousands of player-run empires, who can then band together in alliances and larger coalitions. You can plonk down stations, dig into asteroids for their precious resources and put together armadas to help you gobble up new sectors of space.

Fights don't require you to directly control your ships, as the outcome is decided the moment the two fleets meet. You don't even need to be logged in. Similarly, you can build defences that will attack invading fleets while you're off doing other things. Your allies can lend a hand, too, by adding their ships to the shared objective, which will then join the fray, whenever that happens, even if they're logged out.

The alpha is available for free now, so you can check it out before the tournament kicks off on December 1. It's almost a month into the current game, however, so you'll have a lot of catching up to do.

Fraser is the UK online editor and has actually met The Internet in person. With over a decade of experience, he's been around the block a few times, serving as a freelancer, news editor and prolific reviewer. Strategy games have been a 30-year-long obsession, from tiny RTSs to sprawling political sims, and he never turns down the chance to rave about Total War or Crusader Kings. He's also been known to set up shop in the latest MMO and likes to wind down with an endlessly deep, systemic RPG. These days, when he's not editing, he can usually be found writing features that are 1,000 words too long or talking about his dog.